Fighting is Not a Fine Art [Setsuna]

[Jaelyn Callahan]

As soon as Setsuna said was ready, Jaelyn led her out of the safe area, through the subway terminal and out into the ruins of the western half of the city. From there, it was a simple matter of following the same directions as she had taken to get there before and she could find the museum again. Twice, she had been there, although one of those times had been coming from the other direction. The real trouble would be recognizing the building, but as they reached it Jaelyn was able to pick it out with little trouble. Sure, anything that might have indicated that they were at a museum before the city fell under darkness had wasted away, leaving it as a large unmarked building that might have been passed over by most Persona users were it not for the large shadow presence within. But, it was still the largest building in the immediate area, so actually picking it out was not too difficult.

"Well, this is the place," Jaelyn said, approaching the door and making a gesture to hold it open for Setsuna. The effect was immediately ruined as the door swung open with no effort, rebounding off the wall inside and stopping right back in Jaelyn's hand. She let out a small sigh. Guess it was too much to ask for someone to take care of the place when it was abandoned and infested with monsters.

[Setsuna Hanamori]

The more Setsuna saw of this warped place, the more uneasy the whole thing made her feel. It was hard to imagine that, just recently, this empty and decayed shell of a place was once part of the city. In fact, her family had disturbingly close call when the quarantine first came into effect. Her father was scheduled to start working at a hospital that was within the zone the day after it all started. Had he started a day earlier (or the military come in a day later), he would have been trapped in this hellish wasteland...the mere thought of what must have happened to those who weren't as lucky was enough to send chills down her spine.

Either way, when they finally arrived, Setsuna was a bit shocked. The building had decayed so badly that you couldn't even tell what it used to be. Just...that it was noticeably larger than the other buildings in the area. As she looked on, Setsuna was unable to help but let out a disgruntled groan "This sucks...I had heard that this place had an amazing displays on Classical and Feudal Japan. One person at school said they even had a replica of the guns produced by Nobunaga Oda himself. It was thanks to them that he was able to win many battles, in spite of his rather inferior army. Oh, what I wouldn't give to be able to fire off a shot from one of his army's guns..."

A she spoke, her expression displayed combination of pride and sheer giddiness...yep, she was a total nerd about this sort of thing. Not even a minute after finished, she realized how much she had just geeked out just now, causing her face to turn completely red as she tried her best to ignore how embarrassed she just made herself feel. With a clearing of her throat, she immediately tried to change the subject "...a-anyway...um...the Shadows. Is it hard to fight them?..." Yep...they were off to a great start.

[Jaelyn Callahan]

Jaelyn stopped as she heard a groan behind her, which soon turned into a complaint about the state of the museum, and from there into what could only be called geeking out about Nobunaga and his army. For some reason, the guns that they used was her subject of choice, which Jaelyn knew slightly more about than the warlord himself. "Don't get your hopes up. I've seen the guns from that era in action," Jaelyn answered, recalling a demonstration from a field trip way back in middle school. That was, admittedly, a musket, but anything from the era of Nobunaga would have to be even earlier than that. Probably an arquebus. For the most part, all Jaelyn had to do to guess at how they were like was to take what she had seen of muskets and imagine them worse. "They're volatile, inaccurate, and have some nasty recoil. Oh, and if they were matchlocks then they're also nearly useless in the rain."

Setsuna quickly tried to change the subject, though, asking if it was hard to fight shadows. "Not particularly. You get used to it pretty quickly," Jaelyn said. Just after she said this, she sensed something approaching. Two small somethings, amidst a museum full of other somethings that were smart enough to keep their distance. Good. It wasn't doing Setsuna any good if Jaelyn scared them all off, and the stupid ones would probably make for a better first fight anyway. The two creeping shadows took physical form as they approached, one in the shape of a floating, crowned head and the other in the shape of a large beetle, with what looked like paint splatters all over its shell.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler: Enemies}Glittery Tiara:
Resist: Light Weak: Dark, Ice
[Hama]
[Cleave]
[Pulinpa]

Painted Beetle:
Weak: None
[Agi]
[Zio]
[Assault Dive]

"Guess you're about to find out either way," Jaelyn said, readying herself. She quickly reached underneath her dress and pulled out a curved knife. Not that she planned to use it, but it didn't hurt to be prepared. Instead, she focused her mind on summoning her Persona, and felt the power welling up from deep within. With a sound like breaking glass, the form of the mad emperor, dressed in blackened legionnaire armor, emerged behind her. The Persona drew his gladius and raised it high above his head. A mass of flames came together in the air above the beetle shadow, then fell on it, creating a small explosion around it that incinerated it in a single hit. The sheer difference in power was plainly obvious from the fight...if it could even be called that.

