2025-07-11: The Trail Will Run Cold

• Log: The Trail Will Run Cold
• Cast: Crossroads Bar, Katsuya Suou, Miho Ijuuin, Yua Ooshiro, Remi Ryuuja, Shiryuu Ryouhara, Yukari Takeba, Ulala Serizawa, Myunghon Yeo, Umie Akabane, Mio Kazama, Masao Inaba, Shinobu Shimizu, Maya Amano
• Where:
• OOC Date: July 11, 2025
• IC Date: June 08, 2012
• Summary: Miho gets the order to ensure two officers disappear, when they wander into a mermaid's cove -- and the assistance of a ninja to do so, whether she and her assets like it or not. But Katsuya Suou and his junior officer Hiori Hamade won't be killed so easily, when plenty of other parties are drawn into the fray. It seems there's an unknown force, interested in keeping the Joker Killer mystery unsolved...

---

<Pose Tracker> Crossroads Bar has posed.

    Everyone knows the tourist trap that is Ebisu Beach -- but not everyone is dedicated to walk out far enough to beat the crowds. Hiori Hamade, junior officer with the Homicide Department, is determined enough. She wears a cashmere-knit scarf over her uniform, habitually, even though it's blisteringly hot out -- a gift from her grandma, as she tells it at base. She's not only stubborn in her uniform violations, though: she's been stubbornly following the Joker Killer for some time now. Her hunches have been overlooked by many of her colleagues -- she's a woman, they say, so she's bound to be getting too emotional about it all. (It's easier, to laugh at a woman.) They're laughing at her all the way to the top, because she can't have really found anything.

    But she has. Sukemichi Wakiyachi was a businessman who rubbed shoulders with the best and brightest -- even in the areas of law and policy. Hiori became aware of his name as it came up one too many times... but by the time she tracked him down, he was another case in her department. There's pressure to rule his death by drowning as an accident, but without recovering his body, they can't be sure -- and no one's been able to find him.

    Well. Until now.

    The Homicide Department gets far too many calls about bodies. When one comes in about a bloater, well -- of course they're happy to send Hiori to check it out. "Go with Suou-san," the dispatch officer suggests, dismissively. "He's the only one with the patience for your wild theories, these days." Not to be discouraged, Hiori has spoken of several of those theories to her senior officer on the trip out there. Trudging through the touristy area of the beach out to a quieter area is -- slow, walking through sand on a hot June day.

    Sand sinks beneath your feet. It shifts beneath you. When it's too dry, it's easy to be heavier than it; when it's too wet, you can end up bogged down, unable to lift your feet thanks to the suction of the damp sand. And it gets -- in -- your -- shoes.

    What's worse is that the person who sent the tip to the police must have talked about it, on that beach, because some stickybeaks are coming in to have a gander. Civilians, snooping! Rubbernecking! Curious! At least the creepy, more-than-overcast feeling which falls over the beach as they keep walking seems to have dissuaded some curiosity, but...

    ... the cops aren't the only people who are going to be having a look.

    Dogs alert. Cats hiss. The vibes are bad, here; of course the vibes are bad here. This curve of the beach isn't just quieter than the main event... there's a mermaid's cove, curved into the cliffs. Their siren's song is faint, in the background, easy to mistake for the whistling of the sea breeze -- but certainly present,

    Hiori swallows, and strides forward, nervous yet brave.

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    Every day in a city the size of Sumaru, people die. Mostly, they die for expected reasons: the doctor and the coroner handle those cases. There may be additional inquiry, but it is rare -- an autopsy, even more so. It's the unexpected deaths that may fall into the remit of the police, and particularly of the homicide unit. This is especially so when someone calls in an unexpected body.

    Perhaps this case is merely someone who fell into the river while out very late drinking. Or perhaps not. Hamade suspects not, as Katsuya Suou has learned on the way out to the site.

    His involuntary leave had ended, of course: he's still an officer of the Konan Department. It's just also true that he's no longer working on the Joker Killer case. His attempts to speak to his former colleagues on the team had been met with silence: whatever they're working on, it seems he's not to know. But of course, this is not unusual, in this society. His own investigation will have to proceed without what information he can glean from his colleagues, it seems.

    Hiori Hamade is an odd duck, by even his estimation: as a junior officer in homicide, she hadn't been assigned to the serial case, but it sounds like she's been assembling casework on her own time and has been following up on her own theories.
    Most of them aren't even wrong, based on the extracurricular information Katsuya has learned about the killer over the last week and then some. Which--

    Rather begs the question about the trees the task force team has been barking up, doesn't it? Is it possible that everyone on the team (talented, career homicide detectives, hand-selected by Captain Shimazu) has completely missed what has been going on?

    These existential questions aside, they've arrived on the beach. Unfortunately, they're not alone.

    Also unfortunately, the sand, as they approach the less-traveled corner of the beach, is sodden with the tide. It sinks underfoot. His shoes -- good, expensive dress shoes -- fill with wet sand. Not a bit of this shows on Katsuya's face, but...
    This is deeply unpleasant.

    It's not nearly as unpleasant as the feeling that has begun to pervade this place as they draw nearer to the cavern, further yet along the beach. Something is not right. Katsuya throws out his left hand, urging Hiori to stop. "Hamade-kun." Some deep, animalistic sense is screaming at the back of his skull: he's walked into an ambush, somehow, But where are his ambushers? He reaches into his jacket, his fingers slowly closing around his service sidearm. He wants to be wrong.

<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.

The orders came through from Rokuro Nishiyama, but they didn't originate from him: this was a job direct from someone more important and less replaceable than he is. ...Another job; another way of justifying the suppressants' continued flow. And...

A reason for 'Miyu' to move forth. The vibes are bad here, and they're about to get worse.

"You are brave," comes a woman's voice from the cavern, before a very tall figure in black armor and a white mask steps forth. She has a veil hooding her mask, to conceal the rest of her head; she has a sword at her side, a saber that is now in hand, basket-hilt protecting gloved fingers.

She continues, "That is commendable... But unfortunate." A slow shake of her head, "You have been betrayed."

"Draw your firearm," the woman in black suggests, stepping forward onto the sands, her boots leaving heavy imprints. "Defend yourselves, by all means. Do as you must, that your final hours be those of which you can be proud."

"...Because there is nothing left for you in this fallen world."

Her mask could be porcelain, featureless but for two spaces for eyes, shaded over to shield her identity. Her sword looks sharp; she is armored.

And slowly, deliberately, without hurrying, she walks towards Hiori.

"Forward," she directs her companions.

OST: BOSS BATTLE: P2EP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXNVreNk9lk

AS: Miho Ijuuin has placed a new bucket with a capacity of 3! +bjoin Miho Ijuuin to sign up!

<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.

    One of Miyu's companions is a woman apparently called 'Yumi', whose veils are doubled and redoubled. She wears no mask; instead, layers of fascinators obscure the front of her face, down to a fine, opaque black mesh resting near her skin. Behind her, a longer black bridal veil falls, trailing finely in her wake.

    She has already exposed her eye, under there. Now, it is hidden as much as anything about her, but for the fact her skin is darker and her rose-red lips are set in a thin line. Black gloves stretch up to her elbows -- beneath the right, her wrist is taped, to avoid the identifiable frame of a wrist brace giving her away. Grey body armour protects her core, though her arms are bare; a pale dress falls beneath it, met by grey footwear.

    Yumi holds a heavy revolver, in her left hand, slate grey and large in her small hands; she is a small woman, under her veils, five foot even and dainty. She moves forward, on Miyu's order, her teeth grit firm. "There is no recourse," she issues, with a tense and theatric tone. Her voice doesn't quite sound the same as the dance teacher who just started a program at everyone's schools... because she is an excellent performer. (The shrouding magics clinging to them help, too.) "And there can be no retreat."

    "GRETCHEN!"

    That woman places her revolver to her left eyesocket, and fires. Glass rather than bone shatters out behind her -- and shatters RED, as red flames burn from her eyesocket, and a maiden in a white dress rises behind her. Gretchen's body is covered with all the fine jewels Mephistopheles plied her with -- and her arms are skewered with the jail bars of her ultimate fate. With a gaze obscured by a pale mask, Gretchen turns to their opponents as they finish gathering here, and spreads her cage-wings wide.

    Horrible red static infiltrates the senses of any Navigators present -- and a disorienting sense claims anyone who might try to run the other way. The minimap has been obscured! There's no clear method of escape... and no clear way to guide your allies here!

    Gretchen remains behind the woman who summoned her, and in this, they will know: she is their Navigator, creating the passive effects of this battle. If they want to get out of here, they can't just ignore her, either.

AS: Yua Ooshiro has placed a new bucket with a capacity of 2! +bjoin Yua Ooshiro to sign up!

<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.

One might wonder about how one junior officer by the name of Hiori Hamade isn't affected by the blistering heat with her regulation-breaking scarf.

One might equally wonder about the woman in all black, named 'Tsurugi', who steps forward from Miyu's other side. She stands about 168cm (5'6") tall, and what she's wearing looks vaguely like fencer's armor, but that hers is rendered in all black, and is form-fitting to boot. Black gloves and boots complete the set.

The outfit covers her body, and an all-black fencing mask hides her face and bundles up her hair, leaving no sigh of who she might be.

On her left hip she carries a rapier, her right thigh a black holster with another of those heavy revolvers tucked inside. (It will look better in her hand when she eventually draws it.) On the small of her back is a hidden black sheath.

She doesn't quite have the stature of the 'Miyu' standing beside her, but her attitude is implacable nonetheless. And some here may have witnessed her in Mementos the day prior, where she charged at the Grim Reaper. She doesn't say anything as she approaches, merely unsheathes her rapier... and from her back pulls out a dagger, wielding both with comfrtable ease.

AS: Remi Ryuuja has placed a new bucket with a capacity of 2! +bjoin Remi Ryuuja to sign up!
AS: Yukari Takeba has joined Miho Ijuuin's bucket! 1 out of 3 slots filled!
AS: Maya Amano has joined Remi Ryuuja's bucket! 1 out of 2 slots filled!
Crossroads Bar (Crossroads) pages Katsuya Suou, Miho Ijuuin, Remi Ryuuja, and Shiryuu Ryouhara: we'll give him to 7:10,
and then we'll have to look at moving forward; we have a big crowd, and we don't know what happened to him

AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara has placed a new bucket with a capacity of 2! +bjoin Shiryuu Ryouhara to sign up!
AS: Umie Akabane has joined Shiryuu Ryouhara's bucket! 1 out of 2 slots filled!

<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.

 

     "If I didn't know any better, I'd think 'that man' hated his subordinates..."

     He doesn't wear a mask, a grey-haired youth wearing what could be best described as an urban-styled haori over equally exotic street clothes. A little shoulder bag and a length wrapped in black velvet makes him appear for all the world like a drifter, a vagabond.

     He doesn't stand exactly with the rest of the group, instead crouched down a little ways away, resting his body weight closer to the sand. Despite being in the middle of a beach and the flashiness of his dress, the exact lines of his silhouette is rather hard to pick out against the dunes when he's low to the ground like that. Gloved fingertips play idly with sand, a drizzle of pale white falling into the black of his shadow.

     With one hand, he unshoulders and unwraps the length suspended from his bag. It rests over his knees, before a dark pearl handled hilt slides out of the velveteen back, a black sheathed sword resting over his knees. The fittings make a light rattle as the red static squalls in his mind's eye. 'Miyu' gives the order.

     The sheathed katana lifts to one side. A thumb braces against the guard, tensing the blade gainst the lock of the saya. Everything seems to quiet, sound falling into a vast hole with the boy's focus. "Sarutahiko Okami," he seethes.

     "Release."

     The click of the sword releasing from its sheath fills that silent hole with a harsh, unyielding crack like a gunshot in the dead of night. A fractal trail of concentric, haphazard squares rips free in a whipping line from the mouth of the saya in a broad echoing halo, black and seething in a multifarious knot, changing color to white. By the time the artifacting resolves from black haze into falling silver feathers, a silhouette is appearing from beyond the black.

     The nameless boy is already moving. Go.

AS: Miho Ijuuin has readied for combat as Faust! She is now fully healed! Ready for 3 opponents!

<Pose Tracker> Crossroads Bar has posed.

    Hiori Hamade is doing her own investigation. She's technically not supposed to be, but as she tells Katsuya animatedly, she's sure her superiors have missed something here. Maybe she's just crazy -- the men in the break room always kind of act like she's just crazy -- but she really thinks all those big names are leading to something...!

    ... and at least Katsuya is willing to listen to her. It's lucky there's still someone who thinks she deserves the badge she graduated into. Who else could be her partner today?

    Hiori bravely doesn't complain about the wet sand. (Junior officers have to be brave; who do you think they send in to dig through trash bags for evidence? Even though old banana peels are SO GROSS!) She's more brave than experienced, though -- and not just in her profession; she doesn't recognise the bad vibes of this cove, as the beach curves back into a cave in the rock. She halts herself right quick as Katsuya throws his arm out, but she's left looking from side to side, confused. "A--are you worried about the civilians?" She asks, looking at the people on the beach with them. "We can put up some police tape! Tell them to --"

    ... that's when a masked woman and her cronies walk out of the cave, telling them to arm themselves, summoning monsters which dive straight into her uncanny valley. She takes out her firearm, firing centre mass at the huge form of Gretchen -- but the shots sink into the white of her dress, and disappear, with not a trace of red blood. "W-w-w-what?" She stammers, all her training falling flat in the face of a mystery in the dark. "My gun... my gun didn't take her down?! But I've never heard a rumour like that...!" When Gretchen turns her masked face towards her, Hiori shrieks, ducking behind Katsuya. "Suou-san! What's going on?!"

    She doesn't have a Persona. If this were a normal suspect, she'd be able to hold her ground, but --

    Mission: Protect Hiori!

AS: Myunghon Yeo has joined Miho Ijuuin's bucket! 2 out of 3 slots filled!
AS: Crossroads Bar has readied for combat as Pixie Mob! They is now fully healed! Ready for 2 opponents!
AS: Yua Ooshiro has readied for combat as Gretchen! She is now fully healed! Ready for 2 opponents!
AS: Ulala Serizawa has joined Yua Ooshiro's bucket! 1 out of 2 slots filled!
AS: Maya Amano has readied for combat as Maia! She is now fully healed!
AS: Remi Ryuuja has readied for combat as La Maupin! She is now fully healed! Ready for 2 opponents!
AS: Shinobu Shimizu has joined Remi Ryuuja's bucket! 2 out of 2 slots filled!
Huh?  (Type "help" for help.)
Huh?  (Type "help" for help.)

AS: Mio Kazama has joined Miho Ijuuin's bucket! 3 out of 3 slots filled!
AS: Masao Inaba has joined Yua Ooshiro's bucket! 2 out of 2 slots filled!
AS: Katsuya Suou has joined Shiryuu Ryouhara's bucket! 2 out of 2 slots filled!

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    Junior Officer Hamade is a little bit strange, but, if he's being completely fair and honest here: far from the strangest person he's met in the last few weeks. Very, very far from that. And given his current position on the force, even if Katsuya were inclined to dismiss her on account of her youth and gender... well, in a list of illogical actions, that's probably the most illogical. The fact remains that, on her own, she has almost gotten the right picture of things: a feat he hadn't accomplished until he'd happened to be in the right (or wrong) place at the right time.

    He's going to have to think about this later. Perhaps there's something they can make use of here. He certainly can't rely on his other fellow officers presently, it seems...

    It wasn't all that long ago that he was himself a junior officer, honestly. If it weren't for his various promotions in the last few years... perhaps he would be in the same boat. In any case, working the homicide beat requires one to have a strong stomach, even if he doesn't have to go digging through trash very much anymore with the rank of seargeant.

    "...No, actually..." he says, after a moment's hesitation. How does he put into words the sense that something is awry about this place? He still hasn't seen anything wrong--

    And then they appear. The masked woman and her apparent allies emerge from the cave. They've been... betrayed? "What do you mean by that!" Katsuya shouts rather than asks, drawing his firearm just as she suggests he ought.

    One of them puts a firearm to her head.

    "Wait--"

    And fires, before he can even speak more than a word. Rather than blood, though-- there's no mistaking that. That's a Persona. He casts one sharp look at the people before them. All of these people...!? "Hamade-kun! Get back! Your bullets won't work on it!"

    So he knows what that is--?

    There are any number of targets here that would be valid and acceptable under the current situation. Yet, as his gaze sweeps across the group arrayed against them, one figure, on the move, stands out before him. There. Raising his service sidearm, he takes aim as the boy moves for them and fires.

AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara has readied for combat as Sarutahiko Okami! He is now fully healed! Ready for 2 opponents!
AS: Weapon! Katsuya Suou has used the Pierce skill Handgun - Shot on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 2 Hits!
AS: Katsuya Suou's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 53 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Handgun - Shot. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 37 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Handgun - Shot.

<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.

Earlier Today...

Yukari made a day trip to Sumaru City in order to test out the 'Skill Cards' that Rumormonger Merry brought to her attention.

Checking the Address on Aoba Way, she steps in that strange blue door. After a gut-churning moment, her vision clears and-

Theme of the Velvet Room - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9GkTgg-Ou4

"Welcome... to the Velvet Room."

"/o~ I am Belladonna... I praise visiting warriors /o~ Who challenge the monster called thyself /o~"

"Whoa... there really is a guy with a long nose!" She said with a hand up to her mouth, before taking in the sights, and sighs, "Uhhh, first impression? You're not really convincing me this isn't a cabaret lounge."

Igor smiled, with a normal amount of teeth.

-=-=-

Now, after running that 'errand' Yukari is in the middle of unwinding at the beach. She's got a pair of cut-off denim shorts on, and a pink bikini with a tasseled tie, a pair of sunglasses sitting on her head.

Of course, she has her Yumibukuro with her, atop a bag. Ordinarily she'd leave her Evoker behind on a trip like this, but when she's dealing with the supernatural... wellllll... she's stitched a hidden pocket in her bag for it.

The last thing she wants to do is explain to the cops that 'it's not a real gun officers, honest.'

With her sunscreen carefully applied, she was stretching out and enjoying the sea breeze. She's due back later tonight, but why not spend a few hours?

"I really needed this... things have been awkward lately. Not that they aren't always..."

Of course Yukari sees the throng of people wayyyyy down on the beach near that cavern which is way past the warning signs, but it's not her problem. "Probably just some excitement over someone who went too far out." She sighs - but there's noone shouting for help, and no sirens so... she figures... "No big deal."

... but then something causes her to look again. A feeling, a notion, like a sickly rhythmic pounding of a heartbeat in her head, as the world briefly pulses monochromatic. "Huh!? What...? Not now!"

Nobody else from SEES is here...

"It's... really not my problem." She declares to herself again, and as she grabs her bag, she decides to get up and go... but then, she looks again.

Those people over there... it's not the Dark Hour, and they're not coffins. Which means if they get caught up in something...

<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.

-=-=-

Yukari's bag is still flapping over her shoulder as she reaches the cavern, still hiking up a foot to put one of her shoes back on. Her bow is at least strung, and there's a quiver over her shoulders.

"I hope no one caught me on film out there..."

Soooo Yukatan...! About this post that just went ~*viral*~
'Bow-Toting Bikini Babe Joins the Battle!' Heh heh, wow if I'd known you'd be putting on a show in Sumaru, I'd have gone with you!

"If that happens, he's dead meat."

Really though, her heart is just pounding right now, out of synch with that sickly resonance that caught her that off guard, hand fumbling for the inseam of her bag with the sewed in pocket.

Her Evoker comes out, along with leg holster, as she hastily straps it around her right thigh... and keeps running that way, her shoes start to sink in and cause them to stumble somewhat when...

A woman appears, then she sees another.

"Huh!? You're the one's causing these problems? I thought it'd be Shadows..." However, as one of them notes there can be no retreat, "... Hold on! Police tape...?" She picks out the words from those two figures, even as Yua calls out for Gretchen, "You can use your Persona here? And you're attacking Cops? Are you crazy!? I-hugh-!"

A disorienting wave passes over her, and suddenly her sense of direction is all over the place, holding her head for a moment, she slowly unholsters her Evoker. That guy? (A cop?) Looks weirdly familiar... he's already firing and-

"Well if they can do it..."

And puts it to her head. This might be a surreal experience to someone with no experience with Evokers, because a teenage girl just held a pistol to her head with both hands...

"J-Just... put it to my head..."

Her finger tenses against the trigger. It's not the same is it? As against Shadows, monsters. Not when it's people.

She doesn't want to die.
She doesn't want anyone else to die.

"... and pull the trigger..."

She's scared.

"... Help me, IO!" She pulls the trigger, and while sinking into herself, something bubbles up, and something shatters like glass, fracturing as her Persona appears, a bull-headed effigy, with a featureless fey girl chained to it.

Lifting her hands, the winds descend around Miho, churning and rending, as they try to halt her advance.

"Whew..."

It would have been really embarrassing if that hadn't worked here after all.

AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Wind skill Garu on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Yukari Takeba's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.

Two ladies came here together, one of them being Ulala Serizawa, the fashionably dressed lingerie saleswoman who keeps poking into supernatural stuff with her roommate.

When she sees Katsuya and the other cop, she considers calling out. BUT THAT'D REVEAL SHE'S SNOOPING.

Snooping! Katsuya would arrest them... and tell them off... and he's so *stuffy*.

So, instead, Ulala asides to her roommate, "Should we just let them deal with this? We're... kinda in the way..."

And then the whole world goes blind.

Ulala, considering leaving, is disoriented briefly, turning to find the source - she doesn't know much about Navigators, being a greenhorn, but she can tell Yua in the back is probably doing some manner of Witchcraft.

"Nevermind! There's enemies here, Maya! We gotta help!"

