Jun bowed humbly and shook her head. "No such thing is necessary. I'm just glad to be of service." She replied sultrily, moving a hand to brush a lock of hair behind the girl's ear. "Though, perhaps you could share a meal with me some time? Just basking in the presence of your beauty is reward enough."

Jun giggled and settled down back at her seat as her own order arrived, and she began digging in. She turned to waiter-kun, who had just brought it to her. "If you could send them the bill now, that'd be great." She requested with a sly grin across her features, laughing softly. "I'll jump in if the bad men try to hurt you." She added, doing her best impression of a charming knight in shining armour.

Noboru split off from Rui, spacing himself. They needed to find out the weakness, and quick. They had no idea what it could do, or how strong it was. He made sure a nice distance was between him and Rui, and raised his voice, almost to a yell.

"Hey bitch! Yeah you! Come get some! I'm right fuckin here to hit! Bet you won't do it!"

He hoped it would work. He wasn't sure if he taunted hard enough, the ability lost on him this time. He already felt defeated, despite just starting the fight against this shadow. He had to remember the shadow wasn't Chiaki, and that he could hit it as hard as he wanted. He braced himself for any incoming attacks, ready to fly off the floor.

Matthew Harvester

Matt was getting used to watching these shadow things real quick, and after seeing Noboru's reactions Matt is thankful he doesn't really have any personal history with the victims.
With the Shadow transformed Matt followed suit and spread out from the others trying to stay further back to keep up a distanced assault. Seeing Nobo's provoking Matt prepared to fling some fire at any given moment but he waited to see if it would go after Nobo's provoking first, he didn't want the shadow going after him instead as he was better off leaving the vanguard to the one who was best at it.

"yo guys i'm ready to attack at any time... hopefully my fire works... damn it why does this damned thing need to look like roses." Matt voiced his annoyance, this plant based thing was really getting on his nerves.

It had been two days ever since the disappearance of Chiaki and Ayano could do so little over the loss that had happened...The police interrogated her and even raised their suspicions around her when she refused to cooperate in a calm and orderly manner, granted, she was in a panic over the mysterious vanishing of her cousin and was desperate to get her back. The little bout of her lashing out at the men in blue had them contact her parents immediately and soon she was right back to square one: Locking herself in her room, away from the eyes of the public once more. The day she went missing, Ayano couldn't help but blame no one else other than herself. She was the last person she was seen with, she couldn't even find her! But it was more or less her fault for inviting her to the whole "Cousin Bonding" and start this unfortunate turn of events...She was beating herself up for all of it. Maybe if she had just kept her mouth shut like she always did before, she wouldn't be missing...Chiaki could still be here with her, uplifting her spirits and saying so many things to her. She misses her, it's like Ayano lost something very important to her. The very thought of it just made her curl into a ball of depression.

...That's what happened prior to this. Deciding that beating herself into a pulp and blaming herself for everything wrong that's happened to Chiaki wasn't the best, she thought that she'll give the police some time and just take it easy...Yeah, just relax. A book cafe had recently opened in the area and what better way to soothe oneself other than a good cup of coffee with a good book to match? If she's lucky, they'll have the latest volumes of the manga's she's reading.

Even after two cups of coffee, Ayano still couldn't get over her cousin's disappearance, sitting here and waiting obviously wasn't the right thing to do right now, but what else could she do? As she looked down below at her third coffee cup and gazing upon it's contents, Ayano just sighed and placed a hand over her head. "This is ridiculous..." she said blankly as she watched the minutes tick by. Among the sounds of the crowd in the cafe', Ayano swore she could hear a familiar voice...

I Will Face Myself

The assault was working, but that was only because the Shadow hadn't done anything yet. A warning from Megumi over her Persona was the only thing that alerted Noboru and Rui. "Quick! Back away!", without thinking, Rui backed up, and she was right to tell them to do so. A swift and sudden gust of wind blasted from the Shadow as the source, Rui managed to guard with his Persona and Garu just in time, but he wasn't sure about the rest. It seemed to have hit the back line, fortunately Matthew's Maragi defended him and Leiko, only suffering from their faces being a little heated from the wind blasting some of back at them. The attack was large, and inflicted Fear on Noboru. He would recover shortly, but that was Fear he was feeling...

"Resume assault, attack only with Persona, don't get too close. Leiko, keep Noboru alive", Leiko nodded and proceeded. Noboru was only going to be Feared for a little while, but that was sometimes all that was needed. Rui proceeded to jump all around the Shadow with Sukukaja already cast himself, striking with Cleave and Zan'ei whenever he got a chance. It was still too soon for it to be safe for Chiaki to speak with her Shadow, so they had to keep fighting and wittling it down.

