The world was going to end soon.
Makoto and Fuuka watched from afar as the members of S.E.E.S. destroyed the final major arcana shadow. No need for confrontation, they merely just watched. S.E.E.S. was celebrating their victory, completely unaware that killing the Hanged Man was the last thing stopping Death from reforming.
There was a strange sense of… finality, of it all. To Makoto, it began on the Moonlight bridge, with that horrible accident. And now, the beginning of the end started at the very same place. If he believed in it, he would say it was fate.
“Well...” Fuuka said quietly. She clasped her hands together, under the safety of Lucia. “The Hanged Man is no more.”
“Guess that’s it then.” The fall was coming. Makoto never really wanted all of humanity to die, but he never had a choice in the matter. (But, that wasn’t quite true. If he wanted to prevent the fall, he could have told the members of S.E.E.S., see if there was another way. But there wasn’t. So he didn’t.)
“This would be the part where we would make peace with our loved ones or something. Too bad we don’t have any of those, huh?” Fuuka said with a smile.
Makoto exhaled slightly louder than usual, which was about as close to a laugh as it gets when it comes to him. “What a shame.” It looked like the group was getting ready to leave. “We probably shouldn’t stick around for too much longer.”
“Yeah. They shouldn’t be able to see or sense us, but the blonde one keeps looking this way.”
Hmph. Blondie. Makoto… did not like her for some reason. He was pretty neutral to most of the crew, maybe felt a little bad for the kid because was he even in middle school yet? But when it came to the blonde one… he felt a vague sense of fear and discomfort. He didn’t have the faintest clue why, but he wasn’t a fan.
“We need to keep tabs on Ikutsuki. He’s going to try something soon.” Makoto said. And admittedly, he still owed one of the members after the assist with that shadow on the bridge.
Always that stupid bridge.
Fuuka made a noise of disgust. Makoto didn’t have to wonder why, neither of them were particularly fond of the man.
That’s putting it extremely lightly, for all he’s done.
S.E.E.S. were gone from the bridge at this point, so it was time to go back ‘home’.
~ ~ ~
Back at the clock tower the two of them called home, Makoto slept for a very long time. The sun began to set when he opened his eyes. He pushed himself into a sitting position from where he slept on his mattress. One of his favorite things about the dark hour was how easy it was to steal things. An entire hour, where technology didn’t work, and there were no people. Wonderful, for people like him, who didn’t have much otherwise.
Because really, how else was he going to get a mattress inside of an abandoned clock tower?
When he got up to stare through his favorite window, he found Pharos was there, much to Makoto’s surprise. Pharos was never outside of the dark hour.
Ah, right. The events of yesterday were that much clearer now.
“Did you sleep well? I never realized how long humans could sleep until I met you. I left you to it, just to see how long you would be out for.”
“How long was I asleep for?”
“Twenty consecutive hours.”
“Oh.” He didn’t even particularly exhaust himself last night.
Pharos turned to look at him. “I finally remember everything.”
“You’re going to be whole again soon, then.” Pharos has been with Makoto for a long time. He was the only one who could tell him about the Dark Hour.
It was hazy, for a very long time, but bit by bit he remembered. Progress was slow for years, but then came April, Pharos remembered more than he ever had before.
They learned that it was the Arcana shadows, the very ones that have been plaguing Tatsumi Port Island for the past several years. They were the key to his memory.
With each one felled, the more he remembered. It was around April when the Kirijo group was finally able to take one down.
The research Ikutsuki had gathered, the research that the deceased Kirijo decided was worth the lives of his research and his own life, was very helpful in helping his memory.
It’s how he was able to tell Makoto about Nyx, and the fall.
It was… kinda scary how he didn’t feel anything when he learned that humanity itself was doomed.
“Yes. The time has come for me to say goodbye. I want you to know our friendship was a miracle. But even miracles don’t last forever.” Pharos said wistfully. “If only they did.”
“Nothing lasts forever.”
“Maybe you’re right. Even if eternity does exist, how would we ever know? It’d be no different than if it didn’t exist.”
It wasn’t very easy to get used to Pharos. He was very… existential, at times. But Makoto would be lying if he said he wasn’t going to miss him. He was going to miss Pharos a lot.
“I’ll always treasure the time we had together. Today may be the end but our bond can never be severed. Remember that.”
He gave Makoto a firm handshake. His eyes were a little misty. “It was fun while it lasted.” Pharos said.
“Do you think I’ll ever see you again?”
“As Pharos? This is the last you’ll see of me.”
Makoto hummed. He ran out of things to say. Perhaps he would find him again, before the end. But, maybe not.
“Oh, there’s one more thing. You will face an ordeal tonight.”
“In the face of unavoidable disaster lies the opportunity to search for redemption.” Makoto turned his head to the side. To his surprise, Pharos elaborated, “tonight will be interesting.”
Pharos sighed. “But I won’t be able to see it. To answer your question, I think that depending on what you choose tonight will decide whether or not we meet again when I’m the Harbinger.”
And then, with a flash of light, Pharos disappeared. Makoto looked out the window alone, Pharos gave him a lot to think about. He had a bad feeling about tonight since the Hanged man was slain but now? He had an even worse feeling.
Pharos wasn’t usually so… forward? So what was going to happen that made him explain something?
Very strange. Between that and saying goodbye to Pharos, Makoto was left in a sour mood.
~ ~ ~
Makoto stopped sulking eventually, and descended the clock tower to where Fuuka was set up. To his surprise and vaguely to his horror, she was able to hack into the dorm’s security system.
Which was really freaky, but convenient. When Makoto asked why she didn’t do this sooner, she just said there wasn’t really a reason.
Which, yeah. Lucia did a good enough job at tracking S.E.E.S. that it really wasn’t necessary before. But, even though Ikutsuki was eager to induce personas into orphans without a care in the world, he decided he was above the effort of having a persona. Lucia couldn’t pinpoint normal people as well as those who had a persona.
The first thing the two of them realized was wow, the dorm had a lot of cameras. Like, a lot of cameras. Makoto wouldn’t consider himself a very righteous person, but looking into the rooms of near strangers, most of whom were just teenagers like himself, was… uncomfortable.
Flipping through the cameras they saw cap wearing boy, pink sweater girl, white hair, redhead one (the Kirijo), redhead two, redhead three, the actual child, the actual dog, and Aragaki. That left Ikutsuki himself unaccounted for and the blonde.
