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C	For one year, the Old Schoolhouse had laid dormant -- its doors refused to open to anyone, for any purpose. Unable to discern why it had done so, the faculty had kept an eye on it and the students continued their daily lives. After all, the strange occurences there had happened with no rhyme or reason, so who was to say that it was really all that strange for it to vanish just as quickly?         Midnight         Trista         12:00 AM The campus stills in the dead of night, and then -- a lock clicks into place before releasing, and the doors to the Old Schoolhouse open. A soft blue glow emanates from the building and rises high into the sky, to meet the full moon.         NOW: After some preliminary investigation by the various students and staff of the school, it was determined that for whatever reason, only Class VII and their allies were able to enter the Old Schoolhouse's grounds; or perhaps, more particularly, Rean Schwarzer's compatriots. Other parties attempting to gain passage were repelled by the barrier of light. Initially, Principal Vandyck had intended to call off the impending school festival due to safety concerns, but Rean, Laura, and their friends had managed to convince the elderly warrior to give them a chance. One, final attempt at clearing the air of the mysteries wafting through it. ... which brought everything to where it was now. Thomas Lysander pushes his thick, circular glasses up on his face with an airheaded smile. "There's really never been anything like this in all of Thors' history ... it's fascinating, right? Oh, but, call it a hunch -- I think you kids are going to see something really amazing, perhaps .. " he trails off. While ordinarily, most students would tune out anything their history professor had to say, Emma couldn't help but frown slightly at the way he'd worded that. "Uhm..? Excuse me, but just what do you...?"     "Oh! Haha! I'm just musing, that's all." He plays it off with a little wave, and the conversation moves on with Sara Valestein's loud yawn, "Well. You all remember what the principal said, right? You'll have until six in the morning or so to resolve this .. that's about five hours from now. It'll give you juuuu~uuuust enough time for a little catnap before your concert, if everything goes well, huh~?" Machias grouses sourly, "You don't have to say it like that, you know." before he chins up, smacking his own cheeks to get himself ready to rumble. Jusis stands several feet away, sharpening his saber. It was one that George had procured for him earlier in the year to replace the one that had been shattered by Arianrhod. Principal Vandyck, a giant of an old man with a thoroughly muscled barrel of a chest and the kind of regality one might expect of a king or perhaps, a fearsome general, gives his blessing to those present. "I have it on good faith that you all will succeed. Not just because of how reliable Class VII and the otherworlders associating with them have been, but also ... I suppose it's only natural for the old to wish for the young to succeed. I was looking forwards to that concert, too." he chuckles. " 'Go now, O' youth, and become the foundation of this world'. Some of you may recall Dreichels famous words, which are spoken traditionally every year on Thors' opening ceremony. I believe that they hold true now, in these turbulent times, far more than they have before." Waiting his turn, George Nome rubs the back of his head, "By the way, I took it upon myself to tune up everyone's ARCUS units .. they're as good as they're gonna' get, at least for now. Whatever's waiting inside, knock 'em out and come back safe, okay? Towa'd cry otherwise."     All that was left now, was to sally into the depths.
Swordbearing Pair	A barrier. Close friends, and some strangers who are willing to help. A bond of compatriots, new and old. Rean Schwarzer and Laura S. Arseid stand with the other students. Laura furrows her brow at Emma and Professor Lysander, but says nothing, sticking close to Rean. The blue-haired student has her greatsword ready, as Rean holds onto his tachi. As Vandyck gives his statement to enter, Rean speaks up class and acquaintances. "Alright, Class VII, Multiversals. Let's investigate the Old Schoolhouse for what will likely be the last time. Class VII has a concert tomorrow, and we can't have a festival with this wall up, right?" An attempt to encourage, as he moves to lead forward. It seems Rean is considered the 'operating leader' around here. One last glance back to Vandyck and the others, a nod, and then Rean moves to pierce the barrier with his hand and cross into the Old Schoolhouse. The depths await.
Hibiki Tachibana	Aside from the times they've had to fight horrible cryptids, Hibiki has enjoyed her time in Crossbell. Erebonia is a bit of a different story. She only really knows what she's heard from the Special Support Section members, that helpful (and kind of intimidating) map comparing their nation to the two superpowers, and her own assumptions - as well as a few comments she's overheard in the past.     How C's supposed death was here, at Saschen Mine. The one time the masked man mentioned Heimdallr. And...what they know of his reasons for doing what he does. So it's not a big surprise that she'd be interested in actually visiting the empire, given a reason.     That reason today not having anything to do with her own problems, at least on the surface, but a trip to Trista is a trip to Trista and likely a good learning experience at that. And even more important than herself, if help is needed, she's not going to turn down the call. Especially when a big event is on the line. That's why Hibiki Tachibana is here among Class VII, looking--not that far out of place, honestly. If she had a uniform, she'd probably look completely at home.     Honestly, Principal Vandyck's bearing alone remidns her a good bit of things back at home. "School festivals getting canceled is way too sad," Hibiki says with the tiniest of smiles at Rean taking charge. "I should know. So let's deal with whatever it is fast so you guys can have things go back to normal around here." She sounds a lot more confident than she actually is, and her face tightens up some as they start inside.     Nothing like this in all of Thors' history, huh...? That can't be good...
Zephyrman	"This place is pretty creepy, huh?"      John's voice is cheerful, even anxious. It's the anxiousness of a child on Christmas morning looking forward to unwrapping their presents, the anxiousness of an eager student ready to see their test results with confidence. It's not fear, though it's tinted with just a bit of it - after all, the thrill of a haunted house just doesn't exist without a *little* fear, and if you can't enjoy a haunted house, it's because you've become much too cynical and inured to the wonders of pretend.      Granted, this *isn't* a haunted house in that sense, and there is no pretend here. This is a really haunted school. It's a really haunted place with real ghosts. Real monsters.      He's practically bouncing on his heels when Thomas mentions something amazing. Now it's not just the anxiousness of a kid on Christmas morning but the anxiousness of a kid next in line at the water park after a long, long wait. "Something amazing, huh? I can't wait!" He stretches in that traditional eager JRPG guy way, rolling one arm around with his hand on his shoulder, then repeating on the other side. "And there's a concert afterwards?"      John grins at the students. He's not much older than them. He's, well, nineteen, after all. "You guys must be pretty talented, huh. I guess I'll be sticking around a little longer than expected!"      Youth, become the foundation of the world.      John's eager grin turns into a bit more of a smile at that. Yeah. That's what he always says, isn't it? Just...a little fancier.      Also, finally, John gives a two-finger salute to Rean, Laura, and the others. "Hi, by the way! I'm John. John Alan James. You'll learn the name of my soul later, though - I shouldn't transform up front! Takes all the fun out of it."      He falls in with Hibiki, his smile turning back into a grin as he does so.
