Oh, Junpei understood pain - deep unrelenting, unyielding pain - that could shatter a person's psyche if they were not strong enough. It may not be the same thing, but perhaps it was close enough. Sometimes, Junpei wondered how he had even been strong enough to stay intact after his first intimate contact with death and the aftermath of that horrible November night.

So, it was with a steady gaze and heart that he stood his ground before the burning creature. Trismegistus had already started to fade when she extended her hand through the Persona, neither affected by the phasing, and Junpei held the evoker at the ready as ash fell about him and that hand came closer.

The touch on his cheek was cold, clammy and hella creepy as Junpei caught the intent behind it. Tower Arcana, he reminded himself as he suppressed the urge to shrink away from that touch. Before the phantom contact lasted long enough for his instincts to overtake his courage, the fire finished consuming the creature, so it seemed, as it vanished and ash settled on the ground.

That was when Junpei decided shuddering over the Shadow-ish thing's touch was okay. "Gggyuhh," he said as the shudder went down his back and he secured the evoker in the front waistband of his jeans. He took his hat off and brushed the ash off it before returning it to his head, only backwards this time.

Junpei turned away from the pile of ash, he decided someone else could sweep up (he didn't want any more little Tower Arcana bits clinging to him than he already did). Walking down the hallway in a somewhat hurried pace, he held his free hand out at a level where Evangeline could grasp it if she wanted help up in his passage to the center hall.

"Come on, babe. We are so not sticking around to see if that unholy drain clog is really gone or not," he said to the girl as his courage still held. He wasn't sure how much longer it would.