"Get back here, Hanamura!" Astaire's Shadow roared, zigzagging between trees as he kept his gaze fixed on Yosuke, who hopped between branches and trunks in the leafy canopy above. "I thought you'd relish the chance to fight me, but it seems you're all bloody talk!" He taunted as he hopped over a thick set of roots at his feet.
For a guy swinging around a sword that big, Astaire should not have been as fast as he was. However, speed and agility were two very different things, and in one of them Yosuke had him outclassed. He could swing all he liked, but he'd never reach him up amongst the treetops.
Still, it also meant Yosuke couldn't reach him either. As he somersaulted off branches and quickly changed directions in an attempt to throw Astaire off, Yosuke tried formulating a plan. Running around would tire one of them out eventually, and as much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't see himself being the one to outlast the other.
"Yosuke-senpai, where are you going?! Get back here right now so we can take care of Astaire-kun together!" Came the sound of Rise's voice inside his head.
"I would if he weren't trying to take care of me himself right now!" Yosuke said between breaths as he changed direction once again, hearing an unsatisfied grunt come from underneath him as Astaire shifted his momentum to follow.
"Well he's going to take care of you a lot faster if you don't get back here! We can't chase you and try to slap Astaire-kun's glasses back on him at the same time!"
Yosuke almost tripped and fell at that. "What?! You're actually going to try that?! You do realise he could cut your head off from anywhere within ten feet of him, don't you?!" The branch he'd been on was chopped away from below as he spoke. The trees must have been getting shorter. Yosuke rolled his eyes and tutted. "Alright, fine! Just gotta keep heading for the tower again, right?"
"Yeah, we're all still there. Just be- What was that, Senpai?" Rise said more quietly. "O-Oh, right. Senpai says… if things go south, try your best to subdue Astaire-kun and drag him back here instead." Yosuke almost tripped again. There were only two commands in that sentence and both were easier said than done, by several orders of magnitude. "By the way, Yosuke-senpai?" Rise piped up again after a short moment of silence. "If you do need to subdue Astaire-kun… please try not to hurt him!"
It took a few blinks and head shakes for Yosuke to process what she'd just asked him. "Are you for real?! Rise, I'm gonna have a hard time doing one without the other! If you're gonna tell anybody not to hurt anybody, you might wanna start with the guy who's trying to cut me in half!"
Rise made some sort of uncomfortable noise on the other end before dropping the connection again. Smooth one, Hanamura. Big points. Yosuke thought to himself. But what else was he supposed to say? Sparing Astaire any damage was a luxury he couldn't afford, and certainly not one his Shadow would offer him in turn.
As Yosuke vaulted ever closer to the Firelink Clearing, something occurred to him. The trees were still pretty dense, even if the clearing was within walking distance now.
Hardly ideal Zweihander-swinging conditions, he would think.
"You wanna fight me one on one, huh?!" He called down to the Shadow. "I think I'm starting to warm up to the idea myself!" And with that, he ceased running and dove between the branches, keeping his momentum as he rolled on the landing and continued sprinting. He stole a glance behind him, making note of Astaire's Shadow's transfixed yellow gaze and manic grin. "C'mon, try and keep up, I dare you!"
All of a sudden, Yosuke was gone.
Astaire's Shadow frowned and ground to a halt, plunging the forest into silence. No footsteps. No rustling of branches. He hadn't leapt up again, and no matter how many times his gaze passed over the trees surrounding him, there was no trace of Hanamura around him either. It was like he'd just vanished into thin air. Astaire's Shadow could do little but seethe. "Where are you hiding, you hideous letch?! Afraid to fight me face to face?!"
Pain. A sudden line of pain from the side, above his left thigh. "Not afraid to, just not stupid enough!" Yosuke jeered as he dashed behind the Shadow's back, the cut he'd left drawing a roar and a swing of his Zweihander. The weapon had barely left his side before Yosuke was away again, as though he were one with the wind itself.
Astaire's Shadow barely had time to get his bearings before another slice let flow the blood from atop his right thigh. "Everything was fine before you came here!" Yosuke growled as another two slices opened on the Shadow's shoulders. "The Midnight Channel had finally shut up, people had stopped going missing, it was great! Only took a whole frickin' year for us to get there!" Then another two on his thighs. "Then you show up and it all starts going to hell again! Everything that's happened has been tied to you! We'd still be living peacefully if you'd never come here!"
Yosuke's heart leapt as the Shadow's piercing yellow eyes jerked around to face him, Zweihander already primed to strike. "You've got a big mouth, Hanamura." He grinned, slamming the sword into the ground just slow enough for Yosuke to leap out of the way. "I mightn't have caught you if you'd only learn to keep it shut. Or perhaps…" The shadow lifted the sword airborne again. "...if you'd done that, maybe we wouldn't be fighting at all!"
He dodged again. Like trying to catch smoke, every time Astaire's Shadow drew close he simply seemed to disappear. He was already among the trees again, gone with the wind. But Astaire's Shadow would be damned if he was going to have it as easy this time. He reached into the box affixed to his armour, just as he felt the newest surge of pain slice across his tailbone.
He hadn't been facing the right way. As far as Yosuke could tell, his head hadn't moved either. He'd had no time to react and certainly no clue where he was. But even still, something unseeable, quick and powerful had lashed out from him before he could run away, pain hitting him for the first time as the shock from the… blast, he settled on, knocked him back against one of the thicker trees.
The Shadow chuckled, wiggling the Ivory Talisman in front of himself. "Done, are you? Hardly a surprise; Wrath of the Gods will do that to you." He said as he raised his sword and wound up for a full swing. "Shows what you get for being such a cocky little runt!"
Time seemed to slow down as Yosuke watched the blade rush towards him. He didn't like Astaire, not one bit, but his strength was undeniable. Chances were he'd not only lop him in half, but take down the tree he had his back to as well. He had to do something, but trying to scramble away now would only mean Astaire would kill him in two hits as opposed to one.
The will to call on Takehaya Suzano-o was hard to resist, but Yu had been clear in the past. 'Don't use Personas on anything other than Shadows. Even if someone succumbs to a Marin Karin and turns on you, don't risk it.'
His alternative wouldn't earn him many more points from Yu or Rise, but it was the only way. Yosuke's hand fled to the inside of his blazer, shortly before Astaire's Shadow felt three separate jolts of pain line his chest, forcing his sword into the ground. He cried out in pain and clenched his eyes shut, giving Yosuke ample time to disappear amongst the trees again.
Three sizable kunai perforated Astaire's Shadow's torso as fresh trickles of crimson seeped out and soaked in amongst the dried dragon blood from earlier. He laid eyes on them, watching as they moved in time with his haggard breaths. The pain only got worse with visual confirmation of the wounds. Intense, deep, throbbing pain, spreading further with every second.
It was like the striking of a match amongst gasoline. The throbbing seemed to synchronise with the Shadow's heartbeat, as well as the strenuous pulsing in his addled head. A thick haze of unbridled fury clouded over what little restraint Astaire's Shadow had to begin with as it looked back down at the knives adorning his torso.
With little regard for consequence, Astaire's Shadow ripped the first of the three knives out, quickening the flow of blood from the wound it left behind. His hand shook as he clenched the kunai tighter. With a rabid snarl and bared teeth he turned on a heel and sprinted after Yosuke anew, eyes ablaze with murderous intent. Hanamura wasn't going to get one over on him this time. Not on his life.
