A silent forest stirs
Dewdrops sleep on the endless blades of grass
All as the land was within the thickest of fog,
a very cloud resting on the earth.
Within this mist,
a wolf with fur white as the purest snow,
trekked through the haze,
snout raised high in the moist air.
It was a forest brimming with beauty,
but whenever the fog rolled in, all of its splendor,
even the shining sun,
vanished into no more than murk.
A snarl soon carried through the misty woodland.
The white wolf's ears perked, its cerulean eyes widening.
With just a turn of the head, it could see another wolf.
One in the very spitting image of itself,
but with fur as black as the Reaper's robe,
and bloodshot eyes that stared it down.
The white wolf throat emanated a low growl,
sending a glare right back to the black wolf.
The black wolf took a running start with an open maw,
while the white wolf was ready to leap,
its tail up in the air like a rattlesnake's.
The first lunge, teeth baring all the way.
Fresh blood spilled on the dewy grass.
April 29, 2009
'Junpei, I know you check your phone. I want to ask; will you come home for the holidays?'
Deleted.
July 18, 2009
'Look Jun, I'm aware you're upset with me, but you can spare your dear old dad at one visit?'
Deleted.
August 20, 2009
'…Junpei, will you come back home at least once? I miss you.
I really do.'
Deleted.
How long had it been, two years since Junpei had moved into the dorm for his business of shadow slaying?
It felt longer than that on the weekends, but shorter on the weekdays. Especially when the young man and his colorful personality had the senior year of high school sneak right up on him. By that point, the days mainly consisted of school projects, sleepless study nights, and the sweet release of weekends.
Because of all that, paying his father a visit was usually the last thing on Junpei's mind, if it was even on his mind at all.
After what happened to his mother when he was still learning times tables, his dear old dad resorted to drinking alcohol to quell the heartache of the memory. Be it heavy and foaming rum, or shoddy cooking wine, he chugged it all down like a piece o' shit teacher on a Saturday night.
Needless to say, things had definitely soured between them because of that. While his pop's automatic reaction to a problem was to kill enough brain cells so that he'd forget about it, his only child was practically stuck on his own. Unless Iori-san himself decided to do a little 'physical discipline', that is.
As such, when the high-tier Gekkoukan Seniors, Mitsuru and Akihiko themselves, requested the utter clown of a junior to move into the dorm to assist in delivering the occasional ass-kicking to shadows, it was like a black raincloud has just lifted away from his life. Like he could finally forget about his douchebag of a drunkard dad and live the life of a gamer, shadow slayer, and a ladies' man at once. Three for the price of one!
If life came equipped with a difficulty setting that could be scrolled down to 'Piss Easy', that would be it.
Thing is, there's one lesson that just about everyone learns at some point: The more you try to wipe the stain of a memory from your mind, the bigger and uglier it looks in the end. From asshole peers to asshole teachers to asshole antichrists to asshole assholes, all of it only made the presence of his father spread; from within the dorm, to within the school, and most prominently, within Junpei himself.
Graduation at Gekkoukan certainly wasn't an improvement either, not with the apparent death of his best bud. It was like every time Junpei attempted to get out of the ditch he realized he was stuck in, the dirt just crumbled and slid him right back to the bottom with a new coat of dog shit brown to top it all off.
A few days later, at exactly eight in the morning, the familiar 'pi pi pi' of his phone flew right into his ears. With a flick of his wrist the phone snapped open to display a text.
'Junpei, I want to let ya know. I didn't drink a single can o' booze today. I swear I'm telling the truth.'
A single text message can say a lot of things, but there's also a lot that it can't say. One of the biggest ones that it's completely mute about is the truth. The old man could've just slept on his phone and that'd probably be more believable. This should just be another press of the Delete button, no?
His thumb stopped, right above the capital D.
Junpei sighed, in the style Yukari typically does.
'Good for you'
Sent.
He snapped the phone shut again, with the sound of a crocodile's jaw biting down. What was the point of replying when the phone had a better chance of winding up in his dad's butt crack than it did actually being answered? That's the real mystery here.
March 10, 2010
'Hey Junny boy! Guess what! Just one case went down this whole week! Whaddya think now huh?'
'I told ya to stop calling me Junny boy old man -_-'
Sent.
'Haha! You're using those emoti-thingies too? That's fucking adorable! Where'd ya learn it, from the other students sucking ass in their grades?'
A scowl soon stretched across his face, like the skin of three day old roadkill stretched out on the road. "Whole case went down this week alright…"
Deleted.
March 31, 2010
'Hey Junpei! You ready to meet up at Wild Duck Burger for a bite?'
'No. Today's too special of a day for me to leave the dorm.'
Sent.
'…Oh. Right. That run-down dorm you've been living in these days… it's closing down today, ain't it?'
A low growl rippled in Junpei's throat, upon the sight of the words 'run-down'.
Deleted.
"Old man wouldn't know what run-down meant if it hit 'im with a fucking truck…" He grumbled, staring into the empty Messages page of his phone, leaning against the cold tile walls.
"Junpei, are you finished 'staining the urinals' by now?" Said a familiarly robotic voice, alongside three knocks. Two of those were from outside the door, while the third was from Junpei's skull accidentally slamming right into one of the tiles as his head jolted up from the tiny screen and keyboard.
