Jump 11: Persona - Pursuing My True Self: Shadow Over Inaba

Music: Pursuing My True Self

            The scene opens up with King grabbing his school bag and leaving what appears to be his house. Locking the door, he turns and shields his eyes from the harsh glare of the sun and begins the walk to Yasogami High, the school he would be transferring to starting that day. There are an abundant amount of whispers from the few students heading to school as he passes by. It’s still rather early in the morning. Sighing and paying them no mind, he makes his way inside the school building and goes to meet his homeroom teacher, the reason he was arriving before the masses. He’s shocked to see another student already with the teacher.

“So you’ve finally arrived. I bet you weren’t expecting to see me here, were you?”

            King simply shook his head in response and waited for the teacher to address him. She gave him the run down that the other student had already received. Once he was caught up to speed the teacher, Ms. Kashiwagi, began to lead them to the classroom.

            “So why the silent protagonist act? The transfer here didn’t rob you of your speech did it?”

            “I’m just tired is all. Have you seen any of the others yet?”

            “I’m afraid not. Although, I imagine we’ll find them soon enough. Some of them are probably in our class.”

            “Yeah, you’re probably right. I just hope their personalities aren’t too different.”

            “Don’t worry. I’m sure Alice will still want to make fun of you and Leo.”

            “That part of her never seems to change, does it?”

            The two laughed before Ms. Kashiwagi opened to door to the classroom and lead them inside. She quieted the class down and prompted the transfer students to introduce themselves. Briefly scanning the classroom, they found everyone but Flyer and Shock was a member of the class.

            “Hello everyone, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Call me King, I hope we can get along.”

            “Greetings to you all. I believe it would be in our best interests to become friends over the course of the school year. My name is Psyche, and I’m grateful to be able to meet you all.”

            Taking the two empty seats in the classroom, the two sat down as homeroom was beginning.

Earlier in the morning

            “Come on Bruce! You can’t call yourself the ace of the karate club if you can’t keep up!”

            “Don’t underestimate my resolve! I’ll catch up and then some!”

            Bruce and Leo were running laps around the track, putting the members of the track team to shame. Leo was ahead of Bruce by a good margin and had started running backwards to shout his message to the karate club member. After Bruce responded back, he picked up his pace to catch up with Leo, who had turned back around.

            “That’s the spirit. Let’s get ten more laps in before heading home to shower. If you can keep up that is.”

            “I’ll show you who needs to keep up Leo!”

            Elsewhere, Karen and Flyer were stopped as they were walking by the Samegawa Flood Plain by a random biker gang showed up screaming something about revenge for their boss. Karen sighed.

            “I can’t believe he actually got his underlings to challenge us.”

            “What do you want us to do? Some of them even brought weapons.”

            “Let the cowards try. If any of them were real men they’d fight with some amount of dignity. You go on ahead, I’ll catch up with you at school. I feel like teaching them a lesson.”

            “Just don’t go overboard. I don’t want to have to be your witness when the police don’t believe you were acting in self-defense.”

            “Th-that only happened one time!” Karen began to blush. “I just forgot my own strength for a bit.”

            “Right. I wonder what he’d say if I told him about it. He’ll already be shocked when he hears about “Karen, the Invincible Delinquent of Inaba”.

            “No, you can’t tell him about that! It’s bad enough Alice won’t stop teasing me about all the violence that keeps following us.”

One of the gang members was past the point of annoyed that Karen and Flyer weren’t paying attention to them and got off of his bike to charge at Karen with a steel pipe in hand. She swiftly roundhouse kicked him away and he landed with a loud thud in the grass.

“Can’t you see we’re having a conversation here!”

“I think that’s my cue to go to school. Have fun, “Oni of Inaba”, and don’t be late. I hear he’s transferring to your class.”

“Why are the guys nicer to me here than you and Alice? I thought we girls were supposed to look out for each other.”

“Trust me, if I didn’t, I’d have stopped hanging out with you. See you at lunch.”

