Touching You, Touching Me [Mission]

[Yumina Makino]

Yumina absently played with her knife as she thought back on what exactly she was doing with her life. Tonight felt more than strange. Getting a job from an actual demon certainly sounded like the first step towards evil, but that girl wasn't really the one that needed help. She just passed along the information. No one was really making a deal with any kind of devil, and they didn't have to do anything illegal. This should be safe.

They just had to beat up some jerk for being a creep. It didn't really sound like a job that required a bunch of magic users, but since this took place in the other world, there might be an actual fight. If the perv could get this far he obviously knew some spells too, and might be abusing his new power. Now that she thought about it, was the mission talking about a normal train, or one here in Demonland? The information never specified, did it?

Now Yumina regretted not writing or copying any of the details they were given. Oh well. Better to assume it's a human until they actually find an evil train. Whoever made the request should swing by any minute now. This felt like the right place for a meeting. After everyone showed up they'd presumably spend time talking about what's going on, and she'd learn what kind of monster they were dealing with.

At least, that's how it worked in some story she read. It might've been unrealistic, but so was this.

[Frederick Cooper]

It was somewhat amusing that these demons had a sense of community and humanity despite being, well, not-human. Then again, that was also a likely trope in some RPGs. Despite the fact that it was likely just like an RPG, he didn't mind it so much. That was probably because he could look outside of his hatred. Of RPGs, at least. There were some much more passionate hatreds he'd never be able to look past, but, for the time being, it was better to focus on this seemingly demonic pervert. He couldn't actually think that there was a human involved with creeping on demons. Sure, some of them could be cute- when they weren't trying to murder someone in the first, second, and third degree- but that was as far as it went. He wasn't even sure how age worked with those things.

While he wasn't entirely sure about where, exactly, in Shibuya they needed to meet, Frederick figured it didn't matter too terribly much. If it was a legit request, that requester probably had a means of locating them. If it wasn't? Then Fred had wasted his afternoon. Which was horrible. And he'd feel bad. And they should feel bad. But they probably wouldn't, because they were demons, and that was how the demons (in most settings) did. Better yet, though, Riki found something a bit interesting, or at least not annoying. There was another human- a young lady. He imagined the requester was a demon, and this person had too human-ish clothes on to be anything but, he imagined.

”Yo!” Then again, she looked vaguely familiar. Not a customer, but perhaps involved with that dog fight, or something? That was the only excessively large gathering he had been to lately, so probably there? He didn't remember most of the people there beyond those that helped him. That was probably basic humanity there. ”Shibuya line mission, I'm guessing? Have we met before, by the way? Like, while playing with a large dog, maybe?” He might have been a little scary, just suddenly greeting and talking like that, but, as a fellow human in a strange place, he figured it was perfectly fine.

Of course, if he suddenly started questioning a person like that in the normal world, that would have likely ended badly.

[Yuuki Honda]

It just wasn't right for someone to be running around and being a general nuisance, especially if the actions that would cause that person to be regarded as a nuisance was sexual harassment of any form. Yuuki could sort of understand what the issue was here, as his exposure to females has led him to believe that many of them did not appreciate pervy sneaks or sneaky perverts. Yes, all of these aspects of this job he whimsically decided to take up were normal and not out of the ordinary... which was fine. Anything within the bounds of the mortal plane was fine.

However, they were in a place where they'd have to play by another kind of being's rules. Hell, he didn't even know if the client was female or not. Could be a guy. Yuuki himself doesn't like the kind of touching that is either inappropriate or relating to his glasses (he needs those). This person could even be a demon. Did demons have those kinds of issues? He scoffed as he made his way over to the pair who had already arrived. His weapon was slung over his shoulder in a green-patterned, cloth bag.

Once he was within shouting range, he waved to them while increasing the pace of his footsteps and gradually slowed down at the halfway mark. Yuuki remembered these two, both of them present during the confrontation with the rift dog. They might have also been at the meeting, but he was half-asleep for the majority of that. The female looked almost his age give or take a year. Always hard to tell. The other was a clear outlier from what he had seen thus far; while the majority of the Persona-Users were about teens, this one definitely looked older. And bigger.

