Sea of the Unconscious Part 12

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Persona 4 Sea of the Unconscious
Summary: Yosuke was not part of the original investigation team. In fact, he wasn't even part of their world. He was a huge fanboy. And then he fell into Inaba, and his life changed forever...
Really old, so not perfectly written, and it was during my FONTS EXIST phase. Slightly inspired by Chisotahn's Ten Steps fic. The entire concept is a little chuuni/Gary Stu. I don't think it would be bad with some tweaking, but that's tweaking i don't really want to do, so we've got this instead.
while yes, I could split this up, I don't see the point.  this is all associated with the same thing.  the thing that probably got me to lose any hope of finishing this thing well before I had qualms about its writing quality.  i got a little too ambitious, and this unfinished thing was the result.  the plan was to split up the entire party to go into their own game and play multiple levels.  I didn't even get written one level per character and it's already this long.
I was planning on getting a little more into Takuma and making him less unlikeable in this one (I think).  Like other Magicians he's supposed to be a little annoying, but the player's actually supposed to see that.  And maybe end up liking him anyway, but him being obnoxious is actually supposed to be seen as a fault, rather than just a "oh that Takuma" sort of thing.
There's also the issue that this "chapter" really doesn't advance the fic along, either.  It's a fun concept but, uh.  yeah.  It's not actually the end of this floor, but the actual plot-relevant stuff I separated out to the next part.
if you want a taste, but don't want to read the whole thing, just read the beginning as it has some fun portal-esque dialogue.
(...unrelated note but I don't remember using -kun for naoto in this fic. well done past!me)
(though also the past tense is a little weird)
Word Count: 5321
Rating: teen

 

            "Welcome to the Junes Research Department."  The voice, for some reason, sounded a touch synthetic.  Even though it was slightly excitable and clearly Yosuke's voice.  Maybe the voice filter was an odd one.  "Your arrival will be processed shortly, and then science can begin.  For your safety, please disregard all announcements and place any weapons you carry upon the conveyer belt.  Thank you, and have a wonderful day of science at your Junes!"
            ...What?
            "Just because I liked playing video games doesn't mean I want to end up in one!"  Suit Yosuke yelled at the ceiling.  "...Well, that's kind of a lie.  I'd want to meet people.  But I don't want to end up dead just because some stupid person...I want to speak to management!  You're clearly all idiots!"
            The scientist responded quietly and calmly.  "Please refrain from yelling at the management.  This is a self-contained floor anyway.  Please refrain from wearing shoes, as rubber soles contacting the metal floor in Testing Chamber Zero are prohibited."
            They all exchanged glances.  No one moved.
            "You didn't fall for that!  Congratulations!  You have passed the idiocy test!  Good marks have been added to your testing record!  By passing into the next room on this floor, you sign an agreement with the Junes Research Department agreeing to grave danger, compliance in testing procedures, and harvesting of your bodily organs and/or consciousness in the event of failure.  Welcome to your Junes, where every day's a great day in the name of science!" 
            Still no one moved.  "Or, you know, you could just stand there.  We are incapable of conducting any tests within Testing Chamber Zero, so, when you feel more comfortable, you may continue.  Or, if you prefer, you could leave, but then you wouldn't be able to get in touch with our products.  And science would forever weep in vain.  Science would cease to advance and the human race would die out.  I do have other tests to oversee, though, so I'll be over here.  And you'll be over there, and I'll set up a motion sensitive camera to alert me when you make up your mind.  I hope to see you soon, really.  Take care, guys, and remember-SCIENCE!"
            Silence fell, and Souji glanced at Suit Yosuke.  "What's going on?"
            "Hermit," Lovers Yosuke helpfully supplied from behind Rise.
            "Science.  This is a video game," Suit Yosuke added, thinking and looking grim.
            "Video game?  What do you mean?" Kanji questioned.
            "Hermit's sometimes video game related.  I play a lot of video games.  And take a look at where we're standing, never mind the over the top announcements and the testing chamber number and everything.  The setup is completely from a video game.  Trust me."  He bounced a little on the balls of his feet, looking ready and eager for a fight.
            The leader looked around the room.  The walls were made out of a strange metal.  There was an odd table with a block on it, but no chairs.  He reached out to touch the block, curious about how the tests would work.  Young Yosuke quickly grabbed Souji's hand and shook his head.
            "The scientist said to get in touch with their products; therefore I would assume it would be wise to not touch anything," Naoto-kun explained quietly, gun at the ready.
            "How are we supposed to open the door, then?"  Chie looked a little frustrated.
            If all else failed, Souji thought, a little amused, she could always kick it, since it seemed as long as the rubber soles of the shoes were what were contacting the surfaces, they were safe.  For the moment.
            Takuma walked up to the door and it slid open.  He turned around and shrugged.  "It's easy."
            Souji looked at the door and the white, featureless room beyond, thinking over the options.  He didn't want to give this Yosuke any more control than he had to, but it didn't seem as if they had a choice if they wanted to continue.  He straightened.  "All right.  Let's do this."  He walked forward into the room, and reality dissolved.

