4500/Persona:WTWM - The Winds of Time

Persona:WTWM - The Winds of Time
Date of Scene:	01 September 2016
Location:	Alberichstadt <P:WTWM>
Synopsis:	The school nurse and the school therapist turn out to not be inconsequential at all! A Shadow bent on a strange ideal of Law and Order attacks a brave hero, who does not resemble any mascots at all!
Cast of Characters:	August Kohler, 999, 915, 513, 1039, 1040
Tinyplot:	Persona: Were the World Mine-1

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August Kohler has posed:
AFTERNOON, ALBERICHSTADT, GERMANY. August Kohler swings through the mirrorin his dorm, beelines for the clearing that leads to the Shack, and lets Emily Branford and Finna through. "Persona Game Shadow. I didn't go its way, but I heard noises on my way here." The White Pig is snuffling around, looking for food. He looks on edge, likely because there's something going on in the distance, as can be heard. Once the group approaches, he begins to lead them, with the path beeling towards near the school mirror system.

Inside a large twisty section of the Forest, on a small path, is a knight. He's wearing shining armor, the tarnish masked by the gleam of light that seems to follow him. A massive shield lies on one of his wrists, while a shining holy sword hangs in the opposite hand. The image of scales is emblazoned on his shield, justice his emblem. He stands above a small creature, menacing it with the sword as he speaks.

The creature is a short, rotund, white creature, with hollow black eyes, a brown vest with a white undershirt and lincoln green trimmings, a lincoln green cap with a red feather in it, and matching boots. The knight towers over him, his face masked by a helmet, by a yellow glint from the eye-vent. The remains of Shadows lie around them, black puddles and the shattered remains of glass trees painting a grisly scene, as the Lawful Knight speaks. "Your conspirators have been slain, criminal. Turn yourself over for execution immediately, or I will be forced to use the full extent of the law." His helmet gleams menacingly, as the little creature speaks, grabbing a sword from his vest to hold up in defense. "Y-you attacked us for no reason, hee-ho!" The Knight scoffs. "Violation of noise laws." "There are no noise laws in this forest, ho! We were just trying to go on an adventure, hee!" The Knight steps forward, causing the little creature to step back. "A likely story. No matter your reason, you have broken the law. You are now resisting arrest, and shall perish." The Knight moves to strike down the little white creature...

Right as Die Reisenden arrive. August Kohler twirls a small tin spoon in his hands, as he shouts out. "PERSONA!" The spoon explodes into blue light, and a giant metal man rises out above him, one of his legs a gun, his body covered in burn scars, and he himself dressed as a soldier. The Tin Soldier dives forward to block the blow, as August turns to the others. "I think it's that Knight...ignore the little doll, try and take him out!" The 'little doll' calls back in protest. "Who are you calling little, hee-ho?!"

"You dare interrupt a knight of justice? I sentence you all to death!" The Lawful Knight's blade glows with divine energy, as he rushes forward and swings his sword, a wave of powerful energy rising forward to strike August, Finna, /and/ Emily! What will happen next?!

Emily Branford (999) has posed:
    When August opens the mirror, Emily is there and waiting, with her chosen assault rifle - an HK-417 - in her hands and ready. She steps through smoothly and falls into a brisk pace as soon as they start moving, keeping up with the Pig exactly as fast as it deigns to lead. She's all professionalism and calm the entire way, by now accustomed to the trips into the Forest; but what they see when they arrive, well. That's another story.

    The enemy is quite literally a knight in shining armor. A warrior of justice, a defender of the weak. Menacing some little imp on false pretenses. "Well, here's a disappointment to whatever oaths he took," she remarks dryly. She's just about ready to shoulder her rifle, when the Knight decides to open the metaphorical bidding before she can. In the next heartbeat, she's diving to one side, trained reflexes taking her just barely out of the way in time.

    They also result in her going through a roll to come up in a shooting stance, on one knee with her rifle raised. She opens up immediately, first a quick burst aimed at any gap in the armor she can see... and then a second, fired straight at the chestplate, to see whether it can fend off modern ammunition.

Ira MacNally (915) has posed:
Speaking of noise...

Glass shatters somewhere within the forest, crashing noises abound that rapidly become louder and louder. Nearby, a tree smashes to the ground, splintering into metallic shards as a tall, dark figure shoves its way through. The dark figure is suddenly thrown into stark illumination, a hulking monster that appears as a hybrid between a gorilla and a warthog. Enormous tusks jut from its mouth, horns spread from its head, and in stark contrast to all of these animalistic attributes, it remains clothed in an impressively immaculate white suit. A rose corsage remains pinned to its left breast.

The Beast makes to intercept the Knight at a right angle, bodily slamming against the Shadow as the Persona unleashes a white blast of primal energy.

"FUCK DA POLICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!" Ira howls not far behind the Beast, her persona far ahead and taking the lead an initiative against the Lawful Knight.

The tall, red-haired teenager clutches a sledgehammer in her hands, her eyes wild. An unsettling smile rests on her face, as if she's about to enjoy this bout of violence a little /too/ much.

