4/15
"Good morning, Miss Prez."
"Good morning."
"Morning Niijima-senpai!"
"Good morning."
Makoto stands outside Shujin's front gate. Her bag is tucked under her arm. Her posture is refined. Her hair, immaculate. She ate well. She is well-rested. She is clear-headed.
The students greet her warmly. She smiles and returns their salutations. She waits for Akira Kurusu.
Her mind is better. No more errant thoughts about Kurusu. Nothing about his lean frame. Nothing about his dark and deep eyes. Nothing.
She had enjoyed telling him off yesterday. Watching Sakamoto squirm under her gaze had been satisfying, but seeing the sweat bead on Kurusu's forehead, then slide down his cheek as she spoke had been exhilarating. Makoto still was not sure why he had been smiling near the end of it, but it didn't matter. She had made the nature of their relationship clear. She was in charge.
She spies Akira making his way down the road towards Shujin. He is slouched and his hair hangs loose in his face. "Good morning, Kurusu-kun," Makoto says, and the boy halts mid-step.
He glances up at her, and she is thrilled to see him pale. "Morning, Niijima-senpai."
"I wanted to catch you before class, and tell you that our study sessions shall begin after school today." She waits a single beat before she narrows her eyes and drops the bomb. "Unless, of course, you plan on ditching me again."
Kurusu gulps. Tables, turned. "No," he says.
"Good." His lips curl upwards, and she feels her pulse quicken. She turns before it speeds up any more. "I hope your day goes well."
"And yours," he calls after her. There's a lilt to his voice, a slow, smooth inflection. No, I'm imagining that. There's nothing behind them. But Makoto's mind rebels once more, and as she winds her way through Shujin's halls, she cannot help but find one word to describe how he'd said his two. Flirty.
#
School ticks by until someone screams, "Oh my god! What's she doing?"
Pandemonium. Everyone stands and stares. From his position near the back of the class, Akira cannot see what they are looking at. Despite their teacher's protests, students shove their way towards the door, out into the hall.
"I think she's going to jump!"
"Who is it?"
"That's Shiho Suzui!"
Ann leaps from her desk, and a gasp dies in her throat. She sprints to the door, and Akira follows.
Out in the hall, Ann presses herself up against the window, eyes wide, mouth agape.
Shiho stands on the roof overlooking the courtyard. She does not appear to be looking anywhere but ahead. Akira cannot see the expression on her face, but her body is slack.
She does not jump. She simply falls forward and plummets.
"SHIHO!" Ann screams.
He does not hear the impact, but imagines a thick thud when she collides with the ground. Ann's scream continues as she tears herself from the window and runs for the stairwell.
Akira makes to follow, and feels a hand on his shoulder. He spins into the face of Ryuji. "Dude, what's going on?"
"Suzui just jumped off the roof!" Akira says, and turns to follow Ann.
"For real?" Ryuji asks, but Akira doesn't answer. The two race downstairs and out to the courtyard.
They find Ann near the back of a crowd. A huge circle surrounds the fallen and broken body of Shiho. Ann, pale and quaking, is trying to push her way through. Akira hears the click of camera phones, the excited whispers of the students. No one moves for Ann.
Ryuji takes a look at the crowd and shouts, "Out of the way, you assholes!" And charges. He plows directly between two first-year students, reaches out and grabs Ann's hand, then drags her into the fray. Akira runs in their wake, and presses forward as Ryuji elbows and shoves their way towards Shiho.
They clear the crowd, and Ryuji drops Ann's hand. She runs to Shiho's body and kneels next to it. "Shiho, Shiho, oh my god!"
Akira is close enough to see the girl's eyes slide open, and the noise of the crowd dims just enough for him to hear her say, "I'm sorry, Ann. I just can't take it anymore." Her eyes close.
Ann does not know what to do with her hands. One moment, they dart towards Shiho, then stop and collapse back over her mouth. She is sobbing, calling her friend's name, and no one is helping.
Akira looks at Ryuji and says, "Ambulance! We need an ambulance!" He turns to the crowd. The first face he sees is Makoto Niijima's. She stands at the edge of the crowd, eyes wide in horror, her hand clamped over her mouth. She meets Akira's gaze, but there is no recognition there.
