I'm having so damn much fun with Persona Strikers. Got the Deluxe edition so I could play it early and get the full soundtrack, and it's been absolutely worth it. Fluid combat, beautiful areas and character designs, smashing those nostalgia buttons as hard as they can, it's just an all around treat that I recommend to anyone who wants a good beat-em up with an actual story. Also Fox OP please never nerf. That is all, now on with the other kind of Monster fighting I'm sure you all came here for.

Ah, and to BarryC, counterpoint on Pegasus having every card ever made already printed before he died; He runs a massive company and most likely has literal legions of artists and balancing teams day and night drawing pretty much whatever the hell they want and, occasionally, they'll fit an existing spirit or draw some new ones into Creation. The font of Creativity can never be summed up through a single man, especially one who can never finish what he unleashes.

Chapter 25: Fin-nally, Getting Somewhere

OR

Sense? Where We Are, We Don't NEED, Sense.

You'd think that being in a place like the Duel Realms would stand out from the 'normal' world what with all the potential death-traps at every step and constant Monsters roaming around instead of normal people who at least had the decency to keep their sociopathy to themselves most of the time, but after like, a week or so of just going around in it and interacting with its inhabitants, it was shockingly easy to acclimate. Wake up in the morning in a nice little pile of cryptids huddled together for warmth, wash up in the local river of not-blood but darkish water and catch a few of the less teethy or sentient fish swimming along the way for a nice breakfast, then starting a walk/climb/glide further up the mountain while occasionally stopping for quick snacks, looting opportunities, or to check in on my Stooges and making sure they weren't doing anything stupid I wouldn't do. Like, say, trying to take over the Academy or poke some nests that could conceptually kick their ass, but, thankfully, it was mostly just some of them trying and failing to flirt, or be flirted at, or memorizing what Monster Types actually affected.

But getting back to the Duel Realm, while normalization was human nature, every so often you just had no choice but to look at something or acknowledge a truth that just...doesn't fit with reality. The Pool of Darkness was infinite potential in a semi-physical form, something that could never come close to existing in the regular world without serious support. The Wailing Woods stretched on farther and deeper than the treeline called for, with the cackle of witches while formless symbols of power floated along the the air at night. I could even swear I saw the Mountain I was heading towards raise a massive hand of its own every now and again to grab some of the Demon's constantly shrieking around it's peak.

What I'm getting at is that, for all that the Duel and Physical Realms can resemble each other at times, they were, without a shadow of a doubt, as different as each other as Sun and Moon, and just as connected. There were mind-boggling sights, but just as often as there was potential terror or danger, there were also beauty that outstripped any natural wonder.

Clearing teeming with wildlife and aglow with fireflies and moss on every surface as nature and demonic forces put their hands together to create something amazing. Lighting arcing from clouds through trees and whatever stray flying creature who went too high before breaching back upward in firework-esce swirls. What I was seeing right now was right up there in wow factor, and, for just a minute, was honestly glad I got to experience all of this.

When you've been through life before, you learn to enjoy the little things, the creature comforts. You learn that big things changing the world can be amazing to live through, but the day to day can be just as much fun. When you understand how the world works and the games people play, you can use those same systems to achieve success, or prevent failure. But, after contracting the Fur Hire's...no, my entire reason for contracting them in the first place was to keep an easy and steady life, while reaping a few treasures and swag bags along the way. The fact that I was even in this stupid situation in the first place should have made me seethe and bemoan if only to myself how stupid I was for letting it happen...but that would just be a lie.

I knew exactly what I was doing, what I was chancing the second I agreed to get a job at Duel Academy, instead of literally anywhere else. There was no deadline or long-term goal of my own beyond 'earn more money', no vengeance plot or specific relic I was hunting that could only be found there. I was just tempting fate, daring, knowing...that something would happen.

Because I was bored. Bored and confident and eager to actually experience a major part of the world that so few ever did. It would have happened eventually. Someway, somehow, the same thing probably would have happened, even if I never went to Duel Academy. Maybe I would have made a trip to Egypt to try and learn some old-school graverobbing. Maybe I would have sent some cards together on the same tile and accidently a XYZ in public. Maybe I would have run across some sealed god and chipped away on the lock just to see what happened.

I loved my life, every moment and every person to some degree, but that didn't mean the body didn't tend to mistake contentment with boredom after long enough.

I craved, from the bottom of my heart and the heights of my mind, an adventure worth remembering, laughing about and enriching me beyond the material. Maybe that's why I got a band of Mercenaries instead of straight Treasure Hunters, because I wanted to fight and earn my fortune, but...

I snapped my view away from the massive mobius of water flowing through the sky in front of me, noting my dry mouth and the sharp hunger pains in my stomach, along with just how much darker it was now, even more so than usual.

After a moment of chugging Greed-stew with Angel Bits for a side, I finally noticed a sign off to the side, fallen from a tree with a sword through it.

'CAUTION! River of Introspection, Do NOT Cross Alone!'

"Ah, that explains a bit." I grumbled to myself, returning to my regular, calm self instead of some whiny bordering on emo excuse for a philosophy student. That shit wasn't meant for being done in a place filled with monsters, it was barely suited for when you needed to pay a guy to listen to your problems.

The Wonders of the Duel Realms, even the beautiful, or maybe especially the beautiful, were deadly in ways the Real World rarely were. Good to remember. At least I was getting closer to both a larger body of water, AND the peak. So, progress at least.

END OF CHAPTER

I honestly don't know where I go with this story sometimes. I meant to go an almost beach episode-esce thing here where Bigfoot flirts with some waterside Monsters of some kind I couldn't settle on, while the rest of us fool around and eat watermelon equivalent until we would find Ogopogo waiting starry-eyed for his own melon. Ah well, maybe I'll still do that, or make it an omake from myself or one of you all. We'll see.

And Last up, never forget that my stories, and myself in general, live off of seeing you all comment, chat, wonder about what things will happen, all that good stuff that keeps a thread alive and happy basically. I don't ask for much, just so long as everyone has fun. Have a great night everyone.