When the Saints Come Marching In [Mod]

[Seiji Dalton]

Sitting at home on a Saturday night, Seiji idly surfed television channels as he tried in vain to find something entertaining to watch. Most of the good shows had been cut off when the blockade of the city had commenced. His inner nerd wondered about how some of the American television shows and how their seasons were going. At least one show had its series finale and he wasn't there for the final plot twists. Takeda had taken off to a bar or something and left him alone at home. Tomorrow, they had both agreed, was to be a day where they tried to have something approaching a 'normal' day off, no shadows, persona talk, or meetings with strange people that seemed to have chips on their shoulders or in their hearts. Unfortunately, in his boredom, his thoughts drifted more and more to the shadows outside the walls of the city. His strength had grown in the past few weeks of fighting shadows. He hadn't yet had a chance to explore just how much stronger his Persona was but oh boy was he curious. Standing up, he pulled his hands behind his back and paced, wondering if Takeda would notice if he left. More likely than not, he'd come home drunk and just assume he was out with one of the friends he'd managed to make. Breathing in heavily, he made for the medicine cabinet and grabbed his gear.

As with most big cities, the streets were crowded in the shopping district on a Saturday night. Getting down the usual manhole quickly proved an impossible task with both the people passing by on foot and the number of cars going down the street. Slipping into a back alley, Seiji tried to find somewhere in the district that would be less crowded. Without really thinking about it, he made his way to the actual blockade. Beyond it was what seemed to be the rest of the city, unlit but normal looking enough. The people manning the walls looked like soldiers of various ethnicities. Scanning the wall, he saw an unguarded place where he could scale up. Trying not to think about what he was doing too much, Seiji climbed up, quickly observed his position at the crossroads of normalcy and the paranormal, and jumped down to the other side, falling to his knees in a fairly good, if plain, landing. The skies were purple once again and the soldiers had grown dark from this side of the fence, looking like mere imitations of normal men. Feeling uneasy, he set off towards his usual spot, the executive building. As he navigated through the streets, he occasionally ran into groups of shadows on the streets. Quietly observing them but not fighting, he found himself getting farther and farther from his intended destination.

A sign drew Seiji's attention to one of the smaller buildings. 'Old Saints Hospital'. He had heard of that particular hospital before he even moved to the city. It was a famous place where something approaching miracles were performed. Seiji had once called himself a man of science and said that miracles were just the results of trained men with steady hands, but being in the outer circle for a great length of time had a way of changing a person's perspective on things. Taking things like miracles on faith was easy after all of the things that had happened to him. Curious about how densely the building was infested with shadows, he pulled his backpack close against his thin back and walked inside, drawing his sword just to be safe. The doorways were open, but it didn't look like anything was waiting to jump out and get him. Making his way inside and past the reception area, he entered the ER, partly because he wanted to scavenge for things to sell to the junk lady. Feeling an odd chilly feeling, he pulled his jacket closer to his body. According to those who had loved ones in places like this, hospitals were rarely fun. Seiji could almost feel the apprehension and misery of the people who had found themselves here and understood why there might be shadows here.

They seemed to love to crawl into open wounds.

[Erithania]

Beware the stronger Death Squigglies!

Perverse Cupid

Skills
Holy Arrow
Garula
Bufu

Resists: Wind
Weakness: Lightning




Siamese Twins

Skills
Skewer
Agilao
Getsu-ei

Resists: Fire
Weakness: Ice

[Seiji Dalton]