Curling her hair around her finger didn't help. Nor did pacing back and forth. Nor did twiddling her thumbs and interlocking her fingers. Biting her lip wasn't doing much either. No matter what Rise tried, the unmistakable weight of worry sat firm in her chest.
Looking around her, she wasn't the only one. Chie kicked a stone off into the distance, hands on her hips as she muttered something unrepeatable at the ground while Yukiko tried to calm her. Even Senpai looked troubled, stroking his chin and creasing his brow.
It was only right to be worried. Senpai would've been concerned about any of the team being in this position, but he'd known Yosuke the longest. He had many friends, but he only had the one 'partner.'
Her self-appointed break now decidedly over, Kouzeon's visor slipped back over Rise's eyes. "Senpai, Senpai! Yosuke-senpai's almost here!" She cheered. "Looks like he's put some distance between himself and Astaire-kun's Shadow, so he should be alright."
Somewhere to her right, Yu let out a relieved sigh. "Good. Thanks, Rise. How are his health and energy reserves?"
"Not perfect. He must've gotten hit at least once, but it's nothing serious." She said with no small amount of her own relief. For the sake of assessing the whole situation, she cast Kouzeon's focus over to Astaire's Shadow. Her heart sank at the sight of his vitals. Back to Yosuke. Open communications. "Yosuke-senpai! Why is Astaire-kun's health so low?!"
"He was going to cut me clean in half, I didn't have a choice! It was either lights out for me or lights dimmed for him!" He replied between breaths, stealing a glance over his shoulder. He still wasn't there. "If he's in such bad shape, I wouldn't be feeling like he's catching up on me!"
He heard Rise scoff inside his head. "Oh come on! He isn't catching up on you at all, he's…" She trailed off suddenly. "Oh. Oh no. Yosuke-senpai, run faster!"
Yosuke daren't have replied. Rise's command was like a spur to his side, propelling him ever faster through the trees. Whatever she'd seen, whatever had made her react the way she did, Yosuke only knew he didn't want to be alone when it caught up to him. Looking over his shoulder was out of the question.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Yosuke heard it. Heavy, rhythmic thumps encroaching from behind him, cracking branches and kicking up leaves. Distant first, and growing louder the longer he dared listen.
There was no way. He couldn't have caught up to him that quickly. He was faster than him in every way, after all. It had to be something else. Some other manner of creature from within the forest.
The latent power within Malakh jolted Yosuke's body to the side as something thick and metallic lodged itself in a tree just beyond him. It was a kunai. His throwing kunai, to be precise. Stained with blood on one end.
Holy crap, it was him.
But it didn't matter now. The canopy was thinning out, the darkness of the forest giving way to the light of the clearing. Everyone seemed to bolt upright at the sight of him, none more so than Chie and Yu. Yosuke beamed as he crossed the threshold between danger and safety, taking in the sheer-
There was a thud, followed by the sound of splintering wood as Astaire's Zweihander narrowly nipped at the tails of Yosuke's blazer. It lodged itself firmly in the trunk of a tree he'd passed at the last second, the blade burying itself a good third of the way in. "Run all you like Hanamura, it's only your own time you're wasting!" Astaire's Shadow fumed, hair unkempt and eyes like a wildfire. "If you think there's anywhere I won't chase you to, you've got another thing coming!"
He said that, but the Shadow looked much worse for wear. Two knives remained in his chest, the third's wound tainting the ground beneath him as blood cascaded down his armour. His breaths were laboured and heavy, his stance weak as he leaned against his sword in the tree.
Yosuke wheeled around a safe distance away, suddenly feeling more confident with his friends behind him. "You can chase me all you like. All you're doing is proving me right." He began, pointing a single Malakh at the Shadow accusingly. "Did you even listen to a word I said in the forest? You must've done, because you were listening for me coming, weren't you? You had to have listened."
"Yosuke-senpai!" Rise's voice quivered through her fingers."W-What did you do to him?!"
"So if you were listening, what's your response? Can you deny anything I've said so far?" Yosuke continued, Rise be damned. "I'm right, aren't I? And you know I'm right."
"I don't know what the hell you're on about, Hanamura." Astaire's Shadow hissed through his teeth.
Anger swelled as Yosuke took a step forward. "Say that all you like, you may have pulled the wool over everyone else's eyes, but you won't do it to me! I'm not going to sit down and let you hurt my friends!" He bellowed, hands tightening around his knives.
Yu stepped in and roughly latched a hand onto Yosuke's shoulder. "Yosuke, calm down! You're not making things any easier!"
He held him back for all of half a second before Yosuke swatted him away. "I don't care what Rise or anyone else thinks of you! Just because everybody else seems to like you doesn't mean that I have to like you as well!" He finished, angrily baring both knives to Astaire's Shadow.
The Shadow chuckled to itself as he found the strength to stand up straight. "Funny, that." He let go of his tree-lodged sword as his hands found their way to the knives in his chest. "I know exactly what you mean." With one swift motion and two fresh splatters of blood, Astaire's Shadow tore the knives out of his chest, grinning through the pain as it locked eyes with Yosuke and settled into a battle stance.
But not just any battle stance. He settled into Yosuke's.
"I'll give you one thing, Hanamura." The Shadow said as he deftly twirled the knives in between his fingers. "You have one hell of a strong soul, if your knives are anything to go by." He grinned, tapping an antsy foot off the ground.
He spun the knives the exact same way. He stood the exact same way. He even tapped his foot just like he did. He'd copied Yosuke's body language down to the finest detail. Whatever confidence had swelled in Yosuke's breast abruptly began to waver at the sight of his own movements playing out in front of him.
It was like looking into a mirror. A mirror stained with at least three layers of blood and looking to make his the fourth.
Before anyone could move to act, Astaire's Shadow had surged forward and locked blades with Yosuke, who'd barely had time to defend himself. He wasn't just showing off, Yosuke realised, he was fast, too. The realisation must've shown on his face, because the Shadow grinned all the wider at the sight of it. "Hah! Poor Hanamura can't keep a straight face when someone's just as fast as he is!" The grin immediately snapped to a grim scowl as he leaned in closer to Yosuke's face, so close their foreheads were practically touching. "I didn't think you'd be so easily shook by the thought of a fair fight."
The deadlock broke in the blink of an eye as a thin red line dashed across the Shadow's cheek and began to bleed. "Who said this was a fair fight?" Yosuke snapped as he leapt to a safe distance. Perhaps being shaken might have been the right response. Perhaps it would have been better not to fight at all. But Astaire's Shadow's attitude was really pissing him off.
Wiping the blood from his cheek, Astaire's Shadow snorted and lunged towards Yosuke anew, blades at the ready and primed for his throat. The two devolved into a blur of limbs and metal as they struck at each other with equal amounts of speed and agility, both trying their damndest to dodge the punishment the other was dishing out.
"Damnit, Yosuke…" Yu sighed as he raised his hand to meet the arcana card in front of him. "We're putting an end to this! Trumpeter!" With a clenched fist and a surge of blue light, the pure-white skeletal form of the Trumpeter rose above Yu's head. "Everyone focus on buffing Yosuke and debuffing the Shadow!"
Were it not for the fact that it was holding the real Astaire's body hostage, it would have been all too easy for any member of the team to wipe out the Shadow. But destroying it wasn't the issue, as much as not destroying it was. Though it frustrated Yu to not simply step in and give his best friend a hand, this was the most they could manage for now.
As the fight between Yosuke and Astaire's Shadow continued, something quickly became evident. Yosuke Hanamura was a much better Yosuke Hanamura than the Shadow could ever hope to be. He had his moves down pat, his body twisted and struck in the exact same ways, by all means they should have been evenly matched. But they weren't. Something was tipping the scales in Yosuke's favour.
