DISCLAIMER: I do not own Persona or any of its characters. They are the copyright of Atlus inc. and I am not going to pretend like I own them. The original and new characters to this story, however, are mine. I hope you will enjoy this fanfic as much as I loved writing it (since I put a lot of love into it).
Persona 3: Fateful Encounter
Prologue: The end?
A knock on the door caused her eyes to open, revealing two brown orbs. She looked up and saw that the sun was shining. She had been fast asleep and had gone to bed very early last evening, and yet she felt so weak – her entire body shook and she felt rather awful.
I'm probably just getting a cold, she told herself, got dressed in her school outfit which consisted of a black blouse, with the emblem of Gekkoukan High and a red ribbon tie, which she wore over her white shirt, and a black miniskirt, white leggings and loafers.
Someone knocked on the door once again and a familiar voice echoed through the otherwise silent room: "Excuse me, may I please come in?"
The girl recognized the voice of Aigis, and replied in a weak voice to give her just a minute. She then put her auburn hair in her trademark high ponytail and put her MP3 player in one of the pockets of her skirt.
She then opened the door to find the blonde humanoid staring at her with eyes bearing a mix of joy and sadness at the same time.
"Thank goodness, Minako..." she said and before Minako knew it, Aigis hugged her and held her so tight it almost hurt.
"Aigis... c-can't... breathe!" Minako wheezed as the hug grew deeper.
Aigis, realizing what she was doing, quickly apologized and let go of Minako, "I am sorry to show up like this," she said while the other girl was still gasping for air, "but I really needed to talk to you."
"Me too," Minako said and stepped aside to let Aigis into the room. The Anti-Shadow Weapon looked around and then sat down on the bed, looking down with a pained expression on her face.
"...I remember everything," Aigis said in a voice that Minako realized was contorted with pain and grief, "Everyone seems to have forgotten, but I remember... That day, we..."
Aigis never got any further into her speech before she started crying. Minako was surprised to see her friend, a machine, cry. Then she realized that Aigis had become more and more human as their adventures continued; in the end, Minako had started to forget that Aigis was not even human, as her voice had ceased to bear any mechanical sounds and now sounded crystal clear and feminine.
"Please, don't cry, Aigis..." Minako said and this time, it was her turn to hug her friend. The gesture of compassion offered Aigis some comfort as she stopped sobbing. Minako released her.
"I am sorry..." Aigis apologized once again, wiping her eyes of any tears (how could a robot even cry in the first place?), "It's just that, when I remembered... I was afraid you might go somewhere far away, like you did at the last battle..."
Minako lowered her head. She remembered too, how she had used all her energy to cast the Great Seal to seal Nyx away. She remembered how she was about to fall to the Death-spell when her friends' voices brought her back from the brink of death every time... both the living, and Shinjiro... who she had failed to save.
That particular memory was especially painful for her.
Minako wanted to reassure Aigis that she was all right, that she was going to stay with them forever, but she knew that was a lie. Both knew she was on the way to her death.
A heavy silence lingered over the room for a while, until Aigis broke it.
"Graduation's today, isn't it?" she asked. Minako nodded in response and said that she must have overslept.
Aigis didn't look at her, "I'm sorry, the ceremony has already begun..."
The cyborg then looked outside and Minako traced the faint ghost of a smile across her friend's lips, "It's such beautiful weather outside..."
Minako nodded, she could feel the sun's warmth. For some reason it made her feel at ease, knowing it was because she had defeated Nyx that her friends could now enjoy a pleasant life. They did not need to remember all the ordeals they had suffered to achieve this. Knowing this made her happy.
Then she felt sad, because she knew she would never live to enjoy the peace she had made.
No, she thought, I will watch over them... protect them from heaven. Despite this, she knew that if they ever remembered her, they would be crushed.
Is dying the only way? She repeated the question she had asked herself just before she had used the Great Seal on Nyx. According to Ryoji, she had found the true answer to life. Perhaps this meant that there was no other way than to die. Her body felt heavy all of a sudden, and she realized that she only had a few hours left before her consciousness would fade one last time.
She tried not to think about it. Minako Arisato was not going to leave the world with tears in her eyes, but with a smile on her face.
Aigis looked at her, "Minako... do you remember the promise we made?"
Minako nodded, "Yes. Even if the others forgot, then the two of us remember."
Aigis nodded back and said with a smile, "Why don't we go there and wait for the others...? we can enjoy the view of this peaceful city..."
"Yes, let's go," Minako said and waited until Aigis left the room. She then stopped in the doorway and looked back at her room, tears forming in her eyes as she remembered all the feelings and memories she'd had in the room.
She looked at the small, pink curtains with hearts on them and remembered how Yukari had insisted that the original, white curtains didn't suit Minako and so bought her something more "feminine" to suit the tone of the room. Minako had hated the new curtains at first, but she had come to like them over time. After all, they were a gift from one of her dearest friends.
Her eyes then darted over to the table that stood in the corner. She remembered the many sleepless nights she had spent at the table, studying for the exams. All her hard work had paid off in the end, as she had become one of the best students in her grade and had aced all the exams with ease.
She then looked at the TV. She had never really used it much, but she remembered how she had been watching Tanaka's Amazing Commodities, and how useful the items she had purchased from him were. He had tricked her at first, but she had made him realize how wrong he was, and in the end, he had even apologized to her for tricking her in the first place.
Finally, she looked at her bed and the calendar directly above it. The poor calendar was scribbled with notes in her handwriting. She had never liked her handwriting – it always looked like she was writing in a stressed rush and sometimes she even wondered how anyone could even make out what was written on her notes.
