Night falls over the quaint city of Akane, Japan.The city was nestled into the mountains. Rivers, cherry blossom trees, everything like stereotypical Japan. The college was the main attraction for the city other than the giant cherry blossom grove that people came from miles around to come and visit. Absolutely gorgeous in the spring time, with the blossoms in bloom and the petals raining down on the paths; clogging the river with the pink petals.

As the sun sets, the moon rises and the citizens of Akane start to fall asleep one by one. Several special people as they slip away into dreams, will all find themselves in the same dream. Lying on the same soft green grass, the warm breeze coming over them gently. The grass was tall and moved in the breeze, rippling against the breeze. A sun loomed over them, making the air pleasantly warm. Everything about it started to lull them to be lazy in the grass. The scent of flowers floated through the air. A melody danced through the air, a soft serene lullaby lulling them further into a daze.

They lay in the grass for several long minutes, the clearing was perfect, calm, serene. A hedge maze grew on their right, the melody's floating from there. They all laid under the tree. But only a few moments passed before a woman's voice broke into their minds. "Wake up!-- Wake up! Or you will stay this way forever!"

The voice was frantic, shouting in fear, trying to stir them away. "Get up! They are coming!" She shouted, "In your hands there should be something that looks like a gun! Use it to fight them! Now! You have the potential! You need to use it to cast them away!"

Out of the gap in the hedge maze came tall willowy monsters, paper thin. Writing scribbled all over their skin. Their bodies folded like origami, but moving and growling like the monster's they represented. They stalked towards the group, lowering themselves to the ground watching them.

Dominick opened his eyes. Not that he could see anything. He felt cold, sweaty, but the wind on his skin suggested that he was outside. Soon he felt warmth like from the sun, but he remembered falling asleep in his bed. Was this a dream? Strange, as normally he could see in his dreams, but here was different. Here was... It was still a dream, he knew. But somehow he couldn't see. He reached around for his cane but found nothing. Nothing but a voice and what felt like a gun. "The hell?"

Than there was a voice. A girl's voice. She wanted him to wake up, warning him that he will stay this way forever if he doesn't. She told him that something was coming, and he needed to use the gun to fight them. "Fat load of help that does for me than..." Than he heard something else, something much more horrible. Silence. The voice was gone, but now Dominick could hear the shuffling of movement. He couldn't see what had found him but he knew that the girl was gone, and something was here to hurt him, and all he had was his gun. A gun he never used before, and indeed he never fired a gun in his life. Least of all after he became blind. So what else could he do, but to listen carefully and shoot the gun in the general direction of wherever the noise was coming from? And so he did. He listened, and than fired, pulling the trigger, hoping that somehow this dream gun was going to get rid of these nightmares.

A figure clad in black stood out against the graceful setting of emerald waves and horticulture and soft, warm spring sunlight. A delinquent dressed in a black denim jacket with many pins, buttons, and patches, sporting a black T-shirt underneath mottled in fake acrylic blood as if the wearer had been stabbed in the chest. A studded belt wrapped around her waist, not necessary to hold up the tight-fitting jeans of faded dolphin gray to her athletic form but standing out all the same. One leg was crossed over the other, one of her checkered low-tops hanging lazily over one knee as her arms folded behind her head for comfort. A mop of raven black hair, feathered and messy with red tips and highlights hung over her dark grey eyes highlighted with too much black eyeliner, shielding them from the gentle rays in the serene clearing. She felt peaceful, relaxed... exhausted, and the lush green grass was the relief she felt she needed. Could do without the lame-assed lullaby, though. It was kind of distracting. The soft slipstream of air was much more pleasant to the ears than the calm plinks of a harp or lute or whatever the fuck.

"Wake up!-- Wake up! Or you will stay this way forever!"