"I might be lost, but were you all requested here by a horned woman to do something about an issue of... retrieving a pervert?" Yuuki spoke with a more reserved tone as while he was sure that they were both humans, he did not want be without a lead-up to an excuse if the answer to his question was a resounding 'no'. He took his right hand with his left, feeling the discomfort that came from having less-than-barely functioning digits as he could not feel the air touch his skin.

"Oh, I'm Honda Yuuki. We might not have time for introductions, but I might as well give my name out. It's better than nothing, right?"

[Alice]

”There you all are!” A high-pitched voice came from a small object that was shooting towards you lot. It seemed that the requester was actually a Pixie. Whatever the “U” stood for in the requesting field was up for debate. ”I've been waiting for so long! We have to hurry, or the train will depart! That creep is always on at this time!” Being directed- or, more accurately, yanked and shoved- by the Pixie, you all find yourself upon the demonic Shibuya line. Despite the fact that you humans were locked into a moving car filled with demons, nobody seemed to give a shit. A Nue and an Oni were trading cards nearby. Some were reading papers that were clearly not in human languages. Really, it was like a normal bullet train. Except with demons.

Pixie had moved to the next cart. She was offering herself as the bait. She was floating near a completely oversized handle to grab on to for support. She was flying, so was that even necessary? Either way, there were plenty of seedy looking individuals in that cart. Hell, there were plenty in the cart you were in. It wouldn't be nice to assume, but it'd be good to keep a sharp eye out.

Option A: Keep a watch on Pixie.

Option B: Proactively check for perverts. Roll a 1d20 for each member choosing this.

Option C: Try to get demonic trading cards from the Nue and Oni. Roll a 1d10,000 for each member choosing this.

[Yumina Makino]

The next person to show up was fairly hard to miss. He seemed familiar, and someone that large should be hard to forget, but she couldn't remember his name. It wasn't until he mentioned something about a dog that she finally recognized him.

"Oh! You're that guy with--" Yumina paused, realizing she was about to mention the only reason she remembered who he was. It didn't seem important or decent to bring up his unusual choice of outfit right now, or to make any sort of comment on his life choices. Her cheeks started to turn red as she looked away from his face. "Right. I was also there fighting the dog. Moving  on..."

Her eyes drifted towards the next man approaching their awkward little group, who obviously saw the same job listing. She nodded along with what he said, and tried to come up with some trick to remember his name. I'd be rude to continue without returning the greeting, and he didn't do anything to deserve such treatment. "Yeah. I'm Makino Yumina. Either one is fine with me."

There wasn't much more of a wait before a tiny fairy came buzzing along. Yumina followed along with the pixie girl and ended up boarding the fake Shibuya line. Oh man, they really were talking about a demon train. She really underestimated the monster's level of technology. It didn't look like anything cared that a group of humans were riding their train, so she tried to be just as calm. Maybe this happened all the time. Perhaps this is where all the friendly demons hide out from the evil ones. Or this is just their lunch break, and they'll go back to being jerks once they're done eating.

None of the stories she told herself ever managed to calm her down. She could feel her pulse rising, and decided it'd be simpler to get the mission over with so they could leave. The pixie already left for a different car, which seemed pretty dangerous. What if the perv was over there checking the girl out? It would be terrible if someone got attacked while their team was actively paying attention. Yumina tried to keep looking at the fairy without being too obvious about her staring.

It wouldn't do if everyone thought she was the creeper.

---

Option A will save the day

[Frederick Cooper]

Frederick blinked and tilted his head when the girl started speaking, only to cut herself off. Guy with. . . what? Now he was just curious. Oh well. That was the sort of thing girls did all the time. All day, every day, even. Still, he was glad he at least recognized her. It would've been pretty awkward if she remembered him and he didn't remember her. Then this other guy appeared. He was pretty sure he'd seen him elsewhere, too. Where? Dog, probably. But, no, something more. Oh, right. Skelerex. It was nice meeting these guys all over again. Either way, the guy, Yuuki, introduced himself. The girl, Yumina, followed suit. Ah, he was going to be the biggest creeper, but he was a foreigner, so it was a necessary evil.

