sumarusfinest | Keeping Promises [For Schon]

"It's certainly possible. Sudou, the JOKER killer, held sway over veritable swarms of them. Then again, he was but a pawn of an elder god, so that may not be the extent of an average human. Whether or not traditional devil summoners can contract multiple demons....they might? I think it depends on the summoner's skill. Let the record show I'm postulating here. I really don't know."

It's not something Katsuya's given a lot of thought to, before now.

Schön accepts both the admission and the answer with a nod. "And for the demons? Could one demon contract to more than one person?"

"I've yet to see as such. We talked our way out of many a fight with demons. Whether it was to gather information, or just avoid bloodshed because we were tired, hurt, or really just trying to sneak into a particular location."

The officer shakes his head.

"Again, you'd have to ask an actual devil summoner. All we ever did was fight or talk to them." And really, Maya was the one who came up with that. She was always resourceful that way.

Again, he accepts this answer, although he is starting to think Sergeant Suou may not be the treasure trove of information for which he was hoping. "Tell me of the magnetite that interests these demons. It is not, I presume, the common mineral?"

Magnetite.

This was a word he had heard before. Baofu spoke about it once. Or was it Ms. Ellie?

"We would have to barter with demons, on occasion. When distraction or manipulation didn't work. They asked for blood. For SP magic ability. for trinkets. I never understood why."

Pause.

"I asked an ally once, a knowledgeable woman with interest in the occult. She said that taking a part of us was like eating, for them. That they required...magnetite...to survive. It must be present in humans for these demands to have been made, and I agree, it must not be what you or I call a mineral."

"She said it was also why demons target humans as prey. We are unique among the living in some way, and that is what they need to survive."

"Hmm." He's going to have to pursue different lines of inquiry, for those answers. He'll change tacks, for now. "Who are your allies, in this struggle?"

"Amano, Maya. A journalist for a teen magazine Coolest. Serizawa, Ulala. Ms. Amanos room mate and department store clerk. Alias: Baofu. A rumor monger who operates outside of the law in order to gather information. Myself. And..."

Katsuya glances toward the hallway of the apartment, toward a closed door at the end. There's a storm cloud of emotion on his face before it gets swept under the calm facade he normally operates under.

"Suou, Tatsuya. Third year at Sevens High school. My younger brother. ...A version of my younger brother, at least."

Oh, Katsuya. You had to know, with an answer like that, this follow-up would be inevitable. "A version?" Still, Schön voices it as delicately as he's able.

This was inevitable if they were discussing what had happened. The officer was prepared for this.

"This is not the first time the events that I was privy to have happened. Apparently. In another version of my world, this also happened."

Katsuya tries to sort out what he knows about this. He's heard most of it from Jun, but then, that's a pretty credible source, considering.

"My brother and his school friends. And Ms Amano. All knew each other when they were younger. One of their group was selected by an elder god to be his pawn in a dispute he was having with a second god. They were arguing over the value of humanity."

"The events that unfolded were similar to, yet unquestionably different than what took place here, in my world. But while they fought valiantly. They failed. The world was destroyed, with only Sumaru in tact. And as a final blow....Ms Amano was killed."

"Philemon, the God who granted us our abilities, wanted to thank my brother and his friends for their fight. He could not save their world. But he could use what was left of their lives to create a new one. The price....was that they would never know each other. If they remembered, Nyarlathotep would become aware of their new world. That they had 'restarted' as it were."

"They agreed. All but Tatsuya. He did not want to disappear. Did not want to lose his friends, the only people he had ever been close to. Didn't want...to think his world was gone. The price was paid, however. Their world was left to die."

"I believe that is how this world came to be. I have no knowledge of my other self, or anything that transpired that was not confided to me by someone who had been there. My brother--my actual brother-- had a run in with this world's Ms. Amano at a train station. All of his former friends were there. I do not believe it was coincidence. Nyarlathotep set them up. So many familiar faces triggered the memories of the Other World in my brother. The brother I knew in that moment was gone. Replaced by the one who had lost everything."

"He knew Nyarlathotep would try this again. He set out alone to stop it. It took us a long time to catch up to him. He was trying desperately to keep Maya and his friends from recovering their lost memories. Believed it was his fault that things were going that way again. His friends did remember, but each of them assumed they were the only ones, and tried desperately to stop this world form meeting the same fate as the last."

"When...the crisis was averted. Tatsuya and his friends reverted to who they once had been in my world. Without memories. Scattered. Lonely. My companions and I agreed not to see each other again, so as to not risk triggering the latent memories in my brother. It was...difficult. My brother and I had grown closer during the struggle. To lose all of that again...made our relationship even more strained. And were it not for the Nexus, I believe that would be the end of my story."

Does Schön twitch, every time a certain Major Player is mentioned by name? It seems the Crawling Chaos's reputation precedes.

"A costly encounter," he muses, "and the game not yet finished." He's starting to wonder just what he's gotten himself into, here. But, faint heart never won much of anything.

"Where is your brother, now?"

"...So it would seem." Katsuya hopes that's not the case. It took the combined force and knowledge of two if his worlds to defeat Nyarlathotep the first time.

"As I said. the Nexus...complicated things." Katsuya adjusts his sunglasses. "This is not the first time I've been in such a place. And I didn't come alone. Many of my companions were called there as well. Including Kurosu Jun, the boy who had been Nyarlathotep's pawn."

"He is my brother's closest friend. They're always together. I couldn't leave him alone in the Nexus. I invited him to stay with me. It brought back the Other Tatsuya. The one I had actually grown close to. We were a family--for a time."

