Are you ready for this, Hinoto-Ri? Shadow Event Information

[stringmods]

▼ REACH OUT TO THE TRUTH

 

▼ I AM A SHADOW...

 

You asked for it, and now we're delivering! Starting a week from today on December 16th and running through December 20th, Destiny Strings will be having a shadow event. Those of you familiar with the Persona series probably already know what's in store - but for those of you who aren't, here's a quick explanation of how things are going to go.

On the 14 and 15th at night during the 13th Hour, characters will notice that along with the usual effects, they will hear strange whispers in their heads, along with seeing their Personas on any reflected surfaces instead of their own; mirrors, water, someone's eye, or just your metallic teapot. Should they look away or blink, they will see themselves again, but the face will have a strange smile to them.

Starting during the 13th Hour leading into December 16th, Visitors' Shadows will begin to awaken and materialize all over Hinoto-Ri. They will look exactly like the Visitor from which they were spawned, with the difference of having glowing yellow eyes (red eyes if the character's natural eye color is already yellow). The Shadows have access to all of the same equipment, powers, and Personas as their original characters, and will generally be stronger and more difficult to fight the higher level a character is (i.e. the longer they have been in game). Any strong feelings of Anger, Ignorance, or Vengeance a character has will also give it additional power, so if your character has these issues, it may provide an even higher challenge!

A character's Shadow will materialize without his or her knowledge somewhere in the city, and can only be defeated by the character whose Shadow it is. In the meantime, the Shadows will be out and about in the city wreaking havoc while wearing the character's face and searching for them in an effort to kill the character and replace them. After all, a Shadow's ultimate goal is to become the real and only version of the character, and they can't do that with competition getting in the way.

And to make matters even trickier, since the Shadows in a very real sense are part of the characters themselves, they can even use the Network during the event, as the nanobots will be unable to distinguish between a character and their Shadow. If you want to use this as justification for your character's Shadow to make a post teasing or taunting their CR without the character's knowledge, this is definitely a possibility too! Keep in mind that if a Shadow posts during the event, your character cannot reply for that post since the network only accepts "one" version of the character. Just keep in mind that if a character's Shadow posts, either making a new one or replying to another, the real character themselves cannot reply to that post and vice versa.

Shadows have the same affinities as the user (meaning if they are immune to physical, so is the shadow). All Shadows also absorb Dark attacks of any kind, and even spells cannot break this immunity.

▼ ...THE TRUE SELF

 

One important thing to note, however, is that a Shadow is not an 'evil clone' version of the character! Shadows are more intricate than that. Evil clones would be easy to deny and fight against, but Shadows represent the part of your character that they are ashamed of, afraid of, or want to hide away from the world. Obviously, this can be very different from character to character, but the Shadow will try to capitalize on that and unnerve the character before striking them down for good.

Also keep in mind that these Shadows can be affected by what others think of the character, both good and bad! For example, if Character A thinks Character B is nothing but a muscle-bound brute, Character B's shadow might have slightly more pronounced muscles or talk about getting into fights, along with Character A's normal insecurities. Shadows don't just feed off the character in question, but everyone's insecurities about that character as well! For this reason, we have a planning post below.

Shadows can be fought and defeated just like any other demon in Hinoto-Ri, although obviously these will be far stronger than your standard 13th Hour fare. Unlike Shadows in Persona 4, these ones will not transform into giant monsters after your character denies them, but will act more like the ones from the Persona Arena games. This means that while they have all of your powers and Personas, you can still actively fight back and use your own Persona against them. The Shadow's Personas will be "reversed" meaning their color patterns will be much more subdued and darker, sometimes with their physical appearance changed slightly. For example, Charatcer A's normal Persona has a small pair of horns. His Shadow's persona can have SLIGHTLY longer horns, just to give it a more demonic appearance.

Characters can team up against each others' Shadows (and are actively encouraged to do so), but the final strike can only be delivered by the character the Shadow came from in the first place.

Accepting your Shadow is like Persona 4 - acknowledging your insecurities and fears out loud, and admitting that the Shadow is part of you. However, feel free to have more banter from your Shadows if you wish. These ones like to talk a lot for some reason...

▼ HOW DO I PARTICIPATE?

 

Easy! There are no sign-ups required for this event, so just post in the event log when it goes up on the night of the 16th. As mentioned above, the event runs through the 20th in-game, after which point any undefeated Shadows will vanish from the city. You can comment to this post with any event planning you want to do ahead of time, however.

