Magician and the Fool
Spoilers for November and Naoto's gender
Chapter 1-Shocking discovery and kidnapped
Shiori was bored out of her mind, looking around her as she threw the book she had been re-reading for the fourth time as there was nothing to do after Naoto had joined the team as a Persona user, lending her skills as they trained her to make her as powerful as the rest of the team. She wanted to catch the killer as fast as humanely possible.
Yukiko had insisted herself that she would train her, wanting to become the detective's friend. She chuckled, remembering Yosuke's reaction as he joked about Yukiko being lonely, earning him a Galactic Punt to the balls.
Really Yosuke would not shut up sometimes.
Yosuke Hanamura-her boyfriend, her lover, and her best friend in Inaba. She could hardly believe it herself. Him…out of all the boys in Inaba she could have hooked up with, it was him she fell in love with. The pair had gotten together after Teddie had joined the team.
She had almost fallen to Shadow Teddie's strength and she would've died had it not been for Yosuke shoving her out of the way and taking the hit himself. She had panicked and carried him out of there as fast as she could have.
It was a day after that Yosuke confessed to her…
Flashback…
Shiori stood at the doorstep of Yosuke's house, hesitating to touch the doorknob. She shuddered, whether that was from the cold wind or her own body was unknown. She sighed and soon heard her Persona poking at the back of her mind, eager to talk with her.
"Yes, what do you want…Izanagi? I'm trying to think…about something." she lied, hoping that he would back off, but the Persona would have none of it. Izanagi kept poking at her, irritating Shiori until she glared at him.
He sighed as he shook his head, putting his clawed hand on her shoulder, smiling slightly as his mask was taken off. His face looked much like her own, except it was more masculine. He spoke,
"Shiori-san, you love him. I can sense this coming from you, you can't lie to yourself, just tell Yosuke you love him…you don't want a Shadow." he soon left after, leaving Shiori alone. The silver haired girl sucked up her courage and knocked on the door.
"Here goes nothing…Lady Luck, don't fail me now." she groaned.
She looked at the house amusedly as she smiled a bit, "Rather fancy for a town like Inaba…Yosuke's lucky. No wonder people hate him so much." she commented as she briefly saw Yosuke upstairs walking downstairs. The doorknob turned and soon, Yosuke was standing face to face. He seemed surprised to see her and let her inside.
"You seemed off today at school, what's up partner? You said earlier that you wanted to talk…"
Although Shiori was a girl, he got along well with her to the point where he started calling her partner. He liked her, she wasn't like most girls at Yasogami High, who gossiped about him daily.
She smiled briefly as she began to twirl her hair, blushing a bit. "Yosuke…I…I…um…" she began slowly as he kept quiet. Yosuke waited.
She paused before speaking again,
"…Would you be mad at me if I told you I loved someone? Here in Inaba?" The air seemed thick with tension as Yosuke said no, telling her that she had that right. He moved closer to her and smiled,
"Who is it, Shiori?...Shiori? What's wrong?! Why are you crying?! What's wrong!?" he soon noticed that she started to cry and pulled her close to hug. He hated seeing her upset and wanted to make her feel better. She looked up at him, eyes all watery and wet from her tears.
"I…I fell in love with the last person I expected to fall for…one that I know very well." she stared at him directly in the eyes. He held her close, gently taking her chin in his hand.
"Who?" he breathed calmly. Shiori took a breath and leaned in to kiss him on the lips, as Yosuke's eyes widened in shock…
But he didn't pull away, surprising Shiori as she pulled back. "Shiori…I…you love me? Out of all the boys here, you pick me?" he waited for her to answer. She nodded and made an attempt to leave, but Yosuke held onto her tightly and pulled her down with him onto to the couch. She yelped in surprise,
"…Yes dammit. You…out of all the people in Inaba, I fucking fell in love with you. It's hard to believe." she sighed as Yosuke kissed her back, making her eyes widen in surprise. He moved his hand behind her long hair and deepened the kiss, his tongue prodding her lower lip.
She sighed in bliss and let him deepen the kiss, her tears stopping altogether. After a minute passed due to lack of air, they parted to stare at each other,
"Shiori, I've been in love with you for a while myself, but I thought it wasn't possible…this feels like a dream. I love you, Shiori Seta…" he moved his hand and entwined it with hers,
"Will…will you be my girlfriend?" he sheepishly grinned at her and she did the same and nodded. He pulled her into a hug. She cuddled into his chin and sighed in contentment. She felt Izanagi's hum of approval briefly, but paid him no mind as she fell asleep in her new boyfriend's arms…
' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '
Shiori smiled at the thought made her cheeks flush red with joy. The next week after they decided to break the news to the group. At first they were rather surprised at the revelation, but they soon came to accept it as normal to see them always hanging out together. Rise even joked about saying that she 'planned to get them together anyway in the future and that they stole her thunder'. She always liked Shiori because she always seemed to be happy most with Yosuke wherever they went, whether they went to Okina City or the local Junes food court that they made their headquarters. So she tried thinking of a way to get them together, but it wasn't necessary for her.