Instinctively, the crowned shadow backed away from Jaelyn, turning and setting its sights on Setsuna instead. "Well, that...wasn't much of a demonstration, actually," Jaelyn admitted. "You may want to try calling out what skills you use if you're having trouble forming them. If anything else goes wrong, I'm right here."

[Setsuna Hanamori]

Setsuna frowned as Jaelyn decided to rain on her parade by mentioning how unreliable the guns themselves were. Which, admittedly, she was right, but still...a girl can dream, can't she? Though, honestly, she wasn't even all that upset by it. "Well yeah, they're impractical by today's standards, but back then, they were not only fairly advanced, but also easy to make. Oda was able to have them mass-produced so efficiently that he didn't even have to spend much money on the guns themselves, and was instead able to focus on procuring ammunition and gunpowder. Besides, they were still undeniably powerful, regardless of how unreliable they were. There's a reason why Oda was such a huge fan of them. When they actually worked, they were devastating."

Setsuna could have gone on for another few hours, but they interrupted by a couple visitors. Two Shadows, to be exact. As she looked at them, she, much to her own surprise, wasn't all that impressed by them. "Huh...for some reason, I thought they'd be scarier..." Sure, the floating head made out of hair was a bit creepy, and giant insects were a bit creepy by default, but that was it. Just creepy. They were nowhere near as terrifying as Setsuna remembered them being when she first went beyond the border of the quarantine. Was it because she knew they were coming this time? Or perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she had awakened her Persona? Honestly, she didn't care at this point.

Preparing for battle, she unzipped her case, opening it and producing a pair of bokken; wooden swords made to resemble the shape of katanas. Truth be told, they were relatively cheap knock-offs, though, at the very least, they were sturdy. Plus, no matter how you looked at it, getting hit with one was still likely to hurt like hell. Either way, they were the closest things to actual weapons that Setsuna had in her possession, so, until she could afford something a little more practical, they would have to do for now. Either way, she watched in awe as Jaelyn summoned her Persona and, with a single shot, effortlessly destroyed the large beetle Shadow. Of course, unsurprisingly, this resulted in the remaining Shadow targeting Setsuna, since she was obviously weaker. So...this was it.

First, she decided to take a note from Jaelyn's book and try summoning her Persona. Tucking one of her bokkens under her arm, she reached for the evoker that was given to her and pointed it to her head. At first, Setsuna thought it was going to be difficult to actually pull the trigger, even knowing it wasn't a real gun. However, all she needed to do was remember how she felt when she was being mercilessly bullied and eventually driven into an attempt to commit suicide, and it became disturbingly easy. The rather grim expression she had on her face was probably more than enough to make it safe to assume that this girl had her share of dark moments in her past. Perhaps not nearly to the same extent as Jaelyn, but it was still pretty obvious.

Either way, she pulled the trigger and instinctively called out the name of her Persona "Undine!". How did she know what her Persona was called? Well...she didn't. Yet, for some reason, the name just came to her, as if it had been hiding in the back of her mind. Nevertheless, her Persona appeared, taking the form a nude woman with blue skin and water spiraling around her body...and long blonde hair for no apparent reason. Amusingly, despite lacking visible nipples or genitalia, Setsuna was still unable to help but blush brightly at the site of her, which would undoubtedly add even more fuel to any speculation on what Setsuna's sexual orientation might be.

Nevertheless, there it was, her Persona. Setsuna was in awe, but she managed to snap herself out of it fairly quickly. Looking toward the Glittery Tiara, she called out. "Bufu!". Again, she had no clue where this came from. The name just came to her, as if it was hiding in the back of her mind, and her Persona immediately responded, creating a mass of ice and launching it at the Shadow. As it connected, the Tiara let out a cry of pain and crumpled to the ground, causing Setsuna to blink. Was that it? Wait no. She could vaguely recall from when her Persona awakened; when Undine attacked them with the same move, their bodies scattered when they were destroyed.