C	Inside, the air feels denser than it had before. Emma, her staff in hand, speaks uneasily. "The higher elements have become incredibly dense ... we're still just at the entrance, so what's going on down below..?" Down the first set of stairs leads to the elevaotr. Millium skips and hops forwards, willfully ignoring how similar the eerie atmosphere was to Lohengrin Castle, "Wowie~ ... it sure did get creepy in here, that mister is right. But hey! The panel changed again!" "Don't you ever think before you move? Scolding you feels like an exercise in futility, though." Jusis sighs, walking up behind her a moment later to examine the elevator's control panel, Alisa trailing after him. "She's right. Look, there's a new floor listed here ... there's no more room on the console to list other options, so this has to be the final change." Elliot, wringing his hands over his orbal staff to calm his nerves, speaks up with a furrowed brow. "Actually, Alisa ... well, with how much this place seems to change to suit itself, couldn't the console just get bigger later and reveal more floors ... ?" Alisa puckers his lips in an unpleasant grimace, "That's true. But I'd rather not think that'd be the case ... " Gaius as the ever clear-headed voice of reason proposes, "Thinking further about it at this point has little use, I think. With our time being limited as it is, we should scope out the new bottom level and take things from there - though, there's an .. ominous wind blowing up from the bottom." Undoubtably, it had something to do with Emma mentioning just how present the higher elements were in this place at the moment.         The elevator goes down, down, down. Everyone was here, even some new friends. But there was someone who was very obviously missing, and although there had been a year to come to terms with it -- the uncertainty regarding the circumstances of C had unfortunately meant that wound hadn't been able to mend with time. Class VII had conquered each of these floors together, so perhaps it was the nostalgia blending with the sense of finality of finally closing the book on their investigation of the Old Schoolhouse that made their wayward friend's abscence stand out to them so much.     Yet, no one said a word about it. Machias, who didn't know Hibiki from jack, couldn't help but look between her and John. "Well .. uh, it's good to meet you both. We're happy for the help, but are you sure you're....going to be alright down here?" Fie quietly frowns, and Machias addends, "I don't mean it like that. It's not because she's a girl or anything, I promise."     "No one said anything, Machias." Elliot chuckles. Before a proper retort could be had, the elevator stops in front of a mural with a massive red gem hanging overhead, inset.     "Wow...wait. Doesn't that look like...?" Millium shudders, backing up until she hits Jusis' legs, "S' just like that time at Legram...oh man, are we gonna' have to fight ghosts again? Nevermind, count me out, I'm going back to bed, okay?" Emma opens her mouth, and then -- The bright orb glows and their surroundings melt away, like a mirage, with a fierce wind blowing.
C	Class VII, Hibikii and John find themselves standing on a ruin floating in a sky surrounding by roaring whirlwinds of colored clouds. "W..woah..." Machias utters, slack-jawed. Most of the students seemed to be taken aback by the sudden change in locale. "Is all this ...really under the Old Schoolhouse?' Gaius murmurs. Fie recovers the quickest, while Elliot is busy praying to Aidios, "This place is huge. We might .. no, we'll for sure need to split up. There's two paths to take to open that gate down the middle of the road, I think ..." Jusis nods, "With the number we have now, we can split pretty evenly, I think. John and Hibiki can go with Rean and Laura; Elliot, Gaius, Fie, and Emma can take the other way while Millium, Alisa and myself can hold ground here. Since we can communicate remotely with our ARCUS units, we can dispatch one of us three for reinforcements if necessary." Alisa nods her head, "Right .. with this big open space, my bow and Millium's Airgetlam will make quick work of anything attacking us, while you can rout from the front. It sounds like a plan to me, if the rest of you agree with that?"
Swordbearing Pair	"If it grew larger, would it not have done so before?" Laura says, with both hope and certainty in her tone, towards Elliot. Rean, meanwhile, just makes sure the elevator goes down, clasping his hands together. He's definitely thinking of Crow, even if he hasn't said anything. Laura glances at him with a wistful look, and then the elevator descends... Into a new realm. Both of the two are shocked, though they keep their composure. "This is..." Laura mutters aloud, as Rean grasps his sword instinctively. But there's no assault, so it's not drawn. Instead... As the plan is laid out, he nods. "I believe in you guys. We've come this far, seen so much, we're not going to let this stop us now!" More encouragement, especially in the face of what they've seen. If Hibiki and John accept the plan, Rean takes point, with Laura speaking to them. "If you have any questions, now's the time to ask as we move. Not that we have been down here before, but we've seen far more of it than you have, obviously." "And if you have a preference on right or left, you should contribute." Rean adds. "For me, I think we should go right. No real reason, haha, but they both lead to the same destination in the end, so..." A shrug.
Zephyrman	"Haha. Call me John! It's fine," he says to Millium. He peeks over Alisa and Jusis's shoulders to examine the console, his eyes flicking across it as they talk about it. It's something mechanical, so he might as well. He also takes a peek at any stray machines anybody's left out, like Orbments or other devices of a similar nature. John doesn't make a habit of revealing it but he does actually know a fair bit about the occult, and while that might not be similar to these devices, it's still a passing curiosity that mixes with his own mechanical genius.      Machias asks if they'll be OK. John laughs. "Don't worry about me. I'm just saving things for the right moment." He offers a big thumbs-up and his usual cheerful Zephyrman grin.      The elevator stops. John immediately looks up at the mural, commiting it to memory. That's certainly something. As Millium backs up, John walks forward, still bouncing on his heels, because John is that kind of person. It's eerie, though. That red gem is...unnerving-      And then the wind.      They're standing in an open sky. If it wasn't for the fact that that wind, that wind that swept them here, was definitely an ill one, John would be ecstatic to see this. And Thomas was right - it is amazing. He takes it in rapidly, processing it as fast as his strange brain will allow him to, both admiring and sweeping it for problems less obvious than the immediate 'we have no idea where we are or how we got here'.      But who benefits from them seeing this?      They make plans to split up. "Ah, hang on," John says after a minute. He reaches into his pocket.      Then he tosses out some Decoder Rings. They have the letter *Z* on them prominently, of course, but are otherwise identical to the kind of decoder rings you'd get out of a plastic bin. At least, on first glance. If somebody bothered to pop them open, they'd burn themselves out, but they'd find a very complex mechanism in there to bolster combat ability subtly. Something like a magic feather sort of thing. 'If you believe in it,' right?      So then he falls in with Rean and Laura, hands in his pockets again, a laid-back sort of hunch of a posture. "Always right," John says cheerfully, "Because if something's right, it's the right thing to do."      It's a dumb little joke, but hey, that's John.      "If you wanna lead the way, that's fine by me!"
Hibiki Tachibana	"...This wasn't here last time, huh?" Hibiki intones as they reach the elevator, trailing behind Alisa herself with a raised eyebrow. A new floor? That's convenient, at least for this visit - although the idea of it changing further gets a slight groan out of her. They /are/ on a five hour time limit, after all. Actually, she doesn't even know how big these floors might be.     Nothing for it. As no stranger to awkward silences herself, the feeling in the air she gets from the rest of Class VII on the way down is very noticeable, and leads to some awkward shuffling on her part. Hibiki is actually glad when Machias speaks up to break it, if wondering if he's the type to do this often after Fie's comment.     "...Oh, I guess we don't actually carry any weapons around like you guys." She glances to John briefly, and then back. "But don't worry about us. We got our own ways of gearing up if we run into trouble." She briefly lifts her crimson pendant out from beneath her collar as if it'll explain anything.     It doesn't, but it makes for a funny coincidence with the gem-inset mural they run into. Not so funny with what happens next though, as her eyes go wide and the scenery changes entirely. The fact the students are surprised as she is...     "The earlier floors weren't anything like this? We should be underground, but there's a sky and everything...!" She's used to weird places being under schools, but this is ridiculous. Or is it actually not 'under' it, and actually took them somewhere else entirely? She's not going to think about it, and because she doesn't, she pulls herself back together reasonably fast.     She also nods along with the plan, looking from Jusis to Rean and Laura. "Right's never steered me wrong before. Let's stick close together, though. If anything goes wrong, we should be able to help each other out." And also, after a short glance over the side of the walkway, you can never be too careful in places where you might slip and fall forever. "We'll be counting on you guys," she adds on to Jusis' team while she has the chance.
