[ may catch-all ]

[messianic]

WHO: Minato and everyone he can drag into quests and maybe also you
WHERE: The town, the woods, everywhere in between
WHEN: May
WHAT: Fighting spiders, making friends, collecting social links, the usual
WARNINGS: Typical violence, probably. Ouni being Ouni. Kyrie being Kyrie.

[Feel free to contact me at kalisona if you want a toplevel, or just drop a toplevel in here? I'm cool with whatever, hit me up.]

Comments

[messianic]

Midoriya-kun, focus--!

[Look, he knows the Evoker is a problem, but the jorogumo--!!

Minato flings himself forward immediately to tackle Izuku out of the way of the youkai flinging herself out from the trees.

Dangerous...!!]

[inheritance]

[That knocks him out of his shock, and with that new clarity comes a burst of shame for putting them both in danger. Izuku shakes it off and pulls Minato up with him, jumping them both out of the youkai's range.]

Sorry! [Minato's right, he has to focus. Questions can come later.] I have an idea... what else can you do with.. um. [Actually, he has no idea what to call that thing he saw earlier.] With your powers? Do you have something that can stop her in place for a few seconds?

[messianic]

[Minato has to think, but... only for a moment, and then he nods firmly.]

Yeah--just a second.

[He lifts the Evoker again, pushing himself to his feet as the Jorogumo advances. And he presses it to his temple, pulling the trigger without hesitation once more (this time, Izuku can see the whole show)--

And summons the same Persona as before. But the spell this time is ice--and his aim is good enough, this time. It encases half of the spider's legs in a solid block of ice--which naturally means it can't move anywhere, for now.]

There...!

[inheritance]

Thanks! [Seeing Minato aim his gun at himself still makes Izuku anxious, but at least he's expecting it this time.

Ignoring the spider's angry hissing, Izuku grabs hold of a dangling bit of spiderweb and yanks it free. With his quirk activated, the Jorogumo doesn't quite manage to catch him with its claws as he circles around it quickly.

When he's done, he's got the spider youkai wrapped up tight in its own spiderweb. Only the legs currently encased in the ice are left free.]

That... should hold it, I think? That stuff is pretty strong. [Izuku's just slightly out of breath as he jumps back and joins Minato again.]

[messianic]

[... Well, now they have a webbed spider, which was some pretty fancy footwork on Izuku's part, but...]

... I don't think we can leave it like this.

[What if someone harmless like Dextera comes wandering through here and gets spider eaten? That would be terrible.]

[inheritance]

[Izuku bites his lip. He was hoping to avoid this.]

We'll have to kill it, won't we.

[There's a slight tremble in his voice that he can't quite mask. He's fought plenty of times back home, but killing, even if it's a creature like this, is new to him.]

[messianic]

... I think so. If we leave it alone, then...

[It'll probably attack and hurt, or kill, someone else. It feels like killing Shadows, but... not quite, too. He's fought monsters plenty of times, but...]

... I'll handle it, Midoriya-kun.

[Izuku just looks really far too uncertain for him to put this on his shoulders.]

[inheritance]

[Even if Minato offers him an easy way out, it doesn't feel right to accept it. So Izuku shakes his head, tucking away his uncertainty. It's easier when he thinks about how these creatures were made just to fight them. Probably.]

No...we're on this quest together...so let's finish it together.

[They can share the burden.

[messianic]

[Minato drags in a quiet breath, and lifts his sword, nodding and taking a step forward.]

Alright.

Let's...take care of this, then.

[It's a youkai. A malevolent being. A monster. It hasn't shown any hint of wanting to do anything but kill them--and so Minato lifts his sword.]

[inheritance]

Okay. [Izuku breathes in shakily and lets his quirk flow through him. Energy wraps around his arm when he lifts it this time and he waits until Minato's moving before he does, too.

Even when he braces himself for it, the feeling of bones breaking beneath his hand still makes him recoil.]

[messianic]

[Minato, with his sword raised high, brings it down upon the spider's head, and unfortunately? That's a sensations he's all too used to as it slices through.

Shadows are Shadows, but they still take the form of monsters like these that have to be cut to shreds.

And then he steps back, solemn, and looks to Izuku to see how he's doing.]

[inheritance]

[Izuku gets to his feet, looking just a bit paler than he normally does.]

I know those things would end up hurting the people in town, but... it still feels wrong, somehow.

