The name I call you by

Reminders (11)

POV: Ann

"Ugh... how much further do we need to go..?" These stairs seem longer than I remember... Ryuji walked in front of me, his hand dragging against the wall the whole time.
"Is it just me, or do these seem longer than before?" My voice echoed through the seemingly endless stair filled corridor before fading out.
"Yeah, it does." Ryuji sounded out of breath as well, "I need a break..." and then slid down the wall to sit on one of the stairs. I got up a few more before joining him.
"This is exhausting... what if we have to fight some boss level enemy when we get up there? What then?" I let my head fall into my waiting hand, my elbow resting against my knee.
"Who knows... We fight, or run, or whatever, right?" Ryuji sounded exhausted too, as much as I was if not more.
"How's your leg doing?" There's no way he's been going on this long without any problems, but I haven't seen him stumble once on the way up.
"Not too bad, going to be sore in the morning though... if not sooner." So he's pushing himself... got it.
"Don't push it too much, we've got time." Hopefully-
"And I don't want to risk fighting solo; if I end up having to, I swear..." My sentence faded out, left to be unfinished.
"Yeah, yeah. What do you thinks up there, anyway? What's so important that its being guarded by endless stairs?"
"Who knows... Id think the defenses to be better, but Kamoshida's palace wasn't too difficult compared to the others." Ryujis expression was enough to tell me he was remembering, to.
"Lets not sit around too long; we're not suppose to be here, better to leave sooner rather than later." He paused for a moment to get up, offering a hand to help me up too, which I took.
"What about the MetaNav? Does that do anything?" He questioned me, beginning ascension of the stairs again.
"Checked earlier, no good. Its locked, so... this looks like our only option." The stairs before me stood ever so daunting, maybe this is some way to make intruders feel dispirited; its definitely working.
"Only option we got is to keep going up." No need to state the obvious...
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A while passed- I've lost track of time by now- before anything but stairs appeared, and just our luck, it was a door.
"Think it leads to the throne room?" My foot steps echoed back at me, hitting the door frame in front of us. Ryuji was relying on the wall to keep himself up, and I wasn't doing too much better; neither of us had the stamina for that climb.
"Probably... what's your call? We goin' in?" Huh-? I'm not Akira...
"Yeah, I just wanna get out of here.." Ryuji nodded, opening the door and going through. Surely enough, the throne room stood before us, and it was...
"Empty-?" My voice echoed through the room, the pillars, tiled floors, and red carpets lying on top of them.
"There's nothin' here?" Ryuji glanced around the room, proceeding with caution. I gripped my whip in hand and followed, scanning the room.
"Ahhhhhhh-!!" A higher pitched scream came from above, a red and black mixed abyssal- something appeared above us, dropping something small, round, and yellow-ish. The something was falling towards me, gaining momentum. I stepped to the side and it hit the ground.
"Owww....." The creature whined; now that I see it closer, it kinda looks like...
"Morgana-? You're here too?"
"Hey, what was- whys the cat here?" Ryuji came rushing over, slowing down a bit upon seeing Morgana.
"I am not a cat!" Morgana got up, rubbing his head.
"That hurt, are you alright Lady Ann?" The honorifics still weird me out a bit, but I'm also pretty used to it.
"You hit the ground, not me." I wouldn't be that uncomfortable to land on, would I..? Wait why does that matter?!
"Where are we anyway?" He shook his masked head, glancing around. He wasn't swating a bit; the sudden fall and hitting the ground that quickly must've made him dizzy.
"Kamoshida's palace, the throne room. I think." Ryuji mimicked Morganas old "I think" habit; in the current situation, it made sense.
"You think?" He shook his head again and then took a look around; must've shaken it off this time.
"Yeah, sure looks like it, but this isn't Kamoshida's palace. The real thing collapsed several months ago, we saw it happen. This is a fake, its clearly missing a few things too." Id assume he held off about saying anything degrading to Ryuji, but assumptions are best left to myself.
"We guessed that much. The stair way getting up here was impossibly long, I thought it would never end." My tone was nothing less than exhausted, mixed with a bit of sarcasm due to my exaggeration.
"Uh- guys, we got company, save the catching up for later!" Ryujis eyes where locked on the approaching shadows, I joined him and Morgana followed me to create a battle formation.
"These guys came outta nowhere, everyone watch your guard!" Morgana spoke up first, the tension of battle settling over us.
"Wouldn't it be better if you just gave in? Shiho wouldnt have tried to kill herself if you did, you know." A distorted voice spoke, taking the form of... myself-?
