Persona 5: When your back's to the wall

Dusk breathed heavily, her back up against Crow's as the two stared around at the mass of shadows surrounding them, Dusk's black and white sword at the ready in her hand.

Today was a REALLY, REALLY bad day to train in mementos, all the shadows were agitated for whatever reason and now the two had gotten separated from the rest of the group, even Oracle's voice couldn't reach them very well.

Dusk could feel Crow's tense shoulders pressed up against her back, her metal choker necklace slipping down her neck a bit due to sweat pouring down her face, they were low on ammo and they were tired, but they were backed up against a wall figuratively.

"Any ideas Dusk?" She heard Crow ask and she chuckled nervously.

"None." She quickly swung her blade down as a shadow lunged for her, the blade cutting through the shadow like it was paper. "Other than we should rush the shadows to get back to the others by fighting our way through."

"That occurred to me too." She heard his gun go off even as he spoke, feeling him aim even while pressed up against her. "We don't have much of a choice here."

"Yeah, well we're at our best when our backs are to the wall." She laughed, hand gripping the edge of her mask. "Ready?"

She felt him move slightly and knew it meant he was gripping his red plague-doctor-like mask. "Ready as I'll ever be."

"ORPHEUS!/ROBIN HOOD!" The two scream out before ripping their masks off, their personas appearing before them as their masks disapparate into flames.

Orpheus wasted no time, rushing forward and slamming his lyre onto several shadows and kicking others while Robin Hood took aim and fired with his bow, their human selves rushing through the opening their attacks made, slashing through any shadow foolish enough to get close to them.

Crow had Dusk's hand in his free one as they ran, grasping hers tightly while his face was set in a pained frown, dark chocolate brown eyes darting around while his light brown hair flowed around and stuck to his face.

The personas stayed close to their human selves as they cut a path through the sea of shadows, using physical attacks so they didn't tire out their already exhausted human selves more by using magic attacks.

They did manage to finally hear Oracle's voice clearly as they fought their way through countless shadows, until-

SMACK! THUD! "AHH!"

Dusk was abruptly slammed into by a shadow, yanking her hand from Crow's grasp and sending her sprawling on the ground, leaving her dazed and unable to discern up from down, Orpheus was dispelled as well.

She heard Crow scream her code name and she managed to roll away as she heard a shadow coming at her.

'No way in HELL am I going to die here!' She thought with determination, struggling to get to her feet.

"Might I help you here?" It was a new persona's voice, she could tell. "All we need do is form a contract."

"Yes, Izanagi Picaro..." She forced her legs to work, standing and leaning against the wall, looking over the sea of shadows she could see Crow forcing his way through the shadows to her, but he wouldn't make it in time. "I guess my little secret was going to come to light anyway."

"Very well." Her free hand came up, gripping her mask as the pain of forming a contract came and she forced herself to remain still. She could handle it, it's happened before. "I am thou, thou art I!"

For a moment, she idly wondered which bond this new persona came from, though she had a feeling it came from her bond with the white clothed boy trying to get to her.

"COME, IZANAGI PICARO!" She shouted as she ripped her mask off, red flames overcoming her mask instead of blue.

Red was the first color she saw on her new persona, lots of red, then she saw he was sporting the pattern of Shujin Academy on his jacket, his blade he wielded was red too and she saw his yellow eyes through the eyeholes of his metal mask.

The other details could wait, as she didn't have time to stare at her new persona with all the shadows.

Readying her sword, she and Izanagi Picaro charged at the shadows, her energy fueled by adrenaline as she slashed her way through the shadows as her persona did the same.

She eventually reached Crow, who while in shock kept fighting the shadows and was back to back with him once again.

"Did I mention I have the power of the wild card?" She chuckled in an attempt at humor. "Yeah, that."

"...You're just full of surprises." He shook his head, humor laced with exasperation. "I do hope you won't wait until you're almost killed to reveal your next one."

"Trust me, I'll certainly try." She giggled. "Ready for that attack we talked about?"

"Certainly." She could hear the smirk in his voice. "I've been looking forward to it."

Side by side, they ran at the shadows, swinging their swords wildly, striking many shadows before they switched to their guns, Dusk a sniper rifle and Crow a ray gun, and fired wildly but accurately.

