Super Guido's Inspirational Power Hour
   
  

/========================( - TV World - The Stage - )========================\ 
|                                                                              |
|  Those who investigate the Midnight Channel follow one very strict rule -    |
| the only TV you jump through is one within the electronics department from   |
| Junes. There is no telling what lies beyond the other TVs. It also neatly    |
| ensures that everyone gathers together in the same place.                    |
|  The area beyond the long, disorienting, reality-warping fall is the eerie   |
| gathering point of intrepid Persona users. Surrounded by a thick yellow      |
| haze that can only be seen through with the help of specially designed       |
| glasses (and even then only so far), the area takes the form of a TV         |
| studio's set. The appearance of a bullseye on the floor in alternating       |
| black and white colors does not help make this any more inviting,            |
| especially not with the outlines of bodies all around. Bright lights,        |
| ladders, and props litter the outer perimeter of the stage, with a few       |
| bridge-like pathways leading further out into the mysterious world.          |
|  There is no known way outside of the TV world by one's own volition, and    |
| it becomes incredibly dangerous to hang around here after a few days of      |
| rain when the fog lifts. It's a good thing that Teddie, the only known       |
| friendly resident of the world, can produce the means back out to the real   |
| world... unless he is in a very, very bad mood.                              |
|===============================( - Players - )================================|

|===============================( - Objects - )================================|

|================================( - Exits - )=================================|
| Out <O>:                 Inaba - Junes Dept. Store                           |
 \============================================================================/
Darkness Endless Despair Fear no more
Coldness Blackened No sound Feel no pain
Captured Helpless Ultimate Dreadful fate
Powerless Lifeless No breath Falling down

Once again another dungeon in the TV World has appeared, and once again a poor soul is trapped inside. Though this particular teenager might have every bad thing coming given his actions, being murdered by his shadow self is not something the KDA and allies can let happen. ...Right?

Appearing in the fog, before the backdrop of a red and black vortex, is what appears to be a typical Japanese home. From the outside the only thing that stands out as being peculiar is the sheer size of it. Instead of being a single story, it stretches up floor after floor and disappears into the fog. When it appeared on the midnight channel it only appeared to have three floors then. Was that just a trick of the midnight channel's image, or has it actually grown?

The doorway is open, almost welcoming the rescuers into its halls.

Lost destiny Far outcry They hear you no more
Numb feeling Whole dizziness Deep scars No pain
No sanity Body aching Control your own fate
Invisible Real enemy Ruin your mind Deep down


It was inevitable.

Ever since Fumiya saw Tom get thrown inside the TV, Thora knew it was only a matter of time before Fumiya shared his fate. At this rate, after so many people, and with 'Strega' being the only real lead they had at the moment, Thora came to the conclusion that there was no stopping this. Upon further reflection, however, that wasn't so bad. She got what /she/ wanted out of it.

She stares up at the looming building, Black Frost hammer resting over a shoulder, a faint grin upon her face. Idilly, she pushes her glasses up her nose. "Well." she announces before stepping forward into the red and black vortex of an entrance. "Let's get this show on the road, everyone."


"Don't push yourself too hard," Aigis suggests to Thora, since she has a feeling she will. "We will have to pace ourselves very carefully if we're going to save everyone." This is the greatest test yet, in fact. Of course, a lot more people are determined to save Ran and Shinjis, probably because they're part of the team, but Aigis feels a little guilty for Fumiya. She has been meaning to talk to him about 'things' and she never got around to it. Apparently ignorance doesn't neccessarily protect you. Go figure.

She is, naturally, not wearing clothes and so is pretty evidently at least a cyborg, if not a robot. She doesn't have hips. And she has a cannon attached to her left hand. She also has fixed 'shades' onto her goofy teddie glasses because she's worried Fumiya's dungeon will be too shiny.

"Ready." She says.


It's day one of SERIAL SAVER Shiki Ichimonji's amazing TV marathon! And boy, is he ready. Snack food, soft drinks, bandages, and even slightly better knives than he used to have! All that's stuff is pocketed for now, though, somehow apparently not encumbering him more than what he usually carries in his jacket.

About as soon as he's stepped into the TV, he's got his Evoker holstered, his SEES armband clipped and his goggles on! The latter, for those just joining us, become tinted red when worn in the TV world thanks to Teddie's meddling.

They make Shiki look a little bit like some weird bug.

He runs ahead of the group assembling to face it, pumping his fists into the air and cheering loudly. "All right, everyone! Let's go rescue Fumiya-san!" Some will know he's missed several days of class just to prepare for those serial TV rescues, so he's serious about this!... but at least he's certainly keeping a positive attitude.


Shiki is not the only person missing classes for these things.

Yuuka is pulling on her SEES armband as she steps into the TV World behind him and Aigis, pulling out a hnad of hair that gets caught in it. Her Teddie-tinted-green glasses frame her own large green eyes as she sticks close to Aigis as well as Shiki himself. Shiki looks like a bug, Yuuka looks like she was created from the ocean and will drown the place in water. Such happens when one chooses clothing mixes that make you look like the sea that surrounds Japan.

At least she feels normal wearing glasses.

"Ichimonji-san." Yuuka says dryly, a small smile on her face as he starts cheering. "Aren't we supposed to save the cheering for /after/ we find Fumiya-san?"


As the group enters the doors of the tower-like house, they'll find themselves in its shadow-infest halls just as they would expect. The halls are rather plain, almost to the point of being disappointingly so. The walls are white, the ceiling is white, even the floor is white; it almost feels 'sterile'. There's no garrish neon colors and no blinding lights. Instead, pictures of different shapes and sizes line the hallway, and each and every one of them is of Fumiya.

Once they all take a few steps in, a voice that resemble's Fumiya's echoes from a location further ahead. "They're here! They're finally here. I've been waiting for this day for a long time. How I've been patiently waiting for my new family." The voice suddenly increases in intensity. "Now come! Find me and prove how much you all adore me! Ha ha ha!"

The first floor opens up with little surprises. Twisting hallways, stubborn shadow monsters, persistant treasure chests containing Peach Seeds, and a stairway leading up...


"I'll try Aigis..." But she couldn't promise that. Thora planned to drag people out of the TV until she fell over from exhaustion, starting with Fumiya tonight. Fumiya she definitely wanted to be there for, she wanted to see him experience this then be there to drag him out when it was all over. That and, if needed, prevent another person she knew from getting stuck with shadow-possession.

Upon entering, Thora's kind of surprised. She was expecting color. Flashing lights, neon, that sort of thing. As they make there way down (and as she steadily grows annoyed with finding yet another peach seed), she takes notice of the pictures which is a bit more to be expected. "...hmm, definitely to be expected." A glance is shot in Shiki's direction.

Of note, Thora's also pretty quick to loot anything the shadows drop since she can actually use that stuff later.


Mysteriously, peach seeds heal Aigis too. But she certainly kills shadows. It's what she does, and lets other people pilfer chests. She ratatatas out of her hands, readily avoids or tanks counterattacks, and generally leaves those big shadows alone because they tend to resist dakka, so to speak. She watches Shiki for a few moments and tells him quietly, "Please don't skip classes too frequently." it makes Mitsuru upset and when Mitsuru is upset, people die.

