Friday, June 19, 2009, Dark Hour
Tartarus, Floor 62
"HIIIIIIIYA!" Kotone yelled as she slashed the golden hand-shaped Shadow to pieces. As it disintegrated, a golden ring dropped from its body and rolled to Kotone. "Oh yeah, baby!"
Sanada whistled. "Dang, you're on fire Shiomi."
She turned and flashed a peace sign. "You bet I am! I've made a killing on tonight alone." She turned to Makoto and Junpei. "Isn't that right boys?"
Makoto looked down at the massive amount of things the two were carrying. He alone had suitcases filled with yen, swords, new clothes, a bandanna, a pair of high heels, a poncho, a vest, some swimsuits, and other miscellaneous goods they had found from the past few floors of Tartarus. It was just an absolute treasure trove relative to their usual hauls, one that he was struggling not to fall out of his hands
"The only thing that's being killed here is my back." Junpei muttered.
Of course, since neither boy had to use their Evokers anymore, that meant they could fight with their Personas and carry the plunder at the same time with little loss in combat efficiency. They were given, much to Junpei dismay, the honorary task of being SEES' pack-mules.
"Maybe if we're lucky, we'll find another floor with no Shadows and plenty of goodies?" Kotone said, eyes glittering at the possibilities of further riches.
"I got a better idea," Junpei said with his chin resting on his armful of plunder, "how about we drop this off on the ground floor so we can actually see where we're going!?"
Kotone puffed out her cheeks. "Fiiiiine!" She crossed her arms and turned away. "I wanted to get more stuff." She muttered under her breath.
"I think I spotted a teleporter a couple turns back." Sanada said. "Stay close, you know what they say about the flies and the honey pot."
As they turned around and began to retrace their steps, Kotone and Junpei grumbling for separate reasons, something slowly slithered out of the corner of the room. A long, undulating body that glowed as bright and as purple as the floors and walls it crawled on. Its form almost perfectly masquerading with its environment as it approached them.
"Makoto-kun!" Fuuka yelled. "Behind you!"
The serpentine Shadow lunged straight at Makoto, coming within arms reach of striking his back, before-
"OHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!" Orpheus emerged, screaming and punching it away with a flurry of fists. "AHHHHHHHHH!" With an ear-splitting shriek, he created a ball of fire almost as large as himself, and propelled it at the serpent, incinerating in a massive explosion.
"Geez." Kotone took a step back from the ambient heat. The center of the attack almost burning through the ground into the floor below.
"Sorry," Makoto said quietly, as they stared at him. "I don't think it has anything we can salvage."
Shinjiro whistled as they dropped it all on the floor. "Damn, this is a lotta shit."
Kotone stacked the suitcases together as a makeshift throne. "You guys can pick anything you want, except this," she smacked the titanic wad of bills in her hand, "this is mine. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine! Mwahahahaha!" She cackled madly.
Rolling his eyes, Makoto grabbed the big two-handed sword. "I'm calling dibs on this thing."
"I'm taking the bow," Yukari said, "mine's getting a little worn down."
"Kind of a no-brainer, aint it?" Junpei asked. "Anyways, I call dibs on the geta sandals."
Sanada picked up the boxing gloves. "I doubt anyone else wants this?"
Shinjiro picked up the metal pipe and frowned as he sorted through the pile. "How come there's nothing here I can use?"
"That's life senpai," Junpei said as he grabbed more clothes, "if you don't want it, I'll take it."
"Knock yourself out," he said as he threw it to Junpei, "and I mean that literally."
Kotone hopped off her throne and picked up a white swimsuit. "Change of plans, I'm taking this for myself. Oh, and this one for Fuuka-chan. I think she'd look good in it."
"So I can take the money then?" Makoto asked with a droll smile. Kotone hissed at him and made scratching motions. "I didn't hear a no."
"You're gonna hear me kicking you in the face if you try!" She stood up on one leg, threatening to crane kick him if he dare tried.
As everyone picked through the pile of goods, and occasionally quarreled over who got what, Makoto looked off to the side, where Kirijo and Fuuka were standing with both of their Personas activate. "Senpai? Fuuka?"