            He blinked into consciousness again in a swiveling chair, but couldn't summon the energy to stand.  "No, no, don't try to move.  The anesthetic hasn't worn off yet.  Here, I'll give you some water, you must be parched."  He felt a hand with hard bones and a soft covering of what felt just a little bit different from flesh lift his head a little, and cool, welcoming liquid pouring at a comfortable rate into his mouth.  The gulps were instinctive-well, at least he could move a little.  Someone chattered on in the background, but he couldn't quite make out who was talking.
            "Welcome to Level 1 of Oversight.  I'm just so excited about this.  Being able to test your true limits.  Now there's an opportunity you don't often get your hands on, I mean, really and truly.  You are an amazing specimen.  From here, you can observe everyone's games.  One of them must be played until the end, including yours, and you may take them out of their game before the end, one at a time, in this chamber.  They're sorted randomly, because...well, the teleport is actually a Subatomic Randomizer, and we haven't figured out how to take it off the Random Setting yet.  Don't worry, though, there are techs working on that particular fault.  There will be consequences once you take them out of any particular game.  They get to keep any clues, tokens, artifacts, experience, yadda yadda yadda, out of the game.  If you take them out before they reach a certain level, the difficulty on the other games might be increased or other random events.  There's a golden object (which the management haven't actually been good enough to explain to me yet) in every game.  For every one you're missing in endgame, points are subtracted from your total final score, plus they'll give you certain abilities and the like to make your boss fights easier.  So of course you want to get all of them that you can.  But it's a bit of a gamble because you won't know anything for sure.  You will be able to keep track of stats, like vitals and equipment.  Just in case you're wondering, no, the golden things are not equipment.  They're special inventory objects.  You'll be able to get a general idea of their progress from these monitors," a vague, fuzzy and demonstrative hand waved in front of Souji's face to point out what are probably the monitors, "...but the only one you'll get first person camera from is your own.  So it's a bit of a gamble who you pull out first.  You'll only have access to certain Personas-we can't have you cheating at all.  And remember, this is all in the name of science."
            Before Souji could come up with any questions, someone was already appearing on the monitors.  There was also a row of glass looking out on what looked like a huge white-painted warehouse, but he couldn't make out much of the details.