”Nice to see you again.” It was a valid comment to both. ”Frederick Cooper. Riki is fine, though. Here's to a good job together.” Unfortunately, they hadn't really met by coincidence. Instead, they were guided- or forced, because that little fairy thing was surprisingly strong?!- towards the train-line. Once they'd gotten in and settled, he took a bit of a situational inventory. They were on a train. The train was full of demons. The demons did not give a single shit. Hell, were some of them. . . ? Yes, they were trading cards. If it wasn't for the fact he was actually looking to do the job, he'd probably settle down and see what the deal was. He wasn't amazingly interested in the demons' culture, but, well, he had played trading card games before.

The struggle was real.

With the head of his ax resting between his feet, and the shaft running along his leg, the man crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall of the train, half on the door. From that spot, he could peek into the next car and keep track of that fairy, as well as shoulder surf and read the demonic newspaper. He couldn't actually, you know, read it, but there were pictures! That was something. He guessed. Probably.

”Let's just take it easy and play it smooth for now.” He calmly noted, taking it easy and watching and reading where possible. Best thing to do with an observational assignment. Play it cool. Be smooth. And, of course, keep- wait, was that two lesbian demons in the newspaper? Holy shit.

Option A-minus.

[Yuuki Honda]

He gave the both of them a swift bow of his head, and returned their greetings with a soft smile. "It's good to meet the both of you, Riki-san and Makino-san." So, apparently they were doing the same job. This was nice; he assumed that he'd be doing this alone, but a larger group was appreciated. This initial impression should have been obviously unlikely if he was going to be dealing with things in this realm... oh, and it was on the request itself. Silly, silly him.

Along came a small, flying woman with a voice that could only be replicated with the right-most key on a piano. Well, the request didn't specify the recipient as being one of the victims, given that she had only ever mentioned her friends being harassed by a pervert whom they could not speak about. Actually, now that he remembered, how would the Pixie have known about the harassment if they were not able to tell? If she knew what the perpetrator looked like, then what was the point dragging along a small group of humans to help her out?

In the middle of that thought, Yuuki found himself being literally dragged into a train filled with... demons. Ooooh crap. It'd take a minute for them to be slaughtered by the demons in the car if they all desired, but he was surprised to see that the way they acted around them was just about the same as humans did with other humans in their own human trains in the human world. He watched the two ease into the scene and discretely keep an eye out on the pixie who was using herself as bait for the pervert. Would such a thing work for someone of her size, he wondered.

Everyone looked like they were able to kill him, but perhaps if he used a bit of his charms to make an acquaintance of himself with some of the riders, he could give the group a bit more help on finding and apprehending the creeper. His attention was attracted by the red Oni-like creature and the tiger-monkey-snake-thing trading what looked like cards. He didn't feel nervous at all around the potential danger, and with the knowledge that the demons were just as intelligent as humans were, he thought it'd be worth the time to communicate and make a few temporary allies.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Yuuki stepped up to the Nue and the Oni and stared at the cards being traded. "Hello. Those seem interesting. What are you guys trading? Perhaps I can take a closer look?" He couldn't bother wasting time collecting sheets of cardboard like many children back then did, given his unusual devotion to his hobby. However, connecting to people in this sort of way might prove to be a boon for him... while also expanding his horizons a bit. God knows how many things he had missed throughout his years performing and composing.



Option: C
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1-10000

[Alice]

So far, everything on the Pixie front seemed to be okay. There were a few weirdos moving about in the other cart, but none of them seemed to be moving for the fairy, specifically. Not yet, at least. If anything, it seemed like it might have been a smooth ride.

At first, the Nue and Oni looked at Yuuki, seemingly confused. After a moment, though, the Nue shrugged before giving- not lending, but actually giving- a few cards to the boy. None of them had extremely “valuable” looks to them, but it was, perhaps, the kindness of a veteran welcoming a newbie to the fold.

Yuuki acquired a Jack Frost Card!
Yuuki acquired a Pyro Jack Card!
Yuuki acquired a Jack the Ripper Card!
Yuuki acquired a King Frost Card!
Yuuki acquired a Hee-ho-kun Card!

Yuuki completed the “Old Jack” set!