Finna (513) has posed:
Right into the Mirror... and immediately into a freaky fight, huh? There's a white-furred fox amongst the group, and she whines IRRITABLY at the knight.

    Although no words are spoken, she decides to LEAP STRAIGHT UP! ... way, way way high up over the energy wave. it grazes her underbelly and legs, shaves off fur, draws a bit of blood...

    But she comes back DOWN.

    DOWN DOWN DOWN.

    ... down for the knight-in-armor's plate-covered shoulders, next to his fully-helmeted-head.

    And upon landing, well...

    She just tries to smugly and simply WRAP HER TAIL nimbly around the Lawful Knight's head and cover the visor, so he can't see. But she doesn't leave it at that, oh no.

    The little vixen also unleashes the most ear-splitting, screeching bark right into the the helmet's opening. Because, well...

    There's nothing quite like wearing a bucket on your head, when you have problems with noise. Echo chambers, much?

Hikaru Kurosawa (1039) has posed:
    Hikaru tumbles through from another mirror entirely, Ran's hand in his. He holds a collapsed bo staff in his other hand, and it's that hand that tightens, to save Ran the pain of having her fingers squished. "Okay, if I have this right..." He releases her hand, and unspools a long chain bracelet from where it was wrapped around his arm, holding the chain up so that he can see the fox woman reflected in the flat silver teardrop charms. "Persona!"

    The bracelet disappears with fire which doesn't burn, as the Fox Sister pulls herself into the world - sleek and humanoid and dressed in a peasant's dress, with nine fox-tails peeking out from under the skirt and a pair of fox ears atop her head. She smiles with a mouth which hides wicked fangs, turns her head and ears as if searching out some distant sound. "I hope there aren't too many people in here," Hikaru says, his own face a mask of concentration. After a moment, he nods, and hurries off in a direction, the Fox Sister drifting after him with her ears flicking this way and that to track the sounds.

    "This way." He doesn't know how to describe what he senses. The psychic link he shares with his Persona is difficult to quantify at the best of times. But he /knows/ there are people this way, knows there's fighting. He doesn't /think/ anyone's been badly injured yet, but he's so unpracticed that he's not sure he'd know.

    It takes a time, but eventually the feelings get stronger. Hikaru finds himself able to distinguish between the players, and so he stops and stills, focusing on the... /thing/ they're fighting. "Ran," he says, "I think I can figure out what's going on with that guy, but I don't think I can do it if I'm dodging attacks. They're just ahead," and the sounds of fighting would surely lead them to her if nothing else, "and I know you can do this. Be brave, okay? I believe in you."

    So he closes his eyes, and clasps his hands together; the Fox Sister steeples her hands, her own orange eyes opened. Vague ideas turn into impressions, and impressions turn into something more certain.

    <Excuse me!> Comes the voice of Drachenblatt's school counselor inside the minds of those people fighting. It's a one-way connection - it's not possible to reply without some power of their own - but the contact is brief enough. He wouldn't want to distract them from fighting. <That creature you're fighting... it's resistant to Dark attacks!>

Ran Itoh (1040) has posed:
    Ran's lips thin as she looks past Hikaru at the reddened mirror. "...I know," she agrees reluctantly. "Even if he's not involved, somebody else might be. We... really can't leave anyone in there to be hurt, right?"

    They both know it's not a question.

    They tumble through the mirror, Ran's fingers clasping tight around Hikaru's. He has to let her hand go but the hard part's over with, she tells herself, scanning the maze of mirrors with a distrustful eye as the Fox Sister comes forward. Ran knows her because she knows Hikaru, and Ran can be brave with them both here.

    "Don't leave me behind," is her only request as they take off again, fleetfooted as they chase impressions through the darkness.

    He wants her to... Ran takes a deep breath, but nods, giving him a smile. It's stiff, and a bit fake, but she knows he's counting on her. "Don't get too far from us. If you get lost in here, the Wolf could..." Ran's greatest fear isn't fighting, or the Knight, or being hurt. It's the Wolf, it's being alone... it's fear itself. She reaches out quickly and squeezes his shoulder, then turns to dash for the kids with her long hair floating behind her.

    A strange voice echoes from the darkness beyond the trees. "PERSONA!"

    An alien creature falls from the sky on Finna's heels, a long-handled hammer clasped tight in its hands. The Rabbit lands easily at the knight's feet, rears back, and /slams/ its weapon right into the knight's armored gut.

    Ran Itoh, HELPFUL SCHOOL NURSE(tm), barges out of the trees and stops behind the students, a silvery pendant gripped tight in her fingers. "Is everybody okay?!"

August Kohler has posed:
Emily narrowly rolls out of the way of the Megido, returning on the Lawful Knight with a burst of fire. A shot hits him in his shoulder gap, as he quickly flips his shield around to block the shot coming for his chest. He glares at her, before a glow of energy begins to surround him...he's charging his power!

