Troubling Developments 1

Friday 6th May

"I see him," muttered Renko, 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 Renko could just try to nicely convince him to give him the letter but… somehow she didn't think Ooe would listen. Especially not while Renko was stuck in a get-up like this.

She needed to approach carefully—the best method would be to catch him by surprise—that way she could expose the Shadow instantly and calculate what Persona would be best to cripple it.

She'd been pacing back and forth for some time now. All Renko 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—

Renko leapt from behind the bar, tackling Ooe before the man could process what was happening. As she grabbed his shoulders, they seemed to warp and bend out of shape, the fabric turning to black smoke beneath her fingers as Ooe's Shadow form revealed itself.

A Yamata no Orochi towered before her. This wasn't a normal one though—it seemed… stronger, more focused somehow. Nevermind. She'd dealt with creatures like this before, and she could do it again. She quickly summoned Parvati to her 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 her fingers, she got her 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.

Renko rushed forward, her knife flickering in her hands as she gave one deep gash—then two—trying to reach for its heart. She had to be quick—it was weak but it would regain its energy quickly. Shoving another neck out of the way, she tried to spot the weak point she knew should be there, in the centre of its chest… Where was it? Where—

Pain exploded through her ankle.

Something sharp sinking in, burying itself deep in her flesh, cutting through muscle—white-hot agony burning in her foot. She couldn't stifle the sharp yell that escaped her throat at the pain, but—she couldn't lose this opportunity! She'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 her ears about how screwed she was if she didn't get medical attention right now, she reached for her 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. Renko was sprawled on the floor, her foot still burning with agonising pain. She took one brief glance at it. Just about the only thing she could process before she looked away again was that there was red. A lot of red. And a very disfigured-looking foot. Damned snake must have bitten her.

She became aware in bits and pieces that her hearing had, at some point, blacked out completely, but now she was slowly getting it back, and what she was getting it back to was yelling. Lots of it.

The voice over her earpiece was by far the loudest though.

"Renko? Can you still hear me? What's happening in there?"

Renko groggily raised her arm to her mouth and pressed the mic on. "It's okay," she managed to say. "I got him."

The letter was lying on the floor in front of her. She 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 Renko, taking another glance at it and quickly looking away.

"How much is it bleeding?"

"A lot."

"Okay." She 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 Renko, wearily pushing herself onto her knees, trying to judge if she should attempt walking.

Hmm. No. Definitely not.

She tried to leverage herself as best she could without putting extra weight on her foot and crawled over to the bar area, where nothing else could spot and try to eat her.

"What's happening?" asked Wakaba. "Are you still there?"

"Still here," Renko muttered back. "Just getting to a safe area."

"Right… Good."

She nodded, though she knew she wouldn't see, and finally managed to shuffle behind the bar.

"Shoes and socks off, right?" she asked over the line.

"Right," said Wakaba.

Renko grimly turned herself around and forced herself to look at her foot properly. Ugh. That was a lot of blood.

She gingerly reached out and haphazardly slipped her 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," Renko 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. She 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 her fault.

"I assume that's the wound cleared," said Wakaba.

"Sure is," winced Renko.

"Do you have any water nearby? You need to wash it out."

Nearby? No. In her pack…

She reached around inside, eventually finding the water bottle she'd been looking for. She shakily unscrewed the bottle, then carefully poured it over her wounds, washing away some of the blood. It quickly began to well up again. She looked away, stomach churning.

"All washed," she whispered.

"Right. Are you still bleeding?"

"Oh yeah."

"You need to bandage it."

After the last fiasco in this particular Palace, she'd made a point of bringing some actual bandage dressing with her, so she quickly dug that out of the eternal void and wrapped up the wound as best she 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?"

Renko sighed. Realistically, with her 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."

She was pretty sure Tae would object to such a title if she 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," Renko said quickly.

Now is not the time to be testing out your inane theories! snarled Arsène.

Shut it! Renko thought back.

"I'll be with you as soon as I can," she said aloud, before letting go of the mic and hauling herself haphazardly to her feets. Well. Foot. She 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.

Renko did as she was told and hobbled towards the entrance, staying out of the Shadows's line of sight as best she could. She 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. She needed to leave the Palace quickly.

Shadows still lurked on every corner—possibly more than usual thanks to her confrontation with Ooe but… she could make it out. She had to.

She dodged down the corridor, careful not to put too much weight on her injured foot, watching carefully for every lucky opening, taking every chance to move she saw, and then—

Then she was out.

Stumbling onto the pavement of the normal Metaverse, free of the ship-like prison that was Shido's Palace. Now she could try and see if she could fix this on her 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 her shoulder, before looping around to see her injured foot and eyeing it skeptically.

"So you want me to fix this up for you?" she asked.

She nodded, holding out a hand for her to utilise her energy. She quickly grabbed it, then, with a sensation a bit like a black hole opening up in her soul, cast Diarahan.

She felt the magic leaving her, felt the coolness on her skin, felt the magic trying—trying so hard to knit her skin back together—heal her wounds, but—

Parvati gasped with exertion, shaking her head. "It's not working, Renko."

Dammit! But how did she… Ugh. It didn't matter now. Obviously this was more complicated than she'd thought. For now, she needed to get her foot seen to, ASAP.

"Okay, Wakaba," she said into her mic. "I'm gonna need you to take me to Takemi's Medical Practice."