Boku wa Detective Princess (Invite Only)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Yuugi's statement only added more fuel to the fire for the shadow, though, as it seemed to get stronger with that statement. Souji could see now why shadows tended to be rejected. It was painful facing something you didn't even want to admit to yourself.

"...I'm sure I'm never going to leave this train station for good. No matter what, I'll always end up back here," the Shadow said. It turned to face the tracks again. "It's useless to make friends if I'm just going to return to these same tracks, carrying the same things.

"...Shut up... I'm not like that anymore...!" Souji yelled. He had both hands on the sword now.

"If you're not like that, then why am I here? How would I know these things? Because I'm you. Unless... I'm what you're thinking," Shadow Souji said. It gave a smirk, which with Souji's face, plus the yellow eyes, resembled something rather terrifying.

K1 and Minato had approximately the same reaction as Yuugi had upon seeing a similar one a few days ago, and that was that was enough for one lifetime. K1 was profoundly reminded of Keisuke upon seeing Shadow Souji's face.
And finally, it looked like Souji couldn't take any more, and rushed forward, before bringing his sword down at his Shadow which dodged out of the way of that attack and the following three sword slashes. Souji gasped for breath. Of course his shadow had as much combat prowess as he did himself.

His shadow. Not him. Never him.
That little erroneous thought was what caused the shadow to finally go berserk. Dark energy swirled around the shadow eventually surrounding it and growing larger and larger. Naoto grabbed Souji and pulled him away as the Shadow revealed its new form.

The shadow was humanoid, though its proportions were off a bit, with its arms slightly longer than they should have been. It was wearing what looked like a conglomeration of different school uniforms that had been haphazardly stitched together. On the back of the uniform jacket were several of those stickers you often saw on people's suitcases, with the names of a city on each one. Its face was covered with a mask like those most Shadows wear, but it resembled the one of the back of the tarot card that Souji used to summon his Persona, and what was visible of its skin was pure black. Like Izanagi, it carried a sort of cleaver-like spear that sparked with pure electrical energy.

"I am a Shadow... The true self..." the shadow spoke. "I'll make sure no memory of me is left behind... starting with you."

[mugenginga]

Naoya mentally told himself to make a point to never come here again. He knew rather well what his hidden feelings were. He didn't need Keiichi seeing them. He removed his hand from Keiichi's wrist and pulled out his COMP, summoning two demons with the speed of someone used to battles. Ananta and Nyarlathotep. From where he was, he could still attack. The rules of shadows seemed to work differently, however, so he had no delusions of the shadow being unable to counter. Perhaps surprisingly, however, he put both of his demons on defensive and braced himself as well. He wanted the others to feel out the abilities of Souji's shadow, and was not one to focus on status boosting skills with what he taught his demons.

Yuugi somehow couldn't help but feel it was partially his fault. Which while he had fuelled the shadow, was just a normal place for Yuugi's mind to go. He was grateful Naoto had pushed Souji out of the way of the energy. His hand quickly went over to his Duel Monsters deck. There were a couple of reasons, although Yuugi couldn't have articulated them. The biggest ones were he knew his Persona was weaker than the one Souji had... he just... somehow knew. And it's purpose seemed more to heal despite the one attack skill it had. The other biggie was, he knew it was weak to "slash" skills, and Souji's shadow had that sword... which his connection to his Persona and what he'd seen in fights so far let him know it would be ba bad idea to use.

He drew a card and quickly held up two. One merely vanished, although anyone paying any kind of attention would know some kind of effect had gone into play. A hidden spell, a trap, it was unclear. But the energy that washed over the "field" as it were was not one of a monster. The other light materialized into a dark and altogether cute magician looking creature. It had a crimson red and black color scheme, and would seem off to fans of only the card game. It resembled "Silent Magician Level 4" but the katakana on the card had read "Sairento Majishan LV0". It had its staff out in front of it in a defensive posture.

However, Yuugi didn't attack. He looked nervously at the shadow, keeping Black Magician Girl in her attack mode. He glanced over at the group before looking over at Souji again. His expression was full of sympathy mixed with extreme emotional pain and worry. He didn't say anything, however, trying hard to focus on the fight. He wondered how much time they had, it was hard to keep track in the TV World...

