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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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."

Yousuke looks down, and then to his hand. Oh yeah. He was bleeding, wasn't he? It wasn't even close to being his first priority, he could barely feel it.

"It's okay. I'm okay-- I thought that thing had eaten you. I was trying to tear you out."

Naoto kneels next to Souji and looks over him with a careful eye. There's no sign of anything odd, or any injury (that wasn't there before)... She lets out a sigh of relief.

"You gave us quite a scare, senpai."

Souji looks down, then back up, and offers a small smile.

"It's over now."

Which is Rise's cue to break into exaggerated tears and cling to his arm.

The entire team seems to let their shoulders down in unison. Yousuke helps to hold Souji upright, while Naoto stands and looks around. The fog that had filled the place before was now lifting, and it was easy to see the path back to the entrance.

"I have a few questions for you, senpai," Naoto says, setting the safety on her gun and carefully holstering it, "but I think it would be best if we return home and take care of ourselves-- and you-- first."

Souji nods and with help from Yousuke and Teddie, despite Rise being in the way, he gets back to his feet.

"I'll explain." After everyone's taken care of.

Yousuke throws Souji's arm over his shoulder, giving him something to lean on... And give himself something to lean on too. They were all exhausted.

"Come on buddy. I've had enough TV world today to last me a lifetime."

Souji nods while Teddie leads the way back back to the main hall. With Yousuke on one side and Rise on the other, he's not worried about losing his footing. He hardly remembers the trek back, though, except that, thankfully, nothing eventful happens until they're back in the electronics department at Junes and getting some odd looks from the few people in the area.

"Come on, into the stock room," Yousuke stage-whispers, leading the rest of them, "There shouldn't be anyone back there this time of day. We'll be cool."

Souji would rather go home and collapse on his futon or the stairs or right in the entryway as long as it was home, where everything and everyone was okay.

But he sucks it up and nods and manages to get to the stock room with the others, where he leans against the wall and considers just lying down and napping.

Everyone just needs a second to sit. Yousuke unceremoniously falls to his rump and pulls a kerchief out of his back pocket to try and clean up where he was visibly bloody, so he wouldn't get as many weird looks on the way back. There was also a back door out so they could leave incognito.

"I could call Dojima-san," Naoto suggests, "As I don't believe that senpai can make the walk back at the moment. To be frank I'd prefer the hospital because of the exposure to the fog, but if that were to spread to the media, it could cause needless panic."

"Totally," Yousuke agrees, considering spitting to make this come out better, "that's the last thing we want. Dojima-san's cool, he understand how this works."

Souji grimaces. His uncle isn't going to let it go so easily, not after what happened to Nanako in the fall. There will probably be yelling.

"I can make it."

"Can you?" Naoto says sternly, meaning I don't think you can.

"Does it really matter how you get there?" Yousuke adds, "Either way, it'll be the same. And dude, you know we're tight, but I'm not lugging your heavy ass halfway across town."

"He'll yell."

"Yeah, Dojima-san yells. That's kind of his thing."