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Onisaka Tower
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/====================( - Mikage-cho E - Onisaka Tower - )====================\
| The Tower Dungeon was its given name, prison for those that dared |
| cross Aki. So far it had only one mysterious inhabitant, a horrible being |
| that no one chances to mention out of fear of retrobution. |
| The structure is tall, at twenty stories. Tiny windows ring its width |
| every five or so floors with steady yellow light pouring out from all of |
| them. The building is constructed of deep black stone bricks held together |
| by mortar made from some derivative of red clay. Towards the top of the |
| tower, the mortar seems to ooze over the bricks a little, making it look as |
| if the tower itself was bleeding. |
| Within a rusty metal staircase spirals up the walls, halted every five |
| stories by a solid landing floor that fills the entire width of the |
| interior. A crude lightning system of wire and bare lightbulbs is strung |
| alongside walls. The entire building reeks of blood. The sounds of |
| screaming, clanking chains, and creaking leather can be heard |
| intermittently within, all of which seem to originate from the top floor. |
| The top floor itself can be accessed by a trap door over the |
| stairwell. It has no windows but does possess a circular black glass |
| skylight in the middle of the ceiling. The lack of windows is emphasized by |
| the smell of rotting flesh and fire. Strewn about the room is a plethora of |
| torture devices, from racks to what appears to be a modern |
| electroconvulsive therapy machine. Whoever is held here is definitely not |
| destined for a pleasant stay. |
|===============================( - Players - )================================|
| Maki Sonomura [NWO] <Matsu> Yosuke Hanamura [KDA] <Berserker> |
| Tohru Adachi [NWO] <Cu Chulainn> Thora Kobayashi [KDA] <Br'er Rabbit> |
|===============================( - Objects - )================================|
|================================( - Exits - )=================================|
| Out <O>: Mikage-cho - East Side |
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The East Side of the city is brutal and dangerous. The urge to hole oneself up in a building would be strong, even for those with personae. However, those that dare venture out into this brave new world may eventually reap rewards.
The large twenty-story tower in this part of town is difficult to miss. A bit of investigation (perhaps in the form of a conversation or two with a demon should anyone be so bold) easily reveals this to be the 'Onisaka Tower' or 'Tower Dungeon', Mikage-cho's prison. The only entrance, a large iron door at the base of the tower, is curiously unlocked. Occasionally, demons have been observed entering and exiting the structure.
An extremely strong resonance emits from it like some kind of loud and angry distress signal. The flavor, scent, and sound of the resonance is unmistakable to those familiar with Thora Kobayashi. There is absolutely no doubt that the missing persona user is contained within this building.
Strangely enough, once beyond the door, the tower appears to be empty at first glance. The loud noise several floors above, however, easily contradicts that. The sounds of screaming and rattling chains are heard-some kind of loud struggle is taking place and further tracking of Thora's resonance would lead up.
The good news is, Yosuke Hanamura found people willing to come along to save Thora. The bad news is, they're /useless/ and did not bring /lots of money/ for him to sell them things. But~ the deal is simple; people who are not demons get free food and shelter, if they're willing to help him procure supplies. This means the trip here took a fairly long time, because he /insisted/ on looting everything that could possibly be of value from anyone who attacked them. How that backpack is holding everything is a goddamn mystery, but regardless, eventually the tower is reached, and Yosuke looks up and to his assembled party.
"Right. Shall we go rush up there?"
While Yosuke did not find Fumiya, Fumiya still found the tower. Perhaps after spending all day pretending to be freaking /Ash/ he knocked two braincells together and realized the significance of the Onisaka Tower. Or maybe he was able to shake down some of the weaker demons for info. His Persona-sensing ability is pretty weak, but he's spent so much time around Thora in the past it's enough to clue him in on some basic level.
The events of the past night and day have left him a little rattled, though. Really, it's bad when one forces himself to act like a kick-ass demon-fighting guy just to cope with everything. But it's either pretend to be Ash, or break down and hide away in safety.
Truth be told, Fumiya feels quite a bit of relief when he spots Yosuke as he approaches the tower, him being the first friendly face he's come across since being warped to Mikage-cho. Instead of walking up and making his presence known immediately, Fumiya waits until it looks like Yosuke and friends are about to enter the tower, and takes that moment to step out into the open.
"Hold up!" He calls out, the shotgun he picked up earlier resting on his shoulder. He swaggers toward the party, clearly overacting, and grins toothily. "Me and ol' double barrel here will blow their butts to kingdom come. See if we don't!"
Yosuke Hanamura. Who would know that Tohya would run into him here, right after she agreed to work with him on finding Thora? The mission still applies, even if the world's gone insane, and his terms for sticking around were at least acceptable. Tohya had a slightly easier time relaxing once Naomi was located, but she still couldn't sleep last night.
It's a lot easier to maintain the cool image with the right people around, though.
Glancing at Yosuke, Tohya is prepared to give her answer, mention the way that she can feel Thora's resonance just within that tower, right before Fumiya shows up with his dramatics. She looks at him, opens her mouth, and then shuts it right back. ...talking to him would just be /really awkward/ since that time she sort of crashed the dungeon made out of his suppressed thoughts and may or may not have fought the squad of people trying to save him. Not that she knew that at the time. And no one really got hurt.
Instead, she glances back to the rest of the group approaching, and then up to the tower. "Right, Hanamura. We head on up. I'll stick back and support the group. Just remember: if I say back off, back off. I don't like to repeat myself." When she's sure no one is looking her way, she'll fire a brief, reassuring sort of look towards Miwa and Naomi. But only when she's sure other people won't see. She'd said they didn't have to come...but she's glad they did.
Where were they?
The inconsequential shopping trip has turned into something entirely different and less easygoing, now that the store is gone and she has spent most of the afternoon...evening? Running with Tohya and Miwa into the safest place they could find. Now that they've ventured out again, Naomi couldn't help but feel apprehension gnaw at the bottom of her stomach, icewater braiding down her spine at every unearthly sound she hears. This is -not- the usual for her; not even close. However, she manages to take everything in stride, and despite the tightness around her eyes, her countenance looks relatively composed. She is hardpressed to say no when Yosuke has asked for volunteers to help rescue someone, her charitable disposition and the thought of anyone stuck in their present surroundings rendering her incapable of answering in the negative no matter how pragmatic it is.
The call to stop effectively stops her in her tracks, her violet eyes falling on Fumiya as he struts forward bearing his shotgun and a toothy smile. Well, if anything, the situation called for -some- measure of bravado; it certainly can't hurt the morale. The heiress couldn't help but feel a faint twitch at the corners of her mouth; as much of a smile as she can manage in these warped and twisted environs. She has no proper weapon, save for a ski pole she has managed to salvage, stripped of its paint to expose the metal and the pointy end made even sharper by the industrious use of a nail file. It was the closest thing she could find to the feel and flexibility of a foil.
At Tohya's discreet nod, she nods back, a single corner of her dew-clung mouth hooking upwards in a wry half-smile.
Ichiya Chigiri was here, under the code name of 'Fox'. He was in the mind set of not his overly friendly self and one more of his buisness. Though a group was here, he pretty much stayed to himself, listening and watching.
The atmosphere did not bother him, but he didn't lower his guard, it was hard to say what would come and his feelings typically where never off, there was great danger here and one to be careful around.
He also knew that Shirou was wanting to save his girlfriend, he-- wanted to assist, not for payment, honestly he was expecting it, but this time, it was down right for his own reasons.
It was the /right/ thing to do..
Ichiya at last comes up to the group. The brim of his hat hiding his eyes, with only the lower part of his face visable, "I've come here to assist, these are strange dealings and I am sure they will only get stranger yet. I hate to miss out on the action when I have come this far.."
Miwa had lucked out. She and Tohya had stumbled across Fort Junes, and had even finally found Naomi there. Yosuke had graciously (?) allowed them to stay, providing they assisted him in supply-scrounging. Seeing no other recourse--he had given them a safe place to sleep--the Sevens senior had agreed, borrowing a featherduster from the store's shelves as a melee weapon before departing again today into the hell that Lunarvale had become.
Compared to many of the others here, Miwa is completely resonance blind. Her own detection is instead hyperfocused on something else, something she can't even pick up yet. Night must not have fallen quite yet, by Ratri's reckoning.
She was going to stick close to Tohya and Naomi. She'd come to Lunarvale/met them here, and she wasn't going to either leave them behind or be left behind, if she could help it at all. She stops, though, when the little group approaches the tower, and gazes up. "...Here?" It looks bad. There's a worried glance Tohya's way, then Miwa nods. "Yes... please, listen to her, Hanamura-san. She's... skilled at detecting danger." Much better than Miwa's own, currently dormant talents.
When her classmate looks her way, that brief look of reassurace is met with a flash of a smile of Miwa's own.
Deidra Doyle had been talked into helping save Thora. Maybe she'll find a few of the people she was with when everything went to hell. She also hopes that damn Oni doesn't find her again. She doesn't want to find out why it was after her, she's still carrying the shotgun she'd bought eariler and she looks to Fumiya who also seems to have the same sort of taste in weapons.
"Just watch it some times these demons will laugh off bullets. Found this out the hard way." She takes a glance around checking out some of the others there. "I might have to thank my grand father for dragging me to the shooting range." She loads a few more shells in to make sure the gun's loaded to full.
Adachi hasn't been having a good couple of days.
At the very least, it can be clearly said that it's not *his* fault that the universe was destroyed, and that is worth a lot! It's always good to have someone else to pin something like that on. It's not like he really *did* anything, anyway. But he's been separated from everyone else, the world is hell, he cannot find or make any way out, he hasn't seen Ms. Yayoi since that white light overtook everything, and there are demons, fucking /demons/. Adachi's jacket has been ruined, ripped to shreds when he accidentally pissed a group of them off; he is instead tooling around in his partly ripped but otherwise intact, blood-spotted, button-up shirt, the sleeves rolled up and first couple buttons undone and/or missing. This would be *awesome* if he had any kind of handle on where he was or where anything else was. Hell, if the demons weren't so damn *picky* and not more pliable like Shadows tend to be, it'd even be fun. It'd be like he's king of his own private world.
But he doesn't think it's that simple.
First things first: he needs to find the secretary. He hasn't been having very good luck so far, and with a heaving sigh, he eyeballs the tower he's made his way to. He remembers watching Thora's dungeon in the Shadow on the Midnight Channel, knows well what arcana resonates with her soul, and he heard Aki, that little bitch, saying she'd kidnapped her or something. Well, if she's anywhere, it'd be here, and Adachi would feel more comfortable with her at his back... Say what you will about Thora; she's strong and she's loyal. Ish. Loyal-ish. She's loyal to *him*, anyway, and to Adachi, that counts for a lot.
So he really shouldn't be surprised when he sees, just as he's making his way to the entrance, a troupe of Yosuke and Pals making their way for the entrance too. He recognizes Fumiya, Shirou, Miwa, the poser all in black with a hat shading his eyes, and in particular Tohya, as well as a couple others he doesn't really recognize off-hand (hi Deidra), if at all (sup Naomi). He blinks. /Oh,/ he thinks, /so I'm *not* the only survivor. Well, I guess that's okay, too./
"Hanamura-kun," he says, contriving to sound a little dazed. "Everybody. Uh." Pause. "Hi!" He laughs nervously, the sound a little high-pitched. "Oh, wow... Wow, so I'm *not*... oh, wow..." He palms his forehead and leans heavily against the tower.
