destinystrings | Making new friends

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Making new friends

Who: Nano Shinonome and her Personas, Pinocchio and Chirashizushi.
Where: Out and about in town
When: The 13th hour between December 2nd and 3rd
Summary: Nano hasn't had much call to use either of her Personas, so she's taking each of them out for a spin.
Warnings: Nothing, really. She's not fighting terribly difficult demons here. Open to all who want to help her fight things.

Nano hadn't managed to be very useful at all the last time something bad happened in Hinoto-Ri, and she's been feeling rather badly about it ever since. After all, everyone in the town was in the same situation, being suddenly ripped away from their homes and loved ones, so there's no reason she shouldn't be trying just as hard as they are. To that end, even though she's afraid, she's finally resolved to venture out during the 13th Hour to try to get stronger. It's the only way she's ever going to be able to feel like she's earned the power she's been granted in this place, and certainly the only way she'd feel right going back home after meeting so many nice people. To that end, she's out tonight in the streets immediately surrounding the Pisces District housing looking for demons to fight, but also hovering reasonably near the apartment building in case things get too dangerous.

"I hope we can get along and work well together, Pinocchio-san," Nano says with a smile, folding her hands in front of her and bowing her head politely to the smiling ethereal puppet-boy floating behind her. The Persona smiles back, wordlessly nodding its head.

"Matarukaja! Marakukaja!"

As Nano's words ring out through the air, Pinocchio performs a stringless dance behind her before holding its arms out. Energy washes over Nano, bolstering her attack and defense against the demons she's about to fight. Glancing back behind her, she gives a small smile and another nod before dismissing Pinocchio and calling out Chirashizushi, the new Persona she'd fused in the Velvet Room only a few days before.

"Let's be friends too, Chirashizushi!" The little angel enthusiastically grins as it materializes into existence, looking happy as anything to be serving its new master. And with that, Nano and her Personas venture out into the night to fight for the safety of the citizens of Hinoto-Ri.

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"W-what...? N-no! Stop it!"

In reaction to the fear and confusion she's feeling, Nano's own key begins to spin at a feverish pace as her breath quickens.

"D-don't come any closer!"

The Nightmares pause for a few moments, though the sinister grinning continues unabated.

"You asked us to come out."

Crraaaaank.

"We're lonely, Nano."

Crrrrrrraaaaaank.

"Let's be friends."

The Nightmares proceed to break the cranking pattern by throwing themselves towards Nano with knives outstretched. The one with the knife embedded into its chest, however, merely stands in place and giggles.

Unfortunately for Nano, these demons have learned their lesson. Their blades glint not with light, but rather, become wreathed in the inky miasma of Darkness. Eiha was a weak attack, but even four weak attack stacked on top of each other was bound to be painful...

"No! Stop it! Be quiet!"

Apparently, 'be quiet' was enough to cause Nano's Persona to react. Pinocchio springs into action, a joint at the end of one of its arms opening up to fire a shot toward the Nightmare with the knife in its chest. The Muzzle Shot attack isn't very strong, but might at least inflict some Silence on the ringleader if Nano is lucky. Unfortunately, that isn't going to save her from the coming onslaught of dark blades.

"No... no...! Atsuro-san, where are you!"

Nano's scream echoes through the air as the first two blades pierce through her robotic skin, digging in deeper than a normal knife ever could, even considering the materials she's constructed from. Pinocchio is busy fending off the first demon, and it doesn't look like Nano is in much of a position to do anything about these four. She braces herself grimly for the remaining two attacks...

"Enki!"

A tear rips through the nightmarish vision - literally. Reality tears asunder as the darkness is illuminated by a hole displaying the sight of the familiar Capricorn district and a boy with a floppy white hat with an irate expression on his face. The sight is quickly obscured, however, by the flood of water that rushes through the illusion and catches a few of the Nightmares in its depths.

"Nano! Are you OK?!"

There are a few gashes in Nano's arms where she got slashed with the Eiha blades, but otherwise she seems all right. More than the physical damage, though, she seems to have been rather badly affected mentally by the Nightmares' assault. By the time Atsuro reaches her, she's already hunched down half-collapsed, hugging her arms around herself and desperately trying to cover up the wounds from the attack.

"Atsuro-san..."

Tears well up at the sides of her eyes as Nano gasps for breath, still obviously pretty freaked out by the illusions she was shown and what the demons seemed to know about her. She desperately hopes he didn't hear any of that, and is terrified deep in the pit of her circuitry that he'll abandon her here.

"Aw, geez."

Behind Atsuro, Enki quietly raises its staff high, releasing a gentle light that shines forth through the darkness. The illusion is banished in an instant as Patra clears the status effect from the board. All that remains is a group of five dolls standing in the forests of the Capricorn District... A considerably less threatening foe.

Atsuro will try to help Nano get to her feet.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think they'd be so clever... I didn't understand what was going on at first, either." Thankfully, the slightly genre savvy Atsuro had realized soon enough that the images he had seen had to have been the product of his own mind. As for what illusions he had fallen thrall to... that would be something to be saved for later.