How do you think Ken's mom bit it? Shinji? Pfft. He was framed--because Ken was getting bad grades at school!!

"There is no harm in being optimistic." Considering how the last adventures have gone, she is a little doubtful though. Family, huh.

"Thank you, Thora-Chan." She says, imagining she'll keep going until she passes out.


As the group enters the oversized house, Shiki thumbs-up at Yuuka for no particular reason. "Hey, gotta keep a positive attitude!"

The goggled boy pauses to listen to Fumiya's disembodied voice speaking up before he starts exploring for real. A new family, huh. He follows along, for once refraining from performing his best Leeroy Jenkins impression.

As he provides support fire with his knives, Aigis gets a firm nod. "Don't worry! I don't wanna turn this into a habit or anything. It's just that this is kind of important, you know?" Now of all times is about the worst time he could have picked to join Thora's Terrible Truancy Team, but there are /lives/ at stake here, after all.

The pictures do get his attention, though, and so does Thora's little comment. "...Yeeeeeah." Man, it's really weird exploring a TV dungeon where he actually has an idea what's going on for a change.


Yuuka has a feeling of bugs on her spine.

It's not a happy feeling.

She is in the same boat as Thora. "Fumiya-san forgot his colors again." Yuuka says in a quiet voice. Or should that be, Fumiya forgot his sense of colors - or did he leave it all on the Michel Jackson Mural over on the KNOWS wall. These are questions that she has, and questions that she doesn't expect an answer too. Fumiya's shadow WILL probably hit on Thora after all.

The peach seeds are examined, the thoughts about making Mitsuru upset already crossing her thoughts a few days ago. Yuuka is kind of more scared of Minato after all. And Itsuka. "I think we'll all need good luck prayers for our exams." She murmurs.

Today's Dungeon Newbie(next to the Person in it themself): Yuuka!


Fumiya would probably be thrilled to know that three babes (well, two babes, a robot, and whatever Shiki is) were running to his rescue. His shadow certainly seemed thrilled for the attention for its own reasons. But the 80s kid remains at the top, unware of the incursion and desperately trying to figure out what's going on. Like most midnight channel victims, he is being toyed with by his shadow during this time.

The second floor is much like the first with one strange difference: the hallway has rotated about 90 degrees. So instead of running on the floor, the group is running on the what looks like the left wall, with the floor being on their right. Doors look entirely out of place being on the floor and on the ceiling, luckily no windows break no matter how much pressure is put on them. The shadows are of about the same strength as the original floor, and the treasures aren't much better. If the group is quick they might be able to nab the lonely golden shadow and score a Chest Key.

But everything changes when they surpass this floor and move up to the third. More than a mere change in fog density, more than the hall simply rotating again. As soon as they step up on the third floor things change entirely, and they face something totally unexpected.

Something is /very/ wrong on this floor.


Fog is clear from this level, but there is no screech of shadows, none appear to be around. The absence of fog might be a dire enough change.

The stairs up to the third floor lead not into a twisty brace of passageways, but onto a wide circular landing. There are windows to either side, looking out. Outside of the windows is a dark green landscape dotted with lakes, peaceful houses, and... ships? Ships up against a broad river bank. More importantly, looking upward reveals that the present building is a tall tower. The roof is burning, and these embers and ashes can be seen falling past the windows.

The hallways have all converged. The shifting nature of the winding dungeon has come to a predefined head - all roads lead here.

The hall leading off the stairs slopes slightly downward toward a door. Whatever's behind this single solid door (different in style from most so far, of a darker wood and with a golden metallic handle), it is "weighing down" the floors of the dungeon toward some depression in the TV World.

Whispers on the edge of hearing promise personal enticements to each present, but there's also an undercurrent: loud voices, the banging of a gavel.

"You've gone too far! This kind of hostile takeover may be in the "public interest", but it's not in ours!" The voice echoes.

"What does he do, alone in his office all the time?"
"I've seen him roaming the hallways."
"He can't relate to REAL people."
"Thinks he's all that..."

The non-sequitir whispering is in a range of deeper, different tones from those on the previous floor.

The doorway is a twisted mess of dark wood that, on closer inspection, appears to have faces in the grain. Nothing strange there, most old doors look that way.

Yep, this landing is pretty uninteresting.


Right outside of the door...

Minagi in her shadow form simply is standing there. She is looking at the door, and is looking minorly injured. Not deathly injured and looking to be bleeding out...rather oil or blood or whatever it is Shadow machines bleed, but enough that armor is slightly cracked, and hair is mussed a little. Her visor is still over her head, and looks fairly together still.

"...maybe too strong to face alone.." is what the team may hear as she considers her current action. Minagi herself isn't sure what she needs to do here, and she pauses for a moment. "Shut up. I still remember what you did...or almost did to Aigis. It won't happen again.." she says to seemingly nobody.

Minagi starts reaching for the door handle..


"He probably wants a new family to replace to old..." Thora narrates, frowning as they step into the twisting hallway. Well this was new, but in a way, kind of symbolic, perhaps representing Fumiya's twisted views on his parents-that they treated him differently after his little brother was born. "Hmph, his parents sounded fine to me." Leave it to Thora to not be very...empathic about the whole matter. She's also cautious to cross those windows until she realizes that they'll support her weight just fine.

Suddenly HOMG SHINY GOLDEN SHADOW GET IT GET IT IS SHINY. Thora will chase it to the ends of the hallway if she has to like an excited animal.

Win or fail, though, something else is quick to seize Thora's often fleeting attention. A sudden complete change in the dungeon environment that doesn't strike her as very Fumiya-like. Slowly, she turns up and stares at the burning tower. She stares at it for an uncomfortably long time, the whispers around her never really becoming comprehended. Something about this was familiar. Shortly after, something /definitely/ familiar pings her senses. The faint smell of gunpowder and napalm.

Tensing, Thora slowly turns towards the source, eyes falling upon Minagi.

The shift is instantaneous, from ponderous to enraged as Thora howls in fury and charges at Minagi's back. "YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"


This doesn't seem like Fumiya's dungeon anymore. Then again, who knows, maybe that's entirely the point and it doesn't seem like Fumiya's dungeon because it doesnt' seem like Fumiya and so it is naturally his dungeon! It's best to not think about these things too deeply. Minato is certainly someone to be afraid of. Or perhaps, something within Minato. Aigis doesn't fear either Mitsuru or Minato, though, because she cares about them and doesn't wish to fail them. She feels bad when her grades aren't up to snuff.

Guns are useful against golden shadows since they have pierce type, she scores a weakness critical hit and takes the Chest Key--for /later/.

But upon reaching the third floor she quiets down, frowning thoughtfully. It isn't until Thora shouts 'YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU' that she realizes something is up.

Aigis looks towards Minagi and says, "Oh, hello." She doesn't try to stop Thora's charge. Not only is that impossible but she is wondering if SEBEC has had something to do with Fumiya being in the TV and, if that is so, that means she has obligations(tm).


Don't worry, Yuuka. Only Shiki is there. Itsuka isn't going to hurt you. ...Unless you stand too close to him, in which case there's really no telling what she's going to do.