Adachi, in his own not-so-humble opinion, should get a goddamn Emmy.
What a world. What a day... what a /mess/ Shirou looks. He's been awaiting most of the group, having scouted out the tower just a touch before hand; he could feel that alarm from just about anywhere. Doesn't look like he slept at all due to it. He's sitting next to a pile of dead demons, his body fairly splattered in blood and ichor. His school uniform is torn at the sides, revealing a bit of his stomach, taunt and pale just like the rest of his body.
"Took you all long enough." He says dourly. He nods to them all... looking only mildlly shocked for a second when he recognizes Naomi. He... he knew he did a horrible thing but dragging her into this too...
He stands up, leaning lightly on his spear. The very one that caused all this... it was covered in soot, the wooden handle splintered where the electricity went through it.
The tower is completely devoid of life for a good nine floors. When the tenth floor and the tower-spanning landing is reached this is no longer the case.
An all-out brawl clusters around the far end of the room. Thora Kobayashi is cornered nearby the staircase, looking dishevelled, and weilding a weird pole weapon with crescent blades on either end. She squares off against a gold-colored oni by the name of Kin-ki who possesses no weapon of his own. Frenzied, she strikes him with blow after blow but her large weapon doesn't even seem to harm him.
There are four other oni here, two of which are the garden variety red-skinned Oni that the refugees may have seen roaming the streets in search of humans to devour. Curiously, these oni are locked in combat with two other more unique-looking Oni.
They are the purple-skinned Sui-ki and the light blue-skinned Fuu-ki. Both are much taller than their red counterparts and are dressed in far more elaborate clothing, suggesting some kind of higher rank. More notably, Sui-ki doesn't seem to have a mouth and Fuu-ki, more disturbingly, doesn't seem to have a /face/. Sui-ki looks considerably injured already, covered in wide gashes that ooze thick black ichor. Both of the red Oni are struggling to gang up on him to pick him off.
In an instant, the tide turns. Fuu-ki jabs one end of his propeller-like bladed weapon deep into the chest of one of the red oni. Even as he twists the weapon to worsen the wound, the red oni fights back, clumsily bashing Fuu-ki over the head with the bladed club. Fuu-ki rips his blade free and the red oni tries to capitalize on the sudden opening to swing the club more properly, roaring out in challenge as he does.
For his trouble, the red Oni receives the blade through the mouth with such force that it rips out the back of his neck and all but severs his head. The body jerks and spasms in its death throes.
This does not go unnoticed by Thora. She tries to ram the gold oni away from her with her mass but Kin-ki fails to budge. Spitting out a laugh, Kin-ki smashes his hand forward and chokeslams Thora with enough force that her back bounces against the tower wall.
Kin-ki advances on Thora. Fuu-ki and Sui-ki quickly corner the remaining red oni.
At this rate, the persona user would not come out of this fight victorious.
"Hey you jerks!" A familiar voice shouts. "How 'bout you pick on someone ... your own size? ... ... well, okay, not your own size! But with MORE PEOPLE...shooting you! Yeah! That's the Maki Way!" Where is the voice coming from!? Well, it seems that Maki has taken residence on top of a decorative pillar (how long has she been there?!) and has a bow in her hands!
"How about you leave my friend alone! Maki ARROW!" She shouts, unleashing one for the gold oni that has been harassing Thora. This probably doesn't actually help too much on its own and soon she hops down and looks towarsd the others approaching. "Hey! You guys finally made it! Where've you been?!" She seems totally at home in this element. Too much at home.
COMBAT: Maki Sonomura hits Thora Kobayashi with her Pierce Attack - Bow Shot attack.
"Thora!"
Wow, that was a fast ten floors. Shirou of course took to the front, barely listening to anyone else if they tried to take the lead. This... this girl was the very reason he had damned them all to Hell. So, it's not likely that he'll pay much heed until he finds her and saves her. It's /way/ more backbone then he's ever shown... well, ever.
And now that she's knocked out, against the wall somewhere? Shirou gives a warrior's yell to rival one of hers, and sends a wave of darkness against the oni, Charon appearing behind him, rising out of hsi back, black robed and white skined, with odd veins of green energy...
COMBAT: Shirou Sekigawa hits Thora Kobayashi with his Mudoon attack.
About Fifteen Minutes ago:
"Hey, Shirou, you're still alive /great/ that's a pile of demons." The pile is searched through, things are put in the backpack in order of shiny and look useful. "Good, you can help with the Fort later." He's more than content to let Shirou have the lead.
About Seventeen Minutes Prior: "What, Adachi too? Well! Uh. Tell you what; if you're willing to hold the backpack and not run off with it, I'll keep stuff from eating you. That's pretty much our hope of survival in there, so be careful."
Nearly Six Minutes Ago: "Christ, these stairs. And they told me Karma Palace was gonna be bad..."
And now, the present.
Yosuke's knives twirl in his hands as he analyzes the action; Thora's still alive, she's got a bitching weapon, and now she just got knocked into the wall. Well. Person saving time.
"Jiraiyaaaaaa!" He calls, straightening up to his full height as the frog appears behind him. There's a rush forward at one of the oni cornering Thora's allies; if he can free them, they might assist with the larger one. A leap into the air, aided by a gust of wind...and then, ideally, to press two blades into the the demon spines, to tear down and out. To even the odds, as best he can.
COMBAT: Yosuke Hanamura hits Thora Kobayashi with his Brave Blade attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Yosuke Hanamura with her Oni's Rage counterattack.
Ichiya was not far behind the group. He was trying to not get himself distracted either, a bit easy to do when you never seen a construction like this with so many sounds..
When the fight breaks out, this gets Ichiya's attention and when Shirou goes charging ahead with everyone else, Ichiya then smiles. "..show time.."
The young adult clothed in black races upward, his fists tightening up as his persona nearly ghostly appears for just a moment off his body, it mostly seemed like sand whipping into the air to some, and perhaps to others a face of a lion with glowing flaminge eyes.
Mahes wanted to play, but he would wait.
Ichiya leaped into the air, and went to slam his fist down on one of the Oni, "Raah!"
COMBAT: Ichiya Chigiri hits Thora Kobayashi with his Strike Attack - Punch attack.
Theatrics are all what's keeping Fumiya's head straight right now. Arguably. But, really, who wants to try and correct a guy with a shotgun? Let him think he's Ash for now.
As everyone gathers he grins at all of them, regardless of who they are. Once it becomes apparent that this /really is/ where Thora has been all this time, Fumiya becomes much more eager to dive in. It's time he repaid the favor, after all. But those determined thoughts only show on his face as more stupid heroic bravado.
If they ever get out of this place alive he'll probably have to curl up in a ball for awhile when it all catches up to him.
Fumiya follows along with the group, summoning his Persona and punching demons as they come, but oddly not using his shotgun. It's more of a prop, a crutch, than a real weapon. It completes the image, and that's what matters now.
Finally they reach the room, finally they find thora, and a whole lot of trouble. He places the barrel of the shotgun in his free hand. Ka-chak. "Gotta keep a grip on myself here." Rather than fire the gun at the Oni, he just summons Murugan to bathe the nearest Oni in flames. "We're takin' our friend back, you freaks. Move it."
COMBAT: You have missed Thora Kobayashi with your Agilao attack.
Weapons? You take what you can get, it would seem. At least they found Naomi; Tohya was worried about her, and it's sort of a senpai's job to look out for her underclassmen, right? Or something. And she's glad to have people she's actually comfortable with nearby. The smiles in response from both the younger Sevens student and from Miwa, though, do a lot to keep her spirits up.
Not that the group would know that. She's glaring like someone just insulted her over at the tower, using that as a convenient way to hide her feelings. Thora is in there, with who knows what, and why should she worry about the maniac, anyway? But--Fox, someone she was supposed to look for, is--completely unimportant. Adachi less so. "Adachi-san? You're here, too?" She hadn't even noticed the detective. Are so many presences just overwhelming her abilities? There are people she doesn't recognize, too, but she mostly just kind of ignores them. She is just that rude. ...Even if Adachi does mysteriously get a 'san'. "Adachi-san, you should get out of here. It isn't safe."
And as if on cue--sort of, it was a long walk, she enters the room, and there's a fight, with her group only joining in. "Kobayashi! Get the hell out of there!" They're all fighting each other, and that's...weird. But the big one is the one Thora's fighting, so as that weird girl joins the party, Tohya has an objective.
"Hear me..." A blue glow appears beneath her feet. "Persephone!" It becomes a blazing aura, Tohya closing her eyes and leaning back toward the shadowy woman that appears. Persephone is robed in red and purple, wearing an iron crown, and her hands settle about the senior's shoulders. There will be a pale, green glow about the Gold Oni. "Analyzing..." Her Persona will remain.
COMBAT: Tohya Kidzuki hits Thora Kobayashi with her Full Analysis attack.
"Adachi-san!" This is coupled by a gasp, Miwa raising one hand to cover her mouth. He looks--and sounds--like he's been through hell. Well, okay, technically speaking, that's true. Still, she's impressed that the Inaba detective's lasted this long. It means... he's pretty good, especially since he was apparently alone, up to now. "Are you all right?"
Miwa, too, looks as if she's managed to get into a scrape or two. There's no visual evidence of any wounds, but one torn sleeve of her coat and the bloodstains there bespeak an earlier altercation. As do the scorch marks across the rest of her outfit, and if one looks closely, burnt ends to her hair.
The journey up the tower is, amazingly, easy. There's nothing here. At least, until she reaches the top floor.
Miwa practically stops dead in her shock. "Oni!" she hisses, green eyes wide. And Thora's here, too! Her eyes darting from the Oni of Osaka to the other, multi-colored demons of the same name, she hestiates a moment, trying to figure 1) what is going on and 2) what she should do. Before long, she's able to make sense of the scenario, and taking a couple of steps forward, brandishes the featherduster as if it'll do any good. "Kobayashi-san!" she cries out, taking a moment to wince as one of the red oni meets a very gruesome death. "We'll help you!" It's better than standing by the sidelines and staring, anyway.
A blue aura rises up about Miwa, her hands clasped before her as if she's praying. "Mom... please!" she calls out, the black-clad goddess manifesting behind her. A gesture is all it takes; a great cloud of darkness is cast out, aiming for the pale blue oni, Fuu-ki.
COMBAT: Miwa Saitou misses Thora Kobayashi with her Mudoon attack.
There are a few more newcomers, her heliotrope gaze sweeping over Ichiya, Deidra, and Tohru as they arrive (the latter, in particular, rocking the Indiana Jones look after he's been chased by a group of angry aborigines....if aborigines could rent clothing like that with her teeth). However at the last (or first) arrival, Naomi doesn't recognize Shirou at first - not while the lad is in the state he's in...but she is observant, and one gifted with a stellar memory. She's not about to forget someone she just met all of two to four days ago. She looks stunned when she realizes who the disheveled boy is, her lips parting and -clearly- surprised to see him here. She mouths his name, but no voice comes out, vocal chords stunned into speechlessness.
Once the door opens she stares at the carnage within, in particular when a red oni turns into hamburger before her eyes. She has never, -ever-, encountered anything like this before and even as the clearly more seasoned fighters charge within she's left staring, her ski pole hanging useless in her hand. For a split-second, she's rendered immobile, wholly and utterly unprepared for what she sees.
