The reaper apparently doesn't die when he is killed

"Morganaaaaa!" shouted Shin.

"What?"

"I'm bored!"

"And what do you want me to do about that?"

"Amuse me, little cat."

"..."

"This might be a good time to get on with that promise you made me. C'mon, let's head to the station." said Morgana, completely disregarding what Shin just said.

-INTERMISSION

"So why did you drag me out here?" asked Shin.

"You'll see. Get the Meta-Nav ready. The keyword is... "Mementos."

"Oh, we got a hit."

"Just as I thought." said Morgana.

In an instant, Shin could feel the familiar sensation of entering the Metaverse as all the people around vanished.

"Let's head down. The Shadows here lurk underground."

Shin and Morgana headed down the stairs leading into the subway station. It looked the same as in reality, except there was some weird red-black substance spluttered on the walls from place to place.

"This place looks huge." said Shin, looking around.

"Yeah. It seems the time has finally come..." said Morgana.

He made several weird gestures with his hands.

"Morganaaa... transfoooooooorm!" he shouted.

With a puff of smoke, in Morgana's place appeared a small black van. It had three yellos stripes on its hood which converge towards the left windshield. On the grille, there was a small golden emblem representing Morgana's biped head. In addition, the headlights represent his eyes, his ears were attached on the front side of the roof, and his tail was attached on the back.

"This form comes from the way cognition materializes in the Metaverse, plus a bit of extra training. It's not dissimilar to how you and the others transform."

"Not even close..." Shin shook his head.

"For some reasons, "cats turning into buses" is an extremely widespread cognition among the general public." said Morgana.

"Alright, but why a van?"

"I have no idea... Anyway, get behind the wheel. I can't drive myself, you know?"

"Time to bust my moves." said Shin, cracking his fingers.

"Be careful, okay? Don't smash my beautiful face!"

Shin got into the van and flipped the switch to start the engine.

"Oh, there... That feels sooo gooooood..."

"Not sure how I feel about being inside another guy." commented Shin.

"It's time to go full throttle! We're gonna fly!"

The two went through the tunnels, defeating Shadows that got close. At some point, Morgana spoke out.

"Hey, Joker, we should head to the next level now..."

"Hm? Why? What's the matter?" asked Shin.

"I didn't mention this before, but there's a certain being that wanders these tunnels. It's like a Shadow, but way stronger."

"I see. So it's possible we might run into it?"

"No, running into it is almost certain, unless we stay on the move."

"So how strong did you say it was?"

"Joker...!"

"Cuz Arsene's getting kind of uppity from the lack of action..."

"No! We should get away as soon as-"

But Morgana didn't get to finish his sentence as the sound of rattling chains reached his ears. Dread filled the cat's face as he turned around to face Shin.

"We gotta get out of here!"

"Don't run... I just want to kill you..." said a deep, raspy voice.

It was immediately followed by the appearance of a large Shadow. It wore a long black coat which had two chains crossing each other diagonally starting from both shoulders. On its head, it had a blood-stained cloth sack, and only one ominous white eye was visible. In its hand were 2 long-barrel revolvers.

It aimed one of its weapons at Shin and pulled the trigger. The teen reacted quickly as he dodged the bullet, all the while summoning Obariyon, which made him somewhat resistant against physical damage.

As Obariyon engaged in close combat with the Shadow, Shin approached too. When it was distracted by the attacks of Obariyon, Shin struck it on its back. The hit barely did any damage, and the Shadow turned around and backhanded Shin with the revolver. The boy crossed his hands to defend himself, but the guard didn't do much as he was thrown backwards, his back impacting the wall.

He quickly stood back up, ready to jump in the fight once more. This time, however, he changed his approach. He was constantly aiming for the Shadow's eye. It was obviously more effective than attacking the rest of the body, as the Shadow had to dodge more than once from mortal hits.

However, the Shadow had proven to be quite adaptable. The strikes that target the eye were getting less and less effective as time went on. Shin and Obariyon set their sights on its weapons. Although it barely had time to aim, the revolvers were still a great threat. They were sturdy, but not quite indestructible.

Meanwhile, Morgana was staring at the fight, shocked. He had no idea Shin could be so talented and resourceful in combat. In their fight against Shadow Kamoshida, he didn't seem nearly as strong. Although he didn't want to believe it, but it was very plausible that he was holding back that time.

Morgana shook his head to clear his thoughts. Whether he was truly holding back or not didn't matter now. He had to assist him in the fight. He swiftly shot several metal pellets at the Shadow, temporarily disorientating it. Shin capitalized on his moment of weakness and managed to plunge his dagger deep into the eye socket. Not unexpectedly, no blood came out.

Despite the fact that it had a 20 cm long blade embedded into its skull, the Shadow didn't show any reaction. If Shin didn't feel resistance when he stabbed it, he would've thought it was just an illusion.

Regardless, he gripped the handle of the dagger and threw his weight downwards, slicing the Shadow along its length. It seemed that the Shadow had taken too much damage and dissipated.

"Well, that was fun. Let's do this tomorrow too."

"NO!"

-INTERMISSION-

This time, Shin had decided he wanted to fight against the Shadow without any weapon. In his words, it'd be more "fun", which displeased Morgana greatly, but he couldn't do anything, lest he makes Shin upset with him. Last time that happened was because he had insisted Shin should sleep earlier. The teen just threw him outside and locked the door when he got fed up.

The poor cat had to fend for himself the whole night. The other cats in the neighborhood weren't too welcoming, and since he was still new to the whole cat body thing, he had unknowingly stumbled into dog territory.

A shiver ran through his spine at the memory. 'Those were dark times.' he thought.

He was just sitting on the sidelines, watching Shin and the Shadow duke it out. His only task was to heal the teen when he got too beaten up. For all his physical prowess, he couldn't quite keep up with the Shadow with baseline human regen alone.

Morgana almost couldn't believe how indifferent he was regarding the Shadow. Before, he would've been scared listless, but now...

"Come on, you strong bastard! You can do better than that!" shouted Shin, a wide grin splitting his face.

The Shadow seemed to be riled up by his words and started throwing punches faster. His revolvers were long since discarded on the side.

Morgana couldn't help but look at the two with a weird face. They've been going at it for hours and still had the strength to stand up.

"Good grief..." muttered the cat.

-INTERMISSION-

This day's fight had started off a weird note.

"Oh?" said Shin, his arms spread.

Before him was the Shadow. It was slowly approaching Shin.

"After all that happened, you're still approaching me?"

The Shadow grunted as he looked at Shin's face.

"I can't kill you without getting closer." it said.

"Then come as close as you like."

The two suddenly broke into a sprint, well, Shin did. As the Shadow had no legs, it simply floated faster towards Shin.

"Shadooooooow!" shouted Shin as he threw a punch aimed at his head.

"Jokeeeeeeeeer!" the Shadow responded in kind.

Morgana looked at the two idiots fighting with the most neutral face he could muster.

"Tell me, Zorro. Did I make the wrong decision when I made him promise to help me?" he asked his Persona.

The blue swordsman didn't say anything and just continued looking at the fight.

It wasn't because he was purposefully ignoring Morgana's question, but rather extreme confusion at the events that transpired in front of him.

Indeed, the power of references can affect even Personas.

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Confidants:

Igor (The Fool) - Rank 2

Morgana (The Magician) - Rank 1

Sojiro Sakura (The Hierophant) - Rank 2

Ann Takamaki (The Lovers) - Rank 3

Ryuji Sakamoto (The Chariot) - Rank 3

Tae Takemi (The Death) - Rank 3

Shiho Suzui (The Hope) - Rank 3