"A-Ai-chan!? Where the hell did you learn a phrase like that?!" Junpei exclaimed with a voice just as shaky as the moment he flirted with Aigis, along with a set of fingers pressed against the back of his cranium.
"W-well…" Even Aigis' normally stable voice began to stutter. "Yukari-san typically uses that term with you when you're in the restroom, so-"
"Okay okay, that's all I need to know." Junpei interrupted with a wry smile.
-xxx-
April 1, 2010
'Junny boy? Ya still there? Is that reunion ya were blabbering about finally done and over with?'
A sigh emerged outright instantly, followed by the immediate urge to delete it.
…Despite everything that just happened in the Abyss of Time…
'Actually, the dorm just reopened today and they're still allowing me to stay there for my Senior year.'
Sent.
'…Oh. …I see. I thought for a second there that you'd finally come home…'
'Dad, it's closer to the school. S'not like I just moved to friggin Okinawa.'
Sent.
'…Did you just refer to me as 'Dad'?'
Junpei went wide-eyed and flipped his phone closed right away with a short flick of the wrist. He coughed into his fist as his face had a tickle of red across it. Ever since his old home developed the mist of booze in it, Junpei had full on stopped calling his old man 'Dad'.
Why did it slip out like that just now?
March 5, 2011
Here came the chills down the spine with a side of butterflies frolicking in the stomach. You know, the typical reaction to a high school graduation. If it wasn't the bubbling anxiety from being put on show to be a good example to the home of a four-year routine, it was the uniform that felt as constricting as a hungry anaconda around the neck.
Junpei let out a shaky sigh for the thousandth time, checked himself in the mirror for the millionth time, and checked the digital clock on his phone for the billionth time. A single message was displayed.
'Dad, today's my graduation. If you're going to come, don't booze up before driving to the school okay?'
Sent.
No response.
"Junpei-kun, only 5 minutes left until the School Graduation starts!" An all-too familiar petite voice said right outside the door to Class 2-A. "Are you feeling alright?"
Junpei's head instantly shot up, away from the small screen. "O-oh! Yeah I'm fine Fuuka-tan!" He answered with a nervous laugh underneath his voice. "Sorry, just ain't used to wearing this uniform in such a fancy way y'know?" A typical chuckle followed.
"Well… alright then, but are you ready to come out and join the others now?" Fuuka asked in a calm tone.
"Ah, of course!" Junpei replied cheerfully, giving the collar on his uniform one last tug before rushing out the door to join his friends.
The Graduation went pretty damn well. The food tasted great, the underclassmen were supportive, and only a little bit of blood trickled down the bathroom walls when the new 'graduate' of Gekkoukan slammed his fist right into it, yelling bits and pieces about a 'stupid old fucker'.
Even the slightest breath could be seen in this freezing fog.
Amongst the snapping and tearing of flesh
it emulated wisps of smoke
from the bloodstained jaws of a wolf.
The treetops disappeared in the mist, as did the faint light of day,
but their fight still continued, even in the dampened scarlet grass.
The black wolf was nearly rendered one-eyed from a bite to the face,
its muzzle was bloody to the touch and hairless from the scars,
and one paw now only had three toes and a tiny stub gushing constant claret.
The white wolf however, could barely even stand.
Beads of crimson fell from its matted fur,
a skinless patch protruded from the wolf's cheek,
alongside an underbelly that was raked with the worst of gashes and fang marks.
Even now, the black wolf's teeth slowly sunk into the white one's neck
with streams of sanguine seeping out and dripping from the fur.
With a swift snap of the head,
the black wolf tossed the white wolf to the side
leaving it to bleed and suffer
To which the black wolf let out a horse howl
into the lightless sky
as the fog consumed all but the grass right below the wolf's paws.
March 6, 2011
'What the shit!? Your graduation was yesterday? Dammit, I'm sorry Junny boy, I must've fell asleep…'
'By fell asleep, you mean you got shitfaced again?'
Sent.
'…Junpei, I know you hate me for drinking. Trust me, I hate myself for it too. But I swear that I've been cutting back on it lately. Hell, I been keeping track just for your sake, and it was only 3 cases this entire month!'
'If you really knew what 'hate' meant, than you'd know how much I hate being your fuckin crotch fruit!'
Sent.
A groan escaped his lips, topped with half-shut eyes. Rap lyrics echoed in his skull from the buds that were nearly glued into his ears, hard-wired to the lone MP3 player still sitting in his pocket. All the while, Junpei just laid on the bed, staring into the home page of his phone; his pupils occasionally tilting up to the ceiling, reminiscent of a pale white pallet.
He sat up, no doubt wrinkling the sheets for the bajillionth time by now. A quick swivel of his head swept his view to the table beside his bed. Atop his cluttered mess of manga volumes and pieces of broken Featherman figures lay his graduation papers, alongside a framed photo of himself and the girls, smiling like they were at Yakushima again.
That's when his mind buzzed around with memories of the multiple incidents that went on in this old dorm; ranging from the sound of Yukari's despair of Junpei being a persona user, to meeting Aigis' adorable as heck 'sister', and everything in-between, prompting a smirk from the eighteen year-old.