And then her own senpais start attacking. She lowers the pointed end to the floor and closes her eyes. The goddess needs no further coaxing, a single bright line coalescing into being next to and slightly above the heiress and sending a wave of invisible force towards the epicenter of the chaos.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno hits Thora Kobayashi with her Marin Karin attack.
Deidra Doyle has met Adachi several times but was always just lurking in the back ground of things when ever the officer was around. "Detective Adachi?! Your alive?" she seems pleased there's another person she sorta knows here. She's got the shotgun ready, and handles it to the point Adachi might realise the girl does know how to use such things. Maybe it's true about Americans and guns after all?
Her expression turns rather unhappy.
Then comes the demons. "ONI!!!" She yells and she can't use the shot gun she might hit Thora, so she summons her techno monk persona and sends a bolt of lighting at it!
COMBAT: Deidra Doyle misses Thora Kobayashi with her Zionga attack.
"S-Saitou-san... Well--to be honest, I've been having one hell of a bad day," Adachi laughs, half-nervously, back at Miwa when she gasps her concern for him. The detective then stops and peers at Deidra. Huh. For a teenage girl, she sure seems to know how to handle that shotgun. That's actually really irritating! Damn Americans. "Y-yeah, thankfully," he replies, giving the SEESite a weak smile. "I'm glad you kids are alive too..."
Yosuke is telling him to carry a backpack. Adachi gives him a nonplussed look as he accepts the thing, but when he hears the words 'our survival depends on it,' he nods once. "O-okay. Thanks..."
Tohya, meanwhile, gets a bland stare. "And go where, exactly? Where in this world--" he gestures with the hand holding his gun over at--everything, really, "--are you saying *is* safe?" He shoulders the backpack. "If it's all the same to you, Kidzuki-san, I'm going to stick to where there's signs of human life, thanks."
Shirou gets an odd lack of reaction considering he came down the tower toting a bunch of dead demons. Maybe Adachi's already just seen too much.
Up the tower they go! Eventually they reach the top. Adachi may or may not have been nosing inside the backpack on the way up. What? He's a detective, he's nosy by profession. And in fairness, the bloody brawl between onis at the top *does* kind of grab his attention as being slightly more important right now. His dark eyes widen, and he hangs back behind the others, holding his pistol between both hands but watching the others lay down the hurt rather than do anything right away. He sees Thora over there, and yes, she does seem to be in a bad way of it. Well. At least Shirou found his girlfriend again, right? Good for frigging him.
Oh hey, and there's Maki, looking happy as all get out to be able to kill things. Well, Adachi can agree with that too, at least, and he finally lifts his gun for the golden oni advancing on his 'little sister.' "Thora-chan!!" he calls out, before firing a shot aimed for Kin-ki's head.
COMBAT: Tohru Adachi critically hits Thora Kobayashi with his Pierce Attack - Handgun attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Tohru Adachi with her Oni's Rage counterattack.
Thora sinks against the wall, struggling to stay conscious, growling like a dog. The sudden influx of familiar smells floods her senses and she reels a little, a weak, wry smile upon her face. "...heh...people came for me again." Her gaze lingers on Maki for a bit longer than normal and confusion registers on her face.
Maki's arrow plinks harmlessly against Kin-ki's back and drops to the floor. The golden oni turns around, now noticing the sudden mob of /humans/ in the tower. Sneering, he steps on the fallen arrow, snapping it in two and starts after Maki. Sui-ki smashes the remaining red oni aside with his large iron club and turns his attention to the humans as well. Fuu-ki follows suit. The interlopers now have the undivided attention of all three monsters.
All hell breaks loose.
Kin-ki is struck head-on with Charon's mudoon, earning another snarl from the oni-this one in pain. It had been so long since the great Kin-ki had felt pain. Sui-ki lifts a hand to catch the blade of Jiraiya as it descends, preventing any real critical damage to his person but not without cost as the weapon sinks into the thick flesh of his purple hand. His reaction is instantaneous-Sui-ki surges across the room and bats Yosuke with the double-headed iron club. Fumiya's effort to hit the closest, who is now Sui-ki, misses by about a foot as flames explode on the ground where the purple oni had just been.
Ichiya finds himself setting upon the faceless Fuu-ki with his fist. Immediately, he'll realize that oni skin is incredibly hard. If he kept punching like that, he was bound to break his knuckles. To make matters worse, wounded as he already may be, the blow hardly phased Fuu-ki at all.
In their battle-frenzy, the three oni don't seem to notice Persephone taking a deeper look. It's probably for the best, given the information the third-year is able to derive through her persona's eyes about their opponents. It quickly becomes apparent that Thora likely wouldn't have succeeded in a battle against all three at once. The people here might not either if they weren't careful.
Sui-ki steps towards Ichiya, pausing suddenly as darkness surges around him. The oni tilts his head back and unleashes an unsettling howl, upon which the mudoon inflicted upon it by Miwa just stops and /shatters/. Clearly the faceless one won't be as easily felled by darkness as its bretheren. It lifts its sharp blade-ready to spear Ichiya through when a red haze delivered by Naomi settles around it. The strike goes through, but it sweeps out laughably wide. Ichiya won't even have to /try/ to dodge that.
Deirda does what Tohya would intuit is a smart thing-targeting the incredibly tough gold-skinned oni with magic. Unfortunately something ugly rears its head now: Fuu-ki stepping in and blocking the blast with its blue gauntlets. Oni /teamwork/.
A single shot rings out.
Adachi's bullet lodges itself, half-smashed, in Kin-ki's forehead and for a split second the great invulnerable oni flinches. A massive hand lifts and plucks the projectile out of its thick golden skin. The bullet is rolled between two fingers then squished as if it were a bug. Rage spreads across Kin-ki's face and the largest Oni descends upon Adachi in a rage that easily puts Thora's berserker spells to shame.
Fuu-ki lifts his weapon and snarls out a few angry words. Red auras surge around all three oni. The words continue and intricate spellcircles appear around what may have been deemed to be the more dangerous humans at the moment.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Thora Kobayashi with her Power Charge attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi misses Deidra Doyle with her Seal Bomb attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Shirou Sekigawa with her Seal Bomb attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi missed you with her Seal Bomb attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Miwa Saitou with her Seal Bomb attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Naomi Suzuno with her Seal Bomb attack.
Yosuke is knocked back, but mostly harmlessly so. Insofar as he's not dead and nothing feels broken. That's basically pretty cool. On the other hand, he can't seem to put a scratch on these guys. Maybe he's just not cool enough to do that sorta thing. ...However, maybe the /six other people with him/ are! He cracks his knuckles, looking around.
"Alright, Jiraiya! Let's speed this up a notch!" He grins, spreading out his arms. The frog leaps around to his allies, hopefully imbuing them with a little bit of that speed needed to keep from getting pounded from /giant berserk oni/. His tiny little knives just aren't really built for this job, unfortunately, and his wrenches~
...His wrenches are still at Daidara's, waiting for their fateful appointment.
COMBAT: Yosuke Hanamura hits Tohru Adachi with his Masukukaja attack.
COMBAT: Yosuke Hanamura hits Maki Sonomura with his Masukukaja attack.
COMBAT: Yosuke Hanamura hits Deidra Doyle with his Masukukaja attack.
COMBAT: Yosuke Hanamura hits Shirou Sekigawa with his Masukukaja attack.
COMBAT: Yosuke Hanamura hits you with his Masukukaja attack.
COMBAT: Yosuke Hanamura hits Tohya Kidzuki with his Masukukaja attack.
COMBAT: Yosuke Hanamura hits Ichiya Chigiri with his Masukukaja attack.
COMBAT: Yosuke Hanamura hits Naomi Suzuno with his Masukukaja attack.
Real honest spell craft. It was rather more distracting then anything else... and then suddenly he's hit with the damn bomb, yelling out in pain... and now he feels a odd distance, almost like a lag between him and Charon...
Oh well. He holds out a hand, focusing on the people that are with him now. These people that stand with him now; he had to help them all. With a pulse of dark energy, they should feel a sudden calmness, and then an upswelling of magical energy...
"Charon! MAMAKAKAJA!"
COMBAT: Shirou Sekigawa hits you with his Mamakakaja attack.
COMBAT: Shirou Sekigawa hits Maki Sonomura with his Mamakakaja attack.
COMBAT: Shirou Sekigawa hits Deidra Doyle with his Mamakakaja attack.
COMBAT: Shirou Sekigawa hits Tohya Kidzuki with his Mamakakaja attack.
COMBAT: Shirou Sekigawa hits Miwa Saitou with his Mamakakaja attack.
Ichiya does make impact, and yeah-- he can feel how hard the demon is, however no pain, no gain. He was using to punching bricks, though this felt more like steel. "..interesting.." he murmured to himself.
From the impact he stepped back and readied himself once more. That is when he took notice of the Sui-ki coming toward him, then when the darkness surges around it.
His attention cuts back to the Fuu-ki, as he does move back. He then flips backward before kneeling down with his arms out. With what seems to be a gust of hot air and sand, rises up Mahes from Ichiya's form like a ghost of sand and fire, steps out a Massive lion humanoid, pulling out two swords and then schemeing them across the ground. Its eyes closed, but when Ichiya looks up and starts to stand.
The Persona slowly rises his head. "Lets try a new trick." Ichiya says before Mahes lets out a roar then charges for the faceless Oni and lets out a spin of a blast of the swords and gust of hot wind. Not only for the golden oni but for the others as well near it.
COMBAT: Ichiya Chigiri misses Thora Kobayashi with his Lord Of Storms attack.
Deidra Doyle has no idea this annoys the officer and prehaps it's best. AS Thora goes down, uses the gun's shoulder trap to put it over her shoulder likely fo the rest of the fight as all hell breaks lose. She's not got much time to do anything other than well. These would be the sort of demons that laugh off bullets anway. As for the supernatural attack she leaps quickly avoiding the seal bomb and is prehaps the most lucky she summons her persona again which appears in a circle of blue light as normal. The techno monk appears even as Youske's own persona casts a spell on Deidra which will render her a good deal faster. As for her own spell
"KILLER WIND!"
A foul winds blows and carrying a curse on it, which may just make the oni's day a lot worse. Leaving them far more open to other magical afflictions.
COMBAT: Deidra Doyle hits Thora Kobayashi with her Killer Wind attack.
Maki says, "Take that!" with an unusual amount of enthusiasm. The counterassault doesn't seem to bother her at all, but the reason for her exuberance may soon be made clear for she calls out, "PERSONA! PERSONA! COME OUT, MATSU!" And the Swimming Goddess appears above the girl's head.
"Hit 'em hard!" She shouts, a swath of water slamming towards one of the Oni's! She notices Yosuke, raises both her eyebrows, and then says, "Hey! It's that /TROLL FROM THE INTERNET!/. You're not with the Onis are you???"
COMBAT: Maki Sonomura hits Thora Kobayashi with her Aques attack.
No. It just shrugged off her spell like it was nothing! And to make matters worse--
Miwa's gaze slips downwards, at the circles spinning out at her feet. She can't understand the words, the glyphs they're written in at all. But what is clear, far far too late, is exactly what they're meant to do to her, to her powers. She tries to step back, to slip out of the circle, but the magic contained within them bursts upwards, slicing at her flesh and spirit both. The bond between her and Ratri feels heavy, like something's dragging on it. That spell circle...
