2025-07-20: Captive Bride
- Log: Captive Bride
- Cast: Yua Ooshiro, Ichika Kawase, Yusuke Kitagawa, Shinobu Shimizu
- Where: Yumezaki - Wakabayashi and Sons
- OOC Date: 2025-07-20
- IC Date: Tuesday, June 12 2012
- Summary: Yua guards a Dark Hour document retrieval. Ichika, Yusuke, and Shinobu are nearby to stop her... but the madwoman almost seems like she wants them to do that, and they realise that her terms of employment aren't all that favourable at all. What dark force is acting in the city, when no one's awake?
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Wakabayashi and Sons is a legal operation which runs out of an office in Yumezaki; rumours that it has placed itself in Yumezaki due to Saku Wakabayashi's pachinko habit are baseless and unfounded. The rumours with a little more weight in the legal community are that Saku and his sons have been looking into the JSDF, suspecting foul play in its upper ranks.
Of course, they've tried to keep their investigations hush-hush, but requesting information from the government... well, it gets around.
Got around, to the wrong ears.
Rokuro Nishiyama is not one of the Order's strongest field operatives; he doesn't seem to possess a Persona, which limits his capacity quite thoroughly. But he's still the kind of guy who can operate during the Dark Hour, which makes him, and the team he's assembled, valuable for a specific kind of task: infiltrating and retrieving documents. Don't call it 'theft'; call it 'advanced corporate espionage'.
They do need some protection waging an operation while the streets are painted in this sickly green shade, though -- and that's where Yua Ooshiro comes in. Both muscle and alarm system, Gretchen encloses her in her great arms as she scans the streets around Wakabayashi and Sons' unassuming office. Steel bars pierce through those arms, allowing Gretchen to create an effective jail cell when she clasps her hands together; inside, framed against that giant masked woman clad in white silk and precious jewels, Yua is protected.
Well. Protected from what she's fighting. Not so much from the men in suits who are rifling through that office, unseen, behind her. She alone stands in front of the office building; she does not appear to have friends with her. She's dressed for battle, though, in her grey dress and body armour, her identity veiled by a black fascinator and bridal veils.
"There, behind the portrait! A secret," she says, speaking to them through the connection she's forged. "A room yet unseen. Passage ungranted."
But Rokuro has a man who can handle breaking and entering, so as soon as they know to look, Suku's secrets are already damned.
Yua isn't just scanning inside the office, though. No -- there's a reason they'd bring a Persona-User with them, into the night. She must stay on the lookout for wandering Shadows, stray Demons, and...
... other miscreants.
AS: Yua Ooshiro has readied for combat as Gretchen! She is now fully healed! Ready for 3 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika Kawase was out later than she usually likes to be. It'd been a good night for a party. Yes, on a Tuesday. Shut up. But it meant that she had to walk home, because she missed the train, and so it is that she's in the Yumezaki ward at night... during the Dark Hour, in particular. Dressed fashionably, she's mostly just trying to avoid trouble until the Dark Hour hits--and now that it has, it's a different kind of trouble that she expects.
...The sudden sensation of danger though is different. Ichika steps into an alley--and steps out in full armor. Loose clothing with wide sleeves and legs in autumnal colors, resembling an onna musha's, under modern armoring in black. There are rose patterns, and thorned vines wound about her attire. Her mask covers her eyes and nose, and has long horns, and a crack over the eyebrow.
And she has a riot shield. That's just a thing she has.
"..."
She starts forward more carefully than before. Yua will sense a Persona-user as Ichika Kawase--in the guise of an Ogre--steps into her field of view. "What the--"
Ichika reveals herself in confusion!
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
Yusuke has been staring at the blank canvas taking up pride of place in the middle of his dorm room for a long time, since Madarame's confession. Talking with his comrades, and a couple others, has helped, but he still only feels frustration when his gaze falls upon the unsullied off-white fabric.
So after school today, he took the train out of Tokyo. Maybe he needs inspiration. Maybe he needs a break from the city.
Maybe he's missing something else.
As it turns out, Sumaru City's Yumezaki Ward has a superb art scene, and he spent quite some time wandering the more colourfully-decorated streets, soaking in the styles and flourishes. Too much time, in fact - he hasn't paid attention to if the common Gekkoukan dorms have curfew, but if they do, uh, he's long-since missed it. And the last train back into Tokyo.
Which means that he's still lost in his own imagination when he realises that the world around him has changed - that the crowds he was surrounded by are now motionless, grim monoliths - or, rather, coffins.
"... ah."
He's seen enough of this interstitial time since his first confrontation with Madarame. He slept right through the first one, of course, after the post-euphoric fatigue from his awakening had set in, but afterwards it was extraordinarily difficult to miss. After all...
"... The ambience at this time is no better outside, either," he remarks, dryly, before attempting to make his way towards the train station.
... Wait.
The frisson of electricity up his spine is unmistakable. Something is... calling him. Something within, urging him to turn away from his path home.
It is the same feeling that voiced that challenge to him. Spurred him to draw steel against Madarame.
Yusuke draws in a deep breath, and turns towards where his intuition is pushing him. Black loafer lifts up... and as it steps down, in a flicker of blue flame it is replaced by a white motorcycle boot, vivid black-and-rose rain splashing behind it.
====== ====== ======
This is a curious portmanteau, for certain, Fox observes, crouched in the shadow of another building's lee. This office building seems of little import... and yet, there is someone standing guard outside. Someone, not objects where security guards might normally stand.
