Monday, July 20th, 2009, Daytime


"Ya-hooo! There it is, guys! Yakushima off the left bow!"

That's port bow, Stupei. You're on a ship, you call it port. …Whatever. A subtle movement, a quiet "click", and the soothing melody of Voices went up a notch to block out the enthusiasm of the Man in the Hat.

A bright, clear sky above them, the ocean all around them. The ferry trip to Yakushima wasn't a long one, but Minato had to admit it was an enjoyable one; it had been too long since he'd last been on the water. Well, perhaps not long enough, from one perspective, but he had no reason to expect anything like that on this trip.

They'd left in the early morning, accompanied by a comment from Ikutsuki about how the fare for the ferry hadn't been very fair -a comment which had almost prompted Minato to assassinate him on the spot- and now they were nearly to the popular vacation destination, ready for three days of sun, sand, and relaxation. Three days with no worry about Shadows or violent death.

Three days of Junpei being Junpei, Minato thought uneasily, still faintly hearing his teammate chattering to the rest of the group; he himself was just inside the ferry's superstructure. He's going to be insufferable on the beach.

For the moment, Yukari and Fuuka were paying the idiot little attention, and he thought Mitsuru and Akihiko were on a different part of the upper deck. That much was a relief. What wasn't, was that he'd gotten confirmation that morning that they'd be having a little more company as of the next day.

Minato hadn't told any of his compatriots that Tsuruya was coming. In all honesty, he was a little afraid to. He was reasonably sure Akihiko would be indifferent, and Fuuka probably friendly enough; Mitsuru, he wasn't quite sure about, and he had the distinct feeling that Yukari wouldn't appreciate his old senpai's mysteriousness.

And then there's Junpei. Heaven help me if Junpei is around when Tsu-chan meets up with me.

"We're almost there, Minato," Yukari called, waving to him from near the bow. "You see it?"

Pausing his music, Minato finally emerged out into the sun, adjusting the collar of his t-shirt to let in the breeze. They were, indeed, slowing down and sidling up to the dock now. In just a couple of minutes, they'd be on shore and heading for the place Mitsuru had arranged for them to stay.

"It's a beautiful place," Fuuka commented, openly rubbernecking. "Have any of you ever been here before?"

"Not me," Minato admitted, as Yukari and Junpei also shook their heads. "My vacation spots have usually trended more toward mountains than the sea, with the exception of the Okinawa trip last year."

"Yakushima has its own charm," Mitsuru said, appearing seemingly out of nowhere and once again almost making him jump out of his skin. "The Jomon cedar tree is particularly impressive, and of course there's the beach."

The expression on her face, Minato noticed, was shadowed. She seemed happy about the trip, but something about it clearly had her uneasy.

Her father, probably. The Kirijo family clearly has some pretty major "issues"; her grandfather's actions, and everything that came after, have left their mark on how she views "family", from the look of it. I don't remember my parents very well, but I know I would never worry about "bothering" my grandfather by dropping in on him during a vacation.

Old Man Kouetsu has a lot to answer for.

Any incipient dark mood was, fortunately, quickly broken. "The beach!" Junpei repeated, grinning. "Yeah, that's gonna be the highlight of the trip! Beaches, and babes, and-"

While Minato took no small satisfaction in the stomp Yukari ended the statement with, he had to admit -if only in the privacy of his own mind- to being grateful to Junpei for once. This wasn't the time to be brooding about the past, it was time to actually relax for once, and have some fun.

Even if some of that fun is plotting how to murder Junpei without leaving any forensic evidence. Damn, but I hope he's busy somewhere else when Tsu-chan gets here. Or maybe I can arrange to meet her someplace that isn't the beach?

Right. This is Fang-tan we're talking about. Of course she's going to want to meet on the beach.

Homicide it is, Master?

Start plotting, guys, we have a Perfect Crime to plan.


Minato wasn't exactly what one would call "financially challenged". His family was, in fact, pretty darn well off, if not to the extent he suspected the Tsuruya family of being. Despite that, while his family's main home was not precisely small, he tended to associate "vacation" homes with small, intimate settings.

Apparently the Kirijo family didn't agree. The Yakushima vacation home that greeted the eyes of the SEES team was Western-styled, and at least as large as the house Minato had grown up in between his various travels. If that was their idea of a small, intimate vacation house, he was kind of scared to think about how big their main home must be.

You must need GPS, he thought, as Mitsuru led the way up the front steps. A compass and a map, at the very least. …What is it with families like ours and the apparent need for mansions big enough for entire clans? Well, I suppose you could excuse it with the idea of it serving the Kirijo Group as a whole, but still.

"I realize it's a bit fancy," Mitsuru said, opening the doors, "but I think it'll do." She flashed a smile over her shoulder at the group. "Make yourselves at home, everyone."

"I'll be damned," Junpei whispered, visibly overwhelmed. "Is this place for real? It's like it's straight out of Lifestyles of the Rich and Fabulous!" He craned his neck around, taking in everything he could of the mansion's foyer.

As suggested by the outside view, the foyer was spacious, reminding Minato of a ballroom as much as an entrance. Elegant pillars supporting a second-floor walkway, a plush carpet down the middle leading up a stairway… Minato estimated that the foyer alone cost more than their entire dorm. Without taking into account the chairs, other furnishings, and handful of paintings hung on the walls.

"I thin I actually have seen this on TV before," Fuuka said in a hushed voice, looking a bit out of her depth as well.

"Could be," Yukari mused, just as the doors at the other end of the room opened. "The Kirijo Group isn't exactly low-profile, after all…"

From the newly-opened doors came a pair of women in classic maid attire, white frills and all. "Welcome back, Milady," one of them said, as they both bowed. "It's good to see you again."

"Likewise, Sanae-san," Mitsuru replied with a smile, nodding to the woman. "It's been too long."

"It has, indeed, Milady." Sanae turned to those behind Mitsuru. "And these are your friends from school, yes? Welcome to the Kirijo retreat. Rooms have already been prepared for all of you."

Of his friends and comrades, Minato noticed, only Mitsuru seemed to really know how to react to the situation; even Akihiko, the ever-composed, looked uncertain, and the others… Well. Can't blame them; but somebody's gotta say something. Fortunately, this is one thing I did literally grow up with.

Feeling slightly ridiculous himself, given his casual attire, Minato bowed formally. "Thank you very much," he said, shifting to a more polite speech pattern than his usual. "Forgive us for the intrusion. We'll be in your care."

Sanae smiled, nodding. "Of course, Master Arisato."

He twitched at that, and glanced at Mitsuru. No luck there; she looked as surprised as he felt, and shrugged minutely when she noticed his gaze.

They already know who I am, on sight? That's… odd.

As if nothing had happened, Sanae turned back to Mitsuru. "If you'll excuse us, Milady, we'll take your luggage up to your rooms now."

"…Yes, thank you, Sanae." Mitsuru paused. "By the way, I was told that my father would be…"

She trailed off, for at that moment another figure came through the doors behind the maids, who took the opportunity to retrieve the various bags and quietly depart. A tall man in a dark brown suit, with equally dark hair. A scar ran down the right side of his face, from his forehead down to his cheek, interrupted by a black patch covering that eye socket. In one hand, he held a smoking cigarette.

Silently, the man stopped before the group, and turned his one-eyed gaze on them. Mitsuru he gave only a passing glance, and Akihiko was similarly mostly ignored. Junpei received a brief, measuring look, before the inspecting eye moved on to Yukari. Her face brought a spark of… something… to his expression, and his face twitched slightly.

Then it was Minato's turn, and he felt for a second like the man was staring right into his soul. That gaze was one of recognition, one which measured every fiber of his being. This wasn't just someone evaluating a friend of a family member, this was someone who saw Minato as a fighter, as the field leader of SEES, who did not concern himself with Minato's academics or normal qualities as a high school student.

He had the strangest feeling that the man was not, in fact, looking at "Minato Arisato" at all, but rather the truth behind that mask. He knows, the swordsman thought, feeling a chill run down his spine. He knows who I am. He knows… Kyousuke…

In the ensuing silence, Minato thought he could hear Junpei sweat, even though the Man in the Hat was no longer under direct scrutiny. Loathe as he was to use the cliché, he was sure a pin dropping would shatter everyone's eardrums. Like a grenade pin, he thought, beginning to shiver himself.

Mitsuru finally broke the tension. "It's good to see you, Father," she said, confirming Minato's suspicion as to the man's identity. "It's been a while."