C	The two teams depart, once their equipment and party members were gotten into order. Rean, Laura, John and Hibiki tread with careful confidence down the rightmost path and along the way, they do battle with a variety of small monsters -- yet, not a single one of them are of any kind of familiarity to Rean or Laura. Large, wasp-like creatures pulsing with raw magical power, gorilla-like demons with skulls for heads and pinprick, glowing eyes and other similar abberations. With the power of all four combined, though, they're able to make efficient work of their opponents; even so, taking them lightly would be a recipe for disaster. To Hibiki and John, however, while these things were not anywhere near the same caliber nor even the same kind of entity as the Cryptids that C had been going after, they were much closer to those beings than they were the common monsters of Zemuria. Perhaps this was a different dimension, as Vita had said that Cryptids came from, or something along those lines. Eventually, the group happens upon a large and round mechanism covered in glowing runes and, in front of it was an ornate looking treasure chest. Should one of them venture to check its contents, they'll find a simply decorated mirror inside, too large to be a hand mirror yet small enough to be man-portable; roughly the diameter of a buckler. As for the large mechanism, it seems resistant to being moved by hand, as if held in place by some kind of magic. With his mechanical know-how, John may notice that much of the ruin and its oddities blend some form of technology and magical phenomenon in equal parts. Further examination of the mechanism shows that it seems to be some kind of, for lack of a better word, punching machine. The nodule on its front is meant to measure force imparted on it, so perhaps that played a part in moving it.
Zephyrman	John, as is frequently common, doesn't bother to transform to fight the small fries. He ducks, he weaves, he blocks with one hand and jabs with the other - his eclectic mix of fighting styles serves him pretty well even out of his suit. After all, if you transform to deal with the mooks then it's not nearly as cool when the boss shows up!      So all John shows is a passing skill in a weird martial arts mix, generally just tossing enemies into Hibiki's path, or Rean's, or Laura's, like one of those obnoxious status debuff party members who's either absurdly overpowered or totally useless. As you might expect from a transforming hero party member.      When they reach the mechanism, John crouches down and whistles at it, running his finger along it. "This is pretty interesting! It's more a phenomenon than a machine, I think - I can't quite unravel it but that's because I'm not good enough at magic to do so."      "Oh, but!" He stands up and bounces on his heels again, then whacks Hibiki on the shoulder. "If you punch it riiiiight here," he points at the nodule, "You'll probably be able to move it, or activate it, or make it do whatever it's supposed to!"
Swordbearing Pair	As the group pushes forward, wearing DECODER RINGS, Rean and Laura take advantage of the combination attacks. A bee comes flying at Rean courtesy of John, and a sword moves to slice it and another in half, the power of GALE. A big brute comes up to punch Laura, and she smashes down with her massive greatsword, aggroing damage from Hibiki. Despite this, they're not treating this like any old field study. They're processing tactics in their minds, and coordinating the whole while. "Holding up?" Rean asks, knowing they probably are, as they reach the mechanism. While Hibiki and John deal with that, Rean and Laura grab the mirror. Rean moves to have Laura strap it to his back for the moment, to keep it safe and him moving. "Alright, if we have a mechanism like this...they probably have one too." Laura grabs the ARCUS, calling up Jusis' team to confirm if they've found a mechanism by this point. If they don't pick up, she assumes they're still fighting. If they do and have, then that helps.
Hibiki Tachibana	Small monsters are something that Hibiki does remember running into, alongside John and the others, during their suppression of the Hydra Plant. Those weren't as rough to deal with as these particular enemies though, and she particularly does not like the wasps. Thankfully, she's not bound by the same genre conventions as her comrade, and transforming to deal with mooks is something she does on the regular.     This makes for a good combination whenever John sends something her way, as she's promptly able to do any combination of punching, elbowing, kneeing, and/or dropkicking the monsters into nonexistence alongside Rean and Laura. "They're really good...!" She finds herself murmuring that quietly, watching them go. That's some shockingly good teamwork...but then again, they're classmates, so maybe she shouldn't be surprised.     Leaving them to calling the others, she steps up to the mechanism alongside John - as is obvious by the look on her face, she can't tell how it works at all. "...How is something a phenomenon?" This is a rhetorical question, and she probably wouldn't get it even if he did explain. What she does understand is what follows.     "Really? That's a pretty--convenient way of making it work." Actually, looking at it, she can kind of see the punching machine similarity. So without any hesitation, she steps forward up towards the nodule, nods back at John...and then, after entering a boxing-esque stance, she rears an arm back and throws her fist forward with all the strength she has.     Which is a lot.
C	The mirror seems to hum warmly in Rean's prescence, before Laura helps him strap it to his person for inspection later. Calling the other team, after several moments, Gaius answers his ARCUS. "Laura? Oh, a mechanism .. yes, we've found something similar, ourselves. After Emma examined it, she determined it needed to be struck with some very potent energy to get it to activate. She mentioned that there may be different kinds of these mechanisms that respond to different stimuli, so if something doesn't work on any you find, the kitchen sink method might be preferable." Hibiki's blow cracks so loudly against the orb that the other team didn't need the ARCUS to hear what happened. " ... hm." In respond to being hit, it glows brightly and spins into a new position. The gate on the central walkway, previously locked behind two strange walls of light, begins to open up as the first wall begins to condense into cubes and fall in on itself, collapsing over the course of several seconds in an odd, stacked-block way. Fie can be heard in the background of the ARCUS, "Oh ... look. Then, if we can turn this one on -- " Presumably, Emma's magic is able to activate the other one, as the second wall falls away. Reaffrmingly, Gaius says, "Let's reconvene back at the entrance, then. We'll see you, Rean and the rest there."
Swordbearing Pair	"Understood." Laura replies to the last part, after they've shared information, and then ends the call. If there's enemies on the way back, she once again moves to smash them, for extra XP and levels, clearly. "Where did you learn how to fight like that? Are you both martial artists?" Laura asks John and Hibiki out of curiosity, as Rean leads them back to the entrance.
Zephyrman	John, wryly, says, "When it's not a phenomenomni."      That is definitely one of those Weird Genius Guy Jokes, alright.      "Hmmm? Oh, no. I'm a hero of justice."      That explains literally nothing, but it's the answer he gives as he follows them back, whistling as they go. Like the regular kind, not like the Gale Whistler kind.
Hibiki Tachibana	"...Hm." Hibiki lets out the same exact sound on cue, flicking her wrist to the side pretty casually for how hard she just threw a punch, after stepping back to glance at it shifting around...and then the fruits of her (literal) handiwork. With Emma and their group working from the other end of things, she's happy to see the obstacle in their path clear up without any more surprises in store.     "Yeah, sort of. I taught myself. And I watch a lot of movies."     Her explanation is at least slightly better than Zephyrman's. Slightly. Very slightly. She takes up the rear on the way back, occasionally glancing back towards the mechanism. "But what about you two?" Her attention goes to Rean and Laura as they walk. "Does everyone in your class fight together as well as you guys?"
Swordbearing Pair	"Ah...we've both been training with swords since we were young, and have been partnered for the last year more or less." Rean responds, rubbing the back of his head, before Laura shrugs and replies herself. "They've all got talents of their own. As this is a military academy, I am proud of them for what they are capable of as my comrades in arms. The only one who uses a sword like us would be Jusis."
