Darksoulna 4

by Barabahad

When the Midnight Channel appears on Yu Narukami's TV once more, he rounds up the Investigation Team and they go in to save its latest victim. When inside, Rise is separated from the group, but as luck would have it, she happens to cross paths with a VERY powerful ally. Rise X OC.

6. What Lies Beneath

Of all the things one could be afraid of in Lordran, one could scarcely afford to remain afraid of the environment for too long. Not that there wasn't ample reason to be afraid of it, moreso that if one were to fear it, they'd find themselves going Hollow before even leaving the Undead Asylum.

Thus, it was hardly a stretch for Astaire to say that he had something of a thick hide for intimidating places. After traversing precarious cliffs accosted by drakes, invisible pathways, and roof-bound support beams that were barely wide enough to support him while also dodging a flurry of throwing knives and killing the dastards tossing them, very little could give Astaire pause.

Then he accompanied everyone to the haunted house.

Earlier on, it hadn't sounded much dissimilar to New Londo, hence why he'd brought it up. Desolate, abandoned places with ghosts littering the innards? It was better than trudging through the sewers and getting cursed into a statue, of that there was no doubt.

Even still, Astaire could feel his heart pound heavily against his chest as he guided his three followers down the narrow hallway, greatsword in hand. He couldn't recall when exactly he'd last felt as deeply unsettled as he did, only that it hadn't been for a good long while.

Maybe it was because of the foreboding, creepy atmosphere. Maybe it was the intermittent tremors the house gave off for seemingly no reason. Maybe it was because he just knew there were ghosts about and he couldn't see them. Maybe it was-

"Um. Astaire-kun? You can let go now…"

Or it might've been her. That'd do the trick.

Astaire blinked as he tore his focus from the path ahead of them, only then realising that he had wrapped his arm around Rise and had forgotten to take it away after trying to calm her down. His heart feeling barely short of absconding from his chest altogether, he immediately tried relinquishing his grip. Only to find that he was unable to.

"O-Only if you do the same." He said as he lightly tried tugging himself free of Rise's chokehold on his arm. He could only thank his lucky stars that it seemed to be dark enough to hide his ever-reddening face.

Rise's grip didn't loosen. If anything, she actually tugged him a little tighter. He glanced down at her to see why, only to notice she was hiding her eyes and smiling. "Meanie. You know I don't want to..." She said softly. "...If we lose each other in here, how will we find each other again?"

Her addition to her first statement just about stopped Astaire's heart mid-backflip. Thank the Lords that's all it was. Trying desperately to put his mind at rest and focus on the task at hand, Astaire cleared his throat. "Never fret. As sure as my sword is sharp, I shan't let either of us get lost."

That seemed to be enough for her. With a nod and a satisfied hum, Rise laid her head back into Astaire's arm.

"H-However!" Astaire abruptly resumed the moment he felt a soft, girlish cheek settle against him. "Should something approach us out of the blue, fighting it off may prove rather difficult if we're positioned as we are now! So if you'd kindly…" He trailed off as he tried to lightly tug his arm free to no avail.

"Yeah, I guess…" Rise reluctantly agreed. "Maybe we could compromise somehow! Yukiko-senpai and Teddie didn't hold on to anyone and look what happened to them!" She gave Astaire's arm a tighter squeeze and gave their surroundings a cursory glance, lest she catch sight of whatever had snatched everybody but Kanji and Naoto away from them.

...Wait just a minute. Kanji and Naoto hadn't been snatched away with everyone else. Cogs began turning in Rise's head as she came to a tantalisingly delightful realisation. There could have been only one reason they were still together.

"...Oooooh." Rise cooed. She unlatched herself from Astaire just enough to where she could turn to look behind her. So quick was she that Kanji and Naoto couldn't quite snatch their interlocked hands apart fast enough, as evidenced both by their matching looks of sheer embarrassment and Rise's coy smile, complete with waggling eyebrows.

The only difference between the two was that Kanji wasn't one to let things go undefended. "D-Donchu go wagglin' at us- I mean, me like that! 'S just easier to move about if we h-hold… y'know!" Kanji stammered out hastily, crossing his arms and looking about ready to bury himself in them. It sounded like Naoto had mumbled something in their defence as well, but under the tip of her hat with her face to the floor, it was hard to tell.

Rise's eyebrows ceased waggling and instead remained raised after Kanji had spoken. He had a point. "Looks like we've found our compromise, Astaire-kun!" She giggled as she ran her fingers down Astaire's arm and met his free hand at the bottom, entwining her fingers with his. "That should be a little easier to work with, right?"

It took Astaire a second to answer as he desperately tried fending off the heat rushing to his cheeks. Chances were that if they'd been much worse, his face could have lit up the entire corridor. He had to respond somehow, surely, but it felt as though anything he could say would clog his throat on the trip up.

"Y-Yes. Right." He managed with a cough.

His stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots as the warmth of Rise's hands bled into his own. The two now walked hands-in-hand, side-by-side. And something about that was utterly terrifying to Astaire.

Wheel Skeletons? Sure.

Undead Dragons, sometimes torn in half? Absolutely.

Chaos Eaters? All tentacles and teeth and eyeballs in far too many places? Unquestionably, no problem.

Walking hand in hand with a normal girl from another world? Gods above you must be joking.

Astaire shook his head to try and focus himself and regain his composure. Find something other than the girl at his side to focus on.

Yet as everyone marched on unhindered, it was quickly becoming apparent that there wasn't much of anything to otherwise draw attention to. The corridor stretched on endlessly, with occasional corners that simply led to more of the same infinitely extending wooden walkways. The sound of everyone's footsteps creaking the wood below them was all the sound at offer, save for Astaire's own deepening, quickening breaths.

One might think that not being assaulted by ghosts would be a good thing. Astaire would have disagreed. Knowing was always better than not knowing. Ghosts were a tangible threat. Inactivity wasn't anything. Nothing to work off. Nothing to see. Nothing but the deep-set feeling of one's own harrowed anticipation that something was going to happen, meaning it was only a matter of when.

That feeling, Astaire soon found, was more terrifying than any ghost could ever hope to be.

His eyes darted from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. Any minute now. Any minute now.

"Eek!" Rise squealed. Within a second, Astaire's greatsword was off his shoulder and pointing in the direction she was facing.

Yet there was nothing there.

"Ah!" She yelped again, facing a different direction this time. Once again, a sharp whoosh had the tip of Astaire's greatsword ready to strike at… absolutely nothing. Again.

Although he'd been actively avoiding looking directly at Rise ever since she'd latched onto his arm, Astaire bit the bullet and gave her hand a squeeze to get her attention. "Are you quite alright, Ms. Kujikawa? Jumping at shadows would be ample cause for concern even in Lordran." As he spoke, a slow breeze crept over Astaire's right ear, as though somebody had breathed lightly in his ear. "BLOODY HELL, WHAT WAS THAT?!" He suddenly cried, swiping at the air to his right. Like every time before it, there wasn't a thing to be seen.

Astaire and Rise looked at each other, both gradually cracking nervous smile and equally nervous laughs. Then they both reacted to the same thing.

"AAAAAAH!"

"GOOD GODS ABOVE!"

Astaire plunged his sword into the wall and tore a wide, thick gash into the wood. "I've had it up to here with this! Where are you hiding, you abhorrent fiends?!" Astaire bellowed to some unseeable presence, winding up for another hit before Kanji stepped in, grabbed him by the shoulder and slapped him across the face with a loud SMACK.

The sudden shock froze Astaire in his tracks, sword raised above his head. His momentum and balance now shot, he and Rise toppled backwards into a messy pile on the floor. "Cut that crap out!" Scolded Kanji. "You take away anymore of the walls and the whole damn place is gonna end up on top of us!"

"Kanji-kun is right." Naoto added, being careful to grip the end of Kanji's blazer when Rise was looking. "Your outbursts are completely unwarranted. There's nothing here to be afraid of."

"Me? Afraid? H-Hah! Perish the thought!" Astaire chuckled, far too highly pitched to have been anything but nervous. "It's a bad habit of mine, is all! I'm simply a tad… alert, when exploring new places, so a little jump here and there isn't that odd, believe me! Nothing to fret over!" He insisted, resuming his walking down the corridor and choosing to ignore the hole he'd left in the wall.

As calm as he claimed to be, Naoto noted that Astaire made no effort to bring his sword back to his shoulder.

After a little more aimless walking, Rise couldn't ignore it any longer. The end of Astaire's sword was shaking. Considering how large his Zweihander was - so large that it made even a greatsword look small - it was fair to assume that he wasn't struggling under the weight. "Hey, are you sure you're okay?"

"Perfectly. Why do you ask?" Astaire adjusted his focus to Rise, who motioned her head in the direction of his sword's quivering tip. Upon realising what he was doing, he quickly threw it back up to his shoulder. "T-That's nothing. I'm simply…" He paused, racking his brain for an excuse. "...It's the sword, you see! I'm simply anxious to put it to work, that's all!" He ended with another high-strung chuckle.

"Yo, about that. Your bigass sword from before not good enough for ghost huntin' all of a sudden?" Kanji piped up from behind.

Thank the gods, something else to talk about. "Oh, this is no ordinary sword, Mr. Tatsumi. Only an exceptionally special kind of weapon will suffice for a task such as this." Astaire began as he ran his eyes up and down the blade. "And Abysswalker Artorias' is about as special as they come."

Artorias. The name hung in Rise's ear in a way only a familiar one could. "Artorias…" She mumbled, right before her eyes lit up and she snapped a finger. "That's the guy whose ring you had earlier, when we fell into the TV!"

"Correct!" Astaire said with an enthusiastic nod. "He was a peerless example to all knights such as myself, and to greatsword users aside. So admirable, so courageous and so dedicated a knight was he that he fought tooth and nail against the Abyss itself! He even went so far as to align himself with the creatures that lurked within it, that he might better his means of combatting them once and for all!"

What had started as a simple explanation ended with Astaire's eyes all but engorged in fire as he grinned from ear to ear, nigh on radiating pure energy. Rise giggled at how worked up he'd gotten. That look was one she was well familiar with, she'd seen it on enough of her fans to know it off by heart. The look of a very dedicated, very enthusiastic fanboy.

"Dude sounds like a badass." Kanji summed up nicely. "So… what, he give that sword to you himself? Ya kill him for it?"

Astaire gave him a hearty, yet partially incredulous laugh. "Oh, if only! Though it pains me to say it, even a warrior as capable as Knight Artorias wasn't invincible. Nobody quite knows for certain what happened to him, only that his onslaught against the Abyss pried him away from Lordran, never to return. His grave stands as a testament to his sacrifices, as well as a stony reminder of what all good knights should strive to be."

Astaire walked on in silent triumph for a few seconds before he realised he hadn't actually addressed Kanji's question.

"Oh! That being said, if he were alive I daresay he'd make short work of us all, never mind myself! Any fellow with even a fraction of his strength would be a challenge, but him? You'd be wiser to just lay down and accept whatever comes at you!" He finished with another laugh, conveniently spared the stunned reactions of his audience.

Someone physically stronger than Astaire? Someone he thought could take them all on singlehandedly, and seemed pretty confident in assuming so?

...All the better he had a grave, then.

"So you didn't kill him for it, and you didn't get it handed to you." Kanji summarised again, coaxing a nod from Astaire. "...Then where the hell did you get it?!"

"Ah, right!" Kanji pinched his nose in lieu of smacking Astaire on the side of the head. "As happenstance would have it, I wound up crossing blades with Sif, Artorias' faithful wolven companion. This blade is forged from their soul." He explained as his grin began to wane.

"Forged… from their soul?" Rise queried, cocking her head.

A grave nod resumed Astaire's now less-than-enthusiastic explanation. "Indeed. I had no alternative. Sif was guarding the Covenant of Artorias, and I wasn't getting it without a fight. Had I been able to simply borrow it and return it later…" He trailed away sadly, gaze glued to the ground. "...In any case, I made use of the noble beast's soul by having it forged into a sword of my own to make the sword I carry now, Artorias' Cursed Greatsword."