Stranger yet, what is unmistakeably a Persona looms around this guard, almost seeming to hold her prisoner. Yet his senses make no mistake - the power he felt is emanating outward from her, not inward.
No telling what is going on as yet, but... Persona users in Sumaru City. Operating on their own agenda. (He suspects that if one is present, others may yet appear)
Lo and behold...
Who is that, stumbling out of the alleyway? The height, the hair... there's almost something familiar about her. He can sense the power coming off the woman masked as an Oni - is that the familiarity he senses?
Put that aside, Kitagawa. More importantly, she seems much less familiar with the nature of her power as even himself. She may need assistance. Remember Joker's training - remain hidden until the moment to strike presents itself, then strike without warning.
Unfortunately, Shadows are much less perceptive than other Persona users, and while Yusuke's intent to remain hidden may occlude him from precise detection, Yua's keen Navigator senses may well alert her that a third presence lurks in the shadows here.
<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.
Hirasaka Ward is Shinobu's usual haunt, but sometimes, she has to go where the jobs are. There's always need for work in Yumezaki Ward... though to a degree, it also requires giving the offers a finer eye, just in case.
There's a lot of rumors, circling about this place.
Her current place of employment let out later than usual, today - and as a result, she finds herself caught out in the Dark Hour as the world shifts to green.
This means less traffic, as she bikes in the direction of the train station - the trains might not be running, but at least she can get there early. Once, before she Awakened, she had been interested in getting a motorcycle license. Now that she's been exposed to the Hour when all powered technology stops working, she's gained an appreciation for something decidedly more manual.
...However. It's as she's biking back that she feels something on the edge of her senses. Or, perhaps more accurately, the lack of something. A fuzziness.
A frown crosses Shinobu's face. It's not necessarily a bad sign - but it is something worth investigating. She orients herself toward it and, mindful of the risks, plunges herself into the obscured territory. And there she sees...
...A Persona, with a woman secured within her jail cell, and an Ogre with a riot shield who seems very surprised as to what she's stumbled onto.
Shinobu brings her bike to a stop and jumps off.
"Mind if I ask what's going on here?" Shinobu asks. She's intentionally drawing attention to herself - to give the Ogre-guised girl an opportunity to retreat, if she doesn't feel ready for this.
She doesn't notice the sly fox watching nearby.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
An Ogre steps out, and Gretchen's masked face turns, towards her, echoing Yua's attention. No -- when she's dressed like this, out like this...
This must be the Doomed Bride, Yumi. The very same one Shinobu fought, not so long ago.
Yumi could have laid more traps for those approaching, of course. She could have led them through labyrinthine mazes of their own horrors and insecurities. She could have turned them around and around and around until they lost all energy to proceed. She could have made things much, much harder...
... but her wrist is still a little sore. She might not need her wrist brace, by now, but that doesn't mean she's forgotten.
It's still a little surprising when that Ogre stumbles out, though. "What light beyond horizon breaks?" Yumi demands, of her, swiping out her hands. She turns her attention on Shinobu, ascending from her steed, but it's too late -- she's already involved her. "And you! Here to foil me once more?! Don't put it in the microwave -- it will spark and flame. Let's smother it, now."
The only flames in view right now are the sickly red ones flaking off of what must be her left eye, beneath all those veils, the sharp red edges sneaking through her disguise. Nevertheless, Gretchen's dress flares, and massive jewels fall down over Ichika and Shinobu -- her own expression of Mamagna. At the same time, water coils around Yumi, drowning her and Gretchen for a moment before it all falls away.
A wily Fox might think he's gone unseen, with such a blatant attack. But Gretchen lifts her face, as Yumi casts her gaze around, with broad and theatrical movements. "Where are you?!" She demands, though no one else is here. "You, you... I see you! Show yourself!"
And what she sees as Gretchen extends her analysis to Fox is a thing she receives into herself, gripped bodily by her experience of his strengths, his weaknesses, his tricks and his traps. Possessed by someone else's experience, she is distracted, for long moments -- an opening!
AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Earth skill Mamagna on Shinobu Shimizu and Ichika Kawase! AS: You still have 2 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Recovery skill Relaxing Wave on Yua Ooshiro! AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions! AS: You can't attack while you have an attack in your queue. AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Relaxing Wave. AS: Vigor added! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Almighty skill Full Analysis on Yusuke Kitagawa! AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended. AS: Block Neutral! Ichika Kawase takes 40 Earth damage from Yua Ooshiro's Mamagna. AS: Bind added! AS: Avoid Worst! Shinobu Shimizu takes 67 Earth damage from Yua Ooshiro's Mamagna. AS: Bind added! AS: Take! Yusuke Kitagawa takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ooshiro's Full Analysis. AS: Yua Ooshiro's Strength Scan! Yusuke Kitagawa resists Water! AS: Yua Ooshiro's Weakness Scan! Yusuke Kitagawa is weak against Fire! AS: Yua Ooshiro's Support Scan! Yusuke Kitagawa has passive skills Apt Pupil, Quick Weapon, Sharp Student, and Skill Card Affinity!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika does not detect Yusuke; he's right. She's still new at these matters, for all that she's had her Persona over a month now. She's avoided having to use it.
Shinobu gives her a moment--but Ichika doesn't take it. She's a little busy dealing with Yumi's... Yumi-ness. "What the hell?" Ichika inquires of Yumi.