Why, it even seemed that things, overall, would be nice! Except, not really. Did you honestly think you'd get something for free without trouble?

”Whadahell? I tried trading you my Naga set for those cards, you asshole!” The Oni was not the one that objected, however. At least, not the Oni that had been trading with the Nue. ”First, I'll kick the humans' asses! Then your asses! Then I'll take all the cards! Gahaha!”



Thug Lyfe Oni
Resist: Strike
Weak: Fire
Skills: Viper Smash, Swift Strike, Power Charge


Delinquent Ikusa
Null: Dark
Weak: Light
Skills: Twin Shot, Viper Smash, Mamudo

Foul-mouthed Momunofu
Resist: Slash
Weak: Wind
Skills: Fatal End, Assault Dive, Skewer



Seems like an old-fashioned beat down is in order! The guy even brought friends. Wow. Hopefully nothing will happen in the other car during the fight. But, whatever! Wipe them out!

[Yumina Makino]

Pixie friends seemed to be doing alright by herself. As wrong as it sounded, hopefully the creeper would get interested enough to go after her. They'd be here forever if the perv was only interested in tall chicks. Or dudes.

One of the demons interrupted the laid-back atmosphere by yelling a lot. Yumina turned around to see Yuuki near a couple of monsters, and a different crew that for some reason were bothered by him. More importantly, those delinquents wanted to fight all the humans, even the one's that hadn't done anything. Trying to battle in a moving train sounded extremely dumb, but she expected that level of idiocy from these guys. Arguing that she shouldn't be included had little chance of being effective.

There was not much she could do without getting in front of Fredrick, and she fully intended to stay behind the big guy. She did not want to get hit by any of their attacks. He could be her shield. Plus, somebody had to make sure the Pixie chick's okay. That's what they were here for.

"Man, I had noting to do with this," she sighed. The boys could take care of themselves. She didn't do much damage anyway. Yumina did manage to weaken the lot of them so they couldn't fight as good as they used to.  Otherwise they all might be going at this forever. This could all be done with if she could charm all three of them, but that ability didn't feel like working today. With her spell casting out of the way, she went back to not doing anything.

[Frederick Cooper]

Frederick hadn't noticed what was going on until the trio had stepped in and made all that racket. Once, twice, thrice Yumina put out what seemed to be debuff spells. If that were the case, Then blasting them away would probably be pretty simple. He shifted from his little rest corner and gestured at Yumina with thanks before shifting to the front line officially. Zouchouten appeared just behind him as he tugged his cap down and readied his ax. Despite the situation, he was pretty amused. Happy, even. Sure, it was probably going to distract them from the other car- possibly even jeopardize the mission, if tropes were to be followed- but beating down bullies was always fun. That's what they were, right? Bullies? Either way, they were going down, and hard.

”Yo, Yuuki.” Sure, the other was a polite young Japanese boy, but this was a fight. Plus, Frederick, despite living in Japan for almost a decade and a half, still preferred the lack of honorifics. Felt much more personal. ”I pack a punch. I'll take two of them. Try to save some strength in case they've got more friends, or in case we have a fight in the other car.” He was thinking ahead. Cooking, after all, gave plenty of necessity for foresight. Couldn't let good things burn, after all. Food was precious, more so when it was the good, expensive shit.

”All right! Zouchouten, go-go God Hand!” Inspector Gadget would have been proud. Mechazou fired the rocket punch at the Momunofu first. The resulting collision tossed it into the wall. Fortunately, no bystanders were hit by the barreling body. In doing that, though, he seemed to have attracted the ringleader's attention. That guy was charging up his attack. Well, that just wouldn't do, now would it? Zouchouten fired a second God Hand off, but the Oni didn't get obliterated. Looked like it resisted Strike, and that just caused the large man to click his tongue. The bigger click had sounded after the empowered attack slammed into him. Nope. That just wouldn't do at all.

Frederick gripped his ax and charged in, swinging downward in a powerful two-handed strike. That guy didn't resist that one damn bit. Immediately hopping- or stumbling, as it would more accurately be called- to the side, he let the third God Hand of the engagement slam into the guy. Another one bit the dust. Well, probably. He wasn't sure if he killed the demons or just knocked them out of commission. Either way, it looked like his part was done. Using God Hand to that degree was a little tiring, though.

