"This is going to sting. You ready?"

I only nodded as Ann pressed the bandage to the wound just above my right eye. I managed to wince slightly, not from the wound itself but because she pressed a bit too firmly. Not her fault though, least in my mind. That was the only time I think I had been injured to the point that it was enough to affect me in the real world while I had been in the Metaverse. It sucked.

But my worry wasn't with myself, but for the girl in front of me

"I'm sorry, Akira. I was stupid." Ann sat down on the sofa next to me, a first-aid box on her lap and appearing to be hurt. Not in the physical sense, but the emotional kind. We had a rough couple hours before we had returned to Café Leblanc from Mementos. Rough in more ways than one.

Morganna was sitting near the stairs heading down to the café, in his cat form and watching us, "Lady Ann…that's—"

"Don't lie to me just to make me feel better," she replied as she closed the box. She sighed before throwing a look my way. "And I don't want to hear anything similar from you either. It was a stupid mistake on my part. Because of me you got hurt."

I shook my head to disagree. This whole situation was not her fault. I remember what happened very well.

It had all started with a request that Mishima had sent us after classes had ended. It was a request that involved some guy who was harassing a girl at Shujin Academy and while we took it to heart and decided to do it eventually we got side-tracked by various things and were almost unable to make it to the request. Of the eight of us, it was down to Ann, Morganna, and myself to go into Mementos (Ryuji had to deal with his mom, Yusuke had art classes after school, Haru had something to do with her company, Makoto had to deal with parent/teacher conferences, and Futaba was out like a light after getting ready for a school inspection).

So we went in underpowered but I was confident in that we'd be able to do it as long as we were careful.

So we drove into Mementos and found who we were looking for. A guy by the name of Uchika Sado. Apparently he had been stalking his ex-girlfriend and harassing her by threatening to release nude photos of her to various online media outlets like YouTube and Twitter unless she slept with him on a regular basis.

Ann had been rather adamant about taking this guy down, as he was targeting a girl she knew. Well, find him we did, and the fight against him was not as simple as we had hoped. The guy's shadow was the form of a knight on a large steed. Nothing different than when we had fought in Kamoshida's Palace, but unlike them this guy was far more durable and cleverer than any other foe we had encountered in Mementos.

I was unable to damage Sado by conventional means, and it took almost all of Morganna's power to keep us going with his healing spells. The only thing that seemed to work was Ann's fire power (thanks to her personal Persona Hecate) and so I decided to not waste time by trying to defeat Sado but instead keep him occupied (using Arsene, my own Persona) while Ann hit him with spells. It was still a long haul anyway. I did end up defeating his horse with my pistol, but there was still the rider to worry about.

The real trouble was when he realized that we were hitting him with everything we had and he was taking it with ease. He began spewing all sorts of profanity that would make Ryuji cringe (yeah, it was that bad), but the moment he turned his attention to Ann things got serious. He called her the 'hottie in the skin tight outfit' and she got even angrier. I knew that Ann didn't like her thief outfit but she didn't pay it any mind unless someone brought it up, and she didn't like this guy of all people pointing it out. He further got under her sky but suggesting she take it off and fight him with nothing on.

She immediately used fire to try and roast him, but Ann hadn't noticed until it was too late that she was within her foe's striking range. He brushed aside the fires and ended up grabbing Ann by the arm. Morganna tried to summon his Persona Zorro but Sado was using Ann as a shield. I couldn't do anything either.

He ordered us to back down otherwise he'd hurt Ann, and I gave in for the moment.

"Lady Ann, what about you? I mean, you got all sorts of roughed up in that fight…" Morganna's words knocked me out of my recollection. Ann was still sitting next to me.

She shook her head and leaned back on the sofa, "It's nothing…" Her arms were under her chest, and her breathing became slower. She was obviously in pain, but she tried to hide it. "I was more worried about Akira here. You charged in to try and help me but…"

My hand went to the wound above my eye, and it stung just thinking about how it got there.

While Ann was in his possession Sado used the opportunity to take advantage of her. He took note of the opening in Ann's outfit, which happened to be a large hole on her chest, and placed his hand there, feeling her up in the process.

Ann had resisted but fell short of attacking.

As for me, I could see Ann's discomfort, and I couldn't help but glare in anger.

Sado had noticed it, calling me out with a taunt, "What? You mad, bro? She your girlfriend or somethin'?"

I kept the details to myself, but Ann was indeed that to me. We had gotten together at the end of summer, but had yet to tell the rest of our friends about the relationship. Ann had asked me to keep it quiet until she was ready to tell everyone. I respected her request and hadn't said anything to anyone.

