Goddess' Shooting Star (Black★Rock Shooter X Persona 4)

[X] Inquire further
-[X] Ask Yosuke

"Chie? Oh, I think it's because we fought uh… Her Shadow?"

It took a few rotations of your little impromptu formation for you to end up with Yosuke for a bit after Chie lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. You aren't sure exactly how long, exactly, but you're impressed with how quickly Narukami noticed his friend was uncomfortable and brought her forward to have first crack at the enemies you come across.

The enemies who you've noted are also called shadows, a fact that only makes this whole thing more confusing.

They're not the same.

"Then what are they?"

No answer is immediately forthcoming in your mind and you frown as, oblivious to your internal dialogue, Yosuke scratches the back of his head sheepishly, giving a little awkward laugh. "W-well, Teddie's a lot better at explaining it than me-"

"Oho? I bear-lieve I heard my name!" The bear-mascot-thing hops up between the two of you. Chie and Yu are further ahead, scouting the next intersection as you move, though Teddie's exuberant declarations draw their attention back towards you for a moment. "What's troubling you? Tell Teddie all about it!"

It takes you a minute to formulate a question. "These things we're fighting, what are they?"

"The shadows?"

"Yeah, what are they?"

"They're shadows," Teddie just raises his hands and it takes you a moment to realize that he's approximating a shrug despite a lack of anything that can be considered shoulders.

He also lacks a neck, for all that you consider the merits of attempting to throttle him for that total non-answer.

"Yeah but what is a shadow? I meant-" you gesture wordlessly, trying to articulate the question in a way that won't let him dodge it again.

"Oh oh I got this! If they're shadows, then shadows are like… When the sun is… Y'know? So…" Yosuke pauses as well, a spark of understanding dawning behind his eyes. "It's us isn't it! So that's why Chie-"

He cuts himself off, but you've already got the gist of what he was about to say. Half of you expects the girl in question to turn back but she and Yu just went around a corner ahead.

Wait, crap.

"Let's pick up the pace a little."

"Right-o!"

"Roger that." The three of you move a little faster, determined not to get split up in the seemingly-endless corridors. "What are you asking me for though? I thought you'd already have some kind of idea. I mean, you met your shadow just-"

"HIYAH!" A battlecry cuts off further discussion as you come to the corner and a gray-skinned flower-headed baby flies out in front of you to crash into the opposite wall. Yosuke yelps, grabbing for his knives while you scramble to draw your sword, shifting to the left to give yourself space while he approaches the corner head-on.

"Persona!" Yu's voice rings out, and a figure in a long coat lunges out of nowhere, wreathed in blue flames as its spear blurs towards a huge cartoonish creature as the silver-haired boy focuses. Next to him, Chie is moving with nervous steps, long legs lashing out at two more of those strange baby-things while the first is getting back up.

Credit to the little thing, it moves quickly once you approach, but it's not fast enough to scuttle out of the way as you stab your sword down, drawing a grating cry as you impale it before it bursts into wisps of shadow around the tip of the blade.

"Chie on your right!" Yosuke lunges in next to the tomboyish girl, knives moving with purpose even if some of that purpose seems to be what he thinks it means to look stylish. Still, even if he is messing around a bit you can't deny that his attacks are effective, raking the demonic child with a series of tiny slashes that cause it to flinch back again and again before a flash of blue and a silhouette against Yosuke's back heralds a torrent of green-tinged wind that hurls it down the corridor, shortly to be joined by the other one courtesy of another kick from Chie.

Seeing that those two have the littler monsters well in hand, you move for the bigger one just in time to get caught by a wave of crackling yellow. Screams fill the corridor as Narukami is thrown back by the blast while both Chie and Yosuke convulse from the electrical attack. You feel yourself twitching as well, your muscles spasming, the added ache from yesterday's bruises making you nearly double over in pain, even if you're sure you took the least of the attack thanks to your distance from the foe.

"Come on, light-t-tning attack-ks? That's just n-not fair!"

"Shut up a-and fight-t-t-Trashamura!"

The kingly caricature raises a massive hand to crush Narukami and you push through the pain to lunge, crossing the distance in three great strides and a leap, slamming your sword into the upraised arm, feeling it bite deeply and then stop as the shadow gives a garbled roar of pain and swings to the side instead, attempting to shake you off. Grimly you hang onto the sword, the weight swinging from the hilt causing it to come free from the motion and nearly tossing you into a nearby wall. That's it.

Catching yourself against the surface, heedless of its verticality, you plant your feet and push off. Muscles scream, bruises ache, but the motion is familiar as you bounce back towards the shadow to meet its follow up. You're too slow, far slower than you should be right now, the undamaged arm is pulling back to strike at you and caught in mid-air you have no capacity to dodge until the thing stumbles suddenly, going off balance as Yosuke comes in, stabbing blindly at its thighs and managing to hamstring it.

The punch that should have laid you out goes wide and your sword comes around in an arc of gleaming steel, a scream of pain and anger(exultation) tearing from your lips as you cleave straight through the limb you hacked into earlier, severing the smooth grey 'flesh' and seeing the limb burst into more shadows as it hits the floor. Right before Yu's katana punches through its owner's chest, letting the rest of the shadow follow that piece of itself into nothingness.

Then you're hitting the ground and throwing away your sword as the pain strikes you full force, causing you to stumble into a roll rather than the slide you intended. A yelp sounds as the steel goes in a different direction and you come to a halt, splayed out on your back and staring up at the shadowed ceiling.

"Oh jeeze, Chie!"

"I got it!"

"Ahah…"

"Pixie!"

