"I'm not playing another round and that's that!" The child shouted out from his hiding spot behind the bleachers. "Especially not with Seicho!"
Junpei let out a small sigh from the boy's bitter words, and knelt down beside the school bleachers, seeing him curled up into a ball with his chin buried in his legs.
"Why is that Kei-kun?" Junpei asked him, keeping his tone calm.
"Because I hate losing all the time, that's why!" The child named Kei yelled back as an answer. "And I hate losing to a girl of all people! Why is she even in this team!? Mom and Dad said that I'd only play against other boys 'cause they're the ones who play baseball!"
Junpei didn't say anything, even though all of his words were attacking Seicho just for her being female. He simply stayed squatted near the bleachers listening to Kei's spouts of sheer anger.
"And…" Kei's voice started to crack a bit as his breaths became even heavier. "And then she got angry at me for saying that, and when I thought I could prove it to her in a match, she beat me!" A small fist emerged and immediately slammed against the dusty soil. "How is she better than me!?" Among the dry dirt soon came some dark circles right in the middle of it, as well as on Kei's clothes once his face lifted back up. Like one would expect, it was damp. "W-Why can't I be better at baseball…?"
Junpei was still quiet, listening to the sobs that soon arose from the child. Once he became close enough to Kei without upsetting him, he reached a hand behind the bleachers the kid was hiding behind, and slowly rubbed his back in a gentle motion.
The sobs continued for several minutes, echoing within the metal seats, until Kei's head slowly emerged from his knees, pinching up with every new set of tears that trickled from his eyes.
"You're mad at me too, aren't you?" Kei asked out, the words barely escaping his throat.
Junpei smiled, and soon let out a chuckle. "No, I'm not." He answered as he kept rubbing Kei's back. "I don't like all of that stuff that you said about Seicho, or how you handled a loss like that, but I'm not mad at you."
Kei could hardly believe what he was hearing from his coach. Looking up at his face, he saw no more than a calming grin from him.
With a small scooch forward, Kei brought himself out from the bleachers, and closer to Junpei, to which the late teen gave him a gentle hug. Kei was surprised, but not disturbed, and buried his face into Junpei's chest to let the last of his sobs out of him.
"You gonna be alright Kei-kun?" Junpei asked after some time had passed away. After he did, Kei finally lifted his head back up and gave his coach a nod. His face was just as soaked as Junpei's shirt, but it carried none of the frustration and anger that it had before.
A soft chuckle came from Junpei as he smiled again. "That's a relief." He said before letting go of Kei and standing back up. "Are you willing to go back then? Maybe try apologizing to Seicho too?" Upon seeing Kei's face grow sullen again, Junpei let out another laugh. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to keep Seicho from snapping at you again, alrighty?" He soon offered a hand to the boy, and simply stood there, waiting for him to take it.
Kei hesitated for a moment, lifting up his hand up to only let it stay still in the air, but he soon placed it into Junpei's palm out of honest trust. Once the young man took a hold of the child's hand, he slowly stepped to the school at the pace that Kei was comfortable at.
"...Can I ask something though Coach?" Kei muttered out, causing Junpei to give him a curious look. Once Ken saw him nod, he continued. "Why weren't you angry with me even though I was yelling at you and Seicho?"
Junpei showed a simple smile, and ruffled Kei's hair.
"Because I've been in your position before, and I know how crummy it feels."
Blood spilled on the dark granite of this revived Tartarus.
For it flourished from the slashes that went across Sho Minazuki's skin from facing Trismegistus in battle. Black bruises and burns tattered the rest of his body as he kneeled to the floor, panting as if the air was too thin to even breathe in.
On the other side stood Junpei, standing tall and still as his own chest rose and fell with each breath. His eyes locked onto his opponent, showing a small glare that was only ever previously seen in the final fight with Strega. Like Sho, his own body had an array of bloody cuts because of the dual swords, and his bat had some of the red paint nicked right off it because of the blades.
"Wha…" Sho responded in between his breaths, his voice bare and hollow now that the maniacal tone wasn't behind it. "What the hell happened…?"
"You lost Minazuki." Junpei answered harshly, but somehow also quietly. "Simple as that."
Sho's eyes widened right then and there, showcasing the one emotion just about no one had seen from him before: Shock.
"I…I lost?" The red haired swordsman uttered, no louder than a whisper. "No… That can't be…" His whole body began to shake as though he was in the freezing cold, but he still kept the grip on his weapons. All the while, his mouth closed up as his pants continued through his teeth, and the corners of his lips twitched up like a snarling beast.
"DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME!" Even when he was drained of all his energy, his hand moved as quick like lightning, and his sword lifted right up with a forward jab, aimed right at Junpei's chest.
Junpei raised the bat up right before the sword would've struck him right through the heart, as the loud clang of metal striking metal resonated through the air thick with the red fog.
"I'm not fucking lying." He stated as his eyes narrowed, his glare becoming as sharp as daggers. "It's the truth, you brat."
Sho's throat tightened up from Junpei's statement, rendering him speechless. His eyes widened right back up as though he was being choked, and the arm that held up his sword fell right back down, suddenly too weak to even hold up the saber. His gaze soon fell to the stone floor, like a criminal waiting for the guillotine to fall.
"…What are you waiting for then?" Sho asked out, wondering what the holdup was. "Aren't you gonna finish me off?"
