2026-02-08: Found You
- Log: Found You
- Cast: Tsubasa Seki, Shiryuu Ryouhara, Ichika Kawase, Hibari Aoki
- Where: Path of Chemdah, Mementos
- OOC Date: 2026-02-08
- IC Date: Sun, Sept 23 2012 (forward-dated)
- Summary: Phoenix, Ogre, and Mujina are raiding Mementos one afternoon when everything goes wrong. The ninja, Ryouhara, has been searching for Phoenix... and now, he will take them, visiting terrible violence on his victims in the process. All he leaves behind is a feather -- a single feather, in exchange for the soul known as Phoenix.
- Content warning: Kidnapping
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
There's something Tsubasa does quite often, when they grab some hours of free time:
Plunder Mementos.
They never stopped having a face that frightens small children; the service jobs most teenagers get aren't really something they're even in the running for. Their family's come into money now their father's the vice-fucking-president of Kimpara Electronics, but that doesn't necessarily mean they see any of it. ... they know what happens when they ask him for anything.
Before they Awakened, they didn't really have many options; they'd lift shit from stores and fence it through Shuyo or barter it for what they needed, alongside leaning on charities for staples it was harder to fit into a pocket. Now they have, though, they have a lot more options!
For instance: stealing is way easier and more consequence-free in the Dark Hour, even if it's kind of limited to 247 konbinis if they don't want to break and enter.
But what do they do when they need something in the normal 24 hours of the day?
Simple: beat up Shadows in Mementos and take their cash. Also, steal all these treasure chests and sell that shit. Sure, some of the chests are locked -- but that's not a big deal when Phoenix is just as good at picking locks as Tsubasa is.
Who they call to these runs vary, of course; they invite the Thieves along regularly, but they're not the only people they ask to party up. Two other people who get invitations are Hibari and Hyousuke -- though not at the same time, to help preserve Mujina's secret identity.
That doesn't stop Phoenix from inviting Mujina and Ogre at the same time, though.
Here in the depths of the Path of Chemdah, a group of Mocking Snowmen -- which look just like Ogre's demonic nemeses -- discover a terrible truth: Phoenix will set themself on fire so long as they burn, too. "Hey," they say, as they pause in the hall once the victory music's calmed, "this wall's kinda suspicious..."
"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH--!"
That's the sound of Phoenix planting their tabi firmly on the ground, spinning in a brutal half-circle, and smashing the cracked wall into pieces with their greatsword.
Inside... is a room with a chest!!
"Aw, sweet!" Phoenix grins, as they crouch by it. Trying to open it up results in a rattling, as they note, "oh, it's locked," and pull a lockpicking kit out of their hooded hagoromo cloak to start working on getting at whatever's trapped inside.
Jingle, rattle, clink... clunk!
"Sick, hunk a amethyst," Phoenix says, as they pull the gemstone from the chest. They gaze at it, for a moment, before they say: "Hey, that reminds me... Mujina-chan, you heard anythin' specific 'bout that purple mirror business?"
Seriously, Phoenix?? You bring up the bad luck mirror in the depths of Mementos???
(It's fine! Phoenix's sword is almost as big as they are, there's nothing to worry about when they're around!)
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika doesn't really need to plunder Mementos in theory. In practice, gas can get pretty expensive, so she takes a share out of more than just principle when she joins Tsubasa on these outings. Besides; Ogre's gotta keep her skills up.
Ogre isn't much of a hand at lockpicking, but she can play lookout for Phoenix when they do it. And here...
"Hey," Ogre says to Phoenix, "Hold on a sec--:"
BOOM.
"...Let me heal you, you ass," Ogre sighs, and summons her Persona to give Phoenix a Diarama to make up for the earlier fires.
Pause. "...Oooh, I like amethysts," Ogre says as she looks at it. But then she looks to Mujina--
Mirror???
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
Hibari Aoki - Mujina to you, if you meet her in Mementos - actually goes to Mementos very often. It helps when you can sneak around better than the average.
Of course, it's much safer when she comes with Phoenix and Ogre. But that also means there's not *nearly* as much sneaking going on.
Mujina - a more heavyset girl than most of the teenagers that crawl around this place, a masked figure in a long coat, belted around her waist, hanging open below that and accompanied by black leggings and high boots - has been trying to keep things together. She's better at finding paths than the other two, but worse at fighting.
But one of the tricks she *does* have is that she can make Phoenix light themselves on fire a little less badly. So there's that. Even if it does mean that Phoenix seems a little *blurred* sometimes, as if light wasn't resolving on them properly. (The group, right now, is too aggressive for even Mujina to pull off fully invisible.)
"You're really going to have to stop doing that quite so much," Mujina says, with one of her hands in her coat pockets. She's fiddling with something in there, but eventually she stops, pulling her hand out.
And of course they ask about the mirrors... and Ogre apparently doesn't know. Great. Is she going to be putting one of her friends in danger?
"It's an urban legend," she says, a little grudgingly. "And I'm trying not to think about it, thank you!" She looks over toward Ogre: "Don't worry about it. And don't look it up! You're better off not. Let the rumourmongers handle this one."
You can stop a rumour as well as spread one... maybe. Hibari's never really been able to stop the rumours about herself, after all...
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
And then, unnoticed to most, a little brass mouse wheels into the cavernous tunnel. A tiny, obscure little device of springs, it zooms in unnervingly fast along the lines of the gray floor, a speed attributed to the fact that it moves not on individual feet, but a large singular wheel, making a tiny little skittering sound as it zooms across the concrete, carrying with it a payload of a tiny sphere tied to its cloth tail, a little ball that plink-plink-plinks across the ground.
Made of glass, this sphere cracks each time the toy bounces it on the ground, every time it slips one of the expansion lines in the concrete, each time it bounces off the wall. It breaks, somewhere near the middle of the tunnel, right after the tiny mouse ramps a piece of debris and lands just a bit too hard. It breaks, then it and the mouse pop into little black soot streaks across the ground. That little pop is loud, attention-grabbing.