Mari Watanabe became annoyed at the nagging at the back of her mind. That's all it was. Nagging. Pfft, stay this way forever? Sign her up! She could do with a vacation like this. Just chilling in the grass, grooving to dumb music, catchin' some Z's after a hard night of-
"Oh shit..."
Mari moved a hand to her forehead and peeled her lockes back, surveying the landscape. Soft clouds, bright sun, rolling hills in the distance, finely trimmed hedge maze...
"Aaaah son of a bitch," she groaned, planting a hand underneath herself to climb to her feet. The colors of the world were vibrant, happy, joyous. Totally not where she should be. Mari was dreaming again. She cringed at the sickeningly sweet backdrop. If she was dreaming, that meant she was asleep. And if she was asleep, that meant that she had passed out at Twisted after going two bottles deep in Soju with Yeeun. Again. She ran a hand through her feathered hair, feeling surprisingly clear-headed for being completely plastered. But then again, this was a dream. A weird dream at that. No, not that the dream was weird, it was the fact that it wasn't weird. Most of her dreams were pretty trippy, but this one was fairly tame. Where were the backwards-talking dolls and the people with mouths for eyes and the snakes that vomited other snakes? Somehow she knew sooner or later the entire world would shatter and try to swallow her in its gaping maw, but everything felt too... real. It was kind of disturbing. As she glanced around, Mari noticed others lying around in the grass. She recognized most of them, but that wasn't too far out there. People could only fathom the faces of others they had seen, and they also most often dreamt of people that they knew.

"Hmm. Funny. I usually get nightmares," she mused aloud, speaking to herself as she knew only her own mind was listening to itself. This was just weird. Was this what lucid dreaming was? To be honest, it was kind of boring. Not wanting to upset the balance of the dream world, Mari only looked around casually, the other figures on the grass around her lying still. Around her there was nothing. Just fields of green, and the shrub forest off to her right. Where the weird music was coming from. Obviously she had to go there, it was pretty damn clear. Was the subconscious always this bonk-over-the-fucking-head direct? But what could it...? Nah, know what? Forget it. It wasn't worth thinking about. She was blacked out in some club booth somewhere and all she could do was fucking sleep, might as well get some sleep while she slept. This place was for the birds anyway.

"Get up! They are coming! In your hands there should be something that looks like a gun! Use it to fight them! Now! You have the potential! You need to use it to cast them away!"

"There's that nagging again..." she seethed. Always had to interrupt her before doing what she wanted. Whatever the hell it was, she wanted Mari to wake up. Hell, it was probably Yeeun trying to drag her sorry ass back out to the car. Mari cringed again. She happened to remember what had happened last time she did this. No, not remember what happened. Fat fucking chance there. What happened the last time she woke up from being stupid wasted at Twisted. Woke up with a pounding head, her knuckles hurt, she lost her damn shoes and expensive-assed sunglasses, covered in vomit with over 6000 yen missing. Apparently, she was hitting on some guy at the bar, but when he turned her down because she was waaaaaay to far gone she punched him in the neck, got thrown out on her ass, and ended up wandering Yakibaru Street for two hours trying to find her car while simultaneously stopping to puke every five minutes. All of which had to be told to her by three different people. Needless to say, that fucking sucked, and she wouldn't like to repeat it. It was then that Mari's grey eyes caught movement in her periphery, when paper monsters scuttled from out of the hedge maze, stalking her like wildcats, bouncing and twisting and spinning on their thin bodies.

"Pfft, seriously?" she snarked, raising an eyebrow. Normally the demons that haunted her nightmares were degrees more frightening than this. These things were... kind of lame, actually. Just as the bitchy voice had said, the delinquent raised her hand in front of her face to find a gun nestled in her grip. It felt like it had been there the entire time, and maybe it had, but all of this was just too convenient. Boring dream, boring monsters, oh, here's a gun to shoot the monsters. She hoped to God that she hadn't been slipped a roofie and this was what the susceptibility to suggestion did to her dreams. So, Mari did as anyone in her situation would do: she raised the gun and pulled the trigger.

Click!
.......
Click! Click! Click!

As much as she tried to shoot at the arts-and-crafts lookin' motherfuckers, her gun was out of ammo. Figures. She held it up to inspect it, and found that it didn't even have somewhere to put the bullets. Figures. Of course it didn't have any bullets. Mari's arm swung down lazily as she furrowed her brow at the monstrosities, when someone stood up behind her.