[Yuuki Honda]

Yuuki hesitantly took the cards from the Nue, making glances between the cards and the Demon that had just given them to him. Once more. One more time. "...Wait, huh?" He didn't ask for the cards. Actually, he didn't ask for anything from them besides a few words from them. It would've led up to him asking around for some help dealing with this issue the pixie had, but instead, he ended up receiving a complete set of trading cards from another dimension. That's pretty neat and all, and for that he was thankful, but it was entirely unnecessary. Don't let the demons hear that though; they could turn on him any second.

As he pocketed the cards and thanked the Nue, his head turned to face the louder voice of another Oni. The skies were beginning to storm upon this train... as in, shit was about to get real. The Black Knight formed behind the boy in a darkened mist, its arms crossed in a dominating manner. He didn't like this one bit. This whole situation almost mirrored something that could happen in their world, and it sickened him. They had to make this quick.

The American called out to him with the game plan after they were weakened by Yumina. He couldn't believe that he could take on two of them, but he shrugged and went along with it. "Understood. I'll take the cone-head." Yuuki tugged at the handle of his ivory weapon which stuck out of its cloth holder, and swung it to the side. The bag flopped toward the Ikusa, buying him a moment to move in for a hard strike. He slammed the shadow-coated blade onto the abdomen of the Demon. This shadow seemed to spread onto his target, and after a second, he began convulsing. Success.

Poisoned and weakened, it released a wave of darkness at the teenager, but it did little to deter him or his Persona. The Knight jabbed both of its hands into the Ikusa, one through the head and the other through its chest. With a cringe, Yuuki raised his hand up to his face and clenched it tightly. And then... the Knight ripped the creature into two. Blood spurted all around, but thankfully the Persona protected his clothing from the staining of Demonic blood. The student looked around to make sure that Frederick had taken care of the other two and lowered his head. The Black knight faded away, leaving behind a mess of a Demon.

"...L-let's check up on the flying girl."

[Alice]

Well, after essentially destroying the thug presence in the car, things slowly went back to normal. In fact, nobody seemed to give much of a shit after the fight itself was over. Seemed like the fight itself was the only trouble, with some of the older demons seeming to shake their heads, mumbling something about "damn youth", or whatever. Well, let the old coots be old. After you turn your attention back to the other car you find- o-oh my. Well, seems like you've found something, indeed.

A man had appeared, letting the Pixie sit in the palm of his hand. Her expression was not unlike a person that had gotten high. The most noteworthy thing about the man- demon, as the detail clearly clarified- was a wiry red tail with a large ball of thin, straight hairs at the end. Dandelion-tail had said appendage hovering over the fairy, with small, powdery particles occasionally drifting down. Was this, perhaps, the pervert in question? He was clearly cheating in his perversion. Humans, at the very least, used their hands properly!

Well, either way, it seems like the Pixie is in trouble, and it's up to you to save the day.

Option A: Stranger Danger! Scream that there's a pervert on the loose! Roll a 1d10 to see who comes!

Option B: Chances are, he's the guy you're looking for! Attack him! Also, be careful not to hit Pixie-chan. Roll a 1d20 to verify what you hit.

Option C: Things're gonna get hot and fuzzy. Enjoy the show. You perverts.

[Frederick Cooper]

”Good work on all sides.” Frederick praised his teammates. It was perfectly true! Even if it was a bit, eh, messy. But he was a nice guy. When he wanted to be, that is. Nodding to the two and shifting a bit closer to where he had originally been, he blinked and peeked through the window of the door to the next car. Well, that was interesting. Was that supposed to be like Fairy-nip, or something? Fairy dust? As amusing as it was, well, Fred decided he wanted to test something out. Really and truly, he did want to help the fairy, but he wanted to find something out. That something?

How demons reacted to perverts in general.

