A/N: In case you don't know, I've been in hospital and not feeling well. Now I'm all recovered and I'll try to upload a little more.
4. Early awakening
Minako stared at the ceiling of her room, letting out a sigh. Despite the day having been so much fun, there was something that dropped her mood. She didn't really realized it up until an hour ago, but if she really failed, she would be the one who would fight and with a 50% success rated destroy her friends.
Yukari had been delighted to see Minako made friends with Ken. So far he used to hang out with Yukari and Junpei of all people every so often.
"You need to sleep."
Hell I know, but it isn't easy, no matter how tired I am. I just got so much on my mind right now!
"Then do your tasks one by one and the rest will follow."
Huh?
"Ken will try to kill your friend. You can now start to build a relationship and later convince him revenge is futile. You can introduce him to said friend, because at this stage the young boy doesn't know who killed his mother. At the same time you can convince the older one to stop taking the drugs, maybe by simply exposing it to the rest."
That actually sounds good, but we need to think of the details. Shinji isn't most of the time at places a 'child' like me should be, plus I need to figure a way out how I 'stumble' over the pills or Mitsuru and the rest are out for my head.
"No one said it would be easy."
Hmm. Well, why we're talking like this, what do you personally think of us humans?
"...I haven't thought much about humans the last centuries. At least until I met you and you defeated me, a god, the mother of death himself."
So?
"Well I know everything about you, but I have yet to make me a general opinion on humans. Your race certainly changed."
She let out a yawn. "Guess I should try to sleep." Throwing the blanket over her head, she rolled to the side and closed her eyes. Her dream was about a normal school day at Gekkoukan.
XXX
Waking up the next morning, Minako needed time to realize she was in the body of a ten year old girl and not her old body. She already felt how her days would become boring again with every day doing the same. Oh well, instead of social linking, she might as well make some friends at her new school.
"Good morning, Minako-chan!"
"Morning, Yukari-nee."
"So, are you ready for the day?"
"Not really." the avatar admitted, her head hitting the table again. Yukari titled her head and chuckled. "Oh come on. With that expression you'll make even Ken-kun and Maiko-chan tired."
"Maiko-chan? Ken-kun maybe, but not Maiko-chan, Yukari-nee."
Suddenly the doorbell rang. Yukari went to answer the door, wondering who it could be. "Ah, Maiko-chan! What are you doing here?"
"Morning Yukari-chan! Is Minako-chan awake?" asked the school girl. Yukari giggled. "Well more or less. I'll get her for you."
Minako meanwhile had enough problems getting her cornflakes down at a steady speed, because else she would be late for school. She went to bed early and now here she was still tired. "Minako-chan." Said girl visible cringed at Yukari's energetic voice. Has she been that annoying to Junpei every morning? Suddenly she could understand the cap-wearing teen.
"Yes?"
"Maiko-chan has come, so you two could walk together to school."
"Mhm. Just a second."
She didn't do herself a favor swallowing everything, like she had been starving for a day and Yukari attempted to stop the younger girl, but the red-eyed girl was already finished. Rubbing her tummy, Minako grabbed her bag and walked to the door.
"Bye!" she waved off.
"She has an iron stomach." Yukari commented, remembering how spicy the little girl made her own share of the curry.
"Hi, Maiko-chan!"
"Hi, Minako-chan! You look sleepy."
"I don't like mornings."
The two started walking to their school, talking about the day before.
"Yesterday was fun, right?" asked Maiko as energetic as ever.
"I think Ken-kun didn't like it, when we splashed all the water on him." Minako mused. Both girls giggled, remembering how angry the boy got afterwards. It had been an accident, while they were washing the dishes.
"Ken-kun is so mature and you're so smart. I wish I would be that clever." Maiko pouted, remembering how Minako finished her homework first and later she and Ken helped her with the homework.
"Well...but you're faster than Ken and I." Minako remembered when they started playing outside at the shrine. They had a little race and Minako wasn't really in top-condition. However she was surprised to see, that Ken was even slower than Maiko. That girl was one hell of a runner.
"I bet you can make it to the Olympics."
"Really?!"
"Yeah, of course."
"Yay! Will you run with me today, Minako-chan?" Maiko's eyes seemed to shimmer.
"Uhh, I wanted to visit someone first. He's in hospital."
"Oh, is he a friend?" Maiko asked.
"...Sort of."
"I have a friend too in hospital. I call him striped shirt."