Thus, seeing a chance to strike, Setsuna readied her two bokken and lunged in to strike with a swift 1-2-3 combo. This was the most interesting part. Obviously, her fighting style was little more than something cobbled together by a samurai fangirl who's watched too many movies or anime. Yet, despite this, she had some potential. She was rough and inexperienced, but, if she could get some actual combat training (and some decent weapons), she could possibly fairly competent in battle. It helped that she, at the very least, had some basic kendo training under her belt, and, despite her apparent preference for dual wielding, it showed in the way she moved. Of course, that was hardly going to be enough for fighting monsters, but it was a start.

Either way, she jumped back to put a little distance between the two, in case the Shadow tried to retaliate as it staggered back into a battle-ready position. Then, it let out a cry, as what appeared to be a large card appeared in front of Setsuna. Before she could react, it erupted in a burst of light, damaging Setsuna (in other words, it used Hama). Setsuna's eyes widened. She knew it was going to hurt, but she was completely unprepared for how much. And yet, she was used to pain...and, as a result, she barely flinched. Her expression made it clear that it hurt a lot, but were it not for that, there would have been no way to tell that she had just taken any sort of damage.

Either way, once she recovered from the attack, she responded by bringing the evoker back up to her head and summoning Undine once again. Essentially, she repeated the same combo; first attacking with a Bufu spell to weaken it (admittedly, she was unaware of the fact that the Shadow was weak to ice...she just used it again since it seemed to be so effective), then following up with a melee combo to strike the Shadow while it was down. After the last hit, the Shadow's body hit the floor and scattered, indicating that it was down. Setsuna stood there, breathing heavily. It all happened so fast, so she barely had time to register what had happened. "...I...I won?..."

[Jaelyn Callahan]

"Yes, devastating. Both to the enemy and your shoulder," Jaelyn said. "Chances are, if you fired one you'd end up breaking a few bones." She shrugged, then, once she was done with her own battle, stepped back to watch Setsuna's. She...had potential, at least. It seemed like she managed to identify a weakness right away, although much like what often happened for Jaelyn that could easily have just been a lucky guess. Then she moved in and attacked the downed shadow with a pair of wooden swords and, after taking an attack herself, repeated the process to defeat it. For someone who had only fought shadows once before, that seemed a lot more practiced than Jaelyn would have thought. Or, perhaps, Jaelyn had just been that bad starting out.

But that wasn't what interested Jaelyn, though. She had caught a glimpse of Setsuna's expression before she used the Evoker for the first time. With such a grim expression, this innocent-looking girl suddenly didn't seem so innocent after all. Interesting. Jaelyn could only speculate on why, though. And now probably wasn't the time. After all, the girl had just had her first proper fight with a shadow, and won with little injury.

"Looks like you did," Jaelyn said, approaching Setsuna. "Let me guess, so caught up in it that you didn't realize you were already done? That happens, especially when you're just starting out. And from the looks of it, you managed to pick out its weakness early on too. Not bad."

[Setsuna Hanamori]

When Jaelyn brought up how she had managed to pick out of the Shadow's weakness, she was noticeably confused. "...wait...weakness?" It wasn't for another moment that she realized what she was referring to. "Oh! Is that it collapsed after I hit it with that ice spell? I thought that seemed a little strange...but I figured I might as well roll with it and strike while it was stunned." It was simple video game logic. Weaken an enemy by exploiting a weakness, then wail on them now that they're wide open. Looking back, Setsuna was actually kinda surprised such a basic and straightforward strategy actually worked. Of course, she wasn't so naive to assume that all of her battles would be as easy as that first one.

Either way, she let out a sigh "Still...I wasn't expecting to get so...into it. It all happened so fast that I barely had time to process everything. And...I have to admit, I kinda thought the Shadows would be more...threatening. They seemed so much more terrifying when I first went past the border. But now, they kinda look like something out of a video game." Of course, Setsuna decided to stop talking right then and there. Last thing she wanted to do was jinx the whole thing and end up with some sort of Eldritch Abomination staring them down. That would kinda suck. She was definitely content with them looking like rejects from some random JRPG. 

[Jaelyn Callahan]

...Eh? She hadn't actually realized? Huh. So that bit of praise was kind of meaningless then. But at least she managed to pick up on what Jaelyn was talking about fairly quickly. She was, at least, good at that, then. Better than Jaelyn had been at first. She'd taken awhile to figure even that much out. But since Setsuna managed to adapt quickly and understand what the hell Jaelyn was talking about once it was over, that was one less lecture she would have to give.

