Minato felt so goddamn happy and energetic the next day that he shared the table with Junpei of all people! The cheerfully annoying capped teen who was also a pervert and womanizer.
Coincidentally, he was also a student of Minato who kept bugging the blue haired devil about training and his diet.
Junpei kept bombarding Minato with annoying questions and surprisingly, Minato kept answering them because Hamuko was right next to him.
Junpei stopped his questions when Hamuko passed Minato some toast and shared a smile with him.
"Huh…" Junpei blinked. To ask or not? "So…"
Minato ignored him and grabbed his toast.
Hamuko poured some juice for herself and presses the glass against her lips.
"Had one hell of a night huh?" Junpei blurted out, occasioning a violent reaction.
Hamuko choked on the juice and Minato nearly emptied his stomach on the table.
"What the hell!?" Minato scowled.
"Oops," Junpei gulped. He shouldn't have said that.
Minato rubbed Hamuko's back who started coughing. That totally caught her off guard.
Minato faced Junpei with a deadly glare and balled his hand into a fist. "Say that again…." he said lowly.
"I uh…."
"Say that again, I dare you!"
"Uh, Minato…."
"I double dare you motherfucker!" Minato climbed the table and grabbed Junpei by the collar. "SAY THAT AGAIN!" he yelled with the same psychotic glare etched onto his features.
"Dude, chill out!" Junpei gulped.
"How dare you spy on us!?" Minato reached for Junpei's neck. "I'm going to choke the life out of your scrawny neck!"
"H-Hey I was sleeping, Yuka-tan dragged me out!" Junpei coughed.
Minato let go of his neck and sat on the table with his legs crossed. "Keep going…" he ordered, cracking his knuckles.
"Well, I was sleeping when Yuka-tan dragged me to the third floor and brought me closer to Hamu-tan's room,"
Hamuko leaned in closer.
"We were just worried man, honestly," Junpei said slowly. "I mean, I heard you yelling curses…"
Hamuko looked away with a scowl.
"You called someone a goddamn bastard," Junpei recalled as he rubbed his goatee.
Minato blinked.
"Then you started yelling again, threatening to murder and something about scars," Junpei continued.
"Yuka-tan was so worried that she brought Akihiko-senpai to the third floor too, in case you two started fighting again…."
"Oh my God!" Hamuko buried her head into her arms, beyond flustered. Was he really that loud?
"That absolute moron!" Hamuko shook her head.
"Mitsuru-senpai came out and yelled at us to head back but then you started yelling again," Junpei said as he paled a ghostly white. Minato was turning red, blood red for some reason.
"M-Mitsuru-senpai?" Hamuko widened her eyes.
"So she stayed with us, right outside Hamu-tan's room," Junpei said. "We all were worried man, honestly…" Junpei forced the last word out, putting extra importance.
"… Then?" Minato dared ask.
"Then you yelled out Takaya's name and we all calmed down," Junpei removed his cap.
Hamuko breathed a sigh of relief.
"We were just about to leave when he heard Hamu-tan scream," the capped teen said.
Hamuko covered her face, wanting to burrow deep into the ground and die there.
"Holy shit!" Minato's eyeballs nearly popped out of his sockets. "THEN!?"
"Akihiko and Misuru-senpai got really worried and were about to break the door down," Junpei stood up and backed away slightly because Minato was blood-red at that point.
"I calmed them down and told everyone that you two were just having a passionate moment underneath the bed sheets…." he said proudly. "Nothing to worry about, right?"
"I mean, I wasn't going to let anyone cock-block you guys!" Junpei nodded. "Besides, Minato was dying for such a moment, hell if I'd let anyone ruin it."
Minato's jaw fell.
"You're welcome!" Junpei said cheerfully.
Minato looked towards Hamuko who looked red for a totally different reason. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out, resulting in deathly silence for a few minutes.
"M-Minato?" Hamuko gulped. She was embarrassed and worried beyond belief. Holy hell and here she thought that the last night was magical and the best moment ever.
"…. I think we need to kill everyone," Minato nodded sagely and hopped off the table, falling face first to the ground.
"Huh?" Junpei blinked. Kill?
Minato stood up and bumbled towards the kitchen, muttering something about a butcher's knife and filthy intestines that would be used as sweat-bands and necklaces.
"Now you've done it!" Hamuko hissed at the capped teen. "Run you fool. Take everyone else and run out of the dorm!" Hamuko turned around, preparing herself to calm the raging demon that was Minato.
