Azalea

Welcome to the Dark Hour

++ MILTON ++

Milton smiled, watching the boy sign the contract. "You mean you don't have any questions?"he asked somewhat happily, glad that there was less work for him.

"Anyways, the giant teddy bear that protected you is called a persona. If you create strong bonds with other people, I can help your persona evolve. Basically, like all of those childrens' shows in your realm, the power of friendship will give you the power to stop evil. And there is a lot of evil in your world right now. Or if you ever need your fortune told, I'll do that too~♥"

Michael then added, "The next time you enter this room will be of your own free will. Until then, guest, my master and I bid you farewell."

The master of the velvet room then proceeded to snap his fingers, and a bright light enveloped the entire room. When it died down, the chair Fleance had been sitting in was empty.

------- 2 WEEK TIME SKIP --------

++ SHINJI ++

Shinji should have been hospitalized for at least one week, but he was a hard ass, so he wanted to leave the hospital after two days. One of his mafioso cousins 'convinced' a weak-willed doctor to do the paperwork that released Shinji, as well as a note saying that he needed to be excused from all of his exams.

With one less thing to worry about, Shinji spent a week and a half in his room adding extra features to his robot Pikachu. He didn't want to send half of the team to the hospital after a battle ever again, so he made damn sure that he could take out any fucking shadow that tried to hurt his team ever again. Unfortunately, his ribs werent completely healed. Shinji needed to appoint another leader until he could kick ass at his full strength.

After he finished installing grenades and other dangerous things a high school student shouldn't be able to get ahold of, he activated Pikachu. "Hello friend..."he smiled. Shinji left the room, allowing Pikachu to go wherever he wanted, and headed towards Kimiko's room. He knocked on the door, intending on asking her a favor.

++ KENJI ++

Kenji felt depressed. Sousuke left the country to visit an old friend of his a few days after the shadow attack. He was going to be in America, getting fat from their fast food. He sighed and began watching abridged series on the Internet to cheer himself up. Eventually he was reduced to watching abridged series snippets like this about dying brothers or something. No...no foreshadowing here...

++ ETC..... ++
Everyone else was...doing something productive these two weeks. Except Avido, he's been sleeping and trolling on anime forums.

Welcome to the Dark Hour

++ CLEAFEN ++

Cleafen smiled, fading away into the dark as Sunako pulled Fleance from the room.And so it begins...

++ PIKACHU ++

"Pika!"cried the yellow robot. Pikachu nudged Shinji's shoulder to keep him conscious, but he couldn't do anything to help him medically. "Pikachu..."

++ SHINJI ++

"Ugh, my damn ribs hurt."muttered Shinji, laying on the ground next to Kimiko and Momo. He layed his eyes on the two persona users and angrily whispered to them, "Why isn't one of you helping Hikaru go after the shadow?! Ah..."

Silenced by the excruciating pain, Shinji took shallow breaths and closed his eyes. Usually a few broken bones wouldn't stop him, but this attack he endured was different somehow...

"Why are you two just standing here, helping me?"he asked Kimiko and Momo in a low voice, though his eyes did not open. "Everyone else is in danger, aid Hikaru and leave me here!"

++ JONATHON ++

Conveniently, Jonathon Takeba arrived in front of the three persona users and Pikachu. His hair was messed up and he was breathing heavy from running. "I saw the Shadow and got here as fast as I could!"he announced to the teenagers. He noticed Shinji laying on the ground and immediately ran towards him. "I'll take care of him, go help the others!"

++ SUNAKO ++

Sunako could not believe her eyes; Fleance used Kenji's evoker to summon a teddy bear! "Oh my..."she mummbled, standing with Sousuke and the sleeping Kenji as they watched the battle. That teddy bear massacred the dangerous shadow that was giving Shinji and the others so much trouble. Sunako ran towards Fleance when he collapsed. "Fleance?!"

Everyone, the shadow has been destroyed, come back to the dorm!

++ SOUSUKE ++

Sousuke felt Kenji stir and looked at his brother, who was finally beginning to wake up. "Huh?"mummbled the sleepy Kenji. Sousuke sighed, then noticed Hikaru arriving on the roof on his persona.

