2025-11-01: Let Your Self Be Free II
- Log: Let Your Self Be Free II
- Cast: Nanghaithya (NPC'd by Tsumugi Kujaku), Hazuki Nakao, Yukari Takeba, Myunghon Yeo, Saika Kikuchi, Umie Akabane, Akari Hoshi, Roger, Yanagi Nagisa, Fuuka Yamagishi, Ririka Kawase, Katsuya Suou, Pernelle, Moriko Kumamoto, Tamaki Uchida, So-young Park
- Where: Taro Nakata's Atelier, The Big Top
- OOC Date: November 01, 2025
- IC Date: August 03, 2012
- Summary: Taro Nakata has been freed; his Homunculus has been rendered vulnerable. But vulnerable is not the same as weak. It's time for our brave Persona-users to show they have a Kappa's fighting spirit! READY? FIGHT!
AS: Yukari Takeba has readied for combat as Io! She is now fully healed! AS: Hazuki Nakao has readied for combat as Janus! She is now fully healed! AS: Akari Hoshi has readied for combat as Legendary Magical Warrior Ixquic! She is now fully healed! AS: Tamaki Uchida has readied for combat as Arianrhod! She is now fully healed! AS: Akari Hoshi has readied for combat as Legendary Magical Warrior Ixquic! She is now fully healed! AS: Saika Kikuchi has readied for combat as Frankenstein's Monster! She is now fully healed! AS: Roger has readied for combat as Kamapua'a! He is now fully healed! AS: Pernelle has readied for combat as Anqa! He is now fully healed! AS: Ririka Kawase has readied for combat as Amphion! She is now fully healed! AS: Reiya Aomori has readied for combat as Kunimitsu! He is now fully healed! AS: Myunghon Yeo has readied for combat as Kudlak! They is now fully healed! AS: So-young Park has readied for combat as Icarus! She is now fully healed! AS: Yanagi Nagisa has readied for combat as Giselle! She is now fully healed!
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
The Cocoon is destroyed. Taro Nakata is freed. And his Homunculus--
"no. no. no. no."
... is still here.
He's there, still wearing his face; dragged back up from his inert position, he is kneeling on the grounds of the Big Top arena as his cognitive creations dissolve all around him. The Other Shadow is bent over, face completely overshadowed and gloved hands planted on the ground.
No. Not planted.
"it's mine. it's mine. it's mine."
Clawing at it. Scraping fingers against hard earth, even as Yanagi, Pernelle and Reiya address him, until his gloves split at the seams. Until he's dragging bloody furrows into the cognitive earth.
"IT'S MINE!"
Anyone who has had encounters with a human's Shadow knows there is one thing consistent across all of them: those bright, almost glowing yellow eyes. It's been true of every Palace Ruler. Any Shadow encountered in Mementos. And it was true of Taro's Homunculus, too.
But as the former, false ringmaster of the carnival whips around to face them, face now fully painted up in exceedingly fresh clown makeup, with wide eyes unhinged in fury--
They aren't yellow.
"GIVE IT BACK TO ME."
They're a blazing scarlet.
"I deserve this life. ME. I deserve it! Why should he have it and not me?! That pathetic alsoran deserves to wriggle through life like a milksop worm, accomplishing nothing?! I'M the one that ends here?! Just some SAD MEMORY for you all to hold until your brains rot away?! I won't accept that! I should have the life he could never have!"
His arms wrap around his trembling body. Those glowing scarlet eyes have shrunk to pinpricks as he violently grinds his teeth.
And looks up.
The Flegmats in the audience, now freed from the Homunculus' influence, shrink backwards, as if sensing some horrific force on the horizon. Some of them turn. Start to flee.
"I. WILL. Have. It."
Too late.
It's surreal, the way the Homunculus' borrowed body moves. The way its mouth widens suddenly and cartoonishly like a snake unhinging its jaw. The way it inhales...
... and the sheer, sudden suction force of it creates a vortex within the Big Top. The fabric of the tent walls ripple and bend inward towards the Homunculus' inhale. Those gathered will have to fight to not be drawn in -- but they'll manage.
The Flegmats, all of them flinging from the bleachers through the air towards that waiting, open mouth... are not so lucky.
With one singularly harrowing gulp, the Homunculus swallows them all. Those red eyes blaze.
"Even if I have to tear him apart."
And everything goes pitch black. Nothing, absolutely nothing is visible --
save for the Thing wearing Taro's face, visible only as a silhouette in saturated scarlet.
i am the other self
A silhouette that distorts. Distends. Shifts. Joints bending in ways they shouldn't. Body bulging in violent expansion.
Until it b u r s t s.
Light suddenly returns to the Big Top as a concealing red mist gushes outward from the epicenter of that explosion. And within the haze...
the you that should be
Something emerges.
Large. Monolithic, even. That's the first impression as that towering and ungainly-looking silhouette pierces through the dissipating fog of scarlet. It seems to almost... teeter into being, the sheer weight of it swaying forward before tipping backward, as if struggling with its own weight.
The reason for this soon becomes clear as that strange, blocky form emerges from the haze. It isn't a creature, per se: it's a vehicle. It looks like a tremendous palanquin or litter, fashioned out of arcade machines:
The base of it, from which the support rods extend, is a large flat horizontal arcade machine, sculpted in pure royal whites and golds.
And the 'cabin' of that litter? A classic arcade tower colored in aggressive neon green and pink, the garish colors almost evocative of old, 90s aesethetics. The screen of it occasionally flashes between scenes of what looks like samples of Night Parade fights, except distorted and somehow unsettling to look at directly. On the corner of the machine, the Homunculus' top hat hangs.
Like a proper palanquin it, of course, has guards: to anyone familiar with Night Parade, they look almost immediately familiar. Kaguya-hime. Master Koto. Nukekubi. Bakeduo-Neko, even. And more besides -- all of them looking almost like... real people, cosplaying the characters. People from -- Shujin? Anyone familiar might be able to identify them as the bullies in Taro Nakata's life.
They're all there... except for two characters in specific:
The first: Kappa. He's there -- in fact, there are -many- Kappas. Not amongst the guards -- but carrying the Arcade Palanquin, countless scaly-green, beaked, shell-bearing, sad-looking Kappas struggling and straining to support the overbearing weight of the machine carriage, all of them wearing rounded glasses.
All of them looking exactly like Taro Nakata.
And the last?
i am
She sits on the top of the arcade tower, leaned back and one foot planted, knee-bent on the top of the tower, lounging in all her glacial splendor like royal on the throne made for her. Pale skin. Blue lips. Eyes closed. Long black hair. An outfit in purple and black, with gray jeans and high-heeled sneakers.
Yuki-Offa. Yet like the others, her facial features are more reminiscent of someone else: ... Hazuki?
This is...
i am the other self
u r
n Nanghaithya e
i the v
t Discontent e
e s
fles rehto eht ma i
homunculus
Time to wonder over it lasts only so long, though. The Kappas shift, bringing the palanquin lurching to face those who stand before it. Those who defied it. Beneath the lounging Yuki-Offa, the Arcade Machine's screen goes black, and then alights with a dazzling array of colors and combat SFX and two words, flashed on after the other:
READY?
F I G H T !
BOSS THEME: Number One - https://youtu.be/7JEjQG4-tpU?si=YRlIj4_qrdVjJ8z7
Nanghaithya's myriad Kappa carriers take deep breaths, even as they strain to support the litter's oppressive mass. Their chests swell.
And suddenly, they -all- start breathing out great plumes of flames many time their own size, washing the Big Top arena's grounds and broiling a tidal path of fire towards all assembled.
And then they do it again.
And again.
And again.
Like some sort of--
Cheap, petty projectile spam?!
AS: Nanghaithya has readied for combat as Nanghaithya the DiScOnTe! They are now fully healed! Crt_Up added! Ready for 14 opponents! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Katsuya Suou! 3 Hits! AS: Pressure: Nanghaithya gains 1 Limit! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Saika Kikuchi! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Ririka Kawase! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Pernelle! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Yukari Takeba! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Yanagi Nagisa! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Roger! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Akari Hoshi! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Fuuka Yamagishi! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Hazuki Nakao! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Myunghon Yeo! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on So-young Park! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Tamaki Uchida! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Umie Akabane! 3 Hits! AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 11 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Avoid Fire! AS: Avoid Best! Yukari Takeba takes 25 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Yukari Takeba takes 36 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Best! Yukari Takeba takes 25 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 27 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! Avoid Fire! AS: Avoid Neutral! Myunghon Yeo takes 22 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Avoid Worst! Myunghon Yeo takes 26 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Avoid Best! Myunghon Yeo takes 24 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 27 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! Avoid Fire! AS: Block Worst! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 36 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Block Best! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 28 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Block Neutral! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 32 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Block Neutral! Akari Hoshi takes 24 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Block Best! Akari Hoshi takes 21 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Avoid Worst! Akari Hoshi takes 43 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Saika Kikuchi takes 54 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Block Neutral! Saika Kikuchi takes 32 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Weak! AS: Avoid Neutral! Roger takes 36 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Weak! AS: Block Worst! Saika Kikuchi takes 35 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Weak! AS: Avoid Neutral! Roger takes 50 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Avoid Worst! Roger takes 41 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Weak! AS: Avoid Worst! So-young Park takes 35 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Weak! AS: Avoid Neutral! So-young Park takes 30 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Weak! AS: Avoid Best! So-young Park takes 38 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Avoid Worst! Hazuki Nakao takes 34 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Avoid Neutral! Hazuki Nakao takes 42 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Best! Hazuki Nakao takes 20 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Avoid Neutral! Tamaki Uchida takes 25 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Avoid Best! Tamaki Uchida takes 27 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Best! Tamaki Uchida takes 18 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Block Neutral! Yanagi Nagisa takes 27 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Block Best! Yanagi Nagisa takes 23 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Block Best! Yanagi Nagisa takes 23 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Avoid Worst! Pernelle takes 27 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Avoid Best! Pernelle takes 22 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Pernelle takes 32 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Katsuya Suou takes 30 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! Resist! AS: Block Best! Katsuya Suou takes 21 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! Resist! AS: Block Worst! Katsuya Suou takes 20 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Resist! AS: Nanghaithya has readied for combat with Nanghaithya the DiScOnTe! They are adjusted! Ready for 15 opponents! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Fire skill Shameless Zoning on Moriko Kumamoto! 3 Hits! AS: Pressure: Nanghaithya gains 1 Limit! AS: Block Best! Ririka Kawase takes 19 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Block Best! Ririka Kawase takes 30 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Block Best! Ririka Kawase takes 19 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
As Hazuki prepares to end this, to stay with Taro as he starts to collapse, there's a problem.
The Homuculus is defiant, absorbs much of the inhabitants of the Atelier, and transforms into a palanquin carried by Kappas, with...
Something on top. Something familiar.
As she dives out of the way of the vacuum suction, Hazuki's clutching her bat tightly, handing Taro to Reiya and Minato to guard.
"That's me... and Taro... is this how he felt? Or just how you think he felt? I'm confused..."
As the fire plumes blast into her, Hazuki's trying to roll between them. The first one sends her rolling backwards, singed with flames, before another is deflected with her bat, and the third is swept away even more with a twirl of it.
"But no matter! Light will prevail! The monster always fades away!"
Dodging forward, Hazuki prepares her bat, shouting out.
"The only way to counter a zoner is rushdown! Let's get in there!" They better not have a flash kick, she thinks, as she dashes forward and swings into the nearest Kappas, trying to get right in their face with that gilded bat!
AS: Avoid Best! Moriko Kumamoto takes 33 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Worst! Moriko Kumamoto takes 40 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. AS: Avoid Worst! Moriko Kumamoto takes 56 Fire damage from Nanghaithya's Shameless Zoning. Critical Hit! AS: Weapon! Hazuki Nakao has used the Strike skill Batter Up on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Aggression: Hazuki Nakao gains 1 Limit! AS: Counter Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 12 Strike damage from Hazuki Nakao's Batter Up. Resist! Counter Strike! AS: COUNTER! Hazuki Nakao takes 27 Strike damage in return for her attack!
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"Give it up already, you lost." Yukari replies with that unimpressed tone to the Homunculus beginning to freak out. "Go back to wherever you came from."
But it doesn't, it's possessive, and she recoils from the sheer creepiness of it's blazing scarlet eyes, "What's going on!? What's it doing?" As she now does in fact look to Pernelle, Yanagi and Saika whether they can answer it.
She ducks down using her bow as a shield, as the vacuum of it's force tears at her, while the tent becomes a part of it's vortex.
"... The other... self?" Yukari repeats, as if trying to work out what it means, as she looks up and-
the you that should be
She takes a breath, then another, feeling a welling fear within her, as it forms that weird-
"What..." She takes another step back from the monstrosity of palanquin, borne by Taro Kappas, atop arcade cabinets, "... how is this even weirder than the giant pig bot? This feels like something Junpei would dream up after spending all day at the Game Panic."
She's not sure where the Kappas would fit in, she's just rather certain. The words blink into being and-
- the kappas start breathing fire, and Yukari suddenly side-steps a projectile, only there's another that nearly hits her dead on, scorching her SEES jacket. "-Whoa!" Right before she has to balance her weight on her left foot and raise her right to avoid another, as she quickly pivots around before taking her Evoker to her head, "Io!" With the pull of a trigger the girl in her bovine coffin appears, taking on more projectiles from the Kappa crowd.
'The only way to counter a zoner is a rushdown! Let's get in there.'
"... They're not stopping! She's right, we've got to advance!" As winds rise against the flow of projectiles, Io spreads out her hands, and begins doing it's best to patch the damage for SEES, so they can get in there.
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Recovery skill Media on Yukari Takeba, Moriko Kumamoto, Fuuka Yamagishi, and Ririka Kawase! AS: Support: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit! AS: Yukari Takeba regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: Take! Yukari Takeba takes 88 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
They aren't yellow.
Myunghon does notice this, and it only panics them further. Their knowledge of the supernatural is ultimately superficial with how deep and unknown the unknowns get; it makes them wonder -- with how little they know of how it all works... was it right to pass judgement? It was right to save Taro Nakata, that much they are clear about -- yet what about the Homunculus, which can only seem to exist by usurping the identity of another?
Katsuya was quick to lay a path down -- if they want an identity, define their own.
But as it was with Roger's own impressive Awakening...
It's hard, to assert oneself, isn't it. It's something that most people might not ever end up doing in their entire lives. Myunghon themself isn't certain -- they are the Doctor Pangloss, ever blindly believing in a world that didn't have their best interests, needing to be told of the true power they possess.
What Yanagi said is echoing in their mind. A thing that shouldn't exist, not understanding before it was even born... just how did she come into possession of that certainty?
But they can't stay in their reverie for all too long, because the Homunculus manifests into a large, towering, impressive... monster -- a Yuki-onna (sorry, offa) upon a palanquin, carried by myriad kappa. It doesn't take long for the battle to be rejoined, and plumes of fire erupt out and threaten to burn them, the Big Top catching aflame as Myunghon scampers towards safety, singes of fire catching onto Kudlak and their Coat.
Yes, this all resembles some cheap, petty Zoner play, like their name is Pluçon Bloque.
"Nnnh..." Myunghon finds themself struggling in the wake of the flames, the aching in their chest flaring badly as they clutch against a still-standing support pillar of the Big Top. "Our objective is met. Taro Nakata has been rescued from the Cocoon. Yet, I doubt that we can leave the Homunculus to rampage without harming him in some cognitive manner."
Yamagishi and Kawase are both here, and they're more skilled at identifying weakness and support -- no, what they need to do here is to *create* weaknesses, in order for the battle to be conducted in better state.
Hazuki reflects on the nature of the creature, Nanghaithya -- and how Yuki-offa bears her face, and Taro is reflected in the many Kappa below. If it's the Homunculus... is it doomed to only reflect the inner desires and pains of others? What does *that* mean?
Merry, help.
"... no matter. The battlefield has changed, and thus my objective is clear -- I shall ascertain the variables in which our victory rests!" Merry declares, as a column of Blue rises with Kudlak's Coat stretching out to harrangue the many Kappa underneath to precariously trip them up and weaken it against assault, and then thrusts their hand out with a rattling noise to further create weakness within!
AS: Persona! Myunghon Yeo has used the Dark skill Consume on Nanghaithya! AS: Pressure: Myunghon Yeo gains 1 Limit!
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
The horror of the Homunculus, the sheer force and drive of the Thing's desire and intention to live, to survive, to thrive, to stand in the spotlight it had been denied by the mere vissicitudes of chance, radiates outwards. The world goes dark.
"Ah... shit," says Saika Kikuchi, a moment before the light illuminates the face of their enemy.
The true form, perhaps. She straightens up, at least; her pose shows little fatigue, however much of that might be pure pose vs. objective reality. That last flying leap took something out of her, but she's had a minute since then. Saika exhales as the Homunculus marches forwards... though the sight of the Thing's *face*, stolen as it is from someone whom Saika has seen a number of times, gives her a moment of hesitation.
You can only front so far, though it's farther than you might think. It might be telling that she strode forwards to get in front of Pernelle and Yanagi, if only by a pace or so, once the Homunculus manifested.
"Don't jinx it," she calls to Hazuki at her words -- which, of course, might have a double meaning for her in particular -- and SURE ENOUGH: the kappas' beaky fleshy mouths pop open, a gout of hideous flame erupting outwards from many angles, smashing against Saika as she brings her arms up into a crossblock.
"Kuh! Gahh--!!" A good half-dozen of the fireballs end up on Saika, the fruits of her forward-facing aggression, and she sinks to one knee. "Monster!" Saika calls out, and the gray-green-black shape of science's hubris manifests. There is a sense of an angry growl or groan, but the Monster expresses power in another way -
"Light 'em up!!"
Bolts of lightning crack out of the sky in a rapid barrage towards the waves of kapper doom, Saika lurching back upright. A brief glance towards their supporting crew, but the one Saika addresses next is Yanagi. "You see an opening, Yanagi?! I could break any six of these little turds, but there's a whole fuckin' army!"
AS: Persona! Saika Kikuchi has used the Elec skill Rapid Zionga on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 8 Strike damage from Hazuki Nakao's Batter Up. Resist! Counter Strike! AS: COUNTER! Hazuki Nakao takes 32 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 0 Dark damage from Myunghon Yeo's Consume. Resist! AS: Def_Dn and Spd_Dn added!
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
'I. WILL. Have. It.' As the Flegmats shrink backwards, a familar dual sided blade flashes from the shadows as a shape rushes forwards in a manner that lacks any of the cackling spiciness Umie displayed earlier.
It was all for show, in the end: calling the homunculus's death, Taro's fortunate fate, and the stars being in Hazuki's favor. It would be easy to overlook it as part of a performance aimed at tearing down the Homunculus's confidence, and in a way, that's all it was.
The other side of it lies in the fact that every _actual_ prophecy of Umie's is only true because every single word in them is uttered too late, be it by a year, a day, or years. So, in Umie's eyes, the only way to make it the truth is to enforce it herself, lest it become the last one she ever makes.
And it's the writhing shape that was the Homunculus's body that is reflected in Umie's eyes as she closes in with the blade, aiming to make a decisive slash to end it before it starts.
But it's too
late.
Now Umie is being sucked in, mimicking the way she had to keep from being swallowed by that lion, earlier. The hook on the kyoketsu-shoge's blade becomes a lifeline instead, hooking onto something secure as her shoes press up against that extended jaw, those new expensive sneakers she unwisely accepted(?) from Shiryuu inches from being sucked in. From her violently flapping coat come charms, origami shapes, and yes, that damn spare mask Umie was looking for, which are sucked in instead along with those unfortunate Flegmats.
.... yeah, Umie's not really thrilled about all this. She's also pretty terrified, as she watches that thing swallow it all in one distorted gulp, before the lights in the Big Top go black.
Gripping her kyoketsu-shoge's blade's hilt and giving it a few good good tugs, Umie wretches it from wherever it's embedded and makes her final push to end the situation before it begins.
But yet again, Umie is--
A violent THWACK from the expanding mass throws Umie much further, her body whirling in the air and bouncing off the ground a few feet more until her body's momentum is spent.
--too late.
'Wakey-wakey, Umie-chan~'
Getting up with a groan and a staggered gait, Umie boggles at the Arcade Palanquin. "... eh...?" Unfortunately, the pop culture references fly over the blonde young woman's head. (The Japanese mythology ones, though, she definitely gets.)
.... The other thing Umie will get is a lot of fire power coming at her quickly. "... Shit!"
She jumps back from the first one, which gives the second time to brush by side (NOT THE JACKET, NOOO), while the third she attempts to duck by, with similar results.
Looking over to 'Orange-san' (ie, Hazuki) Umie gives the teen a flummoxed look. "I'm barely getting any of that, but I'm just going to make things a lot harder for them."
And so, Umie summons Badb again, casting the one status ailment she rarely, if ever casts.
.... After all, when you're a squishy dodgy time, why cast the one thing that may make your life a little harder if you fail?
"I'll make *them* rush instead!!"
AS: Block Worst! Nanghaithya takes 34 Elec damage from Saika Kikuchi's Rapid Zionga. AS: Block Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 30 Elec damage from Saika Kikuchi's Rapid Zionga. AS: Block Best! Nanghaithya takes 42 Elec damage from Saika Kikuchi's Rapid Zionga. Critical Hit! AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Almighty skill Warrior's Bell on Nanghaithya! AS: Ruin: Umie Akabane gains 1 Limit! AS: Umie Akabane regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.
For one brief, shining moment, Akari thinks they've succeeded. They've saved Taro from the horrible fate of being replaced by his Homonculus! Everything has gone perfectly!
Except the Homonculus is still there. And it's standing up.
"Hazuki!" she calls, forgetting her honourific in the moment. "Roger-kun! Watch out!" Not that anyone needs the warning as the Homonculus clambers back up, red-eyed, but - she still steps forward, holding her sword flat across her body, using it once again like a shield as she takes the fore, planting herself against the sudden wind. She's expecting the thing to strike out like the cognitive threats from before, or maybe even summon more of them.
She is *not* expecting...
...
That.
Ixquic's eyes widen behind her helmet's visor, barely visible, as the palanquin rises. She had seen Kaneshiro, but something about this is different. Whether it's because there's so *many* of them, or simply because it doesn't feel the same. She can tell it's different.
"You monster!" Flame washes along her sword - again - as Ixquic is lightly crisped by the flames. Her outfit has shorts and short sleeves; she's feeling a little toasty, but not so much that she's going to back off immediately, even after the beating she's taken already.
"Villain! I, Magical Warrior Ixquic, challenge you! Fight me if you dare! But listen to this: you aren't allowed to hurt anyone else! You won't EVER take his body! His life is his!" Ixquic thrusts her sword forward, more posing than striking, and Quixote appears above and behind her, raising her lance - and the pennant on it unfurls, billowing in counterpoint with Ixquic's own cape.
Energy builds up, but not near the Homonculus; around Ixquic herself, around Hazuki, around Roger, around Saika who so impressed her before when she took out the cannon. Fair's fair, after all.
And then, because the Homonculus on the palanquin is clearly that sort of a person, Ixquic raises her other hand, making a come-on gesture, beckoning him. Challenging him, even.
AS: Persona! Akari Hoshi has used the Recovery skill Heroic Dream on Akari Hoshi, Hazuki Nakao, Roger, and Saika Kikuchi! AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 88 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media. AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 88 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media. AS: Take! Hazuki Nakao takes 0 Recovery healing from Akari Hoshi's Heroic Dream. AS: Atk_Up and Crt_Up added! AS: Take! Roger takes 0 Recovery healing from Akari Hoshi's Heroic Dream. AS: Atk_Up and Crt_Up added! AS: Take! Akari Hoshi takes 0 Recovery healing from Akari Hoshi's Heroic Dream. AS: Atk_Up and Crt_Up added! AS: Take! Saika Kikuchi takes 0 Recovery healing from Akari Hoshi's Heroic Dream. AS: Atk_Up and Crt_Up added!
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Roger - a Shadow who has awakened to his own Persona, somehow, and has undergone Transmutation into a more humanoid figure decked out like an odd hodge-podge of sports memorabilia - is broken free of his initial experiences with the concept of introspection with the Homunculus' tantrum and resultant transformation.
He can ruminate on the strange anxieties and doubts that have attached themselves to an elevated psyche later, as the enemy entity assumes a most dire form reflecting whatever it was that gave them the foothold to form. He snorts. "Bring it! You won't run it back against this razorback!"
Nanghaithya, in fact, brings it - a lot of it - with fireballs that sees Roger hop back and forth with middling success into a disastrous final shot into his hip.
"AHH! Ow, ow, ow...!" He falls onto his seat for a moment as Hazuki takes charge - they have to get in.
"...Hnnn.. you're right! I can't just sit here and fry," he gets back up as an etherial blue butterfly flits by. He slices his racquet into it, dispersing it. "Persona!"
That stout hog-like demigod, Kamapua'a, appears. With wide movements of his arms, a sense of renewal and rejuvenation emanates - for Roger, Hazuki, Akari, and (on the periphery) Saika.
(don't mind the funny burnt bandage on his bum)
"We'll get 'em together!!" He cheers, emboldened further by the materialized heroic resolve by Don Quixote.
AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 0 Almighty damage from Umie Akabane's Warrior's Bell. AS: Rage added! AS: Persona! Roger has used the Recovery skill Healing Wave on Roger, Hazuki Nakao, Akari Hoshi, and Saika Kikuchi! AS: Support: Roger gains 1 Limit! AS: Roger regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: Take! Roger takes 0 Recovery healing from Roger's Healing Wave. AS: Regen added! AS: Take! Hazuki Nakao takes 0 Recovery healing from Roger's Healing Wave. AS: Regen added! AS: Take! Akari Hoshi takes 0 Recovery healing from Roger's Healing Wave. AS: Regen added! AS: Take! Saika Kikuchi takes 0 Recovery healing from Roger's Healing Wave. AS: Regen added!
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Pernelle, as he does his tippy-taps, asks Yanagi if she thinks Tsumugi would notice if he had a bite of Something Special.
"Do you think they wouldn't?" Yanagi counters.
And just in case there's any doubt that Pernelle would get her meaning, Saika just comes out and says it. Bless.
Yanagi leans in closer to her and Pernelle. "Yes, it's much easier with all this extra support," she murmurs. "They needed to be taught some things, but that's not their fault. Right now, we should be ready for... Ah. There we are."
The Homunculus whips around to glare at them with red, red eyes. Yanagi gazes back with that pitying look.
Giselle, still active, arches her back to protect Yanagi when the Homunculus unhinges its clown jaw and begins to suck Flegmats in by the dozens. There is darkness--and then there is bright. The Homunculus has transformed, a massive palanquin that teeters and totters with characters Yanagi doesn't know but that certainly involve a lot of kappas and a Yuki-Onna--sorry, a Yuki-Offa (is that why the baseball bat?)--on top.
Origami angels twirl and dance and vanish and reappear all throughout what was the Big Top, bringing back information to Yanagi's senses in a series of animation cel movies that her senses convert in an instant.
"Nanghaithya the Discontent..." Yanagi names it, voice rising. She's about to say more, but then there is a message, and Yanagi--who, again, is not familiar with gaming--furrows her brows in confusion. Then: "Ah!! Watch out!! Fire!!"
That's as much answer as Yukari gets, just before all those fireballs erupt in a spam of projectiles towards all of them. Yanagi doesn't jump out of the way; rather, Giselle spins around her and protects her with her body, flames breaking and breaking and breaking upon her ghostly visage. She burns away with a spindly scream, leaving Yanagi behind to fall to her knees and clutch her chest--but Saika has already taken point in front of her and Pernelle, and Yanagi gives her a grateful smile. It gives her time to lean on her cane-gun and stagger upright again.
Hazuki wonders at her face and Taro's faces on Yuki-Offa and Kappa. As Yanagi smashes another butterfly, she calls to her, "That is not Taro Nakata. It's simply a thing that has taken on something Taro Nakata could have become. Don't let it fool you." To Saika and Pernelle, as Giselle re-materializes, she says, "Giselle and I are analyzing it now! ...But it sounds like Hazuki has an idea of how to deal with this kind of enemy. Do what you do best and get in its face, Saika!"
She points in a certain direction, the gesture emphasized by Giselle pointing a needle-arm the same way. She makes no effort to hide it, so Myunghon, Roger, and everyone else will get to benefit, not just Saika and Pernelle: the figures holding up the massive palanquin. The ones bearing the brunt of its unwieldy size and weight. "There! Try knocking them down first! It might unbalance it!"
AS: Persona! Yanagi Nagisa has used the Almighty skill Full Analysis on Tsumugi Kujaku! AS: Insight: Yanagi Nagisa gains 1 Limit! AS: Yanagi Nagisa regains 6 SP from Invigorate! AS: Yanagi Nagisa cancels 1 attacks on Tsumugi Kujaku. AS: Persona! Yanagi Nagisa has used the Almighty skill Full Analysis on Nanghaithya! AS: Insight: Yanagi Nagisa gains 1 Limit! AS: Yanagi Nagisa regains 6 SP from Invigorate! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 24 Almighty damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Full Analysis. AS: Yanagi Nagisa's Strength Scan! Nanghaithya resists Strike, Fire, and Dark! AS: Yanagi Nagisa's Weakness Scan! Nanghaithya is weak against Water and Light! AS: Yanagi Nagisa's Support Scan! Nanghaithya has passive skills Apt Pupil, Auto-Rebellion, Counter Strike, Strike Amp, Strike Boost, Strike Riposte, and Water Boost!
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
That all-consuming will to live... Fuuka can't help but feel a pang of sympathy. It was that same will to live that allowed her to survive in Tartarus all that time. But... his survival comes at the cost of Taro. What can they do, in this situation...?
...They have to make a choice. And that choice is Taro.
The Homunculus transforms. She's never played Night Parade herself, but Fuuka has watched videos on it - though she's not familiar enough to be able to name the characters by name. She's certain they're not supposed to look like... this, though.
The Kappa breathe deep, however, and begin to spew out a tidal wave of flame.
"Lucia...!" Fuuka gasps. There's the sound of an Evoker firing, as she redoubles Lucia's protection. The flames wash over her. She winces, even from within the protective globe - but the healing that comes in after helps soothe the mind and body. Fuuka exhales.
"Thank you, Yukari-chan..." She offers. She can focus now - and she focuses her attention on Nanghaithya.
