thenearshore | just a couple kids on a summer street

Entry tags:

just a couple kids on a summer street

Who: Souji (

socials ) & Homura (

timeshields )
When: 06/28, 06/29
Where: Downtown on the Near Shore
What: Team Izanagi decides to deal with some yakuza and ayakashi in one fell swoop.
Warning: Minor violence

Though Souji is a social creature, nowadays, he understands that his shinki isn't in the least bit. It's in contrast to both Reiji and Akihiko, although they were social in different ways, but, really, he cares a great deal about Homura and her comfort. He's not about to force her into a situation that she's not comfortable in.

Which is why he's opted to take this prayer. She doesn't do well in social situations, but she does do well in combat ones, and stealth as well. This prayer calls for them to at least locate the den, if not deal with yakuza or ayakashi. It feels a lot more appropriate than the prayer they helped Nanako with, even if they all enjoyed it. For the most part.

Long and the short: let Homura do behind the scenes work or fight things, when it comes to prayers. It'll result in less stress for her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Considering how the investigation back in Inaba went, he's not about to just let things go unquestioned. If there's something from the Far Shore here, and they left it unattended, then what's to say something worse wouldn't happen? Disbanding a yakuza clan would certainly result in a great deal of negative emotions, after all. It'd be even more for the ayakashi to feed off of.

So, with Homura's confirmation, he teleports in a flicker, crossing the rooftops in the direction she indicates.

What Souji spots isn't necessarily surprising, then. "I see it." They look like devils sitting on the shoulders of the guy - probably his age, maybe - but there's an absence of a correlating angel.

She's frowning at the scene in front of them in her own shinki way. It's certainly not written on her face while she's inhabiting a shield. That's the ayakashi they're looking for, but there are more of them than she'd like and far closer to the gang members than she'd like. It would be easier to get rid of them if they weren't so close to the humans they're affecting.

Even if she doesn't care much for these people, they have a job to do. She's certain Souji would prefer it if the humans weren't hurt by whatever measure they attempted to use to destroy the ayakashi.

We need to get the ayakashi away from the humans..

"I know you're not going to like it, but we may have to play bait to get them away."

Even if he can't see the frown, Souji can certainly sense the implication of it. Her emotions are often even, neutral, a more exaggerated version of his own calmness, so anything that tips one way or another is easy enough to detect. Especially when he feels the same, now. They're perched and far too close for him to be able to attack from a distance with any of his Personae without hurting the humans they're attached to.

And trying to stab or slash each one off with the uchigatana he has wouldn't work, or be particularly effective. Or safe.

He's right, she doesn't like it, and the emotion is minuscule on the surface but runs deep. She hates letting her god put himself in any danger if they can avoid it. But this is forcing them to a situation she'd love to turn back time to avoid.

Not that she has that power, but it's times like these she wishes.

My vessel isn't a weapon. Be careful.

Setting his hand against the shape of her shield in an attempt at comfort, Souji moves to step off the roof where they overlook everything. He's gotten used to this whole godhood thing pretty quickly - as he so often gets used to things that happen to him - so it's easy to teleport to soften the landing at just the right time. It lets him draw the sword from its bag and sheath, a small flick of his wrist to free it of the sheath.

"I promise to do my best." Because that's what he can give her, as he moves forward.

It'll just be a matter of attracting as many of the ayakashi as possible, and getting them away from the people they've attached themselves to.

She believes him, he's never given him a reason to distrust his word. But she's on edge the second they're on the ground.

The ayakashi turn to face the god, but they're still whispering something into the gang kids' ears. They're too far away to hear and stopping time like this wouldn't give Souji must room to work. She's stuck until they decide Souji is a better target than the humans they're preying on.

While he doesn't try to make himself more visible, necessarily, Souji slips into that sort of mindset, or space, or whatever it is that works for gods, that feels like he's making himself more present. It's the opposite of what he does when he wants to fall back and observe, like he's quieting everything about himself.

In this case, he's just - wanting to draw the ayakashi, but not the kobun. Ex-kobun? Hopefully they'll be making that ex.

He taps the tip of the sword on the ground, almost like a delinquent would do with a metal bat, advancing forward.

