Behind the Blue Door (Akumu, Alex, and any VA)

Wandering down the streets of Penecia Island, Hikaru located the blue door in one of the side alleyways and quickly shuffled through the doorway, closing the door behind him.

Shuffling back into the Attendant-filled room once again, Hikaru searched the room for Alex's familiar face, hoping to get the information that had previously been barred from him. He spied him among the scrambling Attendants and grabbed his attention, one question hanging largely on his mind.

"Morning, Alex. I have a question about those... creature things I saw yesterday. I got one of those tarot card things yesterday. Does that mean... I can summon one of them?"

"Well, of course! That's me!"

Hikaru was thrown off by the chirpy, youthful voice that arose from seemingly nowhere. Hikaru looked around suddenly, not realizing that the fairy boy was quietly sitting on Hikaru's head, holding onto his hat as Hikaru tried to find the source of the voice.

"Did... did you hear that?"

Alexander looked around the room, a confused look on his face as he attempted to find what sound Hikaru had been talking about before he looked back at Hikaru and tilted his head, and sighed "I think it was your persona who is... up there." After saying this, the young attendant pointed to the green-clad fairy boy on Hikaru's head. He then smiled and said "Oh, and yeah, you can summon a persona now as long as you're in one of the other worlds... or was it in battle? Oh, by the way Hikaru. One thing I was wondering was, what San Malarus and shops and places there were like?"

He then opened his notebook and began to draw Hikaru's persona in more detail than the first picture. "Is there anything else you want to talk about?"

Hikaru swept the top of his hat, hoping to brush off whatever was supposedly sitting on it. The fairy hopped off of Hikaru's beanie hat and fluttered between the two, giggling to itself. Hikaru recognized the fairy boy from the aftermath of the Shadow battle.

"I recognize you... You appeared after my Shadow disappeared."

"Well, yeah. Don't think we talked earlier. You were pretty wiped out. Well, betta now than never!"

The fairy boy whipped out a wooden bow from behind his back and notched an arrow from his quiver. Holding it at the ready, the fairy continued.

" I am KA-ZE-I-TO! The magical wonder fairy from the Emerald Isles! I was once your Shadow, the part of you that you wanted to erase, but now that I'm a part of you, I act as your protector and ally... The Persona! Oh, and Alex, if you wanna sketch me, lemme get into a cool pose."

As Kazeito pointed his notched bow into the air, ready to snipe an invisible enemy, Hikaru answered Alex's question.

"Actually, Alex... That place where I was before... I think I recognize it. It wasn't San Malarus; in fact, it reminded me of the city district of Penecia. But everything was in shambles, as if a huge battle had taken place there. Also, is- wait, Akumu?!"

Hikaru's eyes had been drawn to the familiar man he had helped to construct the altar. He subconsciously held onto his bell necklace.

As Kazeito got into a pose, Alexander couldn't help but laugh before he began to draw Kazeito in the pose he had chosen. He tried harder than usual on the details and still managed to finish it quickly before responding to Hikaru and saying "Oh, yeah. I'm surprised you didn't guess he was an attendant, given the blue attire and y'know... everything else." He then flipped through the notebook to an unfinished picture of what appeared to be a cat in a witches hat before muttering "I hope Jinx'll be okay I'm drawing a picture of her... Yeah, she probably will." He then proceeded to carry on drawing until he deemed the cat complete before putting the notebook away and walking back to Hikaru and asked him "Hey, umm... Hikaru, what were you going to ask me before you noticed Akumu?"

Akumu sat quietly in the back of the room mostly hidden in shadows as he studied a book on medicines. Despite the activity in the room being oddly lively today, the attendant was not bother by the movement at all. In fact, he was more comforted than anything to finally have others about rather than be sitting alone in the silence.

In any case, he studied tuning out most sounds unless addressed directly. The only time, he actually stopped reading the book was when the door to the Velvet Room opened and in came a familiar face: Hikaru. As the attendant saw the familiar boy, he was about to get up to drift over, but thought it better not too when it seemed the child already had another attendant in mind. Ah…the fortunate teller from before. Of course, he should’ve of guess it was one of his siblings rather than some human that dabbled in the art of card reading. In any case, it appeared that Alex and the boy’s newly awakened Persona were keeping him entertained enough. The words that drifted over the room suggesting that his brother and the child had an established relationship, so perhaps Alex was this child’s attendant. Not a problem. At least the boy was being taken care of so that was all that mattered.

Akumu’s blue eyes would drift from the pair and back to the book as he prepared to sink himself more into the information regarding herbs and stomach issues; however, before he could do this he heard his name called out. The expression of shock drawing blue eyes upward towards the boy who had spoken. With a quiet snap of the book, the medical book was laid on the sofa he was on as the old attendant easily got to his feet and drifted over to the pair with a polite smile on his face.