She runs straight past Katsuya, likely bewildering him as she gives him a thumbs-up and a shout out, "Katsuya-san, we're here!"

Ulala then proceeds to take a boxing stance in front of Yua.

"You know, it's not fucking nice to try and murder people! Especially cops! Didn't you learn any manners?!" Ulala shouts, concentrating.

"Callisto!"

With a concentration of pure will and a surge of blue energy around her as she summons a tarot card of the Star, a woman in a dress with a high heel stomped in her face, wrapped in loose shibari and bound at the wrists, manifests above the ground.

The Persona, is, of course, a feint - she's not summoning it immediately as much as she is just getting it ready...

Ulala instead comes in for a swing, Persona-enhanced fists moving rapidly towards Yua's upper center of body. Her stance is good, her skill and reach are flexible, and she clearly knows how to box - not just some random civilian throwing a punch.

"I'll give you this one chance to *go home* and think about what you've done, damnit!

AS: Avoid Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 78 Wind damage from Yukari Takeba's Garu.

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.

    Sumaru City stirs. It's a living, breathing mechanism that pulsates and shifts in the night, when no one is looking; clubs become mazes, waitresses become ninjas... and the price of a death is only one roaming phone call away. Ever since Myunghon spoke with Shinjiro, it became very clear -- they'd long suspected, but this was confirmation -- that the police was involved with the Joker Killer, in some regard. Covering up for him, or having the more righteous members of the PD be stymied...

    Like today. A fellow rumourmonger told them about Ebisu Beach today, the Master, a man with a mysterious past that Myunghon feels involves a hotel business and a pirate ship. No, he only talks about those days in a faraway manner, gazing eyelessly at his model pirate ship, and yet...

    The NWO has sent its best. The agents 'Miyu' and 'Yumi', who exude an inexorable palpable force of menace and despair. Myunghon can still feel it, like the very day they Awakened -- the white mask, the black armour and veil....

    The sword.

    The promised sword.

    Yumi -- Yumi, Yumi, Yumi... why does her brain keep coming back to that, like it were an unpicked scab they need to tear away until it bleeds? -- summons Gretchen through horrific means, and the very room becomes disorienting and unclear. The very open space of Ebisu Beach may as well have become a maze.

    And 'Tsurugi'... yes, the players are all here. This is the piece de resistance of their life -- the nagging feeling that's convinced them that they need to pivot their entire life around this. Another revolver, the black fencing mask, the rapier... who is that fourth, though? They aren't familiar with the man with the katana. Wearing a haori over fashionable street clothes, they ertainly make an impression.

    It's time to make their entrance.

    SUDDENLY

    The Horrible Squealing Noise of a slick-ass 90s muscle-car, a Bonda-NSX, roars into street down Ebisu-doori, neatly cleaving a path through traffic by virtue of just climbing up the sidewalk and then LAUNCHING off a ramp and sailing past a billboard advertising the new CHERRY MOONKIST -- QUENCH THY THIRST!. The hang time is incredible.

    There is a person atop the car. They have somehow not been thrown completely off the roof. As the car's wheels dig into sand and somehow doesn't completely suck and die due to it, it pulls into a wheelie within combat distance.

    Atop is...

    "Not so fast, Cretins of the Night! So long as I draw breath, you shall not sully the honourable name of the Grand Investigation with your underhanded tricks!"

    It's Myunghon. Their coat has been upgraded into their Cognitive Coat, which flutters dramatically and seems to rise of their own will behind them, but they largely still wear the same dress shirt and pants combo -- including all their bandages.

    "Take heed and bear witness, for I am the pin in the cogs, the shade of night that wreathes havoc 'pon your best-laid plans!"

    They gracefully leap off the roof of the car, and then lands in a slick three-point landing, then pirouettes into a striking pose. There is a grand, if slightly wretched smirk on their face.

    "I am Rumourmonger Merry... and I am HOPE. Now, prepare yourself, White Mask Miyu! PERSONA!"

    They thrust their hand forth, and out comes Kuldak in a mighty column of Blue -- and with a wave of its hands, slithering tendrils of shadow grasp at and start to leech away at the armoured woman's strength!

AS: Persona! Myunghon Yeo has used the Dark skill Shibaboo on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Myunghon Yeo's turn has ended.
AS: Weapon! Ulala Serizawa has used the Strike skill Mean Hook on Yua Ooshiro! 2 Hits!
AS: Ulala Serizawa's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Dark damage from Myunghon Yeo's Shibaboo.

AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 23 Strike damage from Ulala Serizawa's Mean Hook. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 12 Strike damage from Ulala Serizawa's Mean Hook.

<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

    Maybe, Umie had the wrong of it, here.

    Maybe it's not just a case of two brothers being at odds because they're brothers, but something more. In fact, Tatsuya *would* be paranoid of Katsuya if Katsuya was secretly in the NWO, right? He wouldn't signal as much to Umie, because he'd be paranoid of her by association, or he felt that this would draw her in. 'Don't get involved'? Well, Umie needs no permission. If Katsuya's somehow become a member of the NWO, this is something she needs to know for her own reasons.

    Dressed in a light-colored wind-breaker, a baseball cap, and glasses, Umie's dyed hair may be a tip-off (she couldn't pile it all underneath her baseball cap, so she opted for a ponytail instead), but blonde is a fashionable choice of hair-color for someone able to pull the look off.

    Ignore her; she's just going to the beach.

    ------

    Maybe Umie was completely and utterly wrong.
    Maybe things suddenly got complicated.
    Maybe it's the Badb in her that makes her go to where luck and fate meet their messy ends. A simple half mask is all Umie can manage to disguise her identity, here. "... Your brother's okay," is all the words she can offer Katsuya, as a way of showing who she is.

    It's okay if he still doesn't; her actions will speak for her.

    One of the 'faces' coming to greet them is familiar: Remi's mask. Umie's lips frown; once she summons her Persona, it'll be revealed who she is, but that's not something she can help.

    "... Persona." Maybe, she said it complusively before she even learned about what they are called from Katsuya. Here, it's a declaration of battle lines. The person that should have been a normal beach goer suddenly is revealed to be a Persona User, with the grey visage of Badb swooping overhead of Umie.

    The cloaked persona blows across her palm at the approaching Shiryuu; Umie herself stands besides Katsuya, not taking center stage.

    Umie's not sure what's happening, but she'll take control of the battlefield back, one person at a time.

AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Almighty skill Hooded Smile on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Almighty damage from Umie Akabane's Hooded Smile.
AS: Charm added!

<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.

All eyes are probably on Myunghon Leo, standing atop the black sports car as it careens through the air. That's fair. That's expected. But there's also the matter of who's behind the wheel. And right now, there's a whorl of black gripping the steering wheel. It's... it looks like a nun? Yes, there's a nun at the wheel, and her mouth is open in a whoop of concentrated elation as the car, she, and her passenger all fly. Fly!

The car does not fly forever, of course, all things that go up must eventually come down. It comes to a skidding halt on the sands of Ebisu beach, propelled sideways by cinematic need. Plumes of dry, grainy sand billow upwards and outwards in its wake. Mio Kazama tries not to think about how long it's going to take to hose this thing down as she opens the driver's side door with an unladylike double-kick and then leaps from the car in a massive, parabolic arc.

"Merry! This wasn't the plan at all!" the nun hollers, mid-leap. She has too much hair to fit into her habit, so it just kind of flaps and flies around her face as she falls. The other non-standard thing going on is that she appears to have a enormous two-handed mace lashed to her back, and black leather boots. "I thought this was just a delivery!!"

Well. . . too late. She's in deep now. "Hey!" Mio shouts down at 'Miyu', as she twists midair. "Boss lady told me you've got bad vibes. Sorry!"

There's an otherworldly shimmering above Mio's head and back, before a humanoid figure of inky black form and bright silver armour burns into view. The Persona of Samson strikes a barely-restrained pose of righteous wrath, scarlet red hair threatening to burst into flames at any moment, and then the ghostly apparition surges downwards at Miyu with the world's most obvious haymaker punch. It's basically the start of a Stand battle, yes.

Subtlety is not her thing.

AS: Persona! Mio Kazama has used the Strike skill Bash on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Mio Kazama's turn has ended.

AS: Counter Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 90 Strike damage from Mio Kazama's Bash. Critical Hit!
AS: COUNTER! Mio Kazama takes -5 Strike damage in return for her attack! Resist!

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    Situated somewhere just outside of where the vibes start to go bad is a frustrated young man with a small board of a spraypainted logo or another for someone's stall. What he's grumbling about by his lonesome is almost certainly beneath notice in the face of the reported call of a waterlogged body discovery over yonder. (Something about a disagreement about being paid for doing up a piece of art as requested.)
 
     "Tch... hey." He looks up from his grumbling as he sets down the rejected logo - it's a nice piece of work, something like a grimacing glass of lemonade drinking from its own straw with the name of the stall taking a shimmering quality where the letters are 'behind' the glass - and looks up. "The hell? The police're out here? Did somethin' happen again?"
 
     There's a feeling in the air that strikes him when he takes all but two steps to look over. A feeling in the air he knows has a meaning. "...Again? Just like that... in the open?"
 
     He's got a bad feeling, and damn if the police might get on his case, but the street artist treks into the wet, unpleasant sand as he's trying to formulate some sort of convincing idea as to why, maybe, this isn't a great place for anyone to be--
 
     ...There's a lot of 'anyones' here all of a sudden, come to think.
 
     Then, they appear, and one does a grisly act involving a firearm that summons a Persona, and the world just goes weird, like he could turn around but there's no 'around' to turn - and, suddenly, how one of the police officers here seems to get the gist of how severe this situation is getting right from the jump.
 
     ...And how so many others (did that girl over there also pull a piece on herself? what) suddenly seem keen to come rolling up with their own Personas.
 
     "We're doin' this? Everyone? Right here, out in the open, like it's a normal day in the neighborhood, huh," one hand on his hip as he pulls the rim of his beanie over his eyes.
 
     "Well... only one way to get to the bottom of whatever the heck is going on here," a sly smile as he wrestles out an axe that is clearly meant for two hands to be held in one. Surrounded by bold new faces, bolder presentations, and lethal danger the likes of which he hasn't quite been in, in years...
 
     "Let's get funky!" The street artist - Masao "Mark" Inaba himself - points as a blue column of light forms around him and a brownish masked figure with greenish grass-like tufts about their body appears in a thin beam of light that stretches out to show their form.
 
     "If there ain't no retreat, guess I'll help clear the way through again! Ogun!! Drag 'em down!"
 
     Ogun shakes and shimmies as he summons a wave of loud, humming purplish spheres with yellow ring-like emanations sweeping towards Yua, past Ulala.
 
     A faint read of the young man's Resonance may suggest he's been around the block a few times, as he keeps that sly, determined smile of someone who still hasn't left behind something of a mischievous character.
 
     "Hey!" He calls out to Ulala. "I'll back you up!"

<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.

There's talk of trouble in Konan Ward. Shinobu hears it as she's washing dishes in a restauraunt facing Ebisu Beach. She steps closer to the window. It's hard to hear from the distance, but she can pick up some chatter. A body...?

...She tries not to get involved in police business, usually. That's more trouble than it's worth, and she's sure her younger sister would have something to say to her if she ended up making trouble for the officer on duty. ...But... she gets a feeling. Something about this feels off.

Maybe it's a brief brush with death in the face of the Reaper not too long ago that gets her thinking about it, but right now...

"...Sorry, I'm heading out early." Shinobu says, setting the pan she's scrubbing clean down and tossing off her apron. She'll deal with the consequences later, but right now - she picks up her duffel bag as she races out the door. She shoulders past rubberneckers, racing onto the beach - just before that obscuring veil overtakes field.

There's no way out, now. That's what her senses are telling her.

...That's fine - she wasn't going to turn and run in a situation like this.

She sees some familiar people, here. From all of them except one, she can feel the light of Persona.

"This is way beyond your paygrade, officer." Shinobu says with a glance toward Hiori Hamade. "Stay behind us and don't go far."

Sergeant Suou probably has her taken care of for now, but... they can't let their guard down.

She looks, briefly, toward Rumormonger Merry. They're here too...? With a... rather ostentatious entrance. What a world.

"Be careful. Seems like these people mean business..." She warns. It looks like they've dragged someone else into this, too...

Her attention turns, then, to a woman in fencer's armor, with an all-black mask. Shinobu's brow furrows.

Is that...? It can't be. She didn't get a name before - but that she'd be helping people like that...

"You..." Shinobu mutters with a frown.

...She has to make sure.

"Lachesis." Shinobu calls. A shadowy woman rises behind her, measuring rod held in hand. She gazes at Remi. She adjusts the position of her hands, as if measuring something. "Swordbreaker."

And then Lachesis lunges. The rod is held no longer like a tool but a weapon, thrusting toward Remi wreathed in enervating energy.

She has to see the way she moves, the way she reacts to it. Just to make sure.

AS: Persona! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Swordbreaker on Remi Ryuuja!
AS: Shinobu Shimizu's turn has ended.
AS: Persona! Masao Inaba has used the Earth skill Magry on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Masao Inaba's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.

    This person isn't good news.

    Maya intuits that immediately, though you wouldn't need a BA in journalism to know that, either. The woman in black doesn't need to say anything to make it known. She radiates a quiet confidence that suffocates the ground around her. Every movement that she makes is efficient, precise graceful. There's something artistic about the way that she handles her weapons. If there wasn't the serious possibility they were going to engage in combat, Maya may have taken a moment to admire it.

    But Maya recognizes something in Tsurugi's practiced movements. This isn't just someone who can kill. It's someone who has done it before and is prepared to do it again.

    Maya's survival instincts and reporter instincts kick in simultaneously. The questions begin to pile up inside of her, one after the other. Her eyes are trying to piece together a story at the same time they're bracing for an attack.

    She draws her twin pink pistols but doesn't lift them yet. Not until she has to.

    "If you're here to hurt people," Maya begins, trying to project the same confidence in her voice that Tsurugi does in her movements. "Then I can't let you."

AS: Nerve Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8!
AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 16 Earth damage from Masao Inaba's Magry. Resist!
AS: Counter Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 21 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Swordbreaker.
AS: Atk_Dn added!
AS: COUNTER! Shinobu Shimizu takes 16 Strike damage in return for her attack! 

<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.

There is no reaction from 'Miyu' towards Shiryuu. This is because Miyu is disciplined, rather than because there is no reason to react. Indeed, she doesn't look at any of her companions in the moment; she trusts Tsurugi and Yumi to be precisely where they must be in the moment.

But the officer...

"You tried," Miyu notes to Hiori. "You will die braver than many."

Katsuya demands to know what she means, but Miyu shakes her head. "It is too late for knowledge to save you."

But she is accosted, then, by Io. The bull-headed effigy with the girl within, at Yukari's direction.

The winds do halt her advance--for a moment. They whip up around her, batter her and her veils, but after a moment she cuts through them with her sword.

"So you interfere. Are you moral, or required?"

But Myunghon--Myunghon is here.

"You are a false hope," Miyu intones towards Myunghon. Kudlak brings forth tendrils of shadow, but Miho jumps back as if from a duel--and, awash in red mist, deftly slices each of those slithering tendrils, able to shrug off the powerful effect due to her knowledge of its practitioner.

"It did not avail you before," Miyu says, "And it will not avail you now."

But she has... bad vibes. "Vibes are irrelev--"

BAM. It's a super obvious haymaker, but Miyu is arrogant enough to meet it with the tip of her blade. Then she's slammed backward by it, a forceful blow knocking her across the sands where she makes a big impression on the wet mud. "Gh--"

A fist slams into the mud, and Miyu pulls herself back up. She rises to her feet, and adopts a ready stance again. "So you have some new allies..."

"No matter. FAUST!"

A figure in a plague mask and long coat rises in red mist: a Persona. And Miho moves expertly in the next moments. "To achieve the world that must be..."

Faust 'reads' from a text, and a transulcent circle begins to form in front of Miyu, a circle of defense. Then, for the nun Mio and Myunghon, Faust rockets forth, jabbing with her knife three times at Samson and then hurling a sword-like projectile at Myunghon.

Finally, Persona's eyes flash, and Yukari finds a blue orb of fire imploding near her to counter her wind!

AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Gale Slash on Mio Kazama and Myunghon Yeo!
AS: You still have 2 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Fire skill Frei on Yukari Takeba!
AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Tetrakarn on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Miho Ijuuin's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Almighty damage from Miho Ijuuin's Tetrakarn.
AS: Reflect_Phys added!
AS: Counter Best! Myunghon Yeo takes 51 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Gale Slash.
AS: COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 30 Slash damage in return for her attack! 
AS: Avoid Worst! Yukari Takeba takes 89 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Frei.
AS: Counter Best! Mio Kazama takes 75 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Gale Slash. Weak!
AS: COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 32 Slash damage in return for her attack! 

<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.

 

     Jet black steel gleams in the light, the simmering sky, the flash of gunfire.
         The exotic-looking young man's sword -- and it is a full sized sword, whose blade is as black as night -- is a blurred line in the sun as he akes a beeline straight for the police. Certainly not his preference, not his style.. but the police are not immune to ill fates.

     The matte plate and draping blue silks of an ethereal figure drifts into view at his back, the derealization resolving into a ghostly priest-like shape behind him, who draws a massive gohei from nothing, dragging a line of paper charms in its wake. Easily, the pike-length wand is thrown in a vast arc, and with it, comes the wind.

     Slowly, the unsure pumping footfalls of Shiryuu's steps in sand turn to a thumping, staccato bass, the sneakers pounding a stallion rhythm into the old, ancient wood. A bridge, rendered entirely of fraying hemp, old driftwood and creaking dreams stabs out ahead of him like a shot, rolling over and cast from the emergence of the arcane kannushi, the rattle of charms accompanying the grand sweep of the Persona's ghostly aura.

     Bulletfire stabs out, the flash of the muzzle's report temporarily lighting his haori, spread like dark blue wings. The officer Suou has backup support in the form of another Persona -- the recognition of a cloaked figure at his (who is that girl?)'s back earns him a dim frown, and the wind blown in the wake of its kiss is enough to check the man's advance for an instant, a moment, enough to earn him the added accessories of a few bullets in his middle that weren't there before. --!

     He is dimly aware of a car flying somewhere overhead, and the screeching of his so-called comrades in the background.

     Strange. He's going to have weird dreams about this later.

     He switches tacks, whirling low to mind his own bloodloss. The mechanical kannushi at his back throws wide the second cast of that gohei, spreading with force the cast of wind. Black petals and white feathers roll in against the checking, beguiling breeze that drags at his attention so. His haori spreads like wings.

     The crack of his sword is like a whip, the rough stab of his pommel meant to check Katsuya's pistol in his hand, before the wave of dark petals roll in over the spread of that ethereal bridge.

     "Unlucky you."

     It takes only a second of confusion. Another moment, before the young man can cross into Katsuya's commanded space, and throw a bright, sharp flash of utter black ink all the way through. A single swordstroke, with the howling laughter of crows to accompany it.

AS: Tandem! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Slash skill Yozakura Revival on Katsuya Suou!
AS: Block Neutral! Katsuya Suou takes 71 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Yozakura Revival.

<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.

    There's one mercy, for everyone worried about doing this out in the open -- the beach curves, to get to this point. The tourists wouldn't be able to just look over and see what was going on... especially not with this weird aura around the area, now. Yumi's arena trap will, at least, keep the snooping tourists out too.

    Katsuya tells her to wait. "Wait," Yumi echoes, to him, as Gretchen stares down the woman behind him. "Wait, wait, waiting, still, paused, serene. It is not. We cannot. The gavel falls, and we answer. We..."

    But Gretchen's attention snaps to someone else threatening Katsuya, in short order, and Hiori is at least safe from her.

    "Miyu," 'Yumi' calls, to their leader. "That man... does he really have to be here?!" The man in the haori, she means -- Shiryuu. "That man... THAT MAN...!!"

    She whirls, on Ulala and Masao, gesturing angrily to them with her Evoker-wielding hand. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" She yells, to them, all laden with grief and anger. "If you hadn't all come -- if this wasn't so public -- he wouldn't be here! It's your fault! It's your fault it's your fault it's YOUR FAULT!"

    Yumi doesn't sound like she's particularly attached to sense or reason, but one thing's for sure: she's making it your problem. It isn't nice to murder a cop, but she's acting like it's worse to be a witness to the murder.

    ... and it's an anger which is sure to reach the woman they call Tsurugi's ears, anguished and blameful. (Remi has always protected her. Are these people who she needs to be protected from...?)

    Ulala swings her fists -- only for them to ring out against steel, as the massive Gretchen, behind Yua, closes her arms around her. Trapped behind those jail bars, she's defended against Ulala's fierce blows, though they ring and echo in her ears.

    Somewhere, a car crashes in and lands. The rumourmonger, 'Merry'...

    Yumi turns away from her, hiding her face against Gretchen's chest, grasping her fine white dress.

    Ogun shimmies in, then, and his crushing gravity slams against Gretchen's cell bars too. But there is so much which weighs Gretchen down, through Yumi; she weathers Ogun's Magry steadily, though Masao is such an experienced artist. (He's gone to college!)

    "You... wish to dance?" Yumi asks, hesitantly, turning away from her Persona to face Masao and his own mask. "Then..."

    "Dance with me!"

    She twirls, as Gretchen spreads her arms wide, waving them in what must be like a dance. And Gretchen's movements, at least, are magical -- as Ulala and Masao are gripped by the urge to dance with her.

    But Gretchen claps her hands, and a wave pours over Yumi, staggering her from her own spin. "Oh!" She gasps, and she isn't truly damp, though she is emboldened. "Yes, the battle... yes, yes, I know! I know, I know!"

AS: Persona! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Wind skill Track 6: Uncivil Discourse on Umie Akabane!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara: Charm removed!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Almighty skill Dance With Me on Ulala Serizawa and Masao Inaba!

AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Recovery skill Rousing Wave on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Rousing Wave.
AS: Avoid Worst! Umie Akabane takes 40 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Track 6: Uncivil Discourse.
AS: Take! Ulala Serizawa takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ooshiro's Dance With Me.
AS: Take! Masao Inaba takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ooshiro's Dance With Me.
AS: Charm added!

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.

    "My apologies, Kazama-kun," Myunghon answers. "I shall add a handsome stipend for your services here!"

    It really wasn't planned, but they sensed the wrongness and had to act on the spot. Fortunately, it seems like Mio's entirely in on it, and they even are packing a weapon! And Myunghon already counted on Shinobu being on the scene, good...!! But they seem to recognise who they're fighting... hmm. This could be quite the quirk in the plan.

    Myunghon recognises a lot of people here -- Amano-san, the reporter, who has... guns! Twin guns, even! She's definitely packing more heat than they anticipated -- but that's good. That means she can take care of themselves. And Serizawa-san... whew, that's quite the power in their strikes. And... that's the young girl from Tatsumi, the one that Myunghon gave the Skill Card to. Witnessing her summon her Persona still still wrenches Myunghon's gut a little -- perhaps there's something in seeing someone younger seemingly work through what feels like an acceptance of death...

    But of course, the one drawing the most heat here right now is Suou-san and the junior officer who might be getting into trouble simply because they care too much. They'll bury you just for that, you know. Junior Offier Hamade's persistence is infectious, however, so...

    "Ha ha! You say I am False for I have failed? Do you know what HOPE is, White Mask Miyu?" Myunghon dares to challenge Miho's powerful intonation, even as Faust ROCKETS forth and forces them into a close-range battle -- Kudlak barely dissolves the sheer slashing force of the projectile with its tendrils, and one of them is slashed into pieces -- before they return the favour with several quick stabs of the Dark.

    Somewhere, Merry spends a glance to Yumi. To 'Tsurugi'. Yes. They have to keep Hope alive in their heart... because...

    "Hope is the nagging feeling that things might not stay the same way. Yes... hope is that infectious bug that worms into people's minds when they realise that things might become better, if they only nudged things one way. I will become Hope by protecting Junior Officer Hamade today! And now I'll show you... Impeding you is not the only skill I have. Now, witness the power of CRIME!"

    Rumourmonger Merry's Persona rises once more, fluttering grand with their Cognitive Coat melding in with Kudlak's form. In an inky-purple wave, they draw another dramatic pose and sweeps their fingers, as if a mastermind paying fourth-dimensional chess across the board.

    "Yumi-san!" This is very confusing, because Myunghon is referring to Yukari, not Yumi-as-in-Yua. "Suou-san! Pika-san! And Kazama-kun! Receive the blessings of the honed mind of Darkness...!!"

    In a fell sweep, power rises within them -- empowering and sharpening their proficiency and acuity, and for a moment it feels almost simpler to aim a gun or nock a bow and have it land more keenly than before. The mind of a trained killer, the moves of a runner in the dark... the very essence of those who live on the Other Side of the law.

    "CRIMINAL RAID!"

    Do you reeeeeally want to accept the icky blessings of Crime, though, Sergeant Suou-san? It's a perfectly good Tarukaja and a Rebellion all in one, but it's icky and Crime-flavoured... ueee hee hee.

AS: Persona! Myunghon Yeo has used the Almighty skill Criminal Raid on Katsuya Suou, Yukari Takeba, Mio Kazama, and
Shinobu Shimizu!
AS: Myunghon Yeo's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Yukari Takeba takes 0 Almighty damage from Myunghon Yeo's Criminal Raid.
AS: Atk_Up added!
AS: Take! Shinobu Shimizu takes 0 Almighty damage from Myunghon Yeo's Criminal Raid.
AS: Atk_Up added!
AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 0 Almighty damage from Myunghon Yeo's Criminal Raid.
AS: Atk_Up|Crt_Up added!
AS: Myunghon Yeo spends Limit on Shift! Yukari Takeba can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Take! Mio Kazama takes 0 Almighty damage from Myunghon Yeo's Criminal Raid.
AS: Atk_Up|Crt_Up added!

<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.

As 'Yumi' freaks out and as Mark arrives (he looks familiar but can't place why), Ulala frowns. "You're nuts... go get therapy instead of whatever the fuck this is!"

The impact of the wrap hits the metallic feeling of Gretchen twice, causing Ulala to shake her wrists as she impacts. "Ow..."

And then, the offer to 'dance'. The Charm spell washes over Ulala, but it doesn't take hold on her. "I'm not dancing with you, lady! Hey, listen, keep a hold of yourself, hat guy!" She'll slap him out of it if he gets infected...

Instead, she calls out again, "Let's see how you like a taste of your own medicine!"

Callisto's shibari strands strike forward, but do not do physical damage - instead, they move to spread that same charming on Yumi...

The dreaded Marin Karin.

AS: Persona! Ulala Serizawa has used the Almighty skill Marin Karin on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Ulala Serizawa's turn has ended.
AS: Ulala Serizawa spends Limit on Help Up! Charm removed from Masao Inaba!
AS: Mind Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8!
AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Almighty damage from Ulala Serizawa's Marin Karin.

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    "What... are you...?" he can but utter as 'Yumi' responds to his plea for her to 'not kill herself'. Instead, only the ego has fallen away: she has a Persona. Yet, her words don't make a lick of sense to him, as the look on his face betrays. He doesn't work narcotics, and yet, he's given to wonder -- fleetingly -- if she may be on something. Her outburst in the moment following, though, may put the lie to that.

    Maybe.

    It's too late for knowledge to save him, the apparent ringleader of the group tells him. "I see... then I have no choice," he says to her. Perhaps the next moment might have gone badly for him, or perhaps not. But, another has just arrived on the scene.

    A girl, dressed in a bikini, with a bow slung against her back (isn't this place unsafe for archery practice!? someone could get hurt!) runs up, and of all things, she produces a firearm and puts it against her head. Wait, that's the girl who was at the Cardboard Dragon just the other...! "Stop!" he calls out, turning towards her. Too late, Suou-kun: she's already pulled the trigger.
    Fortunately, it's not a real gun. In the same sense as the weapon Yua used is not a 'real' gun.

    It's a Persona that comes forth instead, whipping up the winds against Miho.

    Katsuya, in this moment, looks absolutely poleaxed. Fortunately, he recovers quickly, and not just because of the severity of their present circumstances. Someone has just stepped up alongside him against the young man in the haori (his Persona floating after him and at his back) and told Katsuya something very important. Something that might help him focus, in fact.

    "Tatsuya is...? But who are,"

    Oh. He knows who she is.

    And he turns his head because help is on the way in those few moments that pass between the shots he fires and the steady inexorable approach of that young man.

    "Serizawa-kun? Amano--! What are you both doing here?!" He really hadn't noticed up until that point that they were here, huh. To be fair, he had been a little bit distracted, being here for work reasons and all, but...

    He shakes his head. "No, never mind that! They're after Hamade-kun!" he shouts back at the two of them. And, probably him, too, but that's secondary. Without a Persona, handgun or not, officer or not, Hiori Hamade is the most vulnerable person here. He can handle himself (especially with backup) but...! "Protect her!"

    The screech of a car on the street nearby almost causes him to turn his head in its direction. Perhaps it's more of 'their allies'. Perhaps it's just normal Sumaru traffic at this hour. He can't afford to lose focus now--
    But even he can't miss the arc the car makes as it sails for the beach, somehow landing without eating shit (or sand, as the case may be) and grinds across the shore without dying... and there's a person on the roof. There's been a person on the roof the entire time. The one thing that does not come as a surprise whatsoever is the identity of that self-same person astride the roof.

    River teleportation is fake, yes, but somehow car surfing is entirely valid. The look on Katsuya's face says everything he doesn't. Not that this stops him from trying. "What are you--!" he asks of Myunghon, helplessly.
    There's a nun at the wheel of the car, as it happens. Somehow, this is the least weird thing that Katsuya Suou has seen yet today.

    This, too, becomes of negligable importance. For here comes his opponent, and here, Katsuya is made to realize his own 'vulnerability' in this field. The young man has a sword, a real sword, and though he does his best to narrow his profile, there's that moment of misdirection (a *crack* against the weapon he holds in his hand) and no escaping the blade as it connects across his body in the moment after. Katsuya staggers back a step and grimaces. If he didn't have a Persona...!

    But lo, there is help coming, Suou-kun. Witness.. the power of CRIME!
    If there was ever a psychic nails-on-chalkboard moment for Seargeant Suou, this is it. Darkness pours around him, filling him

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    But lo, there is help coming, Suou-kun. Witness.. the power of CRIME!
    If there was ever a psychic nails-on-chalkboard moment for Seargeant Suou, this is it. Darkness pours around him, filling him with power, but at what cost?! "Yeo-san, what... is this?"

    But let it not be said he cannot put a good thing to use. "Persona!" he calls out. Helios rises up from within him, above him: the tail of the well-dressed feline Persona lashes with restrained fury as it lifts its clawed hands. Narrowing its golden eyes, a flame hovers above each hand and here it lets fly at Shiryuu, one after another.

AS: Persona! Katsuya Suou has used the Fire skill Double Agi on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 2 Hits!
AS: Katsuya Suou's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.

There's a barest glance at Yukari as she uses an Evoker to summon her own Persona. She saw that girl the other night, at the Cardboard Dragon. She'd suspected... and this confirms it. Interesting.

It wasn't simply a matter of being 'convinced,' Myunghon. They are all on leashes, and those leashes have precious little slack to them. It's a matter of the death they'd like, fast or slow, and for the moment, Remi has chosen slow.

But--they've been over all of this before, surely. There is the barest, quiestest sigh that escapes her lips at seeing the Rumormonger.

Shinobu didn't get a name, because Remi didn't give one. This was, perhaps, by design. But her gaze turns towards Shinobu as the other woman approaches. There is no call, no greeting, no attempt at an explanation. She simply waits, both weapons in hand.

Out comes the Persona Lachesis, and there is a subtle lift of Remi's head as she looks at it. The order comes to attack, and if Shinobu wants to watch Remi's movements to confirm, then confirmation comes quickly.

Remi surges forward, charging towards the Persona as it comes in for an attack. There is a solid strike on her left hand, the one with the dagger, and it goes limp for just a moment--but in the same strike she also twists and lashes out with her rapier, dealing nearly as good as she gets.

It's pretty safe to assume this is the same person.

Maya's observational skills are spot-on. Remi is all of those things, graceful and efficient--but she is also deadly, as her willingless to charge a Persona head-on might demonstrate.

Remi withdraws from her clash with Lachesis to look at Maya. She can't allow them to hurt people... "Then stop us," she says, coldly, flatly. "If you are able."

But what was supposed to be simple has suddenly become very much notnot. There is a glance to Miyu, but she seems to be joining the battle. So the mission is still on, then.

Yumi starts blaming the others for their presence, for making things so public as to require the services of Shiryuu. Tsurugi's gaze shifts over to her. "Yumi, the mission." In a quieter tone she says, "... We are with you."

Still, this is far more hectic now. She quickly shuffles her rapier to her left hand and draws her revolver-style Evoker in one smooth motion. Up to her head it comes and she pulls the trigger--shattering glass, blue flame, and soon the figure of La Maupin, clad in a red leather straightjacket and clutching a rapier appears.

If Shinobu needed more proof...

But just as quickly she sheathes the Evoker and takes her Rapier in hand again. She charges right for Maya, angling her rapier to try and strike past her guard, and then to come around with a second strike from her dagger. Meanwhile, La Maupin gestures with her rapier, seemingly unbidden, and unleashes a small torrent of biting winds at Lachesis.

AS: Weapon! Remi Ryuuja has used the Slash skill Coupe on Maya Amano! 2 Hits!
AS: Persona! Remi Ryuuja has used the Wind skill Garu on Shinobu Shimizu!
AS: Remi Ryuuja's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    Masao stands up straighter with that handgun-like weapon being pointed at himself and that woman that's throwing hands. "What the hell... stop wavin' that at us!" He's not trusting the business end of anything that makes a Persona appear!
 
     He blinks the once as something about Yumi's voice flits in the air, and there's something immensely captivating about the way the Persona and Persona-user alike invite to dance. He steps lightly with it, subconsciously but confidently. "Yeah, those are some moves, all right," a voice tinged with dull admiration, like he knows that's being compelled.
 
     Ulala's palm to the rescue, connecting against his cheek as he staggers out of step and sync with the dance moves, breaking him out of that spellbinding, bewitching maneuver.
 
     "Augh, yeah, thanks," Masao shakes his head. "Y'know what? Sure, let's make it my fault we'll break through and stop this," he says as he steps up closer to melee range, hefting that two-handed axe up in a single hand as he brings it crashing down towards the bars of the massive Persona that protects their user.
 
     "WOO!"

AS: Weapon! Masao Inaba has used the Slash skill Melee - Axe on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Masao Inaba's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.

'Stop!'

Katsuya commands, and Yukari nearly does, but the Persona comes out and... well context clues tells her that Katsuya is a cop- "Uh! It's not like I wouldn't like to comply officer! But-"

Wait did he think...?! "-It's really not what it looks like! Can you just uh - let me explain later? Iiiii practically have permission from a cop to do this..."

A beat.

"... kinda."

She has a feeling that 'He sells us weapons at the police station' might not fly as well as she hopes it might. Just like her buying shady cards at a Dark Hour shop! Speaking of which... Rumormonger Merry is here!

"Why are you like this?" She groans, wondering if she's perhaps an adult that never grew out of being a Chuunibiyou. "I'll... take it I guess? Thanks? No need to be all weird about it..."

The winds do halt Miho for a moment, before she asks a question, "Huh!? I don't understand the question? Am I moral? You're not a part of one of those weird purity campaigns, right?"

Miho's orbs of fires appear, and Yukari tries to back peddle, but it's too late, the explosion scours her Persona, making it nearly shatter outright.

Yet as Io moves aside, she'll see that Yukari has already taken a knee, arrow nocked, and- Io's winds rise, as suddenly she releases one arrow, then draws and releases another. The winds suddenly buoying them along-

As each tries to find their way through her fencer's guard, now as shredding projectiles.

"I feel pretty required for me to do this...!"

Even as Yua's shouting nearly distracts her outright, "Uhhh." Is she okay? She almost asks, but to the 'Dance with me!' "... I'd rather not? Besides... you sound like you have a few screws loose."

And then- Coolest Reporter Maya Amano enters the fray!? "Amano-san? Ummm! Not to tell you how to do your job - but maybe the next big scoop isn't worth getting caught in this line of fire!"

Did she even accessorize her guns?
Wait why does a reporter even HAVE guns?
Well... I guess she does run stories on teenagers...

Oh hey, that cop has a Persona, maybe - he'll understand? She hopes.

"Well - now that you've given me an opening..." She asides to Merry, "I'll return the favor." Putting her Evoker to her head, she pulls the trigger again. And Io flares again, arms rising... as healing energy floods Merry, A NUN IN A CAR WHAT, herself... and KATSUYA!

"See officer? I'm cooperating!"

Please don't arrest me.
I don't want a record!!!

AS: Tandem! Yukari Takeba has used the Wind skill Stinging Torment on Miho Ijuuin! 2 Hits!
AS: Block Neutral! Maya Amano takes 45 Slash damage from Remi Ryuuja's Coupe. Critical Hit!
AS: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit from Momentum!
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Recovery skill Media on Yukari Takeba, Mio Kazama, Myunghon Yeo, and Katsuya
Suou!
AS: Yukari Takeba's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Yukari Takeba takes 79 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
AS: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit from Supporter!
AS: Take! Myunghon Yeo takes 79 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
AS: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit from Supporter!

AS: Counter Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 65 Wind damage from Yukari Takeba's Stinging Torment. Critical Hit!
AS: COUNTER! Reflect Phys! Yukari Takeba takes 51 Wind damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Counter Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 57 Wind damage from Yukari Takeba's Stinging Torment.
AS: COUNTER! Reflect Phys! Yukari Takeba takes 34 Wind damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Block Best! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 26 Fire damage from Katsuya Suou's Double Agi. Resist!

AS: Block Best! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 26 Fire damage from Katsuya Suou's Double Agi. Resist!

AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 71 Slash damage from Masao Inaba's Melee - Axe. Critical Hit!

AS: Avoid Worst! Shinobu Shimizu takes 45 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Garu.
AS: Haze added!
AS: Yukari Takeba spends Limit on Shift! Katsuya Suou can use another Weak skill this round!

<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.

Mio makes sandfall not long after her Persona has thrown the first punch of the match, whipping the big mace off of her back and briefly striking the Obari Pose(tm) with it against the sun. "Yeah! Get her ass, Samson!" she treads upon the gravity of the moment, excitement lines bounding around her head like an orange-white halo. Samson is definitely pushing into Miyu's space, but controlling the fight isn't as simple as that. Especially not when two hotheads are going at it, like this. Mio's eyes narrow quickly as Faust lunges forth with a counterattack.

"Back!" she calls, and the towering apparition returns to her side in a heartbeat. A flickering blink of movement, and Samson is soon catching Faust's lunging slashes with its bare hands. On the one hand, this is impressive. On the other hand, this is a terrible idea to actually prevent damage. Nun and Persona are forced backwards, even as Samson turns Faust's knife with a parry from its silver manacles and then lashes back with a flickering strike. You might have paid for those ringside seats, folks, but you'll only need the edge!

Mio clenches a fist as the power of CRIME flows through her veins. Honestly, it's about the same as it was before: she kind of makes a living in the shadows. She's still getting to grips with the situation, and is distracted by the severity of seeing Miyu command Faust to blast Yukari with an orb of azure flames. "Hey! Miss!" she calls to Yukari, not knowing her, but obviously concerned all the same. "Are you alright? Damn!"

She's running over to check on her, but, not being all learned up on how they do things over on Tatsumi Port Island, stops to have a freakout as Yukari pulls out a FUCKING GUN AND PLACES IT AGAINST HER HEAD?????

"WAIT STOP IT REALLY ISN'T THAT BAD RI--" she motormouths, reaching out with a hand as--

Oh.

--Io burns to life around Yukari and healing power surges through Myunghon. Mio coughs and folds her arms, turning away. "Y--yeah, cool. I knew that would happen." and she flicks her hair. Sweat rolls down her cheek. A single drop.

Samson cannot abide their master's half-hearted nonsense and glimmers to life again. The towering mountain of inky muscle points accusingly at Miyu, then swipes a finger across its throat before reaching into the sands. There's a rumbling of the ground before Samson pulls free a huge marble pillar, as if it had always lie below the sands. It's just attack magic, duh, but not everyone knows that. It snaps the pillar in half over one knee, and then hurls it, jagged end first, at Miyu like a monumental javelin. Wowzers!

Mio puts both hands to her head and turns to face Myunghon, nearly pulling her hair out. "What the hell did this lady do to deserve this again, boss!?"

AS: Take! Mio Kazama takes 79 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
AS: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit from Supporter!
AS: Tandem! Mio Kazama has used the Earth skill Pillar Strike on Miho Ijuuin! 2 Hits!
AS: Mio Kazama's turn has ended.

AS: Counter Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 49 Earth damage from Mio Kazama's Pillar Strike.
AS: COUNTER! Reflect Phys! Mio Kazama takes 42 Earth damage in return for her attack! 
AS: Counter Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 44 Earth damage from Mio Kazama's Pillar Strike.
AS: COUNTER! Reflect Phys! Mio Kazama takes 47 Earth damage in return for her attack! 

<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.

    Merry calls out to 'Yumi-san', and Yumi looks up, as if she'd be talking to her.

    There's probably nothing to worry about there.

    (Is this woman on drugs, as Katsuya wonders? ... well, about that...)

    When she realises that Ulala suggested she get therapy, though, Yumi

    SCREAMS.

    "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NONONONONONONONONONONONONO NO!"

    Maybe... she has more than a few screws loose, Yukari.

    Her movements become violent and jagged, as she draws a strange cartridge from the pocket of her armour.

    "LOAD AGI CARTRIDGE!"

    She's still screaming, as she loads the cartridge into the chamber of her Revolver-like Evoker. As she fires it into her flaming red eye, glass shatters again... and fire reflects in the jewels at Gretchen's neck, before the Agi spell flames across Ulala, just the same.

    She might not be Charmed -- but she's not acting with mental clarity, either. Masao's great axe swings with such massive strength that it strikes Gretchen's bars with a critical blow -- and the Navigation Persona shatters, as Yumi lands on her derriere in the sand.

    "Huh...?"

    Yumi looks around, and her mouth gapes, though there's no way to see her expression under her veils. "Gretchen! Gretchen, where did you go?! Come back! It's not finished yet! Gretchen!"

    Luckily, 'Tsurugi' calls out to her, and Yumi looks to her as she takes an unsteady breath. "Oh -- oh, yeah, the mission... the mission means I take the Evoker... so, I take the Evoker, and I..."

    Put the gun to your head, and pull the trigger. Right, Yukari? Simple -- except for the way she's showing everyone who she really is, every time she does.

    Even so, Yumi puts her Evoker to her head, pressed against an eye glowing sickly red. Even so, she pulls the trigger.

    "Persona!"

    And Gretchen comes into existence again, her jail bars screeeeching against each other in a noise to send chills down Masao's spine as Yumi turns to her Persona. "Help me," she says, to herself.

    And Gretchen's wave washes over her, again, the water encircling her for a single drowning moment before it washes away.

AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Fire skill Agi on Ulala Serizawa!
AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Recovery skill Relaxing Wave on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended.
AS: Yua Ooshiro spends Limit on Shock Noise! Atk_Dn Def_Dn Spd_Dn Crt_Dn Pierce_Break Slash_Break Strike_Break
Fire_Break Water_Break Elec_Break Earth_Break Wind_Break Light_Break Dark_Break Recovery_Wall applied to Masao Inaba!
AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 79 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
AS: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit from Supporter!
AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Relaxing Wave.
AS: Vigor added!

<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.

Shinobu glances toward Maya. She recognizes her from the festival - knows her as a friend of Ulala and Katsuya. ...She respects the restraint, really. She doesn't think it'll go that way.

"...I've got your back, Miss Reporter. Don't worry." Shinobu asides to her.

And someone else has her back. Rumourmonger Merry makes their speech on what Hope is. Hope is many things - but Merry also possesses the power of Crime. Crime, as it happens, takes the form of an energy boost. She can feel it coursing through her body - her weapon and her senses honed.

"Ah, I've been infused with criminality." Shinobu deadpans. "...Thanks, Merry-san. I'll use it well."

For some reason, the power of Crime doesn't bother her at all...

Remi - no, 'Tsurugi' - looks toward her. Waits, with weapons in hand. And as Lachesis comes in, Remi surges toward her. Lachesis is struck, motes of blue dancing off of her as the rapier finds purchase. Shinobu winces, feeling her Persona's pain as her own... but that confirms it for her well enough. That skill and grace... The boldness to charge a Persona head on, just like she faced the Reaper itself.

"...So you are the one from yesterday. Why the hell are you tolerating this? Don't you know what they're trying to do?" Shinobu asks.

Stop them, if they're able. Shinobu clicks her tongue.

"...I'll stop you, alright." She mutters - but first. An Evoker is drawn and fired, and La Maupin appears. A gust of wind is fired at Lachesis. The Persona dodges backward, but she's still caught by La Maupin's Garu. Wind tears at her, and Shinobu feels it just as surely as if it had hit her directly.

...But that doesn't stop her from rushing in. Shinobu fills the space that Lachesis left, drawing her staff from her duffel bag. She spins the staff, unleashing a series of attacks - and wherever there's empty space between them, a leg lashes out for a kick.

AS: Weapon! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Spinning Staff on Remi Ryuuja! 3 Hits!
AS: Shinobu Shimizu: Haze removed!
AS: Shinobu Shimizu's turn has ended.

AS: Avoid Worst! Ulala Serizawa takes 65 Fire damage from Yua Ooshiro's Agi.

<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

    There's... a lot going on. There's something about a car, a Ciminal Raid, one of the attackers yelling about the strange cloaked man coming towards Katsuya, the policewoman, and Umie.

    She puts a finger to her lips. "Hi-mi-tsu." It'd be playful, if it wasn't delivered with enough deadpan tone to keep it from approaching a flirt.

    The fact that his younger brother's former tutor is just here, on the beach, in a half-mask and baseball cap after sneaking up may be the least unusual situation Katsuya is experiencing right now. "If I knew it was this exciting... I would have joined sooner." It's funny, how a simple half mask grabbed from a discount bin is enough to make one feel just a little more... cheeky, towards ally and enemy alike.

    It ends when Katsuya's Persona appears. It's.... a cat? A very dapper one.

    Shiryuu's attack nearly blows the half-mask off Umie's face; Umie holds her hand to keep it in place, along with her other hand on her baseball cap.

    Oh. This is... a person. She's never really fought a person before. Not seriously.

    Maybe, that's why, the next attack seems to be a repeat of before: Badb manifesting over Umie, red-tipped clawed hands spread wide in a whirl of black feathers.

AS: Block Worst! Maya Amano takes 55 Slash damage from Remi Ryuuja's Coupe. Critical Hit!
AS: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit from Momentum!
AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Almighty skill Warrior's Bell on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Almighty damage from Umie Akabane's Warrior's Bell.

<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.

"He is here," Miyu says, "And we will endure. I will find him again later, and we will speak."

She doesn't address Shiryuu himself. Yet. She will, maybe. But Yumi is... distressed, and Miyu narrows her eyes.

"No," Miyu says to Myunghon then. She dares to challenge her, and Miho takes a stab right back from the Dark as she attempts to react.

"Hope... Is meaningless when it is built upon falsehood. Only the True World can bring salvation."

But the power of Crime...

"Hmph. To rely on chaos to move against order... it's like you."

She cannot shield Yumi in the moment, and that makes her angry. But Yukari will also make her angry. "Do not pretend you do not understand," Miyu says to Yukari. "Do as you must. And I will do the same. ...Face Death, and see what is worthy on the other side."

Each projectile shreads its way to Miyu, but Miho smashes back part of it straight at Yukari, batting it over like a tennis ball.

But Miyu's armor is worn and battered already.

But Yumi speaks up, and Miyu growls. "Be not close with such things. Insults will only hasten your demise!"

She throws out her hand, and Faust rises again. "YUMI!" she calls, and that same Tetrakarn shield appears before Yua, too.

But there is... Mio. Samson swings forth the pillar, and as a monumental javelin is is brought to Miyu. She takes it head-on. The javelin slams into her body--but Faust picks both pieces up and HURLS them right back!!!

Then, Faust whirls, and hacks in two directions--at Mio, and at Yukari, with terrible noxious gases following each shockwave of slashing energy.

Then she attempts to make Myunghon explode in blue first. It's vaguely sword-shaped.

AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Tetrakarn on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: You still have 2 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Fire skill Freila on Myunghon Yeo!
AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Blight on Mio Kazama and Yukari Takeba!
AS: Miho Ijuuin's turn has ended.
AS: Counter Worst! Myunghon Yeo takes 111 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Freila.
AS: COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 7 Fire damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Block Best! Mio Kazama takes 102 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Blight. Critical Hit! Weak! Block Slash!
AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum! Mio Kazama gains 1 Limit from Comeback!

<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.

    Tsurugi's blades bite into Maya's side before the can fully twist away. She grimaces in pain. The attack is enough to stagger her and it takes her a second to recover. When her head stops spinning and her breathing steadies, she finally registers the damage to her outfit. She had gotten it on discount, too! When would be the next time there'd be a 1 yen sale?

    "Ulala! Think you can help mend this later?" Maya calls out over the din of combat. It's completely out-of-tone with what she's feeling and what's going on right now, but --

    Let's think positive!

    "Don't worry, Takeba-kun!" Maya shouts out to Yukari, but loud enough so Katsuya can hear it, too. "The Rising Star of Coolest Magazine's editorial staff is here to help!"

    If they weren't in the middle of combat, Maya may have flashed a pose. Instead, Maya calls out the name of her Persona: "Maia!"

AS: Persona! Maya Amano has used the Light skill Hama on Remi Ryuuja!
AS: Maya Amano's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Almighty damage from Miho Ijuuin's Tetrakarn.
AS: Reflect_Phys added!
AS: Block Best! Yukari Takeba takes 80 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Blight. Critical Hit!
AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum!

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.

    "That car, Suou-san!" Myunghon answers Katsuya when he exclaims his disbelief, "is your getaway car! Thank me later!"

    Of course, they're not going to just be able to stuff Hamade into the car and have Mio drive off just like that -- they're going to have to disable Yumi long enough that her skill isn't going to get them helplessly lost when trying to escape... not to mention deterring Miyu, Tsurugi, and that mystery man with the katana and haori long enough that such a plan would be possible!

    "Also, Suou-san! That is the power of CRIME! I told you!" As if this was entirely evident. "See, Pika-san understands it!"

    Yukari questions why Merry is the way they are. Perhaps Merry is a chuunibyou. That is entirely true. "Dramatics, dear Yumi-san, has a powerful Cognitive effect," Myunghon points out, also as if this was entirely evident. "The more you leave a lasting impression on people in these spaces... the more you stand to gain from it."

    And when their goal is to free the very friends that are now fighting against them -- their heart wrenches again as they hear Yumi, full of grief and anger. Yumi starts to repeat 'NO's at loud volume, and for a moment, Myunghon wants to throw away the fight to rush to her side.

    "Yumi..." they whisper, well below sotto voce. Myunghon's stomach grinds further. This is the result of everything THOSE PEOPLE took from Yua. This is what they did to Remi. This is what they forced out of Miho. And the only solution out of this is that they need to be Hope. They need to be Hope...

    They'll get them all out of this. They don't need to be ground down under the machinations of capital. Their leashes can be broken, Remi. They can. They'll do it. They have to keep being HOPE. And as they think this--

    Io's power of healing washes over them, and they feel less restrained and enervated from Miho's powerful, oppressive presence and onslaught. "You can teach me a thing or two as well, it sounds like, Yumi-san. Thank you."

    They can be elegant and graceful too when it comes to it... but they tend to like ruining it a moment later. Mio appears startled from seeing Yukari pull her Evoker, but Merry doesn't have enough time to explain -- it's self-evident enough that Yukari's not about to shuffle off this mortal coil regardless.

    "This lady..." Myunghon starts, their one eye fixed on Miho. "... condemned me to life."

    Myunghon rises again, flipping through the sands to gain position -- but Miho has their number, and there is Nuclear devastation coming their way, which carries with it the vague intention of the shape of a Sword. It impales them such that they become >-shaped as they get propelled into the water and splooshes against the Ebisu waves and doesn't come up immediately.

    Then, they rise once more.

    "This 'True World' doesn't want you in it. It doesn't want Yumi or me in it. It doesn't want any of us scallywags and ne'er-do-wells and undesireables. It's a world carefully crafted on the 'honest hard work' stump speeches of politicians, while the corporations bury people with spreadsheets, not knives nor guns...!"

    They place their hand to their now bloodied chest, from where the Freila-blade struck them once.

    "This isn't enough, White Mask Miyu. I'll erase the white lies that dominate you with my 'black.'"

    Kudlak rises once again, a column of Blue that, for a moment, actually splits the shallow, ankle-deep ocean around them and creates a cylindrical bubble with its force. And then, appearing in a sudden and reverberating stimulus of squares, Miho's entire space is covered in...

AS: Persona! Myunghon Yeo has used the Dark skill Imperishable Black on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Myunghon Yeo's turn has ended.
AS: Katsuya Suou spends Limit on Shift! Umie Akabane can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Block Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 72 Dark damage from Myunghon Yeo's Imperishable Black. Critical Hit!
AS: Charm|Exhaust added!

AS: Mio Kazama spends Limit on Shift! Yukari Takeba can use another Weak skill this round!

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    "Booyeah!" Mark calls to the followthrough of his axe swing, which is clumsy and overcommitted - like he's going off of vibes and bravado and not as much actual trained combat prowess.
 
     "Hey. Whatever's goin' on--" Once more, that gun to one's head, and a trigger pulled through the eye. Masao has seen some stuff, but he has not seen that (excepting the other times today that has happened, in the last ten seconds).
 
     He's further interrupted by the horrid, bone-shaking, soul-shuddering screams of anguish as Gretchen once more comes to Yumi's aid, seeing him stagger back and feel kind of like he's become more... vulnerable, in some fashion he can't put into words beyond the feel of it.
 
     "Tch... hey," he looks to Ulala, "the best thing we can do to help 'em is to stop 'em. We can figure out 'what the hell' and 'why the hell' later!"
 
     From the depths of Masao's soul, the blue aura flares up again as Ogun once more unfurls from a pin-prick of light.
 
     "So hey! I'm clearin' the way for you. Do it to it, Ogun! Give 'em Maragi!" Mark gives the command to his other self, whom once more does a reverent dance as a wall of flames race back in turn across the wet, sandy turf towards Gretchen's cage-like defenses to try and give Ulala an opening to get in there and throw hands! (Or anything else.)

AS: Avoid Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 15 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Spinning Staff.
AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 52 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Spinning Staff. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 22 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Spinning Staff.
AS: Persona! Masao Inaba has used the Fire skill Maragi on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Masao Inaba's turn has ended.
AS: Mind Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8!
AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 28 Fire damage from Masao Inaba's Maragi.
AS: Haze added!
AS: Masao Inaba spends Limit on Shift! Ulala Serizawa can use another Weak skill this round!

<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.

Katsuya calls out, and Ulala's eyes scan for the female cop. "Got it! We'll get her out of here if you can't!"

And then, Yumi... freaks out worse at the call of therapy. The cartridge is loaded, causing Ulala's eyes to widen - is she going to shoot that at her?!

Nope, she shoots it at her own eyeball! Even worse!

Gretchen's flames wash over Ulala even as she tries to jump back, licking at her with enough heat to really make her sweat. "Ugh! Why is it always the psychos with baggage?!"

Miho, at the same time, is telling her NOT to insult Yua, and admittedly, is probably right as Ulala is being pretty mean and callous about it. But. But. She's a *murderer*, so Ulala decides it's okay.

It's not like Ulala almost did a murder once. Hahaha. Ha...

"Let's spice it up... a real fucking big one!" Ulala calls out, as Callisto surges forward. Instead of striking, though, pure almighty energy flows out of her, before exploding outwards towards Yumi and Gretchen, the Megido washing over them quickly.

She can feel her energy reserves take a big hit for that one... hopefully it's worth it.

When Mark calls out to her, though, she yells back, "Thanks! I owe ya!" She can go in with another punch... but she remembers what Myunghon taught her about Skill Cards, having bought an extra one when she went with Katsuya.

"Let's snuff out your light!" she yells, as Callisto spreads forth a blob of darkness, soaking into the cage of Gretchen's.

Wow, Skill Cards *do* work!

AS: Persona! Ulala Serizawa has used the Almighty skill Megido on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Persona! Ulala Serizawa has used the Dark skill Eiha on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Ulala Serizawa's turn has ended.

AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 88 Almighty damage from Ulala Serizawa's Megido.
AS: Nerve Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8!
AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 20 Dark damage from Ulala Serizawa's Eiha.

<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.

  

     "There is a 'cost' for not putting your eye on the thing you want."

     To his merit, Shiryuu doesn't seem to be as dismayed by the string of suicidal impulses that ripple through the beachfront, but he doesn't seem particularly disturbed about the vagaries in Katsuya's attention. It wouldn't be out of place, of course; stranger, and far more dire things have happened in the city.

     He's speaking idly, stepping just past the police sergeant while he nurses his wound, while the cast of magic cascades over him, rendering him in a hundred colors of crime and light. You can almost see the palpable disinterest in the boy's eye, as his attention curves from one element to the other. So that's what 'that eye' meant to his favorite teammate. It explains much more than would be supposed on first glance. But the time grows short. Once past Katsuya, Shiryuu has a moment to lift his blade, pointing at Umie silently. Wait.

     He almost notices the twin gouts of flame too late.

     The coruscating fire engulfs the nameless boy, tumbling end-over end as a truck-like wall of black-feathered wind twists up with the flame to flare it, driving him back, the smouldering corona eating into his silhouette as he -- slows down in mid-air and... stops?

     "Whether it is borne from a lack of compassion or an abundance of resolve..."

     A single black-edged slash clears away the flame smouldering at his haori. The young man is perched on -- another? -- spectral bridge, his Persona's vastly long gohei dragging slowly overhead. This one stretches off into the sweltering sky until it can no longer be seen, and the sway of the bridge is at an almost 90-degree tilt in relation to the ground, leaving the onmitsu to sway in the wind, like a spider in its web.

     "..It all just means you die, in the end." He moves.

     The flash of the man's blade, little more than a black blur, erupts on Katsuya's left in the next instant. A feint! Katsuya only has seconds to react before the shinobi launches into a full rising knee, throwing himself off of one hip to propell himself into the officer's jaw. He could leave it there, using the officer's distraction only for an instant.

     But. Shiryuu is not charitable, and he is not kind.

     If Katsuya's focus is not bolstered against the chaos happening around him, he'll see the boy flick his sword into a spinning arc in the air, black and matte twirling end-over-end for one split second.

     By the time Shiryuu catches his sword again a second later, he'll have tried to kill Katsuya at least twice over, a strike to the throat and a kick that'll -very- likely get the officer stuck on one of those improbably angled bridges.

     The attack flies in an instant. It's hard to tell which parts of him are offensive or not. A short, sharp explosion spreads a full-on bow made from origami from his wristline. The strike to the throat a double entendre -- Shiryuu fully intends to hit Katsuya and nock a paper arrow onto his bow with the same motion. And then shoot Umie down with an arrow. She may note that it's aimed exactly where he pointed only a moment ago: The opposite side of her chest from her heart.

     And _then_ Shiryuu snaps off that gut kick after Katsuya. Leave it to the onmitsu to try and kill two people at once.
     By the time he catches his sword, the thing is humming with the force of his taut grip.

AS: Weapon! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Strike skill Ryouhara Ninjutsu on Katsuya Suou! 3 Hits!
AS: Counter Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 91 Light damage from Maya Amano's Hama.
AS: Exhaust added!
AS: COUNTER! Maya Amano takes 6 Light damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Weapon! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Pierce skill Hishinmeisen on Umie Akabane!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.

AS: Avoid Worst! Umie Akabane takes 87 Pierce damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Hishinmeisen.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Katsuya Suou takes 22 Strike damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Ryouhara Ninjutsu.
AS: Counter Best! Katsuya Suou takes 31 Strike damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Ryouhara Ninjutsu. Critical Hit!
AS: COUNTER! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 23 Strike damage in return for his attack! 
AS: Block Neutral! Katsuya Suou takes 29 Strike damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Ryouhara Ninjutsu. Critical Hit!

<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.

    Gretchen aids Yumi -- as does Faust. "Miyu," she breathes, as Tetrakarn glimmers to life in front of her. "I'm okay, I'm all right. Well and good and true and full and nourished and blossoming living breathing."

    Is she... really okay, if she's saying it like that...? Well, maybe it will reassure 'Merry', too... and 'Tsurugi', at that.

    ... is Yumi a murderer, if she's bringing her partner here to murder a woman? It's a thorny question. She doesn't think of herself as a murderer -- has never held a bloodied knife; but she closed and locked the door, trapped her in the house, presented her to her doom.

    Maybe... facilitating it is just as bad.

    This damsel's causing way too much distress to be innocent, even if she might be quite mad.

    (Hiori Hamade, a more classical distressed damsel, is doing her very best to hide in her present situation. She tried to shoot a Persona once; she's too smart to try something which doesn't work twice.)

    Yumi shakes her head, as she tries to focus on Masao. "Stop us?" She asks, and echoes it again. "Stop us, stop us, stop us... pause cease annul block quit arrest. The theatre set in motion will not cease recital until the curtain falls. If the play pleases you not, all onus is on you."

    Did... she just tell him to stop them?

    It's honestly hard to tell.

    Gretchen cages Yumi again, though, to shield her from the flames. (Nothing gets in. Nothing gets OUT.) Ulala's encore, though, MEGIDO --

    It rocks the both of them; Yua grasps tightly to her own Persona, in what must trangress some boundary or another, to keep herself on her feet in the wake of the Almighty's rage. Shadows cast over them, in turn...

    ... and Gretchen turns, to Ulala. "Pray," she says, clasping her hands together. (Was that a wince, carried through the jerk of her head and her shoulders?) "Chthonic, beneath the earth, where there is no light."

    Gretchen spreads her arms, as Yua clasps hers, and Mamagna washes over Ulala and Masao in turn...

    ... only for the Persona to flicker, weakly, as Yua sags just the same.

    "I... persevere," she hisses, as she takes a bottle of focus-enhancing pills from a pocket on her armour, and shoves several into her mouth. (KATSUYA WAS RIGHT!)

    But how much longer can she, really?

AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Earth skill Mamagna on Masao Inaba and Ulala Serizawa!
AS: Item! Yua Ooshiro has used the Recovery skill Focus Pills on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Focus Pills. 12 SP regained!

AS: Counter Worst! Ulala Serizawa takes 44 Earth damage from Yua Ooshiro's Mamagna. Resist!
AS: COUNTER! Yua Ooshiro takes 4 Earth damage in return for her attack! Resist!

<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.

Tsurugi appreciates Merry's efforts, she really does... she just can't appreciate them right now, sadly.

She glances to Yumi as she... 'reacts' to the thought of therapy. Her hands clench on her weapons. "... Yumi." But the reminder of the mission comes. Tsurugi looks away as she struggles to pull the trigger.

Miyu has her covered, for now. She'll keep watch, though.

Shinobu has her confirmation. The one from yesterday. "Yes." Why is she tolerating this? "It is my mission," she says simply, in that cold tone of voice.

Does she know what they're trying to do? "... Yes." She raises her rapier. "I have my orders."

Shinobu comes for her with a staff, and it takes Tremi a moment to scrutinize her movements, in that crucial moment before they meet. She leans, letting the staff's first attack whoosh right past her head. But the kick takes her by surprise and she grunts as she's forced back, panting a little.

She doesn't seem to try to clutch the area that was struck, though.

But when the staff comes down again her movement is slowed, and she takes a long hit down her side as she doesn't quite evade it in time, before taking a few steps back to disengage.

Maya decides to call forth the power of her Persona, the confusingly named Maia. Light comes forth, and all Tsurugi ahs to do is glance slightly in that direction and La Maupin rushes to meet the charge. Maupin is blasted back, though, losing the exchange as they try to lash out. Tsurugi grunts as she feels the pain, but straightens up.

"You will need to mend more than your clothing."

But she grows still for a moment, drawing in a deep, slow breath, , focusing her will... and when she starts to move again she seems to be moving a little bit easier, as does her Persona. La Maupin gestures with their sword, and a burst of wind explodes from Remi's feet, before redirecting up to wrap around her.

Shinobu should recognize Sukukaja.

Then in the next instant La Maupin darts forward, rapier at the ready as they make a great whirling slash at both Maia and Lachesis in turn, their excess sleeve lengths whirling madly with the motion.