[RESULT]
-Noboru Fear (1 post)

Noboru was knocked flat on his ass. The sweat quickly dripped down his face, the fear gathering over him as a dark cloud, bad thoughts flooding his mind and distracting him. What would happen if they lost here? What would go down? Would Chiaki die? Would she be changed? Would the party themselves die? Thought after bad thought came and went, intensifying the sweat on his face, causing a torrent. Noboru wiped it from his face with his forearm, lightly grinding up his cheek and forehead with the sandpaper woven betwixt the sports tape on his fists.

Shit shit shit! I need to get a hold of myself. I am blowing it here. Noboru's thoughts were true but he could barely act on them. It would be hard to focus, he could definitely get hit more and harder. He thought to himself again. Cmon get a hold of myself. I need to remember the basics of CQC. I can't go limp on everyone for this. We've never experienced something like this before. Let's hope no one else experiences this either.

Noboru knew what to do. Summoning Atlas for the first time in a bit to actually do something, he threw out Tarukaja, both on himself and on Rui. He bounced back on his hind foot, taking up a defensive position. If the shadow decided to attack him, he would be ready. The shadow might hit him hard, but he was ready to strike right back and punish its mistakes.

Elena Dragunov : Yoshida Book Cafe

Elena looked at the boy curiously, it seemed that he too knew the unfortunate girl in question but when he asked her for her thoughts she could help but be blunt.

"Well it will only make it more crowded, I can count atleast two more people than it is needed to help her out. You could always wait till things calm down a bit and then maybe check up on your friend there." she said pointing at the girl.

"Anyways, I'll get you your Americano. Would you like to order something on the side." she said, stealing a glance at Alexei behind the counter. The serious look in his eyes and the way he held two knives, she knew it was sushi made to order.

"Looks like we'll have shrimp and Sushi soon. Would you like some?" she said in a polite soft voice. She stood a little bit afar so as not to tower over her guest.

==~==

Mako nodded at the girl's assessment of the situation- much the same as his own had been, really. Perhaps he was just looking for confirmation. In any case, they were correct- there was really nothing else he could do to help the situation than wait, as going in anyway would likely just make things more complicated. Besides which, it wasn't really the girl he was going to check up on, anyway, much as he sympathized with her plight. Yeah, trying to talk to Sato about... that, with so many people nearby, probably isn't going to help matters at all.

In any case, he perked up somewhat as the waitress mentioned ordering something on the side- he did often like a pastry or some such with his coffee- and then more when she mentioned what kinds of food. Sushi and shrimp? In a cafe? That's... original. How could I possibly turn that down? He smiled to the waitress.

"Well, now. You've piqued my interest, certainly. Do you guys have spicy tuna here? I'd like some of that, if you wouldn't mind."

Toma Tanaka - May 3rd | Shinza Shopping Square - Yoshida Book Café

Toma picked up the towels that had been used to soak up the drink, and the now empty cup that had been tipped. As he did so, he heard the voice of the woman who had the two unsubtle admirers smoothly offering help to the girl who had been burned. The red-haired boy paused and blinked as he glanced over, processing the quick exchange and realizing it was a little strange.

When he focused back on gathering the dishes off the table, the girl who had suffered the most from the accident thanked those who had helped her.

"It's fine," Toma said with a small smile and shrug of his shoulders. "This is part of my job, after all. So you don't have to thank me, at least."

It was then that he felt a light pat on his shoulder, causing him to turn and see a black-haired boy. The newcomer said a few words to the girl at the table, and left the store with that. Toma blinked again, wondering what that had been about.

With a small bow of his head to excuse himself, he receded and went back to the counter, setting the things he held down. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the 5,000 yen bill. After a moment and a confused look, Toma decided that it must be a tip -- from the black-haired boy, maybe? Now that Toma thought about it, the boy had come from the direction of the counter.

Toma smiled slightly despite himself. He raised his head and scanned the cafe for the young waitress -- Alexei's younger sister, if he had guessed correctly -- deciding that she should get the tip. She had been the one serving him, and the money would probably make her much happier than it would him.

For the time being, however, he had to continue working. He quickly prepared the blonde woman's order and brought it to her.

"Here you go, sorry for the wait," he said easily. Nodding at her words, he continued with a laugh. "Sure thing. Hopefully it won't come to that."

