AThousandCurses

Persona ~ Alone at Sea (PERSONA WITH A BOAT 𓊝)

"Nani? Wright-chan's gone missing?" Katsumi blinked in surprise with an exaggerated Japanese tone. It had been a while since she had last seen her senior in the halls. There were rumors about a missing person's report, but Katsumi didn't know that person was, in fact, Sofia. The Japanese girl clapped her cheeks together, much to her classmate's displeasure. This was all truly shocking to her. While she didn't know Sofia all too well, she had heard some things about her senior. That she is rather awkward and that she made the top 15 on the science track.

"Yeah, apparently, Sofia's been gone since the 15th. Nobody knows where she went, and I heard there was an investigation going on to find her."

"なるほど, なるほど."

"What was that?"

"Don't worry. Detective Katsumi's on the case now." Pushing up her glasses, Katsumi held her head up proudly. Though given that this wasn't an anime, her glasses didn't shine to signify her importance. Her classmate could only sigh, already tired of the dramatic, as Katsumi made her way around the table. Even if there were detectives who were already on the case and trying to find Sofia, Katsumi couldn't stand by and let her disappearance go unnoticed. She, too, will investigate the disappearance and find her missing classmate.

That and she was a little bored at the moment since she ran out of manga to read.

The first thing she needed to do was find the people who last saw Sofia. In the manga, the protagonist would have to go after leads and find evidence. Whether the leads took the shape of a person or an object, it would bring the protagonist closer to the truth. Since Katsumi didn't have anything to go off, she would have to meet with people that knew her. The first would be her dorm mother-

"Stop snooping. The detectives are already on the case, so mind your business and get back to studying."

Well, okay, she had seen that coming. Still, there was Sofia's neighbor-

"Oh, her? Yeah, we don't talk much. She's kinda bit on the... weird side like you. Though, as far as I know, she didn't come out of her room the next day."

Okay, so talking with her neighbors wasn't helpful at all. In fact, it kinda hurt a little bit, but that didn't matter, right? She couldn't let go of the investigation yet. The next people were-

"Oh, you mean the missing girl? Don't know her."

"Her? Well, I'm glad that she's gone now. With the 15th spot vacant, now I can-"

"Sorry, but I have to do something."

Katsumi slumped her head against the table. Doing investigation in real life was much harder than it looked in the manga, especially when she wasn't a real detective. A groan of disappointment came out as she looked at her notebook. It was a surprise to her that Sofia might've been one of the school's biggest social pariahs, which made it difficult for her to investigate. Not to mention that when she tried to talk with them, they often wanted to disengage from the conversation once she started talking. She didn't know why, but they didn't want to talk to her for more than two minutes.

"Though, I guess it wasn't all too fruitless," Katsumi said as she flipped the page of her notebook. While she was investigating Sofia, Katsumi found that there was a group of freshmen, like herself, that Sofia was supervising. It was for the 'Icebreaker.' She had gotten this information from her 'Icebreaker' Captain when she last saw him. Katsumi didn't have too many fond memories, though, as whenever she tried to speak, the captain often shut her down from speaking. Regardless, she'd have to interview them to see if they had any leads. If that fails, then she'd have to give up this entire investigation.

Digimon: Materialization Interest Check

Piqued my interest.

Expedition to Isekai

Shun blinked, and then suddenly, pain scorched through her arm. Like a searing flame, it sliced through her skin and sent her sliding back. In the midst, the light of the phone suddenly ceased. Though she was able to determine that her opponent wasn't long-tailed, the beast was long-bladed. "Damn..." Shun cursed as she clutched her arms. It was bleeding profusely, but whatever blessed her superhuman endurance allowed her to bear with it.

In the corner of her eye, she noticed that Inaba seemed to be having difficulties on her own, but Shun couldn't take her eyes off of her target.

The beast had longer reach than her with its bladed tail, and if she wasn't careful, she'd be left off with injuries worse than the cut on her arms. No matter how she looked at it, she was going to lose. She had to think of something. From behind her, she could hear the commotion of her classmates as they faced off against it.

What should she do? What should she do? A million thoughts ran through her head until...