Subconsciously, Ratri sinks back into the well of Miwa's soul. Another mask comes to the fore, a comforting, soothing presence. Taking a breath, Miwa steadies herself, focusing on summoning this spirit out, a blue aura blazing about her as she does so. "By your name, you are bound... Yaksa!" the teenager intones, the all-too-elegant spirit stepping forth from within her mind.
Laying one long-fingered hand upon Miwa's forehead, the yaksini does as she has been bid, stripping that spiritual weight from Miwa's psyche.
COMBAT: Miwa Saitou has activated Yaksa.
COMBAT: Miwa Saitou misses Miwa Saitou with her Patra attack.
Keeping up his appearances as a snarky badass, Fumiya growls as his attack misses. HOW ANNOYING. He seems to have bad luck with openers, if all of his other fights are any indication. All one of them.
He takes a quick moment to look around at the others. Most of the people here he knows some how or another, that's good. He'll just assme that those he doesn't are trustworthy, because it's not like they have a lot of time to go over loyalties with each other while there's killer Oni around. He does quirk an eyebrow at Adachi, though. He hasn't seen the detective since the night he painted the mural, and he never really expected to see him fighting something like this. He... doesn't seem the type. But Thora seems keen on him, from what Fumiya has briefly witnessed, so he's probably here for the sake of their friendship. That's cool of him.
Fumiya doesn't hang around long to stare or gripe about his miss, though, and quickly runs into melee after the original target of his Agilao: Suu-ki. They're big, they're mean, and this is probably VERY stupid, but Fumiya leaps at the Oni to get a shot at its jaw with his fist.
PUNCH THE KI FOR GODSAKE! Yes! You're the man now dog!
Wait, that's not the same movie at all.
COMBAT: You have missed Thora Kobayashi with your Strike Attack - Gloves attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits you with her Oni's Rage counterattack.
COMBAT: You have taken 17 points of Almighty damage.
Not exactly the most experienced of a group made up of veterans, Naomi doesn't even have time to be startled at the manifestations of so many Personas flickering nearby, the sudden sensation assailing her senses. Adrenaline is up, pouring into her bloodstream and electrifying dormant nerve endings - rendering them alive as sparks scorch through neural pathways that are suddenly alert due to all the sensory input. It spikes up her senses, shoving her body in the sort of flight-and-flight state that she only experiences whenever she throws herself off a plane with a parachute. Despite it all, however, she only sees the Seal Bomb until it's too late.
"Saitou-sen-- !" The warning is torn out of her by the explosion, riddling the flesh along her arm with shrapnel as the shockwave blows her from her feet and sends her skittering across the floor and closer to the red-skinned onis. Blood blossoms like a flowering edge along shredded remains of her sleeve, crimson trails running down her wrist.
She doesn't think, save for the fact that she needs to buy some time so she can get up. Her grip tightening on her sharpened ski pole, she angles the weapon up and shoves the point as deep as it would go into the nearest enemy, bright blue bolts of electricity spiraling upwards from the metallic length and into whatever wound she has managed to deliver.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno critically hits Thora Kobayashi with her Head Of Lightning attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Naomi Suzuno with her Oni's Rage counterattack.
Adachi had a point, back down below, so when he'd come up with them, Tohya had offered no further argument whatsoever. Just a nod. It might even be some amount of respect; last time she'd seen him, after all, he'd shown himself pretty worthy of it, right?
And it seems that he's handy with that weapon of his. Tohya surveys the battle at hand with her sixth sense rather than her closed eyes, watching as her friends and acquiantances (and some less than that) to their best to fight. ...But the red oni that were helping them are gone, which leaves this group's support member facing down a full team of demons. ...But none she has to worry whether are hostile. Persephone, still behind her, has told her all she needs to know for now.
"Three enemies, all working together." Yes, they knew that, but she continues on, speaking as if by rote. "Resistant to physical attacks; use magic." She speaks up over the chaos. "Careful! They're extremely strong!" It'll be harder now, perhaps, to ignore that she's helping. ...And if anyone /hasn't/ felt the sting of the Oni attacks yet, then they've been warned.
But it seems that one is focusing on Adachi, and the others-- "Saitou, look out!" What happened? She hates being back here. But there's something else she can do. She sets up her plan, three moves in advance. The new lightness she feels doesn't matter, really. Persephone stares at the golden oni once more, and with the weight of the grave, and a purple-black aura of power erupts from the ground.
COMBAT: Tohya Kidzuki hits Thora Kobayashi with her Poisma attack.
Guys, darn it, stop leaving the priestesses behind.
Eer, edit that. Stop leaving the non-Maki priestesses behind.
Or is that /priestess/? Yuuka Chiba is running late for a very important date. Someone didn't wake her up. The first thing heralding her approach up the tower is the thunk of her staff on the floor. This is followed by the sid of tennis shoes on the floor.
"Heeeeey!" She yelps. ... She's not really complaining that it started without her, really.
When you get thrust into a post-apocalyptic situation, Fumiya, you have two choices: adapt, or die. Adachi has no intent of dying.
"What?! They resist physical attacks?!" the detective yelps over at Tohya, even as this becomes immediately apparent when his bullet--its penetrative power amped by the Persona syncing to his soul, not that even the likes of Tohya would be able to sense that--just kind of lodges into the Kin-ki's skull. ...and causes aggro. He sort of flinches back as it descends on him, and from beneath the oni's pummeling, he screams, "OH GOD WHY DID I THINK THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?!"
In his desperation, he attempts to crack off another shot at it, trying to aim for inside its mouth. That would at least in theory be slightly more of a weak spot!? Though Adachi really knows better. Guh--in this case, if he's going to be useless /anyway/, he ought to switch to something with some more vitality... Yosuke's magic trick is appreciated, though at the moment Adachi is not really in a position to appreciate *anyone* right now. Fucking demons!!
COMBAT: Tohru Adachi hits Thora Kobayashi with his Pierce Attack - Handgun attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Tohru Adachi with her Oni's Rage counterattack.
Another small benefit for Yosuke at least: with this many people here, Yosuke was in a /target rich environment/. So while there were three onis, there was still a high chance he could be avoided. Right?
Wind flows around all three onis, conjured by Deirda's persona. While it doesn't look like the trio was hurt that badly, the red aura that had been previously summoned around them fades just slightly. Poor Adachi, while he can easily shoot the oni at this range, like before the bullets seem to do very little against it. Tohya's words definitely have some truth to them. Kin-ki doesn't even budge as Mahes comes roaring after it until the last minute, to which he disengages from Adachi and lifts his thick golden arms before him in a guard position. The wind and blades strike the monster's thick skin to which there is simply no effect. Kin-ki almost seems to be laughing now as he brings his arms down. "WEAK!" He roars, "YOU ARE ALL WEAK!" Kin-ki, however, does not realize that shouting such words is like waving around an iron pole during a thunderstorm. Maki calls forth Matsu and the resultant blast of water smashes into Kin-ki, actually managing to knock the giant oni off his feet.
Poor Fumiya is much less successful but not for lack of /balls/ as he actually gets up in Suu-ki's face and punches his horrible and misshapen jaw. Yeah, Fumiya's getting a real nice look at this one's lack of a mouth. Where it should be, there's only string. Even with the gloves, punching him is like punching a brick wall. Suu-ki doesn't budge and quickly reacts with a backhand to Fumiya. To make matters worse, it's a really /dismissive/ backhand too, as if the great oni was swatting away a fly. Sui-ki turns on Fumiya, making to look as if he was about to do more to the teenager before he suddenly finds the sharp point of a ski pole buried deep into its skin. Confusion flickers on its face before lightning surges into him, a hellish /noise/ somehow leaning out of the oni as the plasma fries its flesh. After suffering a few seconds of this, Sui-ki shoves his double-headed iron club against Naomi as a means of pushing away from her and off the makeshift weapon.
Kin-ki climbs back up to his feet, lips pulled back in an angry sneer as he focuses his attention on Maki. "Little human..." he growls, about to say more when a sick feeling seizes him and Tohya's magic poisons his innards. A few seconds pass and soon he's coughing and hacking, spitting out drool and ichor violently enough to splatter anyone who may be too close. "WHO DID THAT?!" Kin-ki roars, his body an ominous glowing red. Without waiting for an answer, a blast of force explodes from the golden oni's body in all directions, likely leaving no person unscathed by his rage given form.
Sui-ki makes a sudden violent grab for Naomi's head with his free hand. Had the senior thought she tasted pain before, she would quickly be proven wrong if those thick fingers find purchase in her lovely black hair. As if he was swinging around one of his weapons, Naomi is swung around in several full revolutions before being let go. Likely into the surrounding wall.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Naomi Suzuno with her World Revolution attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Yosuke Hanamura with her Agneyastra attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Tohru Adachi with her Agneyastra attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Maki Sonomura with her Agneyastra attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi misses Deidra Doyle with her Agneyastra attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi misses Shirou Sekigawa with her Agneyastra attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits you with her Agneyastra attack.
COMBAT: You have taken 58 points of Strike damage.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi misses Miwa Saitou with her Agneyastra attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi misses Yuuka Chiba with her Agneyastra attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi misses Tohya Kidzuki with her Agneyastra attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Ichiya Chigiri with her Agneyastra attack.
Yosuke Hanamura did...did not /do/ that. Regardless, he's blown back a bit, and /thank god/ there's this stone wall to break his flight. He hits the ground with a thump, kneeling as he thinks. Kidzuki did say use magic. She did! And...he..knives, though! He has /knives/, and he--
He needs to stop trying to be really fucking awesome for a second, and just kill the damn thing. The inner voice of reason has won within the heart of Yosuke Hanamura, if only for a moment. Truly, these are the end times.
"Alright, Jiraiya----!" The frog appears again, as Yosuke rises to his feet. "Let's rock this guy like a hurricane, eh?" He points at the Oni, as the frog ninja rushes forward, and...immediately vanishes? And then appears somewhere else, rushing at the golden oni again, and immediately vanishes before striking him again. What follows is a series of powerful wind blasts that Jiraiya's trailed behind him. Hopefully, the Golden Oni cares even remotely about getting hit by frigging blasts of air because /that's all he's got to bring to the table right now/.
COMBAT: Yosuke Hanamura hits Thora Kobayashi with his Garudyne attack.
Right, they're buffed. That'll do for now. And he doesn't get blasted with energy or hit with a flying Naomi... though he does note her getting flung out. Ouch... That looked /really/ painful. And while he wants to rip into those Oni, if more people got hurt, he'd never forgive himself.
He raises up his persona card, sparkly blue lights going off as he slashes it with a spear. Charon appears once again, and Naomi will feel a cool, refreshing sensation go over her likely aching body.
COMBAT: Shirou Sekigawa hits Naomi Suzuno with his Diamai attack.
Use magic. Well, that means that Miwa basically has a choice of two of the three spirits attached to her psyche, at the moment. Fir Bolg would be a bad idea. "Thanks, Kidzuki-san!" she calls back, before refocusing on the fight. If nobody minds, she's going to try to stay back. Let someone else soak up an unfortunate assault. She can help patch them up, with the yaksini's help!
And speaking of help, she winces as Adachi is directly attacked by an oni and somehow manages to survive. "Adachi-san! Are you okay?" she calls over. Forgive her for being worried, but adult detective with a gun aside, he's obviously the most vulnerable of the group. At least, if he had the power of Persona, he'd have used it by now, right?