But suddenly, she recognizes sharp red edges, and the massive jewels come. Ichika lifts her shield to defend herself, and they batter against her, mostly falling off.
"Ugh," Ichika says. "So that's how this is going to be?" She looks to Shinobu. "Don't know who you are," she says, "But looks like we're friends right now. You pissed this one off before?"
She draws in a breath--and reaches up to her mask. "...Don't say I didn't warn you..."
"PERSONA!" Ichika rips off the mask and in a tide of blood her face is still obscured, and her Persona emerges. Momiji, in maple-patterned kimono with club and scroll, rises. She twirls in place and winks, a spectral heart rising from her scroll as she starts to read it--
And confusion may set in for Yua. If it works.
"That's--" Pause. "...Right. I meant to do that."
AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Almighty skill Sexy Dance on Yua Ooshiro! AS: Ichika Kawase's turn has ended. AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Almighty damage from Ichika Kawase's Sexy Dance. AS: Charm added!
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
A third other, joining this standoff... and she recognises the caged Persona User.
Fox tenses, shifting in his cover... and he feels the world turn red, a hostile eye falling upon him.
At times like these, a Phantom Thief ought retreat to safety, or counter-attack.
The crash of jewels and tidal wave falling upon them as the woman standing guard makes the first strike settles Fox's resolve - retreat would mean abandoning them.
Ah, as he thought, the one with the younger-sounding voice is like them. In that flash of blue flame, she calls out for her Persona... though the effects seem otherwise to her intentions.
Fox steps out from the shadows, scarlet saya appearing in his hand. "My. To make them weather these slings and arrows of misfortune - who are they to have aggrieved you so, in this maudlin time?" Shifting his weapon to his other hand, he puts his left up to the mask covering his eyes and nose, as blue flame ripples over it. "Such hideous violence does us all no good; let us put some grace into it, no? Goemon! Put the wind beneath our step!"
He lifts the mask off, fire shrouding his face, and it seems as though a woodcut image comes to life behind him as a great, pompadour-bearing ronin draws deeply on his massive kiseru, then exhales a wispy green wind that swathes Fox, Ichika, and Shinobu. Perhaps their bodies feel a little lighter, under the oppressive weight of the Dark Hour.
AS: Persona! Yusuke Kitagawa has used the Almighty skill Masukukaja on Ichika Kawase, Yusuke Kitagawa, and Shinobu Shimizu! AS: Yusuke Kitagawa's turn has ended. AS: Take! Ichika Kawase takes 0 Almighty damage from Yusuke Kitagawa's Masukukaja. AS: Spd_Up added! AS: Take! Shinobu Shimizu takes 0 Almighty damage from Yusuke Kitagawa's Masukukaja. AS: Spd_Up added!
<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.
Through the bars, Shinobu catches a glimpse of a masked, veiled face. Yumi... Shinobu hadn't fought her directly - but she certainly recognizes her as one of those that were on her beach.
...The danger level of the situation has suddenly increased. Shinobu draws her staff suddenly.
"Yeah, pretty much - wait, what?" The rest of the sentences catch her off guard. She can follow the train of thought - but she's soon forced to jump back as jewels rain down. Her reaction is a little too slow - she's caught by the jagged edges. It's only thanks to Lachesis's protection, though still slumbering, that she isn't crushed through. Still, she exhales sharply.
"Don't know you, either." Shinobu agrees, nodding toward Ichika. "...But yeah, looks like it. ...And, yeah - some folks and I tried to stop a murder. Her lot didn't like that. So, context!"
She taps the end of her staff against the ground as she starts to carefully consider her next move, watching as Ichika calls upon her Persona - but as Shinobu readies herself, a masked young man with a way with words steps out from the shadows.
All these masks... Maybe she should carry one of her own around - she seems to be the only one who didn't come prepared.
...Nah, it'd be too hard to lug 'Pika-san's' head everywhere.
"Thanks. I owe you one." She says, offering Fox a nod. She feels a little more spring to her step - and she exercises that spring now, rushing toward Yumi.
"So, what's got you out here now?" Shinobu asks, taking up her staff. She jabs it forward toward her, three times quickly.
AS: Weapon! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Jab Flurry on Yua Ooshiro! 3 Hits! AS: Shinobu Shimizu: Bind removed! AS: Shinobu Shimizu's turn has ended. AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 21 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Jab Flurry. Critical Hit! AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 17 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Jab Flurry. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 21 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Jab Flurry. Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Take it out! Take it out, it will catch flame!" The impression Yua gets of Fox, as his existence flows through her, is far more matter-of-fact than anything she received of Masuo or Ulala; the Will of Rebellion protects him from her scrying, too. But she feels the flames burning her to nothing, until the waves wash it and all her foes away; the feeling of always being ready to respond to attacks, too quick on the draw to be caught off-guard by attacks of opportunity, and that depth of appreciation for external resources.
But when Ichika takes it out, blood flows from her face; Yumi shrieks, her voice aghast. "Your face! Your face--!" What rises from that violence, though, is Momiji, and Momiji twirls...
... as a little heart appears above Yumi's veils. "Oh! Another dancer! Let me help you--!" Gretchen spreads her arms, as water floods in to drown them all. Strangely, despite the waves coiling around them, they're left feeling refreshed rather than harrowed.