Afterwards, Setsuna mentioned that the shadows had been kind of underwhelming. That was also a good sign. If she was finding them terrifying now, there would be a lot more work to do. "Yeah, they're a lot more underwhelming than it seems like they should be. Well...most of them are, anyway. I've run into a few that are...well, really messed up. They're not nearly as common, though." Military-grade cannons came to mind under the 'threatening' side of things. On the fucked up side, muscle men covered in sewage. And right smack between both sides, the damned cleaver girl shadow. "If you're lucky, at least, it'll be awhile before you run into anything like that. For now though, it looks like we've got more company." She turned, spotting another pair of shadows approaching. One appeared to be a living table, scuttling along on wooden legs. A number of kitchen implements were floating in the air above it, including a fork, a knife, and a candlestick. The other looked like a floating pot, but as it drew closer Jaelyn noticed a vaguely feminine figure hanging out of it, with enough hair to completely cover what features would have otherwise been visible.

"I'll let you handle these, but I'll be right here if you have any problems," Jaelyn said, taking a step back. "Oh, this may help a bit too." She re-summoned Caligula, and directed him to boost their agility. "It's not likely to be something you'll manage most of the time, but try dodging some of their attacks with that."

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler: Enemies}Disgruntled Table
Resist: Strike; Weak: Ice
[Cleave]
[Assault Dive]
[Skewer]

Unhappy Pot
Resist: Ice; Weak: Strike
[Bufu]
[Pulinpa]
[Soul Break]

[Setsuna Hanamori]

She nodded quietly, as Jaelyn spoke. So there were shadows that lived up to the rather terrifying first experience she had. Just not these ones it seemed. "I see..." Well, that was good to know at least. Last thing she wanted was for something completely out of her league to appear on her first trip into this messed up world. With the Shadows gone, she finally had a chance to look around the decaying museum. Some of the paintings were in surprisingly not-horrible shape (i.e. you could almost see what they were). Beyond that, though, most of the exhibits, including the one she had been wanting to see, were as decayed as the rest of this messed up world. Such a waste.

Soon, another pair of shadows approached them, and Jaelyn had decided to leave it to her to take them on, only joining the battle if needed. Setsuna would be lying if she said the prospect of a two-against-one battle didn't make her a little nervous, but if she was going to be coming here on her own in the future, she figured she'd probably need to learn how to battle more than one Shadow on her own. However, Jaelyn did give her a boost. At first she wasn't sure what she had done, but then she noticed that her body suddenly felt lighter. "Oh...thanks" Then she set her sights on the weaker looking Shadow, the Unhappy Pot.

Like before, she started off by summoning Undine and having her use Bufu. However, the attack barely seemed to phase the creature "...eh?". It wasn't until the pot took advantage of her confusion and struck her with the very same attack that she realized it. At which point she mentally kicked herself. If Shadows have weaknesses, then of course they'll have resistances to other elements. It also seemed to apply to Persona's...or, at the very least, their users. All she knew was that ice attack didn't hurt nearly as much as it probably should have. However, the enemies weren't done yet.

The knife from the Disgruntled Table, seemingly acting with a mind of its own, went flying point-first at Setsuna (Skewer). However, thanks to the boost from Jaelyn, she was able to rather easily side-step the attack. Then, re-brandishing her bokkens, she charged forward and struck the Pot with them, using her usual 1-2-3 combo. The Pot fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, but it wasn't defeated yet. Setsuna grinned. "I see. So it's not just elemental attacks that they can be weak against." Thus, while the Pot was still on the ground, struggling to get up, she struck it once again, inflicting even greater damage.

The Pot hit the floor once again, even harder than the first time, and scattered into a cloud of blackness. This left only the Table. Setsuna looked at it...the floating head and pot were weird, but this was just outright ridiculous. How was anyone supposed to take something like this seriously? Unfortunately, the Table answered that question without Setsuna even needing to ask. Once again, the knife flew towards her, only instead of trying to stab her, it tried to slash at her (Cleave). Setsuna was expecting another stab, so she was caught off guard, and the knife slashed her on the chest. Fortunately, it wasn't particularly sharp; it was sharp enough to leave a tear on her clothes where it hit her, but the cut itself was shallow, and nowhere near life-threatening.

