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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 18, 2009 14:38:42 GMT -5
Souji sighed and followed after Yuugi and Atem, heading back to the room.
Kanji clenched his fist and punched it into a tree. "Dammit! I thought we'd taken care of him for good, and now he's here stirring up the same shit again."
Naoto looked to the side before extinguishing the fire with a bucket of water they'd brought with them. "Let's go to bed."
Grumbling, Kanji grabbed the jacket and shirt before following after Naoto. Minato and K1 both stood up and followed after the two.
"Hey, Minato," K1 said.
"Yeah?"
"Your room's the only one with an open bed, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
"And Souji's been staying with Naoto-k.. chan." K1 said. "And I don't think anyone wants to move their stuff around rooms this late at night."
Minato groaned and walked forward, more quickly this time. He'd been afraid of that.
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 18, 2009 14:50:26 GMT -5
Naoya had left just ahead of Keiichi, having no doubt the two teens left at the site would be following shortly. Kanji because he seemed to worship the ground Souji walked on, and Keiichi because... well, because Keiichi worshipped the ground he walked on. But humorous thoughts aside, also because the teen wouldn't want to be left alone, especially with the fire out.
-----
Yuugi made it to the cabin fairly quickly. He glanced back and saw Atem just as the flickering light of the campfire went out. Atem looked over towards the shorter teen with a concerned expression.
"Are you going to be alright?"
Yuugi nodded, "Yeah... I need to learn to keep my mouth shut better, don't I?"
Atem opened his mouth. Yeah, Yuugi did. If it had been anyone else he'd have had no problem saying so. He nodded to himself. It was the right thing to do to not hold back here, "Yes."
Yuugi's eyes widened for a moment, not expecting such a blunt response. Something seemed to click and he smiled somewhat sadly, "Thanks... for being honest. The others will be here soon..." the short teen pushed open the door to the cabin and headed back to his room. Atem wasn't far behind. They'd both be asleep fairly quickly. Atem was pretty sure he'd be so before the final member of the group made it to the cabin, actually.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 18, 2009 15:18:19 GMT -5
((OOC: TIEM SKIP TIEM))
A bit later that night, Kanji and Minato were both laying awake in bed, facing the walls closest to each other.
"Hey, Kanji? Can I ask you something?" Minato asked. Kanji got very nervous. This was a bit similar to a question he'd heard before...
"What?" Kanji asked.
"Well, Souji was telling me about some of your adventures and... um... ah..." He was stuttering. Oh god, this was going that same route. "What I'm trying to say is, is it safe to sleep in the same room with you?"
Kanji sat up. "What'd you just say?"
"N-Nothing, it's just, I wanna make sure, that's all!" Minato said. "I... er... never mind."
"I ain't like that!" Kanji yelled. "I-I mean, I..."
In the excitement, the two of them didn't realize the Dark Hour was soon. In Kanji's defense, he didn't know about it.
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 18, 2009 15:23:09 GMT -5
Naoya was sitting up in bed, looking out the window. Keiichi had fallen asleep quickly, but he hadn't been asleep yet. It was obvious that the two of them were targeted during the Dark Hour. Keiichi more than he, which he didn't think could be explained by a power level difference. He wouldn't have admitted this out loud, but his brother wasn't much weaker than he was. There were times when he wondered if even that distinction could be made. Well, recently he'd gained some ground there thanks to Keiichi slacking off, but it shouldn't have effected who the group would target more.
He lay back in bed. The Shadows were the suppressed emotions of humans, huh? Well, that meant Keiichi was probably targeted more because he suppressed his emotions more. As it was, the digital clock in the room read 11:55 PM. If he was going to prevent his cousin from getting killed, he needed to summon the demons now. He pulled out his COMP, not realizing that the clock was just under five minutes slow...
-----
Yuugi and Atem were asleep. Atem heavier than Yuugi for once. He was, after all, still recovering from the TV World. They were both still in their clothes.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 18, 2009 15:50:00 GMT -5
Kanji and Minato had both climbed out of bed, Minato because Kanji was freaking out, Kanji because he was freaking out when the Dark Hour hit. As expected, Kanji freaked out even more.
"W-What the!? How the-- what the-- what's going on?!" Kanji yelled, likely waking everyone else up.
"Kanji, calm down. It's just the Dark Hour," Minato said.
"How is that supposed to be reassuring!?"
------------------
Inside K1 and Naoya's room, a shadow was lurking...
