Chương 10: The Emerald Night
'Apologies for not updating this story in a good while, if you read the previous chapter notes, then you probably know why. I won't say that I'm one hundred percent right now, but I do at least want to update this story whenever I can. A number of people have been asking for the next chapter, so I don't want to disappoint. Hopefully, this chapter isn't a flop.
Also, regarding the Social Links, I WANT to try and keep a few for the future nations and characters. But, the thing is we don't know what type of people they'll be yet, so it's hard to know which Social Links to keep empty. With that, should I just forget about trying to find fitting characters and just assign them to whoever?
Finally, I'll be leaving a list of his current Personas at the end of each chapter from now on. Just so you guys know what's going on with that.
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"Speech"
'Thoughts'
『System/Persona Speech』
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Once again, Ayato was currently out in the field on a commission. The current one he was on was nothing special, just given the task to clear out a number of the hilichurl camps that had been reported to have been established near the perimeter of the harbor.
As of right now, he had been trying to help Pixie level up. Her stats as of right now were quite abysmal, though that wasn't too surprising. He had realized that he'd been focusing far too much on leveling Dagda up since he was his main Persona, and no doubt his current strongest, though not by much compared to Jack Frost in terms of stats.
He'd definitely need to focus on training Pixie as well as Jack Frost, though Jack Frost wasn't too bad right now. He hadn't trained Pixie up enough AT ALL, she was literally only at level five as of right now. He had been using her to heal, but he hadn't really utilized her for anything else.
It wasn't that she didn't gain any experience from the enemies defeated, but it was just a negligible amount due to her low contribution and overall involvement in the actual battle. Compared to how much he used Dagda and Jack Frost, she wasn't nearly as much.
It was kind of understandable, all her stats were lower compared to the other two.
Regarding Pixie, she had been learning a few skills as well despite her low level, most, if not all, being tailored towards healing and such. Which wasn't a surprise, she was a more supportive Persona than she was one made for combat. Though, her magic was decent.
The skills she had learned were Tarukaja and Rakunda, which had made Ayato realize something interesting yet confusing. Tarukaja and Rakunda were not skills learned by Pixie through the same series, meaning that her skill learning sequence was not set in stone for a particular series.
If his assumptions were correct, then that meant his Personas were capable of learning skills that they would normally not learn through level up if you limited it to a certain series. An example is that Tarukaja was not learned by Pixie in Persona 3, same with Rakunda being for Persona 5.
On top of that, perhaps there were certain skills now that the Personas would normally never learn could now be used in the future, unlike their game counterparts. Pixie might end up learning something she would usually never ever learn throughout any of the games, that might be the case. He wasn't sure.
"Zio!"
『Understood, master!』Pixie had shouted upon the command as she held both her hands forwards towards one of the last three remaining hilichurls. The hilichurl was then struck by a small bolt of lightning, causing it to flail around for a bit before dropping to the ground with sparks coming off of its body.
"Let's give this a shot, Rakunda!" Just as Ayato announced that, Pixie flew above him before sending a wave of energy that seemed to be in the form of a dome that surrounded them. The dome seemed to be around ten meters or so from one end to the other.
The two remaining hilichurls seemed confused about this as they looked around at the dome they were surrounded in. Soon enough though, the dome faded away into nothingness as the hilichurls all soon noticed a faint purple aura surrounding their bodies before fading away as well.
The Rakunda skill was a useful little early game spell that helped in reducing the defenses of your enemies, and that was what just happened to these two hilichurls. Nothing seemed to change in appearance, though the effect of the skill was definitely there.
'Interesting, so it's more like the Nocturne version of Rakunda.' Ayato mused when he observed the skill play out. Rakunda in Persona 3 only targeted a single enemy, but this seemed to affect both of them. 'That dome was probably some kind of radius sensor, probably a limited area of effect.'
Glancing quickly at his status screen, he had noticed that his SP had gone done by around 10 to 12 points, unlike the usual Persona 3 Rakunda that only took away 3. He wasn't too surprised, since this skill seemed to affect all foes within that dome, then it was natural for it to be more costly.
