Present Possibilities: Shiki Misaki

Present Possibilities: Shiki Misaki
Date of Scene:	29 August 2013
Location:	Deja Room
Synopsis:	The past is prologue. The present? Is full of countdown missions.
Cast of Characters:	Oathkeeper, Priel Aylin, Shiki Misaki
Tinyplot:	Fragmentary Passage

---

Oathkeeper has posed:
The Castle Oblivion. A wretched place with upside down and sideways towers. A dark air lingers around it. Yet its insides are the very opposite of that visage. Pristine white. Yet both have something in common. They both feel... empty. There's body, but no 'presence'. Like a structure of which the spirit is missing.

When Shiki steps through that Reaper's gate, she finds a white hall at first. It is... depressingly white. Nothing in particular about it. No furniture, no visible lights. Just a hallway that consists of two walls, a floor, and a ceiling. It leads towards another door. And when she finally opens that door she walks out into...

The WildKat Cafe. Or a reflection of it. A memory. Yet it feels... empty. Much like this castle, there are no people within the actual cafe. Nobody making coffee, nobody listening to their headphones and lounging on a seat. Nobody. It's like a ghosttown, minus the town part. On the other hand, she can see 'life' outside of the WildKat cafe. Beyond the door. Beyond the glass that seperates her from the world out there.

In the meantime, in Castle Oblivion, a man in black stands outside one of the doors. A dark portal stands between him and... presumably 'someone'. "Yes, she's still in there. Things are going according to plan so far." The Seeker speaks to the man on the opposite side of the portal.

A dark voice answers him; "Good. Do not fail me."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Hey, it's not so bad! The architecture's kind of cool, in that 'I've lived in a city all my life and just about everything is new and exciting to me' way.

Shiki can appreciate the fact that it feels kind of eerie, though. It's not like the Underground exactly, but still... gives her chills. She tried to pass them off as excitement, but now, who knows?

She's deep inside the castle, walking into her next challenge. Or to be more precise, a transitionary corridor between challenge #1 and challenge #2. Which, as it happens, lets her get reacquainted with that chilling feeling. It's even worse when there's nothing to distract you from the white emptiness, so once she's decided that it creeps her out she quickly dashes for the next door, cat in tow.

...ugh! It's no better here. Something like WildKat just feels the /most/ wrong when it's empty like this.

This feels like the memory of the day she arrived in Traverse Town. When she got there, the cafe was closing up then too, and it was empty like this.

Shiki walks towards the door, looking over the place as she does so- a thought comes to mind, of a dream where she could have brought everyone back here as a 'home'. Herself, Beat and Rhyme, Neku... all the Players just coming in when the place is closing up, everyone just flumping on the couches or tables for the night.

And look how different her life's turned out by contrast.
She puts that memory away in her mind, and steps outside.

Priel Aylin has posed:
Right there.

Outside, among the crowds of people milling about and going on with their 'lives', a single girl stood still. She wore a dark red hoodie with a flame design cresting the hood. Said Hood was pulled up, obscuring her face. All that one could make out from the figure was the long red hair spilling out from either side of her head.

Hands in her pocket, she just stood and watched from under the hood...awaiting something. Or someone. And eventually, the cue came. In the form of Shiki stepped outside. Grinning to herself, the girl stayed where she was and spoke out through the crowd.

"....Well look at this, you're alive. Still."

The people in the crowds didn't react to what the girl had said. It was like they were ghosts. Drifting by between the two of them. It should be obvious to Shiki who this person was by this point.

But the question now was...why was she here?

Oathkeeper has posed:
It's to be expected for them to act as if Shiki wasn't there. She ran into that problem last time. It really does seem like she is in the UG all over again. A realm that didn't seem to exist anywhere outside of her home world.

Outside, The Seeker looks up and makes a motion. Almost as if he noticed something. A disturbance in their plan. "Excuse me." He murmers and closes the portal, and steps into the room...

Shiki might notice something all of the sudden. There's something burning in her pocket. Her phone.

06:33

...

...

...

06:32

Shiki Misaki has posed:
"You?!"

Shiki's hackles are raised! It's Priel Aylin, her worst friend. She balls up her fists and shakes them at Priel. "This is /my/ memory! What are you doing here? This isn't supposed to /ow/!"

Shiki stops cold, going ramrod straight as she feels her... phone burning? Her eyes drift down to it. Yes, that's her phone.

She pulls it out as fast as she can and checks ... a countdown?! What on earth? She's not...