So is the tiny flare it shoots into the open air, a flashing white, sputtering firework, giving a haunting, uncontrolled aspect to the conjured flame which still burns.
BOOM
If that wasn't a destructible wall before, it is now.
He arrives silently, on black and white sneakers.
For a moment, the air is just bright, flashing light as the pyrotechnics from clockwork ninkou Kaminsho strangle every shadow in the hall. And then someone decides to knock down half the walls in the area as if he had a personal grudge against discernible paths. In fashion, he wears a hagoromo as well, the settle of a pure white silk haori draping over his hips as he stands, a sheathed black sword in hand and a giant seal-bound ball slung on the back of his hip.
The silver-haired Shiryuu Ryouhara is one of the few who doesn't hide in cognitive space, and his one blue eye shines bright even in the flaring white choking out the darkness.
"All those ill-fated and hidden, shamed souls who conspire to hold back the moonrise, kneel and surrender before the steel dark immediately if you value your ignoble existence..."
His voice is level, ice cold, and he pulls his sword from its saya with a rake of black steel and curling vapor.
He looks at Phoenix, and everyone around.
"...I've found you."
There is absolutely no question as to the shihaisha's intention.
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara has readied for combat as Sarutahiko Okami! He is now fully healed! Ready for 3 opponents!
AS: Hibari Aoki has readied for combat as Danzaburou! She is now fully healed!
AS: Ichika Kawase has readied for combat as Momiji! She is now fully healed!
AS: Tsubasa Seki has readied for combat as Izbushka na Kur'ih Nozhkah! They are now fully healed!
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Phoenix's cloak is... very orange. Their sneaking would have to be very, very skillful... which isn't to say they're not that good, but they're also real good at just smashing through alarms. No one can raise an alarm if all the Shadows are dead! That's what they call 'crowd control'.
"Ahhh, c'mon, they're dead, ain't they?" Phoenix has a TERRIBLE attitude towards taking damage! But at least they stay still long enough for Ogre to heal them. "'Sides! Thanks to Mujina's spells, it ain't hardly nothin', an' you can fix everythin' up when we done!"
(They think the blurring effect is sick as hell.)
"Well, that's th' thing," they add, rubbing at the back of their hood as they look to Mujina. "That spell's kinda too wide-range... not to hit me. Like, it's an uncontrolled burn, y'know? Don't ask me why me soul hut got that kinda firepower, man." Phoenix, you just smashed through a wall. Everyone knows why you'd have the kind of firepower that hits everything including yourself.
"Oh... least that means there weren't nothin' with it recent-like, right?" Phoenix wonders, as Mujina insists she's not thinking about purple mirrors. They look to Ogre, though, who apparently didn't know about them, and goes "uhhhhh," and --
-- shoves the amethyst into her hands! "Surprise!"
Phoenix probably didn't mean for it to be so surprising there was an explosion, though. Pop! -- BOOM!
They leap backwards as all the destructible walls in this section of tunnels reveal themselves, with untold riches (hey, is that a stamp stand?) revealing themselves unto them. "SHIT!" Phoenix yelps, throwing up an arm to shield their blue eyes from a glare which shines right straight through the eye-holes of their witch's hat mask.
Ryouhara's got the more modern interpretation of the immortal cloak; silk, rather than Phoenix's more literal feathers. Maybe that's a statement. Maybe the shoes are a statement, too. But in the face of Shiryuu's statements about the moonrise, Phoenix just yelps: "Fuck th' moon, man! And fuck YOU!!"
Rather than pulling out their own greatsword, though, they reach into their cloak...
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fnh7UL6qdc Self Deception - Smoke You Out
... and pull out a whole-ass fucking rocket launcher.
"GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU PIECE A SHIT!"
Without even thinking for a second about what happens when you fire a rocket launcher indoors, in a train tunnel, Phoenix fires a massive shell into the space Ryouhara was occupying.
Also, several feet to either side of that space.
It's a fucking rocket launcher.
AS: Weapon! Tsubasa Seki has used the Pierce skill Rocket Launcher on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Aggression: Tsubasa Seki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Tsubasa Seki regains 8 HP from Regenerate!
AS: Tsubasa Seki's turn has ended.
AS: Counter Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 211 Pierce damage from Tsubasa Seki's Rocket Launcher.
AS: COUNTER! Tsubasa Seki takes 51 Pierce damage in return for their attack!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
An urban legend that Mujina doesn't want to think about, and that she's not supposed to worry about. Ogre tilts her head. "Huh," she says. "So, uh--"
"Oh!" She has an amethyst now! "It's so pretty!" she says brightly, and then hthere is an explosion. Despite the explosion, someone else is silent. And Ogre turns towards the shihaisha--
"I'm not hidden," Ogre says, "And I'm damned well not shamed."
Phoenix is somewhat more poetic.
"GET HIM!" Ogre cheers, and then summons forth Momiji, the beautiful oni lifting one clawed hand. "Persona!"
Shadows brush over each of them, defending all three of them from further attacks.
"And stop using words that don't make sense!"
AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Almighty skill Shade Revel on Ichika Kawase, Tsubasa Seki, and Hibari Aoki!
AS: Support: Ichika Kawase gains 1 Limit!
AS: Ichika Kawase's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Ichika Kawase takes 0 Almighty damage from Ichika Kawase's Shade Revel.
AS: Def_Up and Spd_Up added!
AS: Take! Tsubasa Seki takes 0 Almighty damage from Ichika Kawase's Shade Revel.
AS: Def_Up and Spd_Up added!
AS: Take! Hibari Aoki takes 0 Almighty damage from Ichika Kawase's Shade Revel.
AS: Def_Up and Spd_Up added!
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
"I'm not going to say it!" Mujina raises her voice slightly, along with her hands. The less Ogre hears about it, the safer she is - and the less Phoenix worries about it, the safer *they* are. So she tries to distract, instead: "Is that a real amethyst? I've never been clear. I know some of the things I pulled out of the Palace weren't as real as they looked..."