Junpei gave a faint grin from where he stood, as well as a weak chuckle.
"If I was the same person that I was three years ago, I probably would've done that already." Junpei said, shrugging his shoulders. "But not now." His bat stayed low to the ground, not high up in the air to deliver the final blow Sho had expected. "Not when I have a group of kids to get back to."
"…Kids?" Just from the mention of that word, Sho's grunts of irritation grew into unruly laughs, as if all of the pain coursing through his body had turned into ecstasy. "You're telling me that you've let yourself become so soft that you're letting kids get close to you? How much weaker can you get!?" He spouted out without even bothering to look up at Junpei.
The baseball coach's lips fell back down into a small frown.
"If I'm weak, then how come you're the one who lost?"
Upon hearing such a question, the laughs that bellowed out of Sho's throat suddenly began to die down, and the crooked smile on his face gradually dissolved into a scowl that left the corners of his mouth twitching in disdain. Sho's fingers slowly began to tremble even as they held his dual swords, the drips of blood from his wounds rolling down his bare arms.
"You're pissed off beyond belief, aren't you?" Junpei asked the teenage fighter, to which his answer was a sullen silence. As such, a smirk grew on the older male's face, taking the silence from Sho as a yes.
"Figured. Kei-kun and I know that feeling all too well." The young coach muttered.
Sho didn't even so much as murmur a full word out, but a miniscule gasp did escape his mouth upon hearing his opponent's remark, and his fingers ceased their trembling.
"Kei-kun's one of the kids in the team I coach." Junpei continued. "For the first few days, he was just like you; bratty, selfish, got into fights with the other members, and lost his shit when somebody beat him."
Sho's lips stopped twitching upon hearing Junpei speak, and the rest of his body remained motionless.
"It even got to the point that he just yelled right in front of me until he was a blubbering mess." Junpei couldn't help but let out a weak laugh from the memory. "But even then, I didn't yell at him." A free hand soon came up and rested on his hip while his eyes looked down at the defeated loner. "After all, I remember when I used to be jealous of others, and took my anger out on them."
The only sound that came from Sho was the soft rhythm of his breaths, still staying just as stationary as before.
Junpei soon let out a small sigh of his own. Not a sigh of relief or of frustration, but one of pity. He soon knelt down to Sho's level in a squat, and held out an open hand right in front of the redhead.
"Come on Minazuki." Junpei told him. "Let's go home."
"Home…?" Sho finally croaked out in a low and composed tone of voice.
"Yeah." He gave the teenage sword wielder a firm nod. "Even a brat like you deserves another chance."
After hearing Junpei's words, Sho's hand slowly lifted out of the hilt of his sword, ascending closer to the hand Junpei offered to him.
His other hand moved the blade in his other hand back a bit.
Junpei saw that from the corner of his eye, and veered back his entire body as fast as he could. Once he stood back up, a dull pain spread across the bottom of his jaw. With a lift of his hand to feel his chin, his fingers felt a cut, and his glove was already soaked with blood.
If he didn't move, that would've gotten him right in the neck.
Junpei looked back at his opponent with a glare. Sho's arm moved as quickly as lightning and cut the very air around him with a slash of his blade. At that speed, the coach couldn't even see him move, but his sword was up in the air, proving that he did.
A dark chuckle emanated from Sho, coming from the twisted smile that stretched across his face.
"I'm quite surprised you could tolerate his bickering for that long." Sho remarked in far too calm of a tone, while slowly standing right back up with both of his dual blades in hand again.
Junpei gritted his teeth from the sight of his enemy. This definitely wasn't the same Sho he had already defeated. "Who the hell are you?"
"Heheheh… You really want to know?" Another bout of callous laughter emerged from 'Sho' and the scar across his face began to glow a bright red. From behind, his shadow grew larger as he stood right underneath the scarlet moonlight. "Maybe I'll whisper it in your ear once I'm finished with you, just to hear you choke out your response with your very last breath…" As 'Sho' stood into his battle stance, an ominous figure emerged from the shadow, with skin as black as night, and red eyes that pierced right through the fog.
Junpei's eyes narrowed once again, ignoring the pain under his chin as he prepared his stance as well. From behind him, Trismegistus had already appeared with a veil of fire forming around his being.
There was no going back. Junpei had to win. For his friends, for his kids, and for the real Sho.
Author's Notes:
Dammit Junpei, stop being so much fun to write, will ya? *shot dead*
But anyway, to elaborate a little bit, this was a bit of an idea that hit me a while back on Junpei's view on Sho Minazuki, even with how little is know about the latter so far.
I heard before that according to Junpei's story in the Arcade version of the newly titled Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, he refers to Sho as a brat. (Which is quite an accurate accusation given Sho's personality, if I do say so myself.) Given that Junpei is also a Little League Coach as of Ultimax, I could imagine that Junpei had to deal with some pretty rotten children in that time. But given Junpei's jump in maturity since Persona 3, as well as empathizing with the bitter emotion that is jealousy, he'd understand where they're coming from.
As such, I started to think about if Junpei saw something similar in Sho, given that he still remembers how much of a jerk he used to be back in SEES, so he knows from personal experience that there's more to a person than just the worst of them, thus why he wanted Sho to have a second chance in life.
Also yes, I ended on a cliffhanger. If Ultimax can do it, so can I. *evil laughter*
Persona 3, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (C) Atlus