Change of Engagement

by Vocarin

Snippets and pieces of Persona 3, showing Death's host and the Kirijo heiress and that sometimes one's own humanity is enough to make a difference. That absolute destruction isn't enough to stop one simple truth. That two in harmony surpasses one in perfection.

10. Attaque au Fer

Author's Notes: It seems reports of my survival have been greatly exaggerated.

The Ruisu: That would be telling, I'm afraid, so you will have to read further and see what happens. Huge burden, I know, so I hope you like what follows.

Zelda355: Good enough to teach others, eh? I doubt I'd be much of an instructor, but I appreciate the compliment, and others are certainly welcome to learn what they can. Glad you liked Fuuka and Shinjiro, they were fun to write, and as to more romance, well, that is one area where I can promise to deliver. Thanks for the review, and I hope you continue to enjoy the ride.

Kirijo Senpai: Hopefully this one makes up for it. I imagine it will.

Regis JN: Glad you like it. I admit that fight scenes are something that I have needed to work on as the fic has progressed, so I'm glad that you like them. Also glad that you like the romance stuff because there's a lot more of that to come.

That Guy: Ikutsuki was an exercise by himself, so I'm glad you liked it. I agree (as if that wasn't obvious), not being able to go out with Mitsuru on the summer festival date was a serious waste, so I'm glad this comes across as a passing fair substitute. As to Minato, well, we'll have to see where the story goes, no? Thanks for the review!

MsFreya: Looking forward to it, and I hope this is an appropriate offering.

Ramix: I'd love to hear why you love it since I never tire of hearing that. You make a good point with the Personas not being in Continuance, but I feel like trying to ape that masterpiece (especially since so many have tried and trailed off into stagnation) would be a mistake. That said, I will make sure that all the Persona goodness here, and there is a lot more to come, will make up for that. Thanks for reviewing, and enjoy!

Jozern: There's more to come, that much I can promise you. Like that hot spring scene in Kyoto, the end of her S. Link... yeah, there's a lot of awesomeness coming down the track, and that's just the ones the game recognizes. Enact and I have a few original pieces coming up, too, so stay tuned for those.

Winter Arctica: I promise to try, that's about the best I can do. I'm glad you like what's going on so far, especially with what's coming up in the next few installments. As to the height thing, well, in this story Minato is several inches shorter than Mitsuru. This is due to the fact that while the Wiki says that she's shorter than he is, I have a very hard time imagining her not being taller than him. Maybe it's the maturity and authority she carries.

HopelessRomanticist: There are a fair number of things that a non-Evoker summoner ties into, I very much agree. As to what those implications are, I won't tip my hand but I will say that I have thought about things like that and have taken them into account. Glad you're liking it, and I hope that continues. Enjoy!

Emeraldfireblade: Much obliged. Getting into the different moods and bringing the scenes to life was a concern of mine, so I'm glad that I pulled it off passably well. Chidori was an unusual exercise and getting into the mind of a murderous powerhouse went far smoother than it should have, I admit. She has a few twists and turns ahead, along with the rest of Strega, so stay tuned for that. Ikutsuki took a fair bit more research than I expected it to, but it was also much deeper than I expected to go when I planned it out, so I'm rather happy with it. And yeah, the mysterious guest from the armoury rises again. When will that be revealed? Enjoy, my friend, and much obliged.

Guest (May 11): You won't have to wait much longer, as you can see. Glad you're liking Minato and Mitsuru, and I hope you like twists and turns because I'm nowhere near being out of ideas for this little project. Thanks for the review, and I hope you like what's to come.

Having a long nose is a metaphor in English for fibbing or lying and being caught at it. In Japanese culture, however, it refers to someone being conceited, arrogant, or overly smug about their own accomplishments. Just in case you were wondering. Also, the honorific -tan is a legit one. It's how children say -chan and can be inferred as sarcastic or commenting on someone's immaturity if used by an adult.

Now then, on with the show.

Chapter 10 - Attaque au Fer

"I know it's short notice," Minato told her, trying not to speak too loudly in the sterile hallway. The hospital staff had already given him crap for using his phone where he wasn't supposed to and he was lucky enough that Elizabeth had picked up this time instead of Igor, "but I need to talk to you as soon as I can."

"Are you certain you can't speak to the Master about this, Arisato-sama?" she inquired, drawing out every syllable in that haunting way of hers. "He's here and ready to answer any inquiries you might have. He's expressed an interest in your growing abilities, actually."

"Is that our young Contractor on the line, Elizabeth?" a familiar, raspy voice asked, loud enough to be heard on the phone.

Minato clenched his teeth, leaning against the wall. He winced when his shoulder, right where their captive, Yoshino Chidori, had hit him with her axe, flared up painfully. He turned so his back was against the wall instead and turned away from the nurses so he wouldn't have to see their disapproving stares. "A lot of things have changed recently," he began, thinking of a way to convince her, "and I could use your expertise. It sounds like Igor would be busy with other things and I'm not sure if he'd be able to help."

"He always has time for you," Elizabeth assured him immediately. "The Master looks very forward to your visits."

"Indeed! Please inform him that I have a new tarot spread for him to experiment with. His most recent attempts have been very educational!"

Minato sighed. A familiar voice reached him from down the hall, and when he turned to see Mitsuru-senpai talking to some of the doctors, he decided to play his trump card. "I felt like the last time you were out here was a little shy on some things you could have experienced," he told her. "It's not that I don't want to come and visit you and Igor, but there are some food shops that I found that you might like. Specialty shops that sell things that I haven't seen anywhere else."

"...Please continue," she told him in a quieter voice.

Minato smirked. Now he had her attention. "It's a sweets shop, where they sell candy and cakes. I could just bring you some in a bag, but it's the sort of thing you should have while it's still hot, and this way you wouldn't have to share." The last part was a gamble since he had no idea if Igor actually needed food, or had any interest in it like his assistant seemed to, but Elizabeth had seemed to love the sweet sauces when they'd had takoyaki at the strip mall.

It paid off a moment later. "That is very rational thinking. If Margaret were to come to visit, and if she saw that I had wonders like you describe, I'm certain she would fight me for something so exceptional. There is no guarantee that the Velvet Room would survive, and that would ruin the experience of having such delicacies all to myself."

Minato blinked. Who was Margaret? And why would Elizabeth fight her over food? "Right," he continued, trying not to lose his chance, "and this way you could see more of the city. Does that work for you?"

"I find this to be most agreeable, Arisato-sama. How soon would you like this rendezvous to take place?"

Where had she learned that word? The idea of it being a rendezvous, especially since he had classmates who were still pestering him about his "foreign mistress," made him turn a little red. "Tomorrow at 2 in the afternoon." He gave her the necessary directions, making sure they were simple and easy to follow. "I'll meet you there."

"I look forward to this delicious opportunity, Arisato-sama," she purred happily. "Thank you so much for thinking of me to share it with."

"It's no problem," Minato rushed out, looking up as Mitsuru-senpai walked over to him. "I'll see you then." He cut the call and let out a long breath. What was it about that woman that always made him feel like he was throwing the dice on blind odds? All he wanted was to know more about the Shadows and his Personas and how they might link to Strega, and all that it involved was talking to her in person. It shouldn't be that hard of a process. Knowing about her odd fascination only fed his active imagination with ways that things could and would go wrong, but he tried to think positively about the plans he'd made with her. Just because she'd given a fortune to the fountains in the mall and became fixated with the escalators near the train station, he tried to assure himself, didn't mean that this wasn't going to work out. His odds this time were probably fifty-fifty, after all. Just as his temperature was starting to level off, he realized that he hadn't asked her what she was going to be wearing, and he didn't know whether her usual uniform would make her stand out any more than what she'd worn to the mall had. Hopefully it wasn't anything too outrageous.

"Is everything alright?" Mitsuru-senpai asked, looking fresh and clean like she hadn't spent the last two days going through records and talking to detectives and police officials. In fact, she didn't look worse for wear at all, so Minato concluded that she'd finally had a nap like he and Akihiko-senpai had, six times each, told her to.

"I think so, yes," he told her, pocketing his phone and ignoring the dirty looks from the nurses at the nearby station. "I had some ideas about the Shadow that I needed to think over and, well, Junpei said he was going to make a visit today."

"And aside from that?" she asked, her eyebrow raised knowingly. "You've been pushed harder than any of us these last few months, and that's not taking Yoshino into account. Are you recovering and getting enough rest?"

Guilty, but he wasn't going to let her know that he'd spent half of last night staring at his ceiling and listening to his music when the tossing and turning became too boring. He was feeling stretched thin, but he also felt like he needed to keep going and stay active, no matter what that meant. "Are you?" he shot back.

"I'm not the one the Shadows are talking to," she noted. "Fighting against them and Strega is a problem by itself, but we don't know what effect their influence can have on someone."

"I'm keeping a close eye on everything, Senpai," he assured her. "I won't take any chances if I don't need to."

"Good." She pointed to the room Minato was standing across the hall from. "Has Iori arrived yet?"

"Not yet. He should be here soon, though."

Mitsuru-senpai shuffled a little closer, and before she could say anything, Minato reached out to take her hand. She looked at him, surprised, but then a soft smile turned her lips up and she turned her hand towards his, letting him twine his fingers between hers and pull her over next to him. Intent on not giving the nurses more of a reason to throw him out of the hospital, Minato pulled her closer so no one could see him rub his thumb across her knuckles. How could a girl who used swords have such soft skin? She must has used a beauty parlour's worth of moisturizers and creams to keep her hands like that. Minato couldn't imagine her fussing over something like that, however, and, when he thought about it, she very rarely smelled like hand lotion.

"Has anything come from her being here?" Mitsuru-senpai asked after a few moments. "She was very quiet after we arrived and secured her."

"As far as I know, she hasn't said very much," Minato replied, glancing over to the nurses for only a second. "The police left before I got here, but the hospital staff haven't reported anything besides the last incident."

The incident had been when Yoshino Chidori had managed to hide a fork from her breakfast tray and cut her left arm, leaving her with hideous wounds until, right before their eyes, the gouges began to heal without leaving so much as a scratch. Shinjiro-senpai and Ken had mentioned it when everyone had gotten out of class, and while Junpei had wanted to see her, Mitsuru-senpai pulled rank and insisted on questioning her alone. It hadn't gotten her anywhere, but she wasn't the sort to let that stop her.

"Is there a reason why the nurses are looking at you like that?" she asked quietly, looking past him.

Minato chuckled nervously. "They threatened to take my phone away because I was making too many calls."

"I do that all the time," she pointed out, brows furrowed in curiosity. "So does Akihiko. They don't bother us about it, and they shouldn't have bothered you if they knew you were with us."

Of course she'd say that. Well, he had given her a pretty lousy excuse, so it made sense that she'd see through it. "Well... I might have done something to offend them the other day."

She looked at him, an amused smirk on her lips. "Such as?"

Minato exhaled shortly, ready to tear the bandage off and get it over with. "I decided to try my hand with Yoshino. I went in to talk to her when no one else was around."

Her smirk vanished and she pulled her hand away from his so she could turn and look at him square-on with a very hard glare. "Why did you do that?"

Minato let out a puff of air. He knew he'd overstepped his bounds, even as the team leader in the field, but he didn't flinch from her stare or her tone. "I wanted to ask her what she saw about me, and I wanted to know if being out of the Dark Hour would change the things she seemed to feel about me. I thought that she might have picked up something from the Shadow and some time away from it all would make her head clearer."

"That's a logical assumption to make, but I told the hospital staff..." realization lit up her eyes just then. "...to only let people see her if I cleared them first."

Minato smirked without feeling especially funny. "They said the same thing, but I wanted to know for sure."

She crossed her arms and tapped a finger on the inside of her elbow. Her stare was intense enough for him to feel, and it occurred to him that this was the first time he'd ever seen her this upset. "You do realize that I gave the staff those instructions for a reason, don't you? It was for their safety, and for the safety of Iori and anyone else in SEES."

"It was for a good reason, Senpai," he assured her. "And I would have asked, but you were busy."

"I'm never too busy to address something like this, Arisato, and your reasons won't change the fact that you disobeyed my instructions and put everyone in this hospital, including yourself and Yoshino, at risk." This was as close as she'd ever been to giving a formal reprimand, at least for him, and the emphasis on certain words made it clear that she didn't appreciate that it was required.

He'd never seen her glare like this before, much less felt its bite. He took a few seconds to steady both his tongue and his spine. "Sometimes that's necessary," he insisted. He knew he was overstepping his place, but he wasn't about to back down. "Especially with someone like her and her allies. They won't play by our rules, so that means we have to get a bit creative with conventions. I didn't want to risk her doing something before I could talk to her."

Mitsuru-senpai's eyes narrowed and it was easy to see where she was about to go with the argument. Instead of reprimanding him as his senpai and superior, though, she continued her inquiry. "What happened? Did she give you any answers?"

He shook his head. "Not one. She started going crazy as soon as I came in the room. I don't think I'd even turned the corner when she started screaming and trying to get away."

"I don't expect that the nurses took well to that," Mitsuru-senpai mused knowingly.