Hidden Intro

            Takuma woke, swearing.  "I'm going to kill that guy when I get my hands on him, Shadow or no Shadow."  Nothing answered back.  "Great, well, someone turned off the announcements, at least.  That'll make this a whole lot easier."  Then he realized that he was alone, and swore some more, before checking out his surroundings.
            The area was dark and smelled of mold.  He got to his feet carefully, and the harsh texture of broken wood under his hands as he pushed himself up convinced him he was on old floorboards.
            Eventually, fumbling found his way to a door.  He traveled down the stairs, light beginning to filter in.
            When he stepped through the door he found at the bottom of the stairs, the music almost deafened him.  The lighting wasn't normal, either.  He easily recognized the strobe lights, the mirror ball, the booths.  This was a dance club.
            "Wh-who's out there?"  He turned, startled, to find a booth covered in draping cloth, completely concealing its occupant.  It stood out from every other booth.
            "I could ask the same question," he answered distrustfully, but it appeared that the owner of the booth relaxed upon hearing his voice.
            "Come in.  Perhaps we can help each other," the trembling voice suggested.  He hesitated, then did as he was told.
            A young woman in robes sat in front of a glowing crystal ball.  She looked absolutely panicked.
            He stood up again, sneering.  "I don't need my fortune told."
            "No, perhaps not.  I'm in danger, a lot of danger, and I could use some help, if you would only give me a minute..."  Her hands trembled, and she quickly noticed and clasped them tightly together, placing them firmly upon the tablecloth.
            "I suppose I don't have anywhere else to go at the moment.  Have you seen my friends at all?  The first one's got grey hair, tall, Japanese.  He's pretty tough to miss."
            "I-I'm sorry.  I haven't seen anyone.  I'm too scared to go out."  The door slammed, echoing in the room, and she jumped and screamed before regaining her composure.  "They're here, and they mustn't find me.  I'm sorry, so sorry, but you're the last chance..."  She reached forward and took his hand, and it felt like someone was slamming him with a Zio skill.
            He thought he'd screamed too, but the next moment men in black suits toting guns were tearing open the cloth doorway and pointing those same guns at him and the lady, and he did the smart thing.
           He ran, barreling past and knocking them over.  He'd always been good at chases.
            He ran out the front door and until he'd gotten himself thoroughly lost in a foreign city.  Then Takuma began walking, trying to find a landmark-any one he recognized.
            Nothing.
            Then the men in black found him again, and he screamed again, the blue light exploding out of him in a whirlpool as he fell to the pavement...

>Advance to Level 2
>Obtain access to Numen.

DRIVE Level 1: Using Science to Solve Tests!

            Souji woke up in a room decorated on every surface with brass plating.  Platforms moved along tracks in the walls.  The hiss of steam was overpowering, but only a little of it could be seen coming out of the walls.  Glass screens and giant robots made of brass and hissing steam paced in the room.  Gears turned endlessly.  A giant mechanical claw kept opening and closing as what looked like abandoned assembly lines kept running, some of which went straight into the wall.
            "Welcome to Level 1 of DRIVE.  This is a reminder that by entering this room you have signed the contract that allows all sorts of testing, including that of our Walker Gear.  Those would be the giant robots walking around the room.  Your personas have been mostly disabled.  Healing, flying, and certain types of protection spells are the only ones available to you now.  For your convenience, a new Persona with all of the skills you have access to has been constructed for you to call on-Daedalus, the Winged Inventor."  A humanoid with steampunk wings and armor and a scroll appeared, then turned into a Fool card which slowly came down toward Souji.  "We would also like to request that you not fail this level.  Any sign of failure as bad as the last candidate will receive termination of testing and a black mark upon your record of science."  Last candidate, huh?  He wondered what had happened to that person.  If they were even real and not just something the Scientist Yosuke was saying in order to get a reaction.
