Disclaimer: None of the authors own any of the referenced properties.
[SMT IV], [Naruto]
In which Yuriko is Outfoxed
Author: Detective Ethan Redfield
Flynn stood in front of the monument where the epigraph detailed the rise of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado. Walter asked, "Oy, what's the matter? you look like that time we had to save Navarre from that legion of Pixies."
Flynn was not awake at that time. He had awoken shortly after Navarre had been rescued. Isabeau, on the other hand, had been awake, and eliminated Aluraune, replacing the demon with a swarm of her own. Upon reflection, the Pixies had been hilarious, seeing Navarre running from the Pixies. Further, his fate was kinder this time, as he was discharged with his mind intact as opposed to during the baseline.
No, what got Flynn so annoyed was the Obelisk Chronicling the rise of King Uzumaki, who freed the people from the demons and sealed the entrance to hell below. He could only imagine what he would soon be facing at the doors to Tokyo.
…
Flynn sighed as he stood in a much larger cavern, containing a massive, sleeping Nine tailed fox...or had been sleeping until their arrival awoke it from its ancient slumber.
"Who dares intrude upon my resting grounds. You have awoken me from my ancient slumber. Not even an anchor could keep you from being blown away by my fury at this point!"
Flynn sent out a ping, hoping against hope he was right. The fox turned his head at the ping, then focused on the four of them. Isabeau approached. "Calm your fury, my lord. We seek the Black Samurai who passed through not too long ago. We may have Looped around a time or two and gotten lost. Please direct us in the right way."
The fox seemed to tilt his head. The barked a laugh which knocked over Jonathan and Walter. "Hah! So, you and your friend there?! Very well. The Black Samurai did pass through a fortnight ago."
Isabeau helped Jonathan to his feet, and Flynn the same to Walter. The male looper said, "Perhaps I could stay behind and inquire a few questions, my lord?"
The fox rolled his eyes. "Such stuffy language. Naruto was far more relaxed. Stay if you so like. But don't take up too much of my time."
Isabeau nodded and took Walter and Jonathan ahead. As soon as the doors closed, Kurama started laughing. "King Uzumaki. Naruto having to dress in those fancy outfits, he wouldn't have stood for it."
Flynn gave a small bow. "Kurama, would you like to leave this place? Join me as my demon as opposed to being trapped in a small cavern and sleeping all the time?"
Kurama's grin turned feral, "You must give me something of equal value to have me as yours. Give me all your macca!"
The demon fox then circled around the man, who flinched. "Oh God. I mugged you sometime, didn't I?"
He smirked. "If you had, you would not survive that following five seconds. Ok, you don't have to give me all your macca. Let's start with...your gauntlet?"
And thus, the negotiations began, but would eventually end with Kurama signing on. The sight on Yuriko's face when suddenly facing down an oversized demon fox was almost worth the price he paid.
[Persona 4], [Gundam]
Kira Yamato's Design – part 7
Author: Drakohahn
The brown-haired, violet-eyed young man felt the pain go away and his energy return when his Shadow Self was defeated. Kira pushed himself back to a standing position, though it took a bit of effort to do so.
"Hey, you okay?" Yosuke asked the visiting Looper, walking over to provide a body in case he needed support.
"That... was a sensation I hope to never experience again," was Kira's response as he took deep breaths to recover.
"Yeah, when your Shadow Self runs wild," Kanji agreed while the rest of the Investigation Team walked over to join Yosuke with the visitor. "That feeling like what makes you you is being pulled out and suddenly you got no energy to do anything. Pretty much all of us have experienced that."
"This is your normal, huh?" Kira mused. "Well, at least I'm Awake."
"Everyone's Loopy here, so you're among friends!" Teddie, the dumpy blue bear stated.
"Oh!" Yukiko realized suddenly. "We haven't properly introduced ourselves. My name is Yukiko Amagi. Pleasure making your acquaintance."
She gave a bow with her introduction and each member at least nodded with theirs in turn.
"I'm Chie Satonaka."
"Naoto Shirogane."
"Rise Kujikawa."
"Name's Kanji Tatsumi."
"I'm Teddie."
"I'm Yosuke Hanamura."
"And I'm Yu Narukami."
Kira had nodded back in turn with each name.
"My baseline name is Kira Yamato, but I'm fine with Kira Hibiki too."
Before anyone could ask about that or why he was here in the Midnight Channel, his Shadow Self roused and stood up. Unlike when he was confronting it, the golden-eyed double looked slightly apprehensive as it stared at the original. Kira noticed his other get up and frowned, which caused the others to notice as well.
"Kira," Yu started to get his attention. When the violet-eyed young man looked at him, he continued. "That is your Shadow, the deepest parts of yourself that you don't want to acknowledge. Everyone has a Shadow. As you saw, if they're rejected, they get violent and try to replace the original. So, what are you going to do?"
The visiting young man tensed up at the explanation, but forced himself to relax with a sigh. Striding passed everyone to confront his Shadow, Kira's expression became serious.
"This place was where I learned a terrible truth about myself," He started as he walked. "A truth I learned from a madman that wanted to kill off all of humanity. In my baseline, there are genetically enhanced humans called Coordinators. However, there was some flaws in the process which sometimes meant that the resulting child wasn't what the parents wanted. To that end, my father and his team were tasked with finding a solution to those flaws."
The Investigation Team listened silently as he got closer with each word and step to his Shadow.
"Eventually, my father determined that there were too many variables to deal with by having the mother give natural birth. So, he and his team set out to make an artificial womb to cut out those variables. There were many failures, many losses of unborn life, in trying to complete this project."
He stopped outside of arms reach from his other self.
"The team didn't have the funding to make the final step they needed to finish the device and were being threatened with cancellation as a result. So to get the necessary funding, my father made a reluctant deal with one of the backers to make a clone for the man. Cloning was illegal at the time, but it was either take the deal or allow everything the project did up to then go to waste."
Kira clenched his right hand into a fist for a moment.