"Y-Yes mam," Junpei paled a ghostly white as Minato started singing violent dead metal songs while banging his head on the walls with sickening cackles. Junpei had brought him to the edge of insanity again.
After shouting at everyone to run for their lives, Junpei bolted out of the dorm.
…
Sho rested his ass on the ground and let out a deep breath. He had battled and killed Takaya a few days ago and his wounds were slowly healing. Placing his back against the wall, Sho looked up at the bloodied ceiling of Tartarus.
"Guess he really is immortal or something," Sho said to himself then shook his head. "Whatever, bastard is as weak as ever."
Standing up after his rest, Sho pulled out a crumbled piece of paper. He opened it up and counted the date. "A few days till the full moon…." he remembered Minato and his group went off on these operations to eradicate the shadows.
So did Takaya and the rest to stop them but that changed. Takaya told his team to let SEES destroy the shadows, stating that it would only bring them closer to their goal.
Sho had no idea what the goal was and didn't care. He stormed out of the meeting along with Theo because Takaya's goal was irrelevant to him.
"So Minato will be out huh?" he had to be, Hamuko was going to fight too and there was no way Minato was going to sit this one out, especially not with Takaya roaming around.
Sho had battled both Minato and Takaya and despite getting beat up worse against Takaya, Sho had his sights firmly fixed on the psychotic blunet.
"Hahaha," Sho dusted himself off. Sure Takaya was strong and all but he was no Minato, at least that's what he thought.
Sho had killed Takaya, ripped open his chest and pierced his heart. He didn't care if Takaya regenerated and came back to life, it still meant that the mutant bastard was beatable.
Sho had beaten Minato from pillar to post a few weeks ago as well which meant he was beatable too but that wasn't Minato, far from it. That was a coward and wreck that had nothing going on.
The Minato he saw against Theo was a totally different animal. He was back to his roots and had only become more powerful and ruthless. Sho had to admire him for fighting through so many diseases.
But now, he was completely healed and possibly stronger than ever.
His bond with the red-haired girl was possibly even stronger than before.
"I'm going to love putting that theory to test," Sho chuckled and headed for the next floor. "I might get my ass kicked but whatever…."
…
"Minato-senpai!" Ken called out to the senior who was just about to step inside his room. Scowling and annoyed from the racket earlier, Minato whipped around and yelled at the child to come closer.
"Um," Ken struggled to speak as he shuffled closer, scared of Minato's deathly aura.
"Well?" Minato raised his brow.
"I…" Ken trailed off, refusing to look Minato in the eye.
"Spit it out, son!" Minato spat, curling his hand into a fist and smashing it into his waiting palm.
"I-I want to say…" Ken took a deep breath. "I'm not strong as you, Minato-senpai."
"That's right," Minato smirked condescendingly. "Recognize thy place."
"Please avenge Shinjiro-san!" Ken pleaded, clasping his hands together.
Minato's eyes softened and the smug smirk left his features. "Yeah," he remembered promising the late senior about protecting the child, no matter how annoying he was.
"Takaya is immortal," Ken recalled. "I shot him in the heart with his revolver and he sat right back up."
"Is that right?" Minato smirked slightly. He liked it, he honestly liked it. He could torture Takaya for the rest of his life if that was the case.
"But I know you'll beat him, senpai," Ken's eyes lit up. "I-I always admired you, senpai."
Minato blinked. A kid admired him? "You need a new role-model-"
"You scare me but I want to be just as strong as you…"
"Hmmm…"
"And just as protective or someone else,"
Minato sighed. He never liked Ken or heck anyone else but these days, he was sort of warming up to the others.
"Yeah, I got you covered kid," Minato crossed his arms. "Going to do the same to Takaya what he did to Shinjiro."
"Thank you, senpai!" Ken gave a deep bow.
SMASH!
Justice Arcana Rank 1.
Time returned to the world and Minato patted Ken's shoulder. "Get to training; you need to do your part as well."
"Yes, senpai," Ken saluted him and ran off towards his room.
As Ken ran off, Minato gave a sad sigh. Ken reminded him of Pharos a little. "Where is he?" he wondered with a wince. Last time he saw Pharos, the child was bawling his eyes out and he just disappeared since then.
"Come on Pharos," Minato stepped into his room and let out a sigh. "Visit me already, bro."
…
Pharos ended up visiting Minato just moments after the blunet requested him to. It wasn't a happy reunion or anything, Pharos didn't even greet him and just exploded into tears, repeatedly yelling about being lonely and apologizing to Minato for some reason.