And a final note, just to whet your appetites a little: participating in this event could go a long way toward justifying getting your character their Ultimate Persona when the time comes. And additionally, characters who participate in this event and face down or defeat their Shadows may even earn a special reward after the event is over. :)

As always, any questions and comments can be asked below, and we'll get to them as quickly as we can.

Comments

Q&A

[stringmods]

Any additional questions you may have about the event can be asked here!

[the_tv_is_a_lie]

What about people who help others deal with their Shadows, like this idiot :|

Re: Q&A

[hello_mgann]

Quick shape shifter related question. M'gann appears to others as a green girl, but in reality she is a white monster looking creature. Here is a picture

Since what M'gann fears most is others seeing her as an alien or a monster, is it possible for her shadow to assume her white monster form rather than the form others are familiar with? I'm okay with it announcing itself as M'gann's shadow to make the issue clear to others.

Plotting

[stringmods]

If you have plans you'd like to lay out in particular, feel free to reply using a new comment and see what horrible things you can do with others!

[demifemme]

I can't think because of headache but Shura is so getting a Shadow. She's gonna need an army to defeat it, or some excellent psychologists to accept it.

[the_tv_is_a_lie]

Souji...will be putting up a flowchart on how to deal with Shadows. This flowchart will be straightforward as hell.

And if anyone ignores his advice he is going to chase them down and help them deal with it. No questions asked. So who's going to ignore his advice? :|

I sadly have no ideas for Shadow Souji because he doesn't have any proper development yet. 8D;

Hiyono here has the same problem, but she will most definitely be helping out anyone she encounters! So who wants a privacy-invading dolt to assist them with Shadownanigans?

[tyrantball]

Desco: Between her current canon-point at the end of The Fuka & Desco Show and the Family Bonds log where she gained her Ultimate Persona, she doesn't really...have a Shadow anymore. However, she will totally be there if any of her CR has to deal with a Shadow, happily encouraging them to utterly deny that aspect of themselves, because as far as she's concerned anyone she likes cannot possibly be terrible.

Plus, you know, she has an Almighty attack that she can essentially spam at will during the 13th Hour and a penchant for gleeful violence.

I would like for Kotoha to have a Shadow but I would kind of need help brainstorming what it would be like. I sort of have a vague outline, but I could use some assistance! Right now all I can think of is getting Kotoha's CR to chime in with their impressions of her to help fill in the details, maybe?

Sarah is absolutely getting a Shadow, and it is going to be all about the creeping despair of fighting an endless battle against an enemy that can never be defeated for the life of a world that is already half-dead.

Re: Plotting

[blitzkriegzwei]

Germany is a "maybe" on getting a Shadow, since I'm a bit hazy on the details right now. His encounter might be a bit anticlimactic because he already has had to accept a lot of nasty things as a part of himself (thanks, history); he'll probably be rather resistant to them rearing their ugly heads once more. The fight will probably be mostly damage control as his Shadow wrecks things.

MiRa is definitely getting a Shadow. She has quite a bit of fodder for the Shadow to throw at her, including her true feelings on only being a weapon for humans to use, on having the support unit GiGi become a full-fledged Justice Rider, on the possibility of being rendered obsolete... so on and so forth. Furthermore, she might be very likely to deny her Shadow because A. she doesn't want others to know that she thinks these things and B. she's not entirely sure what she actually thinks on these issues. Oh, yeah, and her Shadow might out her as the Blood Red Justice Rider... if only because it's actually a really hard secret to keep on a practical level.

Apollo is another "maybe" for getting a Shadow. I want to have his Shadow show up in a courtroom (perhaps epic courtroom battle against the self can ensue, complete with presenting evidence and testimonies?), at least. Mostly the Shadow will fling stuff about not being able to find the truth on his own at him and some other insecurities. I really want that AA-style courtroom battle, though, even though it'll probably be hell to format... anyone want to provide witness testimonies in Apollo's favor? :'D

Fattycakes doesn't get a Shadow on account of being A PUFFBALL, but he might be alternating between being utterly terrified of all the people acting mean and trying to help people when he can, if only just by providing healing support and fuzzy comfort to people who have just defeated their Shadow. (Cue jokes about "I am a Shadow, the BUU self" in 5...)

Sasha is probably going to be useless during this event unless I think of something for her to do.