They were setting up for some sort of event. Right, hat guy was loud enough to where he could hear him from the bridge even though they weren’t even on it. He did mention how they should celebrate the dark hour’s disappearance.
Who knew they would actually go through with it?
“I’m going get some fresh air, let me know if something happens.” Makoto said.
He took a walk.
He could go to the shrine, but people watching wouldn’t be as fun as it used to be, now that Makoto knew everyone he could see would be dead within a few months at the most.
Hmph.
Perhaps he would be a functional member of society and purchase something, with money, today.
Crazy notion.
But, if Pharos was right and there was an ordeal waiting for him tonight, he should probably get some caffeine in him.
Paulownia mall wasn’t too far from the clock tower, but it still took some time to walk there. Makoto wasn’t particularly in a hurry, though, so he didn’t mind. The fresh air would probably do him some good.
…Actually eating something would also probably do him some good, too. He would deal with that later.
Upon reaching the mall, he went to Chagall cafe. He ordered one of the god awful pheromone coffees.
After receiving his coffee, he took a sip.
He felt his soul attempt to leave his body.
It was terrible.
Makoto didn’t have the faintest idea how the place had any business when the coffee was that bad. Supposedly it was supposed to make the person who drank it ‘more charming’. As if.
It probably helped that Chagall was the only cafe in the area but still.
Surely there was a business opportunity to be had to sell coffee that wasn’t terrible.
He was about halfway done with the coffee. It still tasted bad. If nothing else the terrible taste was a good distraction from everything.
…But Makoto would have preferred to have good coffee and think about the problems he may or may not face tonight than drink another sip of this hellish sludge.
And he spent money on this!
He drank the last sip of the cup, energized, and only a little aggravated. Because seriously he wasn’t really an energy drink person so he couldn’t just go to a vending machine, and he did enjoy coffee so this would have been perfect, but the one cafe nearby was this bad. It was time to leave this terrible, terrible cafe, so he went for the door.
Now outside, he was so busy stewing that he didn’t notice that he was walking straight into a person. It was too late to stop, so he collided with what felt like a brick wall. Both parties stumbled back.
Actually looking where he was going, he saw he just stumbled into Aragaki Shinjiro.
Makoto could just pretend like this never happened, but he didn’t have anything better to do. Might as well strike up a conversation.
“Oh. It’s you.” Aragaki said, realizing that Makoto wasn’t going to leave. “What do you want?”
“Is it illegal for me to stand here?”
“No, but I can tell you’re scheming something,” Aragaki grunted. “Besides, I’ve never seen you outside the Dark Hour.”
“Maybe I’m here to congratulate you for destroying the dark hour?”
Aragaki’s eyes widened for half a second before his face went back to being mildly annoyed. “You’ve been stalking us?”
Makoto shrugged. “You could call it that. I’m a big fan of you guys though. I bet you feel like heroes.” He said sarcastically.
“What are you getting at?”
“What do you know about the chairman of Gekkoukan high?” He could see Aragaki shift around uncomfortably. “Humor me.”
“He likes sh*tty puns.”
That… was an attribute to that man. “What else?”
“What are you getting at?”
“I’ll tell you what I know about the chairman. He is content with letting a group of teenagers, a dog, and a child fight monsters to accomplish his goal. He had close ties with the man that started the dark hour. And, he is trying to bring about the Fall.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Aragaki said, voice low.
“Watch your back. Shuji Ikutsuki is more dangerous than he looks.”
With that, Makoto walked off. Aragaki called out to him, to see if maybe he would say something that wasn’t extremely vague, but Makoto kept walking.
~ ~ ~
It was going to be midnight, soon. Makoto and Fuuka sat next to each other and watched the cameras. The scene was like this. The leader of the Kirijo group, along with two… assistants? Two well dressed goons was a more apt description, arrived at the dorm an hour or so ago. More food than Makoto had ever seen before was brought before the members of S.E.E.S.. Everyone decided to dig in, to celebrate.
Except for the elder Kirijo, and Aragaki. Who knows why Kirijo didn’t eat any of the food, probably some rich person thing, but Aragaki was visibly unnerved. It seemed their little talk made it through to him. But, Ikutsuki never went back to the dorms, so there was no point in warning him.
It was a little disturbing, watching cap guy and redhead two eat that much sushi. That much expensive sushi. While the cap guy had his limits, the girl did not. It was like watching a black hole.
It felt familiar for some reason. Makoto tried not to think about it. There are bigger fish to fry.
He cringed. Now was not the time to make puns. Fuuka gave him a look, but thankfully knew Makoto well enough that if he didn’t say something, he probably wasn’t going to.
Anyways. The group took a picture. They wondered aloud where Ikutsuki was.
And then the laptop cut out.
And then the world turned green.
Showtime.
Fuuka summoned Lucia the moment the dark hour started. She scanned for several minutes. Finding a specific person was… not easy. Thankfully, she was able to filter out Persona users, and she was able to filter out everyone who turned into coffins. It turned trying to find a needle in a haystack into trying to find a needle in a box. Admittedly, a very large box.
“There!” Her eyes lit up. “He’s at the gates of the tower!”
Why? Neither of them really knew what was up with the tower. They knew it was a sort of nest for the shadows. And that the shadows dropped money. Not the most important considering they didn’t pay for things very often but it was important enough to keep in mind.
The school was far away. But, the duo's unstoppable kleptomania came in handy. If hypothetically, a motorcycle that worked in the dark hour existed, it would be very convenient to own.
And hypothetically, if someone were to have a lot of experience at stealing things, and that person had a friend that had the skills to completely mask his presence, stealing this thing would be pretty easy.
Hypothetically.
And if, hypothetically, the desire to majorly inconvenience the Kirijo group got too strong, and there was a motorcycle just ripe for the taking, taking it would be a far game. Hypothetically.
Makoto did not know how to drive a motorcycle. Somehow, Fuuka did. Makoto had no idea how she knew. They’ve been around each other every day for the last several years. When? How?
It didn’t really matter. Fuuka revved the engine and Makoto held on for dear life. It wasn’t very safe. Fuuka was very fast. Way, way too fast, even if she was an expert. And she wasn’t an expert. Makoto still has no idea when she even made the time to learn how to drive a motorcycle.
They were the only ones on the road. That helped a little bit. But it also seemed to encourage Fuuka to go as fast as she could. The air whooshing by them was loud. The noise was amplified by there being no background noise during the dark hour.