"With that boost to their funding, they got what they needed to work out the flaws of their device. And to complete their proof of concept, my father used me as the final test subject. However, my enhancements were to be the limit of what they could do with the new technology they had; an Ultimate Coordinator."
Behind him, the Investigation Team reacted in horror and shock, taking half steps back and/or covering their mouths with their hands. Then Kira relaxed his hand.
"But, I don't hate my father. Yes, he did questionable things, but if he was truly so bad, then why do those pictures of my mother holding me and my twin sister so soon after birth exist? And she was smiling... I'm actually kind of saddened that I didn't get to know my birth parents at all."
He sighed again, slumping his shoulders a bit in misery.
"But after learning of what I truly was, I locked it away in my mind. I tried to act like it hadn't happened, not even telling my sister. Even as more enemies appeared who knew what I was, I remained quiet about the issue to those close to me."
Then he straightened up once more and took those last steps to his Shadow.
"So, first thing I do when I have the chance is to tell everyone back home. It won't make a difference to them, but it's something I have to admit to."
He placed a hand on the Shadow's shoulder.
"I'm sorry for reacting so badly to you and thanks for giving me this kick in the ass I needed. You are me."
The Shadow smiled slightly and nodded his head. It glowed and faded to a different appearance; briefly revealing a svelte man with polished bronze skin in an elaborate white and red silk kimono and birdlike wings the color of silver. Then he vanished and was replaced by a glowing blue card.
Kira Yamato has faced his other self. He obtained the facade used to overcome life's hardships; the Persona Jizo.
The brown-haired young man inhaled and exhaled deeply.
"Feeling better?"
He looked over at the Investigation Team; specifically the speaker, Yu. He smiled in response.
Walking over to the group, Kira asked, "So, what's there to do in this Loop?"
They all started walking away while discussing plans for their time together.
[Digital Devil Saga], [Warhammer 40000]
(no title)
Author: Gamerex27
Bored, Tzeentch flipped through a haphazard binder of various plots (one of a set of thousands, this being the first volume of a few dozen for his home universe).
He frowned with both mouths. He had gone through every plot in this one. From the ruinous plots like those he had been pulling since Baseline (which had diminished, but not totally stopped, since doing new things all the time got old fast) to less world-shattering shenanigans like black faxing the entirety of Holy Terra to ensure they would have no way to communicate or create petitions while he redecorated the entire star system.
Perhaps covering the homeworld's moon in grafitti was a bit lazy, and he did find reducing the ten planets to a much more pleasing nine wasn't as satisfying as it should have been-mainly since Pluto had lost the planet status it had spent millenia trying to regain when the Anathema emerged to lead humanity. Although it did work nicely as the sphere in his ballpoint pen.
He was interrupted from considering how he could adapt that one love story from Verona to use humans and Necron (live action, of course) by the sounds of intense vomiting several indescriable lengths of distance across the Warp.
"Damnit, Nurgle," he hissed, travelling entire lengths of galaxies in the blink of an eye, emerging inside the plague god's garden. "I'm plotting here!"
"Oh, I'm sorry," the bloated mass of decay muttered, rolling his perpetually swollen eyes. "I was just helping Khorne with my specialty, too!"
"Wait, Khorne? Why is he here?"
The deities' conversation was interrupted by more retching from a conveniently placed outhouse in the corner of the garden.
"Hang on," Nurgle said, grabbing the septic tank with a tentacle and yanking it out in one deft motion. "Hm...bile, always nice, infectious enough..blood, naturally, with some kind of virus I haven't seen (yay!)-probably caused the vomiting...ooooh, human flesh! Teeth, too!" he slurped excitedly. "Tzeentch, do you know how many diseases can be found in the human mouth! It's like a scale model of my entire realm!"
"Don't change the subject!" snapped the Lord of Change. "Why is he vomiting in the first place, if he drank blood?! When has he ever found blood disgusting enough to barf it up?"
"Since around an hour ago."
Tzeentch turned to see a being, no larger than a normal human, sitting cross-legged underneath a tree made of tumors. They looked like a human mutant at first glance: the evenly split black and silver hair colors weren't natural, and the shape of their clothing made them more akin to Slaanesh's preferred body than a man or woman.
But the dual-layered, echoing voices and the power that poured off of hir gave it away. This was not a human being-at least, not entirely.
"My name is Seraph," shi said, rising and floating across the ground to the gods. "Khorne challenged me to a duel when he found me defending the weak from his daemons. I...was pre-occupied at the time, and lost," shi said, frowning. "He tried to take his trophy from me, but he only got to spilling a few drops of my blood before he began to...I am unsure how to describe it."
More wretching.
"Perhaps I should explain. My blood possesses a calming effect: a few drops are equivalent to multiple fully grown humans in terms of...hunger. Berserk, cannibalistic hunger. Not just sating it, but banishing it for a time. Given how my blood has calmed among the strongest avatars of Hindu gods, it isn't surprising it would work on Khorne." Shi dipped hir head in thought. "I had not experimented with it beyond my own Loop and the Atma Virus, however. It is...useful to know that it is as effective elsewhere."
The outhouse's door slowly creaked open, and Khorne staggered out.
A much scrawnier, less muscular Khorne.
"H...how..." he barely managed to gasp out, before losing his balance. Only an impromptu catch from another of Nurgle's tentacles stopped the god of bloodshed from an embarassing fall to the floor.
"H...how do you live like this?" He croaked out. Tzeentch could swear that he heard something he'd never heard from the god of war before.
Fear.
"I...feel...hollow. There's no rage...no feeling...I'm just...empty."
"I can help with that!" Slaanesh said cheerfully, walking in from literally nowhere.
"D...don't you dare..." Khorne protested feebly.
Try as he might, Tzeentch couldn't help but feel a little bit sorry for Khorne at the moment. With all of his endless rage and bloodlust beat back for the moment, he was a just a shell of a god.
Nurgle, on the other hand, was even happier than when this entire conversation had started, drinking in Khorne's sorrow and lethargy like a milkshake.