"They had some words for me once things settled down," he admitted with a shrug. That was an understatement. They'd cornered him and lectured him for close to half an hour under the guise of medical care before he'd played his ace. The frosty silence he got from that made the day especially stand out in his memory.

She let out a thoughtful hum while her eyes narrowed. "Why didn't I hear about this before? If there was an incident with her, then I should have been notified."

"I asked them not to." Minato knew what she'd ask next, so he spilled the rest of the story. "And I made sure I'd overheard some gossip to use as collateral. They might have said something to you otherwise."

Mitsuru-senpai looked at him for a moment before she surprised him with a chuckle. "I wouldn't have expected you to resort to such tactics, but well done."

Minato stood taller and made a show of preening. "I have my moments, thank you."

"Moments is a good way to say it," she needled, tension leaving her frame. "Once in a great while."

"That hurts, Senpai. I really mean it. You're a cruel person."

She chuckled again, louder this time. Minato was expecting her to return a sharply witty remark, but when he looked past her, he saw Junpei coming down the hall, a large notebook and a thin plastic case in his hands. Minato accepted his friend's approach as inevitable – it was why Minato had come early in the first place – but that didn't make the loss of any further chances to banter with his senpai sting any less.

"Hey," Junpei greeted when he was close enough. "You guys don't need to be here, you know. Chidori's not going to do anything."

"She's dangerous, even without her Evoker," Mitsuru-senpai told him, all business. "You remember what Shinjiro told us before?"

"Yeah, and I hear she hasn't done it again."

"Because they've stopped giving her utensils to eat with," Minato pointed out. "That doesn't mean that she won't try something if she thinks of it."

"There's also the matter of her background," Mitsuru-senpai continued. "I've spoken to the police and the Kirijo Group, and we have more information on her."

Junpei looked a little hopeful, but it died off as he sighed. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"

Mitsuru-senpai looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped and began a few seconds later. "She's not the sort of person who can be swayed by words and gestures. What she's seen and been through, what she's done, you can't make it go away by visiting her. I know you spent time with her before, but you should know that her past is a very unpleasant one, and that's only based on what we could find. It's in no way comprehensive, so she might have gone through things that we don't know about. Those things might be much worse by comparison."

Junpei's teeth clenched and Minato could see that he was taking Mitsuru-senpai's words badly. "We just want you to know what you're dealing with," he assured his friend. "If you want to talk to her, you're welcome to. You deserve to know the score, and we want you to be careful because there's a lot about her that we can't account for."

"Thanks for the concern," Junpei told them, a set look on his face. "I mean that. But this is what I want to do."

"Can I ask why?" Mitsuru-senpai inquired. "You haven't known her for very long, so is there a reason why you want to help her?"

Minato had some ideas, especially since he remembered what Junpei had said at the festival. Also, he'd recently heard Junpei arguing with his father on the phone and the words "you're wasting your time with her" had been said with a great deal of heat behind them.

Junpei stood, silent, for several moments before he shook his head. "When you put it like that, I'm not sure. I know she attacked us and probably would have killed us if she'd had the chance. I know she tricked me and tied me up, but... I dunno. This is what I want to do, and it feels like the right choice."

While Mitsuru-senpai tilted her head, clearly curious, Minato sighed. He had a feeling it would be something like that, especially given Junpei's behaviour since he'd met the girl. Whether it was a crush, puppy love, or the real thing, there was no stopping him from what he felt, and trying to put a name to it or come up with a rationalization didn't change the desire to pursue it. Minato glanced to his senpai and had to concede that he certainly understood the appeal of a redhead, but he knew that things were going to be far from simple from this point on. "If that's the case, then go ahead and see her," Minato told his friend. "I won't bring it up again."

"Nor will I," Mitsuru-senpai promised.

Junpei looked at them and smiled a little, some tension leaving his body. "Thanks, you guys. That means a lot." He went into Yoshino's room without another word, jubilant greetings loud enough for everyone to hear as soon as he saw her.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Mitsuru-senpai asked her comrade as the door closed. "It's his decision to make and I respect that, but I feel like this is going to become very messy."

"It's his choice," Minato told her as he leaned against the wall again. "Whether it goes well or not, we can't make those decisions for him. To change the subject, Senpai, you're connected with security here, right?"

She gave him a look and raised an eyebrow, clearly curious, and nodded. "That's right. why do you ask?"

"If we know when he's planning on coming to visit, I'll make sure I'm here in case anything happens," he replied, nudging his book bag with his foot. "I don't want to take any chances, and I think I'm the best deterrent we have where she's concerned."

She took a few seconds to answer. "Are you sure you can spare that much time? That's quite a commitment given how often Iori has spoken of her so far."

It was a valid question, given how far the hospital was from the dorm and the school.

"I'll make the time," he replied assuredly. "This is important to him and we can't afford for him to be hurt. I'll make sure he's alright with it so there aren't any problems."

She looked at him, lovely lips pursed and eyes a little narrow. As much as Minato had watched her since April, he couldn't read what she was thinking. That bothered him more than it should have, and he felt the urge to get an answer sooner rather than later. "What does that look mean?"

Mitsuru-senpai smiled a moment later. "You sounded like a graduating student just now, you know. A responsible and respectable senpai looking out for a kouhai while they make it through the hard steps in life."

Minato wasn't expecting that, neither her words nor the admiring look she was giving him. He also wasn't expecting the way his cheeks turned red, then even redder when he swore and tried to keep the reaction down. Her light, bell-like laugh wasn't helping, either.

"It's nothing like that," he insisted awkwardly. "Akihiko-senpai would have done the same thing."

"Because he's a graduating student who looks after his kouhai," she pointed out, giving another laugh when he blushed even more.

"It comes with the territory. That's all." His excuses were getting lamer by the moment.

"I think it's impressive, how far you've come since you got here. We threw you to the wolves with the Shadows and your Personas, but you've come through it all quite well." And just because she hadn't embarrassed him enough yet, he was certain, she reached over and ruffled his hair before he could stop her.

"Senpai!" It was mortifying how his words came out as a whine, but he backed up a step and swatted her hand away so he couldn't follow the impulse to lean into the sensation.

She looked at him, eyes narrow and thoughtful again, before she giggled, actually giggled, and the sound made Minato's heart skip a beat. "I'll entrust Iori to you then, Arisato. So long as you don't neglect your own studies and responsibilities, your plan is the one that we will use."

"Glad you agree," he replied, still embarrassed by how red he was.

She checked her watch before stepping back. "I have a meeting to attend soon. I'll see you at the dorm tonight?"

"I'll be there."

She nodded and turned to walk back down the hallway. Minato intended to grab his books and finish his homework in one of the nearby chairs, but he couldn't help but watch her leave. Was he imagining it, or were her hips swaying more than usual?

He watched her until she turned the corner, and he let out a breath once she did. He had it bad for her, he knew, but several of his Personas pointed out that she would never have played with his hair or giggled like a schoolgirl when he'd first met her. He'd been watching her since the Shadow in the hotel had screwed with his mind and he'd refused to believe the illusions it had shown him. The source of those thoughts and feelings was far too suspect to take at its word. Now, though, he couldn't deny that there might have been some merit to them. He couldn't imagine her ruffling hair with Akihiko-senpai or Shinjiro-senpai, after all, and while that turned him red again he allowed himself to smile without any reservation this time: he had it bad for her, but maybe she had it just as bad for him.

---

"Oh my," Elizabeth said to herself as she looked through the window. "What a sumptuous array of confectionaries. Arisato-sama's taste is beyond compare."

She'd intended to only come to the shop he'd informed her of at the appointed time, but the more she considered it, the more she wanted to come early and explore the area. If there was a shop of such prestige in this district that Arisato-sama thought of it specifically to show her, then logic dictated that there should be other such exceptional edifices of commerce in close proximity. Her mind made up and her reasoning sound, she put enough money in her wallet to cover even the most exquisite of purchases and also brought along a small sack of gemstones that the Master assured her were of unmatched monetary value. Should her paper yen bills prove insufficient, she had a perfect alternative. Doubly so if she stopped to appease the water spirits again; her luck since that day had been without compare.

It was still four hours before she was set to meet with Arisato-sama, but that only gave her more time to reconnoitre the area. She'd even chosen her attire with the intent to blend in again, forgoing her blue dress and cap like she'd worn last time she'd been privileged with an outing with the young Contractor. This time she'd decided to wear shoes with adorable little buckles on the tops, a skirt that went to her knees with a slit halfway up the side, a front-tied top with a short jacket like what she'd worn before, and, because she'd never tried it before, a very colourful scrap of cloth around her hair. To her knowledge, it was called a bandana. She'd never had her belly and legs so liberated, and the feel of the wind was delicious on her skin.

"Pardonnez-moimadame!" someone called from nearby. "Pardon me, but I must ask, s'il vous plaît, where you found such magnifiques vêtements."

Elizabeth turned to see a lovely-looking blond young man approaching her while holding a Japanese fan. If the badge on his jacket was indeed accurate, then he was a student at Arisato-sama's school. "Are you talking to me, sir? Were you commenting on my clothes?"

"Yes, yes I was! Oh belle Japon, ces merveilles que vous me montrent, to have such an opportunity as this must be fate, yes?"

He seemed quite excited by her attire, enough so that he was tripping over himself and speaking quite fast. In spite of that, Elizabeth couldn't help but appreciate that her wardrobe was receiving such attention. The stranger's admiration and the looks other people were giving her made knowing that she'd made the right selection all the more exquisite. "It pleases me that you find them pleasurable. Might I ask who you are?"

"Of course, of course, my manners go me when I need them most. Truly though, you are Japanese, yes? Your taste is, as we say in France, parfait! I am called Andre Laurent Jean Geraux, but if that is, how do they use, cumbersome to say, I have been called Bebe by my contemporaries at school."

"Andre Laurent Jean Geraux," Elizabeth repeated, complete with the accent and inflections just as he'd said them. It was quite a simple matter. Did the other students truly have difficulty with it? "It's not a problem at all. Actually, it is a most serviceable name."

"Ahh, mon cher, to hear my name spoken as such is a pleasure beyond compare. Please, tell me, what shall I call you?"

"I am Elizabeth, Andre Laurent Jean Geraux. It is a pleasure to meet you."

His responding bow was deeper than other people had given her so far. "The pleasure is mine. Might I ask what you are doing here? This shop serves the finest sweets on the island. Were you hoping to partake?"

"I was, but I am also meeting someone here in some time, and I didn't want to be late. It is quite important that I be available to him when he arrives."

Her new friend nodded knowingly. He seemed to appreciate the importance of her meeting. What a wonderful fellow, to agree with her preferences before she'd even expressed them. "I see, I see. This person, he is important to you?"

Beyond her ability to appropriately say, but her new friend was being most accommodating, so she would try. "Of course. Arisato-sama is as precious to me as the Papacy is to a pious bishop, or perhaps as valuable as the ocean is to all the fish within it. He is very special, you see."

"Arisato-sama!?" he shouted, a wide grin brightening his already luminescent features. "Please, pray tell, do you mean Arisato Minato-sama? About this tall with particulièrement unique indigo hair?"

"That is his name. And his hair is that colour, yes. Do you know him?"

Andre Laurent Jean Geraux fluttered his fan excitedly. Where had he gotten such a fetching ornament? Elizabeth couldn't help but watch it and suddenly want a collection of them for herself. Margaret would be most intrigued by them the next time she visited. "Ahh, I do indeed!" he replied. "Arisato-sama has given me much advice and direction while I have been residing here, and his dedication toward aiding me in finding my way, well, I could not have done anything without him. If you are waiting for him, shall I join you? Perhaps I can show you to his classroom later so you are certain not to miss him."

Elizabeth mulled it over. The plan had merit, but... "We had made plans to meet here. Wouldn't he be displeased if I am not here when he arrives?"

"This is a small chance of happening, I think. Minato-sama is extrêmement dedicated, always attending his classes and helping others. Even if he should miss you here, there is no way, aucune façon à tous, that he would miss you at school."

This was true. The Contractor was uncanny in a wide variety of ways, and Andre Laurent Jean Geraux's logic was quite sound. That he appreciated Arisato-sama's exceptionalness convinced her all the more that it was the right choice. "I see. I find this to be an acceptable compromise. Do you partake in the goods of this shop regularly, Andre Laurent Jean Geraux?"

"Much, much times Elizabeth-sama. Please allow me to show you the best choices."

She bowed in return, glad to have made such a helpful friend. "Please do, Andre Laurent Jean Geraux."

---

"Got a problem, Arisato?" a student asked him, perched on the edge of his table. She was tall, thin, and sported a tan that she clearly expected people to notice and compliment. To Minato it looked as fake as the stones in her earrings, especially since her skin had nothing on Mitsuru-senpai's natural look.

