Fuck that.

The pizza delivery robots from Hell were clever, Daisuke'd give 'em that. A frontal assault hadn't worked, so the shiny little fuckers were getting clever. Making use of their numbers to try and divide and conquer. Realistically, there wasn't a snowball's chance in Hell that he'd be able to stop both fronts. He saw them going for the newcomer, the guitar case girl, and going for Kimiko. Seven in total. Couldn't be in two places at once, could he? The delinquent was, unfortunately, still bound by the laws of physics.

Not that he really gave a fuck.

Long, long time ago there was a knot supposedly no one could ever undo. If you could then they'd put you in charge of whatever backwater thought that was a good way to pick a leader. He didn't remember the story very well, but he did remember how someone finally went and solved it. He just cut the knot. Pretty clever, if you asked Daisuke, and a damn good lesson. If you're lookin' at a complex problem, chances are there's a simple solution. Like being in two places at once.

"Benkei!" The delinquent hollered, tossing his staff in the fearsome Persona's direction and breaking into a dead run headed the opposite way. The manifestation of his being got the message and plucked the makeshift staff out of the air, throwing himself in the opposite direction as his master. A movement that, most notably, put the towering warrior monk between Kimiko and shards of ice that threatened to skewer Daisuke's best customer. They impacted against him instead, and if the Persona felt discomfort (or if it could) it didn't show. The icy projectiles failed to pierce his defenses, though not without some damage; unlike the fireballs, ice did hit. Which meant one front dealt with.

The other was going to be a bit closer. He could see the DRUs charging up their pizza-based attack, and the mental image of supernatural Italian food slicing through flesh and bone briefly flashed through his mind. Like the poor soul who'd taken one in the arm. Nothing quite like horror to add some incentive, and he found his feet moving faster than he'd normally have though possible. Normally he might've been a little concerned about how people might react to seeing a tall, wild-haired, somewhat reformed delinquent charging at them in full sprint. Now he didn't really have time to worry about that.

Contrary to how things usually go, the next few seconds didn't seem to slow down; if anything they went by too fast for Daisuke to really register. He pushed off the ground hard, turning himself into a projectile aimed at guitar case girl. His arm caught around her waist, knocking her off her feet none too gently. Both of them started falling. He heard the pizzas fly. And he felt the incredibly uncomfortable sensation of one tearing through the back of his shirt, just barely not flaying his back, and then the even more uncomfortable sensation of the side of his face hitting pavement.

Not pleasant.

But a lot more pleasant than bein' that knot himself, so he didn't really have room to complain.

@Crimmy@Krayzikk@Plank Sinatra@Ayazi

Hitomi hit the ground hard. Not because she had decided to, but because she was tackled. Which was rather nice of her new friend. Though her skull kissed the pavement and it left a ringing sensation that drowned out any other noise she was able to hear. It was through this forced clarity that she was able to deviate from her usual sweltering train of thought and realize what was necessary, what had to happen. Before she was able to hear herself speaking again she began whispering commands into Daisuke’s ear. Pulling his ear directly besides her mouth.

“Get ready to flank the pizza delivery forces. They’re about to be angry.”

She launched herself up and off the ground, barely able to keep her guitar case in tow. She – at a grain strain on her arms, cupped her hands (only really successfully with one hand) and yelled at Kimiko. “Get to the truck.” She would shout, coming between the dastardly oppressive forces whom used delivering humanities favourite foods as a way into their hearts and minds. This was true evil.

Hitomi had found her calling.

“Hey mozzarella brains!” She said waving her arms back and forth. “Yeah, you sons of calzones!”

“I-I don’t think you could even deliver a breadstick, let alone a pizza!” Hitomi said, confidence only slightly wavering.

“Shitake Mushrooms this is looking bad.” Hitomi cursed under her breath putting her guitar case between herself and the pizzatrons.

As soon as they began to garner interest in her she reflected once more upon her dissatisfaction with their delivery services. She scanned around for anything usable and noticed a fire hydrant a few feet behind her current position. She began backing up towards that while still cursing towards the pizzatron 9000’s.

“I would like a complete refund!” She said daring the pizzatrons once more.

