WARNING[]
This episode will contain massive spoilers for RWBY Volume 3 and Persona 3. This will be your only warning and chance to turn back.
Pre Episode[]
...
Luther: Ah... Just another boring day at the old Death Battle HQ...
Alice: Oh, YOU'RE bored? Then would you care to try to call for backup again?
Luther: Hell no! Not after last time! But seriously, this running gag's run its course by now! I want out of this smelly place!
Theodore: We all know your pain bro, It's not like the solution to our problems is just gonna knock on the front door right?
Nova: ...Theo, do that again! But this time, say that money's gonna fall from the sky!
Alice: You're kidding, right? It's probably just a coincidence. Now if you'll excuse me, we seem to have a guest to accommodate.
Luther: What are you thinking?! That's probably another protesto- AGH!
???: OH, HI LUTHER! You didn't tell me you'd be here!
Theodore: Ah, Rena. I was wondering if you'd actually show up. What took you so long?
Rena: Weeeelll, I was following Luther the entire time before sooooomebody left me behind in the middle of the crowd.
Luther: Seriously?! You literally ran off in the middle of the damn crowd!
Rena: Oh, but it wasn't all bad! I made some awesome new friends out there! They even let me chuck a refrigerator at the building!
Nova: That was you?! Bwahahahaha! Well played! Well played!
Luther: Your concern for others is very astonishing. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm only getting crushed to death by our old friend here.
Rena: Oh, sorry Luth! You should've spoken up!
...And Nova, your brother's here too! He's got a plan to get us all outta here!
Alice: Kristoph's showing his face? I thought he said he wouldn't-
Rena: C'mon, that's not important anymore! Go and reunite with your fam, Novs! Take this disguise too, you'll need it!
Nova: If you say so, I suppose... But wait, what about our show's sched-
Rena: Ah... Now that that's over with... Let's hurry up and record the next episode! I've got the perfect idea for our next Death Battle!
Theodore: Huh. So that was your scheme all along, eh? Clever girl.
Alice: Eh, it would have been cumbersome to work with five hosts at once. Good on you, Rena.
Description[]
This What If Death Battle features Pyrrha Nikos from RWBY and Shinjiro Aragaki from Persona 3.
They were undoubtedly some of the strongest members of their respective casts. They've had invaluable experience in their fields and their peers regarded their strength with the utmost respect...
But who would have expected either of them to die so early?
Interlude[]
Rena: Wow! Your recording setup is so cool! I've always wanted to sit in the director's chair like this!
Theodore: Always a bundle of energy that one, absolutely full of life... Just the polar opposite of today's combatants! (Though you'd never guess what lies in any of their pasts at first glance!)
Alice: Indeed. Hidden depths can truly define one's character in ways you could never expect. But that only makes the situation all the more tragic if the one in question gets killed off immediately after gaining some much needed character development.
Luther: You really know shit's hit the fan when one of the strongest heroes on the show is one of if not the first characters to kick the bucket... But in the mean time, they're gonna be more than capable of kicking some serious ass!
Rena: Like Pyrrha Nikos, the invincible girl!
Alice: And Shinjiro Aragaki, the simple badass with a heart of gold!
Theodore: I'm Theodore, and I'm joined here by my assistants Rena, Luther, and Alice. It's our job to analyze their weapons, armor and skills, to find out who would win...
Rena: A DEATH BATTLE! Oh, this is so exciting! ...But wait, if these two are already dead, how are we gonna have them fight?
Alice: Oh, you'll find out soon enough.
Pyrrha[]
Theodore: Let's take another look at the world of Remnant, one of viscous monsters, crazy ass weapons, and heavily armed high schoolers!
Alice: Well, you're certainly going to need the latter two if you're going to survive in any kind of world like this.
Rena: I know, right? And you can't deny that it's just SO MUCH FUN to go out there and chop some heads off!
Luther: I truly question the day that anybody thought it was a good idea to give this chick a chainsaw. (But I guess it's not all bad...)
Alice: Well, it's at least good to know that not all huntresses are like that. In fact, they can actually be quite humble and reserved. That's certainly the best way to describe the world famous invincible girl, Pyrrha Nikos.
Theodore: Having graduated at the top of her class at Sanctum Academy and won the Mistral Tournament 4 times in a row, Pyrrha's reputation is just as well deserved as many of you might imagine.
Rena: Well, she was apparently popular enough to get her own cereal brand, but when you really get down to it, being popular sucks! Just like said cereal actually! It's like somebody fed a bull a bucket full of poisoned grass, scooped up it's excrement when it inevitably had to take a load off, forcefed the shit to a sickly skunk, scooped out the skunk's innards after it quickly died of food poisoning, threw up onto the innards due to the ungodly smell it emitted, and chucked the entire mixture into a blender! And that's just-
Theodore: That's... VERY specific...
Luther: It managed to get her into the prestigious Beacon Academy to further hone her skills if that means anything, but in exchange for that, she never really had any friends. Not for being a worthless nerd or anything, but just for being TOO damn talented.
Alice: At least until she met a fellow love interest, I mean Huntsman in training by the name of Jaune Arc.
Luther: Oh, I'm pretty sure you meant the former. I mean come on, the devs weren't exactly making any of that a grand mystery!
