I do not own JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or the Persona series.
"What the… that's me!?"
Gyro thought Kanji's reaction to his Shadow was appropriate. After all, how could have been prepared to see what was essentially a clone of himself. Although the way his Shadow was dressed was probably what really contributed to his shock.
Thanks to a prior warning, Gyro had been somewhat prepared to face his Shadow back in his doppelganger's dungeon. Unfortunately, Kanji hadn't had any warning at all, and as Gyro stared on as the flamboyant Shadow posed he couldn't help but lament that this situation had come to pass.
"If only we got to him sooner…"
"That's right! Although, I guess I'm not the you that you want to see…" The Shadow stated with a giggle. "You want people to see Kanji the threatening thug! Someone tough and manly! But that's not what you are. Oh no cove, not at all…"
"This is a prank right? You guys are playing some sick joke at me aren't you!?" Kanji turned around and faced them while pointing frantically at his Shadow. "Answer me!"
"No! It's totally real! We're not the cause for this!" Yosuke shouted out as he too pointed to the Shadow. "But that's not the point! Listen, you can't say that thing isn't you!"
"Right. First priority is avoiding a fight." Gyro thought, glad that Yosuke was on the ball. Even if they hadn't been able to get to Kanji quick enough, there was still a chance of preventing a fight.
But if they had to…
"What the hell are you saying!?" Kanji looked back at the Shadow. "Of course that thing isn't-!"
"NO!" Yukiko shouted, stopping Kanji from finishing his sentence. "Kanji-kun, please don't! You need to trust us on this!"
"Spoilsports." The Shadow said with a small pout. Of course, they all ignored this.
"This whole situation is crazy! And you're telling me to trust you?!" Kanji shouted back at the girl. "What happens if I don't!?"
"Then we could all die!" Johnny shouted, glaring at the real Kanji as he kept fussing. "So just shut up and listen to us!"
"Could have said it more tactfully don't you think Johnny?" Gyro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We don't have time to be tactful!"
"Guys…" Teddie began, causing the other teens to look at him. "W-we need to get out of here! That Grizzly isn't even released yet and I can tell he's beary bad news!"
"The hell is that!?" Kanji shouted as he pointed at Teddie.
"Aww, isn't he cute? I know you think he is…" The Shadow added its own two cents, causing Gyro and the others to blink while Kanji's face flushed red.
"N-No! No I don't!"
"Oh, stop lying…"
Gyro didn't know Kanji Tatsumi that well. Or at all really. He only met him that one time at the Shopping District. "He seemed kind of like an asshole… But then again, he didn't act that way until…" Gyro's eyes narrowed. "Until I kept pressing on about that little bear!"
Gyro wasn't an idiot. He knew the thing came from Kanji even though the teen denied it. He thought it was kind of ironic but cool. A delinquent-looking kid who like cute stuff. When Kanji refused to take it back, Gyro kept it. "Have it in my pants pocket too."
But why did Kanji have such a hard time admitting that he found things cute?
"Kanji, stop arguing with it! It's just trying to get you upset!" Chie shouted as she pointed at the door. "Come on! We need to run out and…!"
And just like that, as if on cue, the doors shut themselves closed.
"Come now chickens, do you really think that I would let you escape? Remember what I told you…" The Shadow sighed in what seemed like ecstasy. "As soon as my cove says the magic words, I'm going to make you all die in a way most fantabulosa!"
"Yeah, guess we should have seen that coming…" Gyro muttered to himself, his eyes scanning the room.
"Will you stop talking like that!?" Kanji shouted at the Shadow, glaring hatefully at the creature.
"Why? This is how you think you should talk, all things considered…"
"What the hell's that supposed to mean!?" Kanji then began to stomp towards the Shadow, hit teeth gritting together.
"Kanji-kun! No!" Yukiko shouted, attempting to follow Kanji only for him to glare at her.
"You stay out of this! I'm going to give this jackass a lesson!"
"But you can't! You're doing exactly what it wants dude!" Yosuke pointed out, tapping his foot in nervousness.
But Kanji did not stop. Not even a little.
"W-what do we do!?" Chie turned to Gyro and Johnny. "He's not going to listen to us!"
"We need to knock out Kanji." Johnny said quickly. Chie looked appalled at the choice, but Johnny continued. "We're not in the best shape. If we want to avoid this fight…"
"Let him do this." Gyro said suddenly, causing the others to look at him in shock.
He knew that the decision didn't make sense. After all, why fight rather than try to avoid it?
"But our opportunity to escape has closed up. Even if we knocked out Kanji, we wouldn't have anywhere to go." Gyro thought to himself with a frown.
"You can't be serious…" Johnny spoke through gritted teeth, nervous sweat on his brow.
"Look, we've two aces to use if the situation calls for it. If we use them correctly, we can beat this thing when it unleashes itself an-."
"I SAID SHUT UP!"
Kanji's shout stopped Gyro from giving his reasons, and all of the teens looked back at the shirtless delinquent holding his Shadow by the neck, a bruise on its left cheek with Kanji's right hand clenched into a fist.
"Why? We both really hate girls. You know this as do I! I mean, it's not really a huge revelation…" The Shadow's face finally lost its damning smirk, morphing into an expression of disgust. "When we were kids, we tried SO hard to hang out with them! After all, we liked the exact same things! But whenever we went near them they went 'Ew! Get away from us!' And when we showed them the cute things we sewed, they would go 'You like to sew!? What a queer!' Any time we painted a picture they would laugh out 'What kind of guy paints?'."
"Y-You prick!" Kanji let go of his Shadow and decked it across the face once more with his right fist, causing it to fall to the ground. "Stop saying that!"
"K-Kanji Tatsumi likes to sew? And paint?" Chie whispered out in amazement. Gyro could understand why in a sense. It definitely went against the image Kanji presented.
"Well… that's something I never really wanted to find out." Yosuke stated a bit more loudly, and Johnny punched him in his arm. "Ow!"
"You're not helping, jackass!" Johnny then pointed to Kanji, who was looking back at them with eyes full of fear.
"D-don't listen to this bastard! He's lying! I don't like those things!"
"Kanji-kun, its nothing to be ashamed about…" Yukiko began, only for the Shadow to begin laughing.
"Honeys, why don't you drop the charade?" The Shadow got back up onto its feet before pointing at Yukiko. "You never said it out loud, but we knew how you used to look at us when we were kids! Like we were some kind of freak!"
Yukiko looked appalled at the declaration. "N-No! I would never…! Kanji-kun, you need to believe me and…!"
Kanji didn't say anything, he just looked back at the Shadow and shouted, "Hey! This is between you and me, freak! Leave her out of this!"
"But why? Girls are so scary and horrible, and she's one of them. They are so arrogant and self-centered! They cry when you get angry, they gossip behind your back, and on top of that they spread nasty lies about you! Every day when we were kids, they would go 'You should put away those girly things Kanji-kun! You should be tougher Kanji-kun! You should be MANLIER Kanji-kun!' But…"The Shadow then threw its hands into the air in exasperation. "What the heck does that even mean? What does it mean to be tough? What does it mean to be manly?"
"Kanji acts like this… because he was made fun of as a kid?" Gyro knew full well that there are masks that people wear in society. Masks that people use to seem more friendly and such to others. But Kanji… he seemed to take it to the next level.
"We need to stop this damn it…!" Johnny looked at Gyro. "Why the hell can't we just knock him out and save us a fight!?"
"Because we can't avoid this fight, Johnny. You've tried three times plus with me, and it never worked did it?" Well, that's what Gyro assumed. And considering the ashamed looks on the other teen's faces, he seemed to be right. "So we fight. We win, and if we don't…"
"We're majorly screwed. Yeah, we get the picture." Yosuke finished with a sigh. Chie looked uncomfortable, but nodded in agreement. Yukiko and Johnny kept looking at him with… amazement? Or perhaps they were disturbed by his decision to just fight since escape was out of the picture.
But either way, not matter how they looked at it, the situation had just two options.
Victory or death.
"Might as well just get the thing started already."
"Some beary funky mojo's coming off of that Shadow. Get ready Junkyouin! Sensei! Everyone!" Teddie shouted, and Gyro looked to the Shadow and noticed some dark energy seeming to be coming off of its form.
"What does that even mean?"
"Girls are not scary! I never thought that!" Kanji argued, and as if on cue the smirk returned to the Shadow's face.
"Men… are so much better."
"So he's really…?" Yosuke began, and Johnny simply groaned.
"Yosuke, seriously. Not now."
