~::The Dojo of Doubt::~ [Floor 239]

[Necromonium]

*~::The Dojo of Doubt - Floor 239::~*
What was once an unremarkable floor of Babel has been shifted, and transformed by the person trapped inside......
Upon ascending the stairs, one finds themselves in what appears to be an eerily empty Dojo...
Discarded, broken kendo sticks...and torn hakama litter the building, seeming as if it has been abandoned for ages.....
Yet, no matter how hard one tries, they cannot shake the feeling of being watched....Of the next corner leading towards progression housing a hidden threat. Blood stains the edges of the walls....And shadows eerily seem to hum..

Fractured blades coat the walls...and ropes dangle ominously, sharply contrasting the abandoned area's normal fixture..As if they don't belong...

Agonized wails punctuate every opening....The path leading towards the end goal muttering anxieties.....Uttering feeble cries for Help....and the sounds of scraping metal can be heard. As if the place was a battlefield on it's own...

At the center of it all...A familiar figure awaits...Lost in her own personal, mental Hell, the ropes ever present...and one resting at the end...Tied into a noose. The endgame of the victim...should help not arrive in time.

 

[Necromonium]

Ailek Mymariel, The Shadow Jouster

"What a.....disdainful place."
The Shadow Jouster stood at the center of the Dojo...Looking neither amused, nor distressed. These kinds of worlds tended to reflect the wills of those that were brought into it...And, though a dojo would feel at home for the competitive spirit normally....
This one gave him no solace in its tone. To stand in it brought him no joy...Nor any apprehension, despite the atmosphere. No...
Ailek merely kept a firm, stern glance on the girl in question, laid out on the floor beneath him. His hands held the sword at his side cautiously, ever vigilant in case something were to try to surprise him. At the supposed center, with no other entrances to sneak in as it were...
'No...I must not let down my guard.' the Duelist thought, watching..And waiting. 'If what he said was true, then..'

Quote:

Ailek is waiting in the Dojo, with the kidnapped Aka Yuuki.

 

[Arena Emperor]

Amagai Genji, the Investigation Team's Gentle Fist
"...You see the surface, but my eyes see more..."

He felt the disorienting sensation of falling, twisting in a voice of nothingness between the world that he knew and the world inside of the television-turned-Tower, but he did not lose his focus as he slowly righted himself and prepared for the landing. Soon, the swirls and the rush of light and dark around him began to fade and he landed smoothly on the floor of some place that was not the Food Court at Junes. A faint chill filled the air as he noticed the tiles on the walls that lined the path around and before him, and recognized instantly a familiar, polished wooden floor that was not dissimilar to one that he might find on his own home's grounds. It was a Dojo...but it wasn't the pristine, well-kept building where his grandfather had watched him drill the basics of the Gentle Fist over and over until it became second nature to him. This was a much different type of Dojo, run down and decrepit, with shards of kendo sticks and other ratty clothes littering the grounds in a careless fashion. He reflexively covered his nose to block the musty smell that rushed towards his nose, but he lowered it after a moment, glancing with his eyes around him and taking in what he could of the situation. No way could anybody use this for actual practice; one false step might cause a cracked ankle on a discarded bokken or a broken arm from a slip on a discarded hakama. They would have to be careful here...and not just due to the litter.

As he glanced down the halls he could practically feel the malice that awaited them not far from where they had landed now; he could see the eerie, dark power that had formed this level of the Tower. And though it was too far off and blocked for him to see exactly what awaited them at the end of this, it didn't take a genius to know that it wasn't something they wanted to encounter unprepared. This was indeed a trap...but at the same time, it was something they had to deal with. If this twisted power were to leak into the real world along with the Tower, it could mean the end of their home...and that they could not allow.

Moments later the sounds of footsteps landing on the floor began to litter the room behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder to see that their concerns about the two elevators depositing them into different locations had been unfounded. Faust, Rednal, Naoto, Chie...every one of them had landed here in this Dojo of Doubt together...and there was only one path forward from the room in which they had arrived. He felt a small measure of relief at that; the last time, after all, they had been caught up in that Tournament which divided them all immediately. And before that...the Shades. He crossed his fingers and prayed that nothing that vicious awaited them, but the way his stomach twisted gave him little hope of those prayers being answered. Still, they would press forward. Spotting a couple of his allies behind him, he glanced back down the hall and called them to join him.

"Minori, Teddie...can you tell us anything about what is waiting at the other end of this floor?" the berry-haired heir questioned with a low, serious tone to his voice...his expression having hardened itself into the usual game face for these things, his hands reflexively flexing and stretching in preparation for the fight to come, "I will keep an eye out for shadows. ...Shirogane-san, Satonaka-senpai, Rednal, Faust...I will follow your lead from here."