But it soon disappeared, once he remembered one important detail: He couldn't live here anymore.
Why would a Gekkoukan graduate still be living at a school dorm after all? A weary sigh emerged as he reluctantly lowered an arm underneath his bed, pulling out a wheeled duffel bag, with only an empty suitcase inside it.
March 7, 2011
Junpei nearly dropped his entire luggage on the first sight.
In front of the apartment complex a whole crowd of people had gathered, clogging up the main entrance, with an ambulance right behind them all on the road.
"You didn't hear? Someone on the second floor of the complex committed suicide just a few hours ago!" A middle-aged woman exclaimed, followed by a young man. "Yeah, in the third apartment!"
"…Second Floor? Third ro- Wait..!" Junpei wasted no time squirming his way through the horde of gathered people, trying to reach whatever the hell was going on in front of the main gates.
When he finally reached the very front of the gates he immediately saw two men, clad in all white, rolling out a corpse covered by a pale sheet, except for one part; a single hand, slipping off the roller. The fingers were still dripping blood.
Junpei couldn't move.
He couldn't speak.
He couldn't even breathe.
He just stood, his eyes appearing dead in their sockets, his arms falling down right to his sides, dropping his suitcase right on the hard sidewalk, deaf to the sound of it hitting the concrete. Everyone around him took two steps back and stared. All the while, the body was rolled into the ambulance as the sirens went off, almost echoing as the vehicle drove away.
It was nighttime now, thanks to how long the police took in keeping the apartment clean of anything that'd make it look like a setting in a murder mystery novel.
Junpei swallowed hard, feeling his hands nearly go numb from just looking at both the doorknob, and the scratch marks that tore the paint right off; no doubt from a crowbar by the looks of it.
Still, Junpei couldn't just stand out in the hall all night. He fished around in his pocket and pulled out a small key holder in the shape of a cute little pig that stored his house key.
With a deep breath, he slowly unlocked the door and opened it as the hinges creaked like it was a haunted house.
Past the door was a small hallway that led to every other room. Pitch black too, not only because of the time, but also the lack of lights that were installed into the walls. Instead of lamps there were hooks and nails leftover from all the framed pictures that used to be hung up.
As Junpei took his first few steps in, he hung the key holder on one of the various hooks in place, walking right through while wheeling in his luggage right behind him, as he observed how the old place was still holding up with a flick of a light switch.
Like always, there were cans of beer scattered on the floors, all in the least convenient of places. All of the marks and stains on the walls still remained, coming from the many beer bottles that were broken, and nearly used for some effed-up things throughout the years. In fact, the place that was probably the cleanest of all was the ceiling.
Junpei stopped now, reaching his old bedroom. Considering how many times his old man had yelled in his ear before he left to stay at the dorm, it's a miracle that the door to his room is even standing.
He started opening it up, letting the light creep into the bedroom, but once it hit a certain part of the floor, Junpei's face went pale, and he immediately shut the door right back up, complete with a slam that could wake up a neighbor.
Even after the intense examination the police did, there was no mistaking what was on the wooden floor.
A dried up blood stain.
After a few silent seconds, the capped graduate just barely recovered himself, flipped the light switch off, meandered to the box of a living room the place had, and flopped on the only comfortable place to sleep now: The couch.
Junpei let out a hefty sigh. Even though his body was tired from all the shit that went on today, his mind was zipping about left and right, and only made him less capable of falling asleep than standing up on his feet.
As such, there was only one thing left now. Junpei now stood back up and reached for his suitcase. He popped it right open and grabbed the very first thing that could be seen within: His MP3 player and ear buds.
Plugging them firmly into his ears, he let the little device rest in his palm before swiftly pressing the shuffle button and let it pick a song.
"No matter what,"
Junpei's eyes widened.
He yanked his buds right back out and let the player drop right back into the suitcase, while he laid right down on the couch, ready to fall asleep during at least some point. Despite it though, the music still wove its way through the ear buds.
"Life is so damn beautiful..."
"Everything comes back in a circle"
His hands clenched hard and tight onto his clothing, while pressing his skull right on the couch arm, just to help block out the song.
"Rise and fall, once again it's a circle…"
"Unexpected things happen but life goes on"
His teeth were clenched, as were his eyes, and it was near impossible to stop shaking.
"Life is so damn beautiful"
"No matter what, life is so damn beautiful…"
March 28, 2011
"So Yukari-chan, what made you decide to choose modeling as your career then?" The petite and soothing voice of Fuuka Yamagishi asked, while twirling a french fry in her fingers in the middle of the ever-so nostalgic, Wild Duck Burger.
Her current companion and best bud, Yukari Takeba, let out a chuckle. "Well, I just figured that-"
"Whaddya want me to do, magically reverse physics and make the ice freaking float?"
Both Yukari and Fuuka's eyes widened, recognizing the clearly aggravated voice from the counter.
"Hey, all I know was that I ordered a soft drink with ice on th' bottom! Or are ya just too deaf and dumb to hear me?" From one side of the counter, someone -who clearly looked to be a quote unquote 'customer'-, complaining about an order.