            He watched the Walkers carefully.  They seemed to be walking in set patterns, and there were a high number clustered around a table with some sort of brass glove with strange designs on it.  The Walkers were likely hostile, even if they weren't Shadows, and without some of his Persona with a high physical resistance, bullets were likely to be painful if not lethal.
            Did they react to movement?  Only one way to find out.  He looked around and found what appeared to be a cardboard box.  That had been plated over with brass.
            It was very possible that Scientist Yosuke was insane.
            Still, the point was that it could be tossed over into the midst of the Walkers without too much trouble.  Which he did.
            They immediately swiveled to face it, and several of them began to fire what appeared to be flaming bullets at the box.  It died a heroic death.
            He found a circular gear and threw that too, up higher.  They didn't notice it until it started to fall, then they shot it full of holes.
            Their guns were fairly accurate, but they appeared to have a limited range of sensory input.  Possibly enough that he could get the glove.
            A few more tests with various strangely distorted objects showed that they were slow moving.  If they were distracted for long enough, he might be able to drop down and grab the glove and be gone before they could turn back.
            It was worth a try anyway.
            He called upon Daedalus to carry him and pulled himself up out of range, then slowly drifted over on top of the group of Walkers.  He threw the gear he'd picked up, and they began to turn in their slow, lumbering way toward it.  Perfect.  He started to drop.
            They turned back to start to shoot at him.  He quickly got back out of range, but it was close.  He could feel the heat as a bullet barely missed, but his clothing and skin got scorched anyway.  He thought for a minute, then continued back to his starting position.  This time, he found a large, somewhat heavy cube made of a strange grey metal that appeared to change when he wasn't looking at it.
            He moved into position slightly away from the group this time and then dropped it.  Predictably, the Walkers started shooting at it.  And their bullets were being reflected back, so they started walking toward it with huge steps.
            Problem solved.  He swooped into position quickly, picking up the glove.
            An announcement came on.  Luckily, as he flew up again, the Walkers seemed to be ignoring at it and concentrating on the cube that appeared to be firing back.  "Well done.  You have succeeded in the test.  What you now hold in your hand is an electronic glove.  It can turn off or on electronics.  Like the Walkers, for example.  Unfortunately, it has no distance setting, only a manual touch one.  Good luck!"
            Well, here it went.
            He dove behind one of the Walkers and touched it with the glove.  It fell over, still firing, hitting one of its fellow Walkers along the way.  The next one along started to turn toward him, and he hastily touched that one too.  It fell as well.  The last one was half turned around, and in another second it would be facing him enough it could fire on him.
            He was faster at flying than it was at turning, though, and quickly moved in an arc around it, finally getting into a position where he could deactivate it too.  It fell with a large clunking sound.
            "Well done!  Fly up to the door that has just opened!  You are a genius at science compared to the rest of your people, whoever they might be."
            He heard the hiss as two portions of the wall turned and slid into place, leaving a circular opening.  Daedalus flew him up.  He wondered for a second just what sort of science this was, a second before everything went black again.