"W-what did you just say?" Kanji let out a horrified whisper as the Shadow continued.
"Men respect each other. Men are able to understand one another. Men wouldn't say those mean, awful things to me!" The Shadow then began to giggle as it said, "So if anyone is going to accept me, accept us… the only ones we have to like must be men!"
"That… doesn't sound right…" Gyro muttered out, his eyes narrowing. The way this Shadow was talking… it wasn't actually saying that Kanji was gay.
"That's not true!" Kanji shouted at his Shadow, his teeth grinding against one another.
"Oh, but it is. You see, you're me… and cove, I am you."
"Like hell you are!" Kanji's hands clenched hard into fists.
"I hope we're not going to regret this…" Chie groaned out.
"We probably will." Johnny replied blandly.
Gyro simply rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Joestar."
"There's… there's no way in hell that you're…" Kanji then threw a right hook, socking the Shadow directly in its left cheek again. "…ME!"
"Get ready everyone…" Gyro stated, letting go of Johnny and upholstering the ball by his right hip. He held it in the palm of his hand as a blue card appeared over the ball, floating. The same thing happening to the other teens as they got ready.
Got ready to strike.
"Teehee…" The Shadow giggled as more dark energy began to engulf it. "Sorry cove, but…" Then, a wall of black energy surrounded it, and Kanji was thrown back by what could be best described as a shockwave from the power. "I AM YOU! AND THERE'S NO DENYING IT!"
"Gah!" Kanji fell on his ass, landing in front of Gyro as he stared at the spectacle his Shadow was putting on. "Aw damn… the hell is going on now!?"
"You know those boss battles in video games?" Gyro asked, and when Kanji nodded he continued. "Well… this is pretty much that. Just get behind us, and try to accept this thing as you."
"What? But that thing…" Before Kanji could continue, the energy began to die down and a massive form began to rise.
"Man, that's one big Shadow…" Yosuke muttered while Gyro grinned.
"Too late to back out now." Gyro then tossed up his steel ball, and when it made contact with the card the mystical object broke into pieces, much like everyone else's.
Time make sure they didn't all die here.
The Shadow Kanji was now a humongous ten-foot creature with bulging muscles. Roses outlined the 'neck' of the creature, which was simply the upper portion of the Shadow's former human form hugging itself. The roses also went down from the neck area, splitting the creature in half. The left side was white skinned while the right was a near pitch black. On the Shadow's right breast written in white kanji was the word 'lightning'. Covering both of its arms were thorns, seeming to come from the roses itself. In both of its hands, it carried massive gender symbols made entirely of gold, and to top it all off the thing was still only wearing a toga.
"I am a Shadow…" The creature stated, a sickening smirk forming on its face. "Your true inner self."
"W-What the fuck!?" Kanji screamed out.
"Told you it's kinda like a boss battle." Gyro stated, his eyes narrowing. "Alright, let's get this sta-!"
But before Gyro could finish his boast, suddenly the ceiling shook before pieces of it fell down in front of the Shadow. There was a sound of thunder and rain, and two massive forms suddenly dropped in front of the Shadow Kanji, to the right and left.
Both of them were the same creature, near identical to the Shadow Kanji. Namely that the right side of their skin was black while the left was white. However, that's where the similarities ended. They had no hair, and their faces looked nothing like Kanji's. Instead they seemed to have the faces of every stereotypical bodybuilder ever complete with mustaches that went from their lips to their chins. The only way to tell the difference between them was that the Shadow to the left was sneering in contempt at them with thin eyebrows while the one to the right smiled and had big eyebrows. Also the Shadow to the left had on its right breast written in white the kanji for 'thunder' while the one on the right had the kanji for 'rain'.
They were also clad in speedos and nothing else, striking poses as they stood next to Shadow Kanji.
"Well, this complicates things." Gyro remarked, while Johnny rolled his eyes.
"No shit."
"What the… reinforcements!?" Yosuke shouted as he pointed at the other Shadows. "Why the hell do they look like that!?"
"That's not important, Yosuke!" Chie snapped back before looking at Teddie. "Why are they here!?"
"I don't know… but they seem to be connected to Kanji's Shadow! That thing's funky energy must have attracted them to this area, and are now following its instructions because it's the most powerful! Oh this is beary bad…!"
"Kanji-kun, I need you to relax…" Yukiko began, turning to Kanji and placing a hand on his shoulder. "You need to accept this part of yourself. You have to, otherwise…"
"No way… there's no way that thing can be me!" Kanji shouted as he pointed at the Shadow. "I-I don't think like that! I don't talk like that! I d-don't like those things! And even if I did… even if I did I'm not…!"
Gyro clicked his tongue. Now he knew. Now he knew why the Shadow acted, talked, and dressed like a gay stereotype. It was solely because of how the real Kanji would react. The thing was so over the top that Kanji would reject it no matter what. "What a sickeningly efficient process and reasoning."
The Shadow's smirk grew as it looked at Kanji, at his continued rejection. "I want to FINALLY be honest with myself! And I'll kill everyone who tries to stop me with great pleasure!" It then looked at the Shadow to its right. "Tough Guy…" Then to the Shadow to its left. "Nice Guy…" Then, it stared at Gyro and the others. "Kill them, and make them give out those fantabulosa screams of pain! But leave that wannabe to me!"
"BRING IT!" Both shouted at the same time, stepping forward.
"Everyone, split up!" Gyro shouted as he pointed to Tough and Nice Guy. "You guys handle them." Gyro then grinned at Johnny and pointed at the Shadow Kanji. "We're going after the big fish!"
"This is a bad idea!" Johnny shouted, letting go of Gyro and having Tusk move him with a small and slow whirlwind.
"What's a worse idea is having to face all three of them all at once!" Chie pointed out before rushing towards Tough Guy. "I've got this guy!"
"Wait, Chie! You can't face him alone!" Yukiko shouted as she ran after the girl.
"Damn it, does this mean I'll have to face this guy alone!?" Yosuke whined as he and Jiraiya ran in front of Nice Guy.
Surprisingly, both Shadows seemed to stop and focus on the teens in front of them.
"They're willing to let us go straight to their boss?" Something about this screamed trap, but that could wait.
They would either win or die.
There weren't really any other options.
"Oh, this is going to be fun!" The Shadow Kanji declared with glee as it threw the gender symbols up into the air. "Now I'll…!"
"Oh, shut up!" Johnny shouted as he pointed to the Shadow with Tusk mimicking its movement. In a second, a whirlwind appeared underneath the Shadow's left foot and knocked it to its right side. The creature screamed in displeasure as the gender symbols fell onto the ground, impeding themselves into the wood.
"Alright!" Gyro shouted with a grin as he looked back at Yosuke, Jiraiya throwing its shurriken at Nice Guy who backed away, who ducked and weaved in order to avoid the blades of wind. Rather than allow their enemy time to make the first strike, they were taking the advantage. "Keep it up guys! We can destroy these things before they have a time to…"
Gyro then blinked, and noticed something was wrong. "The steam… did it just get thicker?" He looked at the Shadow Kanji, who was now grinning.
"Gyro!? What the hell's the holdup?" Johnny asked, dispelling Tusk and summoning Izanagi in its place.
Gyro then looked at Chie and Yukiko. He could see Konohana Sakuya begin to point at Tough Guy, who grinned in excitement. "Yukiko! Don't…!"
But it was too late.
The small petal flew out, and got in front of Tough Guy's face. "I'm finishing this now!" Yukiko cried, so sure of herself. So determined.
But it was for naught.
Rather than there being a massive explosion of fire, one which could melt steel and seriously burn flesh. There was a puff of smoke. One which caused Tough Guy to take a step or two back from the hot air, but nothing more.
"W-What?" Yukiko questioned out loud, and Teddie then decided to add his opinion.
"Oh no!" Teddie shouted, waving about. "There is too much moisture in the air! In order for Yuki-chan's attacks to work properly, the air needs to be nice and dry! The humidity must have caused her Persona's attacks to diminish a beary big amount!"
"That's right!" The Shadow Kanji declared, its muscly arms shifting, beginning to pick its body up. "Did you all honestly think I didn't plan on how to counter your attacks? I control the environment of this place! That includes the steam of my very fantabulosa bath house! With this much moisture in the air, her attacks are completely useless!"
"Damn!" Chie cried out, Tomoe beginning to spin its staff in a circle, a blue line tracing with it. "Yukiko stay back! Looks like I'm going to need to…!"
"Sorry honey…" Tough Guy spoke in its rough, husky voice. It jumped forward, almost in the blink of the eye. Crossing the distance between it and the tomboy within a second with its fist reared back. "I'm not going to give you time to draw that!"