The knives. It had to be the knives. They were evenly matched on every other front but that one. Astaire's Shadow growled and grunted between strikes, every two of his yielding just enough time for Yosuke to counter with one of his own. The difference was that Yosuke's were landing.
Now it was his turn to be smug. "I told you this wasn't a fair fight! You can copy me all you want, but you can't outdo the original!" He boasted between dodges. Just as he was getting into a confident stride, he felt a surge of electrifying energy tingle around his whole body. He began striking faster, moving quicker, everything about him seemed to amp right up to eleven. "Aww, yeah! This just keeps getting better and better!"
Heat Riser. No doubt about it. As if his knives on their own hadn't been enough of a boon. Yosuke shot Naoto a thumbs up, now fending off the Shadow's attacks with a single hand. "Don't you dare look away from me, Hanamura!" He yelled, face going red both from exertion and frustration.
Without warning, something hit the Shadow, too.
Whatever had happened to Yosuke - he couldn't be sure, exactly, - it felt like the complete opposite had happened to him. The distant sound of a trumpet sounding out rang around in his ears. His limbs suddenly felt like they were made of lead, his arms were suddenly bereft of strength, and every fibre of his being seemed to loosen in unison.
His attacks became less frequent, and when they came, they lacked the force that once lay behind them. The Shadow panted heavily, swiping at Yosuke weakly in spite of knowing it was all useless. He couldn't even find it in him to resist as Yosuke disarmed him, both throwing knives clattering to the ground unceremoniously.
"Thanks for the Debilitate, partner! Rise, his glasses!" Yosuke called over, holding one knife to the Shadow's head as it hung lowly, facing the ground. He couldn't help but smirk. "This is what happens when you start causing trouble for my friends. Stick to greatswords next time."
"Oh, dry up, would you?"
Yosuke blinked. "Huh? What'd you-?"
A flash of gold and silver slashed open the back of Yosuke's hand, quickly drawing blood. He let out a cry of agony and staggered back, only to find that their positions had swapped. Now he was looking up the blade of the Shadow's weapon, a curved, glimmering gold sword. "All I need stick to is a better soul than yours, and I've got plenty to pick from."
He could boast all he liked, they were still buffed and debuffed respectively. Ignoring his bleeding hand, Yosuke bore his teeth and lashed out with both knives.
Another shimmer of gold and silver, followed by a pair of metallic clangs, cast his attack aside.
Oh, crap.
He tried again. Nothing. A third time. The same. Finally, he glanced desperately over to the side, to his friends as they sprinted towards them. "R-Rise, would you mind hurrying up with those glasses already?!"
"What's the use?" With a final glimmering streak of light, Yosuke felt his daggers fly from his hands, joining his kunai. "You'll be dead by the time they get here." The Shadow shoved Yosuke roughly, his back thumping off the trunk of a tree. Before he could resist, both gold and silver tracers were at his throat like a pair of gilded scissors. "Speak your last, Hanamura."
"ASTAIRE-KUN, NO!" Rise screamed, sprinting towards them. The rest of the team wasn't far off her, having seen how far south the fight was going.
For the briefest of moments, the Shadow's face dropped. Gone was the smug, the snide and the malicious. He turned his head, yellow eyes and all, and met Rise's own. "M-Ms.-?"
"Takehaya Suzano-o! Brave Blade!"
Astaire's Shadow didn't feel the pain at first. He rocketed backwards, limbs limp like a ragdoll, before he impacted with the ground and rolled to a stop, face down. Then he felt the pain. A deep, diagonal gash across his torso had made short work of his armour, staining the grass and stonework red with each roll he'd made. Heavy. Throbbing. Searing. Even with his expanded knowledge, the Shadow couldn't imagine a word severe enough to describe the pain.
He could hear yelling of some kind. It was hard to tell who it was, what with the pain in his head fuzzing everything out of focus. Hanamura was amongst them though. Hanamura. Hanamura. The name alone was enough to force the Shadow's limbs into motion, lifting his chest off the ground and forcing his leaden head to look up. "Hanamura... " He snarled at the array of blurred and unfocused colours before him. "I'm not useless, you bastard, I'm not. Get back and here and let me show you. I'll show you alright. I could kill everything in this godforsaken other world if I had to. So don't you da-"
The Shadow's rambling came to an end as Rise knelt down and slipped Astaire's glasses back on, hands trembling.
Astaire's eyes went wide as the sickly yellow glow faded away, darkening to a dimmer orange. Then his vision cleared. The entirety of the Investigation Team stood before him, expressions ranging from worried to wary. None were more worried than Rise, who had knelt next to him and looked about ready to cry. "A-Astaire-kun?" She sounded about ready to cry, too.
Everything that had transpired over the last few minutes hit Astaire all at once. He brought a hand around in front of his face, tensing and relaxing it as though he couldn't believe it was his. When he seemed convinced, both hands began to shake as he clutched either side of his head, eyes manic as he lowered his forehead to the ground. "I-I'm sorry. I'm s-so sorry..." He finally said, voice shaking.
Rise clutched her chest and sighed. "You're finally back to normal… Thank goodness. You're not dying, are you?!" She quickly added as her eyes rocketed open again.
"I… I don't- agh!" The harsh terrain was doing little to soothe Astaire's newly-opened chest. He clenched his fists, ground his teeth, anything that felt like it might make him feel better. They were no substitute for an Estus Flask, however. "M-My flask, Ms. Kuji-"
"Oh, I don't think you'll be needing that. Leave it to me." Yukiko chimed in as she evoked Sumeo-Okami above her. "This'll fix you up. Diarahan!"
For the briefest of moments, Astaire felt awash with a cooling wave of energy, and began to let out a sigh. Said sigh quickly deteriorated into an ungodly scream as the wounds on his chest suddenly seemed to aggravate all at once, as though someone were trying to pull them back together by hand. Astaire convulsed in pain on the ground, wrapping his arms around his chest and bellowing loudly.
Yukiko was transfixed, her face having gone completely white as she looked on in horror. "I-I don't understand! Healing's never been that bad before, has it?!" She asked the rest of the team, some of whom averted their eyes until Astaire's hysterics had begun to fade.
He was panting heavily, and his head was hung low, but he was now on his hands and knees, if nothing else. Only after his breathing began to steady did Rise find hers doing the same. Gently, as though afraid he'd shatter at her touch, she held out a hand. "Do you… need help standing?"
Astaire shook his head. "N-No. Besides, the b-blood…"
He trailed off as Rise stood up again and thrust a hand down to him. "It's not the blood that I'm worried about, dummy! Just give me your hand already!"
That would mark the second fight he lost with a member of the Investigation team that day. Begrudgingly, Astaire slipped his right hand under his opposite arm and began worming his way out of his blood-caked gauntlet. It was, Rise would later realise, the first time he hadn't changed his clothes instantaneously. Reddened leather now replaced by bare skin, the two locked hands.
It was only once Astaire had begun to stand that it became clear just how much damage Yosuke had done.
Brave Blade had left a large, diagonal slash across his front, neighboured by the three sizable holes the kunai had left. His upper arms and hips were coated in smaller cuts and slices, reducing the thinner parts of his armour to ribbons. There was enough of a window into his body beneath to see that the smaller injuries were gone, but the four damning wounds on Astaire's chest remained visible. Not bleeding, nor actively exposing his innards to the world, but it was clear that Yukiko's magic had only partially healed them over.