One of the bikers, seeing Flyer about to leave sped towards her on his bike looking to strike were with a metal bat. Flyer, in one fluid motion, ducked underneath the swing and grabbed the guy off of his bike, sending it crashing without its riders support. She flashed the frightened biker a smile before slamming him into the ground. She waved at the remaining bikers and left them to their fate. Karen’s eyes made it clear she that she was pissed, and none of the bikers would make it out unscathed.

And Alice and Sgt. Shock were at the school, hosting an activity for the occult research club. Being the only two actual members, they felt no shame in having a Jack Frost summoned from Alice’s COMP.

“Tell me again why you couldn’t just use your own demon for this? I could be sleeping right now you stupid rat.”

“”I’m a mouse, not a rat. I thought you saved that kind of insult for Leo?”

“I’m just in a more of a bad mood than usual. You bringing me out here this early didn’t help.”

“That’s shocking for you isn’t it? It normally takes a lot to put you in a worse mood.”

“Get to the point before you become a mouse-cicle.”

“Right, right, sorry. The reason I needed you here is because the cameras need two demons to function. What I want to try doing needs to have captured footage.”

“Couldn’t one of the other’s lend you their camera or demons?”

“”Nope. They need to keep filming themselves anyway in case something happens. Besides, Leo and Bruce would have left to go train and Karen and Flyer can’t catch a break from thugs.”

“Fine, I get it. So what is this Jack Frost going to power?”

“You catch on quick. What I’m hoping to do is add an extension to the cameras that allows them to project what the others are seeing onto surfaces like the ground or a wall. If I can get the cloaking, recording and flying to run off of one demons power, then the second can power the receiver and the tracking function. It’s possible that I could program them to automatically broadcast what someone is doing if they’re in trouble. Think of the possibilities Alice!”

“I understood about half of that, but it does sound nice. It’s a good thing he’s transferring over today. As the Overlord the demons won’t question anything he asks them to do.”

“Psychic is coming back too. With her help we could probably get this working in a day or two.”

“That’s a lot of confidence you’re putting in her.”

“She’s the smartest member of our group. The reason I wanted to learn how to make machines that run off of demonic power is because of her intelligence. I didn’t want to stay the goofball of the group forever.

“That’s not something I expected you to say. I’m a bit impressed actually. What brought on this change in personality?”

“I’ll tell you one day. Right now we need to test this out. Alice, have Jack Frost step onto the transfer circle.”

“You heard him you little snow runt. It’s not going to hurt, so just do it. You’ll get to meet the Overlord if you’re a good demon you know.”

The Jack Frost stepped onto the collection of runes sketched out in chalk and made a “hee-ho” of goodbye as a flash of light overtook the classroom and he disappeared.

“I wonder if it worked…”

“Let’s see what Karen is up to as a test. She’s probably in a fight right now.”

“You’re probably right. Give me a sec.”

Typing furiously at a laptop connected to the receiver/broadcasting portion of the inactive camera, Sgt. Shock had a look of determination in his eyes as he worked his technical magic. With a few final key strokes, the camera whirled to life and pointed itself at the wall. It displayed a live feed of Karen showing no mercy to the biker gang that started the fight with her.

“I swear she’s become like a mother bear.”

“And we’re the cubs she protects with a raging fury?”

“I’m nobody’s cub. I look after myself.”

“I’m sure she’d say otherwise, but whatever. That’s all I wanted to confirm. You can recall Jack Frost and go if you want. I’m going to work on this some more before class starts.”

“See ya.”

Alice left the classroom they were using and started to wander around before class would start.

Lunch Time

A lot of the normal students of the class were crowded around King and Psychic, asking them questions like where were they from, did they know each other and the like. It was a bit much for them to handle, so Karen stepped in after she was sufficiently annoyed.

“Hey, can’t you see you’re making things awkward for them! Give them some space to breath. You guys are acting like moths to a flame, have some damn sense.”

After that, most of them backed off, and those that stuck around didn’t seem too eager to continue asking questions. As the atmosphere in the class was taking a turn for the worst, Flyer and Sgt. Shock opened the door to the classroom.