Takeharu Kirijo released the SEES members from his inspection at last, and looked back at her. Another long moment of silence, before he nodded to himself, and walked away.

The whole time he'd been there, he hadn't said a word. Of course, contrary to how it felt, Kirijo probably hadn't been there at all more than thirty seconds or so. Nonetheless, it was the longest thirty seconds Minato could recall in recent memory.

"…Damn," Junpei breathed, once Kirijo was safely out of earshot. "That was scary, man! I thought he was gonna make us walk the plank or something!"

"Don't be melodramatic, Junpei," Yukari scolded, rolling her eyes. Despite the scolding, though, she didn't sound very irritated; Minato figured she was as grateful as anyone for the final break in the tension.

"It's all right," Mitsuru assured them, conjuring up a smile that didn't look too forced. "My father… Well, he's a bit quiet, but he's really very kind. At any rate, we'll be here for a few days, so you may as well start settling in."

"Settling in?" Junpei laughed, grinning. "Ah, c'mon, Senpai, that can wait! Let's head straight for the beach!"

Of course, Minato thought, inwardly relieved. Trust Junpei to get straight to the frivolous. …Sometimes, I envy you. Not that I'll ever admit it, mind.

"Right now?" Yukari gave Junpei a Look that really said more than words could convey. "You've got a one-track mind, don't you?" She paused. "Oh, fine. Just give me a minute to get changed, will you?"

Normal chatter resumed, and the group split up to find their respective rooms. Minato fell a bit behind the rest, though, thoughts more on the encounter with Takeharu Kirijo than the beach. It didn't go unnoticed, either; Akihiko hung back a little, dropping to match pace with him.

"You okay?" the boxer asked quietly. "I know Mitsuru's father can be a little scary, Minato, but he's really not that bad."

"I know," Minato replied, just as softly. "I could tell that much. But…"

"But?"

"I think he knows who I am. I'm not used to that."


Akihiko thought, very briefly, about pressing the matter. That was the first time he could recall Minato actually acknowledging that he wasn't quite who he claimed to be. It was starting to become something of an open secret within SEES, of course; Akihiko and Mitsuru had both long since come to the conclusion that "Minato Arisato" was an alias, and he was pretty sure Fuuka, at least, had also started to realize it.

It wasn't exactly hard to figure out. The swordsman knew too much and had too many esoteric skills, yet said almost nothing about himself beyond anecdotes that might or might not have been just tall tales. That he was disguising himself was basically a given, by this point.

Even so, that was the first time Minato had admitted to the fact, and Akihiko was tempted to try and use it as an opening. In the end, though, he decided not to. Minato was the field leader; if it was anyone's place to push, it was Mitsuru's, as overall head of the team. So far, she hadn't, and Akihiko wasn't going to undermine her decision.

So, in the end, he said simply, "Mitsuru's father knows most things, Minato. And not to put you down, Detective, but he's been at this kind of thing a lot longer than you have. Don't sweat it."

"…It's still disconcerting," Minato muttered.

"I bet," the boxer said dryly, with deliberate understatement. "But really, don't worry about it. If he knows things, he's known them at least since the original background check when you were being considered for SEES. If he didn't do anything then, he's not likely to now."

"…Feh."

Minato was obviously still uneasy, but his pace picked up-just incidentally preventing him from seeing Akihiko's grin. You're always one step ahead of the rest of us, Detective. It's kind of funny to see you on the receiving end for once.


Minato was of two minds about beaches. On the one hand, he liked the ocean, and even he had to admit that it was good to get some sun once in a while; for all the dangers of skin cancer and plain old sunburn, he preferred to avoid looking too pasty. Saya had remarked, several years before, that he was looking downright vampiric, so he'd been careful to spend at least some time out in the sun on a regular basis ever since.

So yes, beaches had their benefits. They were even a great place to catch a nap, provided a hammock in a shady spot was available. On the other hand, there was high potential for things to go all sorts of wrong, in the most embarrassing ways possible.

For example, if you have Junpei Iori as one of your traveling companions. Or Tsu-chan. Today I have the one, tomorrow I'll probably have the other. Heaven help me if I don't manage to arrange for Junpei to be elsewhere then, because I don't know I can handle both at once.

Look on the bright side, Master. It should be absolutely hilarious.

Speak for yourself.

Walking down the path from the Kirijo vacation home, through the woods, down toward the beach, Minato was hopeful that Junpei might, somehow, be kept in check. Akihiko was with them, too, and given the boxer's attitude toward his own fan girls, there might just be a chance that he'd put a damper on Junpei's enthusiasm.

Failing that, Minato fully intended to disclaim any knowledge of Junpei's identity, the latter's distinctive hat be damned. For one thing, he groused internally, he's wearing it backwards. Have some class, man.

Junpei was going with just shorts and sandals, along with his infuriatingly arranged hat. Akihiko and Minato, by contrast, both wore shirts -in Minato's case for very good reason, if he said so himself- and the swordsman had topped things off with the same blue-tinted glasses he'd taken to wearing during anti-Shadow operations. Leaving aside pure style, he'd been spending enough of his waking hours in bad lighting of late that the noonday sun was decidedly uncomfortable.

"Okay, we're ready," Junpei announced to the world at large, as they emerged out onto the beach. "Got my sandals, my feet have a chance to breathe, and there's nothin' around but sand, sun, and sea!" He grinned, sweeping his gaze across the beach. "Oh, yeah, summer is officially here, baby! Time to rock out!"

I've got a few songs for that, Minato thought, idly wishing he'd brought his MP3 player. A little JAM Project would be perfect… too bad the player isn't waterproof.

"Not too crowded," he remarked aloud, following Junpei onto the open sand. "That's good."

Junpei rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you would say that, wouldn't ya? But some of us don't wanna spend the day all alone, y'know!"

Akihiko sighed, seeming similarly disappointed. "I don't see any markers," he said, shading his eyes with one hand as he looked out to the ocean. "Darn… not even any good landmarks around here. Too bad… I had some great ideas for swim training, too."

Not a bad idea, actually. And it has been awhile… Damn, Minato realized, I haven't gone swimming since Okinawa. He shivered suddenly, glad that his teammates weren't paying close enough attention to see his face just then. Although maybe that's not such a bad thing. Well, not that I minded at the time, but this is not a good time to be…

The direction he did not want his thoughts to go in just then was thankfully derailed by Junpei's snort, directed at their senpai. "You gotta be kidding," he scoffed, as they neared the edge of the water itself; not far away was a beach chair, shaded by an umbrella. "C'mon, Senpai, you come all the way to Yakushima on vacation, and the first thing you think about is training?"

"So what?" Akihiko said defensively. "Hey, you've got your idea of fun, and I've got mine. What, you think you've got a better idea, Junpei?"

Another megawatt grin. "Darn right, Senpai. We're at the beach, aren't we? There's only one thing that can mean for any real man!"

Oh, hell. Any time I hear the expression "real man", I get the urge to run. Valkyrie, please tell me he didn't actually say that.

Unfortunately, he did, Master. Valkyrie's mental voice was notably disgruntled. Bah! The shallow barbarian!

Oh, I don't know, Pixie drawled. I think some of this could be worthwhile. After all, one of the people still coming is…

Shut. UP!

Minato's sanity was given a brief reprieve when Junpei looked back toward the path they'd come down, and found a new target for his grin. "And here is that meaning!" he pronounced.

"…Huh?"

Said target's face bore a confused look, even as Junpei gave her a visual once-over that had Minato contemplating homicide again. "Our first contestant!" he said enthusiastically. "Yukari Takeba!" His voice took on deeper tone, like he was imitating an announcer. "Yes, as you all can see, she's chosen a very bold design-not at all what I had expected from her! It takes a lot of confidence to pull off something like that!"

Yes, homicide was very definitely on Minato's mind just then, and from the way Yukari's expression darkened, he figured she was thinking much the same. To Minato's consternation, though, he had to admit -very privately- that Junpei had something of a point. For all that he was sick and tired of denying the various rumors around Gekkokan about him and Yukari, he wasn't blind.

The bikini and shorts combination Yukari was wearing did become her quite well. He couldn't deny that, however loathe he was to agree with Junpei on anything at all to do with the topic. Under other circumstances, he probably would've found it very… interesting.

Not that I'd say as much, certainly not in public, Minato reminded himself firmly. There remains that difference. Junpei wallows in that kind of thing. I do not.

Visibly torn between anger and embarrassment, Yukari finally huffed in annoyance and settled for hitting Junpei with a glare. "Men," she muttered.

