Revelations
Takeharu and Shuji were standing in a room overlooking a training ground with a group of scientists that were sitting in front of computers who were waiting to input data.. They were both waiting for the kids to come. After a bit of waiting they both heard the elevator door open making them turn around and they saw Kikuno with both of the kids.
Kikuno bowed, "Hello, Kirijo-san, I've brought them"
Takeharu nodded towards her, "Thank you Kikuno, you may be dismissed." She bowed and left.
Minato and Mitsuru walked to Takeharu, "Hello, Father" "Hey, Kirijo-san"
Takeharu chuckled, "Hello to you both and Minato you can just call me Takeharu."
Minato smiled, "Okay, Takeharu-san."
"So how do you like your new room Minato?"
Minato beamed, "It's really cool and big! Thank you again, Takeharu-san!"
Takeharu gave him a small smile, "I'm glad to hear it. Anyways, now that both of you are here, allow me to introduce you to Aigis." Takeharu gestured to the corner of the room while Shuji pressed a button on a remote.
Out of the shadows walked what looked to be a teenage girl with short blonde hair with blue eyes and unique headphones to both kids.
"Hello, I am Aigis." She introduced herself in a robotic voice.
Both Mitsuru and Minato looked at Aigis with wide eyes with shock and amusement.
Mitsuru couldn't believe what she was seeing, "F-Father? W-Who is that!?"
Takeharu laughed at both of their reactions and gestured toward Aigis, "She's an anti-shadow suppression weapon."
Minato was even more excited that she was basically a robot, "She is so cool, Takeharu-san!" But he was confused on why she looked like a girl, "But why does she look like a girl, sir?"
"Well, you need a human ego and personality to summon a persona. So we gave her a plume of dusk to give her a personality and an ego."
Minato was getting more and more excited about Aigis, "Whoa! So she can summon a persona too!?" But he got confused when he said that something called plume of dusk helped her summon a persona, "But what's a plume of dusk?"
Takeharu held his chin thinking about how to explain it in a simpler way and then nodded once he did, "Let me ask you this, did you ever wonder why I don't turn into a coffin during the Dark Hour?"
Minato nodded, "Yeah I was wondering about that when I first saw you guys."
"Well only persona-users are able to experience the Dark Hour fully. So we use the plume of dusk to be able to function in the Dark Hour and to have electricity during it as well."
Minato nodded, "Oh okay, well that explains why I was the only one to not be in a coffin." Then he wondered why the other three men were turned into shadows, "But what about your three men though? Why did they become shadows?"
Takeharu looked down in sadness shaking his head, "We still don't why…we just assumed they reacted to you and Mitsuru's personas." Minato and Mitsuru looked down now feeling like it was their fault they died. Seeing that they took it the wrong way, he instantly put a hand on both their shoulders, "We're just thinking that was the case. Even then, it wasn't either of your faults."
Minato and Mitsuru nodded slowly, "Okay, Takeharu-san." "Okay, Father."
"Good." Takeharu released their shoulders and gestured Aigis to come by him, "Anyways, Aigis is going to be your training partner" The kids looked at her in fear, "Don't worry she's has rubber bullets, they won't hurt much and if it starts to get bad I'll stop it right away." That calmed the both of them down a little bit. "So since we got a couple of hours before midnight, we're going to work on your defense."
Minato looked at him confused, "How are we going to do that, sir?"
Takeharu sighed not like the idea of hurting them, "Well, Aigis is going to…shoot you with a couple of bullets in the chest, in each arms, and in each leg; in that order repeatedly till…you can't take it anymore."
Minato nodded, "Okay sir, I'll go first then."
Mitsuru looked at him in worry, "Are you sure?"
Minato gave her a small smile, "Yeah. I'm already used to being hurt so I'll be fine."
Mitsuru nodded, "Alright, just be careful."
Minato laughed, "I'll be okay, but thanks for worrying." He and Aigis proceeded to the elevator, he looked back and waved at Mitsuru before the doors closed and the elevator went down.
Takeharu looked down at Mitsuru, "Are you going to be okay?"
Mitsuru nodded, "Y-Yes, I should be able to withstand the pain."
Takeharu sighed, "Yet again, this is my punishment for what I didn't do. Now I have to see my daughter get shot with rubber bullets…"
Once Shuji saw Minato and Aigis down in the training grounds, he pressed a button that activated an intercom, "Aigis, run over to the other side of the room and switch to burst fire mode"
Aigis nodded and ran to the other side of the area and raised her arm. Her hand lowered into her metal forearm and it was replaced by a gun barrel, she then aimed her gun at Minato.
"Minato, are you ready?"
Minato looked up at the room and nodded
"Alright, Commence Training!"
Aigis fired a shot at Minato's chest and he flinched a little when it hit his chest but he still stood his ground. She then shot at both his arms which he had the same reaction as before. But once Aigis shot at the legs he went into the kneeling position though he got right back up after a bit. She kept on this over and over for the next thirty minutes till Minato finally collapsed. She stopped shooting but still was aiming at him.
