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Her Darkness; [Open - Closed to Nonsequitur, CDYoung, and Czernobog]
Topic Started: Jan 2 2014, 07:47 PM (706 Views)
The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Noburu saw the flash, June saw the flash, but neither of them could have noticed the effect. Anger was, simply put, June Hollyfield's default state of being. So to Noburu, seeing her lose composure and begin swinging away at the Jester with abandon wasn't unexpected. And to June, neither was the haze of red that overshadowed her vision...

The swinging of June's bat became feverish, faster, harder, but there was no thought put into where she aimed: head, arm, legs, didn't matter as long as she hurt this fucking thing! Noburu, for his part, knew that Earth magic worked now, so he moved to the side, angled so that he wouldn't hit June, and cast another Magna spell at the monster's feet.

The first inkling that something was wrong didn't occur to him until he shouted, "June, get back!" as a precaution, and his girlfriend not only disobeyed the warning, but didn't acknowledge it at all.
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Prince Arjuna
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-insert something witty here-

When someone was blinded by rage, it would be easier to dodge their attacks. The Jester already anticipated June's attacks as it sprung back to evade the swing of the mohawk girl's bat, and it nearly avoided Noburu's earth attack. As it jumped, the Jester aimed to hurl one of its wicked-looking throwing knife towards June's forehead.

"No!" noticing this, Sio fired an electricity spell towards the Shadow, rattling it a bit but still managed to throw the knife towards the mohawk girl. But due to the Zio, the throw was improperly aimed.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
June could feel blood pounding in her ears, her heart was racing, her teeth pressed together. Her grip on her bat was tighter than it should have been, but fuck, she couldn't force her fingers to loosen up even one bit to save her own life at the moment. All she knew was blood-red rage. There wasn't any real reason for it; she could have fixated either on the monster being a threat to Noburu or on the other monsters in this hellhole being the reason Shouta was dead.

She was cognizant of neither. There was no reason, she was just angry and she wanted to fucking smash this clown into a bloodied pulp. She hardly noticed the knife hurtling her way--

"June!"

Noburu's shout felt like it came from a great distance. It would have been the end for her then, were it not for Sio's intervention. But the knife missed her forehead, tore a deep gash to the bone in her right cheek but missed her forehead and temple, missed a fatal target, and June didn't even care about the slick, warm wetness on her face or the pain at its source: she screamed, and swung her bat downward at the Jester's skull without missing a beat.

But now Noburu was angry. He didn't scream or snarl, he roared. Opening his mouth, he produced a sound that was both enraged and blatantly inhuman, and blue light flared around his body.

It appeared behind him, its body extending for quite some distance back in this wide but confined corridor. The yellow dragon, Kohryu, clutching different-colored orbs in the clawed hands sprouting from its serpentine body, opened its mouth and produced a ball of flame, which shot through the air at the Jester shadow.

Noburu himself was close behind, pulling back his fist for a brutal smack to the stomach, which he would adjust depending on how the Jester moved in the fire spell's wake.
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Prince Arjuna
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-insert something witty here-

The Jester avoided the swing onto its skull from June and was about to stab the mohawk girl right into her throat, now that she's already in its reach, when a ball of flame roasted its body. It spasmed and twitched in pain, but that wide, inhuman grin didn't fade away. While a part of its body was burned, it tried to move back, but then, Noburu landed a punch right into its stomach.

The clownish monster let out a gurgling cackle as it was thrown back. Due to the flame earlier, half of its torso was badly burned, and its right arm seemed to turn into something like charcoal. When it tried to move the burned arm, the cracking sounds were heard. If it moved the hand too much, it might break.

Despite all that, the Shadow still grinned. It was gravely injured, but didn't show any hint of backing off. Using its left, equally-elongated hand, it threw two throwing knives towards Noburu.