The purple oni makes a rush past Miwa, the senior turning to see what he's after before she stares, horrified, as he grabs for her underclassman. "Suzuno-san!" she cries out, horrified. A perhaps slightly uncharacteristic burst of anger wells up next. "No, I won't let you...! Yaksa! Come forth!" The sari-clad spirit is drawn out again, this time twirling about in an exotic dance as she beckons spires of earth to erupt beneath Sui-ki, the one assaulting her kohai.
Only just does Miwa dodge the blast of pure rage given form, as it were. A ripple in the air is her only warning, and ducking, covering her head as she bends low to the ground. She can feel the waves tear through the air above her, and she counts her blessings.
COMBAT: Miwa Saitou misses Thora Kobayashi with her Terazi attack.
Ichiya puts up his arms to block the attack, His persona coming in to guard most of the damage taken, which Mahes lets out a roar despite the pain, standing strong even from the force of the blow. Ichiya himself is shoved back a few feet. Though he moves down in a three prong stance. He then laughs softly, before he just out right laughs, "..new plan.." He then snaps his fingers, "..Rakukaja.." he whispers out and Mahes nods, before slamming the blades down in the ground and out stretching its hands before clasping them together allowing a shimmer a light over himself and Ichiya.
COMBAT: Ichiya Chigiri hits Ichiya Chigiri with his Rakukaja attack.
FFF- Yuuka hasn't even attacked yet!
The girl dodges the rage of the Oni(s), however, whirling around. One hand sliding into the leather pouch on her side, the gun-shaped Evoker twirled around her hand. "Persona! Unicorn, guide me!" A click of it, even as misty form of Unicorn appears around her. Green light twirls around Adachi, healing him. Because, you know.
Have to keep at least /one/ adult mostly alive here... (adult being relatively speaking.)
COMBAT: Yuuka Chiba hits Tohru Adachi with her Dia attack.
Tohya yells right back, "Just stay back here with me!" He's getting hurt out there--the detective is in way over his head, even if he does work for Kandori, and she's not going to stand by and watch as--
Persephone disappears as Tohya has to throw herself back against the wall to avoid the sudden rush of power, opening her eyes just in time to see the Oni grabbing for her stylish classmate. "Suzuno, no!" She screams it out over the battlefield, terrified for a moment that that's the end of her. ...But she still feels her presence. Kin-ki's shouted question goes unanswered. This is going...It's...
She gets her feet again, as she sees the healing energy wash over Naomi--handled. With a shaky breath, the senior resumes her concentration, the blue aura of power restored as her Persona reasserts itself, searching out, giving her far more than she'd be able to sense just on her own. "Just stay alive out there, Saitou!" That's all her response to the thanks, because she has something else to do, now.
Her eyes close again as the trance resumes, and Persephone moves. The shadowy, crowned head lets out an unearthly wail, piercing and terrible, that sounds like it comes out of...well. They're already in hell, aren't they?
COMBAT: Tohya Kidzuki hits Thora Kobayashi with her Ghastly Wail attack.
She doesn't even know what happens, save for the fact that the large oni manages to grab her hair, long, black waves torn from its usual twist and spilling it loose only to be used as a weapon against her. Her spine jerks backward, nearly snapping in twain at the sudden grab and force. To her credit she doesn't scream - everything occurs too fast for her to do so as she's spun and thrown. If she closes her eyes and projects her mind into a different place, it almost feels like flying...
Unfortunately, reality is not that kind. The bone jarring impact once her body finds stone and bounces off it painfully, leaving spiderwebbing cracks at its wake, rattle her brain and forces jolts of pain to sear through every fiber of her, stitching hurt into her skin. Red and black fog up her vision and when she crumples forward, and it's only the slamming of one palm on the ground that keeps her up, though the rest of her body may very well be broken from where she's leaning up.
She's breathing, at least, the rise and fall of her chest apparent, her ruined hair tangled over her face and masking the lines of stress and fury over her face at being so abused. Shirou's charitable aid helps somewhat - inexplicably she feels the pain lessen, relief situating heavily into her bones like granite.
Ma'at's full form coalesces from a speck of light, an ephemeral ghost sliding over her charge with her scepter brought to bear. But the avatar of balance and order does not attack. Some things take priority.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno hits Yosuke Hanamura with her Mediamai attack.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno hits Tohru Adachi with her Mediamai attack.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno hits Maki Sonomura with her Mediamai attack.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno critically hits Deidra Doyle with her Mediamai attack.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno hits Shirou Sekigawa with her Mediamai attack.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno hits you with her Mediamai attack.
COMBAT: You have been healed for 5 points of damage.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno hits Miwa Saitou with her Mediamai attack.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno hits Yuuka Chiba with her Mediamai attack.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno hits Tohya Kidzuki with her Mediamai attack.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno hits Ichiya Chigiri with her Mediamai attack.
"ugh! Well I guess you're an ally! OKAY." Maki says, moments before--well, Agneyastra is a really painful attack, you know. It's not very funtimes to be caught up in it. The explosion of force hits Maki too, who doesn't seem at all to have any godlike power protecting her because she crashes against the far wall and slumps down it, in a heap.
"Urrrg..." She manages, her head throbbing. "Whuzz..." She adds, a moment later. Where'd Thora go, she wonders.
"Matsu--just...sweep them all around!"
And a torrent of ice and water is flung at the various remaining Oni, not really specifically directed towarsd any of them--she's still thrown for a loop here, even with the healing support.
COMBAT: Maki Sonomura misses Thora Kobayashi with her Maelstrom attack.
Deidra Doyle keeps proving she's very fast on her feet, Deidra jumps back before the latest attack comes her way. Not all of her allies are doing so well such as Yosuke from the looks of things. Rather than attacking this time? She summons her persona and casts a healing spell.
COMBAT: Deidra Doyle hits Yosuke Hanamura with her Diarama attack.
"Gebuh!" Backhanded! Fumiya makes a pained grunt as he's sent flying away from Suu-ki and hits the floor hard. He rolls over, clutching his shoulder where he impacted, for a moment, unable to summon up the concentration needed to stand back up and get out of the way as the Oni advances on him. Luck shines on him, though, as Naomi's attack saves his ass by drawing its attention away from him. The battle is a bit too chaotic to take a moment out to thank her, especially with her being flung into a wall. That causes him to wince more than his own wounds.
Fumiya makes a quick grab for his shotgun, which he dropped when Suu-ki swatted him. He has his crutch back, but he can't think of any one-liners to give at the moment. Instead he whirls around when Yuuka arrives. When the hell did SHE get here? Fumiya didn't even realize she was even in Mikage-cho. Was she at SEBEC? Or is this situation far worse than he thought?
No time for that, though. He turns back to the Oni triplets, and decides to give a little hate to the face-less guy. This has to work. He won't even see it coming! Calling Murugan back, deciding that using his own fists may not be the best choice here, the war god hurls a flaming lance at the Oni. Hopefully he'll stop being made of fail.
COMBAT: You hit Thora Kobayashi with your Heat Wave attack.
Adachi would be in a much worse way of it, after getting swatted by the golden oni and then blasted from the surge of light from its body, if both Yuuka (where the hell did *she* come from?) and Naomi had not decided to go on healing duty. Actually, now that they *have*, he's feeling pretty great. Naomi's... uhhhhhh, a little preoccupied, so he gives Yuuka a weak smile.
"Th-thanks, Yuuka-chan," he tells her, thinking how ironic this all really is. He takes a breather, turning dark eyes back towards the three onis. As he does this something subtle shifts in his soul--rather than the power of Cu Chulainn, who'd strengthened the power of his gunshots, he calls on Hanuman, who has a couple of better, more fun things in store for these onis. Adachi has no illusions about being able to do much with his attack, so it doesn't matter that he's sacrificing power for it. He'll be able to give as good as he's gotten, now.
"I-I guess there's no choice but to keep attacking, huh," he complains aloud to anyone who'll listen--it's probably good that he left Yosuke's backpack near the entrance, or it probably would've been ruined already--before opening fire on Kin-ki again.
God, this is really kind of /boring/, actually. Though he can't really complain; after all, he's getting a front-seat exhibition match of all these people's Personas, isn't he?
COMBAT: Tohru Adachi has activated Hanuman.
COMBAT: Tohru Adachi hits Thora Kobayashi with his Pierce Attack - Handgun attack.
Following the wave of rage, everyone seems to scramble to cover each other with healing. A good move at least but the oni do not choose to relent against the human invaders.
As Sui-ki finishes tossing Naomi away, it half-stumbles, half-sidesteps to avoid the sudden jagged earth that erupts beneath its feet. Drunkenly, the injured Oni turns a baleful gaze over to Miwa and snorts. Clearly she would be the next one to be thrown into a wall if Sui-ki got into grabbing range.
A terrible wail pierces the battle and simultaneously, all three oni freeze, then shudder. Kin-ki takes a moment to hack up another round of poisoned innards and slowly turns to keep his gaze settled on Tohya. At that moment, Thora tenses and attempts to pull herself up.
Lack of direction seems to hurt Maki in this case, none of the icy waters ever managing to actually /hit/ any of the oni as they 'reboot' after hearing that terrible wail. Meanwhile, while Adachi actually manages to hit the broad side of an oni with his gun...he's still a Fumbles with a silly Hyoo-mon wea-pon that can't really do jack against the thick-skinned monsters. So far it doesn't look like much progress is being made.
This finally changes when Fumiya manages to score a devistating strike against Fuu-ki, the flaming lance sinking halfway through the blue-skinned oni's gut. The howl of pain is loud enough to actually earn the attention of the other two on, who turn to look at their wounded brother. This is the first time that the damage has actually been so /noticable/ on Fuu-ki.
Violent winds tear upwards and around Kin-ki. Judging by the look on his face, that really /did/ hurt-Tohya's advice was solid. Attacking the oni, especially this particular one, with magic apparently was the way to go. Unfortunately, exploiting what Kin-ki knew was a weakness was absolutely enraging. The gigantic golden oni storms after the Junes heir, reaching out for him with his massive golden hands. If Yosuke is seized, he's quickly manhandled so Kin-ki can grasp him by the legs. Then, like a child dragging a stick across a fence, Yosuke is dragged across the wall for a few feet before being flung into the wrought-iron staircase on the other side of the room. Right near where Thora is quietly recovering and pulling herself together.
Fuu-ki lifts both gauntleted hands to the air, allowing his bladed weapon to fall to his feet for a few seconds. Where Kin-ki had a red aura, Fuu-ki has a violent blue one that swirls around him like a maelstrom. When it's unleashed, it feels nothing like the pain his golden bretheren unleashed. No, this hurts in a much different way. The astute might even class it as 'magic.' Fumiya may feel as if the brunt of the attack is turned in /his/ direction, were it even possible to direct the flow of such a powerful aura.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Yosuke Hanamura with her World Revolution attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi misses Tohru Adachi with her Maruzandyne attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi misses Maki Sonomura with her Maruzandyne attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Deidra Doyle with her Maruzandyne attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Shirou Sekigawa with her Maruzandyne attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi missed you with her Maruzandyne attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Miwa Saitou with her Maruzandyne attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Yuuka Chiba with her Maruzandyne attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Tohya Kidzuki with her Maruzandyne attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Ichiya Chigiri with her Maruzandyne attack.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Naomi Suzuno with her Maruzandyne attack.
Both ichiya and his Persona block the blunt of the force. Both shoved back, and his Persona nearly stepping very close to his user, though the image not solid, it is solid enough. Mahes grunts softly, as Ichiya inhales deeply attempting to ignore the pain that befronted them. His persona seemed to take most of the brunt of the force, but it was starting to bother him.