“I figured something like this might happen. Quit your staring and go eat lunch or something!” she shouted at the class. “As for everyone else, let’s go eat on the roof. Come on, I’m hungry.”

There were numerous whispers as Karen, Bruce, Leo, Alice, Psychic and King all retrieved their lunches and left the classroom. A quick glare from Karen silenced the class until they had left.

“Can’t even control yourself in class now Karen? I thought the fight you had this morning would have calmed you down.”

“Don’t make me any angrier than I already am Alice. And how did you find out about that! Only Flyer, I mean, only Sora should know that.”

“Sorry Karen. I’ll explain when we get to the roof why that’s my fault.”

“It’s nice to know you all haven’t changed that much.”

“It feels like it’s been forever since we were all together. It’s great.”

“I agree. It’s like coming home after a long journey.”

“Some things never change between us do they? We’re at the stairs, hurry and get to the roof.”

The seven of them made it to the roof and began catching up after Alice put up a barrier to keep people from listening in. They kept the conversation lighthearted.

“So you were spying on me? That’s not a nice thing to do Shock.”

“It was only a little bit. Plus, I needed the data to help program the distress feature.”

 “I’m amazed you got this function working so fast. Let’s work on it after school ok?”

“Sure thing Psychic.”

“I’m going by Psyche in more mundane environments. Like how Flyer is Sora now.”

“I wanted a human name for a while, but nothing came to me until we got here. What do you think about it King?”

King had been relatively silent for the “reunion” they were having, and didn’t notice her question.

“Hey.” Leo lightly hit him on the head. “She asked you a question.”

“Oh, sorry.” He said, seemingly woken up from his daze. “I think Sora is a wonderful name. I wish I had thought of it when you first gained your human form.”

The chatter resumed afterwards, but there was an air of unease that had settled over them all and lingered until lunch was over.

After school

With the school day over, King learned that everyone besides Karen and Flyer had a club to attend. Karate for Bruce, judo for Leo, and occult research for Shock and Alice. While everyone was technically a member of the occult research club, only Shock and Alice actually had regular meetings.

“I want to get the cameras new feature working as soon as possible, so I’m joining the occult research club. What are you going to do?”

With everyone else already in their respective places, only King and Psychic remained in the classroom with some other lingering students.

“I’m not sure. I’d like to play trumpet again. I haven’t gotten to do that since I was at Mahora, so maybe I’ll join the band. Not sure if I want to play a sport.”

“I’m glad you’re more talkative again. Are you feeling ok? I know we’ve been asking a lot, but it’s because we care and worry about you.”

“I told you before, I’m just tired today. I’ll get a lot of sleep today and I’ll be good as new.”

“If you say so. Give me your cell number. During lunch we forgot all about them. I’ll have everyone text you so we can keep in touch after school.”

The two exchanged numbers and parted ways outside of class. King began the walk back to his solitary home. A lot of children and adults gave him a smile and a greeting, so he responded in turn. But there was something about it that the casual observer would miss. Something akin to a mask beginning to crack. He made it home and went about doing his homework. Once it was finished, he went into his warehouse to retrieve some items. A couple of the weapons he had collected, and the Tsukihime manga. Spending the rest of the afternoon reading before making dinner and preparing for bed after he ate. Throughout the day he received messages from everyone.

Psychic went on some speech about how we need to stay connected or something, so here’s my number. I guess it can help if our telepathy ever gets blocked. – Alice

Hey, I know it might get lonely living alone so don’t hesitate to come stay over at my place. The people I’m staying with are nice, and the food’s not half bad either. – Leo

Sorry about what happened earlier today. It just looked like you and Psychic were uncomfortable being bombarded by our classmates’ questions. I assure you it won’t happen again. I know you’re strong enough to handle whatever’s thrown at you, but I still worry. – Karen