"Gotitgotitgotitgotit!" And on the second floor, Shiki chases the elusive Golden Shadow around, leaping through sideways doorframes and throwing knives that narrowly miss their mark until Aigis finally nails the little bugger. Fun fact: A wacky hallway chase is a whole different thing when rotated ninety degrees!

Aaaaaand on the third floor... Shiki pauses at the sight of... well, everything. "...Okay, that's definitely not normal." And clearly, it has nothing to do with Fumiya, either. ...and now, there's /that girl/, from the typhoon. He takes a few steps back as Thora charges in, knowing better than to try and stop her when she's going in for the kill. In fact, he now has his knives at the ready just in case she needs backup.

Just what's going on, here?! "Just what's going on, here?!" Honestly.


"I - nevermind." Yuuka shuts herself up.

Thora and Aigis going after the Rare Golden Shadow like bunny rabbits does not surprise the girl much, but she /does/ take down notice of the fact that Thora can get get extremely excited and hyperactive over Rare Things. The odds of her remembering, not likely, but, eh, it's Yuuka. Wait. Shiki - oh for the love of little Koromaru's, does everyone turn Hyper Bunny over elusive things?

It's Itsuka. She'll probably twhack Yuuka around. She heads up the stairs, following Shiki like a baby duckling. "... who is that?"


Upon reaching the third floor the rescue party would be able to faintly hear Shadow Fumiya's taunts, but they are being drowned out in static and becoming more and more distant.

"So..n ... ..fami.... ll of yo.... Thi... hat... ally... want... ome ..... me..."

The voice eventually cuts out entirely.


Minagi turns towards the oncoming group.

!

Minagi steps to the right of the charging Thora...she might hit the door and explode it with her BEARZERKNESS. Minagi blinks, shaking her head and turns towards Aigis.

"Hello Aigis...I am not here of my own free will, I assure you." She says, and holding defensively against Thora...but not attacking. "I am not sure what is even going on, or where I am. I am just here...and Chariot is rather loud."

Against his better judgement, against the protests of his body and his mind, Shirou Sekigawa is here. Or at least, is arriving. He holds a spear tightly, grutning with exsertion now as he gets to the third floor. He's never been into a TV World as an invader, and the sensations were so odd.

But the Ferryman knows the way to those in danger, or something, as Shirou manages to make good time to the rest of the group, mmphing a bit as he holds an odd Key he's gotten.

"Sorry for being late... this shadow was Golden, so..." He blinks a bit, just getting there in time for Thora's 'YOOOOOOOOOUUU' comment, taken rather aback... he knew she was a beserker, but she hasn't attacked. Yet. "T-thora! Whoa... what's going on?"


Thora is furious! Thora is a heavyweight! Anything that Thora hits is going to be in a lot of pain! Too bad doors can't feel pain. It would if it could right now though because she crashes clear /through/ the door.

A look of horror and anger is upon her face as she scrambles clear of the debris, looking over her shoulder. "BULLSHIT!" she jabs a finger at Minagi. "You're here to eat Fumiya's shadow! Just like you ate the tank!" Immediately she remembers what happened to Osamu's shadow and her eyes grow a bit wilder. Seems she's much more readily primed to berserk at a moment's notice tonight. "I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU! Tonight this shit is going to go down as it's supposed to and neither you-"

She shoots a glare over her shoulder through the formerly door'd passageway. "-or Kandori are going to fuck this up. YOU GOT IT?!"


Yuuka is mildly impressed by Thora's swearing.

Mildly. The Unicorn Princess lifts a hand to Shirou and looks back at Aigis and Shiki. "We can't wait." She says, a low edge in her voice. "Fumiya-san, wherever he is, we can't let him just SIT there!" Her voice is definitely worried. Someone cares for the Neon. Yuuka's voice goes a little bit higher, even as she steps towards Minagi and the Way Upstairs to Neon Hell.

"The chariot..." She stares at Minagi, then attempts to walk past her and head for the stairs.

Uuuh, not the brightest idea you've had yet, Chiba.


"Minagi-San. We are here to rescue a comrade. I request you do not interfere with the operation." Aigis says. "Fumiya-San is not a bad person." Though he is pretty weird. "So we do not wish to seem him suffer or be taken over by his Shadow."

She doesn't think this is saying anything that isn't obvious enough as it is, but spelling it out may be a GOOD IDEA.

"I also do not think it would be safe for you to stay in the television. I cannot say for certain but--"

She hears Shadow Fumiya taunting.

"Sorry, we have to move." She jogs for the door after Yuuka.


"Fumiya-san...? ...FUMIYA-SAN!" And here Shiki was, thinking this first stop on his amazing TV trip would be the most straightforward one. Luckily, this doesn't stop him from providing Yuuka with a bit of exposition while he warily watches the scene ahead unfold.

"This is the girl who... ate... the Chariot Shadow." This is still so weird to say. And then there's the fact that her grotesque transformation is still fueling his nightmares even now when he's got other things to lose sleep on. All right, you know what? Screw the knives, he's going for his Evoker now.

But... she doesn't seem to attack? The goggled boy still keeps his gun ready, just in case, as he rushes after the rest of the group trying to go on ahead. The strangeness of the fact that he's the one trailing behind doing something reckless is not lost on him!


"I do not care that you do not believe me, but I do not wish to have more voices in my head." Minagi says, calmly. Turning away, she watches Aigis and company push forward...

Minagi, not wanting to be left in this weird world alone, follows.


Apparently ignoring Tank-tan for the moment, Kandori looks to a shadow behind him, near the locked door upward.

As people go to walk past him, the newspaper is set down. So is the phone. The desk is in the way of the door upward. Naturally, not about to let anyone pass without a fight, Kandori stands and waves to the incoming party. Then, he notices something.

In the corner, near where they've entered, is another desk. It was not visible before everyone entered the room.

The other desk has a spotlight over it, which snaps on just as everyone enters.

A NEON sign appears over the other desk, which reads "SUPER GUIDO'S INSPIRATIONAL POWER HOUR"

In a voice reminescent of Kandori's, but darkly echoing, it steeples its fingers and says: "HI KIDS!" exuberantly with a truly creepy psycho smile. Then it stands up and walks slowly toward Kandori, mirroring his wave.

Guido stares at his shadow, cocking his head on one side. It stares back. The two make an eerie tableau in the middle of the room. One glows with palpable darkness, beading out in terrible shadowy lines over the wooden floor as the whispering grows louder.

The other is his Shadow.


"Did I mention that I am not here of my own free will." Minagi restates. "...I have no idea what is even going on here."


"OH FOR GODS SAKE"

Shirou is /not/ pleased to see Kandori. As mad as Thora was at Tank-tan? He's at least a dozen times more angry at that man. His face pales and his knuckles turn white as he grips the spear, but all his focus is on Kandori and his Shadow.

"People, leave this one to me..." He growls out, all sense of normality gone before his rational mind returns. "Wait... wait... Kandori /has/ a Persona... but he also has a Shadow? /HOW DOES THAT WORK/?!" Kandori's mysteries continue to be an affront to him, but he doesn't attack just yet. A wasted oppertunity.


