Chapter 28 – おかえりなさい!

(Welcome Home!)

The next night, Daedalus slept on the floor... or tried to. Thoughts shuffled around in her mind as she looked at the clouds cover the moon as she covered herself in Shinjiro's jacket. The thing was... why was she at the dorm? Her eyes were half-lidded as she got on her knees to look at the moon. Takaya or Jin couldn't risk coming there... She would've made noise too quickly and S.E.E.S. Would've came outside. She remembered seeing Ken come into the dorm only a few hours ago, and now it was becoming late at night. She still denied the fact that it wasn't her fault—her mind was still stuck on watching that trigger be pulled... What was wrong with her?

She got closer to the wall, hearing voices... were they really still there?

"Daedalus-chan is probably gone by now..." Yukari turned to Mitsuru in hesitation. "...Senpai?"

"When Tavi first ran off, the Chairman was contacted immediately." Daedalus could hear her tone: saddened, but cold. "I was told to wait, but..."

"...Now that I think about it, Daedalus probably isn't comfortable around us anymore."

Daedalus exhaled. Her eyes turned to face the floor, but could it be true? She remembered the letter; she only left so she could protect them from any harm against them. However...

"So.. Dae-Dae won't be coming back right?" Junpei's voice sounded like it had a twinge of guilt. "I kind of blame myself... Not being able to have her back when she needed it."

*smack*

At least... that's what it sounded like when Daedalus kicked the wall of the dorm unwillingly. She kicked it a second, then a third time.

"What's wrong with me?" She didn't bother using the fists again. They were touched with dry blood now. "I was only trying to protect them... but, it only made it worse."

A fourth, a fifth.

"And now, even Daira's the hospital, too..." Her voice was breaking up, as if she were going on the verge of tears again. She began to step away from the wall, as if she were walking away.

However, she fell on all fours and wailed loudly. Her hand could barely clutch back into a fist, so she only had her palms and knees touching the hard ground. She was so oblivious to the front door opening.

"Why should I... even bother anymore?" She asked herself many questions, even if she wanted to achieve resolution back at the school... she couldn't do it. She couldn't face the boxer... that was her weakness, right?

She stayed there as if she was a dog being kicked around. Her eyes widened and shut tightly when she felt someone's hand on her shoulder. She was sniffling loudly, her tears falling the floor quicker than any others before. Her eyes began to swell up, any more crying would most likely hurt.

"You bother because you care," Daedalus averted her gaze to find Ken looking at her with eyes that seemed like they were looking deep into her soul or feelings. "Daedalus-san..."

"K-Ken-kun..." Her voice was barely a whisper now. They were probably wondering how long she was out there. She saw Mitsuru and Yukari right by her, too. "Y-Yukari-san... M-Mitsuru-senpai..."

"Don't you get it, Dae-chan?" Yukari's look formed into a grin. "We all care about you... We've been trying to take care of you because you needed to be."

"You heard everything, didn't you?" Mitsuru looked at her with question in her eyes.

"..Only some." Daedalus sighed, "I told you guys... I can't go back."

Minato and Junpei ran outside with Aigis and Fuuka.

"Dae-chan!" Fuuka cried out before running in front of her to embrace her. "Oh... We were just as worried about Ken as we were about you!"

"F-Fuuka-san...?" Her face was in surprise. Did they really want her back? "B-But I-"

"You may have left SEES, but you only thought what you felt was right." Minato walked to her side, "You thought you were alone, and that you couldn't be helped. I don't know what Takaya is planning, but..."

Minato held out his hand, in which she looked at it.. then back at him.

"I still believe you can fight."

"...Can you fight along with us, Daedalus Tavi?" Mitsuru for the first time used her full name.

Daedalus thought again. Once she came back, she had to promise she wouldn't hurt them anymore. She did not answer, but she pushed Ken's arm away, and broke from the embrace. She looked back at Minato, lifting up her arm slowly, but carefully. She ignored the bloody knuckles, and didn't know whether to take his hand and stand up on her own two feet, or reject the offer and stay down.

"..." Her hand finally clasped onto Minato's after a few minutes, in which Minato pulled her up to stand. Once she was pulled up, though, Yukari ran up to her and gave her a large hug. Daedalus smiled, broke away, and hugged Ken as well. Koromaru ran around her legs, and barked with his tail wagging as if he was super ecstatic. She took the pocket watch out of the jacket's pocket, and looked at the golden touched time-teller.

"I'll help you all out, I promise that." She looked up at all of them. "I'll fix my wrongs, and I'll destroy the Dark Hour, even if I have to live with this forever!"

"Daedalus, are you okay?!" Fuko ran up to her the next day. "After the funeral, I was looking all over for you!"

"I'm alright..." She waved her hand as if she were shrugging off the incident. "I was pretty depressed, but I'm alright now."

Daedalus's hair was clipped together as if she used two hairclips on one bang. The rest of her hair fell down on her back, and she basically looked the same except for the fact that she had bruises under her sleeves from battling Takaya off. There were also her hands bandaged up, and she now held Shinjiro's pocketwatch clipped onto one part of the skirt. She had washed off the blood that had been on her for days now, and she looked perfectly normal again. Okay, not perfect, but... you get it.

"I'm sorry I worried you, Fuko-senpai." Daedalus bowed politely. "What have I been missing?"

"Midterms on the 13th." She whined. "You've got a lot of work to catch up on, sadly."

Daedalus merely winced. "Well, it's okay. I'm just glad that I'm back into school again... even talking with my old buddies, too."