>First Test Completed
>Obtained Electronic Glove.

Oversight Level 2

            "Hey, I'm sorry.  Do you feel weird?  Well, it's SCIENCE!  Welcome back to Oversight."  He woke up for the second time with a slightly anxious, mostly excited Scientist Yosuke searching his face.  And groaned.
            "I'm going to get tired of seeing you every single time I wake up from this, aren't I?" Souji asked in a monotone.
            Yosuke laughed, for a moment sounding normal.  "I'd rather like to think you'll get used to it in a nice sort of way.  But perception is your choice."  He paused.  "We can have a chat, or we can go to the next game."
            "Game," Souji stated firmly.  A touch of disappointment flashed through this Yosuke's eyes, but he nodded.  "Your choice." 

Heaven's Mandate Level 1
            Yukiko was soaring above the beautiful mountains shrouded with clouds, a disembodied spirit.  At last, she was flying, and it was glorious.
            "For generations, China has stood, a patron of the arts, a glorious center of culture and knowledge in a wasteland."  A voice intruded on her flying, accompanied by a song accompanied by a traditional flute.  Still, it was something she hadn't heard often, nor did she want to.  Why must it bother her in this manner?  She tried to tell it to go away, but it did not vanish.  "But the Imperial Line is failing.  Numerous relatives wait like hawks, in anticipation of their chance to seize the throne and restore order to the land."  Suddenly they were swooping over less serene, beautiful land.  Thousands of soldiers waited in lines or in camp, tasting a soup.  "Bandits have sprung up all across the land and are now threatening the innocent as well as the guilty.  The time has come for all heroes to choose a side and fight for their candidate for the throne.  Who will you choose to declare has the mandate of heaven...?"  Swords clashed, arrows flew.
            And then they were back floating above the beautiful mountain, but this time six banners waved in the wind.
            "Please input character name," another voice stated in a disinterested monotone.
            _...A_...Am_...Ama_...Amag_...Amagi_...Amagi _...Amagi Y_...Amagi Yu_...Amagi Yuk_....Amagi Yuki_...Amagi Yukik_...Amagi Yukiko_...ENTER
            She blinked and found herself in what appeared to be a battle kimono, incorporating a mix between flowing fabric and a little armor in red.
            "Lady Yukiko!" a panting messenger in a tunic yelled, bowing to her as soon as he got close.  "The enemy approaches!"
            Well, this was new.  And proved to be interesting.  She smiled slightly, grabbing a battle-fan sharp as a razor and beautiful as the sun.  "Let them come!" she told him, tilting her head and preparing for combat.
            It was somewhat of a surprise to note that she could not summon Amaterasu.  She could, however, call down fire upon her opponents with a wave of her fan, and any that got close were subject to the cutting edge of her fan.  Should they manage to get lucky and score a couple hits, it seemed she also still had access to her Dia healing spells, cast with yet another flick of the fan.  Luckily nothing seemed to damage her battle dress, she noted with a slight blush.  Otherwise it would be very embarrassing.
            "Lady Yukiko.  They are requesting your presence at the tent," someone appeared, looking suspiciously like Seta Souji, if he'd decided to grow a beard.  He didn't appear to recognize her, really recognize her, though, so....maybe it was just the fact that he didn't appear fazed and neither would Souji-kun in this situation?
            She blinked and appeared at the tent.  How had that happened?  Was her consciousness being manipulated?
            "Lady Yukiko, we have had missives from five of the generals and the current Emperor.  We await your wisdom and counseling as to our next move."
            She paused, feeling a bit overwhelmed.  How was she supposed to choose which of these were the ‘good guys’ in the situation?  She knew absolutely nothing about them!  She took a quick look through the letters and decided that the nephew sounded the nicest.  He actually cared about the people and wasn’t a complete pompous jerk.

>Lady Amagi Yukiko and her forces have aligned with the Scarlet Moon Faction.

DRIVE Level 2
            "Well, you have made it to the second test of DRIVE.  We are pleased with your progress.  Compared to the last fifty applicants anyway.  Please ignore any unidentifiable stains you might notice on the walls and continue."
            The door opened onto a group of corridors that opened and closed up ahead.  If only Rise was here.  A map of the area might be nice.
            He waited for a minute, examining the surroundings, then started forward.  A jet of steam so hot he could feel the heat even from six feet away suddenly came out of the wall, and he stopped.  A precise three minutes later (sometimes it was nice being able to judge time without a chronometer of any kind), it happened again.  He also noted what looked like other jets coming out of the walls at different intervals.  Just to be safe, he waited until the first jet went again before advancing just far enough to be out of range.  He kept an eye on the others, which were considerably shorter intervals, and ducked in between them quickly until he felt he was getting the hang of it.
            Which obviously meant that something had to change.
            "Whoops!"  That didn't sound good.  "Um, not to alarm you, but...it appears that the TIKs have escaped.  Their, um, enclosure.  Which...unfortunately...is close to the ventilation shafts on this floor.  Look out for small murderous robots.  I'd send in our crews to help you out, really I would, except they mostly consist of Walkers which would try to murder you too especially in an enclosed space.  Which wouldn't be good for you or for testing results.  I'll go ahead and make sure there are no more, um, wonderful scientific surprises waiting out for you anywhere, shall I?"
            Wonderful.  It looked like the area up ahead branched off.
            And then he heard the scuttling sound.  He could hear the hissing of steam through the vents, but by the sound of it he didn't have time to hesitate.
            He ran, turning to his left and using his bounce off the wall to increase momentum, throwing himself hysterically through the area with the jet.  He could feel the scalding heat behind him, his back protesting the close escape. 
            The TIKs behind him weren't so lucky.  He stumbled away a few more steps then turned to look at the scream of metal and horrible high whining sound they made as they began to melt.  They looked like ovals with segmented metal legs stuck on, although it was hard to make out some of the details because they were half liquid by that point.
            And then he heard the scuttling of other little claw-feet as the hiss of the jets began to die down, and decided it was time to grimly run on.

>Completed Test 2.