"Shit!" Gyro opened his mouth and shouted, "Chie! Get out of the way!"
But Chie could not. Her mind and body seemed to be in a state of shock over Tomoe being interrupted from its rather showy attack. Tough Guy quickly jumped to the left in order to avoid Tomoe's kick and jabbed with its right fist against Chie's left side.
"GHK!" Chie let out a short, strangled cry of pain as she was flung back.
"Chie!" Yukiko, Gyro, and Johnny cried out in once. Konohana Sakuya flew back and caught Chie's body, wrapping its arms around the girl as she coughed up saliva and blood before setting her down.
"Are you alri-?" Yukiko's cry of concern was cut short as she noticed something.
Her fan and its case were vibrating.
"I-I'm alright…" Chie gave a wince before muttering, "Probably going to have problems in the bathroom later though…"
Gyro couldn't help but feel concerned about the state of Chie's kidney. It was VERY possible that the fist had hit it, especially with Chie's comment.
But right now, that wasn't Gyro's biggest concern.
What was his biggest concern was the fact that forming on Chie's left side was a black plus mark surrounded by a circle of little hearts.
"The hell is that?" Johnny muttered out loud, staring at Chie along with Gyro.
They got their answer soon enough as Yukiko then began to grip her fan as it caused the young Japanese teen to turn towards Chie and skid on her heels towards her friend.
"I-I can't stop it!" Yukiko cried out in fear before her eyes widened, and the small dagger hidden in the case flew out.
Directly towards Chie.
"Chie! Look out!" Gyro cried out, and Chie quickly brought up her left arm in a desperate attempt to block the incoming projectile.
Metal tore through flesh and ground against bone while blood was drawn.
"DAMMIT!" Chie cried out in pain as her right hand gripped on the dagger's handle while the weapon itself was inside Chie's left arm above the elbow but before the wrist. Thankfully, it was only through the skin and muscle and wasn't tearing through any important arteries of damage the bone. But it was in one side and out the other with blood pouring out and staining Chie's clothes.
And it was trying to move to Chie's side.
"What the hell is going on!?" Kanji shouted as Teddie placed his hands over his mouth.
"OH NOOOO!" Teddie cried out while pointing to Tough Guy. "That Grizzly's power revolves around magnetism! That means anything made out of metal will be attracted to whatever bears that mark!"
"How the hell can it do…!?" Gyro then noticed Kanji cry out in pain as he gripped his lower jaw. "Gah! My teeth! They hurt! They…!"
"He's wearing too much metal!" Gyro screamed out in his head, noticing the three earnings on Kanji's left ear and the nose piercing were also being drawn to Chie's general direction. "Kanji! Get away! Get away now!"
But it was too late.
Kanji screamed as his piercings were ripped off his flesh with blood streaming from where they once were. A piece of metal, possibly a filling, came out of Kanji's mouth as well. They zoomed in onto Chie and hit their target. Chie hissed in pain as the metal fragments dug into her skin.
"Make Tomoe go away Chie!" Gyro cried out, noticing the blades of the staff and other metal on the Persona begin to vibrate. If they went at Chie, she was as good as dead. Chie nodded her head, confirming that she heard Gyro. "Damn it! Move!" Gyro cried out as he pushed Johnny away. He felt the slight tugging on his grills, and his steel balls also begin to move in Chie's general direction. "Teddie! Get Kanji further away from where you guys are now! Hurry!"
"Right-o Junkyouin!" Teddie shouted and grabbed Kanji by his arms before pulling the teen back. Eventually, Kanji's zipper ceased in fighting against the confines of the cloth it was attached to and returned to normal.
Gyro had noticed the fact the Shadow Kanji's gender symbols weren't moving, being around five meters away from Chie's general direction.
Which meant it had a five-meter radius.
"Gah!" Johnny cried out as they both slammed onto the floor. He opened his eyes, and they widened. "NO!" Gyro looked back to see why.
While Tomoe disappeared from view as Chie focused all her attention on keeping the dagger away from her side and getting a mortal wound, Tough Guy had jumped towards Yukiko. Its two hands curled into fists and shooting forward. The left heading towards Yukio's chest, while the right honed in on Konohana Sakuya's head.
Johnny winced as he then lifted his right hand, and a new blue card appeared. "Lilim!"
The Persona appeared, and waved its arms while giving a flirtatious wink at Johnny. The shadow of Tough Guy then suddenly came to life. Like vines, inky darkness shot upwards and wrapped itself around Tough Guy's body. Restraining its arms, legs, and torso. It attempted to bring the arms down.
But it wasn't enough.
While it prevented the Shadow from laying a mortal blow of Yukiko and Konohana Sakuya the left arm still tapped against Yukio's chest and the right brushed against Konohana Sakuya's legs. Instantly, two plus marks formed on Yukiko's chest and one on Konohana Sakuya's legs.
Within seconds, Yukiko was now trying to stop her fan from plunging into her chest and breaking her ribs. While screaming as the pins on Konohana Sakuya's skirt then began digging into its legs. Dots of blood began forming on Yukiko's pants, showing the injuries on her Persona were being also reflected on her. "G-Go away!"
In that instant, Konohana Sakuya had ceased to appear on the mortal plane. However, Yukiko continued to struggle against her fan. And at that moment, the shadow tendrils ceased to restrain Tough Guy. They disappeared, and Tough Guy was back on its feet still grinning.
"Shit! Was that Lilim's power!?" Gyro shouted at Johnny, who was now beginning to sweat and pant in fear.
"I-I had to do it! We're in enough deep shit without one of our numbers dying!" Johnny's response was once again logical and realistic. The odds would look so much worse if Yukiko bit the dust.
Then, they saw the massive shadow of the creature they had practically forgotten while watching Chie and Yukiko's struggles.
"I am so glad you got to witness a taste of my sweet little dilly boy's Points of Authority." The Shadow Kanji spoke with a grin as it reared back its left leg. "But you should pay closer attention to who you're supposed to be fighting!"
"Jack Frost!" Johnny cried out, and a wall of ice appeared in front of them. Separating them from the Shadow.
"If he hadn't done that, we would've been dead."
Gyro could now only glance at Johnny. He was continuing to pant and sweat, his eyes darting left and right. "He's scared. Scared out of his mind."
And why shouldn't he be? One of their trump cards had already been revealed. It was very likely the same trick wouldn't work twice. Shadow Kanji would just make either Tough or Nice Guy detach from their opponents and then just focus back on Johnny and Gyro if Johnny used Lilim again to restrain it.
The odds were not in their favor.
"Kanji, listen to me!" Johnny shouted, looking back at the teen who was now holding his bleeding ear. "If you want us to survive it just accept this thing!"
"Right, accept it." That would turn the battle back to their favor. The Shadow would be hurt, distracted even. "Just do it man! Trust us!"
"Why!? Why the hell should I do that!?" Kanji shouted as he glanced at the Shadow. "There's no way in hell that thing…?"
"Goddamnit! I'm sick of that!" Johnny shouted as the Shadow Kanji continued to pound on the ice wall… almost as if on purpose. "How the hell do you think we're still breathing!? We went through the same damn thing too! So stop being such a…!"
"Why? Why should he accept me? Because it would make your lives easier?" The Shadow Kanji spoke, one of its beefy arms grabbing onto the ledge of the ice wall and hefting itself up so that its head could peek out from the top. "But wait… you're the ones who passed up on getting to him first when you arrived here. All to make it easier on yourselves."
Gyro cursed as Kanji blinked. "Wait, what?"
"That's right!" At that moment, the ice wall gave way. And Gyro along with Johnny noticed that along its right elbow it was spinning the golden gender symbol. Little sparks of electricity were coming off of it, fizzling and popping like firecrackers. "They left you for last, going to rescue him…!" The Shadow pointed at Gyro, sneering hatefully at him but the sneer grew even more pronounced when the creature jabbed its finger right at Yosuke. "Because he could not handle me, the one who shows how you truly feel! He thought that we were some kind of freak that would do things to him if we were even near him!"
"What!? No!" Yosuke tried to shout. "I-I didn't…! I mean, I thought that…!"
"Yosuke! Shut up!" Gyro had to shout that, because he saw Kanji's face fall. Grow more and more horrified with Yosuke's rather weak denial but also confession.
It did not help in the slightest.
"No! No!" Kanji shouted, punching the floor while the Shadow grinned.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" The Shadow then began spinning the second gender symbol on its left arm. Electricity dancing an intricate and fast-paced tango. "People like that were always around us! Always judging us…! Always considering us queers just because of our tastes! They don't think we're manly!? Well, screw them!"
