Xaltwind
Snowdrops
BlazingBark
Red Hood
ShadowSunRisen
Izurich
Lonewolf685
McFazzer
ColdAtlas
CamiCat
"Hard to bow to a queen when you're on your ass. You don't have any power here," Katie said factually, almost robotically. "Yes...perhaps the parameters regarding your existence have indeed changed. Calculating probability of threat level. Now."
The fist landed against Akiko's cheek, the girl falling back behind the desk she was on with a thud before she scrambled back to her feet. She wiped the blood from her mouth and cracked a wicked smile, almost as if she was expecting that. "So forward, but what else did I expect from you?" She dusted her skirt off and straightened up. "What's the matter? A little worried about me? But you know I wouldn't fight back, unless you think that I have a reason to." She stepped forwards around the table, plushie still in hand despite the blow to her cheek. "This illusion isn't keeping me held down, maybe you're worried that I'll get my stuff back and bust free from this?" All she was doing was musing. Observing. Waiting for a moment to break free.
"You could explain a few things. Couldn't hurt at this point." Akiko requested, tasting blood still along her lip. "Maybe we could even reach an agreement?"
Akiko's words strangely had little effect on "Katie", not like they should have had. The dark haired girl was staring somewhere past Akiko's shoulder, as if gazing at something far away and distant. "Situation reorganized," she said without warning, the pupils of her eyes narrowing. Out one ear and into the next did Akiko's questioning sift through. "Processing. Yes. No. Yes. 0.3%. No." It was as if she held a conversation with something not wholly present in the school room and the afternoon sun outside the window remained stagnant and in place. "Yes. Reconfiguring then. Situation analyzed with appropriate action to take place. You have been deemed no longer someone we can observe," the illusion spoke with its eyes now set staring right through Akiko, as if visualizing crushing her chest.
Then the fake Katie pounced, body stilted and moved as if strings attached to her limbs like a puppet. She flailed and clawed at the other girl in a violent display, eager to put an end to the entity in front of her. "There is no need for explanation when the correct desire has been chosen. The time for negotiation is over," the illusion said in hollowed fashion.
With a red flash, Akiko's Stand remanifested and caught the slashing and claws from the other girl, Castle coming back in full force. "Again, so forward! But looks like I've figured something out. Sure, I might not have my cards, but I've got my stand back. And frankly..." Castle slung a mighty shove out of it against 'Katie', not looking to do damage but just create distance between the two. Akiko restanced back up, her body ready to move if she had to, and Castle stayed in position to bisect the two and create a wall.
"I'm not sure exactly what you're getting at here, but we both know it's only a matter of time before I find out." Her eyes flashed red once again, momentarily taking in the detention club room before she spoke again. "Hope your ready, because you've just unleashed the Kraken."
".....situation reassembled," the fake Katie spoke. Thoroughly shoved back, the illusion skidded along the school room ground with a scuff to her shoes. Despite the priority for no long lasting damage, the shove still crumbled "something". Be it a lung or an intestine, the fake Katie's stomach looked disgorged as if it was eating itself up from the inside. Regardless of these grevious injuries, it stood up without wobbling legs and looked directly at Akiko....no, at Castle. "This was unexpected. You should not have access to that in this space," the illusion said before something manifested behind it. A shadow of a shape, humanoid and outlined moved out of into Akiko's perception, as if it had been there the entire time.
"Very well. The situation has been deemed necessary for further force in inhibiting you. Release restraints and engaging with the target," were the fake's words from its own lips. Out from the false Katie's shadow slid out another being, one who tossed aside the makeshift Katie like a latched off puppet. "Force will be initiated," spoke the stranger as it lurched forward with an inhuman speed, hand curled into a fist to slip past Castle and strike through Akiko's head whole.
But its fist met with the ghostly specter once again, the attack being blocked but not without damage to Akiko herself if the bruising on her hand indicated anything. "So that's what you look like." With a red flash of a gaze, Akiko understood... some kind of connection. However vague it was, there was some sort of familiarity with what this individual had been involved with. The mysterious stranger from the first floor, who spoke of nobodies and somebodies was the notable one, but with the world colliding around the two it was evident Akiko had to act. She backed away as Castle lurched its hand towards the Demitroop, looking to land a swift hit to it's kneecap to hopefully put it's intense speed down. She couldn't afford to keep relying on her... Rune Sight, to keep herself alive entirely, she needed to neutralize what she could.