He can fight it... right? But his is so much stronger than mine was... It's already fought as a Persona... and a lot....

(OOC: Arbitrary numbers tiem! Silent Magician has 1000 ATK/DEF and is on defense. Destroying it won't hurt Yuugi, and if by some off chance the attack is weaker than thant fairly low DEF, Shadow Souji will hurt itself a bit. Black Magician Girl has 2000 ATK, which is a moderately high attack. Destroying her WILL hurt Yuugi, an attack too weak to do so will hit Shadow Souj with the difference.

The card set is a Trap Card. Mirror Force, but Yuugi can choose to activate it or not. So hold off just before an attack hits him or his monsters to let me decide if he chooses to activate it. As one who has played the game, it is sometimes better to take the weaker blow in case a stronger one hits. In terms of the anime, not immediately using it is an excellent way to throw off the opponent.

More for me than you, but Yuugi has three cards in his hand now.)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

The first thing Naoto did once Souji had been pulled out of danger was pull out his revolver and try to shoot the Shadow, putting a nice hole through the Shadow's shoulder. That at least proved that physical attacks worked on it.

K1 summoned Cerberus and Astaroth from his COMP as well. If they were going to fight this thing, it would be better to use something that could boost their physical power and still be able to guard themselves.
"Cerberus, Shield All! Astaroth, Might Call!" K1 yelled. There, that would work.

Minato, on the other hand, took one look at the electricity sparking around Shadow Souji's cleaver-spear, and decided it might be a good idea to sit this fight out. His suspicions were confirmed when Shadow Souji lifted the spear into the air, and the electricity swarmed around it even more before several bolts of lightning came their way. K1 was safe thanks to Cerberus' shield, but Minato, not so much, only barely managing to dodge the lightning.

[mugenginga]

Naoya caught the implication of the gunshot, and held his ground with remarkable skill considering the electricty that had hit him. Ananta and Nyarlathotep barely seemed effected, a slight twitch being the only indication it had done any damage. Naoya waved an arm as he shouted out orders to his demons.

"Ananta, Makarakarn! Nyarlathotep, Power Hit!"

As Nyarlathotep seemed to headbutt the air, a tangible wave of black energy spiralled up around it. This was contrasted by the immensely powerful white energy that seemed to originate from Naoya's COMP and spiral around the man. It was surrounded by the black energy that had spiralled around Nyarlathotep.

The waves of chaos swirling the energy shot towards Shadow Souji, allowing the attacks to hit from a rather considerable distance. Not the biggest shock involving the magic spell Naoya had seemed to just cast, but the fact that the head butt impacted would seem weird to those not of Naoya's world.

Naoya wasn't the type to shout out attack names, but he had used Megidolaon on Shadow Souji. To those not too busy trying to not be killed, it somehow seemed clear Naoya and Keiichi were used to fighting together. Their stances and general positions seemed to somehow be supportive of each other. An almost tangible aura hung over Naoya and his demons now. Unless Shadow Souji could fling an Almighty related spell at the trio, any magic would reflect straight back to the Shadow.

Black Magician Girl winced as the electricity coursed through her, but it wasn't enough to destroy her. She lifted up her staff. As a Duel Monster in attack mode, an attack that didn't kill her meant the difference in damage would be inflicted upon the opponent. A rather large ball of what could best be described as pink lightning gathered on the tip of her wand.

At the same time the lightning hit Silent Magician, whose eyes widened as it turned into light and vanished. Yuugi was holding up his arm in a way that hid the cards from view, but he'd been rather shocked that his monsters hadn't been able to protect him. However, he somehow had the feeling they had lessened the blow. He looked sadly at where Silent Magician had been standing as he drew another card.

"BLACK BURNING!" Black Magician Girl shouted, twirling in a fashion all to reminiscent of a magical girl before pointing her wand at Shadow Souji. The pink energy shot off, retaining its ball form, and hit Shadow Souji.

Yuugi held up two cards once more, dropping the cards in his hand to two. The first card created what could best be described as a "presence" on the field. Unlike the other one, it felt alive. He had "set" a monster. The other one shot into the air and three swords of pure light landed around Shadow Souji.