I know it might seem a bit weird with everyone besides Psychic having a place here, but remember we’re still your companions first and foremost. We’ll drop everything and anything if you need us to. Also, don’t be harsh on Karen for how she acted today. The excitement from getting to see you again got to her. She’ll have better control of herself in the future. – Flyer/Sora

It was good to see you again. I wish we all could hang out every day, but that’s the way things are here. You can join us at practice anytime you feel like you want to let off steam. Let’s train together sometime we’re both free. – Bruce

We missed you at club today. Don’t worry about not showing up, most everyone else has something else to do too. You should come tomorrow though. Psychic, Flyer and I have an update for the demonic cameras that we need to give everyone. It’ll come in handy if we ever get separated and need to know where the others are. – Sgt. Shock

Giving each one a response, King let the weariness he had been feeling all day overtake him as he drifted into the sea of unconsciousness.

The next day, King woke up later, still feeling the same as the day before. With a sigh he mentally prepared himself to keep up appearances with everyone at school. Nothing noteworthy happened on the way to school. While waiting idly for class to start, Leo walked up to King.

“Good morning.”

“Morning Leo.”

“Morning guys.”

“How is everyone doing this morning?”

“Oh, everyone’s here? This is like some sort of cheesy slice of life anime.”

“I made it to class on time. Hello everyone.”

With everyone gathered at King’s desk the other students let them be, especially when Karen joined them. When Kashiwagi came in to start class and announcement was made. A male student had been murdered the other night and the police wanted everyone to go home for the day. Numerous students made reference to a series of murders that had taken place in Inaba three years ago, and wondered if this was a sign something similar would be happening again.

“There were murders that happened here?”

“The locals don’t like to talk about it much. Since we all only got her a year before you and Psyche the details aren’t all clear. But three murders took place here in 2011.”

“The students won’t be any help if you’re looking to investigate. None of them were even in the school when it happened. All they know is the second victim was a female student from this school.”

“Yeah, they’ll all be useless if you want to try and get information out of them. We’d probably have better luck at the police station honestly.”

“I don’t think this incident is related though…”

“I’m in agreement with Shock on this one. I don’t think something like that would resurface in a small town like this after three years. We could try and investigate the scene of the crime. The police likely haven’t removed much from the area yet if it happened yesterday.”

“You want us all to go? Some of those cops probably know me and Karen by name and face.”

“I thought I told you not to talk about that stuff Sora.”

“Easy there, Karen. I don’t think it really matters all that much in the end. We’re here for a year, he’ll find out eventually.”

They continued theorizing about why a murder would take place in a small town like this, while Karen was left embarrassed from what Flyer had revealed. King gave her a reassuring smile that put her more at ease, but she was still blushing. When they came upon the crime scene the police there sent them away as was expected. They did manage to catch a glimpse of the boy that was murdered. His face was frozen in a horrified expression, and there were numerous cuts in his clothing and on the body.

“How awful.”

“You know we’ve seen worse.”

“That doesn’t make what happened to that boy any less horrible!”

“Let’s not start a fight over this in public. I don’t think it’ll be good for anyone if we do.”

“So what’s the plan? Being near the scene of a murder is starting to piss me off thinking about who did it.”

“Karen and Psyche will use their ninja abilities to do some recon. Let’s all meet up somewhere in an hour to discuss things. Any suggestions on where?”

“How about Junes? We can walk around the mall, or sit at the food court away from people.”

“We’ll probably be hungry in an hour so I second this idea.”

“We’re not going through all of this. That’s where we’re going. Lizard, show him where to go. I’m taking a walk.”

And with that, Alice left everyone and began walking in the direction of the market district.

“I’m going to make sure she doesn’t get herself into trouble. We’ll handle the camera upgrades at Junes. Later guys.”

Shock preceded to run after Alice, noticeably encumbered by the backpack he had packed with tools and parts.

 “I suppose we should get to investigating. Karen will lead us to Junes when we’re done.”

Psychic disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“Right. I’ll see you all later.”

Karen followed Psychic’s example and left without a trace.

“That leaves the rest of us to do whatever right?”

