Arriving with Bels On (Invite Only)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Palette slammed open her door at Himitsu's yell, but before she could see exactly what was going on, there was a bright flash of light as Eriol finally fired that bolt of lightning he'd been preparing to fire for the longest time, having to move around Kaini to get a clear shot. There was another flash as the lightning flew back at Eriol and hit him squarely in the chest, knocking the doll rather violently into the wall behind him.

"There... Makarakarn barrier down," Eriol said hoarsely. Palette glared at Belphegor. Okay, she wasn't particularly liking this guy. He'd hurt the annoying butler doll and was forcing her to fight. She picked up a bucket of Crimson Red paint before dipping her paintbrush into it and swiftly pulling it back out again, sending paint flying. The paint hovered in midair before forming into little paint arrows, which then flew at Belphegor.

Souji sweatdropped. Paint danmaku? Seriously?

Minato pulled out his Evoker. He could tell that there was no way he was going to win with just his sword. At this point, he didn't care if Orpheus went berserk or not. Just as long as Orpheus went berserk on Belphegor first. Especially with the way Belphegor was staring at Kaini...

[mugenginga]

Belphegor scowled as the paint arrows hit him. It really wasn't that much of a hassle to clean his clothes, they were manifestations of a form after all. But it was still rather annoying to have red paint staining his clothes. And he had felt the attack just as much as the paint. Although if Palette had known it felt like a group of solid pin pricks it would probably be a blow to her ego. With rather amazing speed he made his way into the shop.

Himitsu was clinging to the edges of consciousness. She had known that even if the barrier had held, she'd require at least a day of rest. But having it so forcefully and throughly destroyed? It was willpower keeping her conscious now, nothing more. Truth be told, she knew about the War of Bel, but she hadn't known about this particular demon. And with only two able to fight it, one comatose and one who had been granted the power by God Himself... the latter of which didn't realize yet that he'd have to kill Keiichi to truly accompish his goal. She heard the sound of something getting lifted off a counter. She slowly turned her head and saw Minato had grabbed the Evoker. If he used that here... she didn't think she could even talk without passing out, every bit of energy was being used to remain conscious.

Yuugi, however, saw a change as Minato grabbed the Evoker. A change that made his eyes grow wide. He practically flew across the shop floor. He had to stop Minato before he pulled that trigger. The clock had changed as he picked up the "weapon". It read zero... "Minato-kun, dont!" he shouted.

Atem looked startled at Yuugi's sudden fly into action. He barely sidestepped the teen. Yuugi was setting new records for himself for speed. He'd dropped both the COMP and the blade so they wouldn't weigh him down. The COMP hit the floor rather hard, but the things were far tougher than many gave them credit for and was fine. Atem realized what Yuugi was reacting towards, "Minato-kun, drop the Evoker!" he shouted. That kind of reaction from his partner... Minato would die if he pulled that trigger.

Belphegor held out his hands in the same fashion as before. Kaini's eyes widened and he was pretty much thrown into a shelf. Various object fell down around him, and it was only a bit of twitching that revealed he wasn't unconsious. His eyes slowly opened, but he was bleeding from several places. It would have likely been complete and total death had he not had the Harmonizer. Culebre and Kikuri-hime, on the other hand, both vanished in a burst of light. The Megidolaon had one hit killed them. Belphegor began advancing towards the teenager, who was too busy being in pain to do much in the way of reacting. The only one who could possibly know if he was about to die was too busy about to tackle Minato.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

The Evoker was halfway to Minato's head when both Yuugi and Atem yelled at him to drop it. His hand had been shaking rather violently again as he'd raised it, and the both of them had startled him enough that he'd let go of the Evoker. Yuugi had reacted that way... had he been about to die just then?

Palette stepped back. Her Paint Bullets hadn't even left a scratch on the demon. She was practically useless here.

Souji and Izanagi-no-Okami both wheeled around when the Megidolaon hit Kaini. And this was the point when Souji decided he was ignoring Himitsu's orders too, having grabbed his katana and pulled it out of the sheath. He was running right at Belphegor to attempt a Physical attack. "Don't you even think about it!" he yelled. "I won't let you kill him!"