"Holy hell, Yosuke-senpai." Kanji said as he strode past everyone else, coming to Astaire's side as he stood up shakily. He decided to forego asking him - because knowing him he'd just start protesting - Kanji took the arm Rise wasn't occupying and looped it over his shoulders. "Alright, c'mon. Ain't no way you're walkin' back looking like that. Take it easy." A demand he quickly regretted as Astaire leaned his weight into him, staggering him off to the side. "Okay, maybe not that easy!"
Balance regained, Astaire grasped Kanji's shoulder properly and managed a smile. One which Kanji returned in kind as they hobbled towards the rest of the group.
Of course, the first person to attract Astaire's gaze was no surprise. "Yosuke…" He began, right before realising he had no idea how to continue. What could he say to someone he'd nearly decapitated naught but a few minutes ago? Was there anything he could say? He doubted, given what he'd told his Shadow in the forest, that anything he could come up with would change how he felt. Should he even have been trying, then? Well, of course he should have, but how?
"Ahem." Rise sauntered over to Yosuke, arms crossed and eyes narrow. "Don't you have anything you'd like to say to Astaire-kun, Yosuke-senpai?" She asked, peaking an eyebrow at the end.
Yosuke gazed at the ground, a mixed look of frustration and shame on his face as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'm, uh... " He started slowly, glancing away. "I'm sorry too. Kinda lost it a little towards the end."
Much to Astaire's surprise, he actually sounded… genuine. He really meant what he said. "I-It's fine, really." Astaire let out a sigh as he lowered his head. "I haven't the words to tell you how sorry I am. Under normal circumstances, I would never even think-"
"Don't give me that." Yosuke snapped. "Don't even start."
"Yosuke-senpai!" Rise flared up immediately, accompanied by a similar tone of disapproval from most everyone else.
Except Chie, Yosuke noted.
"You can deny it all you want. Pretend that it's not you, that it's some other evil monster wearing your face, but that doesn't change the fact that your Shadow is you! Like it or not, it's still a reflection of who you really are!" Yosuke paused to point accusingly at Astaire. "And your Shadow wanted to chop my freaking head off."
"N-No! That's not true in the slightest!" Astaire cried, squirming under Kanji's grip and trying uselessly to free himself. "I can assure you, I'd never-"
"Say so openly? Yeah, that's kinda the point." Panic set in Astaire's chest as Takehaya Suzano-o began floating behind Yosuke. "This guy was my Shadow. Everyone's Personas are the same." Excluding Yu, but now wasn't the time. "And we only got them because we admittedly that our Shadows were parts of us! Oh sure, nobody liked it, and it wasn't easy to do, but it's the truth! Every single time! The only difference is that we all had the balls to face them outright! Yours isn't any different from ours, with the exception that none of ours wanted to kill anybody right from the get-go!"
Without hesitation, Rise stepped forward and slapped Yosuke across the face.
Between the two of them, Yosuke had very much been better off than Astaire after the fight. Save for the occasional nick here and there, as well as the one solid wound on the back of his hand - now closed over thanks to Yukiko - he'd looked pretty well off. That much Astaire knew for certain.
It said something to him, then, that Yosuke looked more beaten up by Rise's slap than anything he himself had done.
"Stop it. Not one more word." Rise said quietly, voice quivering.
Yosuke ran his hand over the newly-formed red mark on his cheek, His mouth ajar before he seemed to regain focus. "Rise…"
"No!" She shouted, raising her head and letting tears roll down her cheeks. "Astaire-kun would never have attacked you if it wasn't for his Shadow doing… whatever it just did! Isn't that right, Astaire-kun?" She turned in time to see Astaire nod, looking a little shellshocked himself.
Trying to argue with a crying girl was hard enough, never mind Rise Kujikawa. But goddamnit if Yosuke wasn't going to try. He clenched his fists and steeled his resolve. "Rise… you know just as well as I do that Shadows represent how we truly feel. Whether we'll admit it or not. You can't just ignore this. None of us can."
"Didn't you hear him after he landed?! He wanted to fight you to show that he wasn't useless! He isn't some mindless killer, I know he's not!" Rise continued to insist.
From behind her, Kanji joined in. "An' don't act like you weren't ragging on him before now, neither. Hell, you say that kinda shit to anyone else and I think they'd have snapped long before now."
And from behind Yosuke came Chie, hands on her hips as she stood as his side. "That doesn't mean he deserves to be attacked over it, never mind killed! Yosuke's an idiot, but nobody's that bad!" She proclaimed, ignoring Yosuke's asking of exactly whose side she was on beside her.
"Astaire-kun doesn't want to kill him, not really! I'm telling you, it's his Shadow!" Rise sidestepped and faced Chie directly, eyes ablaze. "Don't act like nobody's Shadow ever attacked us after they were denied the first time! It's been awhile since then, but that doesn't mean the rule doesn't still apply!"
Back and forth, back and forth. Kanji shouted something that left his right ear ringing, Chie would bite back with something else. Rise would fume at whichever out of Yosuke and her had spoken last, going red in the face from how vehemently she was standing up for him.
He should have been pleased that she was going through all the trouble for his sake. But something didn't feel right. Something that itched at the back of his mind but refused to work its way mouth-ward. Something so thought-consuming that in time he stopped following the argument, instead fixated on the terrible, nagging feeling that refused to leave him.
"That's enough! All of you!"
The argument fell silent as Yu finally raised his voice. Though he'd sounded angry, the way he furrowed his brow and massaged the bridge of his nose made him look tired above all else. "Everyone just be quiet for a minute, please. Astaire-san." Astaire shot up to attention, ignoring the protests from his wounds. "What you wound up doing today was unacceptable." Rise tried to interrupt, but was cut off as Yu continued. "If you want to be a part of the team and help us with operations inside the TV World, this can't happen again. You need to deal with your Shadow. Sooner rather than later."
Easy for you to say, considering you didn't have one. Rise had to stop herself from saying.
"I shall try, Mr. Narukami." Astaire said earnestly.
Yosuke tutted and rolled his eyes. "Never took this long before now…"
"Yosuke." Yu began again, in such a way that Yosuke instantly regretted having ever spoken. "You're not helping matters here. For all we know, Astaire-san's Shadow mightn't have attacked anyone at all if you weren't antagonising him in the first place." He narrowed his eyes as Yosuke mouthed the word antagonising silently. "I don't know what's gotten into you as of late, but you need a serious attitude adjustment. You needn't start pointing fingers when you're both equally at fault."
Yosuke shot Astaire a quick glance and turned away, hands back in his pockets. Astaire lowered his head and pushed his glasses further up his nose. If shame had weight, it'd have buried him underground in the blink of an eye.
What a day. Yu looked between the two of them and sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "We'll talk about it later. Just, for now… I don't know about the rest of you," Excluding the one needing a support to walk, "but I'm tired and I want to go home."
If there was only one thing upon which everyone could agree, it was that.
A shroud of pregnant silence blanketed the Investigation Team as they turned and made for the trees. Those on Astaire and Yosuke's respective sides had said all they'd wanted to, and those on the fence about the whole matter didn't know what to say at all. If anything were to cure the situation, time away from the whole sordid affair seemed like a good place to start.
Yosuke veered away from the group and scooped up both Malakhs from the ground, stuffing the kunai Astaire had used back into his blazer in turn. On the way back to the group, the glint of gold and silver in his peripheral vision caught his eye. At the foot of the tree Astaire had him up against, the Gold and Silver Tracers respectively sat gathering dust in the grass.
