Persona - Mask of Origins

"You seem to be suffering from lack of emotions as well."

 

"You say "suffer" I say "benefit". I have no need for emotions that range outside of anger and calm. You forget I was made and not born like a person. I was reanimated to be the basis of a weapon. It's not something I'm proud of. And yet, Toji, you seem to take things very well. You look at me and not turn away, at least not that I can see." His blood red eyes stared at Toji as he absently wiped away some of the blood that dripped from his eyes.

 

"How can i be frightened of you, I grew up around shadows, remember?"

 

"True, but you nearly vomited when you saw me, correct?" Nicholi was nearly smiling now.

 

"Close, but not quite."

 

Nicholi laughed. "Strange human indeed. Why I suppose your father never let you see me as a youngun. Back then...as a prototype I was truely hideous. I'd say, I've improved since then."

 

"If you say so. I need to get a sample of one of Zain's crystals."

 

Nicholi lifted a finger, "You'll have to get that one by yourself. I'm not so sure he'd take lightly to a shadow like me pulling on his crystalized body. Hmm, take some bolt cutters with you, I have a feeling those crystals aren't going to just fall off in your hand."

 

Toji gathered up some tools and went to get a sample.

"I need you to hold still for me, Zain. I need a sample of your crystals."

 

Zain blinked, "My...crystals...? What's with all those tools, are you performing surgery?" he backed away from Toji, "Hey, Yuki, I think your boyfriend has flipped his lid!"

 

"Calm down, Zain. He has those tools, cause your crystals won't exactly come off by hand, right?"

 

"How should I know, I'm not exactly trying to yank them off here!" Nicholi poked his head out from Toji's lab and gave Zain a 'what the hell' look, "It'll hurt, but only for a second and it'll grow back if you start to miss it. Don't worry so much, Zain. They're extremely hard to remove. Just let the boy take what he needs and we can look for a cure." Zain stared at the shadow and back at Toji, sullenly lifting his shirt, "Fine, this sucks though."

 

Toji used the tools to remove a large crystal. He then took it to his lab.

 

Zain complained and gritted his teeth, gently touching where the crystal had been removed, "Ouch. That felt like pulling teeth. Man that hurt throughout my entire body."

"Hmm, perhaps the crystals have melded your nerves to them somehow, like a real crystaline skin. Interesting..." Zain slapped his hand away from his crystals, "It's not interesting, it's painful."

 

Toji examined the crystal and experimented on it.

 

The crystals died in color, becoming black instead of the purple color they were. Nicholi appeared suddenly behind Toji, "Hmm, looks like they don't survive once taken from Zain. He's their lifesource and they regrow. Just watched it. Those things regrow in a matter of minutes. I'd say relieving him of them all is impossible."

 

"I can still find out some things from this crystal, though." Toji said. He accidentally knocked over a sample of blood and it poured on the crystal. He watched the crystal dissolve.

"That was a sample of Yuki's blood. Why would it melt the crystal like that, though?"

 

Perhaps Persona blood counteracts whatever's inside that crystal. Though I don't think we can bleed Yuki and pour her blood on Zain. That, in Zain's mind, would be gruesome."

 

"Still, maybe i can synthesize something from her blood to achieve the same effect."

 

Nicholi watched in silence. His mind working over how quickly Zain would progress like this. If the crystal regrew in a matter of minutes, how quickly was it growing on him and eventually...inside him.

Zain fell back onto the couch, his shoulder felt stiff.