Most people would never notice the little brass mouse. Why would they? It's just a tiny little toy, or that's what it looks like at first glance.
But if the mouse was alive - it isn't, but work with me - it might have the feeling of being watched, and something small scampering away...
Elsewhere, Mujina tilts her head slightly as her navigation, filtered through her particularly ideosyncratic visualization, picks up something she has no idea what it is. (You didn't think that minimap built itself, did you?) "Hold on," she says, "do you hear - "
BOOM
When Shiryuu makes his grand appearance, Mujina is looking in his general direction. (She's actually squinting against the flash, but her mask covers her eyes pretty well.) But her gaze steadies as the spots fade.
Shiryuu gets a stronger sense of being looked at. Investigated, even. And this time the patter of little feet is audible as a phantasmal beast, a tiny bipedal-ish tanuki, rushes out of the darkness, gathered up into Mujina's arm before fading away. It has the same blue spectral light as a Persona does - not a real creature then.
Mujina has always been best at getting her information through her network... it's just a little more *direct* down in Mementos.
"What are you even TALKING about?" She really doesn't sound like she understands. "Ogre, Phoenix, do you know him?" Mujina slips one of her hands into her pocket again, this time reaching for something in particular. The other reaches up, toward her mask -
"Phoenix, watch it!" Whether she means the ninja or the backblast is unclear. Her hand presses against her mask, not pulling it off but merely looking like she could. "...Persona!"
Danzaburou appears rising up from her, a larger version of the tiny tanuki briefly spotted; a rotund humanoid animal wearing wealthy clothes, a haori and hakama, and wielding a gunbai made of precious metals. Light swirls around Shinryuu as Hibari takes his measure, with the gleam of eyes reflecting light out of the darkness.
AS: Persona! Hibari Aoki has used the Almighty skill Basic Analysis on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Hibari Aoki's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Almighty damage from Hibari Aoki's Basic Analysis.
AS: Hibari Aoki's Strength Scan! Shiryuu Ryouhara resists Fire!
AS: Hibari Aoki's Weakness Scan! Shiryuu Ryouhara is weak against Earth!
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
Shiryuu's chin is tilted upwards, his eyes knife-sharp and carrying all the imperious gravity of his station as he looks from one to one. The tanuki, the oni. He knows the Persona of the loud one in the middle -- his current target -- without seeing it, but his dispassion tempers itself across the others. It was a dangerous situation to go into a blind battle with a relative unknown Persona.
"I am the ruler of that dark," he clarifies for Mujina.
He slides steel into his voice, his eyes grazing over Ogre.
"Standing before me so is tantamount to suicide."
The sound of the loud X between them carries the long form of his attention, and the silver-haired youth looks up just in time to see the rocket shell spitting a stream of ugly smoke as it careens towards him. THe boy's hand is a literal blur -- snap!
Sneakers squeal, going to the balls of his feet immediately from the recoil of the rocket charged projectile. With reflexes quicker than a viper, Shiryuu has the fucking thing in one hand, and his pupils dilate as he realizes just exactly what he's caught.
He frowns. "You dense mothe..."
There is no time to finish his thought. The wind spins around him as the boy's eye shines, and then he's gone from that spot, the world convulsing, leaping beneath his feet to pull him away, before --
"This has been a long time coming... Phoenix."
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liW-kWFiXtQ - Sick Puppies, You're Going Down
The space between them is erased in an instant. Most people would simply lose a hand to the stunt. Flipping the shell, Shiryuu carries the missile expressly back to its source -- and everyone around them.
The flash of his sword in the black churns, and focuses the ensuing blast, stirring it into a spear that lands at a suddenly relocated ground zero.
The wind, the bass, the force. Suddenly, the onmitsu turns the entire affair into a storm, a black chorus, and a dynamite rave, looking to catch everyone in an unyielding vaccuum, a consuming beat of blades and fire.
AS: Weapon! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Pierce skill Rocket Edict on Tsubasa Seki!
AS: Aggression: Shiryuu Ryouhara gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Wind skill Track 4: Arashi-giri Divination on Ichika Kawase!
AS: Persona! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Pierce skill Track 6: Uncivil Discourse on Hibari Aoki!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 35 Pierce damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Rocket Edict.
AS: Take! Hibari Aoki takes 0 Pierce damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Track 6: Uncivil Discourse. Critical Hit!
AS: Poison added! Def_Up removed!
AS: Take! Ichika Kawase takes 0 Wind damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Track 4: Arashi-giri Divination.
AS: Poison added!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's Weakness Scan! Ichika Kawase is weak against Water!
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"I mean, I think so?" Phoenix wonders, on how real the amethyst is. The important thing is that Ogre thinks it's pretty!
Unfortunately, Shiryuu is here. (He's also pretty, but, like, he's the last thing they'd wanna give their girlfriend.) And Phoenix... evidently did not hear what Mujina heard.
"That's Ryouhara! He's on me ass 'cuz he reckons he's the god-king a ninja or whatever!" Phoenix snaps, far less poetic than that dark ruler. They don't have much more time to explain, though --
They've got a special delivery coming in. "FUCK,"
Phoenix's conscious mind doesn't catch up with what they're seeing as quickly as their hindbrain processes it: Shiryuu grabbed their fucking shell, and he's coming right for them with a blast like a spear. It is that strange strength that has them springing away from the epicentre, with movements made more fluid by Ogre's mountainous protection; one foot lands, and stumbles to another, to the next.
There is a kind of weighty grace to the way Phoenix spins that massive tube of a rocket launcher, turning as they stow it back in their cloak -- which is really more the idea that something could be stowed in their cloak, surely that whole thing couldn't really fit in there -- only to grasp their greatsword by the time they've found their footing again.
But a keen eye could spot it: they didn't escape that blast nearly as unscathed as it seems. It's written in the flinch of their jaw as they shift their weight to their back foot, and the tension of their fingers around the hilt of their blade.