"Ah, shit!" Yosuke shouted out. "Whatever that thing is doing, it doesn't look good!"
"That's an understatement." Gyro thought to himself.
"Damn it…" Johnny shouted as Jack Frost then disappeared. A new card appeared in front of Johnny, and he shouted, "Pyro Jack!"
He crushed the card, and in the Persona's place appeared. A small, two foot tall Halloween pumpkin floating in the air. Part of its body being a simple black cloak wrapped around an invisible body while a black witch hat was on top of the carved head. In its eyes were two glowing red rubies which burned like flames. Appropriate, since only a white gloved hand stuck out from the cloak and it held a small gas lamp with a small burning flame inside.
"Better…" Jiraiya then tore off one of its Shuriken, throwing it horizontally over Nice Guy's head. "…End this…" The weapon passed over, only giving a small nick to the Shadow's head which began to bleed. "…Fast!"
"Hm?" The Shadow muttered, now focusing all its attention at the spinning weapon.
"Thanks Yosuke!" That was a distraction. Gyro held no illusions that the Shadow Kanji had something in mind to deal with Jiraiya's attack.
But he wasn't prepared for Puck.
Gyro unfastened the two balls at his waist. His eyes honed in at the Shadow's human head, the left side to be precise, while ignoring everything else. He had to. He had to focus on his target, or else he missed and they were all screwed.
Gyro breathed in and breathed out.
Then, he let his right arm spring into action.
Gyro brought his right arm back, his fingers tightly gripping the ball while his wrist went loose. He stepped forward with his right foot, and brought his arm swinging forward. He made sure that his wrist was turning to the right just a bit before letting loose the ball. He could almost see the wind gracefully accepting the newcomer to its territory. "ORA!"
Gyro had no idea why he let out that cry. It just felt good. So who the hell cared if it made sense or not?
The ball shot forward like a bullet, speeding and cutting through the air as it curved. It honed in at its target.
It made contact.
"BWAH!?" The Shadow let out an indignant cry of pain as the ball hit the left side of the skull. Fake skin and bone being broken and cut, allowing for blood to flow. Gyro closed his left eye, seeing through the ball itself as it spun down the Persona's arm but not falling. Making sure to keep a healthy distance from the electricity. His… Puck's 'eye' then looked up and saw Jiraiya's advancing Shuriken. The Shadow was too startled by the sudden attack to do anything.
Then, Puck… Gyro… looked at its new target: The Shadow's face.
With luck, the ball would crush everything. Eyes could only take so much pressure before bursting, and even then should Gyro miss blood would get in and obstruct the Shadow's vision.
That is if Jiraiya's shuriken did not lop off the Shadow's head.
"Go!" With that command, the steel ball shot out. Shot towards its target as the spinning bladed wheel cut through the air and caused its own little blades.
For a moment, Gyro had hope that this was where the battle would end.
"Not today!"
That hope was very quickly dashed away.
Nice Guy jumped forward, its arms outstretched towards the floor before making contact. It lifted its hands, showing simple minus signs with small kiss marks surrounding them.
It grinned triumphantly.
And at that moment, both the steel ball and the shrunken shot up and embedded themselves into the ceiling. Gyro, Johnny, and Yosuke could not help but gape. Almost not noticing the weapons returning to their throwers.
"I-It didn't work!" Kanji shouted in horror while Teddie hopped from one foot to another.
"Holy ursine! Points of Authority uses magnetism for both attracting and repelling metal!" Teddie shouted in fear. "All metal has a sort of magnetic field around them! Points of Authority must be able to manipulate them in order to use metal to its advantage! The Tough Grizzly's plus signs attract while the Nice Grizzly repels them with its minus signs! Oh no Sensei! Junkyouin!"
"Why are you worried about them!?" Yosuke shouted at Teddie. "I'm the one fighting this thing!"
Gyro watched as Nice Guy got up and grinned at Yosuke. "I think now it's time…" It then began to tap itself all over its body. Minus marks appearing everywhere it touched, causing a pit to form in Gyro's stomach. A feeling that was probably shared by Yosuke. "For us to get to know each other…" Nice Guy then jumped towards Yosuke, its arms outstretched. "Intimately!"
"Oh hell…!" Yosuke then screamed in pain as his metal zipper then flung up his body and back to the wall, tearing up his pants and shirt while leaving a nasty bleeding gash. The nuts and bolts of his glasses were then ripped off, and cut up the sides of Yosuke's head as they were pushed back and away. "GAH!"
"Get away from it Yosuke! Keep jumping away!" It was the only direction Gyro could give to the teen.
"Oh Jesus. Oh crap. Oh shit…" Johnny muttered to himself as the Shadow Kanji took a victorious step forward while continuing to spin its gender symbols.
"Do you see now how helpless you are? Oh, I can see that you do! I can see those wonderful expressions on your faces!" The Shadow licked its lips, and extended its tongue in order to lick the blood dripping from the side of its face. "There's no hope for you! There's no way you can win!" The Shadow took a deep breath and said in broken English. "DO YOU UNDERSTAN-!?"
Its question was then interrupted by a meter-wide circle appearing around its body before a pillar of flame shot upwards. Gyro could smell the scent of burning hair, flesh, and blood.
Working at a hospital tended to get one familiar to those types of smells.
"Please let that work…" Johnny muttered out as Pyro Jack's flame in the lantern went out and the flames continued to rise around the Shadow.
"Oh my gosh! Sensei's Persona… It also uses fire!" Teddie declared in glee. "However unlike Yuki-chan's Konohana Sakuya, it does not rely on the humidity of the room! But…" Teddie then pointed to Pyro Jack's lifeless lantern. "It can only be used on one target at a time! Beary powerful but also inefficient!"
"That's another card revealed." Gyro muttered to Johnny. "Can you pull another one out of your ass if that didn't do the job?"
"Gyro! Now's not the time!" Johnny shouted back with gritted teeth.
"What!? I'm just asking!"
"What the hell kind of question is that at a time like this!?"
"A hopeful one!"
"There's nothing hopeful about it!"
"Well do you?"
"No!"
"Shit."
"I…" The two foreigners ceased their bickering and looked towards the flames. They saw the silhouette of a figure throwing something into the air. "SAID…" The two objects could be seen almost touching the ceiling. "DO YOU…" The objects then began falling, falling down. Falling back down to Earth.
They made contact.
"UNDERSTAND!?" Electricity shot out, too fast to follow. It hit Johnny and Gyro before they could even register that it was honing in specifically on them. They screamed as their arm hair and parts of their eyelashes then burnt up along with burn marks appearing on their clothes. But that ceased.
And a new problem then emerged.
"I-I can't move anything!" Gyro thought to himself as he laid on the ground, Johnny just across from him. "Oh Jesus, were we paralyzed? No… No I'm not braindead so possibly neither is Johnny. My muscles are spazzing out… twitching and pulling. This isn't normal electricity…"
"Sensei! Junkyouin! Look out!"
Something then began to pick Gyro up, and Gyro saw an arm pick Johnny up as well. They could do nothing as they saw the Shadow Kanji. Its hair was partially burnt and smoking while the roses that it once wore were now nothing but ash.
Other than a few burnt marks here and there, it was looking none the worse of wear.
"Enjoying it? Ride the Lightning my babies. Ride the Lightning." The Shadow then grinned before throwing both Johnny and Gyro on the floor. They could only gasp in pain as their bones ached and their minds went white. They then could see again as a ripe new pain then erupted from their chests. The Shadow Kanji was now using the arrows of its gender symbols, the points to be exact, in order to cut them. Causing blood to come dripping out from long horizontal gashes. "The more I am allowed to charge up, the bigger the damage is! Not to mention that no matter what, the electricity screws up your bioelectrical messages and doesn't let you move!" The Shadow then grinned as it tapped Gyro with its foot so that he lined up with Johnny. "But that won't matter now! Bye!" It reared back its right leg, and at that moment Gyro could feel his right leg. "BYE!" The Shadow then began kicking forward.
The force could probably rip Gyro in half, and break Johnny's bones if the body parts hit right.
But none of that happened as the Shadow's… shadow… then came to life and wrapped itself around the creature. The leg lost a lot of the force being put into it as the Shadows wrapped around it.
But it still made contact.
Gyro grunted as he felt his ribs rattle and creak in pain while his body was flung back, landing on Johnny's with the American grunting in pain.
