Intuition

[REIKA HANAE]

"What can I say? I don't like to share."

The next part made her inwardly squeal. He was trying to direct the conversation himself? How cute. Such a tasty place to direct it to as well, and perhaps the easiest direction for her to fake. Reika's already used to pretending Strega doesn't exist, both towards other people and towards herself. It was nice to pretend. Needless to say, she already had plenty of practice talking about this, which made it even easier to lie than it normally would. That couple with her own natural ability to act and his social ineptitude should make this easy.

"There are entire organizations of persona users?" She blinked. Then, her hand slowly made its way up to her chin and she looked up. "I suppose it's not that surprising. It's a dangerous world, it's only natural for people to want to band together. I just didn't expect there to be that many users. Man, I feel so much less awesome now." She laughed bitterly. "What do they do?"

The fact that there were three was already news to her. She knew of SEES and Strega, but what was this mysterious third group?

[KAITOU NAGANO]

(Well, you've given her your hand, so lead the dance...)

Dancing was one way to define this new topic. The other was informational suicide. Amaranth was clearly leaps and bounds ahead of Kaitou in terms of social aptitude, and yet he had initiated this conversation anyway. This was really a job better left to the spies in the group, but he was not without his own talents in espionage.

"Har, har. Solo units like us aren't that uncommon, even with the factions making the majority of the User population. SEES, Strega, and Nocturne..." He shrugged, folding his arms as he closed his eyes for a moment as if thinking. "From what I know about SEES, they're some group of rambunctious hero-types that are trying to 'destroy all Shadows' or something idealistic like that. You see them wandering the streets the most often, trying to save people from having their brains sucked away by Shadows."

The next bit came out just as smoothly, even though Kaitou himself expected to show a little of his bias against the group he so hated. "Strega just does what they want to do. I've heard that there's a rumor that they're the ones who run the Revenge Request website, but I haven't met anyone from their group to confirm that."

As for Nocturne... Well, Kaitou truthfully didn't have much to offer about them, and what he did know sure as hell wasn't going to escape his lips. "Nocturne has many secrets... They're even more guarded than you are about them, I would say." The teen cast a smirk her way as he made that last quip. "Maybe you should look them up. You might have better luck than me. I'm not fond of current technology and all of that. Everything I hear about is through rumors and hearsay, or what I discover in Tartarus."

[REIKA HANAE]

Something was wrong. It seemed like he was capable of choosing his words carefully when he thought about it, but he was no illusionist. He forgot the critical piece of not revealing more than you need to: what you do reveal has to make sense with everything you've revealed in the past and everything you decide to reveal right then. This did not. SEES' motives weren't exactly well-hidden; she might buy that he didn't know anything at all if he were just an observer not paying any attention at all, but as someone that claimed to be seeking information about the Dark Hour and seemed interested in groups and her own allegiance, it didn't add up. He also knew of this group that she had never heard of herself and she was paying close attention to everything. In other words, what he said except for maybe the last part, was something you'd have to be a complete dumbass not to know, and the part on Nocturne said nothing at all. He definitely knew more. Though, to Reika, the "how" (that is, how he knew more) was just as interesting as the "what" (what he knew). With no personal contacts, as he said it has been awhile since he's spoken to anyone, and a distaste for technology it would certainly be interesting to find out. Granted, he was clearly lying because you can't follow rumors without running into people or using technology. He is quite silly.

"I see." She slowly nodded. "Why didn't you join any? It seems like your 'purpose' would be much easier if you had other people helping you." She shrugged and then started giggling lightly again. "I might dig into them. All of them. I must admit, I am rather curious. It's too bad you don't know anything. I doubt I'd be able to dig up much myself."

[KAITOU NAGANO]

...She wasn't biting. If anything, it seemed like Kaitou was only digging himself further into a pit.

(Part of telling a web of lies is to be able to connect each individual lie to each other and form a seamless network... If I had to evaluate my performance, would I be anywhere near seamless?)

Probably not. Playing spy wasn't Kaitou's forte. Neither was being sneaky. But he had chosen to engage in this game, so he would have to do his best to salvage his mistakes before it was too late. So what options did that leave him...? He shoved his hands into his pockets as he processed Amaranth's response.

"Why should I?" he finally responded, shrugging. It was a half-assed quip if there ever was one, but it'd be better to leave her suspecting him than to give anything away and piece together part of his motives for her. So there he was, standing with his hands jammed into his pants as he pondered how he could try and turn the momentum of the chat to his favor... if it were at all possible by this point. Perhaps if he tried another daring play like when he shifted the conversation to its current subject...