"Oh, fuck it. LET'S GO!" With a battle cry, Shun ran at the long-tailed beast. Putting all her strength into her legs, she kicked off the dirt and lowered her stance. There was no strategy, nor was there any rational thought behind this foolish move. If this bastard was going to bring a blade in a fistfight, then she'd become the truck that ran over the competition. As she got in range, she lowered herself to slide under the beast and threw out a heavy punch.

Jack In! Megaman Battle Network RP

Admittedly, I might be interested.

Expedition to Isekai

"Ah!" Shun was trying her best. Dirt and grass brushed against her face as she once more rolled onto the ground. A bright light whizzed right where she was standing. Rolling on the ground, Shun didn't have time before rolling against and avoiding another laser that darted straight at her. At the very least, she was getting their attention. Though what good was it if dodging was all she could do? She wanted to finish the fight as soon as possible, but that seemed impossible.

Screams echoed from her peripheral, but Shun couldn't afford to be distracted, or else she'd be skewered by a beam of light. The only people that were here with her was Rin. While she didn't know Rin beyond her mechanical genius, it didn't give her much faith in what she could do in a brawl. At least she had a spear(?), but Shun didn't know whether that be good enough to pierce the beast's thick hide. To say things weren't looking good for them was an understatement.

Shun had to do something. It took herself and Ayana to take down one of the monsters, and even then, it managed to get away. Would Rin and herself be able to take on three of them? Unlikely, but they had to try. Gritting her teeth, Shun decided it was time to go in. Rin was smart; maybe she could find a good way to shove that spear somewhere that the beasts didn't like.

Dodging the next set of lasers, Shun decided to run forward. It felt like one of those bullet hell games that she often came across when she parked at a nearby arcade. A bullet hell, was it? Either way, she wasn't going to aim for the laser wolves. Shun started sprinting straight ahead at the long tail beast. There was no way in hell that thing was going to let them pass and attack the laser wolves. It didn't pounce but decided to stay to protect them.

"It's all you, Inaba!" Shun shouted as she dodged another set of lasers. Whatever Shun meant by that was left for Rin to interpret. Coming straight at the long-tail beast, she decided to play it safe. Bait out the tail and pull an Ayana and jump on its back and proceed to wrestle it. This would allow Inaba a variety of options. Either to test her luck against the two laser wolves or help her take care of the wolf.

The light from the laser wolves at least allowed her to see the sillouhette of the beasts. With that she, Shun decided to take an educated guess where the long-tail wolf was. Sprinting right up, she tried to do a fient by throwing her phone at where she presumed the wolf was while running from another side to misdirect the beast. Her sailing phone shined light as it sailed through the air.

Expedition to Isekai

It was quiet. She was only awake in the loneliness of the night. After taking over Rin's shift, Shun tended the fire to keep herself warm. Stoking the flames with a stick, it flickered in the darkness. The only thing reminding her that she wasn't alone was the snores of her classmates. Tossing in another stick, she stared up at the foreign sky. She would often go stargazing as she made a stop with Satoshi-Chan. However, even the sky felt like a stranger to her. The stars weren't aligned, and if she looked close enough, she noticed subtle differences in the moons.

"When will we get home?" Shun murmured to herself. Now that she was technically alone, she allowed her act to drop. Half of her wondered why she kept it up. After Yuudai got injured because of her, Shun felt the necessary need to try to act and feel positive. If she didn't act eccentrically as usual, wouldn't it disturb everyone else? The other half knew that she was still in denial. Everything had happened so fast and spiraled out of control. It was one thing to be reckless, but to lose control was the worst.

Shun thought about memories of home. The school was often uneventful. Go in and go out. Studied the material half-heartedly and occasionally chatted with her classmates. Out of everyone, sans Akihito, Shun was the outsider of the group. Doing things on her own and driving on her moped without care. The few people that she could remember taking seriously were Yuudai and Endo. Yuudai was the only classmate that she talked to on a regular basis; Endo, on the other hand...

She didn't understand Endo.

He would often shoot her strange looks and step back from her whenever she neared him. Shun couldn't find a reason for his behavior. He didn't seem to act differently with girls, so why her? Though Shun wouldn't be able to get an answer out of him even if she did. Along with Yuudai, Endo was the other injured party.

