Live Today, Die Forever
I know, I'm going to kick myself later for creating a new story with other stories I need to fulfill, but I just could not let this go! It was beating at the back of my skull after playing non-stop on Persona 3 Portable, only a few days after I downloaded it on my PSVita (Can you believe it?) I'm gonna try to keep this fic under a minimum of fifty chapters. If not then *shrugs* Ah well.
Also, the events that take place after the prologue are a rough ten years (Twenty-six after the events of Persona 3 Portable).
The character sheet is on the bottom and it's waiting for you guys, as well as Shiro as he moves on in his journey! Alright, I've talked long enough. Please, enjoy the prologue!
Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 3 Portable or anything else Persona related. I'm only lucky enough to have downloaded the game.
~Prologue: Carpe Diem, Memento Mori~
He was tired. He would admit that. After all, he was carrying a kid over his shoulder, and a box under his other arm. His overcoat was heavy and thick and all his hair was pulled under his hat and hood. A scarf covered the lower-portion of his mouth, and his listless eyes were drooping with exhaustion. He would admit that all of this was making him tired.
But it didn't make him weak. He would never admit that he was weak.
"Mn? What's. . . what's going on?" The kid on his arm stirred, and a pair of monochromatic blinked owlishly. The left was a steel-grey color, the right was a maroon-red. His tiny head lifted from the man's shoulder, and he looked around the long and huge room. The walls were made of metal, and slightly cushioned seats lined up together with an aisle between them. And from the steady yet unsettling rocking, the boy presumed they were on a train or subway.
"Hah, so you're finally awake, huh?" Asked the man, smiling roughly with his eyes crinkled. The boy sniffed slightly, and he let out a sneeze. He shivered, soon realizing that his rain coat was soaked and he was chilled to the bone.
"Got a cold? Sorry, I should have gotten us some tickets sooner. I wanted her to see you healthy and happy." said the man. He moved the kid to sit on his lap and he pulled the kid's hood off, revealing a slightly tan and cherubic face with ruddy cheeks. He smiled at the innocent and sleepy expression the child had, and he stroked the kid's sardonic-auburn hair.
"Who's 'she'?"
A lump was in the man's throat, yet he forced a smile on his face.
"Your mother, of course."
The train suddenly pulled to a stop, and static rang into the PA system of the train.
*Now arriving at the last stop. Masoa Inuba. This will be the final stop. Repeat, now arriving at the last stop. Masoa Inuba. This will be the final stop.*
Nodding to himself, the hooded man hiked the child over his shoulder once again, and he carefully slipped a green duffel bag over his other shoulder before grabbing the cardboard box he had. The child wrapped his arms around the man's neck and his hood fell upon his head again. Laughing quietly to the boy's fatigued, the man walked carefully out of the lightly crowded train. With the usually, over-populated area a little empty, the man walked around, his eyes searching for someone. He stopped when a familiar head of orange-brown, short hair caught his attention, and he could see a woman standing by the door.
"Good to see you've made it." he said casually with an icy-touch in his tone. The woman looked up, her light brown eyes surprised yet worried.
"W-When you called, I just knew I had to come. Seeing that-" she stopped when she saw the little boy, her head tilted, "That's. . . him, isn't it?" she asked quietly. The man nodded, and he shook the child a little.
"Shiro. Shiro, wake up." he said quietly. The boy, now called Shiro, gave a small mumble, before lifting his head and blinking tiredly, "You're still tired? Do you wanna sleep some more?"
Shiro shook his head, before he turned it and looked at the woman. Cocking his head, his hood falling off again and his hair sticking up a bit, his mouth set on a small line.
"Are you my mommy?"
The woman flinched, and her eyes cast to the man's. The man's dark eyes narrowed, an emotionless frown on his lips, and a small nod of his head gave her the OK. Taking a breath, she tried to smile kindly at Shiro.
"Y-Yes. I'm. . . I'm your mommy." she whispered hesitantly. Shiro blinked, before smiling happily with scrunched eyes.
"Mommy~" he whispered joyously, a giggle shaking his small frame. The woman smiled back but it faded when she saw that the man holding Shiro had his head looking at the ground, eyes clouding with an unrecognizable sign. The man suddenly put the child down, turning him and crouching to his eye level.
"Shiro, you're going to be staying with your mommy for a while. We must part ways for now." He whispered. Shiro's smile dropped, and his eyes began turning misty.
"B-But. . . But why? Don't you. . . Like having me around?" he asked, his tiny hand catching the man's wrist. The small fingers barely looped around his wrist, and Shiro could feel the cold skin and dull heart rate of the man.