"Hrrrngh! Rrrrrrrrrrgh!" Teddie grunted and groaned, tugging at the Zweihander's hilt uselessly. "It's! No! Use!" He uttered between heaves before he finally gave up, wiping his brow. "Sorry Stairry-kun, I can't get it out. It's wedged in there tighter than a clam at high tide!"
Fantastic, as if the day hadn't been bad enough. Astaire shut his eyes and frowned. "It's quite alright, Teddie. Thank you for trying, at least." He ran a hand over the grip and gave it a half-hearted tug. It didn't even give an inch in return. "I suppose I may leave it here. Farewell for now, old friend."
With a parting pat on the pommel, the group resumed their walking through the trees. "Hey." Astaire immediately went cold as he felt Yosuke lightly jab his shoulder from behind. "You forgot these." He said as he sidled up alongside Astaire and Kanji, shoving both Tracers in his general direction and keeping his gaze forward. "Just keep 'em away from me next time."
Astaire glanced between the weapons and Yosuke a few times before he cautiously tucked them back into his coat. "Thank you. I'm surprised you trust me enough to give them back."
"Never said I did."
Rise waved a quick goodbye to everyone before, with no small amount of manhandling, tumbling through the TV with Astaire in tow. Yu waited for the ripples on the screen to fade out before he turned back to the rest of his friends. "You guys go on ahead without me, I'm gonna stick around here a while."
Yukiko was the first to open her mouth to protest, up until the point where she saw the look Yu was shooting Yosuke from behind. "Well, if you're sure. See you later!" She said with a wave of her own, quickly ushering everyone after her as she left.
"Don't stick around here too long, Partner. Wouldn't want anything jump out at you from the forest without the rest of us around." Yosuke shrugged as he began walking after everyone else.
His stride was quickly interrupted as he let out a choking sound, as owed to the sharp tug on the back of his collar. "Good point. Maybe you should stick around with me on the off chance something does happen, what do you think?" Yu said casually, throwing an arm around Yosuke's shoulders.
As he watched the backs of his friends disappear amongst the trees, Yosuke gulped. Nobody was helping him this time. "S-Sure, Partner. If it'd make you feel better." He chuckled nervously as he shifted under Yu's rock-solid grip, which eventually let up when it became evident he wasn't going to run off under the pressure.
"Thanks!" Yu said with an air of faux-cheer. He stuffed a hand in one of his pockets and sauntered over to the statue of Astaire being run through the chest, rubbing his chin with his free hand. "...Some mess this has turned out to be. Feels like last year all over again."
A heavy, pointed weight sunk deep into Yosuke's chest as he watched Yu's back. "Look, if you're gonna yell at me, then just get to it already. Don't keep me in suspense like this, it's killer." He admitted, crossing his arms over the weighted area.
"I'm not going to yell at you, Yosuke. I'll even put off hitting you this time around. I just want to talk, is all." Yu said, still facing the statue.
...Somehow, Yosuke figured he might've felt better if he had hit him. It'd hardly be the first time that day, and it'd be a hell of a lot quicker than whatever this was. Tentatively, he stepped forward and approached Yu's back. "...Look, I know we're not supposed to use Personas on teammates and stuff," If Astaire could truly be counted as such, "but c'mon, man! He was-"
"That's not what I want to talk about."
It seemed like every time Yu opened his mouth, the weight inside shifted and moved about elsewhere. Apparently it was just as confused as Yosuke was. "Huh? Well, what do you wanna talk about?"
"I think you're onto something. About Astaire-san, that is." Yu said calmly. He must've been listening closely enough to hear Yosuke's jaw drop behind him, because he continued after it did. "I don't think you're entirely right, of course, but you're not entirely wrong either."
Between having Chie side with him earlier and hearing Yu now, Yosuke couldn't help but feel pumped up. "I-I know, right?! He's totally connected to all this stuff that's been going on! He's the cause of everything that's happening here!"
Yu finally turned to face him, but not before outstretching a finger mere inches from Yosuke's nose. "On the first part, I can agree with you. The second is where you're losing me."
Again, Yosuke blinked and flapped his gums for a second. "...What? Dude, are you thinking straight right now? How can everything happen the moment after he comes here and yet he's still not the cause? How can it be his fault and not his fault at the same damn time?"
"Because by that logic, everything that happened to us is Adachi's fault." Yu shrugged as Yosuke felt his argument catch on the end of his tongue. "The Midnight Channel only became a problem after he showed up, right? Guess that means he's the reason it showed up, then."
"Dude, that was different! Someone else was behind it and the fog! Someone who-"
"-We were completely unaware of right up until the end, when it all clicked." Yu finished for him. He pushed his glasses up his nose and glanced between the other statues. "The fact of the matter is that yes, Adachi caused all the trouble we went through. But the events leading to him being able to cause trouble weren't the result of anything he did. If it hadn't been for that… Well, he'd probably still be less than a good person inside, but he'd only have been as harmful as the next guy."
As much as Yosuke wanted to say he was wrong, his argument was completely sound. Adachi, at the end of the day, had been a pawn in someone else's game. "So you're saying Astaire's the same, then." He concluded, gazing around the statues himself.
"I'm saying Astaire-san's probably just as ignorant of why this is all happening as we are. He's a symptom of whatever's wrong here, but he's not the cause. I mean, just look at this statue, for one." Yu motioned towards the statue of Astaire's horrific impalement, which Yosuke finally drew his own eyes towards. "What does he get out of all this? He's gotten pretty messed up in the time he's been here. It'd be like Adachi throwing himself in the TV and having to fight off Shadows. It just doesn't make sense."
Yosuke briefly looked away from the grotesque stone display to glance at the others surrounding it. "He gets Rise, for one." He said a tad more bitterly than he'd meant to.
"Astaire-san didn't cross over from his world to ours for a girl he didn't even know, Yosuke. Who do you think he is, you?" He added with a snide jab in the ribs. Thankfully, Yosuke managed a lopsided grin as he thumped him back in return. "But seriously. I think deep down, you don't really think he's the cause of all this either." Yu tapped the breast of Yosuke's blazer, hitting off the Kunai inside with a metallic clink. "If you'd really wanted to end him quickly, wouldn't you have stabbed him in the back like he told you to earlier? That'd have saved you a lot of effort."
"Pffft." Yosuke lightly brushed Yu's hand away from his chest and rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Mr. Wannabe Psychologist."
Not a denial, Yu noted with a grin. "Really though Yosuke, listen to me. I'll agree with you that Astaire-san's been kind of… troublesome, since he's come here." He began, motioning to the statue featuring the unluckiest pair of reporters ever. "But you giving him grief over it isn't helping. I know it seems like everything's going backwards, and that the thought of that is frustrating, believe me, I know." Yu clenched the fabric on his opposing sleeve at the thought. "But doing what you did today? Picking fights whenever you can and riling him up like that? That's troublesome too. Even moreso, if it affects how we operate as a team."
Yosuke performed a double take at the phrase 'operate as a team'. "What?! You're gonna let him come back in here after today, are you nuts?!"
But nevertheless, Yu nodded. "Yosuke, warped or not, he knows something about this part of the world. With all of us working together this could all be over before the end of the month, for all we know. But having you and Astaire-san at each other's' throats is only going to slow that down. Either you start trying to get along better with him, or I'm going to make the two of you get along better."
Yosuke could only guess as to how exactly he planned on doing that, but he was talking to the world ambassador for bonds and friendship, here. If anyone could find a way, he could. "...Alright, alright, fine. I get it. I'll… I'll do something, I dunno. Just… could you stop looking at me like that?" He said as he shirked away from the vicious glint in Yu's eye.