"Th' fuck did you say to me!?" The attendant snapped back, he even attempted to lash out at him, only being held back by the other clerks from doing so.
There was no mistaking it; the sound of the attendant's voice, his goatee, and the way he kept his short hair in a hat…
That was Junpei.
The rude customer naturally flinched right back at the attendant's violent behavior. He uncapped the drink in his hands and splashed it right on Junpei's face, causing him to yell aloud and immediately pressed against the sting in his eyes.
While the employees backed away, the customer slammed his cup into the floor and bolted out of the restaurant, Yukari and Fuuka both looked in disarray at what just happened.
In the men's bathroom Junpei stood in front of one of the mirrors, ruffling his short strands of hair with, for lack of a better term, a shitton of paper towels to get the glucose out.
He let out a sigh, seeing all the other employees in the mirror that clearly tried to keep their distance while they went take a dump. In short; another job down the tubes. Then came a few moderate knocks on the door.
"Junpei-kun? Are you still in there?"
He froze; swollen red eyes wide open, accompanied by a nervous gulp.
Then came a set of harder knocks.
"Junpei, if Fuuka can tell you're in there even without her Persona, then she's right you know."
'Crap! What're they both doing here?' Junpei could already hear himself asking as the sweat already started trickling down his face alongside all the extra sugar. After all, who the hell would want one of their most embarrassing moments to be seen by their high school buddies on top of it?
That's when the bathroom door opened regardless, showing a stern Yukari, and a distressed Fuuka.
That of which caused a 'freaked-out-as-fuck' Junpei, complete with a backwards flinch and even a surprised yelp.
"Uhh, hi guys…" He replied after his initial shock, softly laughing fairly nervously despite his smile and utterly drenched clothes.
"Junpei-kun!" Fuuka instantly raised a hand to her mouth and bolted right in (Despite it being for a certain sex), pulling out a small handkerchief to help clean his face. "Are you alright? I saw what happened back at the front counter and-oh dear! Your eyes are already red!"
"Heh…" Junpei couldn't help but let out a rather mournful half of a chuckle as a response. "I take it you were both there to see me make a total ass of myself huh?"
"More like find out where the hell you've been this whole time to begin with." Yukari stated aloud, with her eyes currently as sharp as a pair of daggers. "What're you doing at a dump like this? Weren't you going to find a college to enroll into?"
A low and dry laugh came out of Junpei as the first response. "…Heh, you say that like I actually have a chance of even getting into any college from the start." The second was but a weary smile. "Besides, this is still my gap year, so it's only natural that I'm stuck squirming for a job."
As Fuuka lowered the handkerchief with a despondent frown, Yukari's eyes narrowed, sharpening the daggers even more now.
"…This is about when your father committed suicide back in March, isn't it?"
Junpei's grin couldn't have disappeared any sooner, to be replaced by the widest of red eyes.
"How in the hell did you hear about that?"
The brunette faintly sighed, followed by a quick flick of her finely cut hair. "It was reported in the news when it happened, remember?"
Fuuka nodded in response. "We were going to call to help out with any problems that had arisen…"
"But Mitsuru and Akihiko-senpai decided it wouldn't be the best idea, given the relationship you had with your fath-"
"Stop mentioning that old fuck in front of me!" Junpei yelled right out loud, slamming his fist into the countertop and gritting his teeth as his eyes threw a fierce, crimson glare.
Both the petite Fuuka and bold Yukari instantly took at least three steps back, already feeling their hearts pound against their ribcages from an exclamation like that. Fuuka was already on the verge of tears from it, especially given how close she was to her former classmate, while even Yukari had the closest look possible to sheer shock.
Junpei's glare dissolved, leaving him with wide eyes full of mortification and a trembling fist and pair of legs.
"I… I'm sorry, I…" He instantly looked down, as if his own skull became as heavy as lead. "I swear I didn't mean to snap like that, I just..."
"Lost control… Is that how you were going to put it?" Yukari replied, with an empathic tone in her voice.
Junpei looked back up for a brief minute, seeing the oddly mournful grimace on Yukari's face after she asked that. In next to no time after seeing her like that, the one hand he had on that countertop slipped down to his side and his entire body stood tall and still, like a tree that could fall over at any millisecond.
"Yeah… To put it frankly..." A small 'tch' slipped right out underneath his breath, as his hands tightened right back into his fists, and hard enough to dig into his palms.
"Junpei-kun…" As Fuuka fought the urge to hug the poor guy (at the risk of invading his personal space; something he clearly needed right now), Yukari recovered the stern look in her eyes and, swiftly pulling something from her back pocket, walked right up to her old comrade.
"Here." She stopped right within arm length and held out what she had taken from her pocket; a small silver card. Junpei's eyes perked open in a bit of a jolt, with one hand almost automatically taking a hold of it. On the card, there was a combination of numbers that spelled out a phone number, letters that showed a name and address, and… a brown rat on the top corner?
"If there's any time that you could use a therapist to help get yourself together, I'm pretty sure it's now." Yukari responded with a simple smile, while Junpei just simply looked back up with a perplexed look stretched all across his face.
"Well, uh… Thanks, I guess." He answered back, with more than enough hesitation topped on his words. Mainly because…well, who's actually ever excited about checking themselves into therapy?