She looks for a message, instinctively checking to see if there's a Mission or something like that. Her eyes dart back and forth between the screen and Priel, scowling.

"Do you have something to do with this?!"

Priel Aylin has posed:
"Ehehehehe~ ...."

All Shiki gets from Priel is an entertained giggle. "Maybe. I might. ...Or I might not. I wonder, I wonder~" Shrugging flippantly, she pulled down her hood to reveal her face. She looked ever the same. At last there was that. Not that there was anyone who could really have cared.

"Now if I remember correctly....that means you've got a mission, yeah? What is it? What's the mission? Come on, there's got to be a message!" Priel spoke mockingly, already knowing what the mission was.

"And besides..."

Shoving her hands into her pockets, she took a single step forward, continuing to grin in a mocking fashion and fangs glinting slightly. "What if I did have something to do with it? What are you gonna do? Cry for Reize to come save you like some sort of pathetic damsel in distress? Hm~?"

Oathkeeper has posed:
The Mission, it's there. Or at least, there's a message! It states but a few words:

<< E M E R G E N C Y C A L L >>
<< P R E P A R E F O R E R A S U R E >>

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Still the same stupid face stupid Priel. Thank goodness, if she had got like, tattoos on her face or if she was wearing /shades/ or something Shiki could have just /died/. That would have looked /so/ bad.

Shiki looks at her message... and she does /not/ like what she sees. Scowls, as Priel walks and talks. Shiki waits until Priel walks forward a little before flipping the phone around to show her.

Back in her pocket it goes. "A lot has changed in almost a year. Especially me. But you... you haven't changed at all, Priel."

She balls her fists up. "How dare you barge in on something like this! If you're here to fight me, then I'll show you just what I've learned. I won't let you drag me down any more!"

Priel Aylin has posed:
"Heh."

She only shrugged at Shiki's indignation. "Something like this, you say...?" Priel mused idly, looking about at their surroundings for a moment before scoffing and focusing her attention back to the girl before her. "...And what's this supposed to be? Your little journey of discovery? Your happy little frolick into the light? Ugh, I could just puke."

Shoulders shaking, the redhead began to laugh jovially at that. At the whole thing. It was just funny to her. As was most anything involving these do gooders. "Ohhh wow! Phew! You never fail to be hilarious! Gimme a sec!" Taking a bit then, Priel eventually sobered up. "...But the fact of the matter is; I don't need to change."

Suddenly then, she was serious. "Not everyone needs to undergo some ridiculous journey to discover themselves and learn the value of friendship or some stupidity like that." Her hands came out of her pockets then and gradually began to scale over, shifting shape into a pair of dragon's talons.

"Either way, you saw the message. You know that means." A slight smirk graced her features then.

"Time to do some erasing~"

And then she dove forward, closing the distance and rearing back with a claw. Once close enough, she lashed out, aiming to gut Shiki where she stood.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
It's come down to this.

Shiki always knew, at some point, she'd end up fighting Priel. Perhaps, on a certain level, this is why she did what she did- to become strong, to learn how to fight better by herself- she knew that one day she'd need to learn how to defend herself against the dragoness. How to /win/ against the dragoness.

And that starts right here.

Shiki draws her keyblade, the weapon appearing in a flash of light, and puts her other hand against the shaft. When Priel rushes forward, she thrusts- but the blade is horizontal, aiming to use the guard and the teeth to block each of Priel's claws.

"If you don't change, you'll never grow!" Shiki shouts, then twists her wrist hard to throw Priel off balance. Following through, she swings to Priel's side and opens out her free hand, aiming to cover Priel in bitter ice crystals!

Priel Aylin has posed:
"Tch, what's this?" Priel grumbled as she found her claws blocked by a...keyblade? What the heck? "Since when did you get one of those stupid keys? Are they handing them out like candy now?" Apparently that was a rhetorical question as she moved to right herself after disengaging from Shiki. Seeing the swing coming, she moved to right herself and defend with an arm.

The attack was successfully blocked, but the secondary attack... "Hah? What the...!" ...And like that, her right arm was covered in ice crystals. "Feh, annoying...!" Leaping away, Priel put some distance between them, arm dangling from the ice crystals on it. She and cold didn't exactly get along.

"Okay, so maybe I actually have to try. Fine then!" At that, her body exploded into flame, the ice melting off into water. "...And either way. You keeping talking about change; changing isn't the only way to grow! That's what I've hated about you. You and your ridiculous ideals." Gritting her teeth, she then thrust both arms forward, firing a blast of flame straight for Shiki.