"C-Cursed?" Naoto chimed in from beside Kanji. The moment she realised her slip - and also made sure to jerk her hand from Kanji's when Rise turned around to give her one of her looks - she cleared her throat and tugged her hat down. "I demand an explanation."

Astaire shrugged. "Well, Artorias' sword - the original, that is - was cursed when he entered the Abyss. A small price to pay, considering cursed weapons are the only things capable of injuring ghosts."

Hold.

The goddamn phone.

"So, wait. Does that mean that… the weapons you gave the guys… and this shield?" Kanji began to piece together in horror.

However, the Detective Prince was naturally quicker on the uptake. "All cursed weapons. Does that mean you've cursed us by extension? Surely possessing such items couldn't be without consequence." Naoto asked, taking note that Kanji held the shield at arm's length away from himself, looking perturbed.

He must've taken some kind of offense from the implication, because Astaire wheeled around on a heel, accidentally whipping Rise around with his off-hand. "I wouldn't dare!" He said, expression indignant. "No, the weapons I provided you were sourced from the remains of those who were already cursed to begin with. They carry the burden for us now."

Rise's hands suddenly tightened around Astaire's as he finished. His regret was palpable as he met her fiery, stern glare. "They came from remains? Like, dead bodies?! You looted them from dead people?!" Being so dense that he was a few pounds off devolving into a black hole, Astaire nodded slowly. "That's so disrespectful! How could you do such a thing?!"

"It was either that or die at the hands of ghosts, Ms. Kujikawa! What else was I to do, given the circumstances?"

Though Astaire was trying his damnedest not to raise his voice in his defence, Rise wasn't quite as worried. "Oh I dunno, maybe something that isn't stripping dead bodies?! You already have that sword, don't you?! So why-?"

Her argument was cut short as Astaire dropped his sword, reached into his coat and pulled out something pale and white with his right hand. Everyone gasped as Naoto shone Kanji's flashlight on it, seeing as she was the only one with a free hand.

In a manner of speaking. Because a hand was exactly what Astaire was holding. A severed hand.

Rise's hands flew to her mouth as she let out an ear-bleedingly loud scream that echoed down the corridor.

"It was either that, or one of these." Astaire said grimly, tucking the hand away before the nausea in his throat climbed any higher. "Strip the bodies of the cursed, or cut them into pieces to imbue their curse upon yourself." He picked up Artorias' sword and sighed to himself. "If Lordran has taught me anything in abundance, it is that your actions are not always favourable. Nor are the outcomes that follow."

An awkward silence filled the air. If there was an appropriate response to such a revelation, none present in the corridor could settle on it.

As much as Astaire would have liked to walk on and try not to think about it, leaving without Rise wasn't an option. But after what he'd just told her, she could hardly be blamed for not wanting to-

"Astaire-kun…" Rise sighed as she grabbed onto Astaire's hand once again. "...Let's keep going, okay? We'll talk about it later…" There was no anger in her voice, but she made no effort to conceal the tone of disappointment that replaced it. Disappointment which seemed to transfer to Astaire, as though conducted through his hand. His eyes met the floor as he lowered his head in shame.

It was a necessary evil, right? He'd had to do it. New Londo would have been impossible to traverse otherwise. Rob the dead or dissect them. Those were the only options.

...But it was still a grotesque act, whether he had been given other options or not.

Astaire had never thought about it before. Lordran didn't afford one much time for introspective thinking. Now, in the emptiness of the lightless house, he could think of little else. Thinking which had led him to one conclusion.

Perhaps his callousness towards his actions said a little more about him than he cared to admit.

---

"Yu-kun… do you have any idea where we're going?"

"Do you?"

"Nope, not one."

"Then you're already miles ahead of me."

Yu and Yukiko proceeded hand-in-hand down the hallways, mirroring their friends in that they'd been walking for far too long in the house that was far too big. "If I'd known this place was actually going to be haunted, I'd never have brought us all here…" Yu lamented, keeping a firm grasp on his katana.

He lamented if only because one of them had to be concerned. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm having a great time!" Yukiko beamed, running a finger over the wall to her left and examining it. "Look at how much dust is in here, this whole place must be ancient!"

"You'd think that, but I'm guessing otherwise." Yu said, peering cautiously over his shoulder. "I'm pretty sure there'd have been more of a uproar about an out-of-place house that's bigger on the inside if it had been here before."

Yukiko nodded thoughtfully. "Hm. I suppose you're right. If the dust is anything to go by, it'd have to have been here since… last year, maybe. Possibly even further back than that." She guessed as she placed a finger on her lips, pondering silently to herself. After a few seconds, a look of vivid, gleeful realisation appeared on her face. Yu couldn't help but gulp on reflex. "What if it's like those old ghost ships that sail out at sea? It could appear and disappear like magic, and it'd explain it being haunted!"

"I think you're having a little too much fun with this." Yu said as he shook his head. "Besides, I don't think that's quite it. Call me uninformed…" Not that anyone could be more informed than Yukiko when it came to creepy stuff, "...but I don't think a ghost ship would go out of its way to keep all of us separated like this." Once again, he felt compelled to check behind his and Yukiko's backs, though he couldn't say why. Perhaps he could chalk it up to there being so little in front of them to keep an eye on.

Until they rounded a certain corner, that was. A certain corner which led to a certain wall of moonlit windows.

"Huh. This must be the edge of the house." Yukiko noted.

"It'd better be, considering how long it took us to walk to it." Yu grumbled as he made his way to the nearest window, letting Yukiko peer out the next one down.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No moon, no stars, not even any artificial light sources. Despite the light filtering through the window, it lacked any discernable source. "Strange… it's completely black outside. " Yu commented, turning to Yukiko. "I'm guessing it's the same on your end, huh?"

Yet Yukiko didn't respond. She seemed fixated on whatever was outside, which would have been fine had there been anything to fixate on in the first place. Curiosity cocking one eyebrow, Yu carefully approached her and moved his hand to touch her own. She instantly recoiled with a fearful look on her face, one which Yu had yet to see replicated beforehand. "Yu-kun… out there, I saw…" She fumbled, trying to string the words together with difficulty.

As much as Yu wanted to break his gaze away from her and look outside for himself, his limbs were stiff with apprehension. If it was enough to scare Yukiko, what chance did he stand? Even after multiple cycles, she could easily put his courage to shame.

In spite of this thought, Yu swallowed his hesitations and quickly turned to face the window, preparing himself mentally for whatever might be-

Pitch black. Empty. Nothing. The outside of the window was entirely bare.

It only occurred to Yu after he'd turned that seeing nothing might've been the only thing worse than something.

"Yukiko… there's nothing out there. Nothing at all." Yu said quietly, mulling over the implications in his head. Either something was hiding from them, or Yukiko was seeing things. Neither bode well for either of them.

But all the same, she shook her head insistently. "N-No! I saw something, I know I did! I think…" She started, backing away and trying not to make eye contact with the window again. "I… think it was my Shadow...!"

No way. Absolutely not.

Yu gazed out the window once again, glass fogging from his breath as he assessed it carefully. Taking a step further, he placed an ear up and held his breath.

Silence. Nothingness on all fronts of observation.

And then, an idea. Yu turned to Yukiko and motioned to her to stand back. With a nod, she pressed her back against the wall behind him. "What? What are you going to do?"

"We're going to see what's out there once and for all." Yu said seriously, drawing his sword and pointing the tip at the glass.

---

As much as Yosuke thought about it, the situation seemed inescapable. How was anybody supposed to escape from a house that could move the exit? For all the time he'd spent massaging his temples in thought wondering 'What would Yu do?' to himself, the answer was no less clear. Assuming there was an answer in the first place.

Not that Chie. pacing back and forth worriedly, and Teddie, yelling his head off, were helping much. Evidently the realisation that the house had been rearranging itself was too much for either of them to bear.

Hmm. What would Yu do? Think, Hanamura, think.

Teddie. Had to calm Teddie down first. Yosuke nodded to himself and gripped Teddie by the shoulders mid-flail, looking him eye-to-tearful-eye. "Teddie, calm down already! Hollering isn't going to get us out of here!"

"And what is, Yosuke?! In case you haven't noticed, the odds aren't exactly stacked in our favour seeing as the whole freaking house doesn't want us leaving!"Chie shouted in Teddie's stead, unable to completely cover up the unsteadiness in her voice, no matter how angry she sounded.

Letting go of Teddie, Yosuke untucked one of his daggers from his belt. "I don't know, but standing around yelling about it isn't gonna get us out any quicker, that's for sure." He said as he began walking off, stopping just short of Chie and holding out the hand not occupied by a dagger. "C'mon, let's get moving."

Chie hesitated, glancing between Yosuke's hand and the stern expression on his face. "This could be a trap, y'know, and we'd be walking right into it like idiots."

"I think if someone wanted us to walk into a trap, they wouldn't have taken the last half hour leading us to it. C'mon." Yosuke insisted. He smiled in satisfaction as Chie grasped his hand and began walking beside him.

Until he remembered that his fingers were easier to break than his spine and that Chie had nearly landed him in a cast once already. He bit his lip as he felt the circulation in his hand cut off under her iron-fisted grip, focusing as best he could on the continuing walk forward.

His screaming done, Teddie quickly jogged after the both of them not long after.

Five minutes later, Yosuke's concentration was almost shot. Chie waved around his flashlight aimlessly, but if she was finding anything, he wasn't taking notice. His hand was dust. It had to be, she'd held onto it for so long that it'd probably dried up into a raisin and fallen off. Was it even there? Was she even holding onto anything? Had he finally succumbed to the pain and just-

"What the… what is this?" Chie asked, snapping Yosuke back to his senses. The flashlight hovered over the leftmost wall and over the massive, roughly two meter long gash across its length. "There had better not be anything else with claws in here…"

Teddie approached the gap and easily slid the blades of his claws inside. The single slash was thicker than all his blades put together. "I don't think so. If something had claws this big, I don't think it'd fit in the hallway!" He commented, closing one eye and peering into the wooden gash. No sooner had he looked through it, he reeled back in surprise. "Yosuke, Chie-chan! There's something on the other side!"

Chie and Yosuke glanced between each other in bewilderment before quickly joining Teddie at the wall. True enough, as seen by the flashlight's glow, there was a wall beyond the hole, bearing an identical gash to theirs. Whatever had left them both must've been big. "...Hey, maybe we could make it over there!" Chie said hopefully.

"Why? It's gonna be the same as over here anyway, just with a bigger chance of having a freaking monster inside. Not to mention…" Yosuke paused, glancing down at the impenetrable veil of darkness which sat between both hallways. "...I'd wager that if we mis-step, we're probably doomed."

Just as he was found grasping for motivation, Yosuke received some in the form of a high-pitched squeak that echoed from further down the opposite hallway. A squeak which sounded familiar. "Oh crap, that sounded like Rise!" And with that, Yosuke stepped back and roughly threw his foot at the wall. "Alright Ted, help he start clearing this wall away!" He commanded. "If we're gonna jump this thing, we'd better make sure we don't screw it up!"

Considering she hadn't gotten the opportunity to kick anything the entire time, Chie was quick to lend a hand. Between the three of them - but mostly Chie - a hole began to take shape in the wall. Eventually, it was found that Teddie's claws were the only thing long enough to jab at the other wall, meaning he took on the solitary task of clearing the landing zone, pressing himself on his stomach so as not to lose his balance.

The job wasn't perfect, but it'd have to do. The gap on the other side looked about big enough to jump into with the right amount of effort, timing and athleticism. "No problem, we can make that no swear." Yosuke said with a confident nod as he stepped back. "Just watch me clear this in one go, easy peasy."

A thud to his chest put a hold on his show. "No way! Your scrawny little legs could barely kick away anything when the wall needed clearing, I'll go first!" Chie huffed, shoving Yosuke aside and kneeling down for a running start. "Besides, haven't you ever heard of ladies first?"

