Chaos in the Dusty City (Seiji)

[Seiji Dalton]

All noise seemed to be drowned out as Alisa's arrow saved Seiji when he was moments from taking the brunt of a shadow's attack directly to his face. "Enough to make this fun!" He said in reply to her questioning the number of shadows attacking them. Gareth held his sword up again and attacked everything around them with Mahama. This time, it seemed like it was stronger given the boost he'd just imbued them both with. Gritting his teeth, he attacked one of the weaker looking shadows while it was blinded by the light. His own muscles felt stronger, his body felt lighter...everything felt better. The shadows were slowly but surely being thinned out as Gareth kept them from getting too close to Alisa while Seiji fought ones farther away from the house. His Persona was clearly the strongest, able to pick up shadows with one hand and cleave them in two with his massive blade in the other. A pair of twins pinned together by a number of needles tried to swing around and bash Gareth back, but the mighty knight stood its ground.

All in all, the hectic fight seemed to be going well for Alisa and Seiji. That was, until a hand with a mask on its wrist scurried up out of the blue and pointed at Sir Gareth. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Underneath the knight's feet, a glowing black vortex formed and both Persona and human fell to their knees. Ever since he began fighting alongside Gareth, Darkness attacks had always put him on edge, and now he knew why. Heaving and coughing, he felt almost as bad as he did after his run-in with the Gigas. "Get that hand!" Seiji commanded and his Persona was quick to follow. Imbuing his blade with the power of the moon, it slashed the hand and tore it clean in half, half out of rage and half to keep it from trying that again. With most of the shadows but a few stragglers beaten, Seiji went to work chasing the others off and defeating those that he could catch.

Eventually, he made his way back to Alisa and breathed a sigh of relief. Despite being hit by something that really hit home, he seemed in fairly good spirits. "What was that about overconfidence?"

[Ayakura Alisa]

I eyed a familiar hand shadow as it pointed a finger at Seiji and his Persona, and I watched as they slowly began to feel weaker from its presence. Shaking my head I quickly shot an arrow straight in the eye of a small Shadow flying in from another window, causing it to disappear into the darkness of the house. The magical spell that was cast was very useful, and I could feel it augment my abilities greatly. I was grateful. I had to learn how to respect these people. However, there was one person who still refused to escape my mind with her infuriating attitude towards those who didn't share the same power, but I shouldn't dwell on that too much... Anyway, I realized that for the most part, Shadows had stopped coming in and Seiji stopped swinging his blade around like a mad man. He seemed to treat this like a game. That was fun and all, but I probably couldn't think at the same level as him, being innately weaker. I coughed, but not from pain, but from a different sensation.

"You're alright, man..." I wheezed. "Having that power must feel good, it seems," I said weakly, shaking my head, almost looking disappointed. "Anyway, I can't feel sad about our victory, so let's keep going. Hopefully we won't get interrupted again."

[Seiji Dalton]

Taking a moment to rest, Seiji leaned down and grabbed his knees. In a flash of blue light, Sir Gareth was gone and the two were left alone again. "It's not as easy as it looks...using that thing for too long'll tire anyone out." And he wasn't being modest either, prolonged usage of a Persona at his current level wasn't the smartest move. Ever since being introduced to others involved in the events occurring in the outer circle, he'd been curious about his physical capabilities when compared to someone 'normal'. Resting up enough to keep moving, he kept his sword out and gave her a pat meant to come off as reassuring on the shoulder.

"You did good. I can't wait to see how strong you'll be once you awaken to your own Persona." His words were genuine if a bit naive. In his mind, Seiji thought that everyone exposed to the outer circle would eventually get a Persona...some just took a little while to awaken to their innate abilities. Hypothetically, anyone could have a Persona, so it wasn't a far fetched assumption. Staying on his toes, Seiji scanned the horizon. "D'you wanna search that house again or move on to a new one? If your parents left papers in that house, maybe there's some more in the area if we know where to look."