"Alright, Pixie. Let's finish this with Zio." Pixie nodded her head happily as she quickly began charging up her lightning as she then sent the strikes towards both hilichurls. Causing them to go into a spasm before collapsing on the ground. 'Man, this is feeling more and more like Pokemon... Could be weird, a Persona user or something in Pokemon. That'd be a sight.'
『Pixie has levelled up』
『Your Magic has increased by 2』
『Your Luck has increased by 1』
Anyway, Pixie and Ayato stared at the corpses of the hilichurls in the camp for a second to make sure that they were all dead. Seeing that none of them were moving an inch or even breathing, they sighed in relief as Ayato decided to sit down to wait for his SP to recharge a bit.
With the constant barrage of skills like Zio that Pixie had to use, to compensate for her lack of physical power, Ayato had to utilize more and more SP.
『Master!』
"Huh?" Ayato blinked his eyes in confusion when Pixie suddenly called out to him. Turning his head, he saw the small fairy's body was releasing a faint glow that slowly became brighter and denser. Though the light didn't expand, it kept Pixie's body shape. "...What the?"
『Something is happening to Pixie's body』
"No way..." Ayato blinked his eyes in surprise at the sudden notification before Pixie's body soon began releasing black and blue lightning, though the lightning didn't hurt at all to be near as he stood up and watched as Pixie's body began to morph. Growing a bit bigger along with a few other changes. "Evolution...?"
Evolution was a process he was far more familiar with in the Shin Megami Tensei games, especially when he played Nocturne. Whenever a Demon reached a certain level and the player was at a suitable level to allow the evolution, a Demon could change and become a stronger Demon.
That very same process was happening right now.
Pixie's body soon stopped changing before the lightning began to cease as the bright light began to fade away, soon revealing Pixie in her new form. She hovered with a straighter posture, along with having spiked white hair, along with growing a few pairs of sharper wings. Her outfit was quite different as well.
『Pixie has evolved into High Pixie』
『You have welcomed High Pixie into your heart』
"...Hello?"
『Hello, master. My name is High Pixie, it's a pleasure to meet you』High Pixie gave a polite bow to Ayato as the male just nodded in response. He could tell this fairy was an entirely different person, she wasn't Pixie. Pixie was a separate individual altogether.『I look forward to working with you』
"I as well. May I ask what happened to Pixie since you're here?" Ayato frowned as he asked this. He felt his connection to Pixie weaken significantly, though for some reason he could still feel a slight tugging of it. He really didn't want to lose any of his Personas permanently.
『Do not worry, Master. Pixie is merely unavailable at the moment』High Pixie informed as Ayato just frowned in confusion.『From what I can feel, Pixie seems to currently be located deep within the Sea of Souls. We can all feel a connection to her, though it has weakened and is slowly getting stronger』
"I see, thank you." Ayato nodded his head. From what he understood, his connection to Pixie wasn't entirely cut off, just temporarily. Assuming that's true, his connection to her should return to normal after a certain amount of time. At least he hoped this was the case. "Thanks for the info, High Pixie."
『Of course, Master. A pleasure to hlep』
With that, High Pixie disappeared.
He was also very curious about the evolution. From what he remembered, the Demon usually had to have all the skills it could learn normally before it could evolve, and seeing that Pixie's skill pool was different from the games, was that requirement even a thing anymore? Or did they just evolve after reaching a certain level?
As he was pondering, a number of other notifications soon popped up to him.
『High Pixie's Zio has evolved into Zionga』
『High Pixie's Dia has evolved into Diarama』
『High Pixie's Patra has evolved into Re Patra』
Ayato smiled at the information as it seems that High Pixie was basically just a stronger version of Pixie, no surprise there. The situation was both a bad and good thing right now, with Pixie out of order for who knows how long, he had to rely on High Pixie whose skills had a higher cost than Pixie's did.
