Friday 6th May
"I see him," muttered Haruto, crouched behind the restaurant bar.
"Be careful," Wakaba crackled back over the earpiece.
"I always am."
Ooe was milling about the restaurant floor, acting like he owned the place, the spiteful bastard. It was possible Haruto could just try to nicely convince him to give him the letter but… somehow he didn't think Ooe would listen. Especially not while Haruto was stuck in a get-up like this.
He needed to approach carefully—the best method would be to catch him by surprise—that way he could expose the Shadow instantly and calculate what Persona would be best to cripple it.
He'd been pacing back and forth for some time now. All Haruto had to do was catch him… Back past him once, still facing in his direction, unaware of the danger waiting for him. Just a second and he'd turn, and then—
Haruto leapt from behind the bar, tackling Ooe before the man could process what was happening. As he grabbed his shoulders, they seemed to warp and bend out of shape, the fabric turning to black smoke beneath his fingers as Ooe's Shadow form revealed itself.
A Yamata no Orochi towered before him. This wasn't a normal one though—it seemed… stronger, more focused somehow. Nevermind. He'd dealt with creatures like this before, and he could do it again. He quickly summoned Parvati to his side. She was perfect, able to repel the creature's ice attacks and crack its skull with psychic energy at the same time.
With a snap of his fingers, she got his signal and let loose a wave of bright pink energy. The snake gave an incredible hiss as the energy collided, collapsing in on itself as the psychic waves reverberated through its nerve-endings and rendered it temporarily useless.
Haruto rushed forward, his knife flickering in his hands as he gave one deep gash—then two—trying to reach for its heart. He had to be quick—it was weak but it would regain its energy quickly. Shoving another neck out of the way, he tried to spot the weak point he knew should be there, in the centre of its chest… Where was it? Where—
Pain exploded through his ankle.
Something sharp sinking in, burying itself deep in his flesh, cutting through muscle—white-hot agony burning in his foot. He couldn't stifle the sharp yell that escaped his throat at the pain, but-he couldn't lose this opportunity! He'd been trying to get here for so long!
Ignoring the pain, ignoring the weak spot that should be there but wasn't, ignoring the hundreds of voices buzzing in his ears about how screwed he was if he didn't get medical attention right now, he reached for his knife and plunged it blindly into the beast, still lying on the ground.
With one last, terrible noise it sank, collapsing into a pile of black and red ichor, then sinking through the carpet, into the depths of this hellish place. Haruto was sprawled on the floor, his foot still burning with agonising pain. He took one brief glance at it. Just about the only thing he could process before he looked away again was that there was red. A lot of red. And a very disfigured-looking foot. Damned snake must have bitten him.
He became aware in bits and pieces that his hearing had, at some point, blacked out completely, but now he was slowly getting it back, and what he was getting it back to was yelling. Lots of it.
The voice over his earpiece was by far the loudest though.
"Haruto? Can you still hear me? What's happening in there?"
Haruto groggily raised his arm to his mouth and pressed the mic on. "It's okay," he managed to say. "I got him."
The letter was lying on the floor in front of him. He quickly grabbed it and pocketed it before anything else could happen.
"It's not okay!" Wakaba snarled over the line. "Your brain waves and blood pressure readings are insane! Are you injured?"
"My foot's been mangled," sighed Haruto, taking another glance at it and quickly looking away.
"How much is it bleeding?"
"A lot."
"Okay." He heard Wakaba take a deep, ragged breath over the line. "Okay. First of all, get your shoes and socks off if your skin's been punctured."
"Hang on a sec," said Haruto, wearily pushing himself onto his knees, trying to judge if he should attempt walking.
Hmm. No. Definitely not.
He tried to leverage himself as best he could without putting extra weight on his foot and crawled over to the bar area, where nothing else could spot and try to eat him.
"What's happening?" asked Wakaba. "Are you still there?"
"Still here," Haruto muttered back. "Just getting to a safe area."
"Right… Good."
He nodded, though he knew she wouldn't see, and finally managed to shuffle behind the bar.