"...This is where you usually start beating the shit out of me," said Slaanesh, confused as to how Khorne wasn't frothing with rage at hir advances like usual, "and I get off on it. Are we doing something different now? Are you gonna be the sub this time?"
"He is merely disoriented," Seraph interjected. "As a being of rage incarnate, my blood should last...hours, at most. Minutes, possibly, considering the worldly strife and tragedy of this universe."
"Oh, hel-looooo beautiful!" Slaanesh crooned, unceremoniously flinging the war god to the floor and turning to face Seraph. "Oooooh..." she said, sizing up every nook and cranny of the Anchor. "You take after me! You know, sex is always better when you don't limit yourself to one gender. What's say we get naked and bone like Angel Bunnies?"
"No thank you," Seraph said, refusing politely.
"...question's answered!" Tzeentch said very quickly, backing away as he spoke. "I'm not seeing this again!"
"Okay. Let me try again," Slaanesh said, gently grabbing Seraph's chin and looking her square in the eyes, face to face. "Let's have sex. Right here. Right now."
Seraph looked into the face of lust incarnate. The face that drove even the most pious of Men and aliens to abandon all principles and embrace animalistic desires and mindless passion.
As Tzeentch fled in the background and Nurgle steathily escorted Khorne back to the outhouse, Seraph held Slaanesh's gaze.
"No."
Slaanesh blinked, then yelled in frusturation, backing off. "Fuck me! That's hot when Naoki and Kashima do it, but with you...you you you. You're that sparring partner he mentioned one time, aren't you? The only way you can get that stubborn without Anathema bullshit is by coming from Amala!"
"I have met the Demi-Fiend regularly, yes," Seraph said, nodding. "I have learned from him. And I hope that, perhaps, he has learned something from me.
"As to your proposition," shi continued, "Even if I wished to accept, I am needed elsewhere. I just wanted to make sure that the harm I had done was not lasting...which, thankfully, it was not. Goodbye."
"Goodby-" Slaanesh trailed off as Seraph vanished in a burst of ones and zeroes.
"Great, shi's one of those holier than thou assholes who think they're too good for fun," shi said, pouting. "Where was shi going, anyways?"
…
The great room of the Golden Throne would have been covered with blood right now.
While shi had enough empathy to render simple guardsmen merely unconscious, Seraph had killed every zealot that came hir way. Out of the many truths of the universe shi had learned those many, many years ago when shi and the Embryon had defeated Brahma was that extremism was, with almost no exception, bad. In either direction.
Shi, of course, was fully aware of the hypocrisy of quelling Khorne's insatiable thirst and then spilling blood on hir own, but she never said that it was an inherently bad thing. You need to eat to live, after all, and people like hir had to feed off of Magnetite-most commonly found in the human body-, and it was in Khorne's nature to do the same. Nature can be overcome, but you must wish to move past your flaws to reach enlightenment.
Shi licked the blood from hir palms with hir mouth hands, and finished storing the corpse of the man who sat atop the Throne of Judgement for his fellow members of the Embryon Tribe. Particularly Heat: he seemed uncharacteristically quiet and distanced from the world in this last Loop. Something about an Underground; not Isabeau's, though. Shi would have to ask in the future.
Was that really necessary? the God-Emperor of Mankind asked, as he stitched his body together on a molecular level, carefully ensuring that the Astronomicon remained powered while he shifted in his seat to disconnect the now-unnecessary life support.
"I did not slaughter them all," shi said, "and I only dealt the killing blows when they refused surrender. And by now, you know of the plight that those who bear Atma suffer from. If we do not eat of human flesh or much rarer pure Magnetite, we go mad. Or die. Or go mad and die."
Hm. I will overlook this for now, because I have need of your talents. And because a being who could match, blow for blow, the man who withstood all the Prince of Excess's torments with ease, could likely not be detained without...consequences. Ones that he couldn't afford to pay, with the opportunity that had just dropped into his lap.
He kept quiet about that part, though.
He leaned forwards in his seat. Your blood is not the only thing that is a balm to the berserk soul, correct?
"Yes. The Prayer melody. I...I believe I know where you are going with this. It and my blood can fix supernatural aliments, but I don't know if can fix physical, neural damage. Every Loop, it is the same for him. I can try to help, but I give no guarentees."
Then teach me this song. The Emperor quickly wracked his brain for knowledge of musical scales and pitch-one of very few things he did not know off of the top of his head. If you cannot save him this Loop, I will improve upon your design and help him in the future.
Sighing, Seraph gently pushed aside hir suspicious of this man-he could do no permanent damage, after all-and nodded. "i must warn you, your voice may be too deeply pitched to preform the proper notes."
No. I will...
"Sorry," he said, dropping out of the booming Warp-infused speak and clearing his throat. "I will do whatever it takes, no matter how impossible it may seem, to save my sons."
[Nocturne], [Undertale]
Matador vs. an Annoying Dog
Author: Alternis_Alcor
Another Loop, another fight. Once again Naoki found himself against the Fiend Matador. By now the fight was really starting to wear on the Demi-fiend, having to go through it so much.
"Why are you even coming after me this time? You know that you can't even touch me anymore."
"It is because of that reason I fight. The sport of bull-fighting was made to challenge death. You are my bull, and even if you do defeat me, it will only spur me to strive to overcome you that much more."
He couldn't argue against that. But it still annoyed him.
"Now, HAVE AT YO-aurgh!"
The sight of the normally nimble demon tripping was shocking, but not as much as the reason for it happening.
"What in the world? My leg! Where did it go?!"
"It's over there." The fiend followed Naoki's finger to look behind him, revealing-
nom nom nom
- a strange white dog munching on the demon's detached shinbone.
"You! Perro Molesto(Annoying Dog)! Return my leg to me at once!"
The dog looked over to him, only to scoot away deeper into the the tunnel they were in.
"Why you!" The one legged fiend crawled after the dog, threatening it in an onslaught of Spanish swearing.
Naoki watched this and grinned. "Wonder if I can make a contract with it? It could be useful against the other fiends."