Quote:

The Investigation Team has landed together in the Dojo of Doubt! But what awaits them at the end of the Dungeon...remains a mystery.

 

[Rednal]

Rednal Ak'Thias and Yuno and Izumi

Gonna be honest, I probably couldn't lead people into a burger joint right now. Rednal thought, sighing and shaking his head. And wasn't this absolutely fantastic - more wreckage. Like he needed any more of that in his life today. No. Stop it with the negativity and get a hold of yourself. You're better than this.

It wasn't easy, but he raised his head and started to look at the area a little more closely. An abandoned dojo, huh...? He'd seen a few of those in his time, having actually practiced martial arts. It wasn't on the level of a serious practitioner - his rank was worth an amused smile at most - but it had been enough for therapy. "In places like this, there's not really much to do except go forward." he muttered. With that, he raised Regulus and fired a series of shots toward the wall, slowly turning to the side to see if he could create a line of scorch marks on the wall.

Yuno watched, not entirely sure what Rednal was trying to do. She shifted into a guard position, though, with her palm held open to summon a Merak Missile. If anything came at them, she wanted to stop it as fast as she could. Everyone seemed to be on edge right now - far more so than she remembered them being - and while she had a strictly limited amount of faith in most other people, she wasn't stupid. If they were concerned, they probably had good reason for that, so caution was definitely the order of the day here.

She did take a few moments to look over at Minori, though. The other girl was pretty and popular and another harlot who could tempt Rednal a member of the Investigation Team. Okay, okay, I get it! The problem was, Yuno didn't really know the other girl that well, and couldn't exactly-

You know what, let me do it.

"I, um... I haven't really done this before..." Izumi said. She glanced towards Rednal a moment later, then back at Minori. She couldn't really vocalize it, but she was clearly worried about his behavior.  

[Necromonium]

Faustus Necromonium and Kusuri Keiraku

The path through the elevator was...startlingly short, and as he'd heard Minori's words....They had arrived in an abandoned Dojo.
"It's....I'll tell you later." he called quietly, so that only the girl could hear. It wasn't something that needed to be announced in front of the whole group...But, the way his expression tightened as he said it spoke volumes...
Kusuri landed on her feet, flexing her hands as the area appeared around them. It was..a Dojo? The sheer amount of broken things, discarded hakama, and random ropes was...unnerving, but it lead to one thought..
"It must be someone's shadow world.." Faust stated quietly, pacing forward before Rednal could even start to guide them. The boy's gun firing against the wall made Faust no less uneasy....As he paced through.
"I don't think we have to worry about being lost.." he called back, taking the lead haphazardly. "Something tells me...They won't let us go anywhere but where they want us."
They were in the eye of the storm....And, as his hands trembled, ready to grasp for his weapon at the first sight of trouble...
He was prepared to fight. .

 

[Necromonium]

Teddie


Teddie was a bit surprised at how distinctly connected the elevators had been to Babel...And, rather than appear at a sort of Hub, they appeared on what felt like a formed floor.
"It's...definitely someone's shadow world!" Teddie called to the others, sniffing the air. "I can smell...someone here....That isn't cloaked in a shadowy musk...But, they're no one I know."
They could have very well been the source of the shadow world. Though, as he sniffed some more, a darkly familiar scent filled his nose....Even if the person wearing it was unfamiliar as well.
"Though...I can smell someone else.."
His nose hadn't lost all of it's edge...but, it wasn't good enough to tell who was there. Or, for anyone else that was laying a trap. He couldn't smell Sano, or the other messiahs....Yet, he could tell that something in the area felt...wrong.
"Everyone needs to be beary careful...Or..."
He wanted to say it...to continue with his jokes to lift everyone's spirits..but, something was haunting him. Keeping him back.
'What's wrong with this place.....'

 

[BlueEmber239]

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Finding her way back to consciousness, Yuuki slowly opened her eyes and stared blankly at the blurry details of the dojo for several moments. Where am I…? She thought as she tried to move, but to no avail; her body felt weak and heavy, like all the energy had been zapped from it. Left with really no other options, the girl tried to make sense of what in the world was going on. The last thing she remembered was that she was at Aiya’s… That’s right! She was there with Jokura, Youmu, Nekura, and Sho. Then a purplish black smog appeared, it was suffocating and… Everything else after was hazy...

She needed to find out what had happened.