At the sound of Kanji's yelling, K1 groaned and sat up. "Ow, my ears..."
((OOC: The shadow's an NPC; you can control its actions.))
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 18, 2009 15:58:58 GMT -5
Naoya had actually cussed when the COMP blipped off. Quite the extremely strong reaction for the man. It had been quiet, but it had also been in English of all things. Japan didn't have a word for the English f-bomb, and none was as strong as it. The clock had been wrong. And for how much Souji hated him, he knew even Souji wouldn't have set something like that up on purpose. Besides, it put Keiichi in danger as well.
"Keiichi, get up now!" he shouted. It wasn't filled with concern in the least. In fact, the dead serious tone bordered on anger. Naoya caught something moving out of the corner of his eye and barely sidestepped as what could best be described as a puddle of inky darkness swept its hand out at him. The mask worn by it indicated it was of the same Arcana Souji had been unable to recognize before.
And this was where Naoya's pride got in the way. He refused to shout for help. He hoped he could grab Keiichi and get out of there, unaware that there was a shadow near the door. His shout for Keiichi to get up, however, would be heard by the others...
Like Yuugi, who shot up in bed and Atem who would have reacted even stronger had he not been so solidly asleep. He was awake, however. He and Yuugi came upon the same conclusion quickly. Yuugi reached the door first. He tried to push the door open and felt it impact with something.
"Seta-kun!?" he shouted, hopefully. Atem knew better and had the card raised above his head and crushed into the familiar blue flame. Temu materialized, and he felt the drain on his energy. He probably wasn't ready to be summoning his Persona again just yet.
"Temu, use Zio!" he shouted. Yuugi barely managed to sidestep as the bolt of lightning went flying towards the door. Keiichi had insisted upon the sleeping arrangements putting him with his cousin. Atem knew it had been a bad idea... but for all Naoya's faults, he wasn't stupid. Was the man trying to kill Keiichi.... technically again?
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 18, 2009 16:28:02 GMT -5
K1 climbed out of bed, and spotted the large shadow blocking the door, and not just that, but that Naoya was standing very close to it. The shadow reached up and slashed down, and would have likely hit Naoya had K1 not jumped and pushed Naoya out of the way rather roughly. This gave the shadow enough time to get to K1, and grabbed him by the leg, its claws digging deep into K1's skin.
At first it didn't seem like much had happened, and K1 managed to pull his leg out of its grip. He breathed heavily for a few minutes before he felt something like cold liquid run down his cheek. The black sludge fell from his face and hit the ground as K1 went cold and clammy. He reached up one hand to his face, and touched the strange sludge before even more and more began of oozing out of somewhere. He couldn't tell where it was coming from. Only that it was wrong... and he couldn't stop it.
He fell to his knees and grabbed his face, trying to stop the flow of the sludge, to no avail. His vision was getting dark, his conciousness fading. It was very possible he would die. In fact, the last thought that occurred to K1 before he fell to the ground and became Lost to everyone was that he'd failed everyone back home. Mom, Dad, Atsuro, Yuzu... everyone.
-----------------
Minato's face drained of all color as he heard Naoya's yell. He yanked open the bedside drawer, revealing the Evoker inside. He hesitated before grabbing it and running out the door.
"Hey! What's going on?!" Kanji yelled before following after.
------------------
Souji and Naoto had both awoken at Naoya's yell.
"What's going--" Souji froze. It was the Dark Hour, and shadows targeted people without personae.
He jumped up and ran out the door, pulling out his tarot card as he did so.
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 18, 2009 16:35:45 GMT -5
One thing was for certain. Souji and Minato were not getting their security deposit back. As Temu's Zio blew the door off its hinges. Considering the strength of the attack, it probably meant the door wasn't that well attached. Getting damaged was one thing. Getting blown clear across the room and smashing the Shadow that been in front of it? A bit much. But Persona were connected to the emotions of their user, so perhaps that provided some explanation.
By the time Yuugi and Atem got out, the shorter teen had summoned Nefertum as well. But he didn't think Dia would help Atem right now. He wasn't weak in that way. He was just exhausted.
-----
"If anyone kills him it will be me!" Naoya shouted, well aware the others probably heard him. Even if Naoya had been thinking straight, he wouldn't have been concerned about it. After all, it was apparent they realized he was more of an older brother figure than anything else to the teenager. There were other reasons he was worried about Keiichi than familial relations. If Keiichi died, humanity could very well lose its free will. Even if Kaini managed to become the "Messiah", it would mean Man was under the iron fist of that dictator known as God. But as the black sludge oozed from what appeared to be inside of Keiichi, he knew that if the teen would die from the attack, there was nothing at this point he could do.