"Just do me a favor and die!" ...Because otherwise, there would be hell to pay. But she didn't bother mentioning that.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
"I'm going to prove I can use it!" Shiki shouts back when Priel belittles her. There's clearly nothing that she can't mock!

She begins to half-run, half-walk, moving in an arc so that she's moving for when Priel tries to do something next. She's only ever encountered her real combat power when she transformed into a dragon; that's not a good measurement. Shiki doesn't know whether to fight close or not...

"So what other ways are there, then?" Shiki asks. Then, her decision is made for her as Priel shoots a flamethrower at her! She has to move fast, feeling the heat rushing up behind her as she tries to get to one side...

But where's Mr. Mew gone? He's behind Priel, and he jumps up to try and shove her hat down over her eyes! It's a distraction so Shiki can get in closer and try and bash Priel, swinging the keyblade just as she used her mythril rod!

Priel Aylin has posed:
"There are plenty of other ways! Someone can grow and never change! They can be satisfied with who they are now while moving forward! Have you ever thought about that?" Getting more and more annoyed, Priel's form began to change. Wings began to protrude from her back, black horns jut out of her head, extending further and further, her fangs lengthened, her eyes turned a feral yellow, and a tail extended from behind her.

"I'm fed up with you. I'm fed up with the way the worlds are now. I'm fed up with everything." Roaring in feral anger, something very unlike her, Priel's body exploded into flame again, creating a pillar of burning fire torrenting upwards. They'd better clear the immediate area before they find themselves fried!

"Tell me, why are you fighting? And I don't mean here right now." The Dragoness spoke through the flames, tone calm despite her anger being unleashed. "I mean.../why/ do you fight? What are you after? What do you hope you'll accomplish in this hopeless world?"

Shiki Misaki has posed:
"But I..."

Shiki's grip tightens on her keyblade as Priel begins to transform. Her mind races, trying to think of the various ways in which this will affect the fight, but she can't concentrate- seeing Priel transform makes her flash back to the terror of that night when she chased her across the desert. Seeing Priel become that dragon once again brings the memory back with a vengeance- and lets her transform unhindered.

So, in a way, it's easy to grab Mr. Mew by the arm and make a tactical move back, ie: run a bit. She shudders, shouting over the roar of the flames:

"DON'T YOU THINK I AM, TOO?"

"That's why we became shard seekers..."

Priel asks a question, and Shiki answers, voice lower now... the two of them face off in a war that's as much about words as it is weapons.

"You still haven't figured it out? It's ... for the sake of hope."

"If I grow and become stronger, then my friends have less to worry about. They see me grow and know I can fend for myself. I can stand on my own, alongside them, and we'll be strong together. Strong enough to fight away the Heartless and collect the world shards from underneath them."

She holds onto her pin- Blizzard Cool! The gold-lined pin glows as multiple spikes of ice, big and small, begin to jut out of the ground to oppose Priel's storm of fire!

"Me and my friends will become a force for hope!"

Priel Aylin has posed:
"Oh I get it. I totally get it. But that's all useless now!" Priel shot back. The firestorm she created dying down as the ice began to oppose it. Fitting how they stood at opposite ends of the elemental scale in that regard. "Collecting the world shards? Fighting the Heartless? Hope?"

Apparently letting her anger subside, she just chuckled to herself and shook her head. "...And how long is that going to take?" She asked in a low tone, arms dropped to her sides. "How long are we going to be stuck in this mockery of a world? How long until we can all go home again? Huh?"

After asking that, Priel's eyes twitched as she could feel a particular sensation. "...2:33....2:30...Hah." Laughing to herself then, the redhead glanced at Shiki and just grinned. "...The time is drawing rather close now. Either I erase you, or..."

She didn't finish. Instead, she just raised her arms, rearing back before punching the ground. What followed was an array of earth spikes jutting out of the ground and rapidly approaching Shiki and aiming to impale her.

"You'd better do something quick!"

Shiki Misaki has posed:
"Long as it takes," Shiki replies.

She stops for just a minute. Yes, she can feel the countdown too, the heat from her phone as sure as if it was on the back of her hand. She needs to replace it with another kind of warmth...

She thinks to herself and takes a deep breath. Think of Lily, and Lenn. Reize and Riku. Faruja, Deelel, Serah and Tifa. Think of Zia and Rhyme and Beat. Think even of Ivo... and Neku.

Home is where her friends are now.