‘You can put that in your juice box and suck it.’ She thought preparing to evade the cheesy onslaught she was attempting to garner through her vigorous insults. Still motioning towards Kimiko to move onward to the truck, hopefully without the onslaught of deliverybots attempting to stop her.

"Kaede-san?" The only thing Lala would note of all the boy has said.

It was clear that the boy is having a hard time to recall or had been at loss by such a traumatizing event. He wasn't fine to her. Lala probably couldn't get anymore with the word just slipping from his mouth every time he speaks. With the mopey kid still there, it's probably best he should stay away from the area relating to the event.

"Hey er... you should probably head to the infirmary. You seem pretty pale. Maybe some rest or talking should help you since you're tired."

Lala didn't know who Kaede was nor where they were, but if the boy could've seen them they were probably around here. Unable to grasp what the boy went through or what happened to the rest of the drama club, all she could do is but wait for an answer to come later. She mumbled to herself as she stared around the room.

"I wonder if today is fated to be strange, or everyone in Japan is just weird."

@Mistress Dizzy @chukklehed @Zenphilvian @HereComesTheSnow @banjoanjo @demonspade64 @Suku

School Side

The bolt of lightning struck the false Tomoda in the back, sending to toppling forwards onto its knees, entire body distorting and twisting in an unnatural, horrifying manner. Its pursuit of Jin had been staggered for the moment, black, slime-like ooze dripping from the sizzling gash of where the Zio had landed, the electrical attack having lanced through layers of fake skin, cooking parts of the Shadow out from within. It was faltering, that was clear, even as the black mass regenerated over itself, fixing up the wound as if it was never there. And with Kaede's assault on its body, it now knew not of which of the assembled Persona wielders to strike.

A high-pitched, monstrous scream - curdling, angered, unhinged - emerged from the eerie chasm where Tomoda's face would be, and the golden eyes of the floating glinted once more in the darkness. It didn't know who to attack. It didn't know which way to go. But it did know one thing.

It wanted to kill them.

Its body twisted on one foot, and launched a fireball towards Kaede. And once again, its attentions had been taken off the rest of the group ...

---

@finalends

NPC: Drama Clubroom

The name Kaede seemed to cut through the haze of despair that was floating around the drama club member's head.

"Kaede-san ...?" he offered, shaking his head and glancing up at Lala. "He's ... he's our club captain."

He seemed to pause for a moment, before gripping his fists tightly, nails digging into pale palms.

"He and ... some other guys, they ran somewhere. I don't know. I was ... I wasn't really there at the time."

There was a sense of frustration in his words.

"Maybe ... they tried to find out what happened here? I don't ... I don't know."

It was possible. After all, if Lala were to look outside the clubroom again, she would be able to notice a few faint droplets of blood. Not particularly obvious, but those droplets seemed to ... lead somewhere.

This time, Sakura leaped into action as the shadow attacked. She wasn't exactly sure why she had come down with a sudden case of heroism, but caught up in the moment she dashed forward and shoved the targeted boy out of the way. Unfortunately, it belatedly occured to her that this put her directly in front of the attack herself. She squeezed her eyes closed, bracing herself for the burns she had seen the others take-

-and then opened them again as a warmth spread over her. She felt her fatigue and aches melting away, like she had drank a cup of hot tea to soothe her throat. She let out a laugh, the completely backwards effect of the fire just another entry on the list of bizarre occurrences to consider later.

His beautiful face.

The pavement had marred it. She would be kicking it in short order. But first, she was going to reach that truck - an objective that the strange angel with the guitar case had reinforced with her distraction. It wouldn't be much longer now. She just had to keep on whittling down these pizza bots with all the heart and Coca-Cola under the sun.

psssssssshPOP

psssssssshPOP

psssssssshPOP

Four of the sodas she and Daisuke had collected flew towards the last phalanx of delivery drones; the truck was within her reach, and she knew that to stop now - to take injury - would be to fail Daisuke.

"Olé."

psssssssshPOP

Soda sprayed before her eyes.

"Olé Olé Olé."

Carbonation would buoy her to victory.

She was soda-mn pumped.