Oversight Level 3
            Souji awoke, feeling a little sore and scorched all over.  He'd had to crawl on his hands and knees in some places, constantly barely staying in front of the TIKs with their lethal sharp legs and tendency to try to gouge at his ankles.  He was getting tired of mazes, and his unhappy mood was probably caught by Scientist Yosuke, who for once wasn't in his face as he woke.
            He looked around, and was surprised to find the anesthetic administered as he'd gone through the door wasn't quite as strong this time.  Possibly this Shadow hadn't administered it himself?
            Eventually he found the Scientist hiding in a corner with a sheepish look on his face that said he expected to be hit.  That was slightly amusing.  Souji reminded himself to relax-they were here to save Yosuke, after all.
            "I, um, expect you want to get this done as soon as possible.  So let's get going, shall we?"  Before the teenager could say a word, he was watching yet another of the 'tests'.

Last Salvation Level 1
            Young Yosuke woke up and stared at the ceiling.  Well, this had been the oddest dream ever.  For one thing, he'd been an adult, or so close to one he couldn't tell the difference, and that didn't happen often.  Why should it?  He didn't feel like one really, or worthy of any of the responsibility he was being saddled with to try to do well in a foreign school that didn't really care about those who were different fitting in or doing well in school anyway.  And it wasn't really his fault that he kept going into daydreams!  Really.
            He felt like he was being watched, and blushed a little, running his hand through his hair.
            And then he realized that he wasn't in his own room.  He jumped out of the bed, but he couldn't see anyone actually within the room.  Which meant there had to be cameras.
            He ran around the room a little, peeking in corners, then ran to the front door and out.  The place was far too...sterile.  They'd tried to make the room homey and welcoming, but failed.  It was as if they'd taken every single stereotype they could get their hands on and then built a house out of it.
            There was a woman in an alarming dress on the sidewalk, but then, he didn't have much of a choice here, did he?
            He tugged on the woman's dress, and when she looked down at him, smiling, he asked, "Where am I?"
            "Salvation," was her answer.  It didn't help very much.
            "Where is that?"  His attempt to get a better reply didn't work very well.
            Alarm entered her eyes.  She stared at him as if he were dangerous or crazy or possibly both.  "It is where it is."
            He smiled, trying to put her at ease.  "Thank you very much!"  He ran off.  Hopefully there was some sort of convenience store here somewhere, and they might have new headphones and some sort of music player, considering his was nowhere to be found.  Admittedly, he hadn't really looked around the room very much, but he had the feeling they wouldn't have left it for him to find.
            Whoever 'they' were.
            He finally found the convenience store (conveniently labeled 'Store') and poked around a little.  He found a map, which only showed Salvation, and a few useful things like a CD player in what appeared to be the official cheerful Salvation colors and some food.  The man at the counter smiled at him.
            "What is your number, young man?"
            Well, that was a question he didn't know the answer to.  Ah, but he seemed to remember having seen a number on the cottage as he ran past in a panic earlier.  "I...um.  I'm new here, I think, but I might remember the number of the place I'm staying.  4469?"
            The man's smile became more genuine.  "Ah, yes, that seems correct.  Welcome to Salvation, Master Yosuke.  Call all of that your welcome package!"
            "Thanks!" he yelled excitedly, causing the man to smile wider.  He was handed a bag and soon was heading back to his place to stay, first saluting the man and saying something else that seemed appropriate to the situation.  "Be seeing you around, I guess."
            Apparently he was in a village cut off from the outside world.  There were cameras in the walls.  They didn't want him to try to leave, and were probably monitoring his every move.
            He did love a good challenge.

>Obtained Salvation Map.
>Obtained Food.
>Obtained CD Player.
>Obtained CD. 