Glancing over at the table where the accident happened and back again, he raised his eyebrows, curiosity getting ahold of him as he remembered how she had spoken to the other girl. "So, uh, you seem to have quite the way with ladies," he said with a light smile and joking tone, hoping not to step on her toes. "Almost makes me jealous, I gotta admit."

Matt was glad he acted in time to defend against the oncoming attack, but he was only able to protect Leiko with his range. But it seemed Noboru was the only one who had been hit and seemed to have started acting strange.
He then heard Rui's orders and acted.

Not knowing exactly what was going on anymore Nobo seemed afraid but all Matt could do is attack.
"HEY FLOWER BITCH CAN YOU HANDLE THE HEAT [AGIALO]" Matt seemed to have gotten over having to fight a flower pretty easily but it was probably what was making so agitated right now.
at the same time it seemed Noboru had kicked into gear and was ready to fight.

I Will Face Myself

A stronger fire spell was headed for the Shadow in the form of an Agilao, Rui managed to synchronize an assault with Noboru despite his condition, which was just now wearing off. The Agilao struck, and Rui performed a Zan'ei, dealing a bit of damage, however... Did the Agilao really hit? Matt would soon notice the ground below him was heating up, and all he could utter was one curse before a pillar of flame swept him off his feet. Luckily his Persona was a little resistant to fire, so he didn't suffer too much damage, and everyone else managed to get in a bit of damage. The Shadow was beginning to show dents.

"Awwwwwww you couldn't handle the hot passion~ But that's okay, poor, poor plebians such as you all can't compare, after all, isn't that what grandmother wanted? To be the best~", taunted the Shadow. Rui prepared to attack again, but the front line consisting of Noboru and Rui were forced to step back and space up again before they can resume.

"Keep it up, it may not act like it, but you're doing quite a bit of damage", well whatever she says. It was still a large opponent, but basically they just had to keep hitting it.

[RESULT]
- Matthew Harvester (Heavy Moderate Damage taken, FIRE RES)

The fear left his body, and suddenly Noboru felt invigorated again. He wanted to put this shadow into the ground, help out. He couldn't get angry by himself, but he didn't need to. He watched Matt get hit and he decided it was time. He took the sandpaper, and grinded it along each of his arms, ripping up the flesh enough to make him mad. His steps hit heavier, and he was mad enough to continue. He opened up with a kill rush straight to the body(?) of the shadow, and he let out an obnoxious roar.

"I am right here! Don't you ignore me! I WILL CRUSH YOU! COME ON. HIT ME. DO IT YOU BITCH!

Jun giggled as the waiter commended her ability to charm girls. The way he was tiptoeing around the issue was rather cute, like he was afraid he would offend her and draw her ire. Well, he was accomplice to her petty revenge scheme, so perhaps he thought she might plot something similar if he pissed her off? She wouldn't do such a thing since he was just working here and trying to be friendly, as long as he didn't try to grope her or harass her like those dolts at the table did, things would be fine.

"Oh, I've had plenty of practice." Jun answered with a bemused expression at the waiter. "I'm not some rose bush full of thorns, waiter-kun. You don't have to act like you're standing before a tiger. I'm Jun Himura, third year at Warakuma High. What's your name? I could teach you a thing or two about a maiden's heart some time... or introduce you to a friend maybe?" She was joking at the last part, mostly, but breaking the ice might help. In any case, he seemed like a nice guy. A little on the timid side perhaps, but considering even the delinquents in school didn't dare to bother her, that wasn't saying much.

She took another glance around her and noticed a familiar face. It was one of the girls from the inn. The Scared Kitten, without Melon Chest at her side. They seemed rather close and she didn't seem the type to be wandering around town alone... Jun caught her eye and offered a polite wave and gentle smile before returning to her tea and book.

Elena Dragunov | Yoshida Book Cafe

"I'l just take a look and let you know." Elena politely replied to the gentleman who had finally decided on his order. She quickly sauntered over to Alexei to look at what he was doing at the little counter literally too small for him to move around in.

"Nii-san! got any thing going? The guy sitting there wants to know if you have spicy tuna." she said in a light tone. Alexei was quite averse to the idea of pickling or spicing up sushi but it was all the rage among the people his age and it was easier to go towards public choice than stick to your choice. He had already prepared the spice mix for the curing of the tuna he had finely sliced.

"It will be ready in about ten minutes. Give him his beverage till then. The pickle would settle in well till then." he replied calmly, occasionally stealing a glance at Shizuka, who seemed to have settled down now. His tense expression seem to loosen up a bit. Elena flashed him her affable grin to give him some cheer before hopping back to the man settled at the table not far from the scene of accident.

