Ramble On [Party of 2: Seiji/Takeda]

[Seiji Dalton]

The encounter with the creatures in the park the previous night lit a fire under Seiji's rump. There were things lurking in the darkness, just out of sight of the common people. After he arrived home from his first day of school, Seiji made arrangements with Takeda. The armory was busted out and Seiji admired his bastard sword again. It was a truly fine blade. Hiding it under his clothes proved even easier the second time. "I don't think we'll get busted for walking around with these if we're careful. There's something I want to show you." He said to Takeda. Their preparations didn't seem to eat up much time. Before he walked out of the door, he made sure that he could summon his resolve in the form of the floating card. The familiar power was there and he felt good again just being in the presence of the card. "I doubt we're going to get some jaw dropping revelation out there tonight, but we'll get some experience under our belt. Hope you've got the bullets for that."

There weren't many things in which Seiji excelled, he reflected. But along with his Persona, something else awoke within him. He felt a drive to do good, learn how to better himself, and push himself farther. He, much like his Persona, was awake. His senses seemed sharper and his eyes scanned the people Takeda and he walked by with apprehension. "We're heading for Yoyogi Park. Maybe we'll find a picnic basket with something good in it, eh Booboo?" Seiji lowered his voice a few pitches on that last part. They eventually made their way to the park. The portal was easy enough to find. "If you want a smoke break before we go, now's the time to take it. I dunno what works and what doesn't work in the dark world." Cracking his knuckles, he stepped through the portal whenever Takeda was ready to head out.

What was waiting for them on the other side was just as strange for Seiji the second time as it had been when he stumbled there on instinct.

The world was warped. It looked like he was in some kid's strange fantasy of a park. The vines were overgrown, stretching on forever and up walls that were crumbling. Strange green eyes peered at them out of the darkness. "You ready for this? We'll fight a few of them, scavenge for materials, and get back to civilization. Maybe we'll find something good to give that junk lady with the cryptic hints." Actually, Seiji didn't know whether Takeda had met that lady or not. Perhaps introductions were in order when he was done today. Drawing his sword, he found a defensible position near a statue covered in moss and waited for whatever was to come. He doubted Takeda had the same healing powers as the boy from before. That guy having them was a lucky break and he doubted Takeda would pull some special power out of his wazoo. "Come out, come out, wherever you are." He muttered into the green yonder.

[Takeda Akiyama]

The midnight oil had been set on fire a long time before Seiji wormed his way through the doorway. In the dingy little apartment, the beretta laid carefully arranged next to the phone, it's magazine slipped out of place so that each individual bullet could be counted with care. Hell no, Takeda wasn't going to get caught off guard, not during one of these fucked up dark hours ever again. Every night since the first encounter, that pistol was maintained, oiled, and the magazine was always topped off with fresh bullets. This whole monstrous series of events had made the two effectively go all Van Helsing on some asses since they were first caught off guard in that theater.

Still didn't mean Takeda had to like it, though.

It was only natural, however, that they needed to go out on occasion to learn more about whatever spooky shit was hitting up Tokyo. The only alternative? That, my friend, was to go to the airport, sell everything they had, and book it. To tell the truth, that alternative was sounding pretty damn good as of late. Common course at this point was to run out into the city, hunt down a few out of practice, 'n well...hope they didn't die. From what Takeda could tell? The theater had been the weak mobs, trying to home in on the tasty bits while they were still fresh, before the big boys stole away the corpse from the figurative hyenas.

Striding along in silence, his hand in his jacket pockets, he remained fairly quiet for the most part. Relations hadn't exactly improved since the theater, other than a general feeling of "We're both fucked if we don't work together to get out of this shit.". Takeda had no illusions of saving people in Tokyo. He wanted out. On the walk, he lit up the cigarette, and finally started to talk as they neared the park. "No way in hell am I boo-boo, because if I am, that makes you what one fat American kid from the TV. Honey boo something." his voice was calm, but the humor did help to lighten things. He didn't have to like the kid, nor did the kid have to like him. But hell...it beat being eaten by Cthulu.

Stepping through the portal, Takeda breathed out relief...and smoke. The cigarette still w- holy shit. The entire park looked like some Tim Burton film, with vines growing out from the ground, eyes staring out at them from every angle...well, hell, still looked better than the apartment. Raising his pistol, he moved in line with Seiji. "What junk lady?" With his eyes forwards, and his cigarette lit, he peered into the abyss, hoping for fuck's sake it didn't stare back. Wait. The eyes. Fuck. Anywho, he proceeded to talk again, "Past few hunts I ain't found the card thing again...gonna have to wing it."