Theodore: Oh, you mean like yourself and-
Luther: Shut up, Theo! A man like myself's gotta keep his options open for now, if ya know what I'm saying.
Rena: Oh, that means you're supposed to be an eternal virgin, right?
Alice: With that in mind, Pyrrha's experiences at Beacon would change her life forever, starting with the time she came under the leadership of the goofy blonde himself to form team JNPR.
Theodore: But of course Pyrrha didn't earn her grand reputation by sitting on her ass all day. No, she's an absolute beast in combat!
Luther: Like all huntsmen and huntresses in Remnant, Pyrrha makes use of her inner Aura for various purposes such as protection from injuries, healing minor wounds, and even unolocking other's Auras. You know, the usual stuff.
Alice: Unlocking other people's auras, huh? That doesn't sound dirty at all.
Luther: Well, if you really wanna look at it that way, I bet we could- OW!
Rena: Pyrrha wields a classic sword and shield set she calls Milo and Akouo respectively. A little mundane for my tastes but at least she can turn Milo into a gun!
Alice: This IS RWBY after all. Not only that, but Milo can shift into a javelin that Pyrrha can toss great distances with pinpoint accuracy, showcased by the time she saved everyone's favorite blonde goofball by skewering his hood to a tree.
Luther: Pyrrha can even channel her inner Captain America to chuck her shield like a boomerang, completely shattering both scorpion tails and the laws of physics.
Theodore: Well, there actually is a good explanation for that: Pyrrha's a metalbender! With her unique Semblance, Pyrrha can freely control the polarity of just about any magnetic object in her vicinity! Sounds like it would make all her fights much easier, but with great power, there must also come great responsibility.
Rena: Responsibility? Sounds more like great buzzkillery to me! Pyrrha makes sure to hold back her innate powers as much as possible, only making subtle use of it to shift the course of an approaching weapon, or other tiny actions like that. C'mon, if I was a Magneto clone, I'd make much better use of my powers!
Alice: And by better use, you don't happen to mean playing video games without ever touching the controller do you?
Rena: *gasp* I never thought of that before! Sounds pretty sweet!
Luther: You do realize that's just gonna completely screw up the controller to begin with, right?
Alice: Anyway, Pyrrha's minimal use of her powers actually grants her a more psychological edge in combat. After all, it's because of this that she gained the reputation of being... well, you know.
Theodore: Heh. Pyrrha may have a reputation for being invincible, but that's all it really is. A reputation. An appearance. I'm sure you all know what we're getting at now.
Rena: Yeah, Pyrrha's polarity tends to be pretty subdues at all times, but when she really wants to stop holding back? Oh boy, she turns into one hell of a MONSTER on the battlefield! Remember the time she turned a cafeteria's worth of soda cans into a wall of grenades?
Luther: Oh, that's not even the half of it! When the girl really wants to stop holding back, she can even masterfully control large groups of objects that just happen to be bigger than herself. Like say, a collection of gears from the headmaster's tower.
Alice: Hell, even when she IS holding back, Pyrrha could still come out on top in a 4 on 1 battle against a group of her fellow huntsmen in training. Granted, those huntsmen kind of sucked at their jobs, but it's still worth mentioning.
Theodore: Even with all the great prowess under Pyrrha's belt, I'm afraid a warrior of such caliber must still have her flaws.
Rena: So, are we gonna bring up Cinder now or what?
Theodore: Come on, I was getting to that! We can't just showcase a scene like that without proper buildup! *ahem* Pyrrha's Aura, while helpful, is far from limitless. Enough damage or use of it will result in her Aura being rendered useless.
Alice: And that's exactly what happened when Pyrrha took up the cross and rushed in head first to fight somebody that was FAR out of her league.
Alice: Pyrrha used to be an adventurer like us, until she took an arrow to the heel. The Achilles Heel.
...What, too soon?
Luther: Well, if it means anything, Pyrrha sure as hell went down swinging!
Theodore: Oh, it still gets to me every time... And just after she cemented her feelings too...
Alice: Eh, I always shipped Jaune with Ruby anyway.
Rena: Whoa, hold up! Are you actually-
Alice: Yeah, I said it. I think Jaune and Ruby look better together, that's-
Rena: Miss, you are only in utter denial! Just watch, Pyrrha's probably gonna come back in a later season and-
Luther: Yeah sure, and Optimus Prime's coming back to life too!
Theodore: Uh... he did. A lot, actually.
Luther: Okay, bad example. And RWBY doesn't have ghosts!
Rena: What about Penny?
Theodore: You actually took that theory seriously?
Luther: If you guys REALLY didn't know, her death actually was confirmed to be permanent!
Rena: Oh yeah?! How do we know that's not a cake faced lie from the developers?
Alice: Okay, I think I've caused enough of a shitstorm today. I can only imagine how the comments section is going to rile up.
Pyrrha: For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all.
Shinjiro[]
Theodore: Have you guys ever heard of the phenomenon known as the Dark Hour?
Alice: Ah, certainly. It's a strange time anomaly that takes place every night at about 12 AM, serving as a hidden 25th hour of the day. Most people out there aren't even aware this state of time exists, but those that have the unfortunate luck to be awake will soon find themselves in mortal danger unless they have a means of combating the Shadows that lurk in every corner.
Rena: Cause if you don't, the shadows are gonna mind rape you and you'll turn into an edgy emo with no care in the world! You won't even give a shit if a train's about to run you over!
