Empress of the Desert:
Upon seeing Yukino laying on the floor, they all rushed to meet her, Riko helping her friend up into a seating position, Yukino leaning against her, as her eyes slowly opened, and she blinked a few times, before looking around, with increasing confusion:
"Riko? Mikado-kun? Ichijou-kun?"
"Yamaguchi, are you alright? Are you hurt?" Daisuke asked, kneeling next to the two girls.
She didn't seem to be hurt, at least, there didn't appear to be any external injuries, and even her uniform didn't appear to be especially tattered or dirty. Looking at her, it was if she had been placed there while she was asleep.
"No… I just feel a bit lightheaded", she touched her head with her hand, "Where am I?"
"This is the truth created by your heart".
Daisuke and Tatsuya got back up on their feet immediately, raising their weapons as they heard the distorted voice that had greeted them at the entrance, and saw that Shadow Yukino had appeared out of thin air at the end of the room, on top of one of the piles of shining gold treasure, casually walking down it, as if it were a staircase.
Riko helped Yukino regain her feet, as the dark haired girl stared at her Shadow with unbelieving eyes, confusion and fear.
"You are inside the crown jewel of your empire. The pyramid of LuckyLand", the Shadow's grinned, "It's where you were born and raised, from atop the filthy commoners who insist on defiling your legacy's name, only because they envy you and your lineage. Who cares about the opinions of sheep? They are nothing to your might".
"No… I don't think that…" Yukino's face was a mixture of hurt and confusion, "I don't…"
"Do you not?" the Shadow continued to walk towards them, her jewellery's shine shifting with every step, "Are you not tired of the disgusted looks people give you? Not because you ever did them something, but because your parents achieved what they could never? You don't care about those useless idiots. They despise your shop, but in time they will all be subjugated by it. You will take Morioh for yourself, and then no one shall question you again".
"Yamaguchi-san, that thing is your darker half", Daisuke said, getting himself further in front of her in a protective stance, giving her a quick glance, "You must accept it to defeat her".
"Poor Yukino can't even decide what she wants for herself, how can she know how she truly feels?" the Shadow gave a small chuckle, crossing her arms, "She wants to shut up everyone who doubts her family, but at the same time, she herself wants out. She doesn't want to stay tied up to her family's business. She wants them to fail as much as the commoners".
"No!" Yukino had jumped to her feet, almost falling back down if not held by Riko, "That's not true! That's a lie!"
"You want your family's business to fail so you can finally escape from everything! From this town and their jealousy, from your family's business, from yourself!" the Shadow opened her arms wide, "Look at me: I am you!"
"No! You're not me!"
Yukino's terrified scream echoed inside the pyramid, and no else dared to speak until it died down, as the Shadow was enveloped in a dark flame, shifting and growing more and more, as the treasure around her was enveloped by the flames of transfiguration, becoming one with the Shadow.
"Garm, protect Yamaguchi!" Daisuke screamed behind him, as he, Tatsuya and Riko took steps ahead.
"Got it!" the dog said, stepping into position in front of the girl who had stumbled to the ground, frozen in fear.
The Shadow completed its transformation then, the fire surrounding it dying down to allow the team to see its new form: A gigantic sphynx had appeared before them, almost completely made of gold that seemed to shift in place, like it had a video glitch. Its head, however, had the top of it emptied out, as if it had been broken, and inside it stood a pitch black humanoid chained to it, with dark smoke coming from its head, like a sort of ethereal hair. Underneath the shadowy woman, the large feral mouth of the sphynx was open, showing sharp golden teeth.
"I am a Shadow. The true self"
The chains rattled around the humanoid part of the Shadow as it moved its arms and legs and, as it did, the Sphynx's mouth was opened wider and a stream of scorching fire came from it, aimed at the trio.
"Protect us, Santigold!"
Riko's Stand stood in front of them, generating a powerful gust of wind that managed to hold the fire before it reached them, keeping it at bay, but as it did, Riko stumbled to one knee: The power and heat of the flames was too strong, especially for a Riko that was already tired out by the fight at the entrance.
"Hey, ya big bitch! Come get me!" Shouted Tatsuya.
The blond stepped around the clash of forces, running around the left side of the sphynx, in an attempt to bait it, successfully grabbing its attention, making it stop targeting Riko and focus its attention on him.
The Sphynx move its front paws to try and smash him, but Tatsuya managed to slide past the first strike, rolling past the second one. The Sphynx seemed to be incapable of moving its hind legs and move out of the way, but just as Tatsuya deemed himself out of range, the Sphyx's tail moved, trying to crash into him like a giant whip.
"Oh crap!" Tatsuya cursed loudly, "Starsailor!"
