Hello! And welcome back!
First,your reviews! Thank you for the compliment, DangerousFox682! And do worry, because I love putting my beloved character through series of mental and physical torture lol
Thanks for pointing out my mistakes, Ray2o! I've got that fixed now. Last time I was in a bit of a rush, still, that ain't no excuse for that kinda mistakes!
And as GrandSeibaa mentioned, yes, I ignore P4A and P4AU, and I apologize for not mentioning that and causing a bit of confusion. Again, even with this, I still hope you enjoy this story!
Then, onwards!
WARNING: Slightly slice of life chapter, and a littttttle bit of Futaba's shenanigans.
Chapter Four: First Contact
Ren walks at a brisk pace borderline on running with Makoto right behind him. As soon as he arrives at the clinic, he gives her and Takemi the short version of things.
He has never seen Takemi bolts so fast.
The trip to the apartment Mochizuki is staying is with a full sprint, and he sees Makoto takes off her shoes partway through. Takemi had snatched his phone away and is still talking with the other boy, her instructions concise. This is the first time, Ren admits, of seeing Takemi looking worried.
When they arrive at the room, all he sees spells anguish.
The furniture is left in odd places, there's a few stacks of used tissue papers littering the floor, and some of them had blood on it. The bedsheets are crumpled and damp, the AC way too cold for comfort.
Yuuki sits there on the bed, barely moving, his face pale and sweating.
"Has he had any trauma? Any underlying diseases? Any unusual things happening at all?" Takemi asks as she puts the boy down on his back. Makoto's breath hitches beside him upon the sight of the boy's exposed chest. There are fingernail marks on them.
Bloodied fingernail marks.
Mochizuki had stepped back, letting the doctor do her work. His breaths are uneven at best, and his eyes betray no emotions; he's terrified shitless, and there's nothing he can do.
The waking boy slaps himself. "No. No trauma, nothing. He was a little sick and weak a few days ago, like trembling hands and stuff. Pain worsens last night and he just— he's okay just an hour ago—"
"Pulse still stable, not weak," She says, fingers touching and examining. Yuuki moans, his body seems to move away from Takemi on its own. "Pain on touch. Heavy breathing— lungs are fine. High fever. Kid, grabs the needles, syringes and the vial with red/green label."
Ren blinks then immediately does as he's told, Makoto helping him prepare the needles. Takemi snatches a rubber band from the box she had and ties it around Yuuki's arm, forcibly bulging his veins for easier access.
As the doctor busies herself with stabilizing the boy, Ren goes over to Mochizuki. "What happened?"
"I don't know," He says, half-pulling at his hair. "I don't know what's going on and I can do nothing!"
Morgana pokes his head from his bag and sniffs. "He smells like death."
"Don't say that, Morgana!" Makoto hisses. "And what do you even mean by that?"
"Something's wrong with him," Morgana continues, his eyes hard. "This isn't something normal. I don't know for certain what, but if I have to guess, this must be something similar to doings of the Shadows."
Ren frowns. If a normal person is attacked by Shadows, there's no telling what can happen next. It would explain a lot if he's a Persona User, however. He'd have to probe around for answers later.
This is bad.
Takemi sits back slightly, exhaling. "He's not in an immediate danger, for now. But his symptoms look similar to having a bloodstream infection. You need to take him to the hospital."
"We can't," Mochizuki says with a pained face.
"But—"
"We can't, doc," He says firmly, his expression torn. His knuckles turn white as he fists his hands into balls and looks at the ground. "Please, just give him something. Anything."
"…Fine, but don't blame me if it worsens," She finally relents. Ren is about to open his mouth — he has money, he can cover the costs. But Mochizuki just shakes his head and looks at Yuuki.
Takemi follows his eyes and starts administering some drugs before hanging a saline bag, then starts instructing the boy how and when to administer which drugs.
It takes half an hour, but the doctor makes sure everything is ready in case of emergency, and gives the boy her numbers before she reluctantly walks out.