Mitsuru gasped and was about to go run check on him but was stopped by her father, "Wait Mitsuru! Aigis is still in firing mode." He looked over at Shuji, "Tell Aigis to cease fire." Shuji nodded and pressed the button telling Aigis to cease fire,
They all saw Aigis's gun barrel go into her metal forearm and her hand returned
Once Takeharu saw her exit firing mode, he nodded at Mitsuru letting her know that it was safe now for them to go down. When they made it down, they walked over to Minato who was indeed knocked out, and he knelt down picking up Minato and looked over at Mitsuru, "I'm going to take him to his room so he can rest. We'll start your training once I come back."
Mitsuru nodded, "Yes, father."
One Hour Later
Minato's Room
Minato started stirring and then slowly opened his eyes. Once he fully woke up, he slowly got up feeling a lot of pain. Once he got up, he heard his door open and saw Takeharu and Mitsuru walked in.
Takeharu smiled, "I'm glad to see you're up." He then frowned, "How are you feeling?"
Minato shrugged, "I'm doing alright, still kind of hurting."
Takeharu nodded, "That's understandable. Will you be ready for your persona training or will you like to rest till tomorrow?"
Minato shook his head and got out of bed, "We can do it today, I'm not hurting that much."
Mitsuru looked at him surprised, "How are you able to withstand so much pain? I couldn't even last that long."
Minato sighed, "Well there's a reason for that…" He looked over at Takeharu and nodded to him signaling that he was ready to tell her.
Takeharu nodded back at him in understanding, "I'm going back to the lab to get everything ready for your Persona training, come back down when it gets close to midnight." He turned around and left.
After he left, Minato looked over at Mitsuru, "Remember, when you asked me about my parents and I didn't want to talk about it?" She nodded, "Well the reason for it was because my mother died giving birth to me and my father couldn't handle it."
Mitsuru gasped, "Your mother died after giving birth to you!? That's horrible!"
Minato nodded sadly, "Yeah, I never got to meet her…"
Mitsuru didn't know what to say other than sorry, "I'm sorry Minato, I know what it's like to lose a mother but to lose one without meeting her...I=I don't know how I would feel about that…"
Minato shook his head, "But I didn't know that she had died until I turned five." He looked away, "But that's when my dad told me that she died and that she died because of me…"
Mitsuru quickly shook her head, "That's not true though."
Minato nodded, "Yeah but my dad would constantly blame me for it…but things got worse when I turned seven…" Mitsuru slowly nodded for him to continue and he sighed, "He would get into bouts of rage and start beating me…"
Mitsuru looked at him with wide eyes gasping, "He beat you!? B-But a father isn't supposed to do that! He's supposed to love you! That's absolutely terrible!"
Minato slowly nodded, "Yeah they are and it is terrible..." He looked down, "I always thought I deserved it because he made me believe that it was my fault for my mother dying…" He then gave her a small smile, "But your dad made me realize that it wasn't my fault and my dad did it because he couldn't handle my mom dying."
Mitsuru smiled at him, "I'm glad that father helped you realize that." She shook her head, "I'm so sorry you had to go through so much..."
Minato nodded, "It's okay now, your dad gave me a reason to live again and I also have a new friend as well."
"Yes, you do." Mitsuru put a hand on her chin thinking, "So is that why you're so willing to jump into danger for strangers?"
Minato shrugged, "It might be part of it but it's mostly because it's the right thing to do and also because I want to help anyone in need."
Mitsuru looked at him in admiration, "You really are admirable."
Minato laughed, "Thanks." He looked at her in happiness, "I don't know why I took so long to tell you, it hurts less the more I tell people."
She smiled at him, "It's okay, I understand why you would so thank you for telling me."
"You're welcome and thank you for listening."
Mitsuru nodded, "Of course." She started thinking then nodded soon after and smiled at him, "If there's anything you need or there's something that bothering you, then just come to me. I'll be there to help you in any way I can."
Minato looked at her in surprise, "Wow, that's great to hear! It means a lot to me." He then smiled at her, "And I will do the same for you as well."
"I'm glad to hear that." Mitsuru looked down, "Well there's something that I wanted to tell you. It's about what my grandfather did…I don't like talking about it so that's why I walked to the other side of the boat…"
Minato nodded, "That's understandable."
She continued on, "Like you, I would share the blame for what happened and I was too stubborn to admit that my father was right. There was no reason for me to blame myself. It's just that my father looked dead inside ever since then so I want to fix this as soon as possible and there's no reason to blame myself to do that."
Minato nodded, "Yeah and I'm glad you finally realize that."
Mitsuru nodded, "Yes, like I said before, you helped me with that."
After a bit of silence, Minato looked at his watched and noticed it was only eleven, "We have one hour till midnight. Should we head back to the lab?"
Mitsuru shook her head, "It wouldn't make sense to go there early." She started thinking, "Since we have an hour till midnight, why don't I teach you some fencing then? That's if you're able to though."
Minato smiled at her, "Yeah! I'm feeling a lot better than before!"
Mitsuru got up as well as Minato, "Well then we can head to gym then."
He looked at her shocked, "There's a gym here too!?"
