towerofanimus | The arcana is the means by which all is revealed...

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The arcana is the means by which all is revealed...

Characters: Ryoji and anyone who was interested in encountering him during the Witch Kiss mini-event.
Setting: May 9th, starting from floor 28 and working its way down.
Format: I'm starting off with prose but either works for me.
Summary: From the moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate.
Warning: Madoka spoilers? Persona 3 spoilers definitely. Also being creepy as hell, that's a warning too.

After that little encounter, Ryoji wandered down the stairs. He needed to find people, and tell them, and ease their pain. It was a simple task, but he knew he would meet resistance, like he did before.

No matter. He stopped at the twenty sixth floor to gaze into the morgue briefly, a small smile on his face. These people had stopped hurting. They were at peace. After a few moments of this, he turned and headed back down the stairs, going towards the media floor and then, perhaps, the lounge on the fourth floor. Failing that, he would head to the dorms.

Hopefully not, though. Bringing people to peace in their beds... while fitting, it would cause too much alarm.

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It wasn't that he could not see, could not hear. In fact, his eyes were fine. His Orb of Sight granted him that, as did Izanagi's wisdom and experience. He never saw his power as a burden to wear him down, but an opportunity to help make things right. Which is what he'd done for Izanagi and Izanami, however unintentional it might have been.

"If anything, it is what these bonds have taught me: There is no rest for a weary soul who finds life too painful and has lost the will to live." Why couldn't Ryoji see it, why was peaceful death suddenly lacking in insight for the counterpart Life offered? His worry grew for his friend's soul.

'What happened to you, Ryoji?'

"One who falls into despair, one who succumbs to the emptiness the void offers, one who seeks the hope that had been stolen..." he muttered, his voice becoming guarded by the bright flame shining in his heart, nearly echoing the pain and lessons he'd endured when learning how to appreciate the finite time all humans have been given. Something he was not willing to let go so easily again. "Izanami didn't find her peace beyond death. I can see it in her eyes, the pain she has now."

He held out the World in his hand, the static threatening to overwhelm it just from Death's presence. What had been born from their connected hearts reaching his in the face of the end he surely would have been welcomed by if they hadn't. Maybe it even shows over him for a brief second- he doesn't know.

What he does know is that this wasn't the same Ryoji speaking to him, who had wanted to kill those who killed his sister from another reality.

"I once heard a 'fairy tale' of a soul who waited at the ends of the world, using himself to act as a seal for a world that had lost the joy of living. I'm not about to lose sight of that Hope again." Yu reached out to him, offering his hand in a last-ditch attempt to reason with the other. "Let me help you find it, too."

He took more steps backwards. Why was this painful? He didn't understand. He just wanted to help usher in a world that didn't hurt, that didn't want, that didn't need. He was trying to give people what they wanted.

Something flickered in his eyes - pain, sadness, fear. He never wanted anyone to hurt again. He just wanted to do the right thing. He wanted to help people.

And then that last story... the words hit him and he froze. A soul at the end of the world... one who held together the edges of the world to keep it whole for those who he cared about.

"I was supposed to die a long time ago. Please. You both have long lives ahead of you. Don't waste them by throwing away second chances." His voice was quiet, halting, as he spoke, suddenly unsure.

He shook, pulling his arms around himself as if he were cold. "The Seal... that's... it worked. I'm holding it together." Ryoji's gaze dropped to the floor, going distant. Hope... he'd almost forgotten about it, with everything that had been going on. "But I just want to keep people safe. I want to help them. If dying helps them..."

The light of awakening in midst of the fog of lies always was painful for those lost to the shadows of themselves. Hurt Izanami, hurt Izanagi, hurt him as he helped the others face the hidden aspects of themselves.

He doesn't lower his hand, keeping the World so close to his heart in the other. He could hear their voices, wishing for the strength to face life's hardships. They didn't want to die. Their desire for the choice needed to be heard by Izanami once before, and needed to be heard by this harbinger of Death as well.

"Sou-da na. It has worked, and the me from your reality is probably as grateful for your action as I am for another. If you hadn't, that me wouldn't have made the friends I have...learned what it's like to live to the fullest." His voice trails for a brief moment. Ryoji's still in there, he could tell by the way he reacted to the story. There was still hope for reaching out to him...

"Life may be painful, and sometimes... reality can be suffocating. Demo, that doesn't mean that there isn't joy and happiness. How can we know it without knowing sadness? How can we know hope when we have never felt despair?" Yu shook his head. "-Dying does not always ensure peace. Sometimes, all it does is trap the soul in eternal punishment.

"Ryoji, I know you want to help them; you're a kind soul. But, killing only brings more pain. For them and those left behind."

His eyes filled with tears as he tried to listen, tries to understand... but he wants to help. He has Death inside of him, so why can't he help people with it? He wants to do something.

But he was doing it wrong. Terribly wrong. He shuddered, and started crying, shoulders shaking with his sobs. He put a sleeve to his eyes, bending forward under the weight of his feelings. He took another step back and stumbled, landing hard on the floor.

"I don't want to hurt anyone. Please... I can't do this. I can't... please. Please. Make sure I don't hurt anyone. Not until I can... control this..."

No one ever said that he couldn't help them with Death, no one said he couldn't help at all. Yet the way he was acting was unsettling to say the least- like an axe-crazed killer who lost touch with reality.

"Come with me, Ryoji." Yu took a few steps forward, never deviating, never retracting his offer of help. He would stare down Death itself time and again, if that is what it took. "Until you can control it, I'll stay by your side as a counterbalance. I promise."