[SMT I], [Nocturne], [Strange Journey], [SMT IV], [Raidou Kuzunoha]
(no title)
Author: LostHereAndThere
Raidou Kuzunoha the XIV rubbed his nose as he surveyed the spectacle. The Herald of Yatagarasu was having a conniption at the entrance of the Narumi Detective Agency, fanned by a worried Tae. Narumi himself had hurried inside, desperately trying to reach his coffee pot and every bottle he owned before it was too late. A hamstrung Kaya Daidouji waited next to the Herald until she could be exorcized of the lingering future spirit within her. A furious Sukuna-Hikona uselessly beat at the glass globe imprisoning him in the Herald's hands.
The half-demon, Kashima, was currently directing a host of demons at Tokyo Bay, riding a very enthusiastic Tarrasque. Isabeau and Flynn, the Mikado visitors, laboriously worked on the two gigantic war machines currently waiting in the water. Alder supervised the growth of a Cabracan near the bay's shores as Futsuo busied himself preparing for a chain summoning.
And all of a sudden, signals started firing up. A potent green light erupted from the bridge of the Soulless God Oumagatsu, as a blue flash shone from its twin Yasoumagatsu. The Cabracan was harried to the bay, pushed into position by the Tarrasque and a few native gods.
Kashima finished his preparations, and the sky opened in a flash of light. Two great figures descended from the heavens and into the waters of the bay, and Raidou knew them from past experience: the great gods Shiva and Vishnu. Both seemed greatly surprised and joyful of the spectacle before them, and immediately set to help.
Vishnu sank into the waters, supporting the slowly sinking Cabracan. From his own neck, Shiva took the great snake Vasuki. Rising into the air, he presented its front end to Oumagatsu. The machine activated with a mighty lurch, and seized the snake with both hands. Grinning, the flying god shot down, near the water surface, wrapping the king of snakes around the mountain demon in a tight loop. Again he darted up, and offered the demon's tail to the waiting Yasoumagatsu.
With a final flout of power, Shiva descended to the top of the Cabracan, and waited until both Soulless Gods lit up, signaling they were ready for the next part. With a clap, a gaggle of Apsaras laden with sitars, flutes, drums and tambourines surrounded him. With a gesture, they took positions around their lord and began their song. The cheerful deity began his dance, and yelled for the twin machines to begin their own role.
Slowly, Oumagatsu pulled at its end of the snake, and allowed Yasoumagatsu to do the same. One after the other. Shiva's delighted laugh filled the air as the colossi churned the waters of Tokyo Bay. It didn't take long for the waters to respond. Noxious, choking fumes started rising from the sea, only to be promptly swallowed by the dancing god.
Meanwhile, Futsuo finished his own summoning. Great circles of light surrounded him, and out of them poured several divinities. Leading the parade, Parvati, supported by Mada, gave the command to march to her husband, followed by Dionysius, Ame no Uzume, Thor and Cybele. Content with his part, Futsuo ran to meet with Alder and prepare for the final part.
In the middle of the bay, the divine assemblage danced and chanted as Parvati gathered the bubbling liquid that poured out of the sea into jars. As the goddess of love danced along in her mission, the other summoned gods instead focused their blessings into the jars' contents.
The immense grinding continued for a while as the summoners regrouped at the shoreline. The mishmash of strange people calmly waited for the divine rite to end. After a while, Parvati signaled to the giants to stop; their mission was finished. Scooping the last of the precious liquid, the goddess filled the last of the jars as the dance and song ended amongst claps and cheers. The Apsaras picked the jars reverently and carried them to the shoreline. Al of the divines hurried to the site, not wanting to be late.
It took quite a bit of haggling, but in the end each deity took his or her fair share of the jars, leaving still a good amount for the summoners. Amid resounding joy, each god was properly thanked for their role and left for their respective mansions. The great machines slowly folded back into the battleships they were supposed to be, and were promptly sunk by two flying figures that burst out of their bridges.
The ritual was over.
…
Raidou Kuzunoha sat at the entrance of the Ginroukaku, sharing the contents of his own jar with his mentors, Narumi and Gouto-douji.
"The lengths one has to go to get a decent drink in Amala."
[Nocturne], [Eiken], [Admin Shenanigans]
(no title)
Author: Facepalmist
Status: PENDING
Throughout the duration of Naoki Kashima's berserk rampage through the Loops, Taira no Masakado unsurprisingly found himself inundated with massive amounts of consequent paperwork. And abuse disguised as paperwork. And just plain abuse.
This was to be expected, for a number of reasons. (Hence the lack of surprise on Masakado's part.)
For starters, a certain stigma was always going to attach as a result of letting one of his realms' Anchors succumb to destructive instability, let alone being the first to fail in such an epically visible way. It may not have been the first time that an Anchor had flirted with instability - for instance, the very first Fused Loop had come about as a result of precisely this. In fact, Fenrir had only narrowly managed to avert one of his own Anchors from that bloody path by sending him to Sleipnir's Equestria - the very universe wherein Naoki Kashima had so violently exploded.
That it was Sleipnir and his little ponies at the epicentre of the disaster was another factor, though not all that much of one in the end. For all of Nyx's later protests, the bald fact was that by that point, the Amala Loop Anchor was an M.L.E. in every way that counted. It was bad enough for a Looper to plunge into the kind of mindless, single-minded savagery that Leah Clearwater had been lucky enough to avoid and just start slaughtering everything in their path. But when an Anchor did it - and especially when it was an Anchor like Naoki Kashima, who had acquired the power to kill gods in baseline and only got more skilled and powerful since he'd started Looping...
The worst that even someone like Waltz could do was cause the Loop to crash by killing the Anchor, assuming at least that there were no viral shenanigans associated with this. Naoki Kashima's brand of rampage didn't stop until either (a) everyone and everything was dead, or (b) the Loop crashed due to so much of its vital infrastructure being gutted...often literally.