"It can't attack for a while!" Yuugi shouted, well aware that it was more than possible the shadow had some kind of move that could dispel attack seals. After all, he'd been hit with a defending monster on the field.

(OOC: Yuugi set Baphomet. Defense is applicable here, its 1200. Here's the card: yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gazelle_the_King_of_Mythical_Beasts

The spell he cast was Sealing Sword of Light/Swords of Revealing Light: yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Swords_of_Revealing_Light)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Shadow Souji winced and stepped back as the attacks all hit it, knocking it back a few feet before the swords of light trapped it. Naoto took this as his opprotunity, and held out his own tarot card, which floated in midair once let go of, and shot the tarot card, causing it to summon a small Persona that flitted around a bit before flying at Shadow Souji and slicing him several times with the laser blade the Persona wielded.

Minato had helped Souji out of the battle area. It would be best to get the teen out of sight of his shadow for now, as the shadow would likely target him as Atem's had targeted Atem.

It looked like the swords were holding, at least; Shadow Souji hadn't shown anything that suggested he could break free.

[mugenginga]

Naoya couldn't help but wonder what the issue with fighting the shadows were. He got the whole needing to accept it or getting killed by it problem. He even got that if Souji acted the idiot and rejected it again, it would probably attack again. He had no intentions of sticking around if that happeend. This fight could last forever. As it was, he was feeling slightly drained. He gestured and shouted, the Megidolaon being cast after he gave orders.

"Continue until I say otherwise, Nyarlathotep! Ananta, Deathbound!"

Despite both being physical attacks, the waves of chaos Nyarlathotep provided the team allowed the attacks to hit Shadow Souji. Who currently would have trouble moving around with the swords in place. Naoya was mildly impressed with how well that card worked in a real fight, and mildly amused that the monster born from Souji's suppressed emotions didn't have the ability to fight back against it.

Yuugi drew a card and quickly threw one to the ground. Another hidden living presence appeared as light shot from his deck and into his hand. Whatever monster he had set had allowed another card to come to his hand, "Keep it up, Black Magician Girl!"

The spellcaster nodded and shouted "BLACK BURNING!" again as she sent another orb of magic at the monster. It would be interperted as a dark spell by the Shadow in fitting with her attribute and the fact that it wasn't a physical attack. Things were going extremely poorly for Souji's Shadow. Yuugi hadn't even had to summon his own Persona...

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 stepped forward. The swords looked like they'd hold for a little bit longer, before the shadow managed to break free. Indeed, it looked like that second sword was half faded away already, and the shadow was struggling to lift its spear again. So Shadow Souji would most likely break free on Yuugi's next "turn."

"Astaroth, Deathbound! Cerberus, just maul him!" K1 yelled. The two demons rushed forward, Cerberus biting Shadow Souji's ankle, while Astaroth slashed at the Shadow several times with his own weapon, while also taking damange.

Souji seemed to be out of it for now. Minato, seeing that, stood up. He didn't have his Evoker, and thus couldn't summon his Persona, but he was going to fight. He'd been stockpiling all of those Gem things for a while, after all. He pulled a Garula Gem from his pocket, and waited for a good chance to throw it.

[mugenginga]

Naoya was not unaware that they'd only put a small dent in the strength of the shadow. Souji was strong, he'd give the teen that much. And if the implications were true, it mean his shadow would be a nightmare to bring down. As it was, they were putting everything they had into the fight. Only time he could remember an enemy being this hard to bring down was the fights he had participated in with Keiichi against the Bel demons. Well, he'd wanted his cousin to train... he glanced at the layout of the field. Souji had been removed by Minato, so it was likely the silver-haired teen wouldn't be the first thing the shadow targeted.

The Makarakarm from before was still active, it would protect from one attack providing the shadow didn't decide to use its weapon instead of its lightning. Although it did have a long reach and Naoya had no doubt that the shadow was extremely fast. There was nothing they could do but fight at this point, however. He entered a command into his computer and Nyarlathotep vanished, being replaced by Ameterasu moments later. If Ananta was going to keep up its Deathbound attacks, it would need constant healing. Especially since said attack did more damage the higher the user's health was.

