A/N: I apologize for how long this chapter has taken to come out. However, I've got midterms eating up my time lately so I figured I should upload SOMETHING just to prove that I'm still around. So I ended up cutting this chapter short as I'm not sure how much time I'm going have to work on this in the coming week. I do have break starting on the 16th, so expect the next chapter to come out sometime around then.
Reviews:
rebfan90: Thanks for the support. I'm glad you like the Minako vs Reaper fight. The Reaper will be coming back every now and then so expect a bit of a rematch at some point.
4/24 Tartarus (Main Lobby)
She wasn't sure what exactly to expect when she arrived at Tartarus' main lobby via the teleporter from that strange, barricaded off floor. Her twin was probably up and moving again and would probably give her a scolding for what she'd done. Worst case, he'd give her a smack upside the head.
Minako wasn't expecting to arrive at Tartarus' main lobby only to nearly get pulled off her feet by Yutono. He frantically looked her over while maintaining an iron grip on her shoulders.
"Uh, Yutono-kun? I appreciate the sediment, but mind giving me some room to breathe here?" She motioned with the remains of her sword in her left hand for emphasis.
He began to walk away from her but something caught his eye. Minako was somewhat surprised when he didn't hesitate to place his palm against her forehead and his Evoker against his head. Between wiping a small trickle of blood off her forehead and the soothing sensation of a Dia against her head told her she must have gotten hit with debris after the Reaper decided to nuke the entire floor to oblivion.
"Aristato-san, are you alright?" Mitsuo walked purposefully across the lobby, from where he had been aiding Akiri in healing Hamono and Jackie when they initially arrived.
Yutono had finished fixing up her head and so Minako took a moment to quickly check over herself. Aside from being covered in a layer of dust and the bits of rubble in her unruly hair, the cut on her forehead was the worst injury Minako sustained. So with a small shrug of her shoulders, she motioned with the silver briefcase still in her right hand, "I found this on floor 15. Also, I don't think we can go any further up this tower at this time"
Mitsuo raised an eyebrow but accepted the briefcase none the less, "And why might that be?"
"There's a barricade of some sorts in the way" Minako turned and started to walk over to where her twin was silently watching from a distance.
"Yo, Minako!" Jackie, Akiri, and Hamono completed the group, "You feeling alright? You look better than your sword at least"
Everyone's attention went to the shattered blade in Minako's hand, "Hmm…? Oh," She lifted it up to look at it closer, "it's not a big deal" As if to prove her point, Minako tossed the blade over her shoulder, "This time isn't going to be lasting very much longer, so let's leave. We can talk more back at the dorm"
A heavy silence accompanied SEES as they walked out of Tartarus. The Dark Hour ended right before they made it to Port Island Station and they boarded the train separately.
4/25 Iwatodai Dorm (Shortly after Midnight)
The heavy silence persisted until the members of SEES arrived and sat down in the ground floor lodge.
Mitsuo was the first to break the silence, "Before we all go to bed, I'd like to address SEES's exploration of Tartarus from tonight on. Specifically, I'd like to discuss how we'll be combating that powerful Shadow you all ran into"
"We won't be" Everyone's attention went to the last person they'd expected to speak up, "We're not fighting that thing; end of discussion"
"Aristato-san" Mitsuo spoke again, "would you mind explaining to us why you think this way?"
Minako stared at her red-haired sempai before letting out a bitter laugh, "Because I'm not counting on us getting so absurdly lucky ever again"
"Mina's got a point there" Hamono spoke up, "I wasn't completely coherent after getting thrown into a wall, but I have a feeling that things would have gotten much, much worse if we weren't lucky enough to have that teleporter appear next to us"
Minako couldn't help the snort that escaped her, "That wasn't exactly the kind of 'lucky' I was talking about, but I guess you're not completely wrong"
"Enlighten us then, Aristato-san" Mitsuo was becoming slightly irritated while Hamono just stared at his twin with a confused look on his face, "How exactly were we so 'lucky'?"
"We were lucky that the Reaper wasn't carrying his scythe around tonight" Minako looked down at her callous-covered hands, "He could have killed us all in a heartbeat, but he didn't. The bastard was playing with us"
"How do ya know that anyways?" Jackie entered the conversation, "How are you sure that thing isn't just weaker than you think?"