The comment slid off Junpei's hide like water off a raincoat, and did nothing to dampen his grin. Both the grin and his gaze were almost immediately directed elsewhere, though, as someone else came down the path toward them.

"Hi, guys," Fuuka said, approaching the spot the others had gathered at. "Is that umbrella taken?" she added, nodding at the shaded chair.

Minato was about to tell her to make herself at home, hoping to head off the comments he knew were coming, but Junpei was too fast for him. "And here we have Contestant Number Two," he announced, pontificating again. "Fuuka Yamagishi! Fuuka…" He trailed off, eyes widening slightly as he took in her figure. "Wow, Fuuka… I had no idea you were so… Well! You oughtta wear a swimsuit more often!"

"Huh?" Fuuka blinked, tilting her head in confusion. Her eyes narrowed in momentary concentration, then widened, accompanied by a blush. Minato wasn't sure if she'd finally noticed where Junpei was looking, or if something else had tipped her off somehow, but she quickly ducked behind Yukari, looking mortified.

Too frilly, was Minato's own internal comment about Fuuka's two-piece. Beyond that, he was more concerned with Junpei's behavior.

The Man in the Hat didn't appear at all abashed by Fuuka's reaction to his scrutiny, either, and merely cranked up the wattage on his grin. "Aw, c'mon, Fuuka-chan! Believe me, you've got nothing to be embarrassed about!" He followed up with a laugh.

That laugh was cut off by Minato's hand smacking him on the back of the head. "Get a hold of yourself, Stupei," he ordered, borrowing Yukari's nickname for the goateed one. "There's 'being a guy', and then there's just plain creepy. The first is bad enough."

"Heh, you got no soul, Minato!" Junpei shot back, rubbing the spot that had received the slap. "But hey! I bet even you won't be able to ignore what's up next!"

What's up next…? Oh, hell. I knew I was forgetting a reason to be uncomfortable. How the hell am I going to get through this one…?

Yes, Master! This is what we've all been waiting for, isn't?

And it's not at all creepy that a female-aligned aspect of my subconscious is saying that in this context. Not at all. …Pixie, someday I will find a way to murder you, part of my own head be damned.

As he'd feared, from Junpei's comments, there was indeed one more person coming down the path to the beach. Even Akihiko, who had so far looking more exasperated than anything else by Junpei's commentary, turned to watch the last figure approach. So did Yukari and Fuuka, for that matter.

Minato didn't really notice the others' reactions after the first second or so. He was busy drawing on the suddenly-offered strength of Orpheus to school his face into the closest approximation of a stone statue that he possibly could, even as the sight before him did its best to tug at his expression.

It wasn't a problem he'd had much in the past two years. After the Incident, avoiding anything resembling overt interest in the female form had been dead easy for him, the memories too fresh for simple casual glances to rivet his attention. To be sure, Tsu-chan had succeeded in getting his full attention, among other things, culminating in the… celebration… that concluded the Ship in a Bottle incident, but she'd been anything but subtle.

Tsuruya had actively worked to get Minato's attention. Perhaps it was just the mind control incident during the Tanabata Operation, but Mitsuru Kirijo merely had to walk into view, and suddenly Minato couldn't see anything else.

He vaguely heard Junpei making one last remark about "contestants", but it didn't really register. He did notice his Senpai's bewildered look when she realize she was being stared at, and kind of noticed Yukari and Fuuka's awed reactions, but that was about it.

Far more important, to Minato's suddenly fixated mind, was Mitsuru herself. Wearing a white sarong-bikini combination, enough smooth skin was exposed to remind him forcefully of Tanabata, and for several seconds he couldn't bring himself to even care about the context of that event. The scars he'd discovered that night weren't in view -fortunately for his sanity- but a little too much else…

About then, Mitsuru finally spotted him in turn, and for a split second her eyes widened, before she applied what looked to be as much self-control as he was to smooth out her expression. Controlled face or not, though, she quite visibly gave Minato the same once-over he did her. That reminded him, with suddenly redoubled discomfort, that while he was covering his own scars, the blue t-shirt was an older one.

He'd put one a fair bit more muscle since he'd joined SEES, and only now did it occur to him that the shirt probably showed off more than a little of it.

Doubtless, the same memories were going through her head as his.

But this is not the same, Young Master, a melodic voice whispered in the depths of his mind. This is by choice, and 'tis nothing more than sight. Nothing will happen that you do not choose to happen, this time.

Do not reject what may be good, merely because the first hint was under ill circumstance. Let what may be, be.

After a long moment, almost too long -almost long enough for the others to start noticing something odd- Minato took a deep breath, and forced away the tunnel vision that had been imposed on him. Relaxing the stone that had infused his face, he managed a small but genuine smile, and nodded to Mitsuru.

Her eyes widened fractionally again, then narrowed; perhaps, he suspected, her own Persona was giving her a much-needed reassurance. As the attention around her began to disperse, a small smile played at her lips, and she nodded to him in return.

It was probably the most ease with which they'd looked at each other since Tanabata, and Minato felt some tension that had still lingered from that night finally begin to drain. He didn't know what might happen from here, wasn't prepared to even guess; after all, when you got right down to it, they barely knew each other, and it would be a mistake to read too much into the events of one night that had involved so much mental meddling. Regardless, just being able to look at each other again, without immediately looking away in embarrassment, was a huge load off the mind.

Junpei was heading back over now, a conspiratorial grin on his face. For a second, Minato feared it meant that he'd noticed the shared glance, but then realized the Idiot's expression would probably have been either shocked, or gleeful. Small miracle, that. Even now, as far as anyone else knows Senpai and I had no problems at all that night. I would really like to keep it that way.

Junpei came to a stop by Minato's side, facing the other way. "So," he said in a whisper, "whaddya think, eh?"

"…About what?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Minato." He twitched his head back toward where the girls were. "I know you may kill for me this, but I gotta ask… which one really is your type? I mean, the rumors are still goin' around the school, and now's the perfect time to find out…"

Minato closed his eyes, and counted, very slowly, to ten. Then twenty. Then, "Junpei. I know at least three different ways to kill you in this scenario, and make it look like an accident. I could disguise a murder as mere manslaughter by stomping on your foot, and making it look like you broke your neck when you hit the ground, instead of when I elbowed your trachea. Need I go into more detail?"

"…Yeah, I thought that's what you'd say." Undaunted, Junpei stepped back, still grinning. "But we got another two days of beach-going, Minato! Even you can't keep up a stone face forever, and when you slip, I'll know!"

Didn't Tsu-chan tell me about memory-modification techniques once? I can't quite remember…

I shall archive-binge for the relevant recollection, Master, Valkyrie vowed. If the barbarian sees something he shouldn't, we shall arrange him to be unable to tell anyone else!

A giggle. Yeah, I can get behind that. But that's not the important thing, is it, Master? Senpai really does look… Well! Don't you think that makes this whole trip worth it?

There really wasn't any reply Minato could think of for that one. Not one that conveyed exactly the sense he wanted it to, anyway. He might be able to manage to get across his annoyance, but no way he could think of would actually succeed in shutting up the lecherous Fae. Worse, he couldn't think of any way to effectively phrase a proper denial.

He never was that good at lying to himself, after all.

Junpei had, by now, turned to new topics of excitement, and was waving toward the water. "C'mon, guys!" he shouted, grinning wider than ever. "It's summer, we got girls, and we got the ocean! It's heaven, baby! Let's get to swimming! Charge!"

Well, at least he was lead-from-the-front kind of general, Minato reflected. The Man in the Hat rushed straight for the water, diving in without even waiting to see if anyone was following his "order".

Akihiko sighed, shrugged, and followed him, doubtless hoping to salvage some kind of exercise from the situation. After exchanging glances mixing amusement with a certain degree of dread, Fuuka and Yukari went along too; though, oddly, Fuuka shot Minato an inscrutable look as she passed.

Well, Minato mused, turned toward the ocean himself, I guess a good swim is as good a way as any to start the day's "fun". And maybe better to get some in before Tsu-chan turns up to complicate things. I know she will.

After taking a few minutes to stretch his muscles -cramps while swimming didn't strike him as a good thing- he started to follow his comrades into the water. A few steps away, though, he paused, having the strange feeling that someone was watching him.

Glancing around, he quickly discovered the feeling was correct. Lying on the beach chair Fuuka had previously inquired about, umbrella leaving her partly in shadow, Mitsuru was gazing at him curiously. Her expression was mostly unreadable, but he could tell that much, and it made him feel just slightly strange.

After a moment, though, she offered him another smile, and leaned back in the chair.

