eatsyourscience | (no subject)

(no subject)

To begin with, it was Naoto's idea to check up on things in the TV world, and it had become so normal to spend rainy afternoons inside that Souji agreed without requiring much in the way of an explanation, though she provided one anyway. He agreed with all the points she made--that they should keep an eye on the movements of the fog, the density of shadows in various places, if anything had changed since Adachi's defeat--but more than anything, he was beginning to miss that world and the time they spent there.

Chie and Yukiko passed, and so did Kanji when Souji tracked him down at lunch, but Rise was happy to accompany them--a good thing, because Souji didn't think it would be wise to go in without her--and so were Yousuke and Teddie, who agreed with Naoto about the importance of keeping an eye on what was going on in that world. Souji couldn't blame him.

Inside, everything seemed the same. Even the damp smell, the feeling of the fog against his cheeks in odd juxtaposition to the way it vanished in the view through his glasses were the same. He asked Rise to do a scan of the area, but wasn't expecting her excited, staccato announcement that there was a new area she hadn't seen before.

When Kanzeon vanished, Souji glanced around to find everyone looking at him and he almost smiled at how comfortable it had become to see them relying on him. He gave a slight nod and with Rise directing him, led the way past locations they already knew.

They stopped when the ground disappeared in front of them. An expanse of open, empty space spread in front of them, filled with a swirling fog that he could see. Resisting the urge to remove his glasses and clean them, Souji squinted. All that was visible were what looked like several bare, unornamented platforms hovering in the air, each at a greater distance than the last from where they stood.

He looked around, then down, then took a step into open space. Rise called out after him, but trailed off when a walkway materialized beneath his feet, extending for a short distance ahead of him. A few steps across what looked and felt like smooth, gray stone confirmed that it would continue to appear ahead of him as he walked instead of leaving him to step blindly and hope he hadn't come to a corner without noticing. Hefting his sword a little higher, he looked back and nodded to the others that they should proceed.

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"More now than there used to be."

Souji's voice is even, though he twitches when the Shadows follows up with:

"For how long?" He steps closer; the tarot cards follow, adjusting their orbits with a bit of wavering and wobbling. "After you leave here, what will happen to all the fragments you're trying to piece back together?"

"We will return those persona to senpai," Naoto says, in a tone of absolutes, "and by force if necessary."

Souji turns his head to look at Naoto. "He meant Inaba."

"Inaba?"

Yousuke understands much more quickly, probably because it was something more immediate on his mind. He understands the feeling.

"It's not like that. We'd never forget about you."

"I know."

This isn't something Souji wants to talk about, but to dismiss it would be counter-productive. It won't do him any good to point out that they won't need him anymore.

They need him now, though. As long as they were going in and out of the TV, they need him, because he's the strongest, the most versatile member of the group.

The Shadow smiles. "Don't you love this?"

Souji glares and moves forward. He's tired of this, tired of not getting anywhere, tired of this Shadow, just tired.

Yousuke's worried now. The appearance of the shadow, along with the things it was saying... He's starting to put together what Souji might be trying to hide. And if he isn't able to accept it, they'd all be in for the fight of their lives-- or the fight for their lives.

But he has no idea what to do. Should they fight it? Should he be backing Souji up with weapon in hand, or with a shoulder to lean on? He feels far away. Like he can't reach him anymore

The Shadow backs away, still speaking. "You're thinking that, in here, they have to depend on you. As long as this place exists, they'll need you."

Souji takes a swipe at the ring of cards circling the Shadow, grabbing for one at random. The Shadow's eyes widen and he sucks in a breath between his teeth as Souji's fingers make contact.

It's like reaching into himself, touching something unexpectedly hot and pulsing, something molten that was never meant to be touched by human hands. Souji's whole body locks up. His sword hits the ground with a scrape and a clang.

"Partner!"

Yousuke reaches out, taking his first step towards Souji to pull him away-- and at that very same moment, Naoto fires a single bullet at the shadow's head. This whole time, she hasn't left her stance, and had a clear shot.

Souji crumples, nerves screeching and raw as though a rasp had been taken every inch of them.

The Shadow doesn't even attempt to dodge; the bullet hits him and his head whips back under the impact, though he only takes half a step back to keep his balance. He doesn't follow Souji to the ground, though. Instead, he straightens, smiling as the rest of his face collapses in on itself, but he doesn't laugh like the other Shadows as his smile fractures and disappears.

The sucking, ravenous force inside him consumes him, leaving nothing behind but a dark hole in the air, the last remnants of the Shadow's form swirling around it and then disappearing.

Yousuke doesn't make it to catch him before he falls, but still throws himself over Souji for protection after Naoto fires her shot. The vacuum of air caused by the inward explosion suck him a few feet towards the black hole-- the others lose their footing as well. Yousuke fights for every inch, nails digging into the floor.