Carefully you begin to sit up, looking over to see Chie holding out her forearm while a little fairy hovers over it, casting a wave of glittering green that seals the cut as you watch.

"Wait, you have healing magic?!"

-------

Five minutes, that's all it takes.

Five minutes, and the bruises and aches you'd been prepared to live with for the next month are mostly cleared up, leaving only a handful of lingering aches as you stretch and rotate your arms, then your legs. A laugh bubbles up in your chest and Yu smiles tiredly between sips from a bottle of mineral water.

"Your Persona doesn't have any healing powers?"

"Nothing like that, this is incredible! Only…" There's a sense of discontinuity, something that doesn't fit with that word. "I don't think Shooter is a 'Persona' though, at least, she doesn't act like your Personas."

"Are you sure? I bear-lieve I saw you with that same kind of blue fire earlier."

"I thought that was her shadow?"

"I…" You grimace, quashing the sense of irritation in the back of your mind. "I don't think Shooter is a shadow either, I mean, we've all seen shadows in here right? They're all really… Hostile."

"Sometimes in more ways than one…" Chie murmurs so quietly that you almost don't catch it, shuddering briefly before closing her eyes and smoothing her expression with a visible effort of will.

"They also don't really look human, do they? The shadows in here are all… Weird…." Cartoon kings, armored knights, giant floating stripey mouths…" Chie frowns, as you push "Yosuke, you said Shadows are cast by people, but these don't really look like people at all."

"A shadow can be distorted by the environment around it though," Yu butts in as he finishes the last of his water and tears off the tag before crushing the plastic bottle in one hand. "stand under a tree and the leaves will distort your silhouette."

"Y-yeah, hey…" Chie shoots a grateful look at Narukami before leaning in, "maybe that's why everything in here is all… Y'know… Kings and knights and stuff, I mean we are in a castle after all."

"What about the floating mouth things?" Yu asks with a raised eyebrow, though he smiles indulgently as he says it.

"I dunno, I'm not a myths and legends kinda gal…"

"What about the stone babies with flowers on their heads?" You can't resist a little jab of your own, even if you aren't getting the answers you originally aimed for, you can't deny that this discussion is filling in your understanding of this world.

It's not like the otherworld you're familiar with, far more populated for one thing, but it's still similar in its own way. "Shooter…" The thought goes unanswered despite your best mental effort to send it out to her, the presence at the back of your mind is present but faint, clearly listening, but giving no hint of a reply. "Just what are you?"

…

You're sure your thoughts are heard for all that they go unanswered. And you briefly wonder if shooter knows in the first place.

While you introspect, Yu breaks up the impending bickering by getting the others on their feet before offering you a hand to do the same. While time seems to pass far more slowly in this world than in your own it's still been long enough that everyone is starting to worry about getting home, but after a moment's consideration, the vote to press on is unanimously in favor.

Unfortunately, it doesn't prove to be nearly so simple.

One moment you're making your way down the hall next to Narukami, leaving Chie and Yosuke to make up the second row. The next, your foot hits something and the space around you bends, displacing you into a new section of corridor and causing you to stumble. Catching yourself, you turn to look around just in time for Yosuke to appear with a yelp, nearly tumbling into you as he goes down.

"What the hell?" Oh, Chie's here too, looks like you're all together at least.

"That was bear-y strange…"

"This looks like an earlier section of the corridor, at least, I think…"

"How can you tell?" Yosuke sounds utterly confused as he picks himself up off the floor. "Looks the same to me…"

"No it's definitely familiar…" Narukami trails off in thought before snapping his fingers. "The doors!"

"Doors?" You and Chie look at each other, having said the same thing at the same time.

"Oh right!" Yosuke snaps his fingers and points back down the corridor, behind the four of you towards where you can see several doorways. "We never did check all of those out! May as well do it now?"

"I'm not sure that's a bear-y good idea…" Teddie makes an objection but Yosuke is already jogging down the corridor, leaving you to follow at a brisk walk yourselves.

"What's the matter?"

"Well, I'm not completely sure, but I think I remembear we skipped these doors because there was a bear-y powerful-"

Yosuke's scream cuts Teddie's worried explanation short as he scrambled out of the way of the door he's just pulled open. Just barely avoiding the explosion of splinters that it suddenly becomes as a enormous mounted knight bursts through into the corridor. "Ohshitohshitohshit!"

The knight's sword comes down and suddenly Narukami is there, slapping the blow away with a desperate swipe of his own blade while you hurry to draw your weapon as well. Chie screams, taking off towards the fight at a run while you follow hot on her heels as the Knight slashes again. Yu and Yosuke dive in opposite directions as the sword comes down between them before the horse rears as its rider spurs it, leaping forwards as it hits the ground in an attempt to trample the katana-wielder.

"HAAH!" Chie leaps in as Yu rolls and a kick enhanced by brilliant flames causes the horse to stumble to one side slightly even as she hops back, hissing in pain and clutching at one foot. You arrive a second later, your sword swinging and striking sparks from one pauldron as it skates off the thick metal. The vibration from the blow making your palm sting unpleasantly as you tumble gracelessly under a gauntleted backhand and hit the floor in another roll.

Unlike before however, you can spring to your feet freely, whirling to face the knight even as it slowly turns to regard each of you.

Then, ominously, it begins to glow, its sword rising to a guard position even as you feel a familiar tingle in your free hand…


[ ] Break the card, call your Persona to the fight.
[ ] Reach out with your thoughts, call Black Rock Shooter to the fight.
[ ] Raise your sword, fight with your own strength.