++ MICHAEL && MILTON ++

"Welcome to the Velvet Room."greeted a white haired gentlemen in a suit, standing next to a brown haired man sitting down at a table. That same brown haired man smiled and pointed to the chair in front of the table. "You may sit, if you wish. I have summoned you to this room as my guest. I am Milton, and this is my attendant Michael."he informed.

"A pleasure to meet you, guest."said Michael, though he did not smile and look at Fleance with a friendly glance like Milton did. "My master would like you to sign this contract."he stated, and like magic a piece of paper appeared. He placed it on the table next to a pen. "It states that you will be responsible for every choice you make."

Wizard Characters {Midorimacchi & Azalea}

ABILON ARISTARR
84 years old
28/09/1060

Abilon is a high ranking knight and it’s a mystery to others how he even manages to fight so well when he hates looking anything but prim and proper; a nail breaking, a hair out of place, or even a smudge of dirt will set him off on a rant until he feels beautiful again. He is the cousin of Angiel Apollos, although Abilon only knows him as Abiel Aristarr, and the last remaining relative of Angiel’s mother. He has no knowledge of the rebellion and thinks his cousin is simply a wizard who lived in the poor district until suddenly becoming a knight. Abilon is an obnoxious noble who does not care for ‘low born cretins’ and at first thought little of his mysterious new cousin. But he was secretly happy to have a member of his family again, so despite his conflicting feelings of associating with someone from the poor district, decided to try his best to become friends with Abiel.

It did not start off well, with Abilon criticizing everything his cousin did and making comments about Abiel’s disgraced mother Abigail, and constantly drilled proper etiquette and manners into him. He also felt proud that Abiel ‘rose above his mother’s dishonorable status’ by becoming a knight and Abilon never hesitated to give him tips on how to be a stronger knight. A part of him just wanted Abiel to become a high ranking knight so Abilon would feel better about being seen around him, but he also genuinely wanted to see his cousin succeed, not that he would admit that out loud. To his delight, Abiel also never turned down the opportunity to gossip with him, and Abilon constantly told Abiel anything interesting he heard because it was one of the few ways he could spend time with Abiel in the beginning without starting a heated argument. But their relationship slowly got better over the years and Abilon became impressed with how far he had come, especially the fact that he managed to get a close relationship with one of the princes.

Abiel also takes any spare moment to try and sway his opinion of commoners, but Abilon is steadfast in his beliefs that the lowborn will never amount to anything. Since Abiel is part of his noble family Abilon claimed it was no surprise he eventually managed to become a great knight. At first he did not have a high opinion of Abiel’s daughter Evelynn when he was suddenly introduced to her, and felt annoyed she took on her lowborn mother’s name instead of carrying on his family’s name instead. The one time his beliefs were truly challenged was when Evelynn’s mother, Evelina, became a royal protector against all odds. Even though Abilon knew the position for the younger twins was desperate to be filled, in still did not change the fact that she must have been exceptional to have achieved it and Abilon begrudgingly felt impressed. He admitted to Abiel he might have been wrong about judging his daughter so harshly since he had been wrong about her mother, which caused his pink haired cousin to feel thrilled for days.

In actuality, Angiel has been trying to change Abilon’s beliefs for years so he could induct him in the rebellion. Abilon unknowingly provided much information over the years that the rebel leader used to his advantage and Angiel only put up with him in the beginning to obtain that information. However, after forming a bond with him Angiel now sincerely wants his cousin to join or at least become more sympathetic to the cause. Seraphion holds a grudge against the entire Aristarr family since they threw out Abigail on the streets so many years ago and would be happy to finally eliminate the last one once Abilon is no longer useful, so to spare him Angiel is desparately trying to convince Abilon that wizards should not be discriminated against.

Welcome to the Dark Hour

++ SHINJI ++

Shinji tossed the sword in his hand to Momo and immediately ran towards Hikaru. The leader barely managed to arrive in time to prevent the stumbling persona user from falling. "Thank you."he muttered to Hikaru, watching the shadow's mask break into pieces. Sunako, the armor is destroyed!