Evidently, bonds and friendship was serious business.
The glint soon receded as a gentle smile softened Yu's face. "Alright, good to hear it." He trudged over to his sword, embedded in the ground next to the exit TV, and retrieved it, settling it on his shoulder. "Oh, by the way. Trying to keep an eye out for Rise's sake is good and all, but maybe tone it down a little. Wouldn't want Chie getting jealous, would you?" Yu said with a cheeky smile and pat on Yosuke's shoulder as he passed him by.
Another nudge to the ribs got Yu laughing at his Partner's scowling face. "Do a guy a favour and hurry home already, would you?!" He chided, conveniently ignoring the fact that they were both walking in the same direction.
Rise's ears perked up as she heard the shower fall silent on the other side of the bathroom door. There'd been no banging or shouting, and the water had been running for a fair amount of time, so it seemed fair to think that her little crash course on using it had ended up being taken to heart.
Not that she'd known beforehand. Astaire had been uncharacteristically quiet ever since the two had been left on their own. Of course, having four new holes in his chest and being covered head to toe in blood may well have facilitated that. Had it been anyone else they'd been inflicted upon, they mightn't have done much talking either, but they wouldn't have had much choice in the matter.
Had he uttered even one word since arriving, Rise guessed she might've felt more at ease than she currently did, but not even the comforting confines of her bedclothes was putting her at ease. She'd taken to listlessly checking her phone and rolling around the bed intermittently, right up until the shower had ceased.
The lock clicked. The door began to open. With a solitary creak, the moonlight illuminated the pale shades of Astaire's now-bloodless face as he stepped out. His charcoal hair stuck to his head, occasionally dripping onto the shoulders of his coat, which-
Wait a minute. Had he really just put his coat back on after exiting the shower? Was a towel so much to ask for?
Beating away the part of her that inexplicably seemed disappointed at his towelless form, a more pressing concern struck Rise first. The moon illuminated not only his hair, but the stony, rigid expression he wore. The same one, Rise noted, that he'd been wearing when he went in. "Oh, you got it figured out, then! Sure can't beat a nice hot shower after a long day, can you?" Rise said as she forced a smile and tried to sound cheery.
It was hard to tell, given the moon's sub-par illumination, but she swore the tips of Astaire's mouth sunk slightly at her words. Again, he didn't speak. He didn't even nod or shake his head. He simply took his place at the foot of her bed and laid his back against it, looking out at the moon in the sky without a word.
...Well that wasn't much to work off. With a pout, Rise spread her arms and threw herself back, giving the ceiling a very unfriendly glare. There had to be some way of finding out what was wrong with him. Some way of getting him to open up. Maybe it was something from earlier in the day that was vexing him, but holy crap if the list wouldn't be the length of her arm at this point. It could have been anything.
She also toyed with the idea of just asking him what was wrong outright.
Nah, that was too easy. "Gee, a lot sure happened today, didn't it?" She asked the silhouette of Astaire's head as she crossed her arms behind her own. "If there's one good thing about exploring inside the TV World, it's the night's sleep you get after. It always kno…" She trailed off as she let out a well-timed yawn. "...Knocks me out like a log."
Nothing. He didn't even twitch. Maybe he'd fallen asleep already. With a puff of her cheeks, Rise set about a second line of offence.
"That thing with your glasses is a real puzzler. I was wondering what the deal was yesterday, too, but now that we've got an answer, it's almost become more confusing all over again!" She chuckled. A peek over her covers. Still nothing. "I was thinking about it today. Something about cutting off the effects of foreign worlds, right? Maybe it means foreign like… foreign based on the world, rather than the person? Maybe if I put them on in your world, I'd lose my Persona!" She laughed, only before realising that losing Kouzeon wasn't exactly a laughing matter. But that was good! Surely Astaire would point that out to her!
Not a peep. Not even a hair out of place.
Well, it was wet, so maybe that wasn't a surprise. Even still, Rise had thought it a pretty decent theory. One she was actually quite proud of, in fact. Seeing Astaire's utter lack of a reaction made her feel worse than she'd thought.
Time for theory number two, then.
"On that topic, how about that world in the TV, huh? Crazy or what? I've never seen a dungeon that complex before, and we've had some doozies! How close is it to the world you came from, on a scale of one to ten?" As was typical of him at this point, Astaire's gaze remained fixed on the moon. "I think it's got something to do with you going through all those cycles like you did. After that sort of thing, it'd be weirder if you didn't have Lordran on the brain!" She again finished with a laugh.
...No? Still nothing?
Alright, this was getting ridiculous. If anyone was going to give Rise the cold shoulder, she would be damned if it was going to be the one person she shared a room with. Frustration screwed up her face as she wondered what might crack the seemingly impenetrable trance Astaire had…
...Wait a minute. Breaking him out of a trance?
She couldn't help but smile mischievously. That, she knew she could do. The sheets ruffled and the bedsprings squeaked as Rise clambered onto her hands and knees and slowly homed in on Astaire's head, eyes glimmering like a panther ready to pounce. "Oh, it's no use! I can't fall asleep in this top, it's too uncomfortable! I guess I'll just have to go without it…" Rise faux-lamented. She grinned widely as she noticed Astaire's entire body bristle at once. Now for the killing blow. She leaned forward and placed her lips as close to his ear as she dared. "Since you're ignoring me, I trust you're not going to look?" She whispered sensually.
BANG. Astaire's head slammed so forcefully into the table that it nearly caved the window in behind it. How exactly he'd managed to recoil in such a way as to hit it in the first place, Rise couldn't say, given how quickly it'd happened. However he'd managed it, Astaire now seemed to be struggling to decide whether to look at her or not, eyes darting madly and his face as red as a beetroot. "W-What kind of- I wouldn't dare, I-!"
"Woah woah woah, I was only joking, calm down!" Rise patted her pyjama top as proof, even tugging at the buttons to show they were all in. After a few seconds, she let out a sigh as Astaire finally settled down and began rubbing the pain out of the back of his head. "Jeez. I dunno what I was expecting, but it wasn't anything like that."
"You and I both. I think I'm starting to see stars."
"Well I had to do something! How else was I supposed to get you speaking to me again?" Saying it out loud seemed to immediately harden Astaire's face again, as though her whisper had briefly wiped it from his memory. Rise stood up and put her hands to her hips. "C'mon, time to 'fess up. Tell me what's bothering you, and don't say it's nothing, either!"
At the very least, he indeed didn't say it was nothing. But that was only because he didn't say anything at all. Astaire clammed up and placed his back against the wall of the room, staring wistfully at the floor. He jumped slightly as Rise harshly strode over and sat down next to him. No getting away this time.
"I'm not gonna leave you alone until you tell me, y'know. If Inoue-san gets angry at me tomorrow when I'm all sleepy and unfocused, I'm gonna tell him it was your fault." Rise said indignantly. "I might mess up my dance moves. I might even lose my job as an idol! Oh, the horror! The humanity! How could I ever manage without-?"
"Why are you doing this?" Astaire finally said.
Rise blinked. "Eh? Doing what?"
Astaire shifted slightly, bending his knees up and resting his hands on them. "Talking to me. Trying to help. Letting me stay here. All of it."
Hadn't she already told him that staying was okay the night before? "I told you before, we're frie-"
"I almost killed Yosuke tonight!" Astaire burst out all at once. "If you hadn't stepped in when you did, I'd be clutching his head like some kind of hunting trophy!" He balled his hands on his knees and hung his head low, almost as if he were about to cry.