Re: Plotting

[badluckhealer]

Agatha Sheridan is absolutely getting a Shadow. She doesn't act it but she does have feelings, and those got traumatized/trained out of her at a young age. ...Except that they're more repressed than just gone, and people have been doing a good job of un-repressing some of them here.

Doesn't change the fact that change is scary and she's got a lot of unresolved issues to deal with. She's actually pretty bitter about her lot in life, but feels that she doesn't have the ability to change it. It's 'the way we've always done things' after all.

Basically, that cheery little kid from back during the little kid event? She never went away, but she did get screwed up by life and she's scared to possibly get screwed up again. And all of that's going to come out.

... On the bright side, Aggie's a support-Persona user, so the main issue people will have with the Shadow is that it can heal itself. It's not even full-heals, though. Oh, and it can use fire on things.

oh man.... I apologize in advance for Avitus's Shadow.

[poorlittleblueburdie]

Avitus's Shadow is... well, let's see. Avitus is pretty much full to bursting with resentment and bitterness, but tries never to let on about it. He hates what he is, its differences from being human (not just the downsides, but he really hates the parts others'd consider upsides, too), how old he is both in human terms and in total -- basically, his whole mild-and-cheerful disposition? He's lying to himself and everyone else with it; it's a complete front. He's a lot more broken and worn down and full of hate than he's let on.

So his Shadow's likely to be sarcastic and irritable to begin with, and express a ton of jealousy and hostility to humans in particular and everyone in general... and get upset too, over people "looking at him funny", probably even when they actually haven't yet.

His Shadow's not going to be easy to fight, either: Avitus doesn't have humanlike nails, he's got talons that he files down. I doubt his Shadow would file them at all. He can turn to mist for swift movement/intangibility/invisibility, he can jump high/far, fly, run very fast, has telekinesis... and you don't want to get kicked or hit with one of his wings. Ever. (Swans can break an adult human's tibia; how about something with a 25' wingspan?) And I should mention that he can heal from most any injury, almost like Wolverine.

...On the plus side, Avitus has never had a single bit of combat training, defensive or otherwise, even if his Shadow's more than willing to fight. Plus, he's only ever had his original Soul Persona, which is... not a combat type one. Small favors, right?

Not sure if he'd ever utter the words "you're not me", but he'd certainly tell it to shut up, even attack it to try shutting it up. And he will get his duff handed to him. It'll be like that Xander/Harmony fight, from Buffy, except the Shadow's surely less incompetent.

Would anyone want to poke at/try in vain to get its owner to accept/get beaten up by/beat up this Shadow?

[halberdaxe]

Noda will be getting a shadow! As opposed to the violent and stubborn behavior regular Noda has, the shadow version will be very quiet and timid, as well as extremely passive...most of the time. He's just as easily provoked into a fight, as well as unable to believe in anything spoken to him, especially from those who interact with him on a regular basis. Attempting to convince the shadow will only result into a violent crying fit.

Zioryle's shadow will be more chaotic on the other hand, enjoying fights and setting things on fire. The shadow's mood swings will be pretty bad, from laughing uncontrollably one second to snapping and yelling at everyone in the next. Since he has only recently joined the game, the outside influence for the shadow will come from his home world, in which his powers were regarded as a curse. His suppressed thought of "why not use the powers for selfish needs, they're gifts" would be very strong in his shadow self.

Plotting

[paradiseshrinemaiden]

.... I'm not sure what do with Reimu. >>;

I have headcanons for her insecurities and stuff, but I feel like she's too new and has no (real, substantial) CR and not even any castmates so no one would know what the hell her shadow would even be going on about for the most part and it wouldn't be as much fun for me because of that.

I mean, I like the idea of this plot and really would like to make Reimu a Shadow, but... I dunno. Of course I could be over thinking things...

Besides, despite my headcanons I'm not even sure what her shadow would be like. XD;

Edit: Okay, I kind of have an idea about what her shdadow would be like even though I still don't really know whether I'll do this one...

Shadow Reimu would not go around being evil like the other Shadows. Shadow Reimu will be nice, polite, earnest, bubbly and helpful! She will go around offering to help people fight their shadows and any demons that might be around and go on about how as Hakurei Miko, it is her duty to protect humans and keep balance between the Humans and Youkai and that means she must put her everyone else's needs before her own. Pretty much everything Reimu thinks/knows people expect someone with her job and position to be like and everything she isn't. She... will probably also either use her title while introducing herself or only refer to herself as The Hakurei Miko. Because one of the actual issues that Reimu doesn't acknowledge is that most people back home see her as the Hakurei Miko first and Reimu second if at all. She was a bit annoyed about what her Persona was really. There's other things, but I'm not sure of them yet.

