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[SeriousConcentrate]

Mildred rubbed the back of her neck.

"Bullshit. Maybe I ain't a good citizen but I'm damned if I'm some monster either. Is there a way we can stop it?"

[Chevaleresse]

". . ."
That couldn't be right. Could it? Wouldn't she notice if she was turning into some kind of gribbly monster made of her own internal turmoil? Some she'd run into on the streets would probably argue she was already there, a thought that might've dragged a bitter laugh from her in a different scenario.
". . . You going to kill us before we turn, or something? It doesn't sound like something that'll go away because you warned us."

[Smoke Mirrors]

”You mean more than normal for people with personal issues? Because I already knew I qualified for that.”

[IamanElfCollaborator]

The Kaijin shakes her head.
"No, of course I'm not going to kill you. Why would I do that? Even if you did transform, saving you would be a matter of just....well...I'll be frank, it would involve fighting you and beating your Inner Demon into submission until you transformed back. Of course, we're hoping NOT to end up there, so we're just going to get you out of here. No, you always have an Inner Demon inside you. That thing you saw, Akari, was your Inner Demon. It's a symptom of the Akuma Seed waking it up; stuff like seeing it walk around at the corner of your vision, hearing your own voice talk at you. The Akuma Seed - that pain you felt- just wakes it up, makes it want to take control. Negative emotions feed it, until it's strong enough to want control, strong enough to offer you power to fulfil your desires if only you'll let it in."
"My partner and I think - we don't know for sure - that if we delay the transformation long enough, the Seed will pop out on its own, and the Inner Demon will go back to sleep, like everyone else's. That's part of why I'm trying to get you out of here - stress can wake it up faster. There's only one other way to not transform into an Akuma, one surefire way."

She looks, firstly at Akihiko, then at Mildred.
"You become a Kaijin."

Akihiko clenches his fist.
"...that power, power like yours.....if I need to fight to save Saya, I will. No matter what, I'll protect her. I'll protect all of you. But....how can I become a Kaijin?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"....to become a Kaijin, you have to wake the Inner Demon up enough that you could potentially become an Akuma, that it promises you everything you want if you let it in. After that....I can't tell you what you'll see. It's different for everyone; your Inner Demon is your own, and I can't tell you what it'll be like."

He shakes his head.
"....if it comes to that....I won't let Saya down. Or Honda. Or you guys."
The Kaijin audibly chuckles.
"....so heroic. My, my. They still make you like this, huh?"

[Smoke Mirrors]

"Yeah, the red king here's going to be a kaijin, duh. Heroic kid becomes Shonen hero, not much of a plot twist. Just promise that when I become some kind of terrifying monster and twist the world around me into a mockery of the phrase 'all the world's a stage' you won't hold it against me."

[Chevaleresse]

"You're the expert here, not me." Shiro shrugged. "I didn't know anything about this nonsense until you showed up and explained." She let out a small sigh. "Pretty sure I should be getting ready to have my hide tanned, though, if stress is the thing that makes this speed up."

[Happerry]

Chiyo doesn't look back at her.
"Just trust me."
She inhales.
"Arise, my true form, Cath Palug!"
....
[Now Playing: Theme of Chiyo ~Danger Zone~]
A transformation would normally be grander in the sort of stories Misa read. More sparkles, more thunder and lightning.

But this, this was understated. It was comparable to a snake shedding its skin, except not. It was too quick, too smooth. One moment, Chiyo was there, and the next, in her place was a tall, slender, feminine figure, body with only a few chinks around the joints, and a tail that flicks about despite being made, to Misa's eyes, of solid metal. A white, silvery scarf flowed off her neck, the end fading into the air rather than having a solid border. Her head was almost featureless, vaguely resembling a cat's, with large, yellow pupilless eyes.
"Now. Run!"

The tentacled creature lunges for Chiyo, but Chiyo - or whatever she has become - dodges out of the way, impossibly fast by human standards. Chiyo extends her hand, and a burst of iridiscent lights flashes out, looking almost cartoonish, like two-dimensional effects overlaid on reality, bursting from her hand, disappearing and bursting out of the creature in a flurry of polka dots, geometric designs and other shapes that would look more in line with modern art than reality. The creature unleashes a metallic screech, before smashing into Chiyo, throwing both her and the cat-like humanoid away. The path, however, is clear for Misa to run.

"Wha??" After Misa vocalizes her confusion in an abrupt manner, she makes a high pitched voculization as she vacates the current area at high velocity, at least on the scale of normal human foot speeds.

[SeriousConcentrate]

"If it's a fight against my 'inner demon' to see whether I'm a Kaijin or an Akuma... then fuck it, I'll take it on. I'm not becoming one of those things without going down swinging."

[Smoke Mirrors]

"You're probably rather safe too, Honda. You're a very blunt person who doesn't hold anything back. That will probably mean you'll have less trouble confronting your issues."

[Unlurking Sentinel]

It took all of Masaru's concentration to avoid panicking at such a statement. He would've been close to believing it was all a bad dream, if the pain he had felt by this point wasn't real. However, the "potential" qualifier in "potential Akuma" detail stuck out to him as a glimmer of hope; he was about to bring it up before the Kaijin concisely answered his concerns for him. He still had a few sub-concerns remaining, though.


"Do you have any numbers on the Akuma-to-Kaijin transformation ratio? And while I'm asking questions, is it any different if one felt the pain in their back instead of their neck?" It wouldn't make much difference if he alone didn't turn, as chances are he'd end up surrounded by more Akuma and Onibi than Kaijin. But he'd rather die a victim than become known as a horrifying monster.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Heroic? The hell's that supposed to mean? It's what I'd do. Heroics don't play into it."

The Kaijin audibly chuckles again.
"My, my. Kasuga....the stories about you really sell you short, huh? Anyway....I can't tell you what the numbers are, Demura. And no, there's no difference."

[Smoke Mirrors]

"Aw shucks ma'am. I was just doing what anyone would have done when I started a feud and got myself alienated by others and kicked out of my favorite club to protect someone. Truth, Justice, and the American way."

[Chevaleresse]

At Mori's comments on Honda, Shiro let her face drop into her hands with a quiet sigh.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"....yeah, so what if I think anyone would've done it? It's true. Don't doubt you would too, if you had the chance, when the chips are down."

[Smoke Mirrors]

”And that’s why you’ll be the hero of the story, and I’ll be just another monster of the week you fight along the way.”