Primal Stages (Seiji, Luka)

[Akira Nakajima]

Hair disheveled and curled in spots by the wind from the dead Gandharva, Akira took a moment to straighten his hair before having Hayagriva turn around and close the distance. With a simple mental urge, the boy had his Persona fire off another Media. The blasts of wind had been annoying, especially up close. Not only were they damaging, but his leather jacket had rips where blades of wind had bitten through. Oh well. Such was the risk of a battle with demons. Fairies. Whatever. And that was life. He wasn't sure if the other boy needed healing, but he imagined the girl didn't get off without at least some scratches.

”Leaving already, Miss? It must be difficult to find others that have the same. . . would you even call this a gift? The same power as you. Or so I assume, at least. I won't force you to stay, but it would be appreciated, if only for the sake of sharing information.” He said his part. If Rukako left anyway, well, it wasn't his part to chastise her. Even if it would weigh on his mind later. He could always tease his “partner” at work. That would be a good form of stress relief, he was sure. Rather than worrying about her- she'd either return or leave on her own, he turned his attention to the other youth. One red and one blue eye bore down on the guy that had started the fight.

”Might wanna hold off on the berserk charges. Could be bad if you didn't have a healer around.” He casually commented. ”Still, good to meet others with the same power. Name's Akira. Nakajima Akira. If it's fine with you, I'd like to share information. If we pool our resources, we might be able to piece together this macabre puzzle. Or, at the very least, figure out some things.” He shrugged, waiting for some input from either party. He made sure his voice was loud enough to reach Rukako. Or it should have, anyway.

[Seiji Dalton]

His part in the battle at the park left him nearly dead. That darkness hit him like a truck despite the attack being a weak one. Seiji heaved despite the heals and set to work cleaning his sword for a moment before sheathing it when the battle was over. Its metal scabbard was clunky but nothing was going to break his sword. It'd be hell getting another one unless that dwarf he'd seen briefly was feeling generous. The other two didn't seem two impressed with his charge into the ranks of the enemies. The long haired guy, Akira he said his name was, chastised him and Seiji just looked at his peer blankly. The blue haired girl seemed to be trying to get away to explore on her own.

"I think you should stay too. If only for a minute while we gather our thoughts." Gather their thoughts. That was a weird way to put it. They were three total strangers that fought a few monsters together. He'd kept the pressure off of them in the initial rush. They could say what they would about his charge, but he didn't see either of them coming out of this particularly injured. Well, there was some wind damage on Akira and the girl took a blow that didn't look severe. The only one that really got hurt was him, and he wouldn't repeat that. "My name is Dalton Seiji by the way. Luckily for me, you are a healer. Hopefully there's more like you out there." The Japanese custom of saying his last name first was still weird to him. "Is there anywhere safe we could go if we want to talk? I do not think any of us are in the mood to get jumped by monsters again." The wind was picking up and he heard giggling off in the distance. Hopefully the fae creatures hiding in the darkness would stay away for now after seeing that mighty green giant fall.

[Luka Kurokawa]

Just as she was leaving, she got a call from one of the boys to come back and talk, citing that they could share important information about the whole situation they were in. The second boy chimed in too, saying that she should come back. Quite honestly, Luka was apprehensive about wasting her time here. With a sigh, the girl turned back around and started heading back to see what they could possibly offer her in terms of info. Then I guess it is safe to assume we're all from normal, earthly, Tokyo, yes? And that all of us simply gained this ability just recently. At least, from who I have met so far. With her total encounters simply being these two. But she didn't want to say that.

The other's had their own choice of words to bring up. The spear boy tackled the issue about running in pretty well enough. But Luka felt the need to chime in a bit, if only because it left her with very little to do at the end. At the very least, only take on a few of them rather than running in and trying to fight them all at once. Might be good to call out who you're going to take on too if you're in a group. It was just advice off the top of her head. Certainly, things could have gone sour if that other boy didn't have healing powers. His name was Akira, right? And this one was Seiji. She'd better remember that, given the situation. At the words of the boy's suggestion, Luka seemed to agree that here wasn't a good place to talk. If she wasn't getting any killing done, it might be good to simply stay safe.