Minato paused in jamming buttons on his phone to shoo her away before looking at the others who had dropped by the student council office to pester him. That was the best way to think of it since nothing ever really came of their discussions. The students who were still sore about his success in the sparring ring and jealous of his continued close contact with his senpai and Yukari at the dorm would drop in every now and again to try and needle him into a reaction. This wasn't the first time it had happened, and Minato saw it as a break in the piles of paperwork that Mitsuru-senpai was being sent rather than as a real problem. If it became one, he'd just invite them to another duel. "Not at all. Just looking at my stocks and life insurance rates. With what they put in imported food these days, you can't be too careful."

He'd said it off the cuff, but when he thought about it he did wonder how his insurance brokers would react if they knew about the risks he and the others were taking every other night. Their rates would probably skyrocket in a second.

"Stocks, eh? They must be doing badly if you're checking them this often," Ms. Fake-tan pointed out archly, preening at the laughter of those around her.

Minato looked at her audience, an eyebrow raising slowly. Really? That was all it took to make someone laugh these days? In that case, maybe he would add "Comedian" to his list of future career choices. It seemed like the bar was pretty low. "On the contrary. They're doing so well that I'm taking pictures so that my bank will believe me when I cash them in," he shot back, checking his phone one more time. "You know how they can be about handing a billion yen over to high school students." His jokes aside, he was getting frustrated. He'd gone to meet Elizabeth two days ago and she hadn't shown up. He'd asked the clientele and poked around the other shops, hoping for any information on where she'd gone, and the best he got was some people saying that they might have seen someone like her but couldn't be sure. That Minato had been forced to ask about her while describing her usual attire as well as whatever she might have actually been wearing, a key detail he was missing, didn't help in the least. If anything, it only seemed to confuse everyone he asked. Talking to Igor hadn't helped other than to say that she hadn't returned, and once that was out of the way the hook-nosed little man had wanted to experiment with new fusion techniques. The phone number she'd given him went straight to voicemail, and it was getting harder to hide his irritation, not only at the questions he had that weren't being answered but at the nagging ramifications of her being loose on the town with no supervision.

He tried to tell himself that she could handle any problems that might come up, that she'd get her fill of sightseeing and go back to the Velvet Room when she was satisfied. He also tried to tell himself that she wouldn't mention him by name if anyone asked who she was. He hoped that his odds weren't actually as bad as he feared.

"Was there something you needed? Aside from being in my radiant presence, that is," he inquired as he closed his phone and skimmed through some forms before signing them and putting them in the correct piles. "That's a good reason for anyone to stop by. But if you want tips on being like me, I'll have to charge you for them. Business is business, after all."

"Wouldn't we be the ones charging for you to talk to us?" a rather handsome and vain student asked, his hand resting on the pocket where he probably carried his mirror. "That's worth something for someone in your year, you know."

"In a different world, maybe," Minato replied smoothly. "But you came to visit me on your own. How much more would that be worth than just talking to you in the hall? Not that I blame you for wanting to talk to me, of course. It's only natural."

"Your humour's cute, Arisato," a broad student from the baseball team commented with a smile as flat as a table. "But don't get a long nose over it; you'll ruin your good looks."

"You never know. Some girls are into that. I know an elderly fellow who has a very long nose and he's around beautiful girls all the time, so it can't be that bad of a look."

"An old man with a long nose, girls all around him," the student scoffed. "Right. Every guy knows someone like that. And you have a girlfriend in China that doesn't have a name and hasn't sent you a picture, but you're definitely not single, right?"

Minato had to bite his tongue, but didn't bother hiding the smirk. Oh, if only they knew. They could make all the jokes they wanted, but if word got to them that he and Mitsuru-senpai were becoming an item, he'd need to carry his shinai with him all the time. "I'm sorry, personal information about yours truly is private and available only with a cash incentive. If you'd like to know something else, which is why I'm certain you're here, then I might be more amenable. So go ahead and tell me: to what do I owe this visit?"

"We were wondering about Kirijo-san and Yukari-san," Vanity asked, an eyebrow arched and a cold smile on his face. "They both seem pretty happy these days. Kirijo-san especially."

"That does seem to be the case," Minato agreed, looking at them with a blank gaze. "Shouldn't that be a good thing? If you ask me, it's very good if they are happy since, well, everyone deserves a chance to be like that. It makes my job easier, I can tell you that much."

Fake-tan snickered loudly, covering her mouth as though such a gesture would make the sound less annoying. "Do you get all your lines from fortune cookies, Arisato? That was seriously lame."

"Of course," Minato shot back with barely a glance her way. "Where do you think the fortune cookie companies get all that wisdom? It's not just lying around for people to pick up, I'll have you know. If you're interested in working for them, I could talk to some people. The profit-sharing program is excellent."

"They are happy," Vanity mentioned, stepping forward a step, "but the question is why they are this happy. Yukari-san is sunny no matter what, but she seems especially upbeat for some reason. It's been like that for sixteen days now."

Yukari was pretty cheery most days, Minato conceded. Except for when she ran the shower out of hot water. Then she was downright crabby. Poor girl, no hot water in the shower because she used it all up. That was... just wrong.

"But Kirijo-san's always professional and focuses on her studies," Vanity continued. "She's busy with work and very dedicated, but she's been smiling a lot more lately. Some people say she's even been humming to herself in the hallways."

Really? Minato hadn't heard that, but he was suddenly very curious about what her singing voice was like. He'd have to keep an ear open for it around the dorm. "Sounds like they're having a good time doing whatever they're doing," Minato commented, looking over a few more papers and filing them. "I'm not sure what it would be since they're aren't really into the same things, but in that case it's probably just good timing. They enjoyed being at the festival a while back, so maybe they're still coasting on the high."

"Someone said that you were there with them," Vanity noted, narrowing his eyes like he'd caught Minato in a lie.

Which he hadn't. Everyone at the festival was technically there with them.

"They invited me out, so I accepted the offer and went with them." There were some suspicious looks and increasingly hostile stares being directed his way. Much as Minato would have liked to invite them to the sparring ring again, he had promised Senpai that he'd try to be diplomatic when dealing with his "bullying problem." He'd chafed a bit when she worded it like that, but it had been good experience so far. Minato continued, speaking slowly like he was explaining the obvious to a particularly thick classmate. "We do live in the same dorm, after all. We do things together. We get along. Sometimes, and keep up with me here, we even go out to festivals or parties together so we know someone there. That's it."

"I heard that you have some new people there," Vanity declared, trying another point. "One of them's a criminal from the streets, isn't he?"

A criminal? Minato suddenly wanted to record the conversation on his phone. Both Shinjiro-senpai and Akihiko-senpai would probably love to have a chat with this guy for a line like that. "I wouldn't go that far. Shinjiro-senpai is–"

"A homeless street thug," Vanity cut in bluntly. "It's okay, you can say it. But since you're living with them, make sure that no one touches Yukari-san or Kirijo-san, understand? Especially not him."

Minato had to bite his tongue at the idea of the mob that might form if he told them Mitsuru-senpai and Shinjiro-senpai not only knew each other, but had lived in the same dorm years ago. He could already imagine how little Shinjiro-senpai would care and how little effort he'd exert breaking that mob over his knee. "You guys really have the wrong idea about him. He's a dick to everyone around him, sure, but calling him a criminal is pushing it."

"You don't sound like you like him very much. Why defend him?"

Minato could admit that he didn't get along with the newest member of the team. Shinjiro-senpai might have been older and possessed a lot of experience, but that didn't make being around him when he was barking at everyone particularly fun. Still, him being slandered by a bunch of know-nothings was lower than he deserved. "He has his strengths," Minato replied diplomatically, smiling dryly. "He can take out gangs on his own, for starters. He's also friends with Akihiko-senpai, and I'm pretty sure he can bench-press a car. Nasty temper on him, too. He hates it when people talk crap about things they don't know, too."

Several of the students went pale a looked a bit sick at that last one.

"I doubt he's interested in anyone at the dorm though. He doesn't talk much."

"Either way, it's your job to make sure Yukari-san and Kirijo don't associate with him," Vanity told him imperiously. "They might catch something."

Unlikely. But Minato was wondering if bigotry and stupidity were contagious, and whether he should ask about a vaccination the next time he went to the hospital. "Sure. I guess. But you don't have to worry about anything where Kirijo-senpai and Yukari are concerned; they can look after themselves." That seemed to mollify some of the sharper looks coming his way.

"Well, it's not we have to worry about Arisato getting anywhere with Yukari-san anyway," Fake-tan mentioned offhandedly. "I mean, she was at the festival by herself, right? She must know that she can do better."

"I guess so," Minato responded, not rising to the insult. He had too many good memories of the festival to let the local rumour mill spoil them. "She could have any guy she wants, after all, so it's not like she'd go for the transfer student, right? Probably an actor or a musician or something, someone at the top of their game who looks good on camera." It was partly true. The few times he'd seen into her room while talking to her, he'd seen posters on her wall of some actors from her favourite shows, and it wouldn't hurt to toss a bit of truth into the mix so the kids didn't get more suspicious.

"She can indeed do better than you, Arisato," Vanity told him, trying for another dig. "I'm glad you agree."

"Wait!" a short, shrill girl demanded. "The festival from a few weeks ago? Yukari-san was there?"

Was that such an odd thing? "That's right," Minato confirmed. "Why?"

"You know who else was there? Hayase Mamoru!"

Minato blinked owlishly, needing a few seconds while the girls around his desk shrieked and squealed. The guys either shook their heads or groaned. Vanity brushed at his hair as though the name wasn't supposed to bother him but clearly did. Where had Minato heard that name before? Hayase... Hayase... "You mean the star runner? The guy who only wears his track suit and doesn't have any other clothes?"

"You didn't see him there?" the gossip demanded, talking in two-minute miles. "If he was there, then you'd know him right away. He's that dreamy, like, almost as much as Akihiko-senpai!"

Minato sighed. Of course he was expected to know what the guy looked like even though he'd only seen him twice and heard rumours from the sports teams. Because he spent so much time poking around into everyone else's business. "How am I supposed to know? I don't even know what he looks like, and I didn't go there to gawk at guys."

"But Yukari-san probably did!" the girl insisted, an obsessed look in her eyes that bordered on manic. "Hayase-senpai's handsome and smart, dedicated, almost famous, and he's always really friendly. They'd be perfect for each other, so I bet they were getting together for a secret rendezvous!"

Minato paled. He'd meant to deflect the attention from himself, but he hadn't meant for it to go this far in the other direction. When he thought of how Yukari would respond to people spreading rumours about her, especially rumours that painted her as hooking up with some guy she might not even know, all he could see was mushroom clouds. "No," he protested as vehemently as he could. "No she wasn't. You seriously have the wrong idea. She's not going out with anyone. She wouldn't have the time even if she wanted to."

"Says the guy who just lives with her," Vanity pointed out triumphantly, grinning like he'd finally found the flaw in Minato's armour. "She'd run circles around you, so it would be easy for her to arrange something on the side without you or anyone knowing. And Hayase's definitely a cut above you, so he'd be perfect for her. Almost as perfect as me."

"Man, Hayase Mamoru," one of the students mused. "I want to hate him, but it's hard to, y'know? He's good people and always gives advice to the juniors when he's at competitions."

"You should ask him for lessons on that, Arisato."

"Let's go and ask Yukari-san!" the gossip gushed. "I want to know when they started going out! I bet it was just dreamy!"

"Hold on guys," Minato protested, "that's not... the case..."

They all turned and left, some running and chatting with every student they came across, others just walking along and nodding in confirmation when the incredulous "Takeba Yukari and Hayase Mamoru?!" question was asked.

Minato let out a long, slow breath, slumping back in his chair and tapping the surface as his outstretched hand fell to the table. Trying to predict just how large of a catastrophe this was going to create when he got home, he thought through the possible outcomes. There was no way that his name wasn't going to end up being mentioned, but maybe Yukari would see that as proof of him not being behind it at all. That said, she had been pretty harsh on other rumours in the past when it came to making insinuations about her virtue and her love life. He and Junpei had needed to back her up on the fly when she'd gotten the bit in her teeth about two months ago. It ended with the guys in question on the ground and Yukari buying the pair ramen as thanks, but it had been a good reminder to Minato that she did have a rough side when her feathers got ruffled.

"That's great," he told himself with a disgusted sigh. It wouldn't have been so bad if the little blabbermouth had just gone to talk to Yukari directly, but from the way she was stopping to talk to every person in the hallway, they wouldn't make it to the archery range before classes resumed. By that point the number of people spreading the rumour would be a lot more than just the people in the group.

Minato sighed, almost loud enough to cover the sound of the door behind him opening. "She's going to kill me."

"Why is that?" a familiar voice asked, accompanied by the sound of boots approaching. "I assume you mean Takeba."

Minato nodded, giving an irritated "mm hm" to Mitsuru-senpai's question while she came around his chair. "Kids with nothing better to do are spreading around the idea that she's hooking up with a guy on the side," he told her as he tilted his head back to look at her. "Odds are they are going to say that I gave them proof, and Yukari's going to hit the ceiling when she gets to the dorm."

Senpai came around to stand beside him, arms cross and a thoughtful frown on her face. "That is unfortunate. What did you say? You're not the sort to slip up like that."