A few of the ayakashi decide that Souji is the better target. He's threatening and the kids will be here to torment later. Rid the threat go back to business.

The second the ayakashi are far enough away from the humans Homura stops time around them. Souji can be bait, but she won't let harm come to him. There are at least five of these little things trying to go for him and stopped in their tracks.

Good - the distance is enough that they'll be fine, and the number is manageable.

"This is good for now," Souji tells her. He's not about to go in there and lure more than this right now, to be honest, because it's just not worth it. He reaches his left hand up, summoning Ishtar. She's the smallest of his Personae, and as the primary healer out of all of them, he can maybe use Diarahan on the kids if they need healing from what the ayakashi have done to them while being able to target multiple enemies with Maziodyne if something happens.

"Let's rend them and see what else we can do here."

She watches and observes the world around them. It might be in stasis for the moment, but there's no telling if something else might show up and attack. The range is only so wide and she can't prevent things from coming into her zone.

Alright. She's here for any backup Souji might need, but she's not a weapon herself. The best she could be used for in this form is bashing against an ayakashi.

Watching Ishtar float around the frozen ayakashi, investigating them up close but not touching them - she's an extension of him, he's not about to test whether she'd unfreeze their targets' time if she made contact with them - Souji inclines his head a little.

He gets her attention with a calm "Ishtar," which has her perking before giving him a smile, coming over to rejoin him. One hand skims his jaw, briefly, before the other gives a flick of the wrist, electricity coursing through the five ayakashi in a crackle of power.

It gives extra oomph and reassurance, when he rends them in one, swift go. Just to make sure that they're down for good.

There was a particular reason Homura specialized in ranged weapons over close combat. The farther she stayed the more consistently she could use her magic. In the beginning it was just weakness- her power was conditional and not suited for slaying Witches and she was a sickly young woman then.

It's strange to see Souji's Persona, but the attack that Ishtar uses doesn't seem odd at all to her. Of course something like that would have some sort of energy attack. She doesn't question it, much like she doesn't question a lot of things about herself.

We're done with these. Do you want to do more? There's an undertone of worry, but if they can keep freezing time when they come towards them, they can keep it up for a while.

When the ayakashi are destroyed, and he's sure of it, Souji touches his hand to the one that Ishtar holds against the side of his head fondly. As the ultimate Persona of the Lovers Arcana, her affection doesn't surprise him. It's actually comforting in its way, and he makes sure she knows he's thankful, before she dematerializes for the time being and settles comfortably with the others in the back of his mind. While he doesn't mind his god powers, if... if he didn't feel them there, that would be the strange thing to him.

Homura's powers, and the rest of this place's strangeness and magic is all normal to him, too. Peculiar sometimes, but normal.

"A few more, and probably no more than five at once." He knows she's worried, but they have a job to do. And they'll be careful. "Let's just see what this area has to offer, and if there isn't something else going on - the yakuza had a den, so maybe these ayakashi are drawn here for a reason."

Summoning other... beings? Is strange to her, but she's easily accepting of it. They seem to be some sort of power Souji's comfortable using. It's soothing that her god has some way of attacking- because as a shield with a stop time power it would have been bad if he couldn't. These prayers would be nearly impossible.

Understood. As they tested last time, as long as they stay within the five-minute limit, Homura can switch it on and off. Once they hit five minutes she needs a long rest before she can utilize it again. So for now, she'll keep time frozen for Souji to explore.

The fact they're other gods is the funny thing to him, but Souji doesn't think too much about it that often. Izanagi, as it seems, apparently also thinks it's a little funny somewhere at the back of his mind where he often rests at the forefront of his Personae. But they're there, and they'll help, even if this isn't their original fight.

And they like Homura, too, in their various ways. Souji's starting to think Kohryu has a little more of Dojima in him than he originally anticipated.

"Do you want to see what happens with my augmentation when we're using your power, or save it for when we're not answering prayers?" he decides to ask, moving forward to investigate and see where they can round up more of the ayakashi.

