2026-03-28: High Up In The Sky

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<Pose Tracker> The One in the Black Mask has posed.

LAST TIME ON THE VELVET ROOM MUSH

A moment of decision. There is so much potential for a different future. It all depends on what Tatsuya Sudou chooses in the face of his defeat. It all relies on how the Persona Users who faced him will react to those choices.

Possibility.

Possibility in a hug...

... as Tamaki Uchida briefly obscures a hidden individual's view of what is going on in front of them.

Sudou's whole life could be ahead of him, who might he be? That possibility is...

...
...
...

...annihilated by a noise, that's nearly inaudible beneath the sounds of the airship's engine in flight.

Thwip

Lights glint off of something in flight, in glowing cyan hues. It hurtles on it's inevitable course right towards it's destination. Just below Tatsuya Sudou's heart.

And the moment it makes contact with him, the voices do not merely go dead silent. They leave him entirely. His Persona. His power. The force of the Rumor that allowed him to fulfill his roles as substitute Joker.

All gone. As if it were banished forcefully from him on contact with this peculiar bullet.

A gout of blood leaves his chest with something half-severed. Some few can survive a shot to the heart. No one can survive what he struck. However, it will take a little time for him to die.

That is by design.

Fragments fly out of his torso, cyan bits and pieces, that look like they're made of crystal. They land upon the ground, what blood lays there slides right off of the strange remains of the projectile.

"Daddy sends his regards." Comes a voice that's like a sneer of outright contempt, far behind Tatsuya Sudou in the shadows, "Choke on your own blood, and know in your final moments..." He sniggers as he delivers a truth he finds funny, "...the Voices betrayed you-! Haha....ahahahaHAHAHA!"

No one can fail to see him now. A man in the Black Mask, laughing, behind a thinning haze of gunsmoke. Crimson lenses opaque in the lighting of the Zeppelin, surround his grim outfit.

The One in the Black Mask has condemned Tatsuya Sudou to die in agony, at the behest of his father.

NOW

 I always hated you
 I always envied you
 Both of us bound to the such similar pasts
 Both of us with every reason to despise our Fathers
 Yet even back then, as I watched you skulk around the orphanage grounds
 With that creepy smile plastered on your face
 I realized that you live more freely than I do
 You don't care about the consequences
 You didn't give a damn what anyone thought about your actions
 And yet some God or Devil still decided you were SPECIAL

The laughter dies as quickly as it sounds. The gun is still held out as he swings it around and points it at a particular child in the crowd.

Koume. Ayame's daughter.

"Now if I were all of you, I wouldn't get any sudden 'heroic' ideas. It doesn't matter how many of you decide to stand in front of her. If I pull this trigger, the child dies."

There's a tension in the air, as he delivers the threat, some in the room might understand how low the chances are that he's bluffing.

"But nobody else needs to die here. All that matters to me is that I've taken out sonny boy over there."

The very fact that he knows who Ayame's daughter is, can pick her out of a crowd so easily. There's an implied threat here. That he knows who many of them are. That he knows who their loved ones are.

That more importantly, the New World Order knows all of this.

This is what it means to go to war against them. It means not just putting everything you are upon the line, but everything that your families are. All the while, they have a shadowy assassin who can steal them from you, at any time.

"But hey- if all of you would prefer a bloodbath, I've got two minutes to spare. Who's gonna have the death of this girl, of everyone in this room on their hands?"

He glances towards Hyousuke, "Is it going to be you?" He snorts, as if it would be predictable if it were, then at Phoenix, "Or maybe you?"

Then he grins viciously, "Anybody? Well-" He starts to step towards the firmly closed hatches on the side of this compartment of the Zeppelin, one at a time, boots clanking audibly against the metal, with the gun still trained on the girl. "-you have until I reach this hatch to change your minds."

AS: Katsuya Suou has readied for combat as Helios! He is now fully healed!

<Pose Tracker> The One in the Black Mask has posed.

LAST TIME ON THE VELVET ROOM MUSH

A moment of decision. There is so much potential for a different future. It all depends on what Tatsuya Sudou chooses in the face of his defeat. It all relies on how the Persona Users who faced him will react to those choices.

Possibility.

Possibility in a hug...

... as Tamaki Uchida briefly obscures a hidden individual's view of what is going on in front of them.

Sudou's whole life could be ahead of him, who might he be? That possibility is...

...
...
...

...annihilated by a noise, that's nearly inaudible beneath the sounds of the airship's engine in flight.

Thwip

Lights glint off of something in flight, in glowing cyan hues. It hurtles on it's inevitable course right towards it's destination. Just below Tatsuya Sudou's heart.

And the moment it makes contact with him, the voices do not merely go dead silent. They leave him entirely. His Persona. His power. The force of the Rumor that allowed him to fulfill his roles as substitute Joker.

All gone. As if it were banished forcefully from him on contact with this peculiar bullet.

A gout of blood leaves his chest with something half-severed. Some few can survive a shot to the heart. No one can survive what he struck. However, it will take a little time for him to die.

That is by design.

Fragments fly out of his torso, cyan bits and pieces, that look like they're made of crystal. They land upon the ground, what blood lays there slides right off of the strange remains of the projectile.

"Daddy sends his regards." Comes a voice that's like a sneer of outright contempt, far behind Tatsuya Sudou in the shadows, "Choke on your own blood, and know in your final moments..." He sniggers as he delivers a truth he finds funny, "...the Voices betrayed you-! Haha....ahahahaHAHAHA!"

No one can fail to see him now. A man in the Black Mask, laughing, behind a thinning haze of gunsmoke. Crimson lenses opaque in the lighting of the Zeppelin, surround his grim outfit.

The One in the Black Mask has condemned Tatsuya Sudou to die in agony, at the behest of his father.

NOW

I always hated you
I always envied you
Both of us bound to such similar pasts
Both of us with every reason to despise our Fathers
Yet even back then, as I watched you skulk around the orphanage grounds
With that creepy smile plastered on your face
I realized that you live more freely than I do
You don't care about the consequences
You didn't give a damn what anyone thought about your actions
And yet some God or Devil still decided you were SPECIAL

The laughter dies as quickly as it sounds. The gun is still held out as he swings it around and points it at a particular child in the crowd.

Koume. Ayame's daughter.

"Now if I were all of you, I wouldn't get any sudden 'heroic' ideas. It doesn't matter how many of you decide to stand in front of her. If I pull this trigger, the child dies."

There's a tension in the air, as he delivers the threat, some in the room might understand how low the chances are that he's bluffing.

"But nobody else needs to die here. All that matters to me is that I've taken out sonny boy over there."

The very fact that he knows who Ayame's daughter is, can pick her out of a crowd so easily. There's an implied threat here. That he knows who many of them are. That he knows who their loved ones are.

That more importantly, the New World Order knows all of this.

This is what it means to go to war against them. It means not just putting everything you are upon the line, but everything that your families are. All the while, they have a shadowy assassin who can steal them from you, at any time.

"But hey- if all of you would prefer a bloodbath, I've got two minutes to spare. Who's gonna have the death of this girl, of everyone in this room on their hands?"

He glances towards Hyousuke, "Is it going to be you?" He snorts, as if it would be predictable if it were, then at Phoenix, "Or maybe you?"

Then he grins viciously, "Anybody? Well-" He starts to step towards the firmly closed hatches on the side of this compartment of the Zeppelin, one at a time, boots clanking audibly against the metal, with the gun still trained on the girl. "-you have until I reach this hatch to change your minds."

Mitsuru Kirijo has arrived from Historia: The White Chronicle. 

<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Sudou has posed.

    Tatsuya Sudou is in one hell of a state, his body has been cut and shot and screamed at and burnt and sprayed and whatever dark magic does to a body. He can't move, his supernatural power is gone. All he can do is sit and listen. The voices are quiet, and he is not sure what that means, perhaps he used too much of the strength of his friend. Still he can tell that he hasn't been truly abandoned, he knows this as he is still alive when he shouldn't be. Could even feel that itching sensation that was associated with the healing sensation that always kept him together. If they talked long enough he could maybe slip away. In time the voices would return, hell if they carted him off to jail perhaps he would even just hold up for a few months until he was in pristine condition. Maybe even get a new eye.

    Somewhere in Sudou's dim consciousness he is aware he is being talked to, that they are talking about what to do with him. The words though aren't hitting, maybe its the sonic damage dealt by Eikichi, maybe that it's like there is some film keeping the words out. That is until he feels the warmth of a body, it was the chess girl. What is she doing? Is she hugging him? He can't remember when he felt a hug like this. The hug seems to be the key as the words crash down on Sudou's mind. He is processing everything that is being said.

    Ayame mentions the other world and he would have to explain to them one day that he wasn't actually from the other world. Another lie, a lie because life in the otherworld sounded so much better then this one. He would have to explain how he had been told about the other world for years over and over. It kept sounding better and better.

    There is pity and harsh words, discussion about making his own bed. Yet at the time Jun seems ready to stop any who would harm him, Tatsuya says that things could change. A light of hope is put in front of Sudou. A variety of words and with emotions come in, but yet no one stabs him, or shoots him or anything more than words. The phoenix mentions Niko and if his body would move he would have cried more. Emotions like guilt and regret are unbottled and now won't stop flowing as he thinks on how he treated Niko and the other Strega members.

    The one called Masao with that flask spoke words like he knew more and it drives a question to the voice, maybe a doubt in it. Ixquic's words would have brought a smile to his face,maybe a laugh if his facial muscles would move. He doesn't understand why Ixquic's words bring pride to him but he doesn't need to. He will have time to unpack that puzzle another day. More anger and pity and he accepts the punch that is coming from Hyousuke that is never thrown.

    Finally Katsuya tells him he is under arrest and Sudou would have moved his arms behind his back if he could. Instead his arms are rather limp and easily movable. A lot of effort is made to simply move the eyes to look at Umie for a moment. Nothing can be said with the eyes, but he watches her keep her distance. That's fine, maybe if he is on good behavior he will be allowed to send a letter, as he resigns himself to at least attempt atonement if it means he may have that connection. He accepts his fate, and is ready for the next chapter.

    Deep in his soul, he can feel it, the potential for social links to grow, he was excited and eager and afraid, but hopeful. It takes effort but he smiles lightly and looks at peace.

    That's when it happens, the sound of the suppressed shot is heard first, and then Sudou feels true emptiness for the first time. A quiet he hasn't heard in his own head for over ten years. Looking down he sees the new wound beginning to bleed. The rest of his wounds that had been being held together with supernatural magic were already starting to reopen. The supernatural space that was still up around him begins to crumble. Sudou's heart rate starts to increase as his body and subconscious already know what is about to happen, now it is just a matter for Sudou to realize it, that he is mere moments from his death.

    The recognition of the voice takes a moment or two to recognize it, probably due to the lack of blood and/or supernatural power flowing to the brain. The words cut deeper than the bullet, perhaps because of the betrayal or perhaps because of most Sudou's nerves being too damaged to feel any actual pain. The deep emotional cut sows new seeds of anger, and more negative emotions flow as if an emotional vein was hit. There is new anger at the betrayal, new negative feelings. Staring into the shadows all he can say to the one who shot him, "Fucking edgelord..."

    The anger doesn't last though as the weight of what is happening hits him, and the anger is washed away with a more primal emotion, fear. The anger may be a fresh sprout, but this fear has been rooted for decades and finally it was time for it to sprout. True fear spreads across his face as it begins to grow pale.A plea for undeserved help. He attempts to speak, to beg, "Please..." The coughing begins, as the man in black gets his wish, Sudou is slowly drowning in his blood.

    Those previous connections, the stories that he was about to explore. The next chapter of his life, all of that potential, burning away to ash 

<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.

Ayame looks to Tatsuya Suou, and he gives her hope that there's a better way to end things with Tatsuya Sudou. Tsubasa can't hit Sudou when he's down. "Good," Ayame answers, and looks to Shinobu, before--Akari says she's wrong. Ayame frowns. "That's..." She doesn't quite find a time to answer immediately--not seeing Tamaki hug him, and--

Katsuya is moving up to arrest him now, even now. "Thank goodness..."

She didn't want anyone to have to--

Thwip.

"!" Ayame starts back, staring with wide eyes. "W-what!?"

Ayame turns to stares at The Man, until she realizes--

"Koume-chan!" Ayame chokes out, eyes widening in fear and dismay. "Y-you can't--"

Heroic ideas...

Koume stands among the other children--a girl of nine, with black hair in twintails, almsot four and a half feet tall. Her purple eyes have pupils like pinpricks in fear.

"Y-you're a bad man!" she calls out, though her knees are shaking. "I-I--"

"Don't," Ayame says then, her voice pained, tight. "Don't hurt her."

"Mom..." Koume looks to Ayame in terror.

Ayame has no more words for Sudou, now; his death pales for her compared to the impending doom to her daughter. Maybe it could've been different. Maybe, maybe, maybe...

"Please." 

<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.

"I'm fine," Shinjiro lies through his teeth to Ririka. He's about to look back...

When the bullet impacts Tatsuya Sudou's chest. When it explodes into crystal and drops him in agonizing pain.

Shinjiro's eyes widen, pivoting on the Man in the Black Mask. The one who almost killed Kaneshiro.

"You..."

Who is he? Shinjiro tenses, hands trembling, as he instinctively steps forward as a bullet shield. He's not planning to fight - the Black Mask will get no sense of that, and Shinjiro's obvious - but he is willing to give the others time if something goes wrong.

"You sick fuck!"

But despite that, he won't move. He'll let the Black Mask leave.

Adrenaline's racing. In the moments, he can't help Koume. He can't do anything. But there's a man dying over there who he despises, and he's all alone to suffer.

Will Shinjiro suffer that way someday for his sins, too?

Feeling useless and incapable, Shinjiro steps over to Sudou, kneeling to one side of him.

What would he want when he goes? Would he want hate or mercy? What should he give?

"Hey, hey. You're not alone. Okay? You're not going to die alone. Do you have any happy memories? Think back. I don't care if it's twisted or what. Just... think back, and let it comfort you, okay?"

He sees that fragment of a bullet as he shifts around him. He surreptitiously palms it, moving to store it in his coat without being sean.

"Tatsuya, yeah? It'll be over soon. Just... breathe as you can. Calm, calm. You're not alone."

He's doing his best. It hurts to do. But it's a kindness he's one of the only ones who has the right to give. 

<Pose Tracker> Penguin Sniper has posed.