"I have, but Yukiko wasn't around so I figured- OW!"

There was a brief moment of rest as Chie pounded Yosuke into a pulp.

As his two teammates tussled, Teddie strolled along and gazed down into the inky black drop below them. He lowered himself to his chest again, peeking his head over the edge as he squinted heavily. Surely there had to be something down there, right? Nowhere just lead to nothing. If only he could get a little closer...

---

The brief discussion over the ethics of Astaire's cursed body defilement had brought at least one silver lining. It had helped distract everyone, however briefly, from how rightfully fearful they should have been.

Much like a transient curse, however, Astaire found that the distraction had begun to wear off with time.

Every time Rise glanced up to look at him, a gradual look of pure terror was chiselled ever more finely on Astaire's face. Pupils contracting, eyes wide, jaw tightly clenched, nothing about him seemed comfortable in the slightest. Even on his shoulder, his sword's shaking had intensified to the point where there was little use in hiding it, or even trying.

"...It's alright to be afraid, you know." Rise finally said to break the silence.

But once again, Astaire simply offered a nervous chuckle in return. "D-Don't be absurd! I'm not afraid in the slightest, whatever made you think otherwise?!" In fact, judging from his tone of voice, Astaire himself was probably the scariest thing in the hallway at that moment. He looked just about ready to snap completely.

That couldn't happen. If asking him and offering comfort wouldn't work, Rise decided she would simply have to try something different. "...Astaire-kun, I order you to tell me what's wrong." She demanded, squeezing his hand tighter.

There was a long, distinct silence before Astaire responded. "...I seem to have… overestimated my abilities." He began slowly, stopping to run his tongue over his lips and swallow tensely. "...This situation is not at all what I anticipated."

"Surprising. You seemed fairly at ease with the thought of combatting ghosts back in Junes." Naoto said, making sure to keep her hands well away from Kanji when Rise inevitably turned to look at her.

Until Astaire whipped around too, eyes darting maniacally around the hall. "Ghosts that I could see and hear! Ghosts that brandished rattling chains, ghosts that sliced at you and rose up from the floors and…!" He insisted, cutting himself off as he realised just how nerve-wracked he sounded. He took a deep breath through his nose. "But now? There is nothing. Nothing at all."

Kanji, too, was keeping an eye on their surroundings, albeit a bit more calmly than Astaire was. "Well, somethin's gotta be here, otherwise we'd be out the front door and gone by now."

"Exactly." Astaire quickly snapped, looking jumpier by the second. "I can feel it, I know I can! They're gazing at us with their cold, dead eyes right now! Lurking just out of sight, watching our every step and trying to drive us mad!"

"Doin' a pretty good job of it, too." Kanji said before Rise's sharpest glare could stop him.

Sighing, Astaire lowered his head. "Yosuke was right... I wanted to come here so badly and look where I've gotten us all now. Even with best intentions, I've only gone and mucked everything up." He said quietly, barely beyond a whisper.

He felt a warmth envelop his cheeks as Rise reached up and placed her hands on them, giving him a smile. "You said it yourself, right? Something about taking responsibility for your actions?" She moved one of her hands to Astaire's own, the one gripping Artorias' greatsword. "If you feel so bad about getting us into this, then we'll just have to get out of it. But we can't do that if we all sit here feeling scared and sorry, okay? Lighten up a little!" She chirped towards the end.

...Nothing. Astaire barely even moved. Upon closer inspection, Rise realised he was holding his breath. Given the way his sword hand tensed under her own, she took that as a sign that she should do the same.

Slowly, she followed his gradually shifting gaze to the floor in front of them.

They both looked at one another, Astaire raising an eyebrow and tilting his head while Rise nodded in confirmation. With that, he leapt forward to the point they had settled on and plunged his sword into the floorboards. "You'll not get away from me this time!" He said through gritted teeth.

"Oh for the love of… for the last time, that ain't gonna do nothin', we've been over this!" Kanji sighed in frustration.

"Don't be so sure! I know they're here this time, and I'm going to-!"

With a mighty heave, Astaire strained against the sword and… didn't move it an inch. His face, once screwed up in effort, fell flat before he raised an eyebrow at the sword's pommel. "Hmm. How perplexing." He gave it another tug, but to no avail. Finally, relinquishing Rise's hand and bringing both of his to the grip, Astaire grunted and strained as he threw his entire supply of strength into getting the blade free. As he doubled over and panted for air, it was clear that it wasn't to be.

Kanji let out another sigh. "See, what'd I tell ya? Probably went and got it stuck in the foundations or something. Lemme give it a try." He set his shield against the wall and brought both of his hands to the crossguard, joining Astaire as he gripped the other end. Yet even as both fellows of inhuman strength put their backs into the task, the blade remained shockingly unperturbed. Kanji and Astaire both panted and took a step back. They glanced between themselves and the sword with equally confused expressions. "Hah… Dude… what'd you do to that thing?"

Astaire wiped his brow before setting a hand back at the sword's hilt. "I'm not… too sure myself…" He panted, all the same readying up for another go. Kanji fanned his hands and stretched his fingers before also stepping in for a second try.

As Kanji went, he was stopped by a sudden, loud crashing sound.

With a sudden shift, the sword has descended even further into the floor, breaking the floorboards ever more harshly. "Well that's just great. As if this crap wasn't hard enough to get out already." Kanji winced.

"I-It wasn't me, I swear!" Astaire said insistently, waving his free hand. "The sword just-"

"Just what? Pushed itself into the floor just to make life more difficult for us?"

Naoto interrupted as she took in a sharp breath. "Not pushing. Pulling."

All three sets of eyes turned to her with equally confused expressions. As though confirming her theory, the sword responded by shifting even deeper into the floor, so violently that Astaire was lurched to his chest with it. The impact knocked the wind from his lungs, but he dared not let go of the hilt. "...What…?"

---

Yu's sword forced itself further into the window, forming ever larger cracks in the glass around it. "...the…?"

---

Yosuke and Chie shot to their feet as Teddie disappeared into the gap between the walls. "...hell?!"

Everything happened at once. As Chie and Yosuke peered over the edge of the dark expanse for any sign of Teddie, the gravity seemed to intensify in an instant. Before either could register what was happening, they were swept off their feet and into the pitch-black depths below. At the same time, Yu and Yukiko's window shattered into pieces, acting like an airlock as it violently sucked both of them out. They barely had time to grab onto one another before plummeting ever further downwards. Lastly, Astaire's sword abruptly disappeared into the floor in a cloud of noise and splinters, dragging Astaire himself down in turn. He could do little but reflexively yelp as he was torn away, his voice fading into the distance.

"Astaire-kun!" Rise cried as the small blue dot was gradually swallowed by the infinite black void below them. However far Astaire was falling, it didn't look like he was stopping any time soon. Assuming he'd stop at all. Even if he did, it was unknowable whether or not he'd even survive the landing. In spite of this thought, Rise clenched her fists and made to jump into the hole after him, only to freeze momentarily as she looked to Naoto and Kanji. "C'mon, we gotta go down there after him!"

Between both of them, Kanji stammered while Naoto looked ready to break into a master's thesis about why this was a horrible idea.

"Guys! If we don't go now who knows what's gonna happen down there?!" Rise exchanged quick glances between her friends and the hole, awaiting a response that didn't come even after a few seconds. Time wasn't feeling like a luxury easily afforded, even for those few seconds. Eventually, Rise's expression hardened before she turned to the hole and drew a sharp breath, mustering her courage and tossing herself down into the void.

"...Damnit. Guess we ain't got much of a choice now." Kanji mused as he swiped up his shield and strode towards the hole. It took Naoto appearing alongside him to give him pause. "Woah, wait a sec."

She raised an eyebrow. "...Is something the matter? Besides the obvious, that is."

"Your gun ain't cursed. What're you gonna do if end up tussling with something down there?" An innocent enough question, but the pointed look Naoto gave Kanji after he'd asked it made him swiftly wish he hadn't.

Some mixture of annoyance and frustration surfaced on Naoto's face as she glanced away afterwards. "...Rise-san lacks a weapon of any sort, much less a cursed one. You said nothing of the sort to her."

Trying to explain that she wasn't exactly comparable to Rise in his eyes was only going to complicate the situation further. "Well yeah, she's gonna have Astaire-san with her."

The dark expanse at their feet suddenly became remarkably interesting to Naoto, or so Kanji gathered, since she was looking at in so fixated a manner. She lowered her head until her face disappeared behind the edge of her cap. "...You'll be there, won't you?" Before Kanji could even attempt to coax an elaboration from her, she cleared her throat loudly. "A-Anyway, I'm sure Astaire-san possesses more cursed weapons than those he handed out prior. Surely he'll have something of use. We should get going."

At that, Kanji shook his head as he hoisted his shield back up and straightened himself. "Y-Yeah, sure."

Eager to leave the simmering pot of awkwardness behind, the two hastily took the plunge into the unknown.

---

The Abyss.

It couldn't have been anywhere else. No earthly realm was so devoid of life and matter. As worrying a thought as it proved to be, Astaire couldn't help but come to conclusion that it must've been taking a shine to him in one way or another. Whatever reason or purpose it could've had, he couldn't say. Darkness knew neither rhyme nor reason. Any attempt to form such would only be in vain.

Of the few certainties Astaire had, something was certainly pulling him sword-first into trouble. He quickly slipped the Covenant of Artorias onto his ring finger and braced for impact. As usual, his arrival was unnaturally comfortable. As his momentum eased away, so too did the draw on Artorias' greatsword. Whatever had pulled him down here, he was right where it wanted him.

…

…

Odd. Both odd and worrying, to put it lightly. Astaire turned on the spot, assessing his surroundings with an eyebrow raised. No kings, no ghosts, no bonfires, no nothing. The Abyss was completely empty. Not that it was exactly bustling at the best of times, but it certainly wasn't quite so empty.

If nothing else, it made Rise's voice all the easier to hear. "Astaire-kun! Is everything alright?!"

Jolting his head around and up, Astaire locked onto the quickly approaching orange dot that fell from the darkness above. "Ms. Kujikawa!" He shoved his sword into his coat and broke into a sprint. "Don't worry, I've got you!"

With a well-timed leap, Astaire swept Rise out of the air and into his arms before the Abyss could swallow her whole. As before, he lightly set her on his shoulders and retrieved his sword once his hands were free. "Woah. It's this place again…" Rise said as she gazed around herself.

"So it would seem. Whyever it's here, I can't imagine it being anything other than bad news." Astaire said, shortly before his tipped his head back, meeting the bottom of Rise's chin. "Talking of which, what on earth were you doing?! Jumping into the Abyss without this-" He held up Artorias' ring, "-could have gotten you killed!"

Rise angled her face so that she looked Astaire in the eyes, albeit upside down. "What, and let you try and fight whatever pulled you down here all on your own? Are you stupid?!" She shot back.

He brushed off the stupid comment, orange eyes sharpening tenfold. "I have fought the Abyss and its denizens before and I have won, I can easily do so on my own again!" He boasted, unable to resist raising his voice. "If abandoning me would have kept you safe, then by all means you should have left me!"

"I'm not gonna let you throw yourself in here just so you can risk getting turned into a Darkwraith again!"

At that, Astaire lost his response as his mouth hung open dumbly.

Thankfully, Rise continued. "...You're a good guy, you know? I don't… I don't want that to change." Her voice was barely above a whisper as she spoke. "But… there's a chance, right? I mean, it's happened before. You and I both know it has."

As much as he wished he could deny it, the Darksword and the pulsating feeling of the Dark Hand under Astaire's skin couldn't lie.

"I dunno how they did it, making you an enemy of man." Rise's eyes were suddenly filled with determination. "But they won't do it again. I won't let them, even if it means coming in here unprotected."

Words continued to fail Astaire as his heart proceeded to flounder about in his chest, gazing ever deeper into Rise's eyes.

