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Minako hated moping. Sure, she had done her fair share of it... finding out SEES's attempts to destroy the Arcana Shadows did more harm than good, finding out she was a carrier for Death, and that the end of the world was supposedly inevitable...

But she had bounced back from all that surprisingly quickly, and this was no different. It still hurt, and there were still so many questions that needed to be answered, but for now... time for a little training, to take her mind off things. She had heard about the Sensoriums in a passing conversation the other day, and after retrieving her naginata, decided to test it out.

The surroundings seemed to be the entrance hall to some kind of tower. The enormous room was circular, with a long set of stairs leading up to a golden door. It was completely empty, save for Minako and a large, vaguely humanoid creature. She was currently in battle with it, and seemed to be doing pretty well considering the obvious difference in sizes, until a lucky hit sent her flying.

After skidding back a bit, Minako jumped back to her feet and charged again. Right as she brought her naginata up to strike, the monster seemed to glow, and the blade bounced harmlessly off it. She tried to follow through with the combo, but each strike proved futile, and the monster once again sent her flying, this time knocking the weapon out of her hands.

Okay, time for Plan B. She knew what this meant, what she had to do now... but could she even do it? Would it work here?

Only one way to find out. Reaching down to the holster on her belt, Minako pulled out a silver gun...

... And pointed it at her own head.

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(http://photobucket.com)

And that is when a scream fills the room. "Wha--WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" A pheromone-exhibiting Laurie stands at the entrance to the sensoriums, looking lit with fear and disbelief. Her fear pheromone is spiking up and she's losing control of it. But with the distance between her and the girl, she's safe from spreading it.

The scream came too late, and a loud BANG! resounded throughout the room.

Except, instead of the gory mess that normally comes with a shot to the head, something completely different happened. What sounded like glass shattering could be heard, and blue energy swirled around the redhead. Behind her, an intimidating, multi-armed being (http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080706000756/megamitensei/images/a/ad/AsuraSMT.jpg) appeared, and with a wave of it's arm, a huge plume of fire incinerated the monster before her.

As the monster and the figure disappeared, she let out a shaky sigh - summoning a Persona was always accompanied by a huge adrenaline rush - and turned...

And realized she wasn't alone any more. Uh-oh.

Laurie stands stock still, eyes wide, somewhat horrified, surprised, and an urge to get the hell out of dodge at what she has just seen. Did that girl shooting herself in the head summon that creature?

And did that creature just light that other creature on fire?

So many things going through Laurie's mind. The baser one being Eeeeeek!

"Uh..." Crap, this was bad. Everyone who had joined SEES after her had accepted their power so easily, they never really had to explain it...

"Are... are you okay?"

Smooth. Real smooth.

Laurie stares at the girl, stuck between wanting to say something and wanting to just leave. But if she left the way she wanted to (ie. getting the hell out of dodge) it would be rude, and it could upset the other girl.

"Umm..." she stammers. "Not...not really." It's the truth.

"I-I-I have never really seen something like...that, happen."

"Sorry..." And she really sounded sorry, too. The last thing she wanted to do was freak out an entire crew of strangers. "I know that must have looked really weird, but I'm not suicidal or anything. Promise."

She walked over to the other girl, smiling in an attempt to calm her down a bit. "You know how in role-playing games, you can summon monsters and stuff? That's kinda what just happened."

(http://photobucket.com)

"It summons...monsters and stuff?" Via gun?

"This?" She held up the gun. "Oh, no. This is just a gun. Well... a fake." And to prove it, she raised the gun, pointing off to the side, and fired. It went off with a bang, but there was no bullet.

"It's just something that makes it a lot easier to summon a Persona, that thing you just saw."

Yea. That helps. "I see...so then...it is just a prop that you use?" No bullets. It tides her over well enough to make her stop giving the other girl such a wierd look.

"Well, yes and no." Minako said. "Summoning a Persona can be hard, and can only be done when your mind is totally, completely blank. Pointing a gun to your head and pulling the trigger is enough to make your mind go blank with terror, so... this is the easiest and fastest way to do it."

Laurie doesn't say 'I see' or anything of verbal understanding. She only nods her head sedately. She still isn't comfortable with the idea of shooting yourself (even fake-shooting yourself) to summon monsters. And for how the terror of a gun-to-the-head is used.

"... Sorry." She offered again. She could tell the other girl was feeling uncomfortable, and she couldn't stop herself from feeling bad just a little.