He apologized for ruining Minato's life, whatever that meant.
Minato shrugged it off and consoled the enigmatic boy like an older brother. He had no idea why Pharos was crying. Minato didn't know too much about his origins but the kid was the scariest human/demon/entity Minato had ever met.
He had no idea why such a dreadful entity would be crying.
What on earth was he crying about?
But Minato didn't ask any questions or press him to reveal who he was because Pharos seemed in peace beside him and Minato didn't want to cause him any more stress.
Pharos slipped to slumber and Minato carefully rested him on the bed and let out a deep sigh. It hurt him to see Pharos crying like that. The kid was so curious and joyful before, just what happened to him?
What was he so afraid of?
And why wasn't he telling him?
"Shit," Minato ruffled his hair and leaned back on his bed. "Well, take your time Pharos. Nobody is going to press you."
Minato kept watching over the sleeping child with a small smile on his face.
The door to his room opened and Minato hissed. He looked back and paused when Hamuko stood at the doorway with wide eyes.
"Hamuko?" Minato said lowly.
Hamuko eyed Pharos and gave a small smile. She could still see him, despite not having Death inside her body.
Minato waved at her, signalling her to keep the volume low.
Hamuko slowly made her way over and sat on the opposite end of the bed.
Minato sighed, Hamuko definitely knew Pharos. She was there with him when he first arrived to the dorm and Pharos definitely knew her too because he would shove her name down Minato's throat in the past few weeks.
"Do you know him?" Minato asked with a frown. He always wanted to ask this but this was the perfect time to ask, there was no way Hamuko was going to dodge the question.
Hamuko leaned down and saw dry tears etched onto Pharos' face. Letting out a gasp, she looked back at Minato. "… Did you hit him or something?"
"Keep it down," Minato said through clenched teeth. "He's sleeping…."
Hamuko widened her eyes. Pharos sleeping?
That was new.
"And hell no, he's like a little brother," Minato rubbed his back. "No way I'd hit him now."
Hamuko smiled. A brother?
That was new but she definitely liked that.
Minato continued. "Again, do you know him?"
"Do you?"
Minato paused. "Well not really," he rubbed the back of his neck. "He appears outta nowhere at times."
"Well same here," Hamuko mused. "He appears outta nowhere at times."
"And he's psychotic,"
"And scary at times…"
The two looked back at the sleeping male who looked peaceful between the two. Hamuko saw him once in the Velvet Room and knew for a fact that he wasn't an enemy. When he asked her to accompany him to welcome Minato, she did so and ever since then, he would appear randomly in her room, mostly before the full moon.
Minato hoped that Hamuko would know the answer to his existence but she knew Pharos as much as he did. "Well whatever…." Minato shrugged. No matter where he came from, Pharos was a family now.
Hamuko threw a blanket over Pharos and smiled. "Sweet dreams to him…"
Minato winced. Still, why was he constantly crying? He wanted to share it with Hamuko but decided to keep it a secret and not rain on her parade.
Hamuko looked at the calendar and then back at Minato. She leaned closer and whispered. "The full moon is close…"
Pharos kicked the bed and started tearing up in his sleep again.
"Oh shit," Minato began ruffling his hair again. "Calm down, your brother is here…"
Hamuko winced.
"Everything will be alright…."
She had a hunch…. And definitely hoped it would be nothing but a hypothesis. Minato was actually treating him like a family member.
Minato pulled away and looked up at the ceiling. Pharos always warned him about the full moon but this time he did nothing but cry whenever he arrived.
Hamuko mentioning the full moon made him tear up again. "Fuck…" something horrible was going to happen in the next full moon because this was a bad omen.
…
The next day, the members of SEES woke up with a lot on their minds. The final full moon was tomorrow. Ikutsuki had predicted that this would be the last one and killing the shadow would put an end to the Dark Hour.
However, with all that happened in regards to Ikutsuki in the summer made them doubt it. Ikutsuki turned out to be a manipulating bastard and the team doubted his intentions were anything good.
Mitsuru gathered up the team and told them to prepare themselves for battle anyway. This was their only chance and they just couldn't let such a dangerous shadow live either.
"Well," Mitsuru began. "Prepare yourself for tomorrow. We can't let such a dangerous shadow live, regardless of what Ikutsu—"
"Bastard!" Minato interjected sharply.
Mitsuru shrugged. "There we have it. Regardless of what his intentions were, we must exterminate the shadow."
"And Strega," Akihiko growled. "I'm sure they'll try to stop us…"
"Yeah," Hamuko agreed. "They did last time."
