Artistic Expression (Oki's Awakening)

It would appear the earlier caution was not needed. Persephone's attack was much more effective than anticipated. The shadow was hurt, but not defeated. In retaliation to the ice, the shadow floated into the air before pointing at Oki. A few seconds later, Oki heard a crackling sound and then felt intense heat fall on it from above. The pain it caused was intense and was almost enough to bring the being down to its knees, but by some miracle Oki still stood.

Feeling gittery, the being understood that the thing that had hit it had to be some form of electricity...lightening even. The blow hurt far more than any other and left the being feeling weaker than before; however, Oki thought that perhaps it could withstand a bit more abuse before having to be concerned.

Standing back up straight and balling its fists to stop the trembling of its hands, Oki would give its command again and Persephone would react. Sure, the attack was a repeat, but at the moment it was the only thing that could end this battle quickly provided luck continued to stay on Oki's side.
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Oki was wearing down the longer the battle drew out. Its condition caused Persephone some concern, but with a pretty aggressive shadow on hand, she didn’t have time to ask questions. Another round of blows passed, the shadow beginning to sag under its own exhaustion. It was almost destroyed, but Oki did not feel relief. Panting a bit from the blows it had received and the mental drain, Oki managed to give its command to its weapon to repeat the previous attack one more time.
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((Hand lost 4 Sp, didn't edit but making it clear.))

The ice struck home, but so did the lightning that the creature retaliated with. The shadow was sagging badly now, its energy barely enough to keep it standing; however, Oki was no better. After that last attack, the being became so weak that its legs could not keep it up. Collapsing to the ground, Oki would end up in a kneeling position as it looked over at the stubborn hand. The being knew it had healing skills, but….if it could get rid of this thing now, the energy could be saved for another day.

On the other hand, if it missed with the next attack, it would risk being pushed closer to its danger limits…still….it was so close to being rid of the creature.

“Persephone…you know what to do,” Oki told the bear that floated close by very concerned by its condition.

“If that is what you want to do…” she said not really liking the command that was being given.

Oki nodded at its companion.

“It is.”

With a light nod, Persephone would turn its eyes towards the sagging hand as claws and fangs grew long and sharp once more. Flying forward the bear would attempt to slash the shadow.
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Persephone’s teeth and claws slashed into the shadow causing the hand to finally go down. As the creature collapsed, the bear would quickly go towards the quickly disappearing darkness to feed upon it. Persephone ate, but slowly she and the remains of the shadow would begin to fade as color slowly began to return to the world. With the world going back to normal, Oki would get back to its feet as it looked around the area taking note that there strange rips here and there revealing what appeared to be some other form of a world now visible to it. The sight was disorienting, but something told Oki’s tired mind that what it saw was no hallucination. It was…real. Had to be… right?

Oki wasn’t sure and to be honest as people started to move once more and the reporter came from an alleyway, Oki’s mind didn’t have time to process this new strangeness as green eyes instead focused on the girl and her words. She was congratulating it for its work, but Oki did not beam with pride as it nodded lightly at the girl in response. When she asked about the exploring part, Oki took a second to gather its thoughts into some logical form.

“Yes. I can see what has formed and understand that what I experience has to be real…. I would like to know more, so there is no doubt my curiosity will eventually lead me to unexpected places,” Oki would begin as it eyed one of the strange rips in reality again. “However,” its eyes would turn to focus on the girl once more. “I want to start with you…. Who are you and what did you mean by earlier words?” the being asked as its brain tried to wrap around it all. There was quite a bit going on here and while Oki was indeed exhausted it was willing to hold on a bit longer to get some answers…a clue…something! However, it also understood that this relied on the girl before it too. She didn’t have to give information and could easily leave it in the dark. Only time would tell the truth.

Oki managed to keep itself focused and standing even if its mind was still swimming and trying to adjust to what it saw around it now that the world was somewhat back to normal. As it asked the questions, the girl surprisingly answered the being, her words starting off with a small smile at first.

As the being listened though, it found itself with more questions than answers. Something was following this girl around and wanted to harm those she was around? Why? Yet she could suppress this thing that followed her a bit? Was she then implying that the thing and herself were connected as in the same being? Or did she mean that this was a hunter and prey relationship? The questions kept rising up only becoming more complicated as the girl continued to talk making the already unclear picture blurrier.