Senhime looked around at the moment from what she understood she was more effected by fire than normal and two in this fight there was little she could do at the moment. Even if that was the case she would not falter deciding to step back and let the more physically attuned people deal with the fighter she would focus rather on healing. If her terminology was right she was the "dedicated healer" meaning her role was to focus on healing and support. Though there was nothing wrong with throwing in her help every now and than she supposed. "Please attack" she called out to her ghostly protector. Looking at her guardian she saw it nod at her as it rushed at the fake once more wielding her naginata in a war maiden's grasp as she charged forward releasing multiple balls of darkness as it went forward.

It seemed like there was a lot happening. The cacophony of battle raged around him, the sound of sizzling electricity and smouldering flames echoing in his ears. He heard his classmates too, shouting strange words or screaming in pain. He couldn’t really help, he was in his own little world. His eyes were clamped shut, as if not receiving the visual stimuli from the battle would make the pain go away. It didn’t work, obviously. So he kept listening, hoping for someone to save him and give him a reason to pull out of the foetal position he was still holding. He heard a girl cry in relief for her friend’s safety. He heard someone else shout profanities at the false Tomoda. And he heard Rena begging for someone to help him.

Seemed like the heiress finally ate a few slices of humble pie. Actually it seemed like she ate a boatload, considering the desperation in her voice. Aki would have chuckled if it didn’t hurt his sides so much. It was about time she learnt a lesson about arrogance. Shame he had to be in the firing line though. God, she was so pitiful right now. It was nothing like what he was used to. It... damn, it made him feel bad. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, not fully. It wasn’t her fault they were stuck in this weird dimension with shadow monsters and fireball-flinging classmates. It wasn’t her fault that her kicks didn’t have any effect. It wasn’t her fault that he finally found the guts to stop feeling sorry for himself and actually do something.

“Not…your…f-f-“ he tried to pry the words through his grit teeth. But she left before she could hear.

Then suddenly, relief. His muscles relaxed and the cold sweat on the back of his neck finally stopped. His back stopped feeling like someone was beating on it with a branding iron. He opened his eyes and saw Senhime with her Persona.

“Thank you. Thank you so much!” He shook her hand with gratitude.

He stood up and wiped the rest of the tears from his eyes. Geez, that was certainly…something. But he couldn’t dwell on it now. He needed to help his classmates. As he ran to return to the fray, he felt a breeze on his bare back. Aw man, his uniform and his cardigan were completely trashed. How was he going to explain this away? His sister’s wrath was more terrifying than anything that monster could throw at him.

Akihito shouted with a new purpose. “Metis, Cruel Attack!”

@Crimmy

"Club captain?" Lala said as if mirroring his words back to him might reveal more.

The boy seemed down for sure, but bringing up something to get him back to reality has given her a chance to investigate what happened.

"If they ran somewhere they could be far away from here, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't look for them."

With the boy being able to tell what he can, Lala probably can't get anymore out of him. She'd look around before she carefully cross the scattered pieces of glass to get to the doorway. She left the room to look around. They did run off, so they had to have some sort of trail or so she thought. It would take awhile for her to actually notice something along the lines. She wasn't any sort of detective, but after seeing the blood in the room probably made her more aware of blood around. Her eyes managed to spot a droplet at the least and probably another.

"What could this be?"

She looked carefully at it as it seemed like the dried up puddle of blood in the drama club, but not as big as it. If she found more along the way, she's more likely to follow it. She probably should've told the boy to go to the infirmary, again. But the boy probably might as well stay in case a club member or Kaede comes back so she doesn't have to aimlessly look around for where they might be. Not very likely to happen.

@Krayzikk@Plank Sinatra@Ayazi@Write

Act (a) - City Side

Fifty-seven machines. Two Persona-wielding teenagers, a stolen drone and their guitar-wielding sidekick. If one were to look at the situation from any angle, it was clear that the odds were weighed heavily against the heroic group of youths. The legion was a mass of plastic and steel, rolling forth to crush the humans beneath their treads. Eerie gold lights flickered in the clouds of dust and vapour and fog of the battlefield. They would no longer tolerate this insolence. Whatever they had planned, they were intent on bringing an end to their obstacles.

Twelve drones total - nine peeling off from the rest of the horde to join the initial three - rumbled threateningly at their target, turning in unison to follow Hitomi's movement. Whether they considered her a threat or not, given the sheer number of the robots, was unknown, but they were not playing around any more. Once they delivered pizza, but now they would deliver death. Without a platter.