A large portion of the shadows were now gone, but they weren't done yet. Summoning the last of their strength and Dusk switching back to Orpheus, they let their personas wreck havoc.

"MEGIDOLAON!/MARAGION!" Bless and fire power rained down on the surrounding shadows, killing them all.

Dusk leaned heavily on Crow as soon as the magic spells ran their course, took their toll from their energy and he did the same, only he was less tired than she.

"CROW!/DUSK!" The aforementioned girl winced as the rest of the group they got separated from rushed up to them.

Ah, yes, they probably saw that little display of her wild card power. She groaned in the back of her throat, just lovely.

"Are you two alright?!" Panther asked worriedly, wringing her whip nervously.

Dusk could only manage a nod while Crow spoke. "Yes, we are very tired, but alive."

"What the hell was that?!" Dusk winced as Ryuji exclaimed, knew he'd be the one to ask if anyone else didn't. "Did your persona transform or something?!"

"No." Dusk managed, averting her eyes. "I'm.... Like Joker."

"What?!" She wasn't sure who asked that, as at that point her vision started getting blurry and swayed, even while leaning on Crow.

She felt her body slide and start to fall if it wasn't for someone catching her quickly as she slipped into unconsciousness.


When she finally woke up, she found that she felt someone gently running their fingers through her now unbound hair and her head was resting on someone's lap.

She also heard sounds coming from a TV, and she peeked her eyes open slightly to see it was Crow, or rather, Goro Akechi who was running his fingers through her hair.

He was mostly focusing on her TV, absent-mindedly running his fingers through her hair, chocolate eyes glazed over in thought.

He looked down when he felt her shift slightly and smiled when he saw she was awake. "Hey, Meggy."

"Hey." She was surprised at how hoarse her voice was. "How long have I been out...?"

"A good few hours at most." He answers then pushed her down gently when she tried to sit up. "Hey hey. You need to rest, you took quite the beating."

"I can't..!" She groaned out before giving up against his hold and peering up at him. "They know as do you now, I'm a wild card user, I need to explain myself."

"That can wait until tomorrow." He shook his head, brown locks swishing about. "You need to rest."

Megan only signed in resignation as a response. "....You're impossible."

"Haha, I think we're both impossible my dear." he chuckled.

Megan then tilted her head towards the TV. "What'chu watching anyway?"

"Oh, an American crime show called NCIS. I saw you had it set to auto record so I wanted to see it." Goro answered, fingers going back to gently brushing through her hair and it was then she noticed he wasn't wearing his gloves. "It is quite good in my opinion."

"Guess your lessons on practicing English with me paid off after all." She chuckled, breath hitching slightly when one of his hands went to cup her cheek. The worst part for the girl's poor heart was he didn't seem to notice in the slightest.

Keyword, seem. She knew he was more than he seemed, held secrets, hid his true self under a pleasant mask, and only she got to see his true self in moments like this. She didn't know everything about him, but, neither did he with her, but they were getting there, if the fact a persona from her bond with him formed was any sign.

She knew he was doing this on purpose, he loved flustering her, so she huffed lightly. "You know, if you wanted to do something with me, you could just say so."

He chuckled before looking down at her with a smirk. "I just wanted to see if you'd notice or not."

"Y-You know I'd notice something like that!" She cursed the fact she stuttered and blushed.

"Haha. You're so cute when you make that adorable face." He smiled mischievously when her face grew redder.

"Just d-do whatever it is you want to do before I die of embarrassment..." She muttered, averting her gaze.

"Very well, as you wish." He wasted no time in leaning down and capturing her lips in a deep kiss.

Megan felt light-headed from the emotions poured into the kiss before putting all of her own in as she kissed back, a hand gripping his free one while her other came up and tangled her fingers in his oak locks.

When the two separated, they locked gentle gazes with each other, pale blue staring into dark chocolate.

"....I love you." The words slipped from her mouth before they could be stopped.

"...I love you too." He leaned his forehead against hers gently, emotions showing clear in his eyes.

For the rest of the night, the couple cuddled while watching NCIS, with Megan commenting on how the criminals could have avoided being caught if they did this or that while Akechi chuckled at her antics.