Tatsuya hears a sound, but more importantly, he feels a presence. The Paradox boy lunges Sudou's way, blade flashing as if he intends to catch the bullet on the edge. It's a trick he's pulled before, countless times.

Too late.

The man falls again. This Side's version of the man who once tried to kill him and Maya as children in a burning shrine. The man who glorified being the Joker's replacement for him.

He always was his dark mirror, even if he hated to think about that.

Shifting into a combat stance, he slides in front of Jun almost reflexively, regarding the laughing figure in the Black Mask.

Who the hell are you?

He doesn't ask aloud, even beaten up as he is, he's ready to fight again. He doesn't feel the touch of 'Him' upon him, no...

There's anger there, because he just thinks of what he would be feeling if someone had done that to Jun the moment they'd beaten him, but he doesn't charge forward to avenge him.

They're all beaten to hell, he's fresh and untouched. He's got a gun on a kid, and he already failed to stop him before.

"... Then get lost, asshole. You've made your point."

There's no need for bravado here, no need to tell him that he's sized him up and thinks he still has a good chance of taking him on.

No. He stands to lose too much fighting someone like that here, even if he beats him.

<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.

    It's reassuring to see that, for all they raged at Sudou while the fight was in full swing, most people are willing to stop once the Old Maid goes down. The one who starts towards him with death still in his eyes stops when Jun blocks his way, and Jun can see Hyousuke regain his senses.
    
    "Thank you," he says to Hyousuke quietly, lowering his arms. It's still frightening, the way he says he just wants to hurt Sudou like he's hurt everyone else, but... "So you know, this isn't mercy. I hate him, too. I just don't want anyone to have to soil their hands with blood over him."
    
    The moment when he thought he'd done precisely that was utterly horrifying. He doesn't wish that feeling on anyone.
    
    For the same reason, he gives Ixquic a considering look when she declares that it's Sudou's victims who should decide his fate, not adults who just want whatever's convenient for them. How does she feel, then, that his victims are asking the police officer to take him into custody? Still, he does appreciate the sentiment. "Thank you, Ixquic," he tells her. "I fully agree."
    
    He smiles, too, at Phoenix as they thank him, then ultimately come down on Jun's side of this matter. "You're very welcome," he tells them. And... his gaze turns towards Vesper. This might be his best chance, so: "And thank you, Vesper-san--I've been told you assisted with my rescue behind the scenes. I truly appreciate it."
    
    Eikichi meets Jun's eyes then as he expresses his raw frustration at the pathetic sight that Sudou has become. Jun can only shake his head slowly. No, he has no better words. For all that Tamaki walks up and hugs the madman, Jun could never bring himself to do the same. He never wants to be Sudou's friend.
    
    ...although... seeing that anyone is willing to do that brings him pause. When he thinks about it, Sudou's goal all along has been to chase after a version of Jun that he considered a dear friend--to bring his friend back. As much as Jun Kashihara hates him, he finds... he actually sympathizes with and even commends such a strong love for one's friend.
    
    Case in point: 'click--clack.' Jun turns to look at Tatsuya as he flicks a lighter open, then shuts it again. His eyes widen slightly. What a funny coincidence; he has a lighter just like that one... A tense feeling makes him hurry over to his side, but a closer look tells him it's not the exact same, just similar. He breathes out a long, low breath before letting his brown eyes linger on him.
    
    ...if Jun Kurosu is the Jun that Sudou has been chasing... then that's also the Jun that Tatsuya has been keeping in his heart... hasn't it? When he thinks about that, his throat tightens so close he can't speak.
    
    Surely there's no need to. Sergeant Katsuya Suou steps up to take responsibility as a police officer and place Tatsuya Sudou under arrest. Jun watches somberly as he starts to fold his arms--
    
    --up until the thwip, and the spray of blood that erupts from the Old Maid's chest.
    
    Jun instead claps his hands over his mouth in horror. His wide eyes track up towards the one in the black mask, who'd just gunned him down--who now cackles maniacally about it. About how he's here on Tatsuzou Sudou's orders (and what's that from Umie about a 'revelation'?). How even the Voices betrayed him.
    
    The catty part of Jun immediately thinks, We told you so. The observant part of Jun realizes this means this individual is also connected in some way to Nyarlathotep and is therefore extremely dangerous. The compassionate part of Jun...
    
    ...can only stare back down at Sudou as he bleeds out.
    
    He despises him for what he's done to him and so many others. He has no desire to be his friend, in this world or surely any other. But...
    
    Tatsuya has already resumed a position between Jun and the one in the black mask. On some level, Jun's grateful--but it also hurts. It isn't really him he's wanted to protect all this time, is it...? So he stumbles forward a step, then two, swerving around Tatsuya as he goes. He doesn't try to approach the one in the black mask, nor even acknowledge the bullet shards. He simply kneels down next to Tatsuya Sudou, on the other side from Shinjiro and his attempted reassurances, as he pleads to the air. He doesn't need to repeat himself. Jun quietly slips his hand around his.
    
    If Sudou is like this because of a friendship he had with another Jun, then the least this Jun can do to take responsibility is make sure he doesn't die alone. 

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.

    "It's you--!!"

    Phoenix snarls, as they grasp their blade's hilt tighter, in their orange-gloved hands. They're so intent on their foe, they don't even realise a strange shard has lodged itself into the sarashi bandages at their belly, in the wake of his gunshot. They're a Phantom Thief; that association came out during Eiji Kamiya's Palace, when that mysterious birdlike ninja was seen working alongside Joker and his ilk to steal Eiji's heart. It's not hard, then, to realise just why Phoenix would recognise him, when he previously appeared in Kaneshiro's Palace --

    "The One in the Black Mask...!"

    The man who set them aflame; the man who let them live, in some twisted experiment Phoenix is sure has meaning but which they've never been able to identify. They address him as 'kisama', the greatest degree of scorn they could appoint to him; Umie last heard it applied to the Ryouharas. Their tension is writ large in their body, in the grit of their teeth behind their own dark grey witch's hat mask.

    Sudou lies dying, but Phoenix's attention is drilled into the Man in the Black Mask, wound tight as a spring -- and even tighter, as the Black Mask levels his gun on Koume Watanabe.

    The implications at the end of his barrel -- they're not unknown to them. Shiryuu Ryouhara ground that horror into them with the ticking of the locket at their chest, the knowledge that failure would not only kill them -- but the Ogre protecting those children back there, too. It is a thing redoubled as the One in the Black Mask so casually suggests a bloodbath, underlining, with no recourse, the cost of rebellion.

    They don't just come for you.

    They'll come for your children, still in elementary school.

    "He's serious," Phoenix warns everyone, when the Black Mask warns them that no amount of leaping in front of the bullet will matter.

    And here, in their double bind... there is no option which does not lead to the death of innocents. Either they tear down the Black Mask, now he has appeared in front of them, and so doom all these children; or they stay their hand, and elicit Shiryuu's displeasure, that man who insists they must gut the New World Order on pain of everyone they love most dying horribly. No matter what they do...

    ... but one of the people on Shiryuu's chopping block is Ogre, and Phoenix knows for a fact that she would die today if it meant protecting the kids she's standing in front of.

    Besides...

    "Joker wouldn't give you the excuse," Phoenix spits, as they shove their arm out to stop Hyousuke in the middle of the sentence. Their other hand gestures, with their greatsword -- and it disappears, as if slipped into their feather cloak. "... so I ain't, either. Get outta here."

    They don't realise, right now, that Kurou Ryouhara is here to report on their failure; they still recognise that their action isn't costless, because they do know Umie's here. Even so, they cannot allow the death of Ayame's daughter. If 'that man' will hold them responsible for not putting a stop to the One in the Black Mask, here...

    ... what the fuck is ninja nobility or whatever worth if it ends up with a bunch of schoolkids dead?! Yeah, that's the argument. That's the argument, and fuck him.

    "Jus'... let him go," Phoenix asks the others, as they watch him step back towards the hatches.

    It's probably too much to expect that the fall will kill him, like Sudou is dying, over there. Dying, and they can't even look at him...

    (For their own reasons, both Minato Arisato and Isabeau Fontaine try to grab one of those shards which exited Sudou's body, strangely without a trace of blood to them at all. One of them recognises, in his heart and soul, a shard of something nostalgic, something which belongs to something deep inside him; and the other? The other girl just recognises power. ... but strangely, oweing to his recognition, Minato locates a shard which would otherwise have been overlooked. Unlike Isabeau, who doesn't linger, Minato crouches near to Sudou. He tells him, "... you're not alone," though he leaves his hand for Jun.)

<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.

Shinobu listens as everyone says their piece, and watches as Katsuya begins to approach Sudou and declares him under arrest. It's better this way. This is his job - if he can take him in, then that's the best outcome. But as he does...

There's a sound, nearly inaudible. Shinobu almost doesn't realise what happened, at first - and then he bleeds. Her eyes go wide and she draws her staff up once more into a ready stance.

"You...!" Shinobu hisses. She thought she wouldn't have cared if he died... But an assassination, like this? Right as he was being taken in, on his father's orders? That 'please', a request from a dying man...?

If there's anything that might have drawn some amount of pity out of her... the one in the black mask has certainly found it.

Just as easily as he draws out her anger, as that gun swings around. It's not hard to tell who it's pointing at.

...Koume. Threatening her family...

"You goddamn piece of shit." Shinobu seethes. ...But she's not stupid. She knows. However angry she might be at him, he has them cornered. And seeing Ayame look so frightened, hearing Phoenix's grave warning... There's nothing she can do. Still glowering, she releases the staff from her hand, letting it clatter to the floor. She straightens up out of combat posture. Her fists clench tightly - but hang uselessly at her side.

What can she do? She can't do anything here at all. There's only one thing she's good for... and it's the worst possible idea, at this point.

She feels so useless. 

<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.

To see what they can do, to know that many fought for this 'rematch' with the Old Maid to be on their own terms... Kurou does not join in, remaining among those who keeps vigil over the children, but it is a fine position to observe from.

Once more, Tatsuya Sudou is cornered. Once more, these Awakened refuse to usher him into death. A victim of fate. Forsaken by family. An inability to hate. Some cannot find sympathy in their hearts... but many do. There is a hug, and a talk of redemption.

And what is this about Niko-chan...?

There is little time to question any of it before Sudou's struck in the heart and left to bleed out. In place of surprise, Kurou pulls his arm warmer over his hand entirely before bending down to pluck a cyan fragment from the ground, then rolls it up and slips it away so its glow cannot be seen on his person.

Unfortunately, the Black Mask points his gun at...

... a child. One Kurou does not know. Knowing does not matter. What he does know is the demeanor of one who would sacrifice a child to achieve their goals.

Kurou's face does not change, but his fist is tight at his side and trembling.

Phoenix does not know he is here to report a 'failure'... but there is no failure. They cannot act here.

<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.

Akari - Ixquic, best to use that name, she's not feeling very Akari right now - Ixquic had been indignant.

She can't process what she feels about Sudou, now that he's been defeated, and so she's put it off until later, when she has more time to breathe. Instead she let herself loose at Ayame, who didn't entirely deserve it, but what she'd said had resonated very deeply with a part of her. (Even if, as Jun has noticed, his victims are asking for him to be taken into custody, so ultimately, this time, it doesn't matter. That's fine with her - as long as they chose it.)

Ixquic is not, really, all that far from Sudou. She *wanted* to say something to him, she just didn't have any idea what to say - she hadn't gotten that far. And really, anything could happen at a time like this. But of all the things she expected to happen, Sudou getting shot by someone she hadn't even seen was not one of them.

A fragment of something flies out of Sudou. Several things do, but Akari is only in the line of flight of one of them, and she completely reflexively parries it with her sword. The little shard of crystal hits her golden blade and falls, but not far; one of her hands on the hilt opens and it drops into her hand. She still has no idea what happened. She doesn't even realize he's been shot because she didn't hear the gun fire -

Until she looks at him, and then looks at the laughing man.

"You!"

Ixquic's gaze is still burning - literally; the flames from summoning Quixote dance around her eyes like the visor she removed. But Quixote isn't present; she rode her Persona to strike Sudou, and she hasn't resummoned it since.

She doesn't know who the One in the Black Mask is. Well, nobody does; that's the whole point of the mask. She's seen him before, though - when he shot Kaneshiro. She responded exactly the same way then, too. Same words, even.

But this time she has more time.

"You..."

Ixquic clenches a fist. (The shard of crystal in her hand digs in, even through her glove; not enough to cut, not even close, but enough she can feel the lump.) There's nothing she can do. If she attacks, a girl dies. And Ixquic...

On the Other Side, she might have made that trade. Here...

"You... are... a villain! A demon in human guise!" Ixquic's voice is loud, and the blaze around her eyes brightens - but she summons nothing. She is now holding her sword one-handed; even she has trouble swinging it that way for long, and she's nowhere near the Black Mask either, so it's not even an offensive grip. She sounds somewhere between furious and like she's about to cry with frustration.

There's nothing she can do. She can't stop him; she can't protect Leo - she can't even look at Sudou anymore, she tried and then had to look away. "I, Ixquic..."

I can't be a hero right now. She trails off, as multiple people try to hold others back.

With a clang, Ixquic drops her golden sword. It clatters, the huge length of it wobbling before stilling as she puts her foot on it to stop it from sliding away from her. Her fists are clenched so hard her knuckles must be white under her gloves. 

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.

 
The thing that bothers Hitomi Mandai is -

Well let's be real, all of it bothers her. She did not expect to do anything of this nature. Maybe she sort of suspected there might be a Shadow or some kind of weird thing, on the low-key level, but a devastating fire and harrowing escape from a childhood landmark -- AND ALSO a battle against a superpowered lunatic who seemed to be putting all of them up against the wall until they finally broke him open?

None of that was on the menu.

Yet she had rallied until, suddenly, the wall they sought to surmount - the vasty deeps of Tatsuya Sudou's power - were just-as-suddenly overwhelmed. It left Hitomi with a strange empty feeling she can't quite describe.

Then someone shot their gun.

Others may be focusing on the man that the Black Mask shot, but Hitomi Mandai has already forgotten him on some levels. She is staring directly at the Black Mask, one hand thrown over her mouth. Her eyes are wide and alert.

The Black Mask's next action is to threaten a girl. Hitomi lets out a little gasp, but says nothing. She is staring right at the killer. Her mouth is slightly open behind her hand.