"It will be ready in ten. I'll serve you your Americano first, or would you like to have them simultaneously?"

Even if Shizuka had offered to return their generosity, the other party kindly rejected her offer in their own way. While feeling a tinge of guilt for not being able to offer something to show her appreciation as of the moment, she felt blessed for encountering such concerned strangers and acquaintances. Before parting her lips to reply, she was caught off guard from the pushing back of hair, the raven haired girl flinched, thinking the other lady was about to uncover her hidden hazel eyes. Once the blonde uttered something a flirty, male shoujo character would say, her eyes behind the dark fringe sparkled and heat ran up her cheeks. Vibrant flowers bloomed in the background as a bright peach aura emanated around the two, or at least it did in the otaku girl's eyes.

"I-I would be de-delighted to...!", the shy maiden stammered in a quiet, embarrassed tone with her gaze lowered towards the ground. As the lady left back to her table, leaving Shizuka to her own, both hands hid her face as she shook her head to clear out her shoujo thoughts. 'S-She's another lady, I-I shouldn't feel flustered by this! Besides, I-I'm not comfortable with the shoujo ai genre...' After calming herself down from the little incident, she thanked the two who had helped her once more when Masahide passes by with a short farewell. Bowing her own head to return the gesture, she replied with a beam, "It was nice to see you as well, Saji-senpai. I do hope we will be seeing each other when classes resume."

Seeing as damage control had been taken care of, the female student decided that buying a burn ointment at the pharmacy should be her next move. "Um... I shall be taking my leave now, Hashimoto-san. Do take care of your finger burns as well, it could cause a hindrance to your daily activities. Fa-Farewell for now." Another bow of her head as a good bye. Bringing her paper bag of manga in her arm and the books and magazines she brought out of their shelves in the other arm, Shizuka approached the counter and dropped the borrowed items on the counter to be returned and money enough to pay for her milk tea with extra tip. While making her way out of the cafe, she sincerely bowed towards her new and old acquaintances, noticed Mako as she passed, before leaving the cafe.

________________

Leaving the public bathroom in Shinza Shopping Square after her little treatment of the slight burn on her thighs, she wandered aimlessly with glances left to right to check out the shops she may not have known the existence of before, like the book cafe. A message tone from her phone caught her attention, to which she instinctively reached into her purse and flipped the mobile phone open. Oh, a message from Nozomi, one of her close friends and classmate. A soft giggle escaped her lips as she read its contents.

Subj: Golden Week ends today ε-(ーдー)
Message: I can't believe it's already Sunday! How did you spend the rest of your weekend, Shizuka-chan? I hope you haven't been slacking off too much, but knowing you, I have high hopes! Unlike Rinko-chan, she says she hasn't done any of her hw yet... (;￢_￢) It's such a bummer that the week went on by quickly but at least I'll get to see senpai at school again! ♥ Anyway, we can talk more about how our weekend went tom after class!
-Nozomi

Ayano's suspicion proved to be true as her eyes met with the little delinquent she and Chiaki had met earlier in the Inn. She waved and gave a gentle smile to her before returning to her book. Even if her inner conscious was deciding against it, another part of Ayano thought that there was nothing left to lose and she might as well TRY to converse with her, maybe get to know her a little? It was definitely better than moping around and doing absolutely nothing. Drinking the last bits of her coffee, Ayano gulped it all down before approaching Jun.

Once she was within her distance Ayano could feel herself tense up, and without Chiaki with her it felt worse. She gathered all the little fragments of courage inside of her and decided to break the ice. "J...J-Jun, right?" She sighed deeply and tried to avoid the gaze of the other, feeling more than just intimidated by her presence. "You...Wouldn't happen to know where Chiaki is, do you?"

TRACK: Time for True Revelation

"AAAAUUUGGGGHHH!", a scream of a mixture of pain and anger followed everyone's combined attacks as she fulfilled Noboru's taunt with a swift strike from her vines. She immediately followed up by spreading her vines all over the field, ensnaring as much of the party as possible. Noboru was pinned down immediately, and Leiko and Matthew are snared only up the feet, while Rui managed to avoid being immobilized thanks to Sukukaja, but still took damage due to the wide area effect. With most of the party reeling back and stopped from moving, she proceeded to charge up.

"Aaaahahahahahahaha!", although following this, Megumi had seemed to notice an immediate change.

"She-she's recovering! But... She's rather vulnerable though, she can't attack, the vines are taking in energy from the area", so it was draining not just the map, but also whoever was caught. Noboru being stuck under the most of it, was taking the worst.

