Riding a wooden ship through a storm with a crew that barely managed to differentiate between starboard and port turned out to be not as suicidal as it sounded. After all, they only crashed the ship against a bunch of rocks, which were sticking out of the ocean next to an island and then all of them got thrown off the ship, landed on the said island and lost consciousness until the next morning. All in all, the escapees had been pretty lucky, especially considering they were more or less unharmed. Sure Magilou and Minato sprouted a few bruises from the crash and for some reason, it was only them, but all in all, they were no worse for wear. Of course, it took everyone some time to wake up and Minato turned out to be the first one.
The first thing he felt before even opening his eyes was the sheer cold that engulfed his entire body. More through instinct, than an actual thought process, Minato internally switched his Persona from Orpheus to one that was more suited for the cold. Almost immediately it felt like his body temperature was rising in a matter of seconds, even though in reality the body itself became simply more resistant to the cold. The boy couldn't suppress a groan escaping his lips, as he pushed himself off the ground. Snow fell off his head and after opening his eyes, the blue-haired boy noted that it was snowing in the entire area. After getting up on his feet, Minato surveyed the entire area and took note of everything previously mentioned. It said something about his character that he managed to take the entire situation with a calm demeanor. After checking everyone's condition, he was a little surprised, but also relieved that everyone else appeared to be fine. He was about to wake up Seres, who had landed a few feet away from the rest when he could hear the sound of snow being crunched on regular bases. And it was getting louder.
Given his past experience with the local population, Minato decided it was best to hide behind a rock and observe whoever was coming. The boy quickly found himself surprised for a second time that day, as he found a small boy approaching the crash site. The young boy had shining blonde hair, wore a white robe of some sorts, along with black boots and a huge black color that hung loosely around his neck. At first, Minato assumed that the boy was part of the Exorcists that he had fought against earlier. The clothes were pretty much an indication of that. But then Minato reminded himself that the kid looked to be around the age Ken had been in. There was no way a military group like the exorcists had children on their employee list, right?
The child for some reason decided to approach Velvet, who was still out cold. The blonde knelt down and held his hands out just above the body of the daemon. Before Minato could even do so much as guess as to what the boy was up to, the hands of the blonde started to glow in a white light. The former Gekkoukan High Student watched with curiosity as for a short amount of time Velvet was engulfed in that light. During that time the woman showed first signs of waking up. She tilted her head in a way that she was facing the boy and her eyes fluttered open. Minato could hear her say something, but she was speaking too quiet for him to make out anything she was saying.
The light faded and along with it, the boy retracted his hands and looked down on Velvet. She for some reason got up quickly, appearing to be alarmed by the presence of the boy. The quick motioned surprised the blonde and he ran away from Velvet. On his way, he picked up the compass from the ship without even stopping. However, the boy didn't get very far. Not because Velvet was chasing him, but rather because there were two other daemons, who decided the boy would make a good snack. One reminded Minato a lot of the mythical werewolves and the other looked almost like a normal hawk if it wouldn't be so big.
"Stand back!" Velvet shouted and positioned herself in front of the boy. Minato figured this was as good of a time as any other to come out of his hiding place and help the woman fight off the daemons. Luckily he didn't lose his weapon during the storm, though the fact that he was still wearing nothing more than his high school uniform left him weary. Apparently, Velvet had no problem wearing no armor whatsoever and engaged the werewolf creature in a fierce fight. While the two exchanged swipes with each other, Minato was left to handle the bird. Here was the problem though. For some reason that bird was able to shoot it's feathers towards Minato, using them as projectiles. Those feathers turned out to be as sharp as knives, as the boy found out the hard way, by receiving multiple cuts on clothes and body alike. What made things even more annoying was that the hawk kept flying in the air and kept shooting those feathers at Minato. The boy found himself dodging the projectiles for quite some time. And from the looks of things, the beast didn't appear to be running out of ammo anytime soon.
Seeing as he had no choice, Minato took out his evoker and held it against his head. "Jack Frost!" he shouted and with a shot of his gun, he summoned the smiling snowman. Said snowman shot multiple ice shards at the hawk. Two shots missed, but one went right through the heart of the beast. With a pitiful cry, it fell from the sky and landed ungracefully on the ground. Minato spared it from any more suffering by severing the head with his sword. Velvet in the meantime had finished off her own opponent, actually, she had finished him off long before Minato did with his opponent and was now happily munching on her prey with her arm.
Minato couldn't help but watch the procedure going on with a mixture of disgust and fascination.
"My word, a daemon-muncher!"
Minato turned around and found out that the rest of the gang had woken up. It was Magilou who had spoken up. "You really ARE a box of horrors, aren't ya?"