Inside the black hole, the Shadow is crushed and twisted and reformed, emerging again a moment later, before the vacuum he's created can do much harm. He holds a scale in one hand, a massive sword in the other.

His smile is serene now as he raises the scale to unleash a powerful Light attack, one not even associated with the Personas of this arcana, though it fits in with the powers of most of them.

"Samsara."

So they were battling this thing now? Fine. By now they almost prefer it this way.

But Souji isn't there to push them through.

Yousuke is still protecting their leader, and takes the KO hit, hanging on by the skin of his teeth. He works through the pain and tosses Souji's arm over his shoulder to drag him away from the fight.

Naoto, with her resistances, completely shrugs the attack off. She remembers his arcana. They're almost always vulnerable to Mudo... But only almost. Stronger shadows were often resistant. She had to think fast.

She makes her decision before it's too late, and casts Mudoon.

Rise dodged the attack only because she was outside of its range and while the Shadow does his best to block the Dark attack, she hurries forward to help Yousuke. "I'll take care of senpai! You go help Naoto-kun!"

Mudoon doesn't KO the Shadow--he's much too strong for that. But it does make him rethink this particular tactic. Samsara knocked Teddie flat, but only for the moment, and that isn't enough. It's not nearly enough.

He adjusts, collapsing in on himself once again. Reforming himself isn't pleasant and it's not nearly as fluid as it always has been for Souji, changing one mask for another. The Shadow doesn't understand this difference, as though somehow he isn't in balance the way he should be, and that feeling just makes him ache, cavernous and echoing. He hates it. He hates that he never feels full, never feels content, even though the thinks that Souji probably has felt that way, or close to it before. So how can they possibly be the same person?

He reemerges, this time with a vessel in either hand, each spilling water that never runs out. It makes him feel more confident, the idea that even if he is hollow inside, he'll never run out of space. He'll never have to stop taking things in.

He lashes out with one vessel and then the other, sending a spray of water from each that combined turn into the powerful frost of Niflheim. He ignores the feeling that something isn't right in the combination of this arcana and that attack.

Yousuke, by stroke of pure luck, dodges the attack-- and in good timing. Even as gravely damaged as he is, he can still pull off a masukukaja, giving everyone the bonus of evasion. They're going to need stat boosts if they hope to match up to this shadow.

Naoto gets hit, but survives. She's still trying to find a pattern or weakness, but it's not clicking. From his appearance, it looked like he should be the Star, which was a varied arcana, but bufu wasn't a commonality among them... She curses her inability to read the enemy, right when they need it the most.

"Stay alert! It's attacking erratically!"

Edited 2012-05-18 04:07 (UTC)

"I can't get a good reading on him!" Rise stands in front of Souji, trying to scan the Shadow. "His strengths and weaknesses keep changing!"

Teddie's back on his feet now and doling out healing spells. The Shadow uses Niflheim a second time, but has a feeling he'll have to change again to keep being effective. It's frustrating, not being able to switch as easily as Souji should be able to, and he hates that it hurts him when it never hurt Souji.

"It's just like Souji! It can change!"

The team is finding that the best way to deal so far is by staying light on their feet. If they can dodge and heal effectively, they can spend as long as they need to slowly chipping away at his health. It's still just one shadow. If Souji could join them, they'd really gain the upper hand... Yousuke looks back to check on their leader, but he seems to be just as comatose as they were when they had to fight their shadows.

The Shadow continually reforms himself, attacking with the strongest attacks Souji's Personas have at their disposal, but somehow he gets the arcanas and the attacks more and more mixed up, unable to keep them straight any longer. Everything seems to blur together for him, fragmenting and then melting, colors and forms and names made meaningless.

Panta Rhei, Ragnarok, Die For Me, Black Viper, Hassou Tobi, Pralaya, Thunder Reign, Vorpal Blade, Samsara, Morning Star, Salvation, Salvation, Salvation. Then start over, shuffle the order, try to remember their names and their elements.

How does he do it?

Finally he finds himself emerging from the darkness of his hole unable to hold onto any particular form. He shifts without having to retreat first, unable to control it any longer. Personas he hadn't even stolen start to emerge: one of Metatron's wings and one of Sraosha's, Cybele's horns, Lamia's tale, Norn's clock face and Fortuna's wheel. Rangda's claws. Barong's fangs. On one side, a white and black arm emerges hold Nebiros's marionette. On the other, Alice's face peeks through, pouting. Seth, Makami, Tam Lin, Asura, Mara, Ara Mitama.

Izanagi.

What is he what is he who is he.

Yousuke looks up in terror.

They'd been run ragged by all of the attacks already. They were on what was almost their last legs just keeping up with what was being thrown at them by the ever-changing shadow. Attack after devastating attack, with no rule and no quarter. they couldn't do it. It simply wasn't possible.

