Taro joined the others in the melee, although he attacked with less gusto than the others out of fear of accidentally slashing human instead of the demon-dog-vine-thing. He heard himself call for Bellerophon again and felt the air around him stir as the Persona shot through the creature once again. As the beast began to go into death throes Taro backed away, wiping the black goo from Akito’s knife on his pant leg. He was breathing heavily—the man felt as if he had exerted himself more in the past minute than in the past month—and wiped the sweat, more likely from his nervousness than any actual physical activity, off of his forehead. They did it. They had won. Taro inhaled deeply, breathing in what he had expected to be the sweet smell of success only to be greeted by the foul putrid smell that nearly made him lose his lunch. He managed to turn it into a sputtering cough instead.

A new fear seized him just before the still-moving vines wrapped around his body. Taro let out a startled shout and tried to slash himself free, but the thick tendrils were already keeping his arms pinned to his side. Cursing under his breath enough to rival even Izuki, he could see the others get attacked by the vines as he was quickly turned into some kind of nightmare mummy. He could feel himself get squeezed as if he was being constricted by some giant anaconda; he could feel his ribs getting pushed to their breaking point and waited to hear twenty-four disgusting snaps as the vines snapped him like a toy. As the vines tightened and tightened, Taro found himself unable to even swear. He was trapped. All he could do was watch and wait until they were all killed.

[i]Even after I figure this shit out I’m useless,[/i] he thought, trying and failing to call forth Bellerophon. [i]We’re dead, we’re dead, we’re—[/i]

Taro couldn’t really mentally summarize what happened, but from behind the shroud of the vines he could see spots of blue light. And then the vines burnt away from his face in a blue flame, but Taro neither felt any pain nor smelt the unmistakable scent of singed hair or burnt flesh. He looked around and the lights, except for the small doll-like body of the little blue man, were gone, and with it so were any signs of their struggle with the dog. The evening sun dipped through the window as the train exited the tunnel, and as the light hit his eyes Taro felt himself breath a bit easier (albeit with slight pain from his still-aching chest). Somehow, they made it.

[color=DarkGray]“We… should get each other’s numbers, in case something like this happens again,”[/color] said Akito, his voice wavering with what Taro assumed to be a slight uncertainty. [color=DarkGray]“Just to be safe.”[/color]


Taro nodded dumbly. It was either that or try to go it alone and hope that the next demon dog controlled by snake vines that came along just ignored him. Taro didn’t know much in the way of whatever the hell that thing was, but he figured it was safe to assume that the odds of one not being just a little bit hostile were slim to none. Plus, some of them seemed rather nice, and this was a much easier way to get their number than try to think of some clever line later on. The slight smirk returned to his face as if he had no care in the world.

[color=00a99d]“This isn’t the first time this happened, huh?”[/color]

Taro knew Mari meant the time stop, not the monster attack, but he started laughing nevertheless as she started talking about the time of day. [color=8dc73f]“No. That’s why I hate taking the seven o’ clock train. Too many damn demon dogs,”[/color] he said, shaking his head and smiling as he pulled out his phone and linked it with theirs. If not for the redness of his eyes it would have been impossible to believe that the kid had been crying for his life just moments ago. Pulling out the pocket knife, he offered it back to Akito.

[color=8dc73f]“Here. Don’t know why, but I guess this helped somehow.  It’s a little gross now, but I wiped it off. Should be good, right?”[/color] he asked, lifting an eyebrow. [color=8dc73f]“Unless we’re going to really take this—things like this have a name right? A pact? An oath?”[/color] He shrugged and started again. [color=8dc73f]“Whatever. Unless we’re gonna get weird and take this to the blood oath level. Then I’m gonna have to ask you to sanitize the shit outta that knife before we start slicing palms and holding hands or...uh...whatever it is that people do.”[/color] 

Taro screwed up his face and frowned slightly. He laughed again, only this time it sounded more nervous than jovial. [color=8dc73f]“Uh, what I’m trying to say is, erm, thanks.”[/color] 

There was a beat, and the man went back to typical loud self. [color=8dc73f]“Also, are none of us seriously going to address the fact that we just summoned giant ghost dudes to lay the smackdown on some punkass hellhound? How awesome was that? I mean, sure, yeah, it was kinda scary, but totally awesome, right!”[/color] He turned his head to look at Nao and Izuki. [color=8dc73f]“Especially you two. You girls really have some balls. Um, meta...meta…”[/color] He snapped his fingers and his eyes brightened as he pulled the word of his head. [color=8dc73f]“Metaphysically speaking,”[/color] he said with a smile, proudly unaware of his blunder.