AS: Remi Ryuuja spends Limit on Salve!  removed from Remi Ryuuja!
AS: Persona! Remi Ryuuja has used the Almighty skill Sukukaja on Remi Ryuuja!
AS: Take! Remi Ryuuja takes 0 Almighty damage from Remi Ryuuja's Sukukaja.
AS: Spd_Up added!
AS: Block Best! Masao Inaba takes 19 Earth damage from Yua Ooshiro's Mamagna. Resist!
AS: Bind added!
AS: Persona! Remi Ryuuja has used the Slash skill Blade of Fury on Shinobu Shimizu and Maya Amano! 3 Hits!
AS: Remi Ryuuja's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    It's not what it looks like, Yukari insists, to which the dumbfounded look on Officer Suou's face probably says everything he wouldn't dare put into words. "I-- well, yes," he manages at last, trying to wrench himself back from the brink. A cop gave her permission to do this? Well, that's actually the most sensible thing he's heard regarding Personas and the like in days. "I will-- take that under advisement, Miss--?" He pauses, glancing about himself. "--We will talk about this later!" Which is a nicer way of saying, 'let's work this out when people are not trying to kill us'.

    It's his... getaway car?

    He blinks, but LOGIC thankfully kicks in before he can question all this too much. "--Understood! Hamade-kun! Get to the car!" At least it will be better for her than being out in the open, but whether the car will be able to still function after driving on sand (never mind the damage weapons and spells could do to it between now and whenever an escape is made) is another question. Still, far be it from him to look a gift horse in the mouth.

    The power of CRIME is flowing through his body...! "Must... must you really call it that!" he shouts back at Myunghon, for some reason far more troubled by the categorization of her spell than anything else about it (or even, in this moment, the reckless way by which she arrived on the scene). What can we say, the man has Priorities...

    But the woman with the Persona-summoning gun (he'll learn the proper name for it, eventually) begins to scream. Katsuya, who cannot help but turn his head in her direction, stares and draws himself up, as if in anticipation of a volley even his way. Then she 'shoots' herself in the eye. ...Was his initial assumption so wrong?

    'Yumi' and 'Miyu'. It's too pat to be real names. But that is probably the point, isn't it? Myunghon turns her gaze on 'Miyu' (that is, Miho) and declares this is the woman who 'condemned them to life'. A few things click into place for Katsuya, a few stray puzzle pieces that had been left aside on the table before. He thinks... he understands.

    Healing power washes over him, mending the damage he'd suffered before. He's experienced the same before courtesy of Maya's own Persona, but alas, it's not the sort of thing that his own can do (presently). It's a pity: while he's found Helios to be an effective 'partner' in combat with demons, the ability to back up one's companions is also an important talent. "Thank you," he tells Yukari, because pitched battle or not, it's important to be polite.

    But of course, this is when Maya calls out, loud enough that he can hear it, that--

    "A-Amano-kun, is this really the time to--!"
    Perhaps he should just count himself lucky that she did not just flash a pose.

    But as his opponent reminds him, there is a cost for not putting his eye on the prize. Now is not the time to get distracted, or to chase after two hares: as the proverb states, in so doing, he will catch neither. "Who are you?" he asks the young man with the sword at last, as if that will make any difference at all whatsoever in this risky struggle. The way that he uses his Persona seems odd -- but as a 'green' Persona-user himself, it isn't as if Katsuya could definitively say what is and what isn't 'permitted'. Just today, he's learned that it is possible to summon a Persona by shooting oneself in the head. Is that bridge he stands astride, hanging in a way that reminds Katsuya of a circus performer, actually real in any meaningful way, or

    The blade blurs forward. He realizes in a cold shock that it's a feint, that the blade is actually,

    And he twists, barely enough to escape a more serious injury. Instead, a knee clips his shoulder and sends him off-balance, and the boy is still coming for him. The blade seems to twirl in the air, and here the young man throws a punch and a kick. The result is that he does fall against the rope bridge (it is real! ...in a sense!) but not without a retaliatory left hook thrown for Shiryuu before the young man breaks away

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    The blade blurs forward. He realizes in a cold shock that it's a feint, that the blade is actually,

    And he twists, barely enough to escape a more serious injury. Instead, a knee clips his shoulder and sends him off-balance, and the boy is still coming for him. The blade seems to twirl in the air, and here the young man throws a punch and a kick. The result is that he does fall against the rope bridge (it is real! ...in a sense!) but not without a retaliatory left hook thrown for Shiryuu before the young man breaks away, and just long enough to strike at Katsuya's partner in this struggle. By the time that kick comes, he's ready for it--

    "...Damn..." Katsuya hisses, holding his arm against his abdomen in the aftermath.

    Or perhaps, not quite as ready as he'd thought. This boy is...! Still, while he may be wounded, he's far from out of this fight. Time to put that Skill Card to the test! "I'm not done yet! Helios!" he calls, and as his feline Persona ghosts his own from, there comes a crackling snap from on high as lightning is peeled from the heavens at Helios' beck and call. Rallying, Katsuya pushes off against the section of rope bridge he'd been slumped against and snaps off another pair of shots at Shiryuu from his service weapon.

AS: Persona! Katsuya Suou has used the Elec skill Zio on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Block Neutral! Shinobu Shimizu takes 23 Slash damage from Remi Ryuuja's Blade of Fury.
AS: Block Best! Shinobu Shimizu takes 19 Slash damage from Remi Ryuuja's Blade of Fury. Critical Hit!
AS: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit from Momentum!
AS: Block Neutral! Shinobu Shimizu takes 23 Slash damage from Remi Ryuuja's Blade of Fury.
AS: Block Neutral! Maya Amano takes 31 Slash damage from Remi Ryuuja's Blade of Fury. Critical Hit!
AS: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit from Momentum!
AS: Weapon! Katsuya Suou has used the Pierce skill Handgun - Shot on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 2 Hits!
AS: Katsuya Suou's turn has ended.
AS: Block Worst! Maya Amano takes 34 Slash damage from Remi Ryuuja's Blade of Fury.
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 47 Elec damage from Katsuya Suou's Zio.
AS: Paralyze added!

<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.

The cop asks... 'Miss-"'
 
"Oh-uhhhhh!" The urge to lie briefly occurs to her, but in her panic, the names that come to mind...
 
Arisato... no... Kawase... nah... Aomori... nuh-uh Iori... I'd rather die.
 
"... Takeba." She admits, with a sigh, best to actually be cooperative anyway. If he decides to press her she won't get away with it.
 
And it's not like the Kirijo Group supplied her with Fake ID. "... Huh!? Well you're welcome I guess...

Mio asks if she's fine and- "I'm-! OW! FI-OW!" That's the effect of her arrows hitting Tetrakarn! And Miho just BATTING them back! "No I really DON'T get it! Why are you here trying to kill anyone?"
 
And then-! First the Cop and now... the weird Nun calling out like that - then saying they knew that. "Did you really...?" She sighs, "Why do I feel like this is going to keep happening?"
 
Dramatics has a powerful cognitive effect, Merry insists, "... Why do I get the impression you're just saying that?" Yukari says, dubiously, "If this is an attempt to get me to take part in something weird... I'm not buying it."
 
Yua however screams and Yukari gasps, "What's wrong with her!?" But then she draws forth a Revolver, a big one, and puts it to her head... "Is that a... is that an EVOKER?"
 
Yukari's eyes grow as wide as saucers as Gretchen comes forth.
 
How did she get that!?
WHY does she have an Evoker!?
... Is the Kirijo Group...
 
Her eyes narrow after in suspicion, and focus, like despite everything, it was a sobering reminder...
 
... of why she's here. Faust whirls at her, and- "Stop her! Io!"
 
The Persona suddenly pivots, and the slashing wave is caught by the bull's horn before barely managing to twist aside the blow. There is a sound from the Persona, like a bull's anger rising against the sickly sensation inside.
 
The Persona's winds rise around Faust. Rising in waves, slashing and rending, before trying to blast it away from her with one huge gust.
 
'Don't worry Takeba-kun! The Rising Star of Coolest Magazine's editorial staff is here to help!'
 
"... Uh I know they say the pen is mightier but no offense... I don't think- Wait you have one too!?"
 
Taken aback, she looks at the guns as if they're possibly Evokers too but why would someone have two of them? "Um - okay then! Help away!"
 
The stuff Merry has to say... True World, and the like...
 
"... Huh, guess she really is part of some weird purity movement." Yukari speaks as if she were thoughtfully startled by that, "Knew they were getting a little too hostile for comfort..." And as she assesses a battlefield of injuries... "Uhhh... this is getting really bad..."
 
Still, Yukari takes this moment of Myunghon's explanation to begin to dart behind Samson, an Evoker to her forehead already. "Again! Io!" Her eyes snap to Mio as if to say 'Do you get it now!?' As Io raises her arms, and healing energy floods Merry, Maya, A COP ASKING UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS, and herself, sparkling like a cooling wind laced with the damp scent of a clear pool.
 
Before she then cants her head at the aforementioned Reporter using this lull in the battle to exploit another opening, "Alright... pull the trigger..." Pull the trigger again and... energy swirls up around Io, then dances over the Nun who thinks she tried to off herself (sigh), before the wind rises like a column, carrying a scent of fresh water. "I've got you!"

AS: Yukari Takeba spends Limit on Exploit! Yukari Takeba can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Wind skill Garula on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Counter Best! Maya Amano takes 25 Slash damage from Remi Ryuuja's Blade of Fury.
AS: COUNTER! Remi Ryuuja takes 14 Slash damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Block Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 66 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Handgun - Shot. Critical Hit!
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Recovery skill Media on Yukari Takeba, Maya Amano, Katsuya Suou, and Myunghon
Yeo!
AS: Counter Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 37 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Handgun - Shot.
AS: COUNTER! Katsuya Suou takes 13 Pierce damage in return for his attack! 
AS: Take! Yukari Takeba takes 79 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
AS: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit from Supporter!
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Recovery skill Dia on Mio Kazama!
AS: Yukari Takeba's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Mio Kazama takes 92 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Dia.
AS: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit from Supporter!
AS: Take! Myunghon Yeo takes 79 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.

AS: Avoid Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 78 Wind damage from Yukari Takeba's Garula.
AS: Haze added!

<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.

Mio is quickly doing the math on how many people she can cram into her car. The NSX is a two-door coupe, but if everyone crowds into it... uh... well, there's room in the trunk, maybe. She rolls her habit's sleeve up quickly to peek at her watch, clearly keeping some kind of time limit in mind. "Not yet..." she murmurs.

The Persona Wrestling match continues, albeit a little one-sided. Faust is a much more deft maneuverer than Samson, not to mention possessed of powers that sap and counter the rampaging berserker's own. Each cut, nick, stab, and slice is adding up, and the scarlet-haired titan of black is moving more slowly than ever. Mio is forced onto the defensive, backing up with her huge iron mace held across her for emphasis.

There's so much about the other half of this shadowy world that Mio doesn't know. It's incredible, really. For example, she is really yet to get why all these people keep pulling out guns and putting them to their heads, but--as Yukari and Io once again pulse with this incredible power that revitalizes her body and soul, she isn't about to stop them to ask too many questions. Still, though. It makes Mio wonder. Maybe she should have a gun. Not to point at her head, no, but like. Just in case. Someday. "T--thanks, Miss Yumi! You're incredible!" she hollers back, unable to keep the cool affectation up as her gratitude takes over.

Anyway, there's more to this story between Miyu and Myunghon than Mio knows or realizes, but that's a conversation to hash out with Myunghon on another day. "You didn't strike me as the condemned type, boss." Mio muses at Myunghon, looking at her askance. God, she probably even pronounces it 'bossu', too.

When Mio next glares at Miyu, there's real fire in those eyes. She can tell this is someone who bounces back quickly, and doesn't shy away from a fight just because she doesn't understand every motive of every piece on the field. Adaptive, but also... dangerous. Reckless, right? "You're talking a big game, but you're outnumbered." she points dramatically at Miyu, bluffing past the rapid onset of exhaustion as her Persona is getting its ass beat in the background, every traded hit coming up a loss. "Wanna give up?"

Mio snaps her fingers, and silvery chains similar to the ones binding Samson glimmer into view at Miyu and Faust's feet. Will they dodge? Surprise attack? Is this rambunctious fool of a girl even capable of a surprise attack?

AS: Persona! Mio Kazama has used the Almighty skill Sukunda on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Mio Kazama's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.

Earth washes towards Ulala, causing her to stagger backwards, before countering by punching a rock back at Yumi!!! Her fist hurts.

"Okay, you asked for it," she says, straightening out her neck.

Yet, she doesn't attack... instead-

As Yumi takes a whole bunch of pills, Ulala realizes something is wrong here. Who are these people? And why do they seem so...

Pitiful?

That's definitely the wrong word, but it's the one Ulala's brain settles on. Assassins, maybe, hired by the Joker Killer? Does he even have cash, he wears a paper bag for a head...

"You're a disgrace. You and that lady you keep yelling for are *rejects* from the murder convention!"

It's supposed to be bait, get Yumi looking towards her, maybe more angry at her...

As she gestures to Mark, trying to give him the opening to get more attacks in!

Meanwhile, Callisto buffs up Ulala, a strength boost coming forth to enhance her for her next attack!

AS: Mio Kazama spends Limit on Shift! Myunghon Yeo can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Persona! Ulala Serizawa has used the Almighty skill Tarukaja on Ulala Serizawa!
AS: Ulala Serizawa's turn has ended.
AS: Ulala Serizawa spends Limit on Shift! Masao Inaba can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Take! Ulala Serizawa takes 0 Almighty damage from Ulala Serizawa's Tarukaja.
AS: Atk_Up added!

<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.

"Not theirs!" Miyu snaps at Myunghon. "Not their false attempts at 'sinless' living! Not their false appropriation of that which must be!" Miyu sounds--angry, all of a sudden. She was merely stern before, but now there is rage. "The true world--the one in which you betrayed us!"

She condemened them to life, once. And that...

"I have Seen it! So tell me of your lies, and I--"

Blackness covers Miyu. She is too hard to see for a moment, and when it fades--

Miyu growls, wavering on her feet. She feels tired--she feels confused. But she must power through. So Miyu steps back. "Faust!" she calls. And then she thumps her armor with a fist, and breathes, centering herself.

She will take her own confusion--and remember what is True.

"I kill because it is a means to an end," Miyu answers Yukari then. "A regrettable necessity, in pursuit of truth."

"...But you are the bearer of respite. I will have to remember that."

She grits her teeth, as she notes how exhausted Yua is. But the terrible wind hits Faust, and Faust's coat whips in the gale. "Gh," Miyu answers.

But Mio offers her a chance to give up, as she saps her own speed. Miyu feels slower--but she comes to a stop, to turn directly to her.

"I am outnumbered by fear," Miyu answers, "And lies."

"One more push!" she calls to her allies in the NWO as Faust lifts both hands and begins to glow with power. "If we cannot end it..."

"Then fate is as fate will be."

"But first--"

"YOU!" she shouts, and an explosion rocks the air at Ulala, perhaps catching her outright.

"Now!"

Spectral blue flame rushes her opponents, all three--Samson and Mio, Yukari and Io, Myunghon and Kudlak, followed up by shockwave upon shockwave of slashing gale.

"NOW!"

AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Salve! Charm removed from Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Salve! Haze removed from Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Exploit! Miho Ijuuin can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Break! 
AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Psych! 
AS: You can't attack while you have an attack in your queue.

AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Almighty damage from Mio Kazama's Sukunda.
AS: Spd_Dn added!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Dance of Bravery on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: You still have 2 regular actions and 1 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Almighty damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dance of Bravery.
AS: Atk_Up|Crt_Up added!
AS: Break! Miho Ijuuin can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Fire skill Freila on Ulala Serizawa!
AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 2 bonus Weak action!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Fire skill Mafrei on Myunghon Yeo, Mio Kazama, and Yukari Takeba!
AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 1 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Gale Slash on Myunghon Yeo, Mio Kazama, and Yukari Takeba!
AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Avoid Worst! Myunghon Yeo takes 105 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafrei.
AS: Break! Myunghon Yeo can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Avoid Best! Myunghon Yeo takes 67 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Gale Slash.
AS: Break! Myunghon Yeo can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Submission on Ulala Serizawa!
AS: Miho Ijuuin: Break and Psych removed!
AS: Miho Ijuuin's turn has ended. It's time for an All-Out Attack!
AS: Counter Neutral! Mio Kazama takes 89 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafrei.
AS: COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 13 Fire damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Break! Mio Kazama can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Yukari Takeba spends Limit on Brace! 
AS: Avoid Neutral! Ulala Serizawa takes 116 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Freila.
AS: Break! Ulala Serizawa can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Yukari Takeba takes 94 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafrei. Critical Hit!
AS: Break! Yukari Takeba can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum!

AS: Block Best! Yukari Takeba takes 47 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Gale Slash.
AS: Break! Yukari Takeba can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Block Worst! Mio Kazama takes 93 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Gale Slash. Weak! Block Slash!
AS: Break! Mio Kazama can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Take! Ulala Serizawa takes 0 Almighty damage from Miho Ijuuin's Submission.
AS: Crt_Dn added!
AS: Break! Ulala Serizawa can take another Weak action this round!

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    "Whoa," Masao takes the moment to catch as the glimmering Tetrakarn settles upon Gretchen and their user, Yumi. Yeah, there's a lot of shouting and chaos going on around them all that he can't fully follow beyond the importance of seeing to someone not getting murdered.
 
     He meets Yumi's focused gaze head-on with the invitation spoken through repeated chants, synonyms, and theater metaphors. He was never a theater kid.
 
     "Then I'm gonna reach up and pull that damn curtain right down over your head," is his invitation, though he watches how Yumi clutches to her Persona like so. Just what's going on there? Who's in control?
 
     He can wonder about that when he's not dealing with a Mamagna looking to bury the both of them. Here, he actually does take the axe in both hands with grit teeth as that blue aura of an emerging Persona surrounds him - preventing him from serious harm but also causing his feet to sink more into the wet sand underneath. Even wrangling the worst of the impact away by supernatural protection... he's still pushed into a disadvantageous position.
 
     He blinks more at Ulala's harsh words as their opponent hurriedly pops pills, but he gets the gist of what she's going for - not like he hasn't ever run his mouth at Demons, back in the day, to the same end.
 
     But this isn't a demon. This is a hurt, frightened person.
 
     "Even if you put something like that up," he means Tetrakarn, "we're still gonna break through to you. Ogun!!"
 
     Ogun obeys, descending once more from that thin line of light they emerge from. "Give 'em the Heavenly Hit... and let's Tackle our way through!"
 
     Even through the iron bars, even through Tetrakarn, Ogun bears Mark's will as he rears back and forth as the Persona hurls themselves into Gretchen. Whatever the physical, painful feedback, Mark grits his teeth to take the opening as Ogun renews their stance to hurl themselves bodily a second time.
 
     This woman's situation hits too close to home for that of a dear friend's, give or take a handful of shots into one's own eyeball.

AS: Persona! Masao Inaba has used the Strike skill Heavenly Hit on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Persona! Masao Inaba has used the Strike skill Tackle on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Masao Inaba's turn has ended.
AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 79 Strike damage from Masao Inaba's Heavenly Hit.
AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 59 Strike damage from Masao Inaba's Tackle.

<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

    Just who.... is this man? Umie's fingers slant the brim of hat to hide the whites of her eyes from showing through the holes of her mask, not wanting to betray her shock.

    The bridges aren't just illusionary as Umie's own attacks, as Katsuya's body hitting one bridge shows. Neither are is the arrow that hits her chest, spreading red through the fabric of her windbreaker.

    Why does it feel more threatening, now that it's come from a person, rather than a demon, or a shadow? "....." Her fingers touch the source of wetness, and come away dark red.

    This is the path she's on, right?

    Her eyelids lower, as she spreads the blood between thumb and index finger. The noise of battle, already overtaxing her senses, drains away/

    Ah. So. This is why Badb is... hers.

    ....

    At some point, when neither Katsuya, Shiryuu, or Hamade are focused on her, Umie had just... slipped away.

    Umie had become akin to a nameless crow on the battlefield, using the innate agility afforded to her to slip away, scampering across the bridges. There's no resonance to detect; she simply does not exist, in that sense.

    Until she does.

    ".... Badb, come."

    (https://youtu.be/NFfaWYqJn-A?si=UNuhu_EaxXKWid8r)

    Her resonance is now alive and well, as is Badb, as Umie appears *behind* Shiryuu on the battlefield.

    One clawed hand beckons, the other curls around like conducting an orchestra, cutting through the lulling song with the cackle of hooves and wheels chasing as irregular angles.

    Passion, and Chaos.

    And, one more.

    "Pale Shriek!"

    A reddish brown eyes peek down at Katsuya through the mask.

    The message is clear: get Hamade to the crime car.

AS: Umie Akabane spends Limit on Exploit! Umie Akabane can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Umie Akabane spends Limit on Psych! 
AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Almighty skill Warrior's Bell on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Almighty skill Soul Break on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Pale Shriek on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 3 Hits!
AS: Umie Akabane: Psych removed!
AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.

    Nothing about this is fine. Yumi says she's fine. She's all right. Well and good and true and full. These are the lies they have to keep telling themselves each day, the rote-responses that one says when a colleague says 'how are you doing' in this so-called True World that Miyu has to fight for.

    No one wants a trauma dump from a morning office 'how are you doing', because your trauma dump isn't adding to your KPIs!!!

    Twisted. So twisted... so twisted! To become hope... Rumourmonger Merry will happily paint this world all over...!

    Katsuya understands what Myunghon is telling him, urging Hamade to get into the car. "Kazama-kun, get ready to bail the moment we have an out! The Junior Officer is the MVP!" Myunghon yells to Mio in turn.

    Suou-san does question if they really have to call it crime, though. Myunghon still has the spare time to look at him incredulously, even in the midst of deadly combat. "Suou-san, you were just told you were betrayed! Do you really think it is the power of Order that will let us live to fight another day here?!"