Reimu would probably go a;alaka;kda;k and hunt her down so people won't think it's her and actually expect her to act like that and do things. She will also make it plain that this girl is nothing like her at all and don't you dare say otherwise. This means she will most definitely ignore Souji's advice.

(and this is why it'd be nice if she actually had CR who know what a lazy bum she normally is so they can boggle.)

Also, if I do end up bringing in Shadow Reimu, uh.... good luck fighting her. Even without Fantasy Heaven she is Broken as Fuck, so with her now being able to heal with her Persona on top of that, probably the only people who'd stand a chance would be Reimu herself or some of the heavier hitters from other canons.

Re: Plotting

[empiricalpride]

Oooh boy. Even's Shadow.
This ... is going to be interesting.

For starters? At his canon point, he has basically just been revived from a very, very long spell during which he hasn't been able to feel emotions. ... Or at least, that he's been unable to acknowledge that he might be feeling them. So having to confront all these things rattling around his head? Yeeeeah.
As a nice little side effect on that, yellow eyes in his world have a meaning all of their own...
There is a very good chance that he'll be going 'you're not me... because Vexen already died, and I'm no longer the same person'. Whoops. This is NOT the point to be logical, pal.

It's going to be a lot of 'that stage of my life is done therefore I don't have to acknowledge it, I can write it off as Vexen alone, la la la'. As for the exact things that're going to be going into the Shadow itself... well, let's start off with his feelings on those ten years of nothing. Add some of the anger he's been unable to feel over being pushed around and betrayed, and is sweeping away. Season with a need to be accepted, a need to prove himself worthy, and how much his being seen as a joke affected him. And perhaps throw in a pinch of guilt over having created beings just to be used as part of the Organization's plans - he should have been their father-figure, like he saw himself to Ienzo, and he just treated them like lab rats...

Anyway, yeah. Working on this.

Re: Plotting

[electricyousei]

Ruri will be getting a shadow. She has that whole "could have been a princess if fate was different" thing in the back of her head that she says she ignores and a slew of abandonment issues due to the "death" of her adopted family. 95% of what the character can do in her canon IS terrifying, just she doesn't because moderation is important, remove the whole repression thing and it may be bad. At least the shadow will have red eyes and be more easily noticed.

[bondsofsuffering]

Aoi will not have a Shadow due to having no repressed feelings! As a result, she will be running around helping people to defeat their Shadows and encourage them to accept in a totally nonjudgmental environment. She will not back down and will use her barriers/healing to protect people from their Shadows as long as necessary (or until she collapses if it comes to that) for them to come to terms with their Shadows. So people who need rescuing, feel free to hit her up!

And then we get to the doozy.

Hizumi's Shadow will be ridiculously chipper and happily embracing the fact that he can and in fact wants to live out his life in Hinoto-Ri. After all, Hinoto-Ri presents a future where he won't have to die, and that's always an excellent thing, right? Aside from suddenly getting an oracle that demands you to wipe out humanity, but details. Life is better than none at all! And since most people perceive him as being relentlessly cheerful and optimistic, that's exactly how he'll act in regards to all of this - with still a faint shadow (ha) of something darker behind all of that. That said, he will be very cheerfully hunting down his original because that loser doesn't even want to survive, so why should he get to live out his life?

It's also worth noting that since Hizumi normally has golden eyes, his Shadow will have red ones. Feel free to mistake the original as a Shadow anyway!

It is also incredibly likely that Shadow Hizumi will be tag teaming with Shadow Ayumu against their originals, so help may be incredibly good to have since Hizumi at least will be very quick to completely deny his Shadow from the get-go.

[terminally_clever]

Nano isn't getting a Shadow because she's already resolved all of her deepest insecurities over a year or so of positive CR, culminating in all that keyblade and Ultimate Persona jazz she's got going on. So she'll be helping out her friends where she can with their own existential crises.

Fumi, on the other hand, will indeed be getting a Shadow for this event. It actually won't be that immediately dangerous to anyone but Fumi herself, though. The Shadow will be formed from the repressed impulse Fumi has to make friends and rely on others - the biggest thing she's denying is that while she has legitimately accomplished a lot on her own, there are still things she couldn't have done without help from others. So her Shadow is going to be a little friendlier than Fumi herself, and will be asking for other people to help her out with things it's doing. I haven't planned anything specific yet on that front, but I'll come up with something.