"You're standin' in front a us, asshole! The fuck you want with me now?!" Phoenix snaps, as they charge forward, their blade screaming sparks against the train tracks with a terrible wailing noise. They plant a foot, and throw themself into a spin, whirling around to slash at Ryouhara -- "HA!" -- and keep going, whirling around for a second impact. "HRAHHH--!"
AS: Weapon! Tsubasa Seki has used the Slash skill Greatsword Assault on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 2 Hits!
AS: Aggression: Tsubasa Seki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Tsubasa Seki regains 8 HP from Regenerate!
AS: Tsubasa Seki's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 50 Slash damage from Tsubasa Seki's Greatsword Assault.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ogre, for now, is distracted from the mirror problem. But it does look like a real amethyst. Ogre pockets it. She's going to have to deal with this guy, for now, instead. And Ogre does, "He's an asshole who wants to kidnap Phoenix!" Ogre supplies for Mujina.
That analysis though...
Ogre grins wickedly. "I'll stand where I want," she tells Shiryuu. "When I want."
But he blurs--
There is no space between them, now. The music starts, and Ogre throws up her shield against it all the same. A consuming blast of blades...
"Tch," Ogre says. "I've got your weakness, buddy."
"But more important--I told you..."
"MOMIJI!"
Ichika stomps the ground as she rips off her mask, and the kimono-clad Momiji reappears, whirling into being. She turns towards Ogre--
Ogre is suddenly holding a rifle. Enchanted shots burst towards Shiryuu, each one exploding in beautiful stone.
"They're MINE!"
AS: Tandem! Ichika Kawase has used the Earth skill Stoneburst on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 2 Hits!
AS: Ichika Kawase: Loses 72 HP from Poison! Poison removed!
AS: Ichika Kawase's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Best! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 8 Slash damage from Tsubasa Seki's Greatsword Assault.
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 65 Earth damage from Ichika Kawase's Stoneburst. Weak!
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 97 Earth damage from Ichika Kawase's Stoneburst. Critical Hit! Weak!
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
If he thinks he's the 'god-king' of ninja, and he's going after Tsubasa...
"Did you tell him YOU were a ninja?" Hibari's voice has rising disbelief in it. Tsubasa is one of the least ninja-like people she can think of off the top of her head. "Why is he even - "
Against the explosion, Mujina sweeps her coat, hunkering down and using it like a shield. It even works, to an extent; it blows back her hair, and the vacuum pulls at her, but she isn't sliced apart.
(Which is good.)
"It's rock!" Mujina calls, suddenly. "Rock and stone - and stay away from the fire!" Sorry, Phoenix; she knows that's a tall order but it's not going to get through his... whatever he has.
Mujina has fought Shadows and demons before. She's been in Palaces; she's been in Mementos; she's even, once, snuck into an Atelier. But the number of times she's fought a person - just a person, with a Persona - is very low.
And Mujina doesn't like fighting people very much. It's not her strong point. She never did in the gang, and just because she's Awakened to power doesn't mean she suddenly started. The last time she punched something she just hurt her hand.
So when she should attack, she hesitates for a moment, leaving herself open. Generally she comes off as confident in spaces like this, and generally she *is*, but right now... He wants to kidnap Tsubasa - but - if she lets loose, she's going to hurt him, or hurt herself, or -
It's Ogre firing, and Phoenix charging, that snap her back. "Right!" Hibari takes a breath, lets it out, and Danzaburou reappears, swinging his gunbei through a decisive sweep. Energy swirls around Shiryuu, making a twisted pattern, harmless at first until it *tightens*, twisting his mind as much as his body, trying to render him less able to fight.
She can do this, she thinks. She promised she'd be there for them, too.
"Give me a moment; I'll try something new!"
AS: Persona! Hibari Aoki has used the Almighty skill Shibaboo on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Ruin: Hibari Aoki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Hibari Aoki: Loses 74 HP from Poison!
AS: Hibari Aoki's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Almighty damage from Hibari Aoki's Shibaboo.
AS: Charm and Poison added!
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
Wind howls through the blown out tunnels of Mementos, already more done in a few minutes to reconfigure the layout of the little side path than ages of cognitive warp.
With Shiryuu, those winds are different, carving through the air like knives. More than a simple storm, it's like the air itself rebels, spraying long curves of colored ink across the ground. Powerful, intense, the onmitsu's aura carries with it the bone-jarring rhythm of cognitive -music-, a warped, warped, haunting echo of something in the upper 130s of BPM.
The explosion does a little more damage to him than others, but the onmitsu skids back on his sneakers regardless, his injured hand charred and black, the fingertips flexing to feel out the damage. That nimbus betrayed the limitations of his aura -- and the one with the tanuki reads it.
"Rock and stone is a flimsy way of describing my Persona's weakness," the onmitsu counters mildly, stepping up.
'HRRAUGH!'
Shiryuu is interrupted midthought by an absolute unit of a greatsword again, forced to lean -- fast -- to one side, just barely darting aside before being driven back by the second blow, a flash of red just barely catching the onmitsu in the chest before he tumbles back through the air, a single wave of wind being conjured as he rights himself in the air by his Persona finally appearing, a rattling mechanical kami sweeping its gohei through the air, churning it against the chunks of rock, whose momentum punches through, still managing to make sure Shiryuu lands much, much harder than anticipated.
When he stands, he stands hard. The boy stretches, looking up slowly at the world around him. He can see it, in the fine bends of the world around him, the tiny flexion of small lines that used to be straight. He would be a fool not to notice it.
"It seems I'm already caught in your spell," the boy thinks aloud, breathing lightly, absently checking the fittings of his sword near the handguard. 'Mujina's' Persona might inform her, via that analysis, that he's trying to get a baseline for what he's seeing vs. what really is. A thumb runs a few inches down the concave curve of Bankasoujin's mune.
"... A shinobi is one who sacrifices everything of themselves to ensure the safety of everyone around them," Shiryuu counters quietly, his look faraway.
"There isn't any point in pretending that you're a shinobi, that you're a boss, that you're anything at all until you understand your own weakness."
'I have your weakness.'
Shiryuu blink twice, his gaze lowering finally, as if it's the first time he's hearing them. His brow sets.
