2026-09-19: Taken
- Log: Taken
- Cast: Miho Ijuuin, Remi Ryuuja, Tsubasa Seki, Jun Kashihara, Hyousuke Suzuki, Yukari Takeba, Shinobu Shimizu, Umie Akabane, Tamaki Uchida
- Where: Yumezaki - Main
- OOC Date: September 19, 2026
- IC Date: Saturday, January 12, 2013
- Summary: The NWO is at it again, seeking to secure another Joker, this time a Company President. The Persona Users, of course, respond to stop them--but sadly this time the NWO prevails.
(|============================= Yumezaki - Main ==============================|)
-=============================================== Sumaru City/Yumezaki Ward ====-
With a name that means "Dream Peninsula," it's no wonder that the glitziest part
of the city is Yumezaki. All kinds of fun and exciting business can be found
here, up to and including a game center (or is it a casino?) called Mu
Continent, where rumor has it one can potentially win big at slots, bingo,
poker, or blackjack. Pachinko Silver is right next door if one wants one's
gambling activities to be a little more subtle.
Across from Mu Continent, there's Club Zodiac, a techno dance club where the
boots are always bumping--but rumor has it the back is a maze that will lead you
to some very dangerous places... To be specific, supposedly it was bought out by
the Taiwanese mafia and is now their hideout. It's best not to pay too much mind
to those kinds of tales, though--or else.
The ward also includes a robust multi-story music store and an impressive gym.
Oddly, the music store, NOT the gym, is called Giga Macho. The gym, which is
bright, clean, and amply furnished with all kinds of equipment, is called GOLD.
Nearby, the shopping street, Yumezaki Center, invites spendthrifts and window
shoppers alike to browse its indoor and outdoor stores.
BGM: Map I - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0B_2vwPcxc
AS: Remi Ryuuja has readied for combat as La Maupin! She is now fully healed!
AS: Tsubasa Seki has readied for combat as Izbushka na Kur'ih Nozhkah! They are now fully healed!
AS: Umie Akabane has readied for combat as Badb! She is now fully healed!
AS: Yukari Takeba has readied for combat as Io! She is now fully healed!
AS: Shinobu Shimizu has readied for combat as Lachesis! She is now fully healed!
AS: Hyousuke Suzuki has readied for combat as Achilles! He is now fully healed!
AS: Jun Kashihara has readied for combat as Argeiphontes! He is now fully healed!
AS: Tsubasa Seki has readied for combat as Izbushka na Kur'ih Nozhkah! They are now fully healed!
AS: Tamaki Uchida has readied for combat as Arianrhod! She is now fully healed!
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
The President's Office is a place few go without reason. ...Fewer today; there's something off about that office right now. It might be the dim lighting despite the fact that the President of the company is in; it might be... the way he's laughing, as he reads through reports.
Abrubtly, the secretary, sitting at her desk, receives a message. Beep.
"Yes, sir?"
"Have the office meet in Room 3-B. heehee. I have an announcement to make."
"...A-all right, sir."
Soon, a meeting room full of senior and junior executives sees a strange man come in--the President, pale as a sheet.
"I know--hee-hee--there's been some questions as to how I got my position... I know you're wondering. I know you know what I did. The last President... hee-hee."
"Um, sir...?" ventures one, seeing the President so pale. The President looks up--but he doesn't have any eyes.
"But it doesn't matter!! Heeheeheehee... YOUR LIVES BELONG TO ME!"
The screams start.
-=-=-
A woman in gray armor and a mask stalks through the doors. The security man rises from his seat. "Y-you!?"
"I'm a specialist," she says. "I can solve your little problem." Pause. "...Run. Run far."
"A-aaaaaah!" The security guard does just that.
-=-=-
The sense of wrongness that is the Joker may be enough to draw the attention of those who would save one; if not, the suddenly crash of a window high above and the screaming fall of an executive might do it, though trying to save the man before untimely gravity catches up with him is going to be a near thing, and may delay entry.
From above, the laughter comes: the laughter of the Joker.
On the bright side, the elevators are working.
-=-=-
Here, the top floor: desks are overturned, a water cooler's contents spilling out like lifeblood into the carpet. People are scattered across the floor: some are living, hiding behind pieces of desk and scattered debris; some are in pieces, bodies left in horror. Only three are standing: a Joker in a a fine black suit and tie, and he wobbles on his feet. "Heeeheeeheee.... You can't run from FATE!"
BGM: Angelic Creation, Namely, Light - Utena OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DuigWJ5y9E
"Nor do I plan to." One of the others remaining is the Groom, Miyu, and her sword is pointed directly at the Joker. The other is Tsurugi. Both NWO operatives have their weapons trained on the enemy...
But it is Miyu who lunges forward next, Faust her Persona rising from her as she does, and pierces through the Joker's shoulder with her blade.
"Raaaaaaghh!"
"Tsurugi!" Miyu calls. "The syringe!"
It's over. The Joker falls after Miyu drags her blade out of his shoulder, and falls down onto his side, ranting vaguely until he goes silent.
...Unless someone has something to say about it, that's all there is.
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
The last person standing in the wreckage of the office is a woman in an all black fencing suit, with a matching black fencing mask, rapier in hand and an Evoker on her thigh.
Tsurugi.
"Acknowledged!" Miyu lunges and calls-- Tsurugi darts past Miyu, pulling the syringe from a hip pouch and jabbing it into the Joker's neck. She slowly presses plunger down until the syringe empties, then stows the spent syringe.
"He's secured."
Tsurugi sheaths her own blade. "... let us be away with him quickly."
She's just finished fighting a Joker. Perhaps this is an ideal time to take her on.
AS: Miho Ijuuin has readied for combat as Faust! She is now fully healed! Ready for 4 opponents! AS: Remi Ryuuja has readied for combat as La Maupin! She is now fully healed! Ready for 3 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"HOLD UP!"
OST Interrupt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-xJV9aHzIw Tom Morello - Everything Burns
That's the voice that joins one of the remaining windows SHATTERING, as -- from the outside of the building! -- a mysterious Phantom Thief finishes scaling the facade to force their way in from outside. Blazing orange feather cloak fluttering behind them, its hood, with feathers flecking back to mark eye ridges, leads down to a dark grey witch's-hat mask obscuring Phoenix's face.
Beneath that loud display of feathers are muted grey ninja's robes, sarashi wraps around their wrists, ankles, and waist. They wear ninja tabi, and their gloves are the one other splash of colour to them, showing more of that distinctive orange. It is a colour without rhyme, stubborn to rhythm, and so, too, does Phoenix show more of the brutality of theft -- the sudden, shocking smash and grab.
They charge Miyu like the bull in the china shop, a greatsword large as they are screaming sparks against the ground as they lunge forward, foot planting before her, to haul their momentum forward in a hefty diagonal slash to force her back.
"WHERE'D YA TAKE HER, CREEP?!"
Of course they're worried about the man Tsurugi is detaining, too -- but they see Miyu, and that means they're seeing red.
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
Jun is indeed detained for a time. Seeing a man break a window and fall very, very far, and knowing it's due to a Joker Killer, he feels morally obligated to save his life. Lives should be saved regardless, of course, but Jun feels personally responsible for it.
Niko accused him of refusing to see reality or take responsibility for his part in things. Jun quite disagrees, and this is his way of proving it.
He'll summon Argeiphontes to create a vortex of wind to catch the falling man, slowing his descent enough that Shinobu, likewise arriving on site, can catch him and make sure he has a soft landing. (The wind magic could slow him enough that he'd survive, but if he's already injured or in shock, falling on concrete--even survivably--surely wouldn't help.)
Jun will take a moment to check in on the fallen man and the one who caught him. Once they confirm he's alive and stable and probably passed out from shock, Jun gives Shinobu a firm nod. "Thank you. Now let's hurry."
Good thing indeed that the elevators are working. The two will catch up with the others in short order that way. It already looks like someone else has crashed in through the window, and Jun can imagine it'll get even more chaotic soon.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke perked up like a hunting hound the second that he felt it. There was something in the air that turned his stomach, sending bile creeping to the surface while his gut twisted itself into knots. He felt as though there was an itch beneath his flesh, set deep into his very bones, striking down to his very core. he looked to his wardrobe, but then away again. Again, there was no time for the armour. Taking his weapons out of hiding took enough time, and even with the aid of Mementos, closing in on the Mark's location took far too long for his liking.
He barely noticed if anything was in his way. He moved on instinct, bludgeoning aside whoever or whatever was in his way, and darting around anything that he couldn't. His boots hit the floor in a thunderous cacophony, his breath came out as ragged snarls, and his eyes burnt with an intensity that could have set the world ablaze. He would not stop, and he would not fail. Not this time. No matter what happened, he was committed to making certain that whoever the enemy sent, they would lay broken at his feet, forced to relish the failure they'd earnt.
Growling, snarling, and *raging,* Hyousuke kicked the door wide open with cry of effort, then stormed into the room with his short-barrelled scattergun clutched in one white-knuckled hand.
"Phoenix! You deal with that one, I'll hold this asshole off!" He called out to them, not looking to them, but very clearly addressing them. "And you!" He called out to Tsurugi, "I'm gonna make sure you pay for everything you've done. Only way you're leaving this place is if I drag you outta here! ACHILLES! SHIELDS UP!" The deafening screeching and groaning of a bronze colossus heaving itself into existence tore through the air, and that red-eyed monster took his place behind Hyousuke.
AS: Weapon! Tsubasa Seki has used the Slash skill Greatsword Charge on Miho Ijuuin! | Aggression: Tsubasa Seki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 97 Slash damage from Tsubasa Seki's Greatsword Charge. Critical Hit! Resist! | Panic (Damage when using Persona/Tandem!) added!
AS: Persona! Hyousuke Suzuki has used the Recovery skill Invincible General on Shinobu Shimizu, Tamaki Uchida, and Hyousuke Suzuki! | Defense: Hyousuke Suzuki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Take! Tamaki Uchida takes 0 Recovery healing from Hyousuke Suzuki's Invincible General. | Def_Up (Block Improved!) and Spd_Up (Avoid Improved!) added!
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
It's a Saturday, her Horoscope was great. Pleasant weather. She's coming back from an afternoon doing some Archery Practice- followed by Window Shopping at Paulownia Mall to get started on her homework- well in advance of when it'd be due.
"Maybe tonight will be the-" As she thinks on her Horoscope again, with a smile and a sudden wistfulness that takes her off guard until a feeling alerts her to the fact she's been staring off into space, not walking, for a while now, "-whoa hey. Earth to me. Why am I day-dreaming on the platform of the train station? I hope no one saw that..."
But, sadly, it's more than just daydreaming. Because the sensation in the air crackles like static.
A sensation like a distant siren, growing closer in that doppler effect.
"Not... now. Oh come on- nobody is even with me right now."
Again she has a choice. But given how Yukari Takeba fundamentally operates... perhaps it's less of a choice than she'd like.
She says the words into a bathroom mirror with only a hint of resentment.
-=-=-
Unfortunately, in order to reach the top floor of this pandemonium, Yukari Takeba has to take what she now thinks of as the 'Cherry' Approach.
Aka - She has to dash up the stairwell, up several stories, taking a few moments to double over and catch her breath, before bursting out of the fire escape door.
That's the same moment that Phoenix bursts through the window, and she lets out a shriek of alarm, "Ah-AHHH!" Shielding herself with an arm and half-crouching with eyes closed before she dares to peek and- "What the- that's so dangerous! You could have really hurt someone!"