In her mind, everything is swirling. It's like being on a rollercoaster. She had thought she was at the bottom but there were new and dizzying gulfs into which to thrillingly plummet. Her heart is racing. She can smell blood but it doesn't both her. Tatsuya Sudou groans his words, and then begins to beg. Hitomi blinks.

Shinjiro is there. He moved quickly. He is with the dying man. Hitomi can tell though she doesn't look. She knows Shinjiro by now. He may deny it, Hitomi thinks, but he is a good person.

She blinks again. Hm, Hitomi thinks. They shifted.

Oh no, Hitomi thinks.

Each of those beats were because she took a step forwards. As she realizes this, she takes another.

These aren't quick steps. She's not dashing forwards. It is certainly an 'approach' but it is not a fast or aggressive one. But Hitomi has a dawning realization of *just what she is doing.* She makes a noise in the back of her throat of unclear composition.

If I could - if I knew how - if I could, Hitomi thinks, brilliant strategies *she can't execute* blossoming in her mind. She has taken another step. She is only about five paces away from Shinjiro now. She tries to make herself stop. Her legs twitch. She takes another step a moment later. Her eyes haven't left the Black Mask.

Estimate, Hitomi thinks. I'm four steps from sempai and the dead guy, but there's at least thirteen past them to the Black Mask. Except, Hitomi thinks, at some invisible point, he'll realize what I'm doing (now it's three steps, Hitomi thinks, oh no, oh *wow!*) and then he'll shoot me and - and -

She's two steps away from Shinjiro and the blood and the dying man. At this point she seems to stumble and fall heavily onto her knees, her other hand coming up to palm more of her face, only one eye left fully unveiled. She hyperventilates into the palm of her hand for a moment. Clammy sweat bursts over her entire body, though it's mostly visible on her face. She doesn't stop staring at the Black Mask.

Of course, from outside this looks like a shocked gasp, a few unsteady steps forwards, followed by falling down into a flumphing half-sprawl, even if she hasn't stopped staring with wide eyes at the Black Mask. Anyone who was watching her closely would see she -- *somehow* -- kicked her own ankle out, and it is probably only dumb luck that she did not manage to fall directly on an ankle bone and disable herself. 

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    He'd expected Sudou to try to resist, even here and now. But, it is possible that he understands at last? The weight of what he's done, and what must happen now? It's possible that he could use his mental state as a means of lessening his sentence, Katsuya supposes, taking that one step closer to the downed man. Perhaps that would let him start again, after a fashion: otherwise, it would almost certainly be the death penalty for his crimes.

    But, must a sentence necessarily, even for such a great crime, always be the end?

    Sometimes... the answer is yes.

    The sound is inaudible against the engins. The end result is not.

    "What?!"

    There's blood. A lot of blood. Someone has just shot Sudou. The heart? No, it's lower. But with that much blood... It would be different if they could get to a hospital, or more promisingly, if they were in one. Katsuya is a homicide detective: the victim is still alive, but not for long.

    Katsuya turns his head, turns himself towards the only possible origin point for that shot to have taken. "You're--"

    He's heard rumors about a man in a black mask. Now, for the first time, they're face to face. "--You're the Black Mask! You... shot him, because he was a liability? Was this an order from his father?!"

    The ship hurtles onwards towards its destination as Tatsuya Sudou starts to die. Katsuya gets to do little more more but lean forward, as if he were about to break into a run towards the masked man only to cut himself short when the man in the black mask takes that gun and angles it at a child.

    At Koume.

    "You--! You'd take a child as a hostage?!" he demands of the man, his more hot-blooded impulse taking the stage before his other, calmer instincts can push them straight off again. "Nobody move! That's an order!" He himself has frozen where he stands, his gaze fixed on the man in the black mask. His hands remain at his sides, still as empty as the moment when he'd holstered his standard issue firearm moments ago.

    With one bullet, he'd been able to fatally injure Sudou. The man is dangerous. If he'd shot at him just moments before, he could have taken out Uchida. And, what model is that weapon, anyway? ...Is it even a 'real' gun...?

    "Let her go," he says to the man in the black mask. "She has no part in this." 

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    Just as things look like they might approach 'calmer' (they're still on a zeppelin that should not ordinarily be flying at all, in a desperate bid to escape a burning building), Masao flinches as something happens to Sudou, and it's only made marginally clearer by a dark silhouette and the eventual clear line of sight as to what they're holding - but the intruder makes their presence very clear in the confusion with their theatrical but no less frightening monologue.
 
     "Holy--" Masao flinches as the gun is pointed towards Ayame's child, and the terms made completely clear. He gestures for Tamaki to step back towards them, away from Sudou - but he sees how others give their kindness, or their perspective (Phoenix being abundantly clear that 'they're serious,' now that Masao thinks about it there is kind of a likeness in presentation between Phoenix, Ogre, and the one in the Black Mask).
 
     Masao puts his weapon down, because he knows he's the kind of guy who would have shot his mouth off and tried to challenge that a few years ago. There's nothing he can do for Sudou.
 
     "Look, man-- I dunno what the hell kind of game this is, but that 'voices' you're talkin' about," What he saw Kandori's Persona do, and just some time before the invoked name of Nyarlathotep by Tatsuya Sudou himself, "there's nothin' worth having a laugh over..."
 
     A part of him must recognize that saying this much around everyone threatens to undo the hard work of so many to keep certain things under wraps, but dammit - he can't stay quiet when it's all hitting something far too close to home. He'd already seen two people bring themselves to emotional ruin and (as of a certain invader's assistance) die right before him.
 
     ...How in the hell can a single Persona do so much harm across multiple people? (Wouldn't it be great if Susano-o were a Persona for multiple people, then... he'd like to imagine.) 

<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.

    It's a good thing that Ixquic's remarks draw Tamaki's attention, causing her to turn away from Sudou and start to protest.

    Adults can be controlling. She'll concede that. Her own natural inclination is to go with what everyone collectively wishes -- 'Heaven calls! The earth calls! The people call!' -- but there is some small piece of territory she will never budge from in her stance.

    'Everyone' can be unjustifiably controlling and cruel, too.

    She begins: "That's ... all well and good up to a point, but -- "

    She doesn't get far. Her words are cut off by a quiet, understated 'thwip' in the distance. She whips her head back in front of her.

    It's then that she sees that Sudou -- who she had embraced moments ago, who she stands mere inches away from now.

    Tamaki's eyes widen as far as they'll go and she wordlessly recoils backwards. Her head swims and the outer edges of her vision starts to dim.

    Her mind goes into overdrive: How close was that to her? Where did the rest of the bullet go? How much distance was safe? Would she have been injured or dead if she were any closer?

    She looks down. (She wonders: Is any of the blood hers?) A fragment landed on her blazer. Her initial impulse is to brush it off of her, but a thought occurs to her: this went through Sudou's Persona. If it can bypass the protection necessary to be on the same playing field in these supernatural spaces, then that's a problem. She nudges it into her pocket for later analysis.

    It is this same thought which gives her a healthy respect for the danger that the figure in the black mask poses to those present. Ayame's daughter, first and foremost. He taunts some of the others, as if trying to goad them into giving him an excuse for further violence.

    Her gaze drifts back to Sudou -- and Shinjiro sitting next to him. She steps back -- both to give them some more space, and at Masao's prompting.

    A direct confrontation is absolutely a losing proposition. An indirect line of attack comes to her mind, though.

    He's trying to get a rise out of them. Rattle them. Poke holes in his position, deconstruct how much of an advantage he actually has.

    Nothing scares a bully more than someone showing some backbone, but she has to be smarter about it here.

    "... I don't think you're bluffing, but would that really be such a good idea? Callous as they are, people will generally look the other way when an 'acceptable target' like Sudou dies, but the cover-up must get vastly more complicated when you bring more sympathetic figures into the body count."

<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

    *thwip* Such a polite sound, easily masked by the airship's engine. A trajectory, where Tamaki's head had previously occupied.

    Without a mask to cover it, the confusion on Umie's face is crystal (no pun intended) clear. "... Eh?!"

    'Daddy sends his regards.' This is merely the second time Umie's met the Black Mask, and it's already been one too many.

    "...!?" Standing straight up from her kneel, Umie's eyes open wide as she grasps around for a mask that, unfortunately, was left over by her seat.

    'I wonder how long he was watching,' coos a young girl's voice in Umie's mind. 'You think he heard you, when you loudly declared how everyone was going to pay? Such a naughty Umie-chan...'

    Regardless of whether anyone is even paying attention to Umie in this moment or not (and why would they) nothing changes in anyone's perception of her. She's just standing there, frozen, as she looks at the laughing assassin, garbed as he is in a confusing maze of zigzag lines.

    And as the laughter dies down, the gun now points to a specific child in the crowd, which Umie knows for a fact is Ayame's.

    Of course an NWO agent would know that. They'd know everything. Every friend, every family member, every aquaintance.

    "Everyone, be careful," Umie hisses, as her eyes stray briefly to the bleeding Sudou. She can still feel the sting of Sudou's flames from minutes ago, smell the burnt fibers of clothing and hair.
 
    (Why is he looking at her like that...?) Fear, hesitation, anger, paranoia, and sadness serve as a chaotic tempo in her chest. 'Go ahead. Put him out of his misery. What's a little more blood?'

    The distraction of Mai-chan's voice lingers in the squeak hidden in Umie's next words. "Phoenix-san is right. This isn't any simple NWO goon. He managed to nearly snipe someone clear across a Palace. He can, and he will."

    But that leaves...
    
    "... If you wanted to make sure he was dead," Umie starts tensely, her eyes cast over to Black Mask, "why did you aim for a spot that'd ensure you'd have to stick around to see it through? Was that a part of his orders too?" She could always claim she was following Tamaki's lead, that it was in order to distract the Black Mask'ed assassin, or get him to aim towards another person. Perhaps, it was all so they'd all know the same fear she had tried to hide away from, for all those years.

    (Umie can't kid herself-- she knows she'd be a complete coward if that gun was pointed at her.)

    Shinjiro goes over to stand by Sudou's side, followed by Jun. Looking to Phoenix, and seeing them place an arm over Hyousuke, Umie breathes a sigh of relief. Then, to Ixquic, she nods once, her head dipping slightly to observe those clenched fists. Katsuya, meanwhile, orders that no one moves.

    Too late, Umie is moving, but towards the Joker Killer. Kneeling down to grasp and pocket a crystal, she settles by him, her expression a conflicting mess.

    "..." Why can't she think of something to say?!

    ....

    ".... We'll carry your own regards to your dad, one day. One way or another." 

<Pose Tracker> Julian Marlowe has posed.

Watching a man die would give Vesper no pleasure. Perhaps, in the end, this outcome is for the best. So long as there are no more victims as a result of the Joker Killer rumor, the exact circumstances are of little consequence. One might even see this as a sign that the world might be taking a turn for a better, if even a man like this might find salvation.

He is surprised, by sudden thanks from his student - well, Julian Marlowe's student. He almost forgot for a moment that's not who he is right now. Composure never lost in a visible way, he simply raises his bowler hat and lowers his head in acknowledgement. "Think nothing of it, Kashihara-kun. All in a day's work, one might say."

Then, just as it has seemed all was well... In the blink of an eye, the Joker Killer's chance at choosing redemption is taken from him. When he looks back on this moment later, Julian will find it striking, even sickening, the way his mind worked in that instant. As soon as the bullet strikes, he has already written off the man as lost, no longer paying him any attention whatsoever. Cold, clininal, practical. His father would surely be proud.

Instead, Vesper whirls about, his eyes instantly following the bullet's trajectory back towards its source.

"What the devil?"

The exact words he used when this exact scenario happened previously, following the defeat of Kaneshiro's Shadow. That had a different outcome, but the intention had been crystal clear. That time, he didn't catch more than a far-away glimpse of the attacker. But there's no doubt in his mind that in this moment, he's looking at the same person from back then.

Considering what just happened, perhaps the wisest course of action would be to retreat. Vesper, instead, takes a step forward, umbrella held at his side as if it were a sheathed blade, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice. Is this the mark of a hero, or a fool? A sign of confidence, or self-sacrifice? The mask hides anything that might be read in the man's expression, making clear only that the one in the white mask opposes the one in the black mask. A little on the nose, perhaps.

He does not get further than that single step. Stopping cold, the very moment that weapon is turned on another, the endangerment of a child instantly freezing him in his tracks, making his mind go blank.

"You... of all the despicable...!" The rest of the words he had in mind do not make it to the surface, out of fear of what actions they might prompt. To have the death of another on his hands, especially one so young... he can't bear the very thought of it.

Still, though he doesn't act to stop the One In The Black Mask from leaving, he also doesn't completely break his ready stance. If nothing else, he will make it clear through body language: if this villain should break their word, he would not hesitate for a single second to do everything in his power to ensure there be as few victims as possible. 

<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

Hyousuke's hand still lingered near the shotgun, even as Jun addressed him. Part of him still wished to put a hole through Sudou. Part of him wanted to end him, and to make it painful - to make him die in agony and shame, so that he could know a fraction of what he'd inflicted. But the other part of him - still restrained by his better judgement, for whatever it was worth - saw the action through a practical lens. The Joker Killer had escaped before. He could escape again. In a moment, a minute, an hour, a day, a month - if he was not ended, that voice in his head told him, he would rise once more. He said nothing in the end, simply giving Jun a frustrated, tired, look. He didn't know what there was to say. Perhaps there would be something in time, but not today.

Hyousuke had no illusions about wanting to reform Sudou. Whether it was possible or not, the hate that still infected his gaze was as strong as it had ever been. Whether he ended things or not, that hatred was not something that he could restrain as easily. So when Shinjiro offered mercy to the dying man, and compassion in his final moments, Hyousuke looked on with shock as much as he did disgust. It was more than Sudou deserved. The man was a monster - a vicious, maddened, animal that had slaughtered all in his path, all at the behest of some higher power he served seemingly unquestioningly. Something stirred in the depths of Hyousuke's mind at the thought...

... But he did not dwell upon it. The fight had ended. The children with them were - in one sense or another - safe. Nobody had died. It was ostensibly a victory. Perhaps he could celebrate with a helping ramen, he supposed. Perhaps he could gather his friends and share a night together at somewhere marginally fancier than they might otherwise have eaten at. Perhaps he could-

His thoughts were cut off by the sound of metal streaking through the air, and carving through Sudou's immolated flesh. No matter how quiet the sound of a suppressed shot might have been, it might as well have been another bomb detonating in his face for how loud it rang out in Hyousuke's mind. He didn't even think when he recognised what had happened, instead readying his guard again, fists clenched despite the pain that wracked his muscles. His body screamed for rest, but his mind was on edge - his very instincts screamed at him to charge the aggressor down, and savage them too.