As he does this, Ira MacNally and the Beast slam forward, as her Persona fires energy at the Lawful Knight. He takes it full-on, being knocked back a few steps, though he stops himself on the ground and shouts at her. "Stop right there, criminal scum! You have violated the law!" His sword swings forward, another Megido wave blasting in Ira's direction, but he is quickly stopped and blinded by Finna's tail. The Lawful Knight attempts to shake her off, but is stopped dead in his tracks when she screams. Is this going to stop him?

Nope. The Lawful Knight bangs his head back with great force, enough to send Finna back and force her off him.

Hikaru Kurosawa and Ran Itoh arrive! August Kohler immediately recognizes their voices, having been with them right before he came into the Forest, and is distracted from using the Tin Soldier for a moment. This moment is long enough for the Lawful Knight to take advantage, ramming his sword into the metal man. The Tin Soldier pantomimes intense pain as he trips backwards, and blasts a gout of fire forwards. The Lawful Knight blocks it with his shield, deflecting it towards Emily!

Ran and her Persona's hammer strike slams into the Lawful Knight's gut, sending him reeling. Seeing an opportunity, the little white creature runs forward. "Aha, evildoer! You shall now be finished off by the GREAT SPRIGGANS JACK!" Rest in peac-"

And is promptly sent flying when the Lawful Knight punts him, causing Spriggans Jack to slam head first into a tree behind the group. He might need some help! August turns to Ran as she shouts. "Nurse Itoh! You?! ...Alright, this changes things. Try and pin him!"

As August speaks, the Lawful Knight straightens himself, as his armor gleams and his eyes shine yellow. "Enough, lawbreakers! I Decree That No One Shall Touch Me." His words have a powerful reverb to them...but no one feels any different. What could this mean? The Lawful Knight begins charging his power some more.

Hikaru Kurosawa (1039) has posed:
    Further up in the forest, everyone fights the Lawful Knight, and Hikaru finds he has a much better sense of what's going on now he's concentrating. He focuses on the Knight, and the Fox Sister's psychic abilities help him to hone in on what's going on. The sense of fire here, the sense of physical strength there... it's not quite /sight/, but he can follow along with what's going on, after a fashion. The Fox Sister's ears track the Lawful Knight's position, even here.

    And once he realises what that Knight has done, though there's no one around to hear, he gasps.

    <Everyone! Don't attack him with your weapons!> Hikaru barks through his psychic link. <He'll reflect physical attacks! Use elemental abilities instead!>

Emily Branford (999) has posed:
    The knight blocked her shot rather than take it to the chest. That tells Emily quite a bit. "Quite alright," she calls over her shoulder to Ran; already she's shifting her position, watching for opportunities to open fire on weak points and-

    Oh god fire.

    It looks like it should have incinerated her outright. But when the blast clears, there's no smoking remnant of a butler. No no, she's suddenly standing right beside Ran as if nothing were wrong. Aside from the obvious singe along her right side, anyway. "Can't say as we've met. Emily Branford. Janine Liberi's butler."

    Wait, what's all this about a decree? That sounds rather silly. "Very well, then, I shan't touch you." And striding forward, she switches the rifle's selector to full auto and squeezes the trigger. About three seconds before Hikaru explains what just happened. Aw, this might be bad.

Ira MacNally (915) has posed:
"THAT'S NOT ALL I'M GONNA VIOLATE TODAY!!" Ira snarls, actually running at the Lawful Knight not long after the Beast bowls him aside. Of course, this puts her directly in the path of the incoming Megido wave and thus completely unable to dodge, being blasted backwards through a glass tree before she can even swing that sledgehammer at her target. As she flies, she SWEARS she hears the voice of the school guidance counselor in her head.

She knew that voice pretty well after all.

"I don't know any dark attacks anyway." she mutters to herself as she plucks shards of glass out of her skin. Gradually, the wounds start to close up, but not fast enough that she doesn't bleed quite a bit. In spite of her injuries, she seems to keep going, unbothered by the pain. Although the Lawful Knight makes his decree, she doesn't hesitate, coming in to swing the sledgehammer at his head.

She does that just as Hikaru starts barking in her head again, "Wait what-!? But I don't HAVE any-"

Finna (513) has posed:
A bit of headbanging and Finna finds herself flung far off the guy! ... And straight into a tree. WHAM! her landing could use a bit of work. She hits the ground gasping in pain, but the little fox changes shape, flesh melting and expanding and fur receding into clothes. Soon she's standing in human form, though with her fox ears and tail in full view and glowing. the rest of her glows faintly for that matter, skin exuding a silvery hue of light. Pale moonlight. The mark of her Chosen status gleams in crescent form on her forehead, but she's not armed.

    "Not all of us are Sorcerers, you know!" She whines.

    But... though she might not have any offensive power worth speaking of without physical attacks... it's not as though she can do nothing.

    Finna CHARGES for the knight, making a FEINT strike just past him that she hopes his reflexes might demand he respond to... because there's a key opening in her strike that could let him land a nasty blow on her!

    Unfortunately, well... if he takes the bait and makes that swing...