“That’s what it looks like. I normally hang out with Karen and try to keep her out of trouble, so this is a bit refreshing. Unfortunately I don’t know what we can do for an hour. I’d usually be getting harassed by thugs or something right now.”

“I’d normally be training right now so I’m at a loss as well.”

“I think it’s obvious none of us really know what to do. We’re going to have to rely on you for a decision.”

They all stared expectantly at King, awaiting his response.

“How about you guys give me a little tour of Inaba? I’m not all that familiar with the area yet.”

“You did arrive a day or two ago right? Man we must be dumb if we couldn’t remember that.”

“Karen would have probably remembered. She’s the one we rely on for this kind of stuff. Let’s not forget to show Psychic around with the whole group too.”

“This is fine with me. Let’s get this tour started.”

The trio led King around some of Inaba. They briefly passed Junes, and got a look at the central shopping district, among other things. When the hour had come and gone, the four of them made their way to Junes. They saw an annoyed Alice and a normal Shock waiting for them in the food court with six empty chairs.

“You guys are late.”

“Looks like someone couldn’t wait for the group to meet up again.”

“I just didn’t want to be stuck alone with the nerdy mouse over here.”

“You hang out with the kid after school almost every day doing club activities. You’re going to need a better lie to fool us.”

“Am I going to have to make you die for me?”

“Girls, please cease your fighting. There are normal people around. Plus, if the two of you did start fighting, Alice holds the clear advantage. The only two that can match her are Karen and King.”

“Sure thing. I don’t like fights where the outcome is already decided anyway. Resorting to violence before a delinquent just shows that she lost the mental battle.”

“Whatever bird brain.”

Before any more remarks could be made, Karen and Psychic warped in front of them.

“We apologize for being late. There’s more to this than we first thought.”

“I can’t believe the police would keep all that information hidden for so long.”

“Sounds like something interesting is finally going to happen.”

“Yes, I suppose interesting is one way you could put it. I trust you all know to keep this to yourselves. The boy from our school that was murdered….he wasn’t the only one.”

Everyone besides Alice, Karen and King had a look of surprise on their faces.

“There were three more victims, each with a similar cause of death, but different method of enacting it. What’s more concerning, it that the victims were all reported missing for 3 or more days prior to their bodies turning up. There are still at least four more people that have recently been reported missing.”

“So are they being kidnapped and held captive until they’re killed?”

“That’s probably not the case thankfully. If it were some deranged psychopath I don’t know how we’d catch him or her.”

“The people who were reported missing went out to do a variety of tasks at night, and are of varying age groups. There’s no pattern between the cases, and the only similarity was the way they were murdered as I said before.”

“So we’re most likely looking at something supernatural is what I’m guessing.”

“Think demons might be involved?”

“Wouldn’t you have felt it, being part demon yourself Alice?”

“The ‘nerdy mouse’ has a point. It probably isn’t demons.”

“Then the real question, is what supernatural event is occurring that’s the cause of these disappearances and murders?”

“Unfortunately, that’s where the information runs dry. The police haven’t pieced it all together yet, but I’m sure they’ll be enacting a curfew in Inaba until the missing persons reports calm down.”

“So do we start investigating tonight?”

“That wouldn’t be the wisest course of action. I fear if we act too rashly we’ll only get caught up in whatever is happening to this town. We should take some time to digest the information and think of a plan tomorrow at lunch.”

“This certainly is a lot to take in at once.”

“Gonna go home and meditate on it?”

“Perhaps.”

“This is some unsettling news. The last time I saw something like this happen was in Misaki with Roa.”

“Would have been simpler if there was someone to go punch. Could have just sent Karen to resolve it in an hour.”

“I’ll choose to ignore that comment. I think we should all part ways for now and let the situation sink in. Don’t forget we have each other’s cell phone numbers. Call someone if you need to talk.”

“Man this is going to be rough. Luckily, I finished upgrading everyone’s cameras while we talked. The distress button will send a signal to everyone’s camera to broadcast your situation to the group. If you’re in a crowded place, it can send the feed to your phone instead.”