"What are you...? How do you fight?" She murmurs to herself. Yanagi has done some analysis of her own - so Fuuka instead turns her attention to focus on the Homuculus's attack patterns. It's tendencies, it's methods - predicting possible avenues of attacks it may use, and relaying this to everyone to help them avoid harm.
AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Almighty skill Divination on Nanghaithya! AS: Insight: Fuuka Yamagishi gains 1 Limit! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 24 Almighty damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Divination. AS: Atk_Dn added! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's Support Scan! Nanghaithya has passive skills Apt Pupil, Auto-Rebellion, Counter Strike, Strike Amp, Strike Boost, Strike Riposte, and Water Boost! AS: Take! Moriko Kumamoto takes 88 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka scrambles back as the Homunculus changes and forms... a giant arcade tower? She gasps, as the feeling of its Resonance completely changes. "What the--" She recognizes all of those characters, of course, but seeing them like this is...
... unsettling, to put it mildly. "I've got a bad feeling about this..." Can they survive another fight after that long, drawn-out encounter they already survived?
... Do they even have a choice?
She barely knows where to start as all of the Taro-Kappas start to spit flame after flame after flame. For a moment she thinks of it as a cheap trick-- but that's in the game. Here it is an immensely worrying wall of flames headed for them. Out comes the katana, and she takes up a stance as she starts to deflec and block her way through the flames.
She's already panting by the time she's broken tghrough the last wave, but Yukari is there with a quick patch already. "Thanks, Takeba-san!" she calls. Out comes her Evoker and she shouts, "Amphion!" as she pulls the trigger, summoning the statue once more.
Hazuki calls for a rushdown to beat a zoner. "She's right! I'll back you all up! Amphion! Healing Song!"
The Persona starts to strum his lyre, strings flickering to life beneath his fingertips, and melodies weave around Moriko, So-young, Pernelle, and Myungon.
"Nagisa-san, Pernelle-san, Kikuchi-san, do you have any advice for fighting this?" They clearly seemed knoweldgeable before, so maybe they'll some somre more insights to share.
AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Recovery skill Healing Song on Moriko Kumamoto, So-young Park, Pernelle, and Myunghon Yeo! AS: Insight: Ririka Kawase gains 1 Limit!
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
"Nakata-san?!"
No.
It's not over.
As they all watch, the Homunculus distorts itself in horrific fashion, drawing ever more of the Flegmat Humors into itself. All goes black but for the silhouette in crimson:
the other self. what one could be. should be, as it puts it.
Something drags itself from the darkness, looming above them all. "Is that a-- an arcade cabinet...?" Katsuya utters at first, as if completely bewildered. He was still a child in the 90s, he's seen them for himself alongside friends, once upon a time! But he hasn't actually look at one in over fifteen years. Why has this Homunculus taken a shape like this--
Perhaps the answer can be found in the forms that bear the arcade cabinet-turned-palanquin. Katsuya doesn't know the game (he's too much of a square for that) let alone the figures within it, but the face of all those Kappa-themed (he is still a nerd though) figures is a familiar one.
"The same ethos as before, I see," he remarks, gazing up at the 'ruler' above. He shakes his head. "Then nothing has changed. We will stop you here!"
The Homunculus -- Nanghaithya, properly -- directs its Kappas accordingly: flame after flame rolls towards the lot of them. Though Katsuya rushes forward as if to already answer Hazuki's direction with Helios manifested before him, he still arrives at destination with his suit jacket singed. Even protection against flame only can take one so far. "Fire, is it?" He touches his fingers to his sunglasses, as if to readjust them.
"Persona!"
Helios is quick to appear at his call, bestowing a curtain of flame about those he's thought might have been more affected by Nanghaithya's fire.
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
Do you think they wouldn't? Pernelle actually stops, considering, as his long neck bends like a hook, head nearly upside down. "Mmmmnnn... mMMMMMNNNNN... mmmnnooooo?" he eventually responds, reluctantly, hopefully before heaving a sigh. "Very well, very well. I will show the utmost self restr -- oh dear, here it is."
'Oh dear' is a understatement for the colossal foe that forms itself anew, determined to steal an existence for itself by squandering another's. What is going on, Yukari asks, and Pernelle adjusts his glasses. The brightness of the spectacle turns them opaque, making his otherwise expression eyes blocked from view.
"So it has come to this..." Pernelle says, his voice low and grave. "What you see before you, my fine friends, is what I like to call...
"... a sticky wicket of a situation."
THANKS PERNELLE THAT'S REAL INSIGHTFUL
There is little time to wait for any more explanation before the situation explains itself Kappa driven fireballs come launching out, and Pernelle suddenly begins to spin, pirouette, and vault around the barrage with trailing, glittering train feathers. "Ha HA! Sir! You did not struck me once!"
He coughs a plume of smoke, a few singed feathers burning on the ground around him.
"... Well, you did not strike me thrice! I can assure you!" This could also be a lie, but does it matter? "Now, then, let us see how your palette endures the taste of your own medicine!"
Pernelle's Persona Anqa, in all her gold and rainbow seams, appears, singing out before her face explodes open with her own roar of fire, launching his own barrage of explosions at the figures holding the palanquin, as Yanagi points out.
He spins around, turning his back to the Frei-splosions as they detonate, because cool birds don't look at explosions... or maybe just so he can call out to Saika.
"Beautiful display, Saika!" he cheers. "Please continue!"
As he flaps his rings, he calls to Ririka: "I suggest, my speculating songstress, incredible violence!"
AS: Take! Pernelle takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Healing Song. AS: Regen added! AS: Persona! Pernelle has used the Fire skill Trio Freila on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Ruin: Pernelle gains 1 Limit! AS: Pernelle: Gains 49 HP from Regen! AS: Take! Moriko Kumamoto takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Healing Song. AS: Regen added! AS: Persona! Katsuya Suou has used the Almighty skill Fire Wall on So-young Park, Saika Kikuchi, and Roger! AS: Take! Roger takes 0 Almighty damage from Katsuya Suou's Fire Wall. AS: Fire_Wall added!
<Pose Tracker> Moriko Kumamoto has posed.
Moriko had been running support prior. Doing the whole keeping the critters away from the main show. Which is why she's running up, belated and just in time to catch a gout of flame. Pulling away sharply, she quickly works on getting it put out. Then gets a good look at what they're up against. "Oh." She murmurs. "This looks bad."
And in a quieter voice, "And like one of those cheap yen munchers." She couldn't help it. She spends enough time at the arcades.
"I dunno, there's some old myths it might be referencing an-" she frowns, "Later." Only to add after a brief pause, "Pig bot?" While swinging her polearm up and around, at the ready. THis is probably another stolen one. Don't worry about it.
She wants to argue about the zoning advice, but that's absolutely a topic for later. Pushing through the flames are absolutely going to suck, but she's probably right.
"Or sniping the supports down." Which. Is that an option? The shadows are usually one entity right?
That Taro's been saved and the shadow is still here kind of throws a few ideas out the window after all.
She does, at least lift her hand in thanks, briefly to Yukari with the support, "Thanks." with a further nod to Ririka "You too". Before she takes a breath, pulls out her own evoker and places it under her chin, calling out, "Otohime Gitsune!" The figure appearing behind her. Watching the tower of shadow, the word escaping the biker for a moment.
The fox stares the whole time, motes of light flitting around the amalgamation.
Moriko doesn't linger though. She's already dashing through the flame, arm covering her nose and mouth, head tucked in!
AS: Persona! Moriko Kumamoto has used the Almighty skill Tarunda on Nanghaithya! AS: Moriko Kumamoto: Gains 50 HP from Regen! AS: Take! So-young Park takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Healing Song. AS: Regen added! AS: Take! So-young Park takes 0 Almighty damage from Katsuya Suou's Fire Wall. AS: Fire_Wall added!
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
Given the highly strenuous week she's had so far, it's a wonder Tamaki's even here at all, but she has another client's case to worry about, and she'd like to get an idea of what a Homunculus could potentially become. That is, that's her reason for being here in addition to helping Taro Nakata himself.
She figures there are some times when you have to recognize when you're in the spotlight, and other times when you have to keep back and play stagehand instead. Nothing's going to get done if everyone's aiming to be on center stage.
And that's a high-effort job! She has been WIPED. No energy. Low-ebb. One could almost accuse her of phoning it in. Almost.
But you know one thing her and Arianrhod have plenty of practice at? One against many situations. Crowd control. While she had no interest in being on the top of that hill, she was more than glad to play interference and let someone else be king. It's like she told the big bad humour before: she's lost plenty of times, herself. That doesn't mean she can't put a foot on the scales, however!
She's quiet. Just here to observe. Others have got the pep talk handled ... and apparently, a Homunculus has multiple stages in its life, with the last one being full replacement, should no one intervene. 'Even if I have to tear him apart.'
Up until now, her focus has just been on helping to clear a path, but the transformation of the palanquin catches her attention enough that she gets the signal to shift back into the foreground. The Homunculus swallows the very crowd she had been helping to beat back --
The fireball spam is what really catches her attention. One catches her unaware, she manages to dodge the next one well enough to at least only get hit by the edge, and after the first two missteps she's now FULLY ALERT and ready to just graze past the third.
There's a big crowd of allies: some are familiar faces others aren't. Myunghon, Umie, So-Young, Saika, Moriko, Yukari ...
Tamaki peers more closely at the crowd. Is that ... is that Roger?
Still opting for her general backstage-helper approach, when someone yells something about rushdown, Tamaki decides to at least make running headlong into the fray less dangerous for the others and give herself some time to regain her own bearings. "Media!"
AS: Persona! Tamaki Uchida has used the Recovery skill Media on Roger, Hazuki Nakao, Saika Kikuchi, and So-young Park! AS: Take! Roger takes 62 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Media. AS: Take! Hazuki Nakao takes 62 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Media. AS: Take! So-young Park takes 62 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Media.
<Pose Tracker> So-young Park has posed.
So-young Park was supposed to be helping to secure the internet cafe that the Cardboard Dragon were using to access the Atelier, but-- well, plans have somewhat changed along the way. Stuck in her romanticism, she may have been expecting something rather more movie-like - shadowy agents and monsters converging on the door to a booth, a last-ditch fight to beat the tide away as Myunghon's fingers fly across the keyboard and dynamically hit an ENTER key with a stroke of finality--
--yes, yes, typing has nothing to do with this at all, but it really _would_ make for a good climax, you see--
But the reality is much different, and So-young was left bored out of her mind and incessantly pacing up and down a dingy corridor watching people shuffle past her, each of them entirely used to the solitude of their social contract here of all possible places. It hadn't really been all that long before her restless energy built up enough that she broke away from the plan to head into the Atelier herself. Besides, So-young Park is a creature of immediacy. If she's going to be involved she'd much rather it be right there with the others rather than sitting back and passively waiting for their return.
And if she's truly and brutally honest with herself, a big part of her is still thinking about the way Akira Hayashi dropped to the floor of a dingy warehouse, his existence blacked out in the blink of an eye to only leave a lump of meat behind. She's still yet to really process that ugly feeling that accompanies it - but she clings to it tightly, determined to use it as fuel at the very least.
* * *
The rest is a raw, mad dash, but thankfully that is Icarus' speciality, and So-young's gotten much better with practice at riding her Persona. There is a cacophony of strange fairground creatures between So-young and the climactic fight on the horizon, but this isn't her first trip through the Atelier, and the Persona's speed scatters many of them in its wake as a sonic boom rips ahead of her path, scattering some of the sideshow tents and setting their bells ringing violently around her.
It's not hard to see which direction she should be going in given the pyrotechnics on display, the constant slew of flames spat into the air to fill the sky like a roman candle. A piercing, rattling screech, somewhere between mechanical and furious, rips from her Persona as she dives into the cloud, doing her best to manoeuvre around them. Unfortunately, precision flight is the part she really hasn't gotten used to, and there's something very fitting about the way that Icarus' path is almost cut short, the Persona and its rider pitching down to the ground to try to avoid the gout of flame, fire licking along Icarus' spindly wooden frame as So-young grits her teeth.
Poetic tragedy? Couldn't happen to her.
She lands in a rather ungainly attempt at rolling, grimacing for a moment as she picks herself up off the ground before her expression settles back to something tight and thin. She'd heard the Homonculus rant and rave about what could have been and what should be from a distance, easily catching the creature bellowing out all of the emotions pent up inside himself. So-young Park is never the sort of person to regret anything, but there is a light of faint understanding in her eyes, part of her gaze cast far into the past.
"... well said," she mutters for a moment, before raising her hand, a slim silver baton in her grasp. "But even a milksop can break free of their past and become something much more, and that process holds an importance and meaning of its own. It may not be terribly fair of me--" she's not completely sure why she finds herself adding that, chasing some faint impulse of her own, before her expression hardens. "--but I won't have you denigrating that chance for growth."
This time it isn't Icarus' screech that echoes across the battlefield, but a single, soft note that accompanies the raising of both her arms - the sussuration of a performance about to start, of a violin holding its bow on the strings and the first drawn breath of a woodwind section. An elegant little flick marks the point at which she instinctively catches and follows Amphion's performance, the beats of her baton guiding and building on the other Persona's tune.
It's not just a whim to use the other Persona's power in this way. It's a chance to bolster herself, recentre her mind after her wild entrance. Music is a core part of her identity, and something tells her that holding onto that core is what will truly give her strength in a realm such as this. With a bright, clear note, a ring of light rockets outwards--
--but So-young is not immune to vanity by any means, and when she feels the protective sorcery of Officer Suou settle over her, the motions of her hands suddenly shift to extend her peformance outwards as if projecting a note across an auditorium as she winks in thanks. She's a little too late to cover Tamaki as well, but offers a quieter smile in return. "Let us do better this time," she mutters privately to herself.
AS: Take! Saika Kikuchi takes 0 Almighty damage from Katsuya Suou's Fire Wall. AS: Fire_Wall added! AS: Take! Saika Kikuchi takes 62 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Media. AS: Persona! So-young Park has used the Almighty skill Sforzando on Myunghon Yeo, Katsuya Suou, Umie Akabane, and Ririka Kawase! AS: Support: So-young Park gains 1 Limit! AS: So-young Park: Gains 47 HP from Regen! AS: So-young Park regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: So-young Park spends Limit on Shift! Myunghon Yeo can use another Weak skill this round! SP +8! Healed 20! AS: Block Worst! Nanghaithya takes 42 Fire damage from Pernelle's Trio Freila. Resist! AS: Block Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 36 Fire damage from Pernelle's Trio Freila. Resist! AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 50 Fire damage from Pernelle's Trio Freila. Critical Hit! Resist! AS: COUNTER! Pernelle takes 51 Strike damage in return for his attack! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 24 Almighty damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Tarunda. AS: Atk_Dn added! AS: Take! Myunghon Yeo takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Healing Song. AS: Regen added! AS: Take! Myunghon Yeo takes 0 Almighty damage from So-young Park's Sforzando. AS: Crt_Up added! AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 0 Almighty damage from So-young Park's Sforzando. AS: Crt_Up added!
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
Monster!
Villain!
((Villain? No.))
Nanghaithya's voice is a distorted thing -- that digital static that Ririka had picked up earlier is just enhanced to dramatic degrees now, as the Homunculus talks as if a digitized voice projected through an aging speaker. Booming. All-present. Like the unseen announcer of a fight.
((Words like that don't matter.))
Hazuki rushes the Kappas. She smashes her bat into one, knocking it aside; it bounces with comical, rubbery sounds, rebounding off ground and into a support pillar before rolling back towards the lurching Palanquin.
((All that matters is winning.))
But before she can manage to strike a second, something sweeps in just between her and it. Tall, eloquent.
Snapping a whip right in her face.
Kaguya-hime, her face the face of some crude Shujin high schooler, whipcracks the broadside of Hazuki's assault. It's no flash kick, but it -is- enough force to knock her into the air--
--whereupon a second crack of the whip just -juggles her mercilessly- in an act that's really just aggressively -mean- on top of being -painful-.
((Nakao understands. What's the point of living if you aren't the best?))
The lightning of Frankenstein's Creation cracks down. Kappas are struck, seizing up as they flash brilliant flashes of yellow and black and white that reveals their adorable kappa skeletons beneath. Several fall over, smoking. The Palanquin tilts dangerously leftwards until several Kappas rush to that end of the Arcade Monument with little squeaks and squawking sounds, hefting it back upright with mighty "HUFFFA!"s of effort.
Saika may well be thinking of pressing her advantage, when--
"NYAA!"
Something suddenly pounces in the space between her and her quarries. It's -- my god -- it's --
A cat in a trenchcoat?!
No --
"NYAAAAA!"
TWO CATS IN A TRENCHCOAT?!
Saika will get all of three seconds to ponder this before the topmost cat suddenly does a dramatic flipkick -- the legendary flash kick -- upon Saika's corpus.
Whereupon it links hands with the bottom cat, and hoists it up mid-air, so that -the second cat can flipkick Saika-.
And then, hands still linked, they DOUBLE JUMP TO FLIP KICK HER AT THE SAME TIME.
Like some sort of -- never-ending, brutalizing, annihilating, INFAMOUS--
Genyaacide Cutta?!
While this is going on, Pernelle is bringing the fire -- or the nuclear blaze, maybe. As Saika is endlessly juggled in the backdrop, Pernelle dramatically turns backward as the thusly-dubbed Frei-splosions detonate like the cool flourish of a finishing move; behind him, many Kappas go flying, one of them inexplicably crying out "THAT BIRD IS A JERK" despite none of them having demonstrated any gift for language until this point. They just feel that strongly.
But it's as the third explosion of nuclear heat rings out --
That something glints in the air behind him.
Something tall. Something that's in a trenchcoat. Something that's actually two things.
It's -- BAKEDUO-NEKO, the Cat That Is Two Cats, coming screaming in from their aerial assault on Saika to pounce the first, fanciest bird they find --
and sadly -- Pernelle is much more fabulous than even Arqa.
One cat pounces, and then the second, trenchcoat falling behind to land on their backs as they look to knock Pernelle into the ground, flip over each other --
and then do a DUAL STOMP on his poor beautiful body while he's prone, in the pettiest, most frustrating of all moves -- the OKIZEME.
As all of this is going on, magical impetus weaves a variety of weakening spells upon the Palanquin and the assorted hosts that surround it. Myunghon's coat stretches its cognitive material to its fullest, harassing and tripping up Kappas; so assaulted and bereaved as they are, the Kappas must scramble and fall over themselves just -trying- with single-minded determination to keep that Palanquin upright. It lurches, lopes, lunges -- but it stays upright still. There's just -- so MANY of them --
The others, like Moriko and Fuuka, help to weaken the thing, even as both she and Yanagi peer into the nature of that strange, Otherly Shadow. It's a dense and esoteric existence -- one Yanagi has experience navigating, but still complicated by the fact that each Homunculus is so -different- from the other. For Fuuka -- it's like trying to gaze directly into something that Must Not Be Seen, the very SIGHT of its Other Sight painful like staring into a flashbang, or something that makes a person's stomach automatically lurch in empathetic revulsion --
But even as they work, Nanghaithya still moves, the many parts of it fanning outward. No -- it isn't until Umie casts that very specific, ENRAGING magic--
that the entire Palanquin lurches to turn and face her.
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
Within the screen of the Arcade Tower, something flashes scarlet.
((You just don't know when to quit.))
That digital voice seethes.
And just as it does -- the headless body of Night Parade character Nukekubi comes crashing into Umie, with her floating head shortly screaming in thereafter. The floating head of the creature whips around, the long, snake-like strand of its neck intent to strike Umie -- before the body follows suit, intent on unloading a combination of body blows after body blows while that floating head keeps her off-balance in an eloquent sequence of maneuvers that aim to give her little to no roomm to maneuver in.
It's just -- an overwhelming assault. Because once you pop, the fun--
Fuuka and Ririka don't get much better off, as they try to focus on their Navigational skills. Soon enough, Kaguya-hime is advancing on Fuuka, and Master Koto upon Ririka, both unloading a... very elaborate, but very telegraphed sequence of moves on both. Kaguya, with the cracks of her whips and stylish high-kicking, and for Ririka -- she knows Master Koto's moves by now, the dance-like rhythm of its physical assaults coming in at a quick and relentless tempo in a perfectly-choreographed combo she probably knows by heart--
--especially as the pair -both- start to try to loop the same combos, -again-.
Are they just -- repeating the same tactics, over and over again?
Ririka will be able to sense it -- these guards, even the Kappas -- they're cycling through tried and tested, winning maneuvers for each one, with little to no variation in between.
It's a revelation that may well prove useful, but...
Then nothing has changed.
((Why would it?))
The Palanquin, with Yuki-Offa still on top, shifts. Energy starts to swirl around it in streams of saturating scarlet, funneling into the Kappas - into the Guards - into Yuki-Offa.
((Has the world changed? When have the losers of the world ever gotten anything in life they want?))
The Arcade screen goes black.
((Let's find out.))
HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!
PLAYER SELECT
PLAYER ONE
The Arcade Palanquin's visuals shift towards a fighter select screen, showing all the various fighters of Night Parade. The selector cycles rapidly through all of them, like a classic random select roulette. It comes to a stop on...
Kaguya-hime?
Before suddenly glitching out. The screen tears. And suddenly the selector is no longer on Kaguya-hime, but--
YUKI-OFFA!!
Yuki-Offa, who has been oddly inert on her oddly-colored, arcade throne, lurches forward, her glossy hair spilling forward across her icy-pale features. The temperature in the Big Top begins to rapidly drop.
But -- the character select screen isn't finished.
PLAYER SELECT
PLAYER TWO
Player -- two?
The roulette selector rolls. It lands on Bakeduo-Neko. It glitches. The character selector hops--
--to--
KAPPA!!
((Ohhh. Tough luck.))
Nanghaithya's digital, static-scratchy voice echoes across the Big Top. The Arcade machine screen glows a bright, nauseating red.
Everything is blinded in a flash of saturating scarlet--
And in the aftermath?
Everyone fighting Nanghaithya has been transformed into Kappas.
Smaller. Weaker. Sadder. Look at that terrible hair, that uninspiring beak, that shell that doesn't seem like it even does anything useful--
READY?
F I G H T !
But there's no time to fret over your new, unflattering makeover for long, for the call to begin the second round cares not for the weakness that pervades the body; Yuki-Offa presses her hands against the edge of the Arcade Tower. Her violet (... violet? isn't the Homunculus' eyes red--) eyes open. She pushes off her lofty perch.
And only the toes of one stylish and slightly nonsensical sneaker touches the ground before the ice queen of Night Parade, suspended on one foot, lifts her right hand up into the air. The cold grows so intense the air in the Big Top condenses to vapor, to liquid, to solids, as an entire blizzard blooms within the carnival. A literal force of nature that condenses down into the palm of Yuki-OFfa's hand for one blisteringly, harrowingly beautiful moment--
before with the swing of her hand, Yuki-OFfa hurls that condensed blizzard forward, whereupon it detonates mid-way through its flight, creating a violent shockwave of the cold, raw fury of an entire force of nature compacted throughout anyone unfortunate enough to get in its way, in a rippling wave of bone-chilling winds and piercing frost.
(OOC NOTE: You are now all Kappas! How, exactly, you look depends on how you'd like your character to look as a Kappa, but the broad strokes of what a Kappa is remains the same! You are also just. So adorably tiny. So cute. E n j o y .)
AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Almighty skill Save That Shit For Nationals on Nanghaithya! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 19 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's Save That Shit For Nationals. AS: Crt_Up added! Atk_Dn removed! AS: Nanghaithya spends Limit on Reach! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Almighty skill trash tier - Kappa on So-young Park, Tamaki Uchida, Moriko Kumamoto, Pernelle, Katsuya Suou, Ririka Kawase, Fuuka Yamagishi, Yanagi Nagisa, Roger, Akari Hoshi, Umie Akabane, Saika Kikuchi, Myunghon Yeo, Yukari Takeba, and Hazuki Nakao! AS: Take! Myunghon Yeo takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn added! Regen removed! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Strike skill oh! Oh! OH! OH!! OH!!! on Saika Kikuchi! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Strike skill Petty Okizeme on Pernelle! AS: Take! Yukari Takeba takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn added! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Strike skill Flowchart Bullshit on Fuuka Yamagishi! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Strike skill Flowchart Bullshit on Ririka Kawase! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Strike skill You're So Pringles on Umie Akabane! 3 Hits! AS: Nanghaithya spends Limit on Broad! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Water skill GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa on Roger, Akari Hoshi, Hazuki Nakao, and Yanagi Nagisa! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Water skill GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa on Moriko Kumamoto, So-young Park, Katsuya Suou, and Myunghon Yeo! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Water skill GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa on Tamaki Uchida and Yukari Takeba! 3 Hits! AS: Nanghaithya: Broad and Reach removed! AS: Avoid Neutral! Myunghon Yeo takes 43 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. AS: Avoid Best! Myunghon Yeo takes 43 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Best! Myunghon Yeo takes 43 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! AS: Take! Akari Hoshi takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Def_Dn and Spd_Dn added! Atk_Up and Regen removed! AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn added! AS: Avoid Neutral! Akari Hoshi takes 63 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Best! Akari Hoshi takes 33 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. AS: Block Neutral! Akari Hoshi takes 60 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Yukari Takeba takes 61 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Worst! Yukari Takeba takes 50 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. AS: Take! Saika Kikuchi takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Def_Dn and Spd_Dn added! Atk_Up and Fire_Wall removed! AS: Avoid Neutral! Yukari Takeba takes 42 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. AS: Avoid Best! Saika Kikuchi takes 59 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's oh! Oh! OH! OH!! OH!!!. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 37 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's Flowchart Bullshit. AS: Block Best! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 53 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's Flowchart Bullshit. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 68 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's Flowchart Bullshit. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Saika Kikuchi takes 81 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's oh! Oh! OH! OH!! OH!!!. Critical Hit! AS: Block Best! Saika Kikuchi takes 37 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's oh! Oh! OH! OH!! OH!!!. AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 0 Almighty damage from So-young Park's Sforzando. AS: Crt_Up added! AS: Take! Hazuki Nakao takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Def_Dn and Spd_Dn added! Atk_Up removed! AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn added! AS: Take! So-young Park takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn added! AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 31 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's You're So Pringles. AS: Block Worst! Hazuki Nakao takes 74 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! AS: Block Neutral! Hazuki Nakao takes 47 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. AS: Block Worst! Hazuki Nakao takes 74 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! So-young Park takes 64 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Worst! So-young Park takes 51 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. AS: Avoid Neutral! So-young Park takes 64 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 31 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's You're So Pringles. AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 51 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's You're So Pringles. Critical Hit! AS: Take! Roger takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Def_Dn and Spd_Dn added! Atk_Up, Crt_Up, Fire_Wall, and Regen removed! AS: Avoid Neutral! Roger takes 33 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Resist! AS: Avoid Neutral! Roger takes 33 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Resist! AS: Avoid Neutral! Roger takes 33 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Resist! AS: Take! Pernelle takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn added! AS: Avoid Neutral! Pernelle takes 64 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's Petty Okizeme. AS: Paralyze added! AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 0 Almighty damage from So-young Park's Sforzando. AS: Crt_Up added! AS: Hazuki Nakao spends Limit on Shift! Yukari Takeba can use another Weak skill this round! SP +8! Healed 20! AS: Block Worst! Katsuya Suou takes 63 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Weak! AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn added! AS: Avoid Worst! Katsuya Suou takes 80 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Weak!
<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.
Ixquic gives a big thumbs-up to Roger before she gets both hands on her sword again. She knows where that energy came from!
"Ugh! Why is it so... so... big??" Ixquic draws herself up to her full height, gathering herself: "But I'm a Legendary Magical Warrior! I don't care how many monsters you are! I will fight all of you...! You're only a loser if you give up, and I, Ixquic, never, NEVER give up!"
Yamagi has already suggested hitting the bearers, but Ixquic was coming to that conclusion on her own - no Navigator needed! (Now, all the ADDITIONAL info, that she needs help with. Quixote is a lot of things, but Ixquic is not inclined to think particularly far ahead; she is a WOMAN OF ACTION and her Persona exemplifies it.)
Which means when she gets outside support confirming her already-brewing plan, Akari doesn't wait even a second before she puts it into effect.
Ixquic begins to run forward even as the Palanquin and its bearers begin their own attack. Yuki-Offa rises, and Ixquic's response is to speed up, lowering her head in a flat-out dash toward the Palanquin -
Player Select -- Player Two!
Kappa??
The energy washes over Ixquic, and what is left behind is not Ixquic. Not quite.
The imp - sorry, kappa - is still wearing about half of Ixquic's gear. The cape, for instance, red and billowing, remains. So does the helmet, though she has the little dish on *top* of it, a bubble of water wobbling with every step. She's shorter and has more chibi proportions and is now not so much carrying as dragging her sword, which traces a squealing, sparking track along the ground as it scrapes.
And THAT is followed up by ice, which makes Ixquic vanish from sight entirely, lost in a blizzard. The little water on her head threatens to freeze over, and she actually stops her forward movement for a moment as she's iced over -
Until with a *crack* she begins to move again, making the last few steps. "QUIXOTE!" she calls (god her voice is squeaky right now), and her Persona appears, racing past her, sword sweeping out in a slice that literally causes the Persona to wheel in a circle, almost spinning out as the enormous slash carves out, Ixquic attempting to topple the palanquin and bring Yuki-Offa to the ground!
...
"What," Ixquic adds, as Quixote vanishes after her summoning. One of her hands reaches up to feel at her helmet and the water dish on top of it.
...it took her this long to notice...
AS: Persona! Akari Hoshi has used the Slash skill Hyper Slash on Nanghaithya! AS: Aggression: Akari Hoshi gains 1 Limit! AS: Take! Yanagi Nagisa takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn added! AS: Block Best! Yanagi Nagisa takes 34 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! Resist! AS: Block Best! Yanagi Nagisa takes 25 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Resist! AS: Block Best! Yanagi Nagisa takes 34 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! Resist! AS: Block Best! Nanghaithya takes 85 Slash damage from Akari Hoshi's Hyper Slash.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
As Hazuki rushes in, it's Kaguya-Hime. Hazuki's kicked into the air before she can reply to anyone else, even as their blessings wwashed over her, and then juggled back down, smashing into the ground and rolling with a loud groan. As she starts to rise again...
Attacks are happening. Her eyes scan, quick on the details. Bakeduo Neko among others...