And to make matters worse in terms of visibility: due to the godkiller's inherently unstable state, Masakado was forced to keep him out of his native Loops as much as adminly possible. While no-one had ever been unfortunate enough to prove it yet, all the available coding evidence had long led the Admins to operate on the assumption that it was entirely possible for a realm's Anchor to damage their entire universe's Yggdrasil code beyond repair if they constantly crashed their native Loops badly enough and over a long enough period. As such, the Amala realms' hapless Admin had no choice but to keep Naoki Kashima and the Loop titled 'Shin Megami Tensei 3 Nocturne' at maximum separation while he attempted to find a fix. Simply put, it had reached the stage where the damage accrued by segregating the Anchor from his Loop, even added to the damage inflicted by having the Loop frequently crash because his Replacement couldn't take the baseline and got wiped out early, was actually less than the damage that would have racked up if Naoki Kashima was allowed his rein in his own Loop. And if nothing else, one isolated incident (read: one berserk rampage) in one Loop was relatively far easier for everyone to clean up afterwards.
That did not mean the other Admins, who were the ones left to perform said clean-up, were any happier or more sympathetic about this state of affairs. Especially when they also had to deal with their own Anchors and Loopers, who as a general whole tended not to understand the necessity of being forced into Fused Loops with the ridiculously lethal psycho.
...That said. There was one Admin who didn't in the least mind Naoki Kashima paying a visit to her realm.
…
"Mistress!" one of her handmaidens called out. "Naoki Kashima's dropped in again!"
Aphrodite perked up with anticipation, saving and closing her latest collaborative effort with the delightful Suzumiya girl and swaying over to her official 'work' terminal. "Boy or girl this time?" she demanded.
"He's a boy, Mistress," the subordinate replied as she hurriedly rolled her chair out of the way. Another handmaiden scooted over with Aphrodite's ultra-deluxe executive loveseat-on-rollers just in time for the Greek love goddess to resettle herself back in the warm spot. A third minion dashed to the Admin's elbow with a solid gold trolley bearing several trays of snacks and beverages, with the sort of speed and surety of movement that came with much practice.
(Why yes, the Amala Anchor had been passing through Eiken more often than usual, why do you ask?)
Aphrodite kicked back, accepted an exquisitely crafted goblet filled with ruinously expensive (and rather delicious) wine, and lost herself in her solitary and favourite realm.
Or more specifically, Naoki Kashima's seemingly endless attempts to kill everyone in it.
It was a simple equation, yet still an equation that the Amala Anchor was in no state to even perceive, let alone combat. Sure - in any other realm, being Pocket-locked and stripped of all his powers would be nothing but a momentary inconvenience. But there was one rule in Eiken that was ironclad and absolute: the Rule of Cause and Effect.
Or as the very nature of Eiken interpreted it: for every action - an equal, opposite and soft-core perverted reaction. (And also for every inaction, but that was Eiken for you.) There was no give in that rule, even for one such as Naoki Kashima. Virtually every move he made might have been intended to messily and brutally end the life of one of its inhabitants... but that just meant virtually every move he made was interrupted by random chairs, tables, doors, floorboards, bystanders etc., and thus virtually every move he made ended up with hands and faces and other body parts in decidedly non-lethal places, or at least in non-lethal ways. And absolutely no-one dead. Seriously, minor suffocation, a great deal of back-pain, a few scratches and the odd nosebleed was pretty much the very worst that he could inflict.
One berserk Naoki Kashima placed into one Eiken, pretty much equaled 'Battle' Harem Slapstick...if the 'Battle' part translated to 'catfight'. It was broken at infrequent intervals by the all-too-human Amala Anchor passing out from sheer physical exhaustion...usually in someone's cleavage, or with someone in her cleavage, or both. Food was administered by doting fans while he (or she when his gender was switched for his latest visit) was too exhausted to struggle. And all this went on for four subjective weeks.
In other words: one of Aphrodite's highest forms of entertainment!
…
Another e-mail popped up on Taira no Masakado's work terminal. A single glance at the sender had him deleting the no-doubt spam vehicle with prejudice, not even stopping anymore to wonder why Aphrodite was heading her latest 'promotional material' with her allegedly-personal thanks lately. He had a Loop to save...
[Persona 3], [Future Card Buddyfight]
Having Death as your Buddy (title assigned by compiler) – parts 1 and 2
Author: Solaris Requiem
Drum had been through a lot of these resets, much more than any of the other people who knew what was going on. Sometimes things went exactly according to what had happened the first time around. Other times there were some minor changes to the timeline, such as the times where everyone was just a bit older, the time where Gao actually did end up losing more than once, and the one time where... well, everyone had swapped genders.
Most of the people involved had agreed to not speak a single word about that reset ever again. Unsurprisingly, Axia was the only one who seemed to not care. The sudden gender changed hadn't even phased the dragowizard; hell Drum didn't even notice any changes in his behavior.
But now, as Drum looked towards the students that were in the school's car, he frowned as he looked at the latest change the resets had brought up.
The change in question was a transfer student by the name of Minato Arisato. The boy was around Gao's age and had dark blue hair that covered one eye. At first the dragon had mistaken the new guy for the bombastic and cheery Tetsuya, the Buddy of the Second Omni Lord Asmodai, due to the headphones he wore over his ears. But the dark blue jacket, dress pants, and the almost apathetic look on his face had set him apart from the other teen.
While some of Gao's classmates talked and chatted with each other, the newcomer just blasted music on his headphone and looked out of the window of the van. It looked like he had no interest in listening or talking with the other kids in the van.
"Then what'cha gotta do is drop the hammer down, drop rhyme drop hammer digging like a labor. You've got blood all over, ash all over, spit it out, son game's over," Minato's headphones blasted out loud.
"Umm. Minato," Kurugu, one of Gao's classmates, spoke up, "Do you happen to play Buddyfight?"
Minato didn't seem to hear her over his own music, which caused the girl to tap Minato on the shoulder to catch his attention. The boy frowned as he paused his music and turned to Kurugu.
"Hm?" he asked. Kurugu repeated her question.