Makoto trusted Fuuka with his life, but… he may have still been a little worried. It wouldn’t be a terrible way to die, right next to his best friend. But following his parents and getting into a vehicular accident wasn’t very appealing.
Even so, though she drove like a maniac, she was very efficient. It wouldn’t take very long to reach the tower
~ ~ ~
Makoto has never felt more grateful to be standing on solid ground. It seemed that surviving the trip was the only good news he had, unfortunately.
The entrance to the tower was empty. There was no one here, unlike what Fuuka scanned.
The only thing was there were signs of a struggle.
The ground was marred with scorch marks, the ground had cracks on it that weren’t there before, and there was a not insignificant amount of blood. It was different from the blood that just kinda… showed up… during the dark hour. No, there was too little for it to be that. This came from a person. Likely multiple. Weapons were scattered around, as if they weren’t important enough to bring.
What happened?
Fuuka scanned again. They were close to where Ikutsuki and the other Persona users were, so it took no time at all for Lucia to locate them. “They’re at the top of… something. Not the tower… but a section? Hm. Give me a few more minutes.”
Makoto took the time to mentally profile his Personas. He was ‘special’, compared to most people. He had more than one Persona. He didn’t understand how, or why, but it was something only he could do.
At least, so he thought. Redhead two also had this now not so unique power. But that was a separate headache.
Out of his four Personas, only two of them were really usable. Orpheus, his original Persona. He has been with him ever since he was awoken in that lab. And Thanatos, whose strength was unmatched.
He had Fortuna and Apsaras in the back of his mind, but they only served as a means to hit weaknesses that he couldn’t with Thanatos or Orpheus. And considering he seldomly fights shadows, and only does to line his pockets, he can’t say that he needed that very often.
He wasn’t sure why he had this power. Pharos had said it had something to do with the power of his bonds, but he wasn’t so sure. Apsaras appeared when he became friends with Fuuka. But, Fuuka was his best friend, why would their bond result in a Persona that was so weak?
And Fortuna…
…
He didn’t like how Fortuna appeared only after Takaya was gone. Makoto held a deep resentment for him, but it was undeniable that he helped Makoto and Fuuka escape.
Makoto shook his head. He was the most frustrating person Makoto ever had the displeasure of meeting but he didn’t deserve to die by the hands of that Kirijo researcher.
The very same researcher that was on top of the tower.
“Hm.” Fuuka was straining herself. “I can tell where they are but I'm struggling to see how to get there. I wonder, do the other school buildings stay the same or do they also turn into something else?”
Fuuka gasped. “That’s it! The observatory! That’s where they are.”
“Gekkoukan has an observatory? Where?” From just looking, there was just… a tower. And more tower. It was all just tower.
“I’ll guide you.”
~ ~ ~
Now or never, Makoto thought as Fuuka guided him through the observatory. It was quite the climb, there being many stairs from the gates and the top.
It really was strange. There were floors and shadows. It was like a mini Tartarus, intertwined with the real one. Shadows really liked their non euclidean space. Makoto hasn’t gone up that many floors, but according to Fuuka he was already almost at the top.
“Alright, they shouldn’t be able to see you unless you make your presence known. So if you want to stay stealthy don’t do anything until you're ready.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. Now, be safe, and make sure to deal with Ikutsuki, yeah?”
He nodded, before remembering Fuuka couldn’t see him. “I wouldn’t dream of letting him go.” Such an opportunity. He’s heard this story before, and he's read files the man left behind. Ikutsuki was too busy believing himself to be some kind of prince of the fall. Though killing him wouldn’t solve that issue, making sure Ikutsuki wasn’t running around dangerously anymore was more than worth it.
And the revenge part was pretty nice, too.
He stealthily reached the top floor. He was shocked at the image before him. Fuuka did a scan earlier, and S.E.E.S. and Ikutsuki were on the roof, but…
Seeing eight crosses, each with a teenager (and the child) tied to it, was not on his bingo card. The green moonlight poured down from the open air. Ikutsuki was gloating, and Blondie stood next to him with a vacant stare. Their eyes locked, and then…
Makoto remembered.
The accident in 1999 was one that Makoto could not remember that well. He knew he had a family before that, and then the day passed and then he did not anymore. He remembered there was someone next to him when the bridge exploded. But that was as far as his memory allowed.
He was taken to the labs, after that. He didn’t remember most of his time there. Because of the torture he endured, he developed a strong mental block. When it came to the labs, he remembered awakening to Orpheus, becoming friends with Fuuka, becoming friends (?) with Takaya, Thanatos awakening, and the day of their escape. Oh, how terrible a day.
But, that was neither here nor there.
Not a lot of memories, considering he was there for over nine years.
But, locking eyes with Blondie made him remember. Not the lab, he would never allow himself to remember that, but the accident. After the car crashed, she was there. She fought a monster, no, Death, with all of her fire power. She shot bullets out of her fingers. She visibly got hurt as the fight went on but…
She wasn’t injured, moreso damaged. She didn’t bleed blood, instead, oil. When the monster tore into her, it didn’t reveal flesh and bone, instead metal, and wires. She was some sort of robot.
It was after several of these injuries that the lifeless eyes she had locked with Makoto’s.
Makoto could never understand how, but she sealed the monster inside of him.
Of course, this action bonded Pharos to him, giving him a friendship that could never fail. And since, according to the researchers, he had a shadow inside of him, he had unparalleled control over his Persona.
In the present, Makoto blinked. Though he was staring at the Machine, Fuuka’s Persona was able to block his presence. It shouldn't have worked on someone who was staring right at him, but the machine didn’t look all there at the moment.
He pushed away the question of could a machine dissociate? That’s what it looked like was happening, but there were more important things to think about.
Like Thanatos trying his hardest to break free from Makoto, to rend the machine apart. He had to reel his Persona in. If he willed it, he could probably summon him without an Evoker. At this point, Thanatos could probably summon himself if Makoto wasn’t trying to stop him.
Because he had a job to do, and vengeance to take.
He unsheathed his sword, and slunk about through the shadow.
Makoto moved until he was right behind Ikutsuki, and then he waited. The man in question was ordering the machine to slaughter the currently crucified teenager. Aigis, he called her.
The machine was hesitating.
Ikutsuki was distracted.
A perfect opening.
Makoto stabbed with his sword, aiming directly at Ikutsuki’s heart. He cried out in pain. Makoto twisted, then pulled the sword out. He collapsed in a pool of his own blood, spasming as life drained out of him.
A pathetic end. Fitting, for a pathetic man.