Straightening herself up, she wipes some bits of glass off her cardigan, before brandishing her Evoker as she looks upon the Groom and Tsurugi and more importantly- their Joker. "Another one?" It sounds like a groan as she addresses the pair, "Can't you all take a weekend off from doing something horrible? You'd think you'd at least take some time off for that poor woman's maternity leave!"
Do evil secret organizations even HAVE maternity leave? That thought crosses Yukari's mind as she puts a gun to it, and pulls the trigger.
Io appears, lifting her arms as energy surrounds the Groom, trying to sap the speed right out of her.
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Almighty skill Sukunda on Miho Ijuuin! AS: Take! Shinobu Shimizu takes 0 Recovery healing from Hyousuke Suzuki's Invincible General. | Def_Up (Block Improved!) and Spd_Up (Avoid Improved!) added!
AS: Take! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 0 Recovery healing from Hyousuke Suzuki's Invincible General. | Def_Up (Block Improved!) and Spd_Up (Avoid Improved!) added!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Almighty damage from Yukari Takeba's Sukunda. | Spd_Dn (Avoid Penalized!) added!
<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.
From a certain office building in Yumezaki Ward, there's a sudden, ominous sensation. It's a familiar sense of wrongness that Shinobu can feel deep in her core.
The Joker Curse has taken another victim... and that means they're bound to be on their way, too.
If they're not already there.
That thought speeds Shinobu on her way - and the sign of how poorly things are going is evident in the way a man crashes through one of the upper windows.
"Shit!" Shinobu curses. She draws her staff, picking up speed. But, she isn't sure she'll make it in time...!
And then, a vortex of wind whirls to life underneath the man. His fall slows - and Shinobu immediately takes advantage of it. She plants her staff into the ground, using her momentum to leap and fling herself toward him, catching him out of the air. She lands, and sets him down gently.
...Fortunately, he's alive, at least. Shinobu exhales, looking back toward the unexpected help.
"Kashihara... Thanks." Shinobu offers with a nod. "Let's get up there. Sounds like they might need some help."
Shinobu to the elevator. ...But, the destination is the very top floor - so by the time she gets there, the Joker Cursed-president has already been sedated... and a battle has already begun to break out.
There's Miyu, and Tsurugi... It's the latter she puts her eyes on. Fighting again so soon after they fight alongside each other...
This is what she hates the most about her. It'd be a lot easier if she could just uncomplicatedly put a fist in her masked face, but she has to make that difficult by helping.
"Tsurugi!" Shinobu challenges. "The hell're you doing? Tryin' to drag another person off to who knows where?"
She doesn't launch into an attack right away - but Achilles' support means that she won't be defenseless. She sends Hyousuke a grateful nod.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Whereever the Joker manifests, the world aligns, as if it were a tide pulled by the moon. The same likely would have happened if Umie had used the Mark's powers, she reasons, if the cognitive spaces weren't already aligned.
Here, with stairs to climb, Umie's just thankful she's within range for her Persona's boons to be accessible here. Sure, she could use the elevator, but that sounds like a death trap.
....... on second thought....
She presses the elevator button, then looks over her shoulder as someone approaches.
-=-=-
*ding*
How odd. The elevator is empty, when the doors open. Just.... Tamaki Uchida!
There's no sign of a young woman in a white oversized jacket, leggings, red and black checkboard half-mask, and red sneakers. There is nothing important here at all, just a concept of a blackbird, something temporary that is easy to overlook.
(There's a second one elevator. It'll be fine, right?)
The next time there's an Umie Akabane (or a Mitsuhide, as Tamaki would call her), she's taking advantage of Phoenix's attack in a pincer manuveur, with that bifurcated blade drawn from a sleeve.
One sneaker used a tipped over chair to launch herself up, the second on a desk.
Now sailing, the 155 cm young woman attempts to land on Miho's back, attempting to lash two slashes against Miho's back.
All this preperation, and Umie *still* forgot this wouldn't work on the Groom.
AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Slash skill Red Feast on Miho Ijuuin! 2 Hits! AS: Block Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 36 Slash damage from Umie Akabane's Red Feast. Critical Hit! Resist! AS: Block Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 55 Slash damage from Umie Akabane's Red Feast. Resist!
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
Tamaki was simply trying to enjoy a nice day of window-shopping nearby until she feels the telltale 'wrongness' of someone having turned into a Joker. On most other days, she mixes business and pleasure, treating jobs to ascertain rumors or tail targets of her clients as outings for herself, something to give her a plausible excuse to be in the area, but today? Today was supposed to be just for her, dammit! She gives one of the shopkeepers a wan smile, politely says, "Ahaha, excuse me," then rushes off in a hurry.
It doesn't take her long to find out she's in the right place when she catches sight of Jun and Argeiphontes saving a falling man. Tamaki tries to flag him and Shinobu down as she attempts to catch up to them, yelling, "Hey! Hey you! Hold the elevator for a second!" ... which she immediately backtracks given the urgency of the situation and waves them on ahead. " -- wait wait wait nevermind, just go up, I'll get the next one!"
And so she agitatedly waits in front of the elevators, feeling like an idiot for the extra few seconds it takes for the second one to arrive. "C'monnnnn, c'mon c'mon c'mon." She already ran all this way to the building, she's not going to spend more of her stamina going up the stairs. At least she (seemingly!) has this one entirely to herself.
Tamaki doesn't announce her presence or do any boasting as she emerges. While she has bones to pick with both Miyu and Tsurugi, Tsurugi got the better of her most recently. Right out of the gate, when Tamaki invokes her "Persona," Arianrhod channels all of Tamaki's vindictive pettiness into another chant, set of conflicting geases and wards which Tsurugi may find familiar, given their previous encounter.
Having now revealed herself, Tamaki adjusts her jacket and clears her throat before speaking up with a calm "Hello." ... which is immediately undercut as she double-takes at Umie on Miyu's back, completely unaware of their shared ride up the elevator. "( -- Mitsuhide?!)"
AS: Persona! Tamaki Uchida has used the Almighty skill Threefold Tynghedau on Remi Ryuuja! | Tamaki Uchida takes 45 damage from Stress! | Ruin: Tamaki Uchida gains 1 Limit!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 0 Almighty damage from Tamaki Uchida's Threefold Tynghedau. | Charm (Attacker or Ally takes Damage!), Pain (Attacker takes damage on healing and PL 0 attacks!), and Poison (Damage on end of turn!) added!
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
It will definitely get more chaotic, Jun.
The window SHATTERS, and Miyu turns towards the sound. She darts to the side to avoid that huge blade, in a lunge that takes a great deal of energy--her focus is briefly shot as her mind rebels against this monstrous sword--no, the reminder of that woman...
Miyu does not show it. "To a laboratory," Miho says. "I do not know where she was taken from there." Her voice is calm as she has the presence of mind to hack at Phoenix's side as they pass by her, an exhausting malaise infusing her blade.
"The Jokers will be important subjects of study." Umie comes, too, the cncept of a crow attempting ninja action of her own. As it happens, Umie will find one thing out first: Miyu is strong enough that landing on her back does not bowl her over. The two slashes hack against her armor, and the first strikes blood--the second hacks through fabric. ...Neither do quite as much damage as they ought before Miyu forcibly stands up straight, pushing Umie back.
Jun isn't here yet; Jun doesn't get an assault. Instead, Miyu brings a hand to her chest and calms herself with the force of her own resolve.
Then--
She is slowed by Io's power. and Yukari asks about--
"No," Miyu says simply. "For her leave, I work more. That's how it works."
Then she points at Yukari. "Faust," she directs, and Faust lifts a gloved hand, emerging from the red mist--to inflict a concentration-busting joy on Umie, as if happiness itself were suddenly here to stay. Then, Fasut points at Yukari, and seeks to silence her magic.
Finally, Faust turns on Miyu--and heals her.
"The more I can shield the Bride, the more I will."
"...I could tell you about this man.. But it doesn't matter, does it? The wages of his sins do not merit death, whatever they are. Isn't that your philosophy?"
AS: Weapon! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Blade of Joka on Tsubasa Seki! 2 Hits! | Defense: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit!
AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Salve! Panic removed from Miho Ijuuin! AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Mafui on Yukari Takeba! AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Hapirma on Umie Akabane! AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Recovery skill Dia on Miho Ijuuin! AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 134 Recovery healing from Miho Ijuuin's Dia. AS: Take! Yukari Takeba takes 0 Almighty damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafui. | Panic (Damage when using Persona/Tandem!) added! AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 0 Almighty damage from Miho Ijuuin's Hapirma. | Exhaust (Damage when using Weapon/Tandem!) and Panic (Damage when using Persona/Tandem!) added!
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
Tsurugi is expecting resistance, certainly. That's just kind of how these things go, after all. Still, her head whips around as Phoenix comes bursting in through the window. "Miyu!" In an instant, her Evoker is in her hand. "La Maupin!"
Her Persona rises again in glass and flame, chipped rapier in hand. A moment later, Tsurugi has her sword in hand.
'I'm gonna make sure you pay for everything you've done!' "There it is," Tsurugi mutters to herself as she whirls around to face Hyousuke. Louder, "The baying of a rabid dog. You may try, but we will leave with our prize."
Yukari invokes the Bride and her maternity leave. "... hah. Be assured, we have every concern for her in mind." Yet she says that with mostly the same stoicism as always.
It's not a picnic for Tsurugi either, Shinobu. But of course, Tsurugi can't exactly explain herself...
Are they dragging another prson off? "Yes. A wretched man who invoked a rumor to attain a promotion. Would you defend him?"
Tsurugi is, of course, keeping an eye on the elevators now, given the number of Persona Users that have shown up. But she still can't keep predict the attack from Tamaki's Persona, staggering as, in her exhausted state, she can't shake off that three-fold curse as easily. She steems to grow unsteady on her feet for a moment, hand to her head.
Then she scowls and shakles it off, drawing her main gacuhe from her back. "No matter. You will not deter me!"
"La Maupin! Bring swift winds!" Winds whirl up around Tsurugi's feet to help her move faster. "Now, attack!"
La Maupin rushes forward, lunging themself at Shinobu and Hyousuke in a whirling flurry of blade strikes, and when Tsurugi gestures, La Maupin looses a burst of wind to attack Tamaki by the elevator.
AS: Persona! Remi Ryuuja has used the Recovery skill Masukukaja on Remi Ryuuja! | Remi Ryuuja takes 90 damage from Pain!
AS: Charm results in party damage! Remi Ryuuja takes 90 damage! AS: Take! Remi Ryuuja takes 0 Recovery healing from Remi Ryuuja's Masukukaja. | Spd_Up (Avoid Improved!) added!
AS: Persona! Remi Ryuuja has used the Slash skill Gale Slash on Shinobu Shimizu and Hyousuke Suzuki! | Aggression: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Remi Ryuuja has used the Wind skill Garula on Tamaki Uchida! AS: Avoid Neutral! Tamaki Uchida takes 95 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Garula. Critical Hit! AS: Remi Ryuuja spends Limit on Salve! Pain removed from Remi Ryuuja! AS: Remi Ryuuja spends Limit on Salve! Charm removed from Remi Ryuuja! AS: Block Neutral! Shinobu Shimizu takes 37 Slash damage from Remi Ryuuja's Gale Slash. AS: Block Worst! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 58 Slash damage from Remi Ryuuja's Gale Slash.
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
"Indeed," Jun says to Shinobu, and the two hurry up as fast as an elevator will let them go. As the doors are closing, he hears Tamaki's voice and turns around with widened eyes; however, both of them realize it's too late, and she waves them on. The last Tamaki will see of Jun is a firm nod.
