Chapter 29 – Into the Future...
The week was filled with difficulty for Daedalus. The fact that she couldn't fight or support in Tartarus was a pain, but when she told the team about Jin's confrontation with her, she was afraid he was going to strike again. She told herself that even if Strega were to attack her, she wasn't leaving SEES. Not again...
"It stinks being the only one who's not able to fight that well..." Daedalus sighed on Saturday morning. "I'm supposed to support you all in healing, but I'm not even going to be able to until I can get a replacement weapon. Man... If only my Persona didn't harm us..."
"What about a somewhat ranged weapon, like Ken-kun's?" Yukari had suggested, and Ken seemed to go along with it. "Doesn't have to be a spear..."
She shook her head. "I need something that'll also help with healing skills. Just offensive doesn't cut out for me."
"Melee then?" Junpei thought for a minute. "You were sorta melee when you had that glove. You could just be like Senpai."
One thing that Daedalus didn't want mentioned was Akihiko. She was still a little shaken from the words he had told her when she was in the school that day. She looked away from Junpei in sadness.
"Great job, Stupei!" Yukari smacked him atop of the head. "You don't mention that to her!"
"I-It's okay." She forced a smile on her face. "Although I was the one who brought it up... Maybe it's best to focus until midterms are over. There's only two days left before we actually have to take them."
"Even then, that cuts off most of our training." Minato replied. "The only two clubs I know of at the school that could help you would be the Kendo and Boxing, but..."
"Akihiko's in boxing, and Daedalus isn't good with swords..." Junpei groaned. "Man, picking weapons are so difficult!"
"I'm sorry..." Daedalus sighed, "I don't think Akihiko will ever talk to me, though. So, I don't mind you talking about him."
Everyone went quiet in the room, and looked at Daedalus, who seemed to be more focused on Shinjiro's pocketwatch than anything else. She had finally decided to open it up, but saw something fly onto the table without her noticing.
It looked like a piece of a photo, with a kiddish Shinjiro somewhere in there. He didn't have a beanie, he just wore a regular undershirt and pants and had one of his arms leading somewhere.
...Somewhere...
"Wait a minute." Daedalus picked it up and examined it a little more. "This is..!"
"What's wrong, Tavi?" Mitsuru tilted her head in confusion when she walked in. Though, Daedalus didn't answer, she instantly ran up into her room without even minding the fact that Akihiko was walking across from her. She rummaged through the stuff she had taken back until she found the picture hidden under her old Teddy Bear. She picked that up, too, and soon connected the picture without any tape to see if it fit first. It certainly did.
Shinjiro was standing behind them with a barely noticeable smirk, and a hand on her shoulder. Everyone crowded around her room, but she never decided to turn around.
"What's up, Dae-chan?" Junpei scratched his head. "You hit the jackpot or somethin'?"
"You could say that..." She had a warm smile form on her face as she turned to them. Her bear was in her arms, but she held the two pieces of the photo together. "I found it... This was the picture I was missing of him! It was in the pocketwatch he gave me!"
Her eyes were closed with a huge grin surrounding her from ear to ear. She felt like all her troubles were gone from her tiny little mind.
"...What's going on?" Akihiko was walking behind all of the team, and everyone just looked back at him with either a grin, or a face that seemed like they were expecting trouble to come.
Dae's eyes plopped open when she heard Akihiko's voice. She felt like wind blew past her face, as her bear dropped to the ground when her smile turned into a face of fear. The picture soon flew out of her hand, like she lost grip of everything dear to her. She was staring at Akihiko, and Akihiko was just glaring at her. Minato looked away, Yukari and Fuuka were backing up a bit, Mitsuru held her shoulder... Junpei looked at Koromaru, who looked at Aigis, who just stayed neutral at all of this happening, and so did Ken. She felt herself shaking, but she had to stand up for herself. Where did all that bravery go..?
"U-Um, Aigis?" Fuuka looked at the robotic female, "Let's go to the Mall."
"Understood." Aigis began to follow Fuuka downstairs.
"Senpai? Do you, uh.. Want to go hang out in the lounge?" Yukari pointed back with her thumb.
"Y-Yes..." Mitsuru tagged along without hesitation. Minato walked back to his room, and Junpei decided to go and visit it. Koromaru whined.
"Alright, Koro-chan," Ken tried to force a smile, "Let's go get you something to eat!"
All of SEES ran down the stairs before anything else could stop them, which left the two "ex-buddies" to look at each other without looking down.
"Hello, Tavi." She flinched at how his voice was. Never, ever had he called her by her last name.
"Sanada-senpai." Daedalus blinked. She was so close to calling him "Hiko-kun," yet so far...
She walked up to the door, wanting to slam it in his face, but at the same time... Her affection for him was stopping her dead in her tracks. Her hands were slowly clenching into fists, so she wouldn't bust the scabs off or anything causing the band-aids to become unwrapped. They were beginning to shake as well, all the stress was building into them.
"So.." He gave a serious nod. "It's been awhile."
"Since we last talked." She also gave an acknowledging movement. "Yes... It has been."
She was about to turn around, when she felt a cold hand touch her shoulders. Maybe wearing a dress that day wasn't a good idea. "K-Kh.."
"I wasn't done yet." He turned her around to face him, "I wasn't expecting you to come back to S.E.E.S so soon."
"..." She felt her fist clench even tighter.
"What's the matter?" He began to tease her a bit, "Not answering anything I say, now?"