Doing such a bold action meant his cloaking was no longer working. He could feel the gaze of seven teenagers, a child, a robot, and… a dog? Bore into him. (Why was the dog just standing off to the side? Why wasn’t he crucified either?) Not important.
The machine aimed her arms away from the crosses. She turned to face Makoto. There was not a single sound, even Ikutsuki’s flailing stopped. There wasn’t even any wind, a funny quirk about the dark hour. Makoto could hear the machine rev up. She lifted her arms towards Makoto.
He couldn’t reach his Evoker in time. So, he brought Thanatos to the forefront of his mind and shielded his eyes.
The silence ended, replaced by gunfire. It was deafening. The machine unloaded everything she had at Makoto. The bullets clinked off of him painfully.
Makoto was suddenly very grateful Fuuka gave him a resist pierce skill card. The bullets hurt, yes, the pain of a hundred needles, but the difference was impossible not to notice. Instead of being reduced to a fine red mist, he stood, merely sporting a few more bruises than he did a few seconds ago.
After several more seconds of guarding, the machine ran out of bullets. Or she just stopped firing. Smoke poured out of her finger tips. “You are dangerous.” The machine had the gall to say, with its lifeless voice.
Makoto couldn’t disagree per say, Ikutsuki’s corpse was a testament, but that seemed a little harsh. “And you aren’t?”
The machine stayed silent, arms still aimed at him. “Because the last I checked, I’m not the one who made a bridge explode.”
He could hear murmuring from the crucified teens. Perhaps he would pay them attention if they weren’t so helpless. Makoto could see the faintest flickers of recollection from the machine. He was about to ask another question, but Fuuka's voice echoed in his head before he could. “Are you alright? You’re injured.”
“Ikutsuki is dead, but I don’t think I can leave this anymore. You should go while you have the chance.” He spoke quietly.
She was quiet for a few seconds. Makoto’s gaze never left the machine. If Makoto didn’t know better, he would think the machine felt confused. “I am not leaving you behind. That’s not what friends do.”
Makoto frowned. She should leave, but she cared too much about him. “I know I can’t change your mind,” he whispered, “but if there's a point where I absolutely cannot make it out of here, leave. Promise.”
More silence. “Promise.”
The machine finally found the words to speak. “Who are you?”
A laugh bubbled from Makoto. It wasn’t something he normally did, but it was just so funny. A laugh, not of joy, but of malice. “You really don’t remember. That’s fine, I only just remembered, too.”
The smile fell off of his face faster than it appeared. “1999. The moonlight bridge. The shadow known as Death escaped from the Kirijo group. You were sent to destroy it. You found it at the bridge and engaged.”
“You destroyed many things, but not the shadow. But, you found a lone child that survived the wreckage. You realized you couldn’t defeat Death, so you sealed the shadow inside of the child.”
“Do you remember now, machine?” Makoto’s expression was deathly serious. He strengthened his grip on his sword.
The machine did not answer, electing to go into a battle stance. Makoto grabbed his evoker. “Fine. I don’t care anyways. Now with Ikutsuki gone, all I want is for you to become dust.”
The machine dashed towards him. Makoto aimed at his head and pulled the trigger. Thanatos came forth, rushing to meet the machine.
Aigis leaped past Thanatos as he cleaved, destroying the ground. She summoned her own Persona in turn. “Palladion!” She called.
Palladion’s head opened, revealing some kind of artillery. It fired several times, each sending a pierce attack his way.
As he rolled out of the way of the first two shots, Thanatos slashed the last two attacks out of the sky.
The machine landed, then rushed Makoto down. She must have realized that bullets weren’t as effective as they should be. Makoto barely blocked a punch with his sword. The machine swung again, and Makoto wasn’t as lucky.
His non sword shoulder took the brunt of the damage, bruising, and maybe cracking. With his good arm, he swung upwards with all of his might, just to get the machine away so he could summon Orpheus to heal. But, even with all of his strength, and the machine making no moves to dodge, his blade merely scratched her.
How unfortunate. In a purely physical fight, Makoto could never win. He was made of flesh and bone, while she was made of steel. To puncture metal, he would need to stab with all of his strength, and he would need momentum. He couldn’t do that with her up close, it would leave him too vulnerable.
How fortunate then, that this wasn’t just a physical fight. She may be physically strong, but Personas are strength of heart. And Makoto’s heart was very strong.
Makoto flung himself to the ground, out of the way of one of the machine's punches. He was vulnerable. But, Thanatos never went away. From behind the machine, he swung downwards with all his might.
The machine dodged, but it was too late. With the strength of a lightning strike, Thanatos’ blade tore her leg in two. The sword made a deafening sound as it embedded itself into the ground.
From the ground. Makoto wasted no time using his evoker. He swapped Personas. Thanatos disappeared as Makoto called Orpheus. A green light surrounded Makoto as Orpheus strummed his lyre. His shoulder mended itself, and snapped back into place.
The machine was swift to get itself off of the ground. Even with a significant portion of its leg missing, she stood. But, it was unable to dodge an Agilao to the face. It brushed it off, no worse for wear.
“Fuuka, what's her weakness?” Makoto asked as he stood up. Orpheus was a good healer and a decent damage dealer, but he had no helpful resistances. He couldn’t afford being as susceptible to bullets as every other human on the planet. He swapped back to Thanatos.
The telling light of a scan enveloped the machine. “Electricity! You… don’t have that.” That’s… inconvenient. “Resists pierce!”
Fortuna for wind, Asparas for ice, Orpheus for strike and fire, Thanatos for slash and dark. With his luck, the machine was weak to light, too. Unlikely, as Fuuka would have mentioned it but he wouldn’t be surprised.
Orange energy surrounds him. Fuuka must have sent a buff his way. Makoto took advantage of that and took the offensive, summoning Thanatos to send a Vorpal Blade towards Aigis. The physical skill took off, slashing all around the machine. It had the range to hit half of the roof of the observatory if he wanted. (But he didn’t want that. He wanted the machine to die and nothing else.)
Aigis was nimble, but no one could dodge that many slashes. “Damage critical.” A dull voice called out from Aigis.
She summoned her own Persona. Makoto prepared for retaliation, but was left waiting when nothing came his way.
Green mist surrounded Aigis. The numerous scratches she had sustained mended itself. Her leg completely healed.
She can heal. Wonderful. This now became a war of attrition. They could each hurt each other immensely. However, with no one else to help put the pressure on, it was simple for one of them to back out for a few seconds and heal.