She blinks, though, as the water fades. "Wait... didn't you aggrieve me? No -- no, it is I who aggrieves you. I must... oh, my head!" She shakes it, clasping it in both of her hands, before she takes out some pills and shakes them into her hand. Once she's swallowed them, she stomps her foot and gestures out to Yusuke. "What grace is there in violence?!"
Gretchen manages to shield Yumi from those staff-jabs, at least, even though she's distracted. "I am shield and shelter," she explains -- if you can call that an explanation. "For what? For why? Ask and ask and ask again, I'll only give you the one answer! Now you've come, my task is clear -- defeating you!"
Gretchen spreads her arms and sways from side to side, as Yumi twirls; she might have declared that there was no grace in violence, but her movements are graceful, still. "Let us dance to death," she invites them, as if to answer Ichika's confused assault.
AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Almighty skill Annihilation Step on Yusuke Kitagawa, Ichika Kawase, and Shinobu Shimizu! AS: You still have 2 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Recovery skill Relaxing Wave on Yusuke Kitagawa, Ichika Kawase, Shinobu Shimizu, and Yua Ooshiro! AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions! AS: You can't attack while you have an attack in your queue. AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Relaxing Wave. AS: Vigor added! AS: Item! Yua Ooshiro has used the Recovery skill Focus Pills on Yua Ooshiro! AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended. AS: Take! Shinobu Shimizu takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ooshiro's Annihilation Step. AS: Spd_Up removed! AS: Take! Ichika Kawase takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ooshiro's Annihilation Step. AS: Spd_Up removed! AS: Take! Ichika Kawase takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Relaxing Wave. AS: Vigor added! AS: Take! Shinobu Shimizu takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Relaxing Wave. AS: Vigor added!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
It's the first time Ichika's seen someone with powers like hers--either like Yua's or Shinbou's, or just like hers with Fox and the mask. "Whoa--"
Sh e does feel lighter all of a sudden. She can't follow Yumi's trains of thought. But Shinobu gives context, and Ichika frowns. "...Murder, huh?"
Shinobu's moves with a staff impress Ichika--but Ichika holds back for now, not quite ready to dive into the melee yet.
But Momiji's dance is effective. And grace? Well, "It was nice while it lasted," Ichika says of Goemon's buff power.
"I don't know what 'grace' I can offer, but..."
"I can do violence just fine!" She doesn't get the explanation. But she does get something else. Dance to death...
"No thanks," Ichika says. "How about we dance to 'you fuck off'?"
"MOMIJI!" she cries, and the Persona appears once again, an Oni as surely as Ichika is an Ogre. She puts forth the scroll again--and this time, two quick bursts of force answer her charge.
AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Wind skill Duo Zan on Yua Ooshiro! 2 Hits! AS: Ichika Kawase: Bind removed! AS: Ichika Kawase's turn has ended. AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Focus Pills. 12 SP regained! AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 19 Wind damage from Ichika Kawase's Duo Zan. AS: Blast added! AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 29 Wind damage from Ichika Kawase's Duo Zan. AS: Blast added! AS: Take! Yusuke Kitagawa takes 0 Almighty damage from Yusuke Kitagawa's Masukukaja. AS: Spd_Up added! AS: Take! Yusuke Kitagawa takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ooshiro's Annihilation Step. AS: Spd_Up removed! AS: Take! Yusuke Kitagawa takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Relaxing Wave. AS: Vigor added!
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
As quickly as the wind comes to sally them forth, Gretchen's power stills it, like a becalmed sea.
Fox clicks his tongue. "Ah, well. The spring breeze is so fleeting, this time of year."
He draws his blade, closing in, fading - and feinting - left, then right, before aiming an overhand pair of swipes at Gretchen. "Such a curious image you cast, though! Why hold this ground, out here at this time?"
AS: Weapon! Yusuke Kitagawa has used the Slash skill Katana Combo on Yua Ooshiro! 3 Hits! AS: Yusuke Kitagawa's turn has ended.
AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 24 Slash damage from Yusuke Kitagawa's Katana Combo. AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 24 Slash damage from Yusuke Kitagawa's Katana Combo. AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 16 Slash damage from Yusuke Kitagawa's Katana Combo.
<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.
Shinobu braces herself as Gretchen calls down the waves. She tries to move, to leap away before they can crush her - but the water feels soothing? She feels relaxed, energized.
"What in the...?" Shinobu starts... but she seems to recognize what happened a moment later.
She's not going to say no to receiving mistaken aid from an enemy, if there's no harm hidden within it. It's her loss.
She looks toward Ichika, then, and nods.
"Yeah. So... be careful, alright?" She replies - and nods toward Fox. "Same goes to you. You've got your life to consider."
This might be a murder, it might not be - Yumi isn't forthcoming. Shield and shelter... A shield doesn't exist to protect itself.
"For what-" She starts. Yumi says the same words - and then says essentially that she isn't telling. "...Alright then. I can give you a fight, if you're so set - but I'm not keen on dying, either."
Gretchen sways and Yumi twirls - Shinobu has to admit she's fairly agile. But with her movements, Shinobu feels herself slowing down as the Sukukaja is whisked away.
With the speed advantage gone she backpedals, moving to put a little space between them, and casts her hand out.
"Lachesis!" She calls - and rising above her, measuring rod clasped in her hands. She turns her eyes upon Yumi... and she studies her for a moment. She adjusts the rod, as if taking her measure - and then shifts to hold it as a weapon. It thrusts forward, unleashing a high-speed sonic boom right toward Gretchen.