He grunted, sucking air through his teeth. "I said that we were at the festival at the same time. That's it. They filled in the rest by themselves and blew it way out of proportion." He glared down the hallway at the group that, to no surprise, had stopped again to talk about their juicy bit of news. "Spreading slander like it's gospel. That should be illegal, Senpai. I don't suppose you could do something about it, could you?"

She didn't respond for a few seconds, and just as Minato was about to look at her again, she ran the fingers of both hands through his hair and ruffled it. "Spreading rumours about your classmates is quite an egregious offence, Arisato-san," she mocked, following him when he tried to move away from her. "I expect better from someone on the Student Council. What will people say if they think I was involved with it, hmmm? Maybe I should reprimand you for it."

"Get outta here, Senpai," he groused, ducking forward and swatting at her hands. It didn't bother him as much when she did that as he showed, but with his hair it was impossible for it to not look like someone had played with it. "It wasn't my idea in the first place, and that's an abuse of your position. Hidetoshi would be up in arms if he knew."

"You're not going to tattle on me, are you?" she asked in a surprisingly good facsimile of hurt feelings. "This is, after all, just a requisite part of the position that you signed up for," she told him with her nose in the air. "I'm just acting as any responsible president of the Student Council would."

Minato smirked and narrowed his eyes. "I'll believe you when you can say that with a straight face, Senpai. You can't pull it off at all."

She gasped and stared at him with wide eyes, smacking him across the shoulder. "You should be ashamed, Arisato! Talking to your senpai like that, and a lady as well. Now I'm the one who will be speaking to Odagiri-san about your conduct."

"Feel free. He likes me," Minato shot back, unable to keep the smile down. It was fun to see his Senpai, so uptight and particular about the details when he'd met her, joking and playing around with him. The gossips had been right about one thing: she had seemed happier lately. "And stop playing with my hair. It's the way it is for a reason."

"I'm allowed to," she told him confidently, turning to lean on his desk. This allowed her to sidle in a little closer as well as not show her smile to anyone who passed by. "I have special dispensation from you that lets me do what I want."

"That only applies to me, you know," he warned, his smile starting to come back. It was conceited of him to think it, but he liked to believe that her good mood of late had been largely due to their closer association. The timing worked out quite nicely and it did further justify him spending time with her. "If you try that with some other guy, I'd get pretty jealous. I might even have to step in and defend your honour."

She raised an eyebrow and smiled a little. "I may want to see that someday."

"Don't tempt me."

She gave a telling, playful "hmmm" before taking a breath. "Don't worry about Takeba. She's adaptable, and she'll understand when you explain it to her. This wouldn't be the first time that there have been rumours spread about her."

"That's looking at it logically," Minato replied, getting comfortable in his chair when he was sure she wouldn't go for his hair again. "She'll get over it in a while, sure, but she's not going to be happy when she gets home. I'm going to have to pay her back somehow, and who knows if she'll even accept an apology."

"You can use your standing as my assistant if you need to," she replied calmly. "I'll protect you. I'd be without your services if she permanently damaged you, after all, and that would inconvenience me."

Inconvenience. His lack of services, possibly due to a raging roommate taking her scissors and arrows to him, was judged severe enough to be ranked alongside having to clean one's boots of dirt. "Thanks for your support, Senpai. You're all heart."

The first bell went off and Minato filed his paperwork with a sigh. Well, it couldn't be worse than the argument they'd had in the hotel. It was hard to imagine anything that would be, really. As he was about to push his chair back, Mitsuru-senpai rested her hand on his shoulder and, in a rather unobjective way, rubbed back and forth in the same motion she'd used for his hair. The warmth of the gesture went right through his coat and shirt, giving his shoulder tingles. Rather than just let her get away with it, he reached up and put his hand on hers, stroking the back of it. She looked down at him, a bit surprised, but he smiled and winked at her. She chuckled before stepping back and leaving the Student Council room to go back to class.

Minato smiled and resisted the urge to give a fistpump. It would have been undignified, but he still wanted to when he saw her smile and noticed how, just like in the hospital, there was more strut to her walk than usual.

She'd gotten him, but it definitely wasn't a one-way street now. He was looking forward to whatever her next move was, and went back to his classroom with a smile on his face. More than one student asked why he was in a good mood while he passed by, and his response every time was "no reason" in a tone that clearly stated the contrary.

He left the school in a good mood, making sure to text Yukari about the new rumour circulating about her. He ended his message with the comment "As much as it might sound like it came from me, I promise you that I mostly didn't have much to do with it." While she at least gave him the chance to explain himself when they met at the dorm, and seemed to understand the situation, she was broodingly silent for the rest of the night. Minato noted, when he went to school the next day, that the girls who had been so eager to spread the rumours made themselves very scarce. He was certain that a few poked their heads around corners and lockers to gauge Yukari's mood, then swiftly scurried away when they saw the black clouds around her. Minato pointed out a few of the perpetrators to his companion so that she'd have a few targets for her ire that weren't him.

Much as Minato was amused by Yukari snapping at several of her classmates for asking about Hayase, however, and as fun as it was to point the finger when others asked him what had happened to her good mood, he found himself infected by her anger. By lunchtime he was back to where he'd been before Senpai's appearance: waiting on Elizabeth and getting even more frustrated by her lack of a response. He was almost ready to throw his phone out the window when he thought of how little progress he was making on what should have been a simple set of questions.

"You competing with Yuka-tan on how many people you can scare away?" Junpei asked around a mouthful of noodles. "It's like you two woke up on the wrong side of the same bed this morning."

Minato pinched the bridge of his nose when some nearby students turned to tune in to their conversation. "Please don't word it like that. There are enough misunderstandings going around as it is." One of which had been brought up when Fuuka came over to ask him how he liked his lunch. She'd been getting better at cooking and asked if she could, in a platonic sense, make him lunch now and again so she could improve. Minato had given her his blessing, but, as was becoming common, the classmates nearby missed the "platonic" part and immediately assumed that he was seeing Fuuka on the side. He'd had to ask the people spreading those rumours to stop in an especially nice tone before they respected his wishes. The stupidity behind it didn't make it any less irritating, though. Did no one in this school have anything better to do than spread rumours around? One would think they believed that spreading more ridiculous rumours would make them real somehow. "Just be grateful that your friend doesn't attend classes here or you'd be right in the mix with us."

"My friend?" Junpei asked, tilting his head a little before his eyes lit up in understanding. "Ahhh. Yeah, I see what you mean."

As much fun as it might have been to imagine Yoshino coming to their school to visit Junpei or kill Minato, red hair and white dress and blood-spattered axes and all, Minato wasn't going throw his friend under the bus. He didn't need the company. "How are things going with her?"

"They're... well, they're going, I guess. You don't have to always be at the hospital, you know. I've got it under control."

"I trust you, but it's Senpai's orders." It wasn't completely a lie. Mitsuru-senpai had encouraged his decision once he'd explained his reasons behind it, even if the explanation had been after Junpei started making regular hospital visits. "Until we're more sure about her friends and whether they'll stop by for a visit, she wants me there for back-up. I'll make sure Yoshino doesn't know I'm there."

"I guess you have a point," Junpei hedged, shifting around in his chair. "But I'm not sure if... well, I dunno. Not sure what I'm trying to say."

Minato leaned back in his chair after glancing around the room to make sure none of the gossips with big mouths and good hearing were nearby. "Are things going alright?"

"Maybe. She spends a lot of her time drawing, and she only shows me when she wants to creep me out. Sometimes it feels like there's something more than just her calling me an idiot and ignoring me, though, like I'm getting through to her. Maybe I'm imagining it."

"You should keep at it," Kenji told them from across the aisle, leaning forward with a smile. "Girls usually call guys idiots if they just can't be honest with their real feelings."

"Or if they think that they really are idiots and want them to go away," Minato pointed out. Kenji wasn't ideal for giving great advice, but he at least had enough of his own secrets to know when to keep his mouth shut.

Kenji waved the response off. "Nah, you've gotta think like a girl, Arisato. They love being chased and keeping a guy's interest, and the best way to do that is to make them work for every inch. Older girls and women are like that all the time."

"We're talking about someone who is the same age as us," Minato mentioned, keeping to himself that Kenji's advice up to now had been more caveat than cream. "I'm not sure your logic applies here."

"Sure it does. Girls our age become older over time, and they have to start practicing those techniques when they're young. It makes sense when you think of it that way, right? What you're seeing is just a girl who is trying the ropes out and getting into the groove. She hasn't perfected the art yet."

Junpei was, thankfully, looking more doubtful than convinced. "This girl's kinda different," he told his friend slowly. "She's not really normal, so a lot of the rules don't really apply to her."

"You should buy her stuff," Kenji insisted. "Every girl loves having a guy buy her stuff, especially if he knows what she likes without being told."

Minato had to concede that that, at least, did sound like good advice. Particularly since he was planning on taking some time and stopping by the shop that Misturu-senpai had been looking at during their trip to the windmills.

"Maybe," Junpei concluded. "Not sure what she'd like, but maybe I'll try that. Don't expect much though; we're not super close or anything."

"You've gotta start somewhere," Kenji told him with a grin on his face. "Let me know if you need any more advice. I'll keep my prices reasonable."

Or, Minato thought, he could just blackmail Kenji for anything he needed. That approach sounded much better, and had a higher chance of making sure that everything that was private stayed that way.

"Thanks," Junpei told him. "I'll think about it."

"You might have some competition, Tomochika," an older student told their friend as he walked over from the door. "Arisato seems like he has the market cornered when it comes to girls, so maybe you should be listening to his advice instead of offering your own."

"That's a fiction," Minato replied, backing away from the others to check his phone again. Still nothing from Elizabeth. "You make it sound like I have my own harem on speed dial. Which I don't."

"You say that but it's pretty hard to believe you when your girls follow you to school," the student told him with a triumphant smirk. "That makes it sound a lot closer to the truth."

A careless look up was all Minato could be bothered to give the student, senior or not. "What are you talking about?"

"Your foreigner. She's here, right now."

Minato stiffened like he'd been poked with live jumper cables.

"Blonde, this tall, talks with an accent?" the student continued smugly, speaking loud enough to gain them an audience. "If you want to hit up women on the side, that's fine, but it's bad taste to bring her to school and then forget about her. What will the others say?"

Minato stood up, ignoring that he was at school while he stepped up to the student with a hard glare. The sort he reserved for Shadows. "Where is she?"

"That's just pathetic, Arisato. Why didn't you–"

"Where. Is. She?"

The student blinked, not expecting the intensity in his eyes. "Th... the art room. She's been there since– hey!"

Minato bolted from the room, sprinting through the halls to get there. Running with Akihiko-senpai and racing Koromaru for kicks all paid off as he dodged around students and turned the corner to the stairs. Why was she here? Rather than go around a group at the bottom, he jumped the rail of the landing and hit the floor, thankfully clear, by the student store. How had she made it here? Ignoring the shouts from hallways monitors and senior students, he ran to the art room, his heart both racing and heavy from dread. Why hadn't she told him or responded to his calls? What was going on?

He grabbed the door and whipped it open, not caring about decorum. "Why didn't you answer your phone Eliz... a... beth..." Minato stopped, arms falling to his side, when he saw the inside of the art room. When he saw what she'd done.

All along the walls was a single, unbroken series of figures. Tall, small, monochrome, colourful, they came in all flavours. Some were so complex that he could barely tell what they were while others were clearly supernatural in origin. Those ones were, Minato found with heightening disbelief, painfully familiar. Personas. Angels. Heroes. Gods and demons, all melding together yet distinct enough to tell where one ended and the next began. She'd covered a wall and a half with a continuous mural of the inhabitants of his soul. What was worse, those very inhabitants were twisting and roiling under the surface, seeming to resonate with their depictions and raising enough noise in his head that he was certain everyone else could hear them.

Elizabeth herself was standing on a stool near the windows across from him, hand moving furiously as she brought definition and life to a pale, human-like figure that looked like an angel but had too many wings. When one of the students near her greeted him, she spun to face him, showing him how she looked in an apron while paint smears decorated her face and her hands. "Arisato-sama!" she cried happily, setting her paints down and running over to him. "Andre Laurent Jean Geraux was right! I'm very pleased that you found me. As you can see, I have been most productive with my time, but I'm afraid that my project will take several days to complete. If I might be so bold as to be honest with you, I am a little disappointed that you are here. I was hoping to show you my masterpiece when it is finished."

"Elizabeth..." Minato began, looking for his words and trying to string them together into some form of coherence. "What are you doing?"

"I am painting, Arisato-sama," she said with a clear measure of glee. "The local art instructor invited me to practice my craft, as she called it, when she saw some of the works I completed the other day. I felt that this might be a fitting tribute to you and your importance, or rather, it will be an adequate one when it is complete."

Minato was becoming painfully aware of the people in the hall who were looking in to see what the fuss was about. The students in the art room who were already whispering to each other about Elizabeth's use of his name, and his use of hers without any honorifics. "How long have you been here?" he asked trying to get a semblance of control over the situation. "I went to the sweets shop but I couldn't find you."