But he saw the gun, and the child it was held at. Was it a bluff? Was that man in a stygian disguise truly so vile as to hold a child hostage for their own gain? He didn't dare to call their bluff - the risk was too great. Even so, he stood like a leashed attack hound, bare-toothed and snarling as he fixed his hateful eyes on the new assailant, caught between standing guard and snapping his hand to the shotgun strapped to him. He didn't even care that the essence of the supernatural had begun to crumble around them, only what was in front of him.

It was Tsubasa's influence that finally brought Hyousuke back to conscious thought rather than blind instinct, however, and his stance settled into something more measured. Still on guard, and still very much tense, but there was still the slightest modicum of restraint in him. Tsubasa had stopped him for a reason, and they - someone as hotheaded as him, if his judgement was sound - had slipped their own weapon away. He couldn't act. Not yet. He was the sledgehammer and the shield, strong but imprecise. He was not the scalpel that others were, able to talk their way through to deal with situations using great skill and precision. Once again, he had to back down, and defer to their judgement.

That did not mean he could not get his own remarks in.

"You got what you wanted." Hyousuke said, the muzzle of his mask doing almost nothing to dull the barely-restrained rage present in his words. "What the hell are you still doing here? Get out. Leave us alone." He wanted to add that he would rip the mask from his face and tear into him until he was nothing more than a red smear on the ground, even if he met the same end as Sudou. He wanted to keep those children - to keep everyone aboard - safe, even if it meant his own demise. But his leash had been yanked, and so he waited. 

<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.

Shinjiro says he's fine, and Ririka gives him a skeptical look that clearly says 'I don't believe you.' But after a moment weariness takes over her and she looks away. "... alright."

She also doesn't quite believe Hitomi when she says she's fine, but just nods. "Well if you can keep moving, then..."

Ririka is tired and exhausted after both trying to help navigate the museum and try to support people in this fight. She is ready to be done.

She is not ready for what comes next for Sudou, however. She lets out an undignified noise as that bullet erupts out of Sudou, starting back and raising her katana defensively. "What the fuck!?"

Her attention immediately snaps on to Black Mask speaks from the shadows. "Who's there!?"

Her first instinct is for information--to analyze the man who just appeared--did he sneak onto the zeppelin somehow? Did he just appear the way she assumes Sudou did?

Until he takes a child hostage. Ririka's grip tightens and then she forces it to relax, taking her finger off the Evoker's trigger. "You bastard."

And despite everything Sudou's done--she wants to do something for him. Her Persona has a few healing spells--she'll ignore the irony of using that healing on the Joker Killer, of all people--

But she can't risk summoning Amphion now, when Ayame's child--and all of them--are at risk.

And all she can do is stand by and watch someone die. Something white hot and burning rises up in her chest, and stings her eyes. Her grip on her katana and her Evoker tighten so much they hurt.

And all she can do is watch it happen, powerless. 

<Pose Tracker> Moriko Kumamoto has posed.

Moriko had found herself protecting the children, first and foremost. She had been here before. Hadn't been here before. Something told her it needed to be done and she listend to it.
 
 That she was too far to help, strained on her on multiple levels, but she stayed where she was. Determined to do her best with the duty she'd chosen. The blood blossoming from the strange sounding pop takes more than a few moments to catch up.
 
 She can't dwell there either though. A child is now a hostage. She turns, quickly. Trying to do a head count, sick to her stomach. Had she lost one? Was this something she could have stopped? "No!" She turns sharply, count left undone for now. Fists balled up, she... stops. Biting it back. A look of actual anger on her face. "Vile." is the only audible word from a string of them suggesting her true thoughts on the subject. 

<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Sudou has posed.

    Tatsuya Sudou watches things play out, the mother crying and trying to protect her child. He recognizes he had done something similar not even half an hour ago. Hell it's his fault she is even here. Perhaps it is the quiet in his head but he regrets what he put Ayame Watanabe's family through and the world he forced the mother into.

    Those who he tried to kill now seem to turn on his assassin, Shinjiro becoming a shield with his body and yet trying to comfort him. Jun's hand is there it's warm and gentle. He could never have pictured Jun ever doing this, not even the Jun he wished for Jun to be Especially not that Jun. Others turn ready to act and do whatever they can to protect the innocent, as it should be. Perhaps it's the clarity of the moment, or something to do with the voices being gone. Even he can recognize that.

    Sudou's eyes linger on Ixquic, he doesn't know her. Thinks maybe they had fought once or twice before but at the same time this entire fight he has felt proud of her. It's weird. So he just lets his mouth run without questioning why, "Good job."

    Umie's words draw his attention and he gives her a weak smile, its unlikely a pretty picture truthfully. Still he is glad to hear it from her. "Little...sister, I leave it all to you. The hate, the anger, the vengeance, and the smiles too. I leave everything I have to you. Sorry. " It's the best he can do as a last will and testimony and its the only one of the group before him that he thinks might possibly understand it. Even if it is a horrible curse he has laid on her shoulders to bear. "Beware dad, he is stronger. Beware those around him more. " It's all he can do for a warning. There was supposed to be time to talk and explain all that, and now it was fleeting.

    Looking at the people as they turn to deal with the newly arisen problem, the real heroes. Sudou wonders if things had been different if he could have stood with them. Perhaps that was his best joke yet, his head keeps moving, as he settles on Jun and can't begin to say the things on his mind. It's all a jumble, what was real, what wasn't, what was a lie. All he can manage is, "Thanks for the flower."

    Grasping his hands he reaches for Umie swinging his hands to Tatsuya or Jun or anyone in range. His eyes are panicked before he shoves it aside and lets that anger of betrayal fuel his next words. Looking at Tatusya, "He walks here. He isn't done just because I am. They need to be stronger. " Sudou looks for a moment longer, as if trying to find the strength to say more but doesn't, whether it is a lack of strength or just to much regret in the final moments.

    Looking at Katsuya he closes his eyes and then says his final words to the group, "I'm all yours." Sudou forces his hand to move with his last strength giving Katsuya the finger. Somehow he hopes Strega hears about that, they would laugh. Thinking of them he can feel all the social connections, all the stories that he missed and never would see, all of it turns to dust within his soul as the potential social links, some only recently formed, fade. Before the hand goes limp. 

<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Sudou has posed.

    As his consciousness fades Tatsuya Sudou sees images of what could only be described as a fantasy world that Sudou's own mind is putting together to cope with the last few moments of existence.

    Standing in a classroom, Sudou is reminding Tatsuya and Jun about a test in his class next week, having followed in the footsteps of his own hero, Akinari Kashihara.

    Making a joke to his colleague Watanabe-san as he leaves to go work at a local youth shelter.

    The scene shifts to him hanging out with the Strega kids, trying to help them and trying to help them not to feel abandoned, by showing them someone believed in him.

    Next it shows him at Seven's convenience store as he buys himself some ramen for the night. Thanking Umie, and noticing a flier for a concert for Gas Chamber, commenting how he is looking forward to it. He leaves an extra drink for Umie on the counter, stopping for a moment as he looks at the open door. Images of other events throughout this life flashes before him, of all the connections he made, of all the stories that he had cameo'd in, a smile appears on Tatsuya Sudou's face before he walks out the door and Sudou's consciousness fades to white... 

<Pose Tracker> The One in the Black Mask has posed.

"Ahaha..." There's a vicious snigger as Sudou calls him a 'Fucking edgelord...' "Go on, waste what few words you have left cursing me."

It's sickening, revolting to him watching them all comfort him. HIM. Even now, dying, he still hasn't taken any responsibility for what he's done. Leaving all of it to 'fate' 'destiny' or 'Voices'.

That's the real difference between you and me.
Everything I've done- it was my decision, MY WILL and mine alone!

Before Katsuya calls out to him, asks him a question, and his free hand raises a finger, wagging it at him, "Now now. Did you really need to ask? You're a smart enough boy to figure that much out, aren't you?"

His eyes glint red in the mask as he looks Ayame in the eyes. A single implication. I will

'Y-you're a bad man!'

"Am I? Well thank you for telling me something I didn't already know." As he smiles viciously at her, "Would you like to see how bad I am, Koume-chan?"

'You sick fuck!'

"Ahahaha-!" He laughs again at him, "Shouldn't you be thanking me? Or does your 'Miki-chan' that you just dedicated this victory to in such a heartfelt way mean so little to you?"

Oh yes, he heard that as well, lurking in the Shadows.

'Joker wouldn't give you an excuse, so I ain't either. Get outta here.'

"Such a faithful little lapdog you are to your leader's whims. Tell me, when you're finished here, are you going to go cry to him so he can lick your wounds?"

'You goddamn piece of shit.'
'You... of all the despicable...!'

"Shimizu-san, right? ... How about a little pop quiz on my way out? Name one of your sisters, or perhaps your parents, and I'll tell you their address." His eyes flash, "From memory. Would you prefer it be Reiko first? She's so very defenseless, living as she does." He then looks towards Vesper, "Would you like to test if I can make it there before you?"

'You... are... a villain! A demon in human guise!'

"Yes life is certainly simpler if we paint everything in black or white, don't you think?" He glances at her as if he's utterly indifferent to her words, "But this isn't some Featherman season, little girl. It's real life."

'Look, man-- I dunno what the hell kind of game this is, but that 'voices' you're talkin' about there's nothin' worth having a laugh over...'

"Who ever said the 'Voices' were in my head? Do you really think I'm the same as that pond scum over there?" A shake of his head, "I have no connection whatsoever with 'him'." And Masao might get the strange impression, he's telling the truth, but, how then?

Hitomi falling in a half-sprawl causes his head to whip towards her, his finger tensing on the trigger, before he clucks his tongue, "How clumsy of you... tsk tsk."

'but the cover-up must get vastly more complicated when you bring more sympathetic figures into the body count.'

"Have you forgotten that we're in a flammable object that absolutely should not be flying at high altitude over the bay?" He snorts, "I can see you're your agency's finest."

Umie asks a rather good question! Why aim for a spot where he'd have to stick around?

"Does the prodigal daughter really have to ask?" He laughs softly, with another shake of his head.

'Get out. Leave us alone.'

"Ahaha-" He gives Hyousuke a vicious look, "-apparently the rabid dog can learn to heel after all. Good boy." He glances towards Phoenix, "I think he's earned a treat, don't you?"

'You bastard.'

For some reason, his expression falls utterly flat as she says that. "Oh I'm sorry, you're the little sister aren't you? I didn't quite catch that, were you asking for the two-for-one special? I do think you're quite correct that your Mother has lived long enough."

Sudou expires, he looks more peaceful than he ought to. The one in the Black Mask takes one last look at him, then snarls as if... upset, with some vague emotion he can't articulate.

Sympathy for even the Devil
Ridiculous

And that's when the Zeppelin shudders violently, as something outside of the compartment detonates, sending plumes of flame outwards.

Despite the sudden slow downward slope of the Zeppelin, he manages to maintain his footing as he looks up. "What?" He seems startled for the first time at these events, as he questions, "...Did someone save me the trouble?"

<Pose Tracker> Penguin Sniper has posed.

The moment he caught Jun looking, the lighter vanished into his palm, then stuffed into his motorcycle leathers. He doesn't need more reminders. He needs to not remember.

He can't do anything for the horror he's experiencing though, watching a man he connected with bleed out. He can't do anything, but stand in front of him, and lets him hold his hand.

That act gives him, so many complicated feelings.

Nor does he say anything to the long string of Black Mask's threats. He just keeps his eyes trained on him, just in case he needs to act quickly.

Which is when Maya Amano suddenly steps out of the cockpit, a huge smile on her face big enough to show teeth, obviously being too focused on piloting to really have known everything that was going on, "Hey, we didn't need this to keep this Zeppelin flying-" And holds out a lever, a very vital lever, that's broken clean off. "-right?"

Tatsuya turns around to look at her in slow horror, "Wait... who let her take over!?" He looks towards his brother, like this is his fault. Then there is the dawning realization. The terror, the reliving of trauma.

Tatsuya's Mental Landscape Currently - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fWyzwo1xg0

None of them yet knew, the reason why you should never let Maya Amano take the wheel.

<Pose Tracker> The One in the Black Mask has posed.

"Well - enjoy falling to your deaths. I'll just be going now."

Flames of red and black roil off of him as he touches his mask, and suddenly both doors simply burst off their hinges, each destroyed section blasting off towards the ocean. They'll each see a translucent outline of something vaguely humanoid.

His Persona? It must be, but no features can be seen. It's like a sort of optic camouflage out of a video game.

Saluting with his gun, he leaps out of the Zeppelin by casually diving out the new window opening he's made.

By the time anyone makes it to the opening, he's nowhere to be seen.

<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.

Ayame may never know Sudou's regrets, but she will wonder how it could've been. If they'd just been able to talk him down, in the end... seen his terrors end without further bloodshed.

But that will be for later. No one's words reach her right now.

But Koume whimpers softly. "N-No..."

A spike of another feeling appears for Ayame, amidst her terror and upset. A spark of hatred for this cruel, cruel young man. ...But what does that matter? In the face of her child in danger...

That's all that matters here.

Shinobu. And--"No!" Reiko...

But soon, he's gone. He may have been angry, and he may have been cruel, but--

Not even the explosion stops Ayame from sprinting, uncaring about the footing she doesn't really have, to hold onto her daughter for dear life. "Koume! Koume!"

"Mom!" Koume cries, and hangs onto Ayame. "I was so scared!"

"I know. I know." But it's not over. The blump is aflame... She looks to the others. The other children...

"Hup!" Ogre is already picking up two. "We'll get you all out of here! Just come with Auntie Ogre!"

But Ayame picks up her daughter, and starts for the exit. "...Koume-chan," she says. "It's time to trust me. Can you do that?"

"U-uu-uh-huh..."

She'll time her moment, and--though she and her daughter both have their vision swimming from tears--

She'll jump. Atropos's gravity spells might make a difference...

But what else can she do? They can process later. 

<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.

Shinjiro glances to Jun and Minato as they join him in comforting Sudou. They're kind, unlike him. He's just doing this out of selfish desires.

And then, the Black Mask evokes Miki-chan. "..." Shinjiro is stunned silent, unable to say anything. He will never thank him. But would Miki hate him, too, he wonders? It doesn't matter.