"I was wondering if you played Buddyfight," she said in an attempt to break the ice between them. "My friend Baku here builds Gao's Buddyfight decks."
"I don't play it," Minato shrugged. Behind him, another teen with a lion-print shirt peered over the back of the seat. It was Noboru, the Dragon Knight user. Drum never really got over the fact that he claimed that 'dragons needed riders because they were too dumb to think for themselves'. It didn't help that he became one of Yamigeddo's cronies later on.
"What, too scared that you'll lose?" Noboru taunted. Minato met the brash teen's eyes plainly without any sort of sign that he was being goaded by his taunt. In fact he looked exactly the same as he did throughout the entire trip: apathetic.
"No. It's just seems like a waste of time to me," Minato replied in monotone. The moment those words left his lips, all conversations died out in an instant as everyone else in the van, Drum included, stared at him as if he had just grown a third head.
"...It's true." Minato replied simply as if he was discussing the weather rather than calling the card game the entire world revolved around a waste of time. Every single person in the van, including the teacher driving the van in the first place, continued to stare at him; not quite comprehending the words that he just said.
"...You don't like Buddyfight," the head-banded Baku repeated slowly. "Have you even played it before?"
"No. I don't see the appeal."
Gao burst out, "How can you NOT like Buddyfight? You're fighting alongside monsters from another dimension. And if you get lucky, you get a partner like Drum or Asmodai. Yeah Drum's a pain in the butt sometimes-"
"Hey!" the forementioned 'pain in the butt' protested.
"But he's a good friend. I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world."
"Alright, I'll let you go for saying that," Drum grumbled.
"I'm just not interested in it," Minato sighed as he failed to get his point across. "Is it THAT weird that I don't like Buddyfight?"
"YES!" everyone else cried out in unison. Minato blinked once at the loud response as his expression shifted into one of surprise rather than apathy.
"Listen," Baku offered, "I'll build you your own deck for free. It's really fun, just give it a try."
"I'll pass." Minato sighed as he turned his music back on. The conversation was over.
"I never thought I'd meet someone who didn't like Buddyfight," Baku said to Kurugu.
"There's a first for everything, I guess." she sighed. "It's just... I've been waiting to get a Buddy Rare card for such a long time. And to find someone who would gladly throw that away..."
Drum frowned as he considered the newest student. What the heck was going on with this reset? He hadn't met someone who downright disliked Buddyfight, well, ever.
He glanced over at Kiri who was sitting at the back end of a the truck, who gave him a shrug that indicated he had no idea what was going on. Since Kiri had showed up with Joker this earlier that day, it was clear that he had retained the memories from the original timeline. It was just that the disguised Omni Lord looked just as dumbfounded, if not more so, than everyone else in the vehicle.
…
Minato Arisato was slightly annoyed at the glances and whispers that his statement had created during this particular fused Loop. He hadn't made gotten any sort of response from his Ping earlier, and he hadn't been able to locate the Anchor of this particular Loop. Had it just started Looping?
This Loop was a weird mash-up of Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, with a bit of Magic the Gathering. In this Loop, the game Buddyfight allowed players to summon creatures from 10 different worlds while allowing them to have a Monster as their "Buddy" or partner.
Had he been more interested in card games he might have enjoyed the Loop a bit more. But he had done enough fighting in Baseline alone that doing that kind of combat was... kind of dull. He had personally faced down the manifestation of Death herself and sacrificed his soul to seal her away. This 'children's card game' was nothing compared to what he faced in his home Loop. To be honest, he found the existence of the other parallel dimensions themselves more fascinating than some card game.
The van was currently headed towards the Fuji Photon Metal Mine where workers created the special deck cases that were used in Buddyfights, specifically made for those with a Buddy Monster. Although he was told that there was going to be a quiz on what the students had learned there, Minato couldn't bring himself to really care about the assignments. He had constantly gone through high school over and over again, compared to that doing middle school homework was a piece of cake.
He could probably do all of the assignments with his eyes closed at this point. They were THAT easy. Frankly he couldn't help but fall asleep during class most of the time, which had gotten him in trouble more than once.
"Alright then, we're here!" the professor declared, snapping Minato out of his contemplation. Within seconds the van emptied of its inhabitants with Drum reverting back into his card form at the professor's insistence. Minato, of course, was the very last one to leave.
He clicked his music player off and put his headphones around his neck as a show of courtesy to the teacher. Meanwhile Gao looked eagerly into the empty compound with what looked like child-like enthusiasm. Which was understandable since, well, Gao was 12 years old.
"It's a bit more... quiet than I thought it might be." Kurugu mentioned.
"Yeah, where's the bus?" Noboru asked as the group looked around. There was, indeed, not a single bus in sight. "The school bus should have been here already since it left way before we did."
"It's probably stuck in traffic or something," Baku said. "I'd say we just wait it out. They should be here any minute."
Minato scanned his surroundings as he felt his sense go into overdrive. It was indeed a bit TOO quiet. And if the Loops had taught him anything... It was that BAD things happened when things got too quiet.
"Everybody get back into the van, now!" the professor cried out, catching the attention of everyone else. Minato sighed, as usual his instincts were not wrong.
"What's wrong?" Kurugu asked as she, Noboru, and Baku gathered around him.
"There's been some sort of an accident within the mines. The field trip got cancelled, so the bus turned around already." the professor cried aloud as he read the message on the phone. The other students looked back at him in shock. Noboru frowned as he realized something.
"There's a problem. Gao already ran towards the mine. Kiri followed after him in order to get him to come back but both of them are still missing," he reported.
Minato closed his eyes and exhaled, "I'll get them." The moment those words left his mouth, everybody started staring at him incredulously. Once again he was the center of attention, how annoying.
"Are you crazy?!" Baku hissed. "They closed down the facility for a reason, you know! We should contact the Buddy Police and let them-"
"By the time the Buddy Police arrive Gao and Kiri might already be dead." Minato cut him off bluntly as he turned away from the group. "I'm going after them."