"The cats are rushdown! Keep a distance! Kaguya-Hime, too! I'll deal with-"
Yuki-Offa is picked.
And Kappa is picked.
"Crap, a bad match-up!"
Hazuki is transmogrified. She gains the little Kappa beak and appearance, but also, she's got orange-and-silver hair and a giant wing pauldron on. Also, she's tiny and adorable.
Even so, she's rushing in...
"Takeba-san! I'll give you breathing room, try and keep everyone alive!"
She knows what's coming next. It's her tells, the signals.
"A SUPER MOVE! IT COVERS THE WHOLE SCREEN, BLOCK BLOCK BLOCK!"
They're not fast enough. They're Kappas... and Kappa has a terrible reaction to this move.
Hazuki instead charges through it, grabbing her bat and diffusing the blast of cold that impacts her. It tinges her skin blue, it drives her backwards, and eventually, it overpowers her guard, causing her to roll over, frostbitten.
But she's not done.
"You think... it's about winning? It's about being on top? You're wrong!"
The blue butterfly returns, and Hazuki crushes it with an arcade stick grip closed over it, causing Janus to appear once more.
"It's about having fun with your friends!"
And a little bit winning, but.
Janus suddenly points those clock hands at the Homunculus's known weak points, as three balls of light manifest in the air, before flying out with a radiant crackle to explode!
AS: Persona! Hazuki Nakao has used the Light skill Nirvana on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Hazuki Nakao: Gains 50 HP from Regen!
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Yanagi's advice is to try to knock down the ones bearing the brunt of the Palanquin, and her insight is indeed appreciated -- in an instant, Myunghon already has a fuller idea of what it's not vulnerable to... and they're at a disadvantage this battle, with Darkness being their primary means of damage. That doesn't mean they're helpless.
"Yes, that palanquin is undoubtedly precarious... I shall see if we can destablise it," Myunghon agrees.
Pernelle's advice is to enact INCREDIBLE VIOLENCE upon it, and what advice that is! Katsuya's taken the initiative to defend those more affected against flame -- an incredibly sound tactical move. Umie's chosen to try to goad it into rushing, which may very well be effective given Yukari's own taunts before...
Amphion's melodies weave beautifully, and Myunghon taps their feet for a moment before remarking, "My gratitude, Kawase-kun. Let us do our best." Tamaki's sudden appearance does catch them a little off-guard, but it's redoubled with a smile as she runs support, much like she organised her side of the battle in the warehouse. "It's relieving to see you here, Uchida-san."
But the roar of a flying machine overhead also tells them-- "Nuna?!" they watch So-young go into an ungaily roll for a moment, and frowns quietly as she makes a speech of her own. "... we can do this together." Much like Ririka's music before, So-young's performance wildly boosts the power of their own Persona.
Myunghon's capabilities to trip the palanquin is hard going indeed -- there's just so damn many of them. The digital voice seethes, and various Night Parade characters surge to threaten to thrash and pwnzor them all, Yuki-Offa projecting that philosophy of winners and losers as if nothing has ever changed. Violet eyes (violet? Myunghon is ever more confused) scan over the battlefield, as the air grows cold, so cold that it feels as if they're going to be encased in a tomb of ice --
Merry begins to run, throwing their Cognitive Coat against the supports of the Big Top to avoid the worst of it, but then the shockwave still slams into them and they're thrown against it and disappear into the bone-chilling winds.
And when they rise... How does Myunghon look like a Kappa?
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Gu6pBUU4k
There's a rigidly 16-bit sprite standing where Myunghon was, as if they were completely made out of voxels, of:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/9/94/FFVI_Kappa_the_Imp_Sprite.png/revision/latest?cb=20150329050434
Myunghon stares down at themself for a moment and is hit with a metric ton of dysphoria. Merry, seriously, *help*, please, it's too much.
"Hmph... so, 'When at least I came 'round, I found myself lying on my back surrounded by a large number of kappa', is it...?" Merry is, of course, quoting Ryuunosuke Akutagawa's eponymous 'Kappa'. The little 16-bit Kappa waddles forward, waggling a voxelised arm chidingly at Nanghaithya, the whole mass.
"It is Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's final work... are you familiar with it? You would find a lot that resonates within it. 'To attempt to do something is to be able to do it -- to be able to do something is to attempt to do it. Ultimately, we are unable to escape this viscous cycle. In other words...'"
Merry-Kappa smirks, their beak contorting defiantly.
"'... we begin and end in absurdity.' Now, allow me to show you absurdity in its fullest. Let us revel in tawdriness!"
Kaplak rises from within, also having been turned into a Kappa -- albeit he still retains his handsome tousled silver hair, which somehow looks even more mismatched, and grandiose Cognitive Coat. Myunghon watches their other self expectantly, and the vampire grandiosely turns as it places a cognitive hula-hoop over its waist.
"... ..."
Kaplak does a lame little unfortunate hula dance! Magic words manifest with the energy of the hubris of materialism! The Kappa emotes are being spammed in chat!! oh -poggers-, leave a RED superchat!!
KLLLLICK HERE FOR MASSIVE CREDITS!! SHUFFLE TIME GUARANTEED WINZ!!
"... ... ..."
Undeterred, Kaplak continues to do another shitty little dance! Fool are those avaricious, transcendent is wealth! ooh, look at himbucket shakin his green hips they badonkin donkin
MEET KOOL SINGLES AT YOUR LOCAL MEMENTOS!! FROST, PYRO AND RIPPER ARE WAITING TO CHAT WITH -YOU-!!
VIEWER DISCRETION: Watching the dance for too long may cause a mysterious halving in your savings accounts.
AS: Persona! Myunghon Yeo has used the Almighty skill Hula of Misfortune on Nanghaithya! AS: Pressure: Myunghon Yeo gains 1 Limit! AS: Persona! Myunghon Yeo has used the Almighty skill Hula of Misfortune on Nanghaithya! AS: Myunghon Yeo spends Limit on Exploit! Myunghon Yeo can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Persona! Myunghon Yeo has used the Almighty skill Hula of Misfortune on Nanghaithya! AS: Pressure: Myunghon Yeo gains 1 Limit!
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"... a what...?" Yukari looks at a BIRD with incredulity, "That doesn't tell us anything we don't know!" 'Nanghaithya the Discontent' Yanagi adds, "... Oh great, at least now we know the name of the thing trying to murder us. ... Real improvement."
'all that matters is winning'
"And you're the best? You lost, so you just pulled a cheap trick!"
And then, the arcade screens begin to change. Glitching - YUKI-OFFA!! "What kind of name is that?!" But then- another glitch... KAPPA!
Blinded by the saturated scarlet, she raises her arms to try and shield herself with the bow and- and...!
"What happened?" She says with a squeaky voice, before she looks down at her arms. "Huh...?" Suddenly her arms raise, rubbing over her face, to feel a beak, "Wha-" And as the realization occurs she shrieks, "KAPPAAAHHHH!"
Yukari Takeba, normally fashionable, is now wearing a only a white heart choker, the Kappa having a chibi-parody of her hairstyle.
Her bow, a tiny one, with weird suction cup arrows attached to a spool of string.
And written on it's side:
SHIRIKODAMA EXTRACTOR!
"What did you do to me!?" She yells, "You change me back right this-!" And then suddenly the Yuki-Offa of the Night Parade, tries to come at her, and Yukari trips as waves of ice come at her, and shrieks, "KAPPAAAAHHH!"
As she scrambles up and weaves, barely dodging becoming a Kappasicle. Before she tries to hop - in a comically ineffectual way, as the final wave nearly freezes her solid.
Shivering, she grasps both of her arms, and- her beak chatters. "H-H-How are we going to d-d-do this n-now!?"
Hazuki however, tells her she's going to give her cover!? "Um! Guess we'll see if I can even DO that now! Do my best."
Taking up her now tiny evoker. She puts it up to her head, noting the new text.
POP A KAP-PA
"This is the Chairman's fault, isn't it?" She grouses, before, pulling the trigger, "Io!" And what emerges, is a fey girl with a beak atop... a Kappa Shell.
"... Even my Persona... great..."
And yet, the Persona spreads wide it's arms, and now a distinctly different river scented breeze spreads out to the Kappa Akari, Hazuki, Saika, and Katsuya like a quick 'triage' of whose Kappa looks the most battered or frozen.
And then, raising her scaled arms, Io's breeze wends through So-Young, Pernelle, Myunghon, and Roger to try and get them serviceably fighting fit, whatever that means...
... they are Kappa after all.
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Recovery skill Naiad Mediarama on Akari Hoshi, Hazuki Nakao, Saika Kikuchi, and Katsuya Suou! AS: Support: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit! AS: Take! Akari Hoshi takes 77 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Naiad Mediarama. AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Recovery skill Media on So-young Park, Pernelle, Myunghon Yeo, and Roger! AS: Yukari Takeba regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: Take! Myunghon Yeo takes 57 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media. AS: Take! Hazuki Nakao takes 73 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Naiad Mediarama. AS: Take! Pernelle takes 57 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Ririka asks for advise from Peacock Silk on fighting a Homunculus. Yanagi laughs at Pernelle's very helpful suggestion of U L T R A V I O L E N C E <3. "Each Homunculus is different, so there's no one strategy that fits all!" she calls back. "However, there is one thing to remember as a Navigator: that sense of 'wrongness' will follow it no matter what. Steel yourself against it; there's no getting past it!" She looks to Fuuka, who is concentrating on analyzing the entity's attack patterns, and leaves her to it; each Navigator has their own specialty, and besides... Yanagi wants to see what she can do, now that she's past the euphoria of her initial awakening. Instead, she notes Hazuki's continued (projection of) confidence and adds, "Hazuki seems to understand its way of fighting--follow her lead!"
Little angels flutter around Yanagi and Giselle. As they unfold around her, she shuts her eyes, seeing the movies they play out in her mind. She nods once, decisively. "Don't try to punch it, or use fire, nuclear or dark magic--it resists all of those things," Yanagi announces, just before flashing an apologetic look to Saika and Pernelle. That rather hamstrings both of them, and they don't have Tsumugi here with their Wild Card... but maybe one of these others can do something that can turn one of those resistances around.
"Instead... use light, ice, or water! It's weak to all of those! How odd that it is. You'd think a Kappa would be strong against water," Yanagi muses in a sidebar. She raises her voice to continue, "Despite that, it's effective at using water, as well as blunt trauma assaults! It's also extremely good at countering and hitting critical strikes! Don't try to punch it, and don't let it punch you!"
...she says, just as two cats in a trenchcoat come for Saika and Pernelle's entire lives.
The palanquin is shifting. Yanagi looks up as Yuki-Offa stirs. Something... something is happening, but even as spinning Giselle swoops down to form a protective pirouette around Yanagi, Yanagi doesn't understand what she's sensing. The cold, though... the temperature is rapidly dropping. It won't bother her, but...
"Tough luck?" she echoes, just before she and everyone else -- POOF! -- becomes a Kappa. Sh-shirikodama extracted?!
She remains a magical girl-suited Kappa, too, her crown replaced by the Kappa's cap... pa, but still in that broad-skirted dress and still wearing those reinforced thigh-high boots. She's just very tiny now. And green. Teal-ish, but green. Like a willow on the shore...
"Oh... my?"
Yanagi can only be confused by this. Kappa-ppa-pp...ahh?? She looks back at Yuki-Offa just as the ice woman unleashes her massive blizzard attack, frost and ice overcoming her--but this is precisely the power in her soul. Even as the ice builds around her and Giselle (who is now a ghost kappa--mixing youkai is always a win, surely), turning her more and more teal until she's more blue than green, her waves of hair simply billow.
Yanagi shuts her eyes.
"Oh... I see now... so this is why," she whispers. "Giselle... One good turn deserves another--don't you think?"
She raises an adorably tiny webbed hand to the sky. "Let it snow!"
And so Giselle pirouettes, spinning a blizzard of her own and dancing it into being, returning that hailstorm forward layer by layer by layer, snowflakes crusting upon the base of the palanquin where the original Kappas still bear up under its weight.
...Kappa vs. Kappa is a fair match-up still... r-right?
AS: Take! Saika Kikuchi takes 73 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Naiad Mediarama. AS: Persona! Yanagi Nagisa has used the Water skill Flurry Bufula on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Yanagi Nagisa regains 6 SP from Invigorate!
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Roger fans out that Relaxing Wave as he stands further tall with help from others to reinforce and renew his newfound fighting spirit and new lot in life, facing up as Nanghaithya jeers - and reiterates their philosophy as the entity that could have been Taro Nakata.
"I don't get what you're saying at all..." Roger bounces a tennis ball up and down from his racquet against the ground idly, as things intensify. 'Has the world changed? When have the losers of the world ever gotten anything in life they want? Let's find out.'
Things get... weird. The lady on that throne's moving, but then...
A scarlet wave. Roger is smaller, still proportionally wider, with a big jaw and funny hooves, and...
"No, I really don't get it!!" Roger yells, defiantly, as he hops about by Yuki-Offa's relentless detonation of cold shockwaves, as if trying to hop and skip about it. Roger is not a being of the human world. The context of why Yuki-Offa is such a powerful, frightful figure and Kappa is an awful, weak, unhappy thing (or many weak, unhappy things - they were carrying that arcade palanquin, ater all) - is lost.
"Games are fun! That's why I like to play. Playing is fun!!" Roger says with sincerity as much as fury. "If you're not having fun... why are you playing at all?"
He might be less horrified by the sudden transformation considering he just went through a dramatic one not long ago.
He says this practically in unison with Hazuki: "It's about having fun with your friends!"
Another blue butterfly drifts by. Roger has to hop a few times to leap up high enough to actually tag it with his racquet. "Kamapua'aaa..!"
Once more, the Persona shows, defiant against the difficult emotions in the air in pursuit of the relationships he seeks, flaring out their arms as the cognitive perception of playing, being, and suffering as Kappa is lessened under another wave of supportive energies across himself, Hazuki, Akari, and Katsuya.
"And Taro Nakata is going to have a lot of fun again...!"
AS: Take! Roger takes 57 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media. AS: Persona! Roger has used the Almighty skill Dekunda on Hazuki Nakao, Akari Hoshi, Katsuya Suou, and Roger! AS: Roger regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: Take! Roger takes 0 Almighty damage from Roger's Dekunda. AS: Take! Akari Hoshi takes 0 Almighty damage from Roger's Dekunda. AS: Take! Hazuki Nakao takes 0 Almighty damage from Roger's Dekunda.
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
They're not alone. The MAGICAL WARRIOR IXQUIC - a word Saika is not even going to try to pronounce - invokes destiny with an emphatic pose. The Don appears, to give benediction to dream this impossible dream, and Saika exhales with force. "Thanks!" she calls back, before -- another?
Saika laughs. "You guys--" It's a little pained, but the sentiment is real. "Thanks, Roger! Heh heh -- 'that'll do'--" A private humor, perhaps. As she steps back, swinging the chain-whip at her side as much for her own morale as anything else, she hears Yanagi's words. She grimaces for a moment--
Get up in the face. Well, how bad is fire? What's the worst that can happen, Saika tells herself, even as Pernelle returns fire in his characteristic way. Maybe Pernelle *can* vaporize all of them -- but then there's something unfamiliar. Someone else calls out.
"Sassy-kun?" Saika says, turning her head to look over her shoulder. "Holy shit, I was too focused, what --" ANd then a fiery cloak washes around her. "Alright, the cop on the edge rides again!" The Media afterwards from Tamaki makes her grin. "I guess I have to live up to all of your hopes, huh?" She stops whirling her chain, bringing one hand up to crack the other's knuckles--
TRENCHCOAT CAT!
Saika's face is in a momentary 'huh-whaaaaa??' of confusion, which lets the first blow connect - she swerves to try to avoid the second and is instead knocked hard enough to do a full three-hundred-and-sixty degree rotation in midair, landing and raising her arms in a crouch to receive a SECOND BLOW.
These cats are really Goe-ing for it. There's no Nitz-picking about it.
Saika slams her first into a direct straight at the top cat, but after that blast, something bursts scarlet-red. Is it an aneyurism sending her directly to Hell? No.
Saika looks at her forearms.
Her green, flabby, somehow chubbier forearms.
She reaches up to touch the top of her head and feels a dent. At this point Saika turns her gaze to the side, perhaps to see if it hit Yanagi, or more importantly, Pernelle, before she says, "I hate this." She sucks in a deep breath - and gwoks afterwards, crying out as she does, "THIS IS THE WOOOORST! Frankenstein's Monster, just -- ugh, hit that snow queen -"
The looming bulk of the Monster is perhaps a little greener, and maybe that flat head top seems a little more *concave*, but the manifestation of the Persona is transient, anyway; more to the point is probably the surging WHACK aimed towards Yuki-Offa's mouth (a notorious place to slap those who are talking mess).
AS: Persona! Saika Kikuchi has used the Strike skill Sonic Punch on Nanghaithya! AS: Defense: Saika Kikuchi gains 1 Limit! AS: Saika Kikuchi: Gains 53 HP from Regen!
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
Pernelle is such a cool bird. The coolest bird. Kappa go flying, learning the gift of speech because of the strong feelings he has engraved onto their souls -- and they don't even have souls, given the whole situation of identity theft! Being Pernelle might be the best existence there is. Being Pernelle is amazing. Being Pernelle is --
suffering
"HHHRRKGKKLLKKK!" Pernelle says, eloquently, as he is punched with two whole cats and slammed into the earth so hard his head becomes stuck within it. His colorful train and wings flail wildly for a blessedly absurd second before the bird is assaulted during his knockdown in a -- let's be honest -- incredibly rude okizeme stomp.
If anyone's asking Pernelle questions, all they are receiving is a lot of dirt muffled screaming. Pernelle, stuck in the ground, sweeps his tail left and right, up and down. He shakes his little avian ass as elegantly as he can manage, and one can almost hear his habitual, "Ha HA!" from below the dirt as he blindly fights with Bakeduo-Neko, trying to fend his foe off with his giant bladed fan he calls his train feathers.
It leaves him rather conveniently prone as the God Tier character select of Night Parade uses an attack that otherwise seeks to obliterate the whole screen. Maybe it is blessed to be Pernelle...?
Eventually, Pernelle gets the momentum to yank his head out of the dirt and --
and
It's like if someone took a hunchbacked penguin and stripped it of feathers, except all green, all scales, and with elongated arms with digits and webbing so long the silhouette remains wing-like.
He is still wearing his orange-tinted glasses, the chain hooked to his head dish.
Pernelle gasps the oxygen out of the room as he looks to his webbed limbs. "Astonishing! I have become... a new creature entirely! Look at this, look at this!" He holds his webbing to the light. "The membrane remains iridescent! How quaint! And just look at the two of you!" Yanagi and Saika, he means. "Most precious!" He gives a tap of his webbed feet to the ground. "Oh, my, and a novel sound we can make! More of a slap than a click." He begins tap dancing to make noise, giggling to himself until --
He stops.
"Dearest Yanagi, did you say no fire?" Pernelle's face drops, his warped beak excessively down turned like a an upside down 'v'.
The saddest bird --
er, kappa.
AS: Weapon! Pernelle has used the Slash skill Train Tango on Nanghaithya! AS: Pernelle: Gains 54 HP from Regen! AS: Take! Moriko Kumamoto takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn added! AS: Avoid Worst! Moriko Kumamoto takes 87 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Moriko Kumamoto takes 53 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. AS: Avoid Neutral! Moriko Kumamoto takes 73 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! AS: Block Neutral! Ririka Kawase takes 36 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's Flowchart Bullshit. AS: Block Neutral! Ririka Kawase takes 36 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's Flowchart Bullshit. AS: Block Neutral! Ririka Kawase takes 36 Strike damage from Nanghaithya's Flowchart Bullshit. AS: Block Best! Nanghaithya takes 66 Light damage from Hazuki Nakao's Nirvana. Weak! AS: Block Best! Nanghaithya takes 66 Light damage from Hazuki Nakao's Nirvana. Weak! AS: Block Best! Nanghaithya takes 66 Light damage from Hazuki Nakao's Nirvana. Weak! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 19 Almighty damage from Myunghon Yeo's Hula of Misfortune. AS: Atk_Dn added! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 19 Almighty damage from Myunghon Yeo's Hula of Misfortune. AS: Crt_Up removed! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 19 Almighty damage from Myunghon Yeo's Hula of Misfortune. AS: Crt_Dn added! AS: Block Worst! Nanghaithya takes 63 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Flurry Bufula. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Bind added! AS: Block Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 56 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Flurry Bufula. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 74 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Flurry Bufula. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: COUNTER! Yanagi Nagisa takes 50 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Counter Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 78 Strike damage from Saika Kikuchi's Sonic Punch. Resist! Counter Strike! AS: Haze added! Bind removed! Explosion! 50 damage! AS: COUNTER! Saika Kikuchi takes 61 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 39 Slash damage from Pernelle's Train Tango. AS: COUNTER! Pernelle takes 35 Strike damage in return for his attack! AS: Take! Tamaki Uchida takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn added! AS: Avoid Worst! Tamaki Uchida takes 68 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! Avoid Water! AS: Avoid Worst! Tamaki Uchida takes 68 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! Avoid Water! AS: Avoid Best! Tamaki Uchida takes 37 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! Avoid Water!
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
Fuuka peers into the Homunculus - and it takes all her effort not to recoil back immediately.
"What is this...? What are you?" Fuuka breathes out unconsciously. It hurts to look at, and she feels her stomach twist, her breath caught in her throat... She hears Yanagi's words to Ririka. So this 'wrongness' is normal for them...?
She's dazed, momentarily, and that gives Kaguya-hime an opening to move in. Her strikes crash against Lucia's protective globe, and she can feel them reverberate to her.
The Homunculus has a new game plan, now.
"The screen?" Fuuka says, noting as it lights up again. Player two? What does -
It selects Kappa. And then there's a red flash -
...And suddenly, she's a kappa too, small and green.
Her hair... remains the same color. Somehow, it matches her new form pretty well...
Most significantly, Lucia's globe, which from the outside appears almost to be filled with water... is actually filled with water, now. Fuukappa floats in a small pool. At least her new form feels at ease here.
It's disorienting, feeling so small - and she feels weaker, too... but a fight is still happening, and their new forms makes everyone vulnerable. Even though it feels awful to look at, Fuuka forces herself to focus on the Homunculus again.
The base of the palanquin... She can see the aura around it, briefly - strands connecting it to each of the entities, save for the kappa and the arcade tower...
"...They're connected..." Fuuka murmurs. "Everyone! The base of the tower is influencing the rest of the entities! Aim for the base of the palanquin - it may disrupt its influence!"
Following her on advice and befitting of her current form, Lucia begins to shape a sphere of water and send it hurtling toward the base of the palanquin.
Water and electronics don't mix. That's one of the first things you learn in Fuuka's field.
AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Water skill Aqua on Nanghaithya!
<Pose Tracker> Moriko Kumamoto has posed.
Moriko calls back, "If you don't lose you don't have anything to strive for." Giving her sentiment on the idea that all that matters is winning. She screws up her face briefly, watching the different characters rotate through.
Checking on the others briefly, not that she can support that much. She continues her push forward, intending to stand by what she'd said she'd do other times. Trying to cover her fellow SEES members. Because she's got some loyalty, even if she's on the quiet side of things too often.
She finds herself shorter somehow though. And wearing a blue dress, hiking boots and a hat. A webbed hand goes up to check the hat, complete with, "Wait what the f-" before she swings the now a toy polearm around like she's tempted to throw it.
Common sense catches up, she'd heard the callout that light was a weakness.
The squirtgun slips from her backpack and... fires against her head. She'll worry about that later. "Otohime!" She calls out through a beak. Which is unsettling.
Otohime Gitsune, the regal looking fox briefly gives her a disdainful look, but snaps her attention to Fuuka first, then the threat after. Bounding over the kappa's head to land, both paws forward. Flutters of flame circling around before a bright flash and a pillar of light engulf the palinquin. It's technically hitting the base. Right?.
"Not the first joke character I've taken into a fight." she mutters, mostly to herself. A distracted, very confused squawk of sorts escapes when Yukari blames the chairman though, "How?"
She couldn't help it.
AS: Persona! Moriko Kumamoto has used the Light skill Hama on Nanghaithya! AS: Moriko Kumamoto: Gains 47 HP from Regen! AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 0 Almighty damage from Nanghaithya's trash tier - Kappa. AS: Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn added!
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
Something about Hazuki's other cry prior to the 'rushdown' one rankles Tamaki. 'The monster always fades away'? She isn't so sure -- not on if this Shadow qualifies as a monster, and not on if they truly fade away, either. They may grow muted, but ...
A similar thought echoes through Tamaki's mind as she sees Ixquic's defiance.
She shakes the thought off. It's not appropriate to argue semantics with a stranger in this life-or-death situation. Form a united front now, in this time of crisis, save the debate for later. Whatever their philosophical differences may be, they're all in this to at least de-escalate the situation.
Yukari had the same instinct she did as she covers Moriko as she dives in headlong. Tamaki gives her a distant nod: she'll cover the part of the crowd that Yukari can't. While she's nowhere near the specialist that Yukari is, Tamaki's a substitute that'll do in a pinch -- not the star of the team, but a relief pitcher.
Tamaki belatedly recognizes Fuuka as one of those other kids at the shrine that day. ... and takes note that she seems to have similar perception-based abilities to Maki. That's something she can't serve as a substitute for.
Ririka, too. While she'd initially missed her in the crowd, she's now unmistakable as Amphion's song rings out. Cool to see her in action, though she's been meaning to see one of her band's shows in a more mundane setting.
She quietly notes to herself Saika, Yanagi, and Pernelle all seem to know each other. Pernelle must be that peacock Umie had mentioned. She'd only seen Saika alone before, but now she's come to associate them with that strange shop she'd only heard rumours of. Her understanding of the various groups involved expands further.
'I guess I have to live up to all of your hopes, huh?' Tamaki flashes a grin back at Saika. "It's highly encouraged, at least!"
Seeing Katsuya and Umie both ... just reminds Tamaki that she would like to catch up with them on different matters. Katsuya's a familiar face, but only from the distance involved in their respective professions; she's more familiar with the other Suou brother. As for Umie, they haven't spoken since that incident at the warehouse, and Tamaki's still beating herself up about losing the chance to come through with more information on their adversaries.
That's DEFINITELY Roger. Tamaki has SO many questions about him now when a few moments ago, she thought she had a decent handle on him. After seeing him regain his balance and rally from his prone position, from afar, she wordlessly echoes his cheer with a yell!
She dips, ducks, dives, dodges, and rolls through the fireball danmaku to Myunghon's side. While the incident deeply impacted everyone involved, Tamaki knows her fellow Rumourmonger had been taking Akira's death especially hard. As she tries to catch her breath from the exertion, she gives them a nod in support. "Anytime, Merry. Holding up alright? I've got some 18-litre tubs with your name on them. I can bring them to the Dragon when we're done here."
A similar concern for So-Young also comes to Tamaki's mind after hearing that sonic boom from Icarus. Had she been close enough to hear that private utterance of hers, she'd have flashed a thumbs-up her way. 'Let us do better this time' -- that's all you can hope to do.
Tamaki's had several years to get acclimated to the feeling. The way she'd tell it, you have to feel it, you can't look away from it or deny it -- but you can't let it slow you down, either. There are still plenty of other people counting on her.
...
The Shadow broadcasts its retorts. One in particular catches Tamaki's ear. 'When have the losers of the world ever gotten anything in life they want? Let's find out.'
An unfavorable game state is not necessarily an impossible game state.
A mad, unhinged grin breaks out onto her face. "Every loss is a lesson, I'll have you know. The losers that WANT IT bad enough are the ones that start to win!"
The grin persists even as she turns into a kappa. Her eyes burn with the defiance of a lone soldier backed into a corner as she holds her wooden toy sword towards her opponent, her water-filled crown gleaming brilliantly as she once did in the distant past --
-- and is unceremoniously swept away by the blizzard, sent tumbling and rolling until her momentum stops and she flops into a seated position.
The Tamaki-kappa smacks the sides of her face as she raises herself to her feet again, then the sound of glass shattering and the sight of blue flame heralds Arianrhod's appearance again with another "Media!"
AS: Persona! Tamaki Uchida has used the Recovery skill Media on Tamaki Uchida, Umie Akabane, Katsuya Suou, and Yanagi Nagisa! AS: Defense: Tamaki Uchida gains 1 Limit! AS: Take! Tamaki Uchida takes 40 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Media. AS: Block Best! Katsuya Suou takes 75 Water damage from Nanghaithya's GOD TIER - Yuki-Offa. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 77 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Naiad Mediarama. AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 0 Almighty damage from Roger's Dekunda. AS: Atk_Dn and Def_Dn removed! AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 44 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Media. AS: Take! Yanagi Nagisa takes 40 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Media. AS: Take! So-young Park takes 57 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
He soon spots a face he does know among the crowd, but that he hadn't expected to see here: one that he'd missed in no small part due to the person in question keeping a low profile. He remembers her from the Kuzunoha Detective Agency office, months ago--
"Uchida-san?!"
Music swells in that moment, one more instrument joining the chorus of Persona-song, and it's through So-young's additiona that he's found himself so bolstered. "Park-san? Thank you!"
What's the point of living if you aren't the best? You just don't know when to quit.
When have the losers of the world ever gotten anything in life they want?
"That's neither here nor there! Your theft of his identity is a crime! You cannot argue you have more 'right' to it in the eyes of the law!" Katsuya shouts, shaking his head in the face of all these arguments. But the wheels on the arcade cabinet spin wildly, landing on a particular one for 'player one' and another for 'player two'. It's a bad match-up, Hazuki says.
"A bad-- 'match-up'? What does that--"
He might have been in arcades as a child, but did he spend all that much time with fighting games? No. No, he didn't, and if you think otherwise you maybe should spend more time getting to know Katsuya Suou (he liked pinball).
Fortunately, an answer is on its way!
He's immediately aware that something is wrong. His perspective has shifted downward, and his body doesn't quite feel right. A glance at the others reveals that a singular transformation has taken place, and once he lifts his left hand with trepidation--
"Ah."
--it's clear that he hasn't been spared. He's still wearing a (singed) grey suit, and he's still got his trademark sunglasses perched (precariously!) on his beak, but the form wearing them has certainly changed to that of a kappa. He looks down at himself.