DRIVE Level 3
            Souji gritted his teeth as he barely avoided the gigantic saw coming down at his head.  It bit into the floor, trapping itself, and he used that moment to hit out at the Walker with the sword he’d managed to find.  The metal clang was soon joined by a metallic screech as the iron peeled back slightly with the force of the blow.  He was panting.  These tests did a good job of making him run around like a rat in a maze, unable to stop for fear of the shock awaiting.
            Then a flying robot came out of the wall and time slowed down.  Just enough for him to see his doom coming, the small but sharp knife pointed straight at his face.
            “Surely you can’t…”  Whatever Scientist Yosuke was saying was cut off, as a spurt of crimson was swiftly followed by darkness.
            Souji slowly swam to consciousness.  He ached all over, and he was pretty sure he stunk too.  A headache was lurking somewhere behind his eyes, waiting to pounce the minute he opened his eyes.  But for some reason, there was a relief there, too.  With any degree of realism, he should be dead.  He wasn’t sure how he knew that, but it didn’t exactly matter so much.
            He was sitting in what looked like a waiting room.  A speaker from above him crackled into life, and he groaned.  Heaven, he reflected, would be a nice shower and a long, long sleep and a lack of some demented scientist yelling at him from a weird box area.
            The guy chuckled.  “GASP!  You’re cheating!” 
            How had  he survived?  He looked around the room as if it would give him an answer.  Of course, it probably wouldn’t, but still.  And then he gasped.
            The glowing blue butterfly that he’d been handed was flying in little circles on the other end of the small, cramped room.  If the distinction could be made, it looked pleased with itself.
            It probably couldn’t be made.  He was probably insane.  At least he was aware of that fact.
            “Oh well.  I suppose it doesn’t matter all that much.  Test subject or not, I didn’t really want to see you dead anyway.  Do you think it works multiple times?  I kind of want to test it.  Except at the same time I don’t, because that would mean putting you in harm’s way.  More than I think you could handle, anyway.  How did you manage to fail that last level anyway?  I mean, I figured for the Leader who’d managed to save the world, you’d think this would be easy stuff…”  Scientist Yosuke continued to babble.  Souji continued to ignore him.

Oversight Level 4

            This was becoming routine, and not in a good way-Scientist Yosuke, yellow eyes and all, in Souji’s face as he woke.  “You had better be okay.  I don’t want to deal with finding another test subject.”  Despite the flippancy and the words, Souji got the feeling that the Shadow wasn’t dealing as well with this as he let on.  Hence the babbling earlier, which had continued throughout the level, so much so that the Persona-user had trouble keeping his concentration through the hordes of robots and nearly died again.
            “If you think this is going to scare me off, you don’t know me as well as you seem to think.”  He managed a smile through a split lip, determination shining through. 
            Shadow Yosuke flinched, turning away to study what was apparently a very interesting bank of instruments.  “Well, yes, you seem to be okay, so I guess it’s time for our next experiment…”

Happy Forest Level 1-Make Happy Forest Happy Again!

DRIVE Level 4

Oversight Level 5

Beautiful Lies Level 1

Suit Yosuke

DRIVE Level 5

Oversight Level 6

Own the Stage Level 1

Rise

DRIVE Level 6

Oversight Level 7

Level 1

Lovers Yosuke

DRIVE Level 7

Oversight Level 8

Brrraaaiiins Level 1

DRIVE Level 8

Oversight Level 9

Bullet Adventurer Level 1

DRIVE Level 9

Oversight Level 10

Future Quest Level

Floor 10: Hermit Floor
Gamer Yosuke.  Games floor.  Inhumane, no regard for rules or respect for society.

Souji-Oversight (name of game) + Portal (DRIVE)
Takuma-Hidden (Secret World)
Yukiko-historical priestess Japan (Dynasty Warriors ish?)-Heaven's Mandate
Young Yosuke (Empress)- Last Salvation (Prisoner)
Kanji-Happy Forest (Something is wrong in Happy Forest, Make Happy Forest Happy Again!)
Suit Yosuke (Emperor)-Spies/Corporate Espionage + Assassin's Creed ish?-Beautiful Lies
Rise-Own the Stage-Guitar Hero/singing/Dance Dance Revolution
Lovers Yosuke-???
Chie-Brrraaaiiins zombie games
Naoto-Umineko ish Bullet Adventurer
Teddie-save the princess  Future Quest