Luther: That's eerily specific, but entirely true. Luckily, there exists a group of brave high school students with the purpose of investigating the Dark Hour and kicking the asses of any Shadows that come their way,
Alice: The Specialized Extracurricular Excecution Squad, also known as SEES.
Theodore: And let me tell you, there are few members of this organization that simply ooze coolness like one of its founding members: Shinjiro Aragaki!
Rena: He even doubles as a badass delinquent! Shinjiro is a Senior at Gekkoukan High that barely goes to class, dresses up like a punk, and swears like the Angry Video Game Nerd!
Theodore: Hmm. Real heroic figure there.
Alice: Oh, that's just what he wants you to think. As the best childhood friend of fellow member Akihiko Sanada, Shinjiro joined SEES all the way back in his Middle School years, but because this is an RPG, it wasn't long before tragedy struck.
Rena: By that we mean he accidentally murdered someone with his newly awakened horseman powers and ditched SEES soon afterwards to become a prankster gangster!
Luther: Way to show some tact, Rena.
Rena: Thanks! I try my best!
Theodore: Little would Shinjiro know at the time, not only did this event heavily influence the life of another youth, but it wouldn't be long before he would find himself rejoining SEES after countless pleas from his best friend.
Luther: The group is pretty damn lucky to have Shinji back too, cause he's a total beast on the battlefield!
Alice: The man's simple but effective, preferring to wield axes and hammers into battle. Or in some cases, he'll just swing a freaking bus stop sign around like a bat!
Theodore: Shinji is easily the strongest member of the party when it comes to physical combat, uncannily scoring plenty of critical hits on his victims, knocking them on their ass to open them up for another attack!
Rena: And when the going really gets tough, Shinjiro has been known to use his head to resolve conflicts. Literally! Oh but wait, Shinjiro's simple fighting style is cool and all, but that's not what we're all here for, right? YOINK!
Theodore: Wha- hey, that's mine!
Rena: Oh relax, you've got plenty more where that came from! *ahem* When Shinjiro wants to show off his true power, he takes a handgun like this and...
Luther: Uh Rena, you really don't wanna try that!
Rena: Shoots himself in the head!
...
Rena: What, did you really think I was stupid enough to demonstrate this on myself? Look, it's not even loaded!
Luther: Bloody hell! Right in the manhood too! *squeals*
Rena: Sorry! At least that's not how it's supposed to work ingame!
Alice: Well as Rena's little demo has proven, the gun Shinjiro shoots himself with doesn't actually have any bullets in it. This is what's called an Evoker, a gunlike object that simulates the traumatizing threat of death to summon one's Persona, the physical manifestation of one's personality used to combat hardships.
Luther: What did that prove?! That you're not supposed to point real guns at your friends?
Theodore: At least we can all be glad nobody shot Marvin in the face, right? With that out of the way, we can finally talk about Shinjiro's Persona: Castor!
Rena: Castor takes the form of a permanently impaled knight in armor riding a flying horse! Why the damn thing doesn't just remove the giant whatchamacallit from its chest is beyond me, but at least it looks cool!
Theodore: Well medically speaking, you should never remove a foreign object like-
Alice: Much like Shinjiro himself, Castor specializes in simple brute strength in battle, having no elemental weaknesses to speak of, but no real resistances either. I guess the devs needed to balance Shinji out somehow. I mean besides k-
Luther: Castor's array of skills ranges from the typical physical skills that dish out massive damage to a surprising collection of support skills that can really turn the tides of the fight at hand.
Rena; There's no way around it, any strikes from either one of this duo are guaranteed to hurt like hell! That strength can be boosted even further with Power Charge, which multiplies the strength of Shinji's next attack threefold!
Alice: If Shinji didn't think you were a squishy enough target already, he can temporarily lower your physical defense with Marakunda. He can pull off the same effect with Stardrop, which also doubles as a devastating bash to the head. Oh and before you ask, these two effects can stack for twice the hurt.
Theodore: But pure unadulterated offense isn't the only thing Shinji's got going for him. He can inflict Fear on his target with Evil Smile, periodically regenerate a small amount of health with Regenerate 2, and he can potentially repel physical attacks with High Counter!
Luther: A skill so badass, you can just stand in place and let someone shoot you in the face... Only for the bullet to smack the shooter instead! High Counter won't always activate, but when it does, you really won't be feeling it much longer.
Rena: Don't go thinking you can take it easy once you start tiring him out either, because Return From Yomi has a medium chance of healing him back up once his health gets low enough! Wow, with stats like these and no weaknesses to speak of, Shinjiro must be completely unstoppable!
Alice: Eh, not so fast there. Shinjiro does have a few weaknesses hidden away deep down, but none are more apparent than the man's secret love for little dogs and the culinary arts!
Theodore: Wait, wha-
Alice: Hey, I wasn't kidding when I said Shinjiro wanted you to think he's just some punk. He's such a big softy on the inside, it would completely ruin his reputation if that was discovered.
Theodore: Oh I see no shame in that whatsoever. After all, who could possibly resist the allure of a homemade gourmand meal?
Rena: Well hey, if ya like it so much, maybe I could-
Everyone Else: NO! Leave it to the professionals!