C	Once everyone is back at the entrance, they have a chance to swap information -- all in all, about an hour and a half has passed since they entered. The second group ran into their own swarm of monsters, but nothing overly dangerous and, most notably they did not return with a mirror of their own. According to Fie, there hadn't been any kind of chest on their path. "Oh...but it's such a pretty mirror though, isn't it?" Alisa smiles. Emma can't help but frown when looking at it, though. "Uhm..." Elliot stammers, blinking owlishly, "I don't know. It looks nice, but it's kind of like...it's staring back, you know?" Machias chortles, "What, like a giant eyeball?"     Elliot squints, "Well...." "...that actually would be pretty creepy though," Machias admits. Millium in the meantime has been jumping up and down, trying to stretch her body to see the mirror better, until she eventually has the side to let Airgetlam raise her up enough to do so. "Hey, gimme!" Somehow, it winds up in her hands instead of Laura's, as she leans haphazardly between the swordbearer's shoulders to hold it up. "Hey, where's our reflection? This sucks." Emma puts a little more steel in her voice before she advises, "I don't think you should look directly into that mirror -- " Its surface shines, " -- because it's for sure, not normal..!" And when the shine dies down, reflected along with them is a red-eyed upperclassman with white hair, and a familiar uniform. The reflection reaches out, and places a hand on Rean's free shoulder, that isn't being occupied by Millium. That sensation becomes very real a moment later, "Yo, juniors. Why so glum?" Nearly everyone in Class VII is taken aback in some fashion; some more aggressively than others. Fie's eyes had narrowed into a glare, while Elliot and Machias both stare as if they'd seen a real, live ghost. Jusis was good at hiding it, while Gaius took the appearance in stride with a frown. Emma, on the other hand, had a suspicious glint in her eyes. " . . . " Hibiki, having had her own run ins with this person, would for sure recognize 'Rean Coldsteel' in the flesh, albeit a bit slimmer and shorter than he should be, and with an unfamiliar uniform and headband adorning himself. "Whoa there, I'm sensing a combination of hostility and heartbreak in the air, here. What's with the jilted ex act, guys?"     Millium points, "Because you're a g-g-ghost!" "Am I? Maybe." he shrugs, placing his hands on his hips.
Swordbearing Pair	The group meets up, and Rean gets mirror-napped by Millium, who stares straight into it and, well. Well. As the hand reaches Rean's shoulder, he freezes. "Crow...?" He can't believe it. This is some sort of occult thing, right? Why is Crow here? He looks like him. Sounds like him. He's got strong hands. "You're...supposed to be...how?!" Laura circles around him, hand on her sword, after her own moment of shock, before returning to Rean's side. He sure as hell looks real. "And in his school uniform. But he's a year younger than he should be. Are you some form of spirit or manifestation of Crow Armbrust? Or perhaps...a reflection of our shared friend, created by the mirror?" Laura asks, eyes piercing. Because if it is somehow the real Crow, well, that changes everything, but it clearly isn't, right?
Zephyrman	Ah.      Aha.      The surge of familiarity is interesting. It goes into the back of John's mind for later - maybe he'll ask about it, maybe he'll ask C about it and see if C knows anything. But at the moment, he just leans forward and does the most sensible* thing a person can do when confronted with a ghost.      He pokes it. *for a sentai hero
Hibiki Tachibana	"That makes sense," Hibiki nods to the pair. "I'm surprised it's only been a year, though. That kind of teamwork..." It's something special, she knows that much. Meeting back up with the others, she's a bit curious on how the mirror seems to have been a one-of-a-kind thing, and Emma's comment is a little...disconcerting?     Oh. That's why it's disconcerting. Hibiki raises an arm to shield herself from the glint that emits from it--     ...And is left slowly lowering it, as soon as she hears a passingly familiar voice. Class VII aren't the only ones taken aback; even with the somewhat younger-looking appearance, she wouldn't mistake that for anyone else. Her eyes widen, and then narrow, and she looks like she's at a loss for words briefly before finding her voice again. "Rean Coldsteel...!? From back on Mishelam!?"     Wait. There's a Rean right there. And with what he called him - Crow...Crow Armbrust. "Wait, you're not--" He gave her a fake name!? But that means...wait, did he get the name from...?     Damnit. She falls silent again, gulping. But slowly, she manages to straighten up somewhat.     "--What's the big idea here? Wait, do you recognize...?" She trails off, looking between herself and John specifically.
C	John pokes 'Crow' with impunity. "Hey man, hands off the merchandise." At a surface level appraisal, he seemed real enough, but further consideration ruled that possibility out. His cheek did not deform when pressed, and the texture was all wrong. There was weight there, but it wasn't perfect. Almost like touching a very accurate hologram. Gently smacking John's hand away and backing up a step, Crow reaches for the back of his head to scratch at it in idle sheepishness, saying nothing at first in further response. Or, Emma surmises, because 'Crow' was drawing a blank on how to answer their questions. "I'm me. Sorry to say, but I don't know anything that you guys don't know. So .. I could be a ghost. Or a memory; for the dead, is there even a difference? .. haha, don't take that too seriously, the class cuties'll give themselves wrinkles. Anyway, you seem to be doing pretty good for yourself, Rean-meister. You and Laura seem closer than ever, I'm pretty sure those ornery villagers in Legram are going to have your head. What's next? Public handholding?" he teases. Conservativey, Emma shifts the grip of her orbal staff to one hand and speaks her mind, " ... an argument could be made either way. But what is undeniable is that you are an apparition created by the power of that mirror ... " 'Crow' makes a gesture with his hand and a small wink, as his only response to blow off her inquiry. "As for you, er ..." he stops to look Hibiki and John up and down. Mostly Hibiki, though. " ... sorry, but it's not ringing any bells. 'Rean Coldsteel' is a good one, though." he snorts. "And if by big idea, you mean to ask me what I'm doing here ... well. I'm here because I was called here by my caterwauling underclassmen, so ole' Crow just had to come lend a hand. That's all." Jusis shakes his head, " ... I'm not buying this tripe. You're not answering any of our questions, but I suppose that is par for the course, hm?" Fie nods her head along, "You're acting just as shady as usual. Come clean, already."
Zephyrman	John grins at 'Crow.' "Don't worry, I'm not interested in buying. Not really the kind of store I shop at, and I've got money saved for a different- you know, this metaphor's a little tortured, huh? Wonder who thought it up."      He leans back and puts his hands back in his pockets, his slouch returning as he paces around 'Crow', studying him thoughtfully. He doesn't know Crow from Adam, after all, but he's not really interested in Crow as a person. He's interested in how complete the mirror made him. It's easy to assume the mirror made him, too - it's not impossible that it *didn't*, or that it's something more complex than just 'a magic mirror.' He'd jump to 'magic mirror', too, if he hadn't seen that device.      If he hadn't seen that strange technology.      It was too easy, too convenient, to assume it's just the mirror. If it was just the mirror, why would it make this person? Do Rean, Millium, and Laura particularly yearn for him? Is there a deeper attachment beyond friend, best friend, or some other thing that would force Rean, Millium, and Laura to think specifically of this person when looking at the mirror?      If not, then what would cause *this person* to come out of *that device*?      So he paces, slouched forward, with no indication whatsoever that he's any kind of threat, because, honestly, right now, he isn't.
Swordbearing Pair	Crow is here. A hologram. Doesn't remember anything. But he could be lying. Crow was good at lying. Yet, even so, Rean closes his eyes, breathes, and thinks. What harm is there in him coming with them? They can take him down if he's a threat, maybe, but if he's really Crow, he wouldn't be down here just to hurt them, would he? How would he have even transported through a mirror? Laura grabs Rean on the shoulder, and he nods. Yeah, this is clear enough. He doesn't fall to the hologram's provocations about them, as he opens his eyes. Instead, Rean just speaks. "Well, then, you're coming with us. Best behavior, Crow." It might be a surprise to the others, but... "We have a gate to push through and a festival to save. After all, we followed in your footsteps this year. Big concert. Everyone's worked their butts off, and you don't even get to see it, and if we don't solve this, nobody gets to see it. Come on, everyone."