Huh. Minato thought about it for just a moment, then shrugged, smiling slightly to himself. Somehow, as "strange" as that last had felt, it wasn't really uncomfortable. It was… more friendly, he thought, that anything else. Friendlier than he was used to with the habitually-distant Student Council President.

He didn't mind it, he thought, as he finally lunged into the refreshingly chill water. No, he didn't mind it one bit.


Evening


Despite how… awkward… a few moments on the beach had been. Mitsuru felt refreshed, more relaxed than she had been in some weeks. Somehow, she and Arisato had even managed to work past most of the lingering tension from the Tanabata encounter; neither of them was likely to forget it any time soon, but at least now they could look one another in the eye again.

As a whole, she thought as she made her way toward her father's office in the vacation house, the team was meshing better than they ever had before. Iori had clearly patched things up with Arisato, Takeba no longer seemed on edge over Yamagishi's recruitment, and Mitsuru herself was, gradually, finding it easier to relax around her juniors.

Even so, there remained things to clear up, which had brought her to where she was in the first place. Like she'd told Takeba, it only made sense for them to come to Yakushima at this time, in the wake of the revelation of what SEES was really doing.

To Mitsuru's surprise, though, she didn't find her father in his office. Instead, as she stood outside it trying to work up the nerve to knock, he came from the other end of the hall, pausing a couple of meters away when he noticed her. As had been the case as long as she could remember, her father was very quiet, both in step and voice; for a few moments, he merely looked at her, cigarette in hand.

"I'm glad to see you're doing well, Father," Mitsuru ventured, when it became clear he wouldn't make the first move. "It's been some time…"

He only nodded at that, barely an acknowledgement; she knew not to take it personally, at least, knowing well that her father was far from the cold, menacing man he often appeared on the surface. Like so many people around her these days, her father presented a mask to the world.

I sometimes wonder that he hasn't manifested a Persona himself, she mused absently, waiting for him to make known what was really on his mind.

"I take it our guests are residents of the dorm," her father said at last, more a statement than a question. "I recognize one of them, at least, as one of the new SEES candidates from earlier this year."

"That's right," Mitsuru confirmed cautiously. "Arisato, Takeba, Iori, and Yamagishi are all new recruits." She glanced away. "I'm sorry for bringing so many of them, but…"

Her father waved a hand dismissively; his mask slipped as he did so, showing some of the concern that he usually hid so well. "That's not a problem, Mitsuru. Such guests are very welcome; I'm relieved to see that you have so many you can trust by your side."

The rare statement brought her head back up. "Father…?"

"I'm not at all upset, Mitsuru," he said quietly. "Except by one thing: why did you hide the truth from them for so long?"

That was one of the things that she'd always thought would most surprise people about Takeharu Kirijo. For all that he, as with the rest of the Kirijo Group, worked hard to keep the truth about Shadows and the Dark Hour hidden from the general public, he preferred to keep no such secrets among those who did need to know.

If you were involved, you deserved to know the full truth. Her father made no equivocations about his own involvement, nor his own father's, when the subject came up. Mitsuru had always admired that about her father… even as she tried with all her might to deny his particular part in it herself.

"…I wasn't…" Mitsuru hesitated, looking away again. "I just couldn't find the right time to tell them everything, Father. It's not the sort of thing you explain to someone who doesn't already understand…"

The elder Kirijo sighed, closing his remaining eye. "Mitsuru," he said quietly, "I have told you this many times over the years: what happened was not, in any way, your fault. You were a child, with neither power nor understanding of what my father was attempting." His face tightened with remembered anguish. "You had no part in what happened that day, and what was done to you was an unconscionable sin by others, not you."

Mitsuru shivered, flashing back for a moment to half-remembered, horrible days. Days before she gained full control… "But I…"

"I mean it, Mitsuru. None of the blame lies with you." Her father turned to look down the hall, from which came the faint sounds of the other members of SEES returning. "I saw some of your interactions today. Even knowing the truth, none of your comrades think less of you, do they?"

She twitched at that. It was true that Takeba had reacted with rage at first, but even she had settled down; and while it might be expected, at this point, that Arisato would have taken it in stride, it was probably instructive that neither the hot-blooded Iori nor shy Yamagishi had seemed very bothered at all. Neither of them had reacted well, but… it was true that their unease had appeared more about the events described than her personally.

Certainly none of them had shown any issue with her today. The closest to a "problem" that she'd had would've been Iori's -in hindsight predictable- reaction to seeing her in a swimsuit. And Arisato's, she thought privately. He hid it well, but still…

Her father nodded at what Mitsuru didn't say. "Remember, Mitsuru: 'Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection'," he quoted quietly. "Ever since Kirijo separated from Nanjo, that has been the guiding principle of our Group… and our family. There are things in this world that cannot be accomplished by one alone, no matter how much is sacrificed." He fixed his eye on hers. "Learn to trust them, Mitsuru. They've earned it."

Mitsuru unconsciously gripped her left arm with her right hand. "…I understand, Father."

"I'm not sure you do," he retorted, voice sharpening again. "You accessed our database, or had one of the others do it for you, didn't you?" He didn't seem to need her guilty look to confirm the accusation. "You didn't need to do that, Mitsuru, nor use this trip as an excuse. You could've just asked me directly."

She flinched, unable to meet that Cyclopean gaze any longer. "I have no excuse," she whispered.

Her father sighed. "I am not angry, Mitsuru. Merely concerned. You take far too much on your own shoulders." He shook his head. "Bring them all here, Mitsuru. Whether or not you should've told them yourself, I admit there are things that you could not have explained to them. Things all of you deserve to know. Now is an excellent chance to reveal everything, to all of you."

"Everything…?" Mitsuru looked up at him again, eyes wide with confusion. "Father…?" As far as she knew, she already knew as much as anyone did about the incident; Yamagishi's probing had seemed to confirm that not much more data had survived the explosion than what she'd already known.

She'd expected that, as a survivor, her father would have a different perspective on what had happened, but she hadn't anticipated anything more than that.

Her father was continuing toward his office now, heedless of her inquiry. As he reached the door, though, he paused again. "You mentioned Takeba, and Arisato, yes?"

"Ah, yes, that's right," Mitsuru confirmed, puzzled by the change in topic.

"Takeba and Arisato… yes, I thought I remembered those names from the background checks." Her father looked up toward the ceiling, seemingly lost in thought. "The hand of Fate is a mystery. For those two to awaken to their power, of all people… I wonder if the Fates are laughing at us."

"Father…?"

He shook his head. "You will understand soon enough, Mitsuru. As sad as it is. We owe Arisato's grandfather much… and we owe Takeba a debt I fear we can never repay."


Minato wasn't sure what to expect, when he and the rest of SEES were gathered into a parlor in the Kirijo vacation home. His Senpai had seemed oddly subdued when she summoned the team, as if whatever tension had been underlying her good mood thus far had come to the surface. All she'd said was that her father wanted to speak to them all, and that told him very little.

He knew the Kirijo Group in general far better than he was normally inclined to let on, but he'd never met Takeharu Kirijo prior to the encounter in the hallway earlier that day. His grandfather had indicated the CEO was worthy of trust, but beyond that Minato was pretty much in the dark. And from the look of things, the same held true for his compatriots.

With the possible exception of Akihiko-senpai, he thought, as they all took places around a table, facing toward a television screen. Kirijo himself sat at the center of the half-circle, a somber expression on his face. He's known Senpai longer than any of us, so he might have an idea of what's going on. Might.

When they'd all taken seats, Kirijo looked them over, a brief repeat of his silent measuring earlier that day. What exactly he found, Minato couldn't say, but it seemed to satisfy him. "I take it Mitsuru has already told you most of what happened," he began quietly, without preamble. "The short version, at least, of what happened ten years ago."

"Yeah," Yukari confirmed, with a cautious nod.

"Well," he said heavily, "it's all true. We of the Kirijo Group, those of us who were old enough to know better at the time, are responsible for what happened back then. If I could've atoned for our actions with my life, I would've gladly done so."

And interestingly enough, I think he means it, Minato realized with slight surprise. Most times you hear people say, "I'd rather be dead", they don't really mean it literally. Kirijo-san does…

"My death, however, would be meaningless," Kirijo continued, his one-eyed gaze sweeping back and forth across them. "Against this threat, I am powerless. I have no choice but to rely on you young people, and your power of Persona. Had I that power myself, I would never place you in this position, but I don't, and this needs to be done." He leaned back in his chair, eye focusing on something only he could see. "My father… what he was trying to do, was to create a time manipulation device."