They chugged forth, a strange, yet strangely enticing, fog of gold fountaining from the mass as they closed in on the guitarist girl, their containers whirring to life in the same manner they would before launching their deadly volley of pizza. It was strange, how there was always that strange vapour oozing from them. Breathing it in was harmless, but something about it made one's heart ... tingle.

On the other side of the battlefield, the four mortars struck the ground before Kimiko's assaulters, but as the spray faded away, it was clear that only two of the drones had been taken out. One was damaged, the back half of its body gone, but was still moving towards the girl and her DRU. Another was knocked over onto its side, unable to move.

Fifty-five drones.

Another ten were converging on Kimiko as well.

And another ten on Daisuke's prone form.

The burning truck was mere metres away.

---

@finalends

NPC: Drama Clubroom

"Yeah, club captain. Kaede-san ... he went somewhere."

He was tired. The drama club member's memories of the event were unclear, shaky, and there was little more he could offer Lala.

However, there was a slight trail of blood leading out of the clubroom.

Not obvious, but the droplets seemed to exit in a sequence down the hallway. They were distant to one another, and irregularly placed, but there was a trail.

@Crimmy@Krayzikk@Plank Sinatra@Ayazi

Twelve of this city’s current oppressors stood across from Hitomi, billowing out that golden essence. She felt her heart fluttering, not because she was scared – though that may have played a part in her antsy behavior. No this was something else entirely. It was likes she was dreaming standing before those pizzatrons. She knew that if she ran away she would be impaled by pizza. If she advanced she risked entering their domain. Truly, only one option remained.

Jump.

It was her voice no doubt about it. But it wasn't her thinking with it. Somehow she was being instructed by her own will.

She lifted her heavy guitar case over her head with meager arms and a rush of adrenaline and charged to the closest bot. Her legs borrowing the adrenaline that was carrying the guitar had her leap on top of one of the machines, but she was far from finished once she had gotten atop her first destination. She allowed for the time for a couple pizzatrons to launch a razor sharp pizza at the bot she was standing atop as she felt it sink down a little, perhaps some of it missing she leapt off once more. Her heart fluttered as she glanced to her left and noticed that another pizzatron had gathered her trajectory and was whirling up.

Without gathering her conscious consensus she let go of the guitar case with one hand and moved her arm backwards as fast and as strongly as she could manage. The weight of the guitar case pulling her with it and allowing for her to narrowly avoid getting bisected by another pizza. That one may have been pizza.

The bastards.

But she faced yet another dilemma. She was surrounded still by the pizzatrons. She counted at least ten still angrily whirling up at her.

Up.

Her voice, but not her words. Hitomi knew what she had to and roughly slammed her guitar case into the ground while jumping up. All of her adrenaline soaked her biceps as she raised herself above the guitar case and vaulted onto another pizzatron quickly and rather sadly abandoning her guitar case, she was roughly defenseless without it. But the chords still resonated even louder in her heart’s tingling. She reached onto the back of the pizzatron she currently rode atop and retrieved two 2L bottles of soda. She immediately took one in each hand and began to shake them up as much as she could.

“Hey! Bank’s closed you cannoli’s!” Hitomi said slightly opening the bottles of soda and sending them flying towards her foes. But with the incoming onslaught of pizza, her current island of safety would soon be out of commission as well and her adrenaline was dying down a little. She knew she'd have to come up with an exit strategy soon.

Arina Mifune – Shikatsu – Pizza Killing Robots!?

So much had passed for Arina who after falling to the ground like a klutz just watched the carnage silently from the bus she steadied herself on with the help of the unknown man who could be found nowhere in sight after tripping like a klutz. So much of the current reality of her surrounding had been taken into her mind. A truck that erupted into flames, killer pizza delivery bots emerging from the wreckage that fired pizza at tremendous amount of force, she was deathly quiet, her eyes widened, her expression tight-lipped, as she was screaming internally. You would find this is some weird sci-fi apocalyptic movie Arina thought but…but…this was real. What was even more real was the fact she saw the emergence of mythical beings such as Benkei and Kaguya-hime...Arina and had to survive and that rested upon the individuals fighting against the pizza-bots who surrounded them.