"Thanks, Amamiya," He says quietly after Takemi left, one hand dragging the chair nearer to the bed and sits down, eyes not leaving Yuuki. "You saved us."
"You should take him to the hospital," He says. "I can cover for—"
"Money isn't our only problems," He cuts Ren off with a strained smile. "It's okay. We'll be fine, for now. Don't worry about us."
"…Do you need help taking care of him?" Ren offers. The boy shakes his head.
"Thank you for the offer, but I'm good."
This time, Makoto steps up and forcefully sits beside the boy. She gives him a nod, and he mouths are you sure? At her, to which she replies with another firm nod.
Mochizuki tries to protest, but his Priestess has her ways of... stifling any oppositions.
So he leaves, trusting his girlfriend to at least take care of Yuuki for now.
When the door is closed, Ryoji begins again.
"Seriously, you don't need to—"
"You're clearly distressed," She cuts him off. With her forcefulness and the attitude of taking no for an answer, he's reminded of Kirijou Mitsuru. Her red eyes even look like hers. "Allow me to keep you company for a time, hm…"
"Mochizuki Ryoji."
"Niijima Makoto," She responds.
"You have the same first name as him," He says with a small smile, nodding the boy's way. "He's my best friend. Yuuki Makoto."
"I see," She says slowly. "I heard you two are starting your third year at Shujin this year?"
"Yeah, I guess we are," He murmurs.
Makoto is breathing slower than when he received the call from the doctor (she's scary, and that's something, coming from a grim reaper), and his face looks a bit more peaceful. He smiles sadly. At least Makoto can rest for a short while longer, without much suffering.
He then feels like it'd be rude to leave the lady with the silence for too long, so he turns to her and gives her a less tired, more genuine smile. He doesn't want to divulge too much right now, even if they are Persona Users. No, especially because they're Persona Users.
But he has to at least say something. Because going to the hospital would actually worsen all of it.
"This isn't some bloodstream infections. This is something a bit… weirder, I guess?" He says, tilting his head to the side. He can hear that cat clearly, and he thinks what the cat said is true. This is either the work of the Shadows, or something from up there.
Erebus.
And bringing him to a place where Shadows concentrations are high is just asking to be punched into a coffin. If his guess is right… going anywhere with negative emotions right now is going to hurt.
"You guess?" She says, eyes squinting slightly.
"I don't know, but I used to have friends who died with infections before. This isn't like it," He lies, blatantly so. But it's not like he's going to get caught so easily. He's a master of deception, after all, seeing that he even deceived the entirety of the SEES once.
"That's true," She nods along.
They spend a few more moments talking about stuffs, schools (who knew there were so many shitty people inside that place? Goddamnit, Makoto), and just Tokyo in general. Talking with her has been very helpful (both information and mental-wise), and it seems he had thwarted any suspicions away from them for now.
The sun starts to go down, and he urges the girl to go. She gives him a hard look, but he reassures her. "We're going to be fine. If anything happens, I'll let Amamiya know. You'll know by proxy too, right?"
"That isn't convincing at all," She says, glancing at Makoto. "But I'll let you handle it from here. Here's my number –" She practically shoves it into his hands "– so call me if you need help. If you do need help of any kind and I find my call history empty, I'm going to bury you deep into the concrete. Are we clear?"
Well, that's… extreme. "Yes, Ma'am," He pauses, then smiles. "Thanks, for staying."
She turns to him one last time before giving him a smile. "Anytime."
Makoto wakes up with a slightly toned-down headache.
He groans.
"You're awake," Ryoji say, shifting from his chair – he guesses, he still has his eyes close so he doesn't know – and putting a hand on his forehead. "Your fever's down, too. Good."
"What happened…?" He asks. He remembers Ryoji calling Amamiya, and then he just… blanks out.
"You threw up blood, started panting really hard, passed out, and looked half dead? Yeah, that's about it," Ryoji lists the events in quick successions. It took his mind a full minute and ten seconds to actually process all of that.
"Oh," Is all he manages out after he realizes what shit hole he had just gone through this time.