[SAVOIRE FAIRE]: No, there's no question about it. This suit is not cut to flatter a body with this sort of shape. Let's hope that your hair isn't as messy as the others.
Or at least, Katsuya more privately thinks, that he doesn't have to get confirmation one way or another.
Alas, a change in form doesn't amount to a change in resistances: the Helios in his soul makes him tragically that much more vulnerable to the wave of chill and frost that surges for him. Helios melts away as the howling blizzard's winds first come for him, and an attempt to find cover is sadly no more effective than that.
It takes him a moment to get back up again, slightly disoriented from the one-two punch again his tragic elemental weakness (alas, he can defend others against fire but can't do a thing for himself against water). What he comes around to is Myunghon quoting--
"Is that... Akutagawa's 'Kappa'?" he wonders aloud in his semi-daze, before Myunghon takes the meaning of the work right for Nanghaithya itself.
Fortunately, Yukari ("Takeba-san, thank you!"), Tamaki ("Uchida-san! Thank you!") and Roger's spells ("Thank you, Roger!") help bring him around, easing some of the damage received . Yanagi, meanwhile, gives her suggestions for what to use against it, which... leaves him at a bit of an impass. "Light, ice, or water, is it? I... see."
Pictured: Helios and its complete lack of any of these forms of attack. Also pictured: its preponderance of fire abilities.
Katsuya readjusts his sunglasses, which really just causes them to become more askew. "Then there's no helping it. Helios!"
Helios is smaller. A little rounder. Definitely greener. Than it used to be. Does it count at all as a cat? There is a green tail sticking out of that adorable 19th-century suit. And those still are cat-like eyes, and it hasn't lost its ear-like horns...
But appearance change or not, it's still the same Persona as always. In its hands is an (adorable) 19th-century firearm. Squinting one eye closed, Helios opens fire on Nanghaithya.
"I'll say it again," Katsuya starts, facing up at the thing the Homunculus has become, "this life is not yours to take!"
AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 86 Water damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Aqua. Weak! AS: Paralyze added! AS: COUNTER! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 58 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 138 Light damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Hama. Weak! AS: COUNTER! Moriko Kumamoto takes 56 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Persona! Katsuya Suou has used the Pierce skill Torrent Shot on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Tamaki Uchida spends Limit on Shift! Myunghon Yeo can use another Weak skill this round!
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Of all the times Umie's excellence at inflicting bad statuses on her opponent had to fail, this is..
.... not one of those times. Nope, RAGE has successfully been applied.
She is being Perceived by the entire Palanquin now.
'Oh, <wrong button input>~'
"_WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN_?!" Umie shrieks inexpilictly as she books it from a long, long, loonnnggg caaaannnnnnn'ed Nukekubi, only to have that shrieky head whip around, nearly clocking her in the jaw. "Eep!!"
-- which is then followed by a one-two punch that Umie barely avoids, with the last managing to clock the little shinobi in her little shinobi jaw. "GRK!"
Umie flops down to the ground, missing a vital piece of context for what happens next.
Namely, why she has such stupidly stubby hands and feet when she gets up.
"eeehh--?" There's now a kappa, standing even shorter than Umie would be at. "Wh..." Little sound effects happen as Kappumie experimentally moves her stubby little arms, which are suitably very short in comparison to her overall body, as she reaches up and finds...
Positioned between two blonde hair buns, now shaped to be nearly perfect spheres on either side of her head, she finds... pattapattapatta. Water, Yep. Kappa.
Does Umie hear laughing? She hears laughing, as if someone is literally on the floor, rolling around as they cry with laughter.
"WHY AM I A KAPPA, KERO?!" _RAGE has been applied to Umie Akabane._
Careful, Umie, that rapidly heating head of yours might dry you up.
Umie turnss around, pointing a tiny webbed finger at the giant palaquin, now looming even *larger*.
"YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE, KERO!"
Sure, she should look at her teammates and see how they're faring, but NO. UMIE IS NOT A TEAM PLAYER RIGHT NOW, KERO.
(Okay, Fuukappa is helping give a target to throw all Umie's anger at, kero.)
Paradoxically (or, perhaps, following Mascot Character tradition now), Umie's Persona is unchanged, with Badb now even more mismatched in size in comparison to the tiny kappa managing to summon the deity of war and death.
And onslaught begins (kero) with a Soul Breaking maneuver, Badb's red laced fingers seductively curl towards Nanghaithya (IN COMPARISON TO THE FUMING GREMLIN CREATURE STANDING UNDERNEATH HER), ending with a panic-inducing (POTENTIALLY) burst of dark magic.
Pause. Blinkblink. Kappumie finally notices the motley assortment of kappas by her.
".............. i think i feel better since you're all kappa too, kero..."
AS: Umie Akabane spends Limit on Exploit! Umie Akabane can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 40 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Media. AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Almighty skill Soul Break on Nanghaithya! AS: Ruin: Umie Akabane gains 1 Limit! AS: Umie Akabane spends Limit on Exploit! Umie Akabane can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Block Best! Nanghaithya takes 68 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Torrent Shot. Critical Hit! AS: Block Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 55 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Torrent Shot. AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 72 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Torrent Shot. AS: COUNTER! Katsuya Suou takes 29 Strike damage in return for his attack! AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Almighty skill Hooded Smile on Nanghaithya! AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Mudo on Nanghaithya! AS: Umie Akabane regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 19 Almighty damage from Umie Akabane's Soul Break. AS: Exhaust added! Rage removed! Explosion! 60 damage! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 0 Almighty damage from Umie Akabane's Hooded Smile. AS: Charm added! AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 78 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Mudo. Resist! AS: Panic added! Charm removed! Explosion! 60 damage! AS: COUNTER! Umie Akabane takes 53 Strike damage in return for her attack!
<Pose Tracker> So-young Park has posed.
"Ah... no, no. You can't rush your way to being the best, not when the journey is so important," So-young frowns almost to herself. There's still some impulse she can't quite name that can faintly pinpoint some of the key ways in which this feels wrong. But what can you say in return? This is already a hard pill to swallow when someone is in the best of minds. When they are a rampaging Homonculus surrounded by fierce magic it's another thing entirely.
Katsuya thanks her for the assistance, and she preens a little at that thanks. It's pleasant to hear, and it's nice to be recognized, and So-young is vain enough to admit that as a simple fact of life, and-- --and-- --wait he's thanking everyone. Fastidiously so, in fact. She can't help but feel a little deflated at that, but only a little. At least she appears doggedly ready to fight when Tamaki looks her over. If the events of the past are showing on her face, it's only because of a deep, stubborn determination to move past them and only look forwards, for better and for worse.
Looking back to Nanghaithya, So-young frowns. Maybe if she reaches for it, really extends a searching introspective look inside herself, maybe she can draw some parallels between her old school self and the 'milksop' that might help pull something profound out of her. It's not something she's used to doing, or good at doing, and she recognizes that fact with no shame at all. It's just not part of her skillset. But even so, maybe, just maybe, if she digs far enough--
--she'll-- turn into a Kappa?
"WHAT," screeches the discordant voice of the little tubby green creature that has managed to at least retain its monochrone clothes and hair. If anything, So-young might be most upset about the voice more than anything, not to mention the way that unfamiliar, strangely-shaped hands cannot quite hold onto her beloved baton, which falls from her new fingers and winks away.
One thing So-young has not yet figured out about her sibling is how exactly Myunghon manages to do this. Myunghon has said before that So-young is more confusing to talk to than demons, but that has a flipside - that in moments like this, even transformed into an eye-watering two dimensional shape, So-young simply cannot understand how Myunghon has the mental capacity to grin and smirk and quote literature. Don't get the conductor wrong, she's proud in distinctly contrarian and rebellious fashion, but she's still yet to understand how the hell it works.
At least she still has the ability to project her voice, and a deeply affronted whine sounds across the battlefield. "This had _better_ not be permanent! I don't give a damn if it's a cognitive space or not!" the little creature stomps one foot, its eyes at least managing to burn for a moment before it turns to see an ice storm bearing down on the entire carnival. With a croak of surprise, So-Kappa starts to bolt to one side, but her new frame is too small to get to cover in time, and she's flung like a pinball off of several different surfaces, ending up crashing into a sideshow tent.
As she fishes her way out from under the tarpaulin, So-young hears a familiar voice cry out across the grounds. Even Pernelle's squawk is astonished and joyous rather than distraught. Et tu, Pernelle?! --that thought filters through her brain, connects to the realisation she's not sure who all is involved here, and she finally spools back over the past couple of moments enough to realize she recognized the style and finer strokes of the musician whose song she picked up on. "Oh," she vocalizes, with a distinct undercurrent of 'oh shit that might take some explaining' to it.
Well, there are certainly bigger things to worry about right now. Somehow a small Kappa manages to pull itself to its full lack of height and level a viciously angry glare at the figure lording over them. "... I was prepared to be sympathetic, but now I am simply extremely upset," the kappa mutters. Whether it is puffed up from sheer indignance or from an upcoming attack is not clear, but the kappa does indeed puff up... and up... and up... and up as it continues to draw in breath.
It turns out that being frog-adjacent really helps with diaphragm control. All of a sudden, So-young hunches forwards, and--
@` @`
@/` @/` @/`
--delivers a rather uniquely ribbiting tune at the maximum volume she can manage. Impossibly, it seems to physically twist in the air, the energy of it rippling forwards with all the galeforce of Icarus behind it, slow at first before building in speed into a rushing gale of croaking noises dopplering across the intervening space to crash its final note against Nanghaithya.
AS: Persona! So-young Park has used the Wind skill Coda on Nanghaithya! AS: So-young Park: Gains 52 HP from Regen! AS: So-young Park regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: Counter Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 105 Wind damage from So-young Park's Coda. AS: Haze added! AS: COUNTER! So-young Park takes 71 Strike damage in return for her attack!
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Pernelle suggests violence. "... right." That is... maybe less specific than she had wanted, but it's at least a direction. Not that she has a lot of attacks on hand. But Yanagi has more advice. Each one needs its own differences. And for the Navigators. "Right!" She pushes herself to listen, to take in more of the battlefield. Amphion puts his headphones on her head to help her filter out more of the extraneous bedlam so she can get to the heart of what's important.
"You're welcome, Kumamoto-san!" she calls back to Moriko.
But someone Ririka would be surprised to find is here, though she barely has time to recognize it as she's focusing on keeping track of everyone in the battle. But she does notice once So-young piggybacks on her song, casting out a performance of her own. She looks up as the magic settles in. "Park-san?"
Later. Focus on supporting everyone now.
What's the point of living if you aren't the best? Ririka's never cared for being the best, but... she has always wanted to apply herself to the best of her ability. To maintain the image of a dilligent, hard-working musical talent.
So she kind of gets it. But she never took it this far, did she? (Yes, but not in this way.)
But she's been listening (she can't help but listen to sounds, patterns, frequencies, rhythms...) to how the Homunculus talks. That strange, digital quality its voice. It sounds like--
The thought is interrupted as Master Koto approaches, and she takes up her katana in hand. So it's come to this... She knows the musician fighter's rhtyhms and routines by heart, and as the attacks come in she finds a rhythm of her own to meet and deflect block each strike with her weapon. She doesn't find an opening to attack, but...
"... Nakao-chan, everyone!" she calls out, transmitting her voice to the battlefield. "They're just trying to use the best combos without mixing them up! And the voice we've been hearing. It's not Yuki-offa's, it's--"
But right as she gets that revelation out, she hears it-- Player Two. And the selection is glitched to be... Kappa. "Wha--" Something happens, and Ririka blinks as she finds herself in the form of a small turtle with light purple skin and a dark purple shell, staring down at herself in shock. She still has her headphones on, but now they're smaller. "Okay, this-- this is weird."
She shakes her head. Focus. "The voice is coming from the tower," she finishes. She listens to Fuuka's advice, as well. The base of the palenquin... "Maybe if we disrupt it we can get at the tower?"
Worth a shot. Ririka takes a deep breath, drumming her finger--claws?--on her shell as she concentrates. It makes a rhythmic pattern (not Kappa's stage music, this time, Master Koto's, her main), as she tries to take in everything she needs to do. Kappas all around--holding up the palanquin, among the Persona users. She narrows in.
"Amphion! Let's go!" She points at the base of the palenquin. "Play a song to distract them!" Amphion strums his lyre, assaulting them with something that is almost Yuki-offa's stage theme, but it's off in ways that are jarring to those that know it well.
"And... second movement! Let's help those who we can!" Ririka sweeps her hand over Moriko, Fuuka, Katsuya, and Tamaki. Amphion keeps playing, and the power of the earth flows up through them, helping to reinforce their weakened bodies.
AS: Ririka Kawase spends Limit on Exploit! Ririka Kawase can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Almighty skill Dissonant Song on Nanghaithya! AS: Insight: Ririka Kawase gains 1 Limit! AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Almighty skill Marakukaja on Moriko Kumamoto, Fuuka Yamagishi, Katsuya Suou, and Tamaki Uchida! AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Almighty damage from Ririka Kawase's Marakukaja. AS: Def_Dn removed! AS: Take! Tamaki Uchida takes 0 Almighty damage from Ririka Kawase's Marakukaja. AS: Def_Dn removed! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 0 Almighty damage from Ririka Kawase's Dissonant Song. AS: Take! Moriko Kumamoto takes 0 Almighty damage from Ririka Kawase's Marakukaja. AS: Def_Dn removed! AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 0 Almighty damage from Ririka Kawase's Marakukaja. AS: Def_Up added!
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
((Please. Your fun is a sick joke.))
Nanghaithya's digitized condemnation of Hazuki Nakao comes with almost perfect timing as Yuki-Offa's heeled sneakers hit the ground with a frosty, dual -=CLICK=- of impact, Hazuki's facial double finally taking the stage just as everyone else is reduced to the thing she counters so perfectly -- the thing Nanghaithya's cognition enforces as 'the weakest'.
Kappa. Kappa, as far as the eye can see...!
(('Fun.' It's the cocky claim of the ones who win. 'It's about having fun.'))
Hazuki comes rushing in, still defiant despite everything. Janus manifests, even despite the Kappafication of its host. Yuki-Offa turns to regard her most steadfast player, those violet eyes utterly empty -- a fact that may well be eerie, considering it's akin to looking into a soulless mirror.
((I agree. It's fun grinding your heel into people over and over. It's fun being the one lording above everyone else. It's fun being the one who dominates.))
Three balls of light are lobbed at Yuki-Offa -- each of them explode into violent bursts, knocking her back, sending her toppling over, dragging her out towards a frost-crackling roll across the Big Top--
((SO LET'S HAVE FUN.))
Whereupon she comes to a stop in a crouch, smoothly hurtling a huge CRESCENT of pure frost at Hazuki and Janus.
And then another!
And another!!
It's FLAGRANT projectile spam, forcing Haazuki's diminutive distance, and yet somehow -- Yuki-Offa seems more fluid, more graceful, more skillful, more POWERFUL than poor Kappa as she does it?? One might even call it... perfect.
Is this what it means -- to be at the top of the meta...?!
It's Katsuya's passionate adherence to the law, however, that next calls the Homunculus' attention. Even as Yuki-Offa fights, the Palanquin itself seems to almost shift with the frantic scuttle of Kappas, until it is pointed directly at the detective.
What does the law matter?
The adorably round Helios-Kappa bears down on Nanghaithya. One shot! Two! The return fire from Katsuya's Persona hits two Taro-Kappas with perfect accuracy, sending them bouncing out from under the Palanquin and bouncing between the Big Top's support columns like those pinball machines the detective so loves. But the third shot--
((Tell me, law man:))
Is met by Kaguya-hime, just as she intercepted Hazuki before -- as if wholly dedicated to protecting that Palanquin at all costs. She's knocked aside briefly --
(Have those precious rules of yours ever mattered to the people at the top?))
Before that whip SNAPS up, ensnaring Helios -- before she CRACKS it back down, to catch Katsuya with the downswing as she sends his Persona smashing into the ground.
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
But as Kaguya-hime tussles with Katsuya, Myunghon takes their opportunity to address Nanghaithya directly. They invoke Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's final work, the private agonies of which undoubtedly resonate with the kernel of longing and discontent that gave Nanghaithya its form in this world. And yet, as Myunghon recites the lines to the Homunculus -- as they and their incredible Kappalak invoke the absurdity of the work, revel in the nonsense of it all in a very
unfortunate
hula dance
that just
keeps
going
to a TIDAL WAVE of support and references and BADONKADONK STONKS
that makes the gaggle of Taro-Kappas shrink backwards, forcing the Palanquin to unsettle above them as it teeter-totters this way and that, almost as if the Taro-Kappas had fallen under INFLUENCE if you will of ABSURD CONTENT Kappalak is just cranking out--?!
Even as they struggle, even as an irritated hiss gushes out over those unseen speakers in gasping bursts of static, all Nanghaithya has to say to Myunghon is simply this:
((You're a fool!))
It's unfortunate, yet fitting, that the Homunculus is clearly unfamiliar with the work. Because, after all...
A fool always considers others fools.
A once-fabulous bird quarrels with a cat(s). The fanning dance of pinions and blades, blindly thrashing as it is, -does- manage to fend of Bakeduo-neko, a well-placed, lucky stroke carving into the cats with an annoyed YOWL as they're knocked skywards --
--but not before snapping a quick, bullying punt at Pernelle as they go. Wow. Those cats have _issues_.
Saika moves swift as well, even Kappa-fied as she is. Frankenstein's Kappareature rears up, swinging that big bulky fist Yuki-Offa's way as she fends off Hazuki. Her reaction times are absurd; one might think she's just cheating, the way that violet gaze just -snaps- towards the Creature the second it approaches. That fist comes swinging --
--and it CRACKS across Yuki-Offa's skull, sending her head snapping to one side even as she just -flip kicks- the Creature directly in the jaw to send it soaring in turn. Is there no end to the anti-air antics for poor Saika--?!
Ixquic (Ixcroak?!) is next on the offensive, her squeaky cry of defiance coming like a herald to her grand violence. Quixote manifests and rushes forth in a grand wheeling circle-slice, the slash SLAMMING into Yuki-Offa before she can continue to press the assault. She craters into the ground from the force of it. But as the dust settles--
Those crescent slices of ice comes for Ixquic next, punching through floating dirt and debris one after the other even as she wonders in confusion over her new, Kappa life. So eloquent. So magnificent. Is this how Taro perceives Yuki-Offa? The Homunculus? Or simply the concept of what it views as a 'winner'--?
But it's Yanagi and Fuuka who see the heart of what's going on -- and it's Ririka who peers into the truth of Nanghaithya. Fuuka broadcasts the nature of that Palanquin base to everyone -- that it is controlling the other fighters, even Yuki-Offa. Destroying it might well be key. She winds up a water spell to test that very theory -- and as it SPLASHES across the horizontal arcade machine that makes up the Palanquin's base --
Something happens.
The Palanquin rocks. The arcade base sparks and smokes. Kappas struggle to keep it aloft, even as their dainty little knees bend. And the other fighters, Yuki-Offa included, suddenly just --
Stop.
It's for a split second. Only a second. A very telling second.
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
And then.
((Oh aren't you clever losers.))
"MYAAA!" "MYAAAAAAAA!!"
Bakeduo-Neko - who CANNOT BE STOPPED - comes crashing down from the Big Top's - well - top, where Pernelle had knocked it to, pouncing upon Fuuka's adorable little water-ball to KNOCK it across the ground.
Whereupon the two cats in a trenchcoat just start to try to chase the thing. To keep that clever Fuuka locked down, of course. But also, you know.
Because they're cats, and she's a rolling ball with a tasty prize inside.
((Not that it's going to matter.))
The others on the assault, knowingly or not, take up Fuuka's advise. Yanagi, who's seen that truth for herself, conjures a hailstorm upon the palanquin base, ice crashing in and forming into large, heavy crystals. The weight of it makes it strain further, making it bend and buckle -- Moriko's blaze of light PUMMELS the thing, sending all that additional weight bucking backwards, crushing a few poor Kappas supporting it at the rear -- Babd's distracting curl of a finger draws several Taro-Kappas wide, sparkling eyes of wonder (one even says "uwaaaaaah~!" and everything) before they are CRUELLY BETRAYED by bursts of darkness that sends them flying, further weakening the Palanquin's support (the one who voiced wonder, it must be noted, now screams "BETRAYAL KEROOOOOOOOO--" before it punches through the roof of the Big Top)
--and So-young's BOOMING(ish) song crashes croaking notes of force DIRECTLY into Nanghaithya, the decibel force of her Kappa serenade enough to send several more Taro-Kappa's skyward, swept up in a melody they find possitively
ribbiting
-- all serve to destabilizing the palanquin. It lurches backwards -- and then tilts FORWARDS, violently. Pressure is pressed against the foremost Kappas as they suddenly find their rubbery Kappa bodies squashed, pinned between the ground ant the tottering Arcade base. Pressure mounts - and mounts - and MOUNTS, as they all just get bigger and bigger, like volume being redirected to one end of a balloon before--
*POIT!* *POIT!* *POITPOITPOIT!!*
They all just FIRE off like cannon shots, recipcrocating the violence Yanagi, So-young, Umie and Moriko have delivered with -further violence-.
((You all think you're so smart. You think you see my tricks? I'll show you.))
Yuki-Offa lurches forward. Her head turns towards Roger in particular.
((There's only one truth in this world.))
As if something about what he said has angered Nanghaithya in particular, she DASHES forward right into his personal space. Her arms snap backwards as if she's preparing for another projectile volley. They swing forward--
((The game is only fun for the people who rule!))
And then she just GLITCHES. Her whole body seems to just -- stop moving one way, and start moving another, as the forward snap of her arms becomes a sudden and surging and VIOLENT upper thrust of an assault upon Roger, chased after by a sharp CRACKLE of frosting electricity--
as the force of that perfect, impossible animation cancel BLOOMS around her in a violent shockwave, intent on catching everyone within its violent path.
It's only here that they might hear Ririka's words -- and see how her song is affecting not Yuki-Offa --
But the Arcade Tower. Its screen glitching -- distorting --
Showing flashes of an angry, pixelated face with blazing, scarlet eyes.
That's the truth.
What's the source of Taro Nakata's discontent? The seed that made it all possible? Was it Yuki-Offa -- was it Hazuki?
Or was it the very idea of losing at the thing he loves?
OBJECTIVE: DESTROY THE SOURCE OF NANGHAITHYA'S POWER!
REVEAL THE TRUE FORM OF THE HOMUNCULUS!
AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Water skill Perfect Projectile Spam on Hazuki Nakao! 3 Hits! AS: Nanghaithya takes 60 damage from Panic! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Water skill Perfect Projectile Spam on Akari Hoshi! 3 Hits! AS: Tandem! Nanghaithya has used the Elec skill DORYA on Roger! 2 Hits! AS: Nanghaithya takes 60 damage from Exhaust! AS: Nanghaithya spends Limit on Reach! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Slash skill Kara Cancel on Ririka Kawase, So-young Park, Umie Akabane, Katsuya Suou, Tamaki Uchida, Moriko Kumamoto, Fuuka Yamagishi, Pernelle, Saika Kikuchi, Yanagi Nagisa, Yukari Takeba, and Myunghon Yeo! 3 Hits! AS: Nanghaithya: Reach removed! AS: Block Neutral! Saika Kikuchi takes 30 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Block Best! Saika Kikuchi takes 18 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Block Neutral! Saika Kikuchi takes 30 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Best! Akari Hoshi takes 21 Water damage from Nanghaithya's Perfect Projectile Spam. Critical Hit! AS: Bind added! AS: Avoid Neutral! Akari Hoshi takes 36 Water damage from Nanghaithya's Perfect Projectile Spam. AS: Bind added! AS: Avoid Best! Akari Hoshi takes 24 Water damage from Nanghaithya's Perfect Projectile Spam. AS: Bind added! AS: Block Worst! Yanagi Nagisa takes 31 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Avoid Best! Myunghon Yeo takes 21 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Myunghon Yeo takes 36 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Myunghon Yeo takes 36 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Yanagi Nagisa takes 31 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Block Best! Yanagi Nagisa takes 22 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 32 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 24 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Block Worst! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 24 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Block Worst! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 33 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 14 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 14 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Avoid Best! So-young Park takes 19 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Best! So-young Park takes 13 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Avoid Best! So-young Park takes 19 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Block Best! Katsuya Suou takes 11 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Block Neutral! Katsuya Suou takes 11 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Block Worst! Katsuya Suou takes 15 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Block Worst! Hazuki Nakao takes 33 Water damage from Nanghaithya's Perfect Projectile Spam. AS: Bind added! AS: Counter Worst! Hazuki Nakao takes 26 Water damage from Nanghaithya's Perfect Projectile Spam. AS: COUNTER! Nanghaithya takes 39 Water damage in return for their attack! Weak! AS: Counter Best! Hazuki Nakao takes 15 Water damage from Nanghaithya's Perfect Projectile Spam. AS: COUNTER! Nanghaithya takes 50 Water damage in return for their attack! Weak! AS: Nanghaithya has set a trigger! AS: Avoid Neutral! Roger takes 47 Elec damage from Nanghaithya's DORYA. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Roger takes 36 Elec damage from Nanghaithya's DORYA. AS: Avoid Worst! Pernelle takes 34 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Avoid Best! Pernelle takes 16 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Avoid Neutral! Pernelle takes 27 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Avoid Best! Yukari Takeba takes 15 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Avoid Neutral! Yukari Takeba takes 35 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Yukari Takeba takes 27 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: Block Neutral! Ririka Kawase takes 31 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Block Neutral! Ririka Kawase takes 31 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Ririka Kawase takes 27 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
With her little Kappa body, Hazuki can't move fast enough. Yukari's trying, and the healing helps, but...
Those words echo with the pain of the projectiles. She is the winner, after all... it's hollow when she says it...
An attempt to guard the first projectile causes it to blast her backwards. The second comes, and she swings her bat at it, ending it flying backwards haphazardly. This gives her an idea on how to deal with the last ones, and she times the swing, even as they're battering into her...
And launching the projectiles directly at the Homunculus!
"...maybe you're right. Maybe the Goddess of Tricks... is just a big jerk!" She calls out, little kappa face defiant, as she rushes forward again once the spam ends.
The call is to destroy the arcade machine... Hazuki's not going to make it in time, at her distance. So instead she calls out, using English for a specific word choice...
"But that doesn't matter. If crushing you is `bad pool`... then I'll be the worst! Eligor! Give them the power to do it!"
Janus fades out, and in comes Eligor, the horned red knight on the black horse. He stomps his horse's hooves, points his spear, and an attack buff washes over Hazuki, Akari, Roger, and Saika, trying to get the principle hitters a big attack! She'll save hers for the finale, so to speak.
AS: Persona! Hazuki Nakao has used the Almighty skill Matarukaja on Hazuki Nakao, Roger, Saika Kikuchi, and Akari Hoshi! AS: Defense: Hazuki Nakao gains 1 Limit! AS: Hazuki Nakao: Gains 55 HP from Regen! AS: Take! Hazuki Nakao takes 0 Almighty damage from Hazuki Nakao's Matarukaja. AS: Atk_Up added! AS: Take! Akari Hoshi takes 0 Almighty damage from Hazuki Nakao's Matarukaja. AS: Atk_Up added! AS: Take! Saika Kikuchi takes 0 Almighty damage from Hazuki Nakao's Matarukaja. AS: Atk_Up added! AS: Take! Roger takes 0 Almighty damage from Hazuki Nakao's Matarukaja. AS: Atk_Up added! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi spends Limit on Shift! Yanagi Nagisa can use another Weak skill this round! SP +8! Healed 20! AS: Yanagi Nagisa spends Limit on Shift! Fuuka Yamagishi can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Yukari Takeba spends Limit on Shift! Katsuya Suou can use another Weak skill this round! SP +8! Healed 20! AS: Counter Best! Tamaki Uchida takes 32 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: COUNTER! Nanghaithya takes 42 Slash damage in return for their attack! AS: Counter Neutral! Tamaki Uchida takes 28 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. AS: COUNTER! Nanghaithya takes 27 Slash damage in return for their attack! AS: Counter Best! Tamaki Uchida takes 32 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! AS: COUNTER! Nanghaithya takes 42 Slash damage in return for their attack! AS: Hazuki Nakao spends Limit on Shift! Akari Hoshi can use another Weak skill this round!
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"I did," Yanagi tells Pernelle, and her simple, straightforward response is a lament on his behalf, a shared tragedy that will bind their hearts together for all time. Not even kappa tippy-taps (tippy-kaps) can wash away this deep sorrow--his, or hers. Saika cries out her own vehement lament, if for a different reason, and Yanagi can only clasp her webbed hands together overtop her cane-gun. "Stay strong, Saika...!"
Healing energy washes over her then, and she looks to one side to see Arianrhod by way of Tamaki-kappa (Tamakappa) sending forth a Media to encompass her. "Oh! Thank you!" she says warmly. Uchida-san, she hears Katsuya call her, which is something she'll remember--and when Katsuya repeats her report of weaknesses, she nods to him as well, recognizing him as that photographer. "Good luck," she says sympathetically, hearing a similar tone in his voice as Pernelle's.
Fire may not be her power, but Pernelle is so dear to her, she can't help but be sad when others can't use it freely...
Even if Jack Frost continues to be superior to Jack-o'-Lantern. Sorry not sorry.
But the Homunculus, in its various Night Parade forms, is not content to have its palanquin base destabilized so easily. Its voice jeers at Yanagi and several others, lauching off rubbery Kappas in a counter-attack that SLAMS into Yanagi's Persona, destabilizing it into nothing as she cries out in shared pain and falls again to her knees. This time, she doesn't get back up so easily; she needs a moment to catch her heaving breath.
"You poor... pathetic thing. There is some truth to what you say; I've seen it for myself. But I..." She raises her head, brilliant green eyes narrowed in contempt. "...have no respect for such people. No--they're not even people. Merely things trussed up in suits of skin."
She teeters forward, hand trembling on her cane; with its help, she rises again.
"...How appropriate that one like you can count yourself among their number."
She turns her little kappa legs, boots supporting her slight weight as she raises her cane to point its barrel at the base of the palanquin. Once again, a mystic butterfly floats by, and once again, Yanagi shoots it down to re-summon Giselle, spinning her eternal pirouette, a bride's veil covering her kappa beak.
"Fuuka, yes?" she calls to her fellow Navigator. "You and I both see with sight... You, with your light, and I, with my ice--shall we support our friends in a more direct way?"