The blue-haired boy returned his attention to Velvet just in time to see her finishing up. And the finishing up was indicated by the body of the daemon turning into the dead body of a human. This came literally out of nowhere, and the high school student took an involuntary step backward. This world really loved throwing surprises at him left and right. The rest, however, did not appear to be affected by this in any way.
"Sorry," Rokurou apologized. "If I had a weapon, I would have helped. I promise."
"Aren't you wearing one?" Seres' raised eyebrow could be seen from behind her mask. In response, the samurai daemon shook his head.
"Oh, nah. I can't use this. Sorry. Long story."
"And the child?" Velvet immediately followed up, not bothered by the rather lackluster explanation.
"The little brat?" Magilou asked. "Scampered off somewhere."
"Child?" Seres asked. "What child?"
"A Malakhim," Rokurou explained, his expression turning thoughtful. "Though something was off about him. He used a healing arte on Velvet."
"A Malakhim using a healing arte on a daemon? That is... not normal," Seres stated, her lips forming a frown.
"Oh? You mean like a Malakhim helping a daemon escaping from prison?" Magilou asked, giving Seres a shit-eating grin.
"Yeah, now that she mentions it, don't you Malakhim have to follow the orders of an exorcist? Does that mean somebody ordered you to break Velvet out?" the daemon samurai followed up. Minato listened intently, as everything he was hearing was possibly vital information.
Seres for her part didn't answer immediately. Rather, she glanced over to Velvet, who in return gave the Malak a more or less none-caring look. Seres returned her attention to the other two and gave them a hard look. Or not, it was hard to tell, with her wearing the mask.
"I don't follow the orders of any exorcist. Not anymore, at least."
"Anymore?" Magilou inquired, but she didn't receive an answer. Instead, Seres turned around and looked at the scattered cargo from the ship.
"We should see what we can use of this and then find the closest town," she declared.
"Well, in that case, this might come in handy." Rokurou suddenly held out a map with his left hand and showed it to everyone. The group gathered around it and inspected it. The map itself wasn't very detailed in any way and looked more than a little worn. It showed a group of islands, with the largest ones being in the middle, along with the most important cities being marked on it. There were also some mountains and ships drawn on it, along with other signature landmarks.
"A map? Was that left by the child?" Velvet asked as she inspected it.
After giving the others a minute to look at it, Rokurou turned the map around and looked at the map himself. "The kid snatched up our compass, so I figured I could help myself with this. Looks to me like we're in Northgand."
"Northgand? Then if we're to reach the capital in Midgand, we've no choice but to patch up our ship," Velvet concluded.
"What are your plans, once you reach Logres?" the male daemon asked, but only received a glare as an answer. Minato gave Velvet an inquisitive look but quickly directed his attention elsewhere.
"Something breaking out of prison for," Rokurou guessed.
It was at this moment that Magilou sneezed. A groan escaped her and she rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm herself up. Given the clothes she was wearing, it was no surprise she would get cold.
"Can't we stand around and chat somewhere nicer? Somewhere with soup to warm the body, tales to warm the heart..." the self-proclaimed with complained.
"If I remember correctly, the city where we can find a shipwright and a place to stay overnight is Hellawes," Seres told the others with a thoughtful expression. "However, we need to tread carefully when we reach the city. Just recently an exorcist praetor by the name of Teresa was stationed there. She is also the sister of Oscar, the praetor overseeing the prison."
This statement immediately alarmed everyone else in the group.
"I should also mention that she is very fond of her brother. Once word reaches her that we injured her brother, she'll do anything to hunt us down."
"Whoa, talk about tough luck," Rokurou commented.
"That means we need to get our ship repaired as soon as possible. Let's not waste any more time." With that being said Velvet immediately started walking down the snowy path. The others quickly followed her, as they didn't want to get left behind.
As they left their stolen ship behind, Minato took off the jacket of his uniform and held it out to Magilou. The witch, still self-proclaimed until further notice, blinked in surprise, before accepting the jacket and slinging it around her body.
"Why, thank you. I didn't know you could be such a gentleman," the blonde commented. Minato just shrugged and waved off. Almost immediately, Magilou slumped over with her upper body.
"Urrgh! Would it kill you to actually say something?" she asked in a rhetorical fashion, already used to her former cellmate not speaking much. She found it still annoying though.
"Something." Minato simply said. He then looked down at his body and shrugged. "Nope, still alive."
After hearing this, Rokurou couldn't help but laugh. Seres allowed a small smile to grace her lips. Velvet pretty much ignored them and focused on the way ahead, while Magilou gave Minato a deadpan expression.
"So, I take it you two know each other?" the samurai asked.