For now, everyone else was seeming to go on the attack front, he couldn't yet, not entil he could get his baring and his vision ceased being blurry. Dang massive wind aura impact...
Mahes then made a motion with its hand, which seems to follow Ichiya's before tossing it out to the side with a glow of light to follow around them and thus resting at their feet.
COMBAT: Ichiya Chigiri hits Ichiya Chigiri with his Diamai attack.
Whoa, sudden wind damage.
Shirou puts his arms up and braces, being buffetted by the winds and more then likely with a hard hit with debris. He growls out, and yeah... /that/ does it. If you gotta attack with Magic? /He can attack with Magic/.
"CHARON! TRIAL OF DARKNESS!"
The monsterous form billows out from his back, and with a swing of a heavy oar, he tries to send the onis into a sub-dimension of darkness... likely they'll feel at home there, but Shirou's working on his Darkness control, and it won't be /that/ heart-warming...
COMBAT: Shirou Sekigawa hits Thora Kobayashi with his Trial of Darkness attack.
Barely recovered and she's being blasted again, her back once more finding the wall and feeling air pressure do its best to imbed her skeleton upon the already cracked surface. Naomi sinks into herself, breathing raggedly and feeling parts of her throb with lingering pain. Despite it all, the heiress looks much better than she had been earlier, half her face shrouded by the tangled, midnight tresses of her hair as she remains where she is, away from the oni as the rest do their best to pummel what remains of their opponents.
Ma'at needs little to no coaxing. Through all of it, her charge has not spoken a word, but the goddess appears to be in full and utter comprehension of her anchor's wishes. The scepter points forward, the smell of ozone suddenly thickening the air and charging it with electricity.
COMBAT: Naomi Suzuno hits Thora Kobayashi with her Ziodyne attack.
Yosuke is surprisingly aerodynamic. He's flung like a ragdoll, across the floor, bouncing a bit as he struggles to magically acrobatically regain himself. This fails. He pretty much nails his head on an iron staircase, which is just what he needed right now. This does, however, put him out of harm's way for just a moment, which is what he needs to prepare for another assault. He focuses. He bends, a bit. Kneels up, slowly. looking to the Oni of Osaka.
"Ahh--it...it's cool, Thora. We'll, uh, we'll get you out of he--OHGOD." He crosses his arms over his eyes as another attack is washed across the battlefield, but he's not harmed by it. He steadies himself again, looking to the golden one. Well. If that's going to hurt, he's going to have to keep /doing/ that. "Ji..Jiraiya, let's..finish this off, alright?"
He limps forward, towards the golden Oni, his Persona holding him up a bit. And then he does something agonizingly stupid, but it might leave him the valuable opportunity to /really piss it off/ in the vein of killing it. He taps it. Lightly, in the back of the belly, and as soon as it turns around, unleashes a fistful of concentrated air ball directly in its face. Sometimes, shit like that works.
COMBAT: Yosuke Hanamura hits Thora Kobayashi with his Garula attack.
"Suzuno!!" Yep, she's outright dropped the -san at this point, as her attack doesn't slow the oni descending on her kouhai at all... or stop it from throwing poor Naomi. She gasps in horror, her featherduster almost slipping from her fingers as she raises her other hand to her mouth. She takes a stumbling step her underclassman's way. "Suzuno..." Oh gods, please, please don't let her be badly hurt...
This of course means her back's to the onis as one of them quite abruptly casts out a blast of force. Miwa is sent flying, landing with a painful skid across the floor. She's slow to pick herself back up, shaky on her legs when she finally manages.
This... isn't working very well. In desperation, Yaksa is returned to the sea of her soul while another /different/ presence is dragged up. She'd thought it a poor choice before, with Tohya's admonition about physical attacks. But, the giant didn't just have physical abilities, did he? Her gaze darts from oni to oni until she settles on her target of choice, the purple one. "Fi... Fir Bolg..." she intones, a luminescent blue shading her figure, "...Show my enemy your mastery of the land and sky!" The red-haired giant behind her shoulders his axe, rolling his neck as he sizes up his target. A slight, perhaps mischievous smile plays on lips all-but hidden in his beard, and he gestures.
Lightning strikes about Sui-ki, shards of rock erupting from below, as if from a land split by the storm's fury.
COMBAT: Miwa Saitou hits Thora Kobayashi with her Land Spark attack.
Oh fraggit all, wind damage. Yuuka snarls, staggering back from the sheer force of it, the misty force of her persona fading away in the gust of wind from the Onis. Using her bo staff as a grip, she presses her Evoker to her head, gritting her teeth. As far as how she got here... ladies and gentlemen... she A) was late to the Team Infiltration with Yosuke and Co, like she was supposed to be with to the start. That meant she was barely inside the Lunarvale city limits when Someone speared the DVA system. As such, she landed on the East Side of Mikage-Cho.
For those wondering how she got into the tower and upstairs to the Oni fight ... hey, she's stubborn. That, and she, as a person, tends to come right when people need her most. She gives Adachi a wry smile. "It's okay, Adachi-san! We can do it! All of us, together! Persona!" Unicorn appears, an ice attack heading straight for whatever Oni she's mostly in front of. Also: ShikiInspiration.
COMBAT: Yuuka Chiba misses Thora Kobayashi with her Bufula attack.
Maki gets off fairly light this time. She seems to only be using Matsu, which has fairly predictable magical capacity so far. Her assaults are powerful, but not neccessarily well aimed which might be a bit more important. Not aiming doesn't seem to work too well, but she recovers before the explosion of force manages to slam into her body.
She runs back, breathing in deeply. Better try and hit one as hard as she can. If any of them go down, it makes the rest easier. She decides to focus on Kin-Ki.
--and she unleashes a huge torrent of water and ice for his body! "Eat this!" She shouts.
COMBAT: Maki Sonomura critically hits Thora Kobayashi with her Torrent attack.
Fumiya's effectiveness in this fight shoots from non-existant to AWESOME in a single attack! The 80s kid even takes a moment to raise his shotgun in triumph when he sees the damage given to the Oni. "Yeah! That's what you freaks get!" He nods as he remembers something, and gets back into his Evil Dead thing. "Uh-huh. That's right. Who's laughing now? Who's laughing now!?" He lets slip another quote from the movie, just in time for the Oni's counter attack to shut him up.
Luckily, though, he manages to dodge the torrent of magical power. How does one exactly dodge /magic/? With SMOOTH MOVES, that's how!
After dance-dodging the magic, moonwalk style, Fumiya weighs his options. If Tohya is right and magic is the way to go that still puts him at a disadvantage, as he's already pretty much used Murugan's full compliment of non-physical attacks. He could try calling another Persona out for the first time, but from what he knows about what's open to him none of those options have much in the way of magic either. So he'll just have to retread familiar ground a bit. Calling Murugan out again, he decides to try lighting up the same faceless Oni with another Agilao.
He takes a moment to look back at Yuuka. "Don't push yourself, babe."
COMBAT: You critically hit Thora Kobayashi with your Agilao attack.
She should have insisted harder that Naomi stay behind. Just having a Persona doesn't mean anything. They aren't some sort of army, they're just a bunch of people trying to...whatever. It's the end of the world out here, it feels like, and if she thinks too hard about that, she'll lose her focus. Her awareness, however, is centered on her kohai.
She can still tell when Yosuke is being manhandled like that, though, wincing from her vantage point far off. "Hanamura! Are you--?" Shouting that way, she's too focused on the other combatants to sense the wave of magic coming. Power crashes into her like a truck, knocking the wind out of her lungs and filling her senses with pain. The tall girl slumps against the wall, dazed, her eyes flitting open. "I.." It hurts.
Miwa's still up, though, invoking...more personas. Tohya drags herself up against the wall, more out of stubbornness than out of physical strength. She has another move to play, part three of the plan. "PERSONA!" she shouts, more to steady herself than out of a need to drag the ever-present Queen out of the depths of her own personal underworld. A dark haze will lash out at the golden oni, aiming to sap its strength into nothingness.
"Just...just keep at it, everyone! They can't stay up forever!"
COMBAT: Tohya Kidzuki misses Thora Kobayashi with her Bewilder attack.
Deidra Doyle has done what she could to support her comrades for the moment, at least with healing. She's preparing for another atack while the Yosuke is doing something prehaps heroicly foolish. Humm prehaps she could give him some cover. Then comes the storm! She's knocked off her feet and goes skidding a good bit, and it takes a moment for her to get back on her feet but when she does? Her personal is called and she sends the same level of savage winds back at the Oni but with added lighting!
COMBAT: Deidra Doyle hits Thora Kobayashi with her Storm Nightmare attack.
When the eternal vortex of blue is released from Fuu-ki's grip, Adachi ducks and covers. He can tell enough that when an enemy starts glowing a bright color like that, YOU WANT TO GUARD. He's played RPGs too, you know!! He's fortunate enough that doing so means he gets to avoid getting blasted like many of the others do, and when he peeks up from where he's crouching, he breathes out a sigh.
"Is everyone okay?" he calls, uselessly, knowing it's useless. The point is to be heard saying it. He gives Yuuka a tremulous smile when she encourages him, seeming to steel as everyone else calls to just pound the onis with their attacks and work together. "Right!" he calls, as much to Miwa as to Yuuka.
And waits.
And waits.
And aims.
And, once it seems like everyone has pounded the onis for all they're worth, fires. You know the idiom 'the straw that broke the camel's back,' right?
COMBAT: Tohru Adachi hits Thora Kobayashi with his Pierce Attack - Handgun attack.
Darkness falls around the three oni, who look absolutely confused. Sui-ki is unharmed by the magic entirely, able to overcome the trail with its own inner strength. The other two are lacking in that particular flavor of willpower and are ultimately sapped by the magic, Kin-ki sinking down to one knee afterwards, having taken the worst of the magic. As soon as they can see again, the oni split up, intent on each picking some poor soul to harass. Even after all the punishment they've taken thus far, they give no sign of slowing down-this is just the nature of the brutes. Fighters until the end.
The poor beleagured Naomi struggles are not in vain. There is something to be said about someone that keeps going after taking that much punishment during their first fight and still keeping up. Fate sees it fit to reward the young woman, the thick bolt of summoned lightning slamming harshly into Sui-ki with enough force to slam him into the wall clear across the room. Divine retribution.
Sui-ki struggles to get back up but is unable to as the ground rips upward from beneath him, wreathed with more of that deadly lightning. The rocks impale the oni, pinning him to the dark bricks of the tower. He squirms for a few more seconds before he falls limp, large double-headed club dropping from his grasp.
For the faceless oni Fuu-ki, Fumiya appears to be his sole opponent, at least this is how he envisions it given that Fumiya was the first one to really harm him. As Deirdra's wind and lightning swirls around the oni, he struggles to ignore it, though at his own expense as the magic ravages his body. He stalks towards Fumiya, pulling back one gauntlet-covered hand, preparing to strike.
The blow never lands as Muragan appears, though not due to any lack of hesitation on the Oni's part. The monster is simply immotalated on the spot and the burnt flesh smell of the tower grows that much stronger. The crispy, smoking body of Fuu-ki collapses.