Meanwhile, Sio was a bit dazed after hearing Noburu's 'roar'. When the clown threw the knives towards Noburu, she quickly realized that the Shadow was still alive, and she fired a Zio towards the Shadow right after it launched its knives, but she missed.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
It might have gone badly from there, might have gone very badly indeed, save that the sight of Kohryu drew June Hollyfield's attention away from the Jester even through the haze of Rage magic. How could it not? It was a great big fucking Chinese dragon breathing fire. But when she looked back at the beast that appeared beside and behind Noburu, she realized in a sudden moment of spell-breaking clarity that it wasn't just any dragon.

It was her dragon. Their dragon. Huang Long, it was Huang Long, and it looked exactly like the one she had inked into her boyfriend's skin...

"...Noburu, what...?"

The anger was gone. And then knives flew past her, careening straight through the air at Noburu's chest.

"NO!"

She shrieked a denial, and as if the universe were listening, something intercepted the knives... namely, the dragon. Its golden-white-scaled head lurched forward, blocking Noburu from view and from harm, but the second after the knives cut into its forehead and stopped, the Persona flickered out of existence. The knives clattered to the floor, and Noburu's hand clapped to his forehead. He let out a surprised grunt of pain, eyes squinted shut, free hand extended toward the Jester.

"J-June, get away from it!" he yelled. June, whose mind was blank with relief, didn't hesitate to listen to the order this time. She hopped back from the Jester, holding her bat up to defend against attack. Noburu's hand blazed with another fireball, smaller and weaker without the direct summoning of Kohryu, and he hurled it at the Jester. June could feel the heat as it flew past her arm...
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Prince Arjuna
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-insert something witty here-

No matter how weak the attack, the fireball was enough to finally put the Jester down for good. The Jester let out a gurgling dying noise before it finally collapsed. Its corpse slowly melted into a puddle of black mud. The smell of burning tar lingered in the air as the dead Shadow disappeared.

Sio let out a sigh of relief when the threat was finally neutralized. Then, she looked at both Noburu and June, especially June. She didn't show any ability to summon a Persona, and she was almost killed several times while fighting the Shadows.

Then, she spoke something that she was holding back a while ago.

"You don't belong here..." Sio said to June. "You don't have a Persona, and you almost got yourself killed. Why do you want to come in here?" she asked, looking at the mohawk girl.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Noburu sighed in relief when the Jester fell to the floor, and watched it melt as all Shadows did. The pain across his forehead was searing; it felt like his actual forehead had been slashed open with hot knives in the same moment Kohryu had intercepted the physical knives. The boy took a few steps to the side, and allowed himself to lean against the wall, closing his eyes, trying to regain his senses.

He moved his hand away from his forehead and opened his eyes. There was no blood. It felt like there should have been, but there wasn't, and his head felt unblemished, uninjured...

...A sympathetic pain...?

Sio chose that moment to interrogate June, who'd been staring at her boyfriend in a confused sort of wonder the whole time. Noburu's eyes sharpened, and fixed themselves on Sio. June snapped out of her reverie, turning angry eyes on Sio. "I--none of your business! Get out of my face!" she snapped. "Just because I don't have magic doesn't mean I can't fight, you stupid--"

But then a flutter passed over her, a moment of lightheadedness. June realized then that her face was still bleeding, but it hadn't been bleeding enough to cause her to faint. Was this shock? No, she'd been cut worse than this, dozens of times, bruised, battered, she could take some pain.

She slapped her hand over the cut on her face, and snarled through gritted teeth. Noburu pushed off the wall and locked eyes with Sio, his own eyes almost glaring. "Leave it," he said. "Either help us fight or go away. If you pester her--"

"--she'll rage and snarl and bluster because it makes her look like she's in control, right?" a voice said, a jeering, distorted voice from behind Noburu and June. The two teens spun around, June swinging her bat out along with her, Noburu putting up his fists, but no one was there. No one that they could see...

And then the speaker stepped into view, halfway into view, peeking out from inside one of the open doors they'd passed. Its hand was the first thing they saw, a hand on the doorframe, and then a foot, and then, around the edge of the door, the left half of a familiar body, familiar clothes, a familiar face, and a single yellow eye. It was June--?!

