Persona F

Tomomi's thanatophobia

Hirozaku's phone starts ringing as he and Kaoru are on their way home. He picks up the phone and places it to his ear. "Rikiya?" Hiro asks. "DUDE! IT'S REAL! IT'S REAL!" Rikiya says frantically. "Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, just slow down." Hiro says, trying to calm his friend down. "What do you mean "it's real"?" Hiro asks. "Tomomi's Lethe! It's real!" Rikiya responds. "Oh Christ... Ok, ok, we should try to go to her Lethe as soon as possible, but first, we should get ready." Hiro says. "What?! But she could be dead in there!" Rikiya says. "And we could get our asses handed to us if we just jump in! So let's just go and prep up in Yoneno's place. Call Ai and tell her the situation and tell her where we should meet up." Hiro says. "Yeah. Okay." Rikiya hangs up. Later on, Hiro, Kaoru, Rikiya and Ai arrive at Yoneno's place and got some new weapons. Hiro gets a mackerel, wrapped in faded, dirty newspaper and tied with a rubber band. The end of the newspaper is shaped for easy handling. Kaoru gets a silver-headed pickaxe with blood on both its ends. Rikiya gets a violently uprooted olive colored mailbox with the number 606 painted on the side. And Ai gets a hidden blade with an eagle-shaped hook, worn under her sleeve. He makes his way to a nearby Velvet Room and Jose gives him some weapons to blast away enemies as well as requested some personas from Igor. Beast (Rat), Bicorn (Ox), Incubus (Tiger), Omoikane (Dragon), Yomotsu-Shikome (Snake), Valkyrie (Dog), Berith (Pig), Inugami (Aries), Andras (Taurus) and Pixie (Libra). Finally, the Sovereign Heroes arrive at the shrine. "Is everyone ready?" Hiro asks. "Yeah." They all respond. They all enter the shrine and feel around the walls. "Guys! I think I found it!" Ai says. The three boys approach her and they see her hand through a wall right through the shrine wall outside. "Well, let's go then." Rikiya says.

They all enter the place, Kaoru transforms into Kap and the Sovereign Heroes find themselves in front of a very large staircase that leads to a spiraling circle downwards. After they fight through several shadows, they are at the bottom, this time, this door appears to be a large red metal door with a large bar holding it, as if keeping something out. "So... uhh... anyone gonna help me drag this?" Hiro asks. And before anyone can answer, the bar suddenly jumps and lands on the ground as if it was from a video game. The door opens and the four enter. Suddenly, their jaws drop to the floor as they see themselves on top of an apartment complex in modern day Fairfield, Pennsylvania with several zombies on the ground level. "What in the actual fuck?!" Hiro exclaims. "Are we in a zombie apocalypse?! As if going to the depths of the ocean wasn't enough!" Rikiya exclaims. "Down there!" Kap exclaims. He points at Tomomi who is walking among them wearing her red and white miko uniform, but is acting like them. "Tomomi-chan!" Rikiya shouts from the rooftop. "I don't think she can hear us! We gotta get down there and get to her!" Hiro says. They go through a door that leads downstairs and once they arrive, they hear gunfire. They turn to a corner and see a woman wearing some blue tube top dress and a miniskirt along with a pair of shoulder gun holsters. She also has some short black hair that seem familiar. "Hey buddy? You-" Before Hiro can finish his sentence, the woman turns around quickly and has her gun aimed at Hiro, revealing her face to be Tomomi with yellow eyes. This has to be Shadow Tomomi. "Hirozaku Chiba. I KNEW you'd be here! You have forced this whole thing upon us!" Shadow Tomomi says. "Woah! Woah! Tomomi-chan! It's cool! We're here to help you!" Rikiya says. Shadow Tomomi looks at Rikiya and has her eyes widened. She drops her gun and takes one step towards Rikiya. "Ri... RIKIYA!" Shouts Shadow Tomomi as she embraces Rikiya with tears coming down her face. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! I DIDN'T THINK I'D EVER SEE YOU AGAIN!" Shadow Tomomi says with tears coming down her face, making the heroes look on in confusion. "Tomomi-chan! What are you talking about?! Where is this coming from?!" Rikiya asks. "Do you not remember? You were killed! You, Ai, Kap and it's all because of him." Shadow Tomomi says as she glares at Hiro. "So, fuck your "don't get the wrong idea" bit you told me." Hiro says. "Tsk. Whatever. We have bigger issues to worry about. If we don't get out of here, then 'it' will be back." Shadow Tomomi says. "It?" Ai asks. "The headless horseman. He is a horseman with no head who also rides a horse with no head. It doesn't matter how fast you run, the headless horseman's steed can run up to 55 miles per hour. When he catches you, he'll make sure you are dead in his large medieval castle, where you are no doubt tortured before you are killed, your head adding to his collection. He is the embodiment of Death. I've had my scrapes with him and over and over again, I survive by the skin of my teeth. Rikiya was unfortunately not lucky and was taken away. Along with the vice president and then Kap. All because that traitor lead him to us." Shadow Tomomi glares at Hiro once again before turning around and shooting a zombie right in the face. "If you betray us again, I will not hesitate to make you suffer eternal torment." Shadow Tomomi warns. They get to the lower levels and see the zombies out front just wandering around and moaning, with a single blue race car with the number 28 on it. "Do you remember that, Rikiya? We used to pretend we were in a grand race after we'd watch some cartoons." Shadow Tomomi says. "Yeah. I used to pretend to have a car with the #28 on it. It was my lucky number." Rikiya says.