Someone must've called an ambulance, because a pair of EMTs soon arrive with a stretcher. Even then, they need to push and shove their way to the girl's side. Arrangements are hastily made, and Ann demands to accompany them to the hospital. Only then do the teachers take back some control, and insist on all the students returning to class.
Few listen.
Ryuji grabs Akira's arm and drags him from the courtyard. His eyes are hard and his teeth are set. Akira does not ask where they are going.
They find Mishima by his locker, his face pale, his hands shaking, back pressed up against the wall for support.
Ryuji marches right up to him. "You have to come forward," he says. "About everything."
Mishima shakes his head. "I can't."
It does not feel right to pressure the boy, but there's something cold inside Akira right now. "A girl just tried to kill herself."
Mishima stares at his feet, and when he speaks, his words are barely more than a mumble. "Kamoshida called her to his office yesterday. He..." The word goes unspoken, but all three men hear it still. It floats around them like poison in the air.
Rape.
Kamoshida raped Shiho.
Akira looks at Ryuji. It takes him a moment to explain to his friend what Ann had told him yesterday. He finds it disturbingly easy to explain. "He must've gotten tired of waiting for Ann."
"So he-" Ryuji starts, then stops. "That... that..." Then he is gone. Sprinting down the corridor towards the stairwell.
Akira and Mishima glance at one another, and follow. They catch up to him the moment he enters Kamoshida's office.
The man sits at his desk, back to them, unperturbed. "Stand up," Ryuji says, his voice just above a whisper.
Kamoshida turns and regards the three with a bored expression. "Huh? What'd you losers want?"
"I said, 'Stand up.'"
"Ryuji," Akira whispers, but Ryuji shakes his head.
"No. No more behind the scenes bullshit." His voice rises as he speaks. "Shiho just tried to kill herself because of you!"
Kamoshida sighs and shakes his head. "I'd like to see you prove that. Poor girl was just disturbed, that's all."
"You're lying." Kamoshida, Akira and Ryuji turn to Mishima, who stares at the ground in front of Kamoshida's feet. "You told me to get her. Yesterday, after practice. You told me to get her and bring her to your office. You-"
"I suggest you shut that mouth of yours, you sniveling little runt," Kamoshida says, finally standing. His indifference is gone. Cold, hard anger washes over the three young men. "Because you can't back up a single thing you're saying. I just heard from the other faculty. Suzui's in a coma, so she won't be saying anything for a while." He looks at each of the boys in turn. "And neither will you. You're all expelled."
"What?" Ryuji asks.
Akira's feels his blood go cold. It shames him, but fear has suddenly settled in his stomach. Expelled? No, no, I can't be! Not again!
"You can't do that!" Mishima cries.
"I most certainly can," Kamoshida replies. "I'll be sure to bring it up at the next board meeting. It won't be hard to convince the rest of them. Sakamoto, you assaulted me last year. They'd believe you'd try it again. As for you," and he nods at Akira, "well, you already have an assault record. Kicking you out of here will be easy. And Mishima," he grins as the boy cowers before him, "you should be ashamed of yourself. Posting Kurusu's criminal records online like that."
Akira turns his head to Mishima. Ryuji does too. "That was you?" Akira asks.
"He made me do it!" Mishima shouts, looking first at Ryuji, then at Akira. "Please, he made me! Told me that if I didn't I'd get abused all the more!"
Kamoshida shakes his head. "Pathetic. You always were a whiny little bitch, Mishima."
"You, bastard!" Ryuji shouts, and cocks his arm back. Akira moves before he can think about it, and grabs his friend around the waist and hauls him back. "What're you doing?" Ryuji cries.
"There's another way!" Akira tells him. Then, it hits him. That's right. There is another way. He hadn't even been thinking about what Morgana had told them.
It dawns across Ryuji's face as well. "Right, that."
"Go have your flight of fancy somewhere else," Kamoshida says, waving the three of them off like insects. "I don't have the time. The next board meeting isn't scheduled to May, so enjoy what remaining school life you have left."
Akira and Ryuji walk out into the hall, Mishima on their heels. "We've got to talk with Morgana," Akira says.