"Focus on healing Ananta!" Naoya ordered as he cast Drain on Shadow Souji. He needed to keep his ability to cast spells up as well, and it would hinder the abilities of the shadow rather effectively.

Yuugi drew another card. The shadow didn't appear to be getting much weaker, and it would be free soon. He held up a card and the two hidden presences on the field vanished and drew towards the card the teen had held up. The light shot out again and a monster K1 had met back when he first met Yuugi and Atem appeared.

Black Magician immediately took an aggressive stance. He was just as autonomous as before, but an extremely observant person would realize he felt differently towards Yuugi than he had towards Atem.

Black Magician Girl glanced over at Black Magician as Yuugi issued his order, "Both of you, attack!"

"BLACK BURNING!" Black Magician Girl fired off another pink orb of magic.

"BLACK MAGIC!" was the shout from Black Magician as he held out his open palm towards the shadow. It was vaguely reminiscent of Atem's own Mind Crush. Black energy spiralled around the magician and shot towards the shadow in conjunction with Black Magician Girl's spell.

(OOC: I seriously doubt I need to link you to his card. ATK/DEF are 2500/2100, ATK is applicable here.

ANd in case you forgot, Holy Barrier - Mirror Force is still set)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Naoto, seeing that the Swords were beginning to fade away and not wanting to miss a chance to attack, stepped forward.

"Sukuna-Hikona!" Naoto yelled. The Persona flitted forward and slashed the Shadow three times once more, using the Tempest Slash attack. As Sukuna-Hikona did this, the attacks from Naoya and Yuugi's monsters hit, causing the Shadow to stumble back once more. At this time, the Sealing Swords of Light faded away, forcing K1 to call his demons back over to him.

"You refuse to forget me... it's better to forget. To forget and to ignore. Fine... I'll have to erase my memory by force." Shadow Souji raised his weapon into the air, and brought it slamming down onto the field, causing a wave of rather powerful electricity to move through the area. It hit Minato, knocking him down and doing quite a bit of damage, while it hurt K1's demons fairly badly. K1 wasn't hurt too bad thanks to some of his COMP's abilities, but he could still tell that was a powerful attack. This could be bad.

[mugenginga]

The attack bounced off the nearly tangible energy surrounding Naoya and Ananta, the electricity coursing straght back at Souji's shadow. Ameterasu wasn't as lucky, however, and very visibly took the hit. It had been a rather strong burst of electricity, after all. She stood up and glanced at Naoya. "Heal yourself. Keiichi, back me up."

The last part had been an order. The thing was, Naoya had an idea based on what the Shadow was saying. And it was something only he, who Souji was well aware disliked him, could do. He spoke to Ananta as he stepped foward, "Use Makarakarn now," as usual, he gave no explanation. His demons were used to it.

Yuugi fell to his knees at the blast, and Black Magician Girl disappeared into light. Black Magician even fell, but he pushed himself back up to his feet with some effort. However, no return attack. The blast from the shadow had been equal to his own, resulting in a stalemate. Yuugi realized he'd have to activate the trap if the shadow did that again. He lifted up two cards, dropping the ones in his hand to two. One of them had the phonetic pronunciation of "Hijutsu no Sho" or "Book of Secret Arts". It vanished to light and the light reformed as a book in Black Magician's free hand. One could sense the slight surge of energy around the monster. The other card set itself as a monster presence, and was replaced via light in his hand. Two cards now.

However, he paused when he saw Naoya stepping forward. Black Magician held his aggressive stance. Naoya stopped about a foot away from the shadow and made a very audible "tsk" noise.

"You think acting a jerk will make people forget you? People remember the bad better than the good," he said. He was well aware this might illicit a violent response. He gestured to Ananta and Ameterasu. If the shadow tried a physical attack, the three of them would try to dodge. A magical one would just rebound on the shadow.

Playing by the shadows rules obviously wasn't working. So he'd purposely try and make its emotions seem pointless. If it could get rid of the emotions, it might weaken the shadow. After all, from what he'd seen shadows were merely supressed emotions. He had to try.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

The electricity that had bounced off of Naoya and Ananta didn't do anything to the shadow, due to it naturally blocking electricity. Naoya's words, however, hurt more than his attacks, and K1 saw that the shadow was about to attack again. He turned to Cerberus.