AS: Persona! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Sonic Punch on Yua Ooshiro! AS: Shinobu Shimizu's turn has ended. AS: Mind Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8! AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 32 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Sonic Punch.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Murder she wrote," Yumi sighs, turning away. "That is the way of things. But I've no orders to slay you, here," and perhaps she means it to reassure Shinobu, who has really quite a reasonable concern.
And that means... she's taking orders from someone.
She scowls, though, when Ichika insists she fuck off. "Don't curse me with such foul language! It's unbecoming!"
Less becoming still is zan, force slamming into Gretchen as she closes her arms around Yumi. Her dress billows around herself, in the wake of the assault, but Yumi is safe inside her cage.
Inside her cage...
Yusuke understands the name of the game -- Yumi's not coming out from inside there. He strikes at Gretchen, thus, his overhanded katana laying into her shoulders. She sways forward, slumping, supported only by the bars of her own jail cell for a moment in the wake of the assault -- though she's able to straighten by the third blow. No blood mars her white gown, but he definitely hit.
"Again, and again, and my answer is the same," she replies, to him, strangely sounding a touch sad. "The 'why' is not fashioned to me, scion of Inari." She pauses, for a moment, evaluating in her chaotic mind. Rokuro is occupied, inside; no one is out here to mind her. Perhaps, then, her people will miss the way she adds: "No 'why' but this -- to record some report or another. An acquisition."
Lachesis takes measure of her tragic fate, and the sonic boom slams into Gretchen, who clasps her hands around Yumi, as she always does. It's Gretchen, then, who takes that thunderous blow, dress flowing once more in the blast.
It might make a nice picture. Unfortunately, this really isn't the place to start painting.
"No one wishes to die," she assures Shinobu, clasping her hands together. "Not you, nor I. But we're six feet under with two feet on the ground! Haven't you seen the coffins? In this place, we bury, bury... do the dead have ears? Ah, I'd better get a bit more serious."
Gretchen spreads her arms before she claps her hands together, and darkness seethes up from below, forming cages around each hero before they drip to inky black.
AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Dark skill Chthonic Cage on Ichika Kawase, Yusuke Kitagawa, and Shinobu Shimizu! AS: You still have 2 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions! AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended. AS: Block Neutral! Shinobu Shimizu takes 99 Dark damage from Yua Ooshiro's Chthonic Cage. Weak! AS: Avoid Neutral! Yusuke Kitagawa takes 65 Dark damage from Yua Ooshiro's Chthonic Cage. AS: Block Worst! Ichika Kawase takes 81 Dark damage from Yua Ooshiro's Chthonic Cage.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Taking orders from someone. That's for sure. But when Yumi scowls at her and insists she not curse, Ichika grins. "Unbecoming of what? I'm an Ogre. I can curse whoever I want!"
The spring breeze is fleeting. "...How do you fight like that?" Ichika wonders of the Fox. "Graceful."
But Shinobu asks her to be careful, and Ichika answers, "Yeah, yeah. I don't want to die here or anything."
"Right, right, same answer," Ichika says to Yumi. "...You haven't been told..." Hm.
"This freaky time of night doesn't mean we're dead," Ichika is pretty sure. "...But since that's not what you're trying for..."
"Come on! We're not done yet!"
Momiji reappears, lifting her scroll to the sky--and healing light sparkles down upon the three of them.
AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Recovery skill Media on Ichika Kawase, Yusuke Kitagawa, and Shinobu Shimizu! AS: Ichika Kawase's turn has ended. AS: Take! Ichika Kawase takes 56 Recovery healing from Ichika Kawase's Media. AS: Ichika Kawase gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Take! Shinobu Shimizu takes 56 Recovery healing from Ichika Kawase's Media. AS: Ichika Kawase gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Ichika Kawase spends Limit on Shift! Yusuke Kitagawa can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Ichika Kawase spends Limit on Shift! Shinobu Shimizu can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Take! Yusuke Kitagawa takes 56 Recovery healing from Ichika Kawase's Media.
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
"No better time for a heist, I suppose, than the hour where the living sleep like the dead," Fox quips - before the cage of darkness pools around him, and he can only raises his arms before the ink-black magic crashes down to envelop him.
... Fortunately, only moments later, a surge of vitality fills him as he struggles back to his feet. As the Oni-masked woman asks how he fights with such grace, he looks back at her, pausing. "... It feels right to me. Does it feel right for an Oni to fight with grace?"
As Yumi calls him 'scion of Inari' though, he grins. "A Fox sent to keep the wicked ones in line? An uncanny perceptiveness, for one so veiled in mystery." His hand goes up to his mask again, though his drawn blade stays ready. "With me, Goemon!"
He closes in again, his woodcut-painting Persona manifesting at his left flank. They cross over as they lunge towards Yumi, Fox executing a lateral slash that Goemon mirrors with his massive pipe.
It cuts just as well as a blade, even though it's made of phantasmal wood.
AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 42 Water damage from Yusuke Kitagawa's Frigid Wrath. AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 42 Water damage from Yusuke Kitagawa's Frigid Wrath. AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 29 Water damage from Yusuke Kitagawa's Frigid Wrath. AS: Persona! Yusuke Kitagawa has used the Slash skill Cleave on Yua Ooshiro! AS: Yusuke Kitagawa's turn has ended. AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 54 Slash damage from Yusuke Kitagawa's Cleave.