"In a world of Somebodies and Nobodies, where do you fall?" She mused once again, ready to dodge herself to stay out of harm's way. Castle moved independently of her, so she had a lot of avenues to use.
"Irrelevant question. There is no point in talking," was the Demitroop's response. It swiftly swiveled from Castle's lurched blow like a dancer. With grace and dexterity it wrapped its thighs around the Stand's outstretched arm and grappled tightly with a squeeze, only to push all of its momentum into flipping backwards. The result was lifting and practically tossing Castle away, the Demitroop's thighs unlatching. In midair, it rocketed its momentum right toward Akiko, spinning around until its legs were aimed and ready to slam into the girl with its thighs wrapped just around her throat. "You will be eliminated for being a conspirator of the Jester," the Demitroop droned.
As the thighs came to smash, Akiko rolled out of the way with a surprising level of dexterity, rushing to stumble back to her feet as Castle remanifested from behind her and threw her across the room, only manifesting for a moment before she landed and stared at the Demitroop. "You know, you could at least explain who the hell this Jester is before you tell me I'm conspiring with them!" She flashed her eyes again. "Unless you mean Kanbaru's Stand-like thing, but that's weird even for me."
[ I have an idea. ] "Yeah, I read ya, we're going for it!"
Akiko stanced back up once again, ready to catch another punch it seemed, but something about it felt... off. Her form wasn't on it's peak, she wasn't as flawless as she wanted to be. She was taking a risk by doing this.
"Do not dismiss your guilt. You have spoken to them a number of times before. Your first Floor in the Shattering world was your point of contact," the Demitroop said as it got up from its position on the floor. "Have you not questioned your affliliation with Kanbaru and the manifestation of your powers. You are a Jester that must be destroyed before fully maturing," the Demitroop continued on monotonously. Sensing the falter of weakness in Akiko's form, the Demitroop planted one foot backward before rushing toward her again. This time the ending flows of its cape twisted and gnarled into fists, the fabric curling as it punched forward rapidly towards both user and Stand. The very air itself rippled and shook with its fast work of blows raining towards its target.
"You fool."
"CHECK-MATE!" Castle, for the first time, finally spoke itself as it emerged and started to match the Demitroop's speed, hurling punch after punch to a rhythmic "MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA-". With every blow from Castle meeting a blow from the Demitroop, Akiko's will hardened further. This... this was Castle's strength! This was what it could do! Whatever that arrow did all those days ago finally resonated with her, and she was using it to the fullest. Soon enough, Akiko started to step forward, eyes continuously gleaming a bright red as Castle's rush intensified, the distance between the two shortening but the onslaught still unrelenting.
"If I'm supposed to fully mature, then I have to say, if this is where it begins then I'm ecstatic to see where it goes."
There it was. The tell-tale sign of all Jesters, whether Akiko realized or not. The crimson glow of her eyes said all that needed to be spoken for the Demitroop as it met Castle fist for fist and blow for blow. The shockwaves of their matched pace and strength sent ripples into the air around them and the very imagery started to crack, as impossible as that seemed. The Demitroop narrowed its eyes as slowly, if only by inches, it was forced back. The school room around them trembled by the might of their blows and whole chunks of the "wall" fell apart, crumbling to the ground in dust. Where they once stood were dark patches of the world outside, or rather, the Floor of the Abyss, realm of the Tower....and something else.
Something else indeed. Something enough for the Demitroop to leap back from Castle's onslaught. It floated backwards in a seamless dash, landing on its feet with its body hidden under its cloak. "There is another. There are....calculating....three. Three of you here. Reassessing the situation," the Demitroop said to itself. "Nephetos. Potential threat....something else. This is not over," the Demitroop said with barely contained vitriol towards Akiko. However, it wouldn't be leaving her unabated just yet. The only reason it chose to deal with other matters was because of the second force coming closer....now.
"You will be eliminated one way or another. She can vouch for that," the Demitroop said ominously before it floated backwards and sunk into the shadows. No sooner did its presence disappear entirely did the casual footfalls of someone else entering the ruptured and ruined Detention Club room reach Akiko's ears.