Somehow finding the strength, Yuuki weakly pushed herself up from the wooden floor so she could sit up, and in doing so she got a much better look of the surrounding room - it was all so strange and ominous, yet vaguely familiar, like she had seen it all before somewhere; however, past familiarity was an extreme feeling of uncomfortableness and underlying terror. Yuuki did not feel welcome here, as a matter of fact every fiber of her being was telling her to leave as fast as she could, but before she could even attempt to, her fearful gaze caught a glimpse of something standing near her.

The girl let out a soft -if not deformed- cry of fear as she instinctively tried to get up to run, but fell back down when her feeble legs almost instantly gave out. All she could do now was look back at the ‘demon’ in horror as it probably was about to pounce on her and… Wait, it wasn’t a demon - it was a blond boy...

Thoroughly confused, but still very much terrified, Yuuki continued to stare at the blonde wordlessly; not that she could say anything in the first place.

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Location: ??? || Wearing: Yasogami High uniform || Type: Persona - dormant || Condition: Shaky and terrified. Not dandy. ||

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[Necromonium]

Ailek Mymariel, The Shadow Jouster

"If you try to run, I will be forced to kill you."
The blonde had watched the girl come to, likely disoriented by the oppressive atmosphere....As he turned his side to show the blade at his side.
"Do not make me do that. I would rather they find you alive."
Golden eyes that practically glowed stared at the girl....Yet, the faintest of kindness could be seen in his eyes. There was a rope dangling behind him...And a ladder that would make stepping up to it a non-issue. He gestured around the area, making sure she took in the dreary, dark oppressive atmosphere in...As he frowned once more.
"What a depressing world you've created.."
Something must have happened to the girl to incite this kind of thing...Something like how he'd been recruited. If the girl wasn't rescued, he might be able to find some sort of familiarity with her, as they broke her spirit....Making her one of them....
But, if they came to rescue her......

 

[Zorc James]

Yasumoto KENSU
Bloods in the Rising Sun

With the alien sensations coursing through him as he had walked through the "elevator", as he had exited, he could see that everyone else had arrived at the same destination. What that destination was, however, was beyond him as he had looked around. It all looked as if it were in an extreme disrepair, something that clinged to times past that he greatly wished to leave alone, even with the contents different. "So messy..." the words that Kensu spoke were without forethought, and only rolled out as he surveyed for any traps. Even if they truly didn't value his own place in the team, he should be able to spot out traps if they were to happen across his eyes or ears..

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[Rednal]

Rednal Ak'Thias and Izumi

Rednal flexed one hand as he continued to move forward, and a blade of green energy shot out of it and jabbed into the wall. It wasn't a firm image, though - in fact, aside from the point, the entire hard light construct seemed a little wavy, like a solid hit could easily cause it to shatter. That impression came true a moment later as it hit on a snag, and Rednal winced as the weapon of will shattered into dozens of fragments. Gotta... make the... marks... he thought grimly, forming another blade to scrape the walls with. It didn't look any more stable than the previous one.  

[Necromonium]

Faustus Necromonium

As they continued pacing through the Dojo, Rednal kept...making some kind of mark on the walls, as if worried they were about to get lost in a maze, and never be able to find their way back. Or, at least that's what it appeared to be, for Faust.
"I don't think we need to worry about that." Faust stated to the silver haired boy, watching his weapon shatter..and then he started to do it again.
"Rednal...you're not okay."
It wasn't an insult....It was just an observation. The boy was cracking far more than usual....And it was telling. Faust thought about trying to knock some sense into him.....but, then brushed that thought away.
'He'd probably break down if that happened.' he thought, walking carefully close to him. Since Rednal was losing his mind, Faust figured he'd have to be the sane one....
'Great.'

 

[Hibarii chan]

Minori Koroko

Walking into Babel was never a pleasant sensation. Even if the team had done this more times than they could count, the blond girl would still shudder as she surfaced on the oppressive area inside the Tower. The change in atmosphere was almost palpable; Syr wasn't needed to know that they were inside Babel, and that this was a Shadow World. Green eyes observed the 'room' they had landed in, and she couldn't shake the feeling that this was more than just a normal dungeon run. The dojo was half-destroyed...as if it had been neglected for years. Rotten wood, old rags, dark corners.This was dangerous on its own, but remembering beside that, that shadows were lurking around, and that the Messiahs were waiting for them deeper into the maze....well, they couldn't lower their defenses.

