Entering with Style (Invite Only)

[mugenginga]

The attacks impacted, and the shadow's form flickered for a moment. Atem rushed forward and made a slash that would be foolish towards an opponent with full power. At the shadow's current state, however, it took the full attack. Atem had to brace himself as the darkness drew inwards and the large figure reformed into the shadow Yuugi from before. Yuugi's eyes got wide. Wasn't defeating it supposed to destroy it.

Atem looked at the shadow of his Partner. It seemed placid for the moment. It turned to Yuugi, who was working at keeping his feet planted as the thoughts raced through his mind. Actually, Yuugi and his shadow were looking each other in the eyes, and Atem realized their expressions almost matched...

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 tensed. It wasn't dead?! He didn't think he could fight this thing again, no matter how weak it seemed.

Souji stepped forward, waiting. If Yuugi rejected his Shadow again, it could get violent. He had to coax the teen into accepting it.

[mugenginga]

Atem held out his hand to Souji, the palm facing the teen in a characteristic stop motion. He walked over to Yuugi, making sure not to break the stare he and his shadow were having. It seemed a bad idea, "Partner."

Yuugi jerked and turned towards Atem, keeping one eye focused on the shadow. It seemed to get a little tense over the situation as well, and Atem felt the need to hold up a single finger to indicate to Souji that he wait, "What did it say to you?"

Yuugi squeezed his eyes shut and a few tears rolled down his face, "I-It said," he shook his head, "That I wanted to hurt people. And seperate... seperate from you...." Atem glanced towards the shadow. It seemed to be getting agitated. Atem wasn't sure Souji would take his advice to hold back much longer.

"I've never told you this, but I think I have to now. Look at me for a moment," Atem said, waiting for Yuugi's tearing eyes to turn towards his own, "You remember when you first solved the Puzzle, right?"

Yuugi nodded slightly, "I kept blacking out... and people got hurt..."

"I wasn't even fully aware of myself then. Partner, I was acting through you. Not just the body, the emotions,"

Yuugi's eyes widened and he took a step back. His other self was right, everyone that had been hurt during those events had been someone who had bullied or attack him or his friends. He mouthed the word no and went to turn away, but Atem grabbed his shoulder and prevented the action.

"Hey, do you think that makes you a bad person?"

Yuugi had squeezed his eyes shut to avoid looking Atem in the eyes when he couldn't turn away. Atem's gaze was extremely soft at this point. He gave a small smile, "It doesn't. Neither does wanting to be seperate from me. You're your own person, you know. Its only natural to want to be that way."

Yuugi blinked, lifting up his vest to wipe some tears, "I-It is?"

The shadow seemed to be relaxing at this point. Atem nodded, "Right. Its normal to want to get back at people who tease you. Just because you have those feelings doesn't mean you have to act on them. That's what makes you strong. Having them and not acting on them. Denying them will just weaken you."

Yuugi's eyes widened and he turned towards his shadow. It made a very slight nod and a light almost seemed to go off over the teen's head. He'd been attacked because he was acting weak. Souji had said that the shadows expressed the hidden feelings of a person. He stepped away from Atem and towards the shadow, pausing for a moment to look back at the Pharaoh.

"So... we'll figure something out, right?"

Atem smiled softly and nodded. Yuugi turned back towards his shadow, "I guess I was lying to myself, huh? We're both me?"

The shadow nodded, and Yuugi walked up close to it, extending his hand. This seemed to actually surprise the shadow, but after a moment it extended its own hand. The hands didn't touch, however, because the shadow Yuugi seemed to shatter into shards of light. A semi-transparent figure more than a little similar to Temu appeared before shattering inwards to form a card that floated down to the hand Yuugi had offered the shadow.