Which meant this will last until one of them can chain enough lucky hits together, or one of them runs out of energy. Makoto summoned Thanatos again. This was going to take much longer than it should have.
~ ~ ~
Fuuka was worried. That wasn’t new. She was always a worrier. (At least she thinks so. Not too many memories of her childhood before her parents effectively sold her.) But this was a new worry.
Ikutsuki fell extremely easily. She instantly felt weight off her chest when she couldn’t sense him anymore.
But Blondie, or the robot, Fuuka supposes, was fighting Makoto. And with what Makoto said, there was little reason why not.
The machine ruined his life. If the bridge never exploded he would still have a family. If Death was never sealed inside of him, maybe the Kirijo group wouldn’t have taken him. A lot of what ifs shut down by the accident, and in turn, the machine that caused it.
Fuuka decided the moment Makoto had to shield himself from the bullets that she wasn’t running away. If she were a coward, maybe she would have run by now. But she’s going to make sure that Makoto sees this through.
She could feel Lucia buzz with anxiety. Her own anxiety. I am thou, and all that. It was a lot of effort to keep Lucia constantly summoned, but if she was able to help Makoto in any way, it was worth it.
Call outs… weren’t really possible. There wasn’t much she could see that Makoto couldn’t. She was able to heal and buff, but she was only able to do so every so often.
She wished she could do more, and wished not for the first time that Lucia could do more than navigate.
Fuuka felt a chill run up her spine. Something was coming. It wasn’t a shadow, and there weren’t any other Persona users she was aware of, so who was it?
She scanned again. This person… wasn’t a Persona user? Were they a lost, getting called by the tower?
Fuuka didn’t dare tell Makoto. He couldn’t afford the distraction.
She scanned once more. She sent another healing spell towards Makoto and braced herself. This person was very close.
A man in a gray suit and tie came into view. He had brown, well groomed hair, an angular face, and a black eye patch on.
This man was the current owner of the Kirijo group. Huh. He was at the ‘victory party’, so he was in the area, Fuuka rationalized. But why was he here?
Kirijo noticed Fuuka and stopped. They locked eyes, the only thing blocking them being Lucia.
From the little she knew, Kirijo was not a very expressive person. He always sported a perpetually displeased expression. But even so, he had a vaguely dumbstruck look on his face.
This was awkward. Her best friend was fighting for his life to end anothers. And Fuuka was in an awkward spot. She clasped her hands and sent another healing spell.
Kirijo finally found it in him to do something other than stand around looking caught off guard. “I was not aware there were other Persona users outside of S.E.E.S..”
Was she supposed to say something to that? She didn’t, trying to ignore Kirijo. Makoto seemed to be at an advantage, but then the machine completely healed herself. Again.
She wished she was up there fighting with Makoto.
“I wonder, are you a friend, or foe?” Kirijo asked.
For reasons unknown to Fuuka, she actually responded to him. “Ikutsuki’s dead!” Why did she say that? Why did she shout it? She had no idea. The only reason she hasn’t melted into a puddle is that she had to consciously speak to Makoto for him to hear her. So at least her outburst didn’t stumble him.
Kirijo’s eyes widened in surprise, before his expression melted back into one of indifference. “That settles that, then.”
“S.E.E.S. is more or less safe at the observatory.” She still didn’t know why she was talking. Some kind of misplaced guilt? The hope that if she gave him enough information he would leave? She didn’t have an answer. And if it was the second one, Kirijo was very content to just stand around.
“You aren’t alone, I take it?” Fuuka froze. Her face was getting clammy. “I’m not an expert, but that Persona isn’t suited for fighting, is it? And, you’re down here, instead of at the top.”
Please, Makoto. Hurry up. She thought. She forced herself to stop trembling. “What if I’m not alone?”
Lucia was safe. The researchers couldn’t reach Fuuka while Lucia protected her.
Kirijo was quiet again. Surveying his options, perhaps. Not everyday you learn there’s Persona users outside of your daughter’s club.
…Nor is it every day that the school chairman dies.
Wait, did Kirijo even know he was evil yet?
~ ~ ~
Palladion rushed him down, attempting to skewer him with its spike. Thanatos bashed it to the ground with the handle of his sword, causing it to disappear.
Aigis leaped back, likely to heal the damage she sustained. Makoto took the time to try to up his agility, summoning Orpheus to use Sukukaja.
Aigis herself rushed him down again. Thankfully, opting to use her fists, Makoto didn’t have the time to switch back to Thanatos. He sidestepped the first punch. She brought her arm down against him. He was forced to block with his sword.
The blade was partially embedded into her arm, but she kept pushing. She was attempting to bring him to the ground.
“I used to have a family, believe it or not.” Makoto grunted out. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was talking. Maybe he was trying to make Aigis lower her guard. Maybe he just wanted someone to know before he died, even if that person was the one trying to end his life.
“A Mom, a Dad.” He held his ground. He held both the handle of the sword and part of the blade itself. Anything to keep himself standing, even if he was being cut.
“I even had a sister.” He angled himself, and the sword.. Aigis wasn’t prepared, her constant pushing working against her. The sword sliced further up her mechanical arm as Aigis fell to the ground. His voice fell to a whisper. “We were twins. She was older than me by three minutes.”
Makoto jumped back, then dashed and stabbed the ground where her head was. She rolled out of the way, then aimed a shot directly aimed at his kneecap. He never switched back. The bullet pierced straight through. He was brought to a kneel.
He needed to heal but Aigis was too close. Faster and more desperate than ever before, He didn’t have the time to grab his Evoker. But, in his stress, Thanatos appeared in front of him anyway. Thanatos used a dark spell, the Maeigaon sweeping Aigis away.
He always knew he could summon Thanatos without an Evoker, but actually doing it was something else. His vision blurred.
Water ascended from beneath him. He felt a little less tired, his vision going back to normal, and his knee sewed itself back together.
Thanks Fuuka, he thought. He didn’t have the time to say it outloud. Aigis sent a Heat Wave his way. Thanatos struck the floor, his own slash attack counteracting the strike attack.
~ ~ ~
“Then you aren’t. Connections are important.” Kirijo responded. “There's a proverb about that that I enjoy. But I don’t think now's the time for that.” At least he was self aware.
He continued. “Ikutsuki was… a multifaceted man. I don’t know what he did, but he had to do something tonight for him to die. But something about this seems a little off. What connection do you, or your friend, have to Ikutsuki, for this to happen?”