But he hadn't felt the fear until now. The real, palpable, lung-rattling dread of death wrapping its cold hands around his throat. He can clear see his body crucified on some telephone pole, a new victim of a closed case, staring up into the screaming eyes of this intangible being.

How could this have been inside Souji? Only so distantly does it remind him of the real thing, when during battle he would look to his side and see the endless potential of his partner that truly made him so dangerous. Now it was all of it trying to burst free at once.

"Stand together!" He hears Naoto scream what sounds like so far away. It was all they had left. He digs his heels in and refuses to give another inch.

Naoto's voice reaches through the thick fog in Souji's soul and it made him realize it wasn't as silent there as he'd thought. He can still hear echoes, voices that sound like his friends, his classmates, everyone else he knows in Inaba, and beyond that, he can hear Igor and Margaret and all of the myriad voices recorded in Margaret's book.

Without opening his eyes, he starts to push himself up. They need him. The need him and he's not going to let them down. They've given him more than they will ever know, too much for him to leave them hanging. It's him they're fighting, after all, or some part of him, and he has to take responsibility for the things that came out of him as much as he has to take responsibility for his actions or his words.

It's hard to get to his feet, but he manages it. The Shadow screams at him, but he can't tell if it's furious or plaintive, and he doesn't have to open his eyes to know what kind of pain the Shadow's in because it was his to begin with.

"It...it's okay."

Rise turns her head to look at Souji. "S-senpai...?!"

Souji doesn't answer, staggering forward, pulling his glasses off as he does.

"--Senpai?"

Naoto turns her head to see him stumble past. She has a split second to decide what to do.

She believes in him.

She looks forward instead of behind. The screaming horror reaches forward with tendrils to try and grab Souji, but she shoots them down before they can touch him. Make an opening. That was always how they worked.

Yousuke stands ahead, knife in hand, completely intending to be the first one to fall. It was more than just being his duty as second in command. He wanted to. He wanted to protect Souji. He heard the pain in his shadow, and he knew how much it hurt. Whatever was inside of him, even if he didn't understand. Souji was there for him then and he'd be there for him now.

How did that give him the courage to face this? He had to grin a little in spite of himself.

"Come on, ugly! I'm over here!"

Teddie's right there with Yousuke, growling at the Shadow. Souji is his sensei. He helped him figure out who he is and find some value in his existence. Teddie's not going to let him down now.

Souji shuffles right past them, as though he's sleep walking. Teddie yells after him, but he sounds very far away, his voice ringing like he's yelling down into a well.

Only half aware of what he's doing, Souji spreads his arms out and finally opens his eyes, though the effort is like that of lifting a car off of the ground.

He takes another step forward, then another, and then, when there's no room left to progress, he takes a third, pressing into and then through the Shadow's side. Like putty, it yields around him and reforms as he disappears.

"Souji!"

Yousuke tries to stop him, rushing forward to get in his way, but his shadow continues to lash out at him and knock him back. Each time he's knocked to the ground, but he gets back up as if he doesn't feel the pain. That might even be true. Something like that was trivial to him in the light that he might lose his his partner. He simply wouldn't let it happen.

"Give him back, you son of a bitch!"

Battered and bruised, he keeps getting up. He can hear the others-- he can't tell which one-- yelling after him, and after Souji, but he doesn't care. Susano-O clears a path with blades of wind. When he gets close enough, he digs his knives into the gross mass as if he were trying to tear his leader out, screaming at the top of his lungs in rage and desperation.

Edited 2012-05-19 23:23 (UTC)

Here, where the world is quiet, Souji can feel all of them. All one-hundred-eighty-six of them in utter, complete harmony, not one voice out of place.

This is what he is. All these pieces are him. They aren't fragments; each piece is whole and necessary. He would be empty without them, yes, but he isn't as long as he can hear them here, like this.

The Shadow feels his acceptance and it stills, quiets, and then shrinks, returning to where it belongs, leaving Souji standing on the platform, staring at the card hovering above his cupped hands. It dissolves in soft yellow sparks and Souji sits down on the ground, tired, too tired.

Rise's hurrying to his side before he has the chance to collapse completely and Teddie follows, looking around defensively for any lingering shadows.

Yousuke's tearing away at the putty-like flesh, until everything suddenly seizes up and goes quiet. He's baffled. He would have sunk his teeth into it if it helped Souji, but then it just... stopped?

He falls down on all fours, vision obscured by sweat and blood and hair in his eyes. He raises his hands and tries to clear it away as best he can, hearing Naoto's shoes thud their way past him. Before he even can see he scrambles to follow her.

"Senpai!"

"--Partner!"

Yousuke barely trips his way to his leader, falling back down when he reaches his side, grabbing his arm to reassure himself that he's really there.

He's okay. He's okay.

Souji takes a deep breath, then a couple more and rubs his eyes with his hand.

"...You're bleeding, Yousuke."