    Still, Myunghon isn't inclined to give Katsuya too hard a time, because he's also fighting for his life. "I don't say things that I don't fervently believe in, Takeba-kun," Myunghon answers Yukari fervently. "For example, don't you think the Phantom Thieves of Hearts are as successful as they are because they hold such sway over the public? These people are powerful because they wield the narrative that they can disappear anyone for saying the wrong thing at any time."

    Merry's grin cracks from ear to ear.

    "To erase that narrative... and supplant it with my own... I'll wield the power of Drama and Dance as well, just as my dearest friends once taught me!"

    'Flower of this purple dye,
     Hit it with Cupid's archery...'

    For a moment, Myunghon can see it. Remi, resplendent on the stage. Now, she's fighting Shinobu, trying to tear into each other.

    Everyone who gets to know you is doomed to slay one another.

    Miho -- Miyu -- has become truly angry. Rage bubbles from behind her white mask. The true world -- the one in which Myunghon betrayed them. The true world... the true world... what did she see? What did she see, on that day... on other days...

    The data-points are muddy. Myunghon can't trace the lines. They can hear the words, but they can't remotely visualise what it is Miyu speaks about. They can only assume, at 8,192 characters a second, of possible meanings of betrayal. And then, for their betrayal, Faust answers them.

    Kudlak rises once more, in response to fear and lies, and then the battlefield is rocked with spectral blue flame manifesting into slashing gales and bright, bright Nuclear fear, that continues to rock Myunghon back and has them slamming against a sign that reads:

    TRY SUMARU BUTTER TODAY! INTENSELY SPREADABLE!

    Thank you, Sumaru Butter, for not sending them off into the ocean.

    "I don't know. I don't know, White Mask Miyu... what is is that you have seen? I can't see."

    They slump off the crumpled sign, which is concave with an imprint of their body on it. They drip with fresh blood, which seems into their bandages. Just like...

    "You took my eye, on that day, so dark and cloudy.
     You took my body, on that day, so wet and windy."

    Myunghon walks forward, not unlike that of a shambling corpse, feeling exhaustion and wounds catch up to them. It's only thanks to Yukari's second intervention of Media that they don't collapse face-first into wet sand.

    "You took something precious from me, on that day, when rain turned to snow..."

    And from their well-what-is-it gesture, Kudlak seems to intensely spread out as that column of Blue erupts high into the sky -- and for a moment, Kudlak seems to transcend the definition of humanoid, as the sand becomes painted Black, until there is a road of Dark between them and Miho.

    "But you also gave something really intimate in return..."

    The stretch of Dark impales

AS: Weapon! Myunghon Yeo has used the Pierce skill Coated in Poison on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Weapon! Myunghon Yeo has used the Pierce skill Turn Coat on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Persona! Myunghon Yeo has used the Almighty skill Weaponise Estoma on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Persona! Myunghon Yeo has used the Dark skill All According to Plan on Miho Ijuuin! 2 Hits!
AS: Myunghon Yeo's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.

    The stretch of Dark impales outwards, with ribbon-like tendrils that grab, restrain, hold away at Miho. Myunghon's eye is bulging so wide that it feels like they could just pop right out, pupil shrunk as their grin reaches ear to ear, almost rictus in expression.

    "So I'll continue to be your Hope, in the Dark."

    --until a fulminating detonation of Darkness consumes them both.

<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.

"Your mission? Your orders?" Shinobu replies, disgust in her voice. "What's that about? You think it's alright to kill someone just because someone told you to? You were alright risking your skin for Aragaki, but now she's gotta die? What did she do wrong?"

She watches as Tsurugi is pushed back from her attack... but she seems undeterred, at least until the next hit comes. Shinobu frowns. ...She supposes anyone willing or foolish enough to go head-to-head - even for just a second - with the Reaper is bound to be able to take a hit or two.

"You getting this, Reporter-san?" Shinobu asks with a glance toward Maya. "...Hang in there. Dunno if you've been a fight like this before.

She does indeed, recognize Sukukaja as Remi casts it - and there's another frustrated 'tsk' as she remembers the way Tsurugi bailed them all out before with it.

She braces herself - and so does her other self. La Maupin's rapier is ready, and the Persona rushes forward. Lachesis's measuring rod is ready. She shifts, raising it to block the flurry of attacks. It's enough to force her backward in mid-air, but she remains.

"Lachesis!" Shinobu calls out. Lachesis responds. Serene eyes turn toward Tsurugi. The measuring rod is once again leveled as a tool. Her hands travel across it, as if measuring an invisible thread... and then they stop, Tsurugi between her hands in her vision. "Strike Break."

A surge of energy surrounds Remi. If it takes hold, she'll find herself becoming more fragile - more vulnerable to physical strikes. Shinobu doesn't move to capitalize on this yet - but the threat is made apparent.

AS: Persona! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Almighty skill Strike Break on Remi Ryuuja!
AS: Shinobu Shimizu's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 31 Pierce damage from Myunghon Yeo's Coated in Poison. Critical Hit!
AS: Bind|Paralyze added!
AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Pierce damage from Myunghon Yeo's Turn Coat.
AS: Blast added! Paralyze removed! Explosion! 45 damage!
AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Almighty damage from Myunghon Yeo's Weaponise Estoma.
AS: Exhaust|Panic added!
AS: Block Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 52 Dark damage from Myunghon Yeo's All According to Plan.
AS: Paralyze added!
AS: Block Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 36 Dark damage from Myunghon Yeo's All According to Plan.

<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.

'T--thanks, Miss Yumi! You're incredible' "Oh! Hey thanks but... that's not really my name - I just... use a bow. ...You know what forget it."

Whereas Merry likens what she says to the Phantom Thieves!? "Huh!? When did this come to be about the Phantom Thieves? I mean - I hear they have a lot of followers on Social Media..." As Merry grins from ear to ear about her own plans... Yukari has a 'why me' look. "I guess me guessing the Cardboard Dragon is really a community theater troupe wasn't so far off the mark..."

What a weird day. What a weird life. She thought she knew so much about being a Persona User from SEES but...
 
... apparently the Persona Users from Sumaru City are a bunch of weirdos!!!

Miho says she kills as a means to an end, and Yukari looks, startled, but then, profoundly upset, "A means to an end!? That's all this is to you?" She says, vitriolic, "I hope - you lose everyone that means anything to you... see how you like it."

Perhaps some part of her regrets it, the moment she says it. She tells herself she wouldn't wish that on anyone, what she went through... but dealing with people who say they would murder someone like that...

... she just did.

"No... you're really just outnumbered in general. Give it up already."

As Miho strikes with explosions of flame and slashing blade, Yukari puts the Evoker back to her head, "I can do this... IO!"

Io appears again, and bursts out of the nuclear fire, the fey girl rattling chains, as an arm swings up, and shockwave clashes against chains with a spray of sparks. The bull effigy raising it's hands, as it forms a lance - in mid-air...

... in Yukari's hands, the Skill Card Merry gave her, glowing, as she looks Miho down. "... I don't think you wanna take this any further." The projectile spins, faster and faster, as she throws the card up.

Smoothly nocks an arrow, and fires at the shoulder of Miho's fencing arm. The same moment the projectile Io formed launches through the air at Faust. But despite her curse... she's not aiming for anything vital.

No. After all, for the curse to be valid... she'd have to live with the consequences. Just like...

AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Pierce skill Single Shot on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Weapon! Yukari Takeba has used the Pierce skill Eight Stages of Shooting on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Weapon! Yukari Takeba has used the Pierce skill Please Hit! on Miho Ijuuin! 2 Hits!
AS: Yukari Takeba: Atk_Up and Crt_Up removed!
AS: Yukari Takeba's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Remi Ryuuja takes 0 Almighty damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Strike Break.
AS: Rage|Strike_Break added!
AS: Counter Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 76 Pierce damage from Yukari Takeba's Single Shot. Critical Hit!
AS: COUNTER! Yukari Takeba takes 33 Pierce damage in return for her attack! 
AS: Counter Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 28 Pierce damage from Yukari Takeba's Eight Stages of Shooting.
AS: COUNTER! Yukari Takeba takes 12 Pierce damage in return for her attack! 

AS: Block Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 31 Pierce damage from Yukari Takeba's Please Hit!.
AS: Block Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 31 Pierce damage from Yukari Takeba's Please Hit!.

<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.

    Yumi realises, a touch delayed, that someone asked about the gift she and Gretchen share.

    "Evoking," she says, looking to Yukari. "Provoking, revoking, invoking, cloaking, yoking... where did you come from? Where are you standing? Where are you going?"

    That's... just the ramblings of a madwoman, right?

    She's interrupted from her rambling, though, by Miho's terrible reminder of Myunghon's betrayal. "A warning, or... but it cannot be a mistake," she insists, grasping at the side of her head. "In that place are there no MISTAKES -- oh, but let us persist here, in the pleasant lie! <You and me, me and you--!!>" A statement she makes in English, quite good English, as perhaps the codenames slip into place.

    Yumi.

    Miyu.

    You and me... me and you.

    The reason that woman has been defending her, all this time...

    It must be Yumi, in control of Gretchen; were the balance of power to shift the other way, she would be another failure in Tsurugi's memory. But the conversation -- what seems at time more like an argument -- it's made far louder than it ought to be. Far more present. Something so effortless to most of them is made explicit, physical, tangible as Yumi stands in Gretchen's shadow.

    Like she's reminded them that they're thinking about breathing.

    And... Ulala calls her a disgrace. Miyu strikes at her for her temerity, but Yumi just looks away. "Were I rejected, I would be fuller still. I did not wish to dwell here, in this house without exit... yet here lies my kingdom, jewels scattered, leading the path to Hell. I did not wish to admit my own sin, as I locked the door."

    She looks up, to Ulala, a motion carried in her silhouette instead of her obscured, burning gaze.

    "Yet surely as I held the blade have I killed her," she admits, with deep regret.

    A thing she admits to Ulala -- as Ogun breaks through. Tetrakarn is another layer of protection, and the grassy spear-carrier first spears through it --

    But as Yumi whips around to stare at that Persona, bearing down on her, she can't bring herself to strike back.

    No: she is frozen. She is frozen, and so Ogun batters through, to tackle into Gretchen's cage. The woman in white shudders at the might of him -- and Yumi, in her cage, falls to the sand again. "Such power!" She cries, eyes wide.

    She pulls herself up, by Gretchen's bars; clutches them, as it seems she might faint right back to the earth.

    But she looks to Masao -- looks to Ulala -- and she asks...

    "Who are you?"

    As Gretchen turns her face to each of them in turn, and Yumi opens herself, to their truths, drinking hungrily, deeply, and too much. Their strengths roil, against her bones, as she feels their power inside her own shell, experiences for a moment their existence.

    "TELL ME!"

    Distracted as she is by the knowledge of them -- it's time for an All-Out Attack!

AS: Yua Ooshiro spends Limit on Break! 
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Almighty damage from Umie Akabane's Warrior's Bell.
AS: Rage added!
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Almighty damage from Umie Akabane's Soul Break.
AS: Exhaust added! Rage removed! Explosion! 40 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.

Mio might be an outsider to the conflict--at least, to start--but Miyu's words reach her ears and tickle a little flame in her soul. "Lecturing us on how to live true, huh... but coming in and causing a ruckus and aiming to kill?" She wipes her mouth with the back of a gloved hand, grinning widely, hood of her habit obscuring her eyes as she does so. "You oughta take that anger and smash up a different target."

She also doesn't budge for the incoming fireball, clothes billowing dramatically as flame gusts about her while Samson reappears at the last second to block it, arms crossed before its face. Despite the multitude of crippling wounds the Persona bears, whatever engine drives it seems limitless. It will carry on, fueled by a need to rage and lash out and smash, until it is broken utterly. And what does that say about the seemingly sunshine-y, energetic young lady it sprung forth from? Mio squints through the brilliant flames, shielded by her other self. "You're gonna follow orders and get used and abused and thrown away... you wanna improve things? You're gonna have to bulldoze the whole damn system."

Ugh, anarchists.

Samson wades forward through the incoming gale of Faust's mystical slashes. Its physical form bleeds plumes of inky black mist, and those shining silver manacles and piecemeal armour plates shatter beneath the assault. The Persona looks like it's getting a bad signal, soon to lose connection. But, hell, you don't nurture the will to tear it all down and smash all the institutions in your heart if you aren't willing to bleed a little for it, and Mio still has a ferocious look of rebellious fire in her eyes. Besides: she's really good at using her Persona to actually keep herself, the squishy fleshy thing, from being lethally shotstabbedexploded.

Myunghon's voice brings her back to the present. "OK, boss(u)." she reports back with too-crisp clarity. It's almost exfiltration time, which means buying space to leave before she gets killed. "Yumi-chan," (i'm sorry, Yukari, she doesn't know names, Mio's a good girl but she's too lost in the sauce with wanting to raze international capital to the ground) if you want a ride out of this mess... try 'n keep up." she also calls to Yukari, getting too into the idea of having to plan and execute a high-speed escape with this many people. Heartrate rising. Oh, this is exciting.

"Anyway. White mask. You're strong, but think about usin' it for something more." Mio turns her chin up and snaps her fingers once more. She channels her remaining strength into one last burst of motion to her beleaguered Persona, timing it for a pincer attack with the yawning path of inky black from Myunghon's Kudlak and the sniped arrow from Yukaricchi. "Let's see who's stronger at this moment 'n time!" the inhumanly matte, black form of Samson rears back with one hand as if preparing to punch Miyu's head clean off with the last vestiges of its terrible strength, and then--

--it disappears. Bwoop. Like someone turned the TV off.

And then Mio's mace shines with a terrible blue-black light, and she brings it down on the sand with both hands, grinning. There's nothing, at first. Then a rumble. Then a shake. Then, a terrible sundering roar as the stratums of limestone and schist shift beneath the sands. A cracking, yawning, splintering rend in the earth races towards Miyu: all at once, a small earthquake, a sandstorm, a rush of quicksand, it's like the earth itself is screaming and spitting and threatening to bludgeon her to death and drag her down into its depths.

AS: Yua Ooshiro spends Limit on Broad! 
AS: Block Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 64 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Pale Shriek. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 51 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Pale Shriek.
AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Almighty skill Sight Strength on Masao Inaba and Ulala Serizawa!
AS: Yua Ooshiro: Break, Broad, and Haze removed!
AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended. It's time for an All-Out Attack!
AS: Block Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 54 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Pale Shriek. Critical Hit!
AS: Mio Kazama spends Limit on Psych! 
AS: Persona! Mio Kazama has used the Earth skill Riotous Gry on Miho Ijuuin! 3 Hits!
AS: Tandem! Mio Kazama has used the Earth skill Chthonic Wrath on Miho Ijuuin! 2 Hits!
AS: Weapon! Mio Kazama has used the Strike skill Home-Run Swing on Miho Ijuuin!
AS: Mio Kazama: Atk_Up, Crt_Up, and Psych removed!
AS: Mio Kazama's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Ulala Serizawa takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ooshiro's Sight Strength.
AS: Rage added!
AS: Yua Ooshiro's Strength Scan! Ulala Serizawa resists Earth!
AS: Break! Ulala Serizawa can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Take! Masao Inaba takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ooshiro's Sight Strength.
AS: Rage added!
AS: Yua Ooshiro's Strength Scan! Masao Inaba resists Earth!
AS: Break! Masao Inaba can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 79 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
AS: Counter Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 14 Earth damage from Mio Kazama's Riotous Gry.
AS: Paralyze added!
AS: COUNTER! Mio Kazama takes 4 Earth damage in return for her attack! 
AS: Counter Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 28 Earth damage from Mio Kazama's Riotous Gry. Critical Hit!
AS: Paralyze added!
AS: COUNTER! Mio Kazama takes 8 Earth damage in return for her attack! 
AS: Counter Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 28 Earth damage from Mio Kazama's Riotous Gry. Critical Hit!
AS: Paralyze added!
AS: COUNTER! Mio Kazama takes 8 Earth damage in return for her attack! 
AS: Miho Ijuuin is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Counter Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 74 Earth damage from Mio Kazama's Chthonic Wrath.
AS: COUNTER! Mio Kazama takes 39 Earth damage in return for her attack! 
AS: Miho Ijuuin is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Counter Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 89 Earth damage from Mio Kazama's Chthonic Wrath.
AS: COUNTER! Mio Kazama takes 24 Earth damage in return for her attack! 
AS: Miho Ijuuin is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Counter Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 100 Strike damage from Mio Kazama's Home-Run Swing. Critical Hit!
AS: COUNTER! Mio Kazama takes 27 Strike damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Miho Ijuuin is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Mio Kazama is unable to continue fighting!

<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.

    Tsurugi's blades lash out again... and again... and again.

    Maya raises her pistols in a makeshift guard, but the first two strikes hit their target true. (Maybe it really is time to sign up for those women's self-defense classes!) When the third attack joins the others, she manages a swift counter, but not without adding another wound to her ever-growing collection.

    "Don't worry! I've been in my fair share of fights," Maya calls out to Shinobu, forcing a wink through the pain. "Most of them were with editors, though!"

    Maya is still smiling, but it's obviously pained. She's not the only one worse for wear -- and it's time to do something about it.

    "Maia!"

    The Persona flares to life beside her, casting a healing light over her allies.

AS: Take! Maya Amano takes 79 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
AS: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit from Supporter!
AS: Persona! Maya Amano has used the Recovery skill Media on Maya Amano, Shinobu Shimizu, Ulala Serizawa, and Katsuya
Suou!
AS: Maya Amano's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Shinobu Shimizu takes 55 Recovery healing from Maya Amano's Media.

<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.

 

     Moments pass like thunder. The exchange, a brutal set of fisticuffs traded between police officer and onmitsu. It lasts less than a second, but the hum of his blade being caught in the air lasts for heartbeats longer as he turns it, flipping the hilt proper into his hand. The bow is already gone, having broken apart into sheafs of paper around him, the individual notes fluttering about the onmitsu.

     There is almost an imperious, prince-like impression from the youth as he steps back, letting his momentum bleed off into his back heel. A tiny 'che' and a puff of air as he hooks his thumb onto his jawline, cracking it audibly back to set from Suou's left hook. He looks down the edge of his nose at Suou while the other one bleeds. Eyes trace past the officer to the rookie just in the distance. Overhead, an intensely buttery Rumormonger wallsplats against a sign. Someone should get a picture of that.

     The black blade lifts in his hand, as Shiryuu begins to move.
     Then he sees the cop flick a card into the air.
     Who even let the police have Persona, anyway?

     The lightning bolt hits the boy like a stalwart hammer. There's no chance to evade something that moves at the speed of light. Senses scatter across the battlefield like a dropped jar of figs. If 'Yumi' was so much paying attention, she may extract more than a little bit of grim satisfaction in seeing the boy stumble, his sneakers almost tumbling out from underneath him until he can absorb the instability into the sway of the bridge he stands on, doubled over his own arm, his sword held at one side. Uffh.. wait. Who's missing?

     He only becomes aware of the little crow flitting into his blind spot a second too late. His response is immediate, the attempt to turn, but his movement's been sealed. On the one side, a chain of passion. On the second, a chain of chaos. "....?!"

     The twin wheels smash not into but through Shiryuu's middle, overrunning his paralyzed spirit underfoot with the thunderbrand of airborne hooves and crushing wheels. As if hit by a truck, the boy is drawn into the metaphorical undercarriage of the rolling force, his thoughts and focus briefly turning to white static.

     His body tumbles end over end until it smashes into another bridge, somewhere far below the new girl and her ... ngrh.

     "It's not every day someone is able to get into my blind spot..." Shiryuu commends, standing up straight, breathing hard. By the time he gets up, she'll see that one of his eyes is flared bright blue, a starlit detail that fades the moment he dusts himself off. As he does, they will feel the sway of the ropes underneath them move in tune to the pat of his clothes, a shiver of a beat beneath them. A soft, gentle rhythm. No. It's not gentle. Nor is it soft. It is searingly familiar.

     - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCgyRK63w3s -
     (.... lock in.)

     THe boy raises his hands, clasping them around his sword in a visible sutra. And in so doing, his Persona lifts up, jamming its gohei into the sky with a soft crack. And with it, it penetrates into that clear blue, revealing a hazy shroud of jet black overhead. That's when it begins to rain.

     (I said.... lock in)
     "But you're starting to annoy me."

     The rain is pure, pitch black, translucent only by the grace of the sweltering heat. It steals away the sun, blackening and replacing the heat with something cooler, something colder, something that doesn't care. The rain peals down in thick sheets, spattering off of the rickety driftwood boards of the bridge.

     (I SAID...)

     Soon, everything in front, everything in fore, everything around is black as night, as a foggy haze envelops the little criss-crossings. There's only a little time to get everything in order, to enact on a plan. Soon, even Shiryuu's muted blue haori cannot be seen.

     And that's when the onmitsu comes for them.
     Both of them.
     At once.

AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 55 Recovery healing from Maya Amano's Media.
AS: Persona! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Recovery skill Track 3: Lock TF In on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Recovery healing from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Track 3: Lock TF In.
AS: Atk_Up|Regen added!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Blood! 
AS: Tandem! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Wind skill The Winds and Rain of Akita on Katsuya Suou and Umie Akabane! 2
Hits!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 80 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's The Winds and Rain of Akita.
AS: Avoid Worst! Umie Akabane takes 106 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's The Winds and Rain of Akita.
AS: Block Worst! Katsuya Suou takes 93 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's The Winds and Rain of Akita.
AS: Counter Best! Katsuya Suou takes 84 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's The Winds and Rain of Akita.
AS: COUNTER! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 45 Wind damage in return for his attack! 