"Can you move?" Gyro asked as he tested out flexing his arm. He could move his, most definitely. But he needed to check…
"Yeah, how do you think I was able to save your ass!?" Johnny shouted, snapping at the Italian. Gyro got up and looked at Johnny, he could see tears beginning to form at the corners of the American's eyes.
"Well thanks for the save!" Gyro then looked back at the Shadow Kanji.
He didn't like what he saw.
The shadow binds then disappeared, and the Shadow Kanji grinned before picking up its gender symbols and began spinning them. "So Lilim's power only works for a second or two… it also can't restrain the Shadow completely, and it the shadows can't be injured unless Johnny wants to get hurt too."
However that didn't matter right now.
Gyro bit his lip, drawing blood in frustration. This battle, it was not going anywhere near well. All of them were badly injured, and their strength was divided. Not only that, but at their current rate he and Johnny wouldn't be able to kill the damn Shadow. Not with those annoying Points of Authority everywhere…
"Which means we'll have to get rid of these guys first." Gyro then looked at Tough Guy. Chie was managing to keep Yukiko's knife in her arm and not move towards her head while Yukiko was up against a wall, struggling to keep her fan away from going through the center of her chest. Then, he looked at Nice Guy, who was jumping around the area while laughing as Yosuke was continuing to jump out of the way.
"What the hell do we do now Gyro!? Tell me!" Johnny shouted, fear in his eyes as he spoke. Gyro could tell that the fact that the entire situation going south was affecting Johnny the most.
"I thought you guys were experts at this… whatever the hell this is!" Kanji shouted out, sweating from his brow as he looked at Gyro.
"It's a work in progress!" Gyro shouted back before looking at Johnny. "Joestar, calm down! Look!" Gyro pointed at Shadow Kanji, which was swinging its weapons on around its elbows, sparks of electricity flying around it. "That thing is charging up whatever attack it's going to make! It won't strike us until its ready! So if we're going to win this, we're going to need everyone's help to do it!"
"Easier said than done!" Yosuke cried out, almost tripping on the broken floorboards.
"That thing's head is its weak point right!?" Gyro shouted back as he pointed at Nice Guy's bleeding head. "Use that!"
"How?" Yosuke demanded, glaring at Gyro. "That thing marked itself all over with its ability! Jiraiya's Shrunken can't get near enough for its wind blades to cut it up!"
"Then use something that isn't metal!" Gyro sincerely hoped that Yosuke got the message.
After all, he was standing over a dozen or so of such viable weapons.
"Something that isn't…?" Yosuke looked down, and his eyes lit up in realization.
"Perfect."
"Johnny! We're going to distract that thing while Yosuke does his job!" Gyro upholstered his balls and held them in his hands while Johnny nodded his head cautiously. Lilim disappeared from view, and Johnny held out his hand as a blue card appeared.
"Pyro Jack!" Johnny shouted as he crushed the card, and the Persona appeared over him.
"Guess I'm striking first." "Eat some of this!" Gyro shouted as he pitched the steel ball at what must have been 80 miles per-hour, and as expected the ball flew up and hit the ceiling before it could even come close to Nice Guy's forehead.
But as Gyro summoned the ball back to him, he grinned. Hitting the Shadow was never the objective.
Grabbing its attention was.
"Hm?" The Shadow let out a hum of confusion before looking at the two foreign teens. "And what do you…?"
Johnny didn't even give the Shadow enough time to answer, as the flame within Pyro Jack's lantern left and circled around the Shadow before going up in a cylinder of flame.
"OOOH! That isn't nice! This isn't fun foreplay!" The Shadow cried out in mock pain as its silhouette began to move, its legs tensing. "How about I put things…" Then, it jumped out of the flames, smoke and flame coming off of its body as its arms reached out ready to grab onto both of their bodies. "…More up to my speed!"
"You know…" Jiraiya then appeared in front of them, its right hand gripping onto a sharp three-foot piece of wood with a broken yet sharp end. "I've had enough…" Jiraiya then reared back its right arm, holding the wood as if it were a javelin. "Of your creepy crap!" It then threw the wood forward, and Gyro could hear the thing slice through the air.
"Yes!" And cried out mentally in glee as it went through the head of the Nice Guy like a finger through an egg shell, blood and what seemed like a lousy attempt at imitation brain matter with bone spewed out. "Duck!" Gyro shouted as he tackled Johnny to the ground, and the Shadow flew past them before crashing through the wall behind them. It was still for only a second before it exploded in a mist of black energy which was then buried by the rubble.
"One down…"
"Aww…!" The Shadow Kanji huffed out, but did not cease its actions. "I really liked him!"
"Holy crap… I didn't think that would work…!" Yosuke breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Its minus signs are disappearing!" Johnny cried out, and Gyro saw that it was true. The negative signs that were littered all over the ground and walls were now being blown away into nothingness like ash.
"Wow!" Teddie held up his paw. "I see! Since Yosuke couldn't use any metal, Junkyouin logically reasoned that wood would not be affected by Nice Guy's Points of Authority! And while Sensei and Junkyouin distracted the grizzly, Yosuke had Jiraiya quickly sharpen the wood so that it could go straight through the Shadow's weak spot!"
"Yeah I know! I saw the whole thing!" Kanji pointed out. "I'm right here you know!"
Yosuke looked to Kanji as the rough looking young man shouted. Even now, he was trying to put up a strong front. But Yosuke could see the fear and pain in his eyes. Seeing that, and glancing back at Kanji's Shadow for a moment, Yosuke couldn't help but blurt out his next words.
"Look man, it was true! I was against going to rescue you first!" Yosuke shouted, earning an irritated look from Johnny and a hurt one from Kanji.
"Yosuke…!" Johnny started by Yosuke held up a hand.
"N-No, man! I don't mean… it's not like that, okay! I want him to know that!" Yosuke said desperately, looking to Kanji and hoping he sounded as earnest as he hoped. "I was… I was creeped out okay! I'm not going to lie about that! But everyone here wanted to go rescue either you or Gyro, and because I was being such a pain we rescued him first and then we came rushing for you! Sure, we chose to rescue Gyro first but if we were stronger and didn't need to stick together we would've rescued you at the same time! No matter how weird your Shadow acted not a single one of us would've let us stop us from coming to get you! Even if some of what this Shadow says is true about you we're not judging you for it or holding it against you! Seriously, you shouldn't care about what stupid thing I blurted when I was panicking, because we all want to help you! Believe us man!"
"I…I…" Kanji bit his lip, but Gyro looked away at that moment.
Right now, Chie and Yukiko needed his attention.
Especially since Gyro could feel his grills being attracted to the magnetism of Tough Guy's Points of Authority.
"We can't go anywhere near there. Otherwise all the metal will come off of us and go into them." Johnny pointed out with a frown.
"No… we can't." Gyro then looked at Yukiko. "But that doesn't mean that they get themselves out of this mess." Gyro then cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Hey! Yukiko!?"
"I'm a little busy here, Gyro-san!" Yukiko shouted back at the Italian, gritting her teeth as she struggled against her fan.
"We both are! Can one of you guys help out!? This really freakin' hurts!" Chie grunted in pain, blood spewing out of the stab wound as the dagger kept trying to inch closer and closer to Chie's left side.
"Can Konohana Sakuya control when the feathers burst!?"
Gyro was seriously hoping that the answer was yes.
"I-I think so!" That answer caused Gyro to grin. Okay, that was step one to the plan. "But the humidity of this place won't let me…!"
"Then put it in the one place that isn't as humid as the room!" Gyro eyed Tough Guy.
Or more specifically, his mouth.
"Please get the picture."
Yukiko looked from him to Tough Guy, biting her lip. Her mind was probably racing at that moment. Thinking as to the meaning behind his words…
"Mmmm… this feels good! I must admit, honey has the right idea that being large and in charge is the way to go!" Tough Guy began laughing, opening his mouth and letting out hoots of victory.
But that was all that was needed for Yukiko to put two and two together.
Her eyes widened, and although it caused the fan to go a couple more inches closer to its target her left hand let go and opened. A card floated over it before the girl crushed it, and Konohana Sakuya appeared with plus signs still on its legs. The pins then dug into the Persona's skin with fresh blood coming out, the red marks on Yukiko's legs becoming larger with each passing second. A small petal then flew out, and Konohana Sakuya threw its hands up with its fingers interlocking as it went into its target.
Tough Guy's mouth.
"Ghk!" Tough Guy was humanoid, and tried its best to be human. Apparently that included having pale imitations of a mouth, throat, vocal cords, and most importantly lungs. And because of that, the Shadow seemed to instinctively swallow the petal.
