Helping others work out their psychological issues seemed to be a wonderful sleeping aid, if Rise was anything to go by. The sunlight had begun warming her feet under the covers just as her phone began vibrating on the bedside table, just before she quickly snatched it up and cancelled the alarm.
Yeah, that was right. Without hitting snooze. A small victory though it was, Rise still smiled about it gleefully as she stretched her arms past her tangled mess of hair and above her head. She tried her best to work out some of the tangles on the way down as she racked her brain over why she'd been tossing and turning as much in the first place. Hair didn't just tangle itself.
Pfft, whatever. Sleep was sleep, who knew why they did anything? Putting it out of her mind, Rise tapped her phone to life. Her eyes lit up as the name "xSenpai~!x" sat above an unopened text message, sent some time early in the morning.
"Really gotta change that name sometime soon." Rise thought to herself, opening the message in the meantime. Her eyes scanned to and fro, brows raising with each line progressed. "No way… no way!"
They were going into the TV for an expedition. Specifically, in the area Astaire had made upon first going inside. The Statue Grove. At the very least, it didn't sound like anything too intensive or serious. Just going in to check out what was there, on the off chance something meaningful lay further in. That wasn't the part that concerned Rise.
What concerned her was that everyone was going to be looking at those statues. Astaire beating the snot out of reporters. The two of them holding hands. And worst of all, her looking embarrassed in front of him and her Grandmother.
This had progressed past worrisome. Rise's embarrassed face? The one she made other people make instead, now etched in stone? This had been fully upgraded to serious freaking business. Why was it that bad? Well, she'd have to explain. What could possibly have moved Rise Kujikawa of all people to hiding her face?
She'd have to explain. Explain what she was talking about to her Grandmother. Who she wound up talking about to her Grandmother, and in what glowing terms. Oh Hell no.
"Astaire-kun, Astaire-kun, get up!" She bolted upright and flung her covers off, whipping her legs around to the side of the bed. "I just got a text from Senpai! He says we're all going to meet up and-!"
Rise choked back her surprise as her foot landed full-force onto something that wasn't the floor. "AAGH, DAMN IT ALL!"
"...and that's how I wound up looking like this. Ow." Astaire lamented, lightly touching the large bruise under his eye and recoiling because, lo and behold, it hurt just as much as it had the last time he touched it. "If Ms. Kujikawa's kicking is that bad on her own I dread to think what Ms. Satonaka's like." He shuddered as he pictured being on the end of a pair of armoured greaves to the face.
"Wow, that must've sucked." Kanami astutely guessed, swinging her legs atop the crate next to Astaire. "But hey, it could have been worse! Have you seen the heels Rise-senpai wears during rehearsal?" She motioned towards the stage with her head, where Rise and her backup dancers were trying to nail the choreography for the performance that'd been interrupted the day before.
True enough, Rise was strutting around - rather skillfully, Astaire noted, - on a pair of pink. painful-when-applied-to-the-face looking high heels. He flinched just at the thought alone. "Gods, I'd hesitate to even jest about such a thing. I'd be absent an eye if that were the case. Ow." He ran another hand over the bruise, recoiling once more.
Before he could do it again, Kanami slapped his hand down. "Stop touching it, you're making me feel sore just looking at you!" She hissed, hopping off the box in unison. She teetered on one leg as she peeked out at the stage again, giving a wide, goofy wave to Rise as she walked towards stage left. "Hey, looks like everyone's breaking for lunch!" She teetered back to two legs, sparkling her eyes up at Astaire. "Ooh, I know! We should try dancing again! It'll be more fun than poking yourself in the face all day~!" She sing-songed.
"I'd rather not, thank you." Astaire replied quickly and bluntly, arms folded.
This was unheard of. Anyone around the set who didn't dress like a salaryman never resisted the Kanamin Beam! Kanami turned up the dial, sparkling like a sequin suit in the sun. "Eh?! You don't wanna hang out with me again? I was gonna let you listen to one of my favourite songs!"
Even amidst the overwhelming wall of sparkles, Astaire stood firm. "The only reason I'm flicking myself like a loon in the first place is to keep myself focused. If you want to dance by all means go ahead, but leave me out of it. I'm not having a repeat of yesterday. Ow." He said brusquely, aggravating his bruise again.
Mayday, mayday. Sparkle capacity hitting maximum output levels. Further use may result in unknown side effects.
Damn the side effects! Nobody ignored the Kanamin Beam,nobody! Kanami realised deep down that she'd have to use it. The big one. The pièce de résistance. The final weapon in her arsenal. She balled her fists tightly, knowing that she and everyone else on Earth may not survive. Still, it was a risk she just had to take.
"Uwaah…!" Tears flowed instantly, rolling down Kanami's cheeks like she were caught in a rainstorm. "You're telling me… that I'm troublesome? You don't wanna be around me in case I'm a bother? Is that it?!" She sniffed and bawled, wiping away her crocodile tears as her bottom lip quivered convincingly, the rest of her hunching over between deep sobs.
"Yes, that's about the height of it." A completely unmoved, stone-faced Astaire said flatly.
"Wow, you're kind of a jerk when you want to be, Astaire-kun." The tears disappeared as quickly as they'd come as Kanami placed her hands on her hips, looking completely fine. "You'll never get a girlfriend if that's how you treat them when they're crying." She said, poking him in the arm.
"It's called doing my job and keeping an eye out. Besides, you clearly weren't crying if you've recovered that quickly."
Kanami waggled her eyebrows and smirked. "I bet you wouldn't be saying that if Rise-senpai were the one crying."
"Look." Astaire finally turned to face Kanami, who couldn't help but stifle a laugh after her goading worked. "I don't mean to be overtly rude, but could you please just leave me alone? I can't afford any distractions, not after yesterday. I'll dance with you some other time, but not now."
From the stairs above, a third voice interjected. "Well, how about dancing with me, then?" A third voice which automatically made Astaire's blood boil. The two looked up, meeting the gently smiling face of Kaoru Airashi, shooting Astaire a wink. "Huh? How about it?"
"I'm busy." Astaire grunted, turning his back on him. From what he could hear behind him, it sounded like Kaoru was making for the stairs, but he wasn't the only one. A good two… no, three sets of footsteps accompanied his own. Admittedly intrigued, Astaire stole a glance to the side, where Kaoru had replaced Kanami. "...And who might they be?" Astaire motioned to the three girls now flanking her.
"Ah, how rude of me." Kaoru began, shaking his head. "These lovely ladies are Kida-chan, Haru-chan and Miyano-chan." The girls all giggled in unison as Kaoru addressed them, hand extended. "As you can see from their uniforms, they're co-stars of mine on set. We were just going to take a little break from filming just now."
Compared to how most other people dressed, the girls looked like they'd fit right in in Lordran. Modest and muted, the clothes wouldn't have looked out of place on, say, Reah of Thorolund, or maybe the Fire Keeper back at the shrine. "I'm going to be Madame Bonacieux!" Kida-chan chirped, waving around the base of her dress. "And Ka-kun is going to be d'Artagnan!" She practically squealed in delight, giggling again with her companions.