After some time, Rise found her words. "...He almost killed you too, you know. Heck, I'd even say he was closer than you were. He's not the one with four new holes in his chest." She couldn't get the image out of her head, even now. The wounds underneath the ribbons of leather that Yosuke had reduced his armour to. Maybe that's why I was so disappointed earlier. She thought to herself. It'd be nice to know they're alright now that they're cleaned.
Astaire began shaking his head, his eyes hidden by the clumps of damp black hair that were shaken free. "I was such a fool. An arrogant, ignorant, witless fool. I was so caught up in trying to show I wasn't useless. Letting my pride get the better of me."
Rise leaned in closer to him, brow lowered. "Yeah, only because he egged you on and got on your case about it! Ask anybody on the team and they'll tell you Yosuke-senpai was acting like a real jerk!" Or at least, the rest of the team minus Chie.
"This is what I'm talking about! Why are you doing this?!" Astaire asked again, turning to face Rise proper and looking legitimately upset. "Making excuse after excuse for what I did! I shouldn't even be talking to you right now! Or sitting in this room! Or even staying in this world at all! I don't deserve any of it after what I did!"
Rise rose to her feet and balled her fists at her chest. "Don't say that!" She insisted, feeling a wet heat prickle at her eyes.
She craned her head back as Astaire rose to his full height and met her eyes above her. "Weren't you there?! Aren't you aware of what happened?! I almost killed one of your friends!"
"You're my friend and you almost got killed too!" Rise cried.
Astaire stopped dead. His rage left him as his face fell flat.
She was staring at him so intently. Her bottom lip quivered as she wiped her glistening eyes dry, but the stare she gave him was nevertheless firm and focused. "The way you're talking, the way you're acting, you make it sound like we're not even friends at all! I don't care if I've known him for longer, that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to stand up when he's been such a colossal dick to you!"
Her cursing threw Astaire for yet another loop. As frustrated as he'd been, she was really showing him up. "Th-That isn't an excuse for my Shadow to try and kill him! Nothing would excuse it!" He nonetheless argued back.
Rise let out a frustrated grunt and scowled even harder. "Doesn't the fact that you're saying that now prove that you don't literally wanna kill him?!"
"That's…!" Astaire began before he realised she was right. His Shadow had made it impossible to hide at this point. No, he didn't like Yosuke. It was shameful and agitating beyond words, especially given that he was close friends with his charge, but it was still true. But to the point of murder? Certainly not. People who had done far worse things to him in Lordran had lived to tell the tale.
At least Yosuke had the decency not to kick him off a cliff before he spared his life.
"Do you think I'm a stripper?!"
What in Gwyn's name did she just say. "I beg your pardon?! Of course you're not, whatever are you saying?!" Astaire replied all the same, reasons be damned.
"So we're agreed! I wasn't a stripper when I had my Shadow, and I'm certainly not one now." Rise suddenly squared up to him and began jabbing a finger into his shoulder repeatedly. "So just because your Shadow is a bloodthirsty killer, that doesn't mean you're one too! It may be a part of you, but that doesn't mean it's the whole thing! Your Shadow is you, but you're not your Shadow!"
At that, Astaire was speechless. He was speechless when she backed off and clasped her hands behind her back, and he was speechless when she tipped her head to the ground, hiding her eyes. "I mean… it's still a problem, and we still need to work on getting you to accept it. Even then, there's no guarantee that something like today won't happen again before you do. But please don't beat yourself up over it! That's only going to make accepting it harder!"
"I…" Astaire tried to say.
He was cut off as Rise continued her tirade, still in full swing. She affixed her eyes on his fiercely. "So why am I doing this? Because you're my friend, Astaire-kun. Because I have faith that you're better than your Shadow makes you out to be, that you can change! Because I…" Rise broke her rhythm short and trailed off, clamping her mouth shut before she could say any more.
Astaire raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. "...Go on. Because you what?"
The vice grip that possessed Rise's mouth didn't let up. Whatever she'd been on the brink of saying, she swallowed it down back where it came from. When her lips finally loosened, they let slip a sigh. "Never mind, it's not important. Just stop beating yourself up over today, okay?" She asked him earnestly, looking at him with puppy-dog eyes.
In the moonlight, her face swept Astaire's breath away. Her eyes glistened and shone, her mouth parted slightly as she breathed, her hair hung around her in a mess, but that on its own was attractive, in its own way.
A slight shake of his head. Pull yourself together man, for Gwyn's sake. He told himself. At last came his reply: "As you wish, Ms. Kujikawa."
The sheer perfection of Rise's semi-illuminated face diminished slightly as she let out a wide yawn, putting Astaire face-to-face with her uvula. "Haaah, good… I really did mean what I said earlier, though. Dunno about you, but I'm bushed." She said tiredly, tossing herself back into bed and maneuvering back under the covers.
Astaire opted to sit back down with his back to the wall. No more face-stepping for him, thank you very much. He twiddled his thumbs and gave the floor a sidelong glance as he tried to form a proper sentence. "...You really are quite something, you know."
"Hm?" Rise hummed as she rolled over and peeked out of her covers.
"Being so willing to stand up for me, even after all I did. Never in all my days have I encountered kindness like that you've shown me, including those only my Shadow remembers, I'd reckon." He couldn't help it. He let slip a genuine grin, so wide that he had to close his eyes to accommodate it. "Thank you. You truly are one of a kind, Ms. Kujikawa."
When he opened his eyes again, Rise had rolled over onto her other side. "N-No problem, anytime! Whew, I'm beat! Goodnight, Astaire-kun!" She said all too quickly.
Had anyone other than Astaire been listening, they might've thought she were hiding something. The rapid drumming of her heartbeat would've been ample evidence to support the theory, too.
Astaire laid his head back against the wall.
Tired. So tired. Arms and legs felt like lead. Eyes were getting droopy. Everything fading to black…
He bit down on his left arm and clenched as he aggravated his chest wounds with his free hand. A remnant of the pain that'd inflicted them shot up his chest, fending off the ensuing sleepiness and causing him to bite down on himself. Gods, it hurt. It was nothing compared to earlier, but even a fraction of Brave Blade stung like a horde of hornets.
Not tonight, you yellow-eyed devil. Not if I can help it. He told himself for the umpteenth time. But the pain gradually faded away, even after Astaire outright thumped his fist against the wound and knocked the air clean out of himself. Like it or not, the feeling was creeping ever closer, and the moon was still high in the sky. He had a lot of nighttime to stay awake through yet.
...But it was hopeless. Pain alone wasn't fending off sleep for long enough. It'd take fortitude. Resolve. Both of which Astaire didn't doubt having, but sleep was a bit more abstract of an opponent than he was used to.
He let a yawn escape, and all at once the will to fight back left him. The last three minutes had felt a day's length and then some. It was pointless to resist any longer. The Sandman's grip beckoned Astaire's eyes shut, and in an instant, he was gone.
Where was he?
He had to be here somewhere. After the entire preceding day, there was no way he wouldn't show up.
But as much as Astaire gazed around his introspective plane of being, it hadn't appeared yet. Nothing but pure white as far as the eye could see.
"Useless."
In a flash, Astaire's head whipped towards the source of the sound. It wasn't his voice, nor the voice of his Shadow. But he recognised it all the same.
"I always knew you'd be trouble right from the start. I didn't count on you being as useless as you are, though."