"I don't know about that. Information tends to leak out of people like water from a faulty pipe..." he looked across at her, head tilted, a blank expression on his face. "As you have been able to witness so far."

Well, if anything, at least it was now out on the table that they were well aware of each other's motives.

[REIKA HANAE]

"Oh, well that's simple. See, the reason I work alone is because other people just get in the way. I get most of the loot in Tartarus if I go alone and I'm more than capable of dealing with shadows...with an exception I was not aware of until tonight I suppose. There is nothing for me to gain by working with others, but if I took someone with me they would probably expect me to split whatever I find. Therefore, I gain nothing, but lose half of my treasure.

"You on the other hand are not seeking something tangible; you're looking for something that you don't lose when it is also given to someone else, so there's nothing to lose right? My parents always told me that I needed to be more social because other people compensate for our flaws. If you work with other people you'll also see more things and get more things done because there's two bodies and brains involved. So like, while you look on one floor they could be looking on another, or they could even be checking out different angles! So, it seems like working with other people would benefit you? ...That said, I suppose being shy or short-sighted would be a valid reason to not join a group." She folded her arms and blew on her bangs.

His next words were not the words she expected, but they were good words. Very good. If time was on her side Reika was sure she'd be able to bite something out of him. However, while he was generous about dropping his guise, Reika was not.

Right now, Reika was Amaranth #Number. She couldn't even count the number of personae she's taken on for various reasons. This one was obvious a kind of dim-witted treasure hunter that ignored any kind of common sense for the sake of being "interesting" or "fun." She was actually grateful that she stupidly faceplanted into the floor now, it fit the persona quite well. There was no need to lie about certain details. She could easily be a 16-year-old student from Gekkoukan and it wouldn't matter. Adding unnecessary lies just made keeping up the mask more complicated. She was not an informant, she was not a member of Strega. Hell, she didn't even know of the other groups.

Giving away her persona was unfortunate, but he's only seen one skill. He just knows she's fast, what would that let her do? Fast, pretty and flighty...Yes, Sakura Rage would be just fine. Perhaps that would be enough if she claimed to be a new persona user? She remembered how strong she was at first back when her persona first awakened...it was pushing it. One more thing...Something she could fake as to not give away her tracking and analysis abilities...such abilities did not fit with a stupid treasure hunting girl. Charm. Something that charmed her enemies, yes that would be perfect and it fits in very well with how she had been acting so far.

Now, this was an interesting situation. He seemed to think she knew that he was lying. Obviously Reika did, but would this incarnation of the Amaranth identity? She wasn't smart, but her skills did seem to revolve around emotional manipulation. Plus, being book smart and a little ditsy didn't make you terrible at reading people or telling when you were being lied to. It was plausible.

"Hehe, was it that obvious I knew?" she rubbed the back of her head. "Weeeeell, if you were following rumors than there was no way you weren't talking to someone! Or at least following it on the internet. You can't really get rumors from yourself unless you're just making it up. I'm glad you decided to be honest though, I don't like it when people lie to me. Why don't you want to tell me the truth? Am I that scary?" she pouted.

[KAITOU NAGANO]

"...That's a pretty shrewd explanation for a clumsy, thrill-seeking treasure hunter. I've underestimated you."

Kaitou shook his head, crossing his arms. He wasn't expecting any favors for folding his hand, nor did he expect to gain any ground with Amaranth. He was simply making his stand. At this point, he had thrown away any attempts of playing sly-- clearly he was outmatched in this department.

So instead, he would play to his primary strength. In a way, it was his secret weapon against slyness and trickery-- his adamance. "What reason would I have to lie to you that you don't already know, Amaranth? Liars hold secrets. Liars hold knowledge. And when you catch a liar in his tracks... you look forward to having them spill their guts out to you."

At this point, he had loosed his arms and took a step back, pulling out his Evoker and lazily gesturing the barrel at her, his gaze steely. "...There are many fearsome things in this world, even without considering the existence of Shadows and the Dark Hour. Why shouldn't I be afraid of a girl who has managed to lead me on for the past half hour? It is said that 'the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting'... And right now, I seem to be quite constrained by the rules that you have set for this conversation."

Pocketing the Evoker, Kaitou folded his arms once more, closing his eyes and sighing. "I still don't know if you're someone I should consider an ally or enemy, and until I'm absolutely sure, don't expect any more freebies from my end."

[REIKA HANAE]

"Hey, I'm not completely clueless."