“Sounds like you guys thought of everything.”

“The phone thing was my idea. Psyche’s the one that got it to work though.”

“Let’s call it a day guys. Don’t go out once the sun goes down, ok?”

“You got it boss.”

“Right”

“Sure thing.”

“Obviously.”

“Of course.”

“Roger that.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Their meeting over, everyone dispersed and went their separate ways. Each of them looked lost in thought, and ended up staying at home for the remainder of the day. When it came time to sleep everyone was fine except for King. He woke with a start and checked the time on his phone. It displayed midnight. He’d only been asleep for two hours. He was drenched in sweat, and looked terrified. He took a quick shower and got dressed. He looked through the stuff he pulled out of the warehouse and put on his gauntlets. He placed the Seven Star Sword on his back and left his house in a rush. Running through the streets on Inaba, King looked highly distressed and as if he was searching for the source of a sound. Even though he hadn’t gone very far, he was short of breath once he arrived at what appeared to be his destination, the Tatsuhime Shrine.

Opening the doors he found the inside to not be that of a shrine, but instead a gigantic cavern. He was suddenly inside before he realized it and the doors slammed shut behind him. When he turned around he saw a figure standing with its back turned to him, a sinister looking sword in its hand.

“So look who finally decided to show up! Didn’t think you’d have it in yourself after what you told your friends, but I’ve got to say, you are one hell of a liar.”

“Just who… or what are you! Why have you been calling out to me!?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” The figure turned around. “I’m you. Or rather, the part of yourself that’s really you anyway.”

“That’s absurd! What kind of nonsense is this!”

“Oh I assure you there’s no nonsense. I am a Shadow, the true self. Everything you push down into the recesses of your psyche, your heart and your soul. I am the embodiment of it all.”

“This has got to be a dream. There’s no way this is actually happening right now.”

“Lying to yourself now? You’ve already dealt with a copy of yourself before haven’t you? When we got these cool Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.” The shadow’s eyes turn a deep blue before becoming their natural yellow again. “That’s why I’m here aren’t I? Because you figured that you could beat me without any sort of problems like that fake from before! Because you’ve grown so unsure as a leader that you figured beating yourself up would help you find a solution to your problem! Well guess what ‘King’, you’re outmatched here. There’s not a chance in hell you can beat me. I am you after all. I know all your strategies, patterns, strengths, weaknesses and insecurities. Save yourself the suffering and just give up. Once I kill you all the problems will go away right? You’re friends are capable of solving this mystery without you.”

Meanwhile, Sgt. Shock was woken up by his camera beeping incessantly.

“What on earth?”

When he was conscious enough to comprehend what was happening around him, the camera projected the scene of King running to the shrine.

“Wait is he…? Oh this can’t be good.”

“I am a Shadow, the true self.”

“I need to call everyone now!”

Shock proceeded to call and explain the situation to a hardly conscious Karen. Once she understood what was happening, she woke up quickly. The two of them got everyone else up to speed and they all would head to the bus stop in the shopping district to meet up. Back with King and his Shadow…

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? Or can I take your trembling as a sign of defeat? That’d make things so much simpler.”

“I….I…”

“You what? Can’t stop until you become this so called ‘King of Jumpers’ that you’ve fantasized about since Pokémon? You know as well as I do that’s nothing more than a pipe dream. There can’t be a ‘Jump King’. It goes against the principals of the multiverse, and I know you’re well aware of that. The closest you’re ever going to get is being the King of Bel. And even then, others have become that, and more. You know this journey will only end in disappointment, no matter how many decades you spend trying.”

“I don’t have to sit here and take this!”

King got into a kung-fu stance, none of the usual calm or fire in his eyes, but a newfound fear.

“So the coward that’s afraid of his own powers going out of control actually wants to fight? Can’t say I didn’t see this coming though. You can’t face the truth, so this is just another way for you to run away from it. Come at me if you can, you false King.”