"Chie! Now!" Gyro shouted at the tomboy, who nodded and forced her left hand open while the right kept the dagger in place.
When she crushed the card, Tomoe appeared and began spinning its staff. Its arm muscles struggling to keep the blades from flying off the staff and going into its body. When a full yet poorly 'drawn' circle of ice was made, Tomoe touched it with its staff before the ice broke into numerous pieces and flew forward.
Each one bounced off harmlessly from Tough Guy's much thicker skin.
All save one, which went into the Shadow's mouth. Blocking anything save for Tough Guy's grunts of confusion from getting out.
At that moment, Konohana Sakuya spread out its hands. Its pose seeming to be that of a flower in humanoid form blooming.
"Playing With Fire: Late Bloom!" Yukiko cried out, and Tough Guy seemed to freeze as a boom was heard.
Soon, in a matter of seconds, Tough Guy's skin seemed to expand like a balloon, Growing bigger and bigger with each passing second, each limb seeming to look like a fatal tumor. Even Tough Guy's face began to expand and distort, looking fat and bloated. Its eyes looked at them furiously as steam came out of its nose and ears.
And then, a mighty explosion occurred. Steam, smoke, black blood, and pieces of Shadow flesh flew in all directions while everyone turned their heads to shield themselves. But those pieces of flesh dissolved into black mist before disappearing inches from the ground.
"Well… that went sort of better than I had hoped." Gyro said with wide, blinking eyes as Johnny nudged his right side.
"And what did you expect? Him to just blow up right away?"
"Holy crap… Yukiko-senpai's hardcore." Kanji stated before looking at Teddie. "What the hell happened there?"
"Because of Yuki-chan's weakened blasts, more smoke occurred then fire! Junkyouin knew that these grizzlies used their versions of lungs to talk, and knew the air inside was less humid than the air outside! So Yuki-chan made one of her feathers go inside its lungs, and when Chie-chan sealed it up it exploded! The ensuing smoke with no exit caused the fire and steam to build up and then burst! It's a beary effective strategy!" Teddie then rushed over to Chie. "Chie-chan, your arm!"
"I-I'll…" Chie gripped the handle of the dagger as Yukiko fell to her knees, panting while the wet spots of blood on her pants continued to grow. Gyro also noted that the plus marks had disappeared, and the feeling of his grills wanting to come out of his mouth had stopped. "…Be…" Her right arm muscles tensed and her grip grew tighter.
"Wait Yukiko, don't…!" But Gyro soon knew that his warning fell to deaf ears.
"Fi-AAAH!" Chie screamed as she took out the dagger with a hard, swift pull. Blood following the blade as it left Chie's grip and fell to the floor. She clutched her arm as more blood began to drip out of the wound.
"Damn it! You idiot!" Yosuke shouted as he ran over to Chie. "Gyro! What the hell do I do!?"
"Wrap something around her wound! Tear off one of your sleeves to do it and put some pressure on it!" Gyro ran over to Yukiko, and took a quick once-over of her legs. She hadn't lost that much blood, but any more… "Damn it, we don't have time for this!"
"Yeah, no kidding!" Johnny looked from Chie to Yukiko. "Can you two still fight?"
"Y-Yeah. We can!" Chie's confident shout was followed Tomoe gripping its staff and Konohana Sakuya flying beside it.
"Damn it… this is all my fault…!" Kanji shouted through gritted teeth. "If I hadn't said that shit earlier…!"
"Oh, but I'm so glad that you did cove!"
"Damn…!" Gyro cursed as he turned his head to the Shadow Kanji. Now, it had ceased spinning its weapons. Now it held them confidently in its grasp by the circular portions. Electricity crackling thicker and more wildly than ever.
"Then I wouldn't have the opportunity to do this!" It then threw its weapons into the air, flexed its muscles while its fists met. "Scream for me, show me those faces as you come to realize…!"
"It wanted us to focus on the other Shadows!" Gyro knew at that moment the reason why the Shadow Kanji did not interfere, or react in anger to its subordinates' deaths. They were tools from the start. Tools to weaken, harm, and split its opponent's numbers. It knew that Gyro would decide to try and help out the others', thus giving it more time to charge. "That thing… before the electricity just messed up our muscles for a few seconds and dealt us physical blows personally. What does a charge with this much time mean!?"
"OH NOOOOOO!" Teddie cried out in fear, placing his paws on its cheeks while droplets of moisture ran down his face. "W-we need to get out of here!"
"There's nowhere to run to!" Yosuke shouted back, and Gyro could not help but note that Johnny was being only quiet with only widened eyes and sweat dripping from his brow to show that he was aware of the situation.
"Chie…" Yukiko looked desperately to her friend, who looked at him.
"Gyro… what do we do?"
"Damn it… I can't believe…!" Kanji's entire body shook, his knees buckling in fear.
Johnny at that moment, bit his lip and looked down at the floor.
"Everyone, get ready to jump!" Gyro shouted out. "The electricity goes through the ground! If we jump at the right moment, then we can avoid it!"
At that moment, the two gold gender signs hit the ground.
"NOW!" Gyro shouted, and everyone hopped up several inches off the ground.
But rather than the electricity dancing on the wooden floor…
…it shot forward, directly towards them.
"Shit!" In a desperate attempt, Gyro made Puck disappear from the outside world and threw the now Persona-less steel ball forward. Hoping that it would make the electricity focus on it rather than them.
But it was in vain. The ball was hit sure, but the electricity continued on forward, undaunted and did not even slow down.
Everything almost seemed to go in slow motion for Gyro.
He could see the electricity literally race towards them.
Gyro could hear the crackling in the air.
Gyro hoped that the pain wouldn't be too bad… even though he knew otherwise.
"IZANAGI!"
The breaking of glass then filled the air, and Gyro then saw the mighty Persona in front of them, with its distinctly metal spear pointing at the oncoming electricity.
"What?"
Then, the electricity met the metal, and it danced all along the Persona's body.
Soon came the scream of pain.
"GAAAAAAHHHH!"
And all at once, everyone said the same thing.
"JOHNNY!"
xxXXxx
The pain was fairly hard to describe.
It was like thousands upon thousands of tiny needles struck Johnny all at once. Each one burrowing into his skin, and cutting it up. He felt the stinging of blood flowing from his wounds and it burning up in the heated electrical air. The scream of pain he let out also made it feel as if hot coals were poured into his throat. His body moved ever so slightly, erratically into different directions. It seemed as if it were an eternity, when really it was a couple of seconds. And when it ended, he felt his body fall and crash onto the floor where wood splinters then went into his skin, and his wounds bled even more while faint vestiges of smoke came off of his body.
To put it rather bluntly and in layman terms, it really fucking hurt.
"J-Johnny!" Johnny forced his head to move just a bit up, despite the fact that it kept on twitching downwards and his skin felt like it was on fire. He saw Gyro and the others on the floor, their skin and muscles twitching but looking otherwise unharmed. They probably couldn't even move, all of them were sprawled on the ground. Or in Teddie's case trying but failing to roll on the ground. "Y-you okay?"
Johnny found it hard to move his mouth. His tongue felt numb, and his lips twitched ever so slightly. Yet somehow, he got enough control to formulate a response. "D-Does i-it look like I-I'm okay!?" Johnny then bit his lip. "A-Are you okay!?"
"Can't move much… but otherwise we're fine." Gyro replied with a small, forced nod.
"Joestar-san, your wounds…" Yukiko began, only for Johnny to click his tongue.
"A-Are bad, I know."
"Bad? Dude, you look like hell!" Yosuke shouted out, looking at Johnny desperately. "It's a miracle that you're still alive!"
"No kidding! Sensei took the brunt of the blast by using his Persona as a conductor for the electricity!" Teddie seemed worried the most, his eyes on the verge of tears. "But Sensei, you still need to…!"
"Why?"
Johnny looked to Kanji, who was staring at him with widened eyes.
"Why the hell did you do that? You put yourself in so much danger… you could've been killed… So why…"
"D-Don't get the wrong idea…" Johnny looked away for a second. "I-I didn't do it just for you…"
In fact, Johnny didn't know why he acted that way at all.
The logical thing would have been to just let the electricity hit all of them. With it distilled and spread out so much, maybe the attack wouldn't have been so bad.
But then Gyro, Chie, Yosuke, Teddie, Yukiko, and even Kanji would have probably been hurt badly.
Every logical fibre of Johnny's body told him that even trying to take most of the attack was a bad idea. A stupid one, a suicidal one. One that was not worth taking.