[mugenginga]

Atem ran over before the Evoker even hit the ground and kicked it away. Yuugi had trouble avoiding actually running into Minato. After all, he had been about to tackle the blue haired teen. He slipped and was surprised when he didn't impact. He looked up and saw Atem had caught one of his wrists. The former Pharaoh had to work at pulling the teen up what with the law of gravity, but he managed. Yuugi looked momentarily relieved as his eyes flicked to the space above Minato's head. The Clock had been restored to seven.

Belphegor looked annoyed as Souji launched at him. He held up his arm, literally taking the blow from the blade with it. It actually did damage, sinking into his skin just a bit and causing a black substance to ooze out. It was more like the miasma that made up shadows than blood. What Souji may not have been expecting, however, was for Belphegor to rapidly reach around with his other hand and clamp it around the blade. He clamped hard, causing the blade to sink into his fingers and "blood" to slowly run down his arm. It seemed thicker than real blood as well, moving more like watery molasses than blood. He jerked back, trying to disarm the teenager.

"Who said anything about killing him?" he stated, his voice extremely dark, having traces of demonic distortions rather than the normal human speak he tended to use.

Kaini tried to push himself to his feet, but he found he didn't have the strength. Was he going to die like this? Would God let him die like this? Yuugi yanked Nefertum's card out of his pocket and crushed it. He pointed at Kaini, "Dia, now!"

Nefertum held out his staff in the familiar hovering motion. The most minor of Kaini's wounds seemed to close up, but it really didn't seem to have much of an effect. Kaini winced, almost as if the healing hurt, and tried to get to his feet again. To his surprise, the legs cooperated a bit more. However, the only reason he was on his feet was thanks to the shelf behind him. He activated a command on his COMP and Lailah materialized. He couldn't give her an order right after being summoned, though.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji managed to keep a hold on his sword, despite Belphegor's attempts to disarm him.
"You came to kill his brother. How am I supposed to think you won't kill Kaini too?" Souji asked. "Especially since there's not really too many other options when you walk right towards someone like that after hitting them with a practically crippling spell. You can finish them off, or gloat over their crippled body, or do things even worse to them."

He suddenly let go of this katana and stepped back. "Ziodyne, now!"

Izanagi-no-Okami held out its spear before swinging it down and sending an extremely large bolt of lightning flying from the spear and right at Belphegor.

[mugenginga]

Belphegor winced as the electricity hit. It hadn't hurt as much as the earlier Megidoloan had, thanks to Belphegor's resistance, but it was an unexpected change in tactics. He pulled the sword from his hand, which had actually gotten lodged there thanks to his grip, and chucked it out the window. It actually lodged in a brick wall across the alley from the shop. He flexed his hand, confirming it had full range of motion before glaring at Souji, "There are other options, but it seems your mind is too narrow to comprehend them."

He threw out his hand and fired off another Megidolaon. It was unclear how much in the way of spellcasting energy the demon had, but he showed now signs of tiring anytime soon. And this attack was too much for Kaini. Lailah vanished and Kaini passed out, falling in a heap to the floor. The open wounds had gotten much worse, and as if it wasn't bad enough he hit his head rather badly as he collapsed. Blood was running into his thankfully closed eyes. It was actually unclear if he lived, although a close look would reveal his chest was still rising and falling. Belphegor walked over to the teen and hoisted the unconscious boy up by his wrist.

"Kurosawa-san!" Yuugi shouted. Atem grabbed the practice bow off the counter and knocked an arrow, letting it fire. Belphegor scowled and swatted the arrow away. At least he hadn't caught a bullet...

"You're right, I did come here to kill Abel. But the presence of this boy," he indicated Kaini by with a slight flick of his wrist. The teen's body shook, its unconsious state offering zero resistance, "Has caused a slight change in plans. We'll be leaving now..."

There was likely a chance to get off another attack before Belphegor left, but with how he had Kaini any fired attack would effect the teen too. And with his current condition, he didn't look like he'd survive it. Interestingly, despite being unconscious Kaini still had his hand firmly on his COMP. The deathgrip remained even though his consciousness was not with the group.