Shinobu's ahead of him out of said elevator; as someone who deals primarily in healing and magic, it's only sensible to let someone else take point. Jun thus takes a moment to take in the scene: Tsurugi and Miyu, and an insensate Joker Cursed, already drugged and primed for kidnapping. Jun's eyes narrow as his fists clench.
Miyu speaks of taking on Yumi's burdens for herself, the Groom working harder so the Bride need not. Jun half-turns towards Yukari and sees Phoenix taking on Miyu while Hyousuke and Tamaki fight Tsurugi. He gives Shinobu a brief nod, then hurries over to join the Groom side of the battle, where Umie is ninja-striking.
"Phoenix, please allow me to assist you," Jun announces, raising the wild rose in his hand. It's the least he can do after they came to help rescue him from Sudou. He turns a cold gaze on the Groom. So Tsubasa's mother has been sent to a laboratory to get experimented on. "Is that your way of telling us to give up on these victims of the Joker Curse?"
Is that Joker Cursed a good person? Maybe not, from what Tsurugi says. However: "Dragging people off to be experimented on is wrong, regardless of how wretched they may be! Argeiphontes!"
Usually Jun opens with a defensive move to increase others' ability to dodge. However, given who's in this group, it seems rather more sensible to enhance their combat capability instead. Argeiphontes arises in a coruscating column of light, and dances brilliantly to charge up the critical strength of Umie, Phoenix, Yukari, and Jun himself.
AS: Persona! Jun Kashihara has used the Recovery skill Bright Revel on Jun Kashihara, Tsubasa Seki, Umie Akabane, and Yukari Takeba! | Support: Jun Kashihara gains 1 Limit!
AS: Take! Jun Kashihara takes 0 Recovery healing from Jun Kashihara's Bright Revel. | Atk_Up (Damage Up!) and Crt_Up (Critical Up!) added!
AS: Take! Yukari Takeba takes 0 Recovery healing from Jun Kashihara's Bright Revel. | Atk_Up (Damage Up!) and Crt_Up (Critical Up!) added!
AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 0 Recovery healing from Jun Kashihara's Bright Revel. | Atk_Up (Damage Up!) and Crt_Up (Critical Up!) added!
AS: Counter Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 79 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Blade of Joka. | Exhaust (Damage when using Weapon/Tandem!) added! | COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 51 Slash damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Counter Worst! Tsubasa Seki takes 156 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Blade of Joka. Critical Hit! | COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 57 Slash damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Take! Tsubasa Seki takes 0 Recovery healing from Jun Kashihara's Bright Revel. | Atk_Up (Damage Up!) and Crt_Up (Critical Up!) added!
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Cope!" Phoenix snaps, when Yukari chastises them for their dramatic entrance. "It's about sendin' a message!"
Meanwhile, Hyousuke assures them he'll handle Tsurugi, and they bark: "Tight!"
And -- "Yo, Uchida-san!" Phoenix calls, to the woman they have not told the truth to, so sadly they can't tell her they found something fishy in those EOY reports they pulled to sift through this weekend. It's fine, Tsubasa will tell her, later. "This dragon lady kidnapped Tsubasa's mother! Fuck her up!"
Did they forget to give themself an honourific? Eh, it's fine. That's probably not suspicious.
Miyu says she took her to a laboratory, though, and Phoenix snarls: "So it ain't no mental ward?! I fuckin' knew it! What are you freaks doin' to her?!" They respond to violence with violence, instinctively, as their sword flashes out to meet Miho's sabre -- only to find her expertly routing their overwhelming power to one side and burying her blade into their outer thigh.
If Phoenix knew more about anatomy, they'd realise a point like that was more aimed to collapse them and get them out of the fight than to kill them -- neatly avoiding the vital arteries of the inner thighs -- but they're not their brother, man. All they know is: "OW, FUCK!"
They do kind of sag to one side -- but they don't collapse, the way they would have if they weren't wearing that feather cloak and mask, and part of that is the way Jun's Persona wraps strength around their bones to keep them fierce. "Tch... what, swords ain't gon' work? Hey, fuck you, lady! I'll jus' light ya up! IZBUSHKA NA KUR'IH NOZHKAH!"
Oh, how soon we forget the visions of our Oracles...
Without that foresight, the massive chicken legs of Phoenix's Persona manifest in the building, the top half of the chicken hut phasing through the roof, as those little hatch wings flap like wings. Around it is a ring of skulls and spines, like a fence or a skirt, and the eyes of those skulls glow in unison as beams of flame erupt towards Miyu--!
AS: Persona! Tsubasa Seki has used the Fire skill Wildfire on Miho Ijuuin! 2 Hits! | Tsubasa Seki takes 45 damage from Stress! | Aggression: Tsubasa Seki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Block Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 37 Fire damage from Tsubasa Seki's Wildfire. Resist! AS: Block Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 68 Fire damage from Tsubasa Seki's Wildfire. Resist!
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
'Cope!' Yeah that gets her back up. 'It's about sendin' a message!' "Is the message that you watch way too much anime?" She asks, drily.
Before the Groom and Tsurugi reveal where the Jokers are going- "So they're just test subjects to you? That's so messed up!" Yukari replies to the Groom on the Jokers, aghast that that is their plan. After all, she has no idea about the Kirijo Group's experiments- the true depths of them that is.
"So she isn't here?" There's seeming relief at that point, "At least your group has that much decency." She mutters, not entirely impressed by the low bar that seems to have been set.
A seal descends upon Yukari, trying to silence her magic, just as Argeiphontes' magic empowers her Persona, in a strange contrast of being so powerful- but having her magic silenced.
And so- she reacts the only way she knows how when someone tries to silence her.
The Evoker trigger pull might as well be reactionary, as Io appears, and proceeds to- rather than cast magic?
The fey like girl upon it opens her palm and swishes through the air in an arc, as visible power manifests to try and slam into the Groom with an abandon that almost feels like she enjoyed that.
And in the moment the Persona disappears, Yukari is behind it, having taken a knee as she looses an arrow aimed at the Groom's left calf.
"I don't care what he's done." Yukari says coldly, "Whatever it may be- it doesn't give you the right to decide to take him to some lab for him to die in some twisted experiment!"
How did she surmise he'd die? Well- the Groom basically said as much, in asking the question.
And she can only think of her Father, as she says that much. Would they think he deserves death, for what he did?
"Thanks for assist!" She tells Jun as she gets up and tries to retreat back a few paces, "I'll have your back as well, Kashihara-san! Count on it!"
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Pierce skill Cruel Attack on Miho Ijuuin! | Yukari Takeba takes 90 damage from Panic!
AS: Yukari Takeba cancels 1 attacks on Miho Ijuuin. AS: Yukari Takeba spends Limit on Exploit! Yukari Takeba can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Pierce skill Cruel Attack on Miho Ijuuin! | Yukari Takeba takes 90 damage from Panic!
AS: Weapon! Yukari Takeba has used the Pierce skill Please Hit! on Miho Ijuuin! 2 Hits! AS: Block Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 95 Pierce damage from Yukari Takeba's Cruel Attack. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 76 Pierce damage from Yukari Takeba's Please Hit!. AS: Block Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 53 Pierce damage from Yukari Takeba's Please Hit!. AS: Hyousuke Suzuki spends Limit on Exploit! Hyousuke Suzuki can use another Weak skill this round!
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
People began flooding in. People he recognised. He spared them only a quick glance, knowing better than to take his eyes off of the enemy before him, but Hyousuke lingered for a moment or two longer on Umie. She was with them again, and fighting on their side... but with her came the risk of what happened the last time. There was no time to address it. There was a fight happening, and others came to fight Tsurugi as well. His focus had to be on his own battle, at least for now.
"Why the hell are you trying to talk with her?" Hyousuke spat, making no attempt to hide his vitriol towards Tsurugi. "They're not gonna let up! Only way to get to that Joker is through these assholes!" Tamaki arrived after, and drew a short glance from him. He offered no greeting, but he saw her attack land, and grinned a little with secondhand satisfaction. "Uchida-san, nice shot!"
His was the rabid howl of a mad dog. That much was unavoidable. But that dog still had its fangs, and the hound before her had every intention of using them.
"Not again. Not like last time." He snarled, just barely managing to hold his anger back enough to speak clearly - though his teeth were still clenched so tight that it felt as though they would grind right through each other. "You don't get to keep taking from us!" Hyousuke rushed forwards, not stopping for anything - not even as a blade struck out to meet him.
It came too quick and from too close for Achilles to block it, so all he could do was brace for the impact. He felt the sting of metal ripping through his flesh, carving a bloody trench into his side, and a grunt of pain poured out of his mouth like red from the wound. But momentum, determination, and rage-fuelled adrenaline kept him moving forward, too fast and too forceful to stop, even if he wanted to. It only took a heartbeat for that baying dog to be within arm's reach, and Hyousuke made sure to make the most of it.
Achilles levelled his blade at Tsurugi, but did not strike with it. It was a declaration of war. Of his utter, unceasing, wrath, and how his foe would be subsumed. Hyousuke took a far more direct approach and heaved his fist at Tsurugi. Wreathed in black energy, his left struck out in a lightning-quick jab. His right lashed out as his left pulled in, and the rush ended with him rising his knee up in a short, sharp, and forceful crash.
AS: Persona! Hyousuke Suzuki has used the Almighty skill Raging Rush on Remi Ryuuja! AS: Weapon! Hyousuke Suzuki has used the Dark skill Pummelling Rush on Remi Ryuuja! 2 Hits!
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Sorry for using you, Uchida-san," Umie apologizes, from Miho's back.
Bowling Miho over was not in Umie's cards, thankfully, but that doesn't necessarily help with the surprise component being offset by Miyu's strength and will.
Thus, it doesn't take that much to push Umie back off
"Translation: for her Bride's sake, she'll sacrifice all these people to the Order's goals, on the possibility that it *might* help her." Umie gets up, pulling her hood back over two messy blonde buns, as she looks to Yukari. "That's what all of this is about. Every Joker Possessed person is on their list."
'The wages of his sins do not merit death, whatever they are. Isn't that your philosophy?'
Umie can't help it, for some reason: she's cackling. "Who do you think you are, a Phantom Thief?" Umie chides, through a snicker. "Trying to justify it yet again..." Will Jun still keep to his plan, knowing all this?
She notices Jun finally; she tries her best to calm herself, pinning her left wrist over her mouth, right where the good luck charm rests under the fabric of her turtleneck and coat. "Ha ha... sorry, but I'm not planning on messing up this time. You're not going anywhere!"
With a snap of Umie's fingers, Badb appears over one shoulder, red lips spreading wide in a decadent smile as she points a red laced claw in Miho's direction.
AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Bad Moon Rising on Miho Ijuuin! | Umie Akabane takes 135 damage from Panic and Stress! | Ruin: Umie Akabane gains 1 Limit!
AS: Block Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Bad Moon Rising . | Omen (Damage in 2 rounds!) added! 60 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.
Tamaki tries to flag them down - but changes her mind.
"Right. We'll be right up, Uchida. If you get there first, give 'em a good one for us." Shinobu encourages with a nod.
...And by the time Shinobu gets there, it looks like she has. Shinobu sends her an approving nod. Jun gets a nod too as he moves to engage the Groom, before she looks back toward Tsurugi.
"Well, yeah, he's pretty obviously a piece of shit, so I'm not happy about it... Maybe he even deserves it." Shinobu allows. He's a rich company man, after all, at least from what she can tell. She doesn't know his life story - but it's easy to make assumptions. That doesn't mean they're correct either, but... "...But that don't mean I can just pick and choose. You think that makes it right to let you do whatever the hell it is you do with them? Make 'em disappear and do who knows what?"
