Title: November 28th
Length: about 1 700 words
Rating: K
Pairing: none
Spoiler warning: Do not read if you haven't played up to November 28th!
Summary: A depiction of Minato Arisato's school day November 28th.
Special thanks: to my Beta-Reader AnimaBaya. Thank you so much for helping me out with these oneshots! You've done an awesome job, really!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything of SMT Persona 3 / 4.
Author's note: As my native language is not English, I hope you go easy on me and my grammar etc. Baya already pointed out to all mistakes I made, but if you find anything new (maybe even in the description here) please tell me. There're still many things I need to learn. And I would really like to hear your thoughts about this oneshot! Nothing would make me happier! Well, enough talk – have fun. ^_^
November 28th
Minato moved his tired legs up the marble stairs of Gekkoukan High School. As usual, he was on his way to the rooftop to get some fresh air and a pause from the unnerving lessons. Today, Toriumi-sensei had practically bombarded him with pop quizzes, her sadistic smile never leaving her lips.
Sometimes, the boy wondered, it really seemed like he was her favourite target. Minato suspected that was mostly because of him helping out Junpei and Kenji with their own pop quizzes. No doubt the teacher had noticed his occasional whispers directed to his friends.
The boy sighed lightly and closed his eyes for some moments, before opening them abruptly and grabbing the banister just in time. A piece of plastic wrap … Could one even slip on that? In his current condition, he probably would. His eyelids threatened to fall shut any moment now. Yesterday's evening, or today's morning – both really – had been a bit too long. Another sigh escaped his lips.
"Oi, Minato!" He turned around and found Hidetoshi at the foot of the stairs, panting heavily. His hair somehow gave the impression as if he had stuck his fingers into an electric socket. Minato couldn't resist raising one eyebrow at the sight, but he descended the stairs nevertheless.
"What happened to you?" he questioned the other person calmly, but with a hint of worry in his voice.
"Ah … I was just outside. The winds were blowing without mercy. You really want to go out there?" It was not a real question and Hidetoshi didn't expect an answer, but he cleared his throat and continued. "Guess what I found right outside in the dustbin…" he began rummaging around in his bag.
Minato's confused look returned to his face.
"…You searched through the garbage…?" Hidetoshi decided silently to just ignore the statement and showed Minato a crumpled piece of tissue paper. Before opening it carefully, he looked around cautiously to make sure nobody was watching them. Inside the tissue were some cigarette butts.
°Oh not again...° Minato couldn't suppress his annoyed thought. Smoking was not allowed on the school campus, but recently some cigarette butts had been found in the boy's toilet. Therefore, the members of the Student Council had been assigned to the job of finding the "culprits" and Hidetoshi took his task very seriously (Minato was his partner in the "investigations"). But because he had already blamed several students, his reputation didn't really make any good profit off it. Even now he earned several annoyed and angry looks and some students who started gossiping wildly behind Hidetoshi's back. Minato shot them, unbeknownst to his friend, some glares and returned his gaze to the Student Council member, who already threw all kinds of theories around.
"...Hidetoshi... Which dustbins did you search through?" he gently interrupted the other. At first he earned himself a confused look, but then Hidetoshi slapped his forehead lightly and Minato's worries were confirmed.
"...The ones in front of the school gates..." the black-haired boy grumbled. Everybody could have thrown their stuff in there. "I'm sorry for concerning you with such nonsense, Minato ... See you later." Hidetoshi turned around and walked away. At first Minato wanted to stop him, but he didn't know how to cheer him up again. A guilty feeling overcame him, since he wasn't able to help his friend out any better.
Minato sighed for the third time in only five minutes.
He turned around in order to climb the stairs again and escape to the roof. The blue haired boy needed some fresh air, no matter how windy it was outside. As expected, the door didn't open as lightly as usual, since the wind had to blow against it. He used more strength and shoved the door open.
A yell of surprise was heard from the other side of the door and as Minato stepped through it, he could see a boy stumbling forward. His yellow scarf fluttered in the wind and the second Minato gazed into the eyes of the other boy, his head was suddenly struck with a stinging pain. He pressed his hand against his left temple and slightly stumbled away. Ryoji, the boy with the scarf, was immediately at his side, hindering Minato on falling backwards. For a moment it seemed like the sky gave off a shining green and yellow light, but Minato knew it was only his imagination, since it was not time for the Dark Hour yet.
"Hey, are you alright?" Ryoji asked alarmed as the other boy calmed down and slowly regained his balance.