You guys should be able to use magic now.

The words echoed throughout the minds of all the persona users in the battle. While all of this occured, the shadow angrily yelled an ugly screech and glared at Hikaru. The shadow sent out some sort of black evil looking beam towards the young male, but Shinji did not want Hikaru to be harmed any further. He was going to try and move him out of the way, but Shinji wasn't fast enough, so he got hit by the shadow's attack. Hikaru was mostly unharmed, but Shinji felt his ribs crack. "Fuck."

++ SUNAKO ++

Sunako was anxious to get him out of here. "Okaysowe'reindangerofbeingkilledbyamonstersoyoune edtocomewithmeandtheotherguyssowecangettosafety!"she 'explained' as she grabbed his hand and led him out the door. "To the roof!"she commanded, noticing that Sousuke was already in the hallway. Kenji was still asleep, carried on Sousuke's shoulders, but she could see that Sousuke was thoughtful and brought his brother's evoker.
As they ran up the stairs, Sunako heard Shinji's voice.

Sunako, the armor is destroyed!

You guys should be able to use magic now.

U mad?

AKIZA “Er…I’m fine with that, it’s your home after all but,” she answered, her tone hesitant as she eyed the duck as if it would lash out at her at any moment, “I won’t have to take care of that thing though, right? I think it hates me.” And the feeling is mutual. she thought to herself, watching as the thing was handed more bread crumbs by Daisuke. It had the sharpest teeth she had ever seen on a duck. That automatically put the duck near the top of her list of animals she wanted to stay away from. Then, to her horror, it turned its chilling gaze onto her and stared straight into her eyes. Akiza could practically feel the hatred rolling off of the duck in waves, which sounded ridiculous, but she had seen stranger things tonight. Maybe it was finally getting to her. The duck lifted its wings, or at least tried to lift the injured one but it was being held down by the men, and it started hissing at her and Shou. The beast looked like it was getting ready to fight them and Akiza just wanted to leave. Sadly, before she could ditch the guys, the duck flung itself at Shou and tried to bite the doctor who had been tending to the wounded wing. “Eeeeeh!” she screeched out of surprise, and nearly stumbled over when she backed away. GIIMA He paused in the middle of writing his math problem, frowning when he heard a woman’s scream come from downstairs. “Was that,” he took a moment to remember name of the girl who learned their secret earlier, “Akiza, yeah, Akiza…was that her yelling just now?” She sounded freaked out and hoped that scream was from seeing another transformation. Or someone returning back to normal…most girls screamed when naked men appeared out of nowhere, right? “Who’s Akiza?” asked a puzzled Natsuki, which reminded Giima that his best friend had climbed through his window pretending to be the superhero spendidSTAR so he would not have had an opportunity to meet her. “Oh, our new housekeeper. Uh, she was hired today. I think she starts tomorrow? Or something.” he answered, then turned to Reiko and gave her a pleading look to go check on the situation downstairs. There was no way he was letting Natsuki downstairs if someone did transform but leaving him alone with a female zodiac member was a horrible idea, so Giima would have to stay here with him while she snooped around downstairs. Reiko rolled her eyes at him. “I’ll go see what they’re doing.” She agreed easily, and Giima could tell that she was relieved to have an excuse to take a break from studying calculus.