Arina only plan was to record this on video. The world needed to know what was happening and with her Liveleak App on her Android and logged into her account, she recorded video of the ensuing battle behind the bus.

@Crimmy

There were probably better things for Lala to do, but it seems she was going to take a path that would not be the most common. She put behind the student as she would follow the trail. The trail was quite faint and hard to follow entirely, but she managed to get the general direction.

"They're oddly placed. Where could they lead?"

It was clueless where she might end up as she followed the trail. It was within the school's area so it shouldn't be any much of a problem. Though, she'd follow the faint trail until she reached a dead end or another situation to go around.

@Write@Ayazi

Act (a).1 - City Side

Without the attack-boosting spells that Kimiko's Persona possessed, Hitomi's attempt to stall the pizza-delivery drones with stolen carbonated liquids was not particularly effective, the fizzling soda splashing over two of the closest machines with very little impact. In fact, the amount of damage the teenaged girl had managed to do to them was, in essence, practically zero. The first DRU, the one that she had left as a victim of its fellows' pizza-slicing attacks, was a bit worse for wear, given its pastry, sauce and topping covered frame, and dented front from the force behind the blows, but it was already reuniting with the rest of its colleagues to surround the girl. The second of her victims, the one she had forcibly removed the bottles from, had already sealed shut its compartment, pushing her off its body in the process, and was clearly preparing a fireball, if the heat radiating off it was any indication.

Hitomi, it seemed, was in quite a pinch.

Surrounded by twelve drones, the golden fog they emanated seemed to fall over her.

And something within her

seemed

to

click



~~

Although thirty-two out of the fifty-surviving drones (not including the one that Kimiko had brainwashed into serving her every whim) were occupied with crushing three teenagers with attitude under their fearsome, pizza-delivering treads, there were still twenty-three of them remaining, and twelve of them had broken off from the rest of the legion, optics flickering red for the barest of moments before returning to their ... standard sickly gold, having clearly noticed the presence of Arina.

They were already in motion, twelve drones in a triangular formation rolling across the street towards where the girl was attempting to film the proceedings with a camera, golden gas flowing off them like an ethereal mist.

They were ready to kill her.

---

@finalends

NPC: Uchima Senior High

The trail of blood was growing fainter and fainter, more distant and more distant from one another. It would require Lala to keep her eyes peeled for any sign to follow, but there was certainly a path present. However, in her pursuit of wherever it was that the blood would lead and the mystery of the drama clubroom, she would accidentally bump into a large, gakuran-adorned student.

Said student seemed to be rocking a hairstyle similar to that of the greaser subculture, and looked quite intimidating, albeit in the bland, JRPG monster boss minion sense. He looked rather peeved at the sudden collision, even though it had barely affected him.

"Oi, watch where yer goin'."

It was quite clear that this teenager was a delinquent.

Kaede instinctively tried to duck away from the fireball, and as a result his back got singed partially.

His thoughts boiled down to bellowing in pain, barely able to stand or concentrate. He had burned himself cooking before, but that didn't compare to this, the monster's flame was a lot hotter than the average stove. He motioned weakly towards the girl who he saw healing the others, but noticed the monster about to take advantage of his weakened position.

Kaede tried to dodge the second fireball, but was less successful, and it scorched his legs.
Breathe, Breathe. Of course it hurts, you're not invincible, you're not a superhero. Though this would make a good origin story, and with the lightning power I could joke and say I was Thor... and ow, shit, legs.

@Zenphilvian@banjoanjo@Suku@chukklehed@Mistress Dizzy@HereComesTheSnow@demonspade64

School Side

The thing sought to capitalise on Kaede's moment of weakness. It sped towards the boy, inhuman movements eerie and frightening in their sheer peculiarity. It was intent on his demise, and from the cackling, ethereal pumpkin head that was growing further and further distinct behind its cracked, faceless visage, and the flames trickling down its arms, it was clear that the false impression of Tomoda, the Shadow that had imitated the unconscious boy's form, possessed the ability to fulfil its desire to murder the drama club captain.

Yet the injuries it had sustained throughout the long battle were too severe.

It was too slow, too focused on Yamamoto, to evade the black orb that Senhime's Persona had launched at it. The ball of darkness engulfed the entirety of its left side, leaving nothing but emptiness in ts wake. Before it could react further, Metis was already upon it, brutally striking hard against its faceless head with a savage blow.