All that matters is that the air ship is going down, as somewhere Ulala shouts out, "MA-YA, OF COURSE IT'S IMPORTANT!"

"Grab the kids!" Shinjiro calls out, leaving the now-deceased Sudou, taking his last breaths peacefully.

He then grabs a pair of kids, summoning Castor with an adrenaline-burst movement to grab the trio and leap down, trying to suffocate as much of the fall damage into a Persona Break as he can. As long as the kids survive, that's fine. 

<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.

    It's true that Jun Kurosu never would have held Sudou's hand to the end--including especially not while he was still Master Joker.
    
    But Jun Kashihara doesn't know that. And surely a friendship Sudou was so passionate about had to have been reciprocated.
    
    He listens as Sudou warns Umie and effectively everyone about his father--and those around him. He blinks rapidly as Sudou looks at him and thanks him for the flower. Swallowing hard, he nods once.
    
    But then Sudou starts swinging his hands wildly as he gives Tatsuya another warning, and Jun is startled into letting go. It's just as well, considering the gesture he makes to Katsuya with it. Soon enough, it goes limp.
    
    "..."
    
    Jun watches over him for the moment. When the last wind of life escapes Sudou's lungs, he softly and gently sets down the lilac on his back.
    
    "You're welcome," he whispers, then stands. He glares over at the one in the Black Mask in time to see him snarling at the now-dead man. He'd heard him claim he actually doesn't have anything to do with Nyarlathotep, but surely that can't be true. How could he know the 'Voices' had betrayed him, then--unless that in itself was a lie, cruelly made for cruelty's sake?
    
    Jun won't have the time to ponder that. The zeppelin shudders and plunges, and Jun stumbles to one side, nearly falling over. "Wh-what just happened?" he utters reflexively. He turns in time to see Maya cheerfully emerge from the cockpit with a broken lever.
    
    Blue lines of anguish fall down over Jun's beautiful face. "A-Amano-san... Don't tell me that's..."
    
    The Black Mask is making his exit. Jun shoots him another glare, but there are bigger problems than his escape. Namely: "We all need to escape too! Everyone, gather the children!"
    
    Jun won't jump yet; he'll instead help organize everyone else's escapes first, particularly the aforementioned children. If there are no parachutes, then the Persona-Users will need to carry as many kids with them as they leap--and they need to leap once the zeppelin is close enough to the ocean, but not so close as to get caught up in the crash.
    
    The others are brave enough that he hardly needs to organize anything. Even so, Jun does his utmost. He needs to see this through to the end. 

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.

    Phoenix's gut twists, and their teeth clench, hearing the One in the Black Mask rebuke them. It cuts deep because it isn't wrong -- they're not the Boss, they've never wanted to be the Boss, and there's no world where they don't go and cry on Ren and Ichika when all's said and done. "Bet you'd love to know," they grumble, full of resentment. "But the fire you set ain't killed me yet." If not for the Black Mask -- they wouldn't be burned, like the dying man in front of them. "You ever thought that's all 'cuz I weren't alone in this shit?"

    It's not just the Phantom Thieves, either. Hyousuke listens to their urging, and Phoenix glances to him, sidelong, with a stern nod of gratitude. They're relieved to hear Big Sis not starting anything, either... even if, like, maybe a steel chair from Shinobu could solve all their problems??? (Okay, fine, probably not.) Luckily, Umie's backing them up, too...

    They tense up, when the One in the Black Mask threatens Reiko -- but at that, they manage to hold their tongue. "Real obsessed with dogs, ain't ya?" They lobby back, instead, when he asks them whether Hyousuke's earned a treat. But all their will to quiet themself in the face of Reiko's threats are tested three times over, when he threatens Ririka's mother -- Ichika's mother. "Ch..." Their tongue clicks to their teeth; it's a near thing, their silence.

    (Minato would have stopped moving if he'd been moving after Katsuya demanded everyone freeze; he respects the law. But the blood of a dying man calls him to attend... and that dying man's words sit with him, and unsettle him, in turn. 'He isn't done'...)

    And then, the ramifications of all that fire in the zeppelin come calling. "Fuck! Okay, that was NOT my fault!" They yelp, as they duck away from the flames. "I didn't fire my fuckin' rocket launcher ONCE man!!"

    Cue Maya. Phoenix straightens up, staring at her, agape. "..."

    ogre your mentor might be an idiot

    Phoenix is too busy gaping to stop the one in the Black Mask even if they'd wanted to. "FUCK!" They yelp, despite the childrens' delicate ears. "All right, shit, uh -- Persona!" The massive hut on chicken's leg appears, again, serving as a windblock against the doors which have been blown out. Approaching from the other side, of course, it's still perfectly possible to jump out -- but Phoenix clearly wants to stop any children from falling out accidentally.

    They look at their massive Persona, which is, for all intents and purposes, almost genuine hut size...

    ... and grab some kids, leaping up to put them on the hatched roof. "Grab on, kids! You're goin' for a ride!"

    "Grab onto what?!" A distraught little boy asks. "Waahhh-- what am I sitting on?!"

    "Uhhh... magic air!" They invent, desperately, as they direct the boy's arms to latch around the stovepipe breaching the roof. "Jus' hold on!"

    The other kids can grab onto the arch of the roof, and...

    ... hopefully they don't fall off into the water and into their deaths.

    Hey, can Izbushka fly with those weird little window-hatch wings?! Or at least, like, fall slower?!?! PHOENIX HAS NEVER HAD TO THINK ABOUT THAT BEFORE!

    (Izbushka cannot fly, but it can land feet first, breaking the surface tension of the water.)

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    Many tense words and moments pass, as Masao meets the eyes of the guy in the mask. 'I have no connection whatsoever with 'him.
  
     "..." The silence to that is audible. He breaks line of sight with a 'tch,' because that's as satisfying an answer as anyone can get, as more pointed words are shared between the One in the Black Mask and others. Suddenly... the violent shuddering... the fire... and Maya holding a broken lever. And that seemingly unflappable boy in bright red, looking genuinely horrified (and sounding it).
 
     (In the background, Roger is already seen helping a kid prepare to leave - the same one he managed to coax out of disassociating into death by fire and smoke inhalation with the promise there'll be a lot more fun waiting both of them.)
 
     "How many kids are here, how many are--"
 
     HE HAD TO ASK
 
     "Gkk," Masao Inaba, who is on the shorter side for a Japanese adult man, and kind of scrawny-looking besides, grits his teeth with the thought of 'I really had to ask' when there's three kids clinging to him for dear life. He sucks in his breath. Well, he knows one guy who would've been class act enough to do that when everyone else would say not to, and he's not gonna meet back with him one day and say he's failed to see the three kids trusting him to safety!
 
     (Even with Ogun's gravity spells, it'll be a narrow save to see himself and three kids to Somewhere They Will Not Drown.) 

<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.

Tatsuya Sudou... leaves it all to Umie. Hate, anger, and vengeance. And... smiles. What a strange thing for such an individual to offer. But only Umie can decide if she takes it, and Sudou... Sudou is gone.

Where the One in the Black Mask feels his revulsion, Kurou could not deny a flicker of his own. Yet the veil of sorrow is unmistakable. A soul is vast, however. It can hold many emotions at once. None of them show on his face, even as Black Mask responds to the flurry of insults thrown his way, undaunted.

Kurou has no words to offer, for he knows he has none that would land their strike.

What matters is the that the Zeppelin is falling in flames.

"I will not let harm befall you," he promises the children with him before leaping off of the Zeppelin and yanking upon the scarf around his throat. "Gashadokuro...!"

If he was hidden before, Kurou Ryouhara may well not be now: his massive, skeletal Persona rises from the earth, and his fall is not far at all as he lands upon the colossus' head. With such an impressive size, many children can be gathered to be lowered safely to the ground as Kurou clutches onto them to pull them in close.

With the skeleton's hands and arms providing extra fallback should the situation take any dire turns for the standby prove necessary.

Not this time. Not this time...

<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.

Ixquic is still full of righteous (more or less) fury (also more or less) at the Black Mask. Even when he calls her childish.

It's real life. People tell her things are more complicated than she thinks. That she'll understand when she's older. That there's reasons, and rationales, and it just has to be this way. But... "Sometimes things ARE just black and white!" she yells back, still clearly furious.

She turns away from the Black Mask, slightly - she can still see him out of the corner of her eye - and this time actually forces herself to look at Sudou as he, instead, praises her. Does she want to be told she's right, by him? That she did a good job? Some part of her does. She tries to smile, and absolutely fails. "I'm sorry," she says, without understanding what she's apologizing for or why.

She has to look away from him before he dies. Ixquic can't bring herself to watch that.

And anything else she might have said is interrupted as the zeppelin shifts underfoot. Ixquic's sword starts to slide despite her foot on it, and since the Black Mask is leaving, she picks it back up, swinging it up and around and onto her shoulder. "It's falling?" she says, before; "It's falling!"

Ixquic has no idea what to do. She runs one way, reconsiders, runs the other, reconsiders a second time and runs a THIRD way - this time toward the children. "Hey, up! Come with the Magical Warrior Ixquic!" Ixquic can only carry one, and even that's kind of pushing it; she grabs whichever child is closest. "It's time to go for a ride!"

She's done this once before. Surely it can't be that bad, she thinks, as Quixote reappears and she clambers on. "It's magic air here too!" she says hastily, before the elementary schooler even gets their mouth open; she heard what Phoenix said and it's a GREAT explanation so she's stealing it.

Ixquic turns and revs the engine, tearing off toward the opening. "Hold on!" she directs the child, who is by now too freaked out to do anything else.

This worked for getting out of a flying bank UFO. Will it work for getting out of a flying zeppelin? ...maybe??


And meanwhile...

Suzume has, by now, gathered two children. She actually isn't sure she can support both of them, but they're sisters, twins, and they refuse to be separated from each other, clinging to each other as much as Suzume.

Suzume gets the group toward the opening. She looks out - and her heart almost stops. It's so far down. Panic courses through her and she catches herself hyperventilating. She's not afraid of hardly anything - but she is afraid of falling. She squeezes her eyes shut for a slow count of five, then opens them again.

Well, it's less high up now AND THAT'S WORSE.

Every part of her wants to back up, to run away from the opening, but Suzume forces herself to look out. Unfortunately this also forces the children to look out and both of them immediately start wailing. "It's OK, I have a parachute," Suzume lies, digging in her backpack.

"Really?"

"Truly?"

"Sort of," Suzume says, pulling out her Evoker.

A few moments later, and Suzume, with one child clinging to either side of her, leaps. She's left-handing her Evoker because her right arm is still killing her; at least she's gotten both arms up and freed from their grip.

Her eyes are squeezed closed and she falls almost halfway before Atalanta appears over her, catching Suzume in an updraft. She is very glad she did not wear skirts today but jeans, because the way it's making her untucked shirt billow is bad enough. (Why is she worried about THAT at a time like this? Well, it's better than worrying about falling...)

But Atalanta IS slowing them. So that's good.

Suzume also yells all the way down. She will never, ever admit it. She later claims to SEES that it was the kids screaming. Obviously. 

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    "...Damn you," he breathes in response, glaring at the man in the black mask. The NWO is quick to answer any problems with force. Is it a follow up to what had happened at the sanitarium? Fail to eliminate him there, so they sent in the one that he'd heard about from Umie once before, the man who was able to kill at the NWO's behest.

    Katsuya doesn't yell at anyone who moves towards Sudou as the man quickly bleeds out. If the man in the black mask decides that counts as a threat, well... then perhaps he never was going to leave without harming a child in the first place (the reality would have been more than 'harm', but in the moment Katsuya won't allow himself to think it). There's nothing they can do except try to give him some comfort; he knows this. He heaves out a slow , he turns his head over to Sudou, just in time to see the dying man say a few last words and... flip him off. At least, he's pretty sure it's specifically him.

    "..."

    Not long after that, the man dies. After death, it's hard to feel much rancor at all...

    But there's a lurch. Something either just violently gave way, or outright exploded, he thinks. But it's at the man in the black mask that earns Katsuya's attention. "Wait, what were you planning?!" That much is obvious, but it's clear that it's upset some moral core within Katsuya. "There are children on board!!" Or has he not yet cottoned that this man would kill anyone, everyone who had the misfortune to even get close to the NWO?

    But the reason makes itself apparent as Maya appears with a lever in her hand. It's an important lever. He stares at it blankly. He looks at his brother, who has looked at him accusingly. "...What?" he asks of his younger brother, just dumbfounded.
    Because he doesn't know. He doesn't know!

    Not yet, anyway.

    The zeppelin is well and truly falling now. Before anyone else can do anything, the man in the black mask tears open the bulkhead doors and with one last remark, dives out into the sky and beyond. Katsuya rushes after him, approaching the open doors to try to spot the falling figure. He pulls back, turning towards his brother. "Hey," he starts to say to him. 

<Pose Tracker> Penguin Sniper has posed.

The moment Katsuya steps to the edge, as he turns to regard Tatsuya, he has words for him. Words to reach out with him for brotherly affection.

Tatsuya only has one thing for this version of his older Brother, Katsuya.

Soundtrack - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3HNkn8_I3I

His boot.

A boot which he plants against his hip and finishes the kick by shoving him out of the Zeppelin, mid-sentence.

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    "--Youuuuuuu?!" are the last words heard from Katsuya as he plummets out of the zeppelin and towards the sea below. It's probably fine. 

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.

 
Hitomi sprawls and stares and the Black Mask LOOKS AT HER

And his GUN MOVES

but it doesn't happen, even if she can feel her heart hammer in her chest, the others speaking. It's all chaos, a cacophony that is joined soon enough by the abrupt detonation of SOMETHING. Even Black Mask doesn't know what it is; Hitomi, already halfway laying down, sprawls all-of-the-way.

That woman from earlier comes out!

She's holding a lever. It looks broken.

Hitomi's expression turns towards Ririka then, even as she is perhaps dealing with a turmoil within. The best way to summarize this expression is wide sideways eyes and nervous sweating.

She looks back to Shinjiro... who is departing at speed, telling them to grab the kids.

Nonplussed, Hitomi doesn't move for a second. But then she rolls over, straightens herself out, and pushes herself up to a crouch, then finally stands. She pushes out a breath she wasn't quite sure she was holding.