Welcome to the Dark Hour

++ CLEAFEN ++ "It's just as I said, my dear. You are going to face many trials soon: danger will follow you like your shadow. It will always be with you." Cleafen nodded after this statement, but he gave Fleance a friendly smile. He stepped towards the other male and jumped onto the bed. Fortunately for Fleance, Cleafen didn't get close to him. "But if danger is nearby, I will appear before you my love." ++ SHINJI ++ "We beat this thing by beating the shit out of it until it dies."answered Shinji, who was feeling slightly angry that most of their attacks failed. So electricity and wind didn't work...both Shinji and Momo would need to rely on something else to fight with. The leader hoped that Hikaru's persona might be able to defeat it, but sadly the demon's punch didn't do much either. Then, a glimpse of hope arrived. Sunako's word felt angelic and Shinji listened as she explained the shadow's weakness. ++ SUNAKO ++ "Magic won't do you any good, Shinji. You need to damage the shadow with a lot of attack."she explained. "But you can't hit it just anywhere, it's body is like armor." Sunako continued pounding on Kenji's door but ended up waking Sousuke instead. ++ SOUSUKE ++ Sousuke listen to the worried Sunako as she informed him of the situation. "I'll get Kenji; you get the new guy."he suggested. After Sunako left to go get Fleance, Sousuke took a deep breath. Wondering why Sunako just didn't open the door, he welcomed himself into the room his twin was sleeping in.

Welcome to the Dark Hour

+ CLEAFEN + "I am here to be with you, my darling dearest Lance~♥" Cleafen smiled at the confused teenager, never once breaking eye contact. "My love, I'm always with you even when you can't see me."he continued, happy that he finally had the chance to speak to Fleance. "So never worry...I will always protect you. You are going to face many trials soon..." ++ SHINJI + "Zionga."ordered Shinji as his persona shot electricity into a nearby alleyway. The cry of a shadow confirmed that he was right; they were in danger after all. The persona vanished at the end of the attack. Shinji knelt down and removed the backpack around his shoulder, quickly placing it on the ground. He unzipped and, like a clown car, pulled out a sword and another weapon called a naginata. Shinji placed the naginata beside Kimiko's feet and took the sword for himself. These weapons were supposed to be given to Fleance and Kenji, but right now they needed it more than they did. Shinji's weapon was Pikachu, who could either fight for him separately like a Pokemon trainer or transform into a gun that shot electrically charged bullets. "Pikachu should be bringing help, so don't worry Kimiko."he reassured after noticing she was shaking, though his voice was still devoid of warmth. Right on cue, Momoru, Hikaru, and Pikachu arrived from the dorm. "Yeah."answered Shiji as Pikachu climbed onto his shoulder. "It's in that alleyway." Suddenly, Shinji noticed that the giant Shadow was crawling out of the alleyway. "Damn..."he said slightly surprised, a grin appearing on his face as he glanced over at Pikachu. "You ready?"he asked, placing the evoker to his head. "PIKA!" ++ SUNAKO ++ "Wake up, wake up!"pleaded Sunako as she tried to shake Kenji awake. She didn't understand his sleeping patterns sometimes...how could he wake up to Momoru's footsteps and not her yelling at him? Maybe it was because she was a girl and he tuned out girls, or something? Whatever...she needed to get to supporting the others. "Can you hear me?"asked Sunako, speaking through telepathy. Momoru and Hikaru warned her about Pikachu's flashing cheeks as they ran out the dorm. Sunako usually would have joined them in such a situation, but Fleance, Sousuke, and Kenji would be unprotected and have no idea what was going on. Yeah, they were both guys who were older than her, but both Fleance and Sousuke had no persona. Kenji was sleeping like a log. "Wow...that Shadow is powerful. Shinji, give me a moment to scan for it's weakness." "Alright."he answered, knowing the other three Persona users could hear her as well. Pikachu had strapped onto Shinji's arm like Ben 10's watch, except it was a gun. He moved closer to the huge Shadow, shooting it twice.

