Fireflies Heaven (Layla)

[Ayakura Alisa]

It was awkward to be running around here in such classy clothing but I was actually on to something here. I wanted to look for some stuff to salvage but I was called to yet another photoshoot, though this time it was apparently for men's wear. Anyway, that could come at another time. Regardless, I had made my way back to the outskirts. Come to think of it, my thoughts began to drift towards a good majority of my initial contacts who I realized had been MIA. Layla was basically the only one I still continued to spot at larger engagements, but as of late, I never got a chance to speak to her. I never had a clue on how she was doing. I didn't know if she ever did get any headway on her own travails, but something in the back of my mind gave me a bad feeling about all this.

I continued my way through the outskirts, trying to battle within myself to figure out just what the hell I was feeling that was so awkwardly... off. I looked around and saw nothing unusual, though, I continued onwards regardless, until I thought I saw a figure in the distance, a lone figure. A female figure, it seemed, as I made my approach. She didn't look very familiar at a huge distance until I got closer and closer. Speak of the devil, if it's who I believed it was.

"Hello? Layla, is that you I see over there?" I called out into the darkness of the outskirts of the outer city, wondering if I was just hallucinating or something.

[Layla Amare]

The fog and the darkness may have made it hard to see much, but it didn't stop Layla from sensing the approach of shadows. She mentally tried to take stock of how many were approaching. It was a few distinct signatures at first, then they started to compound. As the first ones drew close enough to be visible, Layla could tell she was up against a whole horde, all converging on the one, lone human this far out in the ruins. Some of them were so weak that she could only barely sense them among the stronger ones. But others were frighteningly strong, like what she would find in the floating castle. Taking all of them on at once wasn't likely to go well at all.

But would she really be living if she left before they could reach her? Perhaps. But there was more to it, this time. There were always more shadows lurking around than anybody could hope to defeat. But here, she had a chance to take out a ton of them all at once. She wanted to leave a mark. This may not have been enough of one, but it was a start.

Power surged up within her as she called forth her Persona. A familiar gigantic figure materialized behind her, spreading many arms wide. One, wielding a vajra, shot straight up to the sky. Electricity arced through the fog and low-hanging clouds in response, then split them as the air became superheated around bolts of lightning. They all came crashing to the ground in rapid succession, striking the largest shadows around her and then spreading to several more around them. Large swaths of the horde disintegrated from the sheer force of the charged lightning, but the ones still standing still numbered to a horde in their own right. And now she'd just pissed all of them off.

"Fine...that's fine. I'll still take you all on," Layla said, drawing her shield and urumi. She spun, cutting down several of them in sequence as winds whipped through battlefield. Layla tried counting how many she felled with Vayavastra at first, but quickly lost track as more of them kept coming. And then, as she reached the end of a long and tiring sequence of cuts, her attention was immediately drawn to another voice, calling out to her.

"Huh?" she asked, turning towards it. Just then, another, lion-like shadow dragging a ball and chain lunged at her. "Ah!" She quickly snapped her shield out to block, catching the big cat shadow right in the face. But one of its claws still ripped through her side. She cried out as pain erupted from the sight of the wound. She fell to the ground, but managed to turn it into a roll and escape from the shadow's next attack. Now, she finally ran, hoping to at least get enough distance to where she could heal herself without more distractions. But in doing so, she almost ran into another, familiar person. "Huh? Alisa? What are you-ah, never mind, there's no time for that. This way!" She started running again, making for an alleyway between two of the few still-standing buildings in the area and beckoning for Alisa to follow.

[Ayakura Alisa]

The fog and darkness of the area was making it really damn hard for me to get my bearings correctly, but soon all seemed clear to me as I realized it was in fact Layla, armed with a shield and some manner of urumi, she looked a little hurt but I knew she could heal herself and keep herself in a top condition. She recognized me straight away as she came closer and before I could ask what was up she quickly redirected me to an alleyway between two of the few still-standing buildings, beckoning for me to follow. I stood for a brief second wondering what was up before I realized that Layla had gotten herself into a fight with a horde of shadows as evidenced by the rumbling of footsteps I heard in the distance. Cursing to myself and wondering how she attracted such a horde of monsters to her, I quickly ran and followed her in between the buildings.