Follow me. I know a good area. We can talk on the way. She had a nice clearing by the edge of the park in mind. They would be able to spot enemies incoming a good while from their location so there was no chance of surprise attacks. While she walked, she chose to talk about a topic that was slightly bothering her. Yes, it would be good if there were more healers out there. But as far as 'powers' go, I don't think I possess anything along those lines. Other than my slightly heightened physical abilities, I don't have any special powers like you guys. Did you guys have those to begin with, or did you acquire them as you went? She figured that was a fair enough question while she walked through the park. Likewise, she'd try to answer anything they'd ask of her if she could.

[Akira Nakajima]

So the other boy's name was Seiji? Seemed like he had both of their names at that point. He'd have to make sure not to let Luka know that, though. Sure enough, though, Akira was a healer. Seiji was correct in that. However, at the same time, it would be very bad to simply assume that a healer would always be there. It was a line of reasoning that was extremely dangerous to get stuck in. He let it go, if only because the topic was changing. He was going to suggest simply returning to their “world”, but Luka chimed in. First with the basics that were a given, then with another comment on Seiji's berserker assault. Seiji was probably already aware. He didn't think that additional comment was really necessary, but he kept it to himself.

If he let Luka steer things, it would also present a good bit of info as to whether it was worth really dealing with her as “Miki”.

”It'd really be better to head back to our world, but, all right, lead the way.” He finally commented, mostly to see how the other two commented to that line of thought. ”For that question, though, my healing skill has improved slightly since I gained Hayagriva's support. So, to answer you, I started with abilities, but they have also grown. The fact that you can see Hayagriva, though, and access this world, suggests to me that you have this power as well. I ran a few tests. Normal people can't see or interact with Personas or these portals. It's entirely possible that your abilities are passive, or something along those lines. Maybe you simply don't have the need to summon it to fight?” He shrugged, still riding on the aforementioned horse. ”But that's just a theory. Without further information, I can't say much of anything on the matter.”

And that was the rough truth. Without supplementary information, he could not turn a theory into a fact. Still, he believed it was a sound theory- partially because he didn't want to think that a normal human girl got access to the realm of monsters and managed to fight as well as him with absolutely zero powers. He wasn't that damn weak.

[Seiji Dalton]

This pair seemed to have a good head on their shoulders, even if the girl seemed to be a bit loopy. She had his respect for fighting the same danger as himself, Akira, and Takeda without a manifested Persona to back her up. He followed them to the girl's spot and nodded at Akira's comment. "We really should head back to the real world soon. I doubt whatever is out there will stay impressed by our display for very long." Seiji took up the rear guard as they made their way to safety. His trained eyes scanned the horizon. There had to be a better way to track things down than relying on his five senses. "If these Personas are really our inner selves, you must be a practical person, calling up a horse to ride on and all that." He commented to Akira. It made him wish Wart could carry him instead of that silly shield. That probably wouldn't be the best idea considering the animal knight's talons.

There was a feeling about the blue haired girl that he couldn't shake though. Looking at her in the casual clothes she wore, there was some sense that he'd seen her before. But that would be impossible considering it hadn't been a week since he moved to Tokyo. It was too vast a place to run into a passerby on the street more than once. What then? "Hey, I didn't catch your name by the way." He said to her. "Have we met before?" Akira and he had shared their names. Hopefully this loopy lady wouldn't be icy on that front. "Akira's right. If you're here, that probably means you have a Persona. Maybe it's waiting for the right time to emerge with some awesome power that's too cool for the story's prologue or something." His years of browsing tropes when he was too bored to actually do schoolwork might actually pay off now that he and the others seemed to have found themselves in the middle of a real, bona fide fairy tale.