"I do," assured the man, his free hand patting the child's grayish-auburn hair. He gave a half smile, though it was bared onto his lips, and it hurt him on the inside, "But right now. . . Just now's a time I have to go away for a while. And. . . I can't take you with me this time. This is why. . ." his breath hid in his throat, and a deep pang of emotion stung his heart, "This is why I'm leaving you with your. . . Your mother."
Shiro began to shake, and before the man could pull away, the tiny boy ran into him, little arms around his neck along with a small face buried into his chest. A sob wracked on, and the man felt pity for the child.
"N-No! I don't want you to go! Y-Y-You can't just leave-leave me with-with her! She-She may be my-my mommy but-but!" A wail bellowed from the mismatched-eyed child, tears and mucus staining his face, "I c-can't live with-without you! Y-You're the most important piece!" His wails did not cease, "Don't leave me, daddy, please!"
The woman wanted to speak, to hold the child as he cried and sobbed. She didn't blame him for acting this way. Any child would cry if they went through the life that Shiro had lived. And since she knew how the man acted, she'd doubt that he would do a thing to stop the tears. She was surprised to see the man suddenly cradle Shiro in his arms, his large hand patting the boy's back, murmuring something into his ear.
"Shhh, shhh. Shiro, calm down. Yes, I'm leaving. But that doesn't mean I won't come back. Did I ever say that?" asked the man softly, rocking the child. After a few minutes, Shiro gave a small sniffle before wiping his face with the sleeves of his coat. He shook his head with sadly hooded eyes.
"N-No. No, you didn't." he sniffled. The man harrumphed with a crocked smile and he set Shiro down, bringing up the box he had.
"Hey, you want your present now?" he asked.
"A present?" asked Shiro, eying the box that was big enough to hold a top hat. It was only decorated with a green bow and marker sprawled words read, "To Shiro".
"Yeah, for you kid. What, did you forget that you it's your birthday? It's already midnight." joked Shiro's father lightly. He pushed the box to the small child, "Well, open it. It's not everyday you turn six, yeah?"
Shiro walked over to the box, timidly tapping it. He jumped back when the box suddenly shook and he puffed out his cheeks embarrassingly. Nodding to himself, Shiro lifted the box and yelped when something jumped on him.
A slobbery and slippery pink tongue licked at his face and a tiny tail thumped on his stomach. Sitting up, Shiro squealed happily as he hugged the four-legged creature.
"Puppy~!" he cried happily, the tri-colored, Bernese Mountain puppy licking eagerly at his face.
"I figured you two would get along," chuckled Shiro's father, helping Shiro up and tying something around the squirming puppy's neck. Shiro saw it was a red collar with a silver bell and a gold-colored license.
"Zero?" he asked, watching the puppy yip at the name.
"Yeah. He's has no past, but I'm sure you can give him a future. Think you can do that?" asked his father. Shiro nodded, smiling confidently.
"Yeah, I'll give him a future, daddy!" he swore.
"Good. And since you seem this confident, I got something else for you." Said his father, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out something attached to a thick, silver-threaded chain. Shiro awed at the small pendant that looked made of gold. Between two of the upper and lower caps of the pendant were a series of braces that turn and span in different directions. The hourglass in the middle of it was connected, spinning and flipping in all sorts of directions, the sand in it either half-full or half-empty in either glass bulbs.
"For me?" whispered Shiro, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets with his mouth gaping. Chuckling lightly at the expression, Shiro's father looped the pendant around his son's neck, taking the hourglass carefully in his hands.
"Yeah. Hey, do you know what this says?" he asked, pointing to the small inscription on the top cap. Shiro squinted at the words.
"Car-Caru Cara. . . Um, Deem, um. . ."
"Carpe Diem," explained his father, turning over to the bottom cap, "And these words?"
"Um. . . Moment. . . M-Moment Mooree?" asked Shiro, his father holding back his laughter.
"Memento Mori." chuckled the hooded-man.
"What do they mean, daddy?" asked Shiro, hourglass in one hand, Zero held to his side by the other.
"They're Latin. The first means, "To seize the day." The other means, "Never deny death." Together, they both mean, "Always live and embrace to the future, but never deny or refuse death ."" said his father logically, watching Shiro flip and spin the braced hourglass.
"Daddy, why are they written here?" asked Shiro, looking at his father with curious, light and dark eyes. With passionate and undying emotion, his father pulled him into a tight embrace, his nose burying into his mop of dull yet vibrate-colored hair.
"I had them written there so that way. . . You could live. Shiro. . . I love you. You are my son, and I care so much for you. I don't want you to be sad, and I don't want you to be lonely, or have any regrets. I've suffered them too much of them already." He shut his eyes and hugged the boy tighter, his throat dry and his eyes beginning to prickle. He would not cry. He was not weak. He would never show weakness, "So, I want you to be a good boy. Listen to y-your. . . Your mother. And I when I come back, I want to see you alive. I want to see you as a great man. I want. . . To be proud, to have the honor of calling you my son, and to be known as your father."