"So far out alone, friend!" I sighed and ran with her, wherever it was she was going. "I guess there wasn't a better time for me to find you, eh?"

I could still hear the horde of Shadows, and I had no idea if they were following us, but I looked behind us and saw a skinny serpent manage to wiggle its way in pursuit of us, in response - as I ran, mind you - I charged up a blazing ball of fire and threw it at the snake to halt its movement and continued to run alongside her.

[Layla Amare]

"You could have picked a better time to call out, at least," Layla said, ducking into the alley. By Vajrabhairava's light, she looked to make sure that there were no shadows already lurking there, then called back to Alisa. "I need a moment to try and heal myself. Can you make sure nothing gets in here while I'm doing that?" Without waiting for a response, she directed the Terminator of Death to pour a wave of healing energy over her. She looked down, watching the wounds close up and disappear, but much of the pain still remained. And judging by the state of her clothes, she'd been bleeding a lot before she'd managed that much.

"Oh please don't let that cause any more problems," Layla said under her breath before returning to join Alisa. "So I might have upset a shadow horde by dropping a lightning storm worthy of Indra on them. Any idea if there's a better place out here to hide?"

[Ayakura Alisa]

I stood to a stand still once Layla ducked into the alley; she seemed to be focusing on healing herself, though her wounds closed, she still looked to be in some manner of pain. She asked me to cover her, so as she took care of herself, I eyed a conveniently placed dumpster and heaved it so it was covering both myself and Layla. I stood behind the dumpster, being of relatively short height, it covered a good deal of my body, and I surveyed the surroundings to see if a good majority of the Shadows were on the other side, but they hadn't noticed us save for the snake I had already fried. I turned around to the other end of the alley. I gave Layla a quick glance and saw that she had already been beaten quite a bit by the horde, and I sighed. Flashing back ahead again I saw a shadow in the form of lizardman who attempted to sneak in from behind. As Layla was trying to recover I leapt past her and took down the lizardman, gouging it with my knife which I always kept with me, before pulverizing it by applying a pointblank Ziodyne to its face, causing it to splatter into dark gas.

I shook my head from side to side and gestured out to Layla. "Looking for a better place to hide? Follow me." I left the dumpster there in case the Shadows would come through the alley eventually, and pointed out Layla to the side. In fact, the alley we hid in temporarily was actually one I soon found was a little familiar. I was around this area before, trying to look for stuff to salvage in the past, and I went into some abandoned buildings. One of the buildings here had a backdoor that looked like an emergency door. I pointed out Layla to it once she would follow me.

"Into this emergency door. It'll hold for a long while."

[Layla Amare]

By the time Layla was done healing and had gotten back to Alisa, she'd managed to clean up most of the immediate pursuers. A dumpster had been shoved into one end of the alleyway to block it, while the remains of a straggler on the other end were just dissolving. Good thinking, at least, although Layla could tell immediately that it was a very temporary solution. Especially if something that could fly or jump came next.

Fortunately, Alisa found and indicated an emergency door. It still opened from the outside, how generous of the builders. Layla nodded and ran inside after Alisa, then slammed it shut behind them. Once they were safely inside, she took a deep breath, then slumped into a sitting position on the ground. "Now we just have to hope they don't have a tank or something," Layla said.

Although, even if there was a tank out there somewhere, they would probably still have a few minutes to catch their breaths.

[Ayakura Alisa]

Layla went in after I guided her through the door and she promptly closed the door shut. Now all that was left was to make sure that they couldn't break through. I doubted it; usually such doors were sturdy and it would be very obvious that enemies would attempt to break through. Besides, such Shadows here were usually quite primitive and probably would be trying to look for us in the outside since we went through the backdoor and I was pretty sure there weren't any Shadows there aside from the one I took down while Layla was catching her breath. "Well, hopefully, we'll be okay," I simply said, sighing in relief as I sat opposite Layla. "So tell me, what's been happening with you? I haven't managed to speak to you in ages."

My encounter with Ringo suddenly came to mind; he told me that she seemed just fine. I was going to find out the truth whether he cared or not.