Kaoru laughed along with them until he noticed the distinctly unimpressed, blank look on Astaire's face. "Oh c'mon, you know! The Three Musketeers? Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d'Artagnan?" The blank look remained. "Ah, right. I shouldn't have thought you'd be that well read. Apologies, Astaire-kun." He said, gently smiling again as his groupies giggled behind him, hands to their mouths.
"Ka-kun, that's not nice!" Kanami stepped forward, pouting. "Don't tell me you came all this way just to be a meanie!"
Ever collected, Kaoru waved a dismissive hand at the sole non-groupie. "Ahaha, don't be silly, Kanami-chan. I came simply because I thought that someone of Astaire-kun's…" He glanced sideways at Astaire, who looked a little less blank and little more annoyed than before. "...talents, might be able to help me."
Astaire narrowed his eyes. "And what could you possibly be doing that would require my help?" He folded his arms ever tighter, not exactly looking in the most willing-to-help-out-others-ish mood.
"Oh, the usual! There's some photographers outside my room, I was wondering if you could come by and persuade them within an inch of their lives to move." He said casually, quickly raising his arms in front of him as Astaire stood to his full height, fists clenched. "Kidding, kidding! You need to lighten up a little, Astaire-kun~!" He finished with a wink.
It caught Astaire's eye that Kanami was the only one not smiling. "Just tell me what you want already." He grunted again, sounding plenty fed up.
"Have you ever used a rapier before?"
If ever there had been a question Astaire had been anticipating from the like of the chestnut-haired tosser, it wasn't that. "Every now and then, yes." When beating stuff with big, slow greatswords didn't work, that was. "Whyever do you ask?"
From behind Kaoru, one of the girls produced a tall box and handed it to him. Popping off the top, Kaoru reached in and produced a finely-made, albeit blunt both on blade and tip, rapier. "Playing d'Artagnan, as I do, means you need to know how to handle a rapier properly." He gave an elegant flourish with the blade, sending his groupies wild. "Sword fights are a big part of the Three Musketeers, you know."
After a second of staring at the hilt, Astaire produced the other rapier, weighing it over in his hands. It was pathetic. Worthless. Bereft of both bite and soul. Even the flimsiest of weapons in Lordran had some soul in them, but this? "What a useless weapon." Astaire couldn't help but say. He almost felt sorry for it.
He raised his head as Kaoru laughed at him. "It's a training weapon Astaire-kun, of course it's useless! Wouldn't want us hurting one another, would we?" He chuckled, jabbing and thrusting at the air before pointing at Astaire himself.
Kanami stepped forward again, pushing Kaoru's blade down. "Ka-kun, can't you just go and bother your trainers with this? It's not too late in the day, surely they'd still be around!" She insisted, ignoring the cloud of mumbled, no doubt biting comments his groupies were spouting under their breaths.
Again, with that gentle, innocent sounding laugh. "Oh they're here, I know they are! But…" Again, he raised his weapon to Astaire. "...I can tell they're very different from Astaire-kun. I want to see what someone like that can teach me, is all." Astaire met his gaze, still assessing the rapier. "I wouldn't worry about having a repeat of yesterday, if that's what's bothering you. The girls can keep an eye on things." He turned to his throng of groupies. "Can't you girls?"
They practically crawled over one another to answer him first. It appeared there really was no way out.
Astaire ran a hand over the edgeless blade, wondering how much worth he'd truly be able to get from it without a decent soul to work off. If he couldn't rely on the weapon's soul, he'd just have to rely on past experience, as little of it as he had.
Then again, a few hours experience killing beasts was probably more than that aggravatingly calm prettyboy had. "Alright then, it's a duel. Ready when you are, Airashi." He finally answered, gripping the rapier properly and bringing it to his side.
"Excellent!" Kaoru mirrored the motion, putting a hand on his hip and striding out onto the stage, waving into the crowd. "Coach-saaan~! I'm going to do some practice up on here on the stage, is that alright?" A man with eyes hidden under the brim of his cap shot Kaoru a thumbs up in the midst of a conversation he was having with someone else, not paying him much mind. "Thank you~! C'mon Astaire-kun, get a move on!"
Astaire took a tentative step out into the brightly-lit open space, shielding his eyes against the spotlights that cast his shadow onto the curtain behind him. Kaoru stopped just short of him, raising the tip of his rapier to him, hand back to his hip. "Ready?" He stood with the sword in his left hand, the left side of his body held more towards Astaire.
His stance looked practiced. Poised. With the lack of a soul in his weapon, Astaire could do little but attempt to emulate it himself, putting his left side behind his right.
"Alright… En garde!"
"Pardo- Ow!" Astaire flinched as Kaoru lunged forward, jabbing him in the side. It wasn't as potent a sting as would have come from a bladed rapier, but he'd felt it regardless.
Kaoru took a step back, eyebrow raised. "Eh? Don't you know what 'En Garde' means, Astaire-kun? I thought you said you'd fought with a rapier before." He finished on a smug smile, shot at the giggling trio off to the side of the stage.
"And indeed I have. Just not under such…" Criminally infuriating. "...controlled circumstances." Astaire settled for. The pain quickly dulled as he kept an eye on Kaoru's professional posture, running his eyes up and down him. It was during such an analysis that Astaire got an idea. Internally, he grinned. Oh, how devilish an idea it was. "Say, Airashi? Mind if I see that sword of yours for a moment?"
Kaoru looked at his sword, shrugged, and handed it to Astaire without another word.
Got him.
The knight made a big show of weighing both swords in each hand, waggling the ends and turning them about in his grip. Of course, a show was all it was. "Sorry about that, thought there was something rather wrong with my sword. Here you go." He tossed the sword back to Kaoru, who swiped it deftly out of the air.
"What, you think I'm cheating, Astaire-kun?" He tossed the sword into his other hand, resuming his original stance.
With a surprisingly practiced, well-formed posture, Astaire took the right-handed equivalent, raising the rapier's tip to his opponent. "Nothing like that, just making sure we're on even footing, is all." He smirked with glee, unable to lock it inside any longer.
Kaoru's soul from within his sword wasn't much, but it was a damn sight better than nothing.
Both fighters stood at length once more. "All set? We'll go on 'Allez' this time, shall we?" Astaire nodded firmly. "En garde… allez!"
Their swords touched as Kaoru went on the offensive, stepping towards Astaire and forcing him back in turn. Though his trademark smile stayed firm, the boy's mind raced. The news had shown it, this tall, oafish brute carting about a sword as tall as him. He was taller. His arms and legs were longer. He looked heavier at a glance. All in all a picture of lumbering heavy-footedness.
So how the Hell was he suddenly as light on his feet?
Astaire returned a smile. This wasn't combat as he knew it, the blade told him as much. It was poking a hole in his defence and ending it with a single strike. The sound of the blades clashing echoing throughout the stage as he parried Kaoru's offence and slipped into his own. He wasn't so proficient as to jab him right away, but he could fend him off just the best.
One was a heavy-handed mongrel. The other was an overly caked-up prettyboy.
Neither had anticipated that a clash between the two would be so tantalisingly exciting.