<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.
"Orders, huh... The other one was all about that, too." Shinobu comments. She means Tsurugi, of course. "...It don't make it any better, though."
And she's guessing that means orders again. But from who? She can't see the hand past the piece. First they try to silence an offer, and now they have an interest in Wakabayashi and Sons...
There must be a thread to pull on somewhere, but doing so might be dangerous.
...An acquisition, though? So not a murder, but a theft. Shinobu frowns, stowing that thought away.
She nods toward Ichika, then. Good - and listens as she explains something for Yumi.
"I've seen them, alright. Don't get me wrong, it's bizarre as hell... But don't let it get you distracted. We're alive." Shinobu replies. But, Yumi must get serious - and Gretchen spreads her arms and claps.
Darkness seethes up from below. She's caught in a cage of shadow - and she can only try to brace herself as it drips over her. For a moment, she's consumed in darkness. Lachesis writhes, recoiling from the shadows - and when they clear, Shinobu stumbles back too, with a wince.
The darkness has had a marked effect on her... but healing light courtesy of Momiji sprinkles down on her. Her pain lessens - and she feels invigorated, in fact.
"...Thanks. Looks like I owe you one now, too." She says with a nod toward Ichika.
"...Alright then. If you want to play like that..." Shinobu says, looking toward Yumi. Lachesis lifts a hand upward - and light shines around her. Talismans with spells of purification rise up around Yumi and Gretchen - and then with a snap, they all detonate in bursts of brilliance.
...And when the light clears, Lachesis is already rushing forward. Her staff swings upward. It's a motion meant to disarm - and whether or not there's a weapon to remove, a strength-draining aura trails in its wake. It's about the intent more than anything.
AS: Persona! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Light skill Hama on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Persona! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Swordbreaker on Yua Ooshiro!
AS: Shinobu Shimizu's turn has ended.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Dreadful!" Yumi protests, when the Ogre insists she can curse. She coughs, and adds: "But if it's a curse you're after... I've dozens on my name."
Doesn't she mean, 'to her name'?
No, 'on' is the right word.
"That is correct," she confirms, when Yusuke opines about heist time. "And what I take surely offers no solace to you. Yet I cannot desist, ere the mission ends. Should you wish to stop me, you must do so with your own strength. Either way -- I'll take my captivity out on you!" Why is she angry at them?! Her Persona is the one with the cell bars!
"... distracted," she echoes, though, turning to Shinobu instead of exacting that vengeance. "Distracted, distracting, isn't it, though? A dozen dozen souls and fangs beared for blood and the cracks on the gutter let the water in. It drips into the building, it's made the carpet mouldy. I can see the box of tissues, where they've not yet realised their lungs are colonising with hate. Get it out! And there, and there, he's stopped in the middle of a red light. Was he working this late? Was he desperate to get home? A weight in my chest, lead in my belly. Isn't it distracting, isn't it?!"
... is she seeing that much from the world around her? Is it affecting her that much? With such an unfiltered view of the world... maybe it makes sense she's raving.
"The power of Persona protects you," she advises Ichika, though she's not Navigating for her enemies. (Maybe they'd appreciate the tutorial more. No, they definitely would.) "As Gretchen shields me, I am left without bruise nor break as the day rises anew. Though, you ought take care... your flesh can still be pierced, I've seen."
(She takes a moment to worry about Myunghon. What are they doing right now? Probably something which would make Yua protest. Well, it's only fair, since they'd protest her actions now.)
But Yumi's warnings about the flesh prove prescient, when Yusuke gracefully launches towards her. No, not just Yusuke -- there's Goemon, too! Slash, he strikes at Gretchen's bars; slash, Goemon responds. Thunderously, Gretchen shatters, a thousand shards of glass. "Gretchen!" Yumi cries, distress cutting into her tone. "Don't go! Don't leave me here!"
She raises her Evoker -- a heavy revolver of a beast, looking all the part a gun, and holds it to the left side of her head. No -- where it's angled -- it must be pressed to her eye. "PERSONA!" She cries, as she shoots herself anew, and Gretchen appears once more.
"It's true that we're wicked," she admits, turning to Yusuke. Thinking back to Shinobu's words, she adds: "And that the decision was not mine absolves me little. But you are not the one for me, no Miyu to my Yumi, and I'll not lift my veils for you."
But Goemon isn't the only one moving towards Gretchen, tonight. Purification binds them, and Gretchen is a God-fearing woman; she shatters, once more, in the wake of the strike.
It leaves Yumi -- undefended, standing on her own two feet -- to face up to Lachesis's staff.
"I," she starts,
and she is scattered to the ground.
Luckily for her, Lachesis isn't a bloodthirsty weaver; her strength is drained quite directly, she feels the pain when she hits the ground, but nothing is broken. She has no weapon to knock from her hands but her Evoker -- and it scatters, sliding to the place where the fire escape door leading to that office block meets the wall.
Two men step from it, dressed in sharp suits and wearing matching rings. The taller of them is Rokuro Nishiyama, wearing sunglasses despite the hour, and he leans down to pick up that expression of her soul.
It is a terrible thing, that he grasps it. That he steps to her, and thrusts it into her face. "Get up," he says. "Do what you must to clear us a path. We're done here."
"Gretchen..." Yumi murmurs, as she pushes herself up, snatching her Evoker from his hand as she goes. She sways, slightly, as she stands; as she shoots herself in the eye, a second time. "Gretchen, help me!"