"Damn right," Ryuji replies. "Let's go find him." The two boys take off down the hall, leaving Mishima standing there, alone.
#
School is cancelled. No one leaves. Most are still wired from Shiho's jump, but the two boys find the courtyard's alcove blessedly empty, sans cat.
"I heard about what happened," Morgana says. He is seated on the table as if he belongs there. "Did a girl really try to commit suicide?"
"Yeah, she..." Ryuji begins, but then they hear a familiar clicking noise. Footsteps coming around the corner. "Shit!" Ryuji grabs Morgana once more and shoves him inside Akira's bag.
"Hey, wha-!"
"Quiet," Ryuji whispers, as Makoto Niijima rounds the corner.
"Oh," she says, when she sees them. "I thought this place would be... never mind."
Akira looks at her face, and remembers the look of horror she'd displayed earlier. Her skin is still pale. Her eyes are rimmed in red. He looks away.
Makoto clears her throat and straightens. "I suppose this works out. I'm afraid, Kurusu-kun, that I'll need to cancel today's study session. I'm... I'm not..."
"I understand," he says. "I'm not feeling well, either."
She nods. "Very well. I'll let you know when we will continue." Her voice cracks on the last syllable, and she turns around quickly and begins to walk away.
He does not know why, but he calls out. "Niijima-senpai?" She pauses and looks back at him. He tries to smile. It sort of works. "I look forward to it."
She smiles as well, but there is little behind it.
#
With Makoto gone, Morgana pokes his head out of Akira's bag. "Stop shoving me in here!" He yells at Ryuji.
Akira slides the bag from his shoulder and sets it on the table. "Where else was I supposed to put you?" Ryuji asks.
"You have a bag," Akira points out.
"Hey!"
Both boys stiffen as Ann's voice echoes in the little alcove. "Crap!" Ryuji mumbles, and shoves Morgana's head back into Akira's bag.
"Oh, come on!" Morgana groans, before Ann turns the corner.
"H-hey, Takamaki," Ryuji says, glancing everywhere but at her.
"I want in."
Akira and Ryuji look at each other. Both shrug, and Akira asks, "In on what?"
"Drop the airhead act," Ann says. "Whatever you're going to do to Kamoshida, I want to help."
"We're not-"
"Don't lie to me," Ann yells, her voice cracking. Her hands are fists and she squeezes her eyes tight. "I just got back from the hospital. Shiho's in a coma. That twisted bastard did this to her, because I..."
"Stop it," Ryuji says, his voice hard. "That's not your fault."
"You don't know that. If I'd done what Kamoshida had wanted, Shiho wouldn't have tried to kill herself! I have to make it right!"
Ryuji lets out a sigh and takes a few steps closer to her. "Ann, don't do that. Kamoshida is going to get what's coming to him, okay? You should go be with Shiho right now. She needs you."
"She needed me yesterday when he was doing those things to her, and I wasn't there! So stop trying to make me feel better and let me help, Ryuji!"
He scowls. "Look, you can't come with us, okay? Kamoshida just expelled the two of us, so we've got nothing to lose! Don't eff up your whole future because of this!" Ann opens her mouth to retort, but Ryuji shouts, "Just back the hell off, Takamaki!"
His vehemence takes Akira aback. But he's right. She can't come with us. She doesn't have a Persona, either. We don't have the time to explain all this to her, and... And the truth is, what they're about to do may end up killing the man.
Ann looks into Ryuji's face, and the tears start anew. "You're an asshole, Ryuji." But she turns and marches off.
Morgana pops his head out of Akira's bag, but the three remain silent for a few moments, before Ryuji sighs and says, "Man, that did not feel good."
"Wasn't much else we could do," Akira replies.
"I know."
Morgana shimmies his way out of the bag and stretches his legs. "So, I take it this means you guys have changed your mind?"
"Yeah," Ryuji says, turning to the cat. "I don't care what happens to him. This shit has got to stop."
"I agree," Akira says.
Morgana bobs his head in a nod. "Alright then."
##
A/N: Short, and not so sweet. But, the next chapter is tentatively called, 'Habanera.' I hope you all have a great weekend. And again, thank you very much for reading.