tired soldiers

Author's Notes: Hey! So, some things you need to know about this story… it's a TWEWY!AU. That is, it's a The World Ends With You (the game) AU. It was written for the Persona Kink Meme, and it's complete (with 6 parts). For warnings, there are also the common warnings for Shiho's background: past sexual abuse, suicide attempt, some hints of depression. Also, some warnings for TWEWY AU: monsters out to get you, literally being invisible to normal eyes (so, some form of isolation), and, uh, being dead. Yeah.

So… The name comes from "Meet me on the Battlefield" from SVRCINA, if anyone's interested. Uh. Guess that's it?

Disclaimer: I don't own Persona 5 or The World Ends With You, nor do I own the characters present in this story. Persona 5 belongs to Atlus, and TWEWY to Square Enix, and me… well, I'm just the friendly neighbor who's more likely to bore you to death by geeking out about games than actually creating them. Unfortunately.

. . .

01.

Blood rushes in her veins, heart pumping in her ears. (This is it. You're doing fine, the voice whispers full of dark, sweet promises. She isn't convinced.) She knows she's trembling, and she can barely hear the voices getting louder and louder inside the buildings of the school.

This is it.

Her voice isn't heard by anyone, but she's speaking. She's saying everything she wants to say, because she knows, this is it. This is the end. (This will feel good, the voice promises, laughing at her fear). She speaks, because no one is here to hear her out. She speaks, because fear has always silenced her.

She speaks, because the ground is so far away, and blue eyes are nowhere to be seen.

(Blue as the sky, tainted, false, hypocrite, sweet, pretty, everything. Thief.)

She closes her eyes. (Step forward.)

She can't see the ground rushing up, but she can feel the wind whipping around her hair, hear it rushing over her ears. It sounds ominous. It sounds like death.

The feeling is (good. Amazing. Freedom) of fear, of a rush she will never be able to outrun. It feels like fire licking at her nerves, ice freezing her brain. It feels like the end.

(Look, they say. Look, they point. Shouldn't they be talking to her? — Of course not. Who would care about her? Who, indeed? Dark eyes. Fear. Stained. Broken. She's beyond help. There's only one way out.)

The voices are louder, closer. She will feel it at any moment now. (Paradise) Death (Haven).

Except — there is nothing. Nothing but pain, pain, pain. Pain that surges through her, like fire consuming her whole body. She's nothing but frayed nerves, exposed for everyone to see. She's tears and hurt and broken things, and there are voices speaking loudly about her, and she's not dead.

She is not dead.

She doesn't know if she's crying. She doesn't know if she's bleeding, if she's dying, after all. She only knows bones of glass, fire instead of blood, a brain that feels like water. She knows pain, fear, dark eyes staring down at her, and the strangest feeling of hope.

A memory of blue eyes, of a voice calling her name.

(No. Hypocrite. Useless. Traitor.)

A voice calling her name.

She struggles, her bones and eyelids feeling like lead, she (wants to die) can't move, can't see, can't…

(Ann.)

Die. She can't die.

She's not dead. She's not alive. She won't give up. This voice — she knows this voice. Knows this warmth.

Ann.

It feels like shards of glass are cutting into her face, like fire is pouring out of her body, like there is a stone laying on her chest — but it also feel like light, pouring down over the dark eyes, the fear, the hopelessness. She feels like (dying, but not alone) trying. She feels like smiling.

She can die. She can die. If she doesn't struggle, she will die. If she gives up here — it would be easy. Just closing her eyes. Letting go. But. Ann. Ann will have to see her die. She — she can't do that.

She won't do that (to Ann). She should never have done that. (Ann saw her jumping. Ann saw her fall. Oh gods. Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods. No. No, please, no. What if it had been Ann instead? She would have… Oh, no.)

It pains her. Her lungs, now that she is really trying to breathe, feels like a balloon with a hole. Unable to hold air. (Useless. Just like her). It pains her more than she would like to admit, and she is just ready to give up again, to stop everything, to close her eyes and not look, not be — but this is Ann, blue eyes broken and sad, and there are tears running down her pretty face, and this is the most beautiful thing Shiho has ever seen.

(Need to tell her)

So many things are stuck in Shiho's throat, out of a sudden. Fire licks at her tongue, light blind her eyes behind the blue eyes, and silence is just there, finally — but

(I can't go yet. I can't ever go. I can't leave her)

she forces herself to speak, because this won't last. Because now that the opportunity is here, she can't accept it (coward, useless, broken thing!), she needs to speak, even if to do so she will have to gulp down a thousand needles. She needs to speak, because Ann is crying, broken, terrible, nononono, and this is it.

This is worth everything.

(Because Ann is a traitor everything)

Because Ann shows will in her eyes, because her teeth are grinding now, and she is nodding, and she is so relieved, and Shiho — Shiho can't believe it. Can't believe Ann.

Can't believe Ann won't… give up.

(Like she did. Like she can't do anymore. Like she shouldn't have done in the first place.)

Darkness approaches just as she sees Ann shaking with rage, just as Ann's voice murmurs to her, "I'll kill him", promising, more alluring than any dark voice could ever sound — and Shiho goes out with a smile, because, yes, thank you for forgiving me. (Sorry for letting you down. I won't ever do this again.)

Darkness approaches, and with it, Shiho feels the first grasp of death, but the voice is silent now, and in her heart there is pain, guilt, regret.

It is enough.