We're more than carbon and chemicals

[lucetimods]

Who: All Draftees
What: Fighting Third Party
When: 26th, 27th, 28th, 1st, and 2nd
Where: The Southern Farmlands
Summary: See here for overall details.
Rating: Probably gonna be gorey in places :|a

DOESN'T NEED A CUT. People should know how this works, if not, just follow other people's lead. I'm gonna set up some strategist threads at the top, for the four strategists to use if they want to, otherwise people should start their own threads.

((Mod Note: Since this has been asked a few times, just fyi, the livestock do not talk. Happy hunting!))

Comments

[breaks_destiny]

[They are the worst, he can't relax fully but he can still relax a bit so he doesn't complain too much. They become quite welcomed when he's at the point of wondering "how many are there left?". Still he smiles, he's stressed and tired but he's holding fine and he's not being suspicious of his own shadow yet.]

I'm fine! Not perfect but fine, what about you?

[emp3thy]

I'm good for a while. [He doesn't want to lose all his SP before taking a break, in case of an emergency, but it's still a time before he'll have to stop. This kind of fighting is rough. In Tartarus, they'd tire after only an hour... It's already been five today.]

[breaks_destiny]

Just tell me when you want to take a break, it wouldn't do if we did so at the same time.

[A laugh, it's a bit strained but it's to be expected, they are in the middle of a battlefield, there's probably blood, maybe even corpses on sight yet.]

Only one more day left to go back home!

[emp3thy]

[There's none on the two of them, just focus on that Keiichi. Sweat and dirt probably, but that's inevitable.]

And then Rena-san's cooking.

[breaks_destiny]

[No blood on Minato is a good sight. He likes good sights so he has no problem on focusing on that.]

You have to come to enjoy it too! I bet Rena will be delighted and won't mind making your favorites too.

[emp3thy]

I wouldn't miss it. [someone would drag him if he tried anyway.]

[breaks_destiny]

I'll be at your door to get you if you don't appear, you know.

[Consider yourself warned.]

[emp3thy]

Hey. It's free food.

[breaks_destiny]

Everything is free in this place, did you forget?

[That argument doesn't have much ground to stand.]

[emp3thy]

That I don't have to cook.

[his breakfasts don't come from thin air you know.]

[breaks_destiny]

Doesn't Minako-chan cook for you?

[emp3thy]

Sometimes.

[stop ruining his logic man :(]

[breaks_destiny]

Aaah, so normally she has you pampering her? What a nice older brother you are.

[Not trying to say that you have a sister-complex or that you spend more time pampering a girl that's your sister than getting pampered yourself, not at all.]

[emp3thy]

I have a freeloading friend.

[wouldn't be fair to make her cook for your stomach every day, would it?]

[breaks_destiny]

True, so you pamper both your sister and your friend. You need a girlfriend, she would feel like a queen with all the pampering you would give her.

[What if he goes there in hopes to eat her food and not yours?]

[emp3thy]

[then you should make her your friend instead. ...but oh Keiichi don't bring up girlfriends right now, he still feels a bit like he was just through a bad break-up.]

I try for that.

[breaks_destiny]

[Honestly, with all the stress and battle Haruhi's quite far away from his mind. Anyway Keiichi laughs and opens his mouth to reply, but the words never come out. Instead they die in his throat as he catches a glimpse out of the corner of his eye, raising the rifle quickly and shooting.

Seems that the next wave is already here.]

[emp3thy]

[not even a decent break this time... but he raises the Evoker and immediately summons Odin to rain lighting on the nearest foe. Even when his attacks don't kill outright, they make them easier targets for Keiichi.

He's not thinking about the deaths anymore. It's kill or be killed. It's how it was in Tartarus too... those enemies just didn't have human faces.]

[breaks_destiny]

[Keiichi isn't thinking either. In fact he tries to even forget that those are people too, it's easier that way, otherwise he could end wondering about things that have no place to be questioned in the middle of a battlefield. This isn't Hinamizawa, this isn't an abusive uncle about whom no one does anything, they aren't two friends who want nothing but help him feel better and recover with light teasing. They are enemies, real enemies. Like Takano's Hounds, they will kill him and his friends if he lets them. This isn't preemptive protection or a wrong judgment of the situation.

This is war.

So he shoots without hesitation, aiming at the wings when possible and at any not-protected part of their bodies. He doesn't aim to kill but he honestly doesn't care of they die. Just like Satoko's traps were made to hinder the Hounds, many probably got hurt, some may have got seriously hurt, but none of them cared. They would have killed them all like they did before after all.]

[emp3thy]

[There's a group meshed together, so he brings out the most potent thing in his arsenal - Almighty spells, courtesy of Messiah. The attack rips through the enemy, taking several down at once.

Where's the next one? There's no time to ponder...]