"Now that's more like it!" Kaoru said, sidestepping Astaire's latest attempt and lunging after him. "Still, you're lacking a little something." He goaded, sensing the opportunity as soon as it presented itself. "Something right there!" His blade flew true, thwarting Astaire's defence and striking him in the thigh. "Hit!"
Both of them retreated, Astaire rubbing his leg and grunting under his breath. He could fence, but he could fence only as well as Kaoru could, at least with his current sword. However, that meant that he had the same hole in his defence, and Astaire had just the toolset to abuse it. Hence why his smile was quick to return in spite of Kaoru's harlots screaming at him.
The two resumed their positions, and at allez, they were off again.
"You're actually quite good at this!" Kaoru began, pushing Astaire back towards Kanami and the others. "You know, perhaps I could talk with the directors on set and see about getting you in as an extra! We could use someone with your talents!" He said between strikes.
Astaire's (although technically Kaoru's,) footwork was smooth and deft, keeping him quite literally on his toes as he simultaneously backed towards the girls and flicked away strike after strike. "I'll have to disappoint you, I'm afraid. My current job suits me down to the ground!" He flourished his wrist, knocking Kaoru off balance and forcing him to lock blades with him.
"You know, Kida-chan…" Kaoru knocked them apart, thrusting where Astaire had been before he'd dodged. He recoiled in a flash and fended off the riposte that launched his way. "...She's really quite fond of your sort. Tall, pale, aggressive and wild. I'm sure she'd jump at the thought of having you there!"
Locking blades again, Kaoru allowed his opponent a glance in Kida-chan's direction. She glanced sideways and tried to hide her face, only for Haru and Miyano to pry her hands away, all three giggling like schoolgirls, more at each other than anything. Kanami stood separate from them, biting her lower lip and playing with her hair.
No doubt anticipating the result of the latest bout. Never willing to disappoint, Astaire stepped backwards and struck at Kaoru proper. "Sorry, but I'll have to disappoint her too. My previous statement still stands!" He boasted, surging forward.
"Hit." Astaire froze as the end of Kaoru's blade found its way to his stomach. He bit his tongue to stem the tide of oaths that lapped at the back of his lips. "What a shame. I shouldn't have expected any less of you, though." Kaoru ran a hand across his brow to clear the sweat he'd worked up. "Maybe I'll ask Rise-chan to play a part, that'd get you along in no time." He muttered just loud enough for Astaire to hear.
And hear it he did. The knight narrowed his eyes, the adrenaline-fueled grin sinking quickly. "I'm sure Ms. Kujikawa has more prestigious things to do with her time, as do I." He bit back, his grip tightening on the rapier's hilt.
"Oh, I don't doubt it. Chasing after her tail must be tiring work, after all." Kaoru's chorus gave a simultaneous 'Ooooh~' at his comment. He raised his sword again, calm as ever. "Ready when you are, Astaire-kun."
The mood shifted as Astaire stepped into position. Kanami could tell just by looking at the two of them. Astaire didn't hide his emotions very well, he looked about as angry as he was.
Kaoru, though? Kaoru was different.
Every idol had one. Rise, Kaoru, even Kanami herself. The easy, false smile. Little more than a malleable mask to keep others from reading them properly. A well-practiced, tight-lipped facade of a smile. It took an idol's eye to even make a guess at what was going on underneath.
Kanami didn't even need to guess. Kaoru's eyes brimmed with an aggressive glint, like that of a snake hiding in the grass before striking at its prey. Like the strike of a match as it loomed over a trail of gasoline.
The time for well-meaning banter was over.
Allez.
"I take it you're not familiar with 'The Princess Bride,' are you?" Kaoru asked between aggressive, close-ranged swipes. Astaire didn't answer, focused on parrying as he was. "It's one of my favourite movies. In particular…" He advanced quicker than Astaire had anticipated, his blade naught but a blur. "...the scene atop the Black Cliffs of Insanity. There's a fight very much like this one."
"Cease your jibbering and focus on the fight in front of you." Astaire grunted as he forced Kaoru back, side stepping and giving himself more room to retreat. The prettyboy was more aggressive now, viciously so. It was all he could do to keep up with his strikes, leaving him little time to send in his own.
"Care to take a guess at what happens mid-way through the fight?"
"Not particularly, no." Astaire grunted back, side-stepping again.
In an instant, Kaoru's grin sharpened. "Then let me demonstrate for you, shall I?" He hissed darkly. Before Astaire could even register it, Kaoru's sword was suddenly in his right hand, his stance shifting to accommodate it. "Hit." And before he could question the action, Astaire felt the sign of his defeat.
Yet Kaoru kept going, his blade still raised.
"What's the matter?" He lunged, narrowly missing Astaire's chest. "Are you really struggling this much with just a change of my hands? Hit." He pierced Astaire's guard again, striking him in the shoulder. Yet still he kept going. "You never know, maybe I should be the one changing jobs!" He gave a wild flourish, whipping Astaire's sword away and needlessly twirling his own around in front of him. "I'd do a wonderful job keeping my eye on Rise-chan."
Astaire knew he could've been hit well over five times in the space he'd left him to recover. He knew Kaoru had to have known it too. The belligerent little sod was taunting him. Showing off. Riling him up. He knew it was what he wanted.
But damn it all if it wasn't working. Words failed him as he clashed with Kaoru again, growling and snorting and fuming all the while. No way was this arrogant little- "Hit hit hit."
The fight stopped dead. The hits had come so quickly they'd almost felt like one. But there was no denying that three there were. Astaire froze on the spot, clutching his stomach as the wind escaped his lungs. Kaoru kneeled down, looking him in the eye as he tried catching his breath. "I'll be back with Inoue-san in a minute, Astaire-kun. I'm not sure how many papers you need to properly resign as a bodyguard." He said slowly, smugly and deliberately. Astaire looked up to face him and-
"Hit."
Right in the bruise under his eye. The extra rapier clattered to the floor as Astaire clutched at the fresh surge of pain piercing his face, his teeth bared as he held back a shout. It wasn't the worst he'd experienced. It wasn't a death knell. But it was still sore as hell.
He looked up slowly, seeing Kaoru turning and making for his open-armed band of cheering floozies. At the same time, Kanami was stepping off to rush over and help him. Looking at him saunter away with barely a scratch ate at Astaire from the inside out. He couldn't leave it like this. Couldn't let him just walk away, all smug smiles and inflammatory remarks.
There was likely a better solution he could have come to. A calmer, more rational response. One with thoughts in regard to the potential consequences his actions might have.
"Hold it right there, Airashi."
Astaire was beyond caring about that.
Kaoru turned on the spot, as smug as he'd been with the sword in his hand. He tilted his head quizzically.
"I'm afraid I've rather been cheating you." Astaire continued, rising to his full height and fending off the pain. "Denying you a proper fight, as it were."
His voice was calm. Level. Deliciously enraged. How could Kaoru resist? He began sauntering over to Astaire, sword newly in hand. "What? Are you going to tell me you're actually left-handed now?" He said through his false smile. "I don't think that'll help you much."
"Oh no, it's not that. I'm just not using the proper equipment, that's all."
Within a flash, something gleaming, elegant and razor-sharp escaped from within Astaire's coat. The space of an eyeblink would have denied it. Both Kanami and Kaoru blinked as they processed what had actually happened.