Luther: Heh heh. Yeah, Shinji's not such a bad guy once you get to know him, but he's pretty far from perfection. For starters, he does share the same weaknesses as pretty much every Persona user out there. You all know the drill by now, right?
Rena: Yep. He'll feel any attack inflicted on his persona and he'll temporarily lose access to it after his persona takes too many hits. His stronger techniques feed on a limited supply of SP too, but if the fighting games were any indication, a Persona user can still refill it over time.
Alice: And even though Shinjiro's physical specials are undeniably strong, those will actually feed off of his health instead, which will really put him in a bad spot if he uses to many of them. But that's nothing compared to the tragic secret he's been hiding all this time.
Theodore: Does everyone remember Rena mentioning that Shinjiro accidentally killed someone before when his new Persona spiraled out of control? Needless to say, he was completely wracked with guilt over such an event, which led to him taking specialized drugs to suppress his Persona.
Luther: As fate would have it, those drugs would severely weaken his immune system to the point that his life was in severe danger. It only gets much worse from there.
Rena: A few major plot events later, it turns out the son of the woman Shinjiro killed on that fateful night was a fellow member of SEES that wanted nothing more than to kill him. On October 4th, 2009, Ken Amada was fully prepared to perpetuate the cycle of vengeance and Shinjrio had no intention of stopping him...
Alice: But then Jesus with a revolver showed up threatening to kill the two of them! The man shot Shinjiro once to cripple him, then proceeded to turn his attention to the young Ken Amada. But then the unthinkable happened...
Alice: Damn. The RNG completely screwed him over. What are the chances that High Counter would fail to activate two times in a row like that?
...What, too soon?
Luther: Well if it means anything, Shinji still had the strength to get up and walk away for a few steps in the game before kicking the bucket.
Theodore: But wait, I have exciting new for you! If you play through the Female Protagonist route in Persona 3 portable and max out Shinjiro's social Link before the fateful night of October 4th, his life will be saved by the POWER OF LOVE!
Rena: Oh yeah, the pocket watch his new girlfriend gives him actually ends up stopping the bullet for him! Now instead of dying, he just ends up in a coma until conveniently waking up at the end of the game just so he can see his girlfriend die!
Alice: I hate to break it to you guys, but that series of events was completely non cannon. Shinjiro is doomed to die a predetermined plotline death.
Theodore: Oh come on! Do you really have to crush a young couple's dreams like that?
Alice: I'm afraid I'm not the one that writes the script for these games, but at least Persona Q was completely cannon. There, Shinji got to show off more of his soft side, make a ton of new friends, upgrade his Persona into the exact same thing just with blue flames around it, and even go on to kill the God of Time himself!
...Only to completely forget about all that after the events of the game. How convenient.
Shinjiro: All right, let's do this.
Interlude 2[]
Theodore: Oh, why did it have to be this way?
Luther: It's all right bro, you can stop now!
Alice: Anyway... The combatants are set. Let's end this debate once and for all...
Rena: IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLE!
Theodore: Just one question first: Both of our combatants are dead! How are we gonna have them fight to the death if there's no real death to bring them to?!
Rena: Yeah, I've been wondering that myself all this time.
Alice: Oh, I've pulled enough strings behind the scenes to set something up. You'll see soon enough.
The Battle[]
Pre Fight[]
Location: Iwatodai? 25:03 PM
The streets of Iwatodai were eerily empty on this night. The sky glowed with a hue of dark green, the coffins one would expect to find during the Dark Hour were nowhere to be seen, the full moon shined down, and a sizeable skirmish seemed to be taking place over at Iwatodai Station.
"Nikos, on your left!"
"Got it!" A pair of heavily armed teenagers relayed orders between one another as the red headed warrior Pyrrha Nikos barely managed to duck underneath the massive blade of a grotesque arm emerging from the ground. Thinking quickly, she jammed her blade directly into the monster's arm before promptly bisecting the being with her shield. The Shadow disintegrated into a shroud of darkness before too long, but the huntress's battle was clearly far from over.
Embedding a massive axe onto the head of an ugly masked blob just behind her was the punklike Shinjiro Aragaki. The two teenager's minute victories were quite short lived when a fiery explosion erupted in between them. Quickly turning to face the culprit: a phantom like creature with a bag over its head, the teenagers wordlessly rushed off to silence their newest foe.
Pyrrha quickly shifted her personal weapon into a rifle to fire at the Reaper while Shinjiro closed in on the preoccupied Shadow, adeptly dodging any return fire that came his way. "Adios, asshole." Shinjiro quipped before he slammed his head directly into the reaper's midsection, forcing the Shadow to stumble back in pain. This gave Pyrrha the perfect opportunity to turn Milo back into a javelin and hurl the weapon into the Reaper's face, severely wounding it even further. With one final swing from Shinjiro's axe, the Shadow's body was diagonally split roughly in half as it faded away into nothing.
"Hey, you were pretty good back there!" Pyrrha congratulated, rushing over to retrieve her fallen weapon.
"Heh. That was nothing special. Now I think we'd better get to business. Did some guy in a black jacket want you to meet up here too?" Shinjiro casually replied.
"Yes, actually. I don't suppose you happen to know where we are, do you? My memories have been a bit foggy lately."
"'Fraid I can't help you much there. I've got a faint idea in my mind but everything's just been too damn confusing lately..."