[Ayakura Alisa]

I saw Seiji recall his Persona, leaving the two of us again in the house, which had been thoroughly wrecked by the boy's liberal use of the sword. He told me that it wasn't as easy as it looked, and that such action was quite tiring and taxing on the mind. Fair enough assumption to make, considering how Seiji was after that. It must have been an adrenaline rush amplifying his energy, almost like a second wind. The kid was barely as tall as me but seemed to treat me as if I was an equal, not condescending that I was in fact just a normal person, but yet not necessarily respecting me as if I were superior simply for being much older than him. It was an odd feeling to experience someone treating me in this manner, especially for someone who was just sixteen. I shrugged when he complimented me, and he had wondered out loud about how strong I'd be once I "awakened to my own Persona." Whatever that entailed.

Luka had mentioned it to me when we first met - theoretically, anybody could awaken to their Persona. It simply required something of utmost psychological importance to trigger. A desperate situation. A near-death experience. I decided not to comment on it. Instead, I was asked about our next course of action. "...I was going to check the second floor for more stuff," I said plainly in response to Seiji, picking up the stack of papers I had nearly ended up almost slicing in half from the previous battle, judging by where I had jammed my knife earlier. "...I know they brought a camera or camcorder or something with them before they left. They might have had video footage. It would help immensely."

[Seiji Dalton]

"Well, this'll certainly prove to be a fruitful night if you can find audio footage." It was already a fruitful night from the papers they'd found but their luck could only get better from here. Walking up the stairs, he stood guard and looked out the window. Again, he didn't know what he was looking for and he was worried that the shadows would come out of the woodworks for another round of battle again. Even with his own skill in battle, he doubted he'd be able to handle another big fight. A few scardy cat shadows? Sure. He was just praying something big like the Luchadore Gigas didn't show up and decide to ruin their perfectly good fun exploration of a dangerous, foggy area.

Not wanting to look like a slacker, he searched around the second floor for anything useful. While he didn't find any tapes detailing the exploits of Alisa's parents, he did find a picture of the people that lived here before things went to hell. They were a family of mixed races spanning three generations. An elderly man sat in a wheelchair besides grandkids that were at least three skin tones darker than him. The parents looked carefree but tired like so many workers. Seiji tried not to think about what happened to them and pressed on with his search. The ominous winds howled outside. At least the fog didn't seem so bad between the house and the terminal from the window.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I continued to do some scrounging around for whatever useful things I could have found. The papers served to be a good start for the wealth of information, documenting further information on Shadows I had already faced, and for some that were probably soon to come. On top of that, I had increased experience with how Persona-users worked, and how the Shadows worked. I continued my search for evidence by exploring the various rooms. I had come across some old tape recorders, but they all seemed to be broken, not containing any tapes in them. I also noticed Seiji had found a picture of who I assumed were this house's former occupants. It was a bit depressing to think about who the former people of this world were, and how they must have been erased from this current existence. It was a morbid image, alright.

I soon came across a dirty camcorder strewn across the floor. Picking it up, I tried to see if I could turn it on. While it seemed functional, there were tiny cracks on the LCD screen, which heavily distorted the image that should've been seen. I fidgeted through the video footage that was saved and I could make out some familiar voices. Crap! Careful! Hands! ... ... Anna, watch out! ...No, Kariya, are you insane?! ...It was unmistakenably my parents. They had run into a Shadow ambush. I sighed and went to Seiji, showing him the footage. It was definitely my parents, who had to escape an ambush from Shadow hands. "Yo, Seiji. This camcorder was from my parents. My mother was holding it. I... They managed to survive on their own without any Persona, but I don't know what became of them..."

[Seiji Dalton]

Alisa was a very lucky woman. They hadn't even searched the second floor of the house for long before she found what she was looking for. It was a lucky break for Alisa who was obviously concerned for the people in the recording and Seiji who had been beginning to give up hope that they'd ever start finding something approaching a proper answer for what was happening in the city. He watched the recording silently. He let it play the first time and then rewatched it, slower this time with the occasional rewinding. He saw several types of shadows that were unfamiliar to him and some in drastically different colors and outfits to the ones he had encountered. Alisa had stumbled onto a gold mine, both personally and for everyone who fought the shadows.

