[7/3 (Wednesday) - Early Morning]
[Velvet Room]
The aria of Belladonna, accompanied by the instruments of the Nameless, had roused him from his sleep.
Drowsily, Clerval silently groaned as he pushed himself up from the mattress beneath him—
Only for his memories to come crashing back.
His eyes widened as he frantically glanced around, realizing that he was once again in the room between dream and reality.
"Why...?"
Clutching his still-ringing head, he took a moment to calm his racing heart before retracing his memories.
After the barrier went down, he had climbed onto a nearby rooftop with the help of Odysseus, giving himself a better angle from which to attack.
And then, with each consecutive Persona cycling through his stock to increase his damage and weaken the Shadow, he had relentlessly bombarded it with Fortuna's Garu.
Until it finally went down.
After that...
His memory was blank.
No matter how hard he tried to recall what happened after the Shadow's defeat, nothing came to mind.
"Ah. You're finally awake."
The familiar, yet unfamiliar, voice echoed from behind him.
Clerval whipped his head around, only to find a pair of golden eyes staring directly into his own, the woman's face hovering far closer to his than he expected.
It took him a split second to recognize her face.
"Mary?"
The person who looked completely identical to Mary, yet somehow wasn't, took a step back and gave an exaggerated twirl of her index finger.
"Nope. Why, my sister would be devastated to find out that her guest, of all people, mistook me for her."
Covering her mouth with her blue-gloved hand as she giggled, she eventually gave a short bow.
"Well, now that my fun has been satisfied, let me introduce myself."
"Good morning, Mary's Wanderer. I am Elizabeth, an ex-resident of the Velvet Room. I am pleased to make your acquaintance."
The pieces finally clicked into place as Clerval bowed his head in greeting.
"You're her sister," he pointed out after returning the introduction.
He recalled Mary mentioning that she had siblings before. So this was her sister...
Now that he had finally come to the conclusion, he did notice that the outfits they were wearing were slightly different from one another.
"But why am I here?"
Especially in this room that he has never seen before in the Velvet Room.
It looked like an ordinary bedroom, a stark contrast to the interior of the train carriage that he had grown familiar with.
The neatly made bed he was on sat in one corner of the room.
To the left, a calendar hung on the wall, while various decorations lined the shelf next to it with a closet to the side.
On the opposite side was a modest table filled with books, with a laptop sitting against the wall.
The room itself was minimalist, lacking any unnecessary furnishings, yet the splashes of color from the decorations and personal belongings gave the otherwise simple space a strangely warm atmosphere.
Especially the frame on the table, showing a group of teenagers smiling at the camera, all gathered around a blue-haired boy.
"I can explain it from here, Wanderer."
Mary's sudden appearance through the doorway made Elizabeth pout.
"Mary, it's been quite a while since I've been able to play 'attendant.' Could you please leave us alone?"
Elizabeth tried to persuade her with a praying gesture, but Mary coldly rejected her request.
"Sister, I thank you for bringing the unconscious Clerval back to the Velvet Room so he could rest, but he is my guest."
"Oh, fine."
She gave up almost immediately, though a tiny smirk began to spread across Elizabeth's face.
Taking the picture frame from the nearby table, she gave her sister a quick wink before waving them goodbye.
"Good luck, Wanderer—you'll need it!"
The door slammed shut behind her, leaving Mary to breathe a quiet sigh before clearing her throat.
"Apologies for the delay, Wanderer. There were some complications that needed to be addressed."
Clerval waved off her apology before asking what exactly had transpired, requesting that she start from the beginning.
"...Of course. Currently, this is what we know—"
=====
The Shadow, Asinious the Zero, appeared in the Valien Sea, between Mistral and Vale, the moment the barrier leading to VESTA 11 fell.
Never expecting that a Shadow could manifest in reality, even Igor had shown a rare expression of surprise.
Mary's reaction had been delayed as well, followed by the garbled communication between them—most likely interference caused by the Shadow itself.
After he had defeated the Shadow, he had fallen unconscious from the immense strain placed upon his psyche after switching between so many Personas in such rapid succession, combined with his dangerously low Health and Spirit.
Residents of the Velvet Room cannot leave the room. And attendants to the guests can only exit the room should their bonds between attendant and guest reach a certain level.
Should his fallen body have stayed there a few minutes later, the authorities who were on high alert would have found and detained him.
Therefore, they had to contact Elizabeth, who was in the midst of her journey to save him.
=====
"She's a Fool as well?"
"Yes, though her story is not one that I can share without her permission."
Sitting beside him on the bed, Mary finished recounting what had transpired.
Making a mental reminder to thank Elizabeth, he got up and followed Mary as she led him out of the room.
The next moment after the door opened, he was back onto his seat in the Velvet Room, with Igor sitting opposite to him with his usual grin.
"Welcome back to the Velvet Room, my dear guest. It is good to see that you are well."
"Now then, shall we have a conversation about what happened?"
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A/N: Testing out shorter section breaks.
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