She hears Phoenix's frustration, and the clinical answer... Test subjects...
La Maupin surges to being at Tsurugi's call, and they lunge at her with their blade. Shinobu raises her staff to deflect it. It slides across the surface of the weapon, grazing her shoulder.
"...Fine, I know how this goes. There's only one thing we both understand, right?" Shinobu replies with a grimace. She lunges forward, jabbing her staff rapidly toward Tsurugi's midsection.
AS: Weapon! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Jab Flurry on Remi Ryuuja! 3 Hits! | Aggression: Shinobu Shimizu gains 1 Limit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 0 Almighty damage from Hyousuke Suzuki's Raging Rush. | Atk_Dn (Damage down!) and Crt_Dn (Critical down!) added!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 26 Dark damage from Hyousuke Suzuki's Pummelling Rush. AS: Counter Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 88 Dark damage from Hyousuke Suzuki's Pummelling Rush. | COUNTER! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 41 Slash damage in return for his attack!
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
Maybe there's something to coming in loud instead of quiet. It might have kept Tamaki on her toes better than trying to project an image of calmness. Instead, she tries to sidestep so the blast doesn't send her back into the now-closing elevator, she directs Arianrhod to intercept the gale for her. Ultimately, she ends up getting slammed into the wall by her own Persona -- which shatters in a Persona Break right after. "Ow! Oooogh ..."
As Tamaki unsteadily rises to her feet again, she nods to Shinobu and Hyousuke. Her attention turns to Tsurugi and the protective gale around her. Last time, she had overextended herself and spent her resources too early; there's a reason she took the elevator instead of the stairs. With herself and these two allies, she figures that despite she really still should play the long game this time around, even if it had put her in a disadvantageous position just moments ago.
She scowls at the news of Tsubasa's mother getting kidnapped and calls back to Phoenix, "Will do!" Really, Tamaki doesn't even bat an eye the dropped honorific here; it's an urgent situation where milliseconds matter! It'd garner an eyebrow-raise in a more polite and social context, but, well, lives are on the line. She lightly laughs in Umie's direction and quietly waves the matter off; she would have done the same in her shoes.
Hyousuke says to not talk with her ... which Tamaki blithely ignores. In response to Tsurugi's question about if they'd defend a man who had spread a Rumor for a promotion, Tamaki lets her eyes wander before she quietly admits, "I mean, I've defended people who have done worse things. It doesn't make what they did right." She jerks her thumbs in Shinobu's and Hyousuke's directions and gives Tsurugi a grin. "Hell, if it came to it, I'd defend you from them. -- no offense, you two."
Rather than deny miracles as she had done for years prior, Tamaki has since realized that she has to fight for the world she wants to see, to exceed the fervor and dedication which Miyu and Tsurugi strive to achieve theirs.
"Buuuut, the kid has a point right now." Tamaki shakes her head and shrugs. "I think you and I want the same world, but we've got different ways of going about it." She calls out to Shinobu and Hyousuke, "Now, it's your turn to pay back the favor and give her a good one for me! Arianrhod!" Her own Persona reappears, then holds her blade aloft to bathe Tamaki, Shinobu, and Hyousuke in warm light, providing complementary offense to Achilles' shield.
AS: Tamaki Uchida spends Limit on Exploit! Tamaki Uchida can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Persona! Tamaki Uchida has used the Recovery skill Per Aspera on Tamaki Uchida, Shinobu Shimizu, and Hyousuke Suzuki! | Tamaki Uchida takes 45 damage from Stress!
AS: Take! Tamaki Uchida takes 0 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Per Aspera. | Atk_Up (Damage Up!) and Inner_Strength (Affinity Damage Up!) added!
AS: Persona! Tamaki Uchida has used the Recovery skill Media on Tamaki Uchida, Shinobu Shimizu, and Hyousuke Suzuki! AS: Take! Tamaki Uchida takes 130 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Media. AS: Take! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 0 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Per Aspera. | Atk_Up (Damage Up!) and Inner_Strength (Affinity Damage Up!) added!
AS: Take! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 151 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Media. AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 29 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Jab Flurry. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 64 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Jab Flurry. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 29 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Jab Flurry. Critical Hit! <Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"Do as you like," Miyu says to Jun. "...But I would not count on finding her intact."
But it is Wrong. Jun opens up with a combat-enhancing move, and Miyu narrows her eyes to see it done. "Yes," she agrees. "But you, who holds destiny in your hands, should know better than any that morality is not the only way by which to judge."
It isn't a mental ward, Tsubasa. "I don't know," Miyu says simply. "Research is not my forte. ...Now where would you get the idea that it was a 'mental ward'?" she wonders.
Indeed--Miyu has no desire to kill Tsubasa here. They trade strokes of the sword, and Miyu comes out the winner. "The blade is in my blood," Miyu says simply to Phoenix then. "While those who live by the sword may die by the sword... In my case it is not the esiest way."
Nor, as it happens, is fire; Faust emerges over Miyu's head, and Miyu simply blocks the flames with an outstretched hand, fire licking across her limbs before it goes out.
"Your Persona is strong. But your rage does you no credit in battle. Fury is warranted...but it may yet be your undoing."
A look to Yukari. "They are fuel. Yes, it is 'messed up'."
Yukari lets loose arrows and her Persona; power manifests, and while Miyu is able to block that force, it still forces her backward on her heels. Then, the arrows loose--
One arrow sticks in her armor; the other cuts, drawing more blood.
"I need no 'right' on my side to do what I must," Miyu says to Yukari. "I stain my hands with blood for a purpose. ...A purpose that means more to me than any of you."
"I will conquer whatever of this world of illusion that I must."
Helpfully, Umie explains. "Correct," Miyu says. "And no, she is not here. I intend to spare her further battles."
The Omen hangs over her, then. "I am no Phantom," Miyu clarifies for Umie. "I need justify nothing but the strength of my sword arm. You should realize, Umie Akabane... In this world, and the last."
"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose."
She lunges for Umie then, hacking with one, two, three blows of her dragon-empowered blade.
She leaps back then, somersaulting backward to land on the ruin of a desk. "You..."
"The keeper of destiny," she remarks to Jun. "The crow who may yet foretell the return of the True World," she says to Umie. "And the heroine who would see life come of death,' to Yukari. "And then... you. I know you not, Phoenix. I never met you in that world."
"Now..." Miyu turns her attention on Phoenix. "Was it flame? Let me show you how it is done." Miho snaps up her sword--and Faust appears in red mist. "Persona!"
Blue lights begin to shine around Umie and Tsubasa, ghostly cerulean flames which then burst with a buzzing into a humming that explodes in azure nuclear fire, blackening what remains of carpet and exploding through to destroy part of the ceiling and much of the debris around them.
"This world could belong to you," she says to Jun. "...But not while I oppose you!" Faust's sickle-sharp blades hack down, and shockwaves of slashing force erupt towards Jun--even as the darkness suffusing Faust's form surges towards Miyu as she swings a cursed blade once, twice, three times for Yukari!
AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Exploit! Miho Ijuuin can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Weapon! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Sabre Aggression on Umie Akabane! 3 Hits! | Defense: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Fire skill Hellfire on Tsubasa Seki and Umie Akabane! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Fatal End on Jun Kashihara! AS: Tandem! Miho Ijuuin has used the Dark skill Unholy Wrath on Yukari Takeba! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Recovery skill Line Guard on Miho Ijuuin! AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Recovery healing from Miho Ijuuin's Line Guard. | Phys_Safety applied!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Yukari Takeba takes 67 Dark damage from Miho Ijuuin's Unholy Wrath. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Worst! Yukari Takeba takes 119 Dark damage from Miho Ijuuin's Unholy Wrath. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Worst! Yukari Takeba takes 98 Dark damage from Miho Ijuuin's Unholy Wrath. AS: Avoid Best! Jun Kashihara takes 17 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Fatal End. AS: Take! Shinobu Shimizu takes 0 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Per Aspera. | Atk_Up (Damage Up!) and Inner_Strength (Affinity Damage Up!) added!
AS: Take! Shinobu Shimizu takes 136 Recovery healing from Tamaki Uchida's Media.
AS: Umie Akabane spends Limit on Brace! AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 19 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Sabre Aggression. | Blast (Magic and Block Penalized!) added!
AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 33 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Sabre Aggression. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 33 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Sabre Aggression. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 12 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Hellfire. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 10 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Hellfire. AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 46 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Hellfire. AS: stormbrand does not match an attack in the databse. AS: Counter Worst! Tsubasa Seki takes 149 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Hellfire. Critical Hit! Weak! | COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 48 Slash damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Counter Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 125 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Hellfire. Critical Hit! Weak! | COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 63 Slash damage in return for her attack! Resist! | Tsubasa Seki is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Counter Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 125 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Hellfire. Critical Hit! Weak! | COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 63 Slash damage in return for her attack! Resist! | Tsubasa Seki is unable to continue fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
Ironically, Jun knows exactly how and where Phoenix got the idea that Etsuko Seki ended up in a mental ward. (Well, he knows the story Tsubasa told him, and so believes that's the story Phoenix heard as well. Close enough.) He's not going to volunteer that information to Miyu, though.
Instead, she gives some to him, by calling him the keeper of destiny.
"..."
Would it make a difference if Jun reminded the Groom he has no recollection of whatever his "destiny" was on the Other Side? No, he quickly decides. Even if it did, he doesn't want to go into it.
"There are other ways to judge than morality, certainly," he replies instead. "Very well then--let us dispense with 'right' and 'wrong.' You kidnapped my dear friend's mother and have consigned her to Hell." After all, Jun believes the Groom when she says Etsuko probably isn't going to survive intact. "Do not think I'll simply shrug that off!"
Maybe Tsurugi and the Groom will understand and accept vengeance as a motivation for stopping the two of them better. Certainly that puts him on the same wavelength as Phoenix, apparently, similarly raging on Tsubasa's behalf.
"Still, I would ask you," Jun continues. "I don't want to hear about the Other Side, so don't bother with that part. However--how is it that you're able to remember?"
What does she have in common with Tatsuya Suou? What makes either of them similar to, and different from, Tatsuya Sudou? That much, Jun still wants to know.
Jun remains on the other side of the room from Groom, even as she moves swiftly across it, and so he has time to react to her long-range slashing attacks by whirling in a dance-like maneuver takes him out of the direct path of that attack. (Indeed, it's based on a dance move a certain instructor taught him.) It's not easy to do, and it leaves him a little winded, but he's better off by far than if he'd gotten a direct hit.
"I'm satisfied with being the 'little prince' I am now. Indeed, I pity Jun Kurosu, that he was so miserable he thought only the world could sate his needs!" he retorts.
...and never mind that, at the very least, he had--has--Tatsuya's love. Jun knows well one can't have everything.
Yukari offers her support back to Jun, and he gives her a quick nod and smile. "Thank you, Takeba-san. It seems we're still getting pressured, though."
'Seems,' nothing--Phoenix gets thoroughly rocked by the Groom's fire attacks. Jun gasps, eyes widening behind his curtain of bangs. Yukari's magic has been sealed, so-- "Takeba-san! Can you get them back on their feet?! I'll restore your magic!" He concentrates to summon Argeiphontes anew, and a burst of cleansing air ripples through this side of the battle, brushing away the ailments that plague not only Yukari but Umie, too--as well as Phoenix, once they're back in action.
AS: Persona! Jun Kashihara has used the Recovery skill Amrita on Tsubasa Seki, Umie Akabane, and Yukari Takeba! | Support: Jun Kashihara gains 1 Limit!