The rest of his words were unfortunate, but she had a pretty good idea how to play them too. Reika tensed slightly when he grabbed his evoker, but she was sure this didn't contradict her earlier actions. She reacted defensively when she thought he was going to attack her before too. She actually stepped back a little when he pointed it at her even though she knew it wouldn't do anything. Having something that looked like a gun pointed at you was just unpleasant. As he continued, she relaxed. That's when the emotions she wanted to portray were able to come through.

Her eyebrows drooped, she frowned, looked away and crossed her arms. Reika didn't respond immediately, instead spending those moments chewing on her lower lip.

"I..." Her voice was meeker than it had been. For a moment, she looked at the ground and frowned. Then, she looked back at him when she spoke again. "I haven't been playing you." She looked away and paused again. Without looking back, "Are things really so bad out here that you won't let me help you?"

[KAITOU NAGANO]

Ah... What was that? Was she crying? Pouting? Clearly, his words had struck a nerve there for her to be responding so poorly. Anyone with a conscience would have broken their stride to stare at the sight, and Kaitou surely had a conscience-- it was the reason he saved Amaranth in the first place.

However, Amaranth only knew Daisuke. She knew how to play Daisuke like a harp. She did not know the Midnight Reaper that hid behind Daisuke's mask. The Reaper was ruthless, and held no quarter whether his victim were a lowlife punk or an innocent bystander. Kaitou's resolve is what landed him his position as the leader of SEES; once he truly set his mind on a particular objective, he would strive to achieve it no matter what roads he had to take on the way.

"Get real. This is a do-or-die world, Amaranth. Whether you're aligned to one of the three organizations or not, it's a universal law for all Users-- find your niche in the Dark Hour, or perish without having accomplished anything. There might exist those whose hearts are still kind and accepting despite the harsh reality of our world, but I am not one of them. ...Not entirely."

Perhaps his conscience had caught up to him there, because Kaitou could not hold back the final bit of his statement. It was an apology for his inconsistent behavior, but at the same time a declaration that he would not fool around with her anymore.

[REIKA HANAE]

Looks like she lost.

She had gotten something. They were small leads, but leads none the less. He was also hiding something big. Something really big. What he gave her was little more than an appetizer, a tease. Even if she couldn't truly devour the main course she was sure she could steal little pieces of it. Her brain still hungered, this was not the time to give up. Reika was unlikely to get anything out of him directly, but she was a tracker and a spy. There were other ways to see what he knew.

"I..." She bit her lower lip. "Good to know...I suppose..."

With that, she shifted around awkwardly for a moment before walking towards the exit if Tartarus and then breaking out into a slow run. Reika figured he'd either follow her to apologize, go back into Tartarus or start heading back home. These were all acceptable. With the first, she could continue to nibble. The other two would let him be distracted for just the moment she needed to either hide and scan him or just scan him. If she could pull that off he would never be able to hide. The best part was she didn't even need to turn to look to see what he would do, her sixth sense would do that for her.

[KAITOU NAGANO]

That was it. His stout defense had won him the confrontation... Kaitou did not respond as Amaranth chewed her lip and turned away, backing out of the tower. As soon as she had stepped out of Tartarus, he let his arms fall in a gesture of relief... And a grave realization struck him as soon as his arms stretched out all the way down. Wasn't his initial assessment of Amaranth...

Perhaps she was a scout for the other groups?

"Alastor! Scorn!" Kaitou's hand snapped across his front, grabbing his holster and hastily pressing the barrel against his temple to summon his Persona. The two halves immediately tore apart from each other, the knight kneeling in the doorway of Tartarus as the demon screeched and floated above the knight. The two began to radiate a violent white aura that seemed to suck air in towards them.

Scouts had an invaluable gift when it came to combating Shadows-- their ability to scan and analyze their foes. From experience, Kaitou had learned that Shadows and Personas were not the only targets that were susceptible to analysis. Humans were as well, and sometimes it was their data that scouts wanted in their library. If Amaranth really was a scout User like Kaitou had originally thought, then letting her out of his field of view was the biggest mistake he could have made. The realization was swift on his end, but how could he know if she wasn't already poised to scan him?

If he was lucky, he'd be able to cut his losses-- Scorn would draw any hostile action to Alastor, even if it were intended for Kaitou in the first place. Then she would only scan his Persona, and he couldn't care less if she had data on it. Otherwise... If they were to meet once more, Amaranth would be holding a lot more cards than he had left her with tonight.

[REIKA HANAE]

He didn't move, he attacked...? What the hell was he doing? Reika sped up a bit, but didn't dare turn around. It would give away that she could tell there was something strange going on behind her. There was like 3 of him, but two of them were only sort of him? They seemed to have stopped moving at the entrance. What the hell was he trying to pull?

