Into the Metaverse

Sunday 17th April

Haruto had decided that the first act of his free Sunday afternoon would be to investigate Shido's Palace. His thinking had been that he could explore around and get a feel for the layout enough to report some progress to Wakaba, then start out on his mission to find the other Metaverse user. Finally, when he got back to the real world, he could test out his suspicions about Madarame and make sure he wasn't the problem Yusuke was so keen to avoid talking about.

It was a solid plan. A good plan, even. However, like all his plans, it didn't take long to completely and utterly fall apart. In fact, it took approximately an hour.

He'd managed to get into Shido's Palace just fine-after a bit of agony trying to work out what the distortion was. (A cruise ship should have come up sooner, but he was already mentally exhausted from spending the morning shopping with Futaba.) And indeed, most of the infiltration was going well. He was keeping to his normal methods, creeping around and just generally trying to avoid the notice of the Shadows waiting around every corner. He'd worked out he'd need some special letters to get in, and in fact was just planning to leave the Palace, when he was finally caught by one of the more watchful Shadows.

Normally that wouldn't be a problem. He couldn't count the number of times he'd done this before. He had all the healing items and spells he'd ever need to get out of pretty much any encounter just fine. And even if he didn't come out of it fine, he'd already had a bad enough time in the Metaverse to know that death wasn't really anything to worry about in there.

So, when a menacing-looking Cerberus gashed him along the forearm, he summarily blasted it with ice and quickly went to heal his injury with Diarama.

Or at least, that's what he tried to do.

He was definitely using the magic. He could feel the energy draining out of him. But the cut… wasn't healing. In fact it was beginning to bleed quite alarmingly. It also hurt. A lot.

Get out of there, commanded Parvati, and he had no problem doing exactly what she said.

He was around the corner in a second, trying very hard not to panic at the sight of his still very distinctly bleeding arm. This didn't happen to him. Had literally never happened to him in the two years he'd spent in the Metaverse.

Well it's happening now, said Arsène, resuming his position in the driving seat automatically. Get out of the Metaverse, there's nothing we can do here.

Are you sure? thought Haruto, applying as much pressure as he could to the wound with his free hand.

Very, now get on it.

Well, that seemed to be that. With a snap of his fingers, the ship stuttered and deformed itself around him, and seconds later he was standing on a street corner, still grasping his very injured arm.

Get out your phone, look up the nearest emergency clinic-quickly. 

He did as he was told, trying to fish his phone out of his pocket with his injured right arm, still clutching his wound tightly. He opened up the map, typed in the information. Only ten minutes walk away.

Ten minutes is too long with you bleeding like that. Run.

And he did—he sprinted, catching the disapproving eye of almost everyone who walked by—but he didn't have time to worry about that. His fingers were growing slick with blood where they were holding onto his wound, and he was already beginning to feel lightheaded.

Not too far away now.

Arsène was right—just another corner and… finally. They were there. He rushed into the emergency clinic and came skidding to a stop in front of the receptionist.

"Hello, what's your—" The receptionist cut herself off as she caught sight of the state of his arm, covering her mouth in shock. "I'll, um, I'll call the doctor right away!" she said, reaching for the phone. "Just go and take a seat over there—keep holding onto it."

He didn't need to be told twice. He went over and slumped into the seat, closing his eyes as an odd buzzing sound began in his ears.

I'll try to talk as long as you can hear me. Try not to pass out, Haruto.

Don't worry about me, Haruto thought back. We've had worse. 

We haven't, Arsène insisted. Not like this. Not outside the Metaverse. 

More importantly, thought Haruto, ignoring his Persona's agitation, what are we going to do about Shido's Palace now? He seems to have some… anti-healing effect in there. We can't go about this like normal. 

No, Arsène murmured hesitantly. Our first step should be to tell Wakaba. She needs to know.

She might know something about this, mused Haruto. Shido is commissioning her to research the Metaverse, after all. If she's aware of Palaces and told him about it, he might have developed that as a mental block. 

If it is a mental block, it will be incredibly hard to get around. 

We might have no choice but to brute force it. 

Haruto, you could die. 

What's life without death?

Don't be glib. 

Arsène was right to be worried, Haruto could feel himself growing fainter and fainter, and he was still bleeding… His arm felt oddly numb…

"Hey, can you hear me?"

A man's voice-quiet. Haruto just about managed to crack an eye open. God, it was hard work.

He was a young man, dark hair—.and wearing a distinctive doctor's coat.

"Can you walk?" the doctor asked.

Haruto forced both eyes open and attempted to stand, still clutching his arm tightly. His knees fell out from under him almost immediately. Traitorous things.

"Nurse, can I get a wheelchair over here?" the doctor called to someone he couldn't see. "It's going to be alright," he said, turning back to Haruto. "We'll fix that up for you—have you been able to do any first aid? Washed it and such?"

Haruto shook his head. That was a mistake. The whole world began spinning on edge.

"Okay," murmured the doctor, and he went on to say something else, but Haruto couldn't hear him.

Everything seemed to be getting fainter and fainter.

And then…

Then…