"Shield All, dammit! Get on it!" K1 ordered. The demon complied, sending up an energy shield of sorts around the rest of the group.

A good thing too, because the shadow had lifted its cleaver and was about to bring it down on Naoya's head, the cleaver sparking with electricity. However, in its angered state, it was likely it would be easy to bring it down.

[mugenginga]

On retrospect, it would have probably been a better idea to bring out a demon with Knight Soul or Paladin Soul before attempting this maneuver. He had told his cousin to back him up for a reason. The thought that maybe "Abel" had finally decided he was a jackass occurred for a split second before the energy shot up around him, just barely catching the attack. Naoya had already been in mid dodge, but he would have likely lost a limb had the shield not been put up.

"Master!" Ameterasu shouted.

"Agidyne, now! Ananta, Holy Dance!" Naoya had sensed the shift in the stance of the demon. As it was, the snake's magical endurance was running low. He wouldn't be able to cast many more spells, and Naoya had exhausted the three spells it could be commanded to cast. Ameterasu quickly sent a huge blast of fire towards the shadow while Ananta looked like all its heads were moving in unison to some snake charmer, each move sending a blast of energy at the shadow.

Naoya cast Drain again as soon as he landed. That hadn't quite gone as he had expected, but it had given a good outcome nonetheless. He just hoped the others in the fight had enough sense to realize they needed to pull out their strongest attacks now.

Yuugi took a step back as the shadow tried to cleave Naoya in twain. The man moved rather quickly, but it was clear whatever K1 had done had saved him. He drew a card before quickly throwing down another one. The "set" monster suddenly appeared in front of him along with another one. Something told him he needed to attack. If the shadow tried to use a physical attack again, he'd activate the trap. It was clear the electric attacks had no effect.

The two new monsters were Green Gadget and Red Gadget, "Everyone, attack!" Yuugi shouted. He didn't sound very confident in this choice, though.

"BLACK MAGIC!" shouted Black Magician, the energy coming up from his spellbook before exiting his pointed staff. In the card game, he would be doing 2800 damage.

The two gadgets said nothing, merely firing bolts towards the shadow. Duel Monsters had no "lightning" element, but considering the layout of elements in the cards it would likely be interperted this way by the shadow. After all, lightning came up from the Earth. Yuugi hadn't even thought of that when he had chosen to summon the gadgets and have them attack. If they did manage to not get blocked, they'd do the equivalent of 1300 from the Red Gadget and 1400 from the Green Gadget... but if they were countered anything above that would destroy them and harm Yuugi.

If this doesn't do it, we're in trouble...

Yuugi took the moment of the attack to turn towards where Minato and Souji were. Minato needed healing... but he didn't think he'd have the time to bring out Nefertum. If only Atem were there, he could run interference... he hoped the Pharaoh was resting well. He hoped even more Adachi didn't show back up during that time. The Pharaoh only had Temu and was likely to exhausted to maintain the Persona.

(OOC: I say the Earth element coincides with the Lightning element for the whole lightning comes from Earth thing. So the attack is pointless, and a counter would greatly harm Yuugi. The joys of not fully understaning Persona/shadows. )

[Firebreath Fishslap]

The attacks from the Gadgets did nothing to the shadow, but Black Magician's attack did a lot more damage than it should have done. Not only that, but it didn't look the Shadow was going to use that highly damaging electrical attack again. It seemed to only be using physical attacks, attempting to bring its cleaver down on top of K1 like it had tried to do to Naoya before. Thankfully, the Shield All had kicked in for K1 as well, and he managed to get out of the way of the attack.

Naoto realized what was going on.
"It's enraged! We need to defeat it now, while it will take more damage!" Naoto yelled. For some reason, his voice had a bit more of a feminine lean to it as he said this. In any case, he summoned Sukuna-Hikona again, and the Persona summoned a large orb of white energy above it, before tossing it at the shadow, knocking it back again. It didn't look like it would last much longer, thanks to being enraged like it had.

