Rise snapped her fingers.
"RIGHT. I could try that," she suddenly said.
The team was confused, and she held her hand out. A tarot card appeared in midair, and she crushed it.
There was a shockwave that rolled out from under her as she shouted, "PERSONA!"
BOOM.
A powerful aura swept through the area.
"Holy shit, dude," Ryuji mumbled.
"...Yu told me she was a non-combatant."
"No way, dude."
"Was I lying before?" Ren rolled his eyes.
"Kanzeon! Come on out and find Hime-chan's Shadow!" Rise called out.
A feminine figure stood behind Rise, her body wrapped in white and gold-like ceremonial armor. Where a face should have been, a cluster of circular receivers bloomed outward like mechanical lotus petals, each dish turning and tilting.
"Wow. That Persona is strong," Morgana sighed in disbelief.
'I see, so she was the Lovers for the previous Wild Card,' Arsène muttered.
'Like Ann?' Ren frowned. He tried to see similarities but quickly shook his head. Not the time.
Looking up, Rise spun on her heels and gave a thumbs-up. "Found it!! I won't fight unless I have to, but I can navigate for ya!"
"Navigate?" Ryuji asked.
"Leave mapping, routes, scouting, and battle strategies to me! I'll keep up buffs and scan for weaknesses." Rise smiled before seemingly remembering something. "Oh! Put these on." She held out a few pairs of glasses.
"Forced Teddie to make some glasses for you guys!"
Ren offered a silent prayer for Teddie.
"How do we put those on while we wear our masks?" Ren asked. "What do they even do? Teddie gave me a pair too."
"I don't know. Put them on under it? You won't be able to find your way through all that fog without 'em." Rise shrugged.
"Fog?" Ren wondered, looking out into the distance. There was no fog.
"You're already wearing a pair, Ren!"
"Why did you give me supernatural glasses?!" Ren roared.
"Wow, Joker never gets so mad," Shiho whispered to the others.
"Yeah, he's always so put together and sarcastic."
"Ren has a lot of hidden pain," Orihime suddenly said before covering her mouth. "Sorry, I don't know why I said that."
Meanwhile, Rise was placating the angry Ren.
Ren quickly took advantage of the situation and demanded that she defer to him in combat under the notion that,
"You're too damn unpredictable!"
---
"Hmmmm, hmmm," Rise hummed while leading them in what Ren assumed was the direction of Orihime's Shadow.
"Rise, your voice is beautiful!" Orihime smiled.
"Wow, this girl is a sweetheart!" Rise said, turning around to squish her in a huge hug.
"Pshh."
A scoff of true irritation sounded.
The team turned to see Orihime approaching with a sneer.
Or rather, her Shadow.
"Your faith in life is a disgusting lie, Orihime Inoue," the Shadow said as she walked out into the open, revealing a battle-hardened-looking Orihime. She looked the same, but she was wearing a revealing white dress, and her hair was parted differently.
"Your faith in life died when your brother did. And again when Ichigo Kurosaki did," it spat in hate.
Orihime went pale and collapsed.
"You know very well it was your fault that your brother died. Ichigo became your light when he comforted you. Your precious hairpins were simply used to act as though you got over it. Ichigo died a hero. He saved his mother from dying as a child. You? We are helpless to the woes of life. You can't reject reality, Orihime."
Orihime had collapsed onto the ground and started crying.
"Stop. You're right, I am helpless," she whined.
"Yes. And did you cause your brother to die?"
"Yes."
"Try again."
"No?"
"Are you able to be like Ichigo was?"
"Yes."
"Wrong."
"I can!"
"You cannot."
"STOP. YOU AREN'T MEEEEE!" Orihime screamed.
BOOM!
Rise had kept the others quiet the entire time, shaking her head at them and motioning for them to stay silent.
Shadow Orihime smiled and said, "I am the Shadow. The true self. The one who you reject."
She morphed into black smoke before reforming into a tall, masked figure. It was feminine in figure, curvy, and slender, but on its face was a horrifying horned mask with red lines running down it.
"I will be the one to reject you!" the figure roared as it pointed forward and said,
"Eigaon!"
'A mask?! And a new element?!' Rise mentally exclaimed.
'Incomplete. Her Persona is both released and suppressed. Complete, but incomplete. Six masks,' Kanzeon muttered in her head.
BOOM!
The massive curse spell slammed into the unprepared party. Ren was just barely able to cover Orihime, leading to a huge wound across his back.
He had scars all over his back. Burn scars. Long, thin scars that spread from one side of his back to the other.
But this wound was far larger.
A massive, festering burn mark singed his skin in the center of his back.
But Orihime remained unharmed. Her eyes went wide as she stared into Ren's golden eyes.
---