True, they probably had a greater effect due to the skills having evolved alongside the actual evolution, but that would mean he'd be wasting more SP than he needed. Once Pixie gets back, he'd have both of them to rely on for healing, Pixie for lesser wounds, and High Pixie for more serious ones.
Both Zionga and Diarama were pretty simple, they were just upgraded versions of Zio and Dia respectively. However, he was curious to read about Re Patra more as he was curious to find out if there were any differences. He quickly pulled up the skill sheet for High Pixie.
From what he was reading, Re Patra was leaned more towards recovering other people from an unconscious state. For example, if someone was knocked out, Re Patra could forcefully wake them up, whether or not it worked if someone who was sleeping he'd have to test that at some point.
Anyway, switching Dagda to his forefront, he might as well head back. He'd done enough training for the day.
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Arriving back in Liyue Harbor, he really couldn't lie, the past two days have been rather uneventful. All he had been doing was training, going on quests to further that training, and also just any other daily activity like eating and resting. It's at these times that he kind of wished he had a phone or something to entertain himself.
As he was walking through Liyue towards Wanmin for lunch, he could be seen twirling a certain blue key around his finger. He had been thinking of going into the Velvet Room, especially after so many days since he had last been there. Though, he didn't see the point right now.
He literally only had four Personas to his name right now: Dagda, Pixie, Jack Frost, and High Pixie.
If he was able to fuse any of them, he'd still just hold off on doing so. He didn't know the negative effects of fusing here, this wasn't the game and it could be a different circumstance. If he fused and just lost the two Personas he used to fuse, then that'd be horrible. Maybe it was similar to what would happen to Pixie, a temporary link sever.
The four he had right now were very useful, and losing any of them, especially at this stage right now would be incredibly detrimental. He'd wait until he'd gotten a few more Personas before he decided to do any kind of fusing, more preferably with Personas he'd not really consider using or have been outshined by another Persona he might have.
"Ah, welcome back! Here for some lunch?"
"Yeah, it's the usual." Ayato smiled as he was greeted by Mao. He had pretty much been coming back to the restaurant every time for lunch, it had good food, why wouldn't he? It wasn't entirely expensive either, so that was a plus. "I'm a bit late, hopefully, I'm not too late to order or anything."
True to those words, it was literally nighttime right now as there were very few people even about anymore, most of them were either closing down shop or were already in their homes. He had to praise a number of them, a few people continued working this late when most would pack up in the late afternoon.
One of those people were Mao, there were still a few people present here at the restaurant eating. Mao was probably thinking of closing for the night soon, so Ayato felt kind of bad coming this late to get some food, the man was probably really tired right now.
"Not at all, take a sea-."
"Ayato~!"
"W-Woah, Xiangling-san?" Ayato voiced in surprise when a familiar young girl suddenly popped out from the kitchen of the restaurant, quickly dashing over towards him before crashing into him in an embrace. Guoba was close behind waving at him. "Calm down there. Glad to see you're doing well. You too, Guoba-san."
"You two know each other?" Mao asked curiously as he saw how friendly his daughter was with him. While the girl was friendly towards pretty much everyone by nature, she seemed far more friendly towards Ayato than she was with people normally.
"Yeah, I ran into her a bit before I actually arrived here in Liyue Harbor." Ayato explained simply as he broke off the hug, to which he then patted Guoba on the head. He then looked at Xiangling. "Speaking of which, I haven't seen you around. I've been here to the restaurant a number of times but I've never seen you until now."
"Hehe~, well you see..." Xiangling began giggling nervously as she rubbed the back of her head. "I kind of got a bit sidetracked with all the things I found, so I was busy testing a few things out there before coming back here to the restaurant."
"Wait, so you were out there all this time?" Ayato asked with an incredulous look on his face. Xiangling just shuffled around a bit nervously, earning a small sigh from Ayato. "You really are dedicated to your craft, huh? Maybe a bit too dedicated..."