"Shoes and socks off, right?" he asked over the line.
"Right," said Wakaba.
Haruto grimly turned himself around and forced himself to look at his foot properly. Ugh. That was a lot of blood.
He gingerly reached out and haphazardly slipped his boot off, wincing as the leather brushed against the puncture wounds. But that was the easy part. The hard part would be…
"You struggling?" asked Wakaba.
"Just got to deal with the sock," Haruto muttered back.
It would usually be bright red anyway, but had now turned to an odd brown colour from all the blood. Not good, not good. And some of the wound was visible where the wretched snake had sunk its teeth through the fabric. Really, really not good. He took a deep breath, grabbed the sock with both hands and yanked it off in one quick motion.
It felt a little like being bitten again, only worse, because this time it was his fault.
"I assume that's the wound cleared," said Wakaba.
"Sure is," winced Haruto.
"Do you have any water nearby? You need to wash it out."
Nearby? No. In his pack…
He reached around inside, eventually finding the water bottle he'd been looking for. He shakily unscrewed the bottle, then carefully poured it over his wounds, washing away some of the blood. It quickly began to well up again. He looked away, stomach churning.
"All washed," he whispered.
"Right. Are you still bleeding?"
"Oh yeah."
"You need to bandage it."
After the last fiasco in this particular Palace, he'd made a point of bringing some actual bandage dressing with him, so he quickly dug that out of the eternal void and wrapped up the wound as best he could. It took about four layers before the bandages weren't so soaked through as to be useless.
"Bandaged."
"Do you think you'll need to go to the hospital?"
Haruto sighed. Realistically, with his wound still bleeding like that…
"Not hospital, but… I know a doctor I need to see."
"You have your own doctor?" Wakaba asked with surprise.
"Something like that."
He was pretty sure Tae would object to such a title if he ever dared to voice it in front of her though.
"You should leave the cognitive world and try to get back here on foot," sighed Wakaba. "If you stay in there—"
"I'll be able to get back through the Metaverse," Haruto said quickly.
Now is not the time to be testing out your inane theories! snarled Arsène.
Shut it! Haruto thought back.
"I'll be with you as soon as I can," he said aloud, before letting go of the mic and hauling himself haphazardly to his feet. Well. Foot. He needed to find a crutch or something…
There are some walking sticks over by the entrance, grumbled Arsène, clearly still pissed off. Hurry over there before you bleed out.
Haruto did as he was told and hobbled towards the entrance, staying out of the Shadows's line of sight as best he could. He quickly wrenched a large, wooden stick out of the holder and used it to half-run out of the door. It helped a little with the pain but… only a little. He needed to leave the Palace quickly.
Shadows still lurked on every corner—possibly more than usual thanks to his confrontation with Ooe but… he could make it out. He had to.
He dodged down the corridor, careful not to put too much weight on his injured foot, watching carefully for every lucky opening, taking every chance to move he saw, and then—
Then he was out.
Stumbling onto the pavement of the normal Metaverse, free of the ship-like prison that was Shido's Palace. Now he could try and see if he could fix this on his own.
In most Palaces, after all, the debilitating ordeal of status effects usually only lasted inside. Surely it would be the same with Shido's Palace?
Parvati hovered over his shoulder, before looping around to see his injured foot and eyeing it skeptically.
"So you want me to fix this up for you?" she asked.
He nodded, holding out a hand for her to utilise his energy. She quickly grabbed it, then, with a sensation a bit like a black hole opening up in his soul, cast Diarahan.
He felt the magic leaving him, felt the coolness on his skin, felt the magic trying—trying so hard to knit his skin back together—heal his wounds, but—
Parvati gasped with exertion, shaking her head. "It's not working, Haruto."
Dammit! But how did he… Ugh. It didn't matter now. Obviously this was more complicated than he'd thought. For now, he needed to get his foot seen to, ASAP.
"Okay, Wakaba," he said into his mic. "I'm gonna need you to take me to Takemi's Medical Practice."