Still, even though we were stuck with Ann as a hostage, Morganna had an idea. Thanks to Sado being a bit slow he didn't notice that Morganna was gone and he kept his attention on me as my cat friend snuck around behind him.

Still watching him grope Ann made my blood boil and my feet want to move. It wasn't helped by the fact that she was trying to hide the discomfort she was currently feeling. That hurt just as much. It was worse when he had unzipped her front to reveal more skin. Even through the layer of armor Sado was wearing I could easily imagine him eying Ann's skin with sickening thoughts. All I could do was silently urge Morganna to hurry up before something bad happened.

Sado then turned his attention to me, telling me about how I should keep Ann on a tight leash. I zoned him out, though Ann retorted that it was because of his ex-girlfriend that we were after him in the first place. His response was to tell her shut up and his hand squeezed her chest even tighter. She held in a groan of pain. Ann would more than likely have bruises because of that.

In that instance I pointed my pistol at Sado, though my finger was touching the trigger I didn't want to have to fire until Morganna was in position.

"Put that down lest I turn her into a bitch on a stick," he warned me, motioning the spear he held in his left hand.

I couldn't take it anymore.

"Let her go…"

"Huh? What was that, punk?"

I kept a firm grip on my gun, anger spewing like venom as the words left my mouth, "Let go of my girl asshole!"

The first words I had said to Sado had shocked not only him but also Ann, who stared back at me speechless as to what she had just heard. Maybe it's because I swore in anger…but in retrospect I think it was because I called her 'my girl' for the first time out loud.

"So she is yours! Well, screw you, she's mine now!" He threw his spear at me, which in turn caught me by surprise. I fired one shot, my pin point firing got the tip and the spear stopped in mid-air and fell to the ground missing me in the process.

At that point Morganna struck, falling out from the ceiling to attack Sado, knocking him off balance and he threw Ann to the side. I looked to see Ann had been thrown to the ground, she pointed towards me and I turned just in time to catch a punch thrown to my right eye. My mask absorbed a majority of the blow, but it still resulted in me getting a large bruise and a cut above my eye.

Too bad for Sado that I turned my gun on him as I spun from his attack. I shot him point blank in the face, and destroying his shadow form instantly by targeting the open visor in his helmet. I knew that he'd live, since I didn't kill him for real but the mask he hid behind.

He fell at my feet in a heap, pleading to stop and that his girlfriend had hurt him first or something or other. I didn't pay much attention. My concern had been for Ann. I remember that she was alright for what it was worth, as she seemed more psychologically scarred than anything else, but I was grateful that she was alright otherwise.

I didn't leave her side when we left for home.

All that had taken place less than an hour ago and Ann had been treating my injury. I had tried to tell her that I was capable of doing it myself. She just said to let her handle it and told me to hush it. I was silent the whole time.

When she was done Ann remained on the couch with me, and Morganna watched us for a few seconds before he took off, probably to give us some alone time I hope.

As soon as we were in fact alone, Anne sat up, "Akira…I'm sorry."

I shook my head, "Ann, don't be like that. We both made mistakes today."

"But mine—"

"I would have reacted the same way."

She shook her head, "You won't let this go, will you?"

"Not until you stop blaming yourself." I reached out and held her hand, "I'm just glad you're safe."

Ann grasped my hand with her other one, laying it over mine. "If you say so…but I won't make the same mistake next time."

I smiled, "That's good to hear."

She smiled. That was a relief and it made me feel lighter.

I stood up, my head felt heavy but I figured I could live with it. "Well, the Boss is probably still downstairs. Want to get a drink?"

"Sure!"

As I started to walk towards the stairs I heard her speak again.

"Hey, Akira?"

"Yeah?"

"That was a cool thing you said to Sado before. You know, when you said 'let my girl go'.

I scratched the back of my neck, "Well uh…it just came out of my mouth. Heat of the moment, you know. Hope I didn't offend you in any way." I hoped I didn't hurt her feelings by saying that earlier. She wasn't a piece of property. She was my girlfriend. I loved her.

She stood up, "It's alright. Like I said, that was a cool moment." She walked to me, putting her arms around my right one. "Saying it with pride is alright, just don't go into obsessive territory and we'll be fine."

I turned to look down at her, and she kissed me square on the lips. Talk about out of nowhere but boy it felt good. Even though it only lasted for a few seconds I wished it could've lasted longer.

"Wow, that was…unexpected."

Ann tightened her grip around my arm, but she didn't pull back. We were almost nose to nose. "That's coming from the guy who kissed me out of nowhere on the school rooftop."

"True." She got me good there.

"Keep being good to me and maybe you can have another."

I couldn't help but feel a smile creep in the corner of my mouth.