The two teenagers continued their conversation, sharing their mutual confusion regarding the situation at hand. They decided to lounge around the area in the event of another enemy ambush, but the wait was brought to an end when a new voice managed to catch the pair's attention.
"Attention all yoctograms! I see you guys cleaned this place up pretty nicely!" The newcomer yelled, clearly impressed the other teens had managed to destroy every Shadow in the area.
"And who the hell are you supposed to be, huh?" Shinjiro asked, directing a threatening glare in the man's direction.
"You gotta Zetta slow down there, bro! Name's Sho Minamimoto, and I've got all the info you guys are lookin' for!" Sho introduced himself with a wide grin on his face.
"Really now? Well, could you start by telling us where we're supposed to be right now?" Pyrrha asked, already annoyed by Sho's mere presence.
"Yeah, yeah, you guys lost your memories, right? Long story short, you're in the grand city of Iwatodai and you've been chosen to compete in the Reaper's Game! And I ain't talkin' about the one you just killed!"
"The Reaper's game? What kind of shit are you trying to pull here?" Shinjiro cautiously warned, still keeping a threatening look in his eye.
"Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally, but we're sure as hell not gonna go anywhere if you keep asking pointless questions like that! Look, the rules are simple: You guys are gonna be a team for 1 week. If you can beat all the missions we've got planned for ya over that time, you can get your memories back and reclaim your old lives! Sounds like a good deal, eh?" Sho impatiently skipped to the point.
"Okay, so what exactly are you going to expect from us?" Pyrrha cautiously asked.
"Well you're first mission's simple: You gotta kill each other! Winner takes all!" Sho enthusiastically revealed.
"Why the hell would we even want to listen to your bullshit anyway?" Shinjiro immediately threatened as he pulled out his signature axe.
"Cause if you don't do what I say, you're gonna be completely erased from existence! Divided by zero, if you would! Look, I'll prove I'm not lying!" Sho quickly cried out as he snapped his fingers, prompting the the two fighters to briefly clutch their heads in pain. "Well, that just about does it! I'll be watching you now, so hurry up and get to the action!" was the last thing Sho said before abruptly disappearing from view. The man's disappearance was soon replaced with an eerie silence.
...
Said silence was broken with a single warning shot from the young Miss Nikos. "I'm sorry I have to do this, but I need to get back. There's so many people that still need me. (And so does Jaune...)" Pyrrha confidently warned her newfound partner as she readied for battle.
Shinjiro simply grunted in response as he reached for an item within his trenchcoat. "You don't have to tell me twice. The only thing that matters now is winning this fight and coming back home, consequences be damned. I ain't letting you stop me either." Shinjiro firmly stated as he finally pulled what seemed to be a revolver from his jacket. Pyrrha's eyes widened in shock as the man casually lifted the apparent weapon to his head with his finger on the trigger.
FIGHT![]
"Castor!" Shinjiro pulled the trigger on his Evoker, summoning his signature Persona to his side. Pyrrha silently analyzed the strange horseman like entity as it seemed to strengthen its master with a bright red glow. Soon enough, the huntress made the first move and fired off a few test shots at the Persona. The bullets harmlessly bounced off Castor's impaled chest, prompting the Persona to strike the ground with enough force to produce a rapidly approaching Heat Wave.
Pyrrha gracefully flipped over the oncoming attack as she readied her blade to meet her foe head on. Shinjiro had the same idea as he rushed past Castor to swing his axe against the huntress's blade. The two locked their weapons in an eager effort to knock one another off balance, but the clash was short lived when Pyrrha's Semblance caused her foe's weapon to wander slightly off track, opening Shinjiro up for a wicked roundhouse kick to the face.
Shinjiro jumped back to avoid further confrontation as Castor wordlessly whizzed past its master to charge down the red head. Pyrrha rolled to the side to avoid getting mercilessly rammed by the flying horseman, only for Shinjiro to close in on her for another axe strike. Having successfully blocked the oncoming attack with her shield, Pyrrha cartwheeled back, kicking Shinjiro in the jaw along the way.
With her target at the relatively appropriate range, Pyrrha shifted Milo into it's rifle form and pull the trigger. But as it turned out, Pyrrha's plan would literally end up backfiring when she suddenly felt a sharp pain engulf her chest. "Agh! How did that even-" The girl uttered in complete shock before Shinjiro closed in to deliver a savage headbutt to her skull, forcing the huntress to stumble to the ground in pain.
"You're not gonna get anywhere if you lose your concentration like that!" With a new opportunity at hand, Shinjiro pulled the trigger on his Evoker once more, commanding Castor to slam down on Pyrrha like a Stardrop. Pyrrha could have sworn she felt her body get weaker after receiving the last blow, but none of that really mattered at the moment. Now, she desperately needed to get score some distance from her foe. With a simple motion of her hand, a nearby table gravitated towards the opposing Persona user, prompting Castor to break the structure apart before it could harm its master. This gave the young huntress all the time she needed to make her way to the side of the nearby building and formulate another plan of attack.
As fate would have it, there happened to be a good number of other metallic chairs and tables for Pyrrha's semblance to make use of. Putting more effort into her movements than before, the makeshift metal bender lifted the furniture off the ground and sequentially chucked the objects at her foe. Shinjiro hardly even flinched upon witnessing such a grand display of polarity, merely deciding to walk forward with his hands in his pockets. Castor would simply break through an oncoming projectile before it could even come close to striking its master.