"The hell?"

The hair on the back of her neck prickled, and she spun around to see some kid with bandaged eyes leveling his own gun at her. Eyes widening in shock, she quickly dove to the ground when she heard the telltale Click! of his own empty gun. Mari had recognized him. He was the blind guy that went to her college, couldn't remember his name. She didn't really hang out with him too much. Although tempting, guiding him into walls was far beneath her. But tempting. Especially after her pointed a fucking gun at her face.
"You want to watch where the fuck you point that!?" she screeched at him, dusting herself off as she stood to tower over him. "You could've blown my head off, dumbass!" Collecting herself, she folded her arms and stepped away from him to watch the paper creatures skitter about and hiss at them, moving ever closer. She glanced over to what he held in his hand, and noticed it was the same as hers. Just a useless fucking toy.
"Tch. It's not like you'd be able to anyway. It's not loaded, mine's not loaded, I don't think any of us have any bullets. Might as well throw the damn thing," she scoffed. Wait, why the hell was she talking to a dream person? He probably wouldn't listen to her anyway. They never did. With her luck, she was surprised he didn't happen to have some shotguns shells in that little handcannon. Wave goodbye to creature comforts like having a face. And why the hell did the blind guy have a gun anyway? Dreams made no fucking sense. Freud could go suck a fat one.

Tokiko opened her eyes.She was lying down on a hard ground.She stands up and scratched her eye to clear her sight.As she stood up she saw those paper like monsters are coming.She asked herself "is this a dream? or reality?".It's strange because she never had this kind of nightmares.She usually had nightmares with losing in a debate or about spiders.She looked down and she saw a gun.She picked it up and pointed it at those paper monster.She pulled the trigger.

Click! Click! Click! The gun wasn't loaded.

"The gun wasn't loaded... so useless" she said in a calm voice like she wasn't in trouble.A sudden idea gotten into her mind,the gun has only one bullet like the "Russian Roulette".There are many of them but she is not alone.So she only one shot and pulled the trigger again.

Click! Click! Click! still no bullets and it was hopeless.

"Hmmm.... it's hopeless and they are getting near" she said

"Wait.... this is a dream right? All i need to do is wake up..." she added and looked at the gun

"Yeah.... All i need to do is wake up" she said looking at the gun

She points the gun at her head then she closed her eyes.Slowly pulling the trigger.

Justin snapped awake violently. He jumped to his feet looking around this strange and insane place. It was a beautiful, and wounderous place, something right of a fairy tale or Alice in Wonderland. "What the shit is this!?" He said a litlle too loud for his own tastes. "Was I slipped some fucking LSD or some shit?" His tone much more hushed this time. He rubbed his temples or at least tried to as he was suddenly made aware of a weapon in his hand. A small hand gun of some sort. It was an odd weapon that remind of him an old World War II German hand gun. He looked it over and notice there was no ejection port for the spent rounds nor a release for the clip. Something was wrong here. Very wrong.

A voice rang out from... Somewhere be couldn't tell where the words came from but his reaction was just the same. He raised his handgun in preperation to fire. "Get up! They are coming! In your hands there should be something that looks like a gun! Use it to fight them! Now! You have the potential! You need to use it to cast them away!" He panned around in a complete circle with his weapon. His heart was racing and then it dawned on him that he was in a massive hedge maze. This was getting weirder by the second. He lowered his weapon and took a couple of deep breaths. He needed to calm down, a clear head was what is needed above all else.

That's when he saw what could be described as demon from another world. A sort of paper mache monster made an apperence from one of the three or four entrances. It wasn't that it scared so much as it was so fucking unnerving. It was horrifying but everything about it was unsettling.

In a spasam of good sense or sheer stupidity. Justin charged the paper demon and jumped as hard as he could, extending a knee and a sudden burst from his hips. Crashing into the demon, he and demon went down to the ground. As soon as he hit the ground he was up on his feet and ran into maze as hard as he could. The deeper he got in the maze the weirder this place got. He screamed in frustration. "What the fuck is going on here!! None of this shit makes sense!"