"I think we need to stop letting Aragaki-sempai decide where we go, huh," Hitomi says to Ririka, before clapping her hands twice and raising her voice: "O-KAYU! I need brave volunteers for an exciting safe ride with Big Sister Hitomi~!" She steps forwards then, glancing at Jun - to whom she gives a brief, passing smile, a moment of reaching-out to a near stranger. She then sticks out her hands.

One child immediately grasps on. Hitomi's other hand wiggles her fingers as she looks around, but it takes several seconds for a child to work up the courage to grasp her.

"This trip sucked," says that second child (the first one is silent for now, wholly justified *and* convenient in Hitomi's opinion).

"Mm," Hitomi says. "I know it was scary. I don't know if your teachers are going to be happy if you talk like that, but..."

Hitomi leans in slightly to speak to that child, in confidence. "You're right. It really sucked."

"Are you paratroopers?" asks another child, who seems to be wary of this offer, looking at Hitomi's face even as she glances at others. Including Suzume. "Cuz the other lady had a parachute."

"Paratroopers aren't real," says Child #2. Hitomi says to the third, "Grab around my waist, alri--ngh-- okay, big step one, big step two, but - hey," now to the first child, who has been silent, "What's your name?"

"....... 'chiro," the child mumbles.

"Ichiro-kun, can you hold onto my elbow? I need my hand free to do something secret." Ichiro-kun seems to comply. Hitomi takes a deep breath or two, staring out the back, glancing back the way they came. Even now, it seems absurd. Is she just saving them from --

"Woah!" says Child #3 as Katsuya gets helped out the back.

"HORAA, here we goooo, three, two," Hitomi's freed right hand twirls and snaps out a blue card, "And-- Tyche~!"

Out they go.

Hitomi keeps her eyes open. 

<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

"Then get over here. I'll rip my treat straight out of your fucking throat." Hyousuke snarled, lurching forward an inch, his fists curled until the skin on them went taut enough to split. His muscles demanded rest and air, and his mind screamed for a moment to reorganise itself, but he didn't care. Whoever the Black Mask was, they'd taunted him, and it grew more difficult with every passing moment for him to heed the leash keeping him from turning into a blinding-fast mass of fury-propelled muscle. Given time, he might well have - but Maya brought that notion before it could build speed.

"Amano-san, what the hell did you do?!" Hyousuke hadn't known Maya long. He didn't know her very well. But in that span of a few moments between him snapping his head around to face her, then looking back to their mysterious assailant, Hyousuke realised something that Tatsuya Suou had internalised long ago. Maya Amano should never have been allowed to take the wheel. His face paled, and he turned back to face the Black Mask, snapped out of his stupor by their taunt. But the gun had come away from the child, and Hyousuke seized that moment to snap forward like a hunting dog unleashed.

He stampeded towards the gap, gripping onto a wrecked twist of metal to stop himself, but there was nothing there. Whoever - or whatever - the Black Mask had been, they had vanished from sight, and out of their grasp. He spat a curse into the roaring winds, determined to find something - anything - that could lend him a clue to hunt them down, but Shinjiro's shout brought him back to what was important. The children. He had to save the children. But how? He had no parachute. There wasn't time to find any on the zeppelin, if there had even been any in that hitherto-immobile vessel to begin with. His Persona was heavy and physical thing, built for ugly brawls and taking hits. There was no way he could-

The hamster wheel spun. It spun furiously, until just enough power was generated to spark the lightbulb in his head, and flicker it to life. With a snap of his fingers, he drew a skill card from his pouch, healed the worst of his hurts, and moved in. It was a terrible idea, as most of his tended to be. Even if he executed it correctly, he would probably die. But if he stayed, he would *surely* die. Even a slim chance at survival was good enough.

"You two!" Hyousuke called out to two frightened children. He was aware of how he looked. He was a hulking mass of muscle and fabric, burnt and cut and ravaged until he resembled some battle-scarred titan more than a man. But there was no time to dwell on it. They had to act, and they had to act quickly. "Get on my back and hold on! Whatever happens, don't let go! I'm gonna get you off this thing!" The children, after some initial hesitation, seemed to decide that doing as he bid them was a far more attractive prospect than sheltering in place. He turned, lowered himself, and let them clamber on, supported by his outstretched arms.

The sea below slammed upwards, rushing to meet him as he leapt swiftly from the zeppelin's edge. Achilles was no parachute, and had no skills with which to slow their descent either. He was a heavy titan of bronze and fury, made to be some invincible guardian and conqueror. But that was what Hyousuke had counted on. With every mote of mental strength still left in him, Hyousuke commanded his Persona to manifest between himself and the vast expanse of water beneath. He and the mighty general were set alight by every defensive spell he could cast, his mind firm in the face of impending doom, no matter how the winds whipped at him or how the salt air stabbed at his eyes. 

<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.

The one in the black mask addresses her directly. He knows her name - and even worse, he knows Reiko's.

"You..." Shinobu starts, her eyes widening in shock - but whatever retort she could think up dies on her lips.

She doesn't question what he says. He says it like he means it, and she can tell he isn't bluffing. She grits her teeth, fury welling up within her, but no outlet to unleash it. It's one last stab into her confidence - and then he's gone, and the Zeppelin's time is almost at its end.

She quickly scoops her staff back up, returning it to her joins Ayame in hurrying over to Koume. She's relieved, at least, that she's alright - but they all have a big problem. They're quickly losing altitude... and this craft was already not meant to fly. Of course it isn't going to have any parachutes.

"It'll be alright, Koume-chan. Your mom's gonna look after you, alright? Listen to Aunt Shinobu." Shinobu assures. She makes sure they both leave, and then looks to who's left. She's frightened... but so are they. She has to put a brave face on for the children.

"We're getting outta here. Don't worry, they do this all the time in movies, right? I'm not letting anything happen to you. Just, uh - don't copy me in the future, alright?" She says, grabbing hold of two of them - and she wonders if it's a bad sign that she's had to ask that twice today.

"Don't let go!" Shinobu shouts - and then makes a leap. She braces herself, rotating in mid-air. She can take a hit, especially while she can still feel Lachesis watching over her. She'll let herself take the force of the impact - the only thing that matters now is that these kids get out safely.


"Please hold on tight." Fuuka insists, as she shepherds those in her care to the door. "We'll be safe... Lucia, please protect us."

To the children, it may just seem like she's praying to a saint - but as she falls Lucia appears around them all, enveloping them in her protective globe.

She'll see no harm comes to these children. 

<Pose Tracker> Julian Marlowe has posed.

There is at least one among Strega who is sure to both miss Tatsuya Sudou as well as wonder about what might have been. As for Vesper, he isn't exactly immune to the dying man's words he catches, striking him as those of a man who would have chosen to live with regret and seek to atone, had he been only afforded the chance. While he has no tears to shed for it, it does add to the animosity in regards to the one who had denied that chance.

But, that personal threat made to Shinobu's sisters. He can't help but look over to her in that moment, gauging her reaction. It's hard to see anything through that mask, other than his mouth pressed into a thin line. It may yet leave the impression of one who took that threat personally, in spite of having no personal stake in it. He notes that Ayame's reaction, however brief, gives away that she most likely does.

It may be for that reason that he's pulled into it by the Black Mask. And he has no possible retort for that. Even though he has no reason to doubt that nothing is known of his own identity, he's already given away that he's vulnerable to threats in regards to other people's loved ones. "...You've made your point," is all he can say for the moment. He certainly would not like to test that in a race against time. But now that he knows what this man is capable of and would not hesitate to do... perhaps he's found a new target to focus on, now that the case of the Joker Killer has been definitively settled.

Everything moves fast, following that. The expression behind Vesper's mask would surely be priceless, as he turns, incredulously, to face Maya as she enters, following that explosion. Only for a short moment, when as soon as the Black Mask makes his exit, panic takes over. There's so many children here - who will undoubtedly need counseling after everything that happened but that's hardly the main concern right now. How could he possibly save them all?

He admonishes himself, shortly after, on his bad habit of assuming he has to do everything by himself. There are many other Persona Users here, already taking action before he's started moving. Familiar words spoken by a familiar voice echo in his mind.

'When will you stop worrying about how much you can do? Just do the best you can!'

His hesitation vanishing in an instant, Vesper unceremoniously grabs the closest unattended child he can (not even taking the time to comfort them, Julian will be ashamed of himself later), and leaps right out the zeppelin with them under his arm. There may not be any parachutes, but from his previous experiments, he knows something else that will work.

When witnesses watching from the beach are questioned later, they will probably get some funny looks as they claim they saw a man with a child under his arm gently floating down with the apparent aid of nothing but an umbrella. 

<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.

    Tamaki really is not as clever as she thinks she is.

    The black-masked figure's retort causes Tamaki to blink her eyes several times in stunned silence, then burst out laughing. "Haaahahahaha! As a matter of fact, I did forget that, so thank you for the reminder! I guess something else took up my attention, you know?" To illustrate the point, she wipes her hand on her face, reducing a blotch of liquid to a faded smear.

    She figures she must be an absurd sight, grinning like an idiot in her newly red-stained business attire. Internally, she's a whirlwind of fear and panic, but she's keeping the face she presents to the outer world locked nice and tight. With a tone far more chipper than she should be, she replies to his faux-compliment insult with, "Aww, thank you! That's high praise, coming from you!"

    If she can't be clever, then she can at least be resilient, so she figures. There's a reaction he expects, a dichotomy of options he's presented. It's like how some negotiations with Demons go: if he wants them to quiver in impotent rage, to be paralyzed by fear, then she's not going to stand for it.

    ... but what doesn't occur to her is that might really just be tipping her hand so he can account for her next time. To reiterate: she really, really isn't as clever as she thinks she is -- not on her own.

    Something else happens which startles him. A detonation in another compartment.

    In other words: Maya happens.

    Tamaki smiles guiltily at Tatsuya. "Oh, I figured she was after a headcount, but I didn't say anything. I thought it was better to keep her away from Sudou, you know?" Which, given what she knows of what happened to the historical figure of Maihime Amano, that might make sense to a certain extent, but ...

    With the aircraft plummeting to the ground, it's time to jump. Before she grabs a kid to escort down to safety, she has one more thing to do.

    Perhaps it was because of Tamaki's own personal distance from Sudou that she found herself more able to offer him an embrace.

    It was not done out of forgiveness, nor was it an offer of friendship -- it was a small mercy, something she had done to acknowledge the pain he felt.

    It was a parting gift. She has one more to give him.

    Tamaki reaches into her purse and pulls out a handful of coins -- six, specifically (one just shy of seven). They're yen, not mon, but the symbolic intent of the gesture remains the same. "Here. Let me at least cover your boat fare."

    With that, she rushes over to one of the children and hoists them up by the waist. "I've got you, I'm going to jump down. Don't worry, I've got a plan to land safely, alright? I'm going on 'three.' One, two -- three!"

    To onlookers, it might seem that Tamaki doesn't have a plan at all, as she drops straight to the ground for a good long while, with no defensive measures or anything to slow the pair down. Several tense moments pass as they whiz right by Vesper and his charge leisurely floating down between the pavement and the stars --

    -- then just before they would otherwise splatter, Arianrhod appears to those who can see her and blasts a green orb of force below herself and the child.

    ... THAT'S her plan?!

<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.

All of that white hot heat in her chest suddenly flips as something ice cold runs through her veins, Ririka's eyes growing wide. "Wha--"

Little sister. Two-for-one special.

Her Mother.

She lets out a sharp gasp as her chest constricts. All of that anger and heat come racing back as she grits her teeth. She doesn't say anything, her expression says it all for her. Ririka forces herself to remember every single detail about this man she possibly can.

But her attention is drawn away as the zeppelin rocks--and Maya appears with a lever that is definitely important. She can't stop the man from leaving, but she does raise her Evoker to fire. "Amphion!"

She reaches out and starts to play, scanning the area down below. Nowhere to land... Hitomi makes a comment about Shinjiro. "Not now, Hitomi!" she snaps, before wincing. "Sorry. Stressed. Just--"

If there's no safe space to land, she can at least try to map out the best route back to dry land, laying down trails of music for people to follow, and hopefully keep them from getting discouraged.

And after that's done she'll grab a couple of kids, one in each arm. "Alright, kids! I'm gonna need you to be really brave and hold on to me really tight, okay?" She still has Amphion's Marakukaja enchanting her--she'll just have to trust that'll help her absorb the impact in the water as she finally jumps. 

<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

    'Does the prodigal daughter really have to ask?'

    Umie sighs. "... Maybe I just wanted the satisfaction of being right about something at least once today?" Maybe it's the stress that's talking, for her to feel like she could just snap back at a man she was brutally afraid of moments before.

    Or maybe, arguing with Shiryuu has just sharpened her verbal blades a little too much, like a breadknife slipping underneath a hand too used to a blunted blade.

    The biggest fuck you, however, may be how Umie's attention is grabbed back to the man who hunted her down like a dog, nearly killed and stole something from someone she's grown to care for, murdered many people, and filled her nights with terror at the thought that he may come back to finish the job.

    .... But her dad never locked her up in an asylum like a bad secret, or covered up the existence of every crime she committed in order to blot out her existence. She had a family, as imperfect as they each were. The lack of communication between her and them just was a side effect that came in handy, even if it hurt Umie, and fooled no one, truly. She was never made to be any type of Joker.

    And she certainly won't start now.

    Umie will be merciful, waiting until Sudou finally passes, before she closes her eyes. ".... And I'll do things my way, like I always have."

    Catching a glimpse of the Black Mask as he seems startled at the airship beginning to shudder, she frowns. "... You seemed surprised."

    And then, *Umie* is surprised, as she sees Maya come in, holding a handle. Tamaki's explanation makes sense, at least. "I mean, we were all fighting, so....?" Umie shrugs at Tatsuya Suou's despair. "Like we'd do any better?"

    The Black Mask seems like he's about to add to the trouble, touching his mask as Umie's seen many 'Mask-sans' do... but there's no Persona.

    Wait, no. Her eyes widen. A distortion in the air... a cognitive stand-in, or another technique?!

    The doors blast open, and the Black Mask escorts himself out.

    "..... Well, at least we'll still be able to use our Personas," Umie grumbles, as she looks over her shoulder. "Bad news, though, Badb may be technically bird-vibes, but she *can't* fly. We just need to pray whatever field has enough influence far enough down." She pauses, squinting into the open air as the outside October air hits her face. "Yeahh.... I've got no idea how to even *check* for that."

    Everyone makes their way off, and Umie looks around, grabbing a random child. "Okay, hold on, okay? I know it's scary, believe me. But I'm a Hero of Dark, and that means I won't let anything Dark take you."