AS: Jun Kashihara spends Limit on Shift! Yukari Takeba can use another Weak skill this round! Hyper (Next Attack Boosted/Incoming Damage Down!) applied to Yukari Takeba! They both receive 8 SP and 30 HP! AS: Take! Yukari Takeba takes 0 Recovery healing from Jun Kashihara's Amrita. | Panic removed!
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
Jun insists taht their actions are wrong, no matter whom the victim is they're kidnapping. "Perhaps. But you cannot dissuade us in our task."
Yukari calls their efforts messed up. "So says the hound of Kirijo," Tsurugi retorts coldly. Of course, 'hound' is the same kind of language she also uses to refer to herself.
... It's probably nothing. Just another item for the kinkspiracy board.
"Bark all you want," she says to Hyousuke. "We will do as we must. The hound must catch the rabbit for its sustenance."She does not flinch as aChilles levels that blade. Hyousuke comes for a rush of blows and Tsurugi dodges out of the first two, but her attempt to counter for a third blow ends up with her taking the worse of the exchange, staggering back and clutching her stomach. "So vicious..." A hollow laugh. "... I almost felt that."
She straightens herself up and looks to Shinobu. "... what I think is hardly a factor. I can only do as I am told. Or be brought to heel."
Rather than try to counter Shinobu, Tsurugi opts to deflect and sidestep the blows from her staff--one still makes an impact, slamming into her shoulder and making her arm drop by her side for a moment before she can force it up. "... yes. This is the one thing we both understand."
Whatever the man did doesn't make it right, but he'd still defend them... or her, if it came down to it. Tsurugi tilts her head. "... is that so? You may wish to reconsider that commitment. You will not be able to keep it."
"If you wish to stop me--you will have to overcome my determination! La Maupin!" For some reason, she never used her Persona's name... not until Eriko identified it in Akihabara.
Wonder why?
But there's no time to contemplate that as she makes a sweeping gesture. "Push them back!" La Maupingestures, and from their hand another wind erupts to try and push the would-be saviors back. And while they're dealing with that...
"Loading Skill Cartridge," she announces. A cartridge is slipped from her pouch and into her Evoker, which she lifts from her head. "Fire Break!"
Energy surges into La Maupin, and they gesture with that renewed strength, trying to drain Tsurugi's opponents of their protection to fire...
... and in the next moment Tsurugi and La Maupin touch their swords together, and an incindiary flame erupts down the blades, overflowing to splash on the ground around them.
The two charge forward in tandem, lashing out in an intricate, deadly dance of whirling fire as they move through the group.
If Jun wishes to consign them to Hell, Tsurugi will call upon its flames.
AS: Persona! Remi Ryuuja has used the Wind skill Magaru on Hyousuke Suzuki, Tamaki Uchida, and Shinobu Shimizu! AS: Remi Ryuuja spends Limit on Broad! AS: Persona! Remi Ryuuja has used the Almighty skill Fire Break on Tamaki Uchida, Shinobu Shimizu, and Hyousuke Suzuki! AS: Tandem! Remi Ryuuja has used the Fire skill Scorching Wrath on Tamaki Uchida, Shinobu Shimizu, and Hyousuke Suzuki! 3 Hits! | Aggression: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit!
AS: Block Best! Tamaki Uchida takes 4 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Magaru. AS: Avoid Worst! Tamaki Uchida takes 0 Almighty damage from Remi Ryuuja's Fire Break. | Fire_Break (Fire Affinity Down!) added!
AS: Block Best! Tamaki Uchida takes 1 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Scorching Wrath. Critical Hit! AS: Block Best! Tamaki Uchida takes 1 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Scorching Wrath. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Tamaki Uchida takes 62 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Scorching Wrath. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 66 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Magaru. Weak! | Haze (Physical and Block Penalized!) added!
AS: Block Worst! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 0 Almighty damage from Remi Ryuuja's Fire Break. | Fire_Break (Fire Affinity Down!) added!
AS: Block Best! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 0 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Scorching Wrath. AS: Block Worst! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 49 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Scorching Wrath. Critical Hit! AS: Block Neutral! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 16 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Scorching Wrath. Critical Hit! AS: Block Best! Shinobu Shimizu takes 4 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Magaru. | Haze (Physical and Block Penalized!) added!
AS: Block Neutral! Shinobu Shimizu takes 0 Almighty damage from Remi Ryuuja's Fire Break. | Fire_Break (Fire Affinity Down!) added!
AS: Block Worst! Shinobu Shimizu takes 45 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Scorching Wrath. AS: Block Neutral! Shinobu Shimizu takes 25 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Scorching Wrath. Critical Hit! AS: Block Worst! Shinobu Shimizu takes 57 Fire damage from Remi Ryuuja's Scorching Wrath. Critical Hit! <Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
'So says the hound of Kirijo,'
"What does that have to do with anything? I'm not doing this because I like the Kirijo Group or anything!"
Indeed, it's true, but she's not about to tell anyone why she does this in the middle of a fight, least of all her.
"World of Illusion? What are you on about...? You're sounding just like that guy." She replies in a mixture of anger and confusion, "What kind of purpose requires you to cart people off to be experiments in a lab?"
Yet the things she says next, on who they all are- the words hit her in the face. "Stop it." Sure she says things that could let someone extrapolate that, but- that feels like it's more intimate, more on the nose. And fear bubbles forth out of her like a spring.
"Stop acting like you know anything about us... stop acting like none of this matters so long as you get what you want! All of this is real! These are real lives you're ruining!"
Jun's a really nice guy, honestly, one of the nice guys she's ever met, she just can't see how he relates to all of this, how the world hinges upon him as she says. Coming down from it, saying.
"No kidd-" Her words are interrupted by Miho's assault. "-ing?" That cursed blade tears across her Persona, once, twice- cleaving Io in twain, as she shatters into luminescent shards.
Right before the third comes down and knocks her away with a gasp that steals the shriek from her breath. Sent sprawling on the ground, she reaches out to grasp her Evoker.
"I can."
Jun lifts the seal on her magic, with that powerful spell. She feels its weight in her hand, and puts it to her forehead.
"/I can." She confirms again to Jun, before addressing Miho, "I-I won't let you ruin this one."
The trigger is pulled. It gets easier every time. A far cry from that panting panic attack alone on the floor of her room. Io reforms again, and this time the Persona dips towards Phoenix's fallen form.
A column of scintillating light forms, surrounding them and then rising, healing them just enough to get them back on their feet.
And then more besides, as a healing breeze floods the room from the ruptured glass of the windows, crossing over each of them in turn.
"Get on your feet already. We're nowhere near done here yet!" She grouses Phoenix's way.
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Recovery skill Naiad's Recarm on Tsubasa Seki! | Support: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Recovery skill Media on Yukari Takeba, Tsubasa Seki, Umie Akabane, and Hyousuke Suzuki! AS: Take! Yukari Takeba takes 138 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media. AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 0 Recovery healing from Jun Kashihara's Amrita. | Blast, Exhaust, and Panic removed!
AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 138 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media. AS: Take! Tsubasa Seki takes 285 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Naiad's Recarm. AS: Take! Tsubasa Seki takes 0 Recovery healing from Jun Kashihara's Amrita. | Exhaust removed!
AS: Take! Tsubasa Seki takes 150 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"AW, COME ON!!!!" Phoenix yowlps, as not even Izbushka's flames scour Miyu deeply. Indeed, they might have taken more psychic damage than Miyu did from that first spark...
Yukari asks if they watch too much anime, and they grouse: "Anime's cool!"
Then again, putting people in a lab is pretty anime, too... hey, shut up!!
"What th' fuck kinda creep does experiments on people?! Where's ya ethics approval, fuck!" They snap, on the heels of Yukari's offence, which is -- well, the kind of protest one would expect from someone who's read a few academic articles in their life. "Rrrh... look, I get someone bein' important to ya, but you're goin' way too far! I don't fuckin' care if someone's tellin' ya to do it, either!" They're listening to Tsurugi, too, apparently. "You oughta tell 'em to stick it up their ass, or you're as bad as 'em!"
(Tsubasa, as it happens, has been quite curious about Tamaki's college work, in that cool, disaffected, not-really-bothered way teenagers who are too cool to put the work in are like.)
But Miyu wonders where they got that idea, and Phoenix shifts back a step in alarm before they bark: "Tsubasa told me all 'bout what their asshole father said after you pulled that shit! That's his story!" ... they're not as smart about keeping quiet as Jun is, huh?
Her advice is surprisingly sound... but the only sound Phoenix needs, right now, is their volume sliders up to eleven. "Then I'll jus' get more mad 'til it works! Fuck!"
But she's raving, in Phoenix's eyes, about that world of illusion... a world they're not part of, huh? "Great!" They snap. "As if I'd wanna be part of any sick-ass world you'd use people like guinea pigs to get at!" Unfortunately, Miyu's paying attention to them again, now, and --
"FUCK YOU!"
-- in that split second between self-preservation and other-annihilation, it's no choice at all; Phoenix fears flame, and that just urges them all the more fiercely to charge into it, to swing their sword heavily through that burning assault and strike back at their attacker. They whirl in the flames, striking at her in revolution, once, twice, three times -- before that nuclear flame forces them to a knee.
"Fuck... you..." They repeat, again, breath laboured. "... fuck..." ... they might not have stood up to try another swing, if not for Io's light, enabled by Argeiphontes' solution, shimmering down upon them.
"... huh... yeah, I ain't done yet!" They snarl, as they pick themself up, with a solid stomp despite the ache in their leg. "Thanks, Takeba-san... you too, J, Kashihara-kun!" Right, right, Phoenix isn't close enough to him to use his first name...
"So me sword don't work, and me skulls don't work... you think that's all I got?!" Phoenix demands, as they sweep their cloak back, tucking their greatsword into it -- improbably, it fits -- and take out A FUCKING ROCKET LAUNCHER.
"EAT ROCKET LAUNCHER!" Phoenix yells, as they load in one of their precious few shells, and fire it straight at Miyu.
AS: Tsubasa Seki spends Limit on Psych! AS: Weapon! Tsubasa Seki has used the Pierce skill Rocket Launcher on Miho Ijuuin! | Aggression: Tsubasa Seki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Block Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 188 Pierce damage from Tsubasa Seki's Rocket Launcher. Safety! Physical damage reduced! AS: Take! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 159 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Another blow - a counter - swung into Hyousuke, and carved into him another scarlet line. He could feel the pain streaking up his arm from where the blade had sunk its edge, the end so dangerously close to his neck, and the warmth of blood oozing from it followed not long after. But he grit his teeth, and powered past it. It was far from the worst pain he had received, and he would suffer any agony if it meant that he could inflict twice as much of it back on his enemies.
"This dog bites back." He said, his throat rumbling as he growled back a retort.
Tamaki's retort - given in spite of his assertion that there was no use in maintaining a dialogue - gave even that raging beast a moment's pause, however, while her encouragement stoked the fires of his... 'enthusiasm'... once more.
"I don't know what kinda world she's looking for..." He confessed to Tamaki, voice lowered and settling just enough that he could speak without sounding like he was on the verge of howling. "...But if it means she's hurting OUR people, and OUR world, then it ain't worth it! Damn right I'm gonna give her a good one!" Empowered by her Persona's spells, and with his wounds closing in a shower of light, the could be little doubt that he intended to make good on his word.