Minato started laughing. "Oh I fucking hope so," he said with a smirk. "I hope Takaya shows up there so I can get back at him for everything that bastard did."
"What about Sho?" Yukari asked.
"Oh, he's mine too!" Minato rubbed his chest, the same place where Sho stabbed him in the previous battle. "Got a favour to return."
"Over tenfold," Minato swore.
Before things could get more psychotic, Hamuko barged in. "Alright then, let's head to sleep, meeting is over."
"Shove your head back into your asses," Minato groaned and dismissed the meeting.
Hamuko followed him up the steps and stood by his door. "Sweet dreams Minato," she gave him a quick hug. "Tomorrow is a bid day."
"Huh?" Minato narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
"You'll see, just rest easy, alright?" she smiled. "Goodnight…"
Minato saw her retreating figure and focused on her back. "Goddamn Takaya…" he punched the door and stormed inside his room. "Just a couple of hours Minato, you can abuse that pencil neck bastard as much as you want…" exhaling loudly, Minato sat on his bed and closed his eyes.
Sho opened his eyes and let out a smirk. "Just a couple of hours Sho, you can fight that demonic bastard as much as you want…" judgement day was close and he was prepared to search the entire island to find out the location of Minato.
On the other end of the city….
Jin stood a good distance away from Takaya and swallowed the dreadful shout that was threatening to come forth. Takaya had consumed multiple plumes after the battle was Sho and now…. He didn't look even remotely human.
Jin eyed the remote in his grip and looked at Takaya. "Takaya, the full moon is tomorrow…"
Takaya held out his hand and literally slithered forward, occasionally sinking his fangs deep into the ground. "R-Remote…" he raised his purplish-black arm towards the remote in Jin's grip.
"Yes, it's for their robot,"
"P-Perfect," Takaya grinned, coughing out a mixture of red and green blood. "P-Prepare yourself…." he winced but ended up laughing moments later.
Takaya dragged himself back to the plumes storage and grinned manically as he caressed one in his hand. "Tomorrow we p-please Death almighty…"
"Y-Yes," Jin widened his eyes after taking a look at Takaya's back. He clasped his mouth shut and ran out of the room.
…
Minato woke up the next day and 'fuck' was the first thing that came out of his mouth. Today was going to be hectic and depressing, he just knew it. Getting up from his bed, Minato changed into his school uniform and sat in the middle of his room, trying to calm himself.
"Takaya," Minato breathed out, his ugly mug flashing before his eyes. "I'm coming you piece of shit. I won't ever, ever forget what you did to Shinjiro…"
"And Hamuko," Minato let out another deep breath to bottle up the festering rage that was brewing inside him. "Going to multiply those scars when I'm the one shooting you…"
"Just a few more hours," Minato rocked back and forth, opening his eyes with a shit eating grin plastered on his face. "I can play all I want…." his sadistic side was on a leash because the team wasn't stupid anymore but Minato couldn't wait to satiate his blood-lust.
Picking himself up, Minato went ahead with his preperations.
…
Fuuka quickly located the shadow on the moonlight bridge. The team gathered around in the command room and Mitsuru started the briefing.
"The last one," the heiress sighed. "We can only hope but don't let that affect you. We will finish this like we always have."
Minato rolled his eyes. Were these corny speeches needed?
"Shut up and follow me," Minato pulled out his sword. "Come on, I can smell Takaya's filthy blood from a mile away…"
"Um, Minato-kun," Fuuka tried to speak.
"Shut up and follow me," Minato snapped and walked out of the command room. The rest of the members followed after him.
The last one to leave was Aigis who gave a sigh. She could sense it too, something was going to change.
…
The atmosphere of the bridge always sickened Minato for some reason. He couldn't remember the car-crash at all but there was something in his subconscious that told him to despise the bridge and everyone on it.
Hamuko bit her lip and looked around for the members of Strega. She hated the bridge because she did remember bits and bits of the horrific nights years ago.
Aigis winced as well, rubbing her head to cool down her rapidly heating processors.
"Come out you fucking bitch!" Minato roared with utmost hate, daring Takaya to come out. "I've waited too long to rip your damn heart out, come in the open you piece of shit!"
Minato waited for a few moments but Takaya didn't come out, making the blunet curse horribly.