In other words--let them both help the other double up on weakness attacks. Yanagi smiles and reaches out a hand towards her, and then towards the Arcade Tower, now glitching that fearsome pixelated face with its blood-red eyes.
"There!"
The chill waters of a forest lake spin around Giselle and then crash towards the distorted screen. In this way, she does help guide the others towards where to attack by showing what to attack--one wave, and then another, and then ANOTHER, stronger and stronger as they ebb and flow and crash. Kappa-ppa-ppa...
AS: Persona! Yanagi Nagisa has used the Water skill Double Aqua on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Persona! Yanagi Nagisa has used the Water skill Wonderful Aques on Nanghaithya! AS: Yanagi Nagisa regains 6 SP from Invigorate! AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 80 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Double Aqua. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: COUNTER! Yanagi Nagisa takes 32 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 47 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Double Aqua. Weak! AS: COUNTER! Yanagi Nagisa takes 32 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Block Best! Nanghaithya takes 126 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Wonderful Aques. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Charm added! Panic removed! Explosion! 50 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
There may be a shared understanding between her and Tamaki on trying to cover the crowd, but that doesn't make it any easier as a Kappa. Her Persona's magic just feels so much weaker.
But it's what they've got-! So she keeps trying her best!
And as Moriko asks how it's the Chairman's fault, she snaps, "Don't worry about it!"
The only bright side is, she's not alone in this humiliation. There's Katsuya over there... as a Kappa, and Umie afflicted with rage.
Even Fuuka floating in Lucia's globe!? "Where'd the water even come from..." She murmurs. At least it's not a just her situation.
Maybe this can be undone! She hopes.
Fuuka however somehow, despite barely staying afloat, finds that the base of the tower is the weakness.
"Please tell us it'll change us back."
She holds her breath. And- Kappa fly! The Palanquin destabilizes, Kappageddon! ... Honestly Yukari winces from having a hard time not thinking of THOSE Kappa as people.
Unfortunately the Homunculus is, not exactly thrilled. And they're still Kappa. Yukia-Offa... prepares, and - glitches- "... Uhhhh...." - suddenly coming down in a shockwave, and Yukari comes down, the first blow knocking her sideways, with a sweatdrop on her forehead before the animation cancel barrage...
Well it doesn't slice through her, there's no KO animation! But she is freaked, "Come on! The way you just- whatever that is- that has to be illegal!"
Words, which almost certainly catch a certain Kappa Police Officer's attention, as she quickly gets up and waddles back as fast as her little legs allow her to.
A pull of a trigger, and Io- in full Kappa Glory(?) arrives, casting Kappa Mediarama, again!
Look - this Yuki-Offa is really carving through shell here!
"What's fun about this!?" Yukari isn't a gamer, she's never seen the appeal, but she understands at least it's meant to be fun for all parties. It's why Junpei acts excited like a little kid about it.
"Whether you're winning or losing, you just sound miserable all the time!"
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Recovery skill Naiad Mediarama on Yanagi Nagisa, Tamaki Uchida, Umie Akabane, and Saika Kikuchi! AS: Support: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit! AS: Yukari Takeba regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: Take! Yanagi Nagisa takes 72 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Naiad Mediarama.
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
When Pernelle enthuses -- 'Just look at you' -- Saika gives the majestic bird the dirtiest look possible for one currently experiencing kappadom.
But more is happening. Has she already let Tamaki down by becoming a deeply uncool kappa? Is she going to be able to prevail? Is this urge to eat a cucumber the kappa nature saturating her very thoughts, or is that just her regular ordinary experience of wanting to eat a cucumber?
The other kappas seem to be subdued. Perhaps kappa can slay kappa. Her eyes turn up towards Yuki-offa even as Saika dances back and forth with her arms held up in a guarded stance. It's comical, but perhaps it never hurts to be prepared. "Watch out!" she calls to Ixquic when ice smashes towards her. But then:
It's rocking. Everything stops.
We won? Saika thinks in optimism.
Optimism that is disproven, as it so often is. Such is the nature and unsatisfactory quality of life. That new girl, Hazumi, calls out to something. The other face of Janus. An energizing surge washes over her...! As it does, she says, "How's it feel over for you, Yanagi?" even as her head tilts upwards -- twitching as she realizes she's about to spill water out of the dish, her body rebelling against her.
Her eyes narrow towards the illuminated face of the Homunculus. "Awful nice of the thing to get in a big cabinet like that," Saika says as her arms fold. Her chubby, flabby li'l kappa arms. Kapparms. "It'd make the burial easier, FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTERRRRR"
The sudden shout coming out a bit froglike but nevertheless manifesting her will. The great Monster raises his head and bares his teeth for a moment; what comes next is not another stunning blow or strangling grasp but another barrage of lightning strikes, sharp forks arcing towards that screen. Once! Twice! THRICE, each time casting a sharp shadow and making a suitably imperious roll of thunder.
AS: Take! Saika Kikuchi takes 72 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Naiad Mediarama.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon is a little grateful, internally, though they'd never admit it, for the Kappa disguise -- because most people look to some degree miserable or displeased with their disguise, themself included. (Not Pernelle, though. Pernelle is excited at the limitless boundaries of transpeacockism, and can anyone blame him?) They're really not doing great right now and they're not sure if Shinjiro and Shinobu and the others being here would've helped or made them feel like they have to put on an even stronger face, doubting what they're doing as hard as they are at present--
Anytime, Merry. Holding up alright?
Tamaki's there to uplift them, as if being able to sense that they're really not having a good time of it. "I-- ... will be, Uchida-san," they choke out. "... we still have a person to save. This is not over until we cross that threshold back to physical reality," they affirm, and Tamaki can feel the masking behind it as their Merry-self takes over, noticing just how graceful and experienced Tamaki's capability to manoeuvre through flame and frost both are.
What Tamaki says next is of particular aspirational quality. Every loss is a lesson -- the losers that WANT IT bad enough are the ones that start to win.
Yukari's Media washes over them, strengthening Kappalak from where it's already suffering tears and breaks. "Takeba-san, how gracious of you..."
How does Myunghon have the capability to grin, smirk and quote literature? Why So-young! The answer is that their self-esteem and mood is in such ruin that they've finely compartmentialised the ability to Resist and Rebel as entirely Merry's capability, that's how!
It's surely healthy.
"It must be, nuna," Kappa-Merry speaks encouragingly. "Remember -- these cognitive spaces are all about assertion. This Homunculus is in its wrathful throes because its only sense of identity is direly threatened. Recall your confidence!"
The Homunculus calls them a fool and takes umbrage, the Palanquin tilting forward and slamming them against their Kappa bodies, slamming and slamming and slamming, and Kappalak is forced to bodyblock the brunt of the assault. It is perhaps, fitting, yes, that they are called a fool -- though not because Myunghon looks down upon the Homunculus. As Reiya did before, Myunghon will inevitably hold this being in memory. Perhaps the vision of Patient 23 was the one with true insight into the very fool revelry that they must all participate in, this so-called 'best of all worlds'. The Kappa, within that work, are asked if they wish to be born or not, and one replies resoundingly:
"Yes, Suou-san! Well done! A model student you are. You, Homunculus, crave life so avidly that I may very well call you a discipline of Lifeism, or Life-worship! And to think, you're surrounded by so many cretins who express such despicable thoughts as the Kappa you sit beneath, whose wisest rule of life is to despise, and yet not in the least violate the manners and customs of his time."
Merry seems sedate for a moment, though that dangerous, jagged grin is from ear to ear still, the shine in their singular gray eye, even as a Kappa, evident, their stubby little hands cupping their cheeks. The insights of the Navigators brings to light that the very Palanquin base controls the other fighters.
"Yet upon that same work I evoke: No one has any objection to the destruction of idols. Nor has anyone the slightest objection to his being idolised. But he who can sit at ease on the throne of idols is one most blessed by the gods -- a fool, a rascal, a hero."
Kappalak manifests once more, but this time, the Rumourmonger's grin is ear to ear as they wield a shadow-card in their palm, a Skill Card that burns into blue flame. A dangerous, manifested blade of bright-blue ice is being wielded by the ribbon-tendrils of the Cognitive Coat.
"Now, courtesy of my hee-ro, Jack Frost!"
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHFSKkJkrC8
Kappalak powers up like they're hogging the Limit bar, surging forth in a weave of cold cognitive air as they tear out and SLAM that blade of ice not once, not thrice--
FOLKS we got a happy birthday with the 623BB mixup COMING IN COLD! They see Kappalak divekickin, they HATIN'!! OH SNAP! Kappalak tigerknees the j.22 and Yoghurt Greek Cancels their landing recovery into yet ANOTHER 623BB, superjump-cancelled into a BC X-factor level 3!! Unbelievable! Unbelievable!! This grainy-ass 240p footage will forever be known as EVO Memento 37!! (Give Jose the video for another stamp. He'll love it.)
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
When Pernelle enthuses -- 'Just look at you' -- Saika gives the majestic bird the dirtiest look possible for one currently experiencing kappadom.
But more is happening. Has she already let Tamaki down by becoming a deeply uncool kappa? Is she going to be able to prevail? Is this urge to eat a cucumber the kappa nature saturating her very thoughts, or is that just her regular ordinary experience of wanting to eat a cucumber?
The other kappas seem to be subdued. Perhaps kappa can slay kappa. Her eyes turn up towards Yuki-offa even as Saika dances back and forth with her arms held up in a guarded stance. It's comical, but perhaps it never hurts to be prepared. "Watch out!" she calls to Ixquic when ice smashes towards her. But then:
It's rocking. Everything stops.
We won? Saika thinks in optimism.
Optimism that is disproven, as it so often is. Such is the nature and unsatisfactory quality of life. That new girl, Hazumi, calls out to something. The other face of Janus. An energizing surge washes over her...! As it does, she says, "How's it feel over for you, Yanagi?" even as her head tilts upwards -- twitching as she realizes she's about to spill water out of the dish, her body rebelling against her.
Her eyes narrow towards the illuminated face of the Homunculus. "Awful nice of the thing to get in a big cabinet like that," Saika says as her arms fold. Her chubby, flabby li'l kappa arms. Kapparms. There's another wash of that soothing water from the blessing of Io, which feels even better, somehow, on her froglike (accursed) skin. After a leisurely sigh, Saika finishes her thought: "It'll make the burial easier, FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTERRRRR"
The sudden shout coming out a bit froglike but nevertheless manifesting her will. The great Monster raises his head and bares his teeth for a moment; what comes next is not another stunning blow or strangling grasp but another barrage of lightning strikes, sharp forks arcing towards that screen. Once! Twice! THRICE, each time casting a sharp shadow and making a suitably imperious roll of thunder.
AS: Tandem! Myunghon Yeo has used the Water skill Chillbrand on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Tandem! Myunghon Yeo has used the Water skill Chillbrand on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Myunghon Yeo spends Limit on Exploit! Myunghon Yeo can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Tandem! Myunghon Yeo has used the Water skill Chillbrand on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Pressure: Myunghon Yeo gains 1 Limit! AS: Persona! Saika Kikuchi has used the Elec skill Rapid Zionga on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Defense: Saika Kikuchi gains 1 Limit! AS: Saika Kikuchi: Gains 48 HP from Regen!
<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.
Ixquic will never be Ixcroak! You can't make her!!
(You can make her a kappa, though. That hasn't changed...)
Ixquic-the-kappa finishes examining herself. She hates it! This isn't the kind of dramatic figure she wants to cut! She looks like...
If she had to describe herself right now it would be like a kind of ugly plushie, honestly. And that's definitely not what Ixquic is all about!
She lashes about with her sword, smashing it into the crescent arcs of ice. One shatters, half-cut and half-broken by the impact of her heavy sword; another skims off it and bonks into Ixquic back first, causing her to stagger. Only the third gets through cleanly, and she reels backwards.
Ixquic manages to swing her sword down, catching herself with it and propping herself up with its length. She straightens a moment later, actually letting go of the golden blade for a moment to rub her hands together to try to warm them up - where she got her fingers scorched before, now they're aching from cold.
"Wrong!" Ixquic gets her hands warm enough that she doesn't feel half-numb, energized by Hazuki and Yukari (who'll get a wave later) and points, jabbing a finger. "That's not how it is! Everybody's telling you so! And if the world sucks, you have to reach out! Grasp it with your own hands - change the rules!! But if you won't listen until you lose..."
"I, the warrior maiden Ixquic, returned from the depths of eternity, will defeat you! IT'S WHOOP-ASS TIME!"
Ixquic raises her hand to her helmet and *pulls*. A few moments of that - and the entire visor *comes off*, her grey eyes visible behind a veil of blood and energy. "Quixote! GET THE PALANQUIN!" She remembered the word 'palanquin'. She's so proud of herself.
And Quixote does: appearing in a flash as Ixquic vaults onto the back, improbably balancing there. It may not be a windmill, but it's certainly a giant structure, and Quixote knows EXACTLY what to do with that. Her engine revs, and she tears off in a cloud of exhaust.
Quixote's lance lowers as the pair of them charge - but wait. It's not a pair anymore. It's just Quixote, driving in the lance with all the force in her body -
Because Ixquic has taken to the air. Energized by Quixote's spell, her sword is gleaming so bright it's leaving a smear of golden light behind it as she drives it straight down. Quixote goes low - and Ixquic goes high!
AS: Persona! Akari Hoshi has used the Pierce skill Giantslayer Lance on Nanghaithya! AS: Aggression: Akari Hoshi gains 1 Limit! AS: Tandem! Akari Hoshi has used the Light skill Holy Sword on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 54 Water damage from Myunghon Yeo's Chillbrand. Weak! AS: COUNTER! Myunghon Yeo takes 37 Strike damage in return for their attack! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 56 Water damage from Myunghon Yeo's Chillbrand. Weak! AS: COUNTER! Myunghon Yeo takes 38 Strike damage in return for their attack! AS: Block Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 51 Water damage from Myunghon Yeo's Chillbrand. Weak! AS: Block Best! Nanghaithya takes 48 Water damage from Myunghon Yeo's Chillbrand. Weak!
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Through most of the chaos, Roger has been cheerleading even as the Kappig-man has struggled to close in against relentless fireballs, exploding ice, and so many jeers in the face of a towering arcade machine palanquin that threatens to destroy them in a grotesque mockery of the game that enraptured, entrapped, and enraged a young man into a deadly entanglement with... this.
'There's only one truth in this world,' and Roger sees Yuki-Offa getting into his space. His eyes widen (he has massive frame advantage on this facial expression, don't ask how) as he's launched into the air, twisting and corkscrewing against electrically-charged frost...
As he backflips in the air, righting himself up while a funny hash mark-shaped bruise on his chin manifests as he feels a wash of empowering strength from one of Hazuki's multiple Personas - but with it, a sudden clarity.
"Oh." Roger's voice trails off. "This world you're playing in is boaring. No wonder you're not having fun--"
Another blue butterfly of wispy make drifts just out of convenient reach, necessitating some funny mid-air flailing to strike it with his tennis racquet. "Personaaaa...! Let's have fun!"
Kamapua'a, once more, manifests - and with it, a wave of wondrous - terrific, humble, radiant... well, wonderful - Aques glides forth, being directed towards that screen as he lands in a three-point crouch, one hand going up to make sure the bowl of water on his head stays level without losing a drop.
Some droplets go down over Roger the Kappa-pig's eyes. He snorts loudly, and they go right back up into the bowl.
He is the face of the little Sanguin Humor that tried his best to rally anyone he could to the aid of the young man this Homunculus nearly replaced, even like this.
"You're not even keeping the score any more...!"
AS: Block Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 54 Water damage from Myunghon Yeo's Chillbrand. Weak! AS: Persona! Roger has used the Water skill Wonderful Aques on Nanghaithya! AS: Roger regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: Block Worst! Nanghaithya takes 54 Water damage from Myunghon Yeo's Chillbrand. Weak! AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 93 Elec damage from Saika Kikuchi's Rapid Zionga. Critical Hit! AS: COUNTER! Saika Kikuchi takes 31 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Counter Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 54 Elec damage from Saika Kikuchi's Rapid Zionga. AS: COUNTER! Saika Kikuchi takes 24 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 58 Elec damage from Saika Kikuchi's Rapid Zionga. AS: COUNTER! Saika Kikuchi takes 20 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 210 Water damage from Roger's Wonderful Aques. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Paralyze added! AS: COUNTER! Roger takes 96 Strike damage in return for his attack! AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 168 Pierce damage from Akari Hoshi's Giantslayer Lance . AS: COUNTER! Akari Hoshi takes 73 Strike damage in return for her attack! Weak! AS: Block Worst! Nanghaithya takes 102 Light damage from Akari Hoshi's Holy Sword. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Block Worst! Nanghaithya takes 72 Light damage from Akari Hoshi's Holy Sword. Weak!
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
Before the crowd turns to kappas, Tamaki flashes Katsuya a placating, guilty grin after he'd recognized her, like she's been caught somewhere she isn't supposed to be, like a jig of some kind is up. "Hiiiii, Suou-san. Give Serizawa my regards!" Likely unknown to him, she's been very, VERY busy.
Her response to Yanagi is simply chipper! "You're welcome! We're in this together, right?"
...
Ririka's callout catches her attention. 'They're just trying to use the best combos without mixing them up!' She's not much of a fighting-game player, but that sure sounds to her like an analogous concept in chess: some openings and game states are more, let's say, 'well-explored.' Standard. The peak of the current meta. Effective, sure, but also known quantities. Pro players trust that their opponent is equally skilled and anticipate them to take the most safely consistent options that they would similarly opt for ...
Since they've all apparently been forced into a suboptimal match-up, anyhow ... what she hears is that the group needs to drag their adversary kicking and screaming out into the untamed wilderness of suboptimal plays and boneheaded tactics. Unsafe frame data. Blind grabs. Get-up supers.
Tamaki thinks it's time for Yuki-Offa and the Kappas to all get on the bus and take a field trip to the uncharted territories of DONKEYSPACE. If one can liken kappas to dragons, then this section on the map barely has any markings other than the text of an ominous warning which reads Hic sunt dracones.
The little princely Tamakappa boisterously leaps back to Myunghon's side and points her wooden sword forward again. In her new high-pitched squeaky voice, she chirps, "Well said! 'We begin and end in absurdity,' indeed!" Waving her toy sword in the air, she chants, "'The dancers are fools, the watchers are fools, both are fools alike, so why not dance?'"
With that, she offers Myunghon a high-five, entrusting them to enact such absurdity better than she could do herself. "We'll save that person and reach that threshold!"
"Winning may be fun when you're both going all-out, but ... You can't be in serious playing-to-win mode all the time! If you don't fuck around, then you're not going to find out!"
"Thank you, Takebakappa-san! Unfortunately, I fear I must leave the healing to you now. I've got to do some finding out, myself." Tamaki almost politely bows to Yukari as she asks for forgiveness in abandoning their shared duties, but stops herself short and momentarily leaves her head tilted forward. ... It's probably enough of a gesture to get the gist across.
Where she'd been playing defensively before, she now reverses course entirely. This isn't a clever maneuver, nor is it skillful, but she's just aiming to be where she's least expected to appear. Emboldened by the warding properties of Ririka's song, she leaps TOWARD the shockwave. Do not be mistaken -- it stings, it hurts, and she risks life and limb in exchange for this positioning advantage -- mutually-assured destruction is the aim. Her grin is soon hidden behind a newly-manifested Arianrhod, as Tamakappa clings to her back and swipes at some of the palanquin-carrying kappas with her wooden sword.
"Come and explore the unknown with me!", Tamaki calls out. She inhales as she invokes Arianrhod's next attack, then leans forward and places both of her claws splayed out as she cries out the last syllable. "Haaaaaaa ... MA!" Arianrhod lifts her sword, and a beam of light bursts from underneath the ground the palanquin stands on!
AS: Avoid Worst! Moriko Kumamoto takes 65 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Take! Tamaki Uchida takes 72 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Naiad Mediarama. AS: Avoid Neutral! Moriko Kumamoto takes 41 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Weak! AS: Persona! Tamaki Uchida has used the Light skill Hama on Nanghaithya! AS: Defense: Tamaki Uchida gains 1 Limit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Moriko Kumamoto takes 41 Slash damage from Nanghaithya's Kara Cancel. Weak!
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
"Dearest Saika, I must warn you the expression you wear is only making the whole display more endearing!" But revenge comes swiftly for Pernelle. Revenge comes fiercely.
Punting peacock posterior pushes Pernelle past palanquin promenades painfully.
Bounce, bounce, bounce Pernelle goes, tumbling end over end because he is being maliciously, horribly bullied. He peels himself from the ground with an undignified wince as healing energy weaves around him, glasses askew before he clumsily rights them. (There's a cracked lens. Media inexplicably repairs it.) "Cats," he says with a voice of condemnation. "I should expect as much."
Pernelle clears his throat. "Very well, fiend! You have earned the fiery passions of my heart! For this I defy fate itself! Witness me, Yanagi! Let no one ever deny us! I. CRAVE. INCINERATION!"
He breaks into an unhinged, maniacal giggle that rises into a full cackle of a laugh... or one that would exist after devouring all the helium frm a balloon. Being a Kappa hasn't made him that much smaller, and yet, and yet...
Here we are.
With a mighty ribbit(?!) Pernelle throws his webbed not-wings to the sky as Anqa appears. Her seams unravel, splitting her open as brilliant orange-crimson light form around the arcade machine before shattering, aiming to expose a vulnerability to the flame Yanagi informed him does not exist.
Pernelle rejects this reality, and then channels Anqa's power to restitch her body as she opens her plush beak and shoots a torrent of fire at the Arcade Tower screen. Weaken! Melt! Become brittle and explode, even...!
At least he's... having fun? Perhaps this itself is meant to speak in defiance of Nanghaithya's claim of a singular truth.
AS: Pernelle spends Limit on Exploit! Pernelle can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Persona! Pernelle has used the Almighty skill Fire Break on Nanghaithya! AS: Ruin: Pernelle gains 1 Limit! AS: Persona! Pernelle has used the Fire skill Fire Breath on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Pernelle: Gains 52 HP from Regen! Paralyze and Regen removed! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 105 Light damage from Tamaki Uchida's Hama. Weak! AS: COUNTER! Tamaki Uchida takes 70 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 0 Almighty damage from Pernelle's Fire Break. AS: Fire_Break added! AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 47 Fire damage from Pernelle's Fire Breath. AS: COUNTER! Pernelle takes 24 Strike damage in return for his attack! AS: Counter Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 42 Fire damage from Pernelle's Fire Breath. AS: COUNTER! Pernelle takes 29 Strike damage in return for his attack! AS: Counter Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 42 Fire damage from Pernelle's Fire Breath. AS: COUNTER! Pernelle takes 29 Strike damage in return for his attack!
<Pose Tracker> Moriko Kumamoto has posed.
Moriko calls back, "I- wait what? Fine!" She'll worry about it later. She can get her head in order that long at least. "This? Knowing how to beat the surface level spamming and humbling them." She scratches her cheek, briefly distracted again. "Ah. That's probably the wrong thing here. Sometimes you can get them to learn though! Come hang out next time we're all playing."
Later though. Much later.
She raises a hand, like she wants to bump knuckles with Tamaki as she takes a similar position to her. "Welcome to the uh. Show." That's a bad joke and she almost didn't want to finish it. "I.. no. I can't make the rest of it."
"You're missing out on a lot if you think there's only one truth." She calls back, "It's always more fun when it's close. Win or lose." She jabs back.
The shots ring out, albeit with a sound she didn't expect. Each striking her in rapid succesion, ending with her down on her knee. Spear planted in the ground to prop herself up. "Not out of the race yet." As she grits her teeth and pushes herself back to her feet. Leaning heavily on the polearm, hand fishing for that Evoker. Which pops out of the little backpack again. Snatched by the biker and the trigger is pulled with a lighter pop again. Head still jerking to the side. "Hama!" Regal kitsune avoiding looking at the kappa before her. Lunging forward and fading away into those motes of drifting light that flare and engulf!
The little dress clad Kappa's going to try and keep to her feet no matter what!
AS: Persona! Moriko Kumamoto has used the Light skill Hama on Nanghaithya! AS: Moriko Kumamoto: Gains 46 HP from Regen! Regen removed! AS: Block Worst! Nanghaithya takes 102 Light damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Hama. Weak! AS: Exhaust added!
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
"Of-- of course!" he says, in those moments before they all get turned into Kappas, like he's just as flustered about all this himself. She must have been here all along! How did he miss her (because she was trying not to be seen, but don't tell him that or he'll... still feel bad??).
It's that song that So-young's had joined before, but it seems louder, more focused now: his body feels more bolstered, as if he could withstand more blows that he could previously. "Miss--" Does he really need to say it, after so many similar expressions of gratitude for support throughout this conflict?
"Thank you!"
Yes. He does.
All he can do is keep using the abilities that he has available to him that don't fall into the categories that Yanagi warns them all about. He's not able to target any of its weaknesses, and he's likely to be a liability with defenses if Nanghaithya chooses to unleash that frigid storm once again.
But he has more in the moment to be concerned about than merely the next attack it uses.
"What does it matter?" An outsider can probably see that he's getting incensed at the very suggestion. "Of course it matters!" he insists, in the aftermath of Helios sniping a pair of Kappa. That third shot, though--
Kaguya-hime intervenes before another can be taken down.
Has the law ever mattered to the people at the top?
Nanghaithya couldn't have frozen Katsuya to the spot better if it had used ice, itself. "That's--" Katsuya utters, thinking about a certain colleague of his, thinking about what Akechi had told him might be the case about his workplace, thinking about the Foreign Minister and his son. It would probably be a great deal more dramatic, admittedly, if he weren't a small, green, vaguely frog-like being. In a nice suit (that doesn't suit his form the least bit presently), admittedly, but.
Helios is easily snapped up in Kaguya-hime's whips, only for it to crack down upon him with his Persona in tow. He's laid out across the floor, a sight far more comedic for his current condition than he'd otherwise prefer. Helios is the better off of the two of them because it can just dissipate into blue flame and vanish.
He's not out of the running yet, though. After some fumbling for his sunglasses (they were very much not on his face -- well, perched atop his kappa beak after all that) he's back on his feet just in time to witness something very interesting when the arcade cabinet destablizes.
(As a side note, yes, he too hopes this isn't a permanent change. You probably can't be a homicide detective if you're a kappa!)
To be honest, he hasn't played pinball since he was a child. And he won't say he was good at it. He was rather middle of the road to be honest. As the machine shifts on its base, though, he's reminded of something you can do with a pinball machine: tilt it. It was frowned upon in competitive play, and some machines would even penalize you. But technically speaking, it's possible with the lighter cabinet of a pinball machine.
Looking at the cabinet of this machine, isn't it heavier? It's built to rest solidly on the ground. In normal operation, it wouldn't be moved -- shouldn't be moved. If it were, it was likely it could fall.
Which... is the thing that's been attacking them? The figures from that game? Or is it instead the game, the arcade tower itself?
It had seemed furious when it had nearly fallen over just now.
"It's-- the arcade machine!" he calls out, echoing a similar sentiment from some of the others like Yukari and Yanagi. "If we strike at the base, it won't be able to stand up! It should collapse!"
And it would be better yet if someone who can strike its weakness weren't so beleagured by status ailments. "Helios!" Katsuya calls, using the wages of one of the cards he'd bargained with them for in the first place to strengthen Myunghon; in the same instant, he draws his sidearm (now way, way cuter than a cop's gun should be-- it wasn't always bright green with a big kappa sticker on one side, was it??) and takes aim then fires at one of those Kappa supporting the enormous arcade cabinet.
AS: Persona! Katsuya Suou has used the Almighty skill Tarukaja on Myunghon Yeo! AS: Defense: Katsuya Suou gains 1 Limit! AS: Take! Myunghon Yeo takes 0 Almighty damage from Katsuya Suou's Tarukaja. AS: Atk_Dn removed! AS: Weapon! Katsuya Suou has used the Pierce skill Handgun - Shot on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 63 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Handgun - Shot. AS: COUNTER! Katsuya Suou takes 26 Strike damage in return for his attack! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 67 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Handgun - Shot. Critical Hit! AS: COUNTER! Katsuya Suou takes 45 Strike damage in return for his attack!
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
Oh no. There's a drawback, it seems, to taking shelter within a sphere. That is - you become incredibly rollable.
Bakeduo-Neko pounces! ...And Lucia goes rolling, rolling, rolling, as the cats chase and play.
"P-please stop...! This isn't a toy!" Fuuka pleads, sloshing about this way and that in her personal pool - until eventually Lucia does come to a stop.
Fuuka floats there in a swirly-eyed daze for a moment, at least until Yukari's words draw her back to some semblance of reality.
"I-I believe it should... " Fuuka replies. "Destroying it should disrupt its control - and likely its hold over us, as well."
Easier said than done, though. The Homunculus takes offense to their observation.
The game is only fun for the people who rule...
"That's... a very lonely way of looking at things." She murmurs. And then, Yanagi calls out to her. Fuuka is briefly surprised at being referred to by her first name - but she nods.
"...Yes! We should be able to destabilize it if we put enough pressure on it." Fuuka agrees.
That means attacking in sync - something made easier through their abilities than it is for others. As Yanagi inundates the base with waves, Lucia extends her hands outward atop her sphere. Two daggers of light form, and are sent racing toward the base for a precision attack. And where they land, they stick, to provide a helpful glowing target for everyone else!
AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Light skill Kouha on Nanghaithya! AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Light skill Kouha on Nanghaithya!
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Waves of force lash out for everyone involved, and Ririka yelps and does what might be the most natural thing in the world for a Kappa player--or someone who has become a Kappa--to do.
.... She turtles.
Her shell rocks back and forth as the first two waves hit, but then the third one catches her at just the right moment and sends her rolling and tumbling across the ground until she lands on her back, stars circling around her head.
"... guard break," she groans.
She shakes her head to clear it. She can see--and hear--the truth of what's going on, those angry red eyes, and the effect of her song. "You know--" She grunts with effort as she rocks herself back and forth until she's up on her feet. "I'm not the best Night Parade player. But I still have fun even when I lose. Because what I enjoy isn't the winning!"
(Don't ask her what she enjoys. It's kind of obvious.)
"Amphion!" she shouts. "Magnara!" Amphion begins to strum his lyre (don't ask how he does this with tiny turtle claws), and around him several large chunks of earth float up. They all placidly circle the persona for a moment before suddenly rising high up and shooting straight for the Arcade Towr's screen and those red eyes.
