The handicap is more challenging than she expected

Mitsuru's plan for the rest of the trip: hide her back, focus on avoiding hits-- not a distraction, but rather a necessity, in a place as dangerous as Tartarus-- and make it to the end with none the wiser about the wardrobe malfunctions that were just waiting to happen. As they proceeded to the next floor and encountered a group of shadows called Wild Drives, she found herself surprisingly fortunate. These shadows had a tricky attack pattern, rushing forward with much more speed than the knights they'd encountered earlier and charging with their giant, intimidating clubs on both arms. Their physical damage could be a big problem, from past experience but thankfully, they had an electricity weakness. Akihiko's persona, Caesar, exploited that weakness and knocked them all down with a crash of lightning.

"Alright! Every enemy's down! It's time for an all-out attack!" Fuuka announced via their comms. Ordinarily, everyone would rush in at the signal. However, when they converged in and started smashing, they found themselves one short... the damage was just barely enough to finish off the shadows. "M-Mitsuru-senpai..." The operator timidly spoke Mitsuru's name, knowing that the self-named leader wasn't going to get off the hook after a failure like that.

Akihiko raised his fists from the floor and wiped the shadow ichor off of them and onto his sweater-vest, then frowned in Mitsuru's direction as the girl bit her lip and shuffled uncomfortably. "What's the deal? The all-out attack is free damage. What's the strategic value in holding back at a time like that?" he questioned, tilting his head quizzically.

"Akihiko... I'll explain later." Mitsuru hoped that answer would suffice; she lowered her eyebrows to show it was a serious issue. Thankfully, her credibility was good enough for the others to dismiss the issue... But she didn't know how many more encounters she could skirt through with such a serious handicap.

Unfortunately, she'd failed to account for a particular possibility-- one which made her decision to tell the truth or hide it a null point. The serious disadvantage of Mitsuru's current armor-damaged state was that she couldn't turn around without exposing her back to the others. That meant that she had to bring up the rear... and continue bringing up the rear at all costs. She couldn't look behind them for anything...

So when a shadow suddenly rushed up to back attack them, the whole group was understandably confused and annoyed. There shouldn't be any way for a shadow to sneak up on them, with Mitsuru watching the back! There was no time to chastise her, however, as she was already bearing the brunt of the attack...

A number of giant, muscular shadows, wearing trunks and bearing a passing resemblance to a certain famous wrestler, had run up, executing wrestling clotheslines from behind Mitsuru and sending her down onto her knees. She grit her teeth in frustration, not only from the pain of the attack, but also from the realization that new armor pieces were laying around her. Most of the back armor had broken off as well as pieces of the pauldrons, which now flapped up and off her shoulders. From the side, a bit of her unintentionally racy underwear was visible and the hip tasset was struggling to stay up, without the upper armor to attach to. The others ignored those details, instead choosing to fight the the two shadows that had run into the thick of the group.

Unfortunately, one was still behind the others, facing her down in a grappling stance. Mitsuru struggled up to her feet, then prepared her fencing foil; she turned around to face him, figuring there was no use hiding her condition any more. "You'll pay for that, monster... En garde!"

"Mitsuru-senpai..." Fuuka practically sobbed, wondering what she'd do in the same situation.