Hibiki Tachibana	"You don't know anything we don't...?" Hibiki's brow furrows. She doesn't get it--at first, anyway. It's only when he refers to her and John - and she has to suppress a squint at the way he's looking at her - that things start settling in some. Just a little bit. Hibiki isn't the smartest, but she's at least pretty quick on the uptake of things, even if she doesn't understand them completely.     "...So you're...what, just a reflection of the 'Crow Armbrust' that Class VII knows or something?" She doesn't know how accurate that is, but called here, what he said...it's the first thing she can think of that makes any sense. Is it magic, or something else deeper at work here like John has implied? ...Is this why they're here? Not for what was past the gate, but for the mirror sitting in that chest? ...Does he really not know anything?     She's thinking too hard about it. But her tenseness does indeed loosen up some, as she simply settles her attention on 'Crow' for several long seconds.     Rean Schwarzer says, 'Crow was our upperclassman, and my friend. He was...also C, until he was killed in Saschen Mine.'     Rean speaking up on the situation, both that and his declaration to move on, helps her figure out her own feelings on this. There's a lot of things she wants to say, but for now-- "...Then if you're here to lend a hand, you better work hard. No standing on the sidelines letting us do all the heavy lifting," she says in a tone that makes it hard to tell how serious she is.     She's definitely remembering all those times with the Cryptids.
C	There's a tense quiet as 'Crow' looks upon his classmates. Ultimately, Rean is the one who diffuses the situation. "Eh? Just like that?" As far as John can tell, visually speaking, he seems accurate enough. Without having seen the original for himself, it was hard to say for sure, but there were no glaringly obvious deformities. " ... yeah, I mean .. I'm still upset. What happened hurt all of us, some more than others, but even so .. " Machias admits, before Gaius nods, " ... but it wouldn't feel right if we didn't finish this with you." Looking to the side in clear displeasure, Fie winds up sighing and says, "I guess. Even if it's just for now, it is a little re-assuring to have the class all together again .. " Jusis brushes his bangs out of his face with a self assured smile, "Of course. It's been a whole year -- in other words, if you're the same as you were before, that means we've already caught up to you." 'Crow' blinks, his eyes widening. "Oh ... huh. You guys are second years now ... time flies, I guess. And especially if your festival is on the line, I have to pitch in and do my part. Can't have all that hard work going to waste." In response to Hibiki, Alisa nods her head fervently, "That's right. No slacking! You've got a whole years worth of effort to backpay us, mister!" Millium traipses around Jusis, "Yup, yup! ... well ... my feelings about ya' are pretty mixed ... but at least until things are all clear here, I don't mind putting up with you again, Crow! Lammy won't beat you up as long as you're a good boy!" Sardonically, 'Crow' grins. "Geez. What a bunch of slavedrivers, have some sympathy? I'm basically an old man? Alright, alright -- I'll really give it my all. Only this one time, though." Reaching to the holsters on his hips, he draws his signature handguns, an automatic pistol and a revolver, and falls in with Class VII. "Then, onwards. We've still got a long ways to traipse through The Realm of The Great Shadow."     And onwards they went, through the gate. Passing through the light was like pushing through a kind of fluid that chilled you to the bone. And when they were finished, they were set on a straight path to another gate exactly like this one; a variety of fiends, demons, dragons, and other fantastical creatures could be seen in different parts of the ruin situated in the golden skies, the broken bridges in front of them flowing together to rebuild themselves and offer a path forward. By the time they reached the end of their walk, they'd probably only have at most, two hours left before their time limit was up. It was a horrendously long walk that didn't seem to get any shorter by going faster, only with the time spent travelling. At least it gave everyone one last chance to enjoy eachother's company before they reached the end.
Zephyrman	John is just way too curious about the whole situation. While everyone else is having their regrets and voicing feelings and saying belated good-byes and finishing this old schoolhouse with their classmate, John is just sort of mentally turning the whole thing over in his head.      And it's not out of some weird desire just to make everybody else miserable. John's not that kind of person! In fact, he's usually the guy who's trying to cheer everybody up. And, occasionally, he does, hopping in front of someone with a broad grin when it seems like someone's looking down, or whacking people on the back, or otherwise breaking up tension with a remarkable talent for it. He has an eye for people who need that kind of thing, who need that little addition of childishness into an otherwise dour situation.      But he's still thinking about it. Who benefits from arranging this? Who benefits from making sure this miracle occurs? Well, the class does, but...      That's not really the primary benefactor, is it?      John shivers as they pass through the light. Yep, that's a Realm of Shadow, alright. It's definitely the kind of thing to deserve an underline.      As they continue to run up against monsters, John continues to do the thing he had been doing. He ducks, he dodges, he weaves, he trips them up or pops them in the face with a well-executed boxing jab, he leads them into other members of the party for debilitating strikes or direct assaults. He's much, much better at making openings than he is direct damage, apparently.
Swordbearing Pair	Rean keeps his eye on Crow as they push forward, though he's humming as he does. It's a weird, wistful moment. But something's still odd. Even if he's living with this Crow of the past, could Crow actually be alive? Laura's thought it through as well, but says nothing. Instead, Rean moves forward with Crow, and if any monsters get in the way, he slices into them with a flaming blade, trying to burn them down. "Let go, huh...I'm not sure I can do that. But I can move forward. They don't have to be the same thing, after all."
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki can't help but try and fail to suppress a smile, much more obvious than her last, at Class VII's reactions. Whether it's the actual C, Crow Armbrust, Rean Coldsteel, or just something made from memories and emotion, the sentiments they all have for him and his reactions are real. They're all together again. She doesn't need to have known them as long as they have each other to feel the warmth from those feelings.     She's happily going to be a member of the slave drivers though, giving 'Crow' a nod before pushing onward with the rest. Through the light, cold but not as cold as it otherwise would be considering recent events. She doesn't mind the monster-infested ruins lying ahead, or how long the walk is. Monsters can be pummeled, and the walk can be broken up with talk, even if she's not the one doing most of the heavy lifting socially. Even still, she also wants to get to know them all better.     There's nothing like bonding over battle. Even for someone who only fights when they have to. And this might be the only time she'll get to see the exact 'Crow Armbrust' that all of them knew. Real or not.
C	Once the group finally does reach the final gate, Emma frowns. Although it had been several hours now, it hardly felt like 'Crow' had been back with them but for a few minutes. Surely, she supposed, everyone felt the same way. Because once they passed through this gate ... it'd be the end. The final trial. Even without knowing as much about this place as her, everyone else also seemed to sense the finality in the air. "Guess this is the point of no return, eh?" 'Crow' murmurs. True to his word, with any of the fighting done along the way, he'd shown his stuff with expert gunplay and use of time and space arts -- just as he'd done during his time as a student. For Hibiki, his sucker-punch style fighting was the very definition of roguery. "But boy, you guys did grow a whole lot in just a year. I don't even feel like I'm babysitting, anymore." he winks. Jusis pauses, " ...about what you said before -- " 'Crow' cuts him off, "Hey, don't worry about it. It is what it is. You, Rean, everyone ... people move at their own pace. I guess I just felt like you guys can only chase the afterimage of what you're seeking, is all." It doesn't take Crow very long to pop up from Rean's flank, firing two rounds from his reloaded revolver at Rean's feet to ice the ground over. His voice isn't taunting, and has lost its usual humor. "This had a purpose beyond what Big Boss wanted, it wasn't for nothing. You won't get it, but right now, you're just chasing an afterimage. That's all." " ... but right now, none of that really matters. It's just food for thought, for afterwards." The setting shifts one final time, and leaves Class VII, Hibiki and John in a lake of ashes. Within the sulfur remains, weapons of all stripe and shapes were stuck in the ground, as if to mark a grave. " ... this is it, then." 'Crow' says. Fie looks up, brow furrowing, "Crow?" Gaius is set on his guard, shuddering with his cross-spear drawn, "The wind here ... this feeling -- !!" 'Crow' smiles easily, "We're not in Trista anymore."     "You think?!" Elliot yells. A pitch black shadow coalesces on the ridge in front of them, and forms a great, dark giant. Its roar is enough to shake the air with its prescence alone.     THE ASHEN POWER     LOA EREBONIUS Emma clutches her staff close, "... we can turn back. If we give up ... but if we do that, we'll lose something forever. Rean, you're the only one who can truly make this decision. Do you want to fight?" 'Crow' rocks back on the heels of his feet. The shadow looms close.     "Well, fearless leader? How about it?"