Listening to what she said about her parents made him feel pangs of sadness and...perhaps...jealousy? At least she had parents close enough to lose instead of a father half the world away with a happy, normal Caucasian family and a mother wasting herself away in another loveless marriage in Japan. When Seiji spoke, it was almost with pangs of sadness in his voice. He knew this was important to her and he wanted to help. "Hey, I know you probably think that this is all some kind of weird game to me but..." His voice trailed off as his attention turned to the photograph of the family again, "but I get that this is serious, and it's an easy assumption to make that you want to find your parents. If they're out there, and if you want my help, I'll help you find them."

Well, that was serious and strange coming from the lips of a sixteen year old. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, I've got your back, Alisa."

[Ayakura Alisa]

Seiji sounded uncharacteristically (at least, from what I saw of him thus far) sad, melancholic in his voice. When he saw the photograph of the family, something must have struck him. ...Of course. He had family too. I most certainly wasn't the only one who might have lost a loved one or two thanks to the catastrophe that must have occurred out here. He must have felt something from that. Maybe I shouldn't have said those were my parents... even if they really were, I guess. Seiji mentioned that he wanted to help me. I was in absolutely no position to decline his offer, nor did I want to. I coughed. "Yes. I do want to find them, or if they're really dead, I want to know if they left anything behind, or even better, what killed them," I said softly. "I am in no position however to take up or waste your own time, so while I would like you to help me... You do what you feel's best for yourself. That's what my parents would tell me, I think."

I sighed. "...I'll only just slow some people down at the end of the day, after all," I continued, holding my stack of papers tightly. "I am too weak for this investigation. It pains me to have to admit it. ...So thanks a lot for helping me."

[Seiji Dalton]

In response to everything she said, he pointed to the recording and then nodded at the papers. "What I feel is best is helping you. Those papers are the first real, concrete clue we've found. Your parents lasted long enough without Personas to write papers about their findings. I've been exploring this area almost every night for a while and it's been nothing but fight, fight, fight. At least this, helping you, has a point to it, you know?"

He stopped for a moment, suddenly realizing how uncharacteristically serious and articulate he was getting over this. Alisa probably thought he was crazy or weird or something. "And hey, like I said, you did good. I may look like a crazy mess with Sir Gareth, but remember that you saved me from that shadow. We have to work together or none of us will survive." Turning towards the stairs, he looked at her curiously. "That aside, unless you want to search the house again, how about we get back to safety before the shadows decide to come back to try and get another helping of Seiji-Alisa stew?" Despite the grim talk from earlier, the image of a shadow trying to stew him and Alisa almost made him chuckle from his over the top it was.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I stretched and looked around, I figured there was really nothing much of worth here. Seiji piped up and said that what we were doing wasn't only fighting, but that it had a point. Well, of course coming out here had a point, or I wouldn't have come out in the first place. That was basically the only reason why I was bothering to risk my life to look for information. Not only did I have a personal stake in this, but it might have been important for a bigger cause, too, one which we were all unsure of, probably. "...Yeah, I think we should scram in case something bigger comes up. They might have been easy for you, but we can't really say for sure if something bigger does appear and make mincemeat out of us." I said, running with Seiji's joke. Yeah, I think that was a smart idea of him to turn back to safety. Let's roll with it.

[Seiji Dalton]

All was well that ended well. Sticking close to Alisa, he led the way back down and out through the foggy streets of the outer circle, back through the terminal. Whether because of their attack boost or the (figurative) blood of other shadows on their hands, nothing attacked them in the terminal and the ghost train didn't make its presence known with anymore weird sounds. There was a certain pep in Seiji's step that probably had to do with their discoveries.

Still though, he was clearly tired. If their groups wanted to do any long-ish adventures outside the city, they'd have to group up. Finally reaching the Gap, Seiji turned to Alisa. "That was...interesting. Give me a call if you head back out there anytime soon. Maybe I can even drag Takeda along next time." Giving her one last nod and saying goodbye, Seiji set off for home unless she wanted to add anything else.

And the moon was looming high above them both, almost full. The night after their little exploration would be even more eventful than the exploration itself.