She had not noticed how she had walked over to the calendar and turned back the pages until she reached a particular date: October the 4th. The day Shinjiro had died. She had hated herself for not being there to protect him... if only she hadn't gone out for lunch with Yukari a couple of weeks before, she might have gotten to know Shinjiro well enough to know what he had been planning. He had been the first, and only, boy she had ever fallen in love with, and she remembered how she couldn't smile for weeks after his death. It was not until Junpei and Yukari, with some help from Aigis, cheered her up that she managed to smile again. And yet, when she thought back about Shinjiro, her heart started to ache again.
"Will I see you again in heaven when my soul is no longer needed to support the Great Seal?" she asked, looking up at the ceiling and already knowing her answer: that she would never see him again. She wouldn't die; her body would fall into an eternal coma, but her soul would support the Great Seal and ensure Nyx would never wake up again.
"Farewell," she whispered as she closed the door to the room that had held such significance to her in her last year and went to follow Aigis to the school one last time.
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
"Get the hell up, you lazy bum!" the female voice echoed in his ears as he darted up and sat upright in his bed.
"Sheesh, Umbra, do you need to make such a damn fuss?" he asked the tall, pale woman with emerald eyes and black, wavy hair that reached her down to her shoulders. She was dressed in a black coat that made her look more masculine than feminine, white leggings and hiking boots. On her neck was a necklace in the shape of a snake.
"Yes, Kris, I do!" she said, her voice still unchanged. "We have no time – they won't wait for you to get out of bed!"
Kris remembered what they were going to do and darted out of bed, into the bathroom and, in what seemed like a few minutes to Umbra, he got out fully dressed in a black overall jacket under which he had a white T-shirt which was a little too long for him, blue jeans and black sneakers with red lines on them. He was slightly shorter than the woman, despite him being a year her senior.
His sister shrugged, "Do you have to dress yourself in your best outfits now? We aren't going to a freakin' party, you know!"
"Do you have to curse all the time? You're giving me a headache," Kris sighed.
"What was that?!" Umbra asked, but before the two siblings had time to evolve their argument into a full-on conflict, the clocks on their arms beeped.
"So, it is time, huh?" Umbra said in a softer voice, and headed for the kitchen, followed by Kris.
"Alright, they'll be here in ten minutes. Siddown and eat your goddamn food before it's too late. I don't want you slowing me down," she ordered Kris, who just shrugged again but sat down and ate breakfast in a hurry.
Meanwhile, as he did, he noticed Umbra opening the closet and take out a naginata and an axe.
"For pity's sake, Umbra," Kris said in a bored voice, "do you need to carry those things with you wherever you go?"
Umbra didn't reply, and Kris was left alone to eat up his breakfast when the clocks suddenly beeped again. The two siblings met in the hallway, looked at each other and nodded. Then they left the apartment and entered the slim, blue Cadillac that had come to pick them up.
Gekkoukan High School – rooftop
Minako was lying on the roof of the high school, enjoying the warm sunlight and gentle wind on her resting body.
She opened her eyes and noticed that Aigis was sitting right next to her. Minako's mind felt fuzzy, and she realized that she must have dozed off...
Aigis, upon noticing that she had woken up, looked at her, "The wind feels so nice..." she said with a sorrowful voice, "this is my first time experiencing spring. But this season will eventually pass..."
Minako looked at her, "Aigis," she said, and wanted to put an arm on her shoulder, but her body was too weak. She knew that her time was coming, and even worse: Aigis knew this as well. She noticed that her friend had been crying this whole time while she had slept.
Aigis wiped a tear away, took Minako's limp, powerless body and put it on her lap, before finally giving her emotions free vent: "After fighting alongside you, and facing the world's end... I finally began to understand... what it means to live... Thinking for yourself... Not running away... Accepting the inevitable..." Minako smiled weakly as Aigis tried to collect herself again.
"All things eventually come to an end and every living thing will one day disappear and only by accepting this can one discover what they truly want... What the meaning of their life will be... I understand no why I was so tormented by my lack of strength. Protecting others became more than just an order I had to obey. I wanted to do it for my own reasons... I realized this once I decided to try and prevent the Fall. When I thought I might never see you again, something else became clear to me- what I wanted most. And so, I made up my mind. I decided that I would continue to protect you."
"And you did. You still are protecting me," Minako whispered, not having enough strength to raise her voice.
"I want to be your strength," Aigis said, "I know I'm not the only one who can do this... but that's okay. My life will be worth living if it's for this reason... Thank you..."
The robot was sobbing and Minako used the last of her strength to wrap her arms around Aigis's stomach.
"Please, d-don't cry."
"You're right... I am being egoistical. I now realize the truth... I should be happy..." however, Aigis's voice was anything but.
They then heard a myriad of familiar voices crying out for them.
Aigis smiled gently, "I now realize that I, too, have friends. You don't have to save the world to find a meaning in life... sometimes, all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of. It is for that reason I'll keep on living no matter what, so that I can protect you..."
The gentle spring sunlight was warming Minako's body. The cheering she heard from afar, the slightly chilly wind... she knew this was a world in which she and her friends had succeeded – a world they had protected together. She smiled, feeling a little sleepy.
"Thank you for everything," Aigis said, noticing her condition, "You are tired, aren't you?"
Minako did not need to answer...
"It's all right. You can close your eyes. I will always remain right here. By your side."
Minako heard footsteps and the voices of her friends coming closer.
As Aigis spoke, her voice started to overlap with the sunlight, "The others will be here soon..."
Minako was getting sleepier. Her eyelids felt heavy, and then she closed her eyes.
"Don't worry," she heard Aigis's voice in the distance as her consciousness faded one final time, "I will always protect you."