The only way to really bring down Kin-ki is to keep pounding it with magic...right? Yosuke seems to understand this well, unloading more wind magic on the oni (at the risk of another personalized beatdown). Judging by the look on the golden oni's face when he recovers, he's planning to do just that. His movement enables him to narrowly get out of the way of Yuuka's impending ice magic, a flavor of spell he had yet to taste today-that is until Maki's second flood of ice cold water overwhelms the monster, knocking him down on his back for the second time tonight. Why, he actually seems to /shiver/. If one were to look close enough, they'd spot hairline cracks all along his golden skin as if the ice magic was definitely far too much for the oni to take. Another shudder wracks Kin-ki's body thanks to Tohya, though the effects are hard to discern at this point.
Perhaps Adachi can actually see these cracks. One single shot is fired.
It strikes near the same spot the first bullet did. The effects are drastically different, the hairline cracks spreading and widening before the oni's head just crumbles, ichor leaking out of the cracks.
"Yosuke." Thora grunts, eyeing the panicking teenager for a second before watching with feral glee as each oni falls. Once it's apparent that they're very /dead/, Thora finally pushes herself up to her feet, chains clanking, odd pole weapon dragging against the stone floor.
Something seems slightly different about Thora, as if a slight air of confidence has settled around her. The large teenager stalks over to the remaining red oni that hadn't been reduced to shish-kabob and kicks his side a few times. "C'mon, get up."
The oni rouses and starts to stand. Thora turns away, eyes finally settling on her saviors. "...Adachi-san. Shirou..." she sighs, a tiny smile making itself known upon her face. That smile disappears quickly as she sees Maki.
Thora shudders and runs over to the girl, half-collapsing, half-hugging her. "Maki!" she cries, "I thought you were dead!"
The cries from her classmates seem to snap her out of the pained haze that threatens to take her over. Throwing the bent and broken ski pole aside, Naomi shakes her head vehemently in an effort to clear it. Violet eyes widen at the sight of Miwa stumbling towards her direction, or attempting to. Odd, how the sight of it spurs her back into alertness much quicker than her own efforts. Her hand extends forward, as if she could physically stop her senpai from making her way towards her, the distance between herself and Miwa and Tohya feeling more akin to leagues between oceans than just several yards; not when the battlefield is so chaotic and bloody. "No! Saitou-senpai, don't worry about me!" she calls from where she's huddled.
They shouldn't. They -shouldn't-. She just -met them-, they...
There are no further words when both her senpais are slammed back by the wind attack that's battered her against the wall. Hissing softly and willing herself to get up, she manages to, forcing herself onto her feet by sheer force of will alone. The detective rushing forward to fire the final shot of the evening barely registers, pausing only for a second or two as she pushes her body to move forward towards the other Sevens girls. They could be hurt. They could need healing. She could still go on, her insurmountable pride refusing to acknowledge anything otherwise as she picks her way through the rubble.
Once she reaches them, she drops on her knees, gaze falling in quick assessment of their injuries. She says very little, her breath still trying to catch up with her body -- while disheveled and somewhat bloody, her cuts and visible bruises slowly, gradually seem to be disappearing still. Whatever afflicted pain she is experiencing shows more around the eyes than anywhere else, the delicate lines of her expression hardened with determination as her hand extends in offerance to heal both of her schoolmates. "Hold still," she pants softly. "I can....still..."
Something to be said, indeed, for one who keeps going despite multiple arrays of devastating punishment. It is something not new to the heiress, in spite of her pampered looks. She certainly doesn't look so pampered now, given the state of her uniform and her hair torn from its orderly twist, midnight chaos spiraling against her shoulders and draping down her back in thick, abyssal tendrils.
Ichiya was getting ready to go all out--
And the fight is over, pitty. It seemed like he only got one good hit in. Though he did smile, it was at least amusing and in the end, they win.
His persona seems to vanish back into him, before he rubs his arm then rolls his shoulder. Guess after they get Thora the question was then: How the hell do we get back to normality?
At least the semplence of it.
Yosuke is still standing. He looks around the room a bit, nodding to himself. There is a smirk. A chuckle. He looks around....as if to say something...
And instead resigns himself to grabbing what he can off the fallen bodies. This is valuable stuff. It is valuable stuff that will help in the new normal. Thora's okay. Shirou probably deserves first 'Thora, you're okay!' He'll just grab what he can carry and go down the stairs, for now.
You guys already know where you'll find him.
See you in Fort Junes, Yosuke.
Yuuka leans on her bo staff, next to Fumiya, giving him a nod. "I don't think we have to worry." She says, voice rich with amusement, and happiness at the sight of Thora being okay, and well, Thora-ish in her sheer annoyance at kicking the last oni. She finally looks over at Adachi.
"Nice shot." She murmurs to the detective. Perserverance pays off.
Shirou gives a little as Thora gets back up on her feet, grunting a little bit. Yeah, he's good and drained now, his body aching from the battle. If he was feeling more like himself he'd run over to her, but here, now?
He takes his time, letting her talk to Maki first, letting whomever else wants to talk to her get to her first. Honestly, he knew he'd find her fighting... And he wants to talk to her in private anyway.
"Ichiya, Fumiya... good job guys..." He smiles, just a bit, some of that anger and pain draining form his face. "Fumiya... where /did/ you get that shotgun anyway..."
Only the violent rush of adrenaline that Fir Bolg brings with him is keeping Miwa standing, really. She's exhausted, practically dead on her feet. But needless to say, she's a mess. The earlier damage her outfit had taken was a pale shadow of how it is now, tattered in places, with one particularly nasty rip horizontally across the front of her skirt from her crash landing earlier; if it were much higher up, she might have a slight decency problem.
But, it's over. The oni are dead. And Naomi's rejuvenating magic is going a long way towards injecting a little more life into the senior.
And /right/ then, the horrible smell of roasted blackened oni reaches Miwa's nose. She retches involuntarily, eyes squeezed shut and one hand clamped tight over her mouth as she struggles not to vomit. Oh, ugh. Ugh. Tears are in her eyes when she finally regains control of herself. With that past, she's finally able to turn away from the battlefield, and towards her classmates. Yes, she's concerned about Thora, but it's a close second to Naomi and Tohya. "Are you... are you all right?" /Now/ she glances at Thora. "Kobayashi-san! You're not too hurt, are you...?"
"Eh?" Maki says, startled by this random proclamation. She doesn't seem to have any idea what Thora is talking about. The Oni (so they say) hugs her, half collapsing, and Maki steadies her with one hand and wraps an arm around her with the other.
"Hey, hey there..." Maki coos quietly, "What's this about me dying? I was worrying all about you, being cooped up in here!" How'd she find out about that? It's a mystery. Maybe she just could tell with the name. Onisaka Tower. It's not exactly subtle. Perhaps a demon told her. She can be pretty good at chatting them up.
"Are you gonna be okay?" She asks.
Ichiya walked over to Shirou, before taking off his hat at last and dusting it off with his glove, before placing it back on his head. "Not a problem, if it wasn't for the fact it was for a good cause, I probably make you pay a price." He muses, then places his hands in his pockets as he just watches. "Shirou-- next time however, when I am like this, just call me Fox, hmm?" He says with a grin, "Don't like my real name much when i am on the job."
He then looks about and searches the area with his eyes, "..now.. how do we get home..and are we going to find ourselves another demon welcoming group.."
(Ohcrapohcrapohcrap hurryuphurryuphurryup) Fumiya thinks as the Oni bears down on him. Murugan doesn't fail him, though, and his giant foe is incinerated. This gives him time to breathe a sigh of relief, especially when he sees the other two fall. Despite his rocky start, he can at least claim a killing blow on one of these freaks.
The fact that Detective Adachi finishes it off feels kind of weird to him, for some reason, but he puts it out of his mind for now, chalking it up to just not being all that familiar with the guy. Maybe he's a secret badass. He's a friend of Thora, so who knows?
Once it's apparent all the threats are taken care of, Fumiya dusts himself off. He grins at Shirou's question, resting the shotgun on his shoulder he simply repeats "Groovy." Once more, as if that explains everything.
Fumiya watches Thora run off to the others, admittedly feeling a little lonely at not even getting a glance, but he tries not to dwell on it. Things were kind of crazy, and he has bigger fish to fry. So he takes a few steps into the center of the arena and clears his throat.
"Now that we've finally found you, Thora, and we're all together maybe we can pool our info. Let's start at the top. Can anyone explain just what the hell has been going on?"
They're gone. Tohya can feel Adachi's final shot end the fight, in all defiance of the analysis that she'd given, but...To be fair to him, it's not like he has anything else that he can do but fire that gun, right? He is kind of a hero, though.
For now, however, from over by the wall, Tohya barely even senses Naomi coming. She didn't take the hits as poorly as many who were here, but she just doesn't have the fortitude to fight as long as a 'normal' Persona-user. It's with surprise that she looks up to Naomi, and then over to Miwa as they ask that question. "Suzuno-san...don't be..." She shakes her head. "You were hurt worse than I was." She sees the pain, right along with the determination. "You can worry about me after we've patched you up. I'm not accepting any argument." The same goes for Miwa, honestly, but her classmate can probably see that she's fine--and Tohya's eyes linger on her fellow senior's injuries longer than she likes. "Saitou-san, sit down. You look like you're about to throw up. I'm not letting either of you go anywhere until I heal you a little." With that, however, she looks over toward the wall, where Thora sits.
It does stink, doesn't it?"
"Kobayashi!" She shouts it over that way, noticing the touching moment and choosing not to interfere directly. "Sorry I didn't bring your coat. You can borrow mine, if it'll fit."
Hell yeah, that's what happens when you cross the immortal Adachi! Don't mess with him!!
"Wow. I can't *believe* that worked," he says outloud, almost laughing. "That was one hell of a lucky shot!" Yes. 'Lucky.' He gives a bit of a grin over at Yuuka when she compliments him, rubbing the back of his head. "Heh, thanks... Whew, it's like all the tension released at once!"
He smiles back at Thora when she murmurs his name, but otherwise keeps his distance in favor of letting the other kids crowd around her. Maki, in particular, he's surprised to learn actually *is* a friend of Thora's. Huh. He'll have to ask Thora about that later. In the meantime, the detective will get to his feet and breath out a sigh, glancing over at Yosuke as the enterprising teenager returns to his backpack. "How much stuff can you actually fit in there?" he wonders aloud.
Adachi gives Ichiya a long, critical look when he overhears him talking to Shirou, who calls him Ichiya, after which Ichiya corrects him and tells him to call him Fox. So that's Fox, huh? ...well, not like he really cares right now. Then Fumiya gets down to business, and starts asking about what the hell has been going on here. Adachi starts drifting over that way after all, so as to hear the conversation better. He's quiet at this point, glancing around the group and eyeballing the still-living red oni. He notably does not holster his gun.
"The earthquake!" Thora blurts out. "You were missing! I thought you..." Died. Hey, it's a reasonable assumption to make that anyone 'missing' after an earthquake just hasn't had their body dug out of the rubble yet. Composing herself, Thora stands again and rubs a hand through her dirty hair. "Yeah well this...I guess I brought this on myself."
She pinches the bridge of her nose, takes in a breath, then smirks at Maki. "Yeah, now that I can get out of this damn tower, I think I'm gonna be alright."
Looking back to Shirou, she seems about ready to say something when Fumiya speaks up. "You got me, Fumiya-san. That little brat's had me stuck in here the whole time. Hell, I haven't even been /outside/ yet. Can't say I don't already know what's out there though."