"Striped shirt?" Minako became sad, when she remembered the poor man, who would die in a few months and already made peace. Maybe if Minako herself would have known she would die when she was not even 17, she would have been able to prepare herself mentally. Or maybe she would have run away from her fate. Who knows?
After some more chatting, the two arrived at the school building. Maiko would come with Minako to hospital and she would ask if Ken would come along, helping Maiko with her training later on. The way the girl was pumped up, it reminded Minako about Akihiko.
"Hi, Ken-kun." Minako met the other boy in the hallway.
"Good morning Minako-chan." he greeted back formally. "Gee, you almost make me blush. Haha, but jokes aside. Remember yesterday, how Maiko ummm" she looked around and then lowered her voice "beat us in the race?"
Ken nodded frowning.
"Well, after I said she could make it to the Olympics later, she now really wants to train." Minako sweatdropped at the thought. "Wanna tag along?"
Ken thought about it, considering what he was planning anyways. "Yeah, I think I'll come."
"Great! Oh but I want to visit a friend in hospital first. Is that okay with you?"
"A friend?"
"Yeah...he...well he's in a coma, so I just want to be there for a few minutes."
"Oh." Ken nodded. The first bell rung and the two walked into the class. Minako certainly did have problems to stay awake the entire first period. During break, she ran a few rounds with Maiko and Ken and that finally got rid of the last bit of sleep.
It was still break time, when Minako found a really long stick on the ground. Not being able to resist, she picked it up and walked to an area where she had more space.
"Minako-chan?" She didn't hear her friends and when the two finally followed her, she already had her old fighting stands, handling the stick as if it was a naginata. At first she only made a few simple swings with it. But what soon followed were a series of slashes which became more and more complicated the longer she did her little exercise.
Nyx inwardly laughed, as Minako didn't notice the crowd that had gathered around her, keeping distance from the girl. "Wow." Maiko said in awe. Even some teachers had gathered around, watching in awe-horror, as the little girl did her performance. Normally they should have taken the stick away already.
Minako soon got the hang of her new body. It was good she performed a few normal slashes first or else she would have hurt herself already. She finished her little exercise, with using her stick to jump up, make a front flip and slash the imaginary shadow in front of her.
She panted heavily, sweating bullets and the adrenaline was slowly leaving her body. She then noticed that from what it looked like, the entire school had been watching.
"KYAA!" She threw the stick up in the air in an overdramatically way.
And with that she ran away as fast as possible. Break was almost over anyway.
XXX
For the rest of the day, Minako kept a low profile and mostly kept her face hidden behind a book or was acting like she had trouble with what the teacher told her to do, although she could have finished the task ten times over.
The homeroom teacher of course talked to her about what happened.
"I'm sorry! I promise I won't do it ever again!" Minako tried the puppy dog eyes. Her homeroom, Mr. Honda, smiled and shook his head. "I'm not angry Minako-chan. You certainly have talent for this kind of sports. Who taught you this?"
"Uhh...I had a teacher, when my parents were still alive."
"I see. Just you're right, you shouldn't do it anymore in school. Your fellow students might get the wrong idea, you know?"
Seeing as Minako said 'teacher', Mr. Honda thought Kirijo knew about this already. He and the rest of the stuff were more concerned about other students trying to do the same. But said students were more occupied in avoiding Minako, seeing as she could whoop their asses within seconds.
And after school
"That was amazing Minako-chan!" Maiko beamed. "Eh, you think so?"
"Yeah, you're amazing. Isn't that right, Ken-kun?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Amazing." He hadn't really been listening. His thoughts seemed to be elsewhere. Maiko kept blathering about Minako's performance and went on and on and on, until they finally arrived at the hospital.
Minako lead the other two to Minato's room, who were surprised to see her friend was a teenager.
"Who is he?" Ken asked.
"His name is Minato. We're not related. It's just a coincidence that we have the same name and he*sigh* saved my life."
"What?!" the two around her exclaimed. Minako looked to the side, uncomfortable. "I don't want to talk about it..."
After seeing her performance today, Maiko thought of Minako being invincible. Ken briefly thought about a bunch of situations where Minako could be in danger and the boy loses consciousness by saving her.
Minako had already walked to Minato and climbed on the bed, looking at the boy sleeping on the bed. Maiko and Ken gave each other a troubled look, before following Minako, sitting down on two free chairs. Both looked uncomfortable up to their still new friend. Her face was completely different from what it usually was like. Instead of soft, smiling and eyes bright, her gaze was hardened, her eyes piercing and all over she frowned.
Minako put her hand on Minato's hand, squeezed it and jumped off the bed.