She chuckled, "It's not a huge gym, just a small one that I use to practice fencing and yes, I know people don't have gyms in their homes."
Minato laughed, "I was wondering if you thought that."
Gym
Mitsuru lead Minato through the door and into the gym. He started looked around and noticed that the floor was wooden and mostly empty except for a weapon rack filled with swords as well as long strips of metal on the floor, "Why is there a bunch of metal on the floor?"
"It's what fencers use for their matches. It's called a Piste."
Minato looked at her confused, "Piste? That's an interesting name."
Mitsuru chuckled, "It kind of is. Anyways, since we don't that much time. We will just use what we are wearing now but we usually wear fencing outfits. Let me grab our swords." She walked over to the wall holding the oddly shaped swords. She grabbed two of them and walked back to Minato handing one to him, "These are called foils and we won't get hurt because there's a little ball on the tip of them. Now look at the grip of the foil. That is called a Visconti grip. What you do is to put you thumb on top of the grip and wrap your fingers around the bottom part below the curve where there's a handle for your fingers. Not too tight or too loose"
Minato looked at the grip and then did what she said. After he did it, he started move it up and down getting used to the feeling, "This is pretty cool!"
Mitsuru gave him a small smile, "I kind of figured you would like it. Now I will teach you the stance first. Put your front foot straight forward and your back foot in a 90 degree angle from it and both of them should be bent to be able to attack and defend quickly."
Minato started to follow her instructions and after a few tries, he finally got his back foot in the right position, "This feels really weird."
Mitsuru nodded, "I know, I felt the same way when I first started doing it. Now your sword arm must be at a forty-five degree angle and your other arm must be put behind you. Like this." She got into her stance.
Minato nodded and got into the same position as her, "I didn't think fencing would have all these directions."
Mitsuru nodded again and got out of her stance, "It's a really fancy sport with a lot of rules. Now there's one more thing you have to learn for the basic form is the movement. When you move forward you have to move with your front foot first then your back foot and vice-versa when you want to move backwards. I want you to practice doing that."
"Okay." Minato put his front foot forward and then his back foot forward and started to go forward. He then started to do the opposite so he can go backwards. He was doing this for a couple of minutes and quickly got used to it.
Mitsuru smiled impressed by his quick learning, "I'm impressed that you were able to learn so quickly. I fell down a couple of times till I got a hang of it."
Minato stopped and turned over to her, "Thanks and I think it's because I'm good on my feet is why I'm able to do it easily."
Mitsuru nodded, "Yes that makes sense." She walked to the side of him, "Now, it's time I start teaching you about the basic attacks." Minato nodded, "Now, the basic form of attack is called the Lunge. Watch me first and then follow what I'm doing." She got into the stance and thrust her sword arm forward stepping her front foot forward but keeping her back foot still.
Once Minato watched her enough to understand what she was doing, he started following her movements. After a bit, Minato started to get the hang of it and stopped, "Alright, I got to hang of it."
Mitsuru stopped and smiled at him, "Good." She walked in front of him, "Now there are four attacks with the lunge: High outside, low outside, high inside, and low inside. High outside is when you attack towards the shoulder of the sword arm outside of your opponent's sword arm and low outside is when you go towards the waist again outside of your opponent's sword arm. High inside is when you attack towards the person's chest, and the low inside is the same thing as the high one but lower." She was about to start teaching him but they started hearing beeping.
Minato had a look of confusion on his face but he remembered that he set his watch to start beeping when it hit midnight and sighed in disappointment, "Aw… it's midnight…we have to go back to the lab…"
Mitsuru smiled, "It's alright, we can continue tomorrow after our studies."
Minato beamed at her, "Yeah! I like the sound of that!"
After they put the foils away, they started walking back to the lab. Minato looked over at Mitsuru, "Even though fencing is hard to learn, it's still a lot of fun!"
Mitsuru smiled at him, "I'm glad you find it enjoyable."
They both were quiet while they were walking to the lab, till Minato broke the silence, "I want to thank you and you're dad for everything you've done for me."
Mitsuru looked at him, "You don't have to thank us. You saved us from the shadows. This is the least we can do."
Minato shook his head, "Still you two brought me out of a terrible life and treated me with so much respect. I promise that I will get strong enough that I will be able to help you get rid of your family's curse so your dad can be happy again and you guys can be a normal family again."
Mitsuru's eyes went wide hearing his resolve for wanting to get stronger to help her in fixing her family's curse. She then smiled at him, "Thank you Minato, and I will become strong as well so we can fix what my grandfather has done. Together."
Minato smiled back at her, "Yeah. Together."
[End Notes: So there was a lot of changes but a little bit stayed mostly the same. Now you're probably wondering why Minato isn't all crying about what happened to him with his mom and dad is because he understands why his father did what he did even though it was still terrible what he did but he's still sad about his mother because he never got to meet her but he now realizes that he wasn't the reason why she died. Finally he's in a happy place now it makes him forget about the sadness but that doesn't mean he's going to forget what happened because it's going to come back later on in the story. Lastly, I wanted to add Mitsuru teaching him fencing because it would be more interesting and it will show more Minato and Mitsuru moments.]