"Junpei-kun, we're not trying to say that you're insane, we're trying to say that you need someone to give you proper assistance, okay?" Fuuka said as she fixed her posture and fully stood up now, complete with her face reflecting Yukari's previous no-nonsense look.
Junpei couldn't resist smiling at that, albeit rather pathetically, with a small chuckle hidden in his throat as well.
"Well, I need to go get my ass fired now…" He muttered along to the both of them, walking past them with his eyes still gazing closer upon the floor than to their eyes, and both of his hands in his pockets. He opened the door, and took one step out, before tilting his head back a bit. "By the way, shouldn't you two get out of the guys' bathroom too?"
Cue the girls going blindingly red in the face, and scooting right out the restroom themselves.
All the while the goateed graduate couldn't help but snicker.
"Agh! Stupei you jackass!" Yukari blurted right out as if it were a time warp to 2009, complete with a steaming red face and yelling right into his ears. Despite the assault on his eardrums though, Junpei just kept on laughing even harder. Even Fuuka started to chuckle a bit herself, while Yukari just became more flustered than ever.
"What the heck's so funny now?"
"It's been a long time since you've scolded me like that, hasn't it Yuka-tan?" Junpei said, sporting a nostalgic smirk.
Once Yukari heard that, she grew a soft smile on her own face, instantly remembering the times they both shared of their nonsensical bicker as high school students.
"Oh shut it Mr. Ace Defective." She answered along with a slap on his back, this time her own voice hiding a laugh. Junpei let out another laugh of his own at that, before it quickly faded, and left only a bitter smile as he now walked down the hallway of the ugliest of bright wallpaper.
"…Yukari-chan, are you sure Junpei-kun will be alright? I know he's not the type to go along with something like therapy that easily…" Fuuka asked to her college friend with a worried expression, already grasping one hand of hers around the other, and both of them resting above her heart.
In response, Yukari showed a calm simper. "Heh… If he's anything like how I used to be, he'll call her in no time. Don't worry, 'kay?" She replied in quite the gentle tone, giving a one-armed hug right atop Fuuka's shoulders, which allowed the shorter college student to regain a grin, along with a small laugh to herself.
"AAH! Okay, too cold."
One small turn of the shower knob.
"OH SHIT! TOO HOT NOW!"
An even smaller turn down to the millimeters.
"Phew, okay finally…" Junpei sighed out in the truest of relief, now that Satan wasn't in there and pissing on his back anymore and he could have a proper shower. For as shitty of a state his old man kept the rest of his own bedroom in, at least the bathroom still worked.
Rubbing his scalp in circles, while letting the water wash out the buzz cut head of hair he still had, Junpei could already feel the various memories of this day fly around in his brain, like bees in a hive. Not only from the near deafening scolding from his former boss for the obvious, but also his former shadow-slaying partners.
Therapy typically meant that someone was going nuts, didn't it? So why risk looking like a psycho? Plus, therapists aren't usually the type to work for dirt cheap, and the absolute last thing needed right now was financial issues. On top of it all, what would talking to someone actually solve? Would therapy instantly give him a steady job? Would it find a college that didn't automatically kick him out because of his crap grades? Would it refurnish his crummy apartment?
"I'm not lettin' no son of mine waste time and money to have a fuckin' cheerleader!"
Junpei froze. His fingers pressing against his skull as his eyes widened without a blink. There was no denying it, that was his Dad's voice that just popped in his head, replying just as he would if he heard about the therapy suggestion.
After a few seconds of the shower water washing off the shit all over his skin, Junpei's body had lost most of the tension it had when his old man rung in his mind. His arms slumped down to his sides, all the while his hands nearly felt numb. Soon afterwards, his eyes going from widened and stunned, to no more than a forlorn gaze.
Once a minute had passed, Junpei turned off the shower and stepped out onto a spare towel that was spread out on the bathroom floor– His dad was too cheap to even get a new bathroom rug. He pulled down another one that was hung up on the rack. With it, he dried himself off, twice, trying to make sure that not a square inch of his body had even a droplet left.
Clad in only a towel around the waist now, Junpei sank right into his current sleeping space, otherwise known as a couch, and let out another hefty sigh, just from all the events from today still circling around in his brain.
His eyes took a quick glaze down on the small table in front of him, seeing both his cell and the card Yukari had given him after his Wild Duck screw-up.
Junpei then tilted his head back, looking up at the ceiling, as his thoughts began to simmer once again.
At the end of it all, there were two choices to make about this whole 'therapy' idea.
One: forget about it, and end up in the same rut of the 'Nowhere To Go Club'.
Two: Take a risk, and try it out.
Junpei sat back up in his seat, with a groan rustled in his voice box as he saw his phone again. His hand began to lift up from simply resting on the couch, and closer to-
Pi Pi Pi!
A sudden jolt went through Junpei as the phone started to ring. With only a brief second of hesitation, he now picked his cell up, and flipped it right open. "Uh, hello?"
"Greetings to you as well Iori." An all too familiar and elegant voice said on the other end of the line.
Junpei could already a rather literal chill down his spine, just from hearing the head of the Kirijo Group, and the leader of his old, quote unquote, school club from his late high school years; Mitsuru Kirijo.