His Stand appeared then, creating a pulse under Tatsuya, making him jump much farther and faster than he could normally, clearing the sphynx fully, to the other side, where he created another pull, this time pulling him safely down. He celebrated his quick thinking, but immediately regretted as the Shadow had turned around to try and attack him again.
"Little help here!" Tatsuya cried out.
"Lazarus!"
Daisuke jumped in front of his teammate, summoning his Stand to throw a glass spear forward, aimed at the exposed humanoid core, but, immediately, it pulled on its chains again, and the Sphynx moved its paw with impressive speed, making the glass spear get lodged deep into the golden stone palm, however, no damage seemed to be really done, as its liveliness seemed to come exclusively from the woman chained to the head. That seemed to be the true Shadow.
"Damn it," Daisuke muttered under his breath, before adding louder for Tatsuya to hear: "We have to hit the core, or we won't get anywhere".
"Die, mortals!"
The chains rattled once more, and another stream of fire fell upon them, Tatsuya acting even before Daisuke could create a glass wall, summoning another gravity pulse that pulled the two of them back towards the others, dodging the fire successfully, but both of them rolling on the ground. Riko immediately neared them, kneeling down to check on them, but as she did, the Sphynx was reading another flame blast.
"Riko!" Daisuke called out, getting back up, pointing forward, "Aim for the core! Force her to defend!"
"Will do, chief!" Riko took steps ahead, nodding, "Wind blades!"
Santigold flapped its wings, moving its arms forward slashing the air in front of her, and from it two violent gust of wind, sharp as a knife went towards the humanoid core who once again raised one of its paws to blocking the strike, as it had blocked Lazarus' spear moments before.
"Keep attacking it! It can't get off the ground", Garm called out, behind them, "If you keep forcing it to protect its core, it won't be able to fight back!"
Riko pulled her arms back, before pushing forward again, her Stand imitating her and calling further a stronger wind blast, forcing the Sphynx to keep her paw up, protecting her weak core.
They had come upon an advantage. The Sphynx was virtually invincible, no matter how much they tried to hack away at it, but the real Shadow would certainly not be able to effectively tank any hit. If they managed to force the Sphynx to protect it, and then find a way past that defence, they could defeat it.
"Tatsuya!" Daisuke called, pointing towards the Shadow, "You thing you can force its paw down?"
"Huh? Oh!" Tatsuya made a large grin, once he realised his partner's plan, "Leave it to me!"
Tatsuya spun his knife in his hand, slashing the air in front of him to call out his Stand that formed another gravity sphere, this one however, was the largest he had formed yet, having enough time to charge thanks to the constant wind blast that forced their opponent into blocking, and just trying to swing wildly with no actual aim with its left paw.
With impeccable timing Santigold ceased her attack to allow Startsailor to slide in front of her, sending out the powerful gravity sphere underneath the sphynx's head, the powerful purple energy pulses were so strong that, despite the incredible resiliency, the sphynx's paw was forced to lower, exposing her core.
"Lazarus!"
"Santigold!"
With their backs to each other, Daisuke and Riko both pointed their weapons forward, as both of their Stands rushed from them, Santigold sending a powerful gust of wind that mixed itself with Lazarus' sharp glass shards, passing through the gap that Tatsuya's gravity pull had created, hitting the core violently, creating large smoking gashes where the shards slashed past it, the winds strong enough to break the rattling chains as a terrifying scream was heard from it, enough to force the party to cover their ears immediately. It was full of anger and pain, but also strangely sorrowful.
"That… That scream" Yukino said, getting up almost instantly, not covering her ears.
The golden sphynx started to lose its strange shifting glow, as slowly it started to crumble, as its core detached itself from it, falling down from the hollowing, towards the ground.
"N-No!"
Yukino, seemingly shaking out of her trance, ran past the group, passing right beside them and towards the crumbling sphynx ignoring the warning calls of her classmates. Yukino held her arms out, catching the darkened and smoking core in her arms, falling back, into the ground with the impact, the shielding the Shadow.
"Yukino!" Riko called out, rushing to meet her once again, as she had minutes before.
The Shadow's form had reverted, leaving her darkened smoking form to appear once again as Yukino's Pharaoh-esque doppelgänger. They separated momentarily, Yukino letting her Shadow getting free from her to step back on to her feet and giving her hand forward letting Yukino grab it to pull herself back up as well.
"Those screams… I didn't get it when I first heard you", Yukino started to say, almost as if oblivious to the others behind her, "I thought you weren't me. But you are. Those screams were of someone scared and alone… And that's what I am".
Yukino smiled, a scared smile, but very much genuine, perhaps the most genuine smile Daisuke had ever seen her with.