Once more, that massive woman appears, behind Yumi -- and in front of the men clearly not dressed for battle. Massive diamonds form in the sky, each raining down atop her enemies, as the fire in her eye blazes brighter and hungrier still.
And she offers them no more insights, now.
AS: Yua Ooshiro spends Limit on Blood! AS: Yua Ooshiro spends Limit on Break! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Earth skill Magnara on Ichika Kawase! AS: You still have 2 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Earth skill Magnara on Yusuke Kitagawa! AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Earth skill Magnara on Shinobu Shimizu! AS: Yua Ooshiro: Blast, Break, and Vigor removed! AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended. It's time for an All-Out Attack! AS: Block Best! Ichika Kawase takes 33 Earth damage from Yua Ooshiro's Magnara. AS: Bind added! AS: Break! Ichika Kawase can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Best! Shinobu Shimizu takes 18 Earth damage from Yua Ooshiro's Magnara. AS: Break! Shinobu Shimizu can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Neutral! Yusuke Kitagawa takes 49 Earth damage from Yua Ooshiro's Magnara. AS: Bind added! AS: Break! Yusuke Kitagawa can take another Weak action this round!
</poem
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"It's fine," Ichika says to Shinobu of her healing. "I'm not sure what it is, exactly, but I know my 'Persona' is good at healing."
The word came to her; she knows it, if not much about it. But a heist? "I guess," Ichika agrees with Yusuke. But he brings a good question.
"...No," Ichika decides. "Your way's pretty, but my way's not. I get enough pretty day to day."
"I'm gonna SMASH SOMETHING!"
But Yua has many curses, and that's... concerning. Ichika feels a spike of dread that she tries to cover over with anger. "I'll use strength, then!"
It's... very distracting. She seems a little crazy. But Ichika does take the advice.
The Evoker alarms Ichika--all the more for what happens from it.
A path? Those guys in suits, then--
Diamonds rain down, and Ichika's Persona moves to block them, shielding the girl from the diamonds with her form.
But this time...
Momiji moves to counterattack, and slams her club down through the air--and at the same time, that same force slams down towards Gretchen, attempting to smash her outright.
An instant later, Ichika throws out still more healing, soothing wind kissing wounds with care.
"Raaagh!"
AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Wind skill Zanma on Yua Ooshiro! AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Wind skill Zan on Yua Ooshiro! AS: Ichika Kawase: Vigor removed! AS: Ichika Kawase's turn has ended. AS: Nerve Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8! AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 90 Wind damage from Ichika Kawase's Zanma. AS: Blast added! AS: Nerve Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8! AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 89 Wind damage from Ichika Kawase's Zan. Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
The battle is intruded upon... by figures garbed in far less ostentatious, and yet more ominous, trappings than Fox. Gray eyes behind the kitsune mask narrow as they linger on the suited men... As one of them picks up the instrument that he supposes the woman just used to call her Other Self forth in a frankly unsettling manner... and orders her to use it again, thrusting it into her face, with little more regard for her state than another man might regard a machine. He watches, too, as she falls near-silent, suppressing her own poetics in order to simply barrage them with those great diamonds.
Oh, right, the diamonds. Fox twists and leans, trying to turn the worst of the impacts away as he takes steps back with each hit.
That red eye... Even more menacing than the eyes of his compatriots in their fervour. Goemon's image may be surrounded by writhing chains... and yet the woman fighting them, ordered to 'do what she must'... seems much more shackled by her role.
As the barrage of jewels abates... The young man draws himself upright, and flicks his blade to the side. A salute? But one aimed towards Yumi, as he steps back. Twirling the blade, he slides it home into its saya.
No dramatic blade strike manifests as he clicks the blade safely locked. There is simply silence.
"... It would be prudent to withdraw," he murmurs to the other two. "I mislike the lengths to which she'd be forced to fight on."
<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.
"Good at healing, huh... That's a good power to have. Be proud of it. Me, mine's a lot more direct..." Shinobu replies with a nod toward Ichika. She's a direct person. She doesn't mind that.
Her attention turns back to Yumi, who turns to her. She speaks, and Shinobu listens - but it's hard to follow. She gets the feeling she's seeing a lot more than she can, now.
"...It is, but that's why we have to focus on the here and now. You can still feel yourself, right?" Shinobu asks.
Yumi talks about Gretchen shielding her - but Gretchen is shattered, and then formed again.
Shinobu winces. That looks like it hurts.
And once more Gretchen is shattered - and Yumi is knocked to the ground, her Evoker knocked from her hands. Shinobu readies her staff. She starts to round on her - though her stance is not one ready for attack, but one expecting one.
And that's when they appear - two men in suits, with rings and sunglasses.
One of them picks up the Evoker and thrusts it toward Yumi - and Shinobu's eyes narrow. Even if she's her enemy, the rough way in which he does it...
"Hey, asshole!" Shinobu starts. She rushes toward him, ready to drive her staff right into his face -
But Yumi calls for Gretchen's aid and she comes once more. She is a wall, now, separating her from her intended targets -and diamonds drop from the sky at her command, forcing her to break off her attack.
She avoids the diamond itself, - but it still breaks into shards, forcing her to defend herself from the cloud of stone shrapnel.
She looks toward Ichika, as more healing winds flow over her, offering her a grateful nod, then back toward Yumi. ...If she's going to get in their way, then the only way is through.