That, of course, sent the students buzzing. Arisato seeing a girl at a sweets shop? Was it that sweets shop? He must like her; that place is expensive!

"I was there early, Arisato-sama, but then a classmate of yours said that I would find you if I came here. His reasoning was sound, and so here I am. I hope that this hasn't caused you any inconvenience."

"You haven't answered your phone. I've been calling since yesterday." Minato winced when he thought of how that would sound. Of course people would think that she was his squeeze if he said that he had her number.

"I'm afraid that the battery is drained, Arisato-sama. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I was researching subjects to paint at the time. The decision was not an easy one to make, I'd like to say. Had you been here, however, I could have used you as the ideal specimen."

Her wording, like always, was doing an excellent job of inspiring misunderstandings. "If you had contacted me, though, you wouldn't be able to surprise me with what you were doing, would you?"

"Arisato," Mitsuru-senpai greeted him from behind.

Minato wilted. He wanted to die just then. The attention and rumours he could handle, but Mitsuru-senpai showing up to meet Elizabeth had been something he'd very much wanted to avoid.

"What is going on?" she asked as she entered, eyes widening when she looked around. Of course she would know what the mural was depicting. "Someone told me you were running through the hallways, so I thought I would inquire. Who might this be? Is she a friend of yours?"

"Hello," Elizabeth greeted his senpai before he could say anything. "Arisato-sama is my Contractor, and I aim to fulfill his every wish and desire if it is within my power. I don't believe that we've met, but I sense that you work with him. It is a very great pleasure to meet you."

Mitsuru-senpai stepped past him and looked at the mural more closely, taking it all in before turning and bowing politely to Elizabeth. "That is correct. He and I are friends, and we have worked together since he arrived in April. I am Kirijo Mitsuru, and it is a pleasure to meet you as well."

It was clear that she was doctoring her words for the benefit of the students around her, but Minato couldn't help but think there was some underlying tension growing tighter with every moment.

"A lovely and fitting name," Elizabeth gushed, coming closer. "I am Elizabeth. My master desired that I serve Arisato-sama, who asked that I join him in a rendezvous several days ago. He felt that my experiences here would be best expanded upon with an education in sweets and treats."

Minato gave up just then. He threw in the towel and wanted to crawl into the deepest hole he could make. He couldn't face his Senpai and would have been out the front doors by now if there weren't a wall of students clogging up the door.

"Is that so? That's very interesting."

Minato shivered at the clipped tone of her voice.

"Yes, he did. On that topic, Arisato-sama, will you require my services at this time? I would like to complete my tribute to you at my earliest opportunity, but I am ready and able to serve you now should you require me to."

Minato looked around at his classmates, from the guys making crude gestures or gawking at her to the girls staring at the mural or whispering and pointing. He thought things had been bad when Yukari was the centre of attention, or when people had seen Elizabeth at the mall and started coming up with stupid ideas about her. This took the cake, and there was no way that this wasn't going to haunt him for the rest of his time at Gekkoukan High. If the firm stance of Mitsuru-senpai's body was any indication, he hadn't even seen the tip of the iceberg but his ship was already taking on water. "Let's do that," he said after several moments of morbid contemplation. If he was staring at the executioner's block, he may as well make the walk with a measure of dignity. "I just have a few questions, and I wouldn't want to take you away from your project for too long."

"I appreciate your consideration," she gushed. "I hadn't thought that portraiture could be so engrossing, but I have become quite fond of it. Do you think that the Master will appreciate it? Perhaps enough to let met keep it? Could you speak to him on my behalf? He listens more to your requests and desires than he does to me, you see."

"I'm... sure he will."

"I'm glad that you have made such colourful friends, Arisato," Mitsuru-senpai told him as she looked at the mural in greater detail. "Also, if you could join me in the sparring circle after classes are done, I would appreciate it. Once you are done speaking to Elizabeth-san, that is."

Even if it sounded like a friendly request, there was no way he had a choice in the matter. He had visions of her chasing him on her motorcycle if he decided to run. "I... Yes, Senpai. That's not a problem."

"Wonderful. It was a pleasure meeting you, Elizabeth-san. We should arrange for a meeting when we both have more time."

"That would be most agreeable, Kirijo-san. I look forward to it."

Minato tried not to think about what such a meeting might bring about, and made a note to be on the other side of the city when it did happen.

He talked to Elizabeth with what little privacy he could manage, getting the answers to what questions he could remember and leaving the rest for another time. The remaining classes were a write-off due to the sheer number of stares he was getting, no matter what the teachers tried. Minato's mind was a million miles away and it was with a measure of resignation that he went to the gym after the last bell. To no surprise, there was quite an audience in the sparring ring, everyone ready to place bets and watch the match. Or see Mitsuru-senpai in her fighting clothes again which, Minato had to admit, were even lovelier than before.

Lovely or not though, she was clearly ready for a proper fight. "I hope you will take this seriously," she told him as he passed her to get his gear. "I'm looking forward to a strong effort on your part."

Minato was certain that he was being punished for keeping Elizabeth a secret, but as much as he wanted to lock himself in his room and get the day over with, he also respected Senpai enough to give her what she wanted. She'd know if he held back on her, and more to the point she'd probably make him regret it. He changed into his pads and looked in the change room mirror, took a stabilizing breath, and felt a cold, familiar smile cross his lips. No, holding back wasn't going to happen. He'd learned a few tricks since the last time they'd tussled, after all, and he was ready to fight like he meant it. He wanted to win this time. He picked up his practice sabre and went out to meet her.

They gave each other the courtesy of a salute, but then leaped at each other with swords in hand. There was no counting points or calling hits. No gentry or even the pretence of courtesy. They were fighting, pure and simple. Their sword rang and clashed through the room, enough to deafen them to the cheering and jeering.

Nothing else existed. Nothing else mattered. Just Minato and his beautiful, blood-haired Senpai who sprang at him like a hunting cat. Unlike last time, she lunged and drove at him with a fervour that reminded him of how she fought the Shadows. She tried to corner him and finish him off as fast, eyes alight and an honest-to-gods grin on her face while she put her arm into her strikes.

Her perfect little teeth and the cute shape of her eyebrows only made him smile more and fight harder. She was incredible, looking like that while seeming like she wanted to paint him black and blue. The only acceptable response was, of course to fight back just as hard.

He fought her with savagery and met her lunges with parries and cuts, letting the months of fighting against Shadows guide his steps. He'd been good before, he could admit, but he'd been pushing himself to get better lately, and it was beginning to show. He was certain that she was enjoying herself enough to let the leash off a little because any time he scored a hit or scraped her pads, in spite of her parrying dagger, all she did was smile and attack.

Back and forth they went, nicking each other's pads and leaving bruises that they would be feeling later that night. Neither cared. In the moment, the adrenaline flowing in their veins like chemical candy, there was only them and the thrill of the fight. Minato fought his best and revelled in the freedom granted by a worthy opponent.

He was so far into the fighter's high that he didn't notice her feint when he attacked, and barely had enough time to move when she lunged. She missed his torso, but caught the back of his left hand on the tip of her sword with enough force that he felt it though the glove. It was enough to make him flinch, and she rushed forward, tripped up his footing, and sent him to the mat hard.

"Game, set, match: Kirijo," she told him with that same grin, the tip of her sword against his neck while the crowd went wild.

Minato chuckled and held his hand up in surrender. "You win this time, Senpai. Just rewards for getting lucky."

She chuckled. "You call it luck, but you're the one on the ground."

That didn't mean she was the only winner. He counted it as a victory that she got as much out of the fight as she did.

"If we'd keeping track of points, you would have lost. I had you on the third round." He pulled his glove off to examine the damage. The back of his left hand had a long scratch running from the knuckle almost up to his wrist, bleeding a little when he flexed it. Yeah, he'd definitely be feeling it later.

Mitsuru-senpai noticed it and her eyes clouded a little. "Is anything broken? I didn't mean to hit you that hard."

"I'll be fine," he told her with a shrug. "It's nothing I can't handle."

"If it's going to affect your performance..."

Minato looked up at her, grinning while he eyes narrowed. "Senpai, it's fine. I won't break because of a love tap from a girl swinging a knitting needle."

She looked incredulous for a moment, then stepped back. "A girl, huh? Hmph. Fine. I declare myself the winner, and you can just get up on your own."

Minato watched her turn, flip her hair over her shoulder, bow to the assembled crowd, and head off to the change rooms with pride permeating every pore. That strut was back again, in full force this time. He laughed, flexed his hand and pushed himself up. Let her have the victory. He'd get her next time, and promised to make more time for sparring with her. Fighting with her, the adrenaline rushing with an unequalled thrill, was becoming a very attractive activity. Especially when she looked like that. He stood up and took the ribbing and jabs in stride as he pulled his pads off, still trembling from the fight and deaf to the taunts from the students.

In spite of everything, from the rumours to Elizabeth to the certainty that he was going to be getting a lot more crap from his classmates, today hadn't turned out too bad.

No, Mitsuru decided as she set her clothes aside and turned the shower in the change room on, today hadn't been at all disagreeable. If anything, she found the smile on her face impossible to suppress.

She knew what it was, or at least she thought she did. Fighting without any rules always gave her a rush that was second only to riding on her motorcycle. It wasn't the violence or the chance to hurt her opponent, of course, but rather the freedom and the chance to trust someone well enough that she didn't have to hold back. In the ring, she didn't have to justify her decisions to her father or to a board of directors. She didn't have to make excuses or worry about being held up to scrutiny. She was just Mitsuru, there to fight and win.

She could understand why Akihiko chose to fight as often as he did. She didn't when they were younger, thinking that his obsession with fighting was a foolish way to become stronger, but now it was almost as much a part of her as she knew it was a part of him. It was like a caged animal stalking its cage, waiting for the chance to get free and stretch its muscles. Had it not been for Tartarus and the chance to fight the Shadows, she would have taken Shinjiro's departure, the loss of another skilled opponent, even harder than she had. As it was, she was glad for the arrival of her newest opponent.

Arisato Minato. Their resident enigma, and someone who had become closer to her than anyone ever had. He was a worthy opponent in the ring and was only getting better, but she knew there was more to their situation than him just being a great fighter. She was thinking of odd things when he was around. Girly things, normal things, things that she hadn't considered before like swaying when she walked and wondering what part of her he liked the most when she looked in the mirror.

This was what it meant to be involved with a boy, she knew. Up to now, she'd never had the time to get involved with boys. Arisato had been the first to pursue her this much, and with him was coming a kaleidoscope of new feelings and emotions. She'd never been especially conscious of her wardrobe, but now she felt like wearing things she knew he'd like. Sometimes she'd go through perfume shops with Takeba and Yamagishi and wonder what scents appealed to him, or whether he'd like her more if she were more expressive and laughed or smiled more. She even found herself glaring at girls who bothered him at work or went over to his desk for his advice, and she'd had to clench her fists to stop from walking up and shoving them away. The feelings had caught her off-guard, but she couldn't deny that she was enjoying it all. Particularly when she found herself doing things she wouldn't normally have been caught dead doing.

Originally she'd been mortified when she'd touched his hair in the hospital. Despite her calm poise, she was shaking on the inside, afraid that she had overstepped her bounds in the situation. The moment she'd turned the corner from where she'd left Arisato, actually, she'd had to hold onto the wall so she didn't collapse from nerves. Why on Earth had she done that? She'd invaded her comrade's personal space and manhandled him in a way that easily could be seen as inappropriate, even given her recently-acquired license to be closer to him. Why had she gone that far? Why had it felt so good, so right, to do that to him? Poking at him when he'd stepped into the problem with Takeba, bantering with him like she never had before, was even newer territory for her, yet it felt right when she did it.

Mitsuru stopped as she washed her hair, blinking through the steam of the shower. Had she liked it purely because it seemed to bother him? She couldn't deny that seeing him squirm, particularly since he had that effect on almost everyone else and seemed to have an answer for everything, had felt good. Why did she like it? Did she enjoy bullying him? Was she developing a sadistic streak where he was concerned?

She shook her head as images associated with the word came to mind. No, she didn't plan to tie him up or make him wear blindfolds or any other such thing. That was ridiculous, and she respected him too much for that. Still, the enjoyment she got from taking those liberties with him was becoming too strong to ignore. Not only that, but she felt too little shame when doing it to feel bad. It felt liberating and always brought a spring to her step, so much so that she'd caught herself humming songs her mother had sung to her. Maybe she was glad, like when she was fighting with him, to have the chance to act and not worry about the repercussions. Maybe she was just happy to act like a girl her own age and not have to wear a mask for him.

While she was at it, however, she would have to make sure he didn't realize how much fun she had while he was around. He was already a proud, some might say smug, person in public. He'd be insufferable if he knew how he drew smiles out of her like no one else in her life ever had, and how he made her glad to have been born a girl.

---

"You seem to be doing better," Akihiko-senpai told him three nights later as they fought their way through the gloom and filth of Tartarus. "Mitsuru got you pretty good when you were fighting."