Silence.

Slowly, the Shadow broke apart, dissipating into bits and pieces of black ooze, before fading away into pinpricks of golden light. Only a spark of blue remained, fizzling in the air, and even that immediately winked away.

The mass of Shadows that had tried to take advantage of Tomoda's vulnerability, yet had only managed to imprint upon him, was gone.

It had been defeated.

And light began to return to the dark void they were trapped within.

Arina Mifune – Shikatsu

Arina eyes were wide open in fear and she glared at them, tight lipped as the robots finally noticed her. She was shaking internally from fear as this was a moment of a possibility of her death. She caught the robots actions from her camera.

Fuck this; I am not going to die today!

Arina began running as fast as she could to the next street away from the yellow gas. She was hopeful of escaping for her legs were toned to be strong for mastering Taekwondo. She could care less about recording the incident, though her phone was still recording as she held it tightly running away from them, recording her steps and breathing. In her mind, was to survive.

Whirrrrrrrrrrr.

DRU had done it. Her faithful little robot colt had gotten her to the truck, and her ethereal, beautiful Persona had been a better protector than Saitou could ever ask. Source of the golden fog. With eleven - no, ten and a half; with a CLANG of a soda bottle against the shambling corpse of the bifurcated robot, the legion lost another half an automaton - other mechanized delivery boys bearing down on her, time had been of the essence. Together, girl, Persona, and robot had done it.

In time to save burger boy and guitar girl? With any luck. Perhaps she had found the Ark of the Covenant.

That may not be such a good thing.

"Kaguya-hime..." she whispered again. "I'm not hungry anymore."

She could see the dents from where the DRU had burst through the back of the truck. No flames touched this part of the downed vehicle; just golden fog and noxious black smoke.

What was she supposed to do now?

Should I be scared? Daisuke's not. Guitar girl is not. My parents wouldn't be. What was she, if not the sum of those who loved her?

She would channel them all. Like Captain Planet. From the thought of those she loved, combined, she derived strength. There was no room for fear.

She reached for her cell phone, turned the screen's brightness up to max, and then turned on the flashlight on the back of the device. Slowly, she lowered it into the tear left by the DRU legion...and then dropped the phone in altogether, to illuminate the back of the truck.

No freaking way. They did it. They did it! Aki pumped his fist and jumped in his excitement. His smile only grew larger as more light returned to the void.

“Aw heck yes!”

He took in the scene before him while celebrating. Tomoda had returned, looking great for someone who was only recently possessed by creatures of darkness and transformed into a savage monstrosity. The other thing that caught his attention was Yamamoto-kun on the ground, freshly seared by false Tomoda’s flames. Luckily the fire had died out with the defeat of the shadows. Both of them looked in need of assistance but Aki wasn’t quite prepared to approach the guy who had grievously wounded him just minutes before. So Yamamoto was the best option.

Aki inwardly grimaced. In a way, it was the Drama Club captain who had dragged them (literally, in Rena’s case,) into this whole mess. So even if the guy was going through the exact same pain that Aki had experienced just before, he wasn’t too eager to get chummy with the bespectacled boy. But the guy needed help, so that was what he was gonna get. Even if he was an incompetent leader that couldn’t even stop his loud-ass club members from blowing up the drama room. Aki knelt beside him.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you patched up soon. Deep breaths, buddy.” He spoke with an attempted tone of positivity, reaching out to give the singed classmate a reassuring hand on the shoulder but reconsidering it in the end. He turned to face the others.

“Hey, we need a healer over here!”

@banjoanjo
“Hey, we need a healer over here!”

"Please let me help." Senhime brought up her state not being the best in terms of clothing her school uniform was really burned and she had a large hole where her stomach and arms was and part of her skirt's edge was frayed from the fire. She sighed this was going to be going to be hard to explain on how her uniform got into this condition. She steeled her resolve if this odd battle taught her anything was that indecision had no place on it. "Take me to the one that needs aid" She said once her her voice steeled and hard as she looked at the person who spoke. As she said that her persona materialized once more behind her its armor's cape spread out revealing its many tails. This was the most she could do after all since in the long run there was not much she was able to do beyond act as a healer.