In Astaire's hand was a beautifully crafted rapier, guard wrought from gold and the blade sharper than a serpent's tooth. So startling and flowing was the design that it made the practice rapiers look like stuffs made only for peasants. Then again, in front of the rapier of Undead Prince Ricard, few could equal.
Eyes sharp, Astaire pointed the lethal end of the blade at Kaoru. "Fight me again. All or nothing."
Even on the end of a sword pulled from nowhere, Kaoru laughed dismissively. "Come now, Astaire-kun. That's a live blade you're playing with there. A little dangerous, don't you think?"
"Only to those who lack the skill to fend it off properly."
There was a beat where all fell silent. Not even Kaoru's giggling brood made a peep. Finally, the boy took a few steps back and turned, blade raised. He didn't say a word, nor did he even attempt to fake a smile.
"Allez."
Rise tapped her foot on the floor, matching the rhythm her pen set on her notebook. Something that rhymed with 'dreamy grey hair' which wasn't 'wish I were there.' Hmmm.
She took to biting the end of her pencil. It didn't only need to rhyme, it'd need to either fit in with the rest of the song, or she'd have to say 'screw it' and re-write everything that came after. As if writing songs about one's friends wasn't hard enough.
A sigh, the most recent of many, left Rise as she leaned back in her chair, hands on her face. "Uuugh. Maybe I should start the whole thing over." She said to herself, being the only other one in the dressing room. "The tone is all wrong. It's not…" She didn't want to say 'distant enough.' She and Senpai weren't distant, not at all. He was as close friends with her as he was everybody else.
Considering it in that light, perhaps the problem wasn't him, then, but her. Her eyes ran over the lyrics another time. She could hear the accompaniment that'd bring them to life, see the stage lit up as she sung it and hear herself singing it into the mic. So what was wrong with it? How could she have worked on it for so long only to trip up now?
...Actually, how long had it been? Rise counted back the innumerable times she'd brought out the book in private, chewed the end of her pencil and fought the hordes of eraser rubbing that always seemed to get caught in the pages. It'd been months. She didn't remember how many, but she could remember clearly the act of signing Yu's name at the top, hearts lining the margins.
The hearts, of course, fell victim to the eraser a good few months later.
Rise placed her arms behind her head and gazed at the far wall, eyes distant. The hearts were gone, sure, but the song she'd written under their influence still remained.
Then it hit her. That was the problem. Not any one piece of the song, but the whole thing.
Commitment coalescing in her chest, Rise reached forward and abruptly ripped the page entirely, rolling it up and tossing it across the room. The mindset, not the song, was the issue. What she needed was a new song. A new mindset. Start fresh!
She nodded to herself as she flipped to the next blank page. Senpai would just have to be content with being placed behind Teddie's song, that was all. She drew her hand back like a conductor ready to begin a symphony, put pencil to paper and…!
Stopped. Nothing. The canal of creativity found itself still and unperturbed.
Back to leaning in the chair, she guessed.
She stared over at the rolled-up lyrics, the slightest hint of sorrow stuck in her eyes. She'd ran over it so many times. More times that she cared to admit, at least now. The idea was concrete in her mind, no matter how badly destroyed the lyrics were.
After a minute or two of playing with her hair, Rise's eyes lit up. An idea! Instead of working on Senpai's song with the old one still held in her mind, why not write one about somebody completely different? Yeah! Come back to Senpai's completely refreshed and work on it then! She was practically kicking herself for not thinking of it sooner.
"I'll do one for Nanako-chan…" She scribbled her name on the next free page, "...Dojima-san…" She added his on the next. That'd be interesting to come up with. Maybe something jazzy because he was so hardboiled? "Ooh, I could do one about Kanami, too! We could make it a duet!" Her mind was now racing with new ideas and plans, jotting notes under names excitedly.
She got as far as 'As-' before she stopped mid-frenzy. She drew her hand back, humming thoughtfully to herself.
It wasn't that she didn't like him, certainly not, but the guy had barely been around a week. What would she even write about? What would the backing track sound like? Everyone else seemed pretty easy to nail down. Yukiko-senpai pretty much oozed 'traditional japanese' vibes, that was simple. Chie-senpai's would sound like something out of a kung-fu movie, maybe with some chinese instruments and influences.
Everyone had a sound, at least to Rise. The sounds she associated with Astaire weren't exactly easily transferred into music. Bleeding out after getting stabbed didn't make a good instrumental.
Rise glanced up to the corner of the room as she tapped the pencil off her lips. Why was it so easy for everyone else? Obviously she'd known them longer, but-
She clicked her fingers. That was it! History! She knew little things about everyone that weren't evident at first, but which she'd just picked up over time! Like all the times she'd caught Yosuke in the hallway with something telling pouring out of his headphones, or noticed Kanji unknowingly tapping his foot to certain songs on the radio, but not to others. Combine that with everyone's hobbies, interests and all the little details, and she was set!
Nodding again, she finished writing Astaire's name on the page. Maybe they didn't have that much history. Maybe his past was a completely mystery, even to him, but this? This was going to be it. Her motivation. Her guiding influence to help him get back his memories so she could write about him just as easily as she could everyone else. Senpai excluded, at least for now.
"Alright. With that out of the way…" Rise flicked back to Nanako's page, hand on the draw. "...Let's see how to work in Junes without mentioning it by name, shall we?" She chuckled. No sooner had she struck paper, something caught her ear. Something from outside the dressing room.
It sounded like footsteps. A lot of footsteps doing a lot of running down the corridor outside.
Stuffing the notebook back in her bag, Rise hustled over and opened the door, reeling back at the solid wall of people tripping over themselves to get away from… whatever it was.
The quickfire sounds of metal clashing with metal sounded out from the other end of the corridor. Rise rubbed her temples on reflex as she caught a glimpse of ultramarine on the other side of the crowd.
The ground shook, hearts beat, windows rattled, and at the centre of it all were the two swordsmen, one pursuing the other under thrusts and lunges.
Kaoru knew something had to be different. A sword couldn't change someone so profoundly on its own. Without it he'd been reasonable. With it, he was a monster. A monster with defence so ironclad that no sword could ever pierce it. With offence so swift that he could shishkebab his heart and never feel it missing a beat. He'd changed completely.
Ricard's Rapier was nigh unseeable as it easily fended off anything Kaoru threw at it. Such was the difference a powerful soul made. Astaire grinned as he swiped off one of Kaoru's bangs aside his face. "Hit. Almost." He grinned. Now it was his turn to be smug.
It was only then that Kaoru's mask began slipping. He couldn't resist baring his teeth in frustration as he tried every trick and maneuver he knew and watched every single one fall flat. Again, a swipe at his other bang. Another tuft of fallen hair. Twice he could have ended it and didn't.
This was his five-fit flourish. The tables had turned. So satisfied was Astaire that he barely registered the set of twintails he soared past in pursuit of his quarry. "Had enough, have you? I can shave off the rest while I'm at it!" He said, laughing heartily.
Kaoru's face turned red. He muttered wordless curses between strikes as sweat poured down his face. "Not a chance, you bloodthirsty ape!" And there it was. The straw that broke the camel's back.