"We should locate the shadow first," Akihiko advised. "They'll end up coming anyways…"
"Tch, whatever," Minato spat. "I just need something to maul-"
"Stay right there!" the cold voice made Minato blink. It was brutal to listen to but not as brutal as Takaya's voice. The deranged teenager turned around and saw a familiar scar-faced redhead walking towards him briskly, both of his swords in his hands.
"Sho?" Hamuko blinked. Did Takaya really send over Sho? Only him?
"Ah there you are," Minato nodded mockingly as Sho stopped just a couple of yards away. "Been a while, Sho…"
Sho looked up and stared right into his eyes. "Yeah, been a long ass while."
Minato pulled out his sword, much to Sho's excitement.
"The shadow is on the other side of the bridge," Fuuka said. "Right behind Sho…"
"I'll take him, you punks run as fast as you can-"
"There is no need for that," Sho cut. "I don't give a shit about the shadow or about Takaya's plans."
"In fact, fuck Takaya," Sho spat. "Left those damn morons behind."
Minato widened his eyes slightly as Sho crouched down.
"Come on Minato," he edged. "I've waited far too long for you to return to your peak physical condition. Hid it from Takaya, hell, I even cheered and wished that you would win against Theodore…"
"W-What?" Hamuko gulped. Sho was there? Why didn't he kill her when she was defenceless?
"You've been living in my head," Sho admitted. "That damn philosophy about that you fools harp on makes me sick!"
Minato remained quiet.
"Bonds are something that weaklings cling to," Sho spat. "I don't need anything like that."
Minato opened his mouth but Sho interjected sharply.
"I'm wrong, huh?" he yelled. "Then show me. The last battle left a bad taste in my mouth. I saved your ass, you owe me a battle!"
"Minato," Hamuko was surprised to find him quiet and letting Sho talk.
"For the first time in my life, I've trained seriously," Sho admitted. "I busted my ass 24 hours. Now let's see what wins in the end, my hard-work or your bullshit bonds."
"Give me an answer, Minato," Sho crawled forward.
Minato walked forward as well.
"Your friends can head straight over to the shadow and kill it, I don't care," Sho said. "My objective is only you. I'll prove that I kicked your ass because I was strong enough and you were weak."
"Heh," Minato chuckled. He liked it. "You want an answer, huh?" he looked back at his team. "You go on ahead, I'll join you soon."
"Be careful, Minato," Hamuko said worriedly, making Sho cringe. The way Minato smiled in response made him scowl.
"I will, take care of yourself. You're in charge," Minato said and faced the red-haired male again who looked ready to puke.
Hamuko ordered the team as they ran forward, going right through Sho who allowed them to do so without attacking. Hamuko gave one last glance towards Minato and ran ahead to face the shadow.
Minato hopped a few times to get the blood flowing.
Sho stretched and gave a competitive smirk. No injuries, no team members and no distractions. This was perfect.
"I'm stubborn as hell, you've have to beat me to death to convince me," Sho said.
"Well then my friend, shall we begin?"
Minato gripped his sword. "Yeah, all will be clear tonight, Sho."
Sho growled and ran forward.
Minato gave out a haunting laugh that pumped Sho up further. The psychotic persona user met his charge head on while pulling back on his sword.
The two met in the middle of the bridge and clashed their blades, resulting in multiple streaks of sparks dancing around their weapons.
Sho felt the clash. It pushed him slightly back but brought a competitive grin to his face. He eyed Minato and let out a laugh. He was back. The psychotic sumbitch was back.
"You're back, dammit!" Sho widened his grin. "You deranged demon, welcome back!"
"Heh," Minato gave a faint smile.
The two disengaged and backed away to gain distance, the fight was finally underway.
The two shared a faint smile one more time as they went back to clashing blades, each one of them determined to prove the other wrong.
Sorry for the waits guys, got a nasty case of DOMS on my arms that left me crippled. Couldn't drink water much less than write but thankfully, its healing up. Huge thanks to my co-authors, Steven and Raidou as usual, the fast update rate is because of them, round of applause please.
And scream they did, snrk. I might be fond at writing steamy social links scenes but can't pass out on humor.
And man, here we are, the hanged man boss... made it so far. The ending is not too far off now seriously... I'll be writing the cruicial parts and skipping the filler to get this story finished before the years end, I promise (unless you guys stop reviewing and all three of us become sad ducklings D: )
And again, appreciate every single review, thank you for taking the time to write a few words. We don't get money but reviews are the next best thing, thanks a bunch you wonderful peeps! Cheers to all of you, brace yourself because the awesomness won't stop or slow down this time, I promise.
See you soon fellas! have a good day/night and thanks for reading as usual.