Of course, it still hurt like hell. Setsuna winced in pain, clutching her chest where she had been hit with one hand, and reaching for her evoker with the other. This time, another word appeared from the back of her mind, which she spoke while summoning Undine once again "Dia!" A soothing light surrounded Setsuna as her wound all but disappeared. Even the damage she had sustained from the two earlier attacks was lifted, and she was almost back to full strength. This was good...now she could fight this thing without worrying too much. The Table attempted to ram her (Assault Dive), but, once again, she was able to dodge the attack with little effort, thanks to the boost that Jaelyn had given her. However, she suddenly felt a little heavier afterwards. Which could only mean one thing...it had worn off.

Still, Setsuna was confident. Once again, she summoned Undine and had her cast Bufu. Luckily, it turned out that this Shadow was also weak to Ice, as she watched it crumble to the floor. When, like before, she rushed in with her bokken, aiming to strike while it was down. However, even though she landed a direct hit, they didn't seem to have much of an impact behind them. "...so it resists physical attacks...go figure..." The Table proceeded to stagger back into a battle-ready position, and made another attempt to ram her with an Assault Dive. This time, it struck, causing Setsuna to stagger backwards a bit. Once she regained her balance, though, the Shadow was effectively doomed.

Grabbing her Evoker once again, she summoned Undine and had her use Bufu. Then, when the Shadow was down, she had her use Bufu again. When the second attack hit, the Shadow struggled to get back up, but collapsed for good. Its body scattered, and Setsuna let out a heavy sigh of relief. All things considered, she managed to keep the damage she took to a minimum, thanks to her ability to heal herself. However, the battles themselves were taking their roll on her...the girl was noticeably exhausted.

[Jaelyn Callahan]

Jaelyn watched closely, standing ready to drop a fireball or two in case the shadows managed to overwhelm Setsuna. But after she managed to figure out the pot shadow's weakness and deal with it, that seemed unlikely. Sure enough, while she was visibly tired after dealing with the second shadow as well, she was able to beat both of them. "Not bad," Jaelyn said, approaching again as the second shadow's body dissolved. "At this rate, you'll be fighting alongside all of us in no time."

...Actually, had she even mentioned that there were other Persona users around? When they'd first met in the shopping center, Jaelyn hadn't actually run into any others yet. Or, rather, she hadn't known that anyone else she'd met was a Persona user. It was only after that that she learned that Luka was one. Oh well. She'd find out sooner or later either way. Whether it was through missions, or exploring, or another big terrible fight like the last one, she'd run into others.

Hm...what would happen when Setsuna ran into someone more reliable than Jaelyn, then? She was an interesting girl. She seemed just a little bit closed off, not nearly to the degree that Jaelyn had been in the past, but there was still a few signs that she was hiding something unpleasant. And yet, she'd put a lot of trust in Jaelyn so far. Jaelyn, at least, would have never allowed just anyone to lead her out into this no man's land of an outer circle. Maybe Sakuya. And unless Setsuna was just a lot more trusting than she seemed, Jaelyn wouldn't expect much different from her. To have gotten to this point, she must have thought that Jaelyn was the only one who could help her. And Jaelyn had to admit, that was an empowering feeling. Having someone leave herself in her care, however dubious it may have been, felt good. Jaelyn wanted more of that. And since the notion that only she could help Setsuna wouldn't last long, she would have to do something to keep her coming back. Nothing romantic, of course. A long string of failed relationships in the past may have warped Jaelyn's view of them, but she was still going to stay with Sakuya for as long as she could. No matter what she was.

So Jaelyn would just have to get Setsuna to come to rely on her, entirely.

"That said, how are you holding up? You look pretty tired after that," she said. "Fighting out here is a lot more tiring than anything else you're probably going to be doing. Unless you're a marathon runner or something. Don't be surprised if you can only fight a few times before you need to head back." She held out a hand for Setsuna. "That said, I've barely broken a sweat over here, so I'd be happy to give you some support getting back if you need it."

[Setsuna Hanamori]

At first, Setsuna was a bit confused by Jaelyn's comment about her "fighting alongside us". However, it didn't take much time for her to realize what she meant. So there really were others who did this. Of course, she had a feeling that was the case from the beginning. Something like this seemed like way too much for just a few people to deal with, no matter how skilled they were. Especially if the Shadows could get as powerful as Jaelyn implied they could. She found herself unable to help but imagine how horrifying such a Shadow could be, especially considering how goofy the ones she had met thus far were. Granted, they put up more of a fight than she expected, but still.