Though he loathed to let him go, Astaire knew drawing it out for much longer would only get him in worse trouble. Better to let the poor, frothing prettyboy go.
After he paid him back for the bruise, of course.
With an effortless flourish from Astaire, Kaoru let out a cry of pain as his sword was sent flying. A thin red line extended across the back of his palm, a trickle of blood quickly seeping down towards the floor. As the pain began stoking his rage like coal to a fire, he felt something disturb the air around him. And again. Again and again and again.
Astaire's arm was a blur, his sword but a silver shimmer in the air around Kaoru, quick as lightning and twice as sharp. With one final thrust, ending just short of Kaoru's nose, the fight was over. "Hit." Astaire said with a satisfied grin.
"Astaire-kun? What's going on here?"
Uh oh.
Astaire wheeled around on the spot, suddenly feeling a puppet hung up from their strings. A feeling which didn't subside as he saw Rise standing behind him, hands on her hips. "Ah, well, about this." He began, quickly concealing his sword in his coat. "Mr. Airashi proposed that we-"
No sooner had his explanation begun, Astaire was wrenched around just as a blood-stained fist met with his nose, knocking his backwards. "How dare you strike me, you ignorant prick." Kaoru said, hair dishevelled and eyes murderous. "Do you realise how important this image is?! How much is riding on my good looks?!"
If yesterday had taught Rise anything, it was that letting Astaire recover from that punch would be a really, really bad idea. She placed herself between the two boys just as the taller one surged forward, stopping at the sight of her. "That's enough from both of you! Don't make it any worse than it is!"
He could have easily bowled her over. He had a whole head's height on her. Broader than her, too. It'd have been like a picket fence trying to stop a steam train. Even still, the knight took a deep breath and not one step further. It was her, after all. Something with a bit more of a hold on him than any cloud of rage.
Though one fencer was calm, the other was distinctly less so. "Be glad you only scratched my hand. Any more than that and I'd have grounds to ruin your career. You and hers both." He motioned his head to Rise as he cupped his hand.
"Leave her out of it!" Astaire's first enraged step forward was also his last. Rise turned on the spot and held him back, arms to his chest as she looked up at him gravely, shaking her head. 'Let him go.' the look said. After a few seconds of eye contact, he felt the tension leave her. "You too should be glad. It seems Ms. Kujikawa's kindness extends even to scum like you."
The silence was as thick as fog. Every other sound seemed to muffle and fade out as the former fencers locked eyes. Kaoru was the first to break, no doubt heading off to seek medical attention for his hand. Rise didn't look Astaire in the eye as she stormed off behind him after.
A smarter man likely wouldn't have followed, so Astaire took after her readily.
The rest of the day at the studio was spent in silence. Kanami didn't bother Astaire as he walked out with Rise, and he took particular notice that the trio of girls from earlier gave him a wide berth any time he was nearby. Daring to glance down at her, he found her eyes becoming very well acquainted with the ground as she hung her head low.
He gulped. She couldn't stay silent forever, of course. There would come a moment where she'd snap, and then he'd really be in for it. The heavy feeling which weighed on him didn't leave even as they walked out to the car leaving them back at the hotel.
And got dropped off.
And walked up to the room.
And as he held open the door to said room.
But the moment that door shut? "Augh! I just hate him so much!" Rise exploded, grabbed her pillow from the freshly-made bed and launching it at the wall. "Who the hell does he think he is?! Strutting about acting like he's the only person worth anything in the whole studio! He… He…!" The rest devolved into a frustrated growl as she grabbed the pillow again and launched it somewhere else.
It took Astaire a moment or two to realise she'd said 'I hate him' as opposed to 'I hate you.' "Wait a minute. You don't like Airashi?"
"WHO COULD?!" She turned around, twintails practically on the verge of catching fire. "Going about saying he'll ruin people's careers and all that other stuff! He drives me up the wall!" She fumed, driving the pillow up the wall.
Thinking back on it, perhaps Rise hadn't been holding him back as much as she'd been holding both of them back. "He told me he was a fan of yours when we first spoke. I assumed you'd be on some kind of good terms."
It seemed every time he said something, Rise turned back to him twice as angry as she had been. "He's a little creep! Feels like wherever I go he's slinking around somewhere nearby!" She huddled her arms together, apparently having grown a conscience about torturing her poor, innocent pillow.
"So, you…" Careful, now. Don't sound too happy about it. "...don't mind that I was chasing him down mid-fence?"
As her breaths became more controlled Rise blinked, as though only just then remember it'd happened. "Hey, what was with that, actually?" Her look of curiosity sharpened to a glare. "Don't tell me he caught you and Kanami doing something-"
"Certainly not!" Astaire insisted forcefully, swiping at the air.
From there, he recounted the events leading up to, during and after his first bout against Kaoru. Around halfway in, he began to regret going into as much detail, because Rise's face was briskly turning a more furious shade of red with every word. All the same, he'd dug the hole so deep he couldn't possibly jump out now. Only thing left to do was keep digging.
"...and then I whipped out Ricard's Rapier and goaded him on, and he accepted. That was when I ended up chasing him down the hallway."
He almost uttered a chuckle, admittedly have loved putting Kaoru in his place, but a tossed pillow to the face cut him off. It wasn't that Rise had tossed it at him on purpose, he'd just been the closest thing to hit. He sat slightly stunned as Rise stormed around the room once again, shouting at the top of her lungs about 'What does he know about me' this and 'Thinks he's so freaking smart' that.
Astaire just sat by and let her tire herself out. Clearly anything he said was just going to set her off more.
Finally, after no surface had been spared her pillowy wrath, Rise again began catching her breath, hands on her hips. Panting made it hard to speak, but eventually a smile began working its way to her lips. "Bet you really threw him for a loop once you got serious, huh? I've never seen him get so worked up before."
"You're one to talk." Astaire blinked, still a little shell-shocked. "I've never seen you get so worked up before."
Rise scratched the back of her head, hoping her rosy-facedness looked more 'exertion' than 'embarrassment.' "Yeah, it's… I'll admit, it's not a side of myself I show a lot of people. Idols are all about image, after all." She said. Sensing the wary look on his face wasn't going to quickly subside on its own, she leaned over and lightly punched Astaire in the arm. "See? This is why I don't mind having you around. It's nice to have someone around to bounce these things off of."
Astaire looked between her and the pillow at his feet.
"Not the pillows, you dork! Just stuff like this. Stuff I can't let anyone outside this room see or hear, at least outside of Inaba." Her expression turned unpleasant as she tutted and glanced away. "Someone like Kaoru wouldn't do that. Wouldn't get it. Listening to someone else's problems and rants and stuff."
Not that he'd expected much more of him, but Astaire raised an eyebrow anyway. "What an odd fellow. I thought friends told each other stuff like that." He quickly bristled under Rise's gaze, folding his arms over. "P-Perhaps he's simply not used to having friends. I can't imagine that noisy trio of his being very good company."
Last addition notwithstanding, it seemed he really had taken her words from the previous night to heart! To the letter, too!