Takashi was having the nicest dream, sleeping in a serene field with no worries, no pressure, no frantic scrambling to pay the bills. No work either, just a nice, relaxing nap, yes it was a dream come true. And so he stayed like that until noises far to loud to ignore pierced his bleary mind. He sat up, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Who's coming?" He looked around, seeing mostly people he recognized from his college. Some he had a few brief conversations with, others he only knew because he made it a point to avoid them like the plague. He looked over at the the monsters, they were eerie, like they just weren't natural, that itself was enough to make Takashi think they were dangerous. And they were now slowly closing in, Takashi's Kendo training kicked in, and his mind started making judgements on how best to disable them.

His other hand found the cool, metallic surface of the gun object that the voice had told him about. Takashi eyed the device a moment, however his attention was pulled to one of the more awake and active people screeching about how the so called guns wouldn't fire. So, with that in mind and the the monsters coming ever closer Takashi pocketed the 'gun' and charged towards the creature that was nearing the blind guy and the screeching girl, he ran right up to it, using his momentum to deliver a fierce sweep with his leg knocking the monster off it's feet. "Are you guys all right?" He asked the two, taking a defensive stance.

Jason was sleeping very soundly. He couldn't remember having any kind of dream, but he knew that he was feeling really cold. It was almost like he was outside. He could feel the grass underneath him and it was starting to sound like there were other people around him. That was when he heard the voice of a girl. His eyes almost instantly snapped open. Looking around he realized that he didn't have any idea where he was. The other people around him seemed just as confused as he was. Something though was definitely coming. He stood up quickly and looked to the others concerned about how this situation was going to play out when he saw one of the other guys throw a flying knee strike at what looked like a monster made of paper. The guy immediately got up and ran into the hedge maze everyone was near.

Jason had been about to follow him when the voice told him about a gun like object. It wasn't until then that he felt a heavy metallic object in his hand. He grasped it tightly and continued to chase the guy. Maybe he knew something about what was going on. Even if he didn't, someone had to protect the lunatic. That was when he heard the monster that had been knocked down stirring behind him. Jason tried to pick up speed but whatever that thing was, it was unbelievably fast. He turned in the direction of the monster and raised the gun hoping it would have some sort of effect before realizing that he was being surrounded on both sides. The reality of the situation hit heavy and fast, no matter what this was most likely it for him. He placed the barrel of the gun under his chin and put his finger on the trigger. "I'm sorry dad." He felt the trigger move and felt the hammer drop on the gun.

What happened next however was not at all what he was expecting. A voice could be heard saying something that sounded like "A gi". Followed by what felt like a strong blast of heat. Opening his eyes Jason saw a small Jack O Lantern floating around with a lantern in it's.....hand? How did a pumpkin have a hand? For that matter, how was it floating? Rubbing his eyes Jason watched as the Jack O Lantern began shooting fire from it's lantern at one of the monsters. The one that had been standing behind him could be heard running away from him. The Jack O Lantern turned to him after chasing off the other monster and almost seemed to smile. "Call me Pyro Jack". Jason just stood staring at the thing frozen in fear as well as complete shock.

The lack of gunfire told Dominick either this Dream Gun did something he wasn't sure of or that it was an empty gun. After hearing a screeching girl's voice telling him to watch where he was pointing it and that the guns were useless. "That solves one mystery at least..." Dominick was still greatly confused as to what was going on. Voices in his head, monsters all around him, strangers yelling. He was certain this was all a dream, but why hasn't he woken up yet? He tried to pinch himself, even tapped the gun onto his head to try to force himself to wake up, but nothing. Nothing but to fight.

Soon he heard a loud thud, followed by a male's voice asking him if he was alright. "Aside from being greatly confused, just peachy. Don't suppose you can see what's going on right about now?" While Dominick said that, he ran over to the monster that was knocked down. Dominick jumped into the air and stomped both his feet onto the beast, and seeing that his gun was useless as he gun he held it by the barrel and proceeded to beat the monster to death with it. He had no idea what was going on, but he figured that being a dream world, the best thing to do was kill everything he could get his hands on. "Also, help me kill this thing! My gun doesn't have bullets!"