She jerks her thumb behind her at the red Oni. "My friend filled me in a little. Demons own the city now?" Friend? The red Oni definitely isn't attacking the other humans at least. It does look a little weirded out in his current position-that is being /surrounded/ by them.
Tohya speaks up and earns a huff from the taller girl. "Damn it, my cellphone was in that coat! Nah, you keep yours." Smirking, she tugs on the edges of Ongyo-ki's cape/shirt that she pillaged not long ago. "This one I earned."
Whoops, sorry Ichiya. Your secret is no longer a secret to NWO. Nice knowing you.
Shirou coughs a bit as Fumiya asks the million dollar question. "Err, well? You know how I thought that Kandori could warp space and time? I was right!" The boy gives a /very/ forced smile...
That lives for all of five seconds before he visibly deflates. "andIkindasortastabbedthemachinethatdidsobecausehewouldn'ttellmewhereThorawas."
...Yup, Shirou broke the Universe.
"What." Thora deadpans.
"What." Fumiya also deadpans.
Ichiya glances over to the red demon, it was alive-- and it hadn't attacked. Interesting.
The Fox aka Ichiya walks over to it calmly, not touching anything.
As for NWO knowing who he was, well-- if they wanted to bother him when he was working in the car-repair depot, he probably just give them a discount and wack on the head with a wrench, or a hammer.. or just have his boss kick them off the property.
A look back at Thora and Shirou, then over at Fumiya. Yuuka does not know Thora that well, but she respects the Yasogami girl well enough that she came here to help. Her hand is still gripped around her Evoker, bouncing between her feet lightly as the adrenalin fades. "I think I can answer the rest of this question, Kobayashi, Watanabe."
"There's this little girl. Called Aki. She's ... well, she calls Kandori daddy. I think she trusts him, in some part - not that I think anyone can trust someone like him anyways." Strangly, Yuuka does not look at Maki, feeling a little odd. "There's two sides. We're blocked off by that colorful barrier. However - down in the subway tunnels, we can access the other side." A pause, as Shirou admits to breaking the Universe.
"... At least you didn't stab Kandori."
Back to the conversation.
"That system, I don't what it is called, warps time and space. It's how I ended up in Yosuke's bedroom for a few hours awhile back." She raises a hand. "I'm /not talking about that night/, so don't even ask." Yuuka chuckles. "We've got Fort Junes on the main streets. Yosuke built it, stocked it, and it's possibly the safest place right now. He's got food, weaponry-" Her eyes flick to Fumiyas' gun - "And a safe place to crash."
"... this Aki girl is kind of a well, a ... bitch. I wouldn't piss her off. Watch your step around her."
"For all we know, we're in the middle of her, or Kandoris', nightmare."
The fight easing gradually away from her, Naomi nods, lowering her hand as she finally takes a look around, realizing - possibly for the first time since they arrived - just how -used- everyone is to being...well, supernaturally inclined. While it isn't news to her that there are more, for Himeru said that much, the fact that there would be others like her so closely ingrained in her every day. Questions replace the pain in her amethyst irises...but they aren't vocalized yet. Now isn't the time for that. Tohya's order to have Miwa and herself remain close earns her a small smile - just a brief tilt of her lips sideways in a lopsided angle, nodding in acquiescence. Besides, she was hurting enough, she isn't about to get the tall lady get mad at her.
"Saitou-senpai, please sit," she says encouragingly, registering the acrid smell of burnt and charred flesh. Morbidly enough, she doesn't even flinch, a certain familiarity to the smell that triggers some of her more painful memories; thankfully she's too busy worrying about her seniors to even register what Shirou s--
"...." Her head whips towards the Inaba country boy, her jaw slacking open as she watches her responsibility-filled, yet privileged life turn into a bastard love-child of an episode of Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Yuuka Chiba adds on, politely, "And if we're going to jump Sekigawa-san for destroying the universe, can we wait until we've fixed it again? We'll get out of here. We just have to believe, find the rest of our friends, and keep on going."
"Yuuka-chan's right," Adachi says, piping up then to look around at everyone as hostilities instantly rise at Shirou's confession of guilt. "I was there at the time, and I saw what happened. Even if we all strung up Sekigawa-kun by his toenails--and I'm pretty sure Thora-chan wouldn't let us, even if she doesn't seem too thrilled with him at the moment either," he adds, shooting the so-called Oni a faint smile, "it wouldn't really change anything. We should let Sekigawa-kun have the chance to take responsibility for *his* mistake, as much hell as it's put everyone through."
"But I'm..." Miwa starts to protest, before a wave of dizziness, piercing even through Fir Bolg's fortitude, leaves her with no choice but to acquiesce. She nods, then carefully--very carefully--sits, close to the wall. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the smell, she can't help but think. The smell, and the pain, and not having had a shower in over a day. "...All right."
Maybe, under more normal circumstances, Miwa might make some sort of comment. Maybe even scold Shirou a little. But, she's tired. Closing her eyes, she just sighs, tilting her head back to rest against the wall.
"Oh, I /know/ who Aki is. She brought me here. Just like that, kaboom, teleport." Thora scowls. "As for pissing her off, well." The large girl puts a hand on her hip. "That ship sailed months ago during that raid on the Kirijo labs when I attacked the /hell/ out of her. I'm pretty sure that's why I was put in prison."
In a quieter voice, she adds, "Shirou, if you hadn't done that, you all probably would have never found me." It's hard for Thora to really get angry at Shirou right now. Or anyone here for that matter, too full of relief over being found.
Hastily, she makes her way to the stairwell down. That oni follows along behind her like a lost puppy. "Let's get out of this place, I hate it here."
".../Thanks/, Adachi."
Shirou mentally puts him down next on the list to freaking stab. Yes, Thora's created a monster.
But Thora forgave him. And he saved her... damn that felt good. "R-right, following you Thora." He upheld his vow. Nothing else mattered to him.
Maki says, "Earthquake?" As if, again, she has no idea what Thora was talking about. She looks towards the red Oni. "Oh, hi!" She waves to the demon, and then looks back to Thora, "Little brat?" Apparently when she vanished last time she didn't get a good look at Aki, or maybe she forgot about her. Something about the name, Maki thinks, but she puts it aside for now.
"Kandori's a bad guy." Maki says, remembering that much at least.
"Um, you're in Mikage-Cho, it's my home." She says, "What's with you guys anyway..."
Ichiya watches the red oni follow Thora. Awww.. how cute.
He stares at Thora for a moment before his eyes narrow under the brim of the hat. He now recalled her, from the Mall--
Funny how fate works, well, she did say she be seeing him again, though she probably doesn't even remember him. Probably for the better.
He was doing this all for Shirou, and there was bigger fish to fry. Personal grumblings could be delt with later, besides-- maybe he'll learn that Thora isn't so bad..
Maybe..
Her hands come up, to help Miwa sit down and feeling her knees lock at the gesture, suddenly exhausted and weary over everything. Demons. Stabbing time and space and ending up here. It was all too much to comprehend, almost, especially with a brain as prediposed to logic and rationale as hers. There's no censure on Naomi's face despite everything she's heard...there was a lot of the story that she doesn't know, and perhaps never will know. All she's definite on at the present moment is that her back feels like a concrete slab has been stapled to it and her knees feel transmuted into the consistency of jelly.
But when Thora tells them that it's time to go, she bites back a groan, shoving herself off the wall she's leaning against and taking a few steps forward. She does not, however, go too far...she waits for the other Sevens girls to retrieve their bearings before setting forth yet again.
Fumiya is, surprisingly, at a loss for word when Shirou admits to causing their entire situation. He is more than a little pissed. He spent all of last night and today running scared from monsters and pretending to be /Ash/ to get through it.
Admittedly that was kind of fun.
He taps the barrel of his shotgun on his shoulder a few times, not seriously considering using it but it's just idle movement, before sighing. He really can't blame Shirou /that much/. Fumiya knows quite well how much Thora means to him. And that kind of relationship can make people do stupid, /stupid/ things. Yuuka and Adachi's words help soften him a little too.
"We'll have to have words once this is all over." He finally says to Shirou, before turning back to the others. "While I would /love/ to just leave Kandori in his personal nightmare, we need to prioritize getting out of here. And I have the sinking feeling that being able to do that will probably require taking him with us." He scratches the side of his head with his free hand and nods to Thora.
"Yeah, for now let's get some rest. However much we can. Then we need to get on finding a way out of here."
"You're welcome, Sekigawa-kun!" Adachi says brightly, apparently oblivious to any venom in the kid's voice. He glances again at Maki as she claims this is her home--hmm... Well, he'll let her be confused for a while longer, but if his hunch is correct...
Well, it seems like for /now/ everything's settled, so he holsters his gun for the moment, and nods over to Fumiya. "Yeah. For now, let's just get the hell out of this damn tower. Then we can figure out how to get out of this place in general. Sonomura-san, will you be coming along with us? I'm sure Thora-chan would like that."
It's not that Tohya is that used to it--after all, this will be the first time almost everyone in this room has seen her Persona--but this supernatural stuff is...kind of...her job. She gets paid for it. And a nice amount, too.
But at least Naomi is following her orders. The smile and the words that she gives to go along with it receive, in turn, a satisfied look from the senior, content for the moment that things are going her way. Even Miwa's argument doesn't stop anything, though it seems that her fellow senior isn't going to protest overmuch. "Good. Rest right there." She's going to need a minute before she can bring the focus to summon back Persephone, but--
"What." She doesn't quite deadpan--her voice is cold, and she turns toward Shirou as he makes his explanation. ....She doesn't say anything more than that, though, as Adachi chimes in, explains...what happened. Kandori is responsible for thi--No, someone just messed with one of his--he had a machine to do that? Thora chimes back in, and if that's true, then...
It's too much to sort out all at once. Belatedly, she remarks to the even taller girl, "Alright, then." She'll just keep her coat. At the announcement that it's time to leave, though, she returns her focus to the other Sevens students. "Just let me do this first..." She summons forth her persona for just a brief instant, sending another wave of healing over the group. It's tiring, but she said she would do it.
It's time to get out of this place. Tohya will stick with the other Sevens students, though--until they get back, anyway. When she learns what 'Fort Junes' has been doing about their cooking situation...she's going to get in thre and take charge. Honestly, having things to do is what helps her keep her mind off of all of this.
"Mikage-Cho?" Thora looks confused. "I...but...you live in Lunarvale, Maki." Jeeze! So much going on! She doesn't go too far though, glancing over her shoulder every now and then to make sure everyone's coming along. Only then does she take notice of the new face helping out Miwa. Wait, who is that?
"C'mon." she urges Miwa from afair, already noting that Naomi seems to be up and moving. "Demons come to this tower pretty often so we need to move."
Tohya hits her with the healing. After a beat, she makes eye contact with the older girl. "I'm going to need to talk to you later, I think."
Miwa has been avoiding thinking about it too much for exactly that reason, Naomi. Although, her own background may mean that it'll be easier for her to cope, in time. ...As long as the realization of exactly how cut off she is from her family and friends outside the barrier doesn't hit home, of course. Good thing she hasn't tried to mess with her cellphone just yet.
Thanks to Persephone's rejuvenating magic, Miwa's able to stand again. No wave of dizziness again, this time. Still, she thinks she'll keep Fir Bolg around a while longer, until she's certain she can pass out somewhere for a while. "I'm... I think I'm good to go now!" she calls over to Thora, a little more energetic than she was a moment ago. Even at the prospect of the stairs down.
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