“Hello brother and Hikaru, what a pleasure to see you again. Been well, I hope?” he said in his usual soft and polite tones and then noticing the child had grasped the bell left behind the attendant’s eyes narrowed with delight, “How is the bell working out for you? Is Lady Luck and Fate playing nicer these days?”

Hikaru smiled lightly at Akumu's words. At last, the dots were beginning to connect in his mind. He decided to get any information he could about what Hikaru was now a part of.

"I'm fine, Akumu. Just like Alex said, I was abducted and thrown into some alternate world. My Shadow... he didn't seem to be expecting me. We ran into each other in the city, he turned into this... withered fairy thing, and I thought I was done for. My... friends showed up just in time and torched the thing. I decided to make amends with it, and he became this little fella. So, I guess your little gift here really made the difference in Lady Luck's favor. "

Kazeito fluttered over to Hikaru's side after posing for Alex and smiled gleefully at Akumu.

"Hey, bud! So, you're an Attendant, too? Man, Hikaru, you've got friends in high places. He give you that bell?

"I guess so. He disappeared after we were at the shrine, and I found it next to me. It's a strange little thing, but I guess it's really come through for me."

As Kazeito grasped the bell and began to rattle it, listening for the twinkling tune, Hikaru turned back to face Alex.

"So, any other details I should know about this whole situation?"

Alexander took a minuet to think up anything he might need to ask before finally asking Hikaru "Umm...Oh, I have'nt asked the others who came to save you about this yet but, would you want to work with me and maybe also them to fight against shadows and things?" This was one thing Alexander had had on his mind since he had first predicted that Hikaru would encounter his shadow and was planning to try and ask Quinn about it later. He then continued by asking "Oh, Hikaru, do you want me to explain what battles are like, and what I do in battle to make up for my lack of a persona?" Alexander felt he could loosely explain what he could do but prayed to himself that there wouldn't be any rules getting in the way of this.

Akumu would remain calm with his light smile as he listened to the other speak and describe his….what was it called? Awakening? Yes his awakening. He took note that the boy said he was thrown in to the other world. Hmm…now that was curious. Was there really someone out there who threw others into the alternate world? And if so how had this been missed? Making a note to investigate that little detail later, Akumu found his smile widening as the boy pretty much said that the bell was working for him.

“Ah well, I am glad that it has helped,” the attendant said and then shifting his eyes to the persona, he would tilt his head. How curious. Most of the time persona stayed hidden within until summon out to fuse or gain power. The fact this one freely moved about was indeed odd, but even odder was the fact that it talked with everyone. What a bold or very chaotic creature.

Despite this, Akumu would keep a calm expression as he listened to the creature speak with the boy.
“The spirits asked me to leave it for you, so I did. I apologize for leaving on such a short notice, but my time was up, so I had no choice, but to retreat,” the attendant would say and then fell quiet as he watched the boy’s persona shake the bell.

Instead of the usual tinkling of bells that would come from such an object, the persona would hear light chuckling coming from within the bell. Heh. How amusing; however, Akumu would not linger on this long before blue eyes shifted to the boy as he asked his question.

Akumu hesitating in answering, thinking perhaps his brother had this one cover, and what do you know. He did have it covered. In fact, it seemed like he and the boy were in a fashion destined to be guest and attendant. Interesting, so why did he need to be here? The old attendant would blink calmly as he listened to the conversation wondering if he needed to say anything at all. Hmm…perhaps not. Maybe it was best not to be speak unless spoken to.

The old attendat would shift in his position and drift slightly to the side before resting again. From this new position he would simply observe for a bit.

As Kazeito heard the odd giggling emerge from the bell, he decided to examine it in more detail, feeling over the odd etchings of the bell. Hikaru kept his focus on the attendants. Alex had proposed that Hikaru join some sort of effort against the Shadow creatures he had previously met. Hikaru was uncertain at first, feeling as though he would simply be a burden to the group. He would need training to prepare him, and a weapon would be very helpful.

"Well, I mean... I guess I could help you guys out with this. Anything to repay everyone's efforts in saving me. But I'm afraid I'm not exactly trained to fight. I don't want to be a burden to you guys. Plus, I don't exactly have a weapon..."

"Whaddaya mean? You DO have a weapon!"

Kazeito had released the bell and fluttered up to Hikaru's face. For the brief time they've been able to talk, Kazeito had begun to help Hikaru learn to summon him when he needed. It still took time for Hikaru to do so, but he at least knew how to summon Kazeito when needed.