"...Two shadows.." Minagi corrects.

"Advise that solo operation is hazardous to your health." Minagi says, drawling her own blade. "I am of the opinion that he is no longer in control of his mental faculties."


Shirou grunts. "Could of fecking told ya that..."


"Then /get out/." Thora sneers. "You don't belong in this place, no matter what the voice in your head says." She pauses, straining to listen for Fumiya's shadow, but hears nothing. She notes that Minagi is still following, so she whirls and growls at her again. "What did I just say?! Leave!"

That disgusting smell fills her senses again and she quickly shoots a glance to Shirou, emoting an oddly out-of-place seeming look of worry. "...uh, actually, that can happen, Shirou. I had a persona back when I was thrown in. My Shadow didn't turn into a monster though, it summoned a persona of its own." Some kind of twisted...reverse persona if you would. Turning to Kandori, she points at him.

"You brought this on yourself." That hand reaches over and grabs Shirou by the arm, dragging him along. "Let's go guys."

Hey, in Thora's mind, she's just returning the snub.


Aigis walks inside, looks up at the neon sign, looks towards Kandori.

REPORT BY THE AIGIS MAINTENANCE TEAM

This is just a notice to indicate that Aigis will be unavailable Monday for purposes of maintenance. To spare you the technical details, Aigis had a failsafe directive in her programming to 'protect humans'. Unfortunately many enemies have been appearing before us that are neither Shadows nor possessed by them which has lowered her efficiency margin by an unacceptable margin. It is worried the failsafe may ultimately cause neural deterioration and we are removing the failsafe so she may better serve SEES.

Don't worry! We believe there is only a 2 percent chance that she will go on a human killing rampage.

/REPORT BY THE AIGIS MAINTENANCE TEAM

Aigis raises the cannon hand, the one that's a cannon that is, and fires a shell for Kandori's head. No, it's not Shadow Kandori she's shooting at.

COMBAT: Aigis hits Takahisa Kandori with her Pierce Attack - Inbuilt Gun attack.


Minagi starts to protest!

"Aigis-san! He's a human...he can't help what...he's...doing..." Minagi says, lamely. She waits a beat, "Please don't..." Minagi pauses...

"I have no idea what I need to do anymore."


Crap, Shiki thinks as he follows the group-- now with temporary reformed villain(?) party member --into the room. They'd come looking for an 80s Kid, not /Super Guido/. Shiki has had yet to get much of an impression of who Kandori is, having only witnessed him in action as "that weird man with the cell phone" back in the battle during the typhoon. You'll excuse him, the redhead was a little too busy getting nearly killed to get to know the man more!

"Wait, so are we going to leave him alone, or...?" What's going on?! Finally, a dungeon where Shiki had any idea what he was going to face, and now this! For a moment, he remains there, confused. They're not seriously thinking of leaving the guy alone with his own Shadow, right?!

Thora-senpai has spoken, though, and hesitantly, Shiki decides to keep moving--

Until Aigis just shoots him. Oh, that should simplify things.


"He can't help it, does he?" Yuuka looks at Minagi, green eyes sharp. "Well, neither can we. /Bastard/." Yes, she is referring to Kandori here, ladies and gentlemen. "Asshole." Anger flames Yuuka's pale cheeks, creating red roses. She points at Minagi and says, voice icy, "I swear on my abilities that if you interfere, I will /personally/ make you regret it." So much for calmness, patience, and wisdom.

Yuuka's just gone Reverse.

Yuuka grabs her quarterstaff, dodges around everyone, and once again, heads for the stairs /up/.


This place is pretty weird. No lie. It's insane. ...But this floor is a little different. Far away from the arguments of the people who actually know each other is one figure, standing in the shadows.

As Aigis's gunshot calls out and people start trying to just move on past Kandori, however, said figure steps out. Tohya Kidzuki, who is actually rather /not/ a shadow, steps out behind most of the assembled group, having previously been concealed by this place's weird patches of darkness where it /isn't/ 'super fun hour' or whatever. "This should be most of them," she says, looking right at Kandori. "So, where do we go from here?"


"Hello."
"HI THERE."
"You... really don't have much subtlety."
"Listen talking. You long to rebel, while wearing the trappings that've made you the way you are, made you a corporate shark - when you really just want to shatter it all to see what sound it'll make."

Kandori and his Shadow begin stalking around each other, speaking alternately.

"You're just impulse, there's no plan, you'd break the world - but the world CAN be redeemed." Then the shadow:
"There's no redemption, you should toss aside pretense, even the public view of you is irelevant."
"There are SOME things in this world to recommend it."
"You ought to just let this world burn. How many lives would be ruined, if you just stopped caring? Wouldn't that be fun? Like ants and sandcastles. I should know, I'm you."
"That's artless. The lives that would be ruined by my inaction ought not to be ruined, because they work hard in their way, some are pawns, most can improve."

"You know, sometimes artless recommends itself to subtler plans."
"Name three times."
"Pandas, cell phones, and her."

The shadow points toward Thora.

"Touche'."
"You bastard!" "You bastard!"
"You're..." "You're..."
"...me!" "...not playing by the rules!"

The two smile, the same smile... and embrace. There is a flash of dark energy and... floating, with ten foot wings spreading behind him, forged from darkness itself, Kandori's Persona, the dark fragment of a god, the Haunter in Darkness... has been turned up to eleven. It's the same as always, the man in the business suit, but his sword is longer than his body, and so thin it can barely be seen as the maelstrom of paper and blood (oh yeah, it was blood), whips into a hurricane that obscures both doors. He doesn't appear to hear Thora, but Kandori's voice is level and peaceful as he says:

"Prove to me your friend is worth saving, to you. Are you just saving him on principle? Because it would be "wrong", or do you care that he lives? Do you love him? Or have you ascended beyond the norm, to where you can claim to so love the world that all within are under your protection? Come on, show me something worth seeing. Refresh /my/ love of this world by showing me yours. Or leave, what is this boy to you? Why do you care about him? Answer me, and pass."

Aigis' shell is brushed aside by a massive wing, the prior exchange having taken mere moments, as the creature rears its head. The other wing brushes down to shield Tohya, in answer to her inquiry. Can't have the kid coming to harm.

The shadows lean close, and wait.

Yuuka and any others find the door upward predictably locked. Since when has walking AROUND the boss worked? Optionals only. Does this look optional to you?

Well, possibly, but you signed the contract!

Another neon sign appears in bright letters with purple flame braziers at either side: "The Happy Fun Contract Hour, With Guido And The Haunter - Today's Episode, CONTRACT CONSEQUENCES".

Man, can we get a turing check up on this neon? Why is it doing-

CURSE YOU FUMIYA!!!!!


Shirou just... yeah, he's not surprised but it still pisses him off horribly. He clenches his fist around his spear a little more, likely trying to take the pain off by now. And now that the door's locked?

"Thora. We're gonna do this together, alright? Something I think we can both /really/ enjoy." His voice is low to her, and more frightening, he sounds like he's having /fun/ again. And then he's suddenly moving, striking Thora in the stomach, her sternum, against her left and right shoulder, her thighs... making a star, finishing it off by hitting her forehead. She'll feel a sudden rush of power, energy, stamina... whatever he can do now thanks to Charon, it's a great tonic.