"Oh, but to answer your question," June's Shadow said smilingly, locking eyes with its original, "...It's because she doesn't trust any of you freaks to keep the love of her life alive. Isn't that right, sweetie? They're all monsters. Demons. But not him. He's a shining dragon. Noble. Strong. Everything I ever wanted..."

"Wh-who the hell--?!" June blurted out, but then Noburu was in front of her, one arm held out to block June from getting any closer. There were a few paces between the Volatile Doppelganger and them. It remained in the doorway, not stepping out. If attacked, it would obviously pop back into the room it had half-emerged from. It seemed to have eyes only for June, though--it didn't spare Noburu, or Sio, a second's glance.

---

Battle Results
 
Noburu Nakano's Persona, Kohryu, has leveled up!
- Strength has increased by 1!
- Magic has increased by 1!
- Luck has increased by 1!
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Prince Arjuna
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-insert something witty here-

Sio flinched when Noburu glared at her, but before she could say anything else, she heard that voice. Well, the young author managed to keep herself from gasping in surprise, because she should've expected more from this place. A Shadow that could copy someone's appearance, sure why not?

It didn't seem to be attacking them, even though its eyes were fixed on the mohawk girl. Sio held her bo with both hands, bracing herself for anything that the doppelganger might do as electricity flickered around her head. She didn't say anything as she prepared herself.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"Who are you?" Noburu snapped, eyes still on the copy of June. "...What are you?"

June had felt a strange sort of panic when she'd heard the Shadow's answer. Because she didn't trust the other "freaks." But Noburu was different, he wasn't like them. And then her feelings. It blundered on to talk about how she felt, and she knew then she didn't want it going any further, didn't want the yellow-eyed thing wearing her face and hair to say anything else, because there were other things, other--things--

"Oh..." Shadow June said, her face and voice affecting a mock-pout, looking to Noburu for the first time. "You don't recognize your own lover, Noburu-kun? Even if you hadn't seen me naked I'd expect you to know who I am. I mean, my head is like a great big neon rocket fin, isn't it?"

Noburu gritted his teeth. "You are not June. Now tell me what you are, or I'll just burn you to death like I did that other monster."

The boy took a step forward, but inexplicably, June was compelled to take his arm, hold him back, step around him. "You stay back!" she snapped. "Keep your mouth shut. Get the fuck out of here or I'll smash your face in--"

"Pretty little prissy princess puts on such a face," the Shadow said, rolling its eyes and stepping out into full view, leaning on the door frame. It was a perfect replica of June Hollyfield, right down to the scuff marks on her clothes from the fall down the stairs. "Oh, but you know under your bed, where the boys keep their porn stash? Want me to guess what you keep there, little princess? I think I can have a good guess, don't you?"

June froze, stiffened like a statue, her face going blank, unreadable. "...Now you're just babbling," she said. "Noburu. Do that--dragon--thing again. Kill it. Kill it now."

Noburu put his hand to his forehead, where the mask still covered his upper face. "Right..." But then the Shadow popped back through the door, out of view and out of sight.

"Come and get me, then!" it shrieked laughingly from inside the room. "But I'll tell them everything. I'll tell them what you really want, June Hollyfield! I'll tell them what really makes you the barbarian that you are!"

"She's lying," June snapped. "She's lying. Don't listen to her, just kill her."

Noburu looked back at June. June's eyes found his face. There was--doubt there? Was it doubt? No, no, no, he couldn't doubt her, please don't let him be doubting--

"Kill it!" she hissed. And Noburu turned to pursue the Volatile Doppelganger into the room.
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Prince Arjuna
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-insert something witty here-

Sio knew that in one way or another, it had to be some kind of trap. She was about to tell Noburu to watch out, but he had already gone to pursue the doppelganger. Sighing, she stepped forward and stood beside June. However stupid she was, she couldn't afford to see someone getting killed here in this place.

"Stay here," Sio said, speaking to June without looking at her. She remained there to keep the mohawk girl safe while Noburu went to pursue the doppelganger. "Don't know what kind of death wish you have, but don't go dying here. Not under my watch," she added.
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