A short distance away, the Nightmares shuffle uncomfortably for a moment or two before they decide that they don't need the mind games to hunt their prey. They slowly begin to spread out to surround the two...

Nano quivers and shakes as she staggers slowly to her feet, leaning on Atsuro for support. The sides of her eyes are still wet with tears from her ordeal, but with some help, she manages to pull herself together well enough.

"Th-thank you, Atsuro-san... I'm all right now."

Switching Pinocchio out for Chirashizushi, Nano readies her next attack. Nodding to Atsuro, she steps forward and holds a hand out. The little angel nods and begins to flap her wings, sending a blast of air whipping its way toward the Nightmares.

"So, uh..."

Atsuro takes a step away from Nano so he can cover her back as the Nightmares surround them in a circle. The wind-based attack knocks a few off their feet - stripped of their illusions, they really weren't too powerful. Atsuro hadn't been wrong when he'd said the ones around here should be at a fairly low level.

"...If I didn't mention it before, these guys can have a lot of weird powers. That's probably not the only status effect they've got under their sleeve. Enki can cure a few with Patra, but try to keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

Enki follows up with an Arm Chopper to one of them; this is enough to destroy it entirely, having been earlier hit by a Malaques as well. ...This leaves two to lunge forward with their blades once again, one aimed for Nano and Atsuro each.

"Atsuro-san, watch out!" Nano cries out as the remaining Nightmares rush the two of them. Mercifully, their blades are no longer enchanted with Darkness, but Nano isn't able to react quickly enough to stop the attacks before they connect.

Nano winces as the blade makes another gash in her robotic flesh, though not as deeply as a knife would normally cut on a human. Added to the damage from earlier, she's not feeling too well, as she's largely unused to pain. But Chirashizushi has healing spells as well, so with a quick Media, the damage she's suffered has mostly disappeared, and the healing energy washes over Atsuro as well.

"Can you finish them off?"

"Hnngh... Thanks, Nano." Atsuro straightens himself up from the hit as the healing washes over him. "Yeah, I think they'll be down in another hit or so. Enki's gotten pretty powerful at this point..."

With a nod to his Persona, Atsuro steps back and allows the creator god to unleash the floodtides once again. The Nightmares are washed away for good this time, and Atsuro breathes a sigh of relief.

"Let's... not fight any more of those guys if we can help it." He turns towards Nano. "You OK? ...I hope you haven't been turned off to training by this or anything."

While Atsuro is washing away the rest of the enemies, Nano hurriedly casts a quick Diarama on herself to finish sealing up the remaining damage she suffered as a result of the combat. Her 'skin' is pretty lifelike - a testament to just how talented the Professor really is - but cutting it open would certainly not reveal anything remotely human-looking, so she needs to be careful here. Once she's all healed up, she lets out a small sigh in concert with Atsuro's.

"Yes... I'm fine," she replies with a somewhat exhausted smile and a nod. "You really saved me back there..."

Luckily for Nano, in the dim light of the 13th Hour, Atsuro hadn't noticed anything too suspicious. He had noticed in the past that demon wounds tended to range on the extremes - Barely Damaged Regardless of HP Loss or Dead. He attributed this to some sort of spiritual activity provided by the COMP. Generally speaking, the more injured you were, the less effectively you could fight, but perhaps the Harmonizer program made it so that your attacks were just as effective from death's door as from full strength.

All of that said, there was a bit of dried blood left from his injuries; he's hardly observant enough to see that Nano has escaped unscathed in that regard, though.

"Don't worry about it. I said I would show you how to fight, right?" Atsuro smiles. "...You want to keep going or do you want to head home to rest?"

Nano's relieved enough that Atsuro didn't notice anything wrong that she's actually feeling much better about things than she might otherwise. She even manages a small smile back.

"I think it might be good to take it a little at a time."

"...Right."

Atsuro nods with what he hopes is a reassuring expression.

"That was pretty good for the first time! ...And for what we ran into. The first time I fought a demon, my friends and I mostly tried to use attacks that consisted of screaming and running away."

"I'll be more helpful next time, I promise!"

Nano feels a little bad about having to get bailed out like that, but at least she hasn't given up entirely. That's the only surefire way for things not to change, after all.

"You were plenty helpful! Hopefully, your Persona got some experience out of this..." Atsuro nods as he turns back in the direction of the apartments.

"Aha, maybe you should leave your costume behind next time, too. I know Midori went around in cosplay all the time, but I think it was because she didn't have any other changes of clothing."

"Ah... r-right..."

Nano shuffles awkwardly as she turns to follow Atsuro.

And so ends Nano's first outing! (fifth) With Atsuro apparently none the wiser.

MISSION COMPLETE
Earned 400EXP, 240MACCA
Team 1: Enki, Atsuro, Gates
Team 2: Pinocchio, Nano, Chirashizushi

ENKI LVL+1, learned Abzu-lution!

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Making new friends

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