"Skull, you idiot, if you didn't lash out at Kamoshida, the track team would've never disbanded. That's your fault, you know that right?" A second voice spoke out; that's not-
"Nothing but a useless cat, getting underfoot and always in the way. That's what Ryuji, Ann, and Akira all thought of you." The third shadows distorted voice spoke out, taking shape. Before me stood a shadow version of Ryuji, Morgana, and myself. Those golden eyes all held hatred and disdain.
"None of that is true!" It was a lie to say that, I knew it. I'm more than aware that I was the reason Shiho- no... that's not important right now. I cant afford to get distracted.
"News flash, the track team reformed, and the guys already forgave me for it. I wasn't in the right, I know that, but everything turned out ok! I accepted the shitty things I did."
"I'm not some useless pet... Everyone relies on me as much as they do each other! I'm useful to them, I'm..-" Morganas voice faded out, a bit of doubt in his tone.
"Morgana got us through the fight with Yaldaboath! If we didn't have his healing skills, we wouldn't have all made it through alive!" I felt a warm glow on my face and touched my hand to the red cat mask.
"Carmen, go!" A burning heat formed before me, the attack connecting with the shadow version of the cat mascot.
"Yeah, Morgana has been there since day one! Get his name outta your mouth, eefin bastard!" Ryuji followed up my attack, lighting crashing down from the sky and paralyzing the dark shadow.
Morgana seemed to be moved by what we had to say, and summoned his persona. "Lets do this, Zorro!" The foes before us took the hit, magarudyne. Morganas shadow self reflected the attack, which was weakened by Morganas real self.
"Everyone target each others shadows! They'll just reflect our attacks back at us!" I pulled out my gun, targeting Ryujis shadow self. Beside me, I noticed Ryuji bracing for an attack; a burst of flame came up a moment later. I waited out the sudden burst of light and fired while I had the chance, Ryuji dodging another attack and Morgana going in for a strike with his curved sword. It always has seemed like a pirates blade...
"Shiho could've died because of you..." The voice from before reached my ears again, this time it sounded closer.
"No-" I tried to fire back, and got interrupted.
"She did, you know it. You did nothing to help her."
"That's all in the past!" I managed to get in before the next onslaught.
"It still happened; you've been a horrible friend to her. Ever since the Phantom Thieves, you've been hanging out with her less and less... do you know how that makes her feel?"
"I haven't-" Interruption befell me once again.
"You have."
"Let me finish, damn it!" My bullets pierced through the air until I was left with an empty shell.
"Watch the fire, Ann!" Ryuji shook me out of my daze a bit, he looks like he's struggling a bit too.
"Where'd that shadow go?" I felt a set of arms wrap around my shoulders and a cold shiver run down my spine.
"Behind you..." That's not my voice- I know its not, it cant possibly be-
"You never admitted it either, did you tell her you were sorry? You should've groveled at her feet and begged for forgiveness" The words where whispered in my ear, nothing but shaky silence came from my attempts at a response.
"Admit it, Ann, you dont deserve her.."
"I-I dont..." The words fell from my mouth without my permission, the words of my dark counterpart echoing in my mind.
"I dont... deserve..." My knees gave out below me, I fell to the ground and dropped my weapons in the meantime.
"I deserve... to die..."
"Ryuji, dont listen to that shadow! Shake it off, now!" Morganas voice was muted, almost gone. Thats right... Shiho couldve died because of me, I knew this but I didnt do anything. I let it happen.
"Ann, snap out of it! We need you, damn it!" Ryujis voice barely reached me, his words didnt make any sense.
"You let it happen, Ann, whats wrong with you? If you'd only have gone along with Kamoshida..."
That name... It seemed to resonate with me somehow, a burning feeling rose in my chest; rage?
"Shes despairing, leave her be for now! Ryuji, focus, and dont end up like her!" Like who-? Me?
"Those liars dont need you... youre just an example of what not to do."
"No thats not true! Its not true!" The flames reached out, extending their reach to my arms and legs, burning from the very core of my being.
"Carmen is an example of that, shut your mouth!" The blue flames rose up against me and cleared my vision, I could feel myself become stronger; it wont last long, so Ill use it now.
"Get out of the way, you lying-" I picked up my whip and turned to my shadow self, my gun had already been emptied earlier.
"Piece of shit!" It reached home, striking hard and heavy. My shadow self stumbled, holding her head; good, just what I was going for. My apporoach was quick, I shaped the whip around her and pulled tight.
"Ryuji! This ones on you!" I let it go just as lighting descended from the sky, and my shadow self fell to the tiled floor. I grabbed my whip and turned to Ryujis shadow, my hand touching the mask on my face.
"Alright, lets do this, Carmen!"
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Words: 1851