As Amphion does that Ririka taps out a drumming pattern on her shell, and sends the rhythm to So-young. "Park-san!" she says, transmitting her voice. "Here's an opening you can use!" Maybe the extra beat will help guide an action she might take in this chaotic battlefield.
AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Earth skill Magnara on Nanghaithya! AS: Ririka Kawase spends Limit on Shift! So-young Park can use another Weak skill this round! SP +8! Healed 20!
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
As her onslaught of attacks hit their mark, a stray, paranoid thought pops up, like a water bubble, in Umie's mind.
_Is her Mark showing?!_
Taking a moment to extend her short arms in front of her, (the webbed digits *are* kind of adorable, even if the red nail polish does not work very well on green nail beds) Umie's fears are laid to rest. All her clothing had scaled down adorably with her, including the thumbsleeves worn underneath her coat's sleeves.
It only stirs a bit of curiosity, however, as Umie wonders, in this form, does it still...?
She's careful as she peeks at her right wrist, shielding it with her left.
Alas, there is a disappointed Kappumie on the field, her cute little beak mouth curved in a widening frown. Even on this form, the Mark is still there.
All this talk, of games, and aceing, and winning, like losing was ever an option...
*POIT!* *POIT!* *POITPOITPOIT!!*
The first shot whiffs past Umie's head, undoing one of her cute little buns in a *piff* of blonde.
The rest fare less well; resolve and anger tighten Umie's kappa body to its limits, zipping past each shot.
Umie's about had enough, but her malaise kept her from paying attention to the fight, and what comes next. She looks now to Orange-san-- Hazuki, the person that seems closest to Taro, and thus the one most able to have information that could work.
Hazuki's defiance is brilliant, but she'll need whatever she can get to amp it to the next level (ha?!). Zipping by Hazuki (and looking less impressive doing so), Umie murmurs, "My prophecy is still in effect." Her amphibian eyelids lowering slightly. "But it can only work if it's in the past. The stars will only work in your favor if you make them do so."
That almost sounded cool. "--Kero." DAMN IT.
'It's-- the arcade machine!' Kappumie finally notices Katsuya, and, briefly, realizes that she technically is the one that inflicted the insult of this ailment on this poor man. It is kind of adorable, though.
............ is this gap moe (NOT NOW UMIE)
"On it, Katsuya-san!" Umie raises her right hand, summoning the large, slender form of Badb overhead.
"Roger's right. A game that you're the best at sure sounds boring, kero." If only she could snap her fingers right now...
Instead, Kappumie's break parts in a sinister smile, mirroring Badb's own.
'The fun part is in the struggle.'
"The fun part is in the struggle, kero."
(.... this is not working at all style-wise, maybe this will be the end and Umie can go play capybara in a bathtub for the rest of the night)
AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 72 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Naiad Mediarama. AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Pale Shriek on Nanghaithya! AS: Ruin: Umie Akabane gains 1 Limit! AS: Umie Akabane regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 94 Light damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Kouha. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Haze added! AS: COUNTER! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 63 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Block Worst! Nanghaithya takes 59 Light damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Kouha. Weak! AS: Haze added! AS: Counter Neutral! Nanghaithya takes 139 Earth damage from Ririka Kawase's Magnara. Critical Hit! AS: Bind added! Haze removed! Explosion! 50 damage! AS: COUNTER! Ririka Kawase takes 93 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 57 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Pale Shriek. Resist! AS: COUNTER! Umie Akabane takes 74 Strike damage in return for her attack!
<Pose Tracker> So-young Park has posed.
The kappa that is the Tokyo Philharmonic's conductor tries to pose elegantly with one hand under its chin. "You're a very poor winner. I can only imagine what might happen if you lose," So-young croaks without any trace of humour in her voice. Little by little, she's starting to identify the tone of their enemy's arguments - it's the same sort of desperation and insistence she's heard before, coming from the mouth of one Kaneshiro, twisted around to a different topic.
But this feels younger, somehow? More petulant, perhaps? Maybe she just feels that way because Kaneshiro was all about money and its uses, a much more utilitarian and 'adult' perspective than this one despite its similar simplicity. This feels like the kid who wants to stay on the arcade machine all day, who wants to be big and strong and the winner, because that means the games don't have to stop. That that's how the 'fun' continues, because otherwise it'll stop, and that fear--
Maybe in another timeline there would be an epiphany to be had there, but once again So-young is distracted by the immediacy of the situation, because there are suddenly Kappa flying all around them and she's nowhere near self-sacrificing enough to bother risking her own skin when she could instead get the hell out of dodge and off to one side. She has just enough time to hope that none of these are the people she's supposed to be fighting with before one of them collides into her, leaving her careening between bodies in a way that probably looks more humorous than it feels.
She finally manages to catch herself on her hands and... legs? knees? she does not know frog anatomy - grimacing again as she feels a stab of foolishness and annoyance. It's not eluding her that this is a far cry from some of her more commanding appearances, especially when her appearance is a good ninety percent of her sense of self-confidence. Myunghon almost cheerfully calls over some advice, and her webbed hands curl up into tiny tiny fists as she registers it. ... right. It's a world of cognition. Maybe if she thinks hard enough about 'So-young Park', then 'So-young Park' will revert?
She can't make eloquent arguments like her sibling can, but she can certainly furrow her brow as she hauls herself back up to standing. She concentrates for a moment, and her baton winks back into her hand. These kappa hands still cannot grasp something so slim properly - but she decides there in that singular instant before it drops again that such outdated rules as physics simply don't apply to her here. She's already told gravity to screw off, so why can't she do the same to the idea of having opposable thumbs?
So-young Park is a Conductor. She will have her baton even if it has to float in front of her, damn it.
The kappa looks extremely serious as it closes its eyes. Not even connected to her hand, the spectral length of silver jogs downwards, and then to one side, and then upwards before repeating. Three beats to the bar, a waltz of combat - but more than that, a key reminder to herself that she can still do this even in this form. "... there we are," So-Kappa mutters with some relief under her breath, and the little tiny kappa throws its arms (as) wide (as it can) as it once again feels the rhythm of the fight, her Persona emitting a piercing cry in answer.
"Encore!" she demands of herself as the winds whip back around her, almost taking her smaller form off her feet. She's not completely sure what she's doing, but evidently part of her was listening to their navigators, because before she knows any better she has a translucent card spinning in her free palm, the telltale symbol of Rumormonger Merry's merchandise sparking with power as Icarus' trail explodes in a series of shimmering lights to try to set Nanghaithya off balance.
And as Katsuya makes a path forward clear for them and Ririka adds her attempt at carving an opening to So-young's own, she sends the rest of that gathered wind forwards with all her might, hurtling the form of Icarus forwards towards the base of the arcade machine in a flight so low it skims the ground. It becomes suddenly clear that she intends to simply crash Icarus into the side of the machine and damn the consequences. Whatever comes next she'll just figure out later, even if that is having to rebuild her Persona afterwards.
AS: Persona! So-young Park has used the Almighty skill Giocoso on So-young Park! AS: Support: So-young Park gains 1 Limit! AS: Take! So-young Park takes 0 Almighty damage from So-young Park's Giocoso. AS: Crt_Up added! AS: Persona! So-young Park has used the Light skill Kouha on Nanghaithya! AS: So-young Park: Gains 55 HP from Regen! Fire_Wall and Regen removed! AS: So-young Park regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: So-young Park spends Limit on Exploit! So-young Park can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Persona! So-young Park has used the Wind skill Rondo on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Counter Best! Nanghaithya takes 58 Light damage from So-young Park's Kouha. Weak! AS: Haze added! Bind removed! Explosion! 50 damage! AS: COUNTER! So-young Park takes 40 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 51 Wind damage from So-young Park's Rondo. AS: COUNTER! So-young Park takes 26 Strike damage in return for her attack! AS: Counter Worst! Nanghaithya takes 64 Wind damage from So-young Park's Rondo. Critical Hit! AS: COUNTER! So-young Park takes 32 Strike damage in return for her attack!
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
((AGH! DAMMIT!))
Frustration and pain screech out of garbled speakers as Nanghaithya is given a taste of its own medicine -- the crescent waves of ice it used via Yuki-Offa to assault poor Kappazuki are just reflected BACK at the Arcade Palanquin, striking the tower with a raucous CRASH of shattering ice. The screen flickers again -- the sight of that face spitting foul epithets about Hazuki that are thankfully all auto-censored into strings of symbols on the screen -- becomes visible once more as the Tower sparks and sputters, leaving little room for doubt.
The real Nanghaithya isn't Yuki-Offa, or any of the fighters.
It's that arcade tower, sat imperiously monolithic upon its gaming palanquin.
But as long as that palanquin remains, its power over those Night Parade fighters - whatever they are - will continue to hold, and this fight may inevitably tip in its favor simply because of how many -ways- it can counter everyone here. Yuki-Offa, especially, seems barely perturbed by any of the violence inflicted upon her: a living symbol of victory she is, unable to be stopped, unable to be beaten.
The ultimate cognition of a winner.
And so Yanagi helps to set the stage and guide the others after Hazuki's reflected assault; Giselle's chilling waters whip across the air, SMASHING into the screen with crackling ripples of electricity with each blow. As Yanagi attacks, Master Koto springs upon her with a spinning headstand-kick, aiming to wheel blow after blow into her frail, Kappa form with each blow --
But the damage is done. Myunghon seizes upon the initiative, evoking that novella that resonates so strongly with this moment once more. No one has any objection to the destruction of idols, they claim, as Kappalak once more remanifests, wielding not the power of darkness, nor the power of his adorable Kappa Koat, but --
One blade of ice! Oh!
Two blades of ice! OH!
Three blades of ice! OH!! IS THAT THE END OF IT?!
NO! FOUR! FIVE! SIX!! OH!!! OH!!!! OH!!!!!
They SMASH into the base of the Palanquin over and over, even as Bakeduo-neko rears his terrible, feline head to do a spinning, hand-linking, very-normal-human maneuver that sends its twin cat bodies whirlwinding STRAIGHT through Myunghon and Kappalak's supposedly weak, supposedly useless bodies--
But the second it lands? The two cats glitch. For a moment, they look like -- the audience Flegmats Nanghaithya absorbed, each stacked on top of each other?? -- before the cats reassert themselves and bound off again.
The palanquin sparks and shorts, but still holds Nanghaithya aloft, even as more Taro-Kappas are smooshed beneath its weight.
No one has any objection to the destruction of idols.
But he who can sit at ease on the throne of idols...
((You -- you -- YOU! Who cares about some dusty old book?! What does some dead man matter?! It won't stop me! I won't -- I won't--))
Alas. Perhaps it's as Yanagi says. ... Its view is just to limited by its predatory, parasitic nature to see the very thing that keeps it from becoming what it yearns to be:
Existence.
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
Tamaki and Saika come next -- Tamaki - no, TAMAKAPPA - rides a reckless wave of that most sweet siren song of FUCKING AROUND, and she finds out -- that victory often tastes the sweetest when there's risks. Her wooden sword sweeps -- and it takes the feet out of several of those litter-bearing Taro-Kappas, tripping them up, making their grasp slacken and tear off completely; some of its proverbial footing lost, Nanghaithya's Palanquin begins to sway again -- until Arianrhod IGNITES that beam of light underneath the Palanquin. It bucks UPWARD like a rearing horse--
--just in time for Kappastein's Monster to unleash the very furious plasma that gave it life, CRACKING thunderbolts into Nanghaithya's 'face'! Again! And AGAIN! The white-hot flashes of his power, combined with the upwards shunt of the Palanquin, sends Nanghaithya's Arcade Tower body sliiiding precariously backwards as it cries out with a distorted shriek of static--
--and it is only a sudden self-sacrifice of a gaggle of Kappas, surging upwards to desperately press stubbly little hands to the back of their idol and shove it back into place that saves it.
Which doesn't keep them from getting squashed like poor Goombas introduced to the bootheels of the foul demon Mario as they land and that Palanquin's backwards rocking just crashes bodily into them.
alas, poor Kappas.
((What is there to find out?! There's nothing - NOTHING - complicated about this life! NOTHING! I refuse to be crushed underfoot by people as pathetic as you all! I refu--))
And this is when Pernelle, living evidence against Nanghaithya's singular philosophy, just strips away the Homunculus' bulwark against the unyielding flames of this passionate world.
((Wait. What--))
Billowing flames are conjured forth with the swing of glorious, stubby not-wings and a baleful ribbit. Once more, Bakeduo-neko leaps from the fray to try to intercept Pernelle. And while they manage to bounce-rebound off of him and Anqa like feline pinball machines --
They're ultimately caught in the towering inferno of Anqa's flames, letting out a hideous yowl as their rival (????) overpowers them. Bakeduo-neko goes stumbling into a collapsed heap, smoking as a little 'K.O.!!' message manifests over its head. And as for Nanghaithya--
It gets the remaining brunt of the flames, letting out a frustrated static-shriek as they buffet and CRACK that screen in a brutal, long, thin spider-web line of fracturing glass.
It's mad. Distracted. Enough so that Moriko's Persona manages to completely blindside it with another blast of light eroding at its sacred mount; more Kappas are blasted away, going flying with despondent "kerooooooooooooooooooo~~~!"s. Nanghaitha slumps this way and that on the Palanquin, unable to move its own body to right itself.
And it's from that defenseless position that Katsuya capitalizes, realizing the Homunculus' own immobility. He personally draws his gun, taking pot-shots with his ~* SUPER KAWAII *~ implement of police brutality. Each POK POK POK! of fire nails one of those supporting Kappas, sending it ricocheting away from the Palanquin base. The front end crashes DOWN. The remaining Kappas scramble, trying to redistribute their numbers to heft the thing up once more--
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
But its too late. Moving to Ririka's guiding rhythm, Amphion HURLS rocks at Nanghaithya's screen. The kinetic impact WHAPS against it, over and over, even as Kaguya-hime comes crashing down with the SNAP of her whip to try to stop her.
That's... a very lonely way of looking at things.
But she can't stop Fuuka and Lucia, helping to open the way further for those who remain, as Umie and Babd come in in hot pursuit, the raucous SHRIEK of Umie's Persona unsettling Nanghaithya just as daggers of light CRACK into the Palanquin Base, forming the start of a fracture along its center.
The fun part is in the struggle, kero.
Whereupon Icarus, guided by So-young's turbulent winds, just CRASHES into that fracture with a sudden shriek of shattering glass and bending metal, straining its form further--
And if the world sucks, you have to reach out!
This world you're playing in is boaring. No wonder you're not having fun--
Roger and Ixquic, empowered by Hazuki, crash down upon Nanghaithya. Water and blade sing in perfect harmony for the Homunculus. And as the Kappa struggle to heft that weight--
*KRA-KOOM*
--Quixote crashes down in a furious flash of light, lance-first.
For a moment, everything seems to freeze. Like those perfect, glorious points where the game just has to do a panning shot of the ridiculous maneuver that has just been performed.
Nanghaithya, its monolithic tower of a body, hurtling through the air, detached from its base, its screen a furious scarlet DX of rage.
And that Palanquin.
Shattering in half with the sound of a thunder crack.
It all freezes. And then--
With an unceremonious CRRSH, Nanghaithya hits the ground, sparking and smoking and inert.
And every single fighter, from Yuki-Offa to Kaguya-hime, all just freeze.
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
They linger. But only for a moment. Soon, those glitches return, sporadic spurts of pixels that see them all slowly discorporating -- the cognitive glamour that ensorcelled them giving way as streams of Flegmats forcefully bound burst from those dissolving bodies, flying through the air with newfound freedom.
And so, too --
Yukappa and the others' worried of permanence are washed away as their forms crackle, distort, glitch --
And the guise of weak and adorable Kappas all slowly dissolve away, revealing their true, cognitive forms beneath.
The spell broken. The Fighters unbound and freed.
And Nanghaithya...
((... There's no point in struggling.))
Nanghaithya speaks slowly. The distorted, static crackle of barely-simmering rage. The Taro-Kappas - the only minions that remain - all slowly rise.
((If you aren't at the top, you might as well not even try.))
And become indistinct, shimmery frameworks of what they once were, as each one dissolves into offputting fluids of green and pink that flow inward --
Towards Nanghaithya.
They provide it form. They provide it strength.
They provide it a second chance.
A tiny, pathetic body forms beneath the Arcade Tower that is the Homunculus, all knobby limbs and rotund torso. It's sad.
But it's enough.
Enough to drag itself upwards, as the fluid stretches to cover and reshape Nanghaithya's Arcade Tower body.
Enough to -lift- it into a floating position, stunty-legs crossing and stunty-arms folding in its tiny lap as Nanghaithya's new 'head' shapes -- looking like an Arcade Tower that has been forcibly remolded into a Kappa's head. The screen and the overhanging top and buttons beneath form the 'beak.' At its 'scalp,' that ringmaster hat remains, blown out and burned away to the point the top of the top hat has been completely torn away, leaving what looks almost like a signature, Kappa-ring of hair.
And at either side of the tower--
((If you don't win, you lose. Don't you get it? If you're not first -- you might as well be last.))
Big, bulging eyes of saturated scarlet form, pixelated blazes of its parasitic nature.
((But if I can't win... YOU won't win either.))
It rises into the air in that faux-enlightened posture, as all around it, wind starts to whip. The support columns of the Big Top begin to strain, threatening to uproot. Chunks of ground rip from the fixture of the Atelier, swirling within the mounting vortex, as it becomes terribly clear what it's trying to do:
((You don't win.))
It's trying to tear apart the Big Top. No --
It's trying to destroy the whole Atelier.
And yet, as those winds mount, as the harrowing cyclone builds, as the very world seems to tear apart--
It resists.
Something within the Atelier -- something within Taro Nakata's will, perhaps -- rebels against Nanghaithya. Against its power.
Against its sad, narrow-minded views.
And as it makes its suicidal maneuver, answering that question of just what would happen if it -does- lose --
Those gathered find new might and life swelling within them as the very Atelier itself empowers them.
They are at their last legs. The abuse they have sustained is immense.
((YOU DON'T WIN.))
But even a single pixel of health is enough to pull off victory, as long as you struggle for it.
AS: Roger sets off Nanghaithya's trigger! 1260 damage! AS: Nanghaithya spends Limit on Broad! AS: Nanghaithya spends Limit on Break! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Wind skill You. Didn't. WIN. on Hazuki Nakao, Roger, Akari Hoshi, and Tamaki Uchida! AS: Charm results in party damage! Nanghaithya takes 60 damage! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Wind skill You. Didn't. WIN. on Myunghon Yeo, So-young Park, Katsuya Suou, and Umie Akabane! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Wind skill You. Didn't. WIN. on Yanagi Nagisa, Pernelle, and Saika Kikuchi! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Wind skill You. Didn't. WIN. on Fuuka Yamagishi, Ririka Kawase, Moriko Kumamoto, and Yukari Takeba! AS: Nanghaithya spends Limit on Reach! AS: Persona! Nanghaithya has used the Recovery skill !!EVO MOMENT 37!! on Umie Akabane, Ririka Kawase, Fuuka Yamagishi, Katsuya Suou, Moriko Kumamoto, Pernelle, Tamaki Uchida, Roger, Akari Hoshi, Saika Kikuchi, Myunghon Yeo, Yukari Takeba, Yanagi Nagisa, and Hazuki Nakao! AS: Avoid Best! Hazuki Nakao takes 70 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. Critical Hit! AS: Break! Hazuki Nakao can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Worst! Myunghon Yeo takes 66 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. AS: Break! Myunghon Yeo can take another Weak action this round! AS: Block Worst! Yanagi Nagisa takes 62 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. AS: Rage added! AS: Break! Yanagi Nagisa can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Best! Yukari Takeba takes 12 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. Resist! AS: Rage added! AS: Break! Yukari Takeba can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Hazuki Nakao takes 48 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Atk_Up, Crt_Up, and Regen added! AS: Break! Hazuki Nakao can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Yukari Takeba takes 57 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Crt_Up and Regen added! Atk_Dn and Def_Dn removed! AS: Break! Yukari Takeba can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Yanagi Nagisa takes 57 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Crt_Up and Regen added! Atk_Dn removed! AS: Break! Yanagi Nagisa can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Myunghon Yeo takes 48 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Atk_Up, Crt_Up, and Regen added! AS: Break! Myunghon Yeo can take another Weak action this round! AS: Hazuki Nakao has no more TP available for healing! AS: Akari Hoshi spends Limit on Shift! Hazuki Nakao can use another Weak skill this round! SP +8! Healed 20! AS: Take! Akari Hoshi takes 52 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Atk_Up, Crt_Up, and Regen added! Def_Dn removed! AS: Break! Akari Hoshi can take another Weak action this round! AS: Block Neutral! Akari Hoshi takes 53 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. AS: Break! Akari Hoshi can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 41 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. Critical Hit! AS: Rage added! AS: Break! Umie Akabane can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 57 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Crt_Up and Regen added! Atk_Dn, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn removed! AS: Break! Umie Akabane can take another Weak action this round! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi spends Limit on Brace! AS: Block Best! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 26 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. AS: Rage added! AS: Break! Fuuka Yamagishi can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 41 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Crt_Up and Regen added! Atk_Dn and Spd_Dn removed! AS: Break! Fuuka Yamagishi can take another Weak action this round! AS: Block Best! Katsuya Suou takes 27 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. Critical Hit! AS: Break! Katsuya Suou can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 52 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Atk_Up, Crt_Up, and Regen added! AS: Break! Katsuya Suou can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Worst! Roger takes 96 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. Critical Hit! AS: Break! Roger can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Roger takes 48 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Atk_Up, Crt_Up, and Regen added! AS: Break! Roger can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Worst! Pernelle takes 63 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. AS: Break! Pernelle can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Pernelle takes 48 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Crt_Up and Regen added! Atk_Dn and Spd_Dn removed! AS: Break! Pernelle can take another Weak action this round! AS: Block Neutral! Saika Kikuchi takes 47 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. AS: Break! Saika Kikuchi can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Neutral! Tamaki Uchida takes 58 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. AS: Rage added! AS: Break! Tamaki Uchida can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Saika Kikuchi takes 30 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Atk_Up, Crt_Up, and Regen added! Def_Dn and Spd_Dn removed! AS: Saika Kikuchi has no more TP available for healing! AS: Break! Saika Kikuchi can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Tamaki Uchida takes 57 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Crt_Up and Regen added! Atk_Dn removed! AS: Break! Tamaki Uchida can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Worst! So-young Park takes 44 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. Resist! AS: Break! So-young Park can take another Weak action this round!
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
The Homunculus keeps going, and going. But the team manages to destroy that Arcade Palanuin, as Hazuki turns to Umie and...
"Eh?"
She doesn't understand the oracle... but she does, too. She'll seize her destiny here and now.
Hazuki returns to normal, but the pathetic Homunculus draws power into itself from the Taro-Kappas.
And then it rows, and grows, and tries to *destroy the Atelier*, and Hazuki...is mad.
But she lets it bleed away. Her friends, strangers, everyone's fighting with her. For *Taro*.
"I don't win?" She calls out, calmly walking forward, bat in her hand. The wind shatters towards her, and suddenly, she's dodge rolling, missing the brunt of it, staying on her feet despite her hair blowing back and her skin getting bruised. Taro's Atelier empowers her...
"Good try, but nah."
BGM SHIFT: Cassette Beasts - Cross Your Heart - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjMk-qwnMAs
"I should have sympathy for you, struggling to exist. But I don't. You're a parasite who only cares about hurting people. You're not a *person*. And for that..."
Her pace is still casual, as Janus is summoned above her, floating alongside her through that wind.
"If I'm the Goddess of Tricks who never loses, who makes you so mad, then I declare... game over for Nanghaithya the Discontent!"
Suddenly, she's blurring forward. Janus shines light on her bat, and it blazes brilliantly like a holy sword...
And she starts swinging, graceful strikes. Slash, slash, slash, slash, slash, slash.
After those six perfect strikes, suddenly Janus shines on her once more, and the light *cascades*, radiant in all its splendor. Hazuki moves to impale the Homunculus with it...
The light show is sure to be explosive in the end, as a ray *detonates* out of the strike, beautiful and deadly.
AS: Tandem! Hazuki Nakao has used the Light skill Holy Sword on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Aggression: Hazuki Nakao gains 1 Limit! AS: Tandem! Hazuki Nakao has used the Light skill Holy Sword on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Tandem! Hazuki Nakao has used the Light skill Holy Sword on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Tandem! Hazuki Nakao has used the Light skill Smiling Supernova on Nanghaithya! AS: Hazuki Nakao has no more TP available for healing! AS: Hazuki Nakao: Gains 51 HP from Regen! Bind, Crt_Up, Def_Dn, and Regen removed!
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Given time, Fuuka will learn that Yanagi addressing people by their first names with no suffix at first acquaintance is normal for her, no matter how off-putting it is for anyone else. Yanagi is rarely challenged on this mark--Japanese people are so often reluctant to make waves. Yanagi knows this well. She beams at her all the same when Fuuka agrees to cooperate and follows up with her attack--and when Lucia brings down those two daggers of light to make a target for the others, Yanagi calls to her, "Oh, well done!"
She likewise beams at Tamaki, who says they're in this together. "More or less!" she chirps, promisingly. The soothing waves of Yukari's Mediarama wash over her next, restoring even more energy--a good thing, considering the Homunculus continues to retaliate against her via Master Koto, doing his own spinning by way of wheeling kick after kick down upon her. She had cried out in pain reflexively, but the moment it had ended, Yukari's Mediarama had come to her aid.
"Aahhh...! You have a half-rotten personality at least, but your healing is expertly done! Thank you!" Yanagi tells Yukari earnestly, despite the open insult. (She might not have said anything at the time, but she definitely heard Yukari talking smack about taking advice from a talking bird earlier.)
Speaking of whom--! The talking bird in question announces his defiance of this damnable strength-against-fire! "Pernelle...!" Yanagi's eyes sparkle like light off a lake, which likewise glitters off the cuppa in her cap-pa. "I shall witness you! Let it be burned on the projector of my heart!" Anqa parts, and there--is--CONFLAGRATION.
...It might not be all that effective, but some of Giselle's little angel-shaped Wilis shall record it all the same. What matters is not the power, but the passion, and let no one say that Pernelle is lacking.
So when Saika asks her how it feels, it really doesn't matter that her health is flagging and maintained only by Yukari's Mediarama. Yanagi is used to pain. She beams at her friend and says, "It feels wonderful! It won't be much longer, now!"
Sure enough, Nanghaithya's palanquin shatters, sending the Homunculus to CRASH and spark and smoke upon the floor. All the fighters save for the Taro-Kappas vanish after a moment and release the Flegmat Shadows that had been forced to take those forms, and the Kappa forms that had been forced upon the Persona Users vanish in turn. Yanagi tosses her hair back, raising her hands as her breath bursts out.
And... the Homunculus speaks. Nanghaithya, the Discontent, claims there's no point in struggling. That if you aren't at the top, you may as well not bother trying.
"...What an odd thing to say."
Yanagi lowers her head until she gazes directly upon the wretched creature.
"What do you think you're doing right now?"
It's a sad little indeed that the Taro-Kappas form for the Homunculus. Yanagi smiles ruefully as Nanghaithya only proves her point by refusing to the very end to go down without a fight. As it reforms itself, floating into a Kappa-head formed by electronics and ringmaster regalia, it expresses its true nature as the sorest of losers.
By trying to destroy the Atelier, and all of them with it, in a building hurricane of ripping winds.
She's nothing left to say to it. She merely sighs and shakes her head before the tearing gales would swallow her up. Even as that happens, though--even as she might be about to get torn and hurtled away--there's something about the Atelier... about the true Taro Nakata that the Homunculus tried so desperately to usurp... that resists.
Yanagi Nagisa is lifted on the hurricane winds that would rend her asunder into naught but strips of meat, but there is more life that swells up around her, keeping her intact.
She breathes out into that destroying gale with that sigh, with a bone-chilling cold that might slow it down enough for the others--for Hazuki, the Goddess of Tricks, rising up with only deep contempt for the Thing that Wore Nakata's Face--to strike Nanghaithya the Discontent down once and for all.
AS: Persona! Yanagi Nagisa has used the Water skill Cold Breath on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Yanagi Nagisa has used the Water skill Cold Breath on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Yanagi Nagisa has used the Water skill Flurry Bufula on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Yanagi Nagisa: Gains 54 HP from Regen! Def_Dn and Spd_Dn removed! AS: Yanagi Nagisa regains 6 SP from Invigorate! AS: Block Worst! Ririka Kawase takes 76 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. Critical Hit! AS: Rage added! AS: Break! Ririka Kawase can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 57 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Crt_Up and Regen added! Atk_Dn and Spd_Dn removed! AS: Break! Ririka Kawase can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Worst! Moriko Kumamoto takes 81 Wind damage from Nanghaithya's You. Didn't. WIN.. AS: Break! Moriko Kumamoto can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Moriko Kumamoto takes 48 Recovery healing from Nanghaithya's !!EVO MOMENT 37!!. AS: Crt_Up and Regen added! Atk_Dn and Spd_Dn removed! AS: Break! Moriko Kumamoto can take another Weak action this round! <Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
'Takebakappa-san'
Yukari's soul withers at Tamaki's statement, "If we live through this, you're never going to let me forget this, are you?"
Tamaki bows to her though and leaves it to her, "Ah? ... Oh-okay! I'm... barely keeping up as is but I'll do my best, aha-ha." Her Kappa brow is sweating buckets now.
And try she does. However - it's a battle of attrition. She can't heal as well as she ordinarily does, and she feels so weak.
"You're welcome...?" She says to Yanagi, before, "Wait- Half-rotten!? What do you mean by that!?"
Fortunately there's no time for her to litigate this, given the frantic pace.
But she holds her breath, as a decisive hit is scored and then, the Palanquin shatters, and the cabinet crashes.
"Was it... was it enough?"
The terror is there for a few moments, that this may be permanent, but - then, as she looks at her hands, there's a distorted glitch. And the guise melts away, leaving a teenage girl behind, staring at her hands.
"Oh thank goodness..." She takes a deep breath, hugging herself for a long moment. "... What am I even doing?"
'If you aren't at the top, you might as well not even try.'
It speaks slowly, the tiny Homunculus arising.