"ANYWAY, you're here to eat, right?" Xiangling asked as Ayato just stared at her for a second before chuckling, he then nodded his head in response. "Brilliant! Then please take a seat, I'll be the one to personally cook for you tonight. You can count on me! I found something that I'm sure will taste delicious, you can be my personal taste-tester!"
"I'm scared..." Ayato muttered as he watched Xiangling skipping back into the restaurant. He also saw Mao giving him a sympathetic look, which further boosted that bad feeling. What was she brewing in there? 'Should I switch to High Pixie? She has the highest luck, if that helps at all...'
If the Luck stat somehow truly affected fate, then MAYBE it'll save him from whatever Xiangling was going to be cooking.
With some dread in his heart, Ayato gave a small bow to Mao before walking over towards an empty table inside the restaurant before taking a seat.
Once he took a seat, he gave a tired sigh while resting his head against one of his fists. Glancing around, he saw Mao addressing another customer who had just finished their meal and was now walking away. He also saw the other customers just enjoying their meals.
'I wonder how mum and dad are doing...?' Ayato couldn't help but think back. It's been quite a bit of time now since he woke up in this world, and he couldn't help but worry about his family. They all knew he'd die an early death, but that didn't exactly make it any easier to deal with it when the time came.
All he could really hope for was that his parents could move on from his death and carry on with their lives. It honestly wouldn't hurt him if they just up and forgot about him, at least it'd allow them to continue on without feeling sad or depressed.
"Here it is~!" Ayato's attention was soon caught by the voice of Xiangling as he looked to see her dashing out from the kitchen. Mao also noticed as he walked on over towards them as Xiangling placed the bowel in her hands down onto the table Ayato sat at. "Enjoy!"
"What... is this?" Ayato twitched his eyebrow a bit when he saw what looked to be a bowl of pale blue slime along with it being covered in a thin layer of brown chippings of sorts, looking almost like wood. It looked to be seasoned with a few different herbs and also having a flower hanging off the edge for visual appeal.
"It's a new dish I just thought up, it's basically some delicious slime layered with hilichurl club chippings! As strange as it may sound, I assure you that it'll taste great! I even taste-tested it before serving it to you, so you don't need to worry about anything."
"I have many worries... and hilichurl clubs?"
"Y-Young man, I don't know what's going on with my daughter...." Mao stuttered with his face in his hands out of embarrassment. While Mao was embarrassed about the situation, Xiangling looked as cheery as always, and Guoba was just being Guoba. "I apologize for her antics..."
"I-I mean, might as well try it, right?" Ayato laughed nervously as he picked up a spoon and glared down at the pretty yet deceiving dish. 'Aren't the clubs used as their weapons? Don't they have blood on them from killing adventurers and more? I hope she properly clean them...'
Xiangling, Guoba, Mao, and even other customers who had overheard the conversation were all watching as Ayato scooped up some slime along with a few of the herb-covered wooden chippings as he held it up to his face to inspect. The slime jiggled on the spoon, and the wood chippings too as they rested on the slime.
"Can't really say YOLO... but, here goes nothing." Ayato muttered before quickly shoving the spoon into his mouth. As he chewed, he could feel the weird texture of the slime along with the crunch of the wood chippings. The place was as silent as the dead night as they all watched him.
"So~, how is it?"
"Young man, you don't have to force yourself..."
"It's... not that bad. It's actually decent." Ayato said in a tone that honestly surprised even himself. The place looked at him as if he was crazy, except for Xiangling and Guoba who were happy with the words. As crazy as it was, the dish was sweet thanks to the slime, and the crunch from the wood really gave it an interesting texture, along with the herbs that helped further the flavor.
"Alright, the dish was a great success!" Xiangling had cheered as she clenched both fists in front of her chest, a big smile present on her face. Xiangling then looked at Ayato with that smile. "I'm so glad that you liked it! Thanks for trying it, Ayato!"
"No worries, I'm glad that I did. Maybe you could cook something else for me to try at some point. If you're this good at cooking that you can turn these kinds of things into a dish like this, then I'd be happy to see what else you could accomplish."