Rise shook her head as she went back on topic. "Too used to getting his own way, more like. He always pesters Kanami and me since we're practically the only two girls that don't throw ourselves at him." She wiped her brow before trying to fix up her hair, having knocked it all out of sorts mid-rampage. "I bet he's just being a big baby because I'd rather hang out with you than him."
Astaire could've taken some solace in the fact, had Rise not just spent the last 10 minutes bellowing to the heavens just how much she hated him. Not that he could blame her, given it was taking every stalwart bone in his body to resist doing the same.
He must've been making a sour face, because suddenly Rise had placed her own not far from it. "Don't worry, ignore what he said, we'll both be fine. Maybe after getting hoisted by his shorts, he'll actually take the hint and leave me alone!" She giggled.
Damnit all, who could hear that giggle and stay mad? Though he tried to fight it off, Astaire couldn't help curling the sides of his mouth up in the end. "One can only hope. Should he cease bothering me and come pestering you instead, let me know and I'll have make sure the scars on both his hands match." He ran a finger over the back of both palms for effect, beginning to get drawn in to Rise's fit of laughter.
"Oh, I'll give him worse than that! Don't forget whose Granddaughter you're talking to here!" Rise said, pounding her fist into her other hand. "Between the two of us, he's got no chance! He'll never see it coming!"
"Right! We're a team, after all!" Astaire said, pounding a fist to his chest.
Rise balled her fists excitedly, stars in her eyes. "And as a team, nothing can get the better of us!"
"Hi, Rise-chan!" Teddie said as his head rocketed out of the TV without warning, drawing a scream from the girl herself.
"GODS ABOVE!" Astaire hollered along, reflexively launching his foot at the source of the noise and forcefully kicking Teddie back inside the TV with a muffled cry of protest, followed by a pregnant silence.
Astaire looked at Rise.
Rise looked at Astaire.
She sucked a breath through her teeth and looked away with a worried smile on her face, hands behind her back. "So… here's the thing. Y'know the way I was gonna tell you about us meeting everyone and then got distracted when I stepped on your face this morning…?"
Astaire groaned. So much for nothing getting the better of them.
The regular hustle and bustle of Junes' food court filled the air, accompanied by the crisp, breathable freshness that only an encroaching Summer could provide. Perfect weather for say, a picnic, or a walk by the Samegawa. Or sitting grumpily reading a newspaper in the shade outside one's workplace on one's day off.
"For the last time Yosuke, would you put the stupid paper down and talk to us?" Chie said as she kicked his seat for the third time this session. "You look much angrier for much longer and you're going to put Kanji-kun out of business."
"Hey! What kinda business do you think I'm in, huh?" Kanji said, no doubt gesturing and looking like a grump. It was hard to tell on the other end of the headlines.
Out of the corner of his eye, Yosuke caught Yukiko trying to poke her nose around the side of the paper. "What exactly are you reading about that's so interesting, anyway? It must be exciting if it's kept you held this long."
"What? Yosuke reading?" Oh, crap. Now Teddie was here too. "There has to be some mistake! I thought they kept the swimsuit pages out of-"
"I'm not looking at the swimsuit section, damnit!" Yosuke finally snapped, tossing the paper out in front of him, tapping the article that had caught his eye. "Look, look here! Read exactly what that says!"
Chie and Yukiko shared puzzled glances before the latter shifted over to get a better read. She cleared her throat and began, "Rumours surrounding a violent outbreak at the Takura Productions Studio Lot have run rampant on online forums and image boards alike, as pictures of a pair of heavily injured photographers emerged over the course of yesterday. Some are speculating that it was the result of an unfortunate accident, whereas other claims range from sinister Yakuza connection within the industry to…" Yukiko barely contained a snort, raising a hand to her mouth as she tried getting out the next line. "...s-secret military connections... using idols as undercover secret agents!"
And away she went. Yukiko's laughter practically drowned out the noise created by the rest of the food court combined as she clutched at her aching sides. "Oh great, thanks Yosuke." Chie said flatly.
"Weren't you listening to anything this just said?!" Yosuke snapped, tapping his finger on the article. "Don't you know what Takura Productions is?!" Everyone shook their heads in unison. God damnit. "It's Rise's production company! The one she went back to working for at the start of spring!"
Chie almost leapt out of her seat as she rocketed forward to the table. "No way! Are you serious?!"
"Dead. I'd bet you ten thousand yen that he's the one behind it." He said with a distasteful emphasis on he. What sounded like an exasperated sigh from Kanji wrestled his attention towards him. "What? Don't tell me you're not thinking the same thing!"
"I ain't thinking the same thing." Kanji said bluntly, kicking his chair onto its back legs. "Seriously Yosuke-senpai, you might even be right about Astaire for all we know, but you're being such an asshole about it, you're making me wanna side with him anyway."
"Not to mention there's no real evidence that he was the one behind it." Yukiko added, eyes scanning quickly over the rest of the article after she finally quelled her laughter. "From the looks of things, they don't even have a solid culprit yet. For all we know-" She snorted, trying to will her lips not to curl up again. "-maybe Rise-chan really is a secret agent!" Her giggles sounded dangerously close to a full scale laugh, even as she buried her mouth in her hands.
Notably, in Yosuke's mind at least, Chie was the only one looking halfway concerned, resting her chin on interlocked fingers. "I mean… Rise-chan did have those two days off not long ago. Yesterday would've been her first day back. So it's not like he wasn't there…" She said slowly, choosing her words carefully. "I dunno, it's possible, I guess."
Finally, someone on his side. "Thank you! At least someone gets it!" Yosuke said, gesturing an arm towards Chie. "If this is all just a coincidence and he didn't do it, I'm gonna eat my headphones."
"It would be pretty in-character for Stairry-kun!" Teddie joined in, ignoring the wave of puzzled looks he garnered from everyone else. "Yesterday when he and Rise-chan came here, he knocked me flat down one of the aisles! And all I wanted was to come say hello…" He moaned overdramatically.
"Didja sneak up behind him, by any chance?" Kanji asked.
Teddie blinked. "Yeah, why?"
"That'd explain it. Can't blame him." He said, newly leaning back in his chair.
Yosuke shook his head momentarily. "Wait wait wait. When were he and Rise here yesterday?" One brief explanation from Teddie later, an epiphany seemed to hit Yosuke from the blue. He scoured through the paper anew, finally landing on another article a bit further in. "Huh. Well isn't that interesting. Says here there was a disturbance at a school in Inaba yesterday." He met eyes with everyone else. "Nanako-chan's school, to be precise."
If anyone hadn't been taking him seriously enough before, that changed in the blink of an eye. As the expected tirade of questions resounded in his ears, Yosuke continued. "Says here the playground got all messed up by some unknown force, including one massive crater at the center of it all. Kids say they don't know what happened." The paper gave way under the pressure of Yosuke's tightening fists on either page. "...Anyone wanna try convince me this is a coincidence too?"
The sound of a thick pair of shoes approaching the group came from behind him. "I might try." The unmistakably cool and collected voice of Naoto Shirogane jutted in. "...As soon as you let me know what you're talking about, that is." She admitted, glancing to the side.
A quick retread of the past five minutes and Naoto was ready to go, sitting across from Kanji and resting her hands on the table. "Do you have any proof?" She began immediately, shooting Yosuke a serious look.