Shiori went and did it herself. She chuckled as she got up, looking outside the window of her room for the year she was staying in Inaba. She quickly frowned at what she saw outside-rain pouring from the heavens.
"The Midnight Channel's going to be on tonight…hope no one's on it." she knew that someone would most likely be on it anyway. Fate seemed to deem it so.
"Even if I say that, someone's gonna be on it, thinking like that is pointless. Why bother thinking otherwise?" she muttered glancing at the wall for a moment.
'Pi Pi Pi Pi!' Her cellphone buzzed on the desk and she went to pick it up,
"Moshimoshi, this is Shiori. Hello?" she spoke into the phone and who answered surprised her,
"Hey sweetheart, it's mom. How are you?" It was the voice of her mother, Sonomi Seta, who was out on a business trip with her father Arata. Ever so cheerful in her voice she continued,
"I managed to get a couple weeks off out of the trip to come see you. So how's little brother doing?" she smiled at the pleasant revelation she just heard. Laughing with joy and replying with,
"Oh Uncle's doing fine and so is Nanako too. Both are great!" she went over to the TV and poked at it, scraping some dirt off as her mother talked and talked on and on.
"How'd ya manage to get some time off? You run this by dad and he Okayed it? He's never done that before as far as I can remember." Usually, her mother and father wouldn't have any time to come see her until the trip was over. So for her mother to say she had free time was rare. They always worked into the night, often leaving her alone.
"Yes, he did. Though he did seem rather plain faced about it…like he had no emotion about my decision." these words caught Shiori's attention instantly. It was unlike her father to have no emotion over anything he did, he was always like mom-energetic and enthusiastic about every little thing possible. He loved to be the center of attention and resorted to childish tactics to gain the attention of others. Particularly, he hated it when his female friends scoffed and made fun of him. In his childhood, many women had bullied him rather unmercifully.
She decided to ask her mother about him, "Has dad been acting…okay? He seemed rather weird when I left. Has everything been going okay?" she asked as she itched her ear. She got a response quicker than she thought she would.
Her mother replied almost too quickly for Shiori's liking,
"He's been okay lately, but something's been bothering him, it's like…oh, I don't know…he seems to get angry over some small things I do…anyway, I'm coming over after school, Ryotaro already knows about, so you don't need to tell him. Bye." she hung up and left Shiori to get herself ready to go to school.
As she left the house and locked the door, she quickly was overcome by sudden nausea and stumbled a bit,
"Ohh shit, I feel sick…Oh god!" she quickly ran over to the bushes and hurled up her breakfast. When she finished, she wiped her mouth and sighed.
She had hoped the nausea would pass, but it happened again and she hurled into the bushes a second time.
"Fuck, I've been like this since we've had sex…but we've used protection every single time, there couldn't be…no, not possible." she shoved the thought out of her head and grabbed her bags. She blushed with the memory of their first time…
' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '
"Man, that was great…" she blushed as she walked through the Samegawa Flood Plains on her way to school. The weather was clear although the clouds seemed abundant. She even ran into Marie and said hello. "Hey Shiori, what's up?" Although her manners seemed lacking, the two girls were close as they walked to school. Despite not being a student of the school, Marie took an interest to what Shiori did and followed her around, even though she claimed otherwise.
"The Nose said that I…well, he said that you seemed different lately." She said as she and Shiori ate lunch on the rooftop with Chie and Yukiko. Yukiko raised an eyebrow in interest and asked with curiosity,
"Different? In what way?" she asked Shiori who merely blushed a decent shade of red. Her shined with curiosity as she asked Shiori several questions, the latter trying her hardest to avoid answering them, as her face grew even redder. She rubbed the back of her head and said,
"Well, um…" she tried to think of an excuse to tell the girls. Chie looked at her stomach for a moment, then asked Shiori if she was feeling alright, "You seem kinda sick lately. Is…everything okay, Shiori-chan? You can tell us, y'know." she smiled to prove her point as Yukiko and Marie nodded in agreement.
Shiori sighed and said, unsure of herself, "I've been feeling sick lately ever since…" she trailed off, not wanting to tell them the truth. But she saw the look on Yukiko's face that she had already figured it out,
"I get it! You and Yosuke-kun had-!" her mouth was quickly covered by Chie and Marie in panic. Chie panicked, "Yukiko! You don't talk about that stuff in school!" Marie blushed and said nothing while Yukiko tried to ask why.
Shiori sighed and smiled as she watched her friends antics. "Hey Senpai!" She turned to see Rise and Naoto walking up to them, Naoto holding both girls lunches as they sat down to eat. Naoto blushed and stumbled to explain something, but Shiori couldn't hear it.
"I'm sorry Senpai, we did not realize it was lunch. Apologizes for the delay. I see Marie is here as well." said the detective as she opened up her boxed lunch, consisting of a sandwich. Rise had already started eating hers as she sat next to Shiori.
She looked at Shiori as she ate, "Senpai seems to be less energetic than usual. Is it because…no, that has to be it! She has to be! Otherwise she would be fighting in the TV world with all of us!"