Should she tell him? Should she tell him that he was the head figure of the labs? The one that ordered the researchers to attempt to awaken Personas in all of those orphans? Did he already know? Was this… politeness just a facade?
Ikutsuki appeared nice, once upon a time. And then they tried to escape. And then he shot Takaya.
Fuuka needed to tread carefully. She isn’t sure if anyone affiliated with the Kirijo group was trustworthy, and she certainly didn’t know if the leader was an exception to the rule
or the one who set it.
“Do you remember the incident ten years ago? The moonlight bridge?” Despite the way her arms shook, despite her breathing being shaky, Fuuka kept her voice clear and even. Calm, debatably.
“It would be hard to forget. Why?”
“What do you know about it?” She had to push for a response, even if she couldn’t trust it.
“Officially, it was named a freak accident. To the media it was just an asterisk to the lab explosion prior. That’s what the cover up was. The truth was that the accident on the bridge was caused by a fight between an unusually strong shadow and an anti shadow suppression weapon. The weapon won the fight and destroyed the shadow at the cost of those on the bridge.”
That was close enough… but a little off. “You weren’t there.” She stated calmly. Her heart threatening to escape her chest made it a little hard to be calm. “I’m assuming you got that information from a report, or something. Who wrote that report?”
“Ikutsu-.” Kirijo stopped himself. He was silent, mulling over that Ikutsuki wasn’t so reliable anymore.
“That’s the tip of the iceberg of things Ikutsuki has stuck his finger into.” Fuuka made a decision. A decision to trust. It truly did seem that Kirijo was misled by Ikutsuki.. “But what matters is that the shadow weapon didn’t destroy the shadow that day. It was too powerful for the machine. She happened to find a child in the wreckage, however, and decided to seal the shadow inside of the child.”
Silence. Fuuka took the time to see how Makoto was doing. Still alive. A bit tired. His knee was hurt. She quietly used her Theurgy, to restore his health and stamina.
Kirijo broke the silence. “...were you-”
“I wasn’t.” Fuuka cut him off. She didn’t realize she had it in her to be so bold. “But my friend was.”
~ ~ ~
Aigis’ skills were impressive, Makoto would give her that. He has only fought shadows before, and all of them fell against Thanatos with ease.
But Aigis, she was able to dodge and evade Thanatos’ crushing strikes. She was able to return blow for blow. Though she didn’t have the defenses to get hit multiple times, she was always able to control the situation enough to make sure that didn’t happen.
Her Persona could use some work, though. She called Palladion to use one skill, then she disappeared. A clear contrast from Thanatos, who would still by long after his initial summoning.
Makoto was getting tired. With every swing his sword felt heavier and heavier. He was fighting a war of attrition, and he was losing.
Though, even though the machine could easily stick to its guns and win against him by tiring him out, she was getting reckless.
She could easily keep moving, never allowing him a moment of rest. But then she would fall back to do an impressive attack. Showers of rockets, and amped up physical skills, all unnecessary. These huge attacks were all deflectable by Thanatos.
It's the small attacks that he couldn’t handle. The bone shattering punches, the rocket powered kicks, all things he didn’t have a response to if she was close enough and his Persona was far away enough.
And yet, it’s as if she doesn’t realize that. That with these stronger, but more telegraphed attacks Thanatos has been able to protect him a little more.
And then, the end of the fight was set into motion.
“Orgia mode, activate!” The fans on her head overclocked, glowing blue. Blue energy was expelled from her exhaust. Her eyes finally changed from the dull color it was before, as if energy was escaping from them. It was an incredible power boost.
She fired off a multitude of rockets, grenades, and other explosives.
Aigis was fast, so much faster than it was earlier.
Makoto may not have navigational abilities like Fuuka, but even he could feel the energy crackling off of her.
Makoto would have been decimated if he had to fend her off alone. But he was never alone. Orpheus has been by his side for ten long years, Thanatos a fraction of that amount. Thanatos may not have been his first Persona, but he would do anything to protect Makoto.
And anything he shall do.
Makoto felt a pull. Entirely on instinct, he put the Theurgy cartridge in his Evoker. He brought it to his temple. He pulled the trigger.
Orpheus answered the call, but he wasn’t alone. Thanatos floated next to him.
Thanatos lifted his sword to the sky. Orpheus strummed his lyre. He played a beautiful song.
Makoto’s wounds healed. Makoto heard a fwoosh, the tell of a fire spell. But the fire spell wasn’t used on Aigis. The observatory roof was bright, so bright that Makoto had to shield his eyes.
Thanatos’ sword was on fire. He rushed to meet every rocket, cleaving so hard Makoto could feel the shockwaves.
The sky lit up, changing from the grim green to red and orange. The fire and explosions clouded everything.
Then Aigis and Thanatos clashed.
It was hard to see through the smoke, but neither of the fighters needed to see. Aigis was a machine, one made for the extermination of shadows. Personas were cut from the same cloth, there was zero doubt she could see more than with her eyes.
And Thanatos didn’t have eyes in the first place. Makoto wasn’t actually sure how he moved so autonomously without vision, but he got the job done either way.
Metal on metal rang out from the air above.
Palladion was brought out to attack Thanatos. She prepared an attack, but Thanatos was too close. With his other arm, the one not holding the sword, he grabbed the artillery
He snapped it in two. Aigis faltered.
Then, Makoto saw his opportunity.
Thanatos smacked Aigis out of the sky. Orgia mode disabled, her blue lights turning red, and smoke pluming out of her.
She landed on the ground with good enough form to not break, but poor form otherwise.
She was open.
She couldn’t defend herself
Makoto ran. His muscles, his nerves screamed at him to stop, but he didn’t listen. His sword was held in a white knuckle grip.
This was between him, and Aigis.
The gap was closed.
Makoto stabbed her straight through the chest.
This was the part where he should have won, and successfully gotten his revenge. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite pan out like that.
Stabbing two people in the chest in one night, Makoto was sort of an expert now. What should have happened was she should have spasmed, have the life drain out of her, then die.
That’s what happened to Ikutsuki.
But there was a difference between Ikutsuki and Aigis.
Ikutsuki was flesh and bone.
Aigis was of steel and oil.
Oil was awfully flammable.
She was partially on fire from Thanatos’ assault.
The fire caught.
One second Makoto was standing, two feet firmly on the ground. The next, he was in the air.
The sound was so loud Makoto thinks his ears may have actually started bleeding.