[Satanick]

Oh. You lucked out.

Goblin
Resist: Light
Weak: Lightning
Skills: Cleave, Agi, Tarukaja

Dryad
Resist: Wind
Skills: Media, Marin Karin, Garu

Dark Elf
Resist: Slash, Fire
Weak: Lightning, Light
Skills: Fatal End, Garu, Dormina

[Seiji Dalton]

Hanging off of the statue, Seiji saw the three demons emerging from out of the woodworks. The faintest hint of a smile crossed his face. "You'd better get ready, Takeda." Seiji said as a card fell into his free hand. "Things are about to get helter skelter." The teenager suddenly felt a strong urge to listen to his music. Unfortunately, his headphones wouldn't work here. He settled on saying that old familiar word. "Persona!" The card smashed and Wart emerged from the sea of Seiji's soul. He looked particularly...Wartish tonight. The color of the knight's fabric was a dull gray tonight, much like Seiji's eyes. Maybe he wasn't as into the fight as he thought he was. Regardless, he surveyed and saw the three enemies. "I hope you're as good with that pistol as you think you are." He quipped when what seemed to be a dark elf approached them. "I'll leave the drow to you. Something tells me he's not going to be a Drizzt." On the opposite side, a goblinish creature and a tree were approaching him. Neither of them looked too pleased. Wart knew what Seiji had in mind before he did. The knight launched at the two monsters and slashed them one after another with ferocity that more than made up for the unenthusiastic color of his armor.

Seiji wasn't going to be one upped by his own subconscious. Oh no. Now he really had to get down there and prove himself. Jumping and landing at the foot of the statue, he took off running through the grass and made his way towards the goblin and tree man in short order. One mean, brutal cut across the face later and the goblin's eyes were slashed. It screamed and grabbed at them. "I'll have to keep that horse guy around. He has some good ideas. Stealing thunder is fun." He said in a low voice as he kicked the Goblin down. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't very pleased at this turn of events and had an idea of where he was. It screeched and ran at him. Fortunately, Wart was on point and jumped in front of the tiny screaming creature, shield raised. Seiji's soul was strong and the slash that it gave bounced off. It wasn't quite harmless, but it didn't damage Wart much. A minor twinge of pain ran through Seiji's body, like he'd walked into a wall. "These things can't seem to hit that hard." He called out to Takeda before lunging at the goblin again.

Between the combined might of Seiji and Wart, the goblin died in no time at all. That just left the tree man for his load. Seiji had faith in Takeda, although he'd yet to sense a Persona of any kind from his brother. Seiji resolved himself to help his brother. To that end, after Wart held off the tree for a bit with a brutal cut, he sent the Persona to deliver a cut or two to the dark elf to take some pressure off of his brother. That just left him with the tree. What it did, simply put, was the single oddest thing that Seiji had ever seen. This weird tree-person started swaying in the wind, almost seductively. Over near the dark elf, Takeda would no doubt notice that Wart slowed in the middle of a strike against the dark elf. Seiji was suddenly mesmerized by the lovely texture of this tree's bark. Wait. Waaaait. He was falling in love for a tree. That was the single strangest thing he'd ever felt in his life. Seiji tried to push those awful, awful thoughts out of his head and press onto the offense. He delivered a few choice slashes to the tree and seemed to be making progress towards cutting the damn thing down.

The knight and his master were furious with their blows. The Dryad would occasionally shoot bursts of wind at them but Seiji would hide behind Wart until the winds retreated. This fight had to end soon before he tired himself out too much. In Kendo, matches tended to end fairly quickly. These demons liked to draw things out. Looking to Wart, Seiji knew the knight understood what he was thinking since they were one and the same. He gripped the tight leather of his sword tight in his hands and Wart did the same. They marched in unison and once again delivered devastating slashes at the same time. Unfortunately for Takeda, the creature managed to get off a heal before it fell over dead. The dark elf would find its wound healed, if only by a little bit. That would certainly make things a bit harder for his brother. "Sorry, Takeda. I'll be over there in a second." Seiji and Wart began rushing towards Takeda's location, hoping his brother would have finished his fight by the time the short sprint ended.

[Takeda Akiyama]

The thought ran through Takeda's head almost so quick that it could've burned a hole through the other side of his skull by the time it passed. Baby's first rpg monsters. No Cthulu madness, no weird, dark, shapeless blobs or shaggoths, no. Just what looked to be a goblin of some sort that looked only a few steps up from being a snotling...oh god, that bugged him. Then a drow, then a tree. An animated tree. Whatever the hell had animated this park was almost childish in nature, these were fairytale monsters, something you wouldn't see normally...was whatever was doing this corrupting the nature of places that bad? Oh fuck it. Bullets. Yes. Bullets. "Do I fucking look like some sort of cowboy to you?" he said out loud in regards to the gun, but hell yes, he'd go for the Mary Sue elf.