But Johnny just acted. Before he could even think about it, he had sent Izanagi to be the conductor and to take that electrical hell full-on.
"Why? Why the hell did I do it?" Johnny could already feel like he knew the answer to that.
He couldn't bear to see the others hurt.
"I-I did it because… you're all…" Johnny bit his lip. "I-I'm not the kind of person to do this heroic crap. I-I'm not brave, or confident, or anything at all! Hell, there were probably other options I could have taken. A few weeks ago, I probably would have never thought about even doing something like this! I still can't believe I put myself in this kind of danger! But… you're people that I… that are close to me. And I couldn't stand by and let you all fry when I could do something about it!"
Johnny cried at that end part, small tears coming from the corners of his eyes. Cry, because that was something that seemed to come from the heart. Cry because he knew that if it were a few weeks ago, he might have not done anything. Cry because…
…Because of how little he changed.
And because of what he just couldn't admit. That he couldn't say the right words for what he really felt.
Everyone seemed to stare at him, shocked by his little speech. But Kanji… he seemed to look at the ground, his eyes closed in what appeared to be shame.
"Johnny… you really think that…" Chie began, only to be silenced by a distorted, low chuckle.
"Aw… how sweet."
Johnny cleared the cotton that seemed to fill his head as he turned his head, twitching all the while, to see the Shadow Kanji stepping forward. Stepping just behind him, with its golden gender symbols hanging from its elbows and a blush on its face.
"A confession while lying on the ground, broken and beaten." The Shadow then reached forward with its open giant right hand, picking Johnny up.
"NO!" Gyro, Yosuke, Yukiko, and Chie shouted all at once in fear.
"Sensei!" Teddie screeched, waving his arms helplessly.
"That's it…" The Shadow brought Johnny face to face with it, its lips curling into a smile. "Those are the expressions I wanted to see! To see all of your despair as victory was ripped right from your grasp, and all of you helpless and ready to be plucked one by one!"
"Damn it! Leave him out of this! Leave them all alone!" Kanji shouted, and Johnny could almost envision the delinquent glaring hatefully at the Shadow. "It's me you want remember!? None of them have anything to do with the shit between us!"
"Accept i-GHK!" Johnny's shout was silent as the grip of the Shadow grew tighter, and his bones creaked from the stress while blood poured out more from his open wounds.
"Anyone says anything else, and you all die even quicker." The Shadow then glanced over to Kanji, its ecstatic smile becoming a cruel smirk. "And don't worry cove… I'll get to you soon!"
Johnny could almost see the desperate looks on the other teens and one bear's faces. Wanting to say something, but afraid that the Shadow would make good on its promises. Secretly struggling and hoping that they would regain the use of their limbs soon.
Johnny hoped that they would as well.
"Oh, if only those bitches could see me now… See how much of a manly man I am. Bet they never expected 'that queer Kanji' to become someone who could make others piss themselves… and enjoy oh so much." The Shadow smirked as it looked at Johnny. "Any last words dilly boy?"
Johnny decided to bring out the best 'final words' he could think of.
He puckered his lips and with all his might spat in the Shadow's face.
The Shadow blinked once or twice before its smirk grew even more. "Oh, you just made me enjoy this far more than I already was."
Then, the Shadow began to squeeze. Johnny screamed as his bones creaked and he coughed up blood. The pain was nearly unimaginable. And thoughts began to go through his mind like, "This is it. I'm going to die. Dead, dead ding-dong I'm dead. Nanako and Dojima are going to find me dead. Going to be six feet under with only mom and them visiting. I don't want to die I don't want to…!"
"Do not fret, Johnny Joestar."
Johnny's eyes widened, and even the Shadow Kanji paused its death grip in confusion. What was that? "Is that… a girl's voice? It sounds so familiar…"
He could not see it, but he somehow felt someone smiling. Smiling at him.
"Growth as a person does not come easy, but it does show in some of the most unlikely of ways."
"What was that? What was that voice…?" The Shadow muttered out before its eyes widened.
And Johnny saw why. Tusk was to his left, just hovering in the air. He didn't even know why. "I-I don't even remember summoning him!"
The Persona began to shake, and blue flames began to surround it. Circle around its form, becoming thicker and thicker with each passing second.
"The heck is happening!?" He heard Chie cry out, and heard Gyro grunt in pain.
"Don't know… but whatever it is, it has to do with Joestar's Persona!"
"Damnit… I still can't move! My muscles are still spazzing out!" Yosuke groaned out.
"Why… why the hell is he going through all this…" He heard Kanji mutter out.
"Because he wants you to accept yourself, just as much as we do." Yukiko replied, and Teddie gasped in amazement.
"Look! Sensei's Persona!"
Johnny and the Shadow froze, and could only stare as a new form floated beside Johnny. It was a foot taller than Tusk, but rather than being similar to an animal it was more akin to a machine. A blue ball made its bottom torso, covered in a metal pink casing with six balls in the front, and a red star outlined with yellow on its sides. For feet it had a tripod of small sharp legs. Its body was now a simply curved and serrated piece of metal Its upper torso seemed more like purple and pink gears, connected to its pink shoulders. Its arms were like thrusters, pink plates shaped like fingers opening and closing showing the hollow insides. Its head was like the bottom torso, a pink metal ball with blue sides that had red stars with yellow outlines in the center. On its forehead were four little yellow stars, above two small black eyes with a mouth covered by a muzzle. And connected on top of its head by a pink tube of metal, with two blue hollow balls acting as the ears.
"Thou have grown, and thus do I." Johnny heard a voice in his head. Morpheus' voice. "I am Morpheus, Master of Dreams. And I change as thou does during your journey."
"What is this!? What are you doing!?" The Shadow demanded, loosening its grip ever so slightly. "Answer me!"
But Johnny could not answer. The new Persona that was Tusk then pointed. Not at the Shadow, but at Johnny himself.
Or more specifically, his left foot.
Five two-centimeter cyclones then flew out of its hand thrusters and went through the mouth of his shoe. "W-what is it doing?" Johnny felt something go through his socks, almost gently glide across his foot…
But then he felt something at his toes.
Or more specifically, a sensation happening underneath his toenails.
"Something… Something's breaking!" Johnny could feel something snap, pop. That weird spinning sensation on his toes. Almost unconsciously, Johnny inched his foot forward and up, aiming at the right side of the Shadow's face.
And then, something seemed to fire.
Five objects, like bullets tore from his shoe. Out of the cloth, and flew upwards. Two missed, but the other three hit their target. They entered at the bottom right side of the Shadow's chin, and tore like knives through paper the face. Bone cracked, skin split, blood spewed out, and the Shadow's right eye burst out as the three objects went out the top and hit the ceiling, creating little holes by the side of the hole that Tough and Nice Guy jumped out from. Loosening a portion just a bit.
"W-What?" Johnny thought as the Shadow then let him go, causing him to land hard on the floor.
Meanwhile the Shadow simply screamed.
"GYAAAAAAHHHH!" The Shadow cupped the right side of its face with its human hands, trying desperately to stop the bleeding. "My face! My face!"
"W-What just happened?" Gyro asked, and Johnny turned to see all the teens and one bear still on the floor staring at him.
"I-I don't know…" Johnny gave the only answer that he had, which was none.
"Dude, what the hell happened to Tusk?" Yosuke asked, pointing at the Persona.
"I-It's like it transformed! Evolved!" Chie then looked at Teddie. "R-Right!?"
"Look at Sensei's hand! His right hand!" Teddie shouted, pointing at Johnny.
Johnny looked down and saw his right hand. All of his nails weren't in their proper places. Oh no. Now they were broken off, spinning on mini cyclones just an inch from their proper places. "The hell!?"
"Your Persona must have gotten a new ability with its change!" Teddie explained. "It is now able to concentrate its cyclones, make them miniaturized and use your nails as projectiles! Each of them must shoot out like a bullet now!"
"So his nails are now… bullets?" Yukiko raised an eyebrow. "That just seems…"
"Who cares!? It saved our asses for a second!" Gyro interrupted, his hands now on the ground and pushing himself up. "Come on, I think I've gotten control of my body again! Let's hurry and…!"
"Y-You…!" Johnny then felt the Shadow's hand on his back, and cried out as it pushed him down. He looked over his shoulder and through the corner of his eye saw the Shadow Kanji. Its face bloody, split by its right side, with the Shadow's left eye filled with nothing but utter murderous fury. "I'M GONNA FUCKIN' KILL YA, YOU LITTLE COCKSUCKER!"