Pyrrha glowered in frustration with the persona user's carefee response. Not to mention she was running out of "ammunition" relatively quickly. Another plan formed within the young huntress's mind as she quickly bunched up her remaining objects into a large metallic ball and lunged it forward with all her might. Shinjiro knew he had to stop screwing around at this point and dropped his casual demeanor like a hot potato. "Damn, you're good." The Persona user complimented as Castor rushed forth to collide with the giant hunk of scrap.
Shinjiro could hardly see it at this point, but a brief smirk had grown across Pyrrha's face. With Castor still struggling against the latest projectile, Pyrrha athletically flipped over the clashing horseman, twisting her left arm back to ready her shield. The second Shinjiro was in view, Pyrrha chucked the defensive item with all her might. Shinjiro's axe barely managed to block the oncoming shield at the last moment, but this slight distraction was all Pyrrha needed to begin her own counterattack. She slashed across her target's back three times before her shield miraculously returned to her hand. Pyrrha ended her impressive combo by charging into Shinjiro shield first, sending the young man hurtling into his own Persona. The resulting collision sent both of them right through Pyrrha's junk ball and into the nearby storefront.
"Ah, shit! It looks like I'd stop screwing around." Shinjiro muttered under his breath as he arose from a small pile of rubble. Pyrrha took a comforting chance to catch her breath now that her foe was temporarily neutralized, but that comfort soon faded when Pyrrha felt a familiar force surging through her body, making her feel weaker again. it wasn't much longer before the huntress had to g back into action. A wooden desk was flying out of the storefront in the huntress's direction. "Using wood, huh? You're pretty clever." Pyrrha complemented as she rushed forth to slice through the oncoming projectile.
Her eyes abruptly widened in shock when she literally came face to face with a rapidly approaching Castor. Pyrrha raised her shield to soften the incoming blow, but the impact was still powerful enough to send her tumbling back a few feet. Pyrrha wasn't given much time to recover either. Castor slammed the ground, producing a shockwave even deadlier than the last one. Pyrrha flipped back, firing off a few shots at the Persona to ward it off, only succeeding in provoking the being even more. Castor rushed forward once more, effortlessly batting away Pyrrha's attempt of hitting it with her shield along the way.
The redhead followed suit, running forth to meet the horseman head on. Her blade clashed with Castor at point blank in a struggle for superiority. Pyrrha was hard pressed to stand her ground against such a powerful force, but she refused to give up regardless. The struggle continued until Pyrrha abruptly broke off the collision to collect her shield and parry a sudden flanking by Shinjiro from the left. "Tch. Aren't you a tough nut to crack?" Shinjiro quipped as he closed in for another swing of his axe.
Castor joined in as well, forcing Pyrrha to go on the defensive against two foes at once. She managed to parry or otherwise avoid any attack that came her way, but Shinjiro and Castor's combined assault was steadily pushing her back regardless. Knowing she needed to stop losing ground, Pyrrha altered the path of Shinjiro's next swing, forcing him to accidentally stick his weapon in the ground. With her foe wide open, Pyrrha took a free swing at the distracted Shinjiro, but her plans would go sour upon successfully slashing him along the back.
Once again, Pyrrha took the full damage of the attack in Shinjiro's place and stumbled back in great pain. Knowing he had the perfect opportunity to attack, Shinjiro abandoned his axe on the ground and quickly closed in to direct another headbutt to the huntress's skull and knock her to the ground. "Alright. Time to kick some ass." The Persona user quipped as he equipped a hammer from out of nowhere. With a simple wave of his hand, Shinjiro and Castor converged on the downed redhead.
Strangely enough, the combatants quickly disappeared into a cartoonish burst of dust and violence. Shinjiro himself was inexplicably thrown out of the dust cloud a few times, only to rush back in as if nothing had happened. When the cloud finally cleared, Shinjiro could be seen delivering a football kick powerful enough o knock Pyrrha back even further. Pyrrha had to drag her blade along the ground to halt her momentum, but she knew she was in deep trouble when she noticed another red shockwave coming her way. Defying the laws physics as we all know it, Pyrrha quickly regained her bearings and stood atop her weapon to avoid taking the brunt of the blast.
She made sure to jump off the makeshift platform to avoid falling into the blast. It was a smart choice since it wasn't too long before Milo was blown away by the force of Castor's attack. Pyrrha tried to use her semblance to retrieve her lost weapon, but she was once again forced to go on the defensive when Shinjiro brought his hammer down on her shield. Pyrrha needed to gain space once again, so she adeptly ducked down and swept the Persona user off his feet before slamming into his body shield first. Now free to magnetically retrieve her weapon, Pyrrha took the offensive and shifted her weapon back into its rifle form.
"So, do you think you can keep this up all day?" Pyrrha challenged as she unloaded a quick burst of shots from her rifle.
"If everything goes well, I don't think we'll have to." Shinjiro replied as he commanded his Persona to come forth once more. Castor bore the brunt of Pyrrha's carefully aimed bullets, but the only thing it cared about at the moment was closing the gap on the redhead. When the huntress noticed a brief spark of light on the ground, she knew she had to evacuate her current position. She leaped towards the approaching Persona and not a moment too soon. Her former position was quickly engulfed in a violent storm of energy slashes that certainly would have torn her apart should she have remained in place.