Himitsu came back to and began slowly pushing herself up. There were still enough presences here to tell her that the fight had not been lost. But Kaini's presence... was disturbingly weak. She forced herself the rest of the way up and saw Kaini hanging by his wrist from Belphegor's grasp. She couldn't understand why he wasn't killing the teenage human.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji and Minato both froze. Izanagi-no-Okami couldn't use any Physical skills. Any Magic would hurt Kaini too. Minato couldn't even summon a Persona at the moment, and the experience with Souji's sword and Atem's arrows had shown that trying to use conventional weapons on Belphegor would have little effect, even with the Harmonizer.

At that moment, several multicolored spears lodged themselves in Belphegor's back. Palette had cast more Paint Bullets, but this time had chosen to use a more high powered variant. And it showed; she was visibly exausted, and looked close to collapsing. She was not naturally enclined to spellcasting, and as of such, it caused her to get exausted much more easily.

"Don't... you... dare," Palette said.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi's eyes got wide. Nefertum still hovered above him, but he knew instinctively that Dia would do nothing for the teenager with him being unconcsious. He had a feeling that Nefertum would one day learm something that could be useful here... but he didn't have it know. Atem was giving one of his darkest glares to Belphegor. He'd only glared like this at a few people. Malik being one of the unlucky ones. He didn't think he could trap the demon in its inner darkness, and somehow he had a feeling a Mind Crush would rebound back on him. Even if he were able to draw one of the God Cards, he wouldn't have time to summon the necessary tributes. And Belphegor would likely immediately destroy anything he brought out.

Dammit, there's nothing we can do! he thought to himself. Kaini was going to be kidnapped. What would the demon do to him...?

Belphegor's face contorted in a mixture of pain and shock as Palette's attack hit. Mostly shock. He had been so focused on Souji, who at the moment seemed to be the biggest threat, that he had failed to keep his eye on the rest of the field. Still, he had experienced far worse pain. He glared at Palette before actually taking the time to support Kaini better. By supporting him better that meant he slung the teenager over his right shoulder, although he did have the "decency" to catch the COMP that finally fell from the teen's hand.

"It is far too much a hassle to continue to play with you children. The consolation prize today isn't tha bad, either," he gave a dark smirk. Dark enough that it could possibly rival some of Naoya's grins, "I bid you farewell. I have no doubt we shall meet again."

And a black void-like miasma swirled aroudn the demon before he simply vanished... taking Kaini with him. Before any other reactions could be had the sound of a fist hitting a counter could be heard, "Shit! Abel, Cain, and now Seth!"

Which... you know... Himitsu should probably watch her tongue more.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji swore under his breath before Himitsu had made her statement, and Izanagi-No-Okami dissapated, causing a blue card to float down into Souji's hand. Belphegor was gone... but Minato seemed even more broken, that tailed girl and Himitsu were both deathly exausted, the doll, broken; and Kaini had gotten the worst of it all. And worse, Kaini had been kidnapped and taken away to somewhere unknown, probably to be tortured for days on end. They had very barely even possibly "won" the battle. In Souji's opinion, it was a definite loss.

And then Himitsu said something very interesting. Something about Seth. That name had come up the previous night while Souji had been doing research at the library....

"What did you say?" Souji asked Himitsu.

[mugenginga]

Atem looked away from where Kaini had been. His eyes were closed and his face seethed with a mix of anger and guilt. Yuugi didn't even seem to fully comprehend the situation. He was staring where Belphegor and Kaini had been, seemingly in shock. Atem looked up as Souji asked his question. Himitsu had said something about... Seth? Hindsight was twenty twenty, he wished he had research the faith of the Jewish people more as Pharaoh. As far as he knew, Seth was merely an alternate spelling of the god Set. And that certainly didn't connect with Cain and Abel.

Himitsu looked up. She sighed, in her frustration she had let it slip. She glanced sympathetically at her own charges and turned her focus back to Souji, "I said Seth. The way you asks means I don't need to explain any further. Kaini bears the soul of Seth the way Keiichi and Naoya bear Abel and Cain...."

She glanced back at the room where Kaini had haid Keiichi and Naoya. The only one that could save the teen now were his family... to be specific, the one with the power of the Bels. She looked pained. She had, through her long life, failed a fair amount of times to protect a person. But it always hurt. The teenagers in her shop now... it probably hurt them more.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji had been afraid of that. The fact that it rounded out the whole family was somewhat hilarious, but at the moment, it was just concerning. Kaini resembled Keiichi so much because Seth had been Abel's replacement, not because they were twins. Twins could still look and act a lot different from each other, or at least even actively try to. But Kaini resembled Keiichi so much it was scary...