[messianic]

You're a good person, Midoriya-kun.

[Minato reaches out, gently, to rest his hand on Izuku's shoulder--and then he turns him so that he's facing away from the Jorogumo corpse.]

There's nothing wrong with treasuring life, no matter what sort of life it is.

[inheritance]

[Izuku doesn't resist when he feels Minato forcing him to turn away.]

Keeping people safe is what matters in the end. [Is he trying to convince himself or Minato? Izuku isn't entirely sure himself. Speaking of Minato, though. Izuku glances at him.] You're--taking this a lot better than I would've thought.

[There's still the matter of the gun, too, but that can wait until Izuku's had a bit of time to process it.]

[messianic]

... Back home, monsters like that... that's what my team and I fight.

[He's quiet, hands shoved into his pockets as they slowly start to walk. They can escape the woods while they talk, at least.]

I guess I'm a little used to it by now. They've always taken forms like that--Shadows, I mean.

[inheritance]

Shadows... [Izuku falls into step beside Minato, his expression one of intense concentration as he fills in a few blanks with the knowledge he's been stockpiling since day one.]

So they're not like the ones we've run into before. Oh! That's why you learned the sword in the first place--it makes sense if you have monsters like this to fight off back home.

[messianic]

[Minato nods quietly. Izuku's right, after all; he's not at all surprised he's piecing it all together.]

That's right.

[...]

I can use a few other weapons too, actually. The sword's just the one I ended up with here.

[inheritance]

Is that... what the gun is for? [Even though it hadn't really worked the way Izuku had expected, it's still a weapon, isn't it?]

But you were pointing it at yourself... [Izuku falls silent, tugging at his bottom lip the way he does when he's deep in thought.] You don't use it in battle, not like you do with the sword. It doesn't actually shoot anything, does it? Otherwise you'd be injured right now. The...spirit [He has no idea what that thing actually was, so he's just taking a guess.] showed up when you fired, so the gun must be the instrument you use to summon it in battle.

[Apparently satisfied with the conclusion he's come to, Izuku glances over at Minato for confirmation now.]

[messianic]

[... Izuku's good at this, honestly. Minato doesn't have to say much at all when he figures it out for himself, which suits him just fine.

He pauses, waiting for Izuku to come to his conclusions, and then nods.]

Yes, that's right. It's called a Persona--the spirit you saw.

[A beat, and he tugs out his Evoker to offer it to Izuku. He can look it over if he wants!]

It's not a real gun. [...Well, it used to be.] I mean--it can't shoot real bullets.

[inheritance]

A persona... [How mysterious sounding. But he'll take the Evoker to look over, handling it as carefully as he can, because even if he knows it's not real, it sure looks real.]

So it was a tool specifically made for this. Does that mean a lot of people can use Personas in your world? [Enough of them, he thinks, to warrant something like this to be constructed.]

[messianic]

[... Well.]

A few, but not a lot. It's... before I got here, it was only my team and three other people that I knew of that could use Personas. Here, there are a few more.

[He tucks his Evoker away, shaking his head.]

These were made originally to help study Personas, and the potential of them, and...they ended up being useful for us in battle, too.

[inheritance]

There are other persona users here, too? [Hm, maybe he shouldn't be surprised, considering how many worlds they all come from.]

I have to ask, though... why a gun? I understand that the tool's necessary for summoning, but... [The design, the way that the persona is summoned--Izuku has no idea how Minato could point that thing at himself and pull the trigger, honestly.]

[messianic]

[... Izuku's probably not going to like this, but does anyone, really...?]

... The other Person users here don't have to use them. I think we're...from different points in time, though I don't really know what changed...

[A sigh, and:]

For me, and my team... Personas are meant to protect us from danger and hardships. So one of the fastest ways to summon them no matter where we are, is to feel like we're in danger.

[Mortal danger.

A la pointing a gun at their heads.]

[inheritance]

[It takes a second to make the connection, and Izuku's mouth drops open in horror when it does.]

It scares you into summoning the persona? That's horrible! I-if the other persona users don't use the guns, there must be another way to do it, right?

[messianic]

{Yeah. He knows it's horrible, and he just bows his head a little. More and more, he's felt that shame for having to summon this way when the others do not.]

I... yeah. I know. Back home, it was the only way we knew.

But now...

[... He drags in a deep breath.]

... I want to learn how. To not have to use it... like the others here.