"A-Ah... I'm fine..." Minato let his hand drop, although his head still hurt a bit. "I should be the one asking you. I'm sorry; I didn't think you were the reason for the door to open so difficultly." Ryoji removed his hands from Minato's shoulders and smiled a bit sheepishly.
"You are not the first one this happened to. I should probably stop leaning on this door." he laughed lightly and scratched the back of his head. A strong gust blew around the two and Minato avoided Ryojis long scarf skilfully. "Whoa~", he laughed again, this time because he found something funny. "Better we sit down or we'll get blown off the rooftop."
A short time later they sat on a bench and gazed at the sky. The two of them were alone on the rooftop. Minato would have preferred to only be by himself, but he didn't mind Ryoji's presence as much as he would have anyone else's. He knew the reason for that, but he had never confronted the black-haired boy with it. He probably wouldn't remember it anyway.
Minato's eyes wandered to the boy. Ryoji was examining some kind of necklace he held in his palm. It was completely made out of pearls, which were glittering in different colours, almost like soap bubbles, that couldn't burst. On one end there was a feather attached to it and Minato realized the necklace actually was a cell phone strap. Ryoji seemed to have noticed his surprised look, but he misinterpreted it. "From a girl of our class." he said quickly "She gave it to me today and then ran off red like a tomato. Look, I haven't removed the ribbon yet." he gestured to the shiny red object.
"Hmm..." Ryojis face turned into a pondering one. Minato looked at him calmly, waiting. "Maybe I should have brought her to the school nurse after all... Her face was so pink... She probably had a fever..." As the black-haired boy continued with his deductions, Minato almost fell from the bench, if he hadn't had such almost infinite control over his body. Sometimes his class mate could be extraordinarily blind.
The blue haired boy's gaze wandered to the floor. Beneath his shoe he found a drinking straw. He shoved it away a bit. Hidetoshi would have scolded him by now, to throw the straw into a dustbin and not to ignore it. Minato had to smile lightly. He wondered if Hidetoshi had already gotten better...
"...You don't seem to be alright after all." The boy looked back up at Ryoji, who observed him with a worried glance. As Minato gazed into his so familiar eyes, a nostalgic smile graced his lips.
"No... I'm fine." He stood up and looked at the grey sky.
"Ah, I got it!" Ryoji exclaimed "If you're not feeling well, then just look at the poster in front of our school!" Ryoji took his hand, dragged him to the rail of the rooftop and gestured to the school gates. It seemed the boy meant the advertisement for Karorin Magic, a drink for loosing weight.
°Yeah right...° But Minato knew; Ryoji wanted to cheer him up with the girl next to the depicted drink. Rise Kujikawa... She was new to the whole advertisement thing but all kind of agencies already fought over her, like wild animals.
Minato sighed slightly. "Don't worry. I'm really alright." Ryoji looked at him, somewhat unbelieving.
"Oh well, it can't hurt looking at the face of this angel." he continued fantasizing and leaned on the rail contently. Minato couldn't hold back a light laughter, something that didn't happen very often. He turned his back to the rail and also leaned against it, his hands shoved into his pockets. He gazed into the distance, as he discovered some white flakes floating in the air.
"...It's snowing..." he whispered, observing the snowflakes. From the corner of his eye he could see Ryoji nodding satisfied.
"Snow is something so wonderful. So beautiful and pure..." Now Minato did look at him, as the black-haired boy stretched out his hand, lost in thought, to one of the frozen crystals. The blue haired boy gazed at his expression for some moments, thoughtful.
In this world people die every day. Until recently, this was the same to me as the blowing of the wind... He had said this before, although he probably couldn't remember it. Or could he? Minato couldn't imagine he had meant what he said back then, but it must have been true. Pharos – he shook his head – Ryoji had always spoken the truth.
Minato suddenly felt a warm cloth covering his neck – Ryoji's scarf. The owner of it grinned at him.
"It's gotten cold." he said calmly. Minato looked a bit confused at him, but soon he too had to smile.
"Junpei would totally get the wrong idea now." he laughed lightly and Ryoji joined him in his laughter.
"Yeah, he would. Him and his hasty conclusions." the black-haired boy snickered.
°Look who's talking...° Minato had to smile again.
How good one could get along with Death.
Suddenly, Minato saw a butterfly, as blue as the clear sky, floating by, close to Ryoji, towards the horizon. The blue haired boy followed it with his gaze, until he stood like Ryoji leaning onto the rail, a smile gracing his face.
"Hey ... Pharos ... Tell me, when do we have to face the next 'ordeal'?" he asked, his words carried on by the wind.
He only received a slightly sad smile in response, directed towards the horizon.
END