"Know each other?" Magilou asked in a deadpan tone before her voice became overdramatic. "I was tormented by this boy's mere presence for three agonizing months!" She held out her arm for dramatic effect. "Never in my life has the great Magilou met a person as boring as him! Truly, it was a lucky day when I would hear a full sentence coming out of his mouth!"
Rokurou shook his head in amusement. "I figured you aren't the talkative type," he told Minato, who just shrugged. "Well, can you at least give us your name?"
The blue-haired boy didn't see anything wrong with that and given that he was probably stuck with these people at least until they left this island, he figured he should at least temporarily get along with the daemons.
"Minao. Minato Arisato," he told the others.
"Minato, huh?" Rokurou left it at that. If the boy didn't want to talk, then he didn't want to talk. "By the way, Magilou, why are you speaking in such a strange way? Not to mention your appearance is just as strange as the way you speak."
"Hey, I'm a witch," the blonde replied, her mood improving by a great amount, now that there was someone she could talk to. "I must project a proper age and dignity. I have an image to maintain." She said that in a way as if it was common knowledge.
"Self-improvement in all things, I suppose," the black haired man figured. "So, what's the difference between a spellcaster and a witch?" he inquired.
"There are many! But mainly it's a matter of nuance. It's like the difference between being frugal and being miserly."
"Ah! So a spellcaster is useful, and a witch isn't, is that it?"
Minato didn't even try to hide his smile, as Rokurou managed to get the better of Magilou.
"So I guess that makes you a witch right now."
"You wound me! You're one to talk, mister Self-Improvement!" No doubt she was referring to the samurai's refusal to use his blade, which was odd all things considered.
"Your words cut deeper than these northern winds!" Magilou tried to close the jacket she had been provided with, but it was pretty obvious she had no idea how to operate a zipper. Minato had already noted the medieval-ish style of clothing most people wore around here and as such, he quickly walked over to Magilou and with a few quick motions closed the zipper for her.
"Huh... so that's how that works," she noted, inspecting the zipper with her hand. Seres and Rokurou also appeared to be interested in the small metal-thing, whereas Velvet's and Minato's gazes, were drawn towards the ocean, which opened up to the group on their left, after passing between some mountains. The overall area at first glance appeared to be deserted, with nothing but snow, a tree here and there and mountains to their right making up the scenery. However, this proved to be false, as the from the distance a group of those werewolf daemons were running towards the group at neck-breaking speeds.
"Looks like the puppies want to play," Magilou remarked, already taking a few steps backward. Seres, Velvet, and Minato got battle-ready, each drawing their individual weapons. Seeing as the werewolves could only do damage in close range, Minato decided to use his long-range skills.
"Angel!" he summoned the for an angel way to revealing woman, who shot a gust of wind against the werewolf. The creature he hit got thrown to the ground, but it quickly got up again and followed its brothers or sisters. No one bothered checking. Seres mimicked Minato's strategy and fired a fireball at the second creature. It howled in pain and flailed around with its arms, as the fur continued to burn. Minato made a mental note that fire appeared to have a greater effect on the monsters, than wind.
Switching up personas, he once again held his evoker against his head and fired. "Orpheus!" he shouted, summoning the master of strings. He played multiple tunes on his lyre, each releasing a fireball against the enemy. Thus the battle ended in a rather anticlimactic fashion, with three roasted werewolves lying in the snow. After Minato released his persona, he felt the slight toll his mind had taken, from spamming so many Agi-Spells at once. But nothing he could shrug off. Besides, a little water was usually enough to get back to 100 %.
"Wow. Now that's something you don't see every day," Rokurou commented, watching the fading image of Orpheus.
"And I thought our daemon-munching lady was unusual," Magilou added her own two-cents. She had a thoughtful expression on her face, as she eyed the boy critically.
"So, you have more than one of those... " Seres stated as a matter of fact.
Minato looked over to Seres, sheathing his sword. Velvet too looked like she was expecting some answers and given that she could literally eat him with her arm, he figured it would be best to tell them something before they started distrusting him. Not that he trusted any of them much, given that they all had been in prison, however at the moment, those former prisoners here were his only source of information. Until he could comfortably separate himself from them, a certain degree of cooperation was needed.
"The power is called "Persona"," he told them.
"Persona?" Seres asked, having never heard that word before.
"It's....on it's basic, it's your psyche made manifest into a physical being."
"Your psyche made manifest?" Rokurou repeated. "I don't get it."
Minato sighed. He didn't fully understand his own power either. He had a good grasp on things but didn't really know any specifics. "Think of it, as your personality given shape. Like, when you're easy to anger, your persona might look like this." Using his evoker, Minato summoned Ara Mitama, the red, angry looking of the four mitamas. "A persona's appearance and abilities depend on your personality, hence the name. Not everyone can summon a persona, though. It's either you have the gift or not."