Masato and Asashi-

Something glowed in the dark. "Ah!" Before she had a chance to process, her instincts kicked in. Her body rolled away from the laser as it barely grazed her hair. She didn't need to look behind to analyze what had happened to her if she didn't react in time. The sound of a laser melting through metal like butter was enough for her to tell. What she was identifying were the assailants of the dark. From the brief luminescence, it was the wolfbear. Well, Wolfbears.

What was that attack?

A laser beam that could pierce through metal. Not even that, but the origin came from that strange wolfbear. She had often heard the phrase that advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, but no.

This was real magic.

"Everybody get up! They're back! With some laser bullshit as well!" Shun roared at the top of her lungs. She wasn't going to let anyone get hurt. If the fire was still burning brightly, she might've considered grabbing a stick and charging straight at them with it. Though, there was one small advantage that this world lacked.

A phone.

Bringing out her phone, she turned the flashlight mode on. Light banished the darkness to allow her to see in the dark. Immediately, she ran to separate from the group. With whatever weird laser beam shit was going on with one of the wolves, it would be best to make sure they don't all get hit by hit. That and she needed to buy them time to wake up. Grabbing a nearby rock, she chucked it at the wolves, hoping to grab at least one of their attention.

Expedition to Isekai

"Thank you, Kumi-San," Shun cheered. It seemed that her intruding presence, as usual, didn't seem too welcomed. Not that it surprised her all too much. Most of the time she was known as the 'crazy motor girl,' so people often tend to be swayed away from her. She wasn't too bother by it though. In life, many people will be introduced and many people will leave. That was that philosophy that she carried in her carefree life. Though that philiosphy didn't seem too applicable now.

Shun took a drink out of her soup and let it rustled down into her stomache. Her head still felt like it was being smashed against a brick wall, but she was sure that it'd recover. Somehow, or so she heard, Duncan was out and about. From having his intenstines out to having them in was a miracle in itself. If only her head injury went out and in, but perhaps that was wishful thinking.

Once Shun received the food from Kumi, she bowed, ate it, and then left to see Yuudai and Tsubaki. Shun wasn't going to sleep any time soon, no thanks to the headache, so she might as well have checked on Yuudai's condition. It didn't seem to be going too well when she last saw him and a glance from Tsubaki only confirmed her suspicions. Though, Shun knew that he'd be able to recover. If he was able to bravely face danger, then he can preserve against injury. He had too.

Expedition to Isekai

Shun returned to the camp after finishing up her business. Masato and the others had probably stored their water for future use, so she did not have to do anything about that. Her stomach felt empty, and all that walking made her hungry, so she was going to get herself some food before a group meeting took place. Afterward, she'd check on how Yuudai was doing.

Picking up some food, she decided it was best to chat with her classmates. That being said, Shun wasn't able to read the atmosphere and followed sat right next to Asahi. Clapping her classmate's back, she made herself comfortable. "Hello-o, Bansen, Hoshino, and Kumi!" Leaning closer to the fire, she smiled at the three of them.

Taking a bite out of her food, she chewed and swallowed it just as fast as she consumed it. "Oh, Kumi-san. May I have one?" Shun suddenly changed her tone once Kumi offered up her food.

Whether or not Kumi offered one to her, Shun continued talking. "How were your tasks?" An earnest question. While her group didn't get much out of their search, they still managed to find something. "For me, we managed to find some sort of spring. Suppose you could call it a spring anyways. I'm sure we'll be able to find something soon if we keep looking."

Strange Gospel: A Heavily Persona-Inspired Urban Fantasy RP

So this was it. This was how they were going to die. The grip he had on the object in his hand tightened as Yuichi stared down the monsters. In the expanse of his mind, Yuichi is what led him up to this point. Was it from quitting baseball? Did he not study hard enough? Was it because he was too cowardly to look his teammates in the face? Though before he could think more, everything changed in a blur.