    The timing will just be utterly TERRIBLE for him, unless his magical power and will's enough to thoroughly pierce the befudding nature of her passage.

    Because it hides the fact that he's found himself near a tree, and the swing will go a bit wide and probably get stuck in the mirror tree. or break it. Or something. either way...

    One hell of a distraction!

Ran Itoh (1040) has posed:
    T-that fancy tuxedo girl is fast! Ran was sure she was about to be toasted by the deflected fire blast, but she's... quite alright, it seems, despite the newly-singed part of her nice outfit. "If you get hurt badly, fall back near me. We'll get you back on your feet!" she calls out across the splintered clearing.

    The Rabbit dances from foot to foot, masked face somehow seeming impatient for her mistress's next command. Ran is already aiming her next attack for the Knight when Hikaru's voice comes through. "It's so /weird/ when you do that, Hikky," she remarks, darting to one side. "Tsuki-no-Usagi! MOONBLAST!"

    L-look, lots of Japanese teenagers grow up reading mahou shoujo comics, okay...! Ran always wanted to be Sailor V.

    The Rabbit leeeeeaps high into the air, disappearing into the darkness of the sky. What comes down isn't a bunny... it's a pillar of scorching moonlight.

August Kohler has posed:
Hikaru's scanning powers soon pick up what's that decree was: the Lawful Knight now reflects physical attacks. Emily Branford is capable of getting through the fire, but she makes a bit of a mistake in shooting at him. The first few bullets that fire at the Lawful Knight reflect off his barrier, but it helps that the rifle is in automatic; they soon pierce through the barrier, staggering him as he is hit. Ira's next attack had enough power to take him flat out behind it; if it wasn't raw physical power, that is. The hammer slams down onto the Lawful Knight's head, but it does nothing to /him/. Instead, a massive force of physical damage echoes back through her hammer towards Ira, hoping to repay the strike.

Finna's charge causes the Lawful Knight to move to block her charge, and then counter. But he only realizes too late that it was a feint! His counter attack slams around into the tree, cleaving it straight through...and causing the tree to fall, crashing into him. The Lawful Knight slowly picks himself back up, to turn back to Finna...when Ran fires her rabbit Moon Blast, the burst of moonlight searing onto him as he screams. He disappears temporarily in the light...is he gone?

Nope. The Lawful Knight rises from the light to charge forward, moving to try and impale Ran with his sword. August Kohler isn't fast enough to block the whole blow, but he is capable of moving the Tin Soldier into the Lawful Knight's arm, knocking the piercing strike away from any vital points.

And then he sets the Lawful Knight on fire.

The Lawful Knight screams from the flames, as he quickly begins trying to fan himself off. His helmet cracks from the pressure and is destroyed, revealing a disheveled...man? underneath. Piercing yellow eyes on a handsome, but messy face, a dashing young man who could woo all the ladies if he cleaned up. Say...doesn't he look like that recent missing kid from Drachenblatt? As the Lawful Knight puts out the fire, suddenly, our great and powerful hero, Spriggans Jack returns! "Your evildoing could never defeat me, hee-ho! TAKE THIS!" The Jack Brother rushes forward with his sword, slashing it into the Lawful Knight...and is then immediately sent flying again by the Reflect. Poor Jack.

The Lawful Knight grunts, as he shouts. "Decree nullified! I Decree The Following! You Shall Not Use Witchcraft." A strange magical feeling, and then the Lawful Knight looks towards the trees. "You Shall Not Hide."

Suddenly, the trees inbetween the group and Hikaru all /collapse/. They just begin falling down one by one, until Hikaru is a sitting duck. The Lawful Knight turns on him, and swings his blade, a blast of Megido firing outwards. As this happens, August Kohler waves his hand, the Tin Soldier rushing forward to strike the Lawful Knight! But as it moves to strike, suddenly it begins writhing, as August falls to his knees. Some sort of backlash? The Lawful Knight follows it up by spinning his blade all around him, bursts of Almighty energy aimed at /EVERYONE/! Have fun, guys.

Ira MacNally (915) has posed:
Bad news, good news!

The bad news is that Ira can hit pretty hard. That hammer is reflecte right back at her with the same amount of force as she swung it. The good news is she has an unnaturally high resistance to physical attacks ever since earning her persona, so the strike only hits her for about half power. Despite that, it's still knocking her flat on her ass. Again. "Beast, hold off-" she groans, squirming on the ground as she rolls out of the way when the Lawful Knight goes to charge at Ran.

Groggily, she stares at the de-helmeted Lawful Knight, vaguely recognizing him as a kid that went missing a few days ago. That she certainly doesn't know anything about. Nope.

With the new decree, she grins, not waiting on the guidance counselor to sort that one out for her. She can figure that one out- "Beast! Go!" she yells, the hideous persona emerging from the trees at a completely different angle now, though this time instead of just tackling, it opens its maw wide-perhaps TOO wide-and tries to bite down on the Shadow's head.

Meanwhile, Ira dives behind a glass tree to avoid tanking another blast of Almighty Justice Power. The tree is shattered instead.