"M-Mitsuru-senpai?" He practically murmured into the receiver. "Why are you calling? Has something Shadow-related popped up again?"
Upon asking that, he heard a faint chuckle on the other end. "Well to put it simply, yes and no. I heard from Takeba and Yamigishi that you were struggling to find a job recently."
"Yeah, don't remind me…" The former SEES member said with a slump of his shoulders and a noticeable groan in his tone.
"It looks like Takeba wasn't exaggerating either." Mitsuru responded with a faint laugh that faded away into the no-nonsense type of articulation she was known for. "Anyway, I want you to meet up with the old dorm again to go over the details of a possible employment."
"Wait, what?"
"Arrive at noon on the dot next week. Don't be late." Just like that, the call ended, leaving only a beep. Once Junpei heard it repeating, he flipped his phone closed again and sat still for a moment to wonder what the heck just happened there.
He picked up the card on the table and a swift flick of his wrist opened his cell right back up again.
April 1, 2010
"Welcome to Hiiragi Therapy sir. How can I help you today?" A female attendant asked in the typical polite shopkeeper voice, standing behind a counter.
Junpei resisted the urge to let a groan out, noticing the prim and proper style of the waiting room. Something of a red flag next to the fact that the entire place was located in a small creak of Iwatodai, away from the typical areas he had memorized.
"I'm here for an appointment." He replied, thankfully without any sign of escalation into a yell this time. "With…Sonomura is it?" Junpei commented with an obvious question mark, reading off of the card after pulling it out of his pocket.
"Ah! You must be Maki-san's newest client who called in three days ago!" The attendant practically shouted aloud in the cutesy high school girl type of joy. "You can go right on ahead into the first door on the right; she's all set up and ready now." She said with one heck of a cheery grin.
Junpei simply closed his eyes with an irritated squint and walked to the door he was told, opening it swiftly.
Once he did, his eyes opened right back up, and widened as well.
The first thing that captured Junpei's attention was the room. His first expectation was for it to be the typical blinding white hospital ward, with only a table and a couple chairs to complete the sensation of being studied and examined. The second expectation was a tiny one-student classroom, complete with the uncomfortable chair and desk combo to bring back the memories of Mr. Edoka yelling at him about wasting time in class for a solid half an hour.
This place looked like a living room ripped right from a fairytale dollhouse, with framed photos covering the walls of faint lime green and standing by the windowsills, appearing to be of a high school, Aoba Park, and group pictures with good friends. The air was warm, like being enveloped in a fresh blanket, and the scent of incense wafted in it too. A rug that was filled with exotic patterning covered the entire floor and there was even a stone fireplace tucked in the corner of the room, with a bookcase that was as tall as Akihiko standing on his tiptoes. The top shelves were filled with natural self-improvement books and like, the lowest contained all kinds of colorful children's books, while the middle shelves were packed with dolls and stuffed animals. The one standing out in the front and caught the eye the fastest was a robot doll right from Featherman, that could possibly transform into a hazel-colored rat.
In the middle of the room, sitting in one of two cozy leather chairs, a young woman with a beauty mark right under her lower lip seemed to be writing something down on a notepad. She also had a bowlcut hairstyle, a pale coat with gray intersecting lines on it, over a silver shirt and matching skirt, along with black leggings and bright white boots. When she looked up and saw her current client, a welcoming smile grew on her attractive face.
"Why hello, you must be Junpei. Please come on in and take a seat, won't you?" She gestured her hand to the couch in front of her, which was big enough to have three people sit on it. Junpei just nodded, and managed to walk inside enough of the room to sit down on the couch, and even sinking into it. The woman still kept her gentle air.
"Now then, why don't you introduce yourself?"
That question instantly made Junpei raise an eyebrow. "Didn't you already say my name two seconds ago?"
She let out a small laugh as a response. "Yes, but I'm not hoping to hear more about your name, I'm hoping to hear more about yourself."
"Well… I'm Junpei Iori, I'm a graduate from Gekkoukan High School and I'm currently taking a gap year to have an excuse for not managing to find a college that I'm smart enough to attend right after my high school years." A bitter sounding chuckle immediately came out of Junpei's mouth once he finished that sentence. "I also have no talent in any kind of useful shit-Ah!" A fist came right up to cover his mouth. "S-sorry Miss, I didn't mean to…"
The woman however, just grinned again. "It's fucking okay Junpei. Also, Miss is far too formal; just call me Maki, okay?" Now that was a word Junpei never expected to hear from a therapist.
"Uh… thanks then, Maki-san." He couldn't help but smirk at that, while holding in a giggle.
"Now that's better." Maki smiled, seeing Junpei's expression finally change for once. "I myself had originally started off as a psychiatrist's assistant back in Sumaru City, but after I became a certified therapist, I moved to Iwatodai due to my main business shifting locations."
"Eh? Sumaru City?" The name rang a little bell in Junpei's head, but only let out about one or two rings. "Isn't that the city-"
"Where a series of mysterious incidents occurred one after the other that supposedly involved a serial killer and the Mafia? Yeah, that's the place." Maki immediately said aloud, sporting the exact same type of smart aleck face Junpei typically has when informing a new Persona-user of the events including towers and Witching hours a few years back.