"I-I do? But I thought normal weapons don't work on Shadows."

"They don't! But we're not just talking about any old weapon... We're talking about your Soulbound Weapon!"

"Soul weapon? I have one of those?"

"You've got me, don'tcha? I'm a part of your spirit, bud, and that means that you've got more power in you than you thought. I can help you summon it, or would one of you like to do the honors?"

Kazeito had glanced at both attendants as he said this with a wink in his eye.

"He... he can summon his weapon here, right?"

((Sorry about the massive delay))

Alexander scratched the back of his head and chuckled before muttering "I... don't know. The answer is probably yes though, since Hikaru can summon you here. You are also a piece of his spirit and soul, after all." Alexander then pulled out his Compendium and looked at it before explaining how it worked. "Okay, I'm not 100% sure how my Persona Compendium works but I am going to try to explain it as best as I can. Instead of a Persona, I fight using this. It starts off with two skills, for my Compendium it was a fire spell and an ice spell, and if I want to learn any new skills I can use a skill of one of my friends. And the skills can be of any type and any strength or tier... whatever it is referred to as. I'm also able to do two things each turn in combat... or something like that."

Alexander then smiled at Hikaru and Kazeito and laughed "So, do you want to try to summon your Soulbound weapon. I don't think it would be difficult in the slightest."

As the persona looked at the bell and examined it, it would eventually find a small hole that looked into what should’ve been blackness, but instead an almond shaped yellow eye would swivel about and focus on the one who looked in. The eye would narrow as white teeth appeared in a grin. It appeared there was some sort of non-hostile spirit within even if its grin suggested otherwise.

While that occurred Akumu would focus on the boy and his sibling as they spoke on weapons and such. The boy said he wanted help with the shadows, but in order to do that he had to learn about the soul bound weapon and such and it seemed his brother gave him the technical details, but was it enough to help the boy with the issues of soul bound weapons? The older attendant was quiet the whole time waiting for the right moment to make a move.

When his brother asked if the child wanted to summon his weapon, Akumu would shift from his spot as he moved away from his sibling and towards the center of the room. As he did this, the place began to shift leaving only himself, Hikaru, and his brother in the area now devoid of furniture or obstacles.

The space was simply a broken ship background, old wooden floors and the flows of tides and fish natural to the area. It seemed Akumu had pulled them to a different part of the Velvet Room for this particular occasion.

“Perhaps it would be easier for you to have a target to aim for,” Akumu said as he pushed off the ground and easily relaxed in the air as his ancient compendium appeared floating before with the pages facing him.

“I will let my brother instruct you and use myself as your temporary enemy. Please do not be afraid to attack me. I can assure you I won’t hesitate to do the same to you,” Akumu said in soft tones before smirking lightly at Hiraku and gesturing for him to summon his weapon and come at him.

Akumu Yume:

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Note: Akumu is a practice target for Hikaru, but will attack. The rules are similar to regular PvS battles the only difference is you don’t get KO or die when your HP runs out. The battle simply ends. Perhaps with Alex’s guidance, Hiraku can learn some things regarding battling shadows. Also no 48 hour thing to worry about. This is after all a mock battle.

After Alex reassured him that he could summon the weapon with little difficulty, Akumu had moved to the center of the room. The room had begun to change around them, leaving the room barren save for the Attendants and Hikaru. Akumu began hovering in the air, offering to spar with Hikaru.

Despite the knot forming in Hikaru's stomach over fighting somebody, he closed his eyes to focus on his thoughts. Kazeito was close by, instructing him.

"Alright, Hikaru. Just like me, this weapon exists as a part of your soul. Just focus and let it surface from within yourself."

Hikaru quietly meditated and searched his self before feeling something rise to the forefront of his mind. Suddenly, Hikaru felt a minor disruption erupt as the weapon suddenly appeared, hovering in front of him. It was a large halberd made of a gleaming silver metal with a blue handle and a pointed tip. Hikaru slowly grasped the halberd with both hands, still admiring the details of his weapon. He felt the weight of the weapon as he gained his grip on it. He gave the halberd a few practice swings to test how to handle it. Hikaru then turned his attention to Akumu and steeled his nerves to avoid chickening out of the attack.

Hikaru channeled his energy into his legs and bolted at Akumu, keeping the halberd head close to the ground until reaching Akumu, where he quickly slashed upward in the attempt to reach Akumu.
[Alright, my first battle! I only have one extra Persona skill unlocked, so I set up my character as such from the basic stats.]

Hikaru Ryouichi:

Attack:

Crit Chance:

Miss Chance:

(Lemme know if I missed anything.)