Reika started running at full speed. If he was going to do something now was the time to use her true weapon. There was nothing in this universe stronger than her persona. She didn't care that it lacked reliable offensive abilities, or that most personae could tear her in half; they would never get the chance. Much like her, her persona had three skills: avoidance, confusion, and fear. It was an elegant persona that made her untouchable and made everyone around her turn on their allies. If he thought he could fight her and win, he had another thing coming, and much like everything about her and her persona, it would be a surprise.

She could solve this situation with something simple. A little bit of hiding, a little bit of confusion and a little bit of patience was all she needed. Reika took her evoker and pointed at her head. A familiar green glow appeared around her, but this time she didn't cast Red Capote. Her true weapon was always Vanity: a skill that let her create illusions. She took a quick glance around the area and made herself look like her surroundings. She was practically invisible like this barring any careless errors on her end. She stepped over into the bushes and hid, while a copy of herself sprinted off into the distance. It turned a corner, and once she was sure her illusionary clone would be out of his sight she had it vanish.

Reika stood against a tall bush and pretended to be a bush herself. The bush itself would not move if she twitched as its appearance was under her control as well. It should be safe to watch now. She looked back towards Tartarus and it looked like...she guessed it was probably his persona? But there were two of them. Odd. Regardless, they really were just standing there. It was unsettling. There was no need to move yet. After all, she did just run away.

[KAITOU NAGANO]

She started to run... and then sprint... And the last he saw of her, she was covered in that aura that had her running a mile a second. Had she taken his summoning of Alastor as an act of aggression?

...It didn't matter. He had no intent on attacking her. It was too risky. The members of SEES all had their specialties as Persona Users, and Kaitou's was perhaps the most daunting-- patience. Just like his rock-hard head, his Persona was a master of defensive techniques. No attack would pass through his guard to harm his allies, and in this case, he would not allow Amaranth to get a scan on him.

Kaitou lowered himself to one knee, assuming the same stance as the knight half of his Persona in the center of the foyer. How long had he been talking with her, he wondered? How long would he have to stall out before the Dark Hour ended? Even though his defense was stout and his stamina high, he was tired. Borderline exhausted, even. He had danced with the Reaper for two nights in a row now, and after the initial burst of excitement of taking a stance at the entrance to Tartarus, the fatigue he had been able to push away was coming back to him full force.

Was Amaranth gone? Had she just pretended to run away only to be hiding around the bend, waiting for him to let his guard down? Perhaps she had already gotten a scan on him and he was just wasting energy for nothing?

There was nothing to do but wait. Time would deliver his answer, whether it came in the form of Amaranth taking further action or the Dark Hour ending.

[REIKA HANAE]

He was still just sitting there. What the hell was going on? This is why she was grateful for her analysis abilities: it meant she didn't have to try to guess what they were doing when their persona was doing weird stuff. Reika could see him through his...personae or whatever the heck that was, and he wasn't reacting to her presence, so it looked like her plan worked. This area was now her domain. She slowly reached for her evoker, careful to make sure the illusion wasn't shattered by her movement, and summoned her persona once again. She tried to analyze him, but...it didn't quite work? Odd, but it was quickly explained once she saw his persona's abilities.

So he entered a defensive stance...annoying. She squinted at him. He was clearly just sitting there according to her eyes and her sixth sense. Did he think she was going to attack him or something even though she was running away? Even though he said his persona was clearly offensive and hers didn't seem to be? He was one paranoid dude. Reika didn't know whether to be happy or sad. Paranoia and fear were easy to prey on, but it also meant he'd be annoying to shadow. She had no idea how long he intended to stay like this either, and her illusion would only last during the Dark Hour. If it ended she couldn't even stay invisible. She resisted the urge to rub her chin as she tried to think of a solution; any unnecessary movement could give her away, so she had to resist. The solution came to her quickly. This ability had a weakness: he couldn't keep it up while attacking. So, he just had to get him to fight...

It took her a little bit to think of all the details and make sure she had everything perfect, but he didn't budge an inch. What a boring guy. It's no fun when people play this safe. She must drive her enemies nuts too. However, this area was now her domain, all she had to do was manipulate it and cause just enough confusion to get him to attack. She slowly lowered herself to the ground, sat and dropped the illusion on the bush. She still made herself look like she was part of the bush, but with her sitting and not covering the bush there was less illusion for her to control. It would probably take all her focus to pull this off, anything she could do to help her focus would help.