There's a pause as she considers it. It would be a useful thing for them to know. Considering how much Souji wants to help people, and how often ayakashi tend to be part of prayers, it only makes sense. Getting to use it during a prayer seems like a reasonable step. The setting of a mission with various stressors is likely where it'll see most of its use anyway.

It shouldn't go poorly, at least.

Let's try it.

With such minor ayakashi, unless they wind up finding something bigger... Souji has a hard time seeing what could possibly go too poorly right now. He's only used this once, with Reiji, and that was probably more overkill than one attack needed to be, but then again Reiji's skill was incredibly flashy. This is more subtle, and he sort of prefers it. Less chance of someone getting caught in a bad way.

"All right then, here we go."

And he finds that sort of pocket that the power is tucked into, drawing on it in the same way that he does his Personae and channeling it out, to her. His Social Link with Homura isn't maxed yet, but it's certainly the highest he has of anyone he's met here, so it's sure to be interesting.

It's an odd feeling. Her vessel power at its very core is a simple one. She can freeze time for five minutes in a ten-meter radius around her. It has more use as support than full offense.

With Souji's augmentation affecting it, it's still a support power. But the range of it seems to double and her comfort with the extended time seems to grow exponentially. Whatever hints of exhaustion were present melt away.

I have a twenty-meter radius of frozen time. I don't feel anywhere close to my time limit.

Oh.

Well then.

Souji can't help but raise his eyebrows when she informs him of the distance that her radius has jumped - exponentially. He wasn't quite sure what he was expecting, but to say that he's pleasantly surprised would be a fairly accurate description at the moment. And even with the fact they're meant to be hunting ayakashi, he can't help but smile. It's a little harder to touch her shield when he's holding his sword, but he gives the edge of it a gentle tap with his knuckles.

"Just wait until we've been working together longer - we'll do even more amazing things yet, Homura."

She had no idea what to expect. This was the first time she'd felt Souji's augmentation and what a jump it is. The amount she was used to was comfortable, it could account for quite a bit, but a twenty-meter radius means she can stop projectiles from far away now. That's plenty of distance for Souji to work with and now plenty of time for her to work under. They were reaching two minutes before, but she can't even feel the exhaustion of using it.

I know we will. Pride and confidence in their partnership run along the god-shinki bond. She believes him entirely.

If he could send that feeling bad, Souji would. As it is, he uses gestures and praise and his voice to do it for him, moving forward to resume the hunt for the straggler ayakashi that are plaguing these wayward mortals. He has a feeling that there's something more to all of this, but... that might just be past experiences talking, when they discovered an entire chain of something more.

"Then let's get started." He gives another little tap, and then starts moving forward, venturing deeper into the radius that she's opened up for them. "We've got a lot of work to do."

Ayakashi show up all over the place for all sorts of reasons, and she's long ago accepted that. Most of them she notes down as not her problem. If they're not bothering Souji or Nanako they're not worth pursuing. It's a different matter when Souji wants to track them down.

She can't sense exactly where the nest might be, or if there is one in particular. But she knows that this many of them hovering around people is unnatural at best.

We're getting closer.

After having dealt with Izanami, there's no way that he'd ever ignore even an inkling of a feeling when it comes to suspecting there might be something more to a situation. First Namatame was their culprit, but it was all the more obvious he was a victim, himself. Then there was Adachi, and shortly after that it was Ameno-sagiri. It could've all been left to that.

Souji wasn't about to do that, though, and they got to the bottom of it in the end.

He's not about to ever leave someone in need, or leave any job unfinished, if it means he can help. He's just glad that Homura will go along with it.

"I feel it, too." Something niggling at his senses, though not something he can put his finger on. He summons Ishtar again in a flash of blue and the tinkling of shattered glass, the second he sees another of those little ayakashi perched on someone's shoulder. She electrocutes it, and he rends it, and then he's moving forward again.

Homura cannot be bothered to give a singular damn about people outside of her very small ring of important people. Unfortunately for her, all of her important people on the Far Shore have this annoying habit of caring about everybody. She's not about to let them go off on their own when she can do something about them. So she'll go along with it.

More for their sakes than for anybody else's.

There's something bigger in the area.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Prayer #25

no subject