Shiki moves, as the asphalt erupts all around her. She judges one jump perfectly and leaps off of the sides of the spikes, weaving through them, being scraped and lacerated by them and pelted by rocks but never being pierced.

"How's this?!" she shouts, close to Priel as she tightens her hand around Frozen Cool. The pin presses into her palm as her fingers grip her keyblade with both hands- and as she swings the weapon, she simultaneously brings her own piercing pillar up under Priel's feet!

Priel Aylin has posed:
And there it was.

Priel probably could have dodged and flew up into the sky to avoid being hit, but for some reason...she didn't. Instead, Shiki's counter attack hit the mark perfectly, and Priel falls silent as most of her body is encased in ice. "...Heh....hehehe....ehehehehehe...." And despite the pain, she laughed. "So...this is it, huh...?" She could feel her body growing colder and colder with each word she spoke. And yet, something else was happening as well. Her dragon transformation gradually began to recede. But not just that, her reaper features as well started to dissipate, leaving Priel's battered body the way it was before all this nonsense ever started.

The ice shattered, leaving the dragoness standing, but hunched over slightly. And with a grin on her face, she began to speak slowly. "...You want to know why...I did this?" She asked rhetorically, continuing on after. "...I was tired of seeing you so called...shard seekers bumbling around...clinging to a single point as your little beacon of hope..."

She straightened up slowly, wincing a bit in pain and from the cold. "...You all hated me anyway, so...it was easy to fool you idiots into it. ...Fool you all into thinking I was the enemy. Fool you all...into standing on your own two feet... Hehehe..."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Striking and freezing and shattering happens almost simultaneously, a furious explosion of ice.

Shiki stands amidst the falling pieces of ice and asphalt, hand shaking. She draws out one shuddering breath as Priel--

Talks.

Shiki doesn't let her guard down. The keyblade remains pointed at her, because Shiki knows by now not... to... think...

Something's wrong, a dull voice in the back of her mind says, as Priel's transformation begins to fade. It can't be this easy, Shiki thinks. Priel's not a paper tiger...

Is she?

Realization dawns as Priel continues to speak- she /let/ it happen. Shiki's expression quickly begins to change from determination to shock.

"I didn't hate you," she says, her mouth suddenly dry. "I was always afraid of you."

"Why? Why did you have you stand against us? We- if you'd just... you'd just stood with us instead...!"

She knows it's not possible. Shiki knows by now that Priel would never have changed enough to be accepted- her personality was just always... but, but, but...

Priel Aylin has posed:
"Stand with you? Psh...you already know the answer to that one." Priel spoke airily, chuckling a bit to herself as she ran a hand through her hair. "Ahhhh man, this really does hurt. ...Does making a point always have to hurt like this?" Apparently that wasn't a question to be answered as she spoke on regardless.

"....Oh well, whatever." Turning away from Shiki, Priel took a few steps away. "...You know. ...There was something else too...another reason. Though this one...was just you." There was a pause as Priel took a deep, pained breath, and then sighed.

"The way you were before; you reminded me of my sister." The redhead turned her head a little to give Shiki a sidelong glance then. "...I hated that." And with that said, Priel turned around again, smiling a rather genuine smile despite what she was saying. "I can't stand the fact that someone reminded me of her so much, so...I decided to make your life difficult. ...See if you'd change. ...And you did. You even got a stupid key out of it. I'm...almost proud of you. Almost."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
She does.

Shiki's head begins to race. Blue... line, wasn't it? That's what Lucas said. Follow the blue line. Her eyes begin to dart around to look for one.

She needs to leave the Castle. Priel's hurt, she has to... get her out, get her somewhere safe, or maybe if she can find him again he has a potion or something...

Shiki reaches her hand out and begins to step gingerly behind Priel. She's silent...

The countdown might be in the double digits by now, but she isn't even thinking about it to check. As Priel reveals something incredible, there's this terrible sense of foreboding in Shiki's mind.

"Yeah," she says, and gulps, "I did, but... that's... not important right now. Priel, I'm sorry, l-let's get out of here."

She drops the pin back in her pocket and begins to dig around to see if she's got anything. Cure Drink, Squirrel Leisure, some Krakka greens or something...

"You're hurt, so let's go fix you up..."

Priel Aylin has posed:
"Heh...too late for that now." Priel mumbled as Shiki moved to try and help her. "Or did you forget? The mission, remember? The mission." There was a pause and then Priel just plopped down onto the ground where she was. "11...10....9...7..." Trailing off from her count down, she raised her head a bit to look up at Shiki and gave one final parting statement.