From inside the maze came a gust of wind, each monster they took down, another came to take it's place. Twisting and turning on it's folds, watching them warily. They started to back up with the Jack 'o Lantern was summoned, the fire searing through the paper monsters, mowing several of them down. But as with before, everyone one that went down at least another one came to take it's place. They were blocking the way into the maze, snapping their maws. Only one member of the team managed to get passed but that member would find themselves helplessly lost in the maze and unable to keep directions in their head. Running across monster after monster.

"The guns are not real!" The woman's voice rang out again. "They are used to bring out your potential. They are the only way to destroy the monsters! You must shoot yourself with the evoker."

After several long tense moments, the woman's voice rang out again. "This dream state, anything that happens to you in here will happen to your body. You will die if you do not summon your potential. I'm sorry, but that is the way it will work! There are ten monsters in front of you! Their weakness is fire as far as I can tell. Hurry!"

Just like clockwork, at the sound of a woman screaming, two strapping, chivalrous young men came to Mari's aid. Even though the screaming was more in annoyance than anything. She was quite satisfied to take a few steps back and let them deal with the paper creatures. There was a fine line between bravery and stupidity, and as much as Mari would have liked to pistol-whip a motherfucker, it wasn't conducive to keeping her skin free of paper cuts or whatever the hell these monsters would do if they grabbed hold of her. Kindly stay the hell away, fuck you very much. She unconsciously kept her arms crossed as her smoky eyes warily watched savagely beat the beasts into mulch. A smile curled at her lips for a moment at a twisted, perverted thought that ran through her brain.
If I remember this in the morning, just how much therapy am I gonna need? Yep. Suck it, Freud. A couple of college kids murdering monstrous paper dolls with toy guns in the middle of a painting as they all stood around lazily gawking or running headfirst screaming into the- Y'know, maybe someone slipping her something wasn't too far off the mark. It worried her. She'd have to wake up somehow. And if she recalled, dreams usually ended whenever what you were dreaming about is interrupted somehow. And it would be simple enough to do that by following the maniac into the hedgemaze.
Fine, brain, if you wanna play hardball, let's play hardball. I'll join your little game. For now. But when I wake up, I'm going straight back to pickling you with vodka.

"Yeah, I'm cool," she answered... actually, she didn't quite know his name. Didn't really stand out all that much. Cool scar, though. She unfolded her arms and jammed them into the pockets of her jacket, bemusingly watching the carnage unfold from the blind dude as he wailed on the paper demon things with his toy.
"Sorry, you're on your own!" she taunted at him with a devilish smirk. Didn't matter anyway. People died in dreams all the time. Hell, most of the time it was her.
"So... what? Are you guys trying to tell me that I should start my Composition essay? Tch, fat fucking chance," she stated, disinterested. But the blind kid gave her an idea. Tough luck, brain. You lose this round.
"Hey, can one of you beat me to death so I can wak-" But her thought went incomplete, interrupted by the bark of a gunshot. Her shoulders reflexively hunched and her head snapped to meet where the sudden break of skittering, flapping paper originated. Her eyes reflected a blue aura as she bore witness to one of the other college students, standing transfixed, eking blue shards from his head. The painted glass came to form something that looked like it belonged in some kind of horror/magical girl TV show. And that's when it began to spew forth flames, setting the beasts alight and torching them to ash.

Mari laughed. A hearty, deep, insane laugh. It was pretty funny! Maybe lucid dreaming wasn't so bad after all. She still felt like she was going insane, but what the hell, right?
"Ah ha ha ha! Oh my god, this is just rich!" she exclaimed. "And this must be something telling me to stop smoking too, huh? Man, who knew my subconscious was so fucking lame! Ah ha ha!" Mari managed to get her laughter under control, but her devilish smile still lingered.
"Hey Firebug, you mind torching the rest of these things? I seriously have to wake up soon."