"Heheh, I gotcha now." He chuckled as his voice began to perk up now.
"Now then Junpei, what kind of problems have arisen to make you think that you're talentless?" Miss Sonomura asked, clearly showing that she hadn't forgotten Junpei's introduction. The capped teen's smile soon faded away and he let out a breath.
"You mean aside from all the jobs I've been fired from so far in my attempt to not starve to death?" Maki nodded, without interrupting or responding. "…It especially doesn't help that I'm currently stuck in my old man's apartment, which makes the dorm I stayed at in my high school years look like a fucking mansion." He continued on near instinctively, now releasing a groan.
She nodded again, her eyes not wavering a single inch away from him.
"Especially when practically everyone I run into is annoying as hell and…!" Junpei grabbed the top of his head, already scrunching up his hat and gritting his teeth out of sheer frustration now, as the rest of his words dialed down to mere grumbling.
Maki once again responded with a nod, as her eyes had a gaze of sympathy. "It's no wonder you seem so on edge, having to deal with all of that."
"Heh, at least you're more understanding than most of my former bosses." His reply came out with a small chuckle, but not even so much as a smirk to go along with it. "Hell, even with some of my old pals from high school trying to help me get employed, I just know for a fact I'll get canned again." Junpei groaned a bit, resting an arm on his leg to hold up his head.
Miss Sonomura could notice the lack of self-esteem from a mile away at this point. "Know for a fact? Do you typically load yourself with that much skepticism when looking for a job?"
"You're asking me that as if I haven't gotten kicked out for losing my shit already." An all too deadpan stare of sheer sarcasm, attached to Junpei's face, replied.
"What made you lose your shit then?" She asked calmly, despite her language.
"Some asshole at Wild Duck Burger who didn't know basic physics and wanted his ice to float on the bottom of his drink." He responded in half a second, as if he was asked what two plus two equaled. "Who then threw his soda right into my face and stung the crap outta my eyes."
Maki let out a hiss from hearting that, just knowing that a soft drink to the eyes must've hurt like hell. "So it's a problem with dealing with obnoxious people at work then."
"On the nose." Junpei said. "Hell, the only people I get along with days are the pals I had back in high school, and of course, they're all off in college." A sigh that easily mixed both weariness and irritation came out of Junpei's lips again, before taking in a small breath "Even with Mitsuru-senpai mentioning a possible employment for me, I just know that-"
"Wait a tick…" Maki blurted aloud, immediately stopping Junpei's rambling, right before a smirk came upon her face. "Did you just say that you found a chance to be employed? Doesn't that mean you could have found a job?"
Junpei's eyes instantly widened back up, as a drop of sweat rolled down. "Uh, well, um…" He stuttered out, as his tone of sheer embarrassment coated every one of his words. "Well, I have a good chance of not even making the cut, ya know?"
"Trust me Junpei, I know." Maki stated with a nod of her head, but no hesitation or even sorrow in her words, as her eyes had a stern glare to them to show that she meant business. "But will becoming anxious and constantly putting yourself down like this really help you?"
"I know it doesn't help dammit!" Junpei yelled as his body sat up, and also shot up with the hand formally supporting his head curling right up into a fist.
Even with a sudden outburst like that though, Maki's expression didn't change at all, still sporting a firm glare without uttering a word. After a few seconds, Junpei's fist loosened, as did the rest of his body, and he just looked down at the carpet with a scowl.
"It's just…I dunno what I'm actually good at these days…"
"You're good at talking to me." That one line was enough to make Junpei sit right back up again, looking like someone just told him that his report card had all A+++s on it.
"B-but, I just yelled at you, didn't I?" He asked in one hell of a stutter with a confused tilt of his head, while Maki smirked.
"Oh please, I've had clients that snapped at me a hell of a lot sooner than you just did." She responded as a wave of her hand filled the snarkiness level right up to the top of the charts. "Besides, for someone as riddled with anxiety like you are at the moment, it's a lot more reasonable than it is for most people."
"Uh, I see." Junpei said simply, but not without a smile tugging at his lips now. Maki laughed softly once she saw Junpei begin to relax, and stood up out of her chair now.
"Well, our time's just about up now, but we'll meet again next week. Make sure to go get yourself hired now, okay tiger?" She told him, before offering a hand to help 'im up as well.
"Hey don't worry, I got it all." Junpei snickered a bit, taking the hand that Maki offered and standing up himself, and giving her one last smirk before exiting.
Once Junpei walked out of the office though, he couldn't help but stop and notice a strange feeling in his chest. It felt like whatever it was that tightened his ribcage was gone, and his heart had finally stopped racing a hundred miles per hour.
April 3, 2010
Ten of Noon. Just barely escaped the wrath of another execution.
Now Junpei just laid his back against the gritty red bricks that held the dorm up, looking around in just about every direction at the old place. The old tree right to the left, the stone staircase to the front door that he's walked through at least a hundred times with Yukari, Fuuka, Aigis, Ryoji, and his best friend.
He saw a limousine big enough to hold up to fifteen families at once come to a stop in front of the dormitory. Yup, Mitsuru was here now alright.