Minako's eyes shot up and locked onto Jackie's, "Are you forgetting that that thing nearly killed you without trying? We weren't lucky that that teleporter showed up; I bargained that for you three"
She continued after receiving everyone's confused looks, "I baited the Reaper; taunted him into a one-on-one duel where by me staying and fighting, you three got a free ride back to the lobby. Of course, I never planned on facing him for longer than I had to. I got you three out, I put on a show, and I left; that's it"
Jackie looked to make a rebuttal, but Mitsuo quickly cut her off, "That's enough. It's far too late for us to be arguing over this when we all have school in the morning. All of you; go to bed" He said his piece with a tone of finality that had the SEES juniors leaving the lobby immediately after he finished speaking.
…
…
…
"Akiri… I'm fairly certain that you're a part of the 'everyone going to sleep' group" Mitsuo looked at the silverette with a small trace of annoyance.
For her credit, Akiri shook her head at the Kirijo's light glare, "Not when you're like this, I'm not. Is that transmission still bothering you?"
Rather than respond to her question, Mitsuo walked over and opened up his laptop from its spot on the lobby's coffee table. He didn't browse anywhere other than to open up a file of SEES's chatter from that night's exploration. Looking up to make sure that all the juniors were gone, he clicked to a spot he'd already memorized and hit play.
"I can hold that thing back for a bit, but I can't do that and get you all out of here at the same time"
"Minako, no! Damn it…"
Breaking through the slightly static-filled chatter came the rattling of chains, an inhuman scream, and the sound of wind flowing down an abyss.
"I don't plan on running, at the moment" A pause, "I want you to let those three go; they don't pose a shadow of a threat to you right now. Instead I'll be fighting you"
A blast of laughter from several disembodied voices, with more chains and growls following it.
"Because you are bored. You run around this tower with nothing better to do, don't you? You could have easily killed us all, but you didn't; and why is that? Because you're bored and don't want to kill off your playmates immediately. But you don't want to go after them; you won't get any satisfaction from killing them. So fight me, I'll give you a challenge"
A low, almost contemplative rumble sounded. Directly preceding it was several other voices, ending on a slightly higher tone.
"I see… I can understand why you wouldn't accept my challenge…" The line went quiet for a brief moment, before an inhuman growl rose challengingly from the connection. It was similar to the previous unidentifiable noises from before, but this one had a slightly feminine tone to it.
A quick conversation of growls and chains followed, ending with a short silence. Then gunfire; lots of it. A few more growls, then the transmitter fizzled between static and a barrage of explosions. After the first minute of straight explosions, the transmission ended as the small microphone transmitting the recording broke. Mitsuo exited out of the media player and closed his laptop.
…
"So what exactly are we supposed to make of this?" Akiri managed to break the silence.
Mitsuo sat down on the nearby loveseat, keeping his head up with a single hand, "… I actually don't know. From what I can gather, the 'Reaper', as Aristato-san dubbed it, is both sentient and highly intelligent; it's not some mindless Shadow. Also, Aristato-san seems to be able to communicate with it. But from what I saw and heard, either she's an extremely good liar or she didn't realize that it was speaking in a language that only she could understand"
Akiri walked over to stand next to Mitsuo, "There's a good chance that Minako-san will figure that last bit out on her own; she's proven to be remarkably sharp. Anyways, how do you think we should go from here?"
Mitsuo mulled it over before responding, "I'll need to send a copy of this to Father. For now, keep an eye on the Aristato twins; Aristato-kun's ability to summon multiple Personae and Aristato-san's level of integration with her Persona are previously unheard of. We need to make sure that their mental conditions don't deteriorate. Also" His gaze fell on the metal briefcase that Aristato-san had returned with, "it seems that I've got something else to look over"
The chiming of a clock informing SEES's sempai that it was already 1 am ended their conversation.
Despite his easy-going nature and general upbeat-ness, Hamono could enforce his will when the situation called for it. So, Minako didn't put up a fight when she got dragged down the second-floor hallway and all-but thrown into the last room on the right.
"Are you stupid or something, Mina?" Hamono wasn't pleased in the slightest about his twin's recent actions, pulling the door shut before turning back around, "Do you have any idea what kind of crap you put me, and for that matter Yutono, through when you pulled that stunt?"
Minako resisted shouting back at her twin and let out a deep breath, "I know what I did. Didn't you hear what I said before? I had no intention of actually fighting the Reaper"
"That's not what it looked like to me" Hamono narrowed his red eyes, "I might have been barely coherent and unable to hear anything, but Yutono had to carry me down to keep me from running after you. And it doesn't matter if you 'had no intention of actually fighting the Reaper' you were against the fucking Grim Reaper! Don't even try to casually brush that off!"