Minato flexed his left hand, adrenaline numbing the persistent ache in it. The cut itself was mostly healed, but there were still black and blue splotches where her rapier had hit him. It wasn't enough that he couldn't use his Evoker, but he'd ask Yukari to look at it once they wrapped up for the night. He wasn't going to take the chance of affecting his performance, not when the Shadows were getting stronger. "I'll be fine," he replied, running his fingers over the grooves of his Evoker.

"It's been a while since she's had the chance to fight like that," the boxer noted, spattered with Shadow gunk and not looking the least bit concerned about it. "Good job on lasting that long."

Minato glanced at his senpai. It was easy to imagine the two having sparred in the past, but this was the first time that it really mattered enough to him to ask. "Have you fought with her before?"

Akihiko-senpai chuckled. "More than once. She gets pretty into it sometimes, and that's when you have to be careful."

Next to them, Shinjiro-senpai grunted. "It's good for her. Lets her get everything out of her system so she doesn't blow up on us later."

Minato shook his head after a moment. That didn't sound like her. "I can't see that happening, honestly."

"Maybe not, but it's better to not take the chance." The taller teen looked around, noting how the others were checking the corners and side rooms before he smiled in a rather unpleasant way. "You should get used to her coming at you that hard, though."

"Why is that?"

"Shinji," Akihiko-senpai warned.

Shinjiro-senpai waved him off, not looking away from Minato. "She's got a lot of energy to burn sometimes. If you're serious about being with her, you'd better think of ways to help her get it all out. Something really physical and more than just fighting."

Minato stared back, not ready to take the bait or reveal his hand. "She's a comrade and a friend. If you're implying that we're going out or that there's something deeper to us working together, then it's none of your business."

"It isn't? I'm part of this team too, so it is my business. Besides, even if you're not saying it, there's no way you're just friends with her. Remember all your questions before we went to the festival?"

"Let's get back to work," Akihiko-senpai told them before leaving to join the others.

Minato's first impulse was to follow, but he was annoyed by Shinjiro-senpai's insinuations. He was the leader of SEES in the field, after all, and damned if he was going to back down to one of the members. Even if he did have more experience. "I remember, and I told you that those were professional by nature. What's your point?"

"You think I have a point?"

"We're in Tartarus, fighting Shadows, and you're wasting my time like this. You'd better have a point."

Shinjiro-senpai's eyes widened a little before he grinned even more and leaned in close. "Very good answer, Leader. Maybe she wasn't wrong about you after all."

Senpai had spoken to Shinjiro-senpai about their work? That was news to Minato. "It's not your place to question her decisions or my orders. Not unless we give you a reason to."

"Good," Shinjiro-senpai intoned with a low chuckle. "You're learning, pup. If you want to be close to her, that's fine. It's no skin off my ass. But just so you know, you two weren't really sparring the other day. It might have seemed like it to everyone else, but that wasn't fighting; it was foreplay."

Minato's retort died at the sudden shift in implications, and blushed when he thought of Mitsuru-senpai in her pads again. And how her thin summer attire clung to her in the heat.

"That's not a bad thing," the older teen continued. "If you want to rock her hard, then I'm all for it. Just don't think that it's not obvious to the people who know what they're looking for. Your little game of secrets isn't going to last forever."

"That's none of your business," Minato insisted angrily, hackles rising. "Not my life, not Senpai's."

Shinjiro-senpai snorted, contempt heavy in his voice. "I know it isn't. That's why I'm keeping it to myself instead of running around telling people like those brain-dead dipshits at school."

That stopped Minato in place. "Why tell me then?"

"You don't know her like me and Akihiko do. You can fight with her all you want, but you haven't seen sides of her that we have. You're pretty clueless as it is, so you need all the help you can get."

"Thanks for your pity," Minato snapped, sick of the older fighter's jabs. "Keep it to yourself next time."

"Maybe," Shinjiro-senpai shot back before turning to join the others.

Minato stood there for a minute, getting his emotions under control. It wouldn't do to show the others that the newcomer had gotten to him. It wasn't until he turned to answer Fuuka's inquiries about why he'd stopped that he headed down the hall toward the steps to the next floor.

He was still seething when he walked up the stairs, Personas stirring and twisting inside. Between one simple, unassuming step and the next, everything went completely wrong.

Each time they went from one floor to the next, the Dark Hour rippled around them. It was one of the reasons, he'd theorized, why the floors changed between one night and the next. He'd gotten so used to it that he barely felt it anymore, but this time the sensation of crossing the wall of water whipped around him like the water was in a washing machine that went into its spin cycle. Inky blackness enveloped him and Minato was thrown to and fro, a shout of warning lost as the Dark Hour spat him out hard enough that he lost his balance. Feeling sick and grasping for his Evoker, he tried to still his lurching stomach and looked around. Instead of being in the hallways or near the staircase he'd just been on, he was in a corner with only one way out. He couldn't see or hear any of the others.

"Minato-kun!" Fuuka shouted through their link. "Are you alright?"

Minato put his fingers to his forehead to stop from puking while his Personas writhed in fury and indignation, prickling his nerves and making it worse. "I'm fine," he gritted. He wasn't, but he needed to find the others before the Shadows found him. "What happened? Where is everyone?"

"It looks like they were thrown around by... I'm not sure what caused it. It's like something you did set off a trap and it separated you from everyone. And everyone from each other. Some of them are still on the floor below you. I'm trying to get in touch with them now."

"Don't let them come up," Minato told her, leaning against a wall, which gave a little and felt squishy and warm, while he steadied his head and peeked around the corner. "Keep them there until you find out what happened."

"I will," she promised, pausing for a few seconds before coming back. "It seems that Akihiko-senpai, Mitsuru-senpai, Ken-kun and Koro-chan are on the same floor as you. They're coming toward you and should be there in a few minutes."

Minato nodded, calling up a Persona to quell his stomach and take the edge off his vertigo. "Good. Tell Yukari she's in charge until they can get up here without setting off whatever that was."

"Understood."

He let out a sharp breath, drew his sword and walked as quietly as he could. He nearly pulled the trigger on his Evoker when he heard scratching on the floor, hard and rocky where the walls were neither, but held back when distinct sniffing accompanied the sound. He gave a short whistle and smiled a little when Koromaru darted around the corner, barking and rushing up to lick him on the face. "Hey boy," he said quietly. "Good to see you. Are you alone?"

"Koro!" a young voice called out. "Where did you go?"

Minato let the dog go, scratching him behind the ears before walking toward the voice. "He's right here, Ken," he called.

The young student poked his head around the corner, spear held at the ready. "Oh, there you are Arisato-senpai. Are you okay?"

"Nothing I can't handle. What about you?"

"Koromaru and I found Kirijo-senpai and Akihiko-senpai earlier. They were looking for you and we decided to come up ahead. They're not too far away."

Smart kid. As leery as Minato had been, and still was, about their youngest member being in the field with them, he was certainly growing into the task. "You were using your head. Good man. Let's find them before anything else happens."

Minato followed them back the way they came, taking it slow and steady while keeping in touch with the others through Fuuka. Off in the distance, there was a quiet crash and scream of a Shadow. The familiar ringing in his ears told him someone was using a Persona. Minato lowered his hand to hold Ken in place. "Go slow," he said. "If it's our senpai, they can handle it until we get there. Running into another trap just means more trouble."

Ken looked up, conflicted and obviously eager to follow the sounds. "Aren't you worried about them?"

"Of course I am," Minato told him softly. "That's why I want to make sure we get there in one piece."

"Spoken like a proper leader," a dry, familiar voice told him from deep in the nearby gloom. "Glad you're learning, Arisato."

Akihiko-senpai and Mitsuru-senpai approached, weapons ready but neither wearing any fresh Shadow muck. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," Minato told them, sagging in relief. They were alright. She was alright. "Do we know what happened?"

"We were separated somehow," Mitsuru-senpai noted, looking at the walls and making a face of distaste. "It seems like something happened on the stairs. I'm not sure why or how it happened; I've never felt anything like that before."

"Fuuka thinks it was a trap, or something we set off," Minato commented. "If that's the case, we should try to turn it off so the others can get here."

"I wonder if it would be so bad if they did set it off," Akihiko-senpai noted, moving his hand in an arc to indicate the rooms around them. "We haven't seen any Shadows so far, and this is a prime chance of an ambush. You'd think they'd jump on the chance to hit us while we're separated like this."

"Neither have I," Minato mentioned, frowning. "Wait, you didn't? Wasn't that you fighting them before?"

"No," Mitsuru-senpai replied. "We thought it was you or Koromaru."

"That's strange," Akihiko-senpai noted. "Whoever's fighting them is doing a pretty good job of staying alive. Definitely not someone who is new at this."

Minato bit his lip, trying to think through the possibilities. "Fuuka said that everyone is below us, none of us were fighting, and she hasn't mentioned anyone else on the floor. Except someone is fighting those Shadows and using a Persona."

"It could be Strega," Mitsuru-senpai told them grimly. "They're the only ones would be that strong. Also, Yoshino mentioned that they come here sometimes."

"If that's the case, then let's be careful," Akihiko-senpai concluded, cracking his neck. "Maybe we can get the drop on them and get some payback."

The explosions echoed down the halls, closer this time.

"It's not like we have a choice. Unless we find the stairs, we're going to run into them no matter what." Minato turned to Ken, eyes narrow. "If it is Strega, you stay behind us and be careful."

"I can handle myself, Senpai. I helped with Yoshino, remember?"

Minato let out a breath. Of course the kid would have the bit in his teeth now that they had to rely on each other. "I know you did. I haven't forgotten. But those other two are dangerous. Yoshino gave us enough trouble, and I don't want you getting hurt. Fighting people is different from fighting Shadows."

Ken clearly had something he wanted to say, but after a few quiet seconds he sighed and nodded. "Alright, Senpai. I'll be careful. But I still want to help where I can."

"That's fine. Just keep low and be careful. Don't take any chances, and that goes for the rest of us as well."

They walked down the twisting, warped halls of Tartarus, getting closer to the ringing sound and the explosions when they heard a voice.

"Dammit! Just stay down and DIE already!" The blast that followed was loud enough to drown out the Shadow's screams, filling the air with the smell of burnt tar.

Akihiko-senpai held up a hand to halt them, tilting his head to listen better. "I think we've found our suspect."

Mitsuru-senpai frowned, tapping her Evoker. "Yoshino didn't mention Strega having another girl in their roster. She only talked about the two that Arisato met in the alleys."

"Hey! No no no, you don't get to run!" The last word was punctuated by an impact that rumbled in the floor. "See what you made me do? I had to run after you!" This time there was an explosion that drowned out the Shadow's scream, filling the air in the hall with the smell of burnt hair and tar.

"That's a little excessive," Mitsuru-senpai remarked, eyes narrow despite her skin paling.

Minato nodded but kept silent. There was something odd about the voice as it swore and shouted. He couldn't place it, but it was familiar for some reason.

They cautiously moved forward and came to a large open room and the charred, half-standing corpse of a Shadow. A figure in black landed near them, scanning the room before setting the butt of an odd-looking hammer on the floor. "Finally," the person said in a voice that was high-pitched and female, still glowing from summoning her Persona.

Minato realized what it was about her about her voice that he recognized: it sounded synthetic, just like Aigis.

"Stupid freaks didn't want to die," she continued, unaware of them. There was a long, squishy... thing draped over her shoulder. It looked like a tail or a string of intestines, and she didn't bother to remove it. There were also chunks of Shadow flesh and bone clinging to the head of her hammer, which also went ignored, and a severed claw that was still clinging to her leg, smoking with white bone showing through.

It had been a while since Minato had seen anything so macabre. He got chills just by looking at her, and he wasn't sure that they came from the Dark Hour.

A wet gurgling sound trailed up from the ground near her, the remnants of a Shadow that had survived her attacks. Was it trying to attack? Flee? She didn't seem to care. "Persistent little bastard, aren't you?!" Walking over with heavy footfalls, she drew back and drove her heeled foot into it. It squealed and screamed, a high-pitched and almost human sound, but she didn't stop. She crushed it over and over with a sickening, squishy crunch until it dissolved into black muck. "Damn it, now I have to clean up again. Thanks."

Like you don't need to anyway, Minato thought as his stomach turned a little. Was he still sick from being thrown across Tartarus? He wouldn't have thought that seeing a Shadow so roundly pulverized would bother him, but...

She turned a little, and jumped back when she saw them, weapon at the ready. "Who're you!? Where'd you come from?!" She either didn't notice or didn't care that part of a Shadow's face was impaled on the spiked end of her hammer, its gaze empty as it stared at them.

Minato's eyes narrowed. She looked like a girl, but a quick glance told him she wasn't. She was covered in black armour, had short black hair and red eyes, and wore a skirt that was made of metal slats, coloured black and red with butterfly designs. Her joints were thin and mechanical, exactly like Aigis, and in the few places where her armour was damaged, only metal showed underneath instead of flesh. Attached to each side of her head were the arms for what looked like a red butterfly-shaped visor or a mask of some sort, which glittered in the low light and was clean despite her being covered in crap from the Shadows.