Finna (513) has posed:
"Oh you just keep trying so hard!" Finna teases the knight. "Nastily tough guy you are, but tell me. WHAT in the world are you even FIGHTING FOR?! Tch..."

    She does get a load of that face and it brightens her day a little, makes her quirk her head slightly...

    But then he goes and ruins ALL of her possible manuevering and cover, and to make matters worse...

    To make matters worse, the blast catches her HEAD-ON, for she'd been just about to scamper FOR one of those trees when the wave nears. Fear shines in her eyes, then... she's slammed to the ground HARD by scorching light and pure power drawing a nasty, smoking mark across her gut. She hits the ground like a ragdoll and tumbles for several meters... but rises with a long, drawn-out, agonized YOWL.

    Now she's a bit angry.

    "... Well. More than one way to get a guy out of a troublesome outfit, buuuuuut..." Oh god, that's hardly even innuendo...

    Her flesh and bone bulges and writhes from within. Fur again appears, this time quickly overgrowing her outfit. Although seemingly naked, there isn't a much to see given all the thick white fur. Her limbs toughen and widen, but remain sleek and lithe despite her height increasing to seven feet tall!

    A beast that walks upright, lips peeled back to reveal ludicrously sharp rows of teeth in a great maw. If there were such a thing as a 'were fox,' it might look like this. The beast ripples with savage muscle. As with all Lunars who enter their Warforms, she's unmistakably a creature built solely for brutal murder. There's nothing cute or cuddly about THIS fox now...

    In fact, most people would probably have a hard time not pissing themselves if the beast went tearing at them. Because, well...

    Finna charges. Or, rather, it's better to say that she's INSTANTLY in the knight's face, not only roaring profoundly and trying to BITE HIS SHOULDER with teeth capable of crumpling steel, but raking in with claws that glow silver and are equally capable of slicing it apart. She's a whirling dervish of brutal motion, movements so fast they're like gusts of wind! Frantic, savage strikes with the Claws of the Silver Moon!

    "For you it's the hard way!"

Emily Branford (999) has posed:
    It came too late for Emily to stop pulling the trigger in time - but forewarned by Hikaru, she's able to put on a burst of speed that takes her neatly out of the way of her own bullets, this time /without/ the apparently minor scuff whose true severity she's hiding. Her high-speed movement stops with her off to one side, around the moment where the blast of moonlight hits the Knight hard. And the response? A decree refuting magic.

    "Well, if that's how we're to play it. At this point I suppose the best method should be to take you apart before you can make more of those nasty decrees."

    The assault rifle's safety is set, the chambered round ejected, the weapon dropped. A black glove comes out of a pocket, pulled onto a right hand to replace the white one now discarded. Fingers curl and flex, ensuring a tight fit. And then, as a wave of Megido hurtles at her, Emily disappears.

        *KRAK*KRAK*KRAK*

    She reappears on the other side of the night - or rather, the faint blur of motion resolves itself into a smartly-dressed woman again. Almost simultaneously, three whipcracks with the volume of gunfire go off, a trio of targeted whip strikes aimed at each shoulder joint and the Knight's now-revealed face... somehow, managing to miss Finna entirely. She quickly whirls herself around and begins swinging the whip, whirling and looping, keeping it moving. Keeping its momentum up, allowing her to strike at any time. "Come on, then. If you're a knight, let's see you fight with some honor. No tricks, no hobbling your opponents. Your strength on ours. Or can you not win without resorting to cheats?"

Hikaru Kurosawa (1039) has posed:
    Some of the attackers use physical strength anyway; Hikaru winces as he senses the feedback. There are other attacks, as well - the great impact of a tree, light, fire. And something entirely ineffective, which barely pings Hikaru's radar.

    Poor Spriggans.

    He feels the shift as the Lawful Knight nullifies his decree, but suddenly, the Fox Sister's psychic feedback goes silent, replaced by a shocking pain. Where once there was a rich tapestry of sensations, he now finds himself with only the sounds of the front lines and that feedback. He opens his eyes to find his Persona collapsed on the ground, clutching at her ears - and then the trees begin to fall. Hikaru takes a step back, clutching the collapsed form of his bo staff in his hands, but there's nowhere he can run with all his cover collapsed; the Megido hits him head-on, and he tumbles backwards, the glass leaves of collapsed trees cutting into him. He screams.

    The foliage looks so pretty from a distance, but up close, like this...

    Slowly, he pushes himself up, trying to avoid cutting his hands on more of that shattered glass. He plucks up his bo staff from where it had fallen a few feet away, and spins it to extend the tips, creating a five-foot length from something which was previously just shy of two feet long. Taking a deep breath, he runs towards the source of the attack. He looks like one of the boys who disappeared, and it gives Hikaru a moment of pause when he comes close enough to realise. He stops, lowers his bo staff.

    "Theodor Vermann? Theodor, what's going on?!" He'd gone missing, not a week or two ago, and the staff almost seemed used to it Hikaru /noticed/, and now here he was? "You can't just attack people like this! Come back with us, we'll help you!"