”Let me just try something, guys. We can save her if it doesn't work?” Or, well, they could still go do it themselves, anyway. He just, well, really wanted to try something. He put his hand up in a sort of monk-like pleading posture before opening the door between the cars. ”Holy shit, there's a pervert molesting this fairy over here!” And then he just. . . retreated back to his corner, letting the door between the cars close. He kind of wish he had some popcorn. That shit was horrible in reality. One bitch falsely accused him of being a pervert and an entire car of people reacted horribly. Just because he was fat didn't mean he was an otaku!

. . . well, he was. But just because he was an otaku didn't mean he was a pervert!

. . . well, that was also true. But just because he was a pervert didn't mean he'd touch random girls!

. . . because he was a good, faithful boy. Kind of like a dog that was thoroughly broken in.

Option A followed by Option C.

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[Yumina Makino]

"Alright!" she cheered. Something about that battle felt good, even though she didn't actively participate. Staying in the back row certainly had its benefits, like not getting hit. Hiding out like this seemed to cowardly a move to perform on a regular basis, but if enough fighters were around to do damage, she could always take a minute to support them from behind.

More exact details for that strategy could get figured out later. Yuuki was right, they should make sure Pixie didn't end up in any danger. Turning back to look in the other car revealed that the girl was actually in trouble. The demon that must be responsible did not appear to harm the poor thing, but the situation still looked bad. He was up to something, which honestly felt like a creepier version of the charming spell. Granted, it was probably not the same thing, and could be a different effect entirely. Regardless, it bothered her, and Yumina had to stop this.

"That's. . ." Fredrick wanted to do something, but telling every monster that a problem existed wouldn't accomplish much. Probably. None of the demons really cared about the fight that just took place a few seconds ago. Who knows if their culture even cares about what happens to others around them?

"Okay, I can't wait anymore." Barely any time passed, but sitting around until another person took care of the problem went against half the things she stood for. That's not how issues get solved. The three of them were hired to catch a predator, not to find someone else who would do it for them. She had act now, even if attacking the guy barely did anything. At least she tried.

Yumina threw open the door separating the two cars as forcefully as she could. Thinking about this too much would cause her nervousness to get in the way. She stood in front of the stupid demon with his stupid tail, and made sure he got a good look at the knife that was about to enter his body.

"Alright asshole, prepare to die!" With that piece of advice delivered, Yumina tried to stab the guy, while avoiding the fairy, hopefully.

She regretted nothing about this decision.

Option Better stab that guy

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1-20

[Yuuki Honda]

There was less of an uproarious reaction to the bloodbath beatdown that had occurred right in front of them, as if all of this was something that was totally normal. Is the value of life here in the Demon world non-existent here? This was one messed-up place, and it gave him the heebie-jeebies. Lots of things were similar, yet backwards. That was to be expected in a world on approximately the same level of progression as a comparative one developed upon different morals. Ugh, it was like going to a different country... except everyone can kill you and most likely will try to.

The team was in high spirits after defeating the small group of malicious Demons who were pissed off to the point of murder just because they couldn't trade for some dumb pieces of paperboard. Well, they could be rather valuable. Who knew. Yuuki made sure that they were still in his pocket before moving on with them towards the next cart over. Presumably, and hopefully, the pixie was still there, safe and sound.

Yeah, no. His expectations were blown up like giant fireworks as his mind tried to process what was going on with the shady-looking man and the winged girl in his hand. She looked... out of it, and the most likely cause was the tail of the demon who was holding her. That didn't look right to him, because women getting drugged somehow or someway was wrong in almost every instance that it occurs. So, here Yuuki had a chance to plop an attack in and hit the creep with his weapon or call for help.

The problem with the latter is that he tried to ask for some, but it resulted in a fight without the question being relayed. All of these train-goers did not give a crap about him ripping apart the cone-head and messing up the car. Bah. Before he could act, Yumina had already rushed in to attack the man that was drugging the Pixie, screaming something like 'prepare to die.'

"Wait, you don't have to kill him, Makino! Calm down!" he shouted as he followed her. They shouldn't be too hasty, but the description of the job did mention that the previous victims did not remember a thing. Or, they couldn't tell her anything. That dust... it must be the cause of all of that, right? The most appropriate course of action, in this case, would be to act directly. That was what he thought. Yuuki's weapon was raised and lowered upon the head of the potential culprit, swiftly and with great force.

"Let go of her!"

Option B:


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