"Did I hear that right. A queen you said? Sorry, but between you and me, you're not crown material," said the real Katie, strolling in what was left of Akiko's illusion.
Akiko's heart pounded as the world grew quiet for mere moments, Demitroop absconding and the soft patter entering the room as Akiko turned to face her, Castle demanifesting with her eye glow fading. The world around them was merely crumpled strands of the illusion, the wooden floorboards all that remained as the walls were completely gone. This was the real Katie, though, even Akiko could see that. "Nice to see you, Katie." Akiko straightened up once again, lip dripping blood and words flooded with sarcasm, but the next sentence seemingly dropped all of that. "How's it going outside? How're Riku and Kanbaru?" As far as Katie could tell, Akiko was as genuine as she could be for someone who just fought for their life. "Or do you think the Abyss is saying something by bringing you and me together?"
"I'm surprised you're actually concerned for someone other than yourself," Katie said in natural deadpan. "You already know Kanbaru can take care of herself, though I am surprised you're asking about Riku. She's not as frail as she looks and I have a feeling there's something watching over her anyway." She wouldn't make mention of her arrangement with Ami on such matters, though it would explain the blonde's absence. Hands in her coat pockets, Katie approached closer and only stopped when she noticed a crumbled up body on the floor.
"....is that supposed to be me? Well, whatever it said to you, it's probably the truth," said Katie.
"What can I say? When a girl steals a card that intrigues the panties off you, you can't help but admire her, right?" Akiko's clothes started to wear away, her normal attire slowly returning to form. "But you already knew about that. How's Bastion treating you, by the way- ahh, we can skip that. We'll catch up later when we're at the bar."
Regarding the mangled corpse, Akiko shrugged it off. "I think it's uglier that way." The cat couldn't help but let out a chuckle at that. "And whatever it said isn't anything I haven't already heard before. Hard to get under someone's skin when the world around you has already tried to bring you down a couple of times."
Castle appeared on Akiko's shoulder, sitting behind her neck as her ears finally sparked back up. She was back, alright. "So, why're you here now?"
Katie's expression didn't change much, even as the Bastion card was mentioned. She was fine with Akiko skirting around the issue because a fresh, "None of your business," was ready on her tongue to drip out. "You have some high expectations, assuming we're making it back to the Dangeki," Katie mused. She didn't miss the subtle compliment regarding that corpse however, raising an eye just, just slightly. Then she shrugged because she was probably reading too much into it. "You must not think that too much if it looks like I'm left without a spleen," she noted, studying the mishapen and twisted features of her own corpse. "I prefer looking with a normal face, so you're right about that."
Katie's attention was back on Akiko to the next question, met with a shrug. "Something drew me here. Call it a hunch." In truth she was also keeping an eye on Riku and Thomas; last she checked, they were getting themselves killed fighting the deranged local undead wolf.
"Considering I make it a point to not throw the first punch, I'd say she had it coming." Akiko blunted. "Regardless on the illusions of this place, probably doesn't help sticking around here. We should probably get moving, try and get back with the others." Akiko stepped towards the doorway before turning and looking at Katie. "Unless you're getting your rocks off looking at a deceased doppelganger that collapsed on itself after a shrug, anyway. I'll wait, it's no big deal."
"Considering you're the one I found left around with my corpse, you're not exactly one to make those kind of snarks," Katie said right back. "Someone might be getting the wrong idea walking into a scene like this, especially the owner of that corpse." Still, there was little left to discuss although Katie did scowl just a bit at some notion she died from a "shrug" as Akiko put it. "You're very insufferable," she said, already moving towards the doorway as well.
"Thank you, I pride myself on being everyone else's problem." She stepped to the side to let Katie go first, sarcasm dripping with the blood. "At least, that's what my mom said before sending me to the local asylum."
"You poor thing. No wonder they let you loose," Katie deadpanned.
The moment Akiko took a step forward, something sharp buzzed in her head. Sharpness at first, but soon it degraded into a light sensation as if air was filling her ears. Whatever pain there was soon flitted away as something carefully proped into her head and into her mind. A line of communication was being formed by instinct alone and soon a familiarity would wash over the girl from the point of contact. It felt like Kanbaru, eerily so, only more intense. No....this was the specter attached to the whale. The JSTR. The program gently pushed and prodded to establish a link of unspoken contact, such were the benefits of giving one's goals and sense of self in the efforts for more power, the mutual benefits of one Jester to another.
