Sunday 17th April
Renko had decided that the first act of her free Sunday afternoon would be to investigate Shido's Palace. Her thinking had been that she could explore around and get a feel for the layout enough to report some progress to Wakaba, then start out on her mission to find the other Metaverse user. Finally, when she got back to the real world, she could test out her suspicions about Madarame and make sure she wasn't the problem Yusuke was so keen to avoid talking about.
It was a solid plan. A good plan, even. However, like all her plans, it didn't take long to completely and utterly fall apart. In fact, it took approximately an hour.
She'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 she was already mentally exhausted from spending the morning shopping with Futaba.) And indeed, most of the infiltration was going well. She was keeping to her normal methods, creeping around and just generally trying to avoid the notice of the Shadows waiting around every corner. She'd worked out she'd need some special letters to get in, and in fact was just planning to leave the Palace, when she was finally caught by one of the more watchful Shadows.
Normally that wouldn't be a problem. She couldn't count the number of times she'd done this before. She had all the healing items and spells she'd ever need to get out of pretty much any encounter just fine. And even if she didn't come out of it fine, she'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 her along the forearm, she summarily blasted it with ice and quickly went to heal her injury with Diarama.
Or at least, that's what she tried to do.
She was definitely using the magic. She could feel the energy draining out of her. 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 she had no problem doing exactly what she said.
She was around the corner in a second, trying very hard not to panic at the sight of her still very distinctly bleeding arm. This didn't happen to her. Had literally never happened to her in the two years she'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 Renko, applying as much pressure as she could to the wound with her free hand.
Very, now get on it.
Well, that seemed to be that. With a snap of her fingers, the ship stuttered and deformed itself around her, and seconds later she was standing on a street corner, still grasping her very injured arm.
Get out your phone, look up the nearest emergency clinic-quickly.
She did as she was told, trying to fish her phone out of her pocket with her injured right arm, still clutching her wound tightly. She 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 she did—she sprinted, catching the disapproving eye of almost everyone who walked by—but she didn't have time to worry about that. Her fingers were growing slick with blood where they were holding onto her wound, and she was already beginning to feel lightheaded.
Not too far away now.
Arsène was right—just another corner and… finally. They were there. She 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 her 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."
She didn't need to be told twice. She went over and slumped into the seat, closing her eyes as an odd buzzing sound began in her ears.
I'll try to talk as long as you can hear me. Try not to pass out,Renko.
Don't worry about me, Renko thought back. We've had worse.
We haven't,Arsène insisted. Not like this. Not outside the Metaverse.
More importantly, thought Renko, ignoring her 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 Renko. 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.
Renko, you could die.
What's life without death?
Don't be glib.
Arsène was right to be worried, Renko could feel herself growing fainter and fainter, and she was still bleeding… her arm felt oddly numb…
"Hey, can you hear me?"
A man's voice-quiet. Renko 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.
Renko forced both eyes open and attempted to stand, still clutching her arm tightly. Her knees fell out from under her almost immediately. Traitorous things.
"Nurse, can I get a wheelchair over here?" the doctor called to someone she couldn't see. "It's going to be alright," he said, turning back to Renko. "We'll fix that up for you—have you been able to do any first aid? Washed it and such?"
Renko shook her 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 Renko couldn't hear him.
Everything seemed to be getting fainter and fainter.
And then…
Then…