COMBAT: Shirou Sekigawa hits Thora Kobayashi with his Healing Touch attack.


Thora's initiative hits a roadblock. For the most part, she winds up ignoring the two Kandoris as they verbally spar with each other. Idilly, she's hoping the two get into a fight that results in mutually assured destruction. Fumiya's probably suffered enough taunting by now and she was beginning to wonder at the very real possibility that he'd already rejected his shadow and is now facing the consequences. After all, she /told/ him to reject it. On the other hand, it's probably also waiting for its "new family" to arrive.

The roadblock comes in the form of a locked door. A locked door! Just like Shirou/Koichi's dungeon! Slowly she turns to glare at the angelic monstrosity that Kandori has become. Eventually her gaze falls upon Tohya as well. How'd she miss detecting /her/ smell? Weird. She feels Shirou's hand on her shoulder and smiles a little, hefting her hammer up. "Yeah, I guess we will."

Thora scowls at Kandori's pontificating. "You don't deserve any explanation from me. Since you're going to stand in my way, I'm just gonna have to rip you in two again." She calls for her persona, which leaps over Thora from behind and slams its entire weight into Kandoriroth, jaws gaping open and teeth flashing for his throat.

COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi misses Takahisa Kandori with her Double Fangs attack.


Aigis isn't really worried about Kandori's shadow or whatever. When someone is actually a killer and consumer of souls you don't worry, 'well maybe they got picked on at work'. Well, maybe you do, but not if you're a robot developed by the Kirijo Corporation who was recently reprogrammed by Shuji Ikutsuki to be capable of shooting humans in the face. Shuji Ikutsuki, of course, totally knew that Aigis is not particularly inclined to shooting humans in the face and that there were very few people she would shoot in the face. And the only one of those people who were particularly notable enough to be killed would have been Kandori himself.

Hmm. Well, it makes sense, he's a competitor of KirijoCorp.

Aigis does not immediately open fire even though the first attack did not particularly do much on its own--to be expected, Kandori is a Persona User of no small power.

"I believe this indicates that he is in control." Aigis tells Minagi, "He is not just a murderer, but he introduced a drug that turned people into monsters, he conducts illegal and dangerous research, and encourages others to give into their Shadows. He has chosen to do these things."

She summons Palladion, who draws its blade free and swipes it down for Kandoris.

COMBAT: Aigis hits Takahisa Kandori with her Fatal End attack.


Shiki pays little attention to Kandori's incredible debate with himself as he rushes for the door. He's never been one to like wasting words in combat, except maybe when there's a heroic speech to be done. --Except, wait, that girl who just emerged from the shadows... She looks awfully familiar, doesn't she?

...but that's basically irrelevant, now, as Kandori powers up, and... Well, dang. This is never easy, is it? And Shiki has to save his strength! He's got other commitments, you know!

Still, though, he can't hesitate now! Thus, finally, his Evoker gets some use, hopefully so they can get this done with as quickly as possible. No time to test his opponent's strength or whatver, he's going straight for the big guns! Or more accurately, giant knight-summoned beams of light that fall from the ceiling with no explanation.

COMBAT: Shiki Ichimonji hits Takahisa Kandori with his Hamaon attack.


Minagi is at a crossroads...

However, to the audience that does not know what's going on in Minagi's head...

Two shadows exist, fused together and constantly telling her to burn things. One of these things tells her to burn things... for Japan.

One tells her to burn things because NOMNOMNOM DEATHDEATHDEATH FALLFALLFALL!

Minagi, however, has met people, friends...has seen what her actions have done to people. And now these people are here to help another friend. Guido is here to stroke his ego, to stop these people...to stop Aigis.

"You know what. I quit." Minagi says, looking at Guido. "I am sick of this. SICK of being told what to do. For once, I am going to do something because /I/ want it." Minagi says, and starts...

To glow rather dangerous.

Also, that's a sword, aiming for your face.

COMBAT: Minagi Shimizu misses Takahisa Kandori with her Mind Slice attack.


Yuuka ueslessly kicks the doors up to Better Places and Neon Monsters. She kicks them furiously, angrily, head on the door. Tv Dungeons are NOT her thing it seems. It's frustrating with the fact there is a Very Bad Man down here and a Friend Is Up There where she Cannot Get To Him. Yuuka's hand, shaking, delves into her little pouch that holds her evoker. Yuuka is not very pleased. Okay, she's also scared of her evoker. But she's kind of found a way around that, as long as she Does Not Look. The Evoker is pressed to her head, and then there is another figure prowling around.

The pure white fur and mane of Unicorn dance around, the silver horn glittering. Yuuka strokes her hands over the Personas' back, even as it paws at the ground. "Get him in the heart." Yuuka whispers. True Unicorn charges.

COMBAT: Yuuka Chiba hits Takahisa Kandori with her Skewer attack.


Tohya is /not/ in uniform, of course--right now, she's faced with some of the weirdest sights she's had all night--and that's including being in a bizarre dreamscape of someone she doesn't know while, presumably, a superpowered evil executive decided to start messing with it. On top of /that/, there's a girl (Aigis) who apparently has guns for arms. She watches, frowning, as a rather familiar boy starts shooting himself in the head, too. And of course, as Thora glances her way, she gives a brief nod of actual acknowledgement!

But we can't have gunhands mucking up whatever Kandori has planned. Tohya, largely ignored back in the shadows, closes her eyes. In a flash of blue light, a shadowy woman in robes appears behind her, crowned and terrible. The Persona places her hands on the girl's shoulders, and when she opens her eyes, she's staring right at Aigis. There may be a brief 'glow' about everyone's favorite robot for a moment. "Commencing analysis. I'll feed you the info."

COMBAT: Tohya Kidzuki hits Aigis with her Full Analysis attack.


Before the change, Kandori felt something graze his shoulderblade. The Haunter in Darkness manipulated that bit of the body to be insensitive to pain, before ejecting the shell out the other side and beginning to knit bone.The wing that descends down on the right side shudders a little, cracks of light moving up it from a second impact, this one being subsumed as a small wound on a larger body. The "blood" that comes off is dark and etched with flame.

The blood strikes the floor, and spreads. It spreads as Shirou empowers Thora, and it rears up in a barrier of darkness calculated to stop Garm cold before it can bite the massive thing. It can't dodge in this space, since it's staying mostly still to keep everyone in front of it - except Yuuka. Yuuka was at the door behind it, and when she strikes, the Unicorn strikes with her and impales the massive form of the shadow-doubled Kandori.

The resultant impale seems only to stir the darkness, but there is a grunt of pain to follow. Minagi turns on the creature, but the sword blow, perhaps because of its shadowy source, seems to find no purchase on the roiling mess of shadow. Miss!

Shiki's attack is far more effective, making the thing react by shying away and letting out a hiss as of steam escaping. The black steam falls to the floor, along with the flaming blood, and the two mingle to make a kind of black gas.

The gas tries to burn, skin and lungs and eyes alike, but also shoots jets of flame out to the walls and around the ground below the floating CEO.