Welcome to the Dark Hour

+SHINJI+ Shinji spoke smoothly, without any hints of fear in his voice. "Get out your evoker."he instructed seriously. "I don't know where it is' but I know there's definitely something out here."he warned, his eyes narrowing. Shinji looked even meaner than usual and he pressed the button to summon his beloved Pikachu. I don't have time for this crap. he thought bitterly to himself. My fucking pre-cal test is tomorrow. He shoved the remote back into his pant pocket and brought out his evoker. Shinji pressed the fake gun to his head, hesitating a bit before pulling the trigger. Some huge creepy persona appeared in front of the two teenagers. Shinji was growing tired of just standing around feeling worried. "Now, where the hell is that shadow...?"he asked nobody in particular, ready to beat some ass. +PIKACHU+ "Pika, Pikachu!!!"yelled the poor robot, wishing that Shinji would show up. He could have just shocked Momo but then Pikachu might fall and break into pieces. He glared at Momo, his little feet trying their best to kick him. Sadly all of Pikachu's attempts failed and he didn't even come close to hitting him. "Pika..."he muttered coldly, about to consider activating one of his other modes when all of a sudden...his red cheeks began glowing and blinking. +SUNAKO+ Sunako didn't have any clue where Pikachu was. She thought about simply calling out his name, but then she might wake up the others. She frowned as she plopped on the couch, laying on her back. "Such bad luck tonight..." +KENJI+ "You're right." Kenji smiled, getting under the covers. "Goodnight..."he mumbled, already beginning to fall asleep. The man looked peaceful and felt serene, what more could he want than sleeping next to his wonderful Hikaru? Kenji slowly grabbed Hikaru's hand, locking their fingers together. +CLEAFEN+ "YES, my love is finally in bed."comment Cleafen. The young child appeared out of nowhere beside Fleance's bed. "My dearest Lance..."he whispered, his finger tracing the male's cheek. He grinned as he caressed his skin, adoring how soft it felt.

Dark Hour {Midorimacchi & Azalea}

CLEAFEN
??? years old

A mysterious childlike being who appears only during the dark hour and in front of Fleance, and stands beside his bed calling him affectionate nicknames such as "my love". He gives warnings of trouble Fleance may face in the near future.

Welcome to the Dark Hour

+KENJI+ Kenji slowly slipped into Hikaru's bed, nuzzling up close to him. "No nightmare this time..."he said softly, happily gazing into his love's eyes. He spoke with a sweet voice, almost like a cute...I don't know but Kenji's tone of voice sounded adorable. He had a strange affect on people sometimes; if you just looked at him, you get the feeling you get when you see puppies doing something cute. This usually doesn't happen to straight guys like Shinji and Momo, unfortunately. "I woke up to quiet footsteps coming up the stairs and assumed it was a shadow. So, I grabbed my pillow and attacked it but it was just Momo."he whispered. Kenji's smile could be seen through the darkness and his voice started to become a little louder. "I panicked because I remembered how angry Shinji became when I beat him with the pillow. But! Brother helped me and told me to be with you~~ ♥" +SUNAKO+ Sunako smiled and bid Lance goodnight before she shut the door to his room. "I hope he sleeps alright, he must have had a rough day." He was scheduled to arrive hours ago, but Sunako figured there must have been a delay or something. She smiled and was about to go back to her room when she remembered Momo. "Oh!"she gasped, walking over to his door. "Momo?"she knocked softly, as to not disturb the other males on the floor. Sunako wanted to make sure he didn't get hurt or anything; you never know...a feather sticking out of the pillow sometimes hurt if it scratched your skin. "Hmmm...maybe he went to sleep already."she concluded after only a few seconds. Sunako shrugged her shoulders and began walking back downstairs to wait for Shinji. Pikachu probably went back downstairs. +PIKACHU+ PIKACHU WAS NOT DOWNSTAIRS. The sneaky robot was in Momo's room. He slipped inside when Momo had opened the door like a stealthy ninja. "Pika!"he called out to Momo happily. Pikachu was sitting on a notebook that belonged to Momo. He glanced down for a moment, able to see normally even though it was the Dark Hour, and flipped open the cover. "Pikachu! Pikapika~!" For some reason, Pikachu was laughing at the teen. +SHINJI+ Shinji nodded and used his free arm to dig through his pocket. He pulled out a remote with a design of a small lightning bolt marked at the top. "I have a plan in case we end up in deep shit."he reassured calmly, staring at the device. "One of us will need to press the red button in the top right corner of this remote. Pikachu's cheeks will light up and he'll alert the others to get over here." A large thud caught Shinji's attention and he turned his head to the right, spotting nothing. He turned to the left but still saw nothing. "Hmm...Kimiko, do you have your weapon and evoker with you?"he asked.