Chapter 196: Sacrifice
Iwanaga Kotoko and Kato Megumi did not even get the chance to act before Yuuki Asuna and Asagiri had already launched their assault.
Gleaming Light traced an elegant arc through the air, splitting the headless nurse cleanly in half from the middle. At the same time, Human Asura seized the white coated demon Doctor by the head, twisted it off with brutal force, and tossed it toward Asagiri.
Persona and user moved in perfect synchronization.
Asagiri caught the flying head without hesitation. Looking at the two eyeballs still rolling inside the sockets, he calmly drove the Rope Dart in his hand straight into them.
"You can feel pain, can't you?"
He stirred the Rope Dart inside the Banshee Doctor's head as the creature screamed. His tone remained flat, almost gentle.
"So tell me. How intense is the pain right now? Hmm?"
Listening to Asagiri's words and looking at Human Asura, standing there in silence with dark red patterns glowing across its surface and radiating suffocating pressure, both Iwanaga Kotoko and Kato Megumi reached the same conclusion.
Their team leader might usually act abstract and speak nonsense, but beneath all that, he was a terrifying monster.
The kind of person they absolutely did not want as an enemy.
"Roar..."
As the headless nurse and the demon Doctor turned into foul blood and slowly sank into the floor, Hodell Franklin, strapped to the metal frame, forced a sound out of his throat. It was more like a mournful whimper than a roar.
"Old man, do you still recognize me?"
Asagiri walked over and pulled the needle from Hodell's eyeball. At his words, a faint glimmer gradually returned to the bloodshot eyes that had long been clouded by pain and confusion.
[The favorability of Kyozan Mental Hospital orderly Hodell Franklin toward you has greatly increased.]
After seeing the prompt appear in the eye icon app, Asagiri removed his dark gray mask and smiled slightly.
"As expected, you still recognize me. Let me get you out of this first..."
Just as Asagiri reached for the restraints, thick blue veins bulged across Hodell Franklin's neck, and blood began streaming down his face. The next moment, he snapped the iron ring around his throat by sheer force.
"Leader, be careful..."
Before Iwanaga Kotoko could finish her warning, she saw that after breaking free, Hodell Franklin made no move to attack Asagiri.
Instead, his eyes were full of urgency. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but no words came out.
Iwanaga Kotoko and the others were still trying to understand what he meant when Asagiri spoke thoughtfully.
"You mean you're trapped here forever and can't leave?"
Hodell Franklin nodded vigorously.
"So you want us to stop wasting time on you and leave this place as soon as possible?"
Hodell Franklin nodded again.
Seeing this, Yuuki Asuna, Kato Megumi, and Iwanaga Kotoko were all left speechless.
How were these two even communicating?
If it were two close friends understanding each other with just a look, that would be one thing. But one of them was human, and the other, while not exactly a demon, was certainly some kind of dead spirit. And yet they still seemed to understand each other perfectly.
Was it the passive effect of Asagiri's special profession, Unrestrained Tyrant?
Or some hidden talent of his own?
Either way, it was absurd.
"Old man."
Asagiri slowly extended his hand toward him.
"Come with us. Leave this place..."
Then he finished the sentence.
"Become my Persona."
The instant those words fell, a faint golden light flickered in Hoder Franklin's bloodshot eyes.
His face, skinned and stained with blood, trembled faintly. He opened his mouth, and though he had long since lost the ability to speak clearly, he still forced out a single hoarse, muffled word with all his strength.
"...Okay."
The next second, Hodell Franklin's nearly three meter tall body transformed into a shadowy Tarot card and slowly descended into Asagiri's palm.
[Persona: Hodell Franklin]
[Hodell Franklin: An orderly who worked at Kyozan Mental Hospital while alive. He knew nothing of the secret experiments being carried out within the hospital. During the Kyozan Mental Hospital riot, he was captured by the mental patients, had his skin peeled off, and died after enduring cruel and inhuman torture. Because of the strangeness of Kyozan Mental Hospital, he remained trapped here, endlessly pursued and tormented by the demons the mental patients became... until Utsunomiya Asagiri returned.]