Shiro nodded, despite the tears flooding into his eyes.
"Are you tired?"
Shiro nodded again.
"Then you should sleep. You'll get more sick if you don't." whispered the man. Shiro bit the inside of his cheek, and he shut his eyes.
"See you. . . Later. . . Daddy. . ." Shiro's breathing went slow, and the man pulled him back slightly, seeing the child's head lull to the side, his eyes shut and his mind went off in dreamland. Zero licked at his owner's face but he wiggled around as Shiro's father picked up him and Shiro, and he walked over to the woman.
"Thanks for doing this, Yukari." mumbled the man, handing over the sleeping child and moving puppy, along with the duffel bag.
"How. . . How did he just fall asleep like that?" Asked the retired member of SEES, speaking quietly so the child would not wake. The man looked down, his expression pulled in pain.
"It's. . . It's my fault. He. . . He has narcolepsy. It's-It's just my fault. Heh," he gave a bitter smile, eyes narrowed and shoulders hunched, "I screwed up. My life's fucked up." Shaking his head, the man looked at Yukari with a more serious expression, "You better take good care of him. He's a good kid, and I really do want him to live." he muttered.
"Where do you plan on going? And why are you just leaving him?" asked Yukari pleadingly, Shiro still held to her. The man sighed. He was tired. He felt sad. But he didn't want to show it.
"I'll let you more in on it later. I'll send letters, but discreetly. I don't won't him to find out. I don't want him to be apart of any of this," He briefly patted his son's head, the latter unconsciously mewing at the gesture of affection, "Like I said, he's a good kid. And I don't want him to go with what I've went through. Not anymore," He shrugged his shoulders a bit, "Well. . . Take care. The both of you."
He turned, shoulders slumped with his chin held straight, and he made his move to wait for the next train.
"Shinjiro."
He stopped, not turning to Yukari, but still knowing she had something to say.
"Shinjiro."
"I heard you the first time. What?" he growled. Yukari could not see it, but she knew that his eyes were flashing angrily.
"It's. . . You-know-what, isn't it? You're just not telling my since you want to take it on your own. Am I right?" asked the woman, he own eyes narrowed. Shinjiro scoffed, hands stuffed in his pockets.
"You were listening to what I told Shiro, right? "Always live and embrace to the future, but never deny or refuse death ." Isn't it about time you do that?" he asked with dry expectancy.
"I can. But doesn't this apply to you, too?" Hissed the brown-haired woman. Shinjiro shrugged, hands fisted in his pockets and steel-grey eyes closed.
"Maybe, maybe not. I'll see if I can find the answer to that some other time," he took a few more steps forward, before he stopped and turned his head and torso, glaring at Shiro's now-caretaker, "Until then. . . Shiro and I have nothing do to with each other. He's not a part of my life, as of now. . . And I am not a part of his." He turned again, and walked inside the next terminal.
Yukari, tired and near a state of hysterics, looked at the sleeping Shiro and Zero, and she kissed the top of the boy's head.
"You really must be a good child, if someone like him cares for you as much. I was shocked when he told me to take care of you, since I've never heard of you in my life," She held Shiro tighter, tears rimming her eyes, "He must. . . Love you as much as he loved her. I bet you'll be just as good as her, Shiro."
T0 B3 C0NT1NUD3D
Well, that's what's going on now. A little (or a lot), or Shiro's past has been revealed, and the plot of the whole story is going to move on along in the next chapter. Sorry if Shinjiro OCC, but it is revealed on the FMC of the game that he has a good and caring side. He just doesn't like to show it. Hope I did alright since I've just gotten into and played Persona 3 Portable.
The OC sheet is already closed.
Now, it's time to find out what's gonna go on next!
Shiro: Next time, on Live Today, Die Forever:
"Hello, and welcome to Tatsumi Port Island."
"This place really is different from Inuba. And it's the first time I've ever been away from home, too."
"You think he might have the potential?"
"It's possible. But then again, he is their son."
"After all this time, you finally decided to show your face again! I thought you said your lives weren't crossed anymore!"
"Well you didn't get me the chance to say that I would come back for him!"
"What the- there's something on the roof! It's-wait, it's a person! With a gun! Wait, it's- Shiro, NO!"
"I-I have to do this! I want it all to end! Right now!"
"What-what is this. . . This feeling?"
Shiro: Coming up, Episode One: Time to Wake Up!
"I am thou."
See you all on the next chapter!
This is me saying, Peace!