Swordbearing Pair	Rean stops as the blast hits the floor, as to not go sliding - keen reflexes firing up. But Crow says something ominous. Part of him wants to argue, wants to debate, wants to figure it out, but the phantasmal Crow is right. None of this really matters right now. "I'm the only one who can...?" Rean hears, as Laura nods to him. "I'll follow you wherever you go." She says, as Rean nods... And looks up to the shadow, drawing his blade slowly. "Class VII! John! Hibiki! Fight with everything you've got!" The choice has been made. Fear had set in Rean's chest even as he said it. This is their toughest fight yet. And despite that... Something would be lost. And Rean's already lost enough. He can tangle over Crow's words later. Chasing afterimages...he'll swipe them out of his way. Particulary the giant ashen one.
Zephyrman	True to his word, John does in fact shut up and let them enjoy the time they have left with the afterimage of their friend. The shadow of Crow might be real or fake, but it's important to them, and he's not that guy. He won't ruin their happiness. That's not what a Hero of Justice does.      Well, a real one, anyway.      The Loa appears. It rises, rises, rises out of the shadow. As the wind whips up, as the Loa roars, John spins his flute out of nowhere. His scarf billows around them in the evil wind.      As Rean gives the order to attack, John just sort of walks forward, tapping the flute on his shoulder. It's not a matter of fearlessness. It's never fearlessness. But you can't *show* the fear, not when people need you. You can't *show* that you're afraid. If you show you're afraid, people can't believe in you. You tell them, afterwards, that you're scared. You tell them, afterwards, that even a Hero gets scared, and that real courage is pushing through that fear, because it *is*.      John looks the thing in the eye, and there's fear, hidden there, but he doesn't really have a choice. People are counting on him.      "Sorry," he says, closing his eyes and whipping his flute sideways, "I'm afraid I'm gonna have to push aside your wicked winds."      "Because a stronger wind is calling me...that voice I heard once before..."      "It chants the name of my soul!"      The flute goes into his mouth. He plays. The music is airy, whistling, piercing through the howling wind. In short order the howling wind is pushed aside by a whirling cyclone wrapped around him, concealing him utterly.      The music stops.      The cyclone disperses. What's left in its place is armor. Beautiful, knightly white armor, lined with glowing red that pulses like a heartbeat. A helmet like a Roman warrior, crowned in gold laurels, flared with feathers.      "The name of my soul..."      "Is Zephyrman!"      The flute goes to the helmet. Again, there's music, but it's a totally different song - something grand and glorious, something designed to grab attention and hold it.      In the distance there's a crack of lightning. Stormclouds gather. They start moving towards the floating battlefield, piercing the eerie world with a strange normalcy.      The first hints of rain fall. The flute music keeps singing. The wind whips up, stronger than before. Zephyrman's scarf whirls behind him.      And then, it emerges.      A huge, blocky sort of jet, the old-school sort of jet from an old-school TV show that looks more like a flying block with wings than a jet. It trails dark clouds and lightning in its wake. The flute shifts tune as Zephyrman goes straight up.      The jet stops overhead.      It splits in half down the middle. Jet engines fold outward into legs. Wings click upwards onto the back. Arms emerge from the sides.      It lands with a thunderous crash on the battlefield, shaking the ground. A head - sleek, white, and helmed - pops out with a loud click.      Zephyrman lands on the massive robot's shoulder.      "The lord of the skies who brings justice from on high...behold, and know his name!"      "HURRRRIKAISER!"      The massive robot starts moving towards the Loa as John's flute kicks up again. It swings back a huge fist and, in the style of every sentai robot ever, opens the fight with a big damn punch.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Chasing an afterimage..." Lingering on those words, they reach their destination. Time really does fly. Like she expressed as much to John in private, seeing Class VII and 'Crow' together was like something that made all her concerns fade away. But it's ephemeral, and eventually, they need to move on. She's still thinking over what he says as they push on, trying to discern her own meaning, even if it'll have to wait.     Because they step into something that looks, to her, more like the aftermath of a battlefield, ashed over as if the fires of war burned everything else away. She's on guard immediately, muscles tensing up and arms raising in tandem with Gaius. Her lips purse, and her eyes briefly go over to 'Crow'. "I think we stopped being in Trista ever since we came down here...!" The giant rises ahead, but she's not intimidated - a lot of things do, but not monsters. So her resolve steels itself, silently looking to Rean as things fall to him. Class VII--or maybe he himself--are who this place wanted, after all.     And his answer gets a staunch nod of approval, and a small grin from underneath the scarf of her Symphogear. "That's what I like to hear! Then...!" With a sharp inahel, her head tilts up, to where the shadowed form of Loa Erebonius coalesces into its head.     "...I'll do my part to make sure nobody has to lose anything else!" An armored boot comes down, is used to launch herself up in a leap at breakneck speed, up towards its center of mass.     She has her own way of dispelling afterimages and finding the way forward. It comes in the form of throwing her fist forward as hard and fast and in the most straightforward manner she can.
C	The small shadows forming at the Loa's legs are swept away by Rean and Laura's combined assault, as the choice catalyzed in his heart. He had decided.     The trial begin. Hurrikaiser's entrance allows it to get into range to launch a blow at its foe, but the giant shadow proves itself anything but a mindless beast, as it reaches up and deftly redirects the knuckles aimed to deliver a heaping helping of pain to it. It was the kind of maneuver you'd expected out of a trained warrior, as it readies its body to deliver a shoulder tackle to Hurrikaiser in an effort to knock it back. Hibiki's blow finds some measure of purchase as she manages to fly out and strike it in the chest, but even under the titanic weight of how much harder she could punch than an average bear, the shadow seemed to recover quickly after a shudder of pain, coiling its legs to leap back and open its 'mouth'. "Moon, protect us!"    "ARCUS Activate!" While Emma quickly casts a defensive spell over the party; notably, not an art, Jusis activates his orbment and attempts to cut the shadow off with a Space element Art, a barrage of golden orbs firing off to assail its body.     They're swallowed up by Loa Erebonius' breath attack. In the aftermath of it, a barrage of arrows and gunfire courtesy of Alisa, Fie, 'Crow' and Machias rain over the great shadow's body, giving the rest a moment of reprieve to try and recover and come up with a strategy. It was clear that it wouldn't suppress their opponent for long, however, as it crosses its arms over its head and chest to begin advancing.