    She looks back towards Sudou's corpse, her eyelids lowering slightly.Is this the end of it? Or is it...?

    The discarded sun lies buried in the hill,
    The spiral clockwork ticks to the inevitable climax.
    As the dragon rises from its slumber
    the feast will begin anew.

    ".... It's all just delusion..." she murmurs, before making that ill-advised leap down. 

<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.

    There... nearly everyone is out. Certainly all of the children are. Jun shares a brief nod with Hitomi before she evacuates with hers, and takes a head count as each new person escorts more and more kids to relative safety to ensure no one is left behind.
    
    Not all of them leave that way, of course. Jun gawks as Tatsuya kicks his own brother out the zeppelin doors. ...He knew he disliked Katsuya, but he never would have guessed that much. If Jun were a different person, he might've found it funny.
    
    But Jun isn't a different person. He is and can only be himself. As that thought crystallizes, and once all the children are rescued and only he, Tatsuya, and Maya remain, he finds his resolve to approach the 'Déjà Vu Boy' for what might be one last time.
    
    "Tatsuya--thank you for protecting me all this time. ...Even though I'm not 'your' Jun." He swallows hard. "I don't remember, and I never intend to remember, but like I said... I've figured out enough from context clues." He slips a hand into his uniform pocket, and pulls out a silver lighter, engraved with a quote. Jun doesn't say it, but Tatsuya knows well this is his treasure--something gifted to him long ago by his father. Here, his father still lives, but that doesn't mean Jun would value it any less.
    
    Even so, Jun's eyes are on Tatsuya as he holds it out to him. "It's not much, but... please let me give you this, as a token of my appreciation. And... if it's all right by you..." He offers him a muted, tender smile. "My friendship. Not as Jun Kurosu, but Jun Kashihara."
    
    He doesn't value it any less... but especially after seeing Tatsuya toy with that other lighter, it just feels right for him to have it. 

<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.

    Maya doesn't get a chance to fully absorb the scene, but it's clear that she missed a lot while piloting the rumor-powered model ship. People are scrambling, grabbing children and leaping off.

    Well.

    Maya grimaces as she watches Tatsuya kick Katsuya off the ship.

    Most of them.

    Before long, the only two people who remain on the aircraft are Maya and Tatsuya.

    "You don't think I'm going to let you stay onboard, do you? A Captain's always got to be the last person to leave the ship!" Maya holds up the lever, as if it somehow proves her authority.

    "Come on! We're going together." The lever is dropped to the ground and lands with an audible clank on the zeppelin floor. She snatches Tatsuya's hand and prepares to jump. 

<Pose Tracker> Penguin Sniper has posed.

In his own mind, Tatsuya Suou believes he will be the last to get off. That's just the way he is. He takes the most responsibility, and he has the power to do so behind it. As Jun steps up though, his eyes look, just sad, distant as he speaks to him tells him he figured some things out. He shows him the lighter. As he offers to him that object.

He doesn't need to see the quote on the side, to know what it is.

The most precious things cannot be seen,

He wants to give it back. It's too precious a gift for now to him. The reason he feels it is only because he's coming into contact with things he never should have.

Like him.

Furthermore, he offers him, his friendship, as Jun Kashihara, rather than Kurosu.

"But I have nothing to give you in return..." It's an answer in a way towards both things. The lighter, and his friendship.

They shouldn't be friends. It's his fault that he's in this place. If this Jun's life is ruined by him again, this time it's his fault.

But he doesn't thrust it back at him. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath. Then plants a hand against Jun's chest, and pushes him out the side of the Zeppelin.

Perhaps the victory is in that he didn't give it back - and didn't say Jun couldn't be his friend. He only told him that he can't give him anything in return.

Because the only thing his presence in his life can give him is pain.

Then, it's Maya who steps up. The Captain?

"Of all the things to say..." He looks away from her, "It's not too late. You can- you should go back to the life you had before. ... Before it's too late."

He tries to push her before she can catch his hand, but she manages to take it as he does. His right hand. He looks horrified at first, trying to pull his arm away, who knows what could happen if she touches-!

-and the moment she does, something congeals out of Sudou's body, in sickly blacks and reds, twisting, its ichor only vaguely taking the appearance of the Joker Persona from before before, with its Mask still on.

And when he speaks, it sounds like a hollow, resonant, echoing version of Tatsuya Suou's voice. This, everyone hears, even if they are swimming in the ocean below.

The fear has been spread

The Joker... won't die!

Ahaha....AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The mask falls out, revealing once again, a parody of Tatsuya Suou's face, the features begin to melt away, the entire construct then falling apart... and splashing down once again to mix with Tatsuya Sudou's blood.

Don't worry about it. I'm sure it's fine. Just something to think about on your way back to shore.

Tatsuya grasps his right arm, covered by the Motorcycle leathers and gloves as if in pain, grimacing, then taking a deep breath, he shuts off her grasp. Instead taking her hand with his left, raises his right and flips 'Him' the bird behind him.

Then he leaps, with her in tow.

Only a few seconds later, is there a loud explosion as the engine goes, and the zeppelin buckles, collapsing upon itself, sending a geyser of fire high into the sky and showering the area with debris.

Unfortunately with a rumor like a Zeppelin flying, there is one infamous Zeppelin in human history that influences this one.

Everyone has a frantic trip to shore. Even with the strength granted to them by Personas, it's not easy to swim for that long, with several kids attached to you. The water is cold, this time of year. And yet...

... everyone makes it to the shore of Ebisu beach, some before the others. It's utterly empty, this stretch of shore, with only some driftwood, seaweed, and shells as their companions.

In the distance, they can see the debris from the Zeppelin disintegrating into fire.

All the children, all the people who were aboard are accounted for.

Save one... as they impacted, his grasp broke from Maya's by the sheer force of it. When she inevitably reaches the shore, he's nowhere to be seen.

<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.

Shinobu catches Vesper looking her way. She can't take her attention off the one in the Black Mask for too long... but she does take note that he seems to be taking it personally, even though he has no personal stake that she knows.

That's something she'll respect later - but right now, she's too focused on the one taunting them.

They jump, and as she falls, she hears a voice.

The Joker won't die...

...Shinobu will remember that. She'll keep it at the back of her mind as she crashes into the water and, pooling every inch of her strength, swims herself to shore with the children in tow.

She deposits them onto the shore first... and then, with a gasp, rolls over onto her back.

"...We're alive. Everyone... present and accounted for?" Shinobu asks, as she tries to catch her breath.

The fact that they've all, somehow, made it...

That might be the one single bright spot today. She can be grateful for that - even if there are new problems on the horizon, now... and a looming threat over her head, as she thinks back to the Black Mask. 

<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

    ".... just a delusion."

    At the end of the day, Umie sits there on the beach where it technically all began for her.

    The children, including the one she grabbed, are safe and accounted for.
    
    'The Joker... won't die!'

    Tatsuya Suou is missing. Goro Akechi, likewise, may be reported as missing.

    Who could survive a stunt like that?

    Hugging her knees close to her, she sighs into them, trying to block out everything that isn't the sound of the waves, including the beat of frantic blood in her ears.

    "... Just a delusion..." 

<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

A sheet of water as hard as concrete heaved into Achilles' shield, and with an earsplitting CRASH, they fell upon the ocean. A great plume of water, jewel-blue and lined by foam, reached into the air. It wrapped around Hyousuke and the children clinging to him for dear life, drowning out any screams of terror or cries of pain, replacing it with the roar of devouring waves and a shrieking ring in his ears. He clenched his jaw, teeth grinding so tight against each other that he could feel them cracking under the force. He tensed his muscles, until they were so taut it felt like they'd snap beneath his skin. He screamed his pain through clamped-shut teeth.

He had to hold on. He could not succumb.

The next few minutes were a blur of thrashing limbs and screaming children. Hyousuke was running on fumes, and the saltwater stung at his wounds, threatening to tear them open and overwhelm him with pain before he could even make it to the shore. But somehow, suffused with adrenaline and sheer willpower, he dragged himself and those kids to shore. They were sodden, they were crying, they were babbling something he couldn't even begin to understand through the pain still flooding his mind, but they were safe and alive. The job was done.

Hyousuke tried to raise himself off his back, but clenched his teeth to trap a cry of pain. The strain of battle had finally taken its toll. He could barely move, let alone stand, but he summoned the last dregs of his reserves to prop himself up against a nearby rock, and face the lapping tide. The kids had run off to join their classmates. The users that had been aboard the zeppelin had washed or floated ashore, and seemed to be checking up on each other, or checking on themselves. The work was done, for now at least.

He did not remark on how he'd washed up a little further from the rest. He did not remark on the blood still leaking from him, or the singed parts of his skin that would need to be cleaned. All Hyousuke wanted to do was rest. 

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.

    "If you hurt a single one a them kids," Phoenix issues, to Kurou, darkly, when he finally calls attention to himself, "I'll make you wish I was the killin' type." Somehow, they manage to hiss this to him without any of the children hearing.

    They won't thank him when the children get to shore, either; they'll just gather them up away from Kurou.

    "Oi, Auntie," they call to Ayame, instead, as they herd the children to her on the beach. "Can you look after these ones, too? I ain't, uh... th' stickin'-'round type."

    They're also terrified about having leapt out of a zeppelin, as it happens. ... at least the roof of their Persona made for a decent raft for the kids swimming back.

    They stop, on the way, to shove some healing Dr. Salt Neo into Hyousuke's hand, as he lays there exhausted. "... good job, man," they offer, to him, a touch haplessly.

    And then they're gone.

<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.

And upon the shore. A young man slowly limps down a staircase to the sand, guiding himself down with one hand on the rail. It's the same young gentleman that leapt after Sudou into the blaze at the museum.

His band major outfit is scorched in multiple places, his crimson Tengu mask cracked on one side. It's missing one of its epaulettes.

"As id-" He coughs as he approaches the people gathered on the beach, in particular, Katsuya, "...as ideas go. That was definitely not one of my better ones." He says, with a hint of light self-deprecation, "Unfortunately, while I was in hot pursuit..." A weak smile at the pun, "...a Voice that wasn't his spoke, and then he vanished."

And perhaps most importantly, he's bone dry. There's no hint he was ever touched by water. I mean, why would he have been?

His cognitive outfit fades again soon enough, showing Goro Akechi, still in the Seven Sisters Winter Uniform, wearing a pair of black gloves. It is of course, immaculate, because why wouldn't it be?

He wasn't wearing it when he leapt into the burning building.

"Unfortunately, I fear this means we haven't seen the last of the Old Maid."

Oooo, awkward.

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.

 
Hitomi falls into the air. Two of the children are yelling. The sea is rising beneath them. The sea. Wait, she thinks, if I land belly down is that -- is that the bad one? She tries to shift, but she's carrying almost her entire weight in child-mass, if not more. She just sort of brings her legs out from under her and then the ocean is rising up to hit them and then

SLAM

Black cold engulfs them. There is a dim light above, the dull red sun of the burning blimp. Nobody is screaming. They disappear below the surface of the wine-dark sea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaT1Y6UvWjw

Some time later...

With a sort of staggering stride out of the surf comes Hitomi Mandai, looking a lot like a drowning victim except for the fact that she is walking. She has one child who is mostly dragging and another around her neck, but her other hand is now clasped with the forearm of that mumbling boy, Ichiro.

"See," huffs Ichiro, feeling the cold but warding it off by raw exertion, "I - told you I was - wait," and then he lets go of Hitomi's arm, sliding outwards and stagger-jogging forward in the surf. It has the look of a weary child but there is not the last ditch desperation that washes over Hitomi's face as she staggers to one knee.

Ichiro, on the other hand, makes his way up, to waist level, to ankle level, to left entirely alone by the sea save at the highest peak. Further, staggering, another half dozen steps, at which point he falls. But he falls over with purpose. He was reaching out with one hand.

Ichiro lays there for a second... and then rolls onto his back, holding up the hand he'd slapped the beach with. He has a small fistful of sand. "I win!!!"

Hitomi stays still in the surf for almost an entire cycle of the surf. She may be more tired than Ichiro. She stares; she adjusts her glasses, which have for a miracle not fallen off, and she squints.

"It's DRY," Ichiro affirms.

"hh," Hitomi breathes, but it's a gateway into a long, slightly unhinged laugh, with a shake of her wet head as she gasps for air, not from fatigue or uttermost effort, but from that laughter. The child leaned against her is rolled over, and thereupon he simultaneously coughs in Hitomi's face and starts crying, so Hitomi goes another step before letting the girl on her back down, and then with the last inertia of that effort, falling on her side again and radiating out water into the slightly-less-clammy beach sand, with its meager memory of the sun's warmth.

Ichiro walks over. "Hey, help your friends," Hitomi says, which stalls for time as Ichiro walks over to look curious at Other Child 1 and 2, but both of them seem to be breathing just fine despite the crying. But it doesn't last long; Hitomi is faced with an eight year old holding a hand out in her face, with expectation.

"Okay," Hitomi pants. "okay." She reaches down to fumble for her wallet, bringing it out. It is sodden, of course, so Hitomi's fingers have to open it carefully. She shows the contents to the child. "Alright, like I said - I'm saving a thousand yen for the train back where I"

"Move your finger," Ichiro says. "I bet that's a ten thousand."

Hitomi moves her finger.

It's not. Hitomi's grinning again, though. The rest (3100 if you're curious) is peeled out and held out to Ichiro, who collects it. As she pushes herself further upbeach and tries to swing her cold but still-moving legs under her, she gasps out, "Pleasure... playing with you, Ichiro-kun... remember, I'm on a secret mission... take all the credit... hahahahahaaaaah," as she begins to stagger down the beach. She reaches into that same pocket and brings out her cellphone, shaking it out -

It lit up fine. She fiddles with it, unlocks it, and finally stands up straight as she comes to a halt, tilting the phone - opening the lock screen - checks the group text - then Hitomi looks back up, scanning the beach. Her expression brightens -- it's Akechi from TV!!! He made it out!!! -- and immediately takes several photos.

Ichiro-kun and his friends make it home. 

<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.

Kurou plunges himself into the water so there's more room on Gashadokuro's skull -- on the 'magic air', as the others have so helpfully provided explanation for -- as they make for the shore.

The Awakened, of course, see a part of skull, ocean waves pushing through empty eye sockets as the skeleton traverses the sea. Tsubasa does see. He simply looks back at Tsubasa a moment, wondering if his efforts do not reflect his intention.