Another android. One that could use a Persona. It seemed like they'd stumbled across the Anti-Shadow Weapon that had gone missing. When Minato looked into those eyes, the chill got worse. Not across his face or his flesh, but across his very soul, and his Personas riled up and hissed in his ears. Another similarity, this one very unwelcome.

"We're with the Kirijo Group," Mitsuru-senpai told the android, stepping forward with her hands in plain sight. "We're hunting Shadows. You are here for the same reason, correct?"

"Hm..." The android looked at each of them, incredulity on her face when she looked at Koromaru. "Maybe. What's it to you?"

Whatever her name was, this one was definitely opinionated. Like a mouthy teenager. Maybe it was how free she was with her speech, but she sounded more human than Aigis did even after months of practice. Still, the mechanical undertones added a synthesis that felt colder, almost aggressive where Aigis just sounded like computer speakers. Minato couldn't shake the cold feeling running through him, and his Personas twisted tighter and faster under his skin. The scars on his arms tingled and buzzed. What was going on? As bad as the feelings he got from Aigis were, for some reason this one was worse.

"If we're here for the same reasons, then it makes sense for us to at least talk to each other," Akihiko-senpai pointed out. "You did a pretty good job with these ones."

The android snorted, a human expression that sounded wrong when made through mechanical analogue. "I guess. It's sad that this impresses you, though. It's "pretty good" if you can't do it yourself."

Akihiko-senpai chuckled, letting the insult brush past him. "That's one way to look at it. You escaped from the Kirijo Group's facilities a while ago didn't you?"

The android's expression hardened. She looked at each of them, suspicion heavy in those eyes.

Minato could almost hear the cameras that they were composed of, zooming in and out as she looked, and the thought made him cringe. Why was she bothering him this much? What was he reacting to? He should be used to things this crazy. Did this one know him too?

"I'm looking for something," she told them finally, not coming out of her defensive stance. "It's none of your business what it is. I had to leave that place to find it, so that's what I did."

"If you're here to kill Shadows, then it is our business. We're on the same side," Akihiko-senpai told her. "Also, I'm guessing that you know Aigis"

The android sprang forward, eyes wide and expression demanding. "You... you know her?! Where is she?!"

"We got separated from her, and–"

"Well, find her! I need to talk to her!"

"Before we do that," Mitsuru-senpai brought up, her tone clearly putting her in control, "why don't you tell us what your connection to her is? Who are you?"

The android backed up a step, looking at Mitsuru-senpai like she wasn't sure what to make of her. After a few seconds of red-eyed stares, the stranger straightened, huffed and answered. "I'm Metis, and she's my sister, of course. Isn't that obvious? How many other Anti-Shadow Weapons do you know?"

"Were you looking for her?" Minato asked, speaking carefully through the noise and pain his Personas were kicking up. "If that's the case, why not contact the Kirijo? They've known about Aigis living with us for months."

Metis bit her lip and looked away, the claw and intestines wriggling a little as she did so. "That... that would have made sense, I suppose." She looked back up, eyes narrowing. "I couldn't talk to them. It's not important why. Hurry up and help me. I have a job to do and it's important that I talk to her."

"Calm down," Akihiko-senpai told her firmly while nodding to Minato. "We'll contact her right now and then you can talk to her, alright?"

Minato looked to the side, trying to shake the chills and the sense of danger as he told Fuuka to send Aigis up to them. "There. It's done. She'll be here soon, so why don't you talk to us?"

Metis shrugged petulantly. "I guess. I don't want to talk about myself though. What are humans doing here? Why'd you bring dog? Shadows are dangerous, you know."

"We know about them," Akihiko-senpai assured her. "We've been fighting them since they arrived."

"You... You've been fighting them?" Even the harsh synthetic tones couldn't mask her incredulity. "How? Actually, why? You're just humans."

"Humans with Personas," Minato pointed out. "And yes, we've been fighting them."

It took a few seconds, but understanding grew in her red eyes, and a show of what might have been grudging respect reflected on her face. "So you were the ones who killed the Shadows in the tank. I thought it was the other humans who did it, but I guess if you have Sis helping you, then you'd have a better shot at staying alive."

"Don't those bother you?" Ken asked, pointing at the Shadow accoutrements on her shoulder and weapon.

She looked down at him, dismissive. "Hm? Why're you here, little boy?"

"I'm part of the team, so don't treat me like a kid!"

Metis shrugged after a moment. "I guess if you're helping Sis, then you've got something going for you. No, it doesn't bother me. Shadows are stupid things, but even they can be frightened. If they see what happened to the others who fought me, they might get smart and leave me alone. If they don't, then I make examples of them."

This time, the mechanical tones perfectly suited her cold words and the almost-eager smile on her face. Minato was sure he wasn't the only one who felt that something was off. "Does that include the ones who run away?" he asked. "We heard you before."

"That's different," Metis insisted. "They attacked me first. Besides, they're just Shadows. I'm supposed to kill them, so I do. Who cares how I do it?"

"You mentioned other humans," Mitsuru-senpai brought up. "Does that mean you've met other Persona-Users since coming here?"

"Yeah," Metis replied with a snort, "and they're way stronger than you."

Akihiko-senpai chuckled mirthlessly. "You haven't seen us fight. You might be surprised."

"I don't need to. I can tell these things. You guys just made it this far because Sis was helping you."

"We can get to them in a minute. Thank you for helping us with that Shadow in the bunker," Mitsuru-senpai continued, though her tone was becoming less tolerant. "We would have been in greater danger and might not have made it otherwise."

Metis shrugged and looked around, her visor glowing a little. "Sure, whatever. Is Sis here yet?"

"She's on her way," Minato assured her. "I have a question. Why the secrecy? If you're fighting Shadows and you saw us doing the same, why didn't you try to contact us? Or at least give us a clue that you were here? We would have helped you."

Metis blinked as she looked at him, her eyes narrowing a little before she answered. "I'm not just looking for normal Shadows. What I'm doing is more important than that. There's a special Shadow in this city, one of the big ones except that this one is good at staying behind the scenes. It's still out there, and I'm going to find it."

Minato thought of the Shadow in the hotel. "Is it still alive? We killed one that sounds like what you're talking about."

Metis glared at him. "Of course it's still alive. I wouldn't be here if I didn't need to be, now would I?"

"It's still alive but it's keeping itself secret?" Mitsuru-senpai asked with a frown. "That doesn't sound like what we've seen so far. The others have all been rather blatant in their destruction."

"Like I said," Metis replied, a bit less edge in her voice when she spoke to Senpai, "this one's special. It's behind a lot of the stuff that's going on with the humans staring at nothing all the time."

"The Lost," Minato supplied. "We know about them."

"Stop interrupting!" the android snapped. "Anyway, Sis ran into this Shadow once before, and it's still alive. I'm here to help her destroy it once we find it. That's why I left the lab."

"Wait," Mitsuru-senpai told them. "Aigis mentioned this before. Was this Shadow you're talking about the one who damaged her ten years ago?"

Metis wasn't listening. She stared at Minato, suspicion growing in her mechanical eyes while her hands tightened on her hammer. Minato shivered and stepped back, hand going to his Evoker. Why was she looking at him like that? Why was he feeling like this?

It felt like everything was racing toward the edge of a cliff. What the hell was going on?

A voice murmured in his ears, familiar but cautionary. Be careful with her, Brother.

Pharos. Why now? He'd never done that bef–

"You!" Metis shouted, pointing at Minato and snarling like a bear. "What are you?! How did you survive?!"

Minato's breath caught in his chest, his Personas screaming in challenge. What? Had she... there was no way she'd heard Pharos. No one else knew he existed! "Wait, what are you talking about?"

The android crouched, about to lunge with her hammer at the ready. "Shut up! You won't beat her this time, and you won't get free!"

"Metis, what do you–"

Blue fire flashed around the android as she leaped back, a hazy figure emerging from the ether. "Psyche!"

A mechanical Persona, butterfly motifs around a figure that looked like Palladion, manifested and flew forward, aiming straight for Minato. He panicked, not sure what to do, but his Personas rushed to the fore. His Evoker was out and he pulled the trigger in a flash, a Persona diverting hers at the last second in a blast of thunder and light. The impact knocked him back several steps, almost knocking him over.

Minato grit his teeth while pain raked his face and hands. She was serious.

"Metis!" Akihiko-senpai shouted, his Evoker already free. "What the hell are you doing?! He's not a Shadow! Stand down!"

"You must have tricked her! You're dead!" Metis's visor came down, covering her face and glowing bright red. A second later the entire room was bathed in a shifting rainbow of colour, reaching every corner and cranny.

Minato gasped as the voices of his Personas faded like they were muffled or really far away The electric jolt he usually got from holding his Evoker was gone too.

What had she done?

"You fooled the humans because they're all idiots," Metis told him, her voice as cold as when she'd chased down the Shadow before. She wasn't even shouting or swearing. "You won't fool me. You're not leaving here alive."

Minato saw her Persona manifesting again and tried firing his Evoker. Nothing. He tried again. Nothing again. Just like in the hotel, he was cut off from his usual passengers, and this felt much worse than last time.

He tracked where Psyche would attack, ducking and rolling to the side at the last second. Its claws tore into the floor and walls, barely missing him. To the left, Akihiko-senpai tried to bring his Persona out, but the best he could do was a faint blue outline that Metis crashed into, beating it until it faded. She lunged at the boxer, but a phantom howl ignited the air in front of her, forcing her back.

Mitsuru-senpai's face was in a pained grimace, her hands shaking. Ken was doubled over, his Evoker shaking in his hands. Even Cerberus wasn't forming properly. Somehow Metis was blocking their Personas while using her own with impunity.

Psyche wound up for another strike, and Minato dug so deep that the scars on his arms flashed with pain. He grit his teeth, looked at the being bearing down on him, and called with all his strength.

It was like starting a fire underwater, pressure and weight suppressing his best efforts. It felt constrictive from his head right down to his heels. He swore and pushed with what he had, summoning a Persona, he had no idea which one, just in time to take the hit again. The impact knocked him back, almost off his feet this time.

Psyche didn't return to Metis. It stayed right above him, staring at him with its narrow face. It wound up for another strike, and Minato knew he couldn't stop it.

The Grim Reaper drew its scythe back, and Death stared him in the face.

What stopped the killing blow wasn't a sword, but a spark in white and red. Mitsuru-senpai leaped in front of him, shouting for her Persona with all her considerable strength.

It was enough. Except it wasn't.

Penthesilea manifested at the last second, enough to take the hit but not enough to stop it. Psyche's claws ripped forward and tore into Mitsuru-senpai's side, sending torn shirt and blood to the ground.

"Mitsuru!"

Minato's heart stopped when he saw her, doubling over in pain and holding the wound. He willed his body, heavy as lead, to move, to get to her, to help her! Faster!

He barely reached her, took her weight onto himself and let her crash into him. He heard her gasps and groans, felt her shivering through her clothes and the armour that saved her from being torn in half.

He blanked out, lost the battle around him. He didn't see Ken manifest his Persona in desperation to push Metis back. He didn't hear Akihiko-senpai scream in fury, fully manifesting Polydeuces for a long enough second to strike at Psyche. All he saw was Senpai and the blood under her. Her pained, whimpered breathing. The tears in her eyes and the pallor to her skin.

The blood on his hands. Warm, wet, hers.

His teeth grated so hard together that his entire face hurt. The handle of his Evoker bit into his hand. He set her down, pressing his jacket to her side to try and stop the bleeding. Deaf to her words, he stepped forward. He stared at the enemy, felt hatred enter his heart, and thought only one thing:

You're fucking dead.

He reached for the power, same as he had against Takaya. He imagined the energy he needed as electricity running through circuits in his body and pushed it into overload. He started the power surge in his feet, where the field was less effective, and fired it off.

"I am thou," he began, glaring at Metis and seeing nothing else.

White-hot power ripped up his legs, rushing up his muscle fibres and through his veins in the place of blood. He forced it past Metis's suppression, and almost buckled at the knees when it hit the joints. He could feel his muscle writhing in response. He didn't care.

He called for one Persona in the multitude in his heart. One he knew would survive anything. "Come to me, undefeated and victorious in death."

Up his thighs, pain shredding them. Up his stomach, where the power gained speed and made him want to double over. He felt his organs twist at the two powers fought inside him. He pushed even harder. His lungs constricted in agony. His heart tripped and fluttered, everything going white-hot in agony.

Blood filled his mouth, and he didn't stop. "Fulfill your contract and strike down my enemies."

He couldn't see the room. Everything but Metis and Psyche went white or black. Raw energy seared the bones in his arms, turning the corner of his elbow and flaring like he'd grabbed a lightning bolt. Blood erupted from his arms, from the back of his hand where Mitsuru-senpai had cut him.

"Answer me, Ulster's blood-soaked Child of Light!"

The gunshot sounded like a bomb going off. Blue light blazed like a new sun, pushing the rainbow-coloured aura back.