"Fascinating..." Magilou spoke slowly to herself, seemingly being deep in thought.
"Hold on," Velvet spoke up. "You just said "a" persona, as in singular. But, you can use more than one," she pointed out.
Minato almost sighed. He didn't know that woman was so sharp. "I don't know why I can use more than one," he half-lied. "Can you explain to me, why you can eat people with your arm?"
Silence was the only answer he got. Figuring that he had talked enough for the month, he decided to put his headphones on and listened to some music from his mp3. Slowly but surely, the group continued on their way through the icy island, each person left with their individual thoughts.
While the ability of his was certainly interesting and briefly Velvet herself wondered what her persona would look like. But in the end, she didn't much care. She had only one goal in mind and as long as the boy didn't stand in her way, she didn't need to worry too much about him.
Seres had a completely different opinion on the matter. This Minato Arisato had just become a wild card in the already dangerous game she was playing. She knew nothing about this person or his abilities and it was clear that he had not told them everything, not that she was expecting him to come clean from the start. Still, she would need to keep an even closer eye on him from now on. There was too much at stake already, she couldn't have her plans being jeopardized by anybody.
Magilou in the meantime wasn't thinking too much about the persona ability itself. She simply had not enough information to go on for now but figured if she stuck around for a while she might just get it. For now, however, her thoughts were stuck on the jacket she was wearing. It didn't keep her warm, but at the very least her arms were covered up now. What really fascinated her about this particular piece of clothing was how well made it was. It lied smooth on her skin, didn't have any loose threads and the cuts were almost too perfect! She couldn't even guess what material it was possibly made out, as it felt so foreign to her. Not to mention the metal thing that kept the jacket together. Smaller variations of that thing were also apparent on the pockets of the jacket she was wearing, making it possible for her to close them as well. Finally, there was this symbol was stitched into the jacket. She had no idea what it might possibly stand for. All of this led her to the conclusion that Minato was have come from pretty far away, to say the least. And she was getting very interested in the home of this boy, as to what other interesting things she might find there.
Finally, there was Rokurou, who was even less concerned about Minato than Velvet. His ability was interesting, to say the least, but he didn't worry about it in any way. In the end, all of them had to have some kind of dark secret, given that they had been locked up on a prison island of all things and not just a regular cell.
As it turned out, there were a considerable amount of demons living on this island. However, between Velvet, Seres and Minato, none of them stood a chance. Velvet would always engage head-on, while Minato acted as a hybrid between close quarters and long range and Seres attacked from afar. The daemons were no trouble for the trio and Velvet was able to sate her never-ending hunger in the process. They even managed to acquire some gald, the local currency, mainly from demihumans who still wore clothes and thus had pockets to store the money. It wasn't much, but with what Seres carried herself, they would get by quite nicely for some time.
Without being able to participate in any of the fights, Rokurou decided to start up a conversation in order to pass the time.
"So nice to be free again, able to move these bones around like I want!"
"So, Rokurou. What got you all chained up in that mold-hole?" Magilou asked with genuine curiosity.
"Ties to home," he replied solemnly. "It's complicated."
Seres could easily guess just how complicated things got, given his last name. She opted to remain silent for now.
"Ohoho," Magilou laughed. "Then are you really sure you ought to be taking on further debts?"
"It's a teaching of House Rangetsu: Pay what you owe," he simply explained.
"Well! What a civilized family you've got."
"Were you in for long?" Velvet joined in on the conversation.
"Three years, maybe." The male daemon shrugged. "That's why I know so little about the state of the world."
"Oh gosh, me too! Arte-wielding Malakhim?! I've never seen such a thing! How much ELSE have I missed? Used to be witches who had a monopoly on charms and hexes. Can you even comprehend what this'll do to business?" Magilou complained.
"Obviously, you haven't been much of a witch in the first place," Seres scoffed. "Malakhim have always been able to use artes. I guess you were locked away because of fraud or something along the lines."
"Nope! Bagged for unlicensed witchcraft. It was a tale of betrayal most wicked and foul!" Magilou exclaimed.
Velvet cringed, as the words involuntarily struck a chord with her.
"Care to hear more? You'll cry! I'll laugh! Emotions will-! Hey, what's that noise?" she asked all of the sudden and looked over to Minato who had yet to do as much as acknowledging the conversation happening.
"Huh? What noise?" Rokurou asked, but was quickly shushed by Magilou. The blonde listened intently for a couple of seconds, before her hand, all of the sudden stretched out and grabbed Minato's headphones.
"What?!" the boy exclaimed, taken off guard.
Magilou pressed the device against her own ear and her eyes widened.
"Is that... music coming out of this tiny thing?!"