"I really thought you'd leave or something..." Fuko began to grin. "Well, why am I thinking so hard? Come, let's get to the Music room, okay? I mean, it is lunchtime after all."

"Right." Daedalus walked on her side when following the Senior. She began to walk with her, until she asked something. "How's Keisuke-san?"

"What, Hiraga?" Fuko chuckled. "He's been having problems in his life. Th' Father keeps pressuring him to quit the club aka totally disband it!"

"Are you serious?!" Daedalus whined. "Keisuke-san can't disband it!"

"That's what I said." Fuko replied. "Though, it's kind of awkward, since the band... The band's slowly disbanding either way we look at it."

"Huh..?"

"Daira's in the hospital... Keisuke might quit... I'm leaving on the 27th, and Fuuka doesn't know how to play a guitar." Fuko was listing out all the worst case scenarios. "That leaves only you and Fuuka to play in the band. It would take a miracle for Daira to step back into play!"

"...If it's that hard to maintain, I'll keep up with the Music Club."

"D-Daedalus..." Fuko's voice trailed off on her.

"I may not be a Senior or anything, but I am a Junior." Daedalus remarked. "If all goes downhill, I'll take care of it during my next year at Gekkoukan or something."

"You'd really do that, Dae?" Fuko's eyes gleamed, as if she was really grateful for what she was doing. "Thank you, Daedalus! This would seriously make our school happy!"

Today was a day to go to Tartarus, but.. not for Daedalus anyways. Daedalus's equipment broke, and her arms would not be able to carry Shinjiro's axe. She told them she'd sit in the dorm while they went out training, but it was pretty dark and she was unable to see anything at that moment.

"Without my glove, I can't do anything with my power..." She whined. Though, it was true. Her glove had complete control over what her powers could do, and how they wouldn't go haywire.

"Control..." She was speaking to herself. The Dark Hour was annoying, because of the lights being shut off or something. She was always bumping into something at the dorm. When she walked outside, though, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath...

"Garula..?" She whispered, but as soon as she opened her eyes she found a little ball of green light in her hand. Before she could celebrate her success, it backfired on her.

"Kya!" It exploded in her hand. She flinched with the wind blowing straight into her face, noting not to try that again. However, she looked around the streets with the moon giving off the green glow like it usually did. She looked at a coffin that was by the dorm, and simply touched the smooth platform off of it. A red aura was glowing from it, like they normally do. She backed away when she saw a figure moving from it, though. Her eyes couldn't believe themselves when she saw Jin holding a bomb in his hand (as always), and had a face that you could tell he was pissed off about something. She froze in one position, soon her vocal chords slammed shut, and she didn't want to speak at all.

"You..." Jin began to walk up to her. "I knew it would be you at this hour..."

"Jin..." Daedalus winced when he felt her pick the small girl up by the blouse collar. "L-Leave me alone!"

"Traitor!" Jin looked straight into her eyes. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted you..."

"How could I have?!" She felt his hands getting close to her neck. "T-Takaya-san murdered him!"

He tossed her onto the ground and looked down at her. That bomb he had... could he kill her in one shot?

"I'll kill you swiftly, like anything else Revenge Request has!"

He tossed his first bomb, in which Daedalus had to catch and toss it into the sky before the Dorm was done for.

"Leave SEES out of this..." Her glare looked more like a pout. "T-They've got nothing to do with this!"

"They do." He got his next bomb ready, "For they were the one who changed you! They're the ones who took you away from us!"

She was leading him away from the dorm now. She didn't want to get the dorm blown to bits, because that would've been the end for them either way!

She heard three explosions coming from behind her, and noticed that the bombs were too close from behind. She skidded to a halt, then looked back at him. He was already getting closer to her with his fist ready.

"Go away!" She hollered at him. "You're just going to get caught by SEES sooner or later! Why are you so worried about killing me?!"

"I can run away on my own..." Jin scowled. "You should know that by now!"

"Forget that noise!" Daedalus screamed, looking back at what seemed like Tartarus. "We caught Chidori! Don't make us catch you!"

"Yeah, right." Jin chuckled. "Why are you suddenly so worried about SEES anyways? I thought you were so scared to hurt them?"

"..." Daedalus looked at him. "Why are you bringing this up at this time?"

"Is it not true?" Jin grew a grin. "You only joined Takaya and I because of that thing in your body!"

"Shut up!" She cried out. "Do you think that's going to do anything to me now?! I rejoined SEES because they wanted me back. Do you not get that?!"

Jin blinked. He chuckled as he began to walk past Daedalus throwing something up in the air. Daedalus thought it was a bomb for a minute, but then noticed that there were pills laying in her hands.

Suppressants?!

"That's the last dose Takaya wanted to give you." He shook his head. "I hope you die before we get to you!"

He kicked her in the foot before he left.

And all Daedalus could do right there was stand in silence...


So, yeah. I ended the chapter abruptly if you couldn't tell, and I apologize for that. However, I do want to point out that if you couldn't understand Ch26-27, Daedalus lost her equipment when Takaya destroyed them while she was caught off guard.

Anyways, because Blackbullet will be slowing it's way down, I'll be starting off a new Story called "Yasogami Busters!"

I'm sure you can guess what Fanfiction Series THAT will start up in :3. That'll be posted up tomorrow morning in my time! Keep watch, mmk?

Daedalus Tavi (C) Me~

Persona 3 (C) ATLUS