Silent Savior

Disclaimer: I don't own a damn thing. All character belong to the respectful owners. This goes for chapter one as well.

I included a bit of in-game dialogue, which is word for word all spelling and grammar as well.

9/ 10 Th

After School

Next: 24

The past few days had been more of the same. Junpei managed to get her to talk but it wasn't anything useful. Ever since, he's been coming to see her every day. Today was no exception. He walked in looking happier than he had the first day he came to see her.

"Yo, Chidorita!"

"…Don't call me that."

"C'mon, cheer up… I brought you a new sketchbook. I thought your old one might be getting full."

"That wasn't necessary, Junpei."

"Heheh, you said my name… I was worried I'd never hear that again."

Man, he has really fallen hard for her. I was just watching them talk for a minute when… Shinji comes in? What's he doing here?

"…Any luck?"

"She finally started talking. But, nothing useful yet."

"Well, that's a start." I turned to face Shinji directly. "So…Why are YOU here?"

Of course, I don't exactly get an answer before Chidori lets out a cry.

"Ugh…!"

"Chidori!? Wh-What's wrong!?"

"Ugh…Agh…"

That's when we all see it: a Persona! It was only for a split second but we could all see that it was a Persona and it was strangling Chidori. Shinji was the quickest to react, running over to her and giving her a pill of some sort. After that, things seemed to calm down a bit. Junpei was still a little freaked out but it seemed we were going to get some kind of answers.

"Relax…It happens. They're not like us. They can't fully control their Personas. That's why they need to take suppressants…to keep their Personas from killing them…"

"Suppressants? …You know about Strega?"

"You'd be surprised what you can learn on the streets. I'll give the doc the right pills. …The rest is up to you."

"Shinji, wait! Hey!"

There was no way I was letting him get away from me that easily. Something about this whole thing didn't sit right with me. I knew what those pills were and I needed to know… 'What you can learn on the streets' he said. He's been on the streets for two years! Does that mean…? I need to know. I have to catch up to him.

Luckily, he didn't get too far before I finally caught up to him. I know he heard me calling him the whole time but he was ignoring me. I certainly wasn't going to let that happen. Finally, I got him to stop walking away.

"Hey, wait! Shinji! What the hell's going on…? Why did you have those pills!?" I waited for a response and all I got was Shinji turning his head toward the ground. He really didn't want to talk about this and I didn't care. "I've heard about those… …They're taken to suppress a Persona when the user can't control it. But, the side-effects…" He turned to face me, and he was glaring hard. "You're not taking them, are you?"

"..."

"Answer me!"

"I don't owe you anything."

Stupid, stubborn, pain in the ass! That's what he is! At this point, I'm glaring right back at him.

"Tch. The same as always…"

"Save it. I've heard it all before. You think I'm wasting my power… but you're just too thickheaded. I'm tired of your damn preaching."

My fists tightened to the point I'm sure I would've drawn blood if I hadn't been wearing gloves. I was mad, madder than I'd been in a while. Shinji was pushing it and it looks like I pushed back. I didn't even think of what I was doing. I was just going through the motions. Next thing I know, I punched Shinji across the face. He deserved it for all the shit he was talking. I saw this whole body move with the punch, I saw every person that was nearby walk away from a potential fight. But I didn't care about any of that, I just wanted to know what the hell was going on with Shinji.

"Don't you get it? You know the reason… 10 years ago. My sister. The fire. I wasn't strong enough to save her. They held me back, while she…" Shinji finally looked at me, without the glare. But I was nearing my breaking point. I needed to get this across now or it would never happen again.

"…"

I looked back at Shinji, really trying to get my point across and hoping for an answer. "That's why I try to so hard… We promised, remember? To become strong enough to do what we think is right… So, why the drugs? Why didn't you come talk to me…?" Why are you still pushing me away? Why don't you trust me anymore? I wanted to add all that but I couldn't.

"I'm back in the fight now… So let it go."

I looked away. I couldn't keep eye contact when I'd already hit rock bottom. I sighed, because Shinji really doesn't want to give me a straight answer. "… …And the side-effects?" He turned away from me too. I guess we both aren't exactly in the right state of mind at this point.

"… There's something I need to take care of. It's something only I can do." Now he had me a little curious, and slightly worried.

"…Like what?" He turned his head to talk to me over his shoulder. I guess eye contact was out of the question now.

"Listen, don't worry about me. Just do what you think is right." And with just that, he walked away. I don't really know why, but at that moment, I felt I had just lost something truly important to me. It wasn't like the feeling when Shinji left 2 years ago. This was entirely different. Needless to say, the trip back to the dorm wasn't long enough. I had too much on my mind and very little time to think about any of it. Before I knew it, I was back at the dorm and Minato was asking me about the hospital. I told him we probably wouldn't be going back anytime soon, since Chidori hates us. Well, most of us anyway. Then I'm being informed that we're going to Tartarus. Not exactly something I wanted to do tonight.