"...Okay, I lied. I am proud of you...Shiki."

3...2...1. And with the countdown ended, Priel simply slumped over where she sat. There was no flashy display of light or death or anything. Priel just simply stopped moving. ....It almost looked like she was asleep actually.

In fact, that just may be what happened.

Her body was there still, there was a faint sense of life...but she would not wake up. No matter what. She was just there. As if her soul had vanished from her body. ...Or her heart.

Was this the price of failure?

Either way, Shiki overcame this Reaper's trial. Priel would bother her no more.

Oathkeeper has posed:
What a mess, what a mess. How'd that girl get in here? The Seeker had only been here for the last part of all of that, but he knows enough to realize that this was going entirely against the lessons he'd intended to teach her. The ones to set her on the 'proper path' for their intents and purposes.

Yet here she is, holding a fallen body.

The man in black garb slowly walks up to her and ends up kneeling at Priel's side. "I will take her somewhere safe." He tells her. "But you must go on. You cannot halt this trial in the middle of it all." He warns her.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Shiki feels sick.

Although this is obviously a victory, she doesn't feel any satisfaction from it at all. In fact, this is probably going to change her significantly once everything sinks in. Her keyblade faces the floor limply, as she looks at Priel, on the floor.

"Oh... what have I done?"

She's so struck that she doesn't immediately take the time to consider who the Seeker is. Just assuming it's Lucas, or perhaps not even that, she turns to look at them sharply.

When she's more or less absolved of the decision of what to do with Priel next, she nods. But she isn't sure where she's supposed to go...

So she just walks out into the memory, unable to look back.

Oathkeeper has posed:
The Seeker is quiet as he lifts the fallen body up. He's glad that she didn't try to fight this. But now what should he do with this fallen creature? He glances down at Priel's unmoving body for a moment. "Perhaps she will serve a new purpose at a later time." He mumbles to himself, before he turns away and opens a Dark Portal. He'd have to move fast if he was going to keep leading Shiki on her path.

Shiki soon comes upon a strange play of scene. She ends up bumping against another one of those invisible walls. Her phone buzzes suddenly. A new mission?

<< S A V E Y O U R F R I E N D S >>

There, on the other side of the wall, there's a sudden flood of Heartless and Noise coming from various sidestreets. And at their center are two of her friends. Neku and Rhyme standing back to back. But there's no way they can hold off this large of a flood. The problem is... she can't get through the wall! And there's no reaper standing near her. She does notice however, how some Heartless are passing through Reaper Walls further in the background.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
And so, we continue on.

Two missions in one day? Why, this is almost starting to feel familiar. Shiki looks at her phone, and it's... straightforward, but wince-inducing...

Oh /crap/! That's not good! That's-

A hot flush moves through Shiki's body as she notices who's there. That's Neku and Rhyme. And... you know, she can't assume they're not real because Priel certainly was, but if they /are/ real that means that Sho didn't erase Neku back on that island--

No time to consider the ramifications of this in detail, danger! Rather pressing danger.

She notices the Heartless are moving through the walls, though. She gives Mr. Mew a look. Hmmmm.

Smash cut to Shiki, who has grabbed onto a Living Bone and is trying, with difficulty, to hold onto it! Mr. Mew is holding onto her! Screaming is involved! It's a Heartless rodeo as she tries to ride it through one of the walls.

"WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA"

Oathkeeper has posed:
Holding on for dear life, Shiki rides the Living Bone towards the wall! Kicking up a little, it keeps rushing straight for it. Go go go go...

CLUNK! The sound like a bird flying into a window.

Shiki and Mr. Mew both end up slamming into the invisible barrier like cartoon starfish attached to the inside of an aquarium, arms and legs wide.

That was a bad idea.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Shiki rises up from the bottom of the frame, hair out of place and a bruise on her forehead. Well, at least we've overcome the angst.

OK, let's think. No reapers to be found, no 'clever' solution to be had. No obvious resources to be used. Neku and Rhyme aren't going to be able to hold them off.

Wait a second. What unlocked reaper walls before? Keypins. Keypin, keyblade. Keypin, keyblade...

Shiki looks at a yen pin. Looks at her keyblade.

Time to start knocking on the walls, or seeing if holding it up to them works, or something!