"Leave it to me! I'm sure you'll love what I can make!"
"Thank the Archons..." Mao was off on the side breathing in relief when he saw that his daughter hadn't caused some kind of incident with the strange dish she made. Ayato could tell the crisis the man was going through and couldn't help but chuckle in amusement.
『A mysterious voice rings in your head...』
『I am thou...thou art I...』
『Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Lovers Arcana...』
『The Xiangling Social Link has reached level 2』
『Your powers to create Personas of the Lovers Arcana has grown』
Ayato couldn't help but smile at the notification, it seemed that Xiangling truly was happy with the results of her cooking. He heard some whispers from the customers as well, along the lines of how they were surprisingly not too stunned about the turn of events.
It seemed almost as if the customers were used to Xiangling creating all kinds of crazy dishes, he couldn't help but wonder if she was infamous or famous for it. That was honestly kind of scary, what other crazy dishes has this cheerful bubbly girl made in the past?
Well, something to think about some other time, he might as well finish the dish. DIdn't want to waste it after all, even if it was kind of weird.
"...!" Ayato suddenly froze when he was about to take another bite from the dish. He felt some kind of chill run down his spine, which was soon followed by a pressurizing feeling that sent a massive wave of unease all over him. He dropped his spoon and stood up with a bit of heavy breathing.
"Ayato...?" Xiangling voiced in confusion as she saw the male suddenly stand up. Her voice was full of concern when she saw that the male was breathing a bit heavily, and he looked to be shaking a bit with his eyes shaking a bit. "...Are you okay? Is the dish actually not good...?"
"N-No, don't worry about it. I just..."
『Kid, prepare yourself! Something's coming!』
'What do you mean, Dagda?'
『I'm not sure how to explain it, but I can feel a malevolent force heading straight this way. Whatever it is, it's powerful! Probably more than what you can handle』
Ayato didn't get to respond or ask any other questions before the loud and confused voices of the customers soon grabbed his attention. He and the others with him all turned their heads to see the customers all having stood up from their seats and were looking around outside in confusion.
Seeing this, they all rushed over to see just what the commotion was all about. When he managed to push his way to the front of all the people, he noticed that the entire city was darker than it usually was during the night. Though, the thing that caught his attention the most was the faint color of green that glowed over them all.
This looked very similar to something he remembered quite vividly. Shaking a bit, he shot his head up towards the sky only to be greeted by the sight of something that really sent shivers down his spine. Overlooking the entire nation, if not the entire world was the moon, not just any moon though...
An emerald green moon.
『Prepare thyself, young Wild Card』
『For the green moon illuminates above all of Teyvat』
『May the test of the emerald night begin』
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『Current Personas』
● Dagda - [Arcana: The Fool] [Level: 10] [Inherit: Curse] [Resist: Fire, Ice, Electric, Wind] [Weak: Bless] [Strength: 14] [Magic: 11] [Endurance: 10] [Agility: 11] [Luck: 9] [Skills: ⓘ] [Status: 🟢]
● Pixie - [Arcana: The Lovers] [Level: 6] [Inherit: Electric] [Resist: Electric, Bless] [Weak: Gun, Ice, Curse] [Strength: 2] [Magic: 8] [Endurance: 5] [Agility: 4] [Luck: 6] [Skills: ⓘ] [Status: 🔴]
● Jack Frost - [Arcana: The Magician] [Level: 12] [Inherit: Ice] [Block: Ice] [Weak: Fire] [Strength: 8] [Magic: 11] [Endurance: 8] [Agility: 9] [Luck: 7] [Skills: ⓘ] [Status: 🟢]
● High Pixie - [Arcana: The Priestess] [Level: 10] [Inherit: Ice] [Block: Ice] [Weak: Wind] [Strength: 4] [Magic: 6] [Endurance: 4] [Agility: 6] [Luck: 10] [Skills: ⓘ] [Status: 🟢]
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