He didn't have a chance to solidify the thought much beyond that as his eyes suddenly got wide as a Shadow launched itself from behind him. He gritted his teeth as he tried to will the ting away, but memories that he knew but had suppressed for so long came flooding into his head. He hadn't felt like this even as the realization of what he had done to Abel had hit. Even with the blood covering his front he hadn't...
Shit... you... idio.... he slumped to the floor, his eyes open but for all extensive purposes nobody home...
-----
As cliche as this sounded, Yuugi knew it was far too quiet in Naoya and Keiichi's room...
"Nefertum, Garu!" he shouted, and the Persona fired off the green mist at the door leading to the Kimura room. The door collapsed, and the scene inside would be revealed...
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 18, 2009 17:10:15 GMT -5
Minato had been the first to reach the room after Yuugi knocked down the door, and probably the first to see the inside scene. K1 was slumped on the floor, collapsed, but his head was still facing the door. There was a soulless look in the teen's eyes, one that Minato recognised very well.
And Minato practically exploded. He put the Evoker up to his head and fired it, summoning a Persona he hadn't in a long time. Thanatos materialized within the Kimura room, and let out a roar before bringing its blade slashing down on the Maya, cutting into the odd Shadow's mask.
"KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT!" Minato screamed. Thanatos brought the blade down several times, until the Shadow resembled nothing but a shadowy pulp. The Shadow finally faded away, and Thanatos with it. Minato gasped for air before collapsing to his knees. This couldn't be happening. How could this be happening? Was this all because he...?
And where was Orpheus? Why had he summoned Thanatos instead? At least this time Thanatos hadn't clawed its way out of Orpheus' head and forced itself into battle, but he hadn't even conciously changed to Thanatos.
Kanji, Souji, and Naoto both arrived at the scene as Minato tore away at the Shadow. Souji rushed into the room once the shadow was gone, and checked K1, lightly shaking the boy. "Hey! Keiichi! Snap out of it!"
Naoto checked Naoya. "He's out of it too..."
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 18, 2009 17:18:10 GMT -5
Yuugi fell backwards as Thanatos appeared, Nefertum vanishing at the total loss of concentration. Atem dismissed Temu about the third hack of Thanatos' blade, but he was staring intently at the dark energy practically exploding off... Minato. The way Minato reacted after it faded meant he had not meant to summon whatever the hell that thing had been. But the emotional overload must have brought it out. He couldn't rationalize it as Orpheus' shadow form. It was an entity all its own. And even to Atem, damn frightening. It had the power level of Diabound, the demon that Thief King Bakura had been given access to out of his lust for revenge.
Yuugi got to his feet and looked over at Minato. He saw Atem shake his head and gesture to Naoto. Yuugi nodded and ran over, "What happened to them!?"
"Minato... what was that?" Atem spoke in a very calm tone of voice. He didn't want to startle the teen, but he wanted to make it clear Minato wasn't avoiding the question either. Whatever darkness had caused that creature to appear had overloaded Minato's fear of the Evoker and apparently allowed him to control the Persona. Thinking back, he couldn't recall Minato using anything other than Orpheus. It was somehing like Souji, but that thing he had summoned...
And the bloodthirsty shouts of the teen from before were more than enough explanation for how Yuugi had skirted around Minato to get to Naoto.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 18, 2009 17:54:57 GMT -5
Minato continued to gasp for breath, staring down at his Evoker.
"Thanatos... Death." He slowly climbed to his feet, still shaking a bit from what he had just done. He'd never summoned a persona out of anger like that before. He remembered Junpei having done so, and the persona became horridly powerful as a result, even being able to wound Jin, who was immune to fire attacks. But that had been...
"They won't respond," Minato said. His voice was still shaking too. "The shadow got to them first... Now they've got Apathy Syndrome..."
"What the hell is that?!" Kanji asked, rather loudly as usual. He had gone over to Naoya's side as well, and had helped pull him upwards so the man wasn't laying on the ground, drooling. Souji stayed silent.
"It's caused by Shadows preying on the minds of people who don't transmogrify into coffins... They can't think, feel, or speak anymore," Minato said. He gave a pitying look to K1, who Souji had also pulled upright.