Behind it comes a deep breath.

Guido inhaled a deep breath!

The flames transform into blades, shooting in every direction - piercing rather than burning. Trails of black flame follow, trying to suck life energy out of everyone present while also damping down their Persona's abilities to function.

Then a voice speaks in the wake of this terrible assault: "Not bad at all. I might have been wrong. Probably not."

He turns toward Thora, and points. "You." The other hand points at Shirou. "And you. You two will suffer." Flap. Flap. Fla- One wing is making two flaps where bullets split it in half, but, flap.

The neon sign has, thankfully, gotten out of the way and gone out to do something else.

COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Thora Kobayashi with his Eternal Black attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Aigis with his Eternal Black attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori hits Shirou Sekigawa with his Eternal Black attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Minagi Shimizu with his Eternal Black attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori critically hits Shiki Ichimonji with his Eternal Black attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Yuuka Chiba with his Eternal Black attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori hits Thora Kobayashi with his Massacre attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Aigis with his Massacre attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori hits Shirou Sekigawa with his Massacre attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori hits Minagi Shimizu with his Massacre attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori hits Shiki Ichimonji with his Massacre attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Yuuka Chiba with his Massacre attack.


"Suffer? I've /been/ suffering... every time I close my eyes... everytime I think I'm fine I feel like something's watching me... you rotten bastard." He growls, Shirou summoning up Charon, the Ferryman a cloud of black robes, his pale flesh traced with purple lines. "TO HELL WITH YOUR SUFFERING!"

He thrusts out a hand, as Charon sends a rolling wave of darkness towards Kandori. He's fought him before, but Kandori is /much/ more powerful like this... "One attack... hnn..." He watches, looking over to his friends... he'll probably lean back to healing soon enough.

COMBAT: Shirou Sekigawa misses Takahisa Kandori with his Mudoon attack.


"Already am." Thora says quietly, fighting back a wince as Garm smacks against the darkness futilely. The first wave sent out by Kandori hardly seems to hurt Thora, perhaps her rage keeping her intact this time. The second, however, is far more successful.

Hissing through her teeth, the air around her seems to shift suddenly. That ever-present snarling dog seems muted now, taking a backseat to something else.

With a shout, Thora summons a large man clothed in animal furs and sporting an enormous claymore. Saying no more, she points at Kandori and directs the berserker at him.

COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi has activated Berserker.
COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi critically hits Takahisa Kandori with her Fatal End


Shadow Fumiya's voice had long since faded into background noise. But it never totally disappeared, not entirely. Though at most it just sounded like a faint buzzing. Enough to tell that words are still being said, but no way to tell what they are.

This continued until about the same time Kandori began his attack. Then, some faint traces of a voice, something that resembles words, starts to bleed back into the background ambience of the dungeon.

".... .... .. .. ..at. .... .....ell ... ...oing.... ere...."


"We are here to save you, Fumiya-San." Aigis says but takling to someone's disembodied voice might not be the best thing to do right now. Tohya Kidzuki 'analyzes' Aigis. According to her analysis, she's a robot, which probably means she--resists pierce?! Yes, apparently she resists pierce. Don't use pierce attacks on Aigis! Also there's only one aigis. knock her down and you might be able to do an all out attack! Unless you consider all the other 'people' on her taem.

She looks to Tohya, blinks at her--she can't /feel/ being scanned, but she understands what's going on. The diminishing voice--she may be running low on hope right now--

But Minagi-San makes a Choice and Aigis is encouraged and even as flaming blades and evil are launched out at her. the crash down on her position, obliterating Aigis!

Or that'd bet he case if she hadn't jumped above the assault. Spinning through midair, she twists her cannon arm down towards Tohya and says, "Palladion!"

And it swoops forward, trying to tackle through Tohya and, then, Kandori!

"Minagi-San." She adds, landing. "Thank you."


Shiki stumbles over backwards as he's hit by the waves of darkness, the little flames piercing his body and soul. He can feel it! Somehow, it's sucking Gawain's power out, making the mighty knight much less so. The boy is knocked down a for a second, but singleminded purpose quickly drags him back on his feet. "Not... close to done yet!"

Then Shiki notices... hey, in the background... it's Fumiya's voice! That's right, it's who they came to save to begin with! And he seems to be regaining strength, too... The goggled boy doesn't care about exactly what caused this, but he's noticed that it seems to happen just when Kandori was hit.

The solution, clearly? Kick Kandori's ass and move on.

He keeps moving about the limited space granted to him, trying to move in for an attack wherever the elder god-powerred CEO's guard is the least well defended. The gun returns to his head once more, and the silvery knight appears out of this air, its axe glowing as it turns into an oversized sword. An oversized sword Shiki intends to clip his wings with!

COMBAT: Shiki Ichimonji hits Takahisa Kandori with his Heaven's Sword attack.


Minagi flips over the first wave of evil magic...

To be stabbed by the second.

Minagi pulls her blade back once, as sickly green glowing energy starts to poor from it, before she stabs it down into the ground. What follows is a array of spikes ripping from the ground and aiming towards Guido, trying to impale him in rather unique ways and try to weaken his ability to resist their attacks.

"I should thank you. We should save it for if we escape this place...I think he's mad." Minagi says, to look back at Aigis's other target...this might get messy. Minagi's will is shining right now, resisting her shadows. "You, do not know suffering. You inflict it, but you do not know what suffering is. PAIN is MY friend, allow me to introduce him to you."

COMBAT: Minagi Shimizu misses Takahisa Kandori with her Cleave attack.


Yuuka tilts her head. That voice... so Kandori-shadow really IS the Mid-Boss.

What the hell, man. What the hell.

Yuuka somehow manages to dodge both attacks. Not sure how, but it works, especially as she skids back behind Kandori, well aware that sneaking up from the behind may be the normally non-combative girl works. She growls, channeling the energy of Light and Light Itself, casting rays of light at Kandori-Monster.

COMBAT: Yuuka Chiba hits Takahisa Kandori with her Hama attack.


All that power just roaming around--Tohya finds herself watching every burst of flame and every Persona's sword or axe or whatever crashing down on people, trying to stay relatively safe back behind everyone. Every so often, she brings a hand up to the side of her head, talking into...something that can't be well seen.

Except that she stops a little short at what the analysis /does/ give her, blinking at Aigis in some amount of surprise. Wait...seriously, a /robot/? She doesn't have much time to think about it--before she knows it, Palladion is cruising right for her, and Tohya has to hurl herself out of the way to avoid being impaled. Catching her footing a little while away, she narrows her eyes. Into the microphone--but louder--"Are you trying to get me killed?" She steps back, murmuring to herself in the call to her Persona again. This time, Persephone's eye falls on Thora. The glow returns, but this time, it darkens until fading away entirely--and leaving with it a sick haze.

COMBAT: Tohya Kidzuki misses Thora Kobayashi with her Poisma attack.