The blunette studied her brunette counterpart for a moment before responding, "So what? I know I was facing the Reaper; he told me himself. I also know exactly how hard I can push myself, not to mention how much he was holding back. I 'interest' him, so I'm fairly certain that the Reaper wasn't planning on killing me to start with; he's too bored to just kill off the most interesting thing he's run into in who-knows how long. So I-"
At this point, Minako was interrupted by a slap to the face from Hamono. Before she could manage a rebuttal, she found herself being tightly embraced by her twin, "Do you even hear yourself anymore, Mina?" Hamono sobbed as he continued, "Why are you acting like this? Don't you understand that we all worry about you? That I worry about you? You might not see an issue with getting beaten within an inch of your life, but I sure as hell do!" At this point, Hamono fully broke, crying into his sister's shoulder, "Damn it, Mina… Why?"
"Because you don't understand what it means to survive" Minako readjusted her grip on her brother before continuing, "Surviving is about picking your battles. If that means that I take a hit to the shoulder and the side so I can block the attacks aimed at my head, heart, and sword-arm, I'll do it. If that means making myself into Reaper-bait so that everyone can get out alive, I'll do it. That's all there is to it"
Hamono managed to pull himself off his twin's shoulder to look her in the eye, "And what? Are you invincible or something? Unbreakable?"
Much to his annoyance, she just shrugged the comments off, "Someone has to be; at least until everyone else gets strong enough keep themselves alive. So you want to keep me out of the danger zone? Just focus on getting yourself stronger"
At this, Minako fully removed her twin from her arms and walked over to the closed door. As she grabbed it, time froze for Hamono as he was forced to watch the Death Social Link go up to Rank II. Time resumed and she left his room without looking back.
You always seem to keep everyone together, Mina. You're always there to pick up the pieces.
Hamono removed his clothing to change into his sleepwear, checking the extremely faint burn mark that traveled up his back in the mirror.
But what's going to happen when you break? Who's going to pick up the pieces then?
…
Outside in the hall, Minako rested her back against the wall.
Invincible? Unbreakable? If only I was.
Mistress…
Whatever Thanatos had planned on saying was cut off by the faint noise of the clock in the lounge announcing that it was 1 am. Minako ran the rest of the way to her room; tomorrow was Saturday after all.
4/25 Iwadotai Strip Mall (After School)
Compared to the previous night, Minako was happy to see that her overly emotional twin seemed to have sobered up after sleeping. Of course, the junior SEES members – sans Minako – were exhausted and spent most of the morning classes fast asleep on their desks. Swiping the wallet off her sleeping brother, Minako bought the three Yawn-B-Gone's. Hamono might not have been happy about losing a decent chunk of yen, but after enough caffeine to revive the dead, he wasn't in much of a position to complain.
The juniors went their separate ways after class ended, Hamono mentioning running to the nurse (probably from the caffeine), Yutono having archery club again, and Jackie ran off before she said anything to anyone. So here was Minako, making her way through Iwadotai's strip mall looking for a bookstore she'd heard re-opened. Shuffling through her mp3 player, she found the storefront – the display of books being a dead giveaway – and entered.
"… Welcome. What would you like today? We have fresh mackerel!" An older man spoke up as she entered.
…What?
An older woman that was probably his wife gave him a sidelong look before turning back to Minako, "… Sorry, as you can see, we don't sell fish here"
"Hey, you're a student, aren't you? You must be from Gekkoukan High, right?"
"Uh… yes?" Minako was slightly confused as to how where she went to school made any difference.
The old man, however, perked up slightly at her confirmation, "That means you've probably seen the persimmon tree there…"
Minako thought it over for a second…
It sounds familiar…
You saw it briefly when Hamo was dragging you to track and field signups
That makes sense
… and nodded in affirmation.
"That's great!" The old man smiled widely, "There's not a day that goes by that we don't think about that tree!"
The old woman caught Minako's confused expression, "Nevermind him, dear. He's just rambling. Welcome to our store; what's your name?"
"Minako Aristato" She responded with a slight bow
"Minako, huh?" The old man rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Mina-chan; that's what we'll call you!"
Minako just barely managed to hold in the shudder that ran up her spine at being called that.
Calm down, Thanatos! She's not around!
I-I know… It's j-just…
"Please don't call me that, I'm fine with just Minako" Minako quickly responded to try to control the situation.