"Is there a cure?" Naoto asked. Minato nodded.
"They'll recover over time... but I don't know when the next full moon is," Minato said.
"What does that have to do with anything?!" Kanji asked.
"The master of the shadow who attacked them won't show up until then," Minato said. This is all my fault...
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 18, 2009 18:00:29 GMT -5
Atem paused. Death? He shook the thought away. Yuugi was torn between fear of Minato and concern for the teenager. He certainly hadn't missed the death comment any more than Atem had. He didn't want to make Minato feel any worse... and the teen seemed to be rather guilt wracked.
"It's okay... Minato-kun. We can fight it, right...? And then they'll be okay?"
Atem quickly walked out of the room. He definently looked like he was about to do something, but what was completely unclear. Actually, he was going to check the calender hanging in the main room. It had the moon phases for the Island. He hoped they would forgive him for not saying something, but he wanted to check before anything else came up.
Yuugi held out his hand to Minato, although it was shaking a bit. He was obviously still worried about the Persona Minato had summoned, "We can handle it, right...?"
He had a lot of questions, but now was clearly not the time for it.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 18, 2009 18:51:10 GMT -5
Minato looked down at Yuugi's hand. He hadn't realized how badly he'd shaken the rest of the group by summoning Thanatos. Souji was currently focusing on making sure K1 was okay, but Kanji (who was still freaked out due to the fact that there were random pools of blood in the cabin) and Naoto were both avoiding looking at him, or at least what Minato interpreted as that. After all, he wasn't in the best mental state at the moment (as if suddenly summoning Thanatos wasn't enough of a clue). He took Yuugi's hand. "Of course we can. We beat them before..."
But was it the right thing to do? He didn't want to bring the Fall here, and they'd already taken down one shadow he was sure was an Arcana Shadow.
And why were they appearing again? It didn't make any sense at all...
Until the answer, the one that had been hiding in the back of Minato's head this whole time, hit him.
Elizabeth... I'm so sorry...
"Minato."
Minato jumped. Souji had put a hand on Minato's shoulder.
"What are we going to do with the Kimuras? They both seem to be too out of it to even eat, but they'll die if we leave them alone like this," Souji said.
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 18, 2009 19:07:59 GMT -5
Yuugi seemed a bit relieved by it. Especially since Minato didn't seem to be lying. It wasn't likely he could pull off a lie in his current state, anyhow. Yuugi glanced towards the COMPs in the room. One was on the ground near Naoya's bed, the other was next to Keiichi. Why hadn't one of them stayed up...?
Yuugi grabbed the COMPs, "I'm gonna watch these. Actually... I think I might know someone who will watch them... I just don't know if I can reach him..."
To the more observant members of the group, in this case just Souji as Naoto hadn't been with them when they'd met Kaini, it was fairly obvious who Yuugi was mentioning. But there was the problem of K2 not liking Naoya. Yuugi didn't think it'd be a problem, not liking someone and letting them die were to very different things. But he'd have to wait for the Hour to end. He glanced over at Kanji, "It'll end soon enough..." he sounded mroe like he was convincing himself than the white haired teen.
Atem appeared in the doorway, "Six days," Atem saw the blank looks, "Until the next full moon. According to the calender it'll happen in six days."
Yuugi looked up, "I hope I can contact him... would K1-kun have registered him...?"
It was clear the short teenager didn't realize the functionality of the COMPs just yet. In his defense, he hadn't really used his much. Atem realized what Yuugi was thinking and shook his head, "Midori is in her hotel room. Although if we have to go that route..."
Yuugi looked extremely nervous, "I'll go. I'll go by myself."
It probably went completely over the group's head. The only member of the current group other than Yuugi and Atem capable of getting it was Minato. And he hadn't been involved in Midori's little dinner show.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 18, 2009 19:42:00 GMT -5
Kanji looked at Yuugi. "There's no way you're getting them anywhere by yourself!" He was definitely referencing Yuugi's physique, considering how much taller he was than Yuugi. "I'll come with you."
"I'm sure Midori and Kaini will take them in until we can take care of the Shadow, then," Souji said. "No matter what, Kaini's still their family." Naoto nodded. She'd heard about Kaini, but not much, since K1 didn't like talking about him. However, Kanji was confused.
"...Kaini?" Kanji asked.
"Keiichi-san's twin brother," Naoto explained.
Minato stayed silent during this whole exchange. Six days... he hoped that K1 and Naoya would be alright during that time.
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