[mugenginga]

Naoya was a little annoyed the teenager had felt the need to say that to him. It also seemed a little odd that a sixteen year old's voice was cracking as it had appeared to do so, but it wasn't out of the question. The teenager had probably hit puberty late... well, it wasn't the only thought that crossed his mind but he put both aside as he gestured to his demons again.

"Repeat your last attacks!" Naoya said as he used the boost he'd gotten from his Drain skill to cast Megidolaon again.

Yuugi was a little startled by the slight shift in Naoto's voice. He wondered if the teen's usual voice wasn't just a bit more feminine and he chose to try and mask it. Yuugi knew what it was like to have a higher voice from time to time.

K1's efforts to avoid the attack were rather pointless. As Yuugi had seen the attack coming down and flicked his wrist to the side. A wall of light appeared where the shadow had attacked and the full force of the attack bounded back on it. There was barely enough time to make out any of the kanji on the image that appeared, but it had read "Seinaru Baria - Mirafoosu" or "Holy Barrier - Mirror Force" - Yuugi had planned on using it the next time the shadow attempted a phsyical attack, and he had.

He held up a card and the Green Gadget vanished. The familliar summoning light occured and a skeletal winged beast appeared. It was "Demon Summon". Yuugi pointed at the shadow, "Both of you, attack!"

"BLACK MAGIC!" shouted the Black Magician, pointing his staff at the shadow, the dark energy racing forward.

The Demon Summon said nothing, merely pulsing with what looked like electricity. The thing was, the magic was the type that could gain boosts from rain and such. Like electricity. But the fiend's element meant it would impact as dark magic, same as Black Magician's attack.

Yuugi turned away from the monsters towards where Minato and Souji were. Atem had woken up when his shadow was defeated. But what would happen if Souji couldn't even attempt to accept his suppressed feelings? Would the shadow merely go beserk. His face was an unusual mixture of extreme worry and intensity. There was more than the usual traces of Atem there... thing was, he had a battle mode just like Atem. And despite the worry he was feeling, he was well into it.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 ordered his own demons forward to attack as well as Naoya and Yuugi's attacks hit the Shadow, knocking it off balance. Cerberus and Astaroth both attacked the Shadow as it appeared to stumble over again, Astaroth using that giant snake steed of his to attack the Shadow by slamming it into it.

That was it. The enraged shadow finally slammed to the ground, and its body dissolved into small bits of darkness.

"...Is it over?" K1 asked. He looked over where the shadow had been, and saw its original form standing there, looking a bit disheartened. No, it wasn't over.

With a groan, Souji awoke.
"...What happened?" he asked. The he remembered. Right. The shadow.
He shakily got to his feet, and looked it in the eye. After a moment, he took a deep breath before talking to it.

"...I knew this was going to happen eventually. Ever since Izanagi-no-Okami reverted back to Izanagi, I knew this was coming. I figured that the push that Izanami had given me was wearing off, so I thought that eventually Izanagi would disappear, which he did... that's why I came in here today. In hope that maybe I could face you, and get my Persona back... obviously that didn't go too well," Souji said. "I moved around a lot when I was younger. My parents have to move a lot for their job, so I'd often go to a school for a year or so, then move again. Sometimes I didn't even stay at the school for any more than a couple months. After a while, I started thinking that it was better to not have friends. When people tried to get closer to me, I would act, basically, like a jerk to get them to leave me alone. After I went to Inaba, I actually made friends, but I never forgot that I only had a year. Still, I tried to deny this part of myself... no matter what."

He looked up at the shadow. "You're still me. You always were. No matter how much I tried to deny it, you're still me."

The shadow nodded, and dissolved into a blue fire-like energy before manifesting into the transparent form of a Persona that resembled Izanagi, only wearing white clothing and with not so much looking like a delinquent. The Persona disappeared, and formed a tarot card that floated down to Souji's hand, which he caught.

"Good to have you back..." Souji mumbled. And then he passed out.

"Oh crap!" K1 ran over to Souji's side.

"We need to get him out of the TV World so he can rest," Naoto said. He looked around. The fog seemed to be getting thinner...