"No, no, no; that's not going to happen. A cute lass like you should be called 'Mina-chan'" The old man continued on, unaware of Minako's reaction.
"I-I'll be back in a minute, please excuse me" Minako all but ran out of the bookstore. Taking a deep breath, she fished her phone out of her messenger bag and dialed her twin's number. It only took a few rings for him to pick up.
"Mina? You need something?" Hamono was slightly confused to be getting a phone call from his twin.
"Kind of…" Minako scratched her head for a moment, "You wouldn't happen to still be at school, would you?"
"Just got out of the nurse's office, actually" Hamono replied sheepishly, "I'm not exactly sure if I'm going to go there again if I'm not feeling well. That was mildly terrifying"
"Hamo, you alright? Actually, nevermind. Can you do me a favor?"
"I'm hurt you don't care about me" Minako just snorted in response, "But I guess I'm healthy enough for favors. What do you need?"
"If you go outside to that hallway that leads to the gym, there should be a persimmon tree on your left. I need you go grab a leaf or something off it and meet me at the Iwatodai Strip Mall"
"Odd request, but sure I can do that" Hamono started to make his way through Gekkoukan High, "You'll owe me, though"
Minako sighed slightly; she knew how bartering with her twin worked, "The next time I go to the supermarket, you can tag along"
"Deal" Hamono smirked; he could practically see the exasperation on his twin's face already, "See you soon"
"Yeah, yeah"
"Yo, Mina!" Hamono jogged the rest of the way after seeing his twin leaning against a wall, listening to her mp3 as usual, "I'm not exactly sure why you want this leaf, but it's going to cost you!"
Minako rolled her eyes at her twin's antics, "Yeah, yeah, just hand it over" She motioned with her free hand and Hamono extracted the leaf from his pocket. She examined it for a moment before walking over and entering what appeared to be a bookstore. Curious, he followed her inside.
"Welcome to Bookworms. How many guests? Smoking or non-smoking?" An elderly man with glasses sat behind a counter next to an elderly woman almost hidden by the piles upon piles of books lying around everywhere.
"Neither" Hamono was almost shocked at how forthcoming Minako was acting, "I got a present for you here, old man"
"Hm? Wait, is that what I think it is?" The elderly man looked like he recognized the leaf in some way.
Minako placed the leaf on the counter between herself and the man, "That's right, it's from that tree you mentioned earlier"
The elderly man gently picked up the leaf, "It must have grown a lot since we've last gone to see it if it has grown such splendid leaves. Wait… Did you go all the way to Gekkoukan to get us this leaf? You didn't come here to buy books?"
"Well it was Hamo here" Minako gestured to her twin before continuing, "that actually got it; I just called him to get it"
"You called him?" The elderly man looked surprised, "You did that for us? I knew it! I knew you were a kind young lady from the start!"
"Thank you dear" The elderly woman spoke up, "And who might you be?"
Hamono smiled and approached the couple, "I'm Hamono Aristato and, believe it or not, this bluenette's twin brother"
The couple looked between the twins, no small amount of disbelieve between the two, "Twins?" the woman was the first one to speak, "That's surprising, but I guess there is some resemblance"
"Anyways" The man spoke back up, "I can't thank you two enough for what you've done. Truthfully, I've been meaning visit that tree for a while now. However, I don't think my stumpy legs will make it that far"
Minako smacked her palm into her face as the man let out a chuckle, "… I didn't exactly mean for the pun to occur. You know, 'stumpy,' 'tree stump'. Catch my drift?"
Hamono grinned at his twin as the woman smiled at her husband, "Very clever, dear"
"Allow me to introduce my wife Mitsuko. I'm Bunkichi"
"It's nice to meet you" The twins replied in unison.
"Mina-chan and Hamo-chan, that's what we'll call you two from now on!"
Minako made a motion to correct the old man while Hamono just smiled as the world stopped.
*CRASH*
Thou hast established a new bond. Thou shalt be blessed when observing Personae of the Hierophant Arcana.
Hamono sighed contently as the warm feeling in his chest from the feeling of the Social Link forming washed over him.
A/N: So a question to everyone reading: for the social links, would you prefer if I went through most of the in between links (rank 2-9 as ranks 1 and 10 will be written out for every one of Hamono's social links) or would you prefer if I focus more on TJoT exclusive stuff?
Anyways, the next chapter will finish up the remain time from now until the Priestess Full Moon which will be the chapter after that one. I've already got the entire Priestess Full Moon chapter planned out, so that one should get released relatively quickly. Until then.