Zephyrman	Zephyrman grabs onto the side of Hurrikaiser's head. The swirling breath weapon blasts across them both, hero and robot, even as Hurrikaiser itself takes the shoulder tackle head-on. It might've stumbled back if not for the thrusters behind it. As it is, the breath weapon is the much greater concern, disrupting Zephyrman's song and threatening to knock him off and onto the ground below.      Still, his superhumanly strong gauntlet clings to the head, dangling from the shoulder as Hurrikaiser rights itself with all the ponderous movement one would expect from a giant sentai mecha. It sets its feet with a stomp. Two boxy things resetting themselves. It shouldn't even be able to *move*, it looks so silly, and yet...      And yet the stomp is hard enough to push away the clinging remnants of the breath weapon as Hurrikaiser draws back its arm.      The flute music stops.      "Hurrikaiser!"      "STORM KNUCKLE!"      The massive robot swings its fist forward. There's an explosive whirlwind from the elbow. In mid-swing, the whole forearm goes shooting out, spinning, backed by whirling, ripping winds.      Zephyrman starts playing again. The Storm Knuckle draws back to smash into the thing's backside and reattach itself to Hurrikaiser. A double attack, and a retrieval...!
Swordbearing Pair	As the Loa Erebonius continues its movement, assaultingwith its breath even after the little ones have been struck, Rean moves to try and 'parry' it, but is sent flying backwards, landing on his feet even as he takes the force through his sword. Laura blocks, and is sent skidding backwards herself, grimacing. Their rapid reaction times saved them from a nasty blow being much nastier. They have a breath moment for a plan. "Hibiki, Zephyrman, you're probably the more defensive ones - try and distract it and get some damage in! Laura, do as much damage as possible, see if we can't force it to pause! I'll go up." Rean Schwarzer cannot fly, but he can run. Taking a breath, he remembers his training, and suddenly starts running up the side of HurriKaiser, before leaping onto its Storm Knuckle. From their, he lifts his blade up. "FLAME SLASH!" Leaping off of the knuckle at the last second before it impacts, Rean moves to strike his flame-ignited blade into the Loa Erebonius, using his momentum to throw more force before he kicks off it to land on the ground. Meanwhile, Laura pulls up her blade, using her Quartz Arts to boost her strength, and then slams an armor-buster straight into the Loa's leg, trying to do big damage in a single burst.
Hibiki Tachibana	Loa Erebonius is not a lumbering monster, that's for sure. It's more than that. It's fighting smarter and it's recovering faster than any of the Cryptids they've fought before--and definitely even more dangerous, if what she knows is coming after it opens its mouth is any indication. She is, unfortunately, still leaping back through the air after her strike when it comes.     "Ngh--!" Her arms cross and her legs tuck in as Emma's defensive spell hits, and she's briefly also swallowed up in the storm just like Jusis' attacks. Her thrusters burn to help her keep her ground briefly, but it's only a few seconds before the force sends her spiraling out of control back through the air, only barely flipping around to catch herself by changing course to land on Hurrikaiser's shoulder. Giant robots are really good for finding steady ground.     The moment gives her a chance to get her breath back, and call back, "Got it, Rean! I can do distraction!" Using Hurrikaiser once again to launch off of, right as the Storm Knuckle comes out, Hibiki jumps high. She goes up high enough to end up right over top of Loa Erebonius at the apex of the movement - where her armor's boosters ignite once more to send her straight downwards, coming down foot-first in a heavy kick.     Followed right up with a constant barrage of limbs striking out as she darts around its head! She's a small target, one that can fly, /and/ she can hit hard enough to definitely rock it.
C	The Storm Knuckle meets Loa Erebonius' clenched fist head on, a shockwave that rattles the earth radiating as their blows met. Such was the giant's strength that even Hurrikaiser's launched limb was stalled of its momentum; yet the blowback of that contetst of strength left its mark on their enemy, its wispy arm having been shredded into a messy swirl of darkness that hangs limply at its side, for now. Hibiki charges in at just this moment to deliver a blow over the top of its head that drives it into a squat before she flits about, dealing a fusilade of punches, kicks and elbow strikes while she was in a position to do so; on the ground level, while Machias was reloading and Alisa tended to her classmates wounds along with Elliot, 'Crow' and Fie link up to start their own assault from below. "There...!" A hurled grenade is shot mid-air with a certain second-year's marksmanship, exploding directly over its eyes as it retorts Hibiki and Hurrikaiser with deadly blasts of energy that had been erupting from the slits in its head. "Let's show 'em, Fie!"    "Yeah!" Wind gathers around her in a swirl of orbal energy before she takes off like a bullet. "SYLPHID DANCE!" She seems to flash in and out with sonic booms as she races across Loa Erebonia's body, assisting Hibiki in her assault while Crow himself danced around it on the ground, delivering a bevy of elemental attacks from his revolver while peppering it with normal gunfire from his pistol. Ultimately, all three of them are repelled by a shockwave as the shadow exerts its power. This is the opening struck by Rean, who had taken a ride on the Storm Knuckle just earlier. Laura forces Loa Erebonius down to one knee, while Rean cuts a gash straight through the top of its head in a show of expert teamwork.     Loa Erebonius sweeps both arms out, and summons forth a dozen human-sized shadows that shoot towards most of Class VII like flames. This is purely to suppress them while its previously destroyed arm repairs itself, allowing it to shape its hand into a blade of darkness to launch a series of flowing, master-strokes at John, Hibiki, Rean and Laura.
Zephyrman	Zephyrman doesn't have time to cover everybody. When the shockwave bursts out, Hurrikaiser puts its foot forward to try and counteract the blast and protect Class VII as best it can - which leaves it open for the brutal blade to carve across it multiple times. Each strike leaves a trail of sparks and damaged metal. Hurrikaiser attempts to block - but it's not fast enough.      Still, it's no slouch, either. It manages to catch the blade in one hand and turn it aside at the last as Zephyrman regains his own footing. Zephyrman starts playing a different tune on the flute - a complementary one to help Rean, Laura, and Hibiki fight, to give them more to work off Hurrikaiser's movements.      So the massive machine is now much more aware of its allies. Its strikes are no longer massive blasts of force but meant to create openings, meant to widen the gap between defenses for the others. It's playing defensively now - protecting Class VII and Hibiki even as it pushes open defenses. The huge robot is wedging its body in the way of them and the Loa as much as it can without getting completely in their way, too, and its footsteps do not, at any point, crush them, even though it definitely seems like they *should*.
Swordbearing Pair	As Rean and Laura's tagteam works, he doesn't let off. With the flames hitting his allies, Rean is about to be smothered in flames, when... COVER Laura suddenly ducks in the way, bringing her blade up and taking the blow straight to it. There's a resounding whoomph as she's pushed back, but she's clearly the tank of the two. Rean's the more agile one, as even he is forced to do footwork with Laura's defense to avoid getting hit by the flames in the process. "Alright...let's do this." Breaking the action economy, Rean moves to leap up, slashing forward, as he calls out to Laura. "Laura, use everything!" Laura, still grimacing from the pain, nods. "Alright. Let's break it away! Radiant Waltz!" While this is happening, Rean slashes three times, blurring between both the legs and the sword arm to impact each of them with his sword, before sheathing it. And then, Laura lets loose. Light is charged through her blade, shining energy, as it rises past the tip as her hand goes up. The massive ki-soaked sword is lifted as she charges forward. Slash once, slash twice, and then a round swing, spinning fully, to do as much damage as humanly possible to the areas Rean just weakened.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Nice one, you two...!" Fie and 'Crow' working together is something to behold, or at least what Hibiki can see in between dodging beams and throwing her own attacks. Class VII really is something else--but it's not quite enough, as Loa Erebonius sends them all flying.     This time she catches herself in midair so she doesn't get in the way of Hurrikaiser, leg pistons ejecting forward before slamming back to create air-cracking shockwaves--the first of which sends her spinning out of the way of the first swing coming for her. A second burst from her other leg kicking out helps her ascend over another.     She's not so lucky against the third of the skillful strikes, and the instinctual thing she does is whirl her body around to punch it. "Hraaaah--!" Gungnir clashes with it briefly, halting it for a split second before the force carries through and sends her flying down to the ground like a meteor. Thankfully, with all her limbs, with the hasty defense still counteracting most of the damage.     She makes a skidding landing that takes her a good dozen meters, stops, and immediately sprints back forward while striking her way through flaming shadows to disperse them and make things easier on the students. Closing the distance back, and taking advantage of Hurrikaiser creating openings, she takes one of those openings to jump back in.     Right towards its sword arm while it's busy elsewhere, aiming to trash it as well with a full-force punch thrown at its shoulder. The punch itself is backed up by plenty of might already, but it's backed up by the piston slamming back in to send a destructive wave of raw force directly into its body!