"... That's not how it works." As it arises, Kappa ascendant, what's left of it, it's big bulging eyes pixelating as the mounting vortex blasts her more and more. The Atelier prone to shatter - and with it... someone else will die.
She thinks of the Kirijo Group, at the top - able to cover it all up what happened, leaving her adrift.
So many pointless years of investigating something that someone like her wouldn't begin to know how to figure out. Striving in vain for one little clue of information.
But she didn't give up, no matter how often it was tempting to. This whole world where those at the top win, and everyone else gets crushed?
She won't accept it.
"I don't have to win..." As suddenly, instinctually, she reaches into a pocket, and slides what looks like a clip into the Evoker, with a flash of light as it does. "... But I won't lose either."
She presses it against her head, and pulls the trigger, her eyes alit with hues of crimson as the ephemeral glass breaks, a reflection of her eyes as each piece falls.
Io erupts behind her and rather than grabbing arrows. They just form. Arrows of emerald light, which she nocks and pulls at preternatural speed. One after another after another is fired through the storm trying to destroy the Atelier, buoyed by wind currents.
Before Io lifts her up in spiraling currents of wind, flipping her end over end - orienting her- as another emerald arrow forms, it's tip aglow with power as she sights down Nanghaithya.
"I WON'T!" The tip flashes brightly, and launches with tremendous force towards the Homunculus. And where it strikes- a column of riotous wind slams down upon it.
AS: Yukari Takeba spends Limit on Psych! AS: Tandem! Yukari Takeba has used the Wind skill Cyclone Arrow on Nanghaithya! AS: Weapon! Yukari Takeba has used the Pierce skill Please Hit! on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Yukari Takeba: Gains 54 HP from Regen! Spd_Dn removed! AS: Yukari Takeba regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.
Ixquic hangs halfway through her slash, her blade still shimmering with the holy energy from Quixote as it's halfway through, while Quixote has driven the lance directly through the Palanquin. A picture-perfect freeze, the camera rotating -
Nanghaithya's palanquin shatters.
Ixquic flips backward, losing her kappa shape as she does with a crackling distortion. The shift actually makes her less agile, because her balance changed halfway through her flight path; she manages to land on her feet but she staggers when she does it, Quixote wheeling up next to her before vanishing in white-blue sparkles.
(Also, with the transformation, her mask is back on.)
Akari breathes in, then out, as she tries to catch her breath by controlled breathing. It sort of works, but she's still so hyper she can't sit still. She's found her reserves, and while she'll pay for it in the morning, it's keeping her going NOW as the thing forms the last Kappa, drawing the remainder of them in.
"Wrong again!"
Ixquic gestures with her sword, by now a practiced gesture everyone has seen here, pointing it directly at Nanghaithya's last Kappa as it reaches for the sky - no, for the Atelier itself.
"I'll never give up. And as long as I never give up, as long as a heart of justice and purity beats in my chest - " Ixquic thumps her own chest with her fist. "No matter what you do to me, I'll never really lose!"
"Hazuki-chan! Roger-kun! Everyone else..."
"Let's show it the power that shines in all our hearts! The power to smite evil, to right wrongs! The power to CHANGE THE WORLD!"
Quixote reappears without even being summoned out loud, the cloud of blue glitter particularly dense, and the Persona seems more *there* than before. It's something that she did before, to cut the bobbin's threads, as Quixote's engine blares, rocketing Ixquic forward while surrounded by light. Light that comes to a point in front of her and spreads out along the sides of Quixote, making the entire Persona into a blade, driving THROUGH the wind even as it tears at her -
And Ixquic hunches down slightly, bracing for impact as the two of just *keep going* - not driving into so much as driving *through*, cutting their own path into the future, leaving a wake from their comet-tail of light!
AS: Persona! Akari Hoshi has used the Slash skill Wild Slash on Nanghaithya! AS: Tandem! Akari Hoshi has used the Slash skill Rocinante on Nanghaithya! AS: Aggression: Akari Hoshi gains 1 Limit! AS: Akari Hoshi: Gains 51 HP from Regen! Bind and Crt_Up removed!
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
"Thank you! That was wonderful." Fuuka replies as Yanagi calls out to her. Together, they bring down the palanquin - bring down Nanghaithya. It's discorporating... and her Kappa form melts away, revealing Fuuka herself once more. She breathes a sigh of relief.
Except... maybe it's a little too early for that. The foe transforms. And... she feels something building up.
"It's trying to bring down the Atelier...!" Fuuka gasps. "We have to stop it!"
What'll happen if it collapses, with them in it...? She doesn't want to find out. Lucia protects her from falling debris, and Fuuka looks out at everyone.
If they want to finish this quickly, then... Maybe she can help with that. She draws out her Evoker again, sliding a cartridge into it. She can feel it and her heart beating as one...
She can do this. Fuuka breathes deep - and fires.
Her eyes open wide - and the already weakened Homunculus's weaknesses are laid bare to her. Blind spots, points where its defenses are at its weakest... Lucia points them all out to her.
"...Everyone. Follow my lead - focus your attacks where I'm directing you." Fuuka says. A wave emits out from Lucia - and suddenly they'll feel their power enhanced. Images begin to flash as she reaches out to them, highlighting the ideal places to strike.
AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Almighty skill Oracle - Guiding Insight on Tamaki Uchida, Pernelle, Moriko Kumamoto, and Umie Akabane! AS: Insight: Fuuka Yamagishi gains 1 Limit! AS: Take! Pernelle takes 0 Almighty damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Oracle - Guiding Insight. AS: Atk_Up and Spd_Up added! AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 24 Almighty damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Oracle - Guiding Insight. AS: Atk_Up and Def_Up added! AS: Take! Tamaki Uchida takes 24 Almighty damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Oracle - Guiding Insight. AS: Atk_Up and Atk_Up added!
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
"Ehehehehe... hahahaha...!" Pernelle laughs and laughs. Effective? No. But passion! Defiance! Fun!! Are these not more valuable than effect? (People are going to die, Pernelle.) "AAAHAHAHA -- WHARRGARBL!"
Pernelle is pelted! Persistently! He and Anqa, back and forth, Anqa's head rattling with loose buttons and Pernelle's with... well, we may not wish to have that question answered. By the end of it, the pinball-like assault from his felid foe sends him crashing to the ground, head spinning. Yet the K.O. is made, and Pernelle throws his weird kappa not-wings up again. "Yaaaaaay!"
He's helping! One part of a beautiful dance where each performance on stage comes together in this grand, violent, destructive finale! And all of them adorably small and very very green! It really brings the choreography together.
Even so, once their true forms are restored and the cognitive glitch dispelled, Pernelle gives a quick strut in a circle and a flourished bow. "Ah, such an intriguing form to visit, but there is no substitute for perfection."
Alas, such joy must be cut short, for Nanghaithya may not win, but there is a path to ensure that everyone else loses. But even in the terrifying face of the Homunculus' rage and power, Pernelle gazes into those scarlet, blazing eyes. He lashes his tongue over his beak, and vibrates until his feathers rustle. Soon! Soon they will have their prize...!
All they have to do is
not die.
The earth rips into the sky. The Big Top buckles. The Atelier threatens to end in a cataclysm, and with them all here together, how is it any different from the end of the world? Trick question: it is not. But what does one do when they world is ending?
Dance.
Pernelle, on iridescent wings, leaps from chunk of earth to broken column and around again. One foot, two, step, step. While Fuuka's Oracle guidance, his wings sweep out, throwing feather-shaped blades from his wings in a piercing assault until he is close enough to spin and slash with the edges of his wings, where more glinting blades hide.
"You carry a curious philosophy...!" Pernelle says admits his acrobatics. "I must admit, I do not understand a lick of it. For who decides what is a win, and what is a loss?"
Well, Pernelle, in a video game it tends to be pretty cut and dry --
"I have decided! What I do today, what I do now, shall be a win."
Does... does that even make any sense? Pernelle seems to think it does.
"Anqa! May I have this dance?" His Persona appears with him mid-movement, and they spin, twirl, and fly until Pernelle tosses her higher in the air for the grand finale: a beautiful explosion of fire, raining down in upon Nanghaithya every color of the rainbow, and even a few more.
AS: Pernelle spends Limit on Psych! AS: Weapon! Pernelle has used the Pierce skill Feathery Fandango on Nanghaithya! AS: Ruin: Pernelle gains 1 Limit! AS: Weapon! Pernelle has used the Slash skill Wing Waltz on Nanghaithya! AS: Persona! Pernelle has used the Fire skill Iridescent Immolation on Nanghaithya! AS: Pernelle: Gains 55 HP from Regen! Def_Dn and Psych removed! AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Recovery skill Rousing Wave on Ririka Kawase, So-young Park, and Fuuka Yamagishi! AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 11 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Rousing Wave. AS: Def_Up added! AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Light skill Kouha on Nanghaithya! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi: Gains 53 HP from Regen!
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
This Atelier is taking forever, thinks Saika. It's a wry sort of thought. One of those internal jokes. 'You should see the other guy,' har de har har. She is holding together, sustained perhaps by the vitality of the figure within her soul. But if *she's* sucking wind -- while restrained by this flabby green kappa-corpus -- how bad off are the others going to be?
More than half of 'em seem... young. (Later, Saika will realize the horror of what this implies about herself.)
One of them, Yanagi, she hasn't counted among them. She lets out a little smirk as she exults in the situation. And then as the myriad blows take their toll, the Homunculus...
...
Once more, he rises. Desperate. Struggling. Saika's face tightens for a moment, until there is the sudden unzipping -- the ripping of the kappa-guise in a sea of glitches, like a thousand zippers all starting to come undone, clashing against each other and causing irregular pealing. She straightens up, and looks down, and her legs seem to telescope up--
The winds whip at her hair, which has helpfully returned, going hard enough that she has to lean into it. The inscriptions on her coat flap in the hurricane-force wind as she brings her arm up to try and shield her face. Her pigtails flap violently-- one of them, where she's had several near misses throughout this entire misadventure, sheds its elastic, billowing irregularly free.
you don't win.
"I respect that," Saika says into the wind, blinking several times and nodding.
"But," Saika continues, "there's something you're kinda overlooking while you're tryin' to do your revenge here, even if --" Her eyes follow Yanagi as she vaults up, soaring on the wind. Saika's feet remain firmly planted on the increasingly tenuous ground as she grits her teeth, looking at the Homunculus with its out-sized head, the rest of its body reduced to a frame to support that immense growth...
Someone speaks behind her. Yukari. Saika's eyes turn to the side. Then she turns into the wind, her coat flapping as she calls to her, "Hey! Arrows!" before sweeping her un-chain-wrapped arm towards the Homunculus. "Can you believe this guy!? Even in the like, absolute last-last ditch, he's being SO INCREDIBLY ANNOYING! Just clinging on with those bloody fingernails and conjuring up this storm, and he doesn't even realize--"
"He's wide open."
And with that, Saika sweeps an arm forwards and breaks into a run towards the Homunculus. It is honestly rather absurd for the first few steps because the wind she is running into is hard enough to strip bark off of the less durable sort of tree. She can see Ixquic ahead of her, and she grins as the running accelerates -- she starts moving forwards -- one of those bounding strides she did to come in and
Whisk! Away on the wind she flies, swept to the side -- she finds herself pivoting and fist-pumps, saying something that's very faint and swallowed in the roaring howl of the dying Atelier even as that consumption liberates energy that flows into her.
(What did Saika say? "I knew it! Cyclonic!")
Before she can make a complete loop, though, she grasps onto part of her coat, immediately making 'a large drag-producing object' into a momentary SAIL, which whips her out of the maelstrom! She pivots around, leading with her feet as she starts unwrapping the chain round her forearm--
And after her contact, aimed right square at the Homunculus, she brings up the lash, whipping scourge-like against the thing twice before her third one aims to snap the entire chain *around its neck*.
AS: Persona! Saika Kikuchi has used the Almighty skill You're Wide Open! on Nanghaithya! AS: Defense: Saika Kikuchi gains 1 Limit! AS: Persona! Saika Kikuchi has used the Strike skill Saika Body Attack on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Weapon! Saika Kikuchi has used the Strike skill Chain of Destiny on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Saika Kikuchi has no more TP available for healing! AS: Saika Kikuchi: Gains 47 HP from Regen! Crt_Up and Regen removed! AS: Take! So-young Park takes 0 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Rousing Wave. AS: Atk_Dn removed!
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
There's a sweet moment where Myunghon-Kappa almost looks stunned as Tamakappa offers them a chance at a high five, and they sweetly return it -- and then the low, if she'll have it too. Inspired by someone who's been doing it as long as Tamaki and still with the verve that she has, it reminds them that they don't have to be scared right now, even if they're terrified at their decision at present... but they have to believe in the root core of saving Taro Nakata.
"Let us dance indeed," Merry-Kappa gracefully says as they pose with Tamakappa's suave, princely gesture with their wooden sword. Pernelle demands -- craves -- incineration. Perhaps the tater tots must be extra crispy, in order to truly please him? The way he has fun, however, is certainly infectious...
Moriko's words are salient -- is there truly only one truth? No. Myunghon also thinks that there may only be one set of facts, but those facts mean so many truths to so many different people. The way in which certain facts do not become truth and others do...
Myunghon can't know of how much of a pinball history Katsuya Suou has. A long time ago, though:
MANY YEARS AGO
"... this is boring," a young Tatsuya Suou tiptoes so that he can even peer at the glittering lights and loud exciting noises the pinball machine is emitting. Yet even he can't help but get taken in by the click-clackety-clack as his brother keeps on going, keeps becoming entranced at the way the ball gets paddled to-and-fro, and--
"Bro, your hee-ho fell into the hole," Tatsuya cheekily observes as Katsuya's last Jack Frost-shaped ball descends into the abyss, ho ho ho...
NOW
Katsuya spells out the arcade machine for them, and Umie says she's on it too -- and Myunghon will have to do their best in turn. So-young calls for an encore, and carves forward as Icarus just plans on lawndarting onto the side of the machine--
What does some dead man matter?
"... you're right," Myunghon quietly answers. It won't stop them. Bakeduo-neko is about to slam into them with horrible catlike reflexes, and yet-- and yet-- it glitches. They're saved from the Palanquin's wrath for a moment, and yet... seemingly defeated, the Homunculus voices its lament...
If you aren't at the top, you might as well not even try.
If you don't win, you lose. Don't you get it? If you're not first -- you might as well be last.
The wounds rend them. It takes them back to a board meeting, where a man whose soul has been directly wrinkled out of his face, in a lifeless suit, taps upon a whiteboard and declares:
A FEW YEARS AGO
"If Frey Pharmaceuticals can't remain at the top, then we may as well not try. Our stakeholders demand it. 'Trying your best' means nothing, Yukichi-san," he drones lifelessly.
There is another man next to him, a Western man. His smile is rictus, like he's performed it so often his expression is stuck like that.
"Don't worry about it, Miss Yukichi," he posits the very image of advertising and slime. "Once we turbo-charge our quarterly earnings and really get that synergy going, our profit margins are going to go into overdrive."
NOW
Myunghon finds themself thrown about on hurricane winds, as the Homunculus threatens to tear them apart along with the rest of the Big Top -- no, the rest of the Atelier. Even as they're threatened to be sliced apart, however, they're still alight and upright by virtue of the Cognitive Coat steadying them, breathing out, trembling...
"... I was just like you, once. I lived in a zero-sum world that didn't believe in anything but winners, while it blithely told everyone that they had potential. But it was always obvious that only certain people could win from the start..."
They're crying right now, disturbed and panicked at their lack of knowledge and inability to understand the truth of what they're doing at present. But if they do nothing, then another dead body awaits them. Akira Hayashi is gone; they still can act to save Taro Nakata.
But this nemesis that stands before them?
They still haven't answered that all-burning, pivotal question: what are they.
They won't be able to, before the end comes for the Discontent.
They despise their lack of knowledge.
But they still will act.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tSZoYuKwtk
There's a burst of cognitive power for a brief moment, as the small, delicate origami Wishing Dragon that Jose granted the Cardboard Dragon comes into view. Myunghon draws power from within it, feeling strong the bonds that they've formed in the last few months as their body descends momentarily into a colourless dream, velocity dancing upon an endless story, as they witness their Constants, shining bright within a lightless sky--
Shinjiro's currently waiting for them back at the internet booth.
Shinobu's undoubtedly working hard on a gig someplace...
Where is Tsumugi, when the rest of the Silk are fighting hard? They yearn for them.
Somewhere, in St. Bernadette's in Aoba, Mio's got her shift going...
Remi's currently tending to the store, if they're not mistaken, ever having their back no matter what.
Umie is here, their sinister smile mirrored upon Badb's own, relishing the struggle.
Are Miho and Yua back from London yet? They want to congratulate them with all their heart...
They wonder if Tsubasa and Lance need something else for the new house.
They hope they and Ichika have a sweet summer vacation...
Though they've only started their working relationship, Tamaki has much they can show them.
And So-young was there all along, a gate into another world they never knew.
--and the Wishing Dragon flourishes further with bond-power, their melting body unravelling beyond speed and transmission as they realise they see the coalescing, superliminal form of their Hope. All they have to do is reach it, that Hope that Tsumugi Kujaku described as seething throughout a garden, strangling out every other sentiment in its spread.
And within that moment, they have the clarity to point out one final thing to the Homunculus:
"You were truly, wonderfully, resplendently, undeniably........."
They let that singular point descend from their palm, a miniature point of imperishable Black in this colourless realm.
"... Human."
AS: Persona! Myunghon Yeo has used the Almighty skill Lightless on Nanghaithya! AS: Persona! Myunghon Yeo has used the Dark skill Constants in the Chaos on Nanghaithya! AS: Myunghon Yeo: Gains 51 HP from Regen! Crt_Up, Def_Dn, and Spd_Dn removed!
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Roger turns to give a little cheer as Ixquic and himself accidentally coordinate their movements to smash that cabinet palanquin, as they seem to score decisive blows together to put a stop to this. Even when Roger's shape returns to his newly awakened Transmutation, he doesn't miss a beat on it even with the sudden change in proportion and balance.
He waves an arm to the stream of Flegmat Humors. They haven't acknowledged him prior, and won't now, but...
"Flegmat Humors breaking free is a good thing!" He explains. "That'll help make sure the Atelier gets back into balance as soon as we're done winning!"
Speaking of...
The Homunculus assumes its last, true, pathetic shape. He snorts and scowls at the bulging scarlet eyes, only to let out a little squealy yelp of surprise as the cyclone builds, and everything batters against him even as he lowers his head and runs the periphery...
'You don't win. YOU DON'T WIN.'
For a moment, Roger is caught in contemplation. A feeling, one that strikes him in mental and emotional places he simply did not have the capacity for prior. The discomfort, the confusion... a feeling he somehow knew this Homonculus for longer than he truly did the rightful owner of the Atelier.
...
It doesn't change who he is, and what he wants.
"Eh?! This feeling..." His eyes widen. "Oh! Everyone! The Atelier itself is giving us strength... then...!"
There's a blue butterfly, eerie creature as it is, peacefully flitting its wings across this windy landscape like it's not there, as Roger takes a hard swipe at it one last time.
"Looks like he's found a life worth living even if he doesn't win..." Those familiar with the myths of Kamapua'a knows there's one relationship he desired that he could never achieve. If Roger is - was? - a Sanguin Humor, a part of Taro Nakata's Atelier... could this Persona have been meant for Taro Nakata, originally?
There's no telling for sure, as Roger points the racquet forward. "Chase 'em like a game of tag!"
Kamapua'a leaps into the cyclone, as water follows, swimming into it in a rapid, panic-inducing wide swirl of water trying to surround and overwhelm Nanghaithya, as Roger crouches down and lets the wind continue to whip about him as he follows after from behind.
"Take this! And that!" He goes for two rapid swings of his racquet, back and forth, against the enemy on their last legs before leaping back and throwing the tennis ball up into the air.
It whips around a few times in the cyclone, seeming to separate Roger from the intended cool follow-up, but...
"Game!" The ball goes past him once, but he doesn't swing for it. He's watching Hazuki's movements as to not endanger her.
"Set!" Another miss of the ball's roll-around...
"MATCH!" Roger declares as he swings for it on the third pass, sending that tennis ball rocketing forth to join that detonating ray of light.
AS: Persona! Roger has used the Water skill Torrent Chaser on Nanghaithya! AS: Weapon! Roger has used the Strike skill Melee - Tennis Racquet on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Weapon! Roger has used the Strike skill Ranged - Tennis Ball on Nanghaithya! AS: Roger: Gains 49 HP from Regen! Def_Dn and Spd_Dn removed! AS: Roger regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
She does, in fact, reciprocate Myunghon's down-low.
Tamaki's first order of business is to not leave Moriko hanging. Clawbump. She does tilt her head slightly in confusion. "What show?"
'More or less'? That's an odd response, but she isn't one to scrutinize an ally too closely in a time like this. That's a Later Tamaki problem.
"Not to worry. I've already forgotten, Takeba-san." The detective gives her a wink.
She shakes her head at Nanghaithya. "What is there to find out? Why, you've only explored one peak, one local maximum ... but even higher heights may exist beyond the fog of war. I've said elsewhere that the rules of the game keep changing and evolving. Adapt or fall behind." Given her own history, she's reminding herself just as much as she's chiding Nanghaithya here.
"Deep down, you know it, too."
Arianrhod holds her palm over Tamaki's current kappa-fied form. Translucent shadowy energy rises up and begins to form a ball in her outstretched hand, then changes into an orb of light, shimmering in every color on the visible spectrum. Tamaki touches her toy sword to the orb as it coats her blade, and she holds it aloft. The very curse that had been laid upon her now serves as her strength! It'll take a moment to charge ...
As Tamaki readies her own attack, the wing-armored goddess slashes the arcade machine's screen, leaving a red streak of an afterimage behind the sword's trail. Using some of the remnants of the energy that now coats Tamaki's sword, Arianrhod manifests rainbow circles along the trail of red left on the screen.
As long as you've still got a pixel of health left, as long as your lungs still carry breath, as long as you can still get back up despite failure after failure, then it's not over yet.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bRnXPpodhI
With her eyes burning in defiant fury, Tamaki takes her rainbow-coated blade and slashes at the air, sending a Technicolor shockwave to the screen. And again. And again. And again and again and again in a veritable barrage that would otherwise bowl down an army. She repeats her earlier promise to Myunghon: "We'll cross through that threshold!"
With a battlecry of "PER ASPERA!", she lunges directly at the screen to give it one last up-close-and-personal slash!
AS: Persona! Tamaki Uchida has used the Slash skill Straight Slash on Nanghaithya! AS: Defense: Tamaki Uchida gains 1 Limit! AS: Persona! Tamaki Uchida has used the Slash skill Per Aspera on Nanghaithya! AS: Tamaki Uchida: Gains 49 HP from Regen! Spd_Dn removed!
<Pose Tracker> Moriko Kumamoto has posed.
The biker hesitates. Moriko's gaze watching the screen. "If you lose. Find out why. Fix it. Come back at it. Gives you something to strive to." She plants her spear with a thump for emphasis. Battered as she is.
She has nothing nice to say about the rest. Moriko's able to lean into the worst of the Palinquin's latest attack. Trying to sound like she's not on her last legs, "Like riding in bad weather." Planting her foot against the base of her spear, leaning just the right way and just barely getting blown away or knocked over.
She thumbs up Yukari, "Just go out swinging either way right?" She's starting to drawl a bit. It's fine.
She's breathing heavy. She's at a fragment of health and... she's still standing. And she grins up at tower.
She replies to Tamaki with a thin smile, "You know. Circus. The-" she gestures around and says, "I.. later." Levity helped some people, but she's not sure now's the right time!
Up until it's clearly trying to drag the place down around them. She shifts her foot heavily away from the pole, pushes herself up and grimaces. Ready to try and help pull others out even if she probably needs it more than some would by now.
"Flipping th'table ain't helping you." Her drawl's a lot more noticeable as she yells up at him, laughing almost. She's too tired to suppress it.
She brings the Evoker to bear again. Pulling the trigger with a defiant smile on her features as the fox appears once again. Looming over her. Crouched into a growl, it suddenly pounces and fades away just as her jaws snapped forward towards one of the points designated by Fuuka. The weight growing exponentially. It's not quite a light skill, but it's the best shot she's got in her. Besides, the fox in holy garments reappears as a second shot follows up. Trying to exploit the gravitation pull with a jagged earth spike. One last spell. And if you're going out, go out with a swing.
Offering a two finger salute before shifting both hands to hold the spear. Holding herself up.
AS: Take! Moriko Kumamoto takes 0 Almighty damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Oracle - Guiding Insight. AS: Atk_Up and Atk_Up added! AS: Persona! Moriko Kumamoto has used the Earth skill Riotous Gryva on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 14 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Rousing Wave. AS: Spd_Up added! AS: Persona! Moriko Kumamoto has used the Light skill Kouha on Nanghaithya! AS: Persona! Moriko Kumamoto has used the Light skill Kouha on Nanghaithya! AS: Moriko Kumamoto: Gains 55 HP from Regen!
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
The tower topples, and with it, the spell disrupting their forms breaks. Ririka blinks as she finds herself back in her taller (too tall!) form, patting herself down. "Whew... that's better." She wants to ask herself if that means this is over--
But they thought that last time, too.
She stares as a new body is formed, again. "Seriously?" She almost feels bad that the Homunculus can't continue to exist, fighting this hard for survival. But that would mean letting it consume Taro, which they can't do. And besides...
"... you're kind of a sore loser. Winning is what you make of it--there's more ways to win than just coming in first."
But it lifts, and it starts to destroy the Atelier. "Can it do that!?" she asks, alarmed, as it becomes clear. Tearing winds come for her and as she holds up her katana to block it, it's torn out of her hands and she is sent tuimbling. "Damn."
... but it's not over yet. Something is resisting it, and... they all have to keep resisting, too. If this is Taro's Atelier, then... Ririka groans as she picks herself back up. "Hey, Nakata-san. You don't know me, but..." Ririka draws in a deep breath, and taps into that part of her that she calls forth when she steps on stage.
And she gives Taro a confident grin. "What song's gonna get you more pumped up than anything else right now?"
And it's a Night Parade stage theme, of course. "Coming right up!" Ririka starts to play, holographic piano keys springing to life at her fingertips as she starts to crank out a fast-paced theme, sending it to everyone to get them motivated for the last little bit of the fight.
BFM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJARSPU3tHk
Amphion joins in, and Ririka hears Fuuka's call to let her guide their attacks. "Got it, Yamagishi-san!" She'll take that guidance, even as she offers her own to some of those around her, then she locks her eyes on the Homunculus. "Amphion! Let's put that Skill Card to good use! Triple time!"
Amphion strums, and at his urging gouts of flame erupt for Nanghaithya, not just one, but two, and then a third!
AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Recovery skill Victory Song on Katsuya Suou, Ririka Kawase, Umie Akabane, and So-young Park! AS: Insight: Ririka Kawase gains 1 Limit! AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 14 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Victory Song. AS: Def_Dn removed! AS: Ririka Kawase spends Limit on Exploit! Ririka Kawase can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Take! Katsuya Suou takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Victory Song. AS: Spd_Up added! AS: Take! So-young Park takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Victory Song. AS: Def_Dn and Spd_Dn removed! AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 14 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Victory Song. AS: Spd_Up added! AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Fire skill Agi on Nanghaithya! AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Fire skill Agi on Nanghaithya! AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Fire skill Agi on Nanghaithya! AS: Ririka Kawase: Gains 52 HP from Regen! Crt_Up removed!
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
'Eh?' Hazuki's confusion is taken in stride, Umie giving a impish grin, her froggy eyes narrowing to cheeky slits.
"... I'm telling you to kick that thing's ass, kero. Or are you going to make a liar of me, Orange-san?"
The siege breaks the spell placed over them; vantage points and restored heights are now newly appreciated, at least, for Umie.
(..... hopefully that tic of saying kero has gone away too, right?? Right??)
'... There's no point in struggling.'
BGM: https://youtu.be/MEduHFi0FYU?si=YBEJnRNRtsSCUPJQ
"If you can't even rise to bear the pain of existing, you won't survive outside this zone. This was your test, and you've _failed_."
(Umie just may have given the students here flashbacks to exam week.)
'But if I can't win... YOU won't win either.'
"So in the end, then you're just a sore loser," Umie proclaims, loose blonde hair flowing up against the silhouette of grey feathers, Badb's signature motif trailing past her eyes.
Dark energy fires out, a warning shot to note what's to come.
.... If Umie can summon the ability to continue.
She winces; her body bends over as if in the throes of a vicious cramp.
You want your power? Then tell me those pretty lies.
Umie's hands grip the two ends of her kyoketsu shoge. "... Alright then. I'm not letting my momentum stop here." Almost as a contradiction to her words earlier, she lets that fugue take her, the sharp glint of her gaze and curve of her grin loosening their grip on her expression.
Just let it happen, this time. It has to be your choice.
"A man hangs from the branch, caught between decision and action,
A blackbird cries in the tree, who hears it?
Who is there? Who is it, with that face?
Black butterflies fill the school hallways.
It is just the beginning."
It'll be nonsense to most here, no more concerning than the 'prophecies' she made earlier, and 'encouragements' she made to Hazuki, but to Katsuya... it may be a little concerning.
The kyoketsu shoge crosses a cognitive screen over Nanghaithya, slowing to form a cat's cradle over the being against the barbs and feathers of a misty, muddy field.
"Garden of the Crow!"
AS: Umie Akabane spends Limit on Psych! AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Final Warning on Nanghaithya! AS: Ruin: Umie Akabane gains 1 Limit! AS: Tandem! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Garden of the Crow on Nanghaithya! 3 Hits! AS: Umie Akabane: Gains 55 HP from Regen! Crt_Up and Psych removed! AS: Umie Akabane regains 3 SP from Invigorate!
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
It can't move by itself. It can only move by impelling its 'servitors', the Kappa upon which the palanquin depends. Once they fall, it's a certain thing that the arcade cabinet will go with it. And so it is that Katsuya targets some of the Kappa up in front. As he'd predicted -- isn't basic physics fun -- it collapses towards the front. It's still short of the toppling he'd hoped for: it must be fixed to the palanquin's base in some way to secure it. Yet, even this is little detriment as he's hardly alone here, is he? The rest of them see to the next part and soon, with the arcade cabinet flung free from the palanquin and the palanquin shattered. Everything the Homunculus controlled seems to freeze in place, as far as Katsuya can tell.