Her eyes focused on the entrance to the first floor of Tartarus, the area on the top of the stairs in the foyer. That's where the shadows come out right? She conjured what appeared to be a mass of black flowing out of it and down the stairs. There was nothing there, but she knew approximately how far he was from it and what angle he'd be seeing it from. It was difficult to make something this big and keep the sound effects realistic, especially from this distance. She was fortunate she only had to make a gurgling sound and the volume it was at didn't matter much.

As the black mass reached the bottom of the stairs it started to combine into one huge shadow. First, it started forming into a large black ball with the devil arcana's mask. Various limbs and eyes began sprouting from it. Reika wanted it to be a little more terrifying than a mass of arms, legs and eyes, but the thought of creating realistic hearts and other pulsating parts made her sick to her stomach. She couldn't afford any distraction, so eyes, arms and legs would have to do. The goo kept flowing down the stairs until the illusionary shadow was roughly 4 times the size of a normal person across. Once the goo stopped flowing it immediately opened its eyes and looked directly at him. Then, a mouth appeared on the top of its head and it roared. You know, just in case he hadn't noticed it yet. She was sure to keep the mouth on top of him so that it wouldn't feel strange that he didn't feel any disturbance in the air. She also made sure that the shadow formed quickly, quickly enough that he hopefully wouldn't have time to get up and attack before it formed completely.

There was no one here to protect and there was...something threatening him at least. Reika hoped this would be enough to get what she wanted. She was practically sweating just keeping it up.

[KAITOU NAGANO]

Five minutes passed before the knight half of Alastor cocked his head around to his owner, grumbling inaudibly. "Shut up and deal with it. This isn't the first time I've had you out for the entire Dark Hour." He waved the knight off dismissively, and they returned to their vigil.

A moment later, there was a twinge in the back of Kaitou's head. Nothing painful, but definitely something to grab his attention. He smirked. His gamble had worked--instead of being scanned himself, Alastor had been analyzed. Unfortunately for him, that wasn't a cue to let down his guard. In fact, he further heightened his focus on Scorn now that he knew she had tried to scan him. He stumbled a bit but quickly regained his composure. If he were to falter now, all of his efforts would be for naught.

"...I wonder if you're still close enough to hear me, Amaranth. If you are... Then you're fucking persistent. Heh." Not counting his scuffles against the Reaper, this was probably the most taxing 'battle' the blonde had gotten himself into in a very long time. All the better for him if he could hold out...

lurch

Kaitou almost fell over from how stiffly he had tensed. What the hell was a Shadow doing bursting out of Thebel's first floor and into the main lobby? The halves of Kaitou's Persona both whirled around in their stance to stare at the intruder, and the demon half looked ready to strike it down. However, doing so would surely break Scorn's shield, and if Amaranth were still around, she would win out against him in this regard. So instead, without turning, Kaitou stared his Persona halves down and they reluctantly held their ground.

(Shit! I can't just sit here and let it tear me apart, though! My best bet would be to hope that the Dark Hour ends soon, but...!)

Well, while our tsundere delinquent leader was mulling over his options, the Shadow had managed to roll down the steps and stop behind him, roaring. He turned around to face the Shadow and immediately wished he didn't after taking in its ghastly appearance. "Gah! Fuck off!" Immediately the teen rolled forward, using his forward momentum to leap towards his Persona. Taking the hint, Alastor's halves positioned themselves around their owner as he took a moment to calm his breathing.

He was still cornered, but at least now he was at the doorway. If that Shadow turned out to be a powerful one and he had to bail, then to hell with his posturing-- his life was too important to throw away just because he wanted to keep himself hidden from Amaranth!

[REIKA HANAE]

Jerk.

She hadn't won yet, in fact it looked like he could tell she moved against him. That was most unfortunate, but now that she had given him that secret she couldn't back out now. Even if it would be fun to taunt him more. Hm, if he was going to try to run away she had to stop him. The huge shadow lurched forward at a fairly slow pace, but as if realizing it would never it would never catch him at this rate, split apart into 10 pieces, one for each eye it had. The other parts were distributed randomly, so they still remained rather grotesque. When they split they were much faster. They couldn't quite keep up with Reika with her buff, but they should be able to 'outrun' him easily. It was actually much harder to control like this, but she had to make him attack. There was no backing down.

The pieces crawled along the floor, and practically in unison, lunged at him and tried to surround him. For style points, she had the one with the mouth try to jump in front of him, far enough away that he wouldn't step on it, but close enough that she'd be able to see the mouth reform on it and for that mouth to turn into a twisted grin. A grin that said that it caught its prey.