Something was coming through. A message, a sentiment, something shared, images and visuals from Kanbaru's own eyes. Nephetos and Runa. But that didn't matter. There was something forming, some role to play. The JSTR conveyed its message to Akiko and her Stand; the end of this Floor drew near and the key of escape lay in the very girl standing in front of Akiko. The efforts were simple, disturbingly so; Katie would undoubtly take care of the rest. All Akiko needed to do was give her a little....push. There was something inside the girl, something festering and dark and barely constrained to the surface.
All Akiko needed to do was give a push.
The girl stumbled back for a moment, hand clenching her eye to keep it from burning, but as the pain slowly died the messages became clear. Like a little voice in the back of her mind, Akiko knew the very steps to advancing herself with this sort of path, and try as she might, it was entirely obscured from her vision. She couldn't tell the future or the past from it. As the pain died completely, Akiko looked at Katie with a grim understanding of what she wanted to do. Almost like what she had to do. She had done it a moment ago, but this one felt so much different.
All she needed to do was give a push.
For a moment, she thought about it. She had a whole code she lived by that kept her in line, with her principles, but now there was probably the clearest path to power in front of her and all she needed to do was subvert them once again. She stared at Katie, knowing what she needed to do, nay, what she had to do.
And... she spoke.
"If someone were to offer you power beyond your dreams, and you just had to kill me for it, would you?" Akiko asked, staring at Katie with a dead seriousness. There was no movement, no action, just words in that exact moment. She could see the future, but she wanted to know it as the present. "Would you make that deal, Katie?"
Katie stopped in her tracks, both from Akiko's words and from noticing the other girl wasn't moving with her. "What kind of question is that?" Not to mention, it came out of the blue seemingly nowhere. Perhaps another round cycle in the Abyss had finally gotten to Akiko's head, but she somehow doubted that. "That's an awful lot of assumption and self of importance there, not to mention a very specific choice of wording." But she could tell Akiko wasn't going to budge until she got an answer and so one would be given. Katie didn't bother looking at her, still faced towards the doorway and outside where the rest of the Abyss lay. Where the rest of hell awaited.
"If you really want to know what I think....then yes. But not because of power. There's a few reasons why you should stay dead," Katie said in a low chord of hiss in her voice.
The cat didn't respond, merely pondering the information given to her.
".....is that all you wanted to know? This silence is getting awkward, and not just because my corpse is a few feet away," Katie said, voice ringing in Akiko's silence.
"Yes, it is." Akiko straightened her back out. "Or, it was. But you probably don't care about the semantics of why it's there." She put her hands in her pockets and stared at Katie, a grim smile washing over her face. "Why're you here. Not this place, but the Tower itself?"
Silence pervaded the space between the two girls, silence that felt like an eternity when it was only heartbeats. Then she turned around to fully face Akiko. "What is this, an interrogation? Why do you care why I'm here." The so called Queen hadn't once made mention of that, not since the very first time.
"Well, when you can read between the lines of the worlds we go through, hearing what you think sometimes helps." The cat on Akiko's shoulders perked up, staring at Katie. "Of course, if you have nothing to hide, then there's no reason to keep it from me. Unless, of course, you're afraid to share." Her eye flickered a red glint as she spoke. "Embarrassment, frustration, denial, there's plenty of reasons one would be afraid, but you're often stoic. Why did that question finally prompt some reaction from you?"
"It's not often I'm around people who want to know my business, so forgive me if I'm a little skeptical on the sudden interest in me." No, it wasn't sudden. There was once a time...regardless of how much she tried, Katie couldn't dissuade the ice in her tone or the newfound hardness in her stare at the other girl. "I have an affliction. I came to this place to find a way to mitigate it. It's as simple as that," she said curtly, trying to loosen her shoulders despite her hackles raising. "You love prying into people don't you. Is that how you connect with them when you can't feel anything else?"