Either way, as she listened to Jaelyn, she nodded. "Y-yeah...that sounds kinda good, actually. At the very least, I think I have the basics down..." She looked down at her ripped shirt, frowning "...ugh...how am I going to explain this to Mom and Dad?..." Unfortunately, just as she was prepared to leave this godforsaken place, one last Shadow appeared...

SPOILER: Click to show

{Red Shadow}
Crimson Musha
Repels Strike, Resists Fire; Weak to Light
[Fatal End]
[Agilao]
[Voice Clip]
[Tarukaja]

Almost immediately, the large samurai-like creature set its sights on Setsuna, her obviously being the weaker of the two. First thing it did was use some sort of magic attack (Voice Clip). At first she had no clue what had happened, until she tried to call out to Jaelyn; no words would come out. She had been rendered completely mute.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Setsuna discovered the hard way that this prevented her from summoning Undine, as she immediately tried (and failed) to do so. Thus, she was beginning to panic a little. But she was prepared to take on this opponent. Readying her bokken, she rushed forward to strike with them. However, just as they were about to hit the opponent, they were stopped by what Setsuna could only describe as an invisible barrier, then, almost instantly, all of the force from her attack was absorbed and immediately redirected at Setsuna. Her eyes widen as she suddenly felt as though she had been struck by her own attack.

With her only method of attacking useless, it was pretty much safe to assume that Setsuna was completely and utterly outmatched. But the Musha wasn't done there. It extended its blade, and a blast of flames erupted from it (Agilao). As they hit, Setsuna the look on Setsuna's face said it all. Almost immediately, she fell to the floor, the pain too great for her to move right now. It was safe to assume that this Shadow had just attacked Setsuna with her weakness, and, naturally, it was a fairly powerful attack at that. Either way, thinks were looking pretty hopeless. She had managed to survive the attack, but just barely, and now she was defenseless as the Musha moved in for the kill. If ever there was a time for Jaelyn to step in, it was now.

[Jaelyn Callahan]

Jaelyn laughed as Setsuna bemoaned the tear in her shirt and how she was going to have to explain it. How nice it must have been to need to explain things like that. Whatever darkness Setsuna was hiding, she must have lived a mostly normal life. "Just tell them it got cut on something. It probably won't be a big deal," she said. She was about to add something else, but then sensed another shadow approaching. It moved in to attack without warning, using a skill that Jaelyn could tell from Setsuna's reaction had silenced her. It was only then that Jaelyn looked directly at it, seeing a distinctly red-armored, samurai-like shadow with glowing eyes and an oily-looking sword.

"Shit," Jaelyn said, summoning Caligula again and boosting their agility. Once that took effect, she flipped her knife back around into the usual grip, ready to fight. Letting Setsuna get the hang of what she'd be experiencing was one thing, but she was exhausted and this thing looked much stronger than anything that should have been in this area. But still, Setsuna tried to take it on, only for her attack to not just be negated, but bounced back at her. The shadow then launched a wave of fire from its blade, and despite a valiant effort to get between it and Setsuna, Jaelyn failed and the girl took the hit.

Instead, she collided with the shadow before it could move in for the kill. The sudden proximity, combined with Jaelyn stabbing her knife into a gap in its armor, caused the shadow to stumble back a couple feet. But Jaelyn moved forward with it, keeping the distance between the two of them at almost zero. Unable to get a clear shot at Setsuna anymore, the shadow instead tried to impale Jaelyn, but at such close range it couldn't do so effectively. Jaelyn stabbed again, forcing the samurai shadow back a little more in the process, then finally put some distance between the two of them. The shadow took the opportunity to swing its sword in a wide vertical arc, generating another wave of fire, this time aimed directly at Jaelyn. The flames crashed into her, hitting almost her entire body at once. But she simply stood there and took them, and when they faded Jaelyn was still standing, completely unharmed.

"Well, look who just fucked up," Jaelyn said, a grin appearing on her face. "You want to play with fire, is that it? Here, play to your heart's content!" Behind her, her persona drew his gladius and raised it above his head. A massive fireball of her own came crashing down on the samurai shadow, briefly consuming it. But as the flames died down, it was still standing, and injured but not severely so. At least, not by the fire. It was still having trouble standing from that and the multiple stab wounds.