Ran Itoh (1040) has posed:
    Ran isn't a dumb bunny. As the Knight calls out his declarations and reality warps around them, she watches. She /gets it/. "It's like a video game," she murmurs, whiskey-brown eyes wide in realization. There are /rules/. Ran isn't a great fighter, and she's not very brave, but she loves games.

    She's even kind of good at them.

    She's so busy congratulating herself for being ~super intelligent and resourceful~ when the Knight rises from the shattered, slagged glass at the center of her moonshot. She doesn't have time to move--

    But August saves her. Even after he'd not-so-subtly threatened her and Hikaru earlier, he's not such a bad guy after all, right? The Tin Soldier knocks the Knight's charge off-course and she lets momentum do the rest; shifting her weight onto one foot, Ran catches just enough of the Knight's inertia to spin with the blow. It rips her shirt open and gouges a shallow gash along her waist, but she's not impaled. She's not bleeding out in a dark forest thousands of miles from home, she's not making them watch her die, she's not making /Hikaru/ watch--

    Hikaru?

    Ran watches as the trees disappear, as her best and oldest friend is revealed and thrown into the glass forest. She panics and screams for him. "HIKARUUUUU!"

    When did the school nurse get a knife? Did she always have it?

    It's in her hand and she's moving, running, strong dancer's legs pushing her off of the ground, straight for the remains of Theodor Vermann. "<I WON'T LET YOU GET AWAY!>"

    Ran isn't very strong, but she's fast, and her blades are very sharp.

August Kohler has posed:
To Ira's great luck, teeth are not magical! The Beast chomps down on the Lawful Knight's head, causing the Knight intense pain. He responds by slamming his sword as strong as possible into the Beast, before shaking the Persona off of him and leaping back for space.

Straight into Finna's charge. The Lunar Exalt tears through his shoulder pauldron with her teeth, and her claws slam into it. Meanwhile, Emily rushes forward with her whip, smashing through into his shoulder joints and face. He grunts in pain, as he responds. "I am not the dirty criminal who broke the law...I am laying down the rules in this chaotic forest! You have no right to oppose me!" One last slash from Finna's claws surges forward, piercing a massive hole in his chest, which causes the Lawful Knight to stagger back. He's dying, and he knows it. He's about to prepare a Decree, it seems.

Up until Hikaru approaches, and starts shouting at him. The Lawful Knight turns, yellow eyes gazing at a hole at Hikaru. They are not human. The Lawful Knight is /not human/. Yet, as Theodor appeals to his 'humanity', the Lawful Knight struggles. "That name...belongs to a dead man...he failed, and I shall not fail...I shall not fail..." However, as the Lawful Knight speaks, he wavers. He's not sure what to do. "I shall not fail...in /his goal/. You...you are pardoned. Leave. Now." Ran starts charging at him, but he ignores her, momentarily.

"I Decree That This Forest Will Die With Me."

As Ran charges forward with her knife, the Lawful Knight raises his shield to block it. And then he lifts his hand to grab the nurse, before moving to /throw her/ as far away from him as possible. But it's not a violent act. As the decree takes effect, the Knight begins to charge with energy...he's going to explode! "I Decree That I Shall Not Fail Him." There's only a matter of moments left. Almighty energy swirls around the dying knight...

And ruptures, causing a massive explosion in the area of the Forest they're in. As this happens, August shouts loudly. "EVERYONE, RUN!" Instinctively, he moves forward, as Spriggans Jack gets back to his feet, notices the explosion...and turns back, leaping onto August's shoulder. "I'm too young to die, hee!" There's just enough time for everyone to rush back towards the clearing before they're engulfed in Almighty.

Once they reach the clearing, August pauses to pant, forgetting the imp on his shoulder entirely, as he turns to Hikaru and Ran. "...Are you two alright? There's a long story here. I don't know how much you know. Ask whatever questions you have, I'll toss you an IM link in a few minutes." August is just taking a minute for a breather. Meanwhile, sitting on his shoulder, Spriggans Jack speaks up cheerfully. "Hee-ho there, fellow Heeros! I am Spriggans Jack, the world's greatest hero, hee! Have you come to be my squires, ho?"

Finna (513) has posed:
"... Sorry, handsome." Finna murmurs as she yanks her furry arm back out from the hole it clawed open, covered in... well, probably blood, god knows what else if anything. She can sense though, the moment the Knight hesitates at Hikaru's words... that the fight is over. So she leaps back and away.

    Well. She was going to say more, perhaps offer a few words of sympathy, but... then the Knight's words strike a fire in her. She smiles sadly at his resolve...

    Though the smile falters the instant she detects the build-up of energy. It frowns. Turns into a bit of a terrified face. "EVERYTHING HE DOES IS EXTREME!"

    The foxgirl complains, shifting down to her animal form and BLITZING off after August on all fours. ZOOM!!