Companionship was always a fleeting thing in Lordran. Those few people who spoke never lingered for long, skewed and twisted as time and space were. The only alternative was that of wordless, glowing, ethereal phantoms, a role which he'd more often assumed himself than made use of on his own. But again, said companionship was fleeting. Phantoms were expendable. Silent. Should one of them die, life would simply proceed as it always had, the death of another garnering nothing but indifference from all parties involved.

But not Rise. She was no phantom.

The moment stretched on for what felt like hours. As Rise's face softened, Astaire's temptation to tear his eyes away was replaced by the longing to get lost in hers. Whatever was on her mind, she didn't avert her gaze either.

That his life had a modicum of lasting value, even to one person, was a thought Astaire didn't readily want to lose.

"What… were you two doin' down here up 'til now?" Rise and Astaire both leapt in unison at the sound of Kanji's voice cutting away the silence. It seemed that he and Naoto had both landed somewhere adjacent to them at a point, both looking flustered from the fall, both having gone unnoticed until the last second and both giving them rather confused looks.

Staring deeply into one another's eyes while one sat on the other's shoulders? When imagining it from an outsider's perspective, Rise could see exactly how it looked. She and Astaire's eyes widened at once as they both began shaking their heads. "W-Wait a minute, this isn't what it looks like! Really!"

Ready to strenuously deny the situation with fervor twice as ardent as Rise's, Astaire paused as he realised what he was looking at.

Naoto and Kanji. Together.

In the Abyss.

Without the Covenant of Artorias.

...The risk was there, but he had to be certain. Closing his eyes and holding his breath, Astaire gripped either side of his ring and quickly tore it from his finger. Seconds passed. That was already longer than the Abyss would have afforded him normally. When Astaire opened his eyes, he and Rise were still very much alive, still facing a Naoto and Kanji that were only looking more confused with time.

"...Ms. Kujikawa. I don't believe this is the Abyss." He said, holding up the ring to show her.

"What?" Rise stopped mid-rant, taking the ring from Astaire and rolling it about in her palm. "But, that last time with the sword…"

Without a word, Astaire pulled out another broken sword and tossed it away. It rang out with a metallic clang as it collided with the ground.

It didn't sink. Not even slightly.

Wherever they were, it wasn't the Abyss. A convincing facsimile, for certain, but not the genuine article.

However, it did leave Rise with one obvious question. "So if this isn't the Abyss, what is it?" Obvious though it may have been, but it didn't make the answer any more evident. An endless, lightless, black expanse wasn't an easy thing to recreate.

As much as Astaire pondered, he couldn't make sense of it. Naoto looked to be absorbed in her thoughts in much the same manner. If the occasional, light shakes of her head were anything to go by, she wasn't having much more luck.

They needed someone smarter. Someone better informed. Someone they could bounce their theories off of together.

"Hey! You guys alright?!"

Well speak of the devil.

They were spread out in small groups, everyone having landed in slightly different places, but they were most certainly there. The Investigation Team had apparently been re-assembled, with everyone looking more or less unharmed, postures notwithstanding. Evidently some landings hadn't been as smooth as Naoto and Kanji's, given the way Yosuke tried to crack his back and more than a few people held their heads.

It was Yu who had called out to everyone, brushing himself off as he dragged himself to his feet and assisted Yukiko as he went. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I preferred the house." He passed his gaze over Yosuke, Teddie and Chie as they too righted themselves and got their bearings. "Looks like everyone got dragged down here at the same time." He noted out loud.

Before she could interject, Rise struggled to keep her balance as Astaire sprinted off in the direction of their formerly lost friends. Naoto and Kanji were quick to follow at their sides. "Yo, Senpai! We were looking all over for you guys!"

Kanji's voice beckoned Yosuke to look up after he'd had his face planted against Teddie's back post-fall. He couldn't help but furrow his brow at the sight of Rise riding atop Astaire's shoulders, her face concerned and his determined as they approached.

He rubbed the back of his head as he sat up. "Comfortable?" From some of the looks going around, he wasn't the only one questioning the situation.

"N-No, Yosuke-senpai, this isn't-!"

"I wasn't asking you, Rise."

A deep sigh was Astaire's only response as he knelt down and let Rise hop off his shoulders.

"Calm. I must be calm." He thought to himself. "He is one of Ms. Kujikawa's friends. It is not my place to dislike him. Bear with it." Though he had to admit, friend of Rise's or not, Yosuke was making him increasingly wary.

Thankfully, someone was willing to break the ensuing silence. "This place gives me the creeps…" Chie trembled, crossing her arms. "I remember falling, but I can't see anything above us…" She rightfully pointed out. Looking up, there wasn't even the slightest hint of anything, never mind a house. It looked exactly the same as the rest of the accursed place. "How do you even build a house on top of something like this?"

Naoto's eyes widened as Chie spoke. "You can't. It's impossible." She brought her fingers to her chin as he thought. "Therefore, it would only make sense to say that the house wasn't built on nothingness, moreso that it formed underneath it after the fact." She tilted her head towards Rise and Astaire. "You both called this place 'The Abyss.' You're familiar with it, then?"

"We are. Kinda." Rise began, recounting how she and Astaire had encountered the Abyss in the TV, and had wound up peeling it away. "...But that time, it ate anything it came into contact with." She motioned over to the broken sword behind them, thoroughly uneaten. "If it's not doing it now, I'm not really sure what this place is."

Teddie growled thoughtfully to himself. "Grooowr… If we're not inside the TV, I'm not really sure how we're supposed to get out of here, if it all."

The 'if at all' didn't do much to raise everybody's hopes. "Well I'm sure as hell not gonna sit here and die just because there's nothing here!" Yosuke barked, turning to Astaire. "You brought this thing here, right? You must know how to get out of it."

"How dare-!" Astaire began, quickly clamping his mouth shut before he could go any further. Calm. Calm. He cleared his throat, brought his sword back to his now Rise-less shoulder, and started over. "...When last I was dragged here, it was to defeat the Four Kings of New Londo. After killing them, I was presented with the way out." He gazed around at the darkness once more. "...Which would be all well and good, if we had something to fight. Whatever pulled down here, it's not being very forthcoming."

"It might've been Shadows." Yosuke suggested, noting that Chie, Yukiko and Yu were all suddenly very interested in what he had to say. "Chie and I saw one outside this window we found. Sounded just like me." He glanced towards Yu and Yukiko in particular, reading their expressions perfectly. "I'm guessing the same thing happened to you two?"

Yukiko nodded. "Yes. It didn't say anything specific, but it was definitely my voice talking to me."

"...But we're not in the TV, just like Teddie said." Rise said worriedly. "Why would we see them here?"

The questions seemed to spiral down and down, deeper into a pit of confusion and non-answers. For as many questions as they had, the Investigation Team was quickly approaching a shortage of any relevant solutions.

Or so it seemed, at first.

"Guys? The hell is that?" Kanji said, pointing into the distance towards a small splotch of colour that had seemingly passed everyone's notice by, as inexplicable as it sounded. With little else to do, everyone took off towards whatever it was Kanji had spotted. Drawing nearer, it became frighteningly obvious what exactly the object was.

It was a TV. A simple, vintage-looking TV on a set of legs, showing nothing but an endless loop of static.

Everyone exchanged glances, all seeming to ask the same thing. "We're not actually gonna jump inside that thing, are we?"

Yu's outstretched arm stopped everyone dead. "Don't touch it. Everyone stay quiet." On command, everyone held their respective breaths. "You hear that, right?"

It was distant at first, but it was there. Another sound, fading in and out between waves of static. A sound that had everyone taking a step back on instinct. A sound not to be taken lightly.

The rattling of chains was never welcome, much less so to the Investigation Team.

Suddenly, a pair of chains with large, sharp, curved blades on either end shot out of the TV, wrapping around the blade of Yu's katana. Their grip was strong, a single tug threatening to launch Yu headlong into the TV entirely. He hit the ground with a thud, quickly picking himself back up and strengthening the grip on his sword.

Yu lowered his stance as his muscles roared into action, giving his best practiced fisherman's reel and forcing the malevolent presence from beyond the screen out into the open. An ungodly wail filled the air as a length of billowing white cloth emerged from within, reeling back to reveal the red-eyed, screaming visage of the banshee proper.

For a brief moment, Yu was stunned as the banshee-like scream assaulted his ears, before it was cut off by a loud, metallic clang. Kanji had come in from the side, flattening the ghost in one fell swoop. "Huh. That wasn't so bad."

"Famous last words." Yu said, backing away from the screen.

At that, a veritable torrent of ghosts came wailing out of the screen all at once, as though someone had opened the floodgates containing them all prior. With a combined, catastrophically loud screech, the ghosts surrounded the team from every angle, forcing everyone's backs to one another.

Only on the brink of an ensuing fight did it occur, particularly to Naoto, that Astaire had only given weapons to the males of the group. She got the sense that it might've been intentional, but the time for clarification had long gone. "Astaire-san, I need a firearm or some sort!"

He gave her a questioning look, at which point a frantic Kanji took over, eyes flitting between Astaire and the ghosts. "You know, bang-bang, that sort of thing!" He motioned the actions of firing a rifle, at which point Astaire's eyes lit up.

His hand disappeared inside his coat, quickly emerging with a small package which leapt into Naoto's hands. "These are…" She was interrupted as a crossbow landed in her hands in turn, thin and light looking.

"Crossbow bolts!" Astaire confirmed.

Naoto sighed. As expected, asking for a revolver from a knight wasn't exactly an airtight plan. She quickly attached the bolts to her belt and loaded the crossbow with ease. So much ease that it almost felt like she'd done it before, oddly. "Aim steady and true, Ms. Shirogane!" A heavy thump hit her in the back from what felt like Astaire's hand. Only his fingers felt strangely limp, not to mention they impacted with a sort of… wet… sound…

Memories of the Transient Curses Astaire had displayed earlier surfaced in Naoto's mind.

Oh, God.

Astaire turned to deliver more armaments, when a pair of blades dove into the middle of the group between their backs. "Everyone, dodge!" He cried, grabbing Rise and swiftly rolling back as she yelped. At the sound of his voice, everyone dissipated as the blades blindly hacked away at nothing, recoiling to their host thereafter.

Spaced out from everyone else, Astaire singlehandedly danced around Rise, brutally slashing any ghost that dared approach them and cutting through them like butter. As he reared up for another swing, Rise cried out. "Astaire-kun, below you!" His eyes caught the target before his sword did as two ghostly blades swept up from below and gouged into his back. He roared in pain as the ghost who'd snagged him approached from the floor, only to fall victim to a well-shot bolt through the head.

"Senpai, they're coming from below us!" Naoto called as she loaded another bolt and covered Kanji's blindside.

Yu nodded and quickly diced at the pair of blades forming underneath him. His attacks came swiftly and strongly, with ghosts forming on him with devastating frequency from all sides. Just as a few would form on one side, he would sweep around and swiftly dispatch them both, carrying the momentum and switching targets seamlessly.

So transfixed was Yukiko with her boyfriend's mighty struggle that she failed to notice Chie bounding towards her until the last second, whereupon Chie roughly grabbed her hand and quickly dragged her off. "Don't just stand there doing nothing, you'll get chopped to pieces!"

But Yukiko couldn't help checking over her shoulder. "What about Yu-kun?" She asked, right as Yosuke leapt into the air in a flurry of steel and acrobatics, obliterating the ghosts surrounding Yu and landing gracefully behind him.

Oh yeah, he'd be just fine.

"Stop it already, you need to rest!" Rise insisted as Astaire continued swatting away ghosts in their throngs, with such fervor that he seemed to be ignorant of the two bleeding holes in his back.

Three ghosts disappeared in a single swipe, affording enough time for Astaire to face her properly. "Stop for even a second and they shall swarm us completely! I'll rest when they're all dead!" He yelled as he turned back into the fray, swinging with reckless abandon and carving a new hole in the ghostly horde.