~"The guns are not real! They are used to bring out your potential. They are the only way to destroy the monsters! You must shoot yourself with the evoker!"~

The hardcore girl turned the pistol over in her hand, grin still apparent on her face, her eyes in a dreamy state of plotting.
"Sure thing, bitch! You're the boss!" she answered the annoying mental cry. Geez she was fucked up. She didn't know what the dream meant yet, but whatever it was she could use some heavy counseling afterward. Mari made a mental note to start paying more attention in Psych 202. And not just so she could piss off the professor by arguing with him when she knew he was right. The rocker chick held the gun to her chest, preferring not to put it to her face in case it would fuck with her hair, and squeezed the trigger gently and without fear.

~"This dream state, anything that happens to you in here will happen to your body. You will die if you do not summon your potential. I'm sorry, but that is the way it will work! There are ten monsters in front of you! Their weakness is fire as far as I can tell. Hurry!"~

Her finger froze on the trigger, and her eyes opened wider in surprise. Mari let her arm fall to her side and looked up to the sky as if it were the origin of the voice.
"So let me get this straight: if we die here, we die period? Like Freddy Krueger shit?" she challenged, "And you want me to shoot myself?" Mari simply closed her eyes and shook her head. As wicked as it would be to have a flaming pumpkin jut out of her skull, she didn't like to lose. Especially mind games against her own mind. This required some... testing.
"Yeah, I don't think so." Mari once again raised her gun, but it wasn't to her chest. Nor was it to her head. It was to the temple of the boy with the scar. She smirked smugly, and her finger started to pull with slight pressure.

"You first."

Tokiko was still hesitating whether to shoot or not to shoot.She was about to pull the trigger but she stopped and puts down the gun.It's hopeless, the monsters are getting near and the gun she had is futile.Tokiko just waited for the monsters to come calmly accepting her death but then a mysterious woman from nowhere said something.

"They are used to bring out your potential. They are the only way to destroy the monsters! You must shoot yourself with the evoker."

"The guns are not real! They are used to bring out your potential. They are the only way to destroy the monsters! You must shoot yourself with the evoker!"

Tokiko's eyes opened wide and looked at the gun then picked it up.She looked at it carefully.

"So that is only way huh?" she said still looking at the gun then she stands looking at the girl who does not believe at the mysterious woman.She approached the girl and tapped her shoulder.

"You wanna die?" she asked her.

"if not we have to do what she said" she added aiming the gun or evoker on her head.

"Let's do this!" she said

"Pe...r...so...na..." she said slowly then she pulled the trigger.

"The guns are not real!" The woman's voice rang out again. "They are used to bring out your potential. They are the only way to destroy the monsters! You must shoot yourself with the evoker."

"Shoot myself!? You gotta be outside your gotdamn mind." Justin said as he turned his second corner in the hedge maze. He made his turn only find a hedge maze filled to brim with more paper monsters. "What the fuck is going on here!?" His voice wasn't that off fear or horror, it was that of frustration and utter confusion. He turned back and ran towards the one he had already knocked down. He pushed his way passed the paper demon and found himself back in the same area as he started only see not only more demons but people as well.

"This dream state, anything that happens to you in here will happen to your body. You will die if you do not summon your potential. I'm sorry, but that is the way it will work! There are ten monsters in front of you! Their weakness is fire as far as I can tell. Hurry!"

"Who the fuck are you and why are you talking to me!?" Now he was starting to panic. He couldn't make heads or tails off what was going on. Even for a dream this was highly messed up. Like a bad acid trip or PTSD. The demon creped closer and closer, when he saw it he did the only thing he knew he could do. He got ready to stand and fight.

Takashi was glad that he had acted before anyone got hurt, but more creatures were coming and he was pretty sure there'd be no way for him to fend all of them off. But that didn't stop him from giving a valiant effort, taking down the monsters as they approached with swift kicks and powerful jabs meant to disarm and subdue.Yet no matter how many he took down either they'd just get back up or more would take their place, sometimes both. "Ugh, is there no end to these monsters?!" Just then he saw what appeared to be a Jack-O-Lantern appear out of nowhere and scorch a whole horde of the monsters, decimating their numbers. Takashi could merely watch in awe as the creature burned monster after monster. But still it wasn't enough as more kept coming.