[hachitaro]

Taro is absolutely getting a Shadow. He's going to have a lot of trouble defeating it, given that it's going to pick at over a century's worth of weaknesses. It might be teaming up with the Shadows from the Spiral boys, so we'll see how that goes. Basically it's going to be calling him out on how he's largely denying being a demon and always has - he hid with a human family when he was young, he kept moving in human circles, he wants to protect them even now - and call him out on his wanting to become more powerful to protect people but not being willing to take the steps to do it. Which are awful steps.

Otoha will also be getting a Shadow, which will essentially be alternating between acting like his father and acting like a scared child. Basically he'll be trying to come to terms with the fact that he is his father's son but that doesn't mean his destiny has to be the same, and he is a protector and he's not useless, and that he's his own person.

Blackquill will not be getting a Shadow because it's too soon.

Tsukasa may or may not get a Shadow. I'm largely bouncing around ideas for him at this point, but if he does it'll be a very weird one.

Naoya will not be getting a Shadow because he has to run damage control on Aggie and possibly Fumi. Also he already knows the horrible parts of himself and there's really nothing his Shadow can say to shock him. :|

Hallelujah and Allelujah will also not be getting Shadows because they are each other's Shadows, by definition. |Db

Plotting

[hello_mgann]

M'gann: M'gann will be getting a shadow. Her shadow will be formed out of her desire to not be seen as an alien or a monster. So naturally it will take on her more monstrous natural form. She's going to need some friends to help her out with this one, so if you have CR with M'gann please help her.

Misfit: Misfit will also get a shadow. Her shadow will be based on her fear that she is useless and not good at being a hero. Misfit is pretty immature emotionally so expect this to get worse before it gets better.

[otakuro]

Atsuro will be the one I play with during this event! I think it's a good opportunity to have him confront some of his issues that would never normally get out in the open.

Atsuro generally has issues with being abandoned since his parents basically ditched him to raise himself/be raised by the Internet or something equally not-responsible. Part of why he's friendly and social is because the thought of not having friends does scare him. And definitely part of why he's so loyal is because he would hate it if anyone ever ditched him, and he isn't going to do that to anyone if he can help it. He doesn't like to admit it, though - he presents as pretty confident, because mostly, he is. He managed to raise himself fine, he has tons of friends, and he's got tons of Internet friends too so it's like he has twice as many he's totally cool.

His Shadow and the part of him that he doesn't want to accept will be the part that's clingy and needy and afraid of being ditched, basically.

[angryyoungvamp]

Okay, I'm really back now. I really apologize for flaking out earlier - combination of Thanksgiving and getting a new job.

Maugris is a prime shadow candidate. He has issues with his state of being, especially after the frenzy during the TRYHARDO episode. Shadow Maugris is probably just going to have his fangs out all the time, purely to screw with Maugris. He may also actually start attacking people, because that's one thing Maugris has strenuously avoided in Hinoto-Ri because of the circumstances. Maugris has issues with both the predator-monster thing that a lot of "tragic" vampires get, though to a lesser extent, and with the fact that most of the vampires he's known have been jerks to varying degrees.

Which really feeds into his bigger issue. Maugris has a hero-complex thing going, but in his world the Masquerade kind of precludes letting most people know about what he does, and again, most of the ones who do know are vampires and, again, jerks. And let's not even get into him having majorly failed to protect his city and having been undermined in a significant way by someone he trusted and a good number of his subordinates just before getting brought to Hinoto-Ri, after an extended period of fighting against overwhelming odds in a situation he was largely ignorant of (and knew it, and didn't like it).

And then there's the bit where he's occasionally forced to do something he really doesn't like (like, say, killing someone) in pursuit of the greater good.

So basically Maugris doesn't have a lot of issues, but he's got pretty serious and fundamental ones. Shadow Maugris is likely to try to eat people and generally be the worst kind of asshole a vampire can possibly be, rant about nobody appreciating him and trying to help people not being worth it, and pile on some ends-justify-the-means crap in the bargain. He may claim to be trying to save the city from itself, but probably won't actually believe it.