It was Yosuke. He was walking towards Astaire, having materialised from nowhere. His face was dark and sullen.
"Yosuke. Say what you will, but it's not going to work on me. Not again. Talk away, see if I care." Astaire said with a dismissive wave of his hand as he turned away. Without warning, he felt his feet give out from under him as something swept him to the ground. Landing on his back, Yosuke wasted no time in kneeling over his chest and pressing a kunai to his throat.
"Only those of us with a purpose are allowed to live in this world. You should hurry up and just go Hollow already."
Astaire's arm shook as he grasped Yosuke's and tried his best to pry the kunai from him. But it was no use. He could feel the blade graze ever more deeply into his skin with every passing second. Beads of sweat coursed down his face, he gasped hungrily at the air, his pupils shrunk to pinpricks, until finally…
"Get your hands off me, damn you!" Astaire cried as he freed a hand and punched Yosuke in the throat.
Yosuke toppled backwards, both hands at his throat as he coughed and spluttered. Astaire crawled back and pulled himself to his feet, then paused as he set eyes on Yosuke again. The pure white ground below him was now tainted with a few red spots, which widened as Yosuke's coughing turned to choking and gagging sounds.
He turned to face Astaire, hands still at his throat as blood reamed from between his fingers.
Astaire backed away slowly as the bleeding Yosuke held out a red hand to him. "No… no! A-All I did was punch you, I never meant to-!" Yet as he raised his hands in protest, Astaire's eyes went wide. He was holding a kunai himself. The twin to Yosuke's. "What?! No, this is impossible! I didn't- I couldn't have-!" He stammered, long enough for Yosuke to have gotten to his feet again.
His hands fell away from his throat, and all at once everything was awash with red. Blood poured forth from his throat like a crimson geyser, pressure rivalling a fire hose as it assaulted Astaire and covered him from head to toe. As much as he tried to shield himself, it wasn't working. The ground was slick with blood, and the next step backwards that Astaire took proved to be his last. Friction abandoned him as he toppled to the ground again.
To the ground and into it. The floor was like water on impact, swallowing Astaire whole and leaving him to flail wildly underneath the surface. Falling into a pool of fresh blood was bad enough.
Falling into it while not knowing how to swim? That was something else.
Somehow, all his struggling and flailing brought Astaire to the surface.
And then the blood began to boil. Quite literally.
Astaire opened his mouth to scream as the searing heat overtook his entire body, but all that did was scald the inside of his mouth as blood lapped over his head. He felt as though his entire body was burning up and breaking down, like when he used a bonfire to teleport from place to place. But it was worse. Much worse.
Blood was thicker than water, and whatever part of Astaire managed to breach the waves only wound up coated in a layer of the blistering mixture anyway. "SOMEBODY PLEASE!" Astaire cried desperately as his voice began to crack "GET ME OUT OF HERE, I BEG OF YOU!"
"Now, now, now. Don't put up a fuss."
Oh, Gods.
Turning was impossible. Not under the circumstances. So instead, Astaire's Shadow stepped around to meet him head on, striding across the surface of the bloody deluge like it were solid. He tried to gasp as it presented itself, but another lapping wave of blood thrashed across his face with a cruel hiss.
The Shadow no longer looked like his old self. It was wearing his coat, and his human face.
"Please! For the love of God, help me! I'll accept you! I'll do whatever you want me to! Do anything but leave me in here, please!" Astaire begged as the blood seemed to gain some kind of river-like current, dragging him away from his Shadow.
With a calm smirk, his Shadow walked after him with his hands in his pockets, leaving small ripples in the crimson expanse he walked on. "My, my, you're an anxious one. Why do even want out in the first place?"
"ARE YOU JOKING?! I'M BEING BOILED ALIVE HERE!" Astaire screeched as his voice cracked again. Then something began to happen. A sort of shift within him. The blood continued to bubble and splutter, but the heat was fading from his body. Instead came the cold. Bitter, biting, ravenous cold. The chill seeped into every crack and orifice Astaire had and turned him into a shivering mess, clinging to himself as he floated along the river. "P-P-Please! J-J-Just h-help m-me!" He stuttered through the cold.
The Shadow's smirk widened as it kicked a spray of blood into Astaire's eyes, coaxing another scream from him. "You're not actually cold, you know. It's just the pain overriding your heat sensing abilities. You'll wrap back around in no time." It said with a twisted grin as Astaire's jitters and shivers again turned to screams of agony. "I don't know why you're struggling anyway. Don't act like this isn't exactly where you want to be."
Nausea sunk into Astaire's throat as Yosuke's lifeless, blank-faced body washed down by him, throat open and bleeding.
"You can deny it all you want, but I know the truth. You nearly killed Hanamura and you enjoyed every second of it."
"Y-You're…" Astaire tried to bite back, but the blazing blood was beginning to impede his ability to move, let alone speak. There was no tense in his muscles, nor will to move in his legs. All there was was heat. Never ending, mind-dulling, skin-rending heat.
His Shadow, on the other hand, filled in all too happily for him. "There's no shame in it! There's nothing else to do in Lordran! Not a problem that can't be solved with beating the shit out of something or someone else! God, it's incredible! Why wouldn't you enjoy it?!" It proclaimed enthusiastically, throwing its hands to the air. "It's a shame that the human world isn't like that. Or maybe it's not, given how delicious it feels to finally cut loose."
This was an outrage. A horrific, tormenting outrage. There was no pride or glory in needless, psychopathic bloodshed. No higher purpose to serve, no greater power to honour with its execution. It was what it was. Savagery.
But this was Astaire's Shadow, and his Shadow was him.
He couldn't really be thinking such a thing, could he? Surely not.
"Astaire-kun…"
Astaire's heart plummeted to his feet.
In a moment of silent horror, he turned around to see Rise floating behind him, a serene look on her face as the blood ran down her face.
"It's okay, Astaire-kun. You're not to blame. There's nothing wrong with you. There's nothing…"
It was like a switch had been flicked. In an instant, Rise became aware of the the situation she was in and began wailing like a banshee, thrashing at the bubbling blood uselessly as she began floating further downstream. "Ms. Kuji-!" Blood filled Astaire's mouth, gagging him and scalding his tongue all over again. As his head dipped under the surface, some untapped power threw him back up in desperation. "RISE! I'LL TRY TO-!"
Only when Astaire held out his arms did he realise they ended at the elbows. The smell of sickening, burnt, melting flesh filled his nostrils as the taste of iron washed around in his mouth from the blood. Even without fingers, it felt as though the pain were still there.
Something was happening to Rise, and given what had just happened to him…
Astaire's Shadow knelt down and violently grabbed his human counterpart's hair, forcing him to look up. "Don't shy away from it. This is your passion. You want this."
Astaire might have been crying. Through all the blood, it was impossible to tell, but he had to be. He could do nothing else. The only thing worse than drowning in a river of boiling blood, was knowing that Rise was feeling the exact same thing. The only thing worse than that was knowing that there wasn't a single thing he could do about it. His Shadow's fingers in his hair, he couldn't help but look on in abject horror and sadness as Rise spasmed and flailed helplessly. Gradually, there was less and less of her to flail. After far too long, there was nothing.
"This is your purpose. This is your desire." His Shadow said above him. "This is what you live for. Drink it in, and embrace it."
Astaire felt his Shadow's shoe on the back of his head. There was nothing he could do to resist. Slowly but surely, the crimson river of wrath began to swallow him whole.
His final thoughts were of Rise before the blistering blood gouged into his eyes.
All that was red turned to black.