Akiko's grin widened. "I'm a psychologist. My very nature is to pry at the seams. And that story about an affliction is definitely interesting, but it doesn't fit. It doesn't belong here." Akiko stepped forward once. "You can get medicine to treat an affliction, to lessen the pain. You don't need to come to a magical tower and risk your life just to treat a bad case of depression. Everyone else has illusions of grandeur that could be realized, but you're young and spry. You're a square peg in a round hole. What else is there? What's the full story?"
The world almost seemed to shrink around them as the doorway closed, leaving them speaking on a fractured floor.
Instinct took over Katie's body and her hands moved on their own when Akiko approached closer. The sharp end of Pendragon rested near Akiko's throat, the sword held tightly in Katie's grip by one hand. "You sure sound like a psychologist alright, as if you know anything about me." The normalacy of stoicness that usually made up Katie's expression dipped into a flicker of other emotion. She made no move to attack however, Pendragon held abaited to keep Akiko away. "It's a very strange case of affliction, one I doubt you'd be able to cure with a university student's interpretation of how the mind works. So I'll ask again one more time. Why the hell do you care?"
Katie stared with a dark look. "Unless you're starting to see some cracks in your vision, mind reader. Something coming back to you, hm?"
"I can always ask. And pry." She ignored the sword and kept asking. "Your insecurities are a crowbar, prying in. Why don't you want me knowing any of this?" Akiko asked closer, feeling the wedge between the two growing ever smaller. In a physical battle, sure, Akiko wasn't much, but when they couldn't run away? That was where she shined. "I care because I care about you, Katie. Probably more than anyone else in this Tower does."
"No, you don't."
There was more venom than Katie intended in her voice but it was no less than the truth. "Maybe you did once but I can hardly see anything genuine about that now. Don't feel too discouraged, because I don't go around telling people what's wrong with me, not just you. Especially you though. You might find some way using that against me, knowing you," she retorted. And then she paused, some thought to herself as silence built up between them once again. "You didn't answer my question. What else are you starting to remember," she said very, very carefully.
"Bold of you to assume I don't care. Everyone here's out for person number one, and I'm the only one asking how you're doing. That should mean something, right?"
The words sat with Akiko momentarily before she started to remember, before it clicked with her finally. "... when we were fighting Nephetos, I moved in a way that felt familiar, but I wasn't able to see the future then." Akiko answered calmly. She shook her head for a second before she realized a weird understanding of this world they were in. "I... understand."
"There's plenty of people who care about me here...."
Katie said so, but whether they were for Akiko or herself she wasn't quite sure. She could list off Riku and Thomas, Ami, but such were names she herself also kept at a distance. It remained the focus of her mind until Akiko finally spoke up on the matter. "You...understand what exactly?" There was suspicion in her voice...no, paranoia. Something dark flared and festered within her and she remembered not to get too close to this girl. This girl, who was causing more and more distortions and mania than she realized; it wouldn't be very hard to simply flick her wrist and lob off Akiko's head.
Akiko looked at the ground around them. It started to grow ever so clear. This world they were in was a set of words on a page, yet she had been given the ability to not only see into the chapters of other characters, but she was given the keys to something far greater.
She looked back up at Katie, slowly. "How many times have we done this, Katie?"
Silence, for the last time.
"....too many for me to count," Katie snarled, wringing her wrist to make with decapitating Akiko.
Akiko's body moved on its own, reaching out to grab Katie by the neck and simply hold her there. "I remember there was one time you said you liked this." Akiko smirked, not even moving her face to look at Katie in the eyes. "We've seen this room a hundred times over, maybe even a thousand, and no matter the outcome here we both know what happens in the end. What really goes beyond here. We both know exactly how this room ends."
Akiko's head moved up, eyes aflame with a creepy glow. "You really think you can try and pull a fast one on me? In here?" She asked, her tone unsettling as it continued. "You think you can dethrone the queen to this kingdom, Katie? Bring an end to everything that I've been building towards?"
Castle manifested behind Akiko with the same red eyes. "We've kissed in this room as many times as you've died in this room, ignoring that corpse."
"Piss off".
The dark energy building from within and behind Katie exploded outward, manifest as a large and spectral arm. Coated in darkened scales, it gripped itself into a fist even as Katie dangled from Akiko's own grip. Pistoning backwards, it smashed into Akiko's body with a blackened punch, Katie dropping down to a knee, coughing as a hand pawed at her throat. "Ami....is a thousand times better than you ever were," she growled, the darkened energy emanating outwards from her body. The distilled and spectral arm hovered by her side as she stood back up to face the other girl.