White that all the eyes could be in front of him. Darkness above with glistening stars that shined brightly. In front of him was a girl sitting on a velvet chair. A smile had graced her face before she went on about the misfortune. Yuichi couldn't help but feel repulsed by every word that this girl said. It was as if she was mocking him for being unlucky. It brought him back to his thought process before everything broke down.

At the end of the day, it all came down to luck. He was lucky to be talented in baseball. Yet, he was also unlucky for getting into a car crash. He was lucky that his grades weren't unrecoverable. Yet, he was unlucky for being bad at academics. Luck. Unluck. Luck. Unlucky. The concept made him furious. An uncontrollable, unseen factor in his life that seemingly determined how he lived. He hated the word luck. It was his own efforts that he succeeded in baseball. It was the driver's fault for crashing into his parent's car. His grades were okay, to begin with. The only reason why he was bad at academics was that he neglected to hone that skill.

Something within Yuichi tore him up inside. Suddenly, Yuichi found himself crouching down and grabbing his shoulder. Something sprouted from his back. An appearance of arm ripped itself out of Yuichi's back. A black substance was sprayed everywhere as it emerged to push against Yuichi's back. And then another arm splurted out more blood before it, too, began pushing. Suddenly a head emerged from Yuichi's back. Its screams, mixed with Yuichi's own, became a cacophony of pain and rage.

Finally, it shot out of Yuichi's back. Yuichi was dry heaving before he finally took a look beside him. What stood beside him was a ghastly figure that was adorned with armor. Shadows made it hard to perceive the figure, but the creases of the armor gave an outline to what the figure looked at. At that instant, when they met eyes, Yuichi felt a connection with the unknown armored figure. It was him, and he was it. Together, they would unleash what they had kept deep down for so long.

Expedition to Isekai

"Well, that was unfortunate. But hey! At least we found water in the end." Shun cheerfully said as they returned to their base of operations. The entire ordeal was uneventful, with no mishaps happening along the way. They didn't find any monsters, and they got to look around the surrounding area. It was a little disappointing but also a relief that nothing had happened during all of that. If more than one monster came up to them, Shun wasn't sure if Masato and her could protect Masami and Kunio while fighting them off.

Right, Masato. What she had said probably tipped him off more than anything. While she wasn't going to apologize for what she said, Shun understood Masato's sentiment. They were in a dangerous environment with a variety of unknowns that could potentially kill them all. It wasn't like she wasn't unaware of it. After all, she was responsible for Yuudai getting tackled into the burning truck. But now everything was fine. They'll get through this, and all survive in the end. It wasn't like they were going to die. Plus, everybody would be weirded out if she didn't act like how she is now, wouldn't they?

Though for, Shun was semi-aware that she was currently in denial about their situation. It was to protect herself from the fact they were so far from home. Would she be able to see her mom? Her father? She wanted to run up and give them the biggest hug that her arms could afford. She wanted to ride Satoshi-chan around and experience the breeze flowing through her air. There were so many things she wanted to do when she returned back to the real world.

That wasn't all. Denial was to protect herself from the guilt of everything. The guilt from having Yuudai protect her from the wolfbear. The guilt from nearly piercing Ayana's head with a steel pipe. The guilt of trying to be herself. Everything seemed to be on a tight string that was going to snap at any moment. Not to mention that the water they obtained might not even be safe to drink, so did they even make progress?

"Well, you know, they say. Rome wasn't built in a day. If we return back later, I bet we'll-" Shun stopped all of a sudden. "Uh, actually, I'll be right back for a moment. Here, Kunio, bring my backpack to camp, will you? I need to use the restroom." Without waiting for Kunio's response, Shun shoved her bag containing the water into his arms before disappearing off into the woods. It wasn't long before she came to a stop at a nearby tree.

Shun led against a tree and began vomiting out the contents of her stomach. She heaved as it spilled out of her oral cavity. Once her body seemed satisfied, Shun leaned against another tree and began panting. The concussion wasn't going away. Shun thought that if she gave it enough time, then maybe it'll be able to solve itself. After all, her wounds were healed after the fight with the wolfbears. Though perhaps it was wishful thinking. Pulling her legs together, she rested her head against them and took deep breaths. They would get out of this together, no matter what.