"Every day, wherever I go, people always treat me different because of LuckyLand. They talk like we're a sort of cancer on this town, because we take away other people's livelihood, but my parents keep telling me that I should be proud of our family's hard work, and that one day, this place will be mine…" She bit her lip, "I felt trapped. I feel trapped. I don't want people to hate me, so I don't want to stay and work at LuckyLand, but I also don't want my parents to think I don't appreciate them or what they do…"
"Yukino…" Riko mumbled to herself.
"It's okay", she said, holding both of her Shadows hands, "I realize that I should just do what's right for myself. That I should stop bottling up about my feelings. That I shouldn't feel bad for wanting something different", she raised her and the Shadow's hands, "You were chained, but now you are free. And you are me".
Her Shadow smiled and nodded, as its body was enveloped in a blue glow, particles shifting within it, as its form changed once more, now to her true form as a Stand. Levitating in front of Yukino was a lean woman with light purple soft skin, wearing a midnight blue and black dress, with light blue feathers along the shoulders and on the sleeves. Incandescent light blue hair fell in two long bangs in front of her ears, but the upper part of her face was covered by a midnight blue witch's hat, with a red juel in front, over three small light blue feathers.
"I am thou. Thou art I", the Stand called, placing one of its gloves hands on her chest, "I am Arabella, the mask of the Empress. I am your sword and your shield".
With its words, celebrating their new pact, Arabella transfigured into the blue sparks that flew into her new mistress that placed a hand on her own chest, with a sweet smile.
"Good job, Yamaguchi!" Tatsuya said, storing his knife on his belt, and putting his hands behind his head with a big smile, "You're one of us now!"
"Oh! How rude of me, I forgot!" Yukino turned towards them, making an elaborate bow, "Thank you so much!"
"We're just glad you are alright", Riko said, scratching her head with a dumb smile, being caught by surprise by the sudden bow and thanking.
"Ah… guys?"
The four of them looked towards Garm, who was standing next to the corridor where they had entered from, where the door was wide open.
"This place was formed from Empress's cognition…" Garm looked around, with what seemed to be nervous anticipation, "Since her cognition changed…"
Almost on cue, a strong rumbling began inside the pyramid, almost as if an earthquake was taking place. Dust flying in from newly formed cracks inside the room, as a few of the golden bricks shifted in place and began to fall down.
"This place is going to fall apart!?" Tatsuya screamed loud enough for the echo to be heard above the loud rumble.
"We need to get out, right now!" Daisuke shouted.
Immediately, they rushed towards the door, but as they reached it, the tunnel caved down, getting crushed underneath rubble and dust, forcing the group back into the room.
"What are we gonna do!?" Riko asked in a frantic panic.
"We have to go shift back here", Daisuke pulled out his phone.
They all rushed to get near him, and as soon as Daisuke pressed his app, the blinding light came over them, ripping them from the pyramid and into what seemed to be a void, before finally shooting them back out, crashing into the ground.
The large sound of their crash could be heard far, as well as the groans of pain from the group. When Daisuke opened his eyes again, he was laying on the ground, his head against Riko's legs and his own legs over Tatsuya's head. Yukino had fallen over him and, next to them, Garm was laying down.
"Everything hurts…" Tatsuya mumbled under his breath, as the team awkwardly separated, and got back on their feet.
Looking around, they could see that they were in what appeared to be an electronics store, specifically, surrounded by televisions. The sound of their crash into the place had garnered attention, as customers that were passing by, turned to look at them.
"This is LuckyLand's electronics store", Yukino said, recognizing the place, "We're back…?"
"We should get away from here, people are staring at us" Garm advised.
"Hey, is there a dog over here?" a male deep voice came from around a corner, "I heard some barking".
"Shit", Tatsuya cursed, "Good going, you useless dog".
"Shut up", Daisuke punched his friend on the arm, before looking back at Riko and Yukino, "Riko, stay with her. We'll get going before we get in trouble".
Riko nodded next to the confused Yukino, Daisuke crouching down to pick up Garm, holding the dog next to him as he and Tatsuya walked hunched over to not be seen by the guard, as they tried their best to leave the store, trying their hardest to hide weapons and a dog. They got all sorts of weird looks, and even some glances from the security, but they managed to "fast-walk" quickly enough to leave the place, back into the district, where Daisuke finally could let the annoyed Garm go.
"Warn me next time you grab me!" Garm complained loudly, "Rude!"
People turned to look at them once again, however the fact that Garm was talking and not actually barking didn't seem to register to them. As he heard Tatsuya and Garm continue their bickering, he wondered if only people that had heard Garm speak in the other world could hear him speak in the real one, or maybe it had to do with the fact they were Stand Masters.
Daisuke and Tatsuya's phones vibrated at the same time, and as they shared a quick glance with each other, they took their phones out, checking their messages:
Strength: Yukino is with her parents. she's safe.