In desperation, the shadow attempted to rush past Jaelyn to get at Setsuna again, but Jaelyn had already started attacking it again. It got about halfway before a cloud of dark energy surrounded it, rising up around its feet and legs to engulf its body. Jaelyn walked back towards it, her Persona floating along behind her and currently lacking a face. There was only a gaping hole where the face normally would have been, with more dark energy steadily pouring out of it. Rather than pay the shadow any more mind, though, she walked straight past it and over to Setsuna. Behind her, the dark cloud slowly got smaller and smaller, eventually dispersing entirely and returning to the black chasm that had been hidden under Caligula's mask face. By then, there was nothing left of the samurai shadow except for a few traces of shadowy particles.

Meanwhile, Jaelyn knelt next to Setsuna and offered her a hand. "How are you doing? Can you move?" she asked.

[Setsuna Hanamori]

All of it happened so fast that she was barely able to register it. All Setsuna knew was that she was probably seconds away from dying, and that Jaelyn had saved her at the last second. As the Shadow was destroyed, the effects of the Silence she had been put under were lifted, prompting a gasp from Setsuna. For all intents and purposes, not being able to speak almost felt like not being able to breath, and she didn't waste a second before making some random grunts and groans to make sure that her voice had indeed returned. When a hand was offered to her, she took it, though she was having a hard time bringing herself to look at Jaelyn.

"...I'm so sorry...I...I screwed up..." That was all she could bring herself to say. And, at least partially, it was true. Granted, she was caught off guard when she was suddenly silenced, and there was literally nothing she could do to damage the Shadow because of it. But the way she panicked probably didn't help. Hell, just thinking about how screwed she would have been had Jaelyn not been there was enough to send a chill down her spine. All in all, it would probably be a while before she had the courage to come out here again. At the very least, not by herself. Either way, once she settled down, she was finally able to answer her question "...I'm okay...mostly...I'd really like to not be here anymore, though..."

[Jaelyn Callahan]

When Setsuna took Jaelyn's hand, Jaelyn made to pull her to her feet, then offered a shoulder for support. Despite the intense battle, Jaelyn was only barely injured, and that was mostly from colliding with the shadow's armor multiple times. She hadn't used up much energy either, just enough to leave her breathing heavily. But she recognized immediately from Setsuna's condition that they weren't going anywhere except back inside the lockdown. And even that could be difficult if they had any more trouble. She decided to keep the mad emperor summoned just in case.

"For what it's worth, there wasn't much you could have done," Jaelyn said. "I should have stepped in sooner, but in your case the only thing you could have done better was to just start running instead of freezing up. That thing's...not really typical of this area though. If you're lucky, you won't run into anything like that again for a long time." It probably wasn't the most reassuring thing to say, but it was the best thing Jaelyn could think of to keep Setsuna from just never coming back out here again in the future. It didn't actually occur to her that staying safe in the inner circle could potentially be a good thing even for a Persona user.

"Leaving does sound good, though," she said. The offer of using her shoulder for support remained open. "Here, I'll help you get back."

[Setsuna Hanamori]

Though she didn't feel much better about the whole "getting her ass kicked" thing, Jaelyn's words did make her feel less like she had completely and utterly screwed up. As she's pulled to her feet, she couldn't help but blush a bit, then proceeded to lean on Jaelyn's shoulder when it was offered to her. She hated feeling so helpless...however, she didn't entirely dislike the attention she was receiving. Wait, this was wrong. Regardless of how nice they seem, coming to rely on someone like this was only going to end in heartbreak. Just like it did before. Of course, she didn't have much of a choice at the moment. So, for now, she'd just have to live with it.

Of course, she didn't want to seem ungrateful, either. Thus, the girl spoke up one last time "...thank you...I owe you my life..." If only Setsuna knew what she was in for...

[Jaelyn Callahan]

Maybe Setsuna realized it. Maybe not. But what she said was very, very interesting. 'I owe you my life.' That was a very dangerous thing to say carelessly. Of course, she probably thought much more highly of Jaelyn than was sensible. She didn't see Jaelyn savage the samurai shadow. She wasn't able to hear the more unpleasant thoughts that ran through Jaelyn's head. She either didn't notice or didn't figure out the implications of the fact that Jaelyn's persona was Caligula. And that was fine. Setsuna would be better off if it stayed that way. But Jaelyn was not going to forget a statement like that. If it came to that, she would hold Setsuna to it.

And if all went well, this wouldn't be the last time she said something like that.

But for now, Jaelyn just smiled and said "Anytime. I mean it." Helping someone else out felt good, much to her surprise. But the gratitude and dependence that came from the other person after such an action? That felt so much better.