Tsurugi went on the offensive before he had the chance. She and her Persona moved with such skill and speed that it was all Hyousuke could do to follow the action, let alone react to it. Calling Achilles to the fore and making that war-scarred bronze titan take the hit was more a reflexive action than a conscious decision, and its imprecision cost him. Biting winds surged around his shield, biting into flesh and sweeping him off his feet, despite every effort he made to resist. It felt like knives carving apart his meat as a hammer beat the air from his lungs, but that alone was not the end of it.
Blade and flame alike ripped through him, any resistance to it stripped away before he even knew to react. Where once a man had stood, there was only fire, roaring with such ferocity as to drown out Hyousuke howling in pain. His form could be seen past the blaze, vague and silhouetted in the searing light, and it writhed in agony. Yet, he stood. He took it all. He forced his singed muscles to work how he wanted them to, and as the last of the flames died, Hyousuke looked back at her with a rage that burnt harder than anything she'd levelled at him.
"Tch..." He spat, before wiping blood and sweat from his mouth. "...Almost felt that."
Suddenly, there was a flash of light in the corner of his eye. He wouldn't have looked that way - not under normal circumstances - but a familiar voice drew him there on instinct.
"PHONEIX!" He called out, a hair's breadth from desperately calling out their true name, and even closer to abandoning his own fight to shield Tsubasa. With his Persona, his magic, his own body if it came down to it - anything to keep his friend safe long enough to get them back on their feet. But Yukari took a far more level-headed approach than he, and once more, his wounds began to fade, the pain dulling as the magic set in. "Thanks for the assist!" He called out to her, sparing a glance out of gratitude, but no more out of fear that he'd leave himself vulnerable. "And you... You're gonna pay for that! Achilles, now!"
Healed of his hurts, but not of his hatred, Hyousuke heaved his focus back to Tsurugi. But he did not surge forth. Achillese did. A solid wall of bronze streaked from behind him, quicker than a blink, shield raised and spear at the ready. Then, with a cacophonous noise that sounded like some unholy union between screeching metal and a bellowing soldier, Achilles struck down at Tsurugi with the spear's keen tip.
AS: Persona! Hyousuke Suzuki has used the Pierce skill Avenging Spear on Remi Ryuuja! | Defense: Hyousuke Suzuki gains 1 Limit!
AS: Remi Ryuuja spends Limit on Favor! AS: Avoid Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 1 Pierce damage from Hyousuke Suzuki's Avenging Spear.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
'"What th' fuck kinda creep does experiments on people?! Where's ya ethics approval, fuck!'
'What kind of purpose requires you to cart people off to be experiments in a lab?'
"The same that chucks little girls before wolves in hopes that they'll get a carnival prize for their trouble," Umie mumbles, none too loudly, but still audible.
'You should realize, Umie Akabane... In this world, and the last. It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose.' Before Umie can have the last word, Miyu strikes; whatever words she may have had are refocused towards survival, as blade and, later, flame, are brought to sate the Badb's appetite for violence and pain.
(... As well as dunk the very squishy, normal, non-pain-loving Umie Akabane underneath the Badb's cover.)
Crow feathers spark as some of the blows are taken by the Badb, but not fully; Umie knows that her Persona being taken out, as well as it getting a direct hit for her, would be a pain of another kind, and not one she can endure. It's a balance between keeping light and nimble on your feet and soaking in the parts you can't, as the Groom's size speaks little of just how fast she can be with the blade, or how hot her rage burns.
"Phoenix-san..." Umie grits her teeth, seeing Phoenix fall to fire. Ironic, considering what her friend went through...
That's not how a Persona works, exactly, however.
'The crow who may yet foretell the return of the True World...'
"Oh, that old man will be forced to eat crow, alright..." Umie grouses as she straightens, wincing. She quiets on any other sharp words she may want to say, as Jun asks that question.
She looks towards Jun, and gives him a pleased blackbird's smile at his words. Yukari's simple response, however, wipes that smile off her face with how raw it feels. "Takeba-san," she continues, focusing her attention on the other of the two keeping her and Tsubasa more or less alive, "there's files on all of us. But that doesn't mean..."
No, Yukari already knows what what's important. Umie grins, turning now to Phoenix. "Phoenix, how about you make like your namesake... and take back what she took from your friend," she encourages the Phantom Thief.
... Like with Yukari, Phoenix has already come to the conclusion they needed, seeing as they are already beginning to get up and begin their assault. ("... So that's what it's like from this direction," she mumbles, eyes wide, as Phoenix shoots that rocket launcher.)
"As for me," Umie says, building on the battle plan between Jun and Yukari, "if you want a prophecy, Miyu-san... Give me a moment. But you better listen really close, because it'll be just - for - you~"
Badb echoes Umie's pointed index finger, casting a a simple bit of charm towards the Groom, as if to enhance that mocking, lilting tone of Umie's.
AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Almighty skill Hooded Smile on Miho Ijuuin! | Ruin: Umie Akabane gains 1 Limit!
<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.
"None taken." Shinobu assures with a shrug, as Tamaki says she'd defend Tsurugi even from her and Hyousuke, if the situation was different. "If it came down to that, things probably got really screwed up somewhere."
Tamaki calls upon her Persona, and Shinobu finds herself bathed in warm light. Her shoulder wound heals - and she finds herself invigorated.
Tsurugi claims that what she thinks is haardly a factor. Shinobu shrugs.
"...Yeah. I get it. You're not doing this because you want to. ...But you're still doing it. So I'm not gonna ease up on you or anything." She replies.
But Tsurugi speaks of determination - and Shinobu frowns. She doesn't get much time to reply - because a flurry of wind pushes her back, buying Tsurugi space. Energy washes over Shinobu - and the air in the room suddenly feels unpleasantly hot, as she finds herself less resistant to heat. And then Tsurugi and La Maupin touch blades and charge forward.
Shinobu grits her teeth, raising her staff, meeting each stroke of the blazing blades with a parry. Each strike forces her back, and each strike intensifies the heat.
"You wanna talk 'determination'... But you're just following another's commands! You said it yourself - what you think doesn't matter!" Shinobu bites back. "If that's what it takes to stop you... then I'll just smash yours with mine!"
She feels energized by Tamaki's support - so she draws upon it now.
"Lachesis! Light her up!" Shinobu calls out. Lachesis appears behind her, holding her measuring rod level as she centers Tsurugi within her hands.
Heavenly light rains down upon Tsurugi - and then Shinobu and her Persona both race forward. Shinobu readies her staff and Lachesis her measuring rod, and they both swing at Tsurugi simultaneously.
"Uchida! You're up!" Shinobu calls out.
AS: Shinobu Shimizu spends Limit on Exploit! Shinobu Shimizu can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Persona! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Light skill Nirvana on Remi Ryuuja! 3 Hits! AS: Tandem! Shinobu Shimizu has used the Strike skill Split Decision on Remi Ryuuja! 2 Hits! | Aggression: Shinobu Shimizu gains 1 Limit!
AS: Shinobu Shimizu spends Limit on Shift! Tamaki Uchida can use another Weak skill this round! Hyper (Next Attack Boosted/Incoming Damage Down!) applied to Tamaki Uchida! They both receive 8 SP and 30 HP! AS: Avoid Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Almighty damage from Umie Akabane's Hooded Smile. AS: Avoid Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 20 Light damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Nirvana. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 57 Light damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Nirvana. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 47 Light damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Nirvana. AS: Avoid Worst! Remi Ryuuja takes 69 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Split Decision. AS: Avoid Best! Remi Ryuuja takes 1 Strike damage from Shinobu Shimizu's Split Decision. Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
At Tsurugi's insistence that Tamaki won't be able to keep her commitment, she lets her eyes drift upwards as she reconsiders. She plaintively smiles as she replies, "... you know, I am currently 0 for 3 in that regard, so you might have a point. I'm still going to hold to what I said, though."
La Maupin. There's something about that Persona which pulls at Tamaki's mind, perhaps made even more prominent because it was Eriko who had pointed it out in the first place. In this moment, the fact flickers through her mind, but her mind's too occupied with other things to give it any further thought right now.
Things such as another gust of wind and a series of fiery slashes coming her way! Tamaki feels ready this time and has Hyousuke's tactics to thank for it; she stands her ground against the wind, and Arianrhod steps in to parry the first two swings. Emboldened by how her fortunes seem to have been turning, Tamaki starts to retort, "Your determination? Challenge acce -- " just as the third catches Arianrhod in the side and cuts her off as she winces.
Phoenix, true to their name, falls and rises again. As Phoenix's rocket launcher blast lands and does significant damage to Miyu even behind her barrier, Tamaki takes a quick moment to grit her teeth and shudder in realization at an alternative series of events one night when the Phantom Thief had visited her at her employer's office. ... and another to be relieved that they're not down for the count.
Shinobu's response is what jogs Tamaki's memory of La Maupin again. "... Ohhh, but there's some part of your authentic self struggling to break free, isn't there? I don't think we've seen the extent of your determination yet."
"Let's draw it out of you! Arianrhod!" In a flash, Tamaki's Persona steps forward and quickly strikes with her broadsword which shimmers in an iridescent glow, then plunges her blade into the ground to cause a bright fountain of light to erupt from beneath Tsurugi and her Persona.
AS: Persona! Tamaki Uchida has used the Slash skill Glittering Blade on Remi Ryuuja! | Ruin: Tamaki Uchida gains 1 Limit!
AS: Persona! Tamaki Uchida has used the Light skill Sealing Hama on Remi Ryuuja! AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 16 Slash damage from Tamaki Uchida's Glittering Blade. Resist! | Rage (Weapon Attack and Incoming Damage Up!) added!
AS: Nerve Up! Remi Ryuuja's SP +8! AS: Avoid Neutral! Remi Ryuuja takes 103 Light damage from Tamaki Uchida's Sealing Hama. | Exhaust (Damage when using Weapon/Tandem!) added! Rage removed! Explosion! 22.5 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Jun counters with vengeance--and Miyu inclines her head sharply. "Very well. Then let us see the measure of your ire."
But he asks--and he doesn't want to hear about the Other Side... only how she remembers.
"I see the True World in my dreams," she says. "I have had these dreams since I was a child. Since my youth I have known of the world where I was with my Bride, and we lived and fought together. And my dreams have never failed to prove accurate to 'that' world."
He's satisfied... "That boy was pitiable," Miyu agrees with Jun. "But powerful. You would not seek such power, to take your venegance? To protect your friends?"
She says nothing to Tsurugi, for now. Tsurugi has her own battle; Miyu has this one.
She sounds like 'that guy', Yukari says. "Of course. He saw the truth," Miyu says. "It was his methods that were ineffective, not his Sight. Bloodshed and chaos will not return that world to us alone--we could not cause enough of it to destabilize 'reality'."
"...Indeed. LIves are real. Whatever has cast this illusion over the world, it is quite potent. Regardless... I do know. I have fought you many a time in that world, Takeba-san."
"I... and her."
Yukari won't let her ruin it...
"Perhaps you won't."
Phoenix, too, has things to say. "Nowhere is too far for her. She is my destiny. ...No matter what shape our bond takes... it is unbreakable."
'Fuck you', they say. And then--
"..."
"...They did not use rocket launchers in the True World," Miyu comments as she organizes her defense. The field of physical energy she bplace before herself is one thing--Faust emerging before her is a second.
The barrier shatters under the Rocket Launcher's power, and Miyu and Faust are both driven back by the ensuing explosion, thrown into the far wall.
...But alive.
"The old man?" Miyu wonders of Umie then. "Which one? There are many. Any would be suitable."
"I will not," Miyu says them to Umie, slashing the charm out of the air before it can touch her and leaving it broken on the ground before her.
Then, of all things to happen... her phone rings. Miyu steps back, adopting a defensive stance, and touches the comm on her ear--this tone, she will always answer.