"A minute, Yuki." She replied. He shrugged and grabbed the fiery bandanna, much to Junpei's consternation.
Later, long after they had picked everything clean, Kirijo assembled them in front of Tartarus for an impromptu meeting.
"I assume you all remember the threshold we crossed in late April? The one that lead into this block of Tartarus." They all nodded. "Very well. Tonight, using the advance squad as a point of reference, Yamagishi and I managed to detect something similar. Around the seventieth floor or so. This should lead to a third block of Tartarus. I wanted for us to take tomorrow off, but I feel as though we are close enough to reaching a new milestone that we ought to press onward."
Sanada smacked his new gloves together, a grin stretching across his face. "New area means new Shadows to fight. So I'm down for it." Shinjiro rolled his eyes, but Makoto could see him reaching for his axe. Evidently even he was not immune to his friend's battle-lust.
Kotone twirled her new naginata around, licking her lips. "New Shadows means new treasures. So count me in."
With a chuckle, Kirijo crossed her arms. "True enough observations. I suppose no one has any objections then?" When no one responded, she smile. "Very well. Tomorrow we will meet again for exploration."
Saturday, June 20, 2009, Dark Hour
Tartarus, Ground Floor
"Maaaaaaan." Kotone grumbled. "I wanted to get more stuff."
Makoto shrugged. Kotone, Junpei, and he were left on the ground floor along with Fuuka. "Once they get back, we can look for goodies on the higher floors." Makoto said as he watched Junpei start another round of Spider Solitaire. He was 0-2, but Makoto believed in him that he could win this one. Maybe. Possibly. Probably not. Either way he was probably going to ask them to play a round of Daifugo again afterwards.
"But I want to do it now!" She whined. "If they won't let me go with them, then I should at least be able to pillage the floors we already went to."
Makoto shrugged again. "We probably looted them of everything they had. It's not like we're missing anything of value."
"It's totally not fair." Kotone said as she plopped down next to the two boys. "I mean I got to go on that first threshold a while back. Why not this time?"
Junpei groaned and fell backwards, throwing away the card he was holding. "I didn't get to go either time, so quit gripping. Besides, the seniors are prolly just trying to show off a bit. Prove they still got it in them, you know?"
Makoto cocked his head. "What do you mean?"
"I mean look at just the two of us," Junpei got up and pointed at himself and Makoto, "we can fight a lot better than all of them now just cuz we don't need Evokers anymore. They're trying to prove they haven't been completely left behind and made completely redundant by their sterling juniors." He said in a faux-haughty tone. "Keep their place on the pecking order, you know?"
Kotone frowned. "Ahem."
Junpei looked at her blankly, trying to decipher her annoyed glare.
"I can't summon Personas without an Evoker either, remember?" She said through gritted teeth.
"...oh, right." Junpei looked away, red-faced.
Makoto suppressed a laugh. Classic Junpei.
She crossed her arms. "Ignoring that slight against my person," she said in a similar faux-haughty tone, "I kind of get what you mean. You guys are the four newest members, and most of you took to Persona stuff like fish to water."
"Oh yeah?" Junpei asked.
"Yeah. It took me a while to get a grasp of fighting with Elea." She chuckled. "You know, when we started climbing this thing, I needed to be there to protect you guys. Now, you don't need me protecting you anymore, you guys and Yukari, you can easily take care of yourselves. You've all... grown pretty quickly. Quicker then me." Kotone said wistfully, her voice lowering just a pitch.
"Yeah, well," Makoto grinned, "we all had good teachers. I didn't get here without a lot of help on the way. Shoulders of giants and all that."
"Hell yeah." Junpei said. "I'm pretty sure I'd be dead meat if it weren't for you guys."
Kotone blushed and smiled.
Fuuka bolted up and screamed. "S-Senpai! Run! It's that Shadow again!"
All three of them jumped to their feet. "You don't mean that Grim Reaper son of a bitch, do you?" Junpei asked, eyes wide open.
She quickly nodded. "I can't sense any teleporters where you are, you'll have to go upstairs. It's straight and to the right. Please hurry."
"Where are they?" Kotone asked. "What floor? How far from the nearest teleporter?"