One by one, fighters glitch out and vanish. This effect spreads to the lot of them as well, but it's not themselves being erased -- no! -- it's the glamour that had affected them. Just like that, Katsuya finds that he is himself and whole (suit jacket's still singed, though). "Is this--"
No. It's still not the end. Even broken, even in such a pathetic state as it's in now, it remolds itself into a semblance of what it had been.
"...You're still trying. If everything were as you said it was, would there be any point in continuing to strive?" he remarks as it manages to get itself upright, as it reiterates, again, its whole ethos. Yanagi may take some amusement, perhaps, in the point that they're saying much the same thing.
But if it can't win, it'll make sure they can't win, either. It'll destroy this place, itself, and them with it.
Shock etches its way across his face. "What are you-- no! Of all the short-sighted--"
But all he can do in this moment is defend himself, throwing up an arm as those terrible winds howl all about them. The ground below them heaves; sections of it begin to tear themselves free and upwards in abeyance of natural law.
Yet, there's something in the midst of all this, isn't there? Some expression of hope, for that last-gasp victory. For that faintest sliver that lets you manage to get in that last, critical blow.
For that one in a million shot.
It's in this moment that music starts to play, courtesy of Ririka's Amphion. Diagetic music, at a moment like this? Well, why not--!
Katsuya takes a step backwards as the ground under his feet cracks, then another as it crumbles away. The cracks continue to spread. He only has moments. "As a civil servant-- I won't let you!" he calls out amidst the howling winds. Sighting Nanghaithya, he draws his firearm and takes aim.
The storm in which they're all caught is taking a turn for the catastrophic. However you slice it, it would be poor conditions for any ranged weapon. And handgun has terrible aim. This is a matter of fact. But in a cognitive space, is that still true? And, even should that weigh in, does it still--
All he can do is strive. He takes that shot, however uncertain it might prove to be, then follows it with another. He turns to leap atop a rising chunk of earth before the rest of the ground breaks apart into the darkness below.
"This is it! Helios!"
Helios -- normal again itself -- manifests beside him and follows up that shot with a bolt from the heavens. But not just once. Twice.
It's in the silence that follows that Katsuya can hear Umie's voice. She recites a poem that is...
...known to him. But how does she know that? And why? They're both questions that will need to await another time: in this moment, instead, Umie will only receive the look of confused shock on Katsuya's face as he stares right at her.
AS: Katsuya Suou spends Limit on Exploit! Katsuya Suou can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Weapon! Katsuya Suou has used the Pierce skill Tactical Rebuke on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Defense: Katsuya Suou gains 1 Limit! AS: Weapon! Katsuya Suou has used the Pierce skill Handgun - Shot on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Persona! Katsuya Suou has used the Elec skill Zio on Nanghaithya! AS: Persona! Katsuya Suou has used the Elec skill Zio on Nanghaithya! AS: Katsuya Suou: Gains 51 HP from Regen! Crt_Up removed!
<Pose Tracker> So-young Park has posed.
As So-young sheds her kappa guise you can just see the cloak of self-confidence reassert itself around her like a living thing, so vividly described in her posture and her motions that it's like a tangible force throwing her forwards, stripping away the last few minutes in so many little wisps of memory. She was never ranting and complaining about it being permanent. She was sure it would work out the moment she got a hold of herself. Of course. How could you ever think any differently?
That feeling only lasts a moment before the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and her eyes widen as she jolts her head upwards. She doesn't need to be a battle maniac or a cognitive master to understand what their opponent is trying to do, all she needs is a sense of the dramatic. She's already been through one too many collapsing mindscapes.
"Oh, hells--" she yells as she hunkers downwards, thankful for her extra weight as the winds attempt to tear her off her feet once more. Icarus reappears, somehow whole and intact as if it didn't just buffet itself to pieces on the side of the palanquin, to wind around her in a protective position, curving unnaturally into a spiral in ways that slats of what might be balsa wood and feathers probably shouldn't be able to.
"So petulance is what it comes down to?" So-young calls through the roar of the air around her - but it's not a sound of defiance or a roar of righteous anger, surprising even herself as the words slip out much more quietly than she ever intended. She's not one to ever feel regret - but she can recognize a chance lost, an obliteration when maybe, maybe there could have been some kind of reconciliation instead.
Maybe it's the most wishful thinking there ever was, or maybe she's still stuck thinking about Hayashi-san's murder right in front of her. So-young simply doesn't know, not really equipped in this moment to interrogate the thought any closer. She can't even reach for words, all of her eloquence too surface-level to really elaborate on how she's feeling and the odd lump in her throat that won't go away.
In the intervening space Myunghon puts it much better than she ever could... but for all that inescapable truth that carries the weight and promise of existence--
--that use of the past tense is going to haunt her a little tonight.
Shoving that thought down with a fierce mental rejection to be dealt with later, she finally and truly focuses on the fight around them. Pernelle is dancing above them in a sea of bright pyrotechnics, Ririka's song curling around them all as everyone pushes themselves upwards towards a crescendo and a conclusion. Now is certainly not the time to feel sorry for yourself, she tells herself firmly as she raises her hand to push her focus outwards in front of her.
The silvery light that makes up her baton spins itself away in a burst of cognitive certainty, reforming into a violin and bow; she raises it to her chin, letting out a soft note of faint amusement under her breath. She'd been expecting to play a dirge, but-- well, in this moment Myunghon is _her_ conductor, and around her rise calls for a song of Hope.
(And a copyrighted soundtrack, no less. Scandalous!)
In this, at least, she can oblige, and not least because she somehow actually seems to know the tune off by heart. The pace and tone of her playing is immediate and upbeat, winding around Ririka's music and melding into the background ensemble. When she looks up it's with a much more clear gaze; this has always been how she breaks free of her unpleasant thoughts, after all.
"Icarus! Go!" she commands strongly as several quick thrusts of her bow send her Persona roaring upwards. It blasts straight past Homonculus, striking against it with two quick buffets of wind, and then a final piercing cry accompanies a high, warbling note as Icarus stretches out its wings amidst Pernelle's conflagration - and crashes down upon the Homonculus, as if the flames were as scorching as the Sun.
AS: Persona! So-young Park has used the Pierce skill Ostinato on Nanghaithya! 2 Hits! AS: Persona! So-young Park has used the Wind skill Coda on Nanghaithya! AS: So-young Park regains 3 SP from Invigorate! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 120 Light damage from Hazuki Nakao's Holy Sword. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 120 Light damage from Hazuki Nakao's Holy Sword. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 141 Light damage from Hazuki Nakao's Holy Sword. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 121 Light damage from Hazuki Nakao's Holy Sword. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 139 Light damage from Hazuki Nakao's Holy Sword. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 120 Light damage from Hazuki Nakao's Holy Sword. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 310 Light damage from Hazuki Nakao's Smiling Supernova. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 75 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Cold Breath. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 92 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Cold Breath. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 75 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Cold Breath. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 73 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Cold Breath. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 73 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Cold Breath. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 91 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Cold Breath. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 83 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Flurry Bufula. Weak! AS: Bind added! Haze removed! Explosion! 50 damage! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 83 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Flurry Bufula. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 83 Water damage from Yanagi Nagisa's Flurry Bufula. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 218 Wind damage from Yukari Takeba's Cyclone Arrow. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 61 Pierce damage from Yukari Takeba's Please Hit!. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 77 Pierce damage from Yukari Takeba's Please Hit!. Critical Hit! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 208 Slash damage from Akari Hoshi's Wild Slash. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 367 Slash damage from Akari Hoshi's Rocinante. Critical Hit! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 88 Pierce damage from Pernelle's Feathery Fandango. AS: Bind added! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 85 Slash damage from Pernelle's Wing Waltz. AS: Paralyze added! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 348 Fire damage from Pernelle's Iridescent Immolation. Critical Hit! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 163 Light damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Kouha. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Haze added! Bind removed! Explosion! 50 damage! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 0 Almighty damage from Saika Kikuchi's You're Wide Open!. AS: Strike_Break added! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 107 Strike damage from Saika Kikuchi's Saika Body Attack. Critical Hit! AS: Blast added! Paralyze removed! Explosion! 50 damage! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 77 Strike damage from Saika Kikuchi's Chain of Destiny. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 77 Strike damage from Saika Kikuchi's Chain of Destiny. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 90 Strike damage from Saika Kikuchi's Chain of Destiny. Critical Hit! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 0 Almighty damage from Myunghon Yeo's Lightless. AS: Dark_Break added! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 312 Dark damage from Myunghon Yeo's Constants in the Chaos. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 307 Water damage from Roger's Torrent Chaser. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Panic added! Charm removed! Explosion! 50 damage! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 85 Strike damage from Roger's Melee - Tennis Racquet. Critical Hit! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 85 Strike damage from Roger's Melee - Tennis Racquet. Critical Hit! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 98 Strike damage from Roger's Ranged - Tennis Ball. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 146 Slash damage from Tamaki Uchida's Straight Slash. AS: Paralyze added! Blast removed! Explosion! 50 damage! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 245 Slash damage from Tamaki Uchida's Per Aspera. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 86 Earth damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Riotous Gryva. AS: Paralyze added! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 86 Earth damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Riotous Gryva. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 98 Earth damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Riotous Gryva. Critical Hit! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 153 Light damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Kouha. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 144 Light damage from Moriko Kumamoto's Kouha. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 109 Fire damage from Ririka Kawase's Agi. AS: Haze added! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 135 Fire damage from Ririka Kawase's Agi. Critical Hit! AS: Haze added! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 117 Fire damage from Ririka Kawase's Agi. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 117 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Final Warning. AS: Panic added! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 147 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Garden of the Crow. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 121 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Garden of the Crow. Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 147 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Garden of the Crow. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 105 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Tactical Rebuke. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 105 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Tactical Rebuke. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 90 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Handgun - Shot. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 106 Pierce damage from Katsuya Suou's Handgun - Shot. Critical Hit! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 122 Elec damage from Katsuya Suou's Zio. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 158 Elec damage from Katsuya Suou's Zio. Critical Hit! AS: Paralyze added! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 57 Pierce damage from So-young Park's Ostinato. AS: Bind added! Haze removed! Explosion! 50 damage! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 57 Pierce damage from So-young Park's Ostinato. AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting! AS: Take! Nanghaithya takes 156 Wind damage from So-young Park's Coda. AS: Panic added! AS: Nanghaithya is unable to continue fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
What does it think its doing right now?
Indeed, Nanghaithya struggles. Even though it has lost, it struggles -- if not to win, then to make sure nobody can win. Like a petulant child upturning the gameboard the moment the know they've lost the game, Nanghaithya offers nothing to Yanagi's incisive observation but the fierce howl of the ever-intensifying, catastrophic winds it summons.
THere is no more time for words. And so, Yanagi responds with a sigh --
And an absolute frost that chills the great head of Nanghaithya and its diminutive body down deep to the core. It slows the intensifying of the winds -- and even if it doesn't stop it, it buys them time -- and renders the Homunculus brittle enough for the violence that is to come.
I don't have to win... But I won't lose either.
As the others rally. As Yukari and Io's winds scream out in direct defiance to Nanghaithya's own, arrow after arrow lancing into that tiny body, controlling her movements and positioning her mid-air at the perfect vantage point to loose that final great, glowing emerald pierces RIGHT through the side of its head, the point JUTTING out of the other end of that mass of metal and electronics that was once an arcade cabinet before the HOWL of wins smashes down, sending it lurching back.
I must admit, I do not understand a lick of it. For who decides what is a win, and what is a loss? I have decided! What I do today, what I do now, shall be a win.
Can you believe this guy!? Even in the like, absolute last-last ditch, he's being SO INCREDIBLY ANNOYING! Just clinging on with those bloody fingernails and conjuring up this storm, and he doesn't even realize-- He's wide open.
As Pernelle and Saika work in perfect tandem, a study in contrasting dances -- Pernelle, swooping and dramatic and graceful, a true ballroom bonanza that ends at the very apex of the tempest until he and his Persona add to the brewing apocalypse with a sleet of rainbow fire, crashing down across the Homunculus, melting down pieces and chunks of its massive head, and BLINDING it with prismatic fury--
-- as the raw, direct, berserk insanity that is Saika's riding the storm reaches its zenith with a discordant SCREAM of metal on metal, as built up momentum and power that far outstrips her size SMASHES that biker chain into the side of Nanghaithya's overlarge head, denting it dramatically in once, CRUSHING the arcade buttons that make up its maw with the second--
and then -lashing- it to force it to feel the full brunt of Pernelle's heat, and everything else to come, as she holds fast to its neck, even as the storm tries desperately to -peel her off-.
What is there to find out? Why, you've only explored one peak, one local maximum ... but even higher heights may exist beyond the fog of war. I've said elsewhere that the rules of the game keep changing and evolving. Adapt or fall behind. ... Deep down, you know it, too.
As Tamaki and Arianrhod fly with rainbow-colored blade in hand, showing her defiance, her will to - and her own reminder that she must - adapt and thrive from one discovery to the next in that dual assault between Persona and User, the great slash of the armored goddess carving a deep furrow into the Homunculus' great black screen -- and Tamaki further compounding that fracture with that great shockwave of color, of color, of color of color of COLOR until--
that furrow -shatters-, black glass spraying everywhere as static blares with impotent rage that cannot - no, REFUSES - to adapt beyond that monofocused worldview.
If you lose. Find out why. Fix it. Come back at it. Gives you something to strive to. Just go out swinging either way right?
As Moriko summons Otohime, the great fox snapping down on a weakpoint at the Homunculus' shoulder made brittle and vulnerable by Yanagi's magic. Its shoulder fractures, splinters -- and the following blow of jagged, cracking earth just SHATTERS the Homunculus' right arm entirely, sending it lurching, straining futiley against Saika's chains.
... you're kind of a sore loser. Winning is what you make of it--there's more ways to win than just coming in first.
As Ririka addresses Nakata directly, emboldening and doubling the power his Atelier provides through literally hyping it up with a nostalgic theme from a game he loves, even if it became the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. It helps to strengthen the others, to make them push that extra inch.
The triplicate gouts of flame that batter and bake at Nanghaithya's weakening form, stripped of its fiery protections? Well, it just helps to underscore the whole point. There's more than one way to win.
If you can't even rise to bear the pain of existing, you won't survive outside this zone. This was your test, and you've _failed_.
As Umie weaves the bleak words of that poetic, (prophetic?) verse, creating a disconcerting tableau for the sake of the fight that fuels the koyketsu shoge's dangerous dance, the cats cradle of barbs ensnaring and cutting into the form of Nanghaithya with angry and discontent screeches of metal scraping metal, helping to ensnare it just as it was beginning to strain and break from Saika's grasp.
...You're still trying. If everything were as you said it was, would there be any point in continuing to strive?
As Katsuya, rising high on that ascending chunk of cognitive earth, defies the idea of extreme wind resistance to squeeze that trigger and - despite all odds - pull of that perfect shot, piercing Nanghaithya straight through the overhang of its arcade 'forehead'. It cracks -- and the furious bolts of Helios beat upon that weak point, until frozen-over plastic and metal SHATTERS, revealing nothing but swarming, absolute, saturated scarlet beneath the arcade facade.
So petulance is what it comes down to?
As So-young weaves a song of Hope in answer to Myunghon's call, the upbeat and uplifting notes winding and empowering Ririka's own music to break past the doubt, the unpleasantness - the discontent of it all -
- to send Icarus BLASTING past, buffeting winds sending it toppling -backwards- in mid-air before that great cry literally cracks and SHATTERS what glass remains on the screen, revealing more of that depthless, endless scarlet sea promising everything and nothing all at once--
<Pose Tracker> Nanghaithya has posed.
... I was just like you, once. I lived in a zero-sum world that didn't believe in anything but winners, while it blithely told everyone that they had potential. But it was always obvious that only certain people could win from the start...
... As Myunghon still tries to reach out to the Homunculus - the thing that can only feel existence in this 'real' life by usurping someone else's - in how its words echoes with their own past. How, even despite everything, they still sympathize -- even as the power of their bonds, the power of that suffocating Hope, smothers out the very defenses Nanghaithya had against Kudlak's quintessential element--
--until that single, small point of absolute, imperishable black descends, that small point of not-light touching upon it --
--and dragging the garish greens and pestilent pinks of color from the Homunculus' crackling frame as it becomes a world of monochrome unto itself, a coup de grace to weaken it for the final blows...
I'll never give up. And as long as I never give up, as long as a heart of justice and purity beats in my chest - No matter what you do to me, I'll never really lose!
As Ixquic and Quixote defy their zero-sum view of life with the very idea that you CAN change - change yourself - change the world - hammering that point home with as she punches through those tempestuous, catastrophic winds despite all logic to drive STRAIGHT through Nanghaithya, puncturing its frozen, brittle, bulbous belly in a diagonal impact that sees the mighty warrior and her Persona BURSTING out right where that oversized head connects to its freshly-forged body. Sparks sputter from severed cables in her wake, Nanghaithya lurching towards the right--
Looks like he's found a life worth living even if he doesn't win...
As Roger's existential ruminations give way to defiance, as he finds it within himself to defy the end with his newfound power - his newfound power - of individuality - whipping that racquet about and about until he SLAMS that ball into a wild, tempestuous spin through the maelstrom--
Game! Set! MATCH!
-- building up so much frightening momentum that by the time Roger strikes it, it screams like a meteorite of blazing light--
If I'm the Goddess of Tricks who never loses, who makes you so mad, then I declare... game over for Nanghaithya the Discontent!
-- just as Hazuki Nakao, defying the parasitic existence of Nanghaithya the Discontent for the sake of the boy whose skin it wore and now strives to unmake in its petty rage--
-- drives down slash, after slash, after slash, carving away chunks of the Homunculus, revealing more swarming, infinite scarlet saturation beneath--
until Janus's great light reaches a blinding crescendo--
((WHY WON'T YOU ALL JUST))
THOOOOOOOM
until Hazuki and the comet that is Roger's tennis ball SMASH into Nanghaithya at the same time, and the whole world becomes a brilliant flash of white.
...
...
...
In the aftermath...
It's there, crumpled and sagged to the side. Nanghaithya the Discontent.
((why.))
Reality - physicality - flecking off its form like shedding scales, bit by dissolving bit.
((why. why. why. why can't i win.))
Until all that's left is a silhouette of saturated scarlet once more, and two points of shining red light separate from it.
((i want to))
Its last words fade into weak angry nothings of static as it dissolves away. As the winds die down.
As the Atelier finally knows peace, and freedom, after coming so very close to a precipice there was no returning from.
Across the Big Top, the remains of the Cocoon are scattered -- dazzling, glittering, beautiful, and swelling with latent, cognitive power that could be plied towards making something truly powerful.
And where the Homunculus faded?
All that remains are those two points of red light - its Eyes - shimmering, orbiting, for a brief moment--
--until they fall to the ground with a clatter, revealing nothing more than a pair of ruby joysticks in their wake.
You were truly, wonderfully, resplendently, undeniably.........
... Human.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
As Nanghaithya the Discontent falls, muttering his last words, Hazuki steps forward. She has no pity, no remorse in those eyes, even as he's immensely pitiable.
"Players 1... win."
And then, suddenly, she stops, taking a deep breath, as the Homunculus fades away, Hazuki looking everywhere and nowhere at once.
She suddenly goes into a trance, like she's not there at all. She's still standing, but she's somewhere else.
It's dark, at first. But she feels the compulsion to walk. Each step lights up underneath her feet, like she's stepping on lightup tiles in the formless void. Brilliant colors sparkle outwards, as she traces a line through the light, a thread to follow, or perhaps half of a connecting cord.
The thread leads her in different directions, until she finally reaches a grandly displayed golden door with a massive keyhole in it.
Hazuki reaches to push open the door, but it doesn't budge. No, it's sealed.
Her hand rises, as if on its own. It begins to move, to touch something sight unseen, and the door starts to unlock, opening...
Behind it is only light.
It's time to wake up. Time to connect.
Hazuki snaps out of her reverie, taking a few steps forward. She moves towards the center of the Big Top, ignoring all pleas, all calls, all requests.
She reaches out for something no one else can see... and she finds it.
Like yanking on loose seams, something unravels, a veil no one else has ever seen. In the center of the Atelier, floating in the air, is a large two-dimensional neon sign depicting art of Kappa, likely crafted by a child many years ago. The Kappa is smiling, cheerful, but faded - the light barely shines, and the colors are dim.
"...connect," Hazuki says simply and audibly, reaching her hand out for the symbol. A brilliant blaze emerges in her hand, a golden light that shines with warmth and radiant power.
Hazuki smiles, a big wide one. Her eyes are focused, clear.
She touches the Kappa symbol with that light, and suddenly, there's a flash of energy, as an all-but-blinding flash beacons upwards, shining immaculately through the Big Top. Absolutely everyone there can see it, from human to Humor.
The Kappa symbol, once cleansed with that light, is revealed. No longer faded, the neon green lights shine brightly, as the Atelier feels stronger, more stable. Like it won't just slip away so easily again.
The veil soon rethreads itself, hiding it away again, safe and sound.
Then, wracked by the day's exhaustion, Hazuki starts to slump over, eyes hazy. Someone might want to help her stay upright.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Well, you could be fully rotten, but you're so helpful in combat that I think you do have redeeming qualities after all!" Yanagi helpfully explains to Yukari.
That was earlier. Now the Homunculus has been destroyed and the winds are dying. Yanagi lands with the help of Giselle, summoned in mid-air to bring her to safety; the Persona descends en pointe, and Yanagi is cradled in her needle arms. She slips down with the help of her cane-gun, and gazes at the Homunculus's final moments, listens to its final words.
She did warn it that it would die never understanding why it would never get to exist. But if it understood, it probably wouldn't have ended up this way.
Yanagi glances to one side at Myunghon as they express not pity but genuine empathy, going so far as to call it human. A curious reaction indeed... but she isn't going to tell them they're wrong for feeling that way. Instead, she looks back at the Homunculus--or, rather at this point, what remains of it.
Its red eyes have left behind a pair of ruby game controllers.
Yanagi looks at Saika and Pernelle, and nods. Then she looks at the others--whomever of them are paying attention to Peacock Silk instead of Hazuki and her dazed march towards a golden door and the light behind it, anyway. Not that Yanagi can see that part too, even with her abilities, but the oddness of it has her interest anyway. Still, a woman needs to prioritize.
"The threads of the Cocoon are called filum regium. They're very useful for making armors and such," she explains, pointing to the beautifully glimmering remains of the Cocoon spooled all around them. "Collect what you can, and if you bring them to Peacock Silk, we can make them into something wonderful for you." She smiles and waves farewell. "We'll be waiting for you~!"
When Saika and Pernelle have gathered the controllers, Yanagi will give one last lingering look at Hazuki as she "connects" that Kappa symbol and somehow revitalizes it, an unasked question in her gaze. Then she leaves with her dear companions.
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
Pernelle descends from his aerial assault in slow, gliding circles. He comes to a gentle landing by the Homunculus' fallen treasures... those beautiful, ruby red joysticks... tilting his head back and forth like the early bird spotting a juicy pair of worms...
... before he strikes back down like a viper twice in quick succession, pecking up the joysticks with such violence one would think Pernelle thought them still trapped in their sockets. He tosses them into the air with the momentum of his enthusiasm, catching each in his beak.
Mouth full with his prize, Pernelle must make his farewell a wordless one. He lowers into a deep, elegant bow before turning to hurriedly dash away with the natural waddle caused by his heavy train.
In his wake, he leaves the fading echo of mischievous giggling.
He got his taste after all...
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Roger takes in heavy breath - maybe a little freaked out, coming down from an adrenaline high, what is this? - as the Homunculus is destroyed. The threat to Taro Nakata is no more, and he will continue to live his life. His life, and no other.
Surrounding the Big Top, the group can see Coleric Humors looming menacingly... save for a handful of Sanguin Humors interposing themselves, as they all stare to the gathered. (This seems a threatening gesture, until the Tickets Machine Repair One holds out an offering of tickets to a number of incidental Persona-users who are nearby.)
Roger doesn't quite grasp the idea of being truly exhausted, what it means when it feels like you, yourself, are no longer running on all cylinders. This is normal for new awakenings, and it seems even those who are - were? - Shadows are no different.
"We did win...!" He says to Hazuki, and then laughs, looking to the rest. "Everything will be fun here again, but..."
But?
He looks at himself. Was he excluded by the other Humors because of this? Was he always capable of this? Everything's a weird blur where he only started to really notice what was going on around him when the Homonculus arrived. He...
...He can still understand what he's hearing among the murmuring Humors.
"Oh! The Sanguin Humors here... they're holding the Coleric Humors back, for now, so--"
He catches Hazuki heading off in a trance somewhere. "Ah? Hazuki-chan? What are you doing? Um--"
He watches her approach, the surprising scene plays out as Hazuki forms a connection. A brilliant blaze, that golden light... and the neon green shine of the Kappa symbol, as Flegmat Humors murmur small newfound echoes of the little thoughts and ways that Taro Nakata - the rightful ruler of his Atelier - asserts himself anew.
...About in time for Hazuki to faint.
"Oh no! Hazuki-chan!" Roger jogs over at a sedate, tired pace himself to help keep her upright.
The joysticks are taken, and Roger looks up. "Oh! They helped us a lot," Roger explains about the Peacock Silk people leaving with their prize, "and all they wanted was what the Homunculus left behind... I don't like the idea of having anything of them lying around an Atelier." ...But he doesn't know why anyone would want anything to do with those. There's a lot of questions to ask.
He'll leave with everyone else, and that sentence expressing such a casual act to the point it glances over the what it means for 'with everyone else' is something he doesn't catch onto until it happens.
...But after all, he wants to play with everyone as someone, so why would that cross his mind if he were just doing that?
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
The moment of colourless, lightless transcendance is only that -- a superliminal moment that can't be measured even by the speed of light, because it has gone beyond where light can reach. Myunghon feels the caging sensations of body and physicality once more, even within the supernatural space, afterwards, freed of the enchantments of being Kappa. They were crying before.
They're still choking back sobs now, vulnerable in their mortifying curse of physical existence.
They're not sad about it. They're terrified. The only times in human history when someone says 'this thing deserves to die' is replete with the worst examples of human atrocity that doesn't need to be repeated at all here. Myunghon craves knowledge, surety in knowledge, and they're terrified of the 'gut feeling' that their supernatural senses told them 'this is wrong'. An app invasively wormed its way into their life. Umie is touched by a dark force. They can't trust that what their senses tell them isn't some other invisible force's designs on them either.
Because Humans do incredibly cruel, terrible things to each other based on their 'gut feeling'.
To even just reach very closely to a recent trauma, Koichi Ishiba's entire campaign of violence upon them, and his opinion on whether or not they should exist or belong in Japan, is based on a 'gut feeling'. They can't accept the judgement of 'Homunculi deserve to die' on an ontological level. Not while their knowledge of the depths of the supernatural space and what it means is still so shallow.
They're shedding, Nanghaithya the Discontent. They're questioning, in their last moments. They return to red... to scarlet... and--
A pair of ruby joysticks clatter in their wake. Ruby-red, just like its eyes.
They still have no idea of the question they asked at the start of all this:
Who were they?
Hazuki Nakao expresses no pity of remorse. And she isn't wrong, they do believe, that she feels that way. Her close friend was in mortal danger, of being subsumed, taken over forever. Myunghon acted in order to save Taro Nakata, along with everyone else, when they couldn't before. There is a blaze, a golden light... the shine of the symbol -- and Hazuki starts to fall over, and they gasp and quietly hurry, but Roger's there at her side to ensure she doesn't fall over.
Somehow, they can feel Yanagi's glance upon them -- and for a moment they meet eye-to-eyes, and Myunghon can't help but choke again. As she explains that it's filum regium, a very special material for crafting armor. They've been at this for a while... what do they know about the Homunculus that they don't? They must understand.
Merry. One more time, help.
A centering breath, and...
"... then we shall clean them with you, Roger. Will you be... coming with us?" speaks Merry, plain and simple enough, asserting themself. "Is everyone all right? Speak up if you need medical assistance." Yes, asserting the mission plan and checking off all the boxes will do to assuage their doubt at present.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka is tense as everyone puts their efforts forth. She keeps playing, doing her best to empower Taro, to help things hold on just long enough, and then finally...
Nothing is left but a pair of ruby joysticks. Ririka heaves a deep sigh and finally lets her hands drop. "... Okay. That thing better not have a fourth life bar."
She notices, too, those threads, formed of the Cocoon that once held a supernatural space--and Taro. She's about to ask when Yanagi explains. "Filum regium... is it really okay if we just take it...?" Or those joysticks--the Homunculus' eyes--for that matter, but Pernelle's got that one already.
Instead she's distracted by Hazuki doing... something, drawing in a sharp breath as she hears the effect of that connection being made, even if she doesn't understand it. That drawing of a Kappa... the way it looks... was it Taro's? It has to be. Maybe she can ask Hazuki about it later... when she hasn't fainted. "Nakao-chan!"
She'll go to help her, and she nods as Roger says that they should leave. "... right. We should probably avoid any more fights for tonight. Are... you gonna stay, or...?" Like Myunghon, she's curious.
... and she'll collect some of that filum regium on her way out, too.
<Pose Tracker> Moriko Kumamoto has posed.
"Winning wasn't what mattered. It's what you do along the way." Moriko says, still through hoarse breaths. She's glad this fight's over. She's got nothing left in her as best she can tell. This is going to suck tomorrow for sure. The biker's always tinkering away, working. It's probably no shock.
She does whince a bit at Yanagi's explanation to Yukari as the fight winds down. "That's not fair." She suggests. She does admit Yukari's got a temper. Might be some solidarity with the mean faced biker that picks fights though.
That may or may not make things better.
"Thanks Kawase and Takeba." fingers tightening their grip as she forces herself up. "I think I'm good for now."
Reaching out to snag some of the drifting filum regium as it floats by. Turning it over and back in her hands before stashing it.
Following Ririka's eyes to Hazuki, she watches quietly, then turns away and watches the others instead. "You all good?" That Osakan accent's thick at this point.
"Yeah. Leaving's good." She rolls her shoulders back. Works her neck back and forth, then slumps forward again, adjusting her jacket. Clearly ready to go.
Hazuki Nakao goes home.
Hazuki Nakao has left for Historia: The White Chronicle.