But the children are safe and dry...

At shore, he emerges, clothes clinging wet and cold to him, and his hair tie having come loose enough to pull out. He could not afford it falling into the ocean. A fish might have eaten it and been harmed. Sometimes, when a situation is overwhelming, one must focus on specific, if unusual, priorities.

Once the children are safe to shore, Kurou counts every head.

And he counts Umie.

The others can take it from here... for the children, and for the one missing. Kurou, who should not have been here to begin with, steps over to her, and just like once before, smudges his finger to her forehead to get her attention.

"Akabane-san," he says quietly. "I'll take you home."

<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.

Hitomi mysteriously catches his good side without even having to ask him to turn for her. Look at that winning smile.
 
Obviously, these are candids, he's not playing to the camera at all, right?

<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.

Here, on the beach, Ayame has had a little physical exertion to chase away her emotions. Having to Survive goes a long way for that. But she's there with her daughter, walking from the water, as she looks to Shinobu. "We made it," Ayame tells her sister. "...Thank you..."

But Phoenix calls to her. "Oh!" Ayame says. "Oh, of course..."

Koume walks with her. She sniffles, but isn't actively crying anymore. "...We'll protect the others, Mom," she says, though her voice trembles still. "We have to make sure everyone's safe..."

Koume has a new purpose, to her. Ayame marvels to see it, even as her daughter is so clearly distressed.

"Yes," Ayame says, "Hello, children!" she says. "This way! Come on, let's get you together so we can get everyone home..." 

<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.

    "Tatsuya... That's all riiiii--?!"
    
    Jun cuts himself off with a yelp, eyes flying wide, when Tatsuya accepts his gift but shoves him out the open doors of the zeppelin next. His form diminishes rapidly as he falls and the blimp continues its inevitable descent, but Jun's eyes are locked on it all the same.
    
    Argeiphontes manifests at the last second to cushion his fall into the ocean. It's still a harsh enough landing that he sinks several feet; the force of the descent rips the yellow iris he traditionally wears from his breast pocket. Fortunately, Jun can swim, and when he surfaces, he bobs for a moment to recover.
    
    There's a lot to recover from. That resonating voice--sounding so like and unlike Tatsuya's--cackles final words about how the Joker won't die. Chills run up Jun's spine that have nothing to do with the temperature of the water.
    
    But then he sees Maya and Tatsuya jump, hand in hand, and he breathes a sigh of deep relief.
    
    It's a ways back to shore, even for a Persona User. All the same, Jun will make it back to Ebisu Beach, then help the others bogged down with children through to surf to deliver them to safety. Shinobu calls out to see if everyone's present and accounted for, and Jun counts heads as he did back on the zeppelin. Everyone was accounted for off the zeppelin, and everyone's accounted for on the beach...
    
    ...except for one person.
    
    There's plenty of cause to worry about Umie, hugging her knees to her chest and repeating to herself that it's 'just a delusion.' Jun gives her a long, worried look as he pushes his dripping bangs out of his face. However, another Kasugayama student approaches her--and there, Hyousuke, washed up further up the shore, is attended to by Phoenix before they beat a hasty retreat. And of course, Ayame is seeing to the children, including her own. Jun sighs in relief, then approaches Maya.
    
    "Amano-san, is Tatsuya--?" But then he hesitates. Knowing Tatsuya, he's just fine. More importantly... "...No, are you all right?"
    
    As he asks, though, a certain princely figure descends to the beach, and Jun's gaze rises to him. "...Akechi-kun! Thank goodness, you're alive!" he utters, breaking into a smile. He sobers to hear his news, but, well... that last bit in particular draws a hiss from between Jun's teeth.
    
    "We ought to tell you the rest of what happened..." 

<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.

    Oh. They're above the ocean. That both simplifies and complicates matters.

    ONE VERY COLD SWIM TO SHORE AND DROPPING THE KID OFF WITH SOMEONE ELSE LATER

    October is her least favorite month. It has been for about five years now.

    A very drenched and miserable Tamaki glances around, then answers Shinobu, "... All but two. Suou-kun and -- "

    Akechi shows up before Tamaki can finish. "... Well. Just Suou-kun."

    Granted, the voice they heard was Suou's. 'The Joker ... won't die!' She narrows her eyes. "He's probably fine. Physically, that is."

    She manages to shuffle her feet along the beach to where Masao is and slumps down, exhausted. Lazily, she points at him. "You'n'me gotta have a talk after this. The rest of the class, too."

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    'You'n'me gotta have a talk after this. The rest of the class, too.'
 
     Masao is currently face down in the sand, sopping wet, and exhausted like he was the one who had his ass kicked today. (Considering he had to carry three kids on the way down, and across the water, this is not explicitly untrue.)
 
     He throws a hand up in a wave, lazily, and then lets it go limp as he faces up out of the sand.
 
     "What the heck is even goin' on, anymore," he murmurs. 

<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.

Suzume really did yell all the way down. She has some amazing lung capacity.

Suzume is also... well, she's athletic. But for all that she's not actually very much of a swimmer - she doesn't like to do it for multiple reasons - and, especially burdened with one very sore shoulder and wrist, and two children who are not helping her very much because both of THEM are freaked out by Suzume not actually having a parachute and the wind catching them down, is spending a whole lot of effort to go nowhere in particular.

At least neither of them got a good view of her shooting herself with the Evoker. (Suzume made sure of that.)

And so, eventually, Suzume flops - literally flops - onto shore, face-first. She's drenched, her hair is plastered to her face because of her face-first impact with the beach, and she has sand stuck to her in every location she could have sand stuck to her.

"This sucks," she informs the beach, as the twins run off because they would MUCH RATHER be with someone else thank you. "This is the worst trip ever. I am never going back to that museum." (She can't. It burned down.)

After about twenty seconds she rolls onto her back. This makes the hair and the sand situation worse. "AND I'm going to suck at exams tomorrow." She elects to stay down for a while.

---

There's one other missing.

Not... missing missing. Ixquic arrived. As it turns out Quixote cannot drive on water, to nobody's surprise (including hers), so there was some swimming involved - but Ixquic is a surprisingly good swimmer, even burdened with all that gold on her costume AND her gigantic sword.

Seriously, how did she swim with all that stuff?

But as soon as she was there, she dropped the child off with someone else. Some spark of mischief made her go right up to Ayame, mask in place for the moment. "Mrs. Adult," she says, "I think I found someone you can take care of, instead."

Congratulations, Ayame! You have a new elementary school student (until you figure out where he goes home to, anyway)!

After that, Ixquic bailed. She doesn't want anyone to see her without her Mask of Rebellion, and she doesn't know how long it will last...

...and more than that, she needs some time to herself before she's ready to do anything else. Even go home. 

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    Katsuya, eventually, makes his way ashore. Fortunately, he's always been a good swimmer. Unfortunately, as he drips saltwater onto the shore, he can give up his suit as destroyed. Between that fight on the zeppelin and this, well... there's no amount of dry-cleaning that can save it. But it's the least of his worries.

    "Tatsuya--?!"

    His brother, however much he searches the shore and among the survivors from the zeppelin, isn't here. Neither, it seems at present glance, is Akechi, which is another concern. He'd hoped the young man had made it aboard the zeppelin somehow, perhaps in chasing after Sudou, but--

    He turns, at the sound of a certain young man's voice. Speak of the devil, as it were.

    "--Akechi-kun. That's a relief... That was dangerous," he scolds, shaking his head. "Running back into a burning building was careless of you!" He should know, he was part of a campaign with the fire department back when he was starting off as an officer. Running into a burning building without proper equipment or training is an excellent way to get overcome. ...It's true that Akechi is a Persona-user, yes, but...

    But everyone else, other than his brother, seems to be accounted for as he checks around the beach. That, at least, is a minor relief; all of the children are safe.

    But there's one thing in particular that's troubling him (that is, among many others). "Was that my brother's voice? It didn't sound right," he remarks at last when he's accounted for everyone but Tatsuya to his satisfaction. He folds his arms over his chest. "'The fear has been spread'..." Joker won't die.

    Tatsuya, after all, isn't here to talk about it.

    "...I'll have to call my department," he says finally. "They need to know what's happened, and that the suspect is dead. ..."

    It's here that Katsuya pulls out his phone and makes his final expensive discovery for the day. This is no longer a functioning flipphone.

    "Ah," says Katsuya, because what else can he say? 

<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.

Ririka can't fail to hear the last words of the Joker Killer--or his Persona? Ririka isn't entirely sure what the difference is in the moment and if she's being perfectly honest she doesn't care.

She focuses on swimming, instead. She can't hum because she needs to breathe. She can't tap her fingers because she needs to swim.

All she has to focus on is the trail of music she laid down in the few precious moments she had left before jumping.

Everything sucks. She hurts from the battle and the impact, and she's barely holding herself together.

She does manage to get her two kids to shore, pulling herself onto the beach afterwards. She takes a few moments to just sit there in the sand, with the tade washing up around her knees as she hums something aimless to herself, tapping at her thigh, eyes closed.

She'll pull herself enough to see her rescuees are cared for, check in with SEES, but then she'll stalk off somewhere to be by herself for a moment.

Somehow, whether using her own phone, borrowing one, or using a payphone, she makes a call, fingers anxiously tapping as she waits for the ring. She's tense, tight.

"... Mom?" She lets out a short, involuntary sound that is somewhere between a sigh and a manic laugh. "No, no, everything's fine, just... it's been a busy day, and I just... wanted to call and say hi. How are you and the baby doing?"

"Uh huh. I will. Love you too, Mom."

She hangs up, and then just curls up into a ball, hugging her knees and crying out her anger, frustration, and relief. 

<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.

Shinobu hears back. Everyone's accounted for... except for one. 'Suou-kun'... Tatsuya. Shinobu closes her eyes and exhales. That one doesn't surprise her. Every time she's seen him, he's been doing his own thing. She gets the feeling that she doesn't need to worry about him, like Tamaki says. Akechi is here and alive, too.The ones in the masks aren't here anymore - but they were at least seen leaving, and left their passengers with them.

Shinobu manages a grin for Ayame as she thanks her.

"Don't mention it, Nee-san." She replies. With that she exhales and forces herself back up to her feet. They still have a lot of kids to see safely back home to their parents.

Shinobu approaches Ayame and Koume and, briefly, kneels down to Koume's level.

"You did real good today, Koume-chan. I'm proud of you." Shinobu praises, before standing back up and addressing the rest of the children. "You heard her! Come on, everyone."

The least she can do is make sure her sister doesn't have to wrangle all the children herself.

She looks back to everyone else, then. She massages the back of her neck awkwardly for a moment.

"Uh... Thanks for today, everyone. Glad we all made it." She offers. 

<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.

"Haha... I'd call it more reckless, personally." He grins a little at Katsuya in that self-deprecating manner, not knowing what he had in mind is that Akechi just have worn proper protective gear.
 
It's not like in his Cognitive Outfit he has the following:
 
Chilled Yokan x93: Casts Fire Wall on a single party member on use.
 
How does it not go bad!? How can he carry so much!? Don't worry about it! That's the Metaverse baby!
 
"I will unfortunately have to restock some of the reserves I used to get out of that mess..."
 
Is he just the kind of hoarder who can't stand not having the maximum amount of an item!?
 
Kinda, maybe.
 
Then he learns, and he looks startled. "Dead? Who? How?"
 
More news is given, and his expression seems to go through a myriad of surprise, disappointment, then anger.
 
"I see, that is... troubling." He looks back towards Katsuya as he says that he has to report it to his department, then gives him a grave look, "Ironically... I suspect this will be the first time they take any news of the Old Maid's existence seriously."
 
And doesn't that say a lot about that department, if he's right?

<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.

    To Masao's weary question about what's even going on anymore, Tamaki mumbles back, "Dunno. We'll figure it out, though."

    'Nee-san.' Tamaki pulls her head up from the sand as Shinobu addresses Ayame and comes to a much belated realization:

    " -- you two are sisters?"

<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.

    Give Umie a few minutes, Jun, and she'll be fine.

    Case in point: Kurou, in an echo of the moment they first genuinely connected, smudges a finger to Umie's forehead.

    "Mgh." It's like the seawater's finally leaked out of her skull, allowing the water-logged brain cells to finally work. "... didn't even realize you were there. You okay? You're soaked."

    Warm brown eyes dart around the beach. "Have the Mask-sans all left? Not sure how long this field'll last." She looks around, noting Tamaki and the face-down Masao. "H-hey, he's still alive, right?!"

    Maybe this is all just an afterlife...

    Case in point: Akechi is here. "...!!" Carefully maneuvering her head around Kurou's as she bolts upright in a single, graceless motion fueled by pure rage (and concern, let's not forget that part), Umie mutters a quick 'give me a second' to Kurou before she strolls right up to Akechi, as Jun talks to him.

    'We ought to tell you the rest of what happened...'

    Could Umie have figured it out?

    "What gave you the idea that you could get away with doing that?! You scared the hell out of all of us!! All I could think was you just lying on the ground floor of a burning collapsing building with a broken leg!!"

     ahahahahah no, deal with it Akechi

     She breaks from her concern/raging to look towards Katsuya. ".... Oh yeah... our phones are probably shot, huh..." 

<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.

Akechi lifts both hands palms up, still smiling with a sweatdrop beading off the side of his head. "I-I do appreciate that you care so much for my welfare, Akabane-san, but I have been doing this for some time..."
 
...
 
"... and I do have a rather good assessment of my limits. It's merely that this time I perhaps went a little... overboard in my zeal to pursue justice in this instance."
 
He is DEFINITELY not used to someone chewing him out because he put himself in danger.

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.

    There are... items that do that? He looks gobsmacked himself. But: "Semantics aside, I would like you to be more careful next time, Akechi-kun. As an officer, you will need to be considerate of the feelings of others. If you rush right into danger like that..."

    Look out, now it's Umie and Katsuya. ... ...Has a new Contact been unlocked, or something? 

<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.

    Jun merely folds his arms and smiles in subdued amusement as Umie and Katsuya lecture Akechi for his recklessness and making these poor adults worry.
    
    It's good to have something to find funny right now. 

<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.

Akechi inhales deeply, then lets out a big sigh, as he slumps, defeated. Deciding it is best today to just take his lumps from Katsuya and Umie's double team.
 
He only back talks a little sometimes during their lectures. It takes basically 90% of his restraint, to do so.

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