As assault after assault lands home, the massive form begins to shudder. Kandori smiles and preens those wings of darkness when Shirou speaks of how he's suffered. The blast from Shirou, the darkness, seems to be absorbed into the shadows around the floating ... thing. The darkness is eaten and makes something happen in the field around the Haunter's shadowy wings. The foreign darkness makes a hiccup in the world, and then the form really does let out a load "Buuuurp". This is a loud, echoing noisewhich sends jets of real fire, not flaming darkness, to the ground below.

A berserker charges Kandori, and Guido tries to turn it aside but cannot. The shadow doesn't react as badly to being cut as it does to Yuuka and Shiki's light assaults, but it does react. The light makes the shadow flee in front of it. It whirls and shakes.

Guido hears a distant voice and cocks his head to listen. In this moment of distraction, Aigis charges and tackles him after missing Tohya. The shadow fades back a few feet but then surges forward. As it does so, it sends a jet of invisible energy out. The invisible wave is anemic, not doing much harm in some places, but it is undoubtedly deadly and dangerous. Quietly, Kandori manages to muster enough presence of mind amid the raging power to send a short message to Tohya. He reaches into his pocket, and clasps his hand around something. Then, he releases it as Minagi dives. Pain can be Kandori's friend too, and the shadow welcomes the blade, only to roll out of its way and leave Minagi cleaving at nothing but the darkness.

Kandori clasps the key and hurls it down toward Tohya behind him where she's avoided the charging Aigis, and begins to float lower. Where the wings contact the ground, they vanish. Now he's just a businessman, standing there, holding a sword, surrounded by the darkness.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori hits Thora Kobayashi with his Maragion attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Aigis with his Maragion attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Shirou Sekigawa with his Maragion attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori hits Minagi Shimizu with his Maragion attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori hits Shiki Ichimonji with his Maragion attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Yuuka Chiba with his Maragion attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Thora Kobayashi with his Megido attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Aigis with his Megido attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Shirou Sekigawa with his Megido attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori critically hits Minagi Shimizu with his Megido attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori misses Shiki Ichimonji with his Megido attack.
COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori hits Yuuka Chiba with his Megido attack.


Right, not really helping much. Shirou looks around, looking at all his friends. "See Kandori? I guess this is what you've lost or can't understand... all of us here are going to save Fumiya. He can be annoying... and insensitive... and annoying... and doesn't listen to a damn word you say and oh /Gods/ that pink... off track."

He shakes his head, a card appearing before him, wreathed in blue flame, which he cuts with his spear. Charon waves a hand, sending a blessing to Shiki Ichimonji, reversing the tides of pain and death that seem to be hurting him in a metaphysical sense. "We're doing this because we /can/, and we /have to/. Our power, accidental or artificial or whatever... this is what we must do."

He points dramatically. "On a personal note... I /will/ kill you."

COMBAT: Shirou Sekigawa critically hits Shiki Ichimonji with his Diamai attack.


The Fire smacks Minagi, causing her to stagger for a moment...and then came the Almighty explosion. Minagi slumps to one knee...the force of the pain was overwhelming, causing her to become winded for a moment. The shadow-bot starts to rise after a moment, her viser starting to glow ominiously...

A dark shadow drapped over her body, obscuring the upper part of her body. The blade is brought forward, pointing towards Guido as it started to glow ominiously in the dark blood red runes.

"That was nothing..."

COMBAT: Minagi Shimizu hits Minagi Shimizu with her Telete Invocation attack.


Thora has felt this before-that nasty, toxic smell that usually ends up with her coughing blood for far too long. Panicing a little, she steps several feet backwards, narrowly evading the cloud of rancid air that now hangs where she once stood. Angry yellow eyes turn to glare at Tohya and, unfurling her hammer, she starts to advance on the girl with rapidly quickening strides. The fel weapon lifts, ready to smash down upon Tohya...

When fire blasts her sideways and onto her side. Howling with pain, she rolls over to extinguish herself, the faint smell of burnt leather clinging to the air.

Dragging herself to her feet, she bounds forward to engage Kandori herself. With her aggressive charge, she comes in with a low, upward sweep of her hammer to send him flying back up into the air. Thora's quick to leap after him and follow up with several swift blows from her weapon, effectively juggling him in the air.

The final strike comes with finality, spiking the SEBEC CEO back down to the ground. When Thora lands, her berserker rage, oddly enough, remains. There is no 'spent' tonight.

COMBAT: Thora Kobayashi hits Takahisa Kandori with her World Revolution attack.


CAN YOU DEFEAT THE RAINY DAY CHALLENGE?!

Aigis does not tell Kandori to stick to one boss form, but she may be thinking it. She throws herself back, away from the explosions unleashed by Kandori. She's literally just dancing around the businessman though it's probably not going to last for very long.She looks towards Aigis for a moment and says, "If you are interfering in this rescue, that is a possibility. If you wish to be unharmed it would be better for you to not be assisting this individual."

She doesn't actually WANT to kill Tohya but as long as he's helping Kandori in a fight it's not like she can accurately say 'no'.

"Palladion." She says, the Persona intending to crash spearfirst into Kandori's body.

COMBAT: Aigis misses Takahisa Kandori with her Primal Force attack.


Yuuka has .... not been this lucky in battle, normally.

Huh.

Her Evoker goes to her head, except Yuuka freezes, with the barrel pressed against her. Yuuka whimpers softly, knees wobbly. Except her indecision makes her notice the interaction between Tohya and Kandori.

Wait was th-

/No one/ locks her friends up and keeps her away from her. She suddenly pulls the trigger, surprising even herself when Unicorn appears next to her.

"EEK!"

"Bufula!" Ice!

COMBAT: Yuuka Chiba hits Tohya Kidzuki with her Bufula attack.


The literal belching of flames, now Shiki was not prepared for. He may wear a totally flaming jacket, but this is just a ruse: He is not actually flame-retardant! He's actually only that minus a few letters.

He literally runs around screaming for a few seconds before the flames go out, and just in time to hear Shirou's little speech. The boy from Inaba gets a quick thumbs-up from Shiki once the blessing hits. "Awesome!" They may not have seen each other in a while, but the goggle boy still does consider him a rival most worthy.

The wave of energy is dodged thanks to absolutely nothing but sheer dumb luck, as Shiki tries to reposition himself in a more strategic manner. Then, sheer dumb luck kicks in once more to let something catch his eye... something /key-like/! "Hey, she's got the key!" He points, while summoning Gawain once more. The knight's axe spins, sending out a multitude of tiny beams of light. Their main aim isn't to hurt but rather keep the two offenders as busy as possible while, hopefully, someone goes for that key!

Shiki wouldn't want to hurt a /girl/ anyway.

COMBAT: Shiki Ichimonji hits Takahisa Kandori with his Mahama attack.
COMBAT: Shiki Ichimonji hits Tohya Kidzuki with his Mahama attack.


Tohya is suddenly the bearer of a key! She catches it as Kandori tosses it her way, though only because of that brief, radio'd message. A moment after that, she talks to herself again, muttering into her microphone as she starts, amid people rushing toward their various blasts against Kandori, and looks up at the door,. She immediately starts moving toward it, with not so much as a glance around her. She doesn't even trip on--

"Ah--" The ice of Yuuka's unicorn crashes into her side, knocking her off-balance. As Tohya readies herself, reaching ever-closer, she then has to contend with Gawain's sudden beams of light--and this, more than the last, /hurts/. "Damn it, next time /warn me first/!" She has to pick herself back up off the ground after Shiki's attack, and in so doing, she loses the chance to call her own Persona. The long-haired delinquent reaches it, sticking the key in the lock and turning it with a fierce glare toward the two first-year SEESites. She, unlike Kandori, doesn't look so good anymore.