The first strange sound Seiji heard as he walked through the hallways of the ER was the flapping of wings. They didn't sound very big and it was clear that whatever was flying through the halls was having trouble staying up in the air. Strangely enough, he kept hearing it from different directions. Whatever was in here with him was toying with him. Being toyed with really wasn't something Seiji enjoyed, not even if it was an attractive girl with a domination streak, so he gripped his sword's handle tightly and prepared to draw as he felt very...smooth hands grope his chest. Being a boy and all, it wasn't like there was anything there to feel besides flat and slightly toned skin. A thick red blush spread across Seiji's face as he turned to see the culprit. A perverted looking little mask was there snickering at him, its mask dyed red around the cheeks. "I'm a boy, you know. Groping boys doesn't really get you anywhere." Despite the words, the room seemed to just get hotter the longer he looked at the little cupid. Snickering at him, it drew a bow from the depths of hammer space and took a shot at him. The arrow pierced his chest, but fortunately it wasn't made from earthly materials. Right after making contact, it disappeared. It had definitely hurt, but it also served to piss Seiji off despite the growing feeling of ecstatic unease he felt in the shadow's presence. Drawing his sword, he did a quick sideways slash across its body. The scooter battery hadn't been operating at full capacity, but it certainly seemed to hurt the shadow as it squealed highly in pain and booked it, flying off and bursting into an operating room.

Seiji had a bad feeling about this, a very bad feeling. The creature was leading him into a very obvious trap. Drawing on his inner strength, he summoned Sir Gareth and took off after the creature. Both summoner and Persona entered the operating room at the same time, and both were greeted by the same grotesque sight. Floating above the operating table were a pair of human shaped figures pinned together by a number of large needles. Two green masks bearing the number 'III' covered their face as they howled in a strange mixture of sadness, pain, and anger. The twins saw Seiji and immediately their howl turned into a roar. Aiming to attack him, they rushed Seiji and gripped one of their needles. From the way their bodies moved from side to side, it seemed like they were going to try and slash him apart with a strong attack. Gareth moved without provocation, raising his mighty sword and blocking the attack with a slash of his own. The clash of steel sent sparks throughout the room, briefly lighting it up from a dim glow to a red bright enough to contrast with the monotonous white of the hospital. Grabbing the topmost pin connecting the two shadows, Sir Gareth tossed them across the room and attacked them again with Getsu-Ei. Being that it wasn't the night of a full moon, the attack was only as effective as a normal middle of the road attack, but it still did enough damage to the two shadows to make them scream. Just as Seiji turned to search for the tiny cherub shadow, a powerful gust of wind hit him, forcing his body against a wall, hard..

Sir Gareth had been hit as well by the shadow in the middle of its counter-attack. A powerful burning move hit the knight. To his credit, Sir Gareth handled the attack stoically as he raised his sword to attack again. The combination of howling winds and searing flames took Seiji's breath away momentarily. These shadows seemed to hit harder than even the computer he'd encountered a few nights before in the executive building. Standing up, he gave chase to the cupid shadow as it fired arrow after arrow at him. Most of them missed, some were deflected, and occasionally one or two of them would break through his defenses and strike his body. Light, flames, and all sorts of other special effects ripped from a Michael Bay movie could be seen from the operating room as Seiji gave chase to the cupid and eventually closed in on his target. Grabbing the small creature up, it squealed and seemed to cry (and even tried to grope Seiji again) as he raised his sword up. Once, twice, thrice he hacked at it with his electric blade, the currents ripping through its body and eventually it dispersed after going motionless for a few moments. Sensing that the shadow in the operating room was gone as well, he dismissed Sir Gareth and began checking for any other shadows or items he could use.

[Erithania]

Luckily, you weren't outnumbered too badly.





So you survived and acquired fishium pointus.

[Seiji Dalton]

No more shadows, that was a relief. Plus, he learned something new about his Persona. As long as he had a goal in mind for it, it didn't even need to be in his presence. Although he still wasn't sure about the specifics of how the inner self worked, he was getting there.

Sheathing his sword but holding his weapon close, he ransacked a few of the closed off areas for supplies to give the crazy junk lady. Surprisingly, it was easy to find valuable goods. The hospital had survived whatever had morphed the outer circle into its current state relatively unmolested. Taking his things, he made a pit stop for the gap before returning to Manga-Max in the inner circle. Luckily for him, his brother wasn't even home yet. Changing back into his sleeping clothes and putting his weapons away, he went for the television and started surfing through the channels.

And there was still nothing to watch.