Mitsuru leaned forward, eyes widening. "That was his objective?" she whispered, visibly surprised. "I never knew…"

Minato grimaced. "Manipulating time and space never ends well," he muttered.

Kirijo nodded. "In practice, you are quite correct, Arisato. In theory? Think of it. Imagine if you could control the flow of time, reverse it, or even accelerate it. You could learn what lay ahead, and 'correct' what had already occurred. The future… no, the entire world could be shaped to your liking."

"Humans are not meant to wield the power of gods," the swordsman said, respectful but firm. He'd heard enough stories, and had had one personal experience, that demonstrated the problems of power without understanding.

"It's insane," Junpei agreed, shaking his head.

"I won't deny that," Kirijo said, giving Minato a long, searching look. "Of course, as to whether the original goal would've worked or not, I cannot say, because it never reached that point. Gradually, under my father's direction, the goal of the research began to change. In his later years, my father's own heart began to change, to the extent that I believe by the end there was nothing left in him but nihilism. Perhaps the implications of time control broke his mind…"

Minato could well believe that. His head hurt badly enough just reading time travel stories, sometimes. Trying to deal with the implications of really having temporal manipulation at your fingertips? With great power comes great insanity, he thought. The human brain isn't wired to comprehend time in anything but a linear fashion.

It was about then that he noticed Yukari was starting to tense up. In retrospect, not very surprising; the subject at hand was clearly leading up to the accident from ten years ago, and given what she'd said about her father having died in it…

"At any rate," Kirijo said after a moment, "I understand you all have been looking into what happened at the end of that research, through various means. It's only natural for you to want to know the truth about what you're fighting… and it's my duty to tell you. There will be no more secrets, no more need for you to search for the answers that should've been given to you from the start." Picking up a remote from the table, he clicked it, bringing the television to life.

The scene that was displayed was hard to make out. It was full of static, as if the camera were damaged; about all Minato could say for sure was that it was showing a laboratory, with a man in a white lab coat standing close to the camera. His face looked somehow familiar to him-as did the expression of mixed self-loathing and despair.

"What is this?" Akihiko asked, voicing the general sentiment.

I think I've got a pretty good idea, actually…

"The only surviving footage of the accident at the Gekkokan Lab, ten years ago," Kirijo said quietly. "Recorded by one of the researchers who was on the scene."

Yukari had gone bone-white; Minato had an unpleasant feeling he knew why, and why the man's face looked familiar to him.

"I pray that this recording reaches safe hands…"

"That voice…!"

"My employer has become obsessed with a loathsome idea," the scientist said, against a background of frantic voices and unidentifiable but distinctly ominous sounds. "This experiment should never have even been conceived…" His expression twisted even further. "What I've done will result in an unprecedented disaster… but if I hadn't, the entire world would pay the price."

"The entire world…?" Fuuka whispered, speaking for the first time since they'd gathered. Curiously, to Minato's eyes, she was shivering.

Come to think of it, that's not the first time I've seen her react so oddly. I wonder why?

On the screen, the scientist's face took on a pleading look. "Please, you must listen carefully. The Shadows that were amassed here for the experiment will be dispersed by the explosion. To end this nightmare you must destroy all of them!" There were tears running down his face now.

In the background, Minato made out a little of what was being said by others. "Hurry, shut it down! The whole thing is going critical… Dammit, it's going to-!"

"I am to blame for all this," the scientist said, heedless of his colleagues' panic. "I knew the risks, but I was blinded by the tremendous possibility success represented… And so, I raised no objections, until it was too late. It is all my fault… this is the only option left to me…"

"Emergency shutd-!"

A loud roar eclipsed the remaining audio, and the screen went white, then darkened as the recording shut off completely.

There was no sound at all in the room for several seconds, beyond the quiet hum of a ceiling fan. They had just seen the exact moment that the Dark Hour had been created, the moment that the conflict they'd gathered together to fight had begun. What could be said?

Then, slowly, unsteadily, Yukari came to her feet. "…Dad…" she whispered, eyes turning watery.

The others turned to look at her sharply; save, Minato noticed, Kirijo, who seemed to have expected the reaction. "You mean," Fuuka gasped out, "that man was…?"

Well. That explains a hell of a lot, doesn't it?

Mitsuru turned, very slowly, to look at Kirijo. "Father…?"

So Senpai didn't know everything, either. Well, isn't this a fine mess?

"His name was Eiichiro Takeba," Kirijo confirmed quietly, looking not at his daughter but rather Yukari. His face was difficult to read, but his voice was heavy with sadness. "He was the head researcher of the Gekkokan Lab, and one of the most talented men to ever work for the Kirijo Group. He was instrumental in bringing the project forward. But," he added, "we are the ones to blame for pushing him. The Kirijo Group gave him the objective, and bears the responsibility for his actions, and for his death."

Mitsuru stared, visibly shaken. "I… I can't believe it… Takeba's father was…?"

Yukari's face was no longer pale, but Minato couldn't tell much beyond that. She was staring at the floor now, her hair obscuring her face from view. "So that means," she whispered, "that my father was the one who caused everything? …The Dark Hour… Tartarus… all those people who died… all the students were became Lost… Everything was Dad's fault…?"

Uh-oh.

"Yukari," Minato began, starting to rise. "Yukari, it's not-"

She turned suddenly, ignoring him completely to glare at Mitsuru. "Is this why you were hiding the truth?" she demanded bitterly. "To protect me? Because you felt sorry for me?! Is that it?!"

Mitsuru shook her head, eyes wide. "No! Takeba, I didn't even-"

Yukari didn't seem to be listening to her either. "I don't want pity!" she snapped. "I never wanted-!" Breaking off, she whirled, and fled the room.

Well. Crud.

Kirijo sighed, closed his eye, and sank back in his chair. "For what it's worth," he said into the silence, "I am sorry. I don't expect that to be any consolation, however…"

The members of SEES stared at one another, then looked toward where Yukari had disappeared, almost ripping a door off its hinges in her haste. "Damn," Junpei whispered. "I didn't even know her dad was involved in the incident at all. I knew he was dead, but…"

Yukari doesn't talk about herself much more than I do. …None of us do, come right down to it. I wonder if that's part of the problem? Do we just not trust each other…?

Master?

Yeah. I know.

"Shouldn't someone follow her?" Fuuka asked tentatively. Strangely, she looked more relaxed than she had before Yukari departed, but concern was still very evident on her face.

Mitsuru closed her eyes. "Yes, of course." A deep breath, and then she turned her gaze to the inevitable choice. "Arisato? Can you…?"

"I'll handle it, Senpai," Minato confirmed, coming to his feet. "I don't know how much I can do, but…"

But he was the one who was probably closest to Yukari, who had no particular connection to the Kirijo Group, and whom everyone realized by now had skeletons in his own closet. And who had something of a knack for saying the right thing.

Tsuruya did it for you, Master, Pixie remarked, as Minato left the room in Yukari's wake. Your turn, I suppose.

I can try, anyway. …Back me up, Pixie.

Of course, Master. Always and forever.


Yukari fled blindly from the Kirijo house. From the moment the recording ended, she'd hardly been aware of her surroundings at all, hardly even known what she was saying as she shouted her accusations at Mitsuru. All she could see was her father's face, twisted in pain and self-loathing, before it was wiped away by an explosion; all she could hear was his confession of guilt, and desperate plea.

It can't be true, she thought, running down a path she barely saw at all. Not Dad… He couldn't…!

The pounding of shoes on pavement gradually changed to the softness of a sand, and when Yukari looked up again she found herself at the beach, right at the very edge of the ocean. Nothing before her but the water, lapping at the sand, stretching clear out to the horizon. Nothing above her but the pure black of a night sky far away from the city, speckled with a glittering pattern of stars, lit by the crescent moon.

No sound but the gentle ebb and flow of the waves. Nothing around except… her.

Emptiness suited Yukari just fine right now. Emptiness didn't hurt. Emptiness just… was. Right here, right now, she could pretend as if she was the only thing that existed there at all, and that soon, perhaps even she would be gone. She could pretend that the pain wasn't there at all, and that she hadn't seen that video.

She could pretend…

Yukari never heard a sound. Between one glance and the next, he was suddenly there, standing a discrete two meters to her right. Still wearing the simple jeans and t-shirt she'd seen in him only minutes before, Minato Arisato had somehow found the time to put on his duster and swords, and materialized by her side, coat billowing gently in the breeze.

She jumped in surprise. "Minato-! How did you…?"

