Warning: AU and somewhat dark.
Disclaimer: I don't own persona,

Sunless Day

People die every second. That fact was always become a reminder for him; that all living things would eventually ended up dead. So why he has to try to live at all when he's just in front of the death's door? He didn't panic while these people around here began to shout. Standing up from his seat, he calmly observes the crowd running around, rowdily trying to leave the class immediately. They are trying to stay alive. That's nothing to be so worked out for. Its normal, how it should be. Not to him tough. For him, it's meaningless. He chose to accept it, whenever there's a chance.

The ground started to shake violently. He crouched, keeping his balance. Objects began to fly around fiercely, some are hitting him in the process. He staggered, the sturdy teacher's desk just hit him with tremendous force. Consciousness, he still had it. Too bad. A loud cracking, he moved his sight to the corner. The foundation fell. Looking up. The ceiling fell. Smiling, he murmured, "Finally…"

Blood.

"I'm sorry, Son. We are going overseas, for a few months. You'll live with your aunt, she will be looking after you until we get back. Take care okay?"

"What, you're moving? But…"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

"She's dead, Souji-san… I'm sorry."

"She's dead… sorry."

"She's dead…"

"She's…"

"...dead…"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhh!"

He woke up abruptly, finding out that his body stuck under the rubble. That wasn't a dream. A memory. A memory he wanted to forget. Why it suddenly…-no, doesn't matter. Sweating. He wiped the sweats from his temple. A jolt of pain came as he touched it. Calmly, he tried to wipe his forehead once again. Not only sweats, his head was also bleeding. A sigh. It seemed those ceiling wasn't enough to kill him. He looked around, scanning if there are others who still alive. No movement. He glimpsed some legs, hands, but it's not moving. Well…

Several minutes passed, still no movement. Maybe he could assume they're all dead. He tried to move his body. It's hard. The rubble above him is heavier than it looks. At least he managed to set free his right arm. With both hands, he pushed up the rubble. Still too heavy. It hardly moved up 10 centimeters.

"You're…alive."

A voice. He looked up, seeing the stranger's eyes filled with despair. It amazed him how the stranger could still making a smile.

"Let me help."

With the stranger's help, he finally managed to free himself from the rubble. Judging by how easily he stood, he's fine. Just a little scratch on the forehead. That'll leave a mark…

"You seemed okay, let's go to the yard. Everyone's there, waiting for the rescue team. Oh, I'm Yosuke by the way, Hanamura Yosuke."

He stood in silence as the stranger-Hanamura offered a handshake. Plainly accepting the hospitality, he introduced himself, "Souji Seta."

"Seta, huh? Never seen you around-oh, wait a minute. Seta… Seta… Souji-That's right! You're the infamous-zombified-transfer student. That nickname was earned not without reason, huh? Haha."

Seta Souji didn't give any reply. Instead, he began to leave the damaged room.

"Oi, wait up!"

Seta paused and turned back to Hanamura. He's a little curious how Hanamura's uniform didn't damaged at all, or even how did he survived the earthquake.

"Here, at least stop that bleeding." Hanamura handed him a roll of gauze.

Ah, that's right, it's still bleeding.

Taking the gauze, Seta quickly warped it around his forehead. He wondered if his silver bangs were dyed red with the bleeding. "Thanks." Yeah, he should at least say that.

"Don't mention it. Man, you look like a real zombie now, hahaha. Anyway, it's through this way. The stairway is blocked. Dead end."

Seta simply followed as Hanamura took the lead. The hallway was badly damaged. The debris and rubbles aside, there're even holes. Seta could see the lobby clearly from up here.

"Hey, we have to do a little jump here, hehe. I'll go first." Hanamura took one step back before jumping past the hole. "Oi, be careful!"

Nodded, Seta readied himself to jump, but he stopped at the last second. He heard a voice, more like a groan, from the class on his right.

"What is it, Seta-san? Let's go!"

Ignoring Hanamura, Seta set off to the classroom. It was terrible inside. Half of the class was gone, he even could saw the forest behind the school clearly. There're also many students who didn't make it. Hanamura eventually came after him, face darken from what was served on his eyes.

"L-Let's go, Seta-san. I-I've seen enough."

"I heard someone."

"Wha-"

"Hnn…gugh!"

Both spontaneously turned to the voice. Hanamura's expression changed from dark to a worried one and rushed to the survivor's aid. "Satonaka! Hey, stay with me! Hey!" Hanamura tried to wake the girl-Satonaka from her half-consciousness. Although, her eyes were open, her stare were empty. It's as if she had no soul inside her.