Oathkeeper has posed:
Well, that was a far more decent idea, that's for certain. She aims the Keyblade at the wall, and it begins to shine. But the effect it has is perhaps... not quite what she'd wanted. Her friends both look at her through the door and open their mouths. It's like they're saying something, but she can't hear them through the barrier. And the Noise and Heartless? They spot her. They spot her /and/ that Keyblade... and suddenly rush straight for her. They keyed in on the light of her Keyblade.

Her keyblade hits the barrier, and suddenly it fades away. And more heartless come.

Maaaaaybe she should run.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Shiki, admittedly, isn't really thinking straight right now. She just effectively killed Priel: when confronted with more of her friends in peril, unconciously she is probably operating on some sort of idea like 'I just messed up and lost one person, I need to get these friends out of danger immediately'.

And to be fair, that is what she's done! She just forgot that 'getting them out of danger' meant 'getting yourself in danger' in their place.

So she's got to go. As fast as her little legs will carry her, in fact, Shiki moves it- hey, this is the second time she's done this in as many trials!- but hopefully, this time she has other people around.

Surely if she keeps these guys moving, maybe tosses the ol' ice attack behind her, she can disrupt them enough that Neku and Rhyme can take them from behind.

Because surely Neku and Rhyme are going to take them out from behind. She trusts they would. They're her friends, they wouldn't abandon her... right?

Oathkeeper has posed:
They don't abandon her, but there's such a large sum of Heartless. And they all seem to be following Shiki for a while - her blade still glowing a strange radiance that seems to come from within herself. However, the glow starts to falter after a little while, and she notices that some Heartless are beginning to straggle...

It's obvious that the heartless are attracted to the keyblade somehow! That if she uses it, or concentrates on it, that they will come for it. On the other hand, if she doesn't, they start caring about her as if she was just another normal person. Neku and Rhyme can't take this large of a group. She needs to lure them further. Maybe... into the cafe? Or perhaps to the large crossing outside the 104 building? But what if she lost the attention of the Heartless that are chasing her?

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Pros and cons of using a keyblade 101: your crash course in not being eaten.

It's entirely possible that Shiki may end up not concentrating on the keyblade unintentionally, because she's thinking about the best way to kite these Heartless. Funnily enough, she's finding that she's putting together her knowledge of Shibuya's layout with the new fighting tricks she's picked up.

She knows that she's good at dodging, and that one of the main skills of the Heartless is that they can use large numbers effectively. So she leads them on a chase through the streets in such a way that she can easily leap over things but their numbers might make it more likely they'll get logjammed. All the while, she is doing her best to harass them, hoping her friends are able to pact up and deal them some damage too.

Fighting in a big open place like scramble crossing is actually her best idea. She's got a lot of room to maneuver, she can spread them out to dodge in and around them, Mr. Mew will have even more chances to scramble under their legs instead of holding onto her belt for dear life, and they won't have many walls or narrow spaces to slither onto if they're Shadows.

Also, probably plenty of things to lift with psychokinesis. Like billboards.

Oathkeeper has posed:
When she gets to Shibuya, she lifts her keyblade and uses it to power her psychokinesis a little. She'll notice however that when she just uses her pins normally, the heartless explode into clouds of darkness... and nothing. It is only when she properly uses that blade that their hearts are lifted from them.

Her friends have fallen behind however. And the heartless keep coming. Just as she backs off from them a little, she bumps into The Seeker. He seems... annoyed by the tone of his voice. "You can't face all of them. Remember, this is the Castle Oblivion, a place of memories." He tells her. This isn't how things had supposed to go.

"Go on." He motions at her. "Go to the next door. I'll hold them off."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Shiki sure is glad it isn't raining this time! That would suck. When you're fighting tons of Heartless with your keyblade in the shadow of a very tall building, adding in rain would definitely just make everything so much worse. Am I right, guys? Eh? Eh?

Ahhh, that joke wasn't all that funny.

She wonders, while discovering the difference between 'keyblade attack' and 'foreign object attack', why she never used psychokinesis to levitate her mythril rod before. She's going to have to spend some time with that. It's a little difficult to get used to this so soon- pins are relatively easy compared to a weapon, and this keyblade is a different length to her rod.

That's probably why she's giving the Seeker an apologetic look. She had to hope that was the real Neku, but... "So those were just my memories of those two..."

She looks for the next door, picking up Mr. Mew and high-tailing it. Her stomach churns- before, she'd hoped to find new people, new answers, but now she doesn't know what's real here and what isn't. Shiki tightens her grip on the keyblade and heads on.

From now on, no more mistakes.