Peek-a-boo…
"Here you go, just as you requested," Yukari handed Minato the juice can with a smile running across her lips. "Do you need anything else?"
"Nah, I think I'm good for the moment," Minato replied to her genuine concern. He did feel bad for asking her to go and get his favorite drink, but since the tap water in the hospital did no good for his tasteless mouth, he could not help himself.
"Thank god you're still alive and well. We thought you were a goner for sure," she joked with an awkward smile, which faded when she received an indifferent reaction from Minato. "Oh… I'm sorry."
"Nah, it's just that I'm still pretty shocked at what happened. I mean, I was out for the whole week, and now I feel just fine, like nothing has happened,"
"Yeah, about that..." Yukari turned quiet for a moment. She knew what has to be said but still, the reality was a bit too extreme for Minato. After a deep breath, she began:
"You remember the things that we saw on the dorm's rooftop the other day? Those things, we call them Shadows. As for their origin, I'm not sure myself, but for one thing, they are not friendly. From what I know, they are the cause of the Apathy Syndrome that you may have seen around lately, and the syndrome seems to affect this city a lot more than the others.
"Anyway, that thing that you... summoned, the one when you shot yourself in the head, we call them Personas. Frankly, I don't know much about them either, but you can say that we are the few 'chosen ones' " she made a quotation gesture, which amused Minato. "I guess you already know their job."
"Wow..." he was already more or less familiar with the subject. He was more surprised by the fact that Igor told him the exact same thing that Yukari was telling him now, but with lesser details.
"I know right, I was shocked myself when I found out about it, too."
"So when did you... you know, figured out," Minato asked.
"As soon as I applied to the dorm, I think it was about half a year ago," she paused, hesitated. "Truth to be told, I've never once summoned my Persona, I just get to know about it. Yours was the third one that I saw, Mitsuru-senpai and Akihiko-senpai were the first."
There was a short pause of silence.
"How was it?" Minato suddenly said.
"What?"
"My Persona. How was it?"
"Well he... it resembled you a lot, minus the dark face and white hair, although..." Yukari averted her eyes. "You then summoned a different one,"
"Really? Is that a bad thing?"
"No, no, not at all, you saved my life so it wasn't a bad thing. It's just that to be able to summon two different ones, it's just really... amazing,"
"Hey, don't sweat it. You were scared, I was, too."
"Oh, but... you can't say that, I mean, I was supposed to protect you there, but in the end, it happened the other way around," she felt somewhat insecure, since she knew that Minato could read her so easily. She did feel sorry for not being able to protect the guy, but another part of her was relief that he tried to reassured her. "A-anyway, I should get going, the doctors told me that you will be released as soon as you wake up. They didn't find anything wrong with you so don't worry too much about it." She stood, and exited the room, not forget to say a quick goodbye beforehand.
She is charming... Minato thought to himself. She had a nice figure, one that would easily distinct her from the rest of the crowd. It felt a bit awkward to talk to a pretty girl like her, with him being an introvert and all. That and plus the the fact that he had had awful experiences with women in the past.
Never did have a girlfriend. though he tried, but usually his attempts ended up failing. Maybe he just did not know how to read the situation right and always confessed at the worst possible moments. Or maybe because of his spontaneous certain state of emotion.
It smells horrible in here, he thought. The mixed odor of alcohol and chemicals sickened him, and the little fragrant of Yukari's perfume left behind only intensified it. He pulled the sheet over his face to isolate him from the smell, although he would give up the idea a minute later.
What was this all about to him? The monsters, the 'Personas', and the Green Night. Obviously, through Igor's words, they all seemed to connect with one another. But what exactly does it mean to him? Did Yukari also one of Igor's guests? Why was it special that he had two of these Personas? And why him?
He groaned, and his voice simply died out in the empty room.
Later that evening he was discharged.
In the next morning he was greeted with an absurd amount of questions. His classmates was 'fascinated' by him, or to be exact, by his odd disappearance after the first few days of school. A lot of students, all strange faces to him, asked if he was fine, while others just asked if he'd just recovered from the 'Apathy Syndrome'. Of course, Minato just slapped back with a flat answer every time: He was sick. And if people insisted on more questions, he would just ignore them. But that was not the end of it. The homework that was waiting to be piled up was another of his problems. You still have to do it even if your life was hanging by strand of hair, he reckoned.
As the final hour ended, Yukari once again approached him with a message. She told him to come straight back to the dorm as soon as possible. She did not tell him the reason, but Minato guessed he could faintly get the hint.
You're popular now, Minato.
When he got back to the dorm, Yukari immediately dragged him three floors up the building. She stood him in front of a large double door he had never seen previously. They were on the top floor, and on the opposite side was the door the led to the rooftop, where also was the place Minato passed out.
Standing still, she eyed Minato for a moment as if to check if he was dressed nicely. She took a large breath in and let it out hastily.
"Look, whatever we're going to say to you in there is not a commitment. So if you don't like where it will go, just back out, ok? There's no reason you should feel bad about anything," she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Ok..." he looked at her awkwardly.
They entered the room.
There were already three people in there expecting for Minato. One was the red haired Senpai who gave him the key to his room on his second day here. Another was the middle aged man who he talked briefly to, and the other, a tough, handsome looking boy in red vest, whom Minato had no idea was. They were all sitting on couches surrounding a coffee table.
"Please, have a seat," the middle aged man said, flashing a smile. "Don't worry, we don't bite."
When Minato sunk in the sofa, he shifted so that he could position himself near the end of the chair. Yukari took a place next to him, as to assure that he wouldn't feel uncomfortable to whatever conversation they were about to have.