She was trying to help certain types of people so they could defend themselves from mysterious party B that could only mean trouble from the way the girl explained the situation with such a serious expression. Before Oki could swallow that chunk of information, the girl said something that made things even more confusing.

A certain event that was going on for some time now was being messed with? Did this event connect to what she was saying before the shadows had arrived? And what was this about said being or beings hiding out in Azores? What was that implying? Or how about the deal with pieces of her power and corruption? What was all this and what the hell did Oki have to do with it all?

“I am not comprehending this at all,” Oki admitted flatly as it raised a hand to scratch its head underneath its cap. This whole thing was making its head hurt and now it seemed the girl was resting a challenge upon it: to grow stronger and find out more by going to the other worlds. She seemed confident in its abilities, but Oki wasn’t too sure of what was going on just yet. However, as the being looked over at the girl, it wondered if it would get a clearer answer if it continued to pry; however, after a second of thinking, the being decided that was not a good idea, so then…

“I do not understand, but… If you are indeed tying to help, then I’ll see what I can do on my end to aid you and figure this mess out. Just one more thing…. What is your name? And how can I find you again in the future?”

Oki questions were non-hostile or too prying. It just simply wanted to know and if it had to work to get what it wanted to know then so be it. Still it would be nice to know the girl’s name and encounter her again. Perhaps next time around the conversation would be on more level ground if it was even given a second chance to encounter her. If not, it at least wanted to the name of the one it was aiding….but getting such answers? Well that was left to Lady Luck to decide.

Oki could see the reporter’s disappointment when it was just honest that it did not comprehend what was being said. It didn’t understand the situation. Couldn’t really. There was just too many holes and questions all over the place that made this all hard to swallow. On top of that exhaustion was not helping things…Still, despite the chaos in its head, the being understood one thing clearly. It wanted to get to the bottom of whatever was occurring. Its only clues were the reporter and whatever it could find in the other worlds.

If this girl was trying to help stop whatever was about to happen, then Oki would do its best to aid her unless something occurred to turn it another way. In any case, the words following the girl’s frown gave Oki a lot to think of as it heard various things. She had friends in the other world waiting to be found…and the other side connected to this island was in a state of chaos that could be stopped by figuring out the source in the other world. She suggested gathering a team and go searching in those other worlds, but who else out there was able to see these strange things? How could you tell an odd ball form the norm? Hmmm…another thing to figure out amongst other things.

When the girl changed the subject and directed it towards herself, Oki found itself frowning a bit in displeasure. There were others out there that knew what was happening and yet not many were doing much to try and figure out the chaos? How strange. Oki thought the world was in the business of surviving rather than letting threats simply be. It wondered briefly what had occurred to cause this oddness in the world, but more importantly, what was the reporter going to do to give others an incentive to do something about what was going on?

Oki wasn’t liking the thoughts cropping up from those words, but it was nothing really it could do to stop her either. It just hoped that whatever she planned on doing wasn’t crazy or harmful to herself. The being couldn’t explain it, but some part of it wanted to trust the strange girl and rather see her safe than harmed. Odd, but that was just the draw it felt towards her.

When it came to the subject of finding the girl again, she left the challenge open to find her, but didn’t give a single clue complete such a task. Instead, the girl gave Oki a different sort of clue: “look in the center of that deserted purple world”….

She said Oki would know if it saw it and that it would help humanity greatly for checking it out before she was moving again. She flicked her finger causing the pouch that held the hat that Oki had honestly forgotten about to become lighter. On instinct, Oki looked from the pouch and back to the girl as her hat appeared back on her head and she took off.

On instinct, Oki took a step forward as if it were to follow her, but then it stopped itself as it watched the direction she had vanished in. No…there was no point in chasing the girl. She was probably long gone anyway. As much as the being wanted to know more about the girl, it knew it would have to simply trust her for now to be fine on her own. She was there to help itself and others like out, so it would trust her to continue that job. As for itself, Oki would indeed hold up its words. It would see what it could do on its end. It would start with trying to the find the deserted purple world.

But before any of that could happen, it needed to rest and get its thoughts in order. It couldn’t go into this blindly. It would surely be destroyed that way. Feeling the heavy weight of exhaustion fall upon it, Oki would retreat back to the shop for now and for the first time in many years close the shop down fully for the day.

- Thread End.