He blinked and looked at the card, while Atem let out a sigh of relief. Yuugi had been holding that in for some time. He hadn't expected it to come out quite like this. As Atem let out his breath he faded into what could best be described dark light and Yuugi had to shield his eyes from the puzzle as it brightly glowed. Atem appeared to vanish, but when the light faded Yuugi had a tired smile on his face. He looked up to the group.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 smiled, not only because Yuugi had accepted his shadow and all that, but not because he could get back at Midori. Yuugi and Atem were their own seme and uke, and they didn't need him in the mix. So she could stop writing that weird, creepy doujinshi he'd spotted her doing earlier.
He'd noticed a figure appear before that card floated down to Yuugi that resembled Temu quite a bit. Was that a Persona?

Souji walked over to Yuugi, and pulled off his glasses before putting them on the teen's face. "Here, you'll need these. We still have to get back to where we came in after all." The glasses would make it so that the fog enveloping the area was almost non-existant.

"What do those glasses do anyways?" K1 asked. He groaned. "Ah, my head hurts."

"That would be because you're not used to the TV World," Souji explained. "The glasses make it so you can see through the fog enveloping the area."

"Why didn't you give us any then?" K1 asked.

"I don't have any extra pairs, and I can't make them myself. Now, let's leave. The inside of the TV's not good on one's body," Souji explained, and turned to leave.

((OOC: The TV World, like the Dark Hour, is physically exausting, though it won't make Yuugi pass out for a whole day like the dark hour did to Atem. He, and K1, will need to take it easy for a bit though.))

[mugenginga]

Yuugi blinked as the goggles were pulled over his head. He'd noticed K1's smile, but had completely misinterperted it at relief the situation was over. As K1 mentioned his headache Yuugi held up his own hand to his head. He felt pretty worn himself. He noticed Souji going away and mentioned that they had to go back to where they came in. He looked at the wall. This was where he'd come in.

"Uh, Seta-kun? This is where I arrived... Was it an effect of th-" Yuugi paused and shook his head, "I mean, my shadow?" He looked at the card in his hand before carefully placing it in one of the empty pockets of his vest. He didn't really know where the exit to this place was. If it was like real tombs, it'd be a maze.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji nodded. "You appeared here because your shadow formed, and so you appeared in the very heart of your reality."

He motioned for everyone to follow. "We should go. If we don't hurry out, we won't leave before the rain starts."

K1 shuddered at the thought. "Right, let's go."

[mugenginga]

Yuugi's stance changed, and after seeing Atem in his true form it was probably a little odd to at least one of the two teens to see Yuugi as Atem. He adjusted the goggles a bit before making his way to the front of the group, "This may be my partner's world, but its got the feel of an Egyptian maze. I can get us out."

There didn't seem to be any objections as Atem led the way. It didn't take long for them to reach the entrance and for everyone to get out.

And not a moment too soon. Once the last person was out a clap of thunder could be heard as the heavens seemed to dump water down onto the island. It was less than five seconds after the final person reappeared in the normal world that the rain had begun to fall. The stance shifted again and Yuugi rubbed his arms, "That was way too close..." he muttered.

The thing is, however, that no problem was really solved from the excursion. He took off the goggles, rather annoyed with them by this point and handed them to Souji. He made sure thank the teen as he did so.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji took the glasses and stored them inside his uniform jacket. "At least we're safe, and we learned something."

K1 stared up at the ceiling of the store absentmindedly. "What's that?"

"We learned that the security guard is not in the TV World," Souji said. K1 gave him a stare. "The security guard would have most likely entered through this TV, as it's the only one I've seen in the whole mall that is large enough for someone to fit through. So, if he had entered the TV World, then we would have been in his world."

[mugenginga]

Yuugi seemed relieved at that, but he was yawning. He glanced at one of the many clocks displayd in the store. 3PM. And there was the Dark Hour to deal with still. He wondered if it was possible to just sleep through that. Both he and his other self had a Persona now. That made them safe, right? He wasn't doing a good job convincing himself.

He sighed, "We should probably get to bed. What with the TV World and the Dark Hour last night... and coming up again..."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 agreed. "We should be going then. See you, Souji."

"Yes, see you later," Souji said, and turned to leave.