"Lachesis." Shinobu calls out again. The woman with the measuring rod raises it as a tool again. Her hands travel along it - until she frames Gretchen between them. A weakning aura falls over her, like her defenses made more fragile - and then Shinobu rushes forward, staff spinning. It comes in once - then she lashes out with a kick before the staff completes its spin to strike with the other end. But before she can prepare for another attack...
The 'click' of a sheathed sword, and a suggestion to withdraw. Her staff is poised for another strike... but Shinobu backpedals, lowering it.
"...Tch. Guess you're right. If the suits are gone, guess this don't matter." She mutters reluctantly.
...She doesn't want to know how far Yumi would be willing to go to protect them.
AS: Persona! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Almighty skill Strike Break on Yua Ooshiro! AS: Weapon! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Spinning Staff on Yua Ooshiro! 3 Hits! AS: Shinobu Shimizu: Vigor removed! AS: Shinobu Shimizu's turn has ended. AS: Mind Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8! AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Almighty damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Strike Break. AS: Rage and Strike_Break added! AS: Block Worst! Yua Ooshiro takes 15 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Spinning Staff. AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 10 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Spinning Staff. AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 10 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Spinning Staff.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yumi might be a little crazy. Indeed, she's given little indication that she isn't. "Then -- show me your strength!" She issues, to Ichika, brazen. "Roar defiance to the heavens! They'll crush you, they crush everyone, but it is your privilege to try!"
She curls a hand, at her chest. "Myself?" She echoes Shinobu, crestfallen. "I drown in myself, when all the world's flowed through me. I can no sooner stop it than breathe. Apres moi, le deluge..."
It really is striking -- the difference between her dramatics in the face of Ichika's anger and Shinobu's insight, and the way she speaks only to her Persona, when Rokuro steps back out. Momiji's club slams down, and Gretchen closes Yumi's cell as she takes the reverberating force on herself, instead. Yumi doesn't protest the healing she offers her allies; she offers no comment on it at all.
"Hm," Rokuro grunts, staring Shinobu down as she rushes forward. He doesn't duck for cover, doesn't cower -- he's completely assured that Yumi will shield him. And shield him she does, even as Shinobu's Persona weakens hers, moves in to strike at those protective bars again and again. Thanks to Lachesis's magics, those bars dent against Shinobu's blows, the strength of her assault shown visibly on Gretchen's form -- though somehow, she manages to withstand them for the first two strikes. It's only with that third, final blow from Shinobu's mighty staff that Gretchen shatters, for a third time.
If SEES were here, they could tell them how exhausting it is, having one's Persona be struck down, needing to fire the Evoker again and again. Still, she lifts her revolver-like implement --
But Yusuke... suggests they withdraw. Silently, Yumi's thankful, though the only sign of that she shows is the way her free hand clasps to her heart, as the hand which wields her Evoker shifts to a ready stance beside her.
"You fought well," she tells them, softly, and with a glance behind her. As her enemies retreat in one direction, Yumi urges her party towards the other. "This way!" She cries, to them. "A route through, a path!"
How far would she have gone, to turn them aside with a man like that breathing down her neck?
... well, Shinobu might have seen what happened, when she showed up to facilitate that murder.
When there were others relying on her... she fought until she collapsed.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"...Is it?" Ichika wonders. "it seems natural to me. But I guess I will." Be proud of it? She's not used to being proud of this power. It's still a new idea. But... The battle i indeed intruded on. Ichika is prepared to keep fighting--but the battle haze wavers, when Yusuke sheathes has katana.
"..."
"Forced to fight..."
It makes Ichika uncomfortable, realizing it. The man in the suit. The 'setup'.
"...Yeah," Ichika says. "I guess..."
They start to go. Yumi tells them they fought well, but Ichika hesitates. "...I admit, I don't even know what they were after. ...He seems like the kinda guy who should get his ass kicked, but..."
The ogre shakes her head. "...I'm..."
"I'm gonna go before the cops show up or something. Thanks for the help. ...Maybe we'll meet again."
<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.
"...Yeah. You're not bad, yourself." Shinobu replies, as Yumi leaves them with parting words. She doesn't feel good about this - but she doesn't change her mind and try to go after them, either, instead heading for her fallen bike.
"Yeah, probably a good idea. Don't think anyone'll show up until the Dark Hour ends, but... Can't tell how long it'll take for the alarms to go off when it does." She replies, and nods. "Yeah, same to you. Both of you. See me around, don't be afraid to reach out, yeah? ...But I'd get it if you'd rather not out yourselves."
She's the only one not in a mask - or eye-concealed accessories - after all. And with that, she starts to pedal.
...Maybe she'll still be able to make her train.
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
'Go before the cops show up', the woman in the oni mask says.
Fox looks up at the still-grim sky of the Dark Hour.
He wonders if he should mention that whoever she is still has some time to make herself scarce - after all, 'the cops' won't even notice a break-in has happened.
"... Perhaps we will," he instead chooses to reply to her, before looking over to Shinobu and nodding, the respect of one fighter to another.
As Shinobu cycles away (... how much does a bicycle cost, Yusuke asks himself), Fox steps away into the shadows.
... Once he's sure the suited men have made their own getaway, he doubles back to check the plate on the front of the building, and note down just which office was so important they felt a Dark Hour heist was necessary.
There is a Mystery, after all, and it would be remiss of him to not bring it to his cohorts' attention.