"They're on the sixty-sixth floor," Fuuka said, "it's too far for you to re-group with them."
Junpei grit his teeth. "Then what the hell can we do?"
"We just have to believe in them." Fuuka said quietly. "And hope they make it out safe."
Detecting a Shadow dozens of floor away from it was one thing. Being given a description of it from those who had narrowly survived an encounter with it, however brief, was another another. Those two points of reference gave Mitsuru context for what this thing was like.
But watching the Shadows around them decay before their very eyes into a black miasma, having her nostrils assaulted with the smell of an abandoned abattoir, having her legs begin to buckle under their own weight, and having the hairs on the back of her neck instinctively rise up, all just from being on the same floor as this thing, that was something else entirely.
"I can see the stairs!" Akihiko yelled.
"Oh thank God!" Takeba yelled.
Mitsuru caught a glance of the other girl as they ran. She was the only one among the present party who had encountered this Shadow before. Between the sweat dripping down her face, her dilated pupils, and her heavy breathing, Takeba looked utterly terrified.
They were not particularly close, but Mitsuru knew enough about the other girl to know that she always tried to put up a façade of strength. For her to immediately and completely abandon it in the face of confronting this adversary...
Mitsuru shook her head. Now wasn't the time to focus on potentially fighting it. As they reached the top of the stairs, it was the time to focus on finding the teleporter as fast as possible and escaping it.
" The Shadow is still moving, but it doesn't appear to be following you. " Yamagishi said. " It seems to just be wandering around. "
As they ran down the long hall, the only directions available to them being left and right, Shinjiro yelled out. "Which way do we go? How far are we from getting the hell out of here?"
"The teleporter is only two left turns away and then straight down!" Yamagishi announced. "You're almost there."
They ran in complete silence, with only the sounds of their footwear rapidly hitting the ground and hurried breathing echoing throughout the halls.
As they made the last turn, they saw the bright green contraption that represented salvation. But just as they crossed the halfway mark of the hallway, the floor around it began to decay, warp, and open up from below.
"N-No!" Mitsuru froze in place as it began emerging from the hole.
Intellectually, she knew this Shadow was dangerous, but so were all of them.
On the surface, this tall, dark creature of the night wasn't anything different from the Shadows they had faced before. They had fought bigger Shadows, they had fought Shadows with weapons, and they had even fought Shadows that possessed some kind of tactical awareness.
But the sheer malice it radiated threw her back. The way the very presence of this thing – this emissary of death – distorted the walls and floors of Tartarus just by existing, the way it made the air taste of rust and blood, it made Mitsuru feel like she was at the bottom of the ocean. Slowly being crushed to death in a dark and cold place, far from all light. Its lone eye, showing nothing but unrestrained, seething hatred for life itself, made Mitsuru think one thing and one thing alone.
I'm going to die here.
"Garula!" Snapping out of her trance, Mitsuru looked over at Takeba, eyes steeled as she summoned Io, immediately going for the attack on the rising specter. "All of you, focus! Attack it now or go! Garula!"
Mitsuru flinched and brought out her Evoker. "Bufula!"
"Fatal End!" Shinjiro screamed.
The shredding winds and glacial onslaught barely ruffled the Shadow's clothes. Only Castor slamming into it and trying to force the roaring beast back down the gap in the floor prevented it from emerging completely unharmed.
"Change of plans." Akihiko held up his Evoker and fired. "Tarunda!" Polydeuces rushed in and rammed its needle into the Shadow's side, forcing its destabilizing magic via direct contact.
The Shadow bit through Polydeuces' neck, dissolving it. It then aimed its right gun at Castor, blowing the head off of its horse with a single bullet, and sending Shinjiro reeling back screaming as his Persona dissolved as well.
"Shinji!" In the moment that Akihiko looked away, the Shadow raised its left gun and fired an incredibly bright bolt of lightning, nearly as blindingly white as the sun itself, right into his back. With a blood-curdling scream, Akihiko was thrown to the ground.
With shaking hands, Mitsuru brought her Evoker up and fired. "Penthesilea!" Her Persona flew into the sky and, with a swipe of her sword, she created several rows of ice spikes to smash into the floor delay the Shadow. The Shadow fired a bullet at her Persona, only missing because it dissolved at the last second. "Akihiko! Shinjiro!"