"Nyarlathotep found Jun. Took him back. Unleashed the real JOKER on the Nexus. The true master of demons, the leader of the Zodiac cult. Forced Jun to kill his own entire family as JOKER. Tatsuya and I called together the friends we had made in the Nexus, rescued Jun."

"Tatsuya left shortly after, whether overcome with guilt at what happened to Jun, I don't know. I haven't seen him since. ...Jun left to search for him shortly thereafter. It was the last I saw or heard from either of them."

The officer's voice is tight, he blinks rapidly to fight back the emotion threatening to split his mask in half.

"So, the short answer is...I've no idea."

Schön sits back, impassive and quiet for a moment. Abruptly breaking that silence, he suggests, "this seems like an apt time for a break."

"As you wish." Oh thank god. Katsuya hasn't talked about his brother this openly in years. Since...since he left, really. So never. He's never had to be this forthcoming about the loss of the only family he had left.

He's retreating back to the kitchen looking for anything to distract him for a good few minutes. Schon is welcome to follow him if he's curious about Katsuya's safety place, or he can wander the rest of the apartment unsupervised. Katsuya isn't going to notice anything if he's not banging around.

Schön stands, letting Katsuya retreat and taking some time to stretch and nose about a little more. He'll give the other man a few minutes to get himself under control before coming to lean in the kitchen doorway, the border of that sacred space, to look within.

The red tinted sunglasses are sitting on a counter, cast aside for the moment.

Katsuya himself is leaning against the refrigerator wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand. He's not making a single sound, no matter how hard his shoulders tremble. The hand not wiping his face clean is balled into a fist, pressed against the refrigerator door.

Three years of nothing. Not a letter, a phone call, or even a ripple of Resonance. Not a damn thing. He'd bottled it up, let the time slip by without really realizing how long it had been.

Then the timer goes off and, wow. He'd seriously been making tea. Katsuya inhales sharply, scrubbing his hand over his face one more time before pulling his sunglasses on and tucking his hair back into place carefully.

Soon the entire kitchen is filled with the smell of Japanese green tea, a special blend he'd received as a New Years gift at the office. He doesn't notice Schon until he moves to load the tray.

"Are you ready to continue?"

"I believe that's a question better asked of you, Mr. Suou," the thin man replies. Is that empathy in his tone, or is this another game? "We have time, after all."

"I would rather continue." He's very firm about this. Even if it means taking another break. He's not sure he's strong enough to want to do this again.

So while he's here, he will see it through. The officer dutifully brings the tray of tea out to where they're seated, replacing it for the one that used to hold their coffee. That tray is moved back to the kitchen for cleaning and refilling at some point.

Schön sits, tending to his tea while Katsuya takes the coffee tray away. Again, cream and sugar are strongly represented in the contents of his cup. He waits for Katsuya to be settled with his own cup before adjusting his phone and starting the recording again.

"Did the events we've discussed cause any difficulties for you within your department?"

First his brother and now...Katsuya nods.

"They did. Given the incredible nature of the events, it was hard to believe what it was I was doing. Ergo, there was...tension between myself and the station. I was even wanted for questioning for a while."

Not that this was the first time his family had been used by the very service they swore their loyalty to.

"During the events last time I was in the Nexus, a prominent member of the Tien Tao Len, a Chinese mafia assisting in the events that would have led to Nyarlathotep destroying my world...had somehow managed to be released from his life sentence."

"Baofu and I, in investigating his release, discovered a corruption scandal within the department. We realized that the cult group we had thought had been destroyed was still at large. Meaning Nyarlathotep could be brought back at any time. I was branded a traitor to the force and sought justice on my own."

Hatsuya sips at his tea, his grip on the mug tight enough to turn his knuckles white. Unlike his previous story, this one seems to make him angry rather than sad.

"We found him. Arrested him. Questioned him. Discovered how much of the cult yet existed. And set about dismantling it." Sip. Deep breath.

"After I turned Whistleblower, I was still treated as a criminal for nearly a year. The force got a huge gutting when all was said and done, and I got my job back. Things have been better, since."

"Is it your ambition to rise through the ranks, now that they have been somewhat cleansed?"

"I confess, my ambition has little to do with my job on the force." Katsuya shakes his head. "I wouldn't decline a promotion, but my patrols for...other dangers...is my highest priority now. The job serves to pay my bills."

"Hmm. If some other option came across your path, a career that took care of your bills and left you with more time for... special patrols, do you think you would take it?"

Katsuya looks thoughtful for a long moment. He remembers Verity talking about working a bakery in the Nexus. It's a nice thought....but he's not sure it would work. Converting anything he made their into money for his apartment here...

"I might. I've never considered another line of work. This is about all I've ever known, as far as work goes."

"Do you enjoy it?" The danger of promising to answer all his questions, or one of them at least, is that he's free to ask questions like this, pryingly personal and probably nothing to do with the demonic invasion.

"I enjoy helping people." Katsuya nods. If he didn't like that aspect of it he wouldn't have lasted so long in the department. Doing the right thing, being a public servant. Those were parts of the job he truly believed in.

It was everything else that made the work difficult.

"My father was also a detective. It runs in the family." Whether they liked it or not.

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Persona characters aren't familiar with a lot of SMT rules sadly.

Not like Schön knows all the rules in Changeling.

Since they have their own summons, they don't have to make demon kill squads to survive :3

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Justice Arcana represent!