Fighting Shadow Maugris will probably involve him swording and throwing wind everywhere, and possibly trying to grab and drain people if/when he runs low on blood. The good news is that he's not actually all that great at grabbing people - he's strong, but he's got no training or practice at unarmed combat. The bad news is that it'll be a struggle just to get near him. Maugris's magic includes a personal shield, a ranged area knockdown attack, and one ability Maugris tries not to use in populated areas - the ability to futz with air pressure to the extent that people who need to breathe start suffocating. Shadow Maugris will, predictably, use this every chance he gets; your best bet is to hit him with something to interrupt him casting it. He may or may not even bother with Malagi; if he does his version's armor is probably going to be all tarnished and have a whole Black-Knight thing going on.

Erk is probably not getting a Shadow, because Maugris is going to take up a lot of attention and Erk's issues are mostly just him being uncomfortable with ~feelings~ anyway. Feel free to ask for help with your Shadows, though! He'll probably think Shadows are Morphs until he runs into one that doesn't have black hair.

Ideas

[alwaysfaithful]

Chris will be getting a Shadow is that's allowed for newly arrived characters. Basically, Chris' major probelms inwardly are his father issues that he might never be good enough in his dad's eyes and the fact that he's physically weak (example: his asthma) he doesn't have a lot of confidance and self esteem.

Nothing else really stands out.

late as always gosh...

[ex_knightsky842]

tbh I'm just glad to be back before this event ends woosh!!!


Dagran is perfect for this event since he's a mental maze! He is so getting a shadow and I am so pumped for it. Also he's so going to deny it because it's going to be blurting all of his nasty little secrets.

And he already has nice, gold-ish eyes. A few shades lighter, who's gonna notice?

I haven't gotten much out yet since I just really got back, but I'm thinking that it'll be a slightly younger, skinnier version of him who is full of anger and hatred and who will go singing about his fear of being unable to protect the people he cares about.

Somehow I want to kind of emphasise how he fights his fear by doing anything possible to protect them by steamrolling over everyone else but idk. Still hashing that out mentally.

[melodyoflogic]

Ayumu is a bit of a tough cookie since he has tons of canon flaws and repressed feelings but accepts most of them as fact and doesn't try too hard to change several of them. But there is one Hinoto-Ri has been slowly bringing to the forefront over time.... and that is that Ayumu has trouble letting himself be as happy as he can be, both due to personality and canon issues. With the city the way it is, he's not dying! And he's also got Hizumi and Hiyono both here, two people who are very important to him in canon, precious friendships he's made when he lets so few people be important to him to begin with. Add that to the time this place has given him, and you've got a shadow that wants to stay in Hinoto-Ri forever, living out a happier life and damning the consequences and lives potentially lost from such a choice. Shadow Ayumu is a lot more driven and a lot more honest with himself about reaching for what will make him personally happy, unlike his counterpart who gives up on his own happiness far too easily.

And of course, he'll also be hunting down his original, because not only does he want that happy life here in Hinoto-Ri as the only Ayumu, that idiot doesn't even try to accept how good he's got it, so why should he get to live? It's likely Shadow Ayumu will be tag teaming with Shadow Hizumi and potentially Shadow Taro as well, so there's also that!

Akane and Yuzu

[blessed_by_the_world]

Akane's hidden issues mostly revolve around her family. Her grandfather is head of a powerful yakuza syndicate and her whole family is involved in the 'business' to some extent. Since she got to Hinoto-Ri, Akane has been trying to prove that she can live just as well working honestly.

By now though, she kind of knows that isn't true. She's seen evidence that crime does, in fact, pay. It gets you fancy clothes and expensive cars and all kinds of things.

So her shadow will be getting back in touch with her criminal roots. She's still a child though, so this will take the form of minor acts of vandalism and looting. Because seriously, with the city still being repaired, there must be plenty of stores that are still being repaired. They should be easy to break into.


Yuzu is also getting a shadow. Given the ending I took her from(Naoya's ending, eighth day, killing humans route) the thing she's suppressing is resentment. She still hasn't forgiven Kazuya or Atsuro for going off with Naoya and siding with the demons. And she's a little resentful that the Midori and Atsuro here got to come from a happy little world where everything worked out. Why does she have to be from the bad ending?

Of course, she knows it's not their fault. So she'd never admit to feeling that way. But that's fine, her shadow will do it for her.

[unbroken_chain]

Kotoha will totally be willing to help Akane deal with her Shadow, mostly because she thinks Akane is an awesome kid.