Finally, the wave of ghosts began to thin out. Yu, Yosuke and Astaire panted heavily, lungs on fire after the non-stop assault.

They were all faster than himself, Astaire noted. In a normal fight his raw power would've been enough to cover him. But this was no normal fight, and he was the only one bleeding as a result.

Bleeding pretty badly, it seemed. The Ultramarine of his coat stained a dark purple as his wounds began seeping out progressively quicker. "Oh no…" Rise's stricken face upon examining his wounds didn't serve to raise his hopes. "They're deep… how are you feeling, Astaire-kun?"

Straightening his back sent a fresh wave of pain through the wound. Nevertheless, he managed a lopsided smile. "Just fine." He lied. "Loathsome blighters are stronger than I expected, that's all."

Come to think of it, there was very little about the whole excursion that Astaire had expected, now that he thought about it.

The latest entry on the list of unexpected things was Chie and Yukiko nigh on bowling Astaire over entirely as the rushed towards him. "We need weapons, fast!" Chie said between breaths. "Boots and fan, chop chop!"

In seconds, Astaire tossed a pair of black, pointed high heel boots to Chie. She chose not to question why he'd been carrying them around in the first place and slipped them on. Only once she did so did she realise Astaire wasn't searching further. "A… fan?" He asked, tilting his head to one side.

"You'd better not be about to tell us you have every single type of weapon ever made in that box except a fan." Chie said flatly. She let out a sigh as Astaire sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and smiled nervously. "Alright, alright. Maybe not a fan, but… c'mon, you've gotta have something!"

Something wasn't much to go on. Naoto's experience with projectile weapons made crossbows a natural enough jump weapon-wise, but a fan? What on earth or Lordran would equate to that?

Unfortunately, there was little time to ponder on an answer. A cry of pain came from Naoto and Kanji's direction as the former took a well-concealed blade to the ankle. On instinct, her aim had wavered as she brought her hand to the wound to try and ease the pain. In so short a time, another ghost had risen from the ground and glowered down at her, cradling what looked like a baby in its arms. Not even Naoto could hold in a scream at the sight.

"Oh shit, Naoto!" Kanji called out, smashing the ghosts accosting him and sprinting towards Naoto immediately after, shortly before Yu and Yosuke made a similar mad dash towards her in turn.

Naoto's eyes widened as crackling lightning engulfed the undead child before it hurtled towards her. It wasn't entirely clear what effect an attack like this would have without her Persona to take the brunt of it, but it seemed everyone was about to find out. Anticipating the worst, Naoto clenched her eyes shut and waited for the ensuing pain.

The pain never came. What came in its stead was a mighty booming sound, accompanied by earthquake-like tremors that seemed to violently rock the Abyss to its core. A powerful force knocked Naoto onto her back a number of feet away before she slid to a halt and finally opened her eyes. She drew a short breath as she caught sight of the disturbance's cause.

The gigantic red fist of Takeji Zaiten, Kanji's Persona, was embedded into the Abyss, not far away from where Naoto estimated she'd been pre-knockback. She whipped her head around, confirming that the TV was still right in front of their eyes. And so it was.

Kanji had just summoned his Persona outside of the TV. In the real world.

The entire team, Kanji included, fell into a stunned silence. "The hell…? We ain't in the TV World, but…" Kanji trailed off, his train of thought derailed as a high-pitched squeal came from the TV again.

There was no hyperbole in saying that the stream of spirits was thrice as dense as it had first been. However, instead of aiming directly for the team, the ghosts flew overhead and began congregating at a single spot in the distance.

As if their sheer numbers wasn't enough to give Astaire pause, their actions were. Ghosts weren't organised. Dangerous to the point of fatality, maybe, but never organised. Something was different about these wrathful spirits. Different enough to make Astaire grip his sword that much tighter, ignoring the pain in his back.

A sudden burst of light engulfed the ghosts, spurring everyone to reflexively shield their eyes. Only once the light settled and the view became clear did everyone immediately wish it hadn't. Before them stood a towering monster of tattered cloth, rattling chains and howling faces, bound together in one horrifying, floating mass of wailing and destitute souls.

Hundreds upon thousands of sword, daggers, and bladed weapons of every kind shot out of the monster and dangled towards the floor of the Abyss, each suspended by a chain wrapped around the hilt. Then, from the impenetrable darkness of the floor rose another, smaller being. Humanoid in shape, it stood up and straightened itself to face the team.

A skeletal face bearing empty sockets, complete with a ribcage adorning the torso. A being that made Astaire's blood run cold.

A Darkwraith.

The Darkwraith outstretched its arms, seeming to conduct the ethereal mass above it, as multitudinous chains wrapped around its arms from shoulder to wrist. Then, as though swinging a sword, the Darkwraith raised its arm freely and brought it down, the left half of the accumulated cloud of weapons sounding out against the floor with a loud crash. Like a puppet controlled with innumerable strings, with the Darkwraith as the puppeteer.

There was no time to lose. The Investigation Team lined up alongside one another in front of the monster. "Rise, tell us what this thing is!" Yu called, coaxing Kouzeon out of hiding from behind Rise herself. Evidently, Kanji wasn't the only one capable of evoking.

"Both that big cloud of ghosts and the thing it's holding are two separate targets! We might have to take them out individually!" She said as everyone else began to evoke in turn. "I can't see its weaknesses though… I'm not sure it even has any!"

Astaire was dumbstruck. The sight of everyone's Personas lined up and ready for battle was one to behold. The sheer scale of Takeji Zaiten. The glorious magnificence of Sumeo-Okami. The divine radiance of Izanagi-no-Okami, enough to conjure images of Lord Gwyn in his prime into Astaire's head. The combined power of everyone's true selves was so immense that it almost felt oppressive, as though the atmosphere suddenly weighed twice as much as before.

...In the face of such combined power, should he even have been taking part in the battle at all?

No, of course he should have. Astaire shook his doubts from his head and broke into a sprint towards the unfathomably large enemy before them. "I shall try and subvert the Darkwraith's control over this monster! That alone may be enough to end this!" He shouted as he went.

"Astaire-san, wait! It's too strong to handle alone!" He heard Yu call from behind. But now wasn't the time. With a bit of equipment juggling, Astaire retrieved his Zweihander and a Transient Curse from his coat, gripping the severed hand in his own. They mightn't have been his favourite method of fighting ghosts, but it was no time to be picky.

The suspended blades and weapons seemed to perk up as Astaire drew closer to them. They drew back simultaneously and lunged forward with equal timing. With an agile roll, Astaire landed on his feet and continued his sprint, blessing his coat for being as light as it was. As yet more blades struck out and bit at his heels, he danced around all of them with relative ease, quickly approaching the Darkwraith in the centre.

Unlike the cloud it was connected to, the host hadn't moved an inch. Not that it made a difference to Astaire, who once again narrowly avoided being diced to pieces before he let out a roar and buried his sword into the Darkwraith's chest. With that, the blades that'd pursued him fell limp and silent.

The Darkwraith was dead. Stupendous.

His work done, Astaire pressed a foot against the Darkwraith's body and attempted to heave his hefty sword from its chest. It gave inches, but little more. On a blade as long, inches were nothing. Astaire then brought both hands to the grip, heaving and straining all the while. Hopefully he'd not have to set his hands on the blade proper, he thought, that'd be dangerous beyond-

The sword abruptly halted mid-pull. Astaire felt his heart sink to his knees as he looked up and met the face of the Darkwraith head on, so close he swore he could see his breath on the skull. It'd stopped him. It'd simply grabbed the Zweihander and shrugged it off like it was nothing.

The chains from behind sprung to life once again, with two small daggers quickly wrapping around Astaire's ankles and wrists, lifting him into the air and away from both sword and Darkwraith. "Damn… damn, damn, damn! Let go of me this instant, damn you!" He chanted, struggling and straining against the tightly-wound chains.

His chanting soon stopped. A chain wrapped itself around the hilt of the Zweihander and retrieved it from the Darkwraith's chest. Abject terror welled up in Astaire's chest as the tip of his own sword swung around to face him.

---

If Rise's long-distance analysis was to be believed, and it usually was, Astaire had made it a fair ways into the midst of the monster without getting hit. With that in mind, Yu evoked guilt and worry-free. "Ziodyne!" A chorus of wails and screams cried out as the searing bolt of lightning coursed through the ghostly mass.

"Lightning's no good, Senpai! The chains are soaking most of it up!" Rise called out, brow furrowing as she assessed the ghosts' attributes under her visor. "At this rate, the only thing that's going to work are physical attacks and-" A fiery explosion filled the air with light, noise, and the sound of ghosts agonising under the molten metal that coated them following Yukiko's attack. "...That." Rise finished.

On the frontlines, Takeji Zaiten's huge swipes with his sword cleared Naoto's way through the forest of dangling weapons as she accurately decimated the ghosts above her, dropping a few chained weapons to the ground with each soaring bolt. However, just as quickly as they bit the dust, more ghosts came in to fill the holes she'd created, shortly before swiping at Naoto anew.

Chie, on the other hand, was having a much better time of things. "Yeah, take that! Get back, you lousy ghosts!" She hollered, swinging from chain to chain while assaulting the cloud of ghosts with her Persona from below. Between getting the chains tangled up as they tried to assault her at once, as well as her penchant for physical moves absolutely demolishing any ghosts she reached up above her, she marvelled at her own efficiency. "C'mon Yosuke, try to keep up!"

"How about you slow down instead?! This crap isn't easy!" Yosuke yelled back from the ground as he focused on keeping the dangling weapons away from them both. He switched between letting Takehaya Susano-o's razor winds whip the chains into large, tangled messes and slicing anything that tried to clothesline him otherwise, all the while chasing after Chie above him.

Kanji grunted in frustration as he uselessly battered the chains aside with his shield, biting back the feeling of ineptitude that came every time Yamato Sumeragi zipped past him with lightning speed, leaving a trail of broken chains and weapons in their wake. "Argh, damnit! Can't break these damn things at all!"

He turned as he heard a call from behind him. "Kanji, switch with me!" Yu ran alongside Izanagi-No-Okami, both of them taking wide swings with their respective weapons and completely clearing the blades from Kanji's surroundings. "Keep Yukiko safe, I'll take care of these things!"

Hesitation gripped Kanji, even in the wake of Senpai's orders. Naoto was there too. He couldn't just run off whenever he wanted. Only when he turned to her on instinct and saw Takeji Zaiten wrenching blades away from her back, just before Yamato Sumeragi and destroyed them, did he feel at ease.

She'd be alright. Takeji Zaiten could stay behind and help out, his shield would be more than enough to keep Yukiko safe. His thoughts sorted, Kanji took off to meet with her and Rise, post hate.

The only other member of the party who'd taken off on their own was Teddie, who was silently thankful he hadn't taken his suit with him. It'd have taken him (Meaning Yosuke,) forever to fix it if it got diced up. As it turned out, freezing the weapons in place with large blocks of ice and having them drop to the floor was very effective, meaning his pursuit of Chie was actually pretty leisurely, save for freezing any blades which had escaped a Garudyne.

Large clearings were beginning to form as a result of their efforts, but something nagged at the back of Teddie's mind as he gazed through them. Looking back towards Naoto and Sensei, they were fending off way more weapons than he could see through the clearings. Almost as though every blade they destroyed simply moved somewhere else once 'destroyed.'

Looking at it that way, it didn't seem like they were doing much of anything.

They must've been doing something wrong, but what? The only targets were the big ball of ghosts and the guy in the center. He and everyone else were dealing with one, and Astaire had run off to deal with the other. So what was the issue?

...Actually, now that it crossed his mind, he'd seen everybody except Astaire within the past few minutes. How far away could the center have been?

---

Rise swallowed silently as she tried her best to keep an eye on her friends through the dense cloud of separate entities above her. Try as she might, it only felt like it was getting harder.