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    Somewhere in the cross-fire between Miyu and her opponents, Mark raises up an arm against the immense shockwave of an explosion that still catches him in the edge of it - maybe not to an injurious degree, but enough he has to cast a look over to Miyu for a moment. (The spectral blue flames that surround that part of the battle neatly cuts off any further consideration... for now.)
 
     "Shit," he adds, "you all right?!" He yells to Ulala, somewhere in this exchange.
 
     He's still working on trying to wade through the wet sand at a speed greater than 'a crawl,' as Gretchen withstands his latest volley, and something settles upon him. There is time and space to appreciate the feeling of beholding and being...
 
     Masao "Mark" Inaba. A straightforward, passionate man with a drive for his pursuit as a street artist. Even against the wishes of his own family, they still share mutual love as he just barrels on ahead. Even through setbacks and inconveniences like his third college year in a shaky place with an internship to a plagiarist who confessed to these crimes well after it was too late to change plans. Just taking cans of spraypaint, stencils, and finer touches with a paintbrush to leave a mark, knowing so much of his effort is merely temporary in existence for the blood, sweat, and tears put in.
 
     Uncomplicated, to look from the outside in, and back out - but of someone who knows who he is, however grandiose or humble it may be.
 
     'Who are you?'
 
     Masao's closing in again, even if he hasn't gotten his ankles completely out of the sand, but he's almost in swinging ringe. (He might even get full EXP credit for the fight, for once. He can taste it!)
 
     "Me? I'm an artist," Mark smiles as he puts on a pair of yellow-tinted sunglasses with a mischievous-looking smile. The blue aura flares up around him again. To remember the promise he and everyone else made with the best of their class, who led them all through that fated ordeal, with a bragging voice straight from the last years of his childhood...
 
     "A great artist in the makin'!" Ogun once again phases in, their bodily movements matching Mark's posture - hand on hip, one hand raised holding the axe as Ogun matches this with his spear instead. "And I'll break you outta there," because it's the kindest thing to do.
 
     "Persona! Let's. Get. Funky! Flurry Stab!"
 
     The axe and spear come down in slicing tandem - a bit awkward visually, but the timing is in perfect sync for a singular, powerful downward blow.
 
     Mark staggers off with the follow-through again. "Magry!" The sync motion breaks to that odd dancing shimmy Ogun does as those purple spheres emanating yellow rings move to menace (...lightly inconvenience) Gretchen anew, and just as Ogun fades...
 
     Mark raises his axe high over his head, and swings it down one last time.
 
     "I'll show you the way to somethin' better than this!"

AS: Masao Inaba spends Limit on Psych! 
AS: Tandem! Masao Inaba has used the Slash skill Flurry Stab on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Persona! Masao Inaba has used the Earth skill Magry on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Masao Inaba: Bind, Pierce_Break, and Psych removed!
AS: Masao Inaba's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.

They have their mission, to kill a cop who is sticking her nose in where she shouldn't. The people they are fighting move to make off with her in--who else--Merry's car.

Later she might feel relief. Right now, however... her handlers are tugging on her leash.

Miho calls for one last push. "Understood," is all Tsurugi says in reply. There doesn't need to be more than that.

But where Miyu talk about killing as a means to an end, Tsurugi has a different reaction. Shinobu wants to know why today is different from yesterday. "Yesterday my orders were not to kill. Today they are." As if it were somehow as simple as that.

But in a voice just a touch softer, she says, "... I have no choice."

Lachesis measures something out--There is no escaping it as the energy takes hold... Remi is unsteady on her feet, clutching at her head for a moment...

... and then she snarls. It might be the most emotive she's been yet. (This might be worrying.)

She doesn't laugh at Maya's joke. But she does watch, as Maia bestows healing on a fair number of people. "No you don't," she gets out through gritted teeth.

She grips her weapons tightly, and in tandem La Maupin does the same. Here she finally utters a command, one word, almost a snarl.

"Ouragan."

La Maupin gestures with their rapier--and there is an explosion of wind that erupts in the middle of Shinobu, Lachesis, Maya, and Maia. Into that maelstrom Tsurugi and La Maupin both charge, their forms blurring for a moment as they lash out in a chaotic whirlwind of blows, dancing from one target to the next.

When the winds die down Tsurugi and La Maupin are exactly where they were before, but the persona user is panting slightly for breath, evident by the way her chest heaves.

AS: Remi Ryuuja spends Limit on Psych! 
AS: Remi Ryuuja spends Limit on Break! 
AS: Tandem! Remi Ryuuja has used the Wind skill Ouragan on Shinobu Shimizu and Maya Amano! 3 Hits!
AS: Remi Ryuuja: Atk_Dn, Break, and Psych removed!
AS: Remi Ryuuja's turn has ended. It's time for an All-Out Attack!

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    Somewhere in the cross-fire between Miyu and her opponents, Mark raises up an arm against the immense shockwave of an explosion that still catches him in the edge of it - maybe not to an injurious degree, but enough he has to cast a look over to Miyu for a moment. (The spectral blue flames that surround that part of the battle neatly cuts off any further consideration... for now.)
 
     "Shit," he adds, "you all right?!" He yells to Ulala, somewhere in this exchange.
 
     He's still working on trying to wade through the wet sand at a speed greater than 'a crawl,' as Gretchen withstands his latest volley, and something settles upon him. There is time and space to appreciate the feeling of beholding and being...
 
     Masao "Mark" Inaba. A straightforward, passionate man with a drive for his pursuit as a street artist. Even against the wishes of his own family, they still share mutual love as he just barrels on ahead. Even through setbacks and inconveniences like his third college year in a shaky place with an internship to a plagiarist who confessed to these crimes well after it was too late to change plans. Just taking cans of spraypaint, stencils, and finer touches with a paintbrush to leave a mark, knowing so much of his effort is merely temporary in existence for the blood, sweat, and tears put in.
 
     Uncomplicated, to look from the outside in, and back out - but of someone who knows who he is, however grandiose or humble it may be.
 
     'Who are you?'
 
     Masao's closing in again, even if he hasn't gotten his ankles completely out of the sand, but he's almost in swinging range. (He might even get full EXP credit for the fight, for once. He can taste it!)
 
     "Me? I'm an artist," Mark smiles as he puts on a pair of yellow-tinted sunglasses with a mischievous-looking smile. The blue aura flares up around him again. To remember the promise he and everyone else made with the best of their class, who led them all through that fated ordeal, with a bragging voice straight from the last years of his childhood...
 
     "A great artist in the makin'!" Ogun once again phases in, their bodily movements matching Mark's posture - hand on hip, one hand raised holding the axe as Ogun matches this with his spear instead. "And I'll break you outta there," because it's the kindest thing to do.
 
     "Persona! Let's. Get. Funky! Flurry Stab!"
 
     The axe and spear come down in slicing tandem - a bit awkward visually, but the timing is in perfect sync for a singular, powerful downward blow.
 
     Mark staggers off with the follow-through again. "Magry!" The sync motion breaks to that odd dancing shimmy Ogun does as those purple spheres emanating yellow rings move to menace (...lightly inconvenience) Gretchen anew, and just as Ogun fades...
 
     Mark raises his axe up against his shoulder. "I'll show you the way to somethin' better than this!"

[OOC] Masao Inaba says, "*bluray - trimmed an attack motion"

AS: Avoid Neutral! Shinobu Shimizu takes 28 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Ouragan. Critical Hit!
AS: Break! Shinobu Shimizu can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit from Momentum!
AS: Avoid Worst! Shinobu Shimizu takes 48 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Ouragan. Critical Hit!
AS: Break! Shinobu Shimizu can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit from Momentum!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Shinobu Shimizu takes 22 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Ouragan.
AS: Break! Shinobu Shimizu can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Counter Best! Maya Amano takes 30 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Ouragan. Critical Hit!
AS: COUNTER! Remi Ryuuja takes 34 Wind damage in return for her attack! 
AS: Break! Maya Amano can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit from Momentum!
AS: Avoid Worst! Maya Amano takes 51 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Ouragan. Critical Hit!
AS: Break! Maya Amano can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit from Momentum!

AS: Block Best! Maya Amano takes 20 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Ouragan. Critical Hit!
AS: Break! Maya Amano can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit from Momentum!
AS: Take! Maya Amano takes 55 Recovery healing from Maya Amano's Media.

<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.

Ulala has a problem.

She doesn't understand half of Yua's metaphorical theatrical stuff because she was TERRIBLE IN SCHOOL.

But she can understand parts of it... as Miho's counterattack comes in, nuclear flames and debuffs alike rolling over Ulala, knocking off her off-balance and skidding to a half-crouch, her hand holding her up.

"So.... you cling to cowardice instead of walking out the door?" I..."

Don't have much to say to that, actually? Ulala... feels a sudden burst of personal sympathy.

And it makes her upset.

Though as Yua scans her Strengths, she'll learn exactly why it makes Ulala upset.

Ulala Serizawa, extraordinarily passionate about nothing in particular and yet desires love even so, miserable on the inside, steady and loved on the outside.

What is it like to be Ulala Serizawa?

It's being a rock. Even if she's weighed down by her own innocent sins.

A rock is always there. It's steadfast, doesn't move without force, and can be relied on for stability. Like a pillar of stone, you can trust this rock.

And yet, for Ulala, that is a cage. Grounded to the earth, caught up in the Realities. A double-edged strength, but a strength nonetheless - because she can keep it real, even as she struggles.

Does the rock ever let its own feelings be known, after all?

Ulala strikes with two hooks, followed by a rapid flurry of body blows aimed forward.

Callisto follows it up with a surge of Earthen stone, followed by her own physical movements - she rushes in, striking three times with a rush of kicks.

"I'm just...none of your concern!"

AS: Take! Ulala Serizawa takes 43 Recovery healing from Maya Amano's Media.
AS: Maya Amano gains 1 Limit from Supporter!
AS: Persona! Ulala Serizawa has used the Strike skill Kill Rush on Yua Ooshiro! 3 Hits!
AS: Weapon! Ulala Serizawa has used the Strike skill Mean Hook on Yua Ooshiro! 2 Hits!
AS: Weapon! Ulala Serizawa has used the Strike skill Furious Flurry on Yua Ooshiro! 3 Hits!
AS: Persona! Ulala Serizawa has used the Earth skill Magna on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Ulala Serizawa's turn has ended.

AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 88 Slash damage from Masao Inaba's Flurry Stab.
AS: Nerve Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8!
AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 9 Earth damage from Masao Inaba's Magry. Resist!
AS: Paralyze added!
AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 51 Strike damage from Ulala Serizawa's Kill Rush. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 41 Strike damage from Ulala Serizawa's Kill Rush.
AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 30 Strike damage from Ulala Serizawa's Kill Rush.
AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 16 Strike damage from Ulala Serizawa's Mean Hook.
AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 19 Strike damage from Ulala Serizawa's Mean Hook.
AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 38 Strike damage from Ulala Serizawa's Furious Flurry. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 33 Strike damage from Ulala Serizawa's Furious Flurry. Critical Hit!
AS: Yua Ooshiro is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 12 Strike damage from Ulala Serizawa's Furious Flurry.
AS: Yua Ooshiro is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Mind Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8!
AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 20 Earth damage from Ulala Serizawa's Magna. Resist!
AS: Bind added!
AS: Yua Ooshiro is unable to continue fighting!

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    "Takeba-san," Katsuya echoes. Later, there will be questions. Later! Right now, he's rather busy trying to keep his junior officer from getting killed--

    And while he's at it, he may want to focus on not getting his him killed, either.

    Wasn't he told he was betrayed? "This isn't the time for that!" he calls back to Myunghon, shaking his head. In truth, he doesn't have the time to dwell on that -- on what it might mean. On who would have cause to betray him and the junior officer. Or on who might have cause to know what she and he both know, and would take steps against it. "Is your car able to-- can you still drive it?" He looks, briefly, to the apparent nun, who also raises rather more questions than he has time to ask in this particular moment.

    Still, it's not as if some answers don't also wind their way out. Is that an Evoker, Yukari says, as 'Yumi' shoots at herself with that 'gun' of hers. Wait, hadn't he heard about 'Evoker' before? Is that what those devices are called?

    But he catches wind of something that gives him alarm, enough to call out to Ulala, "Serizawa! Be careful! Do not underestimate them!"

    Katsuya, being Katsuya, hasn't yet realized that Ulala is attempting to bait 'Yumi', aka Yua. Or that her baiting them might just be the sort of opening he needs.

    Healing once again rushes over Katsuya, mending some of his wounds from that most-recent run-in with the operative focusing on him and Umie. "That was you again, Takeba-san?" he says, then nods as if to express his thanks again. Her Persona seems to be particularly geared towards that sort of support; how convenient.

    Speaking of Umie, just where--? It's almost as if she'd vanished, up until that one fateful moment when she seems to exist once again. Even Katsuya can't help but widen his eyes in surprise. Is he imagining it, or does Umie seem to have more 'skill' with these things than he does? ...He really is 'green', isn't he...

    But he catches the look in her eyes. He needs to break this off, now. He snaps off a look in Hamade's direction: no good, she's frozen up. There's no wonder why: she's herself 'green' as an officer, and not prepared yet for real violence among civilians, let alone... this. "Hamade-kun!"

    He hates to make his next intended action that clear. But he really has no choice if he's going to protect his junior. He needs to help Hamade get to the car while he still can, and cover her, just in case one of their many opponents tries something.

    He glances back at Umie. Can she hold their pursuer long enough?

    But first he'll have to shake Shiryuu, and that will not come about that easily. But a minor miracle occurs, just before the worst of it can hit. Healing filters across the space towards him and he looks to see a familiar form, that of Maya's Persona. "Amano-kun! Thank you!" He starts to move to try to intercept his junior, making to slip the rope bridge outright in the wake of Umie's strike. Yet, even this movement has not gone unnoticed. The bridge underfoot sways and shudders, and for an instant as he tries to break away, Katsuya worries that he might lose his footing.

    Then, it begins to rain.
    It begins to rain black.

    And he can no longer see. Anything. At all. Katsuya turns sharply in the direction he thought he heard a sound, but,

    that wasn't right, was it, Suou-kun?

    "Ha--?"

    He's struck once.
    Twice. But he still has his service firearm in hand, and with that, he fires into the dark, trusting nothing but his mind's eye. He runs across the extent of the bridge, seeking the end of the storm, seeking light, and in the end he stops but once more and, slowly, aims his handgun back towards the shadows of the bridge. "Together, then. --Persona!" he shouts, and it isn't a bullet that flies from the muzzle of his gun, but Helios itself. Blazing like the sky at dusk and dawn and burning with the wrath of a sun that does not set, the Persona tears for Shiryuu with all the terrible velocity of a bullet.

    In that moment, Katsuya breaks fr

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    In that moment, Katsuya breaks from the bridge outright and runs. Time. He needs time. Hopefully, Umie can buy him that much.

    He reaches Hiori at last (perhaps she will stare at his injuries) and plants a hand on her shoulder to steer her. "To the car!" he barks, guiding her onwards as best he can.

AS: Tandem! Katsuya Suou has used the Fire skill Midnight Sun on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Katsuya Suou's turn has ended.
AS: Counter Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 63 Fire damage from Katsuya Suou's Midnight Sun. Resist!
AS: COUNTER! Katsuya Suou takes 18 Fire damage in return for his attack! Resist!

<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.

    Yumi -- no, Yua -- is grasped by the ochre of paint, pigments ground from clay and leaf and stone. She can smell it, as stone grinds against stone, taste the dust and the strange feeling of chemicals at her eye. The first paintings were made on cave walls; some endure still, thousands of years on. Count forward a thousand years from now -- and this man will be known, though her name ought be long forgotten, as the societies of tomorrows' ages find his works beneath some forgotten stone.

    A man whose enduring passion is so kind and unpretentious -- he would paint the names of those who trouble him, there, so that their meaning would be long-remembered.

    He is -- as he says -- an artist.

    Magry may be familiar to her, but its weight is strill undeniable. It settles, around Gretchen, around Yumi; she hasn't tried to dodge once, but she surely couldn't, now, as Masao tries to break Yua from her cage. "It protects me," she says, though her voice is thin. "I am painted on the inside. Don't look!"

    But he is not the only one written in stone.

    Stone is given to passion, deep and grounding, reliable, sturdy. Yua feels it in her bones, as she straightens her posture, steadies her stance despite her feelings of faintness. And yet stone can be a porous thing -- a dozen sinking holes; places where water once sunk in, a home now for sin to weigh them down instead. The stones which bury truth beneath the earth, so that it might hold its foundations true...

    "I am a coward," Yumi admits, too late, "but I cannot run. Here I hold the cradle of creation." Is it really her, holding it up?

    Ulala is a flurry, a fury, stone and strike, reverberating over and over. She dents Gretchen's bars -- dents Gretchen's bars! -- as that Persona struggles to protect Yua from the onslaught. Over, and over, and over --

    And finally, an axe, like a stab or a slash, slams in to lend a veteran's strength to Ulala's fresh fury.

    It is too much.

    Gretchen shatters; Yumi falls to the sand, and this time, she cannot push herself standing. She yelps, as she tries, her right hand giving way beneath her. (She would be satisfied to see Shiryuu's own punishment... were it not for how occupied she was with her own battle.)

    "Something better," she rasps, desperately, and daunted. "It must be... it must be there... in our 'perfect world'..."

    Yumi draws a shuddering breath.

    "... Miyu..."

    And faints, against the warm sand.

<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.

"No one can see it," Miyu answers Myunghon. "No one Sees, but it is still true, because I See it! In dreams, it comes, and everyone pretends it otherwise. The truth--the true world!!"

Yumi is rambling or grasping at herself, and she makes it in English to say it, their codenames. "Hold fast!" Miyu calls. Myunghon, though. Myunghon walks forward...

"Heh," Miyu answrs Yukari. "Do you think I walk the path to Hades because I have not felt such loss already?"

"Foolish girl."

She says she doesn'tw ant to take it further. But Mio is still there. "This world cannot be improved," Miyu assures Mio. "It can only be replaced. The True Side..."

"Yes, that is the world that must be."

"There is no more!" she calls.

And then Myunghon's darkness suffuses her and the air, and there are terrible sounds of battle. Further, Yukari's arrows disappear into the center.

Miyu growls when she re-emerges. "you--"

Earthquake, sandstorm, quicksand--

Faust batters back at Mio, and Miyu's sword hacks away at Mio's mace. Their clash is brutal--and a giant shockwave erupts outward, knocking Miyu for one backward.

"...Fine," she says. "You have bought their lives, with blood and barter."

There are many who have their own beliefs, here. Many who believe that this is wrong. Many...

"And so I say, keep that life well. ...Because the 'justice' of this world will not believe in her."

"The 'justice' of this world is hollow."

"...Squadron," Miyu announces, her Persona amplifying her voice. "Retreat. And for I..."

Miyu hisses, "A taste of Truth."

It is a beacon. Resonance radiates from Miyu's position, a sense of wrongness antithetical to most Persona-users, a nails-on-chalkboard heartbeat terror. And then:

The demons begin to appear. Strangely-shaped horrors brought forth from humanity's nightmares, the demons come.

...But their objective was not achieved. The mysterious conspiracy that assaulted the officer did not succeed, this time...

But Miyu rushes from where she'd stood before, despite her obvious fatigue, and leans down to pick up Yumi from the awful sand.

"Tsurugi!" she calls. "Go!"

As the demons begin to crowd, Miyu is behind them. Jack Frost seeks hearts to eat; Pixie would have blood.

...And the Empusa wish to tear others apart.

Miyu is silent as she fades into the night with Yumi.

<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.

Maya offers her a wink, and Shinobu manages a smirk.

"Well, you sound confident enough... Those editors must be a real killer." She replies. Maya calls upon Maia, and a healing light settles over Shinobu and Lachesis. She can feel her wounds ease, her burden lightening.

"Thanks." Shinobu replies, offering her a grateful nod.

She feels like she can move a bit more quickly, now.

Yesterday her orders weren't to kill. Today they are. She has no choice.

Shinobu frowns, tapping the end of her staff against the ground frustratedly as she wrestles with her thoughts.

"...So it's like that, huh." Shinobu says. She's still as tense as before - but some of the venom goes out of her tone. "...Sorry. 'No choice' or not... I can't let you kill anyone."

Tsurugi snarls, though - and it's like the sound of grinding metal across her senses. Danger - that's more emotion than she's gotten out of her thus far. Be ready.

"Watch out!" Shinobu shouts to Maya, as Tsurugi recites a spell. There's an explosion of wind.

"Damn...!" Shinobu hisses through gritted teeth. She's blasted upward along with Lachesis, leaving her open. Tsurugi and La Maupin both move to capitalize on this. It's difficult to move, in the air. Shinobu has to twist her body to avoid being skewered. Lachesis shifts, similarly. Her other self's protection limits the physical damage - but each stab feels like a strike to her body and soul.

And then, she's falling.

"Lachesis!" Shinobu calls out. Lachesis hastens to her side. Shinobu lands on her measuring rod.

"Here's one choice for you... 'Above' or 'below'." Shinobu says. The meaning of this becomes clear a moment later - as Lachesis swings her rod upward with Shinobu still perched on it, launching her into the air toward Tsurugi and La Maupin.

Shinobu descends on Tsurugi from above foot-first with a descending kick, while Lachesis attacks La Maupin from below with thrusts of her measuring rod - a coordinated strike upon Persona and Persona-user. Shinobu lands, and Lachesis turns... and they spin around each other, changing targets.

Shinobu lunges toward La Maupin with a flurry of staff thrusts, while Lachesis jabs her rod toward Tsurugi with enough force to unlease a shockwave of physical force in her direction. And finally -

"Swift Strike!" Shinobu calls out. Lachesis's measuring rod is hurled forward toward toward Tsurugi, rebounding toward La Maupin before returning to its owner.

Shinobu exhales.