Once the limo came to a stop, one of the numerous car doors opened up, as the always-elegant Mitsuru Kirijo stepped out, adorned with a luscious fur coat, stylish sunglasses, and high heels.
"Sorry to keep you waiting Iori." Mitsuru stated as she slipped off her shades.
"O-oh! It's okay Senpai, I just got here myself." Junpei sputtered in front of the former leader of SEES, with his pupils zipping about to avoid giving a suggestive stare. "You look…uh… different from the last time I saw ya here a year ago…"
Mitsuru smirked. "Why thank you. You've changed quite a bit in appearance yourself, since you've started growing your hair out."
"Huh?" Junpei had a brief perplexed look, and promptly lifted a hand to feel the back of his head, noticing for the first time that his hair had grown out longer than his classic brush cut. Miss Kirijo let out a light chuckle at Junpei's surprise, but only for a second as her usual demeanor emerged.
"Anyway, this is what I hoped to discuss with you." She pulled out a folder from the interior of her coat, and handed it to Junpei.
"Huh? What's this?" The folder came complete with the giant red stamp spelling out 'CLASSIFIED' and within it contained numerous papers dense with paragraphs that contained every complicated word known to mankind. "…Shadow Operatives?"
"That's right." Mitsuru gave a firm nod, with an even firmer grimace. "To our dismay, it's been recently discovered that the troubling predicaments involving the shadows are far from over. Not only that, but it's been reported that their activity is even higher than it was in the past, to the point that even more of the police than just Kurosawa is taking notice."
"…So I'm being pulled back into shadow slaying?" Junpei asked once he lifted his head up from speed-reading through all the paperwork, cutting the crap and getting right to the meat of the matter with this employment.
"Afraid so." The head of Kirijo frowned. She had never forgotten the ordeals that Junpei had to face as a member of SEES; nobody could. "However, this isn't a requirement like it was last year. Plus, I know that you've just graduated, so if you wish to not commit to vanquishing shadows again, you can reject this offer entirely."
"…No, I'll sign up again." Junpei said briefly, much to Mitsuru's surprise. "I mean, not because I'm jumping for joy to fight for my life again, but…I don't really have any other choices at this point." He sighed and sulked at the same time, looking down again at the papers he could hardly read.
"I see." Mitsuru simply nodded, and then soon showed a smirk on her ruby red lips. "You can relax though; since we're still on the very start of establishment, there'll be nothing similar to the catastrophe of Tartarus." With that, she took a few steps closer to the front door of the dorm. "As such, this currently leaves you with a different task at hand." Upon standing right in front of the dorm's stone staircase, and pulled out a feather duster from the inside of her fur coat. "That task being to clean the dorm."
Junpei gawked with his mouth wide open, his head tilting and everything. "AH-"
"And yes Iori, I do in fact mean the entire dorm, from top to bottom."
"GAH…!" His back already started to slump a bit, while his arms shakily rose up with his fingers already starting to curl into his palms.
"And I should also point out that about half of your belongings are still in your dormitory room." She grinned again; clearly someone was enjoying this current moment far too much.
"Aaaaaagggghhhhh…" Junpei's entire torso was slumping to his toes in utter defeat, with his elongated groan being the icing on the cake of melancholy. A dark chuckle drifted across the air, courtesy of the Kirijo head.
"Anything else you have to say?"
"…It's been 5 minutes and I already regret this decision…" Junpei muttered with a face of crocodile tears.
"Good." Mitsuru said loud and clear, her words carrying the exact same sting as a 'hwa-chh'. "Then I recommend that you get started. And don't forget about the in-between spots as well." On that last reminder, she plopped the feather duster right into Junpei's hand, along with a key to the dorm and started strolling back to the limousine.
"Wait, what do you mean-PLAH, BLAK, AGH!" Junpei tried to ask, but just ended up spitting out the dust the vehicle left behind, as it already drove away from the dorm; all twenty-five car doors of the dang thing.
The new Shadow Operative groaned, but soon turned back to the front door. Knowing that there was no use in standing outside, he walked up the old short staircase again and, using the dorm key, opened the doors and walked right in.
Looking around, the old place hadn't changed at all. The arrangement of the couches and small coffee table was still set in place by the right, while the countertop with all the papers of old signatures was tucked away on the left. Even from a distance like the front entrance, the small kitchen remembered for many nights of instant ramen could be seen through the glass windows in the thinnest of walls around it.
However, there was someone entirely new that Junpei spotted at the bottom edge of his eyes; a mop in a silver bucket, a brand spanking new vacuum, and a broom; all of which were standing up perfectly in place.
The high school graduate groaned once again, remembering how his senpai might as well have had the ability to see into the future. (Hell, considering her Persona's ability, that wasn't too far out from the realm of possibilities!) But still, he took a hold of the vacuum cleaner, unraveled the snake of a cord to plug it into the nearest outlet, and started the official cleanup work, hearing no one and nothing but the crackling rhythm of the vacuum sucking up near invisible bits and pieces from the green carpets.
Jobs that kept food on the table were always the biggest pain in the ass.
Junpei Iori, Persona 3 (C) Atlus
Unexpected (C) Lotus Juice