[Layla Amare]

"Yeah...hopefully," Layla said. Her breathing was finally starting to slow down. That...had certainly been a rush. She had gotten exactly what she had expected and asked for, of course, but that didn't lessen the situation any. Now that she was in a temporarily safe place after the encounter, though, she could acknowledge that taking on all those shadows was just as stupid as she had initially thought. Would she have done anything different in retrospect? No, probably not.

Meanwhile, Alisa sat across from her and asked how she'd been. "It's been more of the same, really. Training, fighting shadows, getting my ass handed to me each full moon, looking for some way out of this mess..." Alisa probably wouldn't catch the double meaning on the last part. All the better. "I have to admit, I'm not seeing the point anymore. It's just dead ends, no matter what I try."

[Ayakura Alisa]

I sighed and heaved, stretching myself and then dusting myself off. "Same, huh... Well, you're not the only one. It can be easy to see that there's no point in anything anymore if you have no real reason to battle. I don't know very much about you, but there's no reason to keep on fighting if you can't find the drive to do it. Dead ends will mean nothing to you if you have a reason to surpass those obstacles," I shrugged, thinking back on Chidori's death, and now thinking about my current relationship with Pyxis... And honestly, I just think that these little things helped to keep me sane. "Heh... I just found it funny, you know? Talked with this kid with orange hair, y'know? He obviously seemed to care about you in some fashion. And then I end up finding you, in this mess, right when he says you're just fine. Silly coincidences, how they work out."

[Layla Amare]

Layla let out a small sigh of her own. Awhile ago, everything that Alisa had just said would have made perfect sense. In fact, it might have even been something coming out of her own mouth. But now, it was harder to believe in. What did she fight for anymore? "I'm...not sure why I fight anymore," she admitted. "At first, it was just for the thrill of it. I wanted to live a life full of excitement without wasting a single moment, and with the shadows and this Persona power I got just that. Then, somewhere along the way, I started wanting to make a difference, while I still could. But it's not happening. How much progress have we really made? Sure, we've all grown much stronger, physically, mentally, spiritually, and I would hope even emotionally. But we're still all trapped inside a barrier and surrounded by shadows with no end in sight. Have we really accomplished anything at all?"

She sighed again and shook her head. Then rolled her eyes at the mention of a kid with orange hair. There was no one that could be except Ringo. "Oh, don't even get me started on him," she said. "Last time I met him, he threw himself in front of an attack that wouldn't have done anything to me, and got himself pretty badly hurt for his trouble. It's not the first time he's done something like that either. I'm not too happy with him at the moment."

She raised an eyebrow at the comment about being 'just fine'. So, after spilling everything about her condition to him, that was what he said? Layla was almost proud of him for not spilling that at the first opportunity. At this point, it didn't matter much anymore if people knew. But she still didn't want them worrying about her, either.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I was trying to make sense of Layla's story. Just for the thrill of it? Well, I suppose her age may make it seem that way, but I don't think I was that much older than Layla was. Somewhere along the way, she said, she started wanting to make a difference? Hmm, while she still could. But one wouldn't concern themselves with time spent unless... No, I won't breach that line of discussion yet. But she did bring up something important - the lack of headway we as a contingent have been making. We didn't really get any answers despite the months of fighting we had done against these forces of darkness. It would be accurate to say that we haven't really made any real accomplishment aside from increasing our battle power.

I shrugged as Layla recounted an experience he had with Ringo. "Oh well. I guess I can't really argue when you question if we've really made any progress or not. But if you're going to mope about the transience of existence then you may as well just try to live the rest of your days enjoying a normal life instead of fighting, you know? I doubt anyone would try to stop you. If you're so inclined to fight, then we must endure; for the past few months we have found virtually nothing... But I won't let that stop me," I crossed my arms and looked down at the ground. "I have someone who supports me, and I know I will support her, and that knowledge is enough to keep me going. That Ringo kid, he does some questionable things, of course, he's young and brash, he wants to be the hero, you know? But I think he means well. He tells me he sees you as a friend but something tells me he likes you. I think he cares for you. Better not throw that kindness away."

I sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

[Layla Amare]

Most of what Alisa said didn't mean much to Layla. It was advice to give to a normal person, who would either live a natural, long life or was only worried about dying in battle. Things weren't the same for her. It wasn't advice that she could take. Only what she said at the end stood out.

"You think he likes me, huh," Layla said, not meeting Alisa's eyes. She shifted her gaze around the dark room for a bit before finally staring up at the ceiling. There was a time she would have wanted a boyfriend. Or even a girlfriend, if that was how things would have worked out. Back when she did live a normal life, and was content with just letting the days pass by, that was one of the few things that really interested her. Funny, how now that she'd tried to fill every day with as much as she could, and now that she tried to break down the idea of a 'normal' life, that was one of the first things to go. But it wasn't without reason. Inevitably, when she did go, she would leave people behind. And the closer they were to her, the more it would hurt. She didn't want to have to put anyone through that. That was why she always kept people at arm's length, even moreso here in Mosaic than in her last year and a half back home. She hated it, but she knew it was for the best.

And yet, now someone might have feelings for her. How did that even happen? And what did it take for a person to hold on to that, even knowing now that he would be left behind if he didn't get himself killed with his heroics first? "Well that's...stupid," she said. Her tone was soft and wistful, as though implying that she wished what she had said wasn't true. And while she still didn't meet Alisa's eyes, it was easy to tell that Layla had a downcast expression.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I scoffed as Layla said basically nothing of major significance to me. Soon enough, the realization dawned upon me. Only someone who knew their time on this stupid earth was short would be so dismissive of wanting to live a fulfilling life. Only someone who knew they were dying would say such a thing. Of course, most people would have the opposite reaction, but when you're living in a Shadow shithole like Mosaic City, I couldn't blame 'em. Or it coulda been someone who just didn't give a shit, but somehow I knew Layla wasn't the kind of person to not give a shit about something for the sake of being apathetic. No, there had to be some justification for it. And now it became clear to me that Ringo was lying. He told me she was fine. No, she was definitely not fine. Of course, Layla doesn't know that I've had to deal with loss already. My parents are dead to the Shadows. Chidori was killed by a Shadow disease. I had to face myself, my true self, too, and come to terms with the fact that everyone has to deal with loss.

That's stupid. Layla said those two words, strong, if they held conviction. From the softness and wistfulness in her voice, it was clear that she didn't stand by that the full one-hundred percent, though I definitely wouldn't doubt that she probably thought it was stupid after all (it didn't help that Ringo acted like a numbskull most of the time, from what I saw of him). I heaved out another sigh as I too, looked down at the ground. "You say what you want. It's your funeral at the end of the day." If Layla were looking at me right now, she would probably notice me having an ironic smirk. Honestly, life is shit. That's why you gotta make the most out of it.

Being so fatalistic and accepting of one's fate to die? Being so dismissive of the things that makes the colorful moments in life...

That's the real stupidity.

[Layla Amare]

"Hah...ahahaha." Layla laughed bitterly at Alisa's choice of words. "My funeral, huh? Yeah, I guess it is." She continued laughing before a few more seconds before taking a deep breath, then letting it out slowly to calm herself down. "What would you say if I told you that I could die any day now? I don't mean from fighting shadows. Whether I stayed in the fight, or tried my best to live a normal, boring life, it would still happen. And I wouldn't be able to see it coming. At least, not until it was too late to do anything other than say a few final goodbyes. That's what it's been like for me the last two, almost three years. I don't know how much time I have left. And I won't, until it's too little to do anything else. But I do know that it's not enough."

[Ayakura Alisa]

Layla laughed, and just as I predicted, she mentioned that really she could die any day now. There was no detail to her explanation, only that she could basically just drop dead? It was unclear to me, but again, I saw this sort of mentality from a mile away. The typical person would either suck it up and live every day like it were their last, or they would... react this way, tired and accepting of their inevitable fate. It was sad. "Nobody ever feels like they have 'enough' time to do anything, even if they didn't have the fear of basically dropping dead at any moment," I shrugged ruffled my blazer a little. It was getting a bit dusty. "And if you keep pushing away people and keeping them at an arm's length for the sake of secrecy and for the sake of not letting them know about your ailment, it'll make your inevitable death that much more painful."