1/idk

[breaks_destiny]

[Keiichi keeps firing at the best of his capacity. Any enemy that isn't completely taken down by Minato's attacks, receives a bullet from Keiichi before he focuses on enemies of his own.

He just keeps shooting at them. Once... Twice... Thrice... No time to ponder, no time to think. He only keeps his attention on a target until he's sure that it's going down, vaguely taking in where the bullet hit the enemy. One hits the target in one of its wings, another hits one in the neck, but who keeps count, Keiichi doesn't. He just keeps firing without hesitation. This is war, they are enemies, he has nothing to regret and even if he has it would be foolish to do it now. Maybe later. For now, he keeps firing.]

[breaks_destiny]

[He fires without hesitation. He only makes sure when he aims that there's no ally around that could be hurt if he misses or something. It's just an instant in which he stops shooting, a brief no-noticeable instant.

One enemy, a soldier without a helmet or protection in the head. Maybe they forgot it, maybe they lost it in a previous battle. It doesn't last, the bullet hits them, breaking into their eye and going deeper into their head. The soldier falls, most probably dead.

But they aren't dead. They are yelling, a heartbreaking shriek that haunts nightmares. They hold the wounded eye, crying in pain, yelling. How can a human being make that sound, how can sound transmit so much pain. The soldier is in pain, its eye, the bullet hit them in the eye. But it wasn't a bullet, it was a ball from a model rifle and it wasn't a soldier but a kid. A little kid, shrieking in pain, holding her eye.

Why? Why is there a little kid in the middle of the battlefield? How did she get there?! It... It was her fault for being there, right? It wasn't his fault!

Again with making up selfish excuses.

No... This is a battlefield. It is in the middle of a war, can't you see? Can't you see the bodies of the soldiers?

But there are none... It's not that there aren't bodies, there are, covered in mud and blood. But they aren't soldiers. They aren't enemies. They are... His friends, dead, gun wounds in the corpses.

What... What is going on?

He looks up again at the girl screaming in pain. It's a little girl but it's not just any little girl. That long blue hair, that voice... Rika.]

[breaks_destiny]

[This isn't a battlefield, this is Luceti! The same old Luceti! He's standing at the plaza, surrounded by his wounded friends! But they aren't wounded, they are dead. He shoot at them. He made up the selfish excuse that there was a war and shoot at them as if they were his enemies when they wanted to know what was wrong, when they tried to reach him, right? That's what happened... There wasn't a war, there wasn't a draft. He was in Luceti all along... And he shoot at them.

You have done it again...

Yes, he has done it again. He has hurt, no, he has killed his friends. He made up a selfish excuse and picked up a model rifle again. He shot at them without hesitation or regret. He didn't listen to them, he refused them. The friends he had made, the people he had come to care for, he hurt them, he did it himself! There wasn't an enemy, he just made up that excuse!

And there's so much blood. And Rika is still in pain. She's still crying, she's in so much pain. He promised to protect her, to help her and he shot at her!

No, he didn't mean it! She looked like an enemy, like a soldier! He was in the middle of a battlefield! It really looked like a battlefield! It was the syndrome... He snapped, didn't he? He saw those illusions and believed them and... But he was still the one who aimed, the one who shot at them, and there's no one left to care about if it was the syndrome or not.

He did it. One way or another. He shot at them, made up selfish excuses and now tries to do it again, to escape the blame. But there's no one left to blame him, other than himself. There's no one to hear him.]

Done

[breaks_destiny]

I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry

[But no one is left to hear him or forgive him. No one would. He has done it again. He failed them all again.

His hands shot up to his neck, scratching madly as Keiichi stares at... Nothing. There's nothing there, the soldier died with the bullet, it was a bullet not a ball from a model gun, it did more damage than just hurt an eye. But Keiichi can't see that. He sees Rika, in anguish and pain and the corpses of his friends and the people he cares for. He doesn't see the enemies, he doesn't see one going straight towards him.

It's itchy. It itches, it itches, it itches, it itches. Scratch, scratch, scratch.]

1/2

[emp3thy]

[Minato is not watching Keiichi, too occupied with his own enemies at the moment. Fire, ice... quick summons one after another, taking the enemy down. But the next moment he realizes that, even over the din of the battle, the sound of the rifle has stopped.

He turns back. There's Keiichi, just standing there - with his hands on his throat. Frozen, and scratching, and staring... blankly at the avenging angel charging him down.

The soldier is swinging his weapon. It's too late for a Persona. His own sword is propped up against the makeshift barricade a few feet away, too far to reach. He hadn't needed it yet, summoning was enough. Things were going well a moment ago, but now Keiichi is -]

Keiichi!

[He tackles the boy with all his strength. There's no time for anything else. All he can do is protect him like this, and summon once they hit the ground -]