He smiled gently. "It's a kind of magic," he replied, and said nothing else.

Yukari had noticed Minato had a talent for saying the right thing at the right time. Now, she found, he had a knack for knowing when to say nothing at all. He just stood there, hands in his pockets, and waited, letting her make the next move.

She'd come out here in an unthinking need to be alone. Somehow, though, Minato's unexpected appearance didn't seem an intrusion at all. It was… comforting, actually. If anyone could understand, she thought, it would be Minato… wouldn't it?

She wasn't sure how much time passed before she finally spoke up. "I always believed in him, you know?" she said softly. "Even after all these years… And now, to be told that, after everything… It's too much." She glanced at her friend out of the corner of her eye. "Remember what I told you at the hospital? About how my father died when I was little? …You understand now, right?"

Minato nodded. "Yes," he said simply.

"Nobody knew what really happened," she mused, looking back out to sea. "There were all kinds of rumors, though… And since he was in charge of the research team, people were really mean to me and my mom. We even had to move a few times, just to get away from the bullying…"

Again, he nodded. "I've seen that before," he said, grimacing slightly. "That can be… rough."

"It was." Yukari sighed. "Even so, all this time, I kept telling myself it wasn't his fault. I mean, if nobody knew what really happened, he was just as likely to be the one who tried to stop it as the one who caused it, right? …I loved him a lot, and I couldn't believe he'd ever do anything wrong."

She'd been so very young when her father died, but she remembered him well enough to have held to that belief. Maybe it was a child's unconditional faith in a father, but that belief had been steadfast, and it had gotten her through all the rough patches, all of the abuse people heaped on what was left of her family.

Even through her mother's disgraceful behavior.

"I got a letter last spring," Yukari continued at length. "He'd written it ten years ago, and arranged for it to get to me then. It was funny," she admitted, managing a brief, weak laugh. "He'd addressed it 'To my family', but it was really all about me. That only made me believe in him more, y'know? And then I found out I had a special power… I thought it was fate."

Actually, she remembered, gazing out at the moonlit ocean, it had felt at first like she'd fallen into a manga or something. Like something straight out of Sailor Moon, where an ordinary high school girl turned out to have extraordinary powers… turned out to have something that might just be the key to finding the answer to the question that had tormented her for so many years.

"I was scared, when I realized what it really meant," Yukari went on, thinking back. "This is real life, after all, not some shoujo manga. I couldn't be sure of a happy ending, or even that I'd survive it. But then I thought to myself, if I cooperated with the Kirijo Group, maybe I'd find out what really happened back then. That's why I agreed to fight, using my Persona." She closed her eyes, feeling tears begin to well up. "I never imagined the truth would be something like this. All of it, everything I believed, everything I fought for… It was all for nothing."

Minato stirred. "That's not true, Yukari."

She chuckled, a hollow sound. "You're just trying to make me feel better," she pointed out. She appreciated the gesture, but she knew better than to really believe it.

"I don't say things 'just make people feel better', Yukari."

"Yeah, right." Yukari shrugged off the effort, the weight of what she'd learned pushing out even Minato's attempts at reassurance. She knew he couldn't really believe what he'd said, not after the glimpses she'd gotten of his own baggage.

He knew as well as she'd just learned just how unfair the universe really was.

"Why does the world have to be so harsh?" she whispered, voicing the thought. "I tried so hard to fight my fears, and this is what I get…?" A sigh, of resignation, of despair. "Maybe I'm just jealous of Mitsuru-senpai. I mean, why my father, not hers?" Another laugh, this one completely hollow, more directed at herself than anything else. The thought was so low, so petty. So… "I'm a horrible person, aren't I?"

She could just barely see Minato shake his head. "No, Yukari. You're human."

And of course he just shrugs it off, Yukari thought, with sudden heat. Mitsuru-senpai admits she's been keeping things from us, and you shrug it off. You get in a fight with a dozen thugs, and you shrug it off. You find out my father's a murderer, and you just-!

"Well, aren't you just Mister Perfect?" she snapped, unconsciously echoing some of Junpei's complaints from weeks ago. Whirling on him, she directed an impressive glare at the swordsman. "Nothing ever fazes you at all! And now, you have the nerve to tell me how I should feel?! You don't know anything-!"

"Never again! I'll never look back again!"

Yukari broke off, anger vanishing in a puff of emotional smoke as she remembered just who she was talking to. She wasn't talking to Junpei, or Mitsuru, or even Akihiko or Fuuka. It was…

"…Sorry," she whispered, looking away. "I… I didn't mean…"

Soft footsteps reached her ears, and then she felt hands on her shoulders. "Yukari," Minato said quietly, "you have nothing to be ashamed of. Nor do you need to give up on what you'd believed."

Yukari looked up, reluctantly meeting his gaze through tear-filled eyes. "What… you mean, keep believing? But, but my father…"

"You're looking at this wrong, Yukari," he told her gently. "Whatever your father may have done at the beginning, he did the right thing at the end. Yes," he acknowledged, "it created the Dark Hour, and Tartarus, and set loose those Shadows. But didn't you hear what else he said? That it would've been worse otherwise? Yes, the project itself was terrible, but your father realized that, at the end. Too late, maybe, to undo it, but not too late to give us a fighting chance."

"What I've done will result in an unprecedented disaster… but if I hadn't, the entire world would pay the price…"

She stared at him, remembering now that part of her father's message. "It would've been worse…?"

"Speaking from some slight experience, Yukari, messing with time and space is a very delicate process. I don't know what, exactly, the details of the Kirijo experiment were, but I'd guess the worst case in a situation that did create the Dark Hour could've involved the end of the world." Minato left one hand on Yukari's shoulder, but released the other to turn and look out at the ocean. "I don't know enough about what happened, even now, to judge what your father did at the start. But at the end, he did the only thing he could, and he left it in our hands."

Yukari thought she was beginning to get a sense of when Minato was telling tall tales, being sarcastic, or just generally messing around. This time, she saw none of that in his expression, heard none of it in his voice. As far as she could tell, he meant exactly what he said.

She'd kind of thought of him as being like a hero ever since the monorail operation. Now, standing there under the moonlight, coat rustling in the sea breeze, sword hilts protruding over his shoulders, that impression hit her again, strongly. The kind of person who could always be counted on to be there, for a battle… or for the emotional turmoil that came after.

"Y'know," Yukari said after a long moment, "you really are one of a kind, Minato. How did you get so wise?"

"I'm not wise," Minato denied at once.

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then how do you always seem to know the right thing to say?"

"Having the right answers, Yukari, is just knowledge," he told her. "Wisdom? That's having the right questions. I haven't quite gotten that part down yet."

"Coulda fooled me, sometimes," Yukari said, shaking her head. "…So let me guess: you're here because Mitsuru-senpai asked you to follow me, right?"

"I'm here because I don't like seeing a friend in the kind of pain I used to live with," Minato retorted. "You think I'd stand by and watch you suffer alone?"

She blushed, and hoped it wasn't visible in the moonlight. That was about the most forthright he'd ever been with her, and doing so while liking all dramatic and everything…

"Well, aren't you the gentleman?" she said, trying to cover her embarrassment; especially when she realized she'd gotten quite close to him indeed, during the conversation. "…Thanks, Minato," she whispered. "That… means a lot to me."

On impulse, Yukari closed the last few centimeters and hugged him, hiding her blush against the dark fabric covering his shoulder. Somewhat to her surprise, after a bare moment of surprised stillness, he wrapped his arms around her in turn.

It had been a long, long time since anyone held her that way. Her father had been gone so many years, and even if her mother had offered, she would've refused; she'd moved out to live in boarding schools as early as possible for a reason. Just the warmth of an embrace could go far to ease the mind…

Friends… Yukari thought. It's been so long, I'd forgotten just what a difference having a good friend can be. …I may not know where Minato came from, or what happened to him in the past, but… I'm glad he's here.

She felt Minato tense abruptly. "Crud," he muttered.

That was just enough warning for her to shove herself away before the running footsteps she suddenly heard could bring the owner into view of them. Considering who turned out to be making the racket, she was deeply grateful for the lead time.

"What the hell's… taking so long, guys?" Junpei demanded, skidding to a stop. "Everybody's… waiting… It's almost the… Dark Hour, remember?"

Yukari took some perverse satisfaction both in the fact that Junpei was visibly exhausted, and the thought that Minato wouldn't have been in the other's shoes. Not enough, though, to keep the blush off her face. "Oh, that's right!" she blurted out, turning away. "I-I almost forgot… It doesn't matter where you are when the Dark Hour hits, does it?"