    Of course the person she ends up behind is, oddly enough, Hikaru. As everyone ends up eventually coming to a halt, well... she fluidly shapeshifts again, ambles around Hikaru's right... and LEANS AGAINST HIS SHOULDER a little, grinning wildly. "Well... HELLO there. Kindred spirit of sorts, hm? I'd remember working with a face like yours before. Must be new to this... extracurricular madness."

Ira MacNally (915) has posed:
"Wait, can it /do/ that?" Ira's eyes widen at the last decree of the knight. That seemed like an overreach and she doubted the Mirror Forest would simply allow its own destruction that easily. No one shadow could be that strong, right? And yet...well..

Ira runs anyway. She runs, forgetting the adults for those few moments as survival becomes way more important.

But moments later...

"No." she says bluntly to Spriggans Jack, "I'm just here to beat up that knight. Or was."

Emily Branford (999) has posed:
    Emily might have turned on the speed to get away from that explosion. Just a little.

    Regardless, by the time they stop, she's wearing her regular white glove again, and managed at some point to snag her assault rifle. She's breathing a bit more heavily than usual, but other than that and the scorching on her uniform (and, of course, the burns underneath she's pretending don't exist), the butler seems quite alright.

    Of course, now might be a good time to realize there's a butler standing there with an assault rifle.

    "Goodness," she murmurs, looking back at the site of the explosion. "What an unpleasant end. I suppose that's the sort of stake involved with something like obtaining a Persona, though."

Hikaru Kurosawa (1039) has posed:
    Hikaru stares at Theodor - at the Lawful Knight - as he struggles with his humanity. "You're not /dead/, we can help you! Ran's a nurse! We can --"

    The Knight makes his first Decree, and Hikaru's grip on his staff tightens. "Damnit," he hisses, only for his voice to raise a moment later, as he takes Ran and tosses her aside. "-- Ran!!" With the Lawful Knight boiling over with energy, Hikaru chooses to run to his oldest friend, to help her up quickly so they can both run away from the blast. He doesn't let go of her hand until they're all safe in the clearing. He'd followed the others there; in his panic, he hadn't thought much about where he was going.

    The Fox Sister, who had run as soon as the urge hit Hikaru himeself, returns to him; its not-quite-human form is an interesting contrast against the fox girl who comes to lean against his shoulder. (That shoulder lifts up and down, rhythmically, as he catches his breath.) "Ah... yeah," he chuckles. "You got me. Oh, come on back, Fox Sister." He lifts his wrist, and the weights of the chain fall there again as his Persona fades. "My name's Hikaru - Hikaru Kurosawa. And you are...?" Well, aside from being a fox, obviously. Which is a little shocking to see, face-to-face, when he's used to humans, but... Unification /was/ a thing, after all.

    He does pull back, though, after a moment, shaking his head and rolling his shoulders. He looks over to August, frowning in concern. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a lot of questions. But let's start from the top, okay? What was Theodor doing out here, and..." He gestures, lost for words for a moment. "What /happened/ to him?"

Ran Itoh (1040) has posed:
    KTANG.

    Unable to arrest all of her momentum when the Knight brings his shield to bear, Ran's knife clatters off of its unnatural surface, throwing her off-balance. Unable to dance out of the way of his gauntleted hand, she's scooped up like an attractive sack of potatoes, screaming at him in what can be assumed to be Japanese the entire time. Ran's eyes widen until the whites show all the way around her irises. He's going to--!

    She sails through the air, landing with a WHUMP on her side. The knife, thankfully, skitters away across the ruined ground. "uuuun...."

    But Hikaru's there. Hikaru helps her up while she's still reeling from the unfamiliar impact, tugs her along as they all run to safety.

    The forest explodes and dies behind them, glass dust whipping past them on atomic winds. Ran stumbles to a halt, finally, when August and the others do; the blonde leans over to rest her hands on her knees, breathing heavily.

    There is another fox-lady. Despite her exhaustion, she smiles a little bit. Maybe Hikaru will make a new friend? =:3

    "I'm Ran Itoh," she sighs, straightening back up. "I'm sorry... could he really not be saved?" she asks them plaintively, brown eyes pinched at the edges. She doesn't want to believe that there's no way to save them... Or that... they could have been just like that...

August Kohler has posed:
In the end, the Lawful Knight does not destroy the Forest. He levels a large amount of it, but he had nowhere near the required power to destroy all of it.

Spriggans Jack smiles optimistically at Ira. "To save me! You are truly a heero, ho! You should become my squire, sir, hee!" Spriggans Jack confuses the large muscle person who kept hitting the Knight with a hammer as a man, which can't go wrong at all.

August turns to Hikaru and Ran. He knows they're not introducing themselves to him, but he speaks anyways. "August Kohler. We've met." He takes a long minute to decide what he'll say. "So, you know the Persona Game, as you've played it. You won, as you're here. Theodor played the Persona Game, likely last week. He did not win. He died to the Pale Wolf, and this was what was left of his Shadow, his subconscious." August sadly frowns and shakes his head at Ran. "Theodor Vermann was long dead. This was an entirely different being. One who wasn't human. From the few we've seen, /these types/ of Shadows have their own drives and goals. They're intelligent...and unreliable." August sighs loudly.