"So Belphegor took him because he was Seth... dammit!" Souji yelled. He couldn't stop Kaini from being taken...

Minato looked down. They couldn't help Kaini now... not until after the full moon. They had no chance of beating Belphegor now, and even if they did, K1 needed Belphegor's power for his home dimension, no matter how morally ambiguous his use for it would be.

"We'll just have to make sure we save him after the full moon, then. Soon after it, once K1 and Naoya wake up," Minato said.

[mugenginga]

"Partner...?"

Yuugi finally wrenched his eyes away from where Belphegor had vanished from. He still looked pained. He looked towards Souji, "You said Seth, right? How is he connected to Abel...?" Yuugi was doing a fairly decent job at putting on a brave front, but it was obviously an act. He was overwhelmed with worry. The only consolation was that Kaini had not had a Death Clock over his head. Then again... there were things worse than death...

Something didn't seem quite right, "I don't think he specifically knew the identity of Kaini's soul. He looked like he was confused..." The words were forced. It was apparent Atem was having issues with this as well.

He didn't want to wait until the full moon. There were no guarantees Kaini would be alive then. He was as in the dark as Yuugi about who "Seth" was, but that didn't change Kaini's predicament. Belphegor could kill him at any time. He wasn't even aware he was clenching his fists. He'd known they'd be overpowered, but this wasn't something he'd foreseen. He had only half his focus on Souji as Yuugi awaited an answer.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji looked over at Yuugi and Atem. Well, Seth wasn't exactly brought up much in Bible studies. He wasn't surprised they didn't know. "Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve from the Hebrew bible. Eve believed that he was Abel's replacement after Abel was killed." And as Abel's "replacement", he was probably the perfect choice to do Keiichi's job after Keiichi turned away from God and joined Naoya. So that's why Kaini's here... It finally looked like he had most of K1 and Kaini's story figured out. That still didn't change things much. Kaini was still kidnapped and K1 and Naoya were both still, for all practical purposes, comatose.

Minato said nothing, but walked over to where his Evoker had landed and picked it up. He really would have died if he'd tried to summon Orpheus then...

Palette walked over to Eriol and tapped him on the shoulder. The doll groaned and looked up at her. "Hey. Can you walk?"

"My wind-up key's busted. It can't turn."

"And that means...?"

"I can't move from where I'm sitting."

Palette groaned. She wasn't even going to ask how he was still able to talk despite his clockwork not moving. With that, she turned to Himitsu. "Sorry I couldn't help much... I'm not really good at this whole spellcasting thing."

[mugenginga]

Himitsu didn't say anything else to the teenagers. She looked towards Eriol and began towards him when Palette addressed her. She shook her head, "None of us could have done anything. I know you," she turned back to the teens, "Might not see this, but this is probably the best result we could have hoped for. We're all alive. If Kaini had not been there, the odds are we would all be dead. Keiichi, at least, would be... I don't think he'll kill Kaini, if that is any consolation."

She turned away and ducked down, grabbing Eriol's key off the floor. She carefully looked behind the doll and sighed, "It will take me some time to fix this... Palette, please go check on Keiichi and Naoya. They are under the covers. I want to be absolutely sure they were unharmed by this."

She had gone into all business mode, her voice carrying only the slightest bit of pained emotion. Coupled with her "best result we could have managed" speech... it was not unlikely she had just pissed someone off.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Minato's hand curled into a fist, but he didn't say anything. The "best possible result?" Sure. Belphegor wouldn't kill Kaini, but Kaini was probably wishing he was dead by now. Probably wishing for someone to come save him. Probably wishing for his brother, or even Naoya, if he got desperate enough.

Minato stormed out of the shop. "I've got stuff to do. I'll see you all later."

Souji watched Minato leave, but said nothing. His gaze turned to Palette, who had come back out of Naoya and Keiichi's room, and gave a thumbs up. Seemed they were okay.

"...We should probably go. The full moon's in a few days now, so we need to prepare." He picked up his duffel bag and sword case before looking outside to where his katana had stuck in the wall. "If you need our help with anything, just give us a call," he said to Himitsu.