Castor was soon met with an easily blocked jumping kick from the young huntress. However, this counterattack was just what the young huntress expected. Pyrrha thrust her other foot onto the defending Persona, leaped off the mental entity, and tossed her shield directly into Castor's now undefended midsection. The redhead expected Shinjiro to close in on her any second now, but instead she witnessed the man clutch his chest in noticeable pain. (What's going on here? I know I didn't successfully shoot him earlier.) Pyrrha thought to herself as she rolled to the side to avoid a now furious Castor.
Shinjiro had recovered from the unexpected blow soon enough and reached for his abandoned axe nearby. he made sure that Castor would give his target no room to breath, barely even giving her a chance to think as he picked the large weapon off the ground. "Just a little more..." Shinjiro softly commented as Castor continued to clash with the huntress. The persona stomped the ground once more, releasing another Heat Wave that forced Pyrrha to roll to the side, just as Shinjiro planned out.
In a maneuver ripped straight out of Fire Emblem, Shinjiro chucked his axe the now preoccupied Pyrrha as she scrambled to avoid the Heat Wave. She noticed the incoming projectile soon enough and stopped it in mid flight with her Semblance, but she still had another front to worry about. Castor literally came crashing down on Pyrrha the instant she tried to stop the makeshift tomahawk, forcing her to struggle against the force of the Persona with only her blade. But much to Pyrrha's shock and horror, Castor's attack was starting to create cracks in her blade.
It was then when Pyrrha realized this was the worst position she could find herself in. Castor refused to cease its assault, Shinjiro himself was closing in, and Pyrrha simply lacked the focus to do little more than halt the axe in midair. It wasn't too long before Pyrrha's weapon broke apart due to Castor's sheer force. Knowing she had no choice but to take the hit, Pyrrha quickly used her shield to cover as much of her body as possible before Castor completely crushed her, leaving a sizeable crater on the ground upon impact.
Shinjiro was quite satisfied with the result at hand, but this feeling soon turned to one of intense pain when his airborne axe suddenly made a beeline towards Castor's face, seriously wounding both the Persona and its master. The Persona abruptly disappeared in a flash of blue light, dropping the weapon to the ground with a loud clang and revealing the enormous crater it had created. A just as injured Pyrrha Nikos was wearily lying in the center of it. Luckily her shield had remained intact, but the same could not be said for her blade Milo. Shinjiro himself was coughing heavily and clutching a hand to his chest, clearly in just as much pain as his opponent.
...
...
"Like hell if it's gonna end here!"
"I'm never giving up until its all over!"
With an equally triumphant cry from each combatant, Pyrrha stumbled out of the crater she had been knocked into as Shinjiro reached for his Evoker once more. The two briefly stared one another down before Shinjiro pulled the trigger to summon Castor and Pyrrha extended her arms to fully showcase her Semblance. The Earth itself trembled slightly as the surrounding light poles were abruptly ripped from their foundations. Knowing this would surely be the final stand, both Persona and master alike rushed forth to meet the metalbender head on.
Like a collection of oversized baseball bats, a small collection of lamp posts converged on the approaching SEES member. Sure enough, Shinjiro continued his approach entirely unharmed due to the effort of his Persona parrying whatever laid in its path. Pyrrha followed suit, stepping forth to hurl her trusty shield at Shinjiro, who managed to knock the tool off course with a well placed swing of his hammer. It returned to Pyrrha's hand soon enough, but this gave her the perfect chance to fight Shinjiro head to head. After all, Castor was still preoccupied with Pyrrha's collection of lamp posts.
Then again, both fighters truly were hard pressed to land a hit on the other. Shinjiro's strikes certainly packed a punch, but they were adeptly blocked or avoided altogether. On the other hand, Pyrrha lacked a proper method of attack. She knew her shield would prove useful in that regard but removing it from her hand at the moment would certainly be a foolhardy decision.
But what Pyrrha did not expect was for Castor to suddenly ignore its earlier distraction and forcefully slam the ground to emit another shockwave. Shinjiro managed to jump to safety, but Pyrrha was hardly as lucky. The force of the oncoming blast was strong enough to slam her into a nearby tree and break her focus long enough for her remaining lamp posts to drop to the ground. Pyrrha quickly regained her bearings only to notice Castor rushing forth to impale her against the tree.
In what amounted to a last ditch plan, Pyrrha threw her shield to create a short enough distraction for Pyrrha to jump onto the Persona as it effortlessly tore down the tree behind her. Yet instead of taking the perfect opportunity to sock Castor in the face, she instead chose to run her hand across the lance like object that seemed to permanently impale Castor. (So it is metallic...) With a conflicted look on her face, Pyrrha leaped to safety to avoid Castor's inevitable retaliation.
"I'm really sorry for what I'm about to do!" Pyrrha abruptly warned before she simply outstretched her hand towards the Persona, stopping it in its tracks. For reasons Shinjiro could not possibly fathom, his chest simply flared up in the greatest pain he had ever known. One look at his own Persona would answer the questions flowing through his mind pretty quickly.