[Though Hodell Franklin has fallen into hell as a dead spirit, he still wishes to save every innocent person who mistakenly enters Kyozan Mental Hospital, even at the cost of sacrificing himself. That will to protect has become the source of this Persona's power.]
[Exclusive Persona Ability: Sacrifice]
[Sacrifice: Hodell Franklin cannot be summoned actively. When you receive a fatal injury, you may activate Hodell Franklin's exclusive ability. He will transfer and bear all injuries inflicted upon you. After this ability activates, it will be treated as though you have died once, granting a corresponding increase in resistance and a temporary boost to defense.]
[Note: After Sacrifice is activated, Hodell Franklin requires time to recover, so the ability will enter cooldown. The exact cooldown period depends on the type and severity of the fatal injury received, with a minimum of twelve hours. If this ability is forcibly activated during cooldown, it may still produce the same effect, but the Persona will be permanently destroyed.]
[Corresponding Tarot Card: The Hanged Man (Upright)]
"Death and rebirth... no, more like the transfer of fatal injury. Not bad."
Asagiri immediately understood the value of Hodell Franklin's exclusive ability as a Persona.
Although it seemed somewhat similar to Human Asura's recently awakened time reversal, the two clearly had different strengths.
Human Asura's time reversal resembled the effect of the pocket watch. The difference was that it could not be activated manually and would only trigger upon his death. Its limit was one minute. Injuries received more than one minute earlier could not be recovered, and any tactical advantage gained during that minute would also disappear when time was reversed.
Hodell Franklin's Sacrifice, on the other hand, was practically a perfect recovery effect. No matter how long ago the injury had been inflicted, and no matter how severe it was, once activated, it restored the user to a flawless condition and even granted a defense boosting buff on top of that.
An ability that increased fault tolerance was always welcome.
"Hodell Franklin..."
At that moment, Iwanaga Kotoko softly spoke his name. Then she took off her white beret, placed it over her chest, and bowed slightly.
"Please rest in peace."
"Rest in peace?"
Kato Megumi looked puzzled.
"Didn't Mr. Hodell Franklin just become Leader's Persona?"
"No."
Asagiri shook his head.
"The real Hodell Franklin has already escaped the control of this strange area. Hmm... how should I put it? Passed on? Achieved salvation? It's something along those lines. The Persona I received is the power born from his will to protect the innocent, even if it meant sacrificing himself."
"Then... that's good."
Yuuki Asuna nodded gently. She clasped her hands, lowered her head, and murmured:
"Mr. Hodell Franklin, I hope you've gone to a better world. We'll carry on your will and keep fighting."
Just then, Iwanaga Kotoko seemed to sense something. Her expression immediately sharpened.
"There's another strange presence. Enemy. Get ready."
At her warning, the other three moved at once.
They left the narrow patient room and stepped into the corridor outside.
At the far end of the passage, the Twin brothers they had encountered before had reappeared. This time, however, more than a dozen ragged, emaciated mental patients stood with them.
And behind them stood a gaunt man.
He wore a thick black oilcloth apron, a pure black cloak, and a black gas mask over his face. In his hand was an enormous pair of scissors. His appearance was so bizarre it made the air itself feel wrong.
"Is it you? Is it really you!?"
The man's voice was wild with excitement.
Hearing that, Asagiri stood at the front of the group and answered without missing a beat.
"Yes. It's me. I'm your father."
"Pfft..."
Even at a moment like this, Kato Megumi nearly laughed out loud.
The man in the gas mask clearly had not expected a response like that. He froze for several seconds before continuing in a frenzied tone,
"The one who can summon that black monster... and that strange blonde little girl... So it really is you, Shadow! At first I thought those people were only hallucinating, or making wild guesses, but I never imagined you truly existed. To control such powerful strange beings, ones capable of directly taking life without even needing to attack... tell me! How did you do it!?"
"Shadow? I see. So that's the codename Black Watch gave me..."
Asagiri's tone was casual, almost uninterested.
Then he looked straight at the man in the gas mask. The black gun shaped summoner appeared in his hand. He pressed the barrel to his temple and pulled the trigger as he spoke.
"You want to know what my ability is?"
The corners of his lips curved faintly.
"Then come experience it yourself."
.....
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