The warrior who arose before him didn't hesitate. A demi-god of legend rushed Psyche, spear in hand, and struck at it over and over with stabs like lightning. Psyche tried to pull back, tried to push itself up, but it couldn't match the Persona's inhuman speed. Over and over, the blood-red spear tore through its defences and ripped out blood and circuitry. Cú Chulainn lunged and caught it on his spear. Instead of pulling out, he swung down in an arc. Psyche was slammed against the floor, twisting as it tried to escape. Cú Chulainn raised a foot, and brought it down onto the Persona's head, heedless of its shriek. Two more blows ended Psyche's struggles, sending it back into blue light.

Cú Chulainn turned toward Metis and rushed her. The disbelief in her eyes turned to loathing before she met the Persona head-on. She fought the bloodthirsty demi-god, trying to parry the lightning-fast strikes. But human machinery, however advanced, failed before an unshackled Persona. Long gashes and deep cuts opened all over her in moments, blood and oil spilling from her wounds. One of her arms was caught and torn off, and a second later the spear went through her leg. She screamed when it came out, opening herself up. Cú Chulainn lunged forward and kicked her in the chest, sending her tumbling into the wall before taking two steps and throwing his Gáe Bolg at her.

The explosion on impact shook the very floor. Chunks of the fleshy wall showered them, pieces of robotic circuitry scattered around where Metis lied, torn to shreds.

The aura dissipated in a last, dimmed flicker, and Minato crumpled to the floor before coughing up blood. His Persona vanished after giving a salute, and his entire body felt like he'd put it through a blender. The shivering started then, uncontrollable and agonizing. Every cough, every tremble, made him hurt more from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. He was starting to feel... really cold...

"Minato-kun!" Yukari shouted, rushing over. "What happened to you?!"

When had she gotten there? Were the others here too?

"Help him," Mitsuru-senpai implored, shuffling over to them while holding his jacket to her side. "What he did..."

"I will, senpai." Yukari called on Io and began to heal him.

The pain of all his nerves being stimulated at once made Minato double over even more, gasping and trembling violently. "Stop," he croaked, coughing up blood. "No more."

Yukari touched his body, ran her fingers over his scars where the blood had punched out, and shook her head. "This is bad, senpai," Yukari reported shakily. "It's like when he was in the alleys and he tore his arms up, except it's all on the inside this time."

"Internal bleeding?" Mitsuru-senpai inquired, pushing herself to her feet. Fresh blood dripped down her side as she called on Penthesilea to patch up her side.

Yukari nodded, looking pale."I'm sure of it. He needs to get to a hospital."

Hospital. Yes, a hospital sounded good. Minato tried to inhale, but coughed on the blood in his throat. That made everything stab him like broken glass. "Sure," he croaked out, "but no healing."

"I'm sorry," Mitsuru-senpai told him grimly. "If we don't do this, you'll die. We won't do it more than we have to, but it's necessary."

Minato shook his head as best he could. He was too tired to crawl away. "Hurts too much."

She took his hand and squeezed it, looking him in the eye. "No more than we need to. I promise." She nodded at Yukari and took a bracing breath. "Let's get this over with quickly. Then we'll need Shinjiro to carry him."

They both glowed blue, trying to be gentle but still eliciting pained screams.

---

Minato stared at the ceiling, dazed and numb from the drugs he was being fed through the IV in his arm. He should have been in more pain, and knew on some level that he wasn't out of the woods yet since the doctors and nurses kept talking to Mitsuru-senpai in quiet tones. But it was hard to take anything seriously when he was this doped up.

The numbness probably would have scared him once, but it was a welcome relief compared to the agony that Yukari and Mitsuru-senpai inflicted on him. They'd even brought Akihiko-senpai over to help, which made it even worse. Together, they healed him enough that he could be picked up and carried. Of everything he'd been through since April, that had been a brand new category of pain that he'd never experienced before. Instead of his nerves giving out and the pain decreasing, being healed only made it worse. He'd felt energized, alive, and that made everything worse. He wasn't sure how Senpai's hand wasn't broken from how hard he'd squeezed it. Maybe it was. He'd have to pay her back for that.

The only good part of the night was that he was too tired, too much of a wreck, to remember Shinjiro-senpai carrying him out of Tartarus. He had no idea how the crabby teen took it, and he was glad to be ignorant.

He pulled himself into the present . Thinking was getting hard, though. Faces were blending together, and his eyes were getting heavy. As a distraction, he tried to focus on the people in his room. Why were they there again? One of them touched something on his IV. Who was she? In trying to figure it all out, he dozed off.

When he woke up again, there was daylight pouring through the window. His head felt clearer, though the absence of pain and how long it took him to look down at his own arm told him that he was still drugged. A slight pinch on his foot pulled his head up to see who was there with him.

White and red, looking tired. Mitsuru-senpai. She was alone, looking smaller than he remembered. She was still taller than he was, though. That bugged him.

"How are you?" she asked quietly, coming around to his side. "You really gave us a scare, you know."

"I don't feel much," he told her, the words tumbling through a thick tongue. "But I'm alright."

"You're still in bad shape," she told him, taking a seat by his bed and hissing in pain.

Oh. Right. She'd been injured too. Was she okay?

"You've been here for five days," she reported, "and they needed a lot of blood to get you stable again. I hear that Iori and Amada were determined to donate theirs if you needed it."

The details of the fight cleared in his head, and his body throbbed like a pulsing vein in response. "Was it that bad?"

"Worse," she told him, quiet and hushed as she took his hand and stroked the back. "They kept me busy with my own wounds, so I didn't get all the details. I heard enough, though. It sounded like you weren't going to make it."

Given how he'd felt when he defeated Metis, he wasn't surprised. Pushing himself in the alleys seemed like a bee sting now. "I didn't think it would get that bad."

She shook her head, long longs shining in the light. "None of us did. I never knew it was even possible. Akihiko suffered a bit of the same, from pushing himself like you did. But nothing to the same degree. We healed you as best we could, but even Takeba and I have limits. I've never seen injuries like those before, to be honest. I'm amazed that she could heal you as well as she did."

Minato nodded, and it felt like his head wanted to fall off his neck. "I guess I owe her."

Mitsuru-senpai chuckled. "I'll tell her you said that. She's sleeping in the waiting room, you know."

Mintao wanted to comment on that, but a more pressing question pushed the topic aside. "Senpai? Why did Metis attack us? She came after me in particular. Why?"

Mitsuru-senpai sighed and shook her head. "I don't know. Aigis linked with her before she... expired. From what she said, Metis had corrupted programming that came from how she woke up. We think she saw something in you that wasn't actually there, so she mistook you for a Shadow and attacked."

Really? Bad programming could cause that? "That didn't look like a mistake, or a computer virus or something. She seemed to know what she was doing."

Mitsuru-senpai shushed him and stroked his hair softly, making him lean into the sensation. "I know," she told him softly. "I don't know what happened. The Group has recovered her body for analysis. Hopefully they'll tell us something soon."

That was the best he could hope for. He was becoming a bit more lucid, and knew that Senpai wouldn't let things go unexplained. "How is Aigis? Did she know who Metis was?"

"I asked her," she replied with a frown. "She didn't seem to remember her, but she's also kept to herself since you got here. I don't know if she is angry or sad or if there is anything there in the first place."

Minato sighed. It took him longer than usual to put the pieces together, but he could see where the conversation was taking them. "More questions."

Mitsuru-senpai nodded, a small smile on her lips. "It seems so. If you have a moment though, I have a question for you."

"For me? Sure. I'm not going anywhere."

She chuckled. "I guess I don't have to worry about you if you can joke around."

"It wasn't that funny."

"No, it wasn't," she told him, smiling. "You called my name when I was injured, didn't you? You didn't use any honorifics."

He was surprised he could still blush, doped up as he was. But he could, it seemed. "I... I guess I did. Seeing you hurt was... It was a reflex, I guess."

"I don't mind," she assured him softly, leaning forward. "Like I said, you can call me by my name on occasion."

Special privileges. It was enough to make him smile, despite how red he was. "I'll try to remember that. If I remember anything when I get out of here."

"That won't be for a while," she told him firmly. "The doctors are set on keeping you here to make sure you heal properly, and I support their decision. No lying this time, and no skipping out just because you want to leave. You have to get better from this, and you'll be lucky if it doesn't affect you later on in life."

"If you say so, Senpai." She picked up his left hand, tracing along where she'd... she'd cut him there, hadn't she? At school. He looked down and saw a pile of stitches along the back of it. "What happened there?"

"They said that the cut was a weak spot when you were summoning your Persona, so the blood vessels ruptured. It's going to leave a scar."

Another one to add to the collection. "Girls like those, don't they?"

She shook her head and looked away, giving a small huff.

"Hey." He focused on her enough that he could speak properly when she turned back to him. "I'm sorry if I worried you. The blood went to my head."

The doubt and concern was clear in her eyes. "If I had been stronger, or maybe faster..."

"Don't think that way. You saved my life, Senpai. That means a lot more to me than having another scar."

"You have this one because I got carried away, though."

"A cut on my hand is the least of my problems," he told her, feeling normal enough to look her in the eye. "Don't beat yourself up over it. I had fun fighting with you. I want to do it again when I get out of here."

She looked uncertain, hiding behind her hair but looking at him speculatively. "If... if you're sure."

Seeing her in her pads again? Pushing her until she turned loose and fought him like she meant it? "I'm very sure."

She nodded, her smile returning. "I'll remember that."

Things went quiet between them for a few minutes, and while Minato loved the feel of her playing with his hair, the thoughts of their work intruded. "What's going on, Senpai? Metis, the Shadows, all this stuff with me. Why is this happening?"

"I don't know, Arisato." She hugged him from the side, and he negotiated his arms well enough that he could hug her back. He hated being weak, and even more than that he hated showing weakness. Minako always got riled up whenever he cried, and their father told him that he had to grow up to be responsible and look after his sister. Minato always felt like he had to be strong for the others or else they'd lose their trust in him as their leader. But here, with no one else around, he let her comfort him. He let the shaky breathing come. He let himself tremble from his brush with Death, and he let himself doubt.

What was going on? Where was this path going? Where were the Shadows taking them?

Why did it feel like it wasn't done getting worse?

---

She had always been grateful to SEES for giving her the room that they had. Spacious enough for her to clean her weapons and sleep without being cramped, she hadn't needed more than that yet Yukari-san and Fuuka-san frequently visited her so that she would feel comfortable. They had insisted that she have proper pillows and sheets for the bed, even though she didn't need such comforts. She'd stated as much, but they overrode her, and she'd been glad for it when she experienced the new comforts.

As much as she wanted to sleep, however, she couldn't. For the first time since she had awakened, she was conscious and active when she didn't want to be.

"Why, sister?"

She shook her head and turned over, staring at her computer console. Since they'd returned from their encounter with Metis, Aigis hadn't been the same. She'd tried to shake off the feeling that rattled her when she saw the Anti-Shadow Weapon, torn and shredded and sprawled in pieces against the wall. She never thought of the others. Had she never known they existed? Had she never cared? Why had it been a surprise?

"Why, sister?"

Aigis got to her feet and began counting dogs. Fuuka-san had said that, to help herself sleep, she would count mammals jumping over fences. Aigis envisioned dogs like Koromaru-san leaping over hedges and hoped that it would help.

"Why, sister?"

When she linked with Metis, the experience was frightening. Seeing so many things from a different perspective, feeling Psyche grab at that connection and rush into her, melding with Palladion had scared her at first. But their compatible programming asserted itself and she accepted the upgrade as a matter of course. She saw that Metis had, in her quest to find her and track down Death, contacted Strega and found them unreliable, opting to investigate on her own. She'd sensed the Shadow and taken the chance, attacking Minato-san and the others in accordance with her prime directive.

Aigis remembered the truth now. She'd lied to the others and blamed the corrupt programming in Metis's most basic runtimes, but she knew that even if she'd been there, Metis still would have attacked. Though if she'd been there, she might have been able to explain the situation. Explain to her why it had to happen this way. Explain... Explain...

"Why, sister?"

Explain what? How could she explain this? That she was making up for a past mistake? That she'd put her emotions before her mission? She knew the risks she was taking. Death's influence was pervasive, as was the touch of any Shadow. Minato-san's force of will was admirable, but he was only one person. What was that life when compared to the fate of the world if Death escaped?

Had she been wrong back then? Should she have killed the child in the ruined automobile instead of sparing him? Why had she stayed her hand? Not being strong enough to kill Death back then had been an answer at the time, but what about now? Her mission was to kill Shadows, and Death was the strongest of them. Why hadn't she finished it yet? Why wasn't she finishing it now?

For the chance of a future. That was what she told herself.

What if she was wrong? Could she take that risk? What was she supposed to do when Metis's voice, a last gasp before her programming self-terminated, refused to leave her even when she shut off her external audio receptors? With what was coming, what was she supposed to do?

"Why, sister?"

Author's Note, Post Script: From a show of hands, how many of you thought it would be Metis? Come on, don't be shy. How do you think this will change things? Aigis is already different from her game version, but now she's even more conflicted. What will happen? Thoughts and theories and comments are always welcome. Until next time!