Minori listened to Faust and nodded, even if a small frown was in her lips. "Alright. Just...we are here for you, yes?" She was worried. The team was distracted, she could feel it in the air. Faust and Kusuri wouldn't talk to each other...Nix's expression before they walked into Babel had been hesitant, as if something was in her mind. Kensu seemed like there was something bothering him...something he wasn't telling them. And Rednal...

The blond girl looked at Keira and shifted on her place. The pinkette seemed worried for her companion, that much Minori could gather. The way she would turned back to look at Rednal nervously and then back at her... there was something. And by what the silverette had said before, his day hadn't been exactly a breeze. "Rednal, take it easy, please? We are a team, we protect each other." The blond step forward, her hand landing on his shoulder. "Satonaka san and Shirogane san can lead. Teddie and I will guide. We can avoid as many Shadows as possible." She hesitated, her gaze returning to Genji for a moment. There was something wrong. "I can sense a person this way... They aren't alone, though. It is still a bit foggy." She furrowed her eyebrows, as if wanting to reach further. "We...should be prepared. Let's hurry."

 

[Rednal]

Rednal Ak'Thias and Izumi

"I'm just... making sure..." Rednal said, panting slightly. It was taking more effort than he wanted to admit to form the energy blades, and each break was like whiplash going through his mind. "The thing about spiders is that they like drawing you into traps, right? I don't know what their plan is, but I figure if we can mark the way we came in, we can keep an eye on the marks and see if we suddenly get shifted around or something. And if they don't get all jumbled up, anyone who comes in behind us-" like, say, Soji, "-can use them to quickly find where we're at. Either way, it's worth doing, right?" He took another few slow, deep breaths. "Thanks for worrying about me, but... I'm all right. Don't worry, I'll support everyone no matter what it takes."

No! You have to be the strong one and take charge of the situation! Don't push the burden of responsibility onto anyone else! If anyone needs to suffer from anything here, make sure it's you!

Rednal put a hand over his eyes a moment later, frowning. No, they... they were his friends. He could trust them. He had to trust them. Believing in others was not a sign of weakness, no matter how much he wanted to try and take control of the situation himself. He'd come this far with his friends, and he couldn't start doubting them now. "I suppose that's probably enough, though. Lead the way, Min." he said, nodding to her and letting the green energy blade vanish. Truth be told, that was a bit of a relief - one less thing his mind had to focus on. "The sooner we help whoever got caught up in all of this, the better."

Izumi's expression was difficult to read, but although she didn't talk a lot, it was clear she was worried... and she glanced over at Faust. "Um... h-how long does it normally take to find someone in here?" she inquired, not at all used to this sort of thing.  

[Necromonium]

Faustus Necromonium

"I understand.." he spoke to Minori, acknowledging her offer..but, looking more pressed for how Rednal was...behaving. He turned to Chie and Naoto, gesturing them to go ahead....Watching the silver haired, frantic boy try to claim he'd support everyone........And, none too soon after that...
Faust's leg caught Rednal's, tripping the boy onto the Dojo floor. However, before he could hit the ground, Faust caught him by the collar of his shirt.
"The point of a team is that we support each other" Faust snapped, pulling him back. "We're not shouldering any burdens on our own....Or trying to pile them all on one person. We're Comrades, dammit. So stop trying to play the hero by yourself. That's what we're here for."
He was...being a bit short with the boy, but he was in a rather sour mood..and seriously tense. Though he wasn't sure Keira was pleased with him for what he did...He lowered his eyes a bit.
"To be honest....I'm not 100%." he called, quietly. "Satonaka told me it can take a few hours....or, over the course of a few days. I'm not entirely sure...but, I have a feeling it'll take a few hours."

And that was being generous. If this was as..conflicting as it seemed, they might be in a bad way.
"Though...We'll manage, I'm sure. All of us together....can accomplish anything."

....
Why did those last few words feel so Hollow to him? Something about it tugged at his own expression, souring it....
As if he himself wasn't entirely there still. Eyes glanced nervously at Kusuri...and then back to the walls....
'Why are there so many ropes here?'

 

[Rednal]

Rednal Ak'Thias and Izumi

Hit him! Hit him now! Prove that you're strong and that other people can rely upon you! If you just roll over and take something, they'll think your weak, maybe send you away... and you won't be able to protect anyone!

It was getting harder and harder to ignore the little voice screaming inside of his head, but rather than punching Faust in the gut or arrogantly demanding he let go, Rednal simply took a slow breath and forced his body to relax. He was silent for a few long moments, trying to silence the voice in his head. "That's what I said." he finally noted. "We support each other. And I plan to support everyone else instead of barging ahead like a drunk whale just because it's been a really, really long day. Could you, uh, let me go now?"