"Let's-"
"Urrgh...man..." that groan got the attention of the trio and Minako literally jumped around, hiding her shocked expression from the other two.
It can't be! It's way too early for him to wake up.
"Remember the butterfly."
Minato got up, rubbing the place on his head, where Minako 'shot' him. "Huh?" he noticed the three kids next to his bed.
"I-I'll go get a doctor!" Ken snapped out of it first and ran out of the room, looking for the next best doctor. "Wait Ken-kun! I'm faster!" Maiko ran after the boy, leaving Minako and Minato alone in the room. Minato's gaze was fixated on the girl who stood in front of his bed. Minako didn't know what she should say. She wasn't prepared for Minato to wake up so early.
"How do you feel?" she finally brought out. Minato didn't answer, but kept looking at the girl down at him. The brunette felt uncomfortably over time.
"Hamuko?" the boy finally asked.
"Uhh, no? My name is Minako."
"M-Minako?"
"Uhuh!" Minako finally got herself and was back to her cheery self. "Yukari-nee-chan told me you're Minato. And you're an Arisato too! You could be my big brother!" Minako cheered, thinking she would unnerve the boy. Hamuko, huh? Well it would fit and was kind of a cute name.
Despite her own expectations, Minato smiled. "Yeah, I could."
Minako placed herself next to Minato on the bed again. "Do you remember what happened?"
"...Yeah, but...I'm not sure if I can trust my memory."
"It's all true and we'll explain later."
At that point Ken and Maiko came back with a doctor, who found the other Arisato awake. The trio waited outside, while the doctors performed a little checkup.
"What did he say?" Maiko asked.
"Not much."
"Maybe he's still confused." Ken mused. Neither he nor Maiko pressed, seeing as how uncomfortable Minako was with the topic. To their surprise Minato came out with the protesting doctor, but the boy just shrugged him off.
"So guys, this is Minato Arisato. We even share the same last name, I forgot to mention."
"Really? Maybe he's your long lost older brother?!" Maiko beamed at the thought. Ken doubted it, although this was one heck of a coincidence.
"Minato-nii, these are Maiko and Ken, my friends from school."
"Hi!"
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Minato-san."
The bluenette was surprised on how polite the boy was. "No need to be so polite. I'm Minato. Noce to meet all of you. But why are you all visiting me?"
"Oh, they tagged along with me." Minako explained. Minato nodded and suddenly his stomach grumbled. "How about ramen? My treat."
At this moment the kids' stomachs crumbled. All of them blushed and the girls grinned sheepishly. Minato snorted and the four made their way to Hagakure Ramen.
XXX
Ken believed more and more Minako and Minato were actually siblings, seeing as the two had black holes in their stomachs. Maiko and he sure had healthy appetites, but it was nothing compared to the Arisatos'.
Minato was more of the silent protagonist, saying short sentences if he was asked something and mostly let the kids do the talking. "Mm, do we still go running afterwards?" Minako asked. She quickly explained what they planned today.
"I can use my cell phone as a stop-watch."
Minako wondered why he was playing along.
"It must have something to do with you. He's constantly looking over to you."
Now that Nyx mentioned it, she was right. Minako glanced every so often over and noticed most of the time Minato's gaze was on her.
I must have left quite the impression on him with helping him summoning his persona.
Finishing their meal, the four walked to the shrine. Minato even played along with them and it wasn't like they were running all the time. They played other games too and either he was a good actor or he really liked playing those games.
"Aren't you an adult Minato-san? Why are you playing so childish games?" Ken asked.
"So what?" he asked. Ken didn't understand the older boy.
At one point Ken took Minato to the side, a little away from the others. "Minako, what you did in school today..."
"Oh that..." Minako scratched the back of her head sheepishly.
"Can you teach me?"
It happened again. Ken noticed how Minako's whole expression took a 180. He seemed way more mature, than a 10 year old should be. And she glared at Ken. It felt like she was really stabbing him. He certainly was a little scared at how the girl looked at him.
"Ken" there was something in her voice, he couldn't identify. Eventually she sighed. "Fine."
"Really?" he asked.
"Just promise me you won't do anything stupid, okay?" her look was almost a pleading one. The boy noticed the girl meant it. He remembered how Minako was taken away by Mr. Honda today during homeroom.
"Don't worry. I won't do anything stupid."
Minako smiled. And just like this, her personality got another 180. "Alrighty, but no slacking off or else" she came closer and was now at Ken's ear "a world full of pain will await you."
Ken gulped. That girl was the devil.