Junpei gave her a weird look. "Well, duh. And… did I miss something?" He looked from Yukari to Minato, and frowned. "You look kinda… off. And Minato, how the hell are you not burning up in that coat?"

"It's a kind of magic," Minato replied, his own face slightly averted.

"…Right. Whatever." The Man in the Hat shook his head. "Well, at least you're ready for the Dark Hour…"

He didn't get it, Yukari realized, relieved. Phew… "You know," she said aloud, trying to get more distance from the topic of almost-getting-caught, "I've been thinking lately. Getting a Persona really is 'waking up', isn't it? You can't just 'sleep' through the Dark Hour any more, or forget it… It's like you trade your innocence for power. You can fight, but you can't just look away from the Dark anymore…" She shook her head, chuckling a little. "So… I guess I'm stuck with you guys, huh?"

"Afraid so," Minato confirmed, nodding firmly.

"'Course you are!" Junpei said, grinning. "Don't ever think otherwise!"

My own hero, and my own comic relief, Yukari thought, laughing inside. I guess I could do worse.

"Well," Junpei said now, "now that we've got the obvious out of the way, let's head back! Gotta get some sleep for tomorrow!"

"You go on ahead," Minato told them, waving a hand as he turned back to the ocean. "I'll be along."

The goateed one gave him a strange look, before shrugging. "Your funeral, dude. At least you're armed… but don't come crying to me if anything happens!"

He took off back the way he came; but as Yukari moved to follow, she turned to look over her shoulder at their leader. Minato… thanks for everything, she thought. …I'm really glad you're here.


Watching from the cover of the foliage on the upper edge of the beach, Mitsuru waited for Iori and Takeba to head back up the path, oblivious to her presence. Unlike Iori, she wore her rapier and Evoker at her waist, much like Arisato, though unlike the swordsman she was otherwise still just in her casual tank top.

Having watched most of the conversation, she was fairly sure he'd worn his duster to invoke precisely the dramatic appearance he presented. Most likely the same for his weapons. She carried her own as a precaution, but given how extremely unlikely it was that Shadows would turn up at Yakushima, of all places…

I'm sure he meant every word he said, Mitsuru thought, watching Arisato stare out over the moonlit ocean; he seemed to be singing to himself, very quietly, a side of him she hadn't seen before. I also think he knows perfectly well how Takeba is starting to see him. Interesting to see him do it on purpose. It does seem to have worked, at least.

That was a relief. She'd been genuinely worried about Takeba, this time. Even she hadn't known that her junior's father had been so central to the incident, and finding out in such a fashion had obviously been a bitter blow. Just as obviously, though, Arisato had had some idea of how to handle it-which, to be honest, Mitsuru had been counting on.

I guess we both know how to manipulate a situation when we have to.

Once she was sure Takeba and Iori were well out of sight and earshot, Mitsuru emerged from the greenery and quietly made her way across the beach. Her footfalls were slow and careful, angling to come up on Arisato's left without entering his field of view until the last moment. It was a small thing, but she had to admit to taking a certain satisfaction in her evident ability to sneak up on him; given how he consistently seemed to know more than anyone expected him to, it was actually funny how he never seemed to notice her approach.

Not that she'd ever admit it. That would be undignified.

"Nice work, Arisato," Mitsuru said, once she'd reached her intended spot.

As expected, Arisato jumped, though he managed to bury the reaction almost immediately. "Senpai," he said, only a slight quiver in his voice to betray the adrenaline running through his veins. "I didn't expect to see you out here."

"I wanted to make sure everything was all right," she said, shrugging. With a sidelong glance at him, she added, "It sounded to me like that wasn't the first time you used some of that reasoning."

"It was, actually," he told her, shaking his head slowly. "I've never been in the position of talking someone down like that." Arisato paused, then admitted, "I've been in Yukari's place before, though…"

Mitsuru nodded, unsurprised. After what had happened the night they rescued Yamagishi, she wouldn't have believed him if he'd claimed otherwise. It did, perhaps, serve to explain how patient he tended to be with others' issues, including the reticence her own father had called her out on.

Which, of course, called to mind Arisato's persistent reticence. She was prepared to indulge most of it, but sooner or later she needed to know more about him, if they were truly going to be part of a team. Like her father had said, her family's guiding principle was "Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection". That harmony required at least some trust, and exchanged confidences, on both sides.

She manifestly refused to think, just then, of the other possible meanings of "Two in harmony".

"Arisato," Mitsuru said, after a few minutes of naught but the waves breaking the silence, "where did you hear that before? The truth," she emphasized, giving him a knowing look. "I know your fondness for metaphor and tall tales."

Arisato smiled. "It breaks up the tension, doesn't it?"

"I don't think Takeba agrees with you on that," she said dryly. "And I seem to remember you scare Iori, sometimes."

"Well, yes, sometimes." He turned to look back to the ocean. "A true story, then. The truth behind what I told Yukari?" Arisato's face took on a distant look. "My first year in high school was at a school called North High, in Nishinomiya. You know that, of course. I… was in a very bad place at the start of that year. Bad enough that I wasn't sure life was worth living."

That certainly didn't sound like the Arisato Mitsuru knew. Occasionally melancholy, apparently prone to PTSD episodes, yes; but suicidal depression? That didn't jive with the cheerfully sarcastic, perpetually inquisitive "Detective" Mitsuru had known for several months now.

"I was just going through the motions," he continued. "Had been for months by then. That lasted about a day into high school. That was when Tsu-chan found me."

"Tsu-chan?" Mitsuru repeated, tilting her head in inquiry. She couldn't remember him mentioning the name before… but then he never mentioned much else about his past, either, did he?

"Tsuruya Haruka," Arisato clarified. "A junior at the time. My Senpai, though she usually insisted I not call her that… Anyway, first day of school, I was hanging out on the roof, eating lunch all by myself, when she appeared out of nowhere. We didn't exactly share a class, and as far as I knew we had no other connection, so even now I don't have a clue how I got her attention in the first place.

"However it was, though, she knew who I was, and seemed to have a pretty damned good idea of why I was being 'an antisocial jackass', as she put it later." He smiled at the memory. "What she said at the time was, 'You are not what you think you are. However it may have started, however responsible you may have been for setting it in motion, at the end you did the only thing you could do. You screwed up, but you did everything you could to make it right.'"

"…Make what right?" Mitsuru asked softly.

She wasn't surprised to see him shake his head at that. "Sorry, Senpai. That one I'm not ready to talk about yet." Arisato shrugged, as though shaking off the ill memories before the mood got too dark. "It wasn't as simple as that, of course, but it did get me looking at the world again. When the clubs started recruiting new members, Tsu-chan turned up at my classroom at the end of the day and more or less press-ganged me into her 'Detective Club'. The rest, as they say, is-"

"Delinquency?" Mitsuru finished, raising an eyebrow. Crossing her arms, she gave Arisato a Look, of the kind that, at a higher intensity, scared even Akihiko into obedience. "I suppose that club is why you know how to get around places you shouldn't at school?"

"It was always for a good cause," Arisato protested. "On paper, we were the Detective Club, and the general idea was to help out the student body with the usual stuff; missing books, minor altercations, that kind of thing. Pretty dull, really… on paper. In practice, Tsu-chan called us the 'North High Irregulars' -a play on the Baker Street Irregulars," he explained as an aside. "And while most of what we did was pretty mundane, not all of it was." Arisato turned his gaze back out to sea. "You wondered, didn't you, why the Dark Hour never seemed to bother me?"

"I did," Mitsuru acknowledged, watching him closely. "We all did, actually."

In fact, that was one of the things that had been bothering her most about Arisato, all this time. His swordsmanship, his investigation skills, even his knowledge of areas a student should never have been near, all of those could be explained, however unusual the logic, with mundane reasons. Some history of simple delinquency could've accounted for most of it, at the very most a connection to organized crime.

The way he'd wandered into the dorm that first night in the middle of the Dark Hour, seemingly unperturbed, could not. No matter how accustomed someone might be to violence, Mitsuru simply could not understand someone being that calm about their first exposure to the Dark Hour, especially after he'd confirmed he hadn't even heard of it before.

"Actually, it scared the hell out of me at first," Arisato admitted now, prompting Mitsuru to blink in surprise. "I may have hid it well, but trust me, I was not comfortable with people turning into coffins or water transmuting to blood. Scared or not, though, I knew I could handle it, because it wasn't the first time I'd been 'out of step' with reality."