"So," the man started. "I assume you already knew what this will be about," he made a hand gesture towards the red-vested boy and the boy produced a silver briefcase from under the table. The rectangle object made a thud as it landed on the table. "Oh, before we begin, I would like to introduce you to mister Sanada here. Akihiko Sanada."
"Hey," Akihiko quickly unlocked the briefcase but he didn't open it. Instead, he sat back and proceeded to fold his arm across his chest while his eye glued on Minato's still-tired figure.
"This in here is the proof that you are on our team," the man said, placing a hand on the briefcase. "Now I am not in any position to make any suggestion, nor I am in the right to force you into anything. That's all I wanted to say first. I believe that miss Yukari Takeba has already disclosed to you briefly about... our line of work." He then looked toward Yukari, who made a sudden jerk with her body.
"Y-yeah," she slid back deeper into the chair, slightly tugging at the end of her skirt. "Minato took it all in quite well actually,"
"Good," a smile lit up at the corner of the man's lips and he finally opened the heavy briefcase.
Inside revealed an object that most would either be excited, or jumped at the sight. It was a small pistol. Coated in silver, the firearm was decorated with an odd design. On it, printed: "S.E.E.S", which he wanted to make a remark of but found it inappropriate for the situation. The gun lied snugly in the space provided within the case with next to it lied a red armband, also, with the same line on the gun written on it.
"We are a secret organization called Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, or 'Sees' in short," the man began. "As you could see in the other night, a creature, which we name 'Shadows' put out a assault on the dorm. Now the origin of these Shadows is still very hazy to us, but from what we know at the moment, these Shadows only appear during the hidden hour between one day and the next. Or the "Dark Hour" as we like to call it."
"The wha-?" Minato spoke, frowning. "You mean when it's green out?"
"Yes, the 'green' time. The lights go out, all electrical devices are off, coffins appear, but I understand that you are very well aware of this strange phenomenon,"
He wanted to said something back. He wanted to say that he just found out about this odd occurring recently, but he reckoned it wasn't necessary. Strangely though, he noticed that the green thing only happened once he set foot on the city... more than a week ago.
"So far," the man, or Ikutsuki now that Minato remembered continued. "We found that the Shadows cannot be harm by any normal mean. Guns, blades, bombs... you name it, a normal weapon has little to no affect on these creatures. Well, at least for conventional weapons anyways, but I'll get back to it later,
"I think you can still recall this gun here. It was the same type that you used on the rooftop a week ago. I must say, not many people I have worked with have the courage to just go and summon one like that," Ikutsuki chuckled, grabbing the silver pistol out from its place and put in on the table in front of them. "This gun here is an Evoker. It is not a normal gun of course..."
"You shoot yourself in the head with it..." Minato said, almost felt stupid for letting his voice out.
"Indeed, and to call forth a Persona."
There was a brief moment of silence.
"You are telling me to join your team?" Minato spoke.
"Y-you don't really have to do that, right?" Yukari was the girl who interrupted. Her voice shook in the lack confidence. "We can't just put it on him like that. For once, he has no business to do with all of this and... and... I mean, it'd be nice if you joined but still..."
"We all witnessed what he is capable of the other night," Akihiko, who previously was quiet now looked at Minato. "I have never seen anyone who gets to control two at the same time, and it was even your first time doing it. I don't want to ask your secret, but I'm sure as hell excited to learn how to do the same."
"Akihiko..." It was Mitsuru.
"It was just an expression Mitsuru. I'm sure that we're all as interested in Mr. Minato here just as Akihiko." Ikutsuki intervened and turned to Minato. "Like I've said previously, the choice is yours. You don't have to decide it now, I will tell you the truth that it is our best interest that you are on our team."
"You can't say it like that," it was Yukari. "Now that just made it tougher for him to turn it down..."
"Hey Yukari, it's fine," Minato spoke again, catching the attention of the worried Yukari "Just let me do the talking." It was there again. That sudden voice in his head that kept jumping out of his mouth. He would have kept quiet, but the impulse to tell someone to stop talking for him couldn't just do so, and at time he couldn't help but feel he was being a jerk. Yukari mumbled a sorry, which only made him feeling worse of himself.
"What about the risk? Let's say that I were to fail, what's going to happen."
As he'd suspected, no answer. The room fell silent, the question hung on the air like a broken record. Everyone eyes dipped to the floor, as if the answer was rolling around, waiting for grasps. Akihiko hands linked together, his fingers moved uncomfortably. Mitsuru legs crossed, her ankle tensed. Yukari was still quiet, her hand grabbed tighter onto her skirt. And the last was Ikutsuki, who had his fingers linked, hiding half of his face.
"I get it," Minato scoffed. "I'm going to get the Syndrome,"
He then stood up and proceeded to the door. "I'll do it," he said. Shortly after, he left.
And the silence in the room lingered.
"Well…" Yukari said. "That was anti-climatic,"
"He is an unique individual, although lacks in social interaction," Ikutsuki remarked. "Anyway, I already told Mitsuru to prepare for an operation in the next two days. It's nothing too important, just getting you guys used to Tartarus."
"Oh, I almost forgot," Akihiko spoke. "Recently, I just found another person who has the ability. He also goes to our school, and I believe that he is also in the same class as you, Yukari."
"Same class? Who?"
"I don't know his name yet, forgot to ask the guy when I found him during Dark Hour last week. But anyway, we should get to sleep, I'll bring the guy to our dorm the day after tomorrow."
Here for now. I could write more but hey… We should all know what the heck happen to the story by now. It was 1.5 year since I updated this...