"The guns are not real!" The woman's voice rang out again. "They are used to bring out your potential. They are the only way to destroy the monsters! You must shoot yourself with the evoker."

"Shoot myself?" His hand drifted ever so slightly to the gun-like object stashed in his back pocket, his fingers brushing the metallic grip. His mind flitted between what the voice said, and what his own mind was screaming at him. His hand slowly gripped the cool metal before his mind finally won out. Takashi shook his head, withdrawing his hand from the grip and preparing to face the creatures in front of him.

"This dream state, anything that happens to you in here will happen to your body. You will die if you do not summon your potential. I'm sorry, but that is the way it will work! There are ten monsters in front of you! Their weakness is fire as far as I can tell. Hurry!" The voice added after a few more moments passed.

"Good to know, that means I can't get hit. It's just like a match, bid my time and strike." Takashi carefully watched the approaching monsters, preparing to strike down the first one to come in range. But suddenly he felt cold metal against the back of his head and a smug voice that sounded so loud in his ear say, "You first."

His eyes widened and his mouth dried as he processed what was about to happen. Is this it? Am I going to die here? I can't, who's going to look after Megumi? His thoughts were cut short by the sound of the trigger being pulled, causing Takashi to screw his eyes tight in response to what he knew would come next. However instead of pain and his brains splattering everywhere, there was pain and the sound of glass shattering. Blue flames appeared around Takashi's feet and around the glass fragments that came out of his skull, the fragments then formed to become a young boy with snow white hair, fox ears, and nine-tails wearing a white hakama and clutching a pure, snow white orb.

Takashi opened his eyes after the pain subsided, his eyes falling on the boy who floated in mid-air. "KItsune." He heard his mouth say, yet somehow he knew the name fit. KItsune nodded and turned towards the group of paper monsters coming at them, nonchalantly holding his orb out as flames enveloped every single one of them. Yet more came, to which the young boy merely spare a glance before torching them as well. There were a few more and perhaps more on the way, this time Kitsune looked espectantly at Takashi, as if asking for permission. "Take them." Takashi ordered solemnly as he rose to his full height, watching as the young boy burned monster after monster.

"I don't suppose someone could explain what the fuck is going on!?" Dominick's patience was wearing thin. As much as he'd like to keep a level head, he can't even asset the situation properly; no one was explaining anything currently going on aside from immediate danger, and even this strange voice in the head was only tell them a lot of things that honestly made no sense to him. Shoot himself with the gun? It doesn't even have bullets. He wasn't even sure if it was a gun. And if what she said was right, that anything that happens here would happen to him in real life or some such, why would he want to shoot himself in the head and die? Than again it's either that or getting torn to shreds by these paper monsters, though given that he's done fairly well beating them down he opted to hold his fire.

On the bright side, at least the voice gave him a number of enemies before him. Ten of these paper monsters people were talking about, who were weak towards fire. The latter bit might not help him much right now, but it was something he would take note of. Dominick took a deep breath and tried to clear his thoughts. blocking out the shouting and the fighting, he needed to hear where these monsters were coming from. Though he didn't need too for long; one of the beasties just ran up to him and stabbed him. Only due to pure luck did he not get impaled, and instead it grazed his ribs and tore through his shirt. The pain was unbearable; he thought that something this painful would be enough to snap him awake, but maybe the voice in his head was right; he would die here in both the dream world and real world if he didn't fight back. "Fine... Than fight I shall." Thanks to the monster, Dominick knew that it was close to him. Close enough to grapple. He grabbed the monster's bladed arm tightly, and his grip was strong enough that the monster couldn't free himself from Dominick. "I'll be taking this!" the blind kid threw the paper demon onto the ground with a well executed shoulder toss, but kept his hold on the beast's arm as he began to tear it off it's shoulder. It was made of paper, how tough could it be?

