Impressions

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Tatsumi Port Island. 

June 19, x788. 

After leaving Tartarus, while Alfonzo, Elicia, Alzack, and Bisca headed back to their hotel, Mitsuru returned to the Kirijo Group's headquarters to report to her father, Takeharu. Though, if being completely honest, she wished she could just go back to her dorm room and fall asleep. 

Even though she did not engage in battle during the Tartarus exploration, keeping her Persona summoned for so long was just as tiring. Still, because she had a duty to complete, she trudged onward with steady steps. 

"Welcome back, Mitsuru." Takeharu said as soon as Mitsuru entered his office at the Kirijo Group's headquarters. "How did things go? Were the wizards of Fairy Tail able to explore safely?" 

"Yes, Father." Mitsuru replied calmly while standing in front of her father's desk. "Everything went well. Much better than I expected." 

Hearing that, Takeharu's visible eye opened wide in surprise. Then a relieved expression appeared on his face. 

"Tell me what happened." Takeharu ordered. 

Nodding in response, Mitsuru began explaining the exploration process from beginning to end, from her perspective. Although she was not present to see everything, based on what she heard over the comms, everything on the first five floors of Tartarus was too weak to pose a threat to the group of wizards. 

"Wait, you're telling me that in only one hour, they managed to climb to the fifth floor?" Takeharu asked in an astonished tone. 

"Correct." Mitsuru replied with a nod. "Had time permitted, they would have likely gone even further. Understandably, even they were not willing to see what happened to anyone who stayed past the hour mark." 

"Indeed." Takeharu nodded. "That is completely understandable. *Sigh* But that Guardian you mentioned on the fifth floor worries me. We can only hope that once it's been defeated, it won't come back." 

"I don't have much hope for that." Mitsuru replied. "All the other Shadows return the following night, if our explorations from the past are any indication." 

"*Sigh* I know.' Takeharu replied in a tired tone. "At this rate, I don't know when we'll be able to make up for my father's mistakes from the past." 

In response to that, Mitsuru simply remained silent. She knew that trying to console her father would be a fool's errand. 

"Anyway..." Takeharu said while shaking his head to rid himself of the negative thoughts. "What was your impression of the wizards from Fairy Tail?" 

"Strong, confident, and fearless." Mitsuru replied. "They're strength is self-explanatory. On two separate occasions, the entire tower shook from a single attack. As S-Class wizards, they have built up their confidence over more than just a few years, so it cannot be called arrogance. And they must be fearless to walk into such a dangerous location while able to joke so freely with each other." 

Takeharu nodded in response to Mitsuru's first to assessments. Strong and confident were expected. They were S-Class wizards, after all. But for her to call them fearless, he doubted that quite a bit. 

Actually, that question was more of a test for his daughter, the next head of the Kirijo Group, than anything else. As the leader of the group, she needed to be able to read people accurately. 

"I can agree with you calling them strong and confident." Takeharu said solemnly after a few moments of silence. "But to call them fearless, I have to disagree. Fearlessness usually leads to recklessness. And the reckless often die early in a profession as dangerous as wizarding." 

"Then how else would you explain it?" Mitsuru asked with a slight frown. "Over the comms, I heard them joking and poking fun at each other constantly. Then there was all the flirting. They seemed like young lovers out on a stroll." 

Hearing that, Takeharu could not help but chuckle at Mitsuru's expression of discomfort. 

"If I'm not mistaken, that's just their way of controlling the tension." Takeharu replied. "You're aware that if the tension were to get too high, it would be detrimental, right?" 

Mitsuru nodded. 

"So, they joke to keep the tension at a suitable level." Takeharu continued. Then, his expression turned into a grin. "As for all the flirting, might my daughter be jealous? Have one of those young men caught your eye?" 

Mitsuru deadpanned immediately at her father's joke. However, he was not finished with his teasing. 

"I don't know much about that Alzack Connell, but Alfonzo Marcus is an excellent choice for a husband. He does have quite a few wives, though. But from what the rumors say, he treats them all quite well." 

Having heard enough, Mitsuru turned around, breaking eye contact with Takeharu and making him chuckle once again. 

"If you have no more instructions for me, I'll head back to the dorm.' Mitsuru said coldly. "I still have to go to school tomorrow. So, please excuse me." 

Despite mentioning any other instructions, Mitsuru started walking away before Takeharu could reply, causing him to chuckle for a third time. 

*Bang!* 

Interrupting Takeharu's chuckling, Mitsuru slammed the door behind her on the way out. Naturally, that caused Takeharu to return to his normal stoic expression. 

"*Sigh* Have I been putting too much pressure on her?" Takeharu asked himself. "She's still young. Yet, she's unable to take a little teasing from her father. *Sigh* Still, I don't think I'd mind if she fell for that young man, Alfonzo Marcus. A marriage alliance between the Kirijo Group and Sixth Sense Holdings would be great for us." 

Despite not living on the mainland, Takeharu was able to do what many of the companies on the mainland were unable to do. And that was figure out that Alfonzo was actually the majority shareholder of Sixth Sense Holdings. 

Although many people were aware that Alfonzo was connected to Sixth Sense Holdings somehow, considering how many of the products that he patented that Sixth Sense Holdings sells. No one was expecting someone who not only invents, but also does wizarding as his main occupation, would have the time to manage a business. 

Meanwhile, Alfonzo and Elicia, after cleaning up, were lying in bed, discussing the exploration, as well. 

"So, what do you think about Tartarus?" Alfonzo asked. 

"It's about what I expected." Elicia replied with a smile. "Well, except for that Venus Eagle. That was a lot stronger than I thought it would be." 

"Yeah, after seeing it disperse Alzack's [Fire Ball Shots], I thought it just got lucky." Alfonzo said while nodding solemnly. "But after I couldn't cut it apart with my first attack, I knew something was up." 