But what she hears--
Her free hand's fist uncurls immediately; she recoils backward, as if struck. "No," she intones, and the others may hear a quick breath.
BGM INTERRUPT: Shadow - Persona 2 Innocent Sin OST https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD0qWek2m7c
Heartbeat. Heartbeat. Heartbeat. It grows louder and louder until everyone present can hear the beating of Miyu's heart, pounding in their ears. And then--
Shadowy afterimages trail Miyu's sword as she rises to a fighting stance again, and that sense of wrongness grows, pervading the area. No demons appear this time--only Miyu. "...I can no longer afford to spend my time here," she says, but her voice echoes strangely, as if two voices in one. And the voices that they are bring with them an emotion, an absolute terror that may well suffocate the heart.
"Faust! I CALL!"
Red light shimmers all around her--and there are four of her, suddenly, breaching forward with an absolute flurry of strikes for each combatant assailing her, the first three suffused with Faust's unholy wrath, the last 'merely' of superlative skill.
No, though--there are five, becasue the true Miyu kneels down to heft the unconscious Cursed Joker over her shoulder.
There is power, in love.
...There is heart. There is hope. And yes, there is also... fear.
The fear of loss; attachment. Hatred, hositlity: aversion. And the certainty of one's beliefs... delusion.
As these poisons seep into the heart, the Groom rises to her feet. "Tsurugi," she directs. "We go."
In a flash of black unlight, they are gone.
AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Blood! AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Broad! AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Exploit! Miho Ijuuin can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Weapon! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Dragon Clash on Umie Akabane, Tsubasa Seki, Yukari Takeba, and Jun Kashihara! 3 Hits! | Defense: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit!
AS: Tandem! Theurgy! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Inexorable on Umie Akabane, Tsubasa Seki, Yukari Takeba, and Jun Kashihara! 3 Hits! AS: Avoid Neutral! Jun Kashihara takes 81 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Worst! Jun Kashihara takes 136 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Jun Kashihara takes 58 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. AS: Avoid Worst! Jun Kashihara takes 126 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. AS: Avoid Neutral! Jun Kashihara takes 75 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. AS: Avoid Neutral! Jun Kashihara takes 75 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. | Jun Kashihara is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Umie Akabane spends Limit on Brace! AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 69 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Worst! Umie Akabane takes 88 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. AS: Avoid Worst! Umie Akabane takes 88 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 63 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 22 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. AS: Avoid Best! Umie Akabane takes 22 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. AS: Yukari Takeba spends Limit on Brace! AS: Avoid Worst! Yukari Takeba takes 127 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Neutral! Yukari Takeba takes 71 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Worst! Yukari Takeba takes 91 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. AS: Avoid Worst! Yukari Takeba takes 153 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. Critical Hit! | Yukari Takeba is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Avoid Best! Yukari Takeba takes 29 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. Critical Hit! | Yukari Takeba is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Avoid Worst! Yukari Takeba takes 153 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. Critical Hit! | Yukari Takeba is unable to continue fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
Yukari isn't doing it because she lkes the Kirijo Group or anything. "Of course not." It's not like she enjoys her work for the NWO, either.
Tsubasa's protest about ethics gets a bitter laugh from Tsurugi. "You think the men who hold my leash care for ethics? That they obey the law? Don't be so naïve!"
"... there is only one way to deny them. And I have survived too much to give up now!"
"Pain is a luxury that lets you know you're alive!" Tsurugi retorts to Hyousuke. At the return of her line, Tsurugi chuckles darkly. "Careful. You know not of what you speak."
Shinobu doesn't take offense. "... you speak as if that has not happened already." And likewise, Shinobu won't ease up on her. "... good. I cannot yield, so neither must you."
Tamaki's still going to hold to waht she saidaa. "... You may try. But my survival is incompatible with your other goals." But when Tamaki suggests there is some part of her authentic self still struggling to break free...
Tsurugi is silent for a long moment. "... more than you can know."
Tsurugi once again stands still as as Achilles charges forward, staring the Persona down. Behind the mask her gaze intensifies. When that collosal spear comes crashing down there is a terrifying crack in the floor, as paper and shards of wood, plastic, and metal go flying.
But Tsurugi isn't there. She's suddenly a few feet back, perched on the edge of a desk. But there's a subtle heave of her chest that speaks of the effort it took to hal herself back fast enough to avoid the blow.
And the onslaught doens't stop there. Heavenly light comes, and Tsurugi grabs a nearby ream of paper to throw it in the air where it explodes--the first hit scores cleanly despite that, but under the cover she dances back and away from the other lights--
Right in time for Lachesis and Shinobu to come at her in tandem. Tsurugi starts to move, but Shinobu's staff hits her square in the quest. There's a pained wheeze as Tsurugi staggers back, though she doesn't clutch at her chest. When Lachesis comes to follow up it's La Maupin who steps forward instead to deflect the blow away. "... your determination is fierce," she acknowledges.
Tamaki seeks to draw out Tsurugi's determination with Arianrhod. A blade slash comes for her, but Tsurugi deflects it as she steps aside, getting ready to go on the offensive--but the burst of light beneath her catches her, and though she can leap out after a moment, she's panting harshly as she comes up from a roll into a kneel. "... a worthy effort."
But she turns her head as she notices Miyu step back into a defensive stance. A hand to an ear... and a pounding heartbeat. "Miyu," she says firmly. "Focus."
Miyu's scared. She may be the one issuing ordres, but Tsurugi has to keep the mission on track for as long as possible. She reaches into her pouch again and pulls out a second cartridge.
Whatever is bad enough to fill Miyu with such fear... Tsurugi doesn't seem to feel it. "La Maupin," she intones as she raies her Evoker to her head once more. "Tempête Fatale!"
She pulls the trigger and a fresh wave of power surges through La Maupin. The Persona steps forward, chipped blade gleaming--with a lighting flash blur of motion La Maupin zips among Shinobu, Hyousuke, and Tamaki, lashing out at each with a single swipe of the blade, landing on the far side of them.
And in the next beat those slashes all explode into an explosion of winds that kick up debris and flings it all over the thoroughly-ruined office.
And in that moment, Tsurugi herself darts over to Miyu and vanishes with her.
AS: Counter Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 79 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. | COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 46 Slash damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Counter Worst! Tsubasa Seki takes 143 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. Critical Hit! | COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 48 Slash damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Counter Neutral! Tsubasa Seki takes 110 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dragon Clash. Critical Hit! | COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 64 Slash damage in return for her attack! Resist!
AS: Counter Best! Tsubasa Seki takes 103 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. Critical Hit! | COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 114 Slash damage in return for her attack!
AS: Counter Worst! Tsubasa Seki takes 131 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. | COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 58 Slash damage in return for her attack! | Tsubasa Seki is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Counter Best! Tsubasa Seki takes 103 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Inexorable. Critical Hit! | COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 114 Slash damage in return for her attack! | Tsubasa Seki is unable to continue fighting!
AS: Remi Ryuuja spends Limit on Break! AS: Remi Ryuuja spends Limit on Exploit! Remi Ryuuja can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Tandem! Theurgy! Remi Ryuuja has used the Wind skill Tempête Fatale on Hyousuke Suzuki, Shinobu Shimizu, and Tamaki Uchida! 2 Hits! | Remi Ryuuja takes 90 damage from Exhaust! | Aggression: Remi Ryuuja gains 1 Limit!
AS: Block Neutral! Shinobu Shimizu takes 56 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Tempête Fatale. Critical Hit! AS: Nemesis! Shinobu Shimizu can take another Weak action this round! AS: Block Best! Shinobu Shimizu takes 8 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Tempête Fatale. Critical Hit! AS: Block Best! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 50 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Tempête Fatale. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Nemesis! Hyousuke Suzuki can take another Weak action this round! AS: Remi Ryuuja's turn has ended. It's time for an All-Out Attack! | Remi Ryuuja: Break and Spd_Up removed!
AS: Block Neutral! Hyousuke Suzuki takes 99 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Tempête Fatale. Critical Hit! Weak!
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
It is great for Phoenix that the Groom never met them on the Other Side. Jun has never had a good experience with an enemy knowing a version of him that no longer exists, and so much the better for anyone who can be spared that.
Personality really does play a lot into things, though. Jun and Phoenix are both very learned and book intelligent, and Phoenix demonstrates that by asking about the NWO's ethics approval, but also demonstrates that they're too brash and hotheaded to hold back either on their feelings or information the enemy probably should not hear.
Still, it's been heard. Jun chooses to brush past it as if it were a normal thing to know--and it's normal enough for Tsubasa's friends to know it, isn't it?--and instead says, "You're welcome, Phoenix! Leave the support to us!" He smiles too at Yukari, whose healing magic is at a level of mastery he must admire. The two of them really should talk sometime; he's sure he could learn much from her.
...He does note how Phoenix almost addressed him as 'Jun,' though, and decides he really doesn't want to know what that's about. He instead gives Umie a worried glance at her just-audible muttering. Her blackbird smile... is not as reassuring as one might like.
Also not reassuring: the Groom says she knows about the Other Side from her dreams. To Jun, this sounds little removed from the distortions fed to Sudou by his demonically divine patron, and the curl of Jun's lip expresses what he thinks of this.
"Sudou-san died being deceived by the 'Voices' that whispered promises to him of a glorious Other Side," he says coldly. "Take care you aren't being deceived yourself, Groom."
Would he not seek power for vengeance, to protect his friends? Jun's lip curls further. "Why don't I sacrifice an eye for wisdom while I'm at it? It worked for Odin, so it should work for me precisely the same way," he snipes.
Then the Groom tells Yukari that Sudou's only problem was his methods. Jun sighs the deep, bone-weary sigh of the Done.
"I empathize with your desire to be with and protect the one you love," he tells the Groom with a touch more gentleness than before. Then he shakes his head. "But I chose to awaken from my dreams. I can only pray you will too, before it's too late for you both."
This sentiment is, by coincidence, underscored by a ROCKET LAUNCHER. The explosions rock the room, and Jun has to clap his hands over his ears and shut his eyes to keep from being deafened and blinded.
Because of that, he doesn't catch Miyu answering her comm. He only hears a heartbeat growing louder and more frantic, as the wrongness he's come to know so well pervades the area. Argeiphontes protects him from it; it does not make him immune. A promise is a promise, not a geas. It can still break.
When he looks up, the Groom summons Faust, and there are four--no, five of her now, her already masterful swordstrokes backed by the power of her Persona. There is no pirouetting out of the way for Jun this time; he screams as these blows rip through his defenses and leave him slumped on the floor, battered, disheveled, and barely conscious.
Certainly he's in no condition to stop Miyu or Tsurugi from making off with their latest victim.
AS: Block Best! Tamaki Uchida takes 47 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Tempête Fatale. Critical Hit! AS: Nemesis! Tamaki Uchida can take another Weak action this round! AS: Block Best! Tamaki Uchida takes 37 Wind damage from Remi Ryuuja's Tempête Fatale.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
+big yes
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
'Of course not.'
Yukari gives Tsurugi a look like they just watched Tsurugi eat a whole rotten cabbage at that. "Wow. You seriously think me trying to save people makes me worse than you for trying to kill them? ... Listen to yourself sometime."
'... huh... yeah, I ain't done yet!'
Relief floods her in the fact that they seem to be alright, "You're not. We've got you!"
ROCKET LAUNCHER
"I still- don't know where they even get that..."
Yukari Takeba says, as her ears come down from ringing from the blast wave.