"Leave me alone, Senpai..." She pushed his arm away from her shoulder, however he felt her grab a hold of her with both his hands. "L-Leave me alone!"
He turned her around and leaned down to whisper to her. "Don't leave again.."
Her eyes widened as she heard the words repeat in her head like a broken record. He began to walk off from where they were, but she couldn't help keep the blush away from her face. Yep. There was still a crush on him...
…
Later on, Daedalus had went out to the Mall with Junpei to have some time to hang out with each other before midterms. Junpei had taken her to the Arcade so she could experience playing mindless little games that he liked to play. She did have some fun, though. She kept a smile on her face during the whole time she would play against him in fighting games.
Junpei was wearing a solid blue shirt and a jacket to keep him warm since the breeze was kinda chilly for that day. He had also went to pick up some ice cream with her because he had enough money left to do so.
"Hey Dae-Dae," He recreated the goofy grin she hadn't seen in a long time. "You alright? Come on, you should be having fun right now! Get those worries from your head!"
"A-Ah." She nodded, eating the chocolate ice cream that was placed in a plastic cup. "I haven't had ice cream in forever..."
She looked down.
"What's up?" His face returned back to a slightly content, but slight concern. "Did something happen between you and Senpai?"
"It's not that!" She cried out to him, but then blushed a bit. "No.. I'm just worried that something will happen again. I mean, everything's going to happen, but... I feel like I've lost your trust."
She put the cup down and held it in both of her palms.
"Why do you guys even bother?" She looked back at him, "You could've just left me. I would've fended off just fine... Well, I could've hidden or maybe even ran out of Port Island's way."
"..." Junpei sighed. "Some of us just felt like a little part of our life was taken away from us. You're real good friends with us, and that shouldn't change any of your point of views on SEES in general. Did you really think we'd leave you?"
"...Yeah." She sighed. "I really didn't want to bring it up... but, it's been bothering me."
She hopped off at where they were sitting (by the wishing well, where else?)
"Well, I shouldn't think too deeply about the thought." She put a smile on her face. "Thanks for the ice cream, Junpei-san-"
"'-kun,'" He chuckled. "You can just call me Junpei-'kun.'"
"Okay, then... Junpei-kun!"
…
"Oh, your back." Minato was listening to some music on his MP3 player, but stopped it as soon as she came in. His blue eyes turned to Junpei. "If it's alright with you, we can go to Tartarus tonight."
"It's fine by me, but..." He looked at Daedalus.
"I'll come along anyways," She noticed the other members there. "I may not be able to battle, but I'll at least try my best to not get in the way."
"And we don't want Strega to come over here again." Yukari spat out that name to the ground. "I couldn't help but wonder what you were thinking when Jin attacked you."
"It was more of a threat..." She looked down, "I mean, they gave me another small bag of suppressants, so I know they're probably angry at me."
She looked back up at them with confidence in her heart. "But, I don't mind. I'll fight the way I wanna fight! There's nothing that can go wrong on our trip to Tartarus!"
She felt her neck where the choke hold that Jin placed on her the night before was, Fuuka flinched.
"P-Please don't scare us like that." She winced. "Mitsuru-senpai told us what would happen if you didn't take the suppressants."
"I-It's not like it's always happened, besides..." Daedalus continued to rub the spot. "Jin grabbed me this way and tossed me into the ground.."
"Tavi, that isn't a threat then." Mitsuru glared. "You need to be careful at the Dark Hour. Strega could easily come up from behind you and kill you before you'd notice."
"Sorry." She rubbed her arm. "But, the next Full Moon's not until at least another month. I have a feeling something's going to confront me and I have to fight on my own."
"We have enough time to get you back into shape." Akihiko barely showed a glance to her while eating some ramen and looking at the newspaper. "Quit worrying."
"..." She looked back down and thought about something. "Two more days until Mid-terms, huh?"
"I-I couldn't even remember...due to what happened." Yukari's head perked up. "Tomorrow's a holiday, too."
"Actually, Daedalus-san," Ken walked up to her as she sat down on the sofa. "We have a surprise for you. It may not be much, but we'll show it to you tonight at Tartarus."
"Huh?" She blinked. "Surprise..?"
"It's a gift from not just us, but Ikutsuki-san as well." Ken continued to explain to her. "We can't tell you, because then it wouldn't be a surprise."
"Even if there is only one Shadow left, we really want to give you something to help you fight with us til' the end!" Junpei gave a goofy grin.
"We also heard that you were going to sing in replacement of Fuko Taourze at Gekkoukan High School." Aigis' tone had no emotion to it, but that made everyone face Daedalus with blush on her face.
"W-Wha?! I didn't-I mean-!" She was frantically waving her hands in front of her. "It's just..! I-It's just a promise for a friend! Nothing too big or too small!"
"Hehe, we can't wait to hear you sing." Yukari grinned a bit, with Minato nodding in agreement.
I'm sorry for the long absence! Lately, School has been piling up on me, and with me getting SMT: Persona 4, I'm having to keep up with all my fanfiction. I mean, Links to Fantasy on DeviantART is overdue, since in 8 days it's going to be a month since I haven't put up a chapter!
I'm also working on this other one called "Otaku High School" based off my friends, and I haven't put much work into that one because I've always went braindead. Weird...
This was sort of a Semi-Filler/Semi-OMGWHATISIT?! moment, but that was when I was thinking up a new weapon for Daedalus. Now, it's not so much.
So, thanks for reading so far!
Persona 3 (C) ATLUS
Daedalus & Daira Tavi (C) Me