Rui couldn't possible do enough damage on his own, being the one who is free to move though, had to do something.

"Chiaki, I don't really get your struggle, but whatever burden you have...", he began, summoning Askr.

"You can let us carry it too. I'm sure Noboru here would be more than happy to as well", there was no way the shadow could attack back, so it all came down to how quickly he can sever the now completely exposed vines, and with a little bit of Sukukaja left, he can do it. As he ran through the front line, Askr darted around the sides, as the both of them slashed wildly, severing as many vines as possible. As he was cutting them up, the vines were weakening over Noboru and the rest of the party, freeing them. Once he severed most of them the Shadow began to scream until finally it lopped over, only responding slightly. It was time for an All Out Attack.

"Ya'll ready for a smackdown?"

X - No
O - Yes

>O - Yes

The party collided brutally against the Shadow, covering her in a dust cloud as they smacked down on the Shadow repeatedly and at whatever they could reach, before dispersing and letting the Shadow shrink and turn back into a more familiar figure, if not completely defeated. The rest was up to Chiaki.

The monstrosity had slumped over. Its size shrinking back to the bare beast that resembled Chiaki. It may seem like the hardest part was over, but for Chiaki, the real battle had begun. She had to accept this shadow as herself. Begrudgingly she walked towards it. It looked up at her as if all of the pain was some sort of sweet pleasure to itself. Chiaki took a deep breath. "I don't really know any of you, and none of you know the real me either. None of you can understand what I'm going through... but if you'll let me, I'd like to lean on each of you as pillars of strength..."

Bending down she put her hand on her shadow.
"I'm done with being fake. I'll wear my scars of the past and keep moving forward, reaching the potential... The potential Nana always wanted me to... The feelings you expressed to everyone, the bent up bride and sorrow I'm holding against the world. I'll accept it and show everyone just how damn amazing I am! I'll prove it to them all! All of them and... And my Nana!"

The shadow giggled. It began to phase away after mumbling some only a few people possibly heard.
"Don't forget to confess to Nobo-" "OMG!"
The shadow began to dissipate and the black fiery aura flickered into a calmer blue light. A card floated down towards her hands, it broke into pieces and a fearsome warrior began to float above in front of her. "Persona".
After a few awe inspiring moments, it faded away and enveloped Chiaki in its light.

"I'm sorry for all the pain I caused you all, quite literally. From the bottom of my heart, I have to thank.." Before she could finish, Chiaki stumbled and collapsed, quickly being caught by a certain individual.

The vines were clamping down on Noboru and he could barely breathe. He was barely able to mutter a 'f..fuckin hell' and that was pushing the envelope on what he could do. He felt himself blacking out, not able to move. Was this where it ended? No. The vines were either shredded or retracting. They went in for an all out attack, taking it down. Noboru huffed and puffed, so tired. He felt weak, finding it hard to stand.

Chiaki stepped up to accept her shadow, and she started talking. The last part of her speech struck a chord with him. He had found himself in a similar situation, and the chord rung deep in him. He missed what the shadow had to say before it disappeared, too busy in his thought. When she started to fall, Noboru acted on instinct, catching her and holding her in an awkward hold, her body vertical to his. Noboru spoke to Rui.

"So uh, what now?"

==~==

Mako was about to answer in the affirmative to having his coffee as soon as possible, but he stopped as he noticed the suspiciously-familiar girl walking away from Sato's table, leaving it conspicuously... empty, for now. An opportunity, perhaps? Mako's brows knit in consternation as he considered the propriety of what it was he was considering doing. True, there was an open seat, but it was rather improper to simply walk over and invite yourself to sit down, much less when you barely knew the person in question, and EVEN LESS considering the subject matter of what it was he wanted to talk about. Truly, it would be better for everyone if he simply saved this conversation for a later date, when it wouldn't be so--

"Er, I'll take them both at the same time, thanks- I have something I need to take care of first, excuse me." He began to stand up, his face impassive, which was impressive considering the turmoil he'd just flung his mental state into.

What the hell am I doing?? He straightened out his jacket, attempted to swallow his nervousness (Why exactly am I nervous...?), gave a brisk nod to the waitress serving him, then took the few quick steps over to Sato's table.

"Sato Hashimoto, yeah?" he said, his voice wavering slightly. "You remember me? Mako Moritomi? I was just..." What was he doing, exactly...? He swallowed again. "Just concerned about how you were holding up. After that... the thing. That one day. Last week...?" He paused again before continuing.

"Just... letting you know that, if you need to talk about it or anything, I'd be happy to just listen."

What the fuck am I saying??