"Shit..." Shinjiro softly muttered. Pyrrha had grabbed hold of the metallic object permanently embedded in Castor's chest and began to forcefully tear it from the Persona's body. Shinjiro simply could not help dropping to his knees, grabbing hold of his chest even harder in a vain effort to stop the pain. It took much effort on Pyrrha's part, but she eventually managed to remove the embedded weapon entirely, releasing a gruesome spread of blood in all directions. One could briefly see the hole that remained in Castor's chest as the Persona slowly faded away in a blue light.
Now fully aware of how much pain her opponent was in, Pyrrha grabbed hold of the lamp posts she had dropped earlier and began to hover them over Shinjiro's head, crushing them together to form huge ball of junk.
"Hey Nikos. Do you believe in destiny?" Shinjiro asked, finding what strength he could to look the youn huntress in the eye.
"Yes, of course." Pyrrha simply replied.
"Heh. That's good. If anything, I really do hope you can get back safely. I'm sure you've got friends that'll really need you." Shinjiro reaffirmed with a smile before his body was completely crushed under a massive chunk of metal.
KO!
Pyrrha could only sigh in exhaustion, finally being able to catch her breath after an exhausting battle.
"I promise, I won't let you down. I won't let anyone's sacrifice be in vain." the young huntress softly spoke as she retrieved Shinjiro's axe from afar and planted in the ground in front of Shinjiro's final resting place.
Results[]
Theodore: Damn... That was heartbreaking...
Luther: Not to mention gruesome. That sure as hell wasn't easy to watch...
Rena: At least we can all say the fight was awesome up until then, right?
Alice: Ignoring little miss bloodhound over here, this was a surprisingly close match. After all, Pyrrha is already fighting what amounts to a two on one match from the get go.
Theodore: There's no doubt that Shinjiro's heavily offensive fighting style would give Pyrrha a hell of a lot of trouble, especially when Castor's involved.
Rena: And don't even get me started on that High Counter bullshit! Pyrrha would certainly take a few of her own shots to the face for seemingly no reason at first, but she would quickly learn what was causing it soon enough. Either way, this skill alone was enough to force the huntress on the defensive.
Luther: yeah but here's the thing: Besides pure brute strength, there's nothing else that Shinjiro truly excels in. He's the very definition of a mighty glacier, sacrificing many important attributes, noticeably speed for raw attack power and defense.
Alice: Sure enough, Pyrrha's fast enough to avoid receiving too many hits on her end, which is pretty damn important because enough well placed attacks from Shinji would be more than enough to break through her aura.
Theodore: So what exactly scored Pyrrha the win, you may ask? You may be thinking of aspects such as her more varied fighting style, and while you may be partially correct, there's just one little ability that turned the tides in Pyrrha's favor. Remember, the discount metalbending?
Rena: Yeah, I guess there's a disadvantage attributed to using an entire arsenal made of metal. Not only can Pyrrha subtly redirect the movement of a weapon in mid swing, but Pyrrha could have potentially knocked Shinjiro's Evoker out of his hands, denying in access to his Persona. But hey, Pyrrha's a fair sport! She won't resort to dirty tricks like that unless her life depended on it!
Luther: Well in this case, it did! And the end result wasn't very pretty to say the least.
Alice: To semiquote Magneto, there's enough iron in one's body to make a small nail. Now that's certainly gonna hurt like hell, but imagine how much worse it would be if someone ripped a massive f*cking lance thing from your chest?!
Rena: Medically speaking, you'd be f*cked 69 ways from September!
Luther: I'd rather not, but you can be sure that'll put the final nail on Shinjiro's coffin. Eh? Eh?
...
*smack!*
Theodore: Poorly chosen puns aside, it is important to remember that Shinjiro will feel all the pain that his Persona experiences. And without it, he really is gonna hard pressed to keep up with Pyrrha on his own when all he has is a hammer.
Rena: So in the end, we've managed to answer a relatively simple question: Can a dead Shinjiro Aragaki defeat an equally dead Pyrrha Nikos? I don't zinc so!
Luther: Wait, what? That's not even a metal!
Theodore: Actually good sir, it is. Allow me to educate you on-
Alice: The winner is Pyrrha Nikos.
Post Episode[]
Nova: Hey, let me in you guys! It SO wasn't nice of you to kick me out just so you could take over the show from behind my back!
Rena: Ah come on, it was all in good fun! Besides, who ever said you were the boss?
Alice: As far as I recall, nothing.
Nova: Yea yeah, just don't give me any crap about not wanting to use 5 hosts at once. That never stopped us from hiring Classic Dante!
Theodore: So, was Kristoph actually out there to meet you?
Nova: What do you think? That's not important anymore, because I've got a brilliant idea!
Luther: I've got a bad feeling about this.
Nova: Don't we always? But come on, this plan's gonna be simple! We'll improve our reputation in the eyes of the internet tenfold!
Theodore: I don't know about this. I mean, we are rapidly approaching our season finale...
Nova: It ain't even gonna take that long! Now listen here, I'm about to blow your minds!
...
But can you guys open the door first?
...
...
Luther: Wow, are you guys still watching?
...
...How about a little request? In the event that you decide to post a comment down below, add in either Lancaster forever or Arkos forever at the end of your comment to let us know you actually read the entire episode!
Alice: Ah, what a brilliant idea. We'll start a massive shipping war. *sarcasm mode on*
Theodore: Thanks for your time! We hope you enjoyed yourselves, Theo out!