"I-I'm fine." Akihiko said, through gritted teeth. He forced himself up on all fours. The lightning strike burned through his vest, and left a large red burn on his back.
Shinjiro staggered up, and immediately ducked as it fired another bullet, shattering the ice into thousands of pieces, and making a path for itself. "What the fuck are we gonna do now?"
"Senpai, I have an idea." Mitsuru looked over at Takeba, calm but trembling. "On my mark, I need you to weaken it with your Persona."
"Huh?" Before Mitsuru could ask anything, Takeba ran at top speed towards the Shadow. "Takeba! W-What the hell are you doing!?"
Takeba kept her bow at the ready. The Shadow glanced at her with its lone eye, tracing her zigzagging steps. It watched her carefully as she got closer. Slowly, it held up its left gun, a small red light flashing out of the barrel, and aimed forward. Once she crossed into its path, it fired a blast of concentrated heat.
But just before she stepped into its line of fire, and just before it pulled the trigger, Yukari willed Io into existence, pushing the two of them out of the way with a blast of wind. "Now!"
Mitsuru hesitated, but brought her Evoker up to her head again. "Rakunda!" Flying high in the air, and with a swing of her sword, Penthesilea sent a wave of purple debilitating energy at it.
The Shadow adjusted its trajectory and shot a second blast of fire at Takeba, with her and Io dodging the same way once more. As Mitsuru's magic hit it, the Shadow growled. Its eye momentarily flickered towards the cause of the magic.
And away from Takeba.
"Checkmate." She drew back her arrow and, with Io providing a small but concentrated blast of wind to go along with it, shot it directly into the Shadow's eye. It let out an unearthly wail, like thousands of rusted gears grinding into each other, as it thrashed about.
As it roared and fired indiscriminately, Takeba turned and ran, the other three quickly following suit. "Yamagishi-"
"The stairs are at the end of the hall, a left turn, and then two more right turns." She quickly said. "There's a two-way teleporter."
"I need a drink or a cigarette." Yukari mumbled as she crashed on the couch. Even after being carried most of the way home, her legs were still trembling. Akihiko and Shinjiro quietly straggled their way upstairs to bed, still sore even after being healed, while Mitsuru remained outside.
Junpei patted her on the back. "That was pretty epic though, Yuka-tan. I don't think I'd have had the guts to do somethin' like that."
"Yeah!" Kotone yelled, stars in her eyes. "That was so cool Yukari! You're so awesome!"
Yukari snorted. "Yeah right. That wasn't awesome, that was dumb."
"Hell no, it was cool!" Kotone insisted.
"Yeah, you're kind of a badass." Junpei said. "Might even be the most badass person in this dorm."
"It was rather impressive." Fuuka said. "I managed to see the whole thing, I was completely shocked when you started running towards the Shadow rather than away from it."
Yukari blushed, unable to take all of the glowing praise. "S-Shut up. All that proves is you guys have more common sense than me." She muttered.
Makoto returned and handed her a cup of cold water. "What even made you think to do that?" He asked as she began to chug the entire thing in one go. "It was pretty inspired, I'm not going to lie."
She wiped her lips. "I dunno. I think after Akihiko-senpai stabbed it and weakened it, something just clicked in my head."
"Think it'll be blind next time?" Kotone asked. The smile on her face disappearing the moment she asked. No one wanted to encounter this thing again, but given that it had already appeared twice now...
Yukari shuddered "I don't know. I don't even want to think about this thing for a long time."
"Speaking of next time," Junpei said with a mischievous grin, "we'll be right before floor 69."
Fuuka blushed, Kotone chuckled and lightly punched him in the arm, while Yukari sneered. "Ugh, you're such a pig Stupei."
"I didn't say anything perverted." He said with an audacious grin, his hands resting behind his head. "I'm just pointing out the objective reality. You're the one thinking naughty thoughts, Yuka-tan."
"Whatever." She got up, walking forward slowly, legs still shaking. "I'm sleeping in tomorrow, no one bug me unless the moon falls out of the sky or something."
Makoto languidly waved her off. "Nighty-night."