"So, that's the story of Theodor. I'm sorry. Are there any other questions?" To the adults, it may seem like August is rather mature when it comes to this subject. He shows little actual disturbance from it, as if it's second nature to him. The words, once he decides on them, flow out easily, and he's already resigned himself to Theodor's fate. That's quite a lot for a 16 year old, isn't it?

Finna (513) has posed:
Yeah. There's a fox leaning against Hikaru! Well. A human with fox ears. White furred ears anyways. And a fuzzy white tails. WHITE HAIR in general for that matter but oh well she's definitely in her late teens to early twenties. And doesn't seem to mind that Hikaru's breathing hard!

    Her tail's wagging pretty quickly in fact despite what just happened. Though she's breathing just as fast.

    "Finna Snowdancer! We should talk later!" Well, she's not about to do more than introduce herself in this situation, apparently. And with that out of the way she springs away and dusts herself off... but sprouts a nasty frown at August's ofered explanation. "Just too damn late to do anything... if it was my home, dying from strange spirits being jerks would be just as tragic as dying other ways, but... here, you cannot reveal the truth to their family. Nobody will know what happened... people simply vanish and nobody knows their fate..."

Ran Itoh (1040) has posed:
    "...So this is how your wrist got hurt?" Ran sighs, because sometimes she just has to focus on the small stuff to keep her sanity. She clutches at the pendant around her neck, some cheap piece of mall-grade jewelry shaped like a bunny face. "We played it a few months ago. We didn't know about all this though... not all of it. Not that other people were in the Mirror Forest." Because who would willingly come back here, once they knew what lurked between the trees?

    She presses a hand to the gash in her side with a tired wince. "Ah... at least I can fix us up. Even your wrist," she smiles wanly. The energy that gathers in her hands is inky black, like soot, with soft edges. Like little holes in reality. But when they touch anyone, it's warm and comforting, like lying in your own bed and waiting drowsily for sleep. Wounds heal and aches ease.

August Kohler has posed:
August replies, shaking his head. "No. I fell." He's sticking to his story! And he's been pretty forthright about the Forest, so maybe there's something behind that. He does look down as she heals his wrist, nodding to her graciously. "Thank you, Itoh. This will be very useful if you guys accompany us into the field in the future. ...Speaking of which, I'm actually going to give you something. Log in on your phones, this will give access to our chat room. 'Die Reisenden', the Travellers. A bunch of interesting people out in the...well, it's called the Multiverse, we can explain that later, are there. I really hope you'll help us out."

Hikaru Kurosawa (1039) has posed:
    Theodor played the Persona Game and lost. So his Shadow - Hikaru realises that he must mean the the /Jungian/ Shadow - was just a little slower at dying than the rest of him. Hikaru slides a hand through his green hair, looking over to Ran with a desperate expression. In a moment, it communicates: 'What the fuck is going on here have they been dealing with this all alone Ran we fucked up!!' It does this without a single spoken word because Hikaru has known Ran for a /terribly/ long time, but the momentary distress is pretty obvious to anyone.

    And no one can even tell the parents of these kids what happened...? No wonder there've been so many unexplained disappearances.

    "Geez," he sighs with a puff of air, shaking his head. "How long have you guys been doing this? Are you all... okay? Like you said, I played the game, I'm happy to listen to you if you need to talk. This is... this is a lot for teenagers to deal with!" It's just not /fair/, they should be dealing with homework and broken hearts and learning to drive, not - terrible psychological horrors made flesh. "Just... wow. Ira, I never knew you were dealing with all this. I never knew /any/ of you were dealing with this." He looks from the students to the fox-girl to the butler. "Look, if you ever need help - Ran and I are happy to help, right, Ran?"

    Of course Ran's happy to help; the healing darkness is proof of it. Hikaru's glad, given all the cuts he sustained when that Shadow turned its attention on him. Still, August insists that he fell, and Hikaru frowns, but he nods anyway. "Our phones...?" Hikaru pulls out his - it's a cheery shade of teal, almost as obnoxious as his shirt - and taps at the screen to accept the invitation. "Die Reisenden, huh...? Thanks, August! Of course we'll help," he echoes his insistence.

Ran Itoh (1040) has posed:
    Ran knows exactly what Hikaru means. It's like magic!

    Magic that means /they totally screwed up/.

    "Of course," she nods, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around herself. "My office is open too, and so's my apartment. And hey - this means I can really heal you up instead of having to wait for the old fashioned way to work!"

    Well, at least /somebody/ found a silver lining to the whole thing...?

August Kohler has posed:
"Last October, for myself. No, I'm fine." August instinctively rejects help! This is a bad sign! "But, thanks, you two. We'll count on you for healing and support." He smiles politely, before finally realizing he has an imp on his shoulder. Spriggins Jack glances at him. August glances back. And then August picks up the little guy and puts him down, before heading back to the clearing pool and heading into the cabin. "Wait, I wanted to come too, hee!" Spriggins Jack cries out desperately. August ignores him. Poor guy!