Pyro Jack and the other Persona went through and burned the paper monsters until nothing was left but cinders in the air from the creatures. The gates of the maze loomed before the group and they could see different colored flowers growing from each of the hedges. Before any of them could enter however, a light flashed and a young woman stood in front of them. She had blueish green hair tied up in a braid and was rather short. She wore a pair of cream capris and a loose blouse.

She faded in and out of existence for a moment, her face screwed up in concentration. As she looked up at the group. "I am sorry." She spoke up, the voice of the woman in their heads. But the words did not come from the image's lips but rang out in each of their heads like before. "I am Fuuka Yamagishi, I am sorry I could not have talked to you before this happened. But you must trust me." She frowned, furrowing her brow for a moment.

"This place is another person's mind. Their own dream and nightmare. You have to find them. Help them overcome that, and you will wake up. But spend too long here and you will be eaten by the shadows you are destroying." Her voice wavered a moment. "I wish I could be there to help you fully but I cannot enter the mind like you. I can only shove my consciousness so far... that... No don't push me ..." Her body started to fade again as she looked around, "She is pushing me from her consciousness. You need to get to the center of the Maze. And hurry, time is running out!"

(Oh it was my turn to post XDDD)

All the paper monster were destroyed for the strange creature that we can call as "Personas".They must be your inner power because they represent you but I am not alone.There are others too that summons their own persona."I am sorry." the woman voice I heard spoke again
"I am Fuuka Yamagishi, I am sorry I could not have talked to you before this happened. But you must trust me." she spoke again but this time the mysterious female voice introduced herself and was revealed to be Fuuka Yamagishi.The name is not familiar but it seems that this Fuuka girl knows the situation so I have to trust her.So I stayed silence listening to Fuuka.

This place is another person's mind. Their own dream and nightmare. You have to find them. Help them overcome that, and you will wake up. But spend too long here and you will be eaten by the shadows you are destroying." So she really knows the situation.There is no reason to fear the shadow creatures for now because I got my Persona when I needed her and I will use it if I have to! "I wish I could be there to help you fully but I cannot enter the mind like you. I can only shove my consciousness so far... that... No don't push me ..." the voice was almost fading.She is really trying hard to communicate with us and before the voice fades she said "She is pushing me from her consciousness. You need to get to the center of the Maze. And hurry, time is running out!"

A rush of adrenaline goes through my blood all of a sudden and shouted "Let's go!" to the others and ran."We have to trust her! So let's go!" I shouted again at the others while running.We have to hurry...We have to trust this Fukka girl...We have to get to the center before time runs out! I hope we can get there! I am not gonna die now.

Takashi watched grimly as his Persona burned monster after monster, it was quite a sight. A sight that should make him feel powerful, emboldened. Takashi's fingers danced along the grip of the fake gun in his hand. Such an interesting notion, with the simple action of shooting oneself in the head one gets this incredible power. It was wrong, no power should ever come that easily, but it does. This power came so easily that he didn't have to do a thing to get it, someone else did it for him. And that thought was quite simply terrifying, if obtaining such a power was so easy what was there to stop the wrong people from gaining it?

Takashi was pulled from his thoughts by the appearance of a short woman with teal hair tied in a braid. He watched and listened closely to what she had to say, even if it did sound incredibly far fetched. Just who is this woman? And how is she connected to all this? She pleaded with them, begged them to trust her. She was so sincere, Takashi felt like she could be trusted easily. "Very well then, Fuuka Yamagishi. What do we have to do?"

Fuuka went into more depth about their surroundings and objective before she finally started to fade, almost like a TV slowly losing it's signal. After she vanished one of the others that around shouted something before charging headlong into the maze. "Hey stop! We should stick together!" He shouted after the boy, but it was too late, he was already gone. Takashi took a step forward, fake gun gripped firmly in his hand. He looked back at the others who were trapped here with him. "Well, what are we waiting for, let's go." And with that he strode into the labyrinth, attempting to mentally prepare himself for whatever awaits inside.