Tension filled the air for a moment as Seiji sprinted off into battle, his persona summoned, ready, able...whilst Takeda found no trace of a card, no way of supporting himself with any of the magical attacks he had seen the phantasm in the theater use before. Something was off about it, something that troubled him pretty damn deeply. With his pistol drawn at the ready, he gazed right on through to the dark elf, ignoring the others. Every hunt, it was the same, Seiji would tank, Takeda would shoot, and all the fun would be done before sunrise, hopefully, with something to take home, or sell to one of his drinking buddies, anything to help keep them afloat. Taking aim, he fired his first shot at the elf...and god damn if he wasn't surprised by one of the quickest dodges he had ever seen by one of these damned abominations. Not like the goop, or any of the other dark little beasts...this'n decided to outright sidestep a bullet via almost floating to the left. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

As he himself moved towards the right, jumping over a mass of gnarled vines to try and get a better shot, he observed the strange little elf put one hand out to it's side, opening it up to reveal rather...long, pointed nails. Oh fuck me, this little shit couldn't possi-bam. In a flash of speed, the elf had raked it's claws along Takeda's right leg, tearing open his pants, causing warm, wet blood to rapidly drain from the wound, the little elfy fuck was fast, but atop that, Takeda knew...or thought he knew, that bullets wouldn't work on this thing. Not from a distance.

Sprinting, fueled on adrenaline to ignore the horrid pain coming through via the wound, Takeda tumbled down below some bramble to keep the creature from having a clear line of sight with him. No way in hell could he take a slash like that to anything vital, he'd go down in seconds. Gripping his leg in pain, he looked overhead. Gusts of winds had picked up in the area as he heard the sounds of clanging metal and struggle resounding from the other side of the battlefield. No time to look though, as soon, that same wind seemed to gain speed...and pressure. Gripping onto one of the shrubs in this twisted little garden, Takeda held on for dear life as a fierce gust of wind started to rip up soil from the ground. Laughter filled the air other than the strong gusts...little shit was laughing at him. Before long, the roots started to give way...damn it to hell.

Takeda was sent through the air, back first into the soil as the speedy little elf practically moved in short flashes towards him, each one revealing more and more of that bloodstained claw, and a fierce grin of sharp, yellow teeth. Lifting himself off of his back, the elf soon was face to face with him. Grinning, lightly chuckling to itself as it put one claw under his chin to rake across his throat. One loud bang, one fucking loud bang put an end to that. Takeda's Beretta stayed in his hand, and one clean shot to the elf's groin put a hell of a stop to any giggling. If anything, it started wailing in abject horror, mixed with absolute pain. Over his head, the brutal knight which Seiji conjured from time to time loomed over him, lifting it's sword down to attempt the killing blow. Though wounded, the elf dashed hither and thither, before stopping at a bramble, as the Knight attempted an attack, only to...fucking stop?

Almost as soon as it stopped, did Takeda notice small circles of green slowly making their way up the body of the dark elf, as it's blood flow from the groin shot started to cease trickling...it looked at Takeda, and it looked angry. Damn angry. Standing to his feet, he glared right on back at the fucker. Game on, sugar-tits. Wind blew the drow's wispy hair up towards the sky, and dirt began to be flung up in the air as it readied it's hand once more, now pointing it towards Takeda with one, bloodied, outstretched finger. With enough rage and adrenaline running through his system to keep him going, Takeda sprinted to the left as the elf zig-zagged with inhuman agility right towards him, outreaching it's hand for another slash. Takeda stopped, right after a moment, and gripped his pistol.

Little bitch never saw it coming. The bramble that Takeda had latched onto before still had it's roots in place, and during it's speedy flight to kill him, it ended up foot first in the hole left behind, tripping. As it stumbled to get up, and reached out a hand to slash him, Takeda shot through it's hand, looking down at it with utter disdain. Damn right. Damn right, in his mind. Fucker needed to stay on the ground. Crying out with pain, the creature tried to claw towards him, only to find it's hand stepped on, and two more rounds put in both of it's knees.

The wind picked up for only a moment, and Takeda spoke out. "Tell Yog Sothoth he's a bitch when you get back to wherever the hell you're from." A gunshot rang out, the pretty little elf got shot right through it's head, and he looked over at Seiji, tired, bloodied...

"That's a grudgin."