Still, Senpai was there too. He'd never let anything happen to anyone, right? Absolutely not.

"Rise! Wake up, will ya?" She shook her head as her senses returned, alerting her that Kanji was turned to her. "How many of these damn ghosts are there? We've been at this forever!"

She was silent for a second as Kouzeon scanned anew. "...If we've made progress, we haven't made much." She lamented. She didn't have an exact number, but their onslaught hadn't done much in the way of thinning the wrathful horde. "Argh! It's be easier to tell if they weren't all bunched up, I can't see anything!"

Mid-complaint, something caught her eye on Kouzeon's radar.

Whatever the anomalous blip was, it was shooting out from the center. Towards Yu and Naoto. Quickly. "Ah! Senpai, watch yourself! Something's coming your way!" She called out, just before the blip cleared the cloud entirely, heading instead towards Kanji, Yukiko and herself.

Rise lifted Kouzeon's visor momentarily, just in time to see a blue blur crash into the ground several meters away, before skipping rhythmically to a stop like a stone thrown across a pond. Judging from the shape, colour and state it was in, identifying it was sickeningly easy.

It was Astaire, lying on his right side with his Zweihander horrifically lodged in his left. Rise couldn't find a scream high or loud enough to react with, instead opting for a stunned, terrified silence. "Holy shit…" Kanji covered his mouth as blood continuously seeped from the wound and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.

His eyes were glassy. His mouth was ajar. Every breath he took sent a twitch around his entire body, as the half of his blade's width under his skin seared and scorching him when he moved even slightly. The blackened skin around the metal stood testament to exactly how bad a condition he was in. "How… How are you feeling?" Yukiko dared to ask as she did her best to steady her voice and dry her eyes as she knelt down.

No point in lying this time. "...Bad." Astaire winced. "...But alive." As he forced the words out, he slowly moved a hand to the blade of his sword, wincing on contact with it. "Help me… remove this…"

At that, Rise finally spoke up. "Are you crazy?! You can't just take it out because it'll bleed more and then you'll lose more blood and you could pas out and you could go into shock and something might be broken and you'd…!" She trailed off, finally running out of breath as her panic came rushing out all at once. She could hold back her sobbing, but not the tears that accompanied them, as she took knelt at Astaire's side. "...Don't hurt yourself more than you already have… Please…"

As her tears beaded on the ground, Astaire's hand brushed against hers as it fell from the sword in his side, the action drawing her eyes to his. "...I shan't, Ms. Kujikawa."

His words weren't as comforting as Rise'd hoped, given he still had a sword in his side, but it was enough to dry her eyes with.

For a moment, the want to remain by his side was palpable, until Rise remembered that her friends were still inside the thing that had nearly chopped Astaire in two. Not wanting to bear witness to more horrifically crippling wounds, she evoked Kouzeon and resumed keeping an eye on everyone, Astaire now included. His vitals were bad, but at least he wasn't getting worse.

The pain was excruciating, causing Astaire's head to swim as he tried focusing on the blurring image of Rise standing above him. Every so often she would issue commands or information to one of the party members still in the midst of battle, anything but dare focus on him for a second longer.

Perfect.

With a pained wince, Astaire caught Kanji's attention as he turned his head on instinct. Without a word, he pointed to the sword, then splayed his fingers and made a pushing motion outwards from the wound. Sensing what he was after, Kanji widened his eyes and shook both his head and hands quickly. Like hell was he doing that.

"Please." Astaire mouthed, giving Kanji the best look of pleading he could muster. Running a hand down his face, Kanji looked at him for a second more before gulping and beginning the walk over. He treaded lightly as Astaire brought a finger to his lips and pursed them, motioning towards Rise.

Yukiko's eyes widened as Kanji assumed his position at Astaire's side, putting a foot against the sword's tip as Astaire himself grabbed the hilt. He shot her a similar hushing motion as he saw her eyes flit to Rise, then back to him. Shaking his head as best he could, he made a quick series of motions between Yukiko and his wound, including one that seemed to imitate drinking.

"Heal me after we pull it out." Was Yukiko's best guess.

She briefly looked to Rise again before sighing in defeat. The sword would have to come out sooner or later. That thought alone didn't make the act of doing it any easier, though. All the same, Sumeo-Okami rippled into being above her as she gave Kanji and Astaire a nod.

The boys gave each other a similar nod as Astaire held up three fingers and took a deep breath. Three. Two. One.

Horrific, guttural screaming filled the air alongside the sound of flesh searing, bones cracking and blood simmering off the heated blade. In an instant Kouzeon as gone as Rise spun around, looking twice as distraught as before. "What are you doing?! You promised me you-!"

Sumeo-Okami faded out of existence as Astaire slowly brought himself to his feet, a gaping hole in the side of coat acting as a window for the large, newly formed scar underneath. "You ordered me to refrain from hurting myself, correct?" He slowly knelt down to pick up his sword, fighting the stiffness in his newly-healed side. "You never gave such an order to Mr. Tatsumi." He said as he threw the Zweihander up to his shoulder and wiped off his own blood.

It was a confusing feeling, what Rise felt. Some combination of relief at him being alright, annoyance at the loophole involved and frustration at him looking ready to run in all over again. "You're not going back in there just to get yourself killed for real this time!" She flung a hand out towards the ongoing battle her friends were fighting. "If we can't do it together, there's no use in you dying on your own!"

"Hmm. Very well, I see your point." Astaire admitted, gazing intensely into the fray of battle. "I shan't run in alone. Not if Mr. Tatsumi will accompany me." He tossed Kanji a glance, which he returned with very obvious surprise written on his face. "You are adept with shields, are you not? Then we shall forge a path to the centre of this monstrosity. Together."

As he spoke, Astaire tucked his sword back into his coat, tugging the Bottomless Box out afterwards. Just as he was about to ask why, Kanji got an answer. Using both hands, Astaire grunted and heaved as he retrieved a massive, hulking greatshield from the box. It looked to be cut from solid rock, and draped in chains besides. It was a wonder he was able to lift it at all. Kanji accepted it as it was handed to him, tossing his current shield aside.

Given how heavy it looked, Kanji was surprised to find that it was actually rather light. He was further surprised by Astaire's awed gasp as he realised he was holding it single-handedly. "Woah, this thing's awesome. Coulda' used this earlier, really."

"I… wasn't anticipating you to handle it with such ease." Astaire said, lifting his hung jaw off the ground as he handed Kanji another identical greatshield, then picked out a third for himself. "With three of these, we should be able to reach that abhorrent fiend at the center in no time. No blade or spell known to man can penetrate Havel's Greatshield." He boasted with a confident grin.

---

The assault seemed more and more futile as time went on. Yu's hacking and slashing had done little but attract more attention from more weapons, his body and mind beginning to tire from the sheer physical and mental exertion of dealing with them. As he dodged an attack from another three blades trying to kill him, he realised that things had gotten more difficult and little else.

Astaire had flown past him earlier. That meant nobody was dealing with the being in the center of the ghostly cloud. Having gotten nowhere attacking the ghosts, the only logical conclusion was to head for that being once more. The only issue was getting there. If either he or Naoto stopped attacking, they'd be overwhelmed in seconds. They needed something, anything that would enable them to-

"OUTTA THE WAY, SENPAI!" Yu and Naoto whirled around just in time to see a thick wall of stone barrelling towards them, with Kanji's voice and several pairs of footsteps coming from behind. They dodged to the right and left respectively, getting a brief glimpse of Kanji and Astaire leading the charge with three shields between them, Yukiko and Rise hot on their heels. The chains and weapons parted like the Red Sea against their unstoppable charge, leaving a clear path devoid of weapons behind them.

Yeah, that'd just about do the job.

Yu and Naoto dashed after the rest of their friends before the chained-up armaments could come back to their senses.

Reconvening with everyone else was simple. The sound of a thousand weapons being forced aside by solid rock wasn't easy to ignore, not even about the sound of Yosuke's Garudyne. "Hey, you hear that, right?!" Chie yelled down to Yosuke. "That must be everyone else! Hurry up, we gotta meet up with them!" She commanded, taking off in the direction of the cacophony.

"Wait a minute, we're not waiting for Teddie?!"

No sooner had he asked, a blonde-white blue shot past him at breakneck speed, hurtling after Chie. "Teddie waits for nobody! Unless he's scoring with them!" He added as he quickly caught up to her.

Eager to not be left behind, Yosuke sprinted after the quickly-disappearing images of his friends, grinning proudly at he and Chie's handiwork. They'd done a pretty good job of keeping the weapons occupied, he had to admit. Whatever was in the middle of this monstrosity would be a cakewalk, no doubt about it.

---

The biggest disadvantage of running behind a wall of greatshields was that it didn't make seeing where one was going very easy. Peeking around the side was out of the question, given the myriad blades being tossed around like cheap toys thanks to the charge. The only option was to fly blind, as it were. "Damnit!" Kanji grunted, "How far away is that dude in the middle anyway?!"

"I don't seem to recall it taking this long last time, Gwyn only knows what's going on now." Astaire mused, sensing that full-on sprinting shouldn't have been taking longer than rolling and dodging had.

A thick gust of wind announced Yosuke's arrival, right before Chie announced her own by landing on top of the ensuing knotted-up chains. "I see it! I see the guy in the middle!" She announced, pointing in a direction which Kanji and Astaire turned to accommodate. The Darkwraith sat suspended in the air, in the midst of a clearing which Astaire didn't recall encountering last time.

"Chie!" Yukiko called with a wave as Chie hopped down to run alongside her. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

"You're glad? You're the one without any weapons, imagine how I feel!" Chie grinned in return.

The density of the chained weapons began to thin as everyone entered the clearing proper. If the Darkwraith was wise to their presence, it didn't show it, preferring instead to lie limp in its bonds, as though imprisoned against its will.

Dropping one's guard was never a good idea, but damn it all, three greatshields between two people warranted a rest. Three loud bangs rung out as Kanji and Astaire freed their hands, panting heavily as they doubled over. Despite leaving themselves open, the chained weapons seemed to be out of range. Good thing too, that would-

"Wait a minute." Astaire's eyes flew open. "Something's different from last time."

The chains couldn't have been out of range. They'd hogtied him and almost cut him in half. That meant the field of play had changed. "Be on your guard, everyone. This one seems crafty." He warned everyone, trying to reach for his sword despite the protests from his exhausted arms.

As he opened the box, Yosuke caught his eye, standing with his arms crossed. "So? How'd you screw up last time?"

"Yosuke…" Yu began warningly.

"Why isn't this thing dead already, what'd you do wrong?" He continued. Though he sounded spiteful, Astaire admitted that he did have a point.

"I was careless. Normally, impalement by way of Zweihanders seldom leaves the impaled alive. Not that this is normal by any stretch." He explained, pointing to the pierce in the Darkwraith's armour where his sword had entered. "I went to retrieve my sword, then got chained up." He finished, deciding to omit the events that followed.

Wary eyes looked over the blades, which swayed lightly in their direction as though pushed by some imaginary wind. If they'd struck once, chances were they'd strike again. "We shouldn't take any chances. Everyone get in formation." Yu commanded. Everyone assumed a semi-circular formation around the Darkwraith, waiting for their leader's next instruction. "Rise, you getting anything?"

"No weaknesses, but no resistances either." She bit her lip mid-analysis. "This thing's alive alright, it's just not showing it."

No strengths or weaknesses meant magic would do just fine. Everyone summoned their Personas at once. The enemy wasn't moving. All was quiet. That meant only one thing.

Time for an All-Out Attack.

Yu sprinted away from his starting position, raising his sword as Izanagi-No-Okami mirrored the motion, bringing it down on the Darkwraith with a force that could crush gods.

The sound of metal on metal rung out from Yu's direction. He blinked in surprise, finding himself face to face with a thick, coiling tangle of chains. It extended from either side of the clearing, having stepped between both his and Izanagi's blades within the blink of an eye.