He hit the ground hard, something cracking, and he tumbled..
Aigis hit the ground awfully close to the edge, hadn’t she?
Thanatos disappeared when he smacked her down. His Evoker flew out of his pocket during the explosion.
He tumbled once more.
And then he
fell
off
the
observatory.
He may have just been discombobulated, but he thought he heard two voices called out to him.
One voice belongs to Fuuka… But the other…?
Air whipped around him.
He was falling.
Head first, at that.
This… was going to hurt wasn’t it?
Assuming he doesn’t instantly die when he is nothing more than a splatter on the school courtyard.
Actually, didn’t Thanatos have endure?
He was getting pretty close to the ground now.
He hoped, not for his sake but mostly for Fuuka’s, that endure didn’t activate earlier in his fight with the machine.
That would suck, wouldn’t it?
Protects against one fatal blow.
He didn’t almost die earlier, right?
Please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please have endure please-
~ ~ ~
Beep
Beep
Beep
Beep
Makoto woke up, somehow. It was slow. The first thing he processed was the sound. He heard the dull thrum of machines, doing their best job at… something. A steady beep played throughout the room. It sounded like a heart monitor.
Next, he felt. He was in a not very comfortable bed. He felt the sheer fabric of a gown, and the warmth of a blanket. There was something on his face. His body ached.
When he tried to lift his arms up to see what was on his face, he couldn't find the energy. He forced one arm up, then immediately went limp. His muscles screamed at him. It hurt. He couldn’t move anything else.
He had a worrying thought. He wiggled his toes, then felt calm again. He… probably wasn’t paralyzed, then.
The smell of disinfectant permeated the room.
His eyes jolted open. He scanned the room. White ceiling. Chairs off to the side. A large window. A door. A red head of hair.
He calmed his breathing. He wasn’t in the labs. He wasn’t.
There were no needles that induced pain, there were no scientists who only did what they were paid to do.
And there was no Ikutsuki.
He refocused. There was someone here, wasn’t there?
Kirijo was here. Hmph.
He tried to ask why she was here, but was unable to. He looked down at what was on his face. A ventilator.
That… shouldn’t have stopped him. His vocal cords should have still worked.
How injured was he?
Kirijo tried talking to him, but it was too far away to make out. Makoto felt like he was underwater.
He fell back asleep.
~ ~ ~
He opened his eyes again. White ceiling. Everything still hurt. He tried to talk again, but it came out as a sad noise.
Just a noise.
At least his vocal cords weren’t destroyed, if he could make a noise.
Peachy.
He swept through the room today. Aragaki was on watching duty. Interesting.
He was staring at Makoto. Makoto did just make a weird noise, so… fair.
“Are you lucid this time?”
Makoto tilted his head. This was only the second time he woke up, right?
Aragaki did something with his hands. Sign language, Makoto realized after too much time. He weakly shook his head.
“Right. So, the doctor said that a whole lot of,” he waved his hand at the entirety of Makoto, “you. Aren't functioning.”
Makoto hasn’t talked to a doctor yet. Right?
“I have some questions, but you aren’t in a state to answer.” Aragaki said. “Can you write?”
He nodded weakly. His handwriting wasn’t barely legible at best, he had to teach himself.
The Kirijo group didn’t want a member of society, they wanted a weapon.
“Good.” Aragaki said.
He didn’t have anything left to say after that. Just silence.
It was a comfortable silence.
Makoto fell back asleep.
~ ~ ~
Aragaki came back with a notebook and pen.
Makoto was’t sure he would be able to use it, but he was able to lift his arm again.
Aragaki didn’t seem to know where to start, so Makoto asked the most pressing thing to him.
He wrote, in sloppy, broken Hiragana, “Fuuka okay?”
“Uhh… yeah.” Aragaki said, not very convincingly. “She decided to stay at the dorms. She talked with Kirijo apparently, which gave him a lot to do.”
“He didn’t know about cilh chl experiments?”
“...No. He’s busy auditing the entire company. There’s… a lot that Ikutsuki hid.”
Makoto didn’t know what to feel about that. So he decided to ignore that until Fuuka could tell him herself.
“That’s been a mess. But, she’s visited you a ton, you’ve just been dead to the world for all of it.”
He knew she cared, so he wasn’t surprised she’s visited, but he is a little surprised that she was allowed to.
“How long was I asleep?”
“About two weeks.” Makoto isn’t very sure how he became the one in charge of asking questions when he couldn’t actually talk.
When Makoto didn’t scribble something else, Aragaki took it as a chance to actually ask a question. “Somethings been bugging me since your… stunt. How did you know?”
Know about…? He wrote one word in response. “Vague.”
“Ikutsuki. There’s a clearer picture of how you knew he was a piece of sh*t, but how did you know he was going to do something that day?”
“It was the day after you kill the hng hagnd Shadow. That’s what he wait for.”
Aragaki grunted. But didn’t say anything.
Makoto continued to write. “The shadows were part of a whole. It’s back. The Fall.”
He didn’t know how to convey it. It would be easier if he could talk.
Aragaki didn’t say anything else.
He left a little while afterwards.
He left Makoto the pen and notebook though.
Makoto picked a random page and got to work.
~ ~ ~
Cap guy was in his room. Makoto didn’t have the faintest idea why. Kirijo certainly wanted to know what was up with him, and Aragaki was the only person he knew there.
So why was cap guy here?
“Uh, hi.” Cap guy said nervously. He bounced his knee from where he sat.
“I wanted to say thanks. I don’t really understand what goin’ on, but we were toast if you didn’t… uhhh… deal with, Ikutsuki.”
Makoto stared at him blankly. Why? He wrote in his notebook. “Why are you thanking me? I blew up your friend.”
“Well!” Cap guy’s voice cracked. “I mean, yeah… you did that. But,” his voice became more serious,” I can’t say I get it, I really don’t, but you had your reasons, yeah? And it’s not like Aigis’s dead. She’s being rebuilt at the mo’.”
Oh.
Right.
Machine.
She… wasn’t mortal. That was… a little pointless then.
But, he felt satisfied with himself either way.
He wasn’t sure if he should.
“Oh hey, can I see your sketchbook?” Cap guy asked. It wasn’t even a sketchbook, the lines of the loose leaf paper cut through everything he drew.
Makoto nodded. He didn’t really care. “Whoa, this is really good!”