Johnny could not help but notice that it was the first time the Shadow actually cursed, and not in a way that seemed to be part of its use of slang.
It had finally lost its cool, and was showing its true colors.
Nothing but a hateful, murderous thing playing at being a person.
A distorted mirror, and nothing more.
"Will you…!" Something shot forward. Frantic steps echoing from in front of Johnny.
"Shut…!" Johnny then saw somebody jump on the Shadow's arm, shirtless.
It was Kanji Tatsumi.
His right hand clenched into a fist. Kanji reared it back as he jumped off the arm and towards the thing's head. "UP!" The fist made contact with the Shadow's left cheek. The cracking of bone was heard, and Johnny saw spit, blood, and teeth fly from the Shadow's mouth as it stumbled back, letting go of him and falling on its ass.
Kanji landed on his feet, and looked at Johnny. "You okay man?"
"He just straight-up punched his Shadow." Johnny then nodded his head and went, "Y-yeah…"
"Holy crap…" Yosuke breathed out, and at that moment Kanji sighed.
"Can't believe a scrawny guy like you had more balls than me… talk about takin' a huge blow to my pride." Kanji then looked at his Shadow, who seemed to inch back with fear in its eyes.
"W-What the fuck do you think you're doing!?"
"I hate that this guy is inside of me. It's freakin' embarrassing." Kanji gave out a low sigh. "But… maybe it really is what it saying it is. I mean, look at it. It's acting like a coward… Like I am."
"Kanji-kun… you're not…" Kanji shook his head, keeping Yukiko from continuing.
"Yes, I am." Kanji turned around, looking at all of them with his hands balled up into fists. "Look… it's not that I like guys or chicks. Hell, I don't even know what I like… it's just that I'm a coward. I'm scared of being made fun of, of being the outcast… I guess it's because of how much I was made fun of by girls that I'm… well… scared of them."
"Kanji… you don't need to be scared of us." Chie then got onto her feet, clutching her arm as she moved closer to him. Meanwhile, Yukiko and Teddie got up as well and Yosuke rushed to Johnny to help him onto his feet. "We wouldn't make fun of you."
"N-No! Stop! Shut up!" The Shadow Kanji shouted desperately, its form distorting like a bad TV reception. "Nobody can accept me! Nobody but other men!"
"I didn't know that… And I guess I was too scared of finding out." Kanji's eyes filed with shame. "So… I thought it would be best, acting like all the girls and even some of the adults said I should. Acting 'manly'… whatever the fuck that meant. I guess I kinda latched onto the whole delinquent thing because that was the closest I could think of to being manly. But… then I realized I only felt comfortable around dudes. And that honestly… it scared me. Because I was afraid of what it might meant." Kanji then looked back at the Shadow. "Not to mention, the more and more I pushed people away by talking and acting tough… the more I was afraid that I really was the thug they thought I was. A big bully like this thing."
"Look…" Gyro then got onto his feet, and walked to Kanji. "I honestly get that you're going through a troubling time in your life. But honestly…" Gyro then placed a hand on Kanji's right shoulder, and smiled. "All of us are kinda screwed up. So don't be scared and think you're the only one."
Kanji blinked twice before letting out a small chuckle. "Heh…"
"If you want to start not being so scared all the time…" Johnny then pointed at the Shadow. "Maybe you should start with accepting that thing."
"No… NO!" The Shadow Kanji then gripped its weapons in its hands, gritting its bruised and ruined face. "I won't accept this…! I won't accept that people are actually finally accepting me! This is a trick! A TRICK!"
"Oh no! The Shadow's going berserk! Sensei! Junkyouin! Do something quick or it'll…!" Teddie began, and Gyro simply grinned.
"Johnny… Why don't you help me out in bringing the house down?"
Johnny simply blinked. "Bring the… Gyro, what the hell are you talkin' abou-?"
Johnny then stopped as he looked at the Shadow Kanji, or more specifically, the area it was standing below.
A piece of the ceiling was now hanging on only a few pieces of plaster. Ready to fall if there were only less of those pieces.
Johnny lifted his right hand. He curled his pinky, ring, and middle finger closed while is index pointed and his thumb remained straight up.
With a shaky hand, Johnny took aim.
"Puck!" Gyro called out as he crushed his card, summoning his Persona and the being going into the Italian's weapons
"Fire."
Johnny fired once, and it missed the target. Going onto the next floor.
He curled his index finger and pointed with his middle, the nail continuing to spin on. "Focus… come on focus!"
Sweat formed on Johnny's brow as he steadied his hand.
He fired a second time, this time hitting the plaster supporting the hanging chunk of the ceiling.
"Time to get…!" The Shadow began, preparing to throw up his weapons as electricity danced on them.
"ORA!" Gyro shouted, pitching his right steel ball forward. It spun, cracking with energy.
It hit its target, the split portion of the Shadow's face.
"GYAAAAAAH!" More blood came gushing out, followed by pieces of skull and more teeth from the jaw.
Johnny ignored them, and fired a second time. Then a third with his ring finger. A fourth with his pinky, and finally a fifth with his thumb. Each of them hitting their intended targets, leaving Johnny's hand devoid of nails.
The piece of ceiling was now barely holding on.
"And there's one more!" Gyro then pitched the left ball, and it flew before completely crushing the Shadow Kanji's nose.
"BASTARDS FUCKIN' SHI-!"
"Hey now, language!" Gyro laughed out, both his eyes closed before pointing up. "Besides…"
The steel balls, continuing to spin, then shot upwards. Hitting the chunk of ceiling and causing the entire thing to break free and fall down.
The Shadow then looked up.
"Huh?"
"You've got a falling sky to worry about, little 'chicken'." Gyro finished with a little grin.
The debris struck true, smashing against the Shadow Kanji's face. It broke into numerous pieces, and the Shadow's eyes rolled back. It staggered before falling onto its back, tongue rolling out while the head turned onto its left side.
It was unconscious.
At that moment, Gyro's steel balls returned to his hands. Still spinning as he holstered the left one and then tipping his hat with his left hand. "Hey now partner, don't think that falling asleep's going to help you out here…"
Gyro's hips seemed to shift a bit to their right, while the left leg moved forward. Stepping forward to get the teen closer to the Shadow.
"…we've still got a lot to talk about, and plenty to pay back."
Gyro grinned, and showed off his golden grills. The sight almost making Johnny want to grin and let out his own laugh.
"Nyoho~!"
[To Be Continued |\|]
Note: FINALLY got this chapter off the ground. Credit goes to Kiiam for helping me to Beta and him along with Sir Godot and Vegeta the 3rd in helping me out in trying to make the entire thing a lot better.
I would like to note that this fight was a MAJOR pain in my ass and in my personal opinion not that great. And just to be clear, Points of Authority is working on Magneto-like Magnetism. As in it manipulates all metal, and don't think too hard on it.
But with that out of the way, here's some info you guys might like.
Name: Lilim
User: Jonathan 'Johnny' Joestar
Destructive Power: E
Speed: C
Range: D
Durability: C
Precision: A
Development Potential: D
Powers:
Lilim can manipulate the shadows of whatever target it is presented, using them to restrain said target for approximately 1-2 seconds depending on the target's strength. However, how quickly and effectively it restrains the target depends on the target's height and the size of the shadow. Also if the shadows are attacked, Lilim and thus the user takes damage as well.
Character INFO:
Name: Jonathan 'Johnny' Joestar
Age: 16
Birthday: May 26, 1994
Zodiac: Gemini
Gender: Male
Height: 165 cm
Weight: 55 kg
Blood Type: B
Hair Color: Blond
Eye Color: Blue
Favorite Color: Variations and combinations of the colors red, white, and blue
Favorite Movie: Once Upon A Time In The West
Favorite Musician: Jon Anderson
Favorite Athlete: None
Occupation: Yasogami High 2nd Year Student, Former Jockey
Arcana: The Fool
Persona: Morpheus/Izanagi
Name: Gyro Zeppeli
Age: 17
Birthday: January 3, 1993
Zodiac: Capricorn
Gender: Male
Height: 185 cm
Weight: 70 kg
Blood Type: A
Hair Color: Light Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Favorite Color: Green and Pink
Favorite Movie: Django
Favorite Musician: Angus Young
Favorite Athlete: Giancarlo Fisichella
Occupation: Yasogami High 3rd Year Student, On-Haitus Jockey
Arcana: The Moon
Persona: Puck
Anyway, please check out the TV Tropes page and add whatever you find appropriate. Also check out the Spacebattles page for this story for a more in-depth discussion.
Please leave constructive criticism.