A tiny drizzle of blood runs down his left eye, shining bright, sharp blue.
"So you seem to think."
Shiryuu steps forward slowly, holding his sword at neck level, curved edge facing them. Then, he slits the throat of the light.
Bankasoujin's black curve pours out with ink, spraying across the floor. That black spreads, spattering here. There, everywhere. It covers everything, drenching the colors of the stone in black, and covering the iron in black, and staining the smouldering fire in black. Everything is painted black, in time, before it's just them, their bodies, their weapons in their hands, their Persona. A crushing, consuming color.
The song changes, the BPM arcs, harsh, high, tight, electric like a spear to the spine. Phoenix will recognize the beat almost immediately.
And then, Shiryuu moves, to cut through everyone's Persona at once, in an instant, in a flash of blades. It's really as if space didn't mean anything to him at all, and the dance is done in less than a second. It's not even that he conjured blades, or did anything of that nature. No one is spared. He's simply there. Then not.
And then the bleeding will start.
AS: Persona! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Recovery skill Track 2: Bonds of Black on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 45 damage from Stress!
AS: Charm results in party damage! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 90 damage!
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Recovery healing from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Track 2: Bonds of Black.
AS: Cloak and Eclipse added!
AS: Persona! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Recovery skill Track 3: Lock TF In on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Recovery healing from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Track 3: Lock TF In.
AS: Atk_Up, Rage, and Regen added!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Psych!
AS: Weapon! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Slash skill Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War on Ichika Kawase, Tsubasa Seki, and Hibari Aoki! 3 Hits!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 45 damage from Stress!
AS: Aggression: Shiryuu Ryouhara gains 1 Limit!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara: Loses 74 HP from Poison! Gains 73 HP from Regen! Psych removed!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Counter Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 121 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War.
AS: COUNTER! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 43 Slash damage in return for his attack!
AS: You have 2 more attacks in queue!
AS: Counter Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 164 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War. Critical Hit!
AS: COUNTER! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 58 Slash damage in return for his attack!
AS: You have 1 more attack in queue!
AS: Counter Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 164 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War. Critical Hit!
AS: COUNTER! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 58 Slash damage in return for his attack!
AS: Tsubasa Seki is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Avoid Worst! Hibari Aoki takes 137 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Worst! Hibari Aoki takes 140 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Best! Hibari Aoki takes 76 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Worst! Ichika Kawase takes 85 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War.
AS: Block Neutral! Ichika Kawase takes 60 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War.
AS: Block Worst! Ichika Kawase takes 85 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Mugen Setsuna: Lightning Reaper War.
AS: Hibari Aoki spends Limit on Shift! Ichika Kawase can use another Weak skill this round! They both receive 8 SP and 30 HP!
AS: Ichika Kawase spends Limit on Shift! Hibari Aoki can use another Weak skill this round!
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Check th' threads, man!" Phoenix clarifies, for Mujina. And, indeed: under that feathered cloak, they are wearing traditional ninja robes. They've even got the tabi sandals.
(And there's a reason Tsubasa looks like this in Mementos.)
"Yeah!" Phoenix crows, hearing Ogre give a much more ferocious answer to their right to stand here they will. "What th' Boss said!" There is a beat -- a beat which, subconsciously, matches the beat of that music -- before they add: "Me real Boss!" Shiryuu keeps trying to take the title, but it's very taken. (Indeed, it's taken twice over, now... Phoenix has two bosses, and neither Ogre nor Joker are Shiryuu.)
Ogre insists they're taken, though -- and for a moment, Phoenix smiles, feeling safer than they were a second ago. Even Mujina's getting into the fight, even though she's never really liked getting into fights with people...
But Mujina's spells aren't the only ones working. Is it the music? Is it his logic? Is it the knowledge of how far he'll go, learned over their previous battles?
"What you up to?!" They demand, as Shiryuu slits the light's throat --
"What the fuck?!"
-- and the world disappears into black splotches. Cloying, claustrophobic; they can't see Mujina or Ogre, any more. "H--hey!" They call out, and their voice is unnerved. They can't find them...
But they can hear the music, pounding in their ears.
"EAT SHIT, DICKHEAD!" Phoenix yells, as they charge forward, through the ink; it sloughs against their tabi, dripping from their blade and their feathers and their teeth, and they know where they are in space to slam their sword into his.
He will note, in the violence, that they are not trying to run him through. It makes it simpler, to carve at the body; slicing through the lateral aspects of their limbs avoids such foibles as the femoral artery, which would otherwise bleed to a quick death.
Still: they are bloodied, and worse still, as they try to keep that blade on them instead of the girls with them. The dark grey of their ninja robes do not show it well; their white bracing-bandages, on the other hand, do.
"Ugh," Phoenix mutters, as they pitch forward into the ink, their sword lost. They push themself up on a hand; it gives way, beneath them, and they collapse heavily down again. "Bastard..."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"We didn't tell him shit!" Ogre supplies for Mujina.
Ichika has fought people before. With Personas, even, but without them enough that she's desensitzed to brawling. ...On the other hand, she isn't aiming to kill, either; she knows people can take more punishment with their Personas out.
The Joker Killer sure could.
"I'll trust you, Mujina!"
But what is a Shinobi...?
"That's--"
But Ichika wonders, too. Does she know her own weakness? She thinks she does. But Shiryuu blinks, and this time, he argues. This time, the black ink spreads, and Ichika can't see a damned thing. "What--"
The beat. Momiji takes up a defensive position; she blocks with her great clawed arms, enduring the blows with the soul of the mountains from which she came. She cannot block all the damage, but when the war is briefly done, Ichika still stands.
"...My weakness..."
"Has nothing to do with fighting, asshole!"
She knows; some of those blades came for her, too. Nothing that would've been lethal--but even the slightest of hurts was denied by Tsubasa's guardianship. "PHOENIX!"
She grits her teeth, and Momiji unfurls, healing light sparkling down over Phoenix. Light then passes over all three of them.