"He was a serial killer! He was just crazy!" Yukari protests at the idea that Sudou saw any 'truth'. "The things he wrote over his walls..."
Even right now in the heat of battle, she can't help but feel goosepimples comes up.
"That doesn't make any sense..." This idea of an illusion over the whole world. It sounds just as significant as what her father did, breaking time and space itself- maybe moreso.
It's something she can't comprehend. Maybe it's something she doesn't want to comprehend.
"I didn't even know you before trying to kill that cop! And you're saying- you're saying you knew me?"
It's easy enough to think she's just crazy, like Sudou. She wants to dismiss it like that. But there's enough moments wherein she can't- really do so. Even saying so, it comes back into her thoughts.
And then they just don't stop racing around in there.
'Takeba-san,'
'there's files on all of us. But that doesn't mean...'
"Files? But-" It's an easy way to write it off, but- It doesn't quite do it. Not with what she said, not the way those words of 'the heroine who would see life come of death' keep repeating.
Like she can see right through her.
'Sudou-san died being deceived by the 'Voices' that whispered promises of the glorious Other Side. Take care you aren't being deceived yourself.'
"-right. I- shouldn't even listen."
Unfortunately its the way of Yukari Takeba, to not be able to move on from a thought that gets stuck in her head. But Jun at least knocks her out of the loop for now.
But its wormed her way into her head enough, that when the Groom calls upon Faust, and she pulls the trigger in response.
"Oh no you don't-!"
Io appears, and with Faust, her strikes cleave through the Persona, slashing it in four different ways, as it slides apart, shattering in mid-air.
In the end, all it takes is another one, to send her sliding, insensate to the floor, suffering so many Persona breaks and injuries beside.
It's over. She's alive.
And this whole night will stick with her, not just of how they failed to stop them- but that Sudou's death hasn't stopped discussion of 'The Other Side'.
She vanishes soon after, with this incursion 'resolved'. Returning back to whence she came.
It's gonna be real weird waking up in that train station bathroom...
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
The strike was a ferocious one. A vicious thing that should have torn steel and sinew apart with animalistic ferocity. But there was nothing at the point of impact. Hyousuke didn't care how close he was, or how much effort it had taken - the hound that had only snatched the rabbit's fur could take no solace in that it had *almost* claimed its prey. With a wild, frustrated, look written clear on his face, Hyousuke turned with darkness once more wreathing his hands. Like the fire before, it clung to his skin, waiting for its chance to spread.
Something stopped even him in his tracks, however. From his distance, he couldn't quite make out what Tsurugi had said, and there was less chance of him making out her expression for obvious reasons. But the way she acted, and what little of her tone he could intuit, left him wondering what exactly could have left such a dauntless fighter in such a state. Her ally seemed to be in no better a state - something had happened, it seemed, but he knew not what. Plagued by a gut feeling of dread, Hyousuke drew back, bracing for whatever came next.
It was a good thing he did. The winds before had mercilessly lacerated his flesh, but the tempest Tsurugi unleashed upon him then was a league above it. He could do nothing to avoid it, and even as Achilles stood fast against the oncoming storm, Hyousuke felt as though the flesh was being flayed from his very bones. He cried out through clenched teeth, staggering backwards with each successive hit, until he was finally thrown across the floor like a discarded ragdoll. Needless to say, there was nothing he could do to stop them leaving.
"NO!" He bellowed, eyes wide and hand outstretched. "GET BACK HERE! God damn it, you don't get t- Gh!" Sharp pains erupted from all across his body. The screaming of muscles begging for rest, the stinging of wounds etched into his body like scalpel marks, the singed skin not healed by Yukari's skill... It all left him, in spite of his rabid determination, in no state to pursue. Not that he would have known where to go in the first place. Unable to contain his anger, and equally incapable of putting it into words, a feral shout ripped itself from his lips, and Hyousuke stood hunched where he'd been left.
He'd failed. Neither of the mysterious figures had been apprehended, they'd escaped with their target, and he'd not even been left with the slightest clue about who any of them were. If anything, he'd been left with more questions than answers. But, as his eyes raked across the aftermath of the carnage, he forced the rage back. There would be ample time for it later. The wounded needed tending to and the users needed to escape.
"Kashihara-san." He grunted, leaning down as the green glow of a healing-aligned skill card enveloped them both. "Come on, on your feet. We gotta move before the cops show up."
<Pose Tracker> Shinobu Shimizu has posed.
Shinobu actually cracks a smirk as Tsurugi says she speaks of it as if that has not happened already.
"...You know what? Fair enough." She admits - and then nods, when Tsurugi says she can't yield. "No need to worry about that."
Tsurugi compliments her determination even, and Shinobu nods.
"...Thanks." She replies. But on the other side of the battlefield... Something happens. She's distracted, briefly, as she sees Miyu strike out more viciously than she's seen her do before.
She can't focus on her for long - because Tsurugi brings her own power to bear. Shinobu grimaces. She braces herself against that explosion of winds, but she's only able to resist the main force of it before she's hurled into a nearby wall.
And before she can recover... Tsurugi and Miyu escape with the Joker Cursed-President in tow.
"...Damn it!" Shinobu hisses, forcing herself to her feet with her staff for support. She slams her fist into a nearby wall. She looks over to the side of the room - and winces at the carnage.
"...The hell happened to set her off like that...?" She murmurs.
It hurts to admit defeat - but it's clear that no one's really in good shape to pursue. ...And like Hyousuke says, they should probably get out of here before the authorities arrive.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Phoenix, indeed, rises from the ashes.
But it was not the Groom who sacrificed her eye for wisdom...
"Fuck you an' th' Old Maid!" They snap, as Miyu speaks of her visions; with no love for him, they have no love spare for her, either. "If your shit-ass world ain't got no rocket launchers, I don't wanna HEAR IT!" ... that's one way to deny the world that was, huh, Jun?
They can at least feel a moment of grim satisfaction when she's blasted back by said (fucking) rocket launcher, though...
... victory never lasts, does it?
No -- she gets a call in the most sinister way someone can, and Phoenix's eyes narrow, behind their mask. "Fuck's goin' on with you?" They demand, stowing their rocket launcher to grasp their sword warily, as someone else's heartbeat pounds in their ears for once.
As --
Miho doubles, and doubles again, and there is no more room for quips as Phoenix is forced into a hurricane of violence and motion. There -- a blade comes for them! There -- they clash against it with their massive slab of a greatsword, and without even a breath between them there is another blade, at their back, and they're slashed before they can turn, to assault her again. There -- impossibly -- above, and Phoenix meets the slash with an overhead swing. Their muscles tremble and shake, as their blade is pressed close to their body with the force of the blow, until they can no longer hold against it, until it knocks them prone.
They rise, one glove to the ground as they bring their sword up like a shield to block another blow. To a knee, and they lunge, into a strike with draconic strength. There they are caught, again, before they can carve through; there, they are thrown down, and this time when they hit the deck they can't rise so quickly.
"WAIT!" They cry, as she leaves with her horrible companion, and if pain is the luxury that lets them know they're alive then no one has been more alive than Phoenix is right now, as far as they're concerned.
"... fuck," they spit, as they finally manage to haul themself standing, at least. They limp over to Yukari, and tap her on the shoulder, to make sure she's alive, too -- leaning over to assure her, softly, at some sign of life: "They ain't th' only ones what can build up files. Every time we fight 'em... we're gettin' closer to figurin' it out."
With a grimace, they straighten up again. "... take care a Kashihara-kun," they urge Hyousuke, as they make a cool exit out the window.
Of course, as soon as they're out of range of the magic of the building, all that coolness evaporates into, "ow, geez, fuck --"
DRAGON LADY HITS LIKE A TRUCK WHO GAVE HER THE RIGHT
Ren/Jun: Yanagi Nagisa says, "always time to blu-ray"
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
'I see the True World in my dreams.' Unlike with Umie herself.
However, Miho subscribes to the same 'Other World' that Sudou does, whether because of things he's told him, the NWO, or even, Umie's own prophecies. The last option is that Miho and Yua are influenced by the same forces... but...
There's too many differences to rule that, when she doesn't even know the shape of what 'it' is, and how it ties to her own self, the NWO, and the thing called 'Joker' and 'Nyarlathotep'. How many little prophets and oracles did the NWO spawn, in trying to create a path towards that 'sinless world'?
'Take care you aren't being deceived yourself.'
It's all 'bad luck', as far as she can see.
"It's all delusion, attempting to become reality," she says, quietly, in agreement with Yukari. "That's what the Voices promised Sudou. He thought we were the same, but we weren't. I've never recieved visions. Just..." That she can remember, anyway.
Remembering a field trip that never happened? Well, something so insignificant would be excused, when a child had been talking about grand prophecies, and...
Even that is something only her parents would remember, not Umie Akabane herself.
Attachment. Hate. Delusion.
"I refuse... to be something's..." You're not saying it loud enough, Umie Akabane. You don't even know what you need to progress.
No one's broken a lock on that mystery through grumbling about it.
All a senseless little bird can do is survive, right now, as the Groom's sudden, oddly hurried pace drastically changes her tactics. "Gh!!" If the earlier exchange was a savage dance, this is a massacre, Umie deploying whatever she can just to last until the next blow, and the next.
And the next.
And so forth, until the offense is withdrawn, Tsurugi and Miyu disappearing into dark.
"_Damn it_... Don't bother chasing, the field's going to collapse any minute now with them gone!!" she says. Phoenix is already on it, disappearing out the window. "... That's... one way of doing things," Umie grimaces.
....
".... I'm calling for help for any survivors here." She's already drawn out a burner phone and called a number with her thumb, reaching into another pocket to draw out a lifestone, using it on herself. "I got one or two lifestones to spare, but anybody who doesn't want to spend their days in the hospital better scram."
At least this time there's no demons to pick up after, so... progress...?
(Now she's thinking about Taro-kun again...)
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
'... my survival is incompatible with your other goals.' Tamaki takes a moment to chew on that. All else held constant, that's probably true, but Tsurugi's being cagey about why that's actually the case or what mechanism determines her survival. "Reminds me of what a friend of yours said, 'Do not blind the seers, else the men behind them will consume them whole.'"
Granted, Tamaki has some vivid memories of one such man consuming Sudou. She had the best seats in the house for that event. While a part of her is tempted to do like Maya does and keep thinking positive, genuine fear causes her to tremble at the prospect of even trying to dismantle their hold over her. Even still, she continues, "... y-you still deserve for someone to try."
Notably absent from her protest is any notion that she believes that she'll succeed.
'More than you can know.' Tsurugi's reply garners a drawn-out "Hmmm ..." from Tamaki as she tilts her head in doubt. "Are you sure about that? Try me. Ask the Bride."
It's then that Miyu's heartbeat becomes too loud for Tamaki to ignore. She spoke of dreaming of the other world ever since she was a child. Some strange emotion begins to well up in Tamaki, but she can't quite pin down what or why. Envy? Disappointment? Relief? She can't discern it in the cacophony. The only thing that cuts through is her fear as Faust's wrath causes others to fall. "No -- !"
Tamaki moves to aid the others, but falters as Tsurugi cuts a path to Miyu. With her own attention split, she realizes the pair have made off with the Joker.
She quietly swears under her breath as she surveys the damage to the office and everyone else, then rummages through her bag for some of the medical supplies she keeps handy with a heavy sigh. "I've got some mundane treatment here, Mitsuhide-san." She jabs a finger at Hyousuke. "If I've got any left, you're using some of these."
Tamaki pauses and narrows her eyes in thought when Shinobu asks what set Miyu off like that. "Tsk. Don't know, but worth thinking about."