"I'm Minako, by the way! Minako Arisato." She said, holding out her hand. Maybe a subject switch will help!

A subject switch does help, because Laurie takes Minako's hand and shakes it. "Laurie," she says, smiling a little weakly. She's still a little bothered.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" A young voice shouted as a pink beam of energy shot forward towards Minako's hand, the one that was holding the gun.

If you looked in the direction of where the beam had come from, you'd see Hikari, dressed in her pactio (http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g56/shaungarin/Pactio/hikaripactiocopy.png) form, hand outstretched.

Tailmon was standing at her side, frowning disapprovingly.

"Wha--" The beam hit it's mark, and the gun flew out of Minako's hand. Meanwhile, the monster in front of her took advantage of the brief distraction and batted her away once again with it's staff, before turning to face the newcomer.

Hikari flew back, grabbing her digivice and thrusting it towards Tailmon! "Digimental Up!" she shouted, and in a flash, Tailmon's body shifted into that of a winged sphinx, Nefertimon (http://wikimon.net/images/c/c8/Nefertimon.jpg). With that, both of them took to the air, Hikari firing a beam of pink energy from her hand and Nefertimon shooting out two beams of energy from her headdress.

The thing shrieked in surprise as Nefertimon attacked. That blow, in addition to the heavy damage Minako had dealt to it before the interruption, was enough to destroy it, and it burst into shadow before dissipating into the air.

"Hikari-chan!" Minako said as she pushed herself to her feet again. "What... What are you doing here?"

Hikari let out a deep breath, before she turned to Minako. "I... was coming here to train a bit... didn't realize someone else was already..."

And then her eyes widened, and she ran up to Minako. "And what were you doing!? You were about to shoot yourself in the head!"

"I-It wasn't what it looked like, honest!" Boy, how to explain this... "This isn't a real gun! Here, see for yourself."

She held out the weapon to the other girl. It was useless to hide what she was really going to do for much longer, but she could at least reassure Hikari that she wasn't going to hurt herself first.

Hikari blinked, staring at Minako for a moment, before grabbing the gun. Well, it certainly looked like a real gun... at least, from her complete lack of exposure to real guns told her anyway. "I... what do you mean?"

Nefertimon just sighed and devolved back into Tailmon. "Hikari, aim it at something and pull the trigger."

Hikari's eyes widened. "But..."

"She said it's not real, right?"

Hikari sighed, nodding a bit, and pointed the gun at the wall. And pulled the trigger.

And nothing happened.

Minako wasn't the only one to come to the Sensoriums with the idea of shooting something -- though in Axl's case, he wasn't planning on that something being his own head.

He almost turned around and left when he realized the room was already in use, but he was feeling just nosy enough to watch the fight in progress, so he lingered by the door, idly toying with his own guns while he waited.

When she brought her gun up to point at her head, though, he finally spoke up. "Isn't the idea usually to point it at the other guy?"

The new voice surprised her, and the creature in front of her tried to take advantage of it. It took a swipe at Minako, but she managed to jump out of the way before the attack could hit.

"Normally, yes..." She said, placing the gun to her temple again. "But this is a little different."

BANG!

Minako was momentarily surrounded by swirling blue energy, and a large, sinister-looking figure (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080714074746/megamitensei/images/b/b2/P3-Thanatos.png) appeared behind her. It raised its hand and a large explosion of energy tore the enemy apart.

He'd figured she had something else in mind -- nobody who was fighting so well ten seconds ago would then try to blow their own brains out on the battlefield, unless humans were a lot stranger than he thought. But that wasn't enough to prepare him for the...thing that reared up behind her and blew her foe to pieces.

"...awesome." Axl grinned.

"It is, isn't it?" Minako said, also grinning a little. She wasn't as crazy as Junpei was when it came to the 'holy shit we have superpowers, let's go save the world!' thing, nor was she as obsessed with fighting as Akihiko, but still. There were times where her power still amazed her.

"So is it...like...magic?" he asked. "I dunno if this sounds like the stupidest question ever or anything, but we don't have that kind of thing where I'm from, so I don't know what else to call it."

"That's not a stupid question!" Minako said. "And yeah, I guess you could call it that. It's not really common and not everyone can do it... but we are summoning giant monsters and stuff. If that's not magic, I dunno what is."

"How's shooting yourself in the head tie into it?" Axl figured it had to be significant somehow. Most people weren't into pointing guns at their own head for kicks.

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wow I can't believe I didn't notice that screwup. DERP SORRY

IT ALL COOL.