With a sudden burst of momentum, the coil lashed out and parried both attacks, leaving Yu and Izanagi's fronts wide open. As quickly as they'd appeared, the coil began to untangle, a wall of deadly sharp swords and daggers thrusting out towards Yu's chest. They moved with a speed Astaire had never seen equaled, so quick that it would've been impossible to fend off under the circumstances.

Impossible in Lordran, anyway. Astaire's eyes bulged out of his head as Yu and Izanagi fended off the array of weapons that struck out at them both, speed verging on unseeable as the sound of metallic clangs filled the air. Awe set Astaire's jaw ajar at the sight. He was strong, without a doubt, but never in his dizziest daydreams could be even imagine being that fast.

"Watch yourself, you idiot!" The words registered in the back of Astaire's head as both of Kanji's shields blocked his line of sight, a loud thump coming from the other side. A hand then grasped his shoulder and spun him around, putting him face-to-face with Kanji himself, looking less than pleased with him. "Pay attention, will ya?! These things are after us too!" He bellowed, scooping up his shields and heading towards the others.

Artorias' Greatsword in hand once again, Astaire approached the melee which had quickly escalated behind Yu and Izanagi. Weapons on chains flying about from every angle, including types he had personal experience with. Battleaxes, partizans, Balder shields, shotels, every conceivable weapon he could think of swiped at him with malicious intent. He swung the sword over his head in a wide arc, reducing a cluster of spears to splinters overhead.

Rise. She was still unarmed. She didn't have a shield, nor a combat-worthy Persona. He had to get to her. Fending off the additions to the Darkwraith's arsenal, Astaire sprinted towards the rest of the team, ducking under Chie mid-flying kick. Kanji held both shields up in an attempt to keep Rise and Yukiko safe, while Yosuke and Teddie sat outside the makeshift shelter and assaulted the floating weapons directly.

Rise bit her bottom lip at the sign of everyone's vitals. Chie's reliance on physical skills was wearing her out quickly, as was Yukiko's use of magic. Even Yu, while significantly better off than everyone else, was getting worn down at a consistent rate. "We need to try and strike the Darkwraith directly, or we're all gonna get pushed back!"

"If only it were that easy!" Astaire yelled, dodging over a swinging halberd and slicing through a smaller coil of chains that aimed for his feet. "These twisted limbs are hard enough to sever as is, Mr. Narukami will never make it through something that large on his own!" He stopped attacking, briefly retreating to peek inside Kanji's shield at Rise, Yukiko and he. "We must do something other than defend ourselves!"

"Like what?!" Yosuke asked mid-bladed-somersault. "In case you haven't noticed, we're doing all we can!"

Back into the fray, Astaire cleared Yosuke's blindside of chained-up claymores. "There must be something we can do! Everything has a weakness, or a flaw of some kind! We need only determine what it is!"

Easier said than done. If Rise and her friends were struggling this much together, what good could he alone do?

But there was something. At the edge of Kouzeon's range, Rise could make out a strange, lingering energy which had been present since they'd begun charging, never having moved since. She lifted her visor up, squinting across the field of blades in the direction of the anomaly. At last, she caught sight of it. A thick block of ice sat firmly on the ground, with several swords and daggers frozen within. They hadn't retreated yet, nor had they shaken it off.

No, not that they hadn't. They couldn't. "That's it!" Rise realised, shoving her eyes into the visor again. "Teddie, you need to help Senpai right away! Freeze those chains solid so we can kill this thing once and for all!"

Under his claws, worn and torn from constant battle, Teddie shot her a thumbs up. "No problem, Rise-chan!" He evoked Kamui-Moshiri as he dashed off towards Yu from his position beside Naoto. "Bufudyne, now!" He cried as the air sharply chilled around him, a thick block of ice engulfing the storm of metal which had been assaulting Yu and Izanagi.

At last, a moment to breathe. Izanagi disappeared as Yu staggered backwards, running a hand down a particularly bad cut on his arm. Combined with the exhaustion, he was feeling far from healthy. "Thanks… Teddie…" He managed to say, quickly returning attention to the Darkwraith, now wide open. "Time to fight this thing one on one."

Yu kicked off the ground and leapt onto the block of ice, positioning himself directly in front of the Darkwraith's body. With a glint in his eye, Yu wound up for what he was intending to be the final hit, aiming for the throat. His muscles strained to accommodate the speed at which he swung, filled with deadly intent.

There was a short resistance against the swing, which ended at the peak of the arc. At last, it was-

Yu toppled backwards as the Darkwraith suddenly sprung to life, brandishing a sword identical to the one Astaire had shown at Junes. A Darksword. It was all he could do to fall off the block of ice entirely, momentarily stunned. He'd felt it! He'd felt the blade slice through his neck and out the other side, why was it still standing?!

The weight difference in his hand gave him an answer. The blade of his katana had shattered, rendering it useless on impact. Frustration stirred in him as he swung around to the team, eyes locked on Astaire. The effort needed to end the fight was infuriating enough, but trying to do it with faulty weaponry? "ASTAIRE-SAN! I NEED ANOTHER SWORD!"

From within the chaos of exploding magical attacks and the roar of clashing swords, Astaire found the time to turn between attacks. "I don't have any more cursed ones!" He shouted, cursing himself internally. It was a katana, of course it was going to shatter eventually! He simply hadn't expected it to happen so soon. Given how engaged Izanagi-No-Okami was with the Darkwraith, countering every attack the Persona launched at it, a Transient Curse seemed out of the question too. "Stand your ground as best you can! Retreat if you need to!"

A solid hit. The Darksword embedded itself in Izanagi's wrist, forcing Yu to clutch his own as the pain spread across it likewise. Rise gasped at the sudden drop in his vitals and couldn't help but react. "Senpai, no! We need to do something, quick!" She cried out to her friends.

"On it!" Naoto ducked under a very persistent scythe, whipping around and firing a bolt at the Darkwraith. Thin and quick, the bolt soared unperturbed through the air, striking the Darkwraith in the eye before it could react.

As the resulting roar of pain shook the very ground itself, every chained up weapon visibly shook and quivered in time. It was as though the bolt had struck all of them at once, and the sight was enough to light up Rise's face with glee. "Senpai, that's it! They're classed as separate targets, but they're still linked together! Naoto-kun, keep hitting that thing where it hurts!"

The momentary lapse in action on the weapons' part left Naoto ample time to nod affirmatively, reload and take aim under Astaire's watchful, curious eye.

He lingered on the thin metal bolts she handled. Longer and thinner than a spearhead, and only a hair above a feather's weight. The entire pouch he'd handed her - no, perhaps twenty such pouches - couldn't have hoped to approach the weight and might of his Zweihander. Yet between the two weapons, only one was proving effective against the Darkwraith, and it wasn't his.

As Naoto quickly raised the crossbow and fired a second later, forcing another roar from the Darkwraith and another quake from the array of weapons surrounding it, Astaire swore he felt a tad humbler than he had before.

The majority of the battle ground to a halt as the Darkwraith writhed, allowing the team to reform and get into formation as they made a mad dash for Yu. Chie, Kanji and Astaire took the frontline, forming a wall of heavy hitters between their target, Yukiko, Rise, Yosuke and Naoto. "Kanji-kun! Fall back when everyone gets in close, I've got an idea!" Yukiko cried, summoning Sumeo-Okami to float aside her.

"Everyone…" Yu began, an exhausted, lopsided smile barely forming on his lips as he turned to face his friends. "I'm glad you're all-"

Yu was cut short as the ice-bound chains tensed under the surface and shattered their crystalline prison with one violent burst, sending dagger-like shards of ice in every direction. Dodging was out of the question. Excruciating, mind-fogging pain interlaced with sheer cold ran up Yu's side as three shards riddled him like a pincushion. The pain slowly began turning to numbness, the cold turning to seductive exhaustion. All the same, Yu clenched his jaw and refused to fall, willing himself to stay on both feet.

Standing was just about possible. Moving wasn't. The numbness spread quickly through Yu's leg, leaving him little else to do but watch as the Darkwraith lifted the Darksword aloft, preparing to split him in two. As much as he tried, as much as willed it, summoning Izanagi proved daunting. The cold was beginning to interfere with his ability to focus. He couldn't dodge. He couldn't defend himself. All Yu could will himself to do was close his eyes and await death's embrace.

The tip of the Darksword disappeared behind the Darkwraith's back before it aggressively swung down to deliver the final blow.

...Which never came. Curiously alive, Yu peeked a puzzled eye open, immediately feeling more puzzled at the sight that awaited him. The Darkwraith, Darksword-less, glancing between both hands like they'd grown heads and begun talking. "Ohoho… Looking for this, are you?" The adversary glanced over their shoulder, meeting Teddie's smug expression as he waggled the Darksword in front of him. "Haven't you ever been told that it's rude to bring a sword to a footfight?"

"WA-TAH!" Resident footfight expert Chie yelled as she leapt into the air and delivered a bone-shattering dropkick directly into the Darkwraith's face. She retreated with a majestic backflip, just before a lightning-fast volley of bolts from Naoto pierced both the Darkwraith's face and hands.

Astaire ran in for the third hit, leaping up as best he was able and slicing at the chains keeping the Darkwraith aloft. His sword being as long as it was, he dispatched all but a few of the chains and left the Darkwraith hanging limply from what chains remained.

Soothing light washed over Yu as Yukiko made her first move, fending off the numb, the pain and the lingering shards of ice. His mobility restored, Yu had just enough time to dodge out of the way as Yukiko reared up for part two of her plan.

At Yukiko's command, Kanji had indeed held back from the frontline, Havel's Greatshield held at his back. Sumeo-Okami moved from Yu to him, surging with power as a powerful explosion roared out from behind the shield, the shockwave from the blast sending Kanji flying into the air like a rock-laden bullet. He hurtled towards the Darkwraith just as it began to come around, lifting higher into the air and towards the chains anew. "GET WRECKED, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Kanji bellowed. As the two prepared to collide, Kanji wrenched Havel's Greatshield around in front of him, performing a shield bash so explosively powerful that the Darkwraith was ripped from its chains entirely, soaring back with Kanji in tow.

The ground was nearing. With little time to spare, Kanji drove the bottom of the shield into the Darkwraith's chest, beating it down as he wound up surfing atop its body. The sound of armour colliding violently off the ground and scattering was all the proof anybody needed that it hurt. A lot. Eventually, the momentum began to wear off, leaving Kanji hauling his shield out of a barely armoured, badly beaten corpse.

A collective sigh of relief left everyone at once. Finally, finally, the Darkwraith was dead. For good.

Regrouping took a while. Not only had Kanji flown as far away as he had, but exhaustion ran rampant through everyone on the team without exception. "I think we can agree on one thing, at least…" Yu started, pointing at Kanji. "That was pretty awesome."

"Kinda had to be." Kanji said as he set his greatshield down and stretched his arms out. "After all that crap with those ghosts earlier, I don't think I could'a summoned Takeji-Zaiten even if I'd wanted to. Good thing Yukiko-senpai's a quick thinker." He grinned, nodding towards a very modest-looking Yukiko.

"Speaking of ghosts…" Rise piped up, Kouzeon's visor adorning her head. "We still need to clean up the rest of them, don't we? But don't worry!" She quickly added as a wave of sighs sounded out. "I don't think it's gonna be too much of a problem!" She grinned deviously.

Yu cocked an eyebrow at her mischievous expression. "What do you mean?"

"Those ghosts? They're all separate targets now." Rise continued to grin as the multitudinous weapons and chains above them began retreating into the air, back towards the ghosts that held them. "Looks like those chains connected to the Darkwraith were binding them all together. You know what that means!" She sing-songed.

Oh, yes. Everyone knew exactly what that meant. The only exception was Astaire, who tilted his head in bewilderment as Izanagi-No-Okami manifested above Yu. "Oh yeah. Astaire-san. You've never seen this before, have you?" Yu asked. Before the inevitable 'seen what?', Yu belted out his final command at the top of his lungs.