"Proof? Naoto, it's so obvious that he-"
"-is connected to these events only through sheer happenstance and conclusions you yourself have drawn. Beyond that, is there any physical, verifiable proof that Astaire-san was indeed the cause of both events?"
Yosuke chewed the inside of his cheek frustratedly before closing his eyes in defeat. "Damnit… I guess there isn't. Not yet, anyway." Damnit. Damnit damnit damnit. It was so clear it was him. Who else could it have been? There was no way he could have been in both places and not had a hand in whatever went down. It was totally impossible.
But it was also impossible to prove, more to the point. Without any dirt on Astaire, he couldn't convince everyone else otherwise. "You know what? Fine." Yosuke said, raising his arms. "Maybe you're right. Maybe you're right, and Rise and Yu are right, and everyone freaking else is right too. Maybe I'm the one that's wrong here." Chie went to reach out for one of his arms, but recoiled as he brought them back down to the table. "You know what? Sure. I'll roll with it. Even though he's done nothing but be a nuisance to Rise and cause trouble, I'll bite. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt."
"Huh. That's pretty big of you, Yo-"
"However." Kanji stopped as Yosuke held out a finger. "If I find out he is the cause of all this, and he is the one that's causing trouble, you've all gotta admit that I might be onto something. No more making excuses or whatever."
The gang exchanged wordless glances between one another as Yosuke clenched his fists in anticipation of a reply. "Fine." Chie broke first. "But I'm not saying you're right!"
"We'll need to appraise Astaire-san's side of the story before drawing any lines in the sand, but I too am in agreement." Naoto added shortly after. A similar wave of agreements and answers was the follow, loosening Yosuke's grip on the paper. Took them all long enough.
The sound of yet another pair of familiar shoes strode up from Junes' main building in the middle of the discussion. "Good to see you're all in such high spirits." Yu said with a smile. "Hope that means you're all good to go for today." It was only when he scanned his eyes over everyone amongst the varied greetings that he noticed a distinct lack of twintails amongst them. "Hm? Rise's not here?" He looked down at his watch. "They're a little late, aren't they? Think everything's alright?"
Teddie let out a laugh as he waved a paw. "Of course it'll be alright, Sensei! The monsters in Stairry-kun's part of the world don't seem to come back around after you beat them the first time, it's a breeze!"
"Really? That doesn't sound right…" Yu said as he tapped his chin. "Wherever we're walking into, it sounds like the rules aren't quite what they were before. Everyone be on your toes for anything out of the ordinary." He looked up from his thoughts, directing his focus back to Teddie. "Ted, you met Rise and Astaire-san the first time they entered the TV, right? Think you could guide us over there? If they haven't left yet, we'll probably meet them on the way anyway."
Going inside the TV without their resident navigator present felt and sounded odd. Out of place. Under any other circumstances, nobody would have been daft enough to even entertain the idea. However, Teddie had said that the shadows behaved differently over in Astaire's area. Perhaps going in without someone to analyse the shadows wouldn't be so bad if they were all dead in the first place.
Teddie certainly seemed to think so, at any rate. He hopped out from under the table and quickly made a beeline for the electronics department. "Sure thing, Sensei! Everyone else try and keep up, it's a heck of a walk!" He enthused, bouncing away as everyone quickly picked themselves up and took after him.
"Teddie!" was Rise's first word as she and Astaire landed in the Statue Grove. "We're really sorry, but you've got to learn to stop sneaking up on…" She trailed off as she raised her head, coming face to face not only with Teddie, but the rest of the team as well. "Oh. Hey, everyone! I thought we were all meeting up at Junes?" She said, trying to ignore some of the darker looks her friends were firing their way.
Astaire picked himself up after a harsh landing, slipping his glasses on before the sickness could take hold. After noting that the act seemed much more difficult with the glasses on, he too met the faces of their adventuring companions.
If he'd had a Persona and was able, he'd have turned right back around and hopped back in the TV all over again.
Yosuke had his arms folded, and looked about as pleased to see him as he always was. Yu's eyes were just about visible under his hair, so low was his head hung. Naoto peeked out grimly from under her cap, intermittently looking around at the statues which-
Oh, Gods Above. The statues.
"Hey, this one's not too bad. Looks just like me!" Kanji, one of the only people not glaring daggers at them both, remarked at he and Astaire's effigy, looking up like a scholar in a museum. They'd really nailed his hair, somehow. Even got all the folds in his clothes perfect.
Despite his best efforts, Kanji alone wasn't enough to quell the unmistakably tense atmosphere that hung over everyone. "Before we ask anything else…" Yu began slowly. "...I sent you two to check up on Nanako at school. Tell me what happened there."
It was only when he brought it up that Rise paled a shade. Inaba was sleepy and quiet enough as it was, there was no way anything like a kid's school getting roughed up wouldn't make the news. Preferring not to rethink over the details, because God only knew she'd done it enough already, she pointed at the statue of Astaire getting impaled. "That happened. Someone tried attacking us and Astaire-kun fought off."
Yu followed her finger, gazing up at the gratuitous detail captured in stone about him. "I see. Did anyone get hurt? Besides Astaire-san, that is." He quickly added as he saw Rise rilling up for a yelling match. She stopped and shook her head. "So Nanako was alright? And the rest of the kids too?" She nodded. Yu let out a deep sigh as he hunched over. "Right, good. That's good to hear."
"Like hell is it good to hear!" Yosuke kicked off, looking like he'd been itching to go ever since Astaire had landed in front of him. "What attacked you? Why? And furthermore…" He reeled around, pointing an accusatory finger at the statue of Astaire's bout against the reporters. "...you mind explaining that while you're at it, too?! Or maybe why any of these things are here to begin with?!"
Astaire glanced between the statue and him incredulously. "It's me doing my job. I thought Ms. Kujikawa was in danger and-"
"Nearly beat two guys to death?!" Yosuke interjected, stepping forward. "So much for having peaceful intentions, huh?"
He could take it from Rise. Lord knows if it'd make her feel better he'd have let Rise yell at him for a week straight. But Astaire wasn't feeling quite as tactful when it came to Yosuke. "Now see here, you-!"
"Don't start!" In a second Rise was between the two of them, arms outstretched. "Yosuke-senpai, Astaire-kun and I talked about this already, it's old news! Can't we please just let it go before this gets any worse?"
Goddamnit, no he couldn't. He'd been right to suspect him the entire time, the guy was a veritable trouble magnet. Naoto had wanted evidence and here it was, quite literally set in stone.
That aside, the whole place seemed to pop another vein in Yosuke's head, no matter where he looked. Statues of he and Rise all over the place, with only two exceptions. This world had to represent what was going on inside his head, and to Yosuke, it was all too clear what he had on his mind.
"C'mon Yosuke, now's not the time. We need to see what we're up against here. Save it for later, alright?" Yu said as he placed a hand on his shoulder. Of course he'd take his side after he's supposedly saved Nanako-chan. But between him and Rise, Yosuke knew better than to bet against the odds.
He shook Yu off his shoulder. "...Fine." He said not at all convincingly, walking over to the massive gates at the end of the grove.