"You might die if you go through there!"
"It's better than sitting around here and doing nothing." Minato shot back with his eyes narrowed. Without another word he quickly ran towards the center of the compound, presumably where Gao and Kiri had ended up. He ignored the protests from the others as he quickly headed towards the center of the danger.
When he was sure that he was out of sight of the others, he reached deep into his Pocket and withdrew an ornate sword. The moment he wrapped his hand around the handle, he felt strength flow into his body like a surging tide. Lucifer's Blade augmented several aspects of his body; such as his agility, strength, and defense. Something told him that he was going to need it. And as he learned from his Baseline, following that instinct and that voice in the back of your mind sometimes was the difference between life and death.
As he charged towards an unknown danger with his chosen weapon in hand, he couldn't help but feel slightly relieved.
It looked like this Loop might not be as boring as he thought it was.
…
"I think we should head back... The others are really far behind us," Kiri said as he and Gao made their way deeper into the compound. Kiri, or rather Miserea, already knew what was going to happen next. Rouga Aragami, the future Buddy of the Eighth Omni Deity Lord Grangadez, would attack the facility under the alias 'Wolf' in order to steal several deck-cases for his leader, Kyoya Gaen. He couldn't just let Gao face off against Rouga alone, even if Drum was currently accompanying his friend.
"It'll be fine Kiri! Besides, we might find stuff that might make us better Buddyfighters! Or maybe something that will convince Minato to try out Buddyfighting!" Gao declared enthusiastically as he charged forward. Kiri couldn't help but to find Gao's enthusiasm to be bit... infectious as he put forth his best effort to catch up with his athletic friend.
It was only a few moments before they entered the main mining complex, but the human and the Omni Lord stopped in their tracks and glanced around them. The formerly pristine buildings of the factory bore the tell-tale signs of combat. Black smoke billowed from the dozens of large craters and holes burrowed through the outsides of the facility, making them resemble large blocks of cheese rather than buildings.
"What the heck happened here?" Gao walked deeper into the facility, Kiri tensing up unseen behind him. With a flash of light, Drum manifested alongside the red haired teen in his larger form, forgoing his normal Omni Lord form for his very first, and basic, form cloaked in brass armor with his large, engine-driven drill in one hand. Both he and Kiri had decided to lay low this early in the reset, and as such neither of them would choose to take their Omni Lord forms unless they had no other choice.
"These... are drill holes?" Drum rumbled thoughtfully as he examined the edges of the circular holes. It was expected after all, Drum's primary weapons of choice were drill-themed. "Yeah, the grooves check out. But you'd think this place would be, I don't know, a bit sturdier?"
Kiri gave a sigh of relief. He had given Drum advice about staying under the radar and telling white lies to his Buddy in order to keep Gao from finding things out too soon. And thankfully it seemed that Drum had taken those lessons to heart; subtlety was not something that the armored dragon was suited for.
"Those must have been huge drills then..." Gao shrugged as he moved forwards, Drum at the ready and following close behind him.
Kiri and Drum had a battle-plan when it came to this encounter. Firstly, Drum would distract Rouga and his buddy Cerberus. Kiri would then use Joker to take back the stolen deck cases while Rouga was under siege. If this worked, which it usually did, it would end up setting back Kyoya's plans by around a month or so, which in turn gave them another extra month since time always seemed to reset itself when they were swallowed by Yamigeddo rather than on a specific date.
"Looks like today's not your day," a rough voice called from above. Kiri and the others looked above them and found the person who they were looking for.
The figure on the roof of the building had dark skin and wild silver hair, with his cold eyes hidden behind a simple mask. Gripped in his right hand was a black drill-headed spear surrounded by glowing violet rings of energy. A silver briefcase was clutched in the other hand, the dull metal surface shining in the dark aura that surrounded the thief. Accompanying him was a large armored hound with three heads. Its fur was white as snow, and attached to its body were dozens of weapons painted bright yellow, not unlike construction equipment. Rouga and his Buddy Cerberus had finally arrived.
"Who the heck are you?!" Gao demanded as he pointed an accusing figure towards the masked thief above them.
"None of your business," he stated coldly. He tightened his grip on his spear as he scowled at the three outsiders. "I was told not to leave any witnesses, so you're just going to have to disappear!" the masked teen snarled. He turned his gaze sideways towards his Monster.
"Cerberus, deal with them."
With a single howl, the three-headed beast brought the dozens of weapons attached to his body forward. Four drills began to spin and whirl to life as the beast leapt off of the roof of the building and descended upon Kiri and Gao.
"Back off!" Drum snarled as his own drill, the Salamander Engine, roared in defiance. The dragon brought the montrous drill forward with almost effortless ease and intercepted the attack. The two weapon screeched against each other as the Danger World and the Dragon World monsters clashed.
"You're gonna have to do better than that!" Drum bellowed as he knocked away Cerberus with a single push. With a single swipe, Cerberus' drills were shattered apart, leaving only spinning fragments of metal in their place. "This drill was passed down to me from my ancestors. Those pitiful toys of your can't even scratch it!"
Cerberus remained silent and chose to change tactics. Two gatling guns unfolded from his back and began to spin ominously.
"Crap!" Drum swore as he quickly grabbed hold of both Kiri and Gao. Using the exhaust of his drill as a make-shift rocket, Drum sidestepped the sudden storm of lead and brought the two under cover.
"Stay here. I'll take care of this." The armored dragon quickly gathered his strength and leapt to the top of a nearby building, bringing himself under cover as Cerberus continued his lethal assault.
"What the heck- Drum!" Gao called out about to follow after his Buddy. Kiri quickly pulled him back under cover.
"Gao wait! Neither of us stand a chance against them." Kiri stated. It was a flat-out lie of course: both Kiri and Drum could easily beat Rouga and his buddy then and there, but Kiri had to continue his masquerade as human for now and Drum had planned to lay low for a while.
"I can't just-"
"You trust Drum, right? He can handle it himself."