Because that's what friends are for.

Something inside his head was screaming, calling for the death of people, and he grabbed his head, scarf shifting enough for a mark to be seen on the side of his neck. It hurt, he was scared, and he didn't want to hurt anyone else so the only solution left was to hurt himself.

He didn't have any weapons, so he did the only thing left. A familiar blue glow shone, and Thanatos appeared in front of him. The personification of death turned towards its master, sword at the ready. Ryoji stared at it, willing it to do what he was commanding it.

Thanatos didn't move. It could feel both the command of death pushing it, and the struggle to survive underneath it. To protect its master, or to complete its orders? The Persona did not know what to do.

That action alone was enough to send a punch to his gut, both figuratively and literally, as a voice which remained with him from the very beginning shouted from within his soul.

CALL FORTH WHAT IS WITHIN.

Yu immediately sprung into action, ignoring the headache beginning to form from the sound and the 'suggestion.' Izanagi-no-Okami, his personification, appeared in the glow of blue light that seemed so much broader than his friends'. Immediately, the Persona rushed forward with Yu not far behind.

"Thanatos," the voice called out calmly with the air of his own authority. "What has happened to thy master?"

Thanatos shifted to the side, still in front of Ryoji in a protective stance but enough so that Yu and Izanagi could see the boy.

"I DO NOT KNOW. HE HAS BEEN AFFLICTED WITH SOME SPELL." The Persona's voice was worried, with little of the harshness one might expect from a Persona that looked like him. "IT IS DESTRUCTIVE, DRIVING HIM TO RELEASE WHAT LITTLE OF DEATH LINGERED BEHIND ON EITHER HIMSELF OR OTHERS."

Ryoji looked up, blinking through tears, looking rather helpless. It hurt to fight but he couldn't not fight. He was so tired. He just wanted to rest. He wanted everyone to rest.

Kill them -

- Save them -

killsavehelphurtrestfight

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"Where was he when this occurred?"

Izanagi-no-Okami did not lift his blade. Rather, he merely moved to meet Thanatos. They both shared concern, even as Yu approached Ryoji to get a better look at him. If allowed, he would like to pass Thanatos. Izanagi was the only one with a weapon, and his concern broke through his pained mask. That mark he could see on his neck... What was it?

"Ryoji- Ryoji, snap out of it!"

"A FLOOR WITH MANY MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. THERE WAS SOMEONE THERE. SHE HAD A POWER UNKNOWN TO ME." Thanatos sounds almost... ashamed. He couldn't protect his master from this.

Ryoji scooted backwards, a hand over the side of his neck. Thanatos did not stop Yu, but did turn to watch him carefully.

"N... stop... I... I have to make it right..."

"A power unknown by Death itself...?" Izanagi sounds skeptical, concerned that this was something the other could not defend the boy from. Perhaps it even began to show in his red eyes, or the fact his human counterpart was reaching out to Ryoji- both in the literal and metaphysical sense.

"Let me help you," he replied cautiously, relying on Izanagi's resistance to darkness. "Calm down."

"SOMETHING NOT FROM OUR WORLD. I ONLY HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF SO MUCH." Thanatos drifts a bit closer to Ryoji, concerned and hesitant to do anything directly.

"Please..." Ryoji looked up at his Persona, almost begging, ignoring Yu. "Just kill me. I don't want to hurt anyone. I shouldn't even be alive."

To the last part, Thanatos just remained silent. He couldn't debate that part. It was true, the boy's time was out. And yet he still lived.

Izanagi-no-Okami nodded, dropping the skepticism for the time being. He could hear Yu's thoughts, and they were scattered in attempting to find a solution. Things would be so much simpler had he listened...

And then it hit him, both of them. That frustration that the boy kept so well hidden, a determination that lit up in his eyes once more even as they disappeared from view due to his bangs obscuring them.

"...Izanagi."

The Persona nodded once more, raising his naginata before him.

"Death is meaningless in this place, painful when thou awakens," he explained, the air sparking around them as he twirled the blade. "We shall spare thee from it."

'Sorry, Ryoji- Thanatos.'

The Ziodyne spell struck true, not affecting Yu due to the resistance.

"But -"

And then there was no more speech, just a cry of pain from Ryoji. It hurt, his whole body jerking from the shock of the spell, eyes open. He could feel his body trying to fight back, and Thanatos disappeared, Ryoji unable to keep even a minimum of concentration on him.

He lowered his head, still conscious after the attack, but just barely. "Just... kill me. Please..." His voice was raw and scratchy, and he didn't move.

Izanagi-no-Okami doesn't speak further, but instead lifts his blade once more. Though, instead of stabbing the child of man and death, he swings, smacking the boy upside the head with the blade.. Only hard enough to render him unconscious, should it hit.

Yu couldn't speak either.After all, this was the second time he gazed down upon someone who begged for death. Yet he still couldn't find it in himself to actually do so.

Ryoji falls to the ground, knocked unconscious by the blow. For once, at least, he would have a dreamless sleep - one without nightmares.

Yu dismissed Izanagi-no-Okami the moment Ryoji was unconscious, wordlessly moving to kneel beside him. He hated this a great deal, but with how dangerous his friend was to himself and others...

"...I'm sorry, Ryoji." was all he said before picking him up and beginning the trek to the dorm floors. Maybe someone up there would know how to undo this...

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The arcana is the means by which all is revealed...

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