The page contained four drawings. One, of Thanatos and Orpheus. His other selves. One of Fuuka, clasping her hands together. She never abandoned him, even now. He wasn’t sure what he did to get such a good friend. One of his sister, smiling wide. It was such a long time ago, he almost forgot what she looked like entirely. But his fight with Aigis helped him remember a little more about her.
The last one… was of Takaya. Makoto avenged him. Takaya had a small smile, and posed with his arms out. It was how he looked before he…
Before he sacrificed himself, so that Makoto and Fuuka could make it. They were almost out, Thanatos did everything he could to carve their way out of the facility, but just before they reached the open air, Ikutsuki appeared. He had a gun. He lamented how it was ‘such a waste of resources’ when he aimed his gun directly at Makoto.
Takaya summoned his Persona to buy them some time. It disappeared when Ikutsuki shot it.
The wall was thick, made of concrete and fortified by something. But Makoto’s desperation and Fuuka’s buffs made Thanatos incredibly strong. He slashed, and slashed and slashed, slowly destroying the wall.
A second gun shot rang out as the wall collapsed. Makoto grabbed Fuuka’s arm and ran.
He made sure Fuuka was safe, and then he looked back.
He shouldn’t have looked.
The ceiling collapsed directly onto Takaya.
They continued to run, they had to-
“Uh, hey… uhh… can you copy my breathing?” He wasn’t there anymore. He was in the hospital. He wasn’t at the labs.
Ikutsuki was dead.
Makoto took a deep breath. Cap guy looked at him really worried. “You uh… didn’t look all there for a second. Then you started breathing really fast and I thought I might have needed to call a nurse but-”
Makoto brought his finger up. He went to the page next to his drawings. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”
“Are you sure? I didn’t mean anything bad when I said your drawings were good but-” Makoto shushed him. Cap guy clamped his mouth shut.
“I said it’s fine. Just a bad memory. Do you like the drawings?”
Cap guy was quiet for a second. “Yeah. They’re pretty cool. I can recognize that one, that's supposed to be Yamagishi-san, yeah?”
Makoto nodded. “You really captured her likeness. Like, I’ve talked to her like, twice, max, but even I can tell that it reflects her perfectly. She’s got this like, anxious aura to her but behind that she’s really gutsy. Like, she talked to Kirijo-san a few times. That dude is terrifying.”
That described her perfectly. “I didn’t take you as someone who liked art.”
“Well, I wasn’t at first. But that changed when I met someone. She’s also on the team, the one with red hair?” That describes three of them. “And the dress.” Oh. Makoto nodded in understanding.
“She’s… so cool. She put up with my sh*t for so long.“ Cap guy laughed. “She joined the team a good bit after I did. I was so caught up trying to woo her, and she shut me down every chance.”
“The first time we actually bonded outside of my awful flirting was her sketchbook. She drew these, just, beautiful pieces. It’s when I realized there was more to her than ‘pretty lady’. It really changed my perspective on stuff.”
“I don’t know, I’m kinda just rambling at this point but yeah, I like art.”
That was very personal to him. Makoto had no idea why he said all of that. But, his drawings were personal to him, as well. Was this the power of art?
“What’s your name? My name is Makoto.”
“Junpei.”
“Can I talk to you about the art?”
“Yeah, if you want to, Makoto.”
And so he talked. Well, wrote. He explained how before the accident, he was the quiet twin, and Koko was the loud one. How when she accidently knocked over a vase, he took the blame for it. How even when he was feeling his lowest, her smile could always make him feel better.
Makoto wrote that after the accident, he was brought to the Kirijo group. He explained how he met Fuuka, cowering from scientists from the safety of her Persona.
He explained how he met Takaya, the only other child out of the hundred they gathered to have control over his Persona.
Takaya was annoying. He believed he was a god among men for having the power of a Persona. He believed that the Dark Hour was a good thing.
But, when he wasn’t saying the most frustrating things, he was reliable. He was the oldest there. He played chess with Makoto. He tried to make Makoto angry, whenever he was too lethargic to move.
Takaya was his older brother. Not through blood, but through actions. Makoto told Junpei why he killed Ikutsuki.
It was because Ikutsuki killed Takaya. An eye for an eye.
If Makoto got teary eyed when he wrote his explanation, Junpei didn’t say anything. And if Junpei also got a little teary eyed, Makoto didn’t say anything.
“Thank you for listening. I’ve… never gotten the chance to talk about this stuff before.”
“Thanks for telling me, man.”
Makoto yawned. He felt exhausted. Junpei said his goodbyes as Makoto fell asleep. As sleep overtook him, he thought he heard a woman say that he made a bond with the Magician arcana.
Whatever that meant.
~ ~ ~
There was someone new in his room today. Not Kirijo, not Aragaki, not Junpei.
This time, it was redhead two.
She waved when she walked in.
Actually having a closer look at her, her hair was more of a bright auburn color. But, describing three different members as ‘redhead’ was infinitely funnier, so he did not change his descriptions.
“Hi! Has anyone told you about medical stuff yet?”
He shook his head. He reached for his notebook. It was still on the page where he drew. Redhead two’s breath hitched when she saw the notebook. Makoto did not know why.
“No. Unless Kirijo told me and I cod couldn’t hear her.”
“Right. So uh.” She stammered. “Two things came up. One is that you’re basically part shadow?”
Huh. That’s… interesting. A side effect of Death being sealed, he supposes. “Not sure about any long term side effects, it’s just kinda… weird.”
“A-and the other thing.” Her face was flushed. “We did a dna test. Sorry for… not asking.”
He shrugged. He didn’t really care, until he thought about it. Dna tests were to find out if two people were related. Who could he possibly have the chance of being related to?
“All of us kinda heard you during your uh, fight.” She said, “and your story was familiar. Very familiar?”
What was she implying?
“So I asked Mitsuru-senpai to check, so she got someone to do that… and…”
She went quiet. “We share forty percent.”
“We?” His vocal chords were hurt from a lack of use, but his shock couldn’t be contained. “Koko?”
Redhead two’s (Kotone?) tears fell down her face. “Good to see you, Mako.” her voice was choked up.
No one has called him Mako since…
It couldn’t be.
She died.
“You died. How?” His voice.
“I could say the same thing!” She was full on crying now. She hesitantly moved closer to him.
He let her. He didn’t stop her.
She hugged him.
He hugged her back. There were still quite a few machines to work around, but he didn’t care.
He never wanted to let go. His sister is alive.
“I missed you so much, little brother.”
“Three minutes.”
“You remember that?”
“You’re only older than me by three minutes.”
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