"Good to know somebody's keeping things cheery." Yu sarcastically rolled his eyes. "Yosuke's got a point though, even if he's got kind of a rough way of saying it. I'd like an explanation too. We all would, I think." He said, turning to Astaire and Rise anew.
Seeing as Naoto had turned away and everyone had more or less taken up positions by sitting on some of the empty platforms, Astaire felt a little more comfortable moving for once. "I'll tell everyone on the way, as much as I'm able. That way I won't have to recount it more than once." He looked down at Rise, who nodded at him affirmatively. Good choice.
Yu slung his sword up over his shoulder. "Great, thanks." He then took off towards the large white set of gates at the end of the grove, with everyone immediately hopping to their feet at his approach. "Alright everyone! We don't know what's going to be in here, but if last year was anything to go off, this dungeon may be the hardest we've come up against yet. I'll need all of you to stay sharp and focused." He turned to Astaire and Rise, who were following up shortly behind him. "That goes double for you, Astaire-san. Chances are this'll be something that only those with Personas can handle."
"Here's hoping it's not, then! I would relish the chance to fight alongside you lot again!" Astaire said with a grin.
Yu nodded, walking up to the white gate and giving it a healthy push. Without so much as a rusty squeak, it opened up invitingly, leading the group further into the forest beyond it. It looked a lot denser and darker than the rest, and seemed to give off a more foreboding air as well. Perfect for getting jumped by shadows.
"Alright, we'll go with the usual. Naoto, Kanji and Yukiko will be on the front line with me, everyone else hold back unless things go south. Now let's move!"
"...and on my way further in, I found myself accosted by Kirk, the Knight of Thorns! I can only assume it was mere coincidence, I know now why he'd have been there otherwise." Astaire finished, talking to no one person in partcular in an attempt to fill in the group as a whole. "Any outside invaders to the world must occupy the same area in a parallel plane of existence. That's why that Lautrec lookalike is bugging me so."
Given that Naoto was on the frontlines and thus couldn't devote much time to it, Yukiko had offered to take her notes for her. "Hmmm… I guess we wouldn't really know if there were worlds exactly like ours with different people in them like yours."
"Sounds like the sort of thing that only happens when your world is as messed up as Lordran is." Rise chimed in, leaving Kouzeon dormant after noticing a massive zero total enemies around them. "So there couldn't have been someone else at the same school at the same time, right? It just doesn't add up."
"Either way." Yosuke said, idly spinning his daggers between his fingers. "We know they can appear in our world now. That's one more thing to keep an eye on."
As much as he wanted to say something, Astaire recoiled at the sight of Yosuke's daggers. Malakh, he'd heard them called. Dangerous looking dual-bladed weapons fashioned to look like angel wings. Even just looking at them, Astaire could sense the power within them.
"Oh shadows~! Where are you~?" Teddie said as he bounced along, cupping his paws around his mouth. "Huh. That's really weird. There were more shadows back the way we came than there are here now!"
This would be the third time, and Rise swore she knew the answer before she'd already done it, but she summoned Kouzeon up and scanned the surrounding area. "No hits. No shadows whatsoever." She sighed. "Senpai, are you sure we're heading the right way? We might be lost or something!"
Even though there was very little going on, Yu kept his guard up. "We're heading some way, anyway. This forest has to end some time, doesn't it?"
"In the real world, perhaps. Somehow I don't see it being the case right now." Chie commented, kicking a loose branch on the ground as they went. "Why doesn't one of us try climbing a tree and see what's up? Always works in movies."
Yosuke turned on a heel and began walking backwards. "Take it you're volunteering since you brought it up?"
"What, you think I won't?!"
"I never said that. Just asked if you were volunteering." Yosuke grinned as Chie immediately made for the nearest tree, the sound of smaller branches breaking and leaves rustling being left in her wake. "Well? Anything exciting up there? Any shadows even?" Yosuke called after her as the sounds of her traversal grew dimmer.
No answer. For a moment, Yosuke considered running up the tree after her to see what was wrong. That was before Chie came tumbling out from the canopy, tumbling into him and knocking them both flat to the ground. "Hey, thanks for the save, Yosuke!" She got up and offered him a hand, pulling him to his feet as he dusted himself off, mumbling something about 'Woulda been nice if you'd warned me' and whatnot. "We're not far from something now! Everyone follow me!" She kicked off in a flash, shooting past Yu and further into the forest.
Yosuke was hot on her tail. "Chie! If you don't stop running off on your own like that I'm gonna break your legs!" He called after her, weaving nimbly in between the trees in her wake.
Yu massaged the bridge of his nose. "Two people running off on their own isn't that much better, y'know." He said as he shook his head, contemplating buying Chie a leash and typing her to somebody else to stop this from happening so damn often. "Either way, it sounded like Chie found something. We should get after them!" Yu said, beckoning everyone after him as he ran off.
As they ran, it seemed as if the trees were beginning to thin out. In spite of this, the undergrowth remained as dark as ever, like the world had a dimmer switch which somebody had forgotten to dial up again. This was particularly troublesome for two people in particular. "Blech! Cut it out before something winds up giving me a rash, would ya?!" Kanji bellowed at Teddie as he brushed aside wayward plant life which wound up whipping back into Kanji's face.
"Ms. Kujikawa, I acknowledge the hurry but- AAGH!" Astaire cried out as several low-hanging branches cracked over his forehead. Rise was short enough to run under them without a hitch, but that didn't leave much time for a detour. It paled in comparison to the tree creatures that lived in the Darkroot Garden, but it would've been a lie to say he didn't feel it.
Oh, the joys of being tall.
But their pain was worth it. In the distance, some form of light was forming behind the seemingly never ending flora. Finally, something akin to a destination!
Everyone emerged from the forest, looked up, then stood with their mouths agape.
"So… you know how we entered Astaire's gate back there, and that sorta thing would usually have taken us to the dungeon?" Yosuke began, his mouth the only one not hanging open loosely. "I started wondering on the way here. What if the reason we're not seeing any shadows in there was because that forest wasn't the dungeon? That we hadn't made it there yet." He scratched the back of his head idly. "It, uh… looks like I was right."
It was a tower. Or rather, a world that seemed to layer up on itself somehow, higher and higher into the sky. From somewhere up above, a thick deluge of lava poured endlessly over an unseen edge, falling down endlessly and spreading out amongst the stone-cobbled streets and buildings which lay directly in front of them. Streets, buildings and battlements led to an even mightier stone center, which seemed to be connected to everything else above it.
Looking up seemed to do little. Beyond the lava, nothing else stood out. But from the way the streets and buildings twisted, flowed and wavered like the sea frozen mid-storm, it could be ascertained that it was going to be far from normal.
"Holy crap, that's big." Kanji astutely pointed out. "What is this place? Ain't like anything the Midnight Channel's made before."
Of course they wouldn't know. It was unnatural looking, yes, but that's all it was to them.
The horrified expression Astaire wore was for a very different reason. Everything was familiar. The cobbled streets, the rising tower of stone, the lingering stench of death in the air, the unsettling wind that clutched at his stomach. He knew all too well what it was.
"It's Lordran." He said quietly. "It's a twisted form of the world I once called my own."