"It might help us figure out why you haven't displayed a Persona if you tell us about the circumstances under which you found yourself able to enter this world. I was caught out at midnight with my brother in a movie theater, myself. If I hadn't manifested a Persona, we probably would have both died. Mine seems more focused on physical attacks. I guess that makes sense considering I try to do a lot of physical activity when I can be bothered to. At first, he could just focus on one target. Any more would tire me out. I felt my stamina and constitution increase beyond the average for someone my age. Still, I don't think we're anything exceptional. Yet. We're probably like athletes who train a lot at this point." Or maybe Akira actually had the stamina of the animal he was riding. He was keeping an open mind given the strange circumstances all around.

[Luka Kurokawa]

Were these people really serious? They were the ones that asked her to stay and share information, yet now they were telling her they should completely exit? Honestly. These people were starting to be a bit of an annoyance. Since they were just about there, she turned around and looked at them with a straightforward expression. Weren't you guys the one who wanted me to stay and talk? I plan to be here a little longer. I'm not going to inconvenience myself for questions I probably can't answer. She was honestly ready to cooperate just fine, but something about their logic seemed to tick her off. They would literally be in no danger whatsoever.

At the very least, she got some answers from the two of them. Most of which were either unrelated, or unhelpful. She sighed, and decided to make a few clarifications. I do indeed have a persona. I've only seen her once though. I've never been able to summon her. As far as passive abilities go, nothing seems to really be different aside from slightly higher physical capability. Luka had done a bit of testing with the extent of her physical prowess. She had certainly become more powerful, but only to the point they were.

As far as things went, it was a dead end in her questioning. She decided to stick around a little bit more to answer any questions they had. Even if she didn't expect to be able to answer them. They seemed to know just about as much as her. That's all I need to know. If you have any questions, I can try to answer them. She didn't feel like lingering at that moment. It would be much better to get the practice in.

[Akira Nakajima]

It seemed, despite his reckless tactics, that Seiji wasn't a complete idiot. That, or the fear of death had been beaten into him. Akira chose to believe it was the prior. They saw eye to eye on the matter of returning to reality, at the very least. He was taken slightly off guard, though, at the comment on practicality. For a moment, the boy fixated Seiji with a gaze before slowly nodding. True enough, he did consider himself resourceful. It was exceedingly unlikely that that translated to his Persona being a horse. At least, that was how he felt. Still, he could at least consider it a joke. Actually, thinking of it like that made him feel a little better about Seiji's opinion.

Luka, on the other hand, was being a bit rebellious. He'd seen the acts before, but, really, was there just something with her and working together with others outside of the public eye? Or was it perhaps that she was misunderstanding something? That was entirely valid line of reasoning, considering how off she still tended to be. Staring at wall posters while walking in public, failing to acknowledge the pecking order. Things like that clearly suggested she was a little off. Perhaps her modeling jobs had restrained her worldly awareness a bit? Or skewed her personality. Well, the latter was a given. Maybe she really was planning to punch out a demon lord? Well, whatever.

”All right. I suppose I'll begin.” Akira commented before Hayagriva began to glimmer and fade. The boy dropped with a dull thud, knees bending slightly before he stood straight and let the shaft of the spear rest against his shoulder. ”Firstly, when did this begin for you both? I count it's been ten days since I began to experience that additional hour, as well as interact with the portals. I was in the middle of a discussion when things froze up. I imagine you can roughly guess how things went from there. A small skirmish, and I had Hayagriva's power.” He offered, giving both information and circumstances before crossing his arms.

”Additionally, to what extent have you experimented in reality with your Persona?” The latter part might have applied entirely to Seiji, but it was a point that would be worth noting, and one that Luka could perhaps benefit from knowing about. ”Normal humans don't seem to be able to see our Personas.” Whether or not the next bit would could back to bite him in the ass later would be something to wait on. Hindsight was twenty-twenty. ”They can, the Personas I mean, interact with humans and the physical world, however.” He shifted, gripping the shaft of the spear and letting the head gradually sink until it was nearly touching the ground. ”Any similar investigations on that front?” Though it was an open-ended question, his gaze did focus primarily on Seiji at that second bit. He wasn't going to get Luka to repeat herself.