"MEGIDOLAON!"

---

It was simultaneously the most beautiful and most most destructive thing Astaire had ever bore witness to.

The ground rumbled. The air shook. The intense winds whipped up his coattails behind him. The sound of catastrophic annihilation filled his ears as the incomprehensibly bright light tore away at the infinite darkness around him, like a bolt from Lord Gwyn himself had struck the Abyss and had rent it in twain. It felt as though the Megidolaon would never subside, that the divine force would forever linger and assault all of his senses until the end of time itself.

Eventually, the attack did indeed subside, a lasting ringing in Astaire's ears sitting as a frightening reminder of just how powerful these 'Personas', and Izanagi-No-Okami in particular, could be. A sentiment he only felt more strongly as he gazed up in the air. A smile spread to his and everyone else's faces as not a single ghost remained to be seen.

"Alright, now let's get outta here!" Teddie exclaimed, swiftly stopping everyone's previous joy dead in its tracks.

Goddamnit, they were still trapped. There was still no way out.

The only thing resembling an exit at all was the small TV, from which their most recent nightmare had been spawned. Everyone glanced around at one another, exchanging looks which all seemed to echo one sentiment. There was no way in Hell anyone was going inside it, viable exit or no.

"In any case, we'd better get rid of this thing." Yukiko said, looking the TV up and down. "If we leave it, more ghosts start coming out again and we'd have to start over!"

Both a valid point and a sobering thought. "I'll do it. Everybody stand back." Yu took point, retrieving the Darksword from Teddie and gripping it with both hands, levelling it with the top of the screen. Everyone held their respective breaths as he slowly raised the sword above his head. One downward slice later, the TV parted cleanly in the middle and collapsed on either side, the screen bereft of static.

"Nice one. Now let's try and find a…" Yosuke began before trailing off. Another, lighter rumbling had begun underfoot. "What the…? Don't tell me something else is coming for us!" He yelled as the rumbling grew more intense over time, approaching levels that'd rival Yu's Megidolaon.

Everyone gawked and twisted around frantically, trying to ascertain what exactly was happening. Before too long, an answer presented itself. Both sides of the bisected TV began scraping along the ground, away from the Team. It began slowly, but quickly started gaining speed, as though being attracted to an unseeable magnet in the distance. Reflex commanded Astaire to dodge as something entered his peripheral vision. He moved just in time to see the broken hilt he'd discarded earlier rush past his head, following after the TV.

Everyone's attention was drawn at once by a yelp from Yukiko's direction. "D-Don't look!" She blushed, hands at her front as she tried to keep her dress flattened. From the looks of it, her dress was beginning to be drawn into the distance as well, threatening to reveal more than anyone beyond Yu needed to see. At that, similar things began happening to everyone else. Naoto's hat tried flying off her head, Kanji's necklace stood up of its own accord and Astaire's coattails seemed to have gained a mind of their own.

Of everyone, Teddie's luck was the worst. "Woah, where am I going?! Someone help!" Rather than a article of clothing, Teddie himself had begun being drawn away from everyone. He walked on the spot, then jogged, then ran. Whatever was wrong with him, it was getting worse. What's more, the effect was spreading. Yukiko and Naoto were the second and third to move off respectively. Kanji reacted quickly by grabbing Naoto's wrist. Notably, he himself hadn't moved off yet.

Sensing what was coming, Astaire quickly grasped Rise's wrist, returning her surprised look with a stern one of his own. "Don't worry. This… whatever it is, isn't taking you anywhere." He said seriously, hiding his concern as he watched Yosuke reach out to Teddie.

"Faster Yosuke, faster!" He cried desperately, full-on sprinting in place as Yosuke inched his hand ever closer to his. As their fingertips scraped, Teddie made a desperate last-ditch effort and leapt, grabbing onto Yosuke's arm with both of his own. Whatever invisible force pulled at him, it was now strong enough to lift his feet entirely off the ground.

"H-Hey! Damnit, I can't…!" Yosuke heaved, sensing his feet beginning to slip underneath him. "Ted, I can't pull you back! At this rate we're both-!"

A collective gasp sounded out as Yosuke finally lost his balance, slamming into the ground and hurtling away after Teddie at breakneck speeds, yelling all the while. It only took a few seconds of speeding into the distance for the darkness to swallow them whole, their faint points of colour visible to nobody.

Friends swallowed by darkness. A scene Yu hoped he'd never have to see repeated. "YOSUKE! TEDDIE!" He screamed fruitlessly into the distance. Friction soon began to fail him as well, turning his mind to Yukiko. Before she could slip any further away, he reached out and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly against his chest. "Just hold on! Whatever happens, don't let go!"

The fear on her face was palpable. His touch did little to change that. But holding her close was liable to bring them some peace of mind, no matter how small a measure.

If it was a good enough course of action for Yu, it was good enough for Astaire. Darkness encompassed the end of Astaire's Zweihander as he plunged it into the inky black ground with his off-hand, releasing his dominant's grip on Rise's wrist to instead reach around her waist and hold her in close to himself. To hell with indecency, desperate times called for desperate measures.

Kanji had reacted similarly, planting Havel's Greatshield into the ground and grasping at Naoto's waist. In spite of the seriousness of the situation, they couldn't help but look rather flustered and flushed at the whole ordeal.

Unfortunately, as Teddie had mentioned earlier, everyone pairing up as they did was always going to result in one person being left out. "Yukiko, Yukiko!" Chie clamoured, sliding past Naoto and Kanji at a rate which threatened to send her past Yu and Yukiko as well.

Yu was one thing to her, but Chie was another entirely. YUkiko dared to let go of Yu, outstretching an arm and grasping Chie's as firmly as she could. Admirable though it was, the act bore consequence. Holding back the combined mass of two people was out of Yu's depth. His footing gave way. They were doomed. Grey, red and green soared away from the final four members of the Investigation team before they could even scream for help.

"H-Holy shit!" Kanji blurted out. He shot Astaire a terrified look, which he quickly mirrored. Whatever the reason they were hadn't met their fate, Astaire sensed they were merely delaying the inevitable. Both he and Rise were only being pulled at ever more strongly. "What the Hell do we do?! There ain't no way of stoppin' it!" Kanji shouted again as he threw off his necklace before it outright decapitated him.

But Astaire had no answer. Lordran hadn't prepared him for this, not at all. No amount of cycles could, he imagined.

As the words failed to come, his gaze instead turned to Rise, who had turned to bury her face in his coat as she quivered under his grip.

He owed her. He owed her more than he could ever hope to repay. By the Gods, if holding on was what he needed to do to protect her, he'd hold on. Duty mixed with desire, resulting in a mixture of pure determination. Enough for Astaire to wrap his arm around the hilt of his sword for a stronger grip, even as the weathered wood of his bottomless box pressed harder and harder into his side, with such for that he wondered if it might break through him entirely.

His determination was matched only by Kanji's, who held both Naoto and his shield firm. In the face of such an illogical situation, Naoto looked completely bewildered. It was a look that mirrored what Astaire was thinking. Their efforts were futile. They would let go sooner or later. Even still, she clutched at Kanji's shirt for dear life, some small part of her flying in the face of the inevitable.

A sharp lunge threatened to stop Astaire's heart completely. Looking down only confirmed his fears. Whatever threshold the force had for dragging things off, it was beginning to affect his Zweihander. It had pivoted in the ground. He and Rise were too much for it to hold. A second, stronger lunge shocked Astaire a second time, throwing his arm off the hilt and forcing him to resume holding on with his hand alone.

Every muscle inside him screamed. Those on the right wanted to let go of Rise, while those on the left wished to release the sword. Despite feeling like he was being quartered, Astaire intended to do neither. Then the otherworldly force clutching at he and Rise entered overkill territory. Astaire's senses began to fall apart under the immense gravitational strain. His ears filled with white noise, his vision began to fail him as he began seeing six Kanjis alongside him. He could feel space forming between his shoulderblades and bones, between the fingers holding him to his sword and the arm which linked them. His hair threatened to rip itself entirely out of his head, while his fingernails nearly tore themselves off his fingers altogether.

He was going to be torn limb from limb. And there was nothing he could do about it.

A single tear rolled down Astaire's cheek and shot off his face. He sensed his eyes wouldn't be far behind.

His pool of stamina was run so dry that it had practically cracked the base. No amount of gargantuan strength would avail him. With sorrow hanging deep in his heart, Astaire loosened his grip on the sword. HE couldn't feel his fingers, opting instead to throw his other arm around Rise, hoping on his life that he might protect her from whatever they might be heading for.

Far, far out of his depth, Knight Astaire's body shut down, sending him into a deep, unwilling sleep.

---

Even through firmly shut eyes, Yosuke could feel how bright it was. After being stuck in a featureless black hell for however long, the slightest form of light felt like hot coals on his retinas. Nevertheless, the fact that there was light to be seen at all was enough of a surprise to coax his eyes open… "AGH, HOLY HELL!" …and painful enough to have him immediately regret doing so. Yosuke bolted upright and, after much eye-wiping and subsequent cursing under his breath, managed to look up.

The sky was lit with warm, red shades as the sun began to disappear over the horizon. Given it'd been light out when everyone had gone in, it was no stretch to assume that some significant time had passed since then.

Thinking of going in, when had they come out? Though he tried, Yosuke couldn't remember.

The sight of a particular grass-stained white shirt lying next to him, topped with a blonde head of hair, served to jolt his memory, making him recall… most of what happened. He sure as Hell remembered soaring away from the rest of his friends, that had stayed all too clearly.

Which brought another thought to mind. He and Teddie were alright. Surely, then, it was within reason that…

Turning around further, Yosuke's hopes were realised. However they'd done it, everyone had gotten out safe and sound. Yu, Yukiko and Chie were lying together, Kanji and Naoto were adjacent to one another, and then…

The sight of the last duo brought Yosuke's blood to an instant boil. Astaire and Rise. Of course. Like he'd have it any other way.

Making trouble for Rise in the paper was one thing.

Dragging them to some godforsaken abandoned house to hunt for ghosts was another thing. As was getting split up, separated and lost.

Bringing along a Darkwraith, a graveyard's worth of ghosts and NEVER-ENDING, INFINITE DARKNESS to their world? That was something else. What it was was the last goddamn straw.

Yosuke's legs propelled him towards Astaire's limp body as his hands balled into fists automatically. It didn't matter that he was passed out face-down on the grass. This had gone far enough. "You bastard…" He growled, hand lunging for Astaire's shoulder while the other wound back for a punch. "YOU DRAGGED US INTO THIS! I'LL KILL YOU!"

As he rolled Astaire over and prepared to swing, something held his fist back. Yosuke wheeled around, ready to add his usurper to the list of people he needed to beat down, only to see that it was Yu that had stopped him. Never mind what had happened, the dude had a permanent exemption from the Hanamura Rotten Shit List.

"Yosuke." Yu began seriously. "Let go of him."

"You let go of me!" Yosuke barked. "It's time you stopped standing up for this guy!"

But Yu's grip held firm, if not firmer than it had before. "Sort it out when he wakes up, we've got bigger problems rigbt now."

Speechless, Yosuke tried lining up the plethora of things wrong with that sentence, until Yu glanced away from him. He followed his gaze, looking further up the grassy hill they were on. On closer inspection, it seemed rather familiar. It was, in fact, the location where the supposedly haunted house had been.

'Been' being the key word. The house was gone.

"I'm not sure what's going on here, Yosuke." Yu began as he loosened his grip, sensing the aggression leave Yosuke's fist. Evidently, Astaire's face could wait. "But it nearly killed us in there. All of us. If it had happened to anyone else…" He paused, sighing lightly as he sat down next to Yukiko. "If this winds up like last year, we're gonna have to stop it again. Assuming we're able to."

Yosuke let slip a similar sigh and sat next to Chie.

They may have been alive, but the situation still seemed dim. He simply didn't have it in him to darken it any further. He'd had enough darkness for a lifetime.