"Maybe I can't beat your ass," Ogre admits. "But I can heal the rest of us. That's what I'm for."
Then she throws out a hand to Hibari, "Mujina! Counting on you!"
AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Recovery skill Recarm on Tsubasa Seki!
AS: Support: Ichika Kawase gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Recovery skill Mediarama on Tsubasa Seki, Hibari Aoki, and Ichika Kawase!
AS: Ichika Kawase's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Ichika Kawase takes 149 Recovery healing from Ichika Kawase's Mediarama.
AS: Take! Hibari Aoki takes 149 Recovery healing from Ichika Kawase's Mediarama.
AS: Take! Tsubasa Seki takes 130 Recovery healing from Ichika Kawase's Recarm.
AS: You have 1 more attack in queue!
AS: Take! Tsubasa Seki takes 149 Recovery healing from Ichika Kawase's Mediarama.
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
Hibari never reads Phoenix as 'ninja' mentally even though she can look at the outfit like anyone else. And she figured Shiryuu wouldn't go after someone for just some threads...
"Excuse me for not getting into the fine philosophical details when someone is trying to kidnap my friend," Mujina shoots back; her analysis wasn't *bad*, precisely, so much as she gave it as simply as possible. 'Earth' is simple enough.
Even if not everything a Persona does is strictly rocks. Like her own, which is what she's preparing for. She's only done this once or twice before...
And never in the dark. The black ink spatters, spreading across the floor, the walls. It even catches the fringe of Mujina's outfit, looking like she's walked through mud, if the mud was dark as jet; splatters and drops on the lower hem of the trench coat.
Mujina's eyes narrow. With Danzaburou's power, she knows she can work better through occlusion like this than her partners, but that doesn't make it *easy* - it just means that she can reach out and Navigate. "Here!" she calls to Tsubasa; she might not be able to make herself visible but she can at least make herself known.
It also gives her a problem to focus on, which helps steady her. So there's that.
But she can also feel the beat in her bones. Her eyes dip, half-lidded, as she tries to orient on Shiryuu by sound. It's fast, and that means -
Hibari dives just an instant too late. The blade misses her, passing over her - right where Danzaburou habitually appears, and carves through the Persona, shattering it in splinters of light. Mujina lets out a sound as she tries to focus, rising, pushing the sword away as Danzaburou reforms, his gunbai turning one of the blows.
Her head hurts. A lot. Mujina has always been able to handle a Persona Break better than some, but that doesn't mean it's *fun* or *harmless*. "Phoenix!" she calls, trying to locate - ah, there, but fallen.
Hibari sees red, momentarily. THAT gets her to act, even as Momiji reappears - "Thanks!" she calls to Ichika, as Danzaburou raises his hand. To Shiryuu: "You want a beat?"
Danzaburou begins to drum on his belly, which booms like a huge bass drum. It's rhythmic, a specific pattern: pon pon poko, pon pon poko. And that itself wouldn't do much, but whenever it booms out, it rolls over the other sounds in the area, momentarily drowning them out.
And the very *air* around Shiryuu begins to pulse, pressing inward and downward with every thump with the inevitable force of gravity.
As he does that, Mujina lets out a shrill whistle, and a little ball of energy flies away from her, directly toward Shiryuu. She's hoping he's too distracted to see it, though it is crackling with energy so it's not exactly subtle, and when it impacts -
It doesn't *hurt*, precisely. It's an almost electric pop, feeling like a shocking discharge, or maybe a fuse blowing, except directly behind the eyes; a neural shock accompanied by a moment of confusing chaos and vertigo.
AS: Persona! Hibari Aoki has used the Earth skill Tanuki Bayashi on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 2 Hits!
AS: Ruin: Hibari Aoki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Hibari Aoki has used the Almighty skill Stun Sphere on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Hibari Aoki: Loses 67 HP from Poison! Spd_Up removed!
AS: Hibari Aoki's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 28 Earth damage from Hibari Aoki's Tanuki Bayashi. Eclipsed!
AS: Eclipse removed!
AS: Avoid Best! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 52 Earth damage from Hibari Aoki's Tanuki Bayashi. Critical Hit! Weak!
AS: Take! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 0 Almighty damage from Hibari Aoki's Stun Sphere.
AS: Blast added!
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
A vicious storm of cuts litter the space around Phoenix, the shihaisha's blade having carved through nigh everything. Unfortunately, even Setsuna depends on him being in a discrete section of space at an exact point in time, and the silver-haired young man runs into a wall just as he comes shy of cutting Ichika's persona to ribbons. Ironically enough, by the one who doesn't have their Persona summoned.
Ink pours over the greatsword as white sparks arc from the contact point, black against gunmetal grey. Shiryuu chokes high on his sword, bracing his palm against the mune to keep it in tension, to fight off the colossal weight of that blade.
In an instant, Shiryuu recognizes what the foul-mouled Phoenix is trying to do, and his eyes half lid.
"....good."
The bones behind that mask pay a dear price, but it's in trade for another's.
The blade breaks through -- after all, Bankasoujin, no matter how exquisite, can't really hold off that freight train of a blade for very long -- and the onmitsu is driven off just long enough to abort his cutting rave for Ogre to make it through, the boy's haori marked with red. But 'his target' is down. And they're scrambling.
"Good--!"
'You want a beat?' The boy catches the end of the electric bolt into the steel of his sword, the energy crackling and enervating his nerves as the beat breaks beneath his shoes, the belly drum of that tanuki rupturing his cognitive BPM. A second, a moment. The boy frowns.
'You want a beat?' he remembers.
"...yeah... I do."
He shows Phoenix his sword as Ogre's healing power rolls across them. "A bond is a precious thing," he tells Ogre, without looking. "... as it should be."
He says nothing to Phoenix, but flips his sword reverse, so the blunted edge is out. It's the only mercy the shihaisha will demonstrate.
Dropping the wound ball of seals, Shiryuu settles that razor curve against his shoulder, and presses his hands together around the hilt of his sword. "O-Kousekisaku," he says, quietly. "Release."
