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[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.]

[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.]

[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...]

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

Edited 2011-03-02 15:40 (UTC)

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[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.]

Edited 2011-03-02 15:41 (UTC)

[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 -]

[He's stronger than he thought, or maybe Keiichi is lighter. They both fall and roll a few times, mixed up in the dirt and blood. He needs to stop this and get back up. He has to summon again before the soldier follows them and stabs them both. Keiichi's helpless like this, so he has to protect -

Crack.

Something unyielding. He's glanced his head on the concrete wall and they come to a sudden stop. But he can't hear the sound. Suddenly all sounds are somewhere far away. His fingers grasp for his Evoker anyway but they feel odd, not really attached to him. His vision is swallowed up in grey.

He - can't do this now. But there's nothing he can do to fight it either. For the moment, he's passed out.]

[He can't see the enemy. There's only Rika, holding her wounded eye.

He can't hear Minato's voice. There's only that pained shriek filling the air.

He can't see Minato, for Minato doesn't exist in this world. Or maybe he's dead already.]

[But he senses the tackle. The world suddenly becomes agitated and spins. His body rolls over the ground and it hurts. Luceti's streets turn into a whirpool merged with the sky and the bodies. He loses sense of direction, of presence and existence.

When the crazy spiraling stops he hears a sound, a crack. Something broke, what was broken? He feels sick and dizzy. It's hard to move to raise himself again and his movements are sluggish.

Where... Where is he? He was... At Luceti, right? At the village, surrounded by the corpses of his friends and hearing Rika's scream.

It's gone now. There's no silence but there's no scream. And the ground at which he stares as he raises himself isn't one of Luceti's streets. Drops of blood fall over his hands and the ground, just a few of them but the color distracts him.

Blood... Where is it coming from? His neck. That's right, it itched, maggots had been crawling inside of it... Wait, maggots? There are no maggots inside his body that's... Isn't that one of the symptoms of the syndrome? But it doesn't itch now, it just hurts where he damaged himself. What the... What did happen just now?]

[He looks around, quickly, started. This isn't Luceti. It's the battlefield and it doesn't itch so... The illusion, the hallucination, was the Luceti before? He doesn't have much time to ponder though, the enemy that Minato helped him to dodge is on their track. The enemy! Where's his rifle?! Wherever it ended he has no time to search it, so he just reaches for the gun and shoots at the soldier several times. There'll be time to ponder later.]

[His head aches. He's wading through fog. Every movement is sluggish, but he needs to...

To what? They... were on the battlefield, but now he's on the ground. He tries to recall what happened, but thinking at all makes his head throb more.]

[Keiichi pants. Mind still cloud and confused. This... This is real, right? It's not an hallucination. He didn't just kill one of his friends, right?

Something moves behind him, it's a sluggish movement that doesn't register as a threat to Keiichi. Why doesn't it register as a threat though? Just because it's slow?

He turns his head to look... Minato is there, trying to raise himself, he seems wounded. No, he is wounded, he can see the blood dripping over his face. Why... Is Minato hurt? Why are they on the ground? Why doesn't he have his rifle... Ah, of course, it was an illusion, wasn't it. That world in which his had shot at his friends and hurt Rika, he was under stress, he snapped when the bullet hit a soldier's eye.

Then again, maybe this is the hallucination after all. And he really did that horrible thing. He still can't be sure. But in this place he's seeing Minato alive and moving, hurt but alive. He's with the other draftees and they are fighting enemies and everyone is back at the village of Luceti waiting for them. Maybe this is the hallucination, even if his neck hurts maybe he just is hallucinating that too. But that's okay, Minato's hurt in front of him and he almost had an outbreak. They need a break from the fight, they need to recover so he'll stay here, he'll help Minato, if this is an hallucination so be it, this hallucination is good compared to that "reality". If it's not then he has even less reasons to want to go back there.]

Minato... Minato, can you hear me?

[A hit to the head can be pretty serious, he has to make sure if there's any extra damage.]

[His vision swims and his ears are ringing, but Keiichi's voice cuts through the fog. Yes, he can hear him... But why he's asking is another matter. His head still throbs. Shakily he raises a hand to it and it touches something wet, sticky.]

What happened?

[Them both are wet and sticky, one from the wound on his head, the other for the self-inflicted wounds on his neck. Anyway Keiichi does his best to remain calm, he needs the medicine and Minato a doctor. He could take care of the first now but he doesn't want anyone seeing it so...

He moves closer to Minato to make sure he doesn't fall.]

You hit your head against the wall, I think. Or against something else. Anyway, we should go and find Ami-chan so she can check on you.

...Right.

[They're outside, aren't they. That's dangerous. Where's his Evoker? He graps around for it but starts to wobble.]

[Keiichi grabs him before he falls and hurts himself more. He looks around, spotting the Evoker and grabs it. His own mind is dizzy but that's it, his sense of balance is still better than Minato, just his thoughts are hard to keep in control.]

Lean against me.

[He will get them inside before they are targeted again.]

[He leans, not like he has much of a choice. There's one other thing though -]

My sword, too. [that thing had taken work to have made. No, it's not really what he should be concerned about right now but he's having trouble holding onto more than one thought at a time.]

Edited 2011-03-02 19:33 (UTC)

[Keiichi just looks at where they were before. It's not that far but still... And they are an easy target.]

You really want to take a trip to there to just grab the weapons while you're bleeding from a wound in your head and there's still enemies around?

[Hard chance man, Keiichi starts to move towards where it's safe. They can recover those later or whatever. A sword isn't more important than their healths.]

[Hey man, he has no idea how close or far the sword might be. Last he recalls he should have it. Minato just makes a noise and leans more on Keiichi as they start moving. His legs are only barely cooperating and he feels almost detached from them.]

[Whatever, dragging both our loser asses to where it's safe. And suppressing the urge of banging his head against a wall hard until it breaks in an attempt to clear it. It would certainly not help to clear his mind.]

[No it would not, it would just make him as useless as Minato is right now. but soon enough they'll be inside, and as safe as it's possible to be right now.]

[There are several doctors in the draft, or so he remembers. But he doesn't care. There's only one doctor he wants, in fact he would want her even if she wasn't a doctor, he wanted her as his personal doctor of sorts even when she was just a teenager and didn't have medical training. So there's only one person whom he searches for as soon as they are inside.]

Ami-chan! Ami-chan, I need you, please!

[Mercury comes quickly the second she's being called for, and quickly moves to help the other two. Her eyes look them over quickly for a first appraisal.]

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