"Yeah, there's no way S.E.E.S. would have been able to beat that thing." Elicia agreed. "But why was it so much stronger than it should have been compared to the rest of the Shadows we faced up to that point." 

"I think it had something to do with us." Alfonzo said. "I think it scaled to those fighting it." 

"But that's not how it was in the game.' Elicia said with a frown. 

"This isn't a game." Alfonzo said seriously. "Hell, I'm not even sure what kind of world this is. I mean, sure, we're on Earth Land, but there's a lot of shit that shouldn't be. The fucking Tailed Beasts from Naruto are even Etherious here." 

Elicia had no way to retort to that. Instead, she hugged Alfonzo tightly. 

"I know." Elicia muttered into Alfonzo's chest. "I just get so excited whenever I see stuff from my favorite media in this world. *Sigh* I'll give up on taking Mar'e to see the Chunin Exams, too. It's just too dangerous." 

Hearing that, Alfonzo sighed in relief. 

"I thought we would have ended up getting into a big fight over that when I eventually told you no." Alfonzo said as he started combing his fingers through Elicia's hair. "But since you realized it on your own, I'm glad." 

"Hmph!" Elicia snorted as she buried her face even deeper in Alfonzo's chest. "I'm not dumb, you know." 

["That's debatable."] Scylla retorted from Elicia's inner world. 

"I know that." Alfonzo replied. "But you don't always think things through, you know?" 

["That's not."] Scylla retorted again. 

'Shut up, Scylla!' Elicia shouted internally. 

"I still think we should bring Grayfia with us, though." Elicia said. "You'll be bringing Miyuki with you, right?" 

"It's more like she won't let me leave her behind.' Alfonzo replied while smiling wryly. "According to her, unless I'm out on a quest, as a personal maid, she must come with me everywhere I go. What makes it even worse, Grayfia agrees with her." 

"Well, Ikaruga is the same way with me." Elicia said with a shrug. "So, I understand what you mean." 

Then, both Alfonzo and Elicia sighed in unison. After that, they laughed in unison as well. 

"But like I was saying, we should bring Grayfia with us." Elicia said seriously. "When the Konoha Crush starts for real, things are going to get pretty dangerous. So, just in case we can't protect her for whatever reason, Grayfia will be there to help Miyuki." 

Alfonzo nodded in agreement with Elicia's idea. Scylla, on the other hand was dumbfounded. 

["Did you just... think ahead?"] Scylla asked in an astonished tone. 

In response, Elicia only rolled her eyes. Then, her expression turned excited again. 

"But back to the Tartarus exploration." Elicia said excitedly. "We actually got to do an All-Out Attack! That was so awesome." 

In response, Alfonzo only smiled as he listened to Elicia gush about all the similarities between Tartarus in the game and reality. Like that, the night passed peacefully. 

The next morning, Mitsuru made her way to school like she did most mornings. However, unlike most mornings, someone was waiting for her at the gate to Gekkokan High School. 

"Akihiko, what are you doing here?" Mitsuru asked when she noticed the young man leaning against the wall to the right of the gate. 

Akihiko, or Akihiko Sanada, was a tall young man with an athletic build, short silver hair, and grey eyes wearing Gekkokan High School's school uniform and a bandage over his left eye. 

"Hey, Mitsuru." Akihiko replied casually as he stood up straight. "You weren't here yesterday, so I wanted to know if something happened. Maybe with Tartarus." 

"*Sigh* Why are your instincts so sharp only when it comes to stuff like this?" MItsuru asked as she continued walking through the school gate. "but yes, you're right. There were some developments on that side." 

"Ha! I knew it." Akihiko replied excitedly. "Tell me about it." 

"Be patient, Akihiko." Mitsuru said, remaining calm. "I'll tell you about it back at the dorm." 

"Fine..." Akihiko said, sounding a bit disappointed. "But you better tell me everything." 

"Yes, I know." Mitsuru said without looking back. 

Meanwhile, a pair of brown eyes watched Mitsuru and Akihiko walk away from nearby. 

"What kind of secrets are you and the Kirijo Group hiding, Mitsuru Kirijo?" The owner of those eyes, a pretty young woman with neck-length light brown hair and a slim, yet curvaceous figure, muttered to herself while watching Mitsuru like a hawk. "I will find out the truth about what happened back then." 

The atmosphere around the young woman was somewhat dark. Yet, it was also a bit uncertain. The incident she was talking about happened almost ten years ago. So, she knew that Mitsuru more than likely had nothing to do with it. However, as the only person from the Kirijo Group that she had access to, she could only put the blame on Mitsuru. 

"Hey, Yuka-Tan!" A young man with dark greyish-black hair, grey eyes, and a small goatee shouted, pulling the young woman out of her musings. "Why are you just standing there?" 

Looking in the direction of the shout, the young woman frowned. Then, she started walking towards the school building 

"I thought I told you not to call me that, Stupei." the young woman said in an annoyed tone. 

"Aww! Don't be like that, Yuka-Tan." the young man said as he caught up with the young woman. "We've been classmates since middle school. We're basically best friends at this point, right?" 

"Uh... No." The young woman replied sharply. Though, she did not speed up to get away from the young man she was talking to. 

"You're so cold, Yuka-Tan." the young man said, grabbing his chest over his heart theatrically as he did so. "Anyway, did you do the homework for Mr. Ono's class? If so, do you think I could copy it? Pretty please?" 

"Jeez, Stupei, you really are stupid." The young woman replied. Then, she reached into her school bag and pulled out a notebook. "Just give it back before his class starts." 

"Yuka-Tan! You're the best!" The young man exclaimed as he grabbed the notebook excitedly. 

With that, another day at Gekkokan High School went on like any other.