And then all hell breaks loose, on the other side of that blue, bleeding eye.
What happens is threefold. Shiryuu leaves Phoenix with the rolling ball device as he moves past them, his inverted blade in one hand, and his other snapping loose. A sectional microblade slips from his left wrist, a long, sharp curving whip of steel flicking out like a living viper. It's a curving, long blade that lets the boy fly through the air. There's only one way the next few minutes work out in his favor. He has to pierce through that tanuki's defense, to whip through and cut into that 'Mujina' directly, to distract her with a vicious bleed. Then, he has to reach Ogre.
Because the bomb -- and it is a bomb -- left by Phoenix explodes into white paper the moment Shiryuu leaves it, a score of rattling red cords whipping out of the blast radius, flicking out in every direction. They launch onto everything in their field of effect, and fill the air with a haunting cacophony of rattles, internal mechanisms tightening, looping around each other, to one another in a dense network of red rope that tightens to excess within seconds. If any number of these fall onto Phoenix while they're distracted, they'll have only a matter of seconds to follow Shiryuu before he reaches their savior.
He cuts into her space in an instant.
And tries to hit her across the back of the neck with the flat of his blade.
She'll realize, with some haunting precision, that he's not trying to behead her. It's his gift to Phoenix for their bravery. The record scratches harshly, as the boy asserts a brutal bass drop -- the cognitive BPM smashing through that tanuki's drumbeat, and careening over a cliff.
He means to distract the others just long enough to take Phoenix.
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Shock Noise! Crt_Dn applied to Hibari Aoki!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Shock Noise! Atk_Dn applied to Ichika Kawase!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Shock Noise! Def_Dn applied to Tsubasa Seki!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara spends Limit on Psych!
AS: Weapon! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Slash skill Juurishojin on Hibari Aoki! 2 Hits!
AS: Charm results in party damage! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 90 damage!
AS: Aggression: Shiryuu Ryouhara gains 1 Limit!
AS: Weapon! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Strike skill Ryouhara Ninjutsu on Tsubasa Seki! 3 Hits!
AS: Weapon! Shiryuu Ryouhara has used the Slash skill Setsuna on Ichika Kawase!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara: Loses 71 HP from Poison! Gains 71 HP from Regen! Charm, Poison, and Psych removed!
AS: Shiryuu Ryouhara's turn has ended.
AS: Ichika Kawase spends Limit on Brace!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 31 Strike damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Ryouhara Ninjutsu. Critical Hit! Resist!
AS: You have 2 more attacks in queue!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 17 Strike damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Ryouhara Ninjutsu. Resist!
AS: You have 1 more attack in queue!
AS: Avoid Best! Tsubasa Seki takes 8 Strike damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Ryouhara Ninjutsu. Critical Hit! Resist!
AS: Block Neutral! Ichika Kawase takes 62 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Setsuna.
AS: Avoid Best! Hibari Aoki takes 20 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Juurishojin.
AS: Block Neutral! Hibari Aoki takes 30 Slash damage from Shiryuu Ryouhara's Juurishojin.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Phoenix is glad, at least, that Ogre is safe, but...
... man, hearing her cry out for them hurts worse than that fucking sword. Why would they just throw themself at the problem bodily like that...?
(Rebellion takes many forms; for a child frozen in fear, it can only be immediate retaliatory action.)
They feel a little sick, hearing his praise. "Not... tryin' to impress you... asshole," they grit out, though their muscles are trembling with the effort of keeping themself conscious.
Mujina has a beat aside from Shiryuu's, though; with Momiji's healing magics clearing their head, they're able to focus on that. Pom-poko-pom, and their breath hisses through their teeth, in recognition, as Shiryuu flips his blade around.
They can read between the lines. They can guess how he started this.
And they see that wound ball he's dropped, too. "Shit," they snarl, and it's thanks to Ogre's speciality that they can get their feet under them, though they stagger -- to run from what they're sure isn't just a ball.
Even if they couldn't have guessed what it was.
Because they think it is a bomb in truth -- and when it explodes, they drop and roll; it would have been a fine response for flame, but the red pouring out from that strange ball is cords. Those cords fall over them like a net -- and tighten, the very thing which would have helped with a true explosion proving to be the very worst move for this tangling mess. "Shit!" They bark, as they twist, and then, twisted, find that the pressure at their limbs is too steep to leverage movement at all.
"I'm trapped!" They bark, with alarm. "Rrrhh-- Mujina!" They can't get free. They can't reach their mask, and that means --
It means they can't stop him. "OGRE! Help me...!"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
They can worry about philosophy later. Not today. ...But Ichika remembers how close it was back then. How diffiult it was, back then.
And it still is. Shiryuu keeps moving, and calls Phoenix 'good'. "Damn right they're good!"
But a bond...
It's 'as it should be'. The bomb explodes, and suddenly Shiryuu is there. Ogre feels the attack coming, and lunges, trying to knock that blade to slice through armor instead of flesh--but she misjudges that she should be facing blade instead of flat, and feels it all the same. "Gh--"
She hits the ground a moment later, dazed. "You..."
Record scratch. A distraction. "Phoenix!" she calls a moment later, when they call for her. "I'm coming!"
what can she do? She can't heal away webs.
...Butwhat she can do is--
"Mujina! Together!"
She noticed Mujina breach that protection earlier; now, maybe...
"PERSONA!"
Momiji reappears once more, but this time, she lets her claws unfurl, baring her palm at Shiryuu. There is a pale, sickly light that becomes brilliant in a moment--as huge chunks of citrine slam towards Shiryuu, closing in from above and the side.
"Remember what I promised!"
AS: Persona! Ichika Kawase has used the Earth skill Citrine Magnara on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Ichika Kawase: Def_Up and Spd_Up removed!
AS: Ichika Kawase's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 100 Earth damage from Ichika Kawase's Citrine Magnara. Weak!
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
Danzaburou keeps the beat going. It loses some of its resonance but it's still a counterbeat against Shiryuu's rhythm, and it still pushes against him with every thump of the belly-drum. Now it drags him down as much as anything else, holds him in place with the weight of the force.