"Good to see you have your memory back, just to beat it out of your head again. We must be running on different wavelengths as usual because I never die here," Katie snarled once more. The depth and pitch in her tone continued to take a drastic turn but despite the energy leaking out of her in swells, the JSTR in Akiko's head approved of the situation. More. Just a little bit more. Already Katie was launching another spectral punch right towards the other girl.
At first Akiko laid motionless, still taking the world in as she came to terms with the reality she was in. Slowly, she stood back up, and her eyes landed on Katie with a glow. "Ohho, you've said that before, but here's the thing - I"ve seen my own death in my visions." Akiko's neck momentarily ripped apart before sewing back together, later her arms doing the same, and her legs, until she straightened her back out. "We've been here countless times, we've died here countless times, we've fucked here countless times, but the difference between what you and I see is that yours always end right here, in this room. Am I wrong?"
The spectral punch collided with Castle in a dazzling display, the cat's stand managing to take it and keep on rocking. "Doesn't that tip you off? Doesn't that concern you that, even if you win here, something happens that keeps you from the truth? Something deep inside makes you yearn to see what lies beyond this forsaken room?" Castle stayed next to it's owner, already prepared to catch another punch.
"Doesn't it bother you that I know what happens next after you die?" She asked, a maniacal laughter seeping out from somewhere in the room.
"Do you really wanna deal with the gravity of this situation? Or do you want to try and help me end it, Katie? For you, for Riku, for Kanbaru, everyone in here."
Akiko raised her hands up in defense, blood pooling out from her side. Guess that the punch onto Akiko from earlier did more than she bargained for, but regardless her intent was clear. Akiko was trying to spare Katie.
"You're delusional as always...."
Katie had no such memory of her own death, nor did she see the end of the journey in this room. No, she knew damn well the cycle only ever continued when they reached the Tower's top. A million different variables could be at play but everything ended at the top. For a moment she wondered if this Akiko had learned too early; she recalled they often had confrontations here but never where Akiko was spouting madly about futures that never came. So what changed now? It didn't take her very long to deduce the culprit, even as her spectral arm continued pushing Castle back. Runa. That was the only possible variable to this anamoly and an Akiko ranting about futures that could not exist.
"You're speaking nonsense," Katie growled. At this point a shroud of blackened energy hovered around her body and over her form. She stepped forward and with it, darkened spotches of pure energy burned wherever she walked. "You're no queen, just a sociopathic narcissist. The only one with the rite to any rule is me".
"The only one with the rite to any rule is you, yes, yes, you're very predictible." Akiko asked, Castle still holding... more than it's own. If anything, the mania took Akiko by the heart and kept her throwing. Even as blood poured from her, she was still fighting with a ton of strength. "What's the use of us fighting? We can bring an end to this, together."
She outstretched her hand. "We loved eachother in the past. We can both leave here if we care to see the end of this journey. Put your weapons down, listen to the rambling of a madwoman."
"Don't try and act like my friend now, Akiko."
By now Katie's voice was strained and guttural. Something else was clawing to take surface from the depths but all she could think of was the variables, of the factors, of all the possible outcomes that could have led to this specific situation. And all of it pointed to Runa. All because of the demon's personal talks, talks she noticed with Akiko and talks she should have put a stop to. And now they were here. It was sickening. First she would kill the demon and then she would finally kill Akiko.
Katie's eyes rolled back and all she saw was black.
"... Castle, throw me that way."
The stand changed to grab Akiko by the legs, putting her into a lifting throw, and the cat soared out of the illusionary room. With the distance between the room and her growing, the cat quickly found solace outside of the illusion once again, returning to the Abyss where she felt the worlds reconvene. Her irises were permanently tainted, once an emerald green and now replaced with a bloody red. She was now gazing through the world and seeing every path, every possible way to move forward, every outcome, every solution, every death. Whatever that was, she finally realized the futility of it all.
Even with that, with the illusion of choice in a world that'd been played back hundreds of times, she knew somewhere there was something she hadn't tried. And she'd find it.
No matter the cost.
All she needed was that little push.