To Aigis, meanwhile, Tohya offers a somewhat tired shrug. "Wasn't talking to you. But thanks for the advice." That makes, including the /hammer/ she got from Thora, a number of people trying to kill her in the past minute! Well, these folks sure are united by their desire to...whatever they're doing in here.


Kandori backs toward the door. The black energies which fuelled his initial assault have very quickly ebbed. He has a cell phone in one hand as he looks across the room at Minagi. He clicks a button.

The phone sends, but it'll take a while for the message to go through the TV Land Switchboard via the special cell phone.

Shiki's blast of light has rended Kandori's body, but he sees that Tohya is suffering even more. Kandori had the cushioning of added power, his favorite spotter does not. What're they doing, breaking his things with light? Bad.

Kandori looks toward Minagi: "Fine. Keep her, if you don't mind keeping an infected traitor with death hanging over her head."

While they were still in the TV, Kandori sends the Haunter back to its nest in his soul, at the exact second that Aigis comes charging forward. He's forced to leap back, a dull blue light covering the businessman's body even as Aigis cracks the TV Dungeon's floor with a massive Palladion blow.

Thora's blow hits Kandori then, sending him flying. He grabs for Tohya, trying to pull her protectively to his chest as the two are punched through the door, toward whatever of Fumiya's dungeon exists beyond...

Blue energy flows from Kandori to Tohya during the grab, seeking to mend her while they're still somewhere that the rules of reality are perhaps more subjective.

When they're beyond the door, Kandori's "shadow" can be heard speaking: "You won! Good job! See what you can be if you put your mind to it? POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING!" Byeee."

Then... it fades.

But what of Kandori and Tohya, who've just been punted through the door Tohya opened? What's on the other side, waiting...?

COMBAT: Takahisa Kandori hits Tohya Kidzuki with his Recarm attack.


"...I hated that guy." Minagi says, unable to let Guido know just how much because he ran right as she went over nine thousand. Minagi thinks for a moment, just as it all hits her...

She was free...but she lost everything.

"I'm hungry." She mutters, unable to cope with the vast shift in paradigm. Instead, it comes out a very meek and slightly ineffectual comment, instead of a world changing insight onto her world view.

"You have a friend to save right? Go..."


Shirou grunts a bit, rubbing the back of his head. That was a lot easier with friends... and a spear and not a broom. "We all good people?"

He sighs a little, walking over to Thora. "You alright?" He asks her point blank. Here in the TV world, there wasn't time to be meek and tired and shy. There was only the objective, the shadows... and apparently Kandori and his goons.


Aigis, mysteriously, is kind of used to hanging out with people with Death hanging over their heads. It's one of the perks you get from being from Persona 3. She doesn't immediately give chase, because the others are injured, and while 'kill Kandori' is kind of a directive, she's not about to charge on in on her lonesome--Tohya is a very dangerous enemy, after all.

"Is everybody alright?" She asks, looking to Shirou for a moment, and then Thora, before finally settling on Minagi.

"You should not stay in here alone." She says. "It's dangerous."


Shiki finally relaxes a bit, holstering his Evoker. ...Did that do it? Those two... whoever they were managed to make their escape, or at least they will if the group doesn't catch up. Shiki looks around to make sure none of the group members are bleeding to death, then back to Shirou. "I'm fine! Let's go kick some butt!" He looks impatient, like someone who has a train to catch and still puts priority over it despite the fact that he was on fire just a minute ago.

Minagi gets a quick glance. "Hey... We can't really leave her alone here, can we?" Sure, she may have tried to kill most of the people in attendance at some point and her achieving Real Ultimate Power would probably help her get out of her, but she did help them, didn't she?


Yuuka is cursing quietly underneath her breath.

"I'm fine, Aigis-senpai." She gives Minagi a look, and a flickering smile. "I like you." Considering she was just threatening to kill the girl, but, eh. Priorities change. She then sighs at Shiki, nodding in agreement. "We can't just leave her..."


"Yeah." Thora says quietly, her voice a bit lower than usual. Her eyes are still wild-very wild. Imagine someone under the influence of "demons" in Higurashi. That is, and that always will be, what her eyes start to resemble during these rages.

It fades slowly, which might not be so reassuring for Minagi. Fortunately, she doesn't look at the shadow-possessed.

She moves swiftly towards the now open door. "Let's go."


Shadow Fumiya's voice has gradually become more and more audiable, but right when it reaches the point where actual words could be comprehended it mysteriously vanishes again. This time it's not just reduced to a low buzzying sound, it's as if he's no longer speaking.

For those that are sensitive to that sort of thing, there is still a /presence/ though, and it's building up just beyond the locked door. In fact the presence gets much stronger as the fight builds to a climax, to the point where it feels like there's something /right outside/ the door.

When Kandori finally breaks through the door, with Tohya in tow, he simply does not get very far. Greeting him not five steps past it, at the edge of the stranged warped space where Kandori's 'dungeon' twists back into the original one which existed previously, Shadow Fumiya stands in wait. His own dungeon picks up as if it never was interupted by Kandori's intrusion, with the hall twisting once more leaving the ceiling as the new floor. Still in his pure white suit, he remains unmoving with his arms crossed. A scowl is on his face, in fact it's more than that. Shadow selves may always be emotional, but Shadow Fumiya is downright furious.

"You come in here uninvited..." He starts. "You track your mess into here." He snarls. "And most importantly you take my new family's attention /away from me/!" His voice rises to a roar as he virtually spits those last words. Shadow Fumiya takes one step forward towards Kandori, a step which feels unnaturally heavy as if he had the weight of every shadow in the dungeon behind him. His clenched fist catches aflame, as if he were about to cast a major Agi spell. But instead of moving to punch him he brings both of his arms back to his sides and he merely yells.

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

The walls of Fumiya's dungeon rattle as he screams his command to the intruder. Kandori's side of the dungeon doesn't feel this vibration, but Kandori himself crossed that invisible threshold and left himself open in Shadow Fumiya's turf. The force of his command ejects Kandori and Tohya from his dungeon entirely.

With them both ejected from his dungeon, Shadow Fumiya looks once down on the rescue party and a smirk returns to his face. "Now then, I will wait for you at the top. But please hurry, I won't wait long." Upon saying that, he disappears back into the fog. Back to the top.


Minagi is surprised by the...she would be hated?

"...Thank you." She says, before running off with the rest. Only in time to see Guido and minion ejected from the building.

AND THEN SHE IS DELIGATED TO RESERVE PARTY.


Takahisa Kandori does not even have time to go "huh" before Fumiya's shadow has expelled him. Spiralling, wounded, hopefully still holding Tohya - Kandori lands outside the TV he entered through. His internal shadow may be laughing at him.