Gao grit his teeth as he watched the clash between his Buddy and the armored wolf. For all of his prowess at martial arts, he was still powerless when compared to the Monsters.
But before he could dwell on it more a voice cut in from above.
"Found you!" Rouga snarled as he brought his lance down from above them. Kiri, having known that Rouga would do such a thing, was already prepared.
"Joker, now!" he cried out. Beneath the ground, the Dungeon World monster heeded his lord's call and erupted from the ground in a shower of earth and dust.
"What the-" Rouga bit out before he was forced to parry a strike from Joker's claws before another claw-strike knocked the briefcase out of his hands and out towards the battle-ground.
Rouga cursed before he brought forth a glowing card from the eye-like jewel on his weapon. "Armorknight Eagle, grab the cases!" from the summoned card came a white eagle, cloaked in bulky armor. He screeched and flapped his wings as he dove after it, and grabbed it with his talons.
"Joker, don't let him get away!" Kiri called out.
"Understood, my lord! I'll make sure to ground him!" Joker replied cheekily as he spread his own wings and took off. "Here, birdy birdy..."
"Now it's just you and me." Rouga growled as he swung his spear around. "Nothing personal, I just have a job to do."
Gao brought Kiri behind him as Rouga marched forward with his spear in hand. It spun and glowed with dark energy as the masked teen sought to end the two teens right then and there.
'Looks like I don't have a choice...' Kiri thought to himself as he prepared to summon forth his water magic forward to shield the both of them. But such a thing was unneeded.
CLANG!
Before his eyes the unknown student, Minato Arisato blocked the blow almost instantaneously with a strange sword in his grip. The grip and centerpiece resembled a grail in appearance, with several set of metal wings emerging from the circumference of it. From the center of the chalice a ethereal blade emerged, cloaked in a light-less aura that exuded a strange presence.
"The hell did you come from?!" Rouga hissed as he brought his weapon back for another attack. But Minato did not let Rouga get in another strike.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! The sound of metal striking metal filled the area as two teen dueled. Minato's strikes were almost clock-work in efficiency and power; there was not a single wasted movement and not a single trace of hesitation or fear on his face. Rouga, in comparison attacked aggressively and fiercely. But for every strike that Rouga attempted to make, Minato struck at him thrice, forcing him backwards and away.
"Minato?!" Gao gaped when Rouga was forced to retreat by a large amount, "What the heck was you doing here? I thought you were with the others."
"I'm here to retrieve you," the stoic teen replied as he flicked his sword idly. He had not taken his eyes off of the panting Rouga and as always his expression remained completely emotionless.
Kiri however remained silent, but inwards his thoughts were racing. The way that Minato fought spoke of a vast amount of fighting experience. His ease with a blade wasn't that of a trainee, nor a novice. It was like watching a master swordsman taking down an amateur student. It was Minato's eyes that gave him away; his eyes did not belong on a child that was merely 12 years of age.
"Not bad," Rouga growled. "But I don't have time for this." he summoned forth another card from his spear and brought it out. "Armorknight Ogre, attack him!" With a flash of light a lumbering blue titan with gun-metal armor with a mace twice as tall as Minato was.
With a lumbering gait the ogre brought his club down upon the blue-haired swordsman with the intent to crush him into the ground.
"Minato!" Gao cried out in alarm. But by the time those words left his mouth, Minato was already moving, sidestepping the mace's crushing path. The ground crumbled inches away from Minato as the nimble teen dodged strike after earth-shattering strike.
"Tch." Minato stepped backwards and created space between the bulky armored monster.
"Not bad," Rouga taunted, "But a human can't fight against a monster by himself. Just give it up!"
Minato looked up with Rouga with his cold gaze before he placed his sword in his left hand and reached into his jacket with the right. There was a soft click and a rustle of fabric as he withdrew a short gun. It's short barrel was polished to a mirror shine with the words 'SEES' engraved on the receiver. The grip of the gun pulsed with a strip of sapphire light as Minato clutched it with a hand just a bit too small for it. He slowly walked forward towards Rouga and the Monster he had under his control.
"A gun?" Rouga scoffed, "That little pea-shooter isn't going to even scratch me or my monster. What exactly do you plan on doing with it?"
Rather than to explain in words, Minato decided to let his actions speak for him. In an almost casual motion, like bringing a cellphone to his ear, Minato brought the small silver gun up and rested the muzzle of it against his temple.
"What the- are you brain-dead?!" Rouga demanded in disbelief.
Gao quickly dashed forward, trying to get to Minato in time to stop what looked like a completely suicidal action, "Minato, don't! We can still-"
But before Gao could take his second step, Minato exhaled once and began to squeeze the trigger.
"Persona."
There was a ringing gunshot and the sound of shattering glass. There was a burst of blue light and a release of unfathomable power, and it sent Gao flying backwards, landing next to Kiri on his rear.
"Gao!" the Omni Lord cried out in alarm as he helped his friend up. Gao groaned in pain as he looked up and froze.
Around Minato's form was a blue storm of what appeared to be glass, swirling around the teen like a literal hurricane, that bathed him in a eerie blue light and scattered dust and dirt around him. And above the teen, something began to slowly emerge from the maelstrom of light piece by piece. As it did so an echoing voice resounded throughout the compound, bringing even Drum and Joker's fights to a halt.
"I am thou, and thou art I." a colorless mask, humanoid in appearance manifested first along with fair hair that looked as if it were spun from gold.
"From the sea of thy soul, I come." a mechanical torso followed, with a speaker in the figure's stomach. The chassis of the being was painted a bloody vermilion.
"I am the winding path you have tread. I am the crystallization of the bonds you have formed." mechanical arms arms and legs, golden in color, were formed from the storm of potential. Ivory hands and feet shortly followed as the figure hovered in the air above Minato.
"I am Orpheus Telos, Master of Strings." the figure declared as it asserted its identity and form upon the world. In its mechanical grip a golden lyre, one crafted from a resplendent gold and as large as the figure itself, formed as the storm subsided.
"Come, let us sing of Life's grandeur... forevermore."