C	Hurrikaiser engaging with Loa Erebonius in close quarters is a genuine clash of titans -- and it isn't an overstatement to say that without Zephyrman's support, this battle would have been a great deal more oppressive than it already had been. Shimmering blades of magical energy rain onto the shadow's body, "Dance, blades...!" Emma chants, swinging her staff with unusual but practiced motions to summon batteries of the glittering armaments of magic light to send at it, volley after volley once 'Crow' and Fie had been forced back. "Alright, now for our part." Machias says, looking to the side at Jusis. The nobleman clicks his tongue and looks away, "Turn that hapless gaze from me, Machias Regnitz, and pay more heed to this battle."     "You stuck up, crusty noble! That's my line, you've been useless!" "Shut up and fight already!"    "Yeah?! Don't slow me down!" The two, in perfect synch, begin their attack. "ARCUS Activate! SEVENTH CALIBUUUUR!" Using his strongest offensive art, seven elemental swords of magical energy appear high in the sky and fire like missiles down to surround Loa Erebonius and release a multi-colored torrent of power, enough to stagger even the great shadow as Jusis dashes out to unleash his blistering offensive with court fencing. Machias backs him up, sprinting into a sideways strafe as he unloads all of his munitions with his shotgun before discarding his usual weapon and unsheathing what he had been preparing this whole time -- a ginormous, state of the art rifle ordinarily used for piercing tank armor. "JUSTICE BULLET!" The kickback nearly drove Machias into the dirt, and the explosion against Loa Erebonius' chest was an eye-catching conflagration that gave Hurrikaiser a prime chance to land a combination strike straight to the same spot, forcing it back. "We can take it off balance -- GALE STINGER!" "You don't have to tell me twice; ARCUS Activate! HYDRO CANNON!" A lance of compressed wind and a jet-stream of water come flying in courtesy of Elliot and Gaius to give Hurrikaiser a chance to pull out of Loa Erebonius' effective range as it tries to counter-attack with another barrage of Azure Fragments. Dust and steam cloud the air, split moments later by Rean blitzing in past Jusis and challenging Loa Erebonius up front with the Fourth Form of his school; in this same moment, Hibiki strikes its shoulder, blowing a hole through it; defying gravity, the sword-arm was still attached, and functioning. Light, shining like a star erupts. The shadow giant raises its weakened arm and attempts to meet Laura's sword with its own after having been driven into the ashen dirt, swirling its whole body and throwing it into the strike. Light and darkness meet, briefly, before the weakened arm begins to show its fragility. Spiderwebs run across its structure before Laura's techniue shatters it and continues forwards, striking at its lower body and causing an eruption of pressure that blasts straight up, exiting through the tear that Rean had made in its head earlier in the battle. GUOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! Its roar fades with it, to white.
C	"Is it...over?" Alisa groans, before Elliot collapses onto his knees. "I hope so. I'm...so beat, I could fall over now." 'Crow' laughs breathily, "Yeah, I think that about does it." Emma tiredly startles, "Hey. Wait, everything's changing again. Then -- " 'Crow', like the battlefield around them, was now transparent. Fading into the white. "Yep. Well, hard days are sure to come, but you guys did really great. Honestly .. you didn't even need me to come here. I take back what I said; you guys are still just a buncha' chickadees." he jabs, with a smile, one eye closed -- his whole self practically vanishing before their eyes. Rean finds himself being nudged by Sara Valestein's foot, "Heee~y. Good to see you're finally awake; you know, there are people who'd pay for this kind of treatment, mister star student. You doin' okay down there?"
Swordbearing Pair	Rean doesn't even get to say goodbye. But that's okay. As Sara nudges him with her foot, he's blinking, before lifting himself up. "Ah...wait, what happened to- nevermind." He checks to see what happened to the others, before dusting himself off. "I think our problems with the Old Schoolhouse are over atleast, but our questions aren't answered yet. How long were we out?" He doesn't move much, from the pain from before, and sighs, laughing. Crow can't be dead. Not even because of what Hibiki said. He was just too damn good to die like that, wasn't he? The moment of truth has yet to hit him, but he can at least believe and hope that his friend is still alive out there. "That couldn't have been a dream, could it...?"
Zephyrman	They find themselves back in front of the mural, apparently awakening from unconsciousness.      John is no longer transformed. As he sits up, he looks over at Fie and, with a huge, shit-eating, self-aware grin, says, "I told you I was a hero of justice."      Then he hops to his feet and stretches up, then down, then left, then right, a proper full suite of stretching. He helps anybody to their feet who needs it, because the man has infinite energy, infinite good cheer.      "Nope," John says, "It wasn't a dream."      "It might've been a miracle, though."
Hibiki Tachibana	It's all over. Hibiki comes down from her part in the attack, stumbles once, and takes a knee. There are a few heavy breaths, before she looks up at what Emma says. Now that they passed that trial, they're not gonna be able to stay here any longer than that, huh? Even 'Crow'...     When everyone's awake again, Hibiki is one of the last to do so, stirring with a groan and back in her casual clothes. It takes some effort to sit up, briefly make sure everybody is here, and then double over slightly where she rests with a sigh. "I think I have /more/ questions than I started with," she echoes something she said to John before. "But those can wait."     Speaking of John, she's happy to get assistance from him in standing back up, finding herself grinning without entirely realizing it. Wonder why.     "Couldn't have said it better myself."
C	The rest of Class VII seems to be waking up in short order; Fie yawns, even. "I'm exhausted .. a dream? Did we really dream all of that?" With Fie still giving John an unimpressed look, she does accept his help in getting to her feet. Sara stands to the side while the events that had transpired were explained to her, her face twisting several times from certain pieces of information that she found hard, or perhaps, unsavory to swallow. Emma, having noticed something laying on the ground, bends her knees to lower herself down and take it in her hand.     "A miracle, hm..?" She turns the mirror that Laura had found over in her hand, with a faint smile. " ... I think that's probably the truth." Millium blinks, "Eh? Hold on a second. Isn't that the mirror that Crow came out of?" Emma stands to her full height, "Yes. But, I don't think it'll be able to do that anymore. I don't feel anything from the mirror now ... or the Old Schoolhouse, for that matter. This really was the final investigation, I think." Holding the now defunct mirror up, her eyes crinkle slightly as she enters 'class prez tutoring mode', "My grandmother told me about these kinds of heirlooms ... they're very rare items called Phantasm Mirrors. Apparently, they're supposed to show the one using it something they want from the bottom of their heart. I think that .. whatever that place was we were brought to, what happened could only happen in that place. That's my impression, anyway. It might be possible to re-awaken the mirror's power, but I wouldn't know how." "That's fascinating," Principal Vandyck says, " -- eh? How long were you standing there?! --" Alisa cuts in, before he continues, " .. but I really must insist you all return to your dorm and get as much rest as you can." He gives them a grandfatherly smile, "After all, you need to start preparing for your concert in three hours."