That's part of Hibari's contribution. She's a Navigator, but even Navigators have to fight, and the more she keeps him off-balance the better off they'll be. But it also makes her a target, more than she would be by virtue of being support.
And she has trouble holding him off, especially with Danzaburou partially occupied. He has to use the gunbei, and he *still* almost shatters a second time - and if he does, Mujina isn't sure she can bring him back for a third. Even *thinking* about it is making her headache worse.
Staggering back, Danzaburou's - Mujina's - beat finally drops. There'd be a moment of silence, except for Shiryuu himself, and Tsubasa calling for them -
"Right!" she calls back to Ichika. There's one thing she can do nothing can resist.
Blue-white energy, aimed by a slightly faded-looking but still shimmering with blue Danzaburou, swirls. It compresses inward, spiraling faster and faster and faster before the chaotic energy *bursts* in a wild eruption. It disintegrates lesser Shadows; it pushes back against the ink, the brightness of it penetrating and melting it away. It won't disintegrate Shiryuu, but it penetrates, piercing and weakening.
And it also burns a place where Hibari can *see*.
Mujina looks around - and meets Phoenix's eyes, just for a moment. "There!" she signals Ogre. "Over there!" A pair of tiny blue-shimmering tanuki rush away from her, chasing to try to find Phoenix. They're not Shadows, nor true cognitions; they're something lesser, little more than a spell, a visualization of her Navigator powers that Ogre can see.
Summoning them after a Persona Break almost drops Hibari. She staggers, and one of them vanishes immediately. She might not be able to keep them on Phoenix for long...
AS: Hibari Aoki spends Limit on Exploit! Hibari Aoki can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Persona! Hibari Aoki has used the Earth skill Echo Beat on Shiryuu Ryouhara! 3 Hits!
AS: Ruin: Hibari Aoki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Hibari Aoki has used the Almighty skill Mystery Megido on Shiryuu Ryouhara!
AS: Hibari Aoki: Loses 71 HP from Poison!
AS: Hibari Aoki's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 49 Earth damage from Hibari Aoki's Echo Beat. Weak!
AS: Avoid Worst! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 49 Earth damage from Hibari Aoki's Echo Beat. Weak!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 41 Earth damage from Hibari Aoki's Echo Beat. Critical Hit! Weak!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Shiryuu Ryouhara takes 93 Almighty damage from Hibari Aoki's Mystery Megido.
AS: Atk_Up removed!
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
It's a shame. Were these any other people, Shiryuu might have felt a need to commend them, to stand before the Shirogarasu so bravely. To curse his name so boldly. But the boy can't help but think on it, the way Phoenix, Mujina and Ogre seem so inextricably linked ... not by hierarchy or regimented compulsion, but by a camaraderie that transcends either.
It's like a feeling he had, not so long ago..
Is it... kizuna...?
Shiryuu looks up, absent his own mind. The boy finds himself striding amongst the ink, his own cognitive BPM surging like a tidal wave against the steady drum of Mujina's Persona, while Ogre recovers, while Phoenix writhes on the ground, the chilling binding of Kousekisaku's myriad ropes filling the air with a haunting percussion of ratchets to offset that drum, the beat under Shiryuu's sneakers.
Every part of the boy hurts, blood down his arm, through his limbs, through his body, his eye aching like a white hot knife in his skull. But the shihaisha, the invincible Shirogarasu continues.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbdCeWoEH1U&t=40s - Flyleaf, Again
The rays of coruscating light pierce through the black air around him, bleaching the ink, searing his Persona's robes as it smoothly whirls into the area. Citrine rages through the sky in that moment of weakness, the dazed second or two forcing them to regather themselves hanging like a single droplet of rain frozen in the air. His Persona, he knows, is breaking against the rainfall made stone, raising its massive staff against the tide, even as citrine bullets punch through its armor.
He's barely aware of most of the rest of it. Just the feel of red cord in his hands, and the young X who he lifts like a feather, flicking their immobile, struggling figure beneath his free arm.
Ahead of them, it does begin to rain. The citrine gems that streak before them reflect off of the cognitive water stirred up by his Persona, the breaking Sarutahiko, god of ways. It gives the torrential sheets a golden glow, glittering in the light cast by Mujina's persona, the warring beat reaching its brutal crescendo.
'Phoenix, I'm coming!' he hears dimly, in the distance.
Is it... synthesis?
The empty headed boy's Persona is breaking.
But Shiryuu Ryouhara is much more than being broken.
His grip tightens on his sword, one fierce blue eye shimmering white.
"Everything will be fine... if our blood is the only blood spilled.."
He flicks his wrist, and finally, time stops moving so tortuously slow for him.
The surge of bleached ink rockets up in front of the shinobi, cut with an edge finer than any razor. Both the black feathers of crows and white scatter in the rain from that botched ink, each bleaching slowly until every single one is white, drifting around the onmitsu, each one winking out like a snuffed star against that unyielding black.
By the time Shiryuu is gone, he leaves only that physics-defying rain in the background, and a single feather, shining silver so brightly it may as well be white. It drifts to the ground solemn and silent in his wake, his BPM finally fading to merciless silence.
BBS: New BB message (12/15) posted to 'The Phantoms' by Ichika Kawase: Sunday Night Text
========================== The Phantoms ==========================
Message: 12/15 Author: Ichika Kawase Tue Feb 10 2026 Sunday Night Text
'Tsubasa got taken by fucking ninja asshole. Working on finding them. Count on you when I do?'
Ichika sends a text to the group late sunday night that reads as above! She'll explain in somewhat more detail when asked that a 'ninja' went after Tsubasa and has hunted them before, and Tsubasa is now in said ninja's hands after an attack during a Mementos run. She has a 'friend' who can maybe find them, but would really count on those of the group who can come when she does, because obviously she and her friend alone couldn't finish the job protecting them.
She's upset about it!
OOC: we have a plot going on! Tsubasa was abducted, and the rescue is in a few days! See another post coming about that shortly.