...It seems like, however this goes, she's not going to want to stick around for much longer, with danger homing in on their position.

...At least it seems they succeeded in stopping one murder today.

AS: Shinobu Shimizu spends Limit on Psych! 
AS: Tandem! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Measured Fate on Remi Ryuuja! 3 Hits!
AS: Weapon! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Jab Flurry on Remi Ryuuja! 3 Hits!
AS: Persona! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Sonic Punch on Remi Ryuuja!
AS: Persona! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Swift Strike on Remi Ryuuja! 3 Hits!
AS: Shinobu Shimizu: Atk_Up, Crt_Up, and Psych removed!
AS: Shinobu Shimizu's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.

Mio calls her Yumi-chan again. Yukari groans softly, before resigning herself to the fact this is going to keep happening, "... Right."
 
It's okay everyone! Yukari is quite committed to keeping even weirdos alive... take SEES for example.
 
Wait, don't actually, she's a part of SEES! Noooo... the teenage condition of realizing some people might think you're uncool by the people you hang with.
 
For the moment however, she's disturbed upon looking at Yua just ramble in rhyme...
 
Is that what happens if you use an Evoker long enough?
I wouldn't put it past the Kirijo Group to hide that from us...
 
And Miho... what she says next? Yukari looks at her with an expression of... pity. "Guess I'm just foolish then." She agrees!? "... I'd rather be that than like you."
 
Hearing a cop commit her name down... makes her heart sink some, even if it's just - later there will be questions. She has a feeling he might still not love the answers.
 
"... I hope the Chairman is willing to bail me out later..." 'That was you Takeba-san?' "Um! Yeah! Just - watching your back Officer!" She waves as if to say 'Go go-!' Before her expression sinks again once his back turns, "...If I have to call my mom to get me out while I'm still wearing this..."
 
...
...
 
Well she found an outcome where death to Miho might in fact be a superior alternative.
 
Great.
 
Miho though... a taste of truth, "What did you do!?" What comes next, they look like creatures from Mementos, but they feel... they feel... worse.
 
Backpeddling, she brings out an arrow - and pins a Pixie to a wall, as Winds rise around a group of Empusas from Io trying to hold them back.
 
"What ARE these!? How did you bring them here!?" But... "Geez... everyone fall back! We're gonna get overwhelmed at this rate!"
 
In that moment, despite not knowing her... she kneels down by that weird nun, "Come on, come on!" And tries to get her standing, an arm over her shoulder. "We've gotta go!"
 
She barely knows her, but it doesn't matter...
 
... she doesn't want anyone to die. That's why she's here. Not for a positive... but the cancellation of a negative.

AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 58 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Measured Fate. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 16 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Measured Fate.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 28 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Measured Fate.
AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 24 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Jab Flurry. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 24 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Jab Flurry. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 9 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Jab Flurry. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 19 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Sonic Punch.
AS: Haze added!
AS: Avoid Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 7 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Swift Strike.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 11 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Swift Strike.

<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

    Katsuya glances back at Umie. Message received. She'll need to do another flurry of attacks, if she can manage, but surely, she can...

    The bridge waves and buckles under her feet. Umie attempts to slide off as the ghostly rain pelts the surface. She meant to leap to the next on the way down, but the surface is too slick.

    And in that moment, as her sneaker looses purchase and the world turns upsidedown, he comes for her.

    Blood splatters against the sand just below.

    'Not using it is just making it more dangerous for everybody else.'
    It'd just make it easier to use it the next time.
    'There were no downsides last time, remember?'
    Wasn't there...?
    
    Yes, there were downsides. Taro-kun ate some of the dishes. He dug up the neighbor's plants. He made loud noises at night, banging around on the roof with childish glee.

    He rested on her bed and let her pet his fuzzy head. His colorful wings draped over the sides of the bed, like a stiff colorful blanket.

    In the present, she smiles. No downsides, that's right--

    The ground hits Umie, and she bounces against the sand. If not for her Persona, it'd be worth a hospital visit just for the risk of concussion alone, given her track record. She's still coughing into her hand, though.

    Her hand crosses to her right, as she sees Katsuya flee with Hiori.

    The feeling of *wrongness* crashes over Umie's senses at that very second, stopping her mid-movement. She breathes in, and out, water dripping off her mask, down to her chin. ".... One of them... has it..."

     Badb flashes overhead, coating the dark rain and somehow shifting it further black still. She knows where Shiryuu is, as long as there's a resonance to follow, but she's pointedly not going that direction, but towards the car she hopes is still there.

    Why does sand have to be so exhausting to run through?

AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Mudo on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    Mark speaks his will through Ogun (which involves a lot of physical violence and occasionally funny gravitational force orbs), and in the wake of his and Ulala's answers to Yumi's questions...
 
     There's someone afraid, left within the confines of their Persona's grasp. The street artist sucks in a breath as he pulls his feet out of the sand he got nudged into. Of all that is uttered, of all that is spoken, of all that would be yelled...
 
     'It must be... it must be there... in 'our perfect world'...'
 
     Masao pulls his hat closer over his eyes, shaking his head. There's a good reason he lives in the world he does with all enthusiasm and conviction he can muster, and seeing something like this again, well...
 
     "I really don't know what's up here," he says to Ulala, "but this sorta shit's the last thing I'd have expected to..."
 
     '...Suqadron, retreat. And for I...'
 
     He looks up, interrupted by the projected voice, and then... the taste of 'Truth.' Masao's eyes widen with grit teeth, against an overwhelming, stomach-churning feel above and beyond the space in which they've all fought in.
 
     "Ah shit, that's a lotta demons. Hey!"
 
     An attempt is made to fight through them, despite this - he's not content to leave Yumi to die in their grasp, halted only when he sees Miyu move to retrieve her. Their further presence, at this point...
 
     "Dammit! Come on!!" Yumi fades into the night with her rescuer, and from there, the concession as he puts his hand on his scalp. "...We gotta get outta here!"
 
     One way or another.

AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 111 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Mudo.
AS: Panic added!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara is unable to continue fighting!

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.

    It's true, Takeba-kun. The Sumaru Community of Persona-Users is definitely not beating the Weirdo allegations. After all, the Cop is a Cat. That's the grandest, biggest weirdo of them all here. Myunghon can't even compete against that. Right, Suou-san?

    "It's just an example. Don't you think they gain power from it?" Myunghon does level a smile, wildly shifting between manic and lucid moods at present. But Yukari utilises the power of that Skill Card that Merry granted her... and puts it to incredible use. That skill at archery would make a pincushion out of them, if Yukari were inclined to angle it their way.

    Myunghon trusts Mio to finish the job off, so they're doing what they can, too. They don't need to be exfiltrated with the car -- they're not the MVP, Hamade is. It's fine for them to be a punching bag for a little longer. Still, the amount of raw strength Samson's packing sure is nothing to scoff at...

    Katsuya makes a break for the car. Good... good! "Mio, go!" Myunghon orders. "Suou-san, please make sure nothing happens to Hamade-san!"

    But Miho has their attention again. No one Sees it. But it is still true. What is it that they still don't see? They Perceive, but they cannot See. They understood the machinations that really govern the world. They became privy to the layers of supernatural power that lie underneath the seams. They became part of that world. Was there still... more? More truth.

    Truth, like a layer cake, like a trifle, and they don't even know there's still strawberry waiting underneath.

    They're allergic to strawberries.

    "It's true..." Myunghon does admit to Yukari, having kicked themself right into depressive territory as Miho spooks them real good. "We're all fractured. Separate. Lost. The world can't provide any succor for us."

    But Miho relents, as Yua collapses -- Gretchen shattering makes Myunghon panic for a moment, from their limited understanding of that the Persona means to oneself. No, no, nooooo no no no no, they don't to see anything of Yua's shatter ever again. Why does such power have hold over her? What is it that they're missing? Where is their Perfect World? Where is this True World? They're all craving it so badly!

    They must become Hope.

    The path before them has already been prepared. There is no other way. If Miho is so fixated on this True World, then Myunghon must clean up this False World that they all must be a part of. Because today was a tragedy, but Hamade must still file a report, and excited little kids that don't actually exist still expect the Cardboard Dragon to be open at 8:30 am, and their mouth is full of salt and blood and sand and ashes.

    That's the taste of Truth.

    "Miyu... you'll take care of Yumi, of course..."

    The demons rise, Jack Frost, Pixie, Empusa, and ther's way too many of them. "Takeba-san! Shinobu-ssi! We have to go," Myunghon starts to pendulum back towards excited, on wired nerves, knowing that she and Remi are still fiercely locked in combat.

    A Jack Frost has their number and just jumps on their ass wholesale. "I'm gonna kneecap you, ho! EAT ROCKS!"

    "Aaargh!! I have a Pact with you lot! Pact Timeout! Pact Timeout! TRUCESIES!" Myunghon shouts, madcap flailing as a bitey Jack Frost is taking none of her shit. Whatever Cognitive shouting, however, seems to work. "Just go already! I'll meet up with all of you! Suou-san, keep them safe!!"

    They're way too far away from the car at this point, cut off by Demons, but it's fine. They have a backup plan. There's always a backup plan. Myunghon desperately turns, cornered by the Empusas and Pixies, and RUNS in the other direction towards the beach--

    EBISU BOAT RENTALS

    Let this work let this work let this workkkkk

    They deftly flip their phone out of their pocket and opens the Meta-Nav. They've tried this with train stations, and bus stations, and bus stops. All places to do with travel, so... so... so...!!

    Fingers mashing on the flat glass screen of

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.

    Fingers mashing on the flat glass screen of the black rectangle of pain.

    M E M E N T O S

    And just as an Empusa's fireball is about to claim them whole, Rumourmonger Merry disappears in a blip above a rental boat.

<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.

    "I'll have to introduce you to Editor-in-Chief Mizuno sometime!"

    Maya barely manages to get the words out before Shinobu offers her own words of warning. The wind hits hard, tearing through Maya like a blade. For a moment, her brain short-circuits as pain floods her senses. Maia vanishes in the gale, swept away by the fierce winds.

    Thankfully, Yukari's healing managed to keep her standing upright. Suddenly words of gratitude are flung back-and-forth across the battlefield as healing magic finds their target. "Thanks, Takeba-kun!" she calls out to Yukari over the sounds of combat. She can't really see where Katsuya is now (where did he go?), but she plans to leverage her timely heals to get a free meal out of him later!

    The enemy is retreating. Maya has no intention of killing anyone -- but if it's possible to capture one of them and get some answers, she's not about to say no to it, either! Maya raises her twin pistols and fires.

AS: Weapon! Maya Amano has used the Pierce skill Lead Story on Remi Ryuuja! 2 Hits!
AS: Weapon! Maya Amano has used the Pierce skill Cover Shot on Remi Ryuuja! 2 Hits!
AS: Weapon! Maya Amano has used the Pierce skill Cover Shot on Remi Ryuuja! 2 Hits!
AS: Persona! Maya Amano has used the Water skill Wonderful Aques on Remi Ryuuja!
AS: Maya Amano's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 1 Pierce damage from Maya Amano's Lead Story.
AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 1 Pierce damage from Maya Amano's Lead Story.
Huh?  (Type "help" for help.)

AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 21 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Swift Strike.
AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 26 Pierce damage from Maya Amano's Cover Shot.
AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 44 Pierce damage from Maya Amano's Cover Shot. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 18 Pierce damage from Maya Amano's Cover Shot. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 19 Pierce damage from Maya Amano's Cover Shot.
AS: Avoid Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 40 Water damage from Maya Amano's Wonderful Aques.
AS: Charm|Paralyze added!

<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.

Samson and Faust, and their respective wielders, do not reach a conclusion to their argument. Similarly, the two Personas do not reach a fatal conclusion to their bout. The tremendous force behind each one, and the earth-rending techniques they unleash preclude further discussions. Similarly, sword and mace from Mio and Miyu clash and give no quarter to the other. The resulting shockwave from energies unleashed send both white-masked and the black-robed opposites flying backwards for a spell. "Tch. You're so close to realizin' something, but you keep saying all that junk about other worlds..." Mio scowls as she's blown backwards, tumbling for yards. It's only in the moments before impact that she remembers: oops, she forgot to wear her mask.

For a few moments, Mio is face-down in the sand. It could be worse, nothing looks broken, but there's a period of lost consciousness. She's brought back to reality by the feeling of being lifted free of her sandy tomb, her eyes snapping open as Yukari helps her to her feet. "Pwah!!!" Mio gasps for air with a slightly goofy noise, as sand runs from her habit and hood. She yanks the hood free to breathe better, and to shake the sand from her lavender hair. "I'm okay, I'm okay! Promise! But--"

There is still the matter of the dark forces that Miyu wields, and the nerve-blistering pulse of nauseating chill that halts Mio in her tracks. Words forgotten. Actions forgotten. Only a still moment where it feels as though the sky might yawn and consume her, utterly. Only... the sky does not open, but instead, Miyu summons an army of the crawling horrors that lurk at the edge of fables and fairy tales.

"--but it's time for you and me to get going!"

Mio is an odd girl, equal parts quick to anger and quick to please, getting mad and happy and cheerful and helpful again all in a tumbling mess, but at least she's decisive. She glances over her shoulder as Myunghon gives her an order, snapped back to reality by it, and she barks back with crisp clarity: "Okay, go! Meet you back home!" as she hopes that her employer will survive long enough to pay her, and entrap her further in her weird schemes. Mio looks away in time to avoid the comedy of the exploding rental boat. That can be a tale for later.

To Yukari, Mio grasps by the shoulder and says: "If you want a ride, get in the car." and points at the black sports car still sitting untouched on the sand. "But make a choice quick. Not much room for passengers." and with that, she simply leaps into her waiting ride with an augmented leap. The angle and speed of entry suggest extensive practice. And it's not every day you see someone in full robes jump into an early 1990's sports car and gun the engine, so that's worth mentioning.

Anyway, let's talk about the **GETAWAY VEHICLE**

Mio Kazama's Bhonda NSX is an aggressive early-90's coupe with an aggressive, fast, curved form, two seats, and a small trunk. As a means of transporting more than two people (including a driver), it is of limited value. But if Lupin III can fit like three or four people into that Mini Cooper, hell, we can manage this. The girl who does not in any way act like a nun of the faith but dresses like one is sitting at the wheel and has already turned the key, so there's a short window of time to dive in there in a pile of some kind, smooshed up in the passenger seat or the rear window or the trunk, or something.

Mio's head sticks out of the driver's-side window and spies Katsuya, at least, if not more people in need of an escape. "Get on board and hang on!" she yells, ever adaptable to the situation. As evidenced by the brick she throws out of the window, beaning an encroaching Pyro Jack in the head before it can burn her tyres, ho.

<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.

Yukari does in fact make her choice quick.
 
"No it's okay! I'll get in!"
 
"Hey sweetie! Do you REALLY need all those teeth?"
 
A pixie calls at her, and Yukari is RIGHT inside the Bhonda NSX, suddenly collapsing her bow to fit it.
 
Right before she puts the Evoker to her head and fires again, Io appearing over the car... and trying to offer Mio some breathing room as she picks people up.
 
"Quick! I don't think I can regenerate teeth!"

<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.

Shinobu seems to grasp at least part of the restraint Tsurugi is working under. She won't let Tsurugi kill anyone. "Then do what you must. And so will I."

Above or Below. Shinobu and Lachesis exhibit teamwork that Tsurugi actually finds impressive... not that she'd be willing to admit it outright.

... Or at least, not under these circumstances. There is still the mission, after all.

Shinobu comes at her from above and Lachesis at La Maupin from below. Tsurugi is still snarling, shaking her head, trying to clear it--and that foot that comes down crashes right into her, knocking her back and flat on her back. La Maupin does better, more easily sidestepping the hit from the measuring rod.

They switch targets, and the sudden switch gives Shinobu the edge against La Maupin, buffeting her blows. Meanwhile, there is a sharp jab from Lachesis--Tsurugi rolls out of the way, avoiding the staff but still being buffeted by the sonic wake. She grunts as she struggles to her feet. But her low posture lets her dodge the staff as its thrown her way, and she stands there, panting harder as she steadies herself.

But she doesn't get too long to rest. Maya unloads with her guns, and Tsurugi's body jerks as she is barraged with bullets. She's still panting, but even thugh her body jerks, the strongest reaction are several grunts of pain, and one might imagine her gritting her teeth behind that mask to endure each hit.

But she seems to catch her breath finally by the time Wonderful Aques comes out, water crashing down mere inches from her face as she h9ops back to avoid it.

Their Navigator goes down. Tsurugi scowls as she glances over to where Yumi lays. But Miyu has her covered, and there's a modicrum of tension that releases from her shoulders at that sight.

She glances back to Shinobu and Maya, regarding them silently as she slowly sheathes her weapons. She's barely holding on, but she's still managing, her breathing still labored even if it's slower.

Miyu calls retreat, and she also offers a taste of Truth. La Mapuin vanishes into blue flame with a thought, and Tsurugi leaps backwards with a wind-assisted jumps. She jumps through the throng of demons, without looking, vanishing into the night after Miyu and Yumi.

[OOC] Remi Ryuuja says, "bluray: with wind-assisted jumps, not a wind assisted jumps"

<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.

 

     "It's hard to fall from heaven, isn't it.."

     Some of us fall because of our sins. And then some of us are merely thrown off. The onmitsu was stalking along the driftwood boards, following along in the wake of the officer's retreat, nimbly navigating along the physically impossible labyrinth of bridges that shoot to and fro with each of his Persona's sweeping motions. The rain breaks against the sand and wood with harsh, unrelenting rhythm, sheeting and spraying with harsh, deep drumming bass with each droplet. Short of slitting their throats, evicting the perpetrators would be enough for now...

     But theirs is a powerful battle, and the flare of a firecat dwarfs the boy as the runs down the line of his bridge in the air. Helios is intercepted by the rush of Sarutahiko, the great machine kami nigh staving in the cat's head beneath an eight-faced, eight-shaku, eight-shide gohei. Their battle is the stuff of sky and legends, their fearsome shadows rolling over the onmitsu as he barrels down the length of the walkway, trailing his black blade behind him.

     He comes vaguely aware of that knot of wrongness, that terrible klaxon blare of resonance that awakes the dead and should-be-dead. Of course. They pose just as much of a threat to him as they do the others. He is starkly alone, and they have left far afield of him. But..

     An 'eye' moves downward, to the retreating woman. The dilution of his focus rises for just a second.

     The black rain turns to black fire in an instant, the curling corruption of black cutting into the fight between Sarutahiko and Helios in the wake of Badb's passage. The priest lifts an imperious, masked visage after the bird before the flames catch to the great swath of his robe. The entire length of the Eight Shaku Gohei is lifted, cut through the air to conjure a wind capable of purifying the flame, but that flame has already spread too far, too fast, and there is the cat to worry about too.

     The onmitsu takes a flying -leap- from his bridge, skidding down the snapping, burning lines of another as the impossible bridges burn, falling from the air. There is an audible metallic shriek as Helios' next bite lands home, and the tumbling of the two Persona smash into the ground near Umie's escape line, sending plumes of sand shooting into the air, and the onmitsu flipping end-over-end. The gohei, burning in black, is corporeal just long enough for the shinobi to land on it, springboarding and hitting the ground, trailing edges of black flame. By the time Sarutahiko disassociates and derealizes into frayed silver, the flames of darkness have caught to the onmitsu, struggling to stand.

     An 'eye' turns, to look at the surging demons, and one last time after the police, hastening their escape to a _very_ classy looking vehicle. His 'eye' is burning. "I see," he laughs, as his eye glows a fierce, shining blue. Mementos...?

     "I guess you win for now. I'll have to give you a real test later," Shiryuu thinks, through fought breath. A single, shaky step is taken. He lifts his black blade, drawing it through fingers and his saya, slipped from his pack anew. The weapon is sheathed, just as the fingery darkness would start to lick at the mune. And then:

     He does not go in the same direction as the others. He does not go in any direction at all. If you see him -- even if you are looking right at him, in broad daylight -- no you didn't. He is just gone. In a flash, in a heartbeat. Inbetween eyeblinks, the young boy simply decides not to be there.

     And then, muted resonance and all, he just as simply isn't.

<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.

"Hah. I can't tell if you're confirming or denying that." Shinobu replies to Maya.

The fight continues... but even through all that, weathering attacks from both of them, Remi is still standing. If this fight were to go on any longer, Shinobu isn't sure how to turn out...

But a retreat is called - on both sides.

"Right." Shinobu calls back to Myunghon as they make their own escape.

Tsurugi bounds away... and with the demons closing in, Shinobu doesn't make a move to stop her.

"We did what we came here to do. Let's get while the getting's good." Shinobu says with a look toward Maya - and then, starts toward the nearest source of safety.

<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.

    Demons flood the beach, enforcing retreat on them all -- though they're able to retreat, Hiori Hamade included, their lives menaced but not so easily taken. Hiori sticks close to Katsuya as they flee for the car -- and she'll remain close to him until they get back to a place that makes sense. It's a shock, but she'll be okay.

    In the beach cavern, the Pixies swarm on the mermaids rumoured to be here, as Jack Frost freezes their scales and the Empusa vent their frustrations on their fellow demons. In the hunger, it's almost easy to miss...

    ... the way a flock of Pixies devour a blue-skinned corpse, made ugly by long submersion.

    A man whose hands and feet were bound... before he was thrown off the side of a yacht.

    Miho found Sukemichi Wakiyachi before Katsuya and Hiori did -- and now, they'll never know how deliberate his death was.

    Another mystery, another coincidence made into an accident.

    But at least they're both alive. They're all alive, and so long as they draw breath, they can find more leads.

    ... in fact, they already have one.

    Who wanted to kill two of the officers who cared about the Joker Killer case?

    The Old Maid was nowhere to be seen, today.

    Someone else... must be involved.