"The 'Ship in a Bottle'?" she hazarded, remembering him mention it during the conversation that started the ball rolling on the revelations that had been finished tonight.

It was about that time that the world shifted around them, the moonlight turning yellow; as accustomed as they both were to it by now, though, about the only thing either of them really noticed about the Dark Hour was the sudden ocean of blood just a few meters away, and even that wasn't so different from "normal".

"That was one of the times," Arisato said in answer to her question; oddly, he appeared to be blushing. "Probably the most extreme. The first, though, was the 'Haunted Trainyard'. The Irregulars got a request from a classmate to look into a place that they had found 'spooky'. I didn't put any stock in it myself, but Tsu-chan did, and so we all went that night." He shivered. "That was where I first saw ghosts. Well, Apparitions, to hear Tsu-chan tell it, led by what she called, quite specifically, a 'Wraith'."

Normally, Mitsuru thought, this would be the point at which Iori or Takeba would tell him to shut up and stop scaring them with his "tall tales". She didn't bother, partly because it was interesting, mostly because she was pretty sure he meant every word, this time.

"Dangerous?" she asked, turning to give Arisato her full attention.

"Very, if you don't know what you're dealing with," he said, nodding. "Tsu-chan didn't seem very impressed, though. She told off the Wraith -I didn't really understand most of what they said to each other, but I got that Tsu-chan was annoyed- and then she conjured flame out of thin air, did something to the sword I was carrying, and told me to help her exorcise the poor bastards."

Mitsuru felt a chill run down her spine. "…Your club president was a Persona user?" Theoretically, intellectually, she knew it was possible; from what she understood of the Kirijo Group's research, Persona had been a recorded phenomenon even before the Dark Hour came about, so Persona users occurring without Kirijo Group assistance were presumably possible. Even so…

Arisato, though, shook his head. "I don't think so. Tsu-chan tried to write it off afterwards as 'holy exorcisms of a shrine maiden', but…" He snorted. "Fang-tan resembles a shrine maiden about as much as I do a monk. So after I called her on that, she kind of laughed -she does that a lot- and said she was a witch."

I don't know if that's more or less disturbing. Persona, I at least understand. The idea of other powers… "You believe that?"

"After everything that came after? Yes." Arisato crouched then, and began tracing a design in the sand. Mitsuru wasn't an expert, but to her it looked vaguely runic. "Like I said, most of what the Irregulars handled was normal enough, but some of it was pretty out there. I have, on one occasion prior to my arrival in Iwatodai, been out of step with normal reality."

"The 'Ship in a Bottle'," Mitsuru guessed.

"Right." He looked vaguely uncomfortable, now that the subject had come up, though she wasn't sure why. "It was this time last year, actually: for summer break, the club went on a trip to Okinawa. Various things happened, which eventually led to us finding ourselves on what was literally a full-sized sailing ship shrunk to fit into a bottle. Don't ask me why, I never learned much about what Tsukishima was after, just that he was experimenting with 'pocket realities'."

"Tsukishima?"

"Ryu Tsukishima. Whoever or whatever he was, he had abilities similar to Tsu-chan, and was using that ship as a contained testing environment." Arisato finished the design in the sand, and shrugged. "I was involved in dealing with Tsukishima's defenses, but Tsu-chan insisted on dealing with the man himself personally. Seemed to think that, first, his experiments were out of control, and second, that outside his personal specialty, he was pretty pathetic. Considering that, as nearly as I could tell later, she flattened him, I suppose she was right."

Well. That at least explained why Arisato seemed to take pretty much everything in stride. Mitsuru was pretty sure he was glossing over a lot about the incident, but from the way he tended to get uncomfortable whenever the subject came up, she was pretty sure it was more about personal embarrassment than some dark secret.

Still… "A witch," Mitsuru said, shaking her head. "And a literal ship in a bottle. Arisato, if I didn't know about things like Tartarus already, I'd honestly be inclined to think you were making all this up."

"Yes, because it's so much less plausible than an extra hour at the stroke of midnight, or a school transforming into a bizarre tower full of eldritch abominations." Arisato's tone was dry as dust; not that she could really blame him, when he put it that way. "If there's one thing I've learned since I started high school, Senpai, it's that there are more things in heaven and on earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy."

Shakespeare. …Very nice. "…Well," she said, after a moment's silence, "I suppose that would explain a lot." She shook her head. "It seems I should thank this 'Tsuruya'. For a lot of things."

Mitsuru didn't know what would've happened to SEES if Arisato hadn't joined when he did. Maybe none of the battles they'd fought since his arrival would've occurred at all; just as likely, though, they would've happened anyway, but without his knowledge, skill, and sheer determination, who knew how they would've gone.

How would Tanabata have gone, if it hadn't been him in that room?

She banished that thought as quickly as she could, and turned away so that he wouldn't see her blush. At any rate, she thought, forcefully ignoring the images that were coming to mind now, if that senpai of his got him through whatever his PTSD is about, and showed him things that left him prepared for the Dark Hour, I'm grateful to her.

So why do I feel so strange when he talks about her?

"I don't think I'd be very functional right now if she hadn't taken me under her wing," Arisato said now, oblivious to Mitsuru's internal battle. "She got me back on my feet emotionally, and prepared me for a world that I didn't even know existed. How to function when time is out of joint, and how to take care of myself."

She sounds like she was just what he needed, Mitsuru thought, steadfastly ignoring the very faint pang in her chest. No wonder he was able to talk Takeba through so well. …I wonder if having someone like that on hand would've helped me, back when…

Although, she thought, something else abruptly occurring to her, if she was so important… why did he…?

"Why did you switch schools?" Mitsuru asked him, frowning. "It sounds like you were happy there."

"I was," Arisato confirmed, looking back out to the blood-like sea. "But something just felt… missing. Tsu-chan helped me find myself again, but I needed something else to move forward. Something more than what I was getting at North High, even as strange as it got. I didn't know what, so I just followed my instincts… and came back to Port Island."

Where he found the Dark Hour, and SEES. He was just what we needed, when we needed him… and he found…

"Was it what you were looking for?" she asked aloud, watching closely for his reaction.

He didn't answer at first, visibly taking his time to think it over. Then, at length, he slowly nodded. "I'm still not sure quite what I'm looking for," Arisato said softly, "but it's… fulfilling. There's a mystery to be solved, battles that not just anyone can fight. There's still a piece missing, somehow, but I'm sure now that this is where I should be."

Mitsuru was strangely relieved by the assertion. Not she had expected him to up and leave any time soon, after all; they had a fairly good idea now of how to stop the Dark Hour, but by the most optimistic predictions that would still be several months from now. She had never thought him the type to suddenly cut and run. Even so, the direct statement was oddly reassuring.

Maybe it was just that this was the first time they'd ever really talked. They'd exchanged pleasantries and even the odd bit of small talk often enough, since Arisato had joined SEES, but almost always they spoke of either the Shadows or school. This was, Mitsuru thought, probably the first time they'd spoken seriously about anything more personal.

It felt… nice. She didn't often get much of a chance to talk to someone who was really on her level intellectually. She wasn't comfortable, really, talking like that with the other juniors at all, and Akihiko, for all that he was far from stupid, simply didn't have the kind of education she did. Not like Arisato, who quoted Shakespeare and Sherlock Holmes off-hand.

Even the silence that they'd fallen into felt strangely comfortable, even in the middle of the Dark Hour.

Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection…

"…Arisato," Mitsuru said at length, half-turning to give him a sidelong look. "How do you feel about motorcycles?"


Author's Note:


And now we have the interesting half of what was the original Chapter X (originally scheduled for release on Saturday, but I finished it a bit quicker than I expected). I'm gratified that the "filler" chapter was as well-received as it has been, but I'll wager this one is at least a bit more interesting.

Either that, or that last scene completely got away from me and is way overdone. I have to admit, while I did very much enjoy writing the final scene, I'm feeling a bit uneasy about it. *shrug* I'll let you guys be the judges.

Not much else to say, except that of course Chapter XII won't be as quick as this one; after all, this was supposed to be part of the previous chapter. Still, I don't intend to be slow with it, either, as I've got a lot of material I'm looking forward to in that one. Rest assured, my comrades, that Chapter XII: The Witch and the Warbot, while covering roughly the same events as the relevant portion of canon, will do so in a rather different manner from the game. I've had parts of it planned out almost since the beginning of the fic, and the rest I've been doing detailed plotting on for at least a month now.

…And now that I've suitably indulged in self-aggrandizement, I leave the chapter to the judgment of my peers. Till next time, comrades. -Solid