"Hana..mura… I..I can't… I can't feel my legs…It's..."

Hanamura's eyes narrowed in disbelief. Seta patted his shoulder and positioning himself behind the rubbles that buried Satonaka's leg. "J-just, stay still, okay? We'll get you out of this." Even thought Hanamura reassured her, she gave him nothing in reply. Maybe she's still shocked of what happened.

With great effort, both of them lifted the rubbles away. Hanamura immediately returned to Satonaka. "I can't feel my legs, I can't feel my legs…" Was what she kept saying over and over. Hanamura's comfort was unable to remove her from the shock. Her eyes filled with tears. Agony was written all over her face.

Seta didn't say anything, didn't do anything, didn't.. feel anything. Just watching Hanamura tried his best to calm Satonaka. Eventually, Satonaka lost her consciousness.

Carefully carrying Satonaka, Hanamura turned at Seta, "Let's go." He said, words that Seta barely heard. Seta nodded and followed Hanamura afterward, ignoring how painful Hanamura's expression by now. From the look of it, Satonaka's legs were broken. Seta wanted to state that but, that really meaningless considering the atmosphere.

Silence. They were walking in silence. Until the cracking sound was heard from above. One of the pillars that supported the ceiling was cracked by gravity. It collapsed. The rubbles closed the path and almost slammed Hanamura if he hadn't dashed.

Seta could glimpse Hanamura through the rubble. It seemed both him and Satonaka were fine as Hanamura asked if he's okay. "I'm fine. You go on ahead. I'll find another way." Seta replied.

Hanamura didn't move. Although Seta could only glimpse, he knew Hanamura were shaking. Hesitation. Hanamura was hesitant to leave Seta behind.

"Hey, can we sit down and talk?"

Seta raised an eyebrow, but he said, "Okay." and sat down anyway. He was backing the rubbles, setting his view at the hallway ruins. A rustling was heard from the other side. Seta assumed it was Hanamura gently setting Satonaka's down.

"When I heard the intercom told us to evacuate, I was outside. Haha, lucky me, huh? I saw it with my own eyes.. how our school was collapsed." a pause. "You know, I was like you, a transferred student. I got transferred here about six months ago. Within that six month, I've found myself some friends." once again, a pause. "Satonaka's one of my closest friends. Heck, we were bickering at each other a That's why I was devastated when I didn't find her as one of the survivors...I thought she's dead."

Seta could hear Hanamura's voice began to shatter.

"I never realized it until that moment that.. She..she's a very important person to me. I lost hope. That's why I volunteered. Maybe I could just die before I even save someone. But then I saw you, stuck under the rubbles. Heh." Hanamura paused. "I'm glad I did… really glad. Thanks."

"…You're welcome."

A chuckle, "You really don't talk much, huh?" From the rustling sound, Seta knew Hanamura was standing up with Satonaka being held tightly on his hands. "Hey, you better get out of here alive, alright? I can't treat you otherwise."

Seta didn't budge from his place for a while, until he stopped hearing Hanamura's footsteps. For Seta, Hanamura's story wasn't a thing. Hanamura himself could save Satonaka even without his help. His part wasn't that big.

The debris up front began to crumble, causing a tremor. Seta deadpanned, staring soullessly at the falling rubbles that definitely blocked his escape. Hanamura's words were somewhat replaying in his head,

"I was devastated…"

"Maybe I could just die…"

"But then I saw you…"

"…really glad."

A vibrate from his cell phone awakened him. He pulled it out, staring blankly into the familiar name on the display. He's losing his grip on his cell phone, but it didn't stop vibrating.

"So you're Seta Souji? My name is Naoto, Shirogane Naoto, nice to finally meet you…"

He tried to pick it up, but his vision was all blurry.

"Hm? My hat? Oh, it was once belonged to my father. I… keep it as a memento."

He tried to voice out the name, but his chest was too tight to even breathe.

"B-B-B-B-B-B-Because you w-what? L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-Love m-m-me?"

He bit his lower lip, trying to subdue his emotions.

"W-Well, maybe… one day - S-Stop staring me like that!"

But the tears began to flow…

"N-Nao-chan?! I think having Grampa calling me with such nickname is embarrassing enough. Having you… - alright I give up."

He managed to pick it up, gently pushed the answer button before putting its speaker to his ear.

Nothing.

Silence.

Empty.

But then…

"Hello…?"

A frail voice…

and the ceiling crumbles.

Author's note: I decided just to post this. Some might notice I usually use Narukami Yu, but I prefer Souji Seta from the beginning, tough I think the personality in anime ver. is better than manga.