"I thought you were going to die for a moment there," Ryoji murmurs, his voice trembling slightly. Makoto opens his eyes, to see that Ryoji looks much worse than the last time he sees the other's face; he's pale, and jittery.
"…Sorry,"
"Told you this isn't your fault," Ryoji jabs his forehead. When he pulls back, he wears a stern expression, his eyes looking somewhere further away. "The cat that's with Amamiya can talk. He thinks this looks like work of Shadows, and I'm inclined to agree."
"Shadows?" He rasps. "But I haven't –"
He hadn't fought one, right? Unless…
"Not here. But up there," Ryoji finishes his thoughts.
Erebus.
"Must be –" He pauses to take in air. God, breathing still hurts and he hates it. "The fog… before Elizabeth got us out… that must be when…"
"Yeah. And if this is the work of that thing, then the cure isn't going to be easy to come by," He says, his brows furrowing further. "But it seems pain meds of certain kind works. Your pain is similar to neuralgia, from what the doctor said, so she gave me her numbers and lots of said meds. It'll help curb the pain somewhat."
He nods.
"How're you feeling now, Makoto? Any better?" Ryoji asks, still busy adjusting the saline bags hanging above his head. Makoto blinks slowly, and his lack of response make Ryoji a bit more paranoid. "Makoto?"
"I'm still here," He reassures him, eyes focusing nowhere in particular. "I'm better, I think… Don't think I can… get out of bed anytime soon, though."
Even a single complete sentence takes him almost half a minute to finish. Well. This suck.
"Alright. Looks like apart from the pain, you also get yourself an infection," Ryoji explains, pointing at vials after vials. Only then did Makoto realize he had a Heparin Lock at the back of his hand. "The doctor said you need a thrice-daily antibiotics for a week."
"…m'kay," He acknowledges weakly. It looks like his Fool's Journey is going to get a lot more complicated with… whatever the hell all these shits are.
"You should sleep. You look like you need to pass out."
"M'kay."
"Makoto," Ryoji sighs before smiling warmly. "You'll be fine. I'm here, remember?"
He blinks, then turns to fully look at his friend, then smiles a little in return.
That's right.
He's not alone.
"Yeah," He whispers. "…'Night."
"Night, Makoto. Sleep well."
"Illness from Shadows, huh…"
The others seem as concerned as he is when he relayed what had happened yesterday. Akechi is sadly nowhere to be found, but almost everyone else (excepted for Futaba, who needs a nap), is here. Ren crosses his arms over his chest and looks at the floor.
"I checked on them this morning. Yuuki-kun is still sleeping. At least he has more color in him now," Makoto says, sitting next to him and patting his knee lightly. She regards him with a small smile before continuing. "Mochizuki-kun is doing a stellar job at it, too, so at least there's nothing to immediately worry about."
"Thank god," Takamaki slides halfway off the couch at that. "If he gets worse, our plans to visit the Mementos are going to get even more hectic than it is."
That's right, they're planning to visit the Mementos as soon as everyone's schedules are free. Because of the guns Akechi got and all the sketchy shits that had been going on, they can't not go there and check.
If things are going to change, Mementos is the first place that's going to be affected.
"Well," He begins, taking off his glasses and put it on the table. "Looks like the Phantom Thieves are officially reformed. First, we need to constantly check on Yuuki and anyone around him."
"In case this illness or whatever it is can spread," Makoto adds. "I doubt it, because Mochizuki-kun doesn't seem to develop any kind of symptoms. But then again, better safe than sorry."
"And then we visit the Mementos," Ren says. "But… I checked, and the requirement for the keywords are gone. I think it's weird, and I can enter the Metaverse just fine, only… it's not just the subway. Everywhere around it has become a Metaverse."
"For real?" Ryuji says, scowling. "That means we ain't entering Palaces no more, but rather the Metaverse as a whole, now?"
"Who knows?" Takamaki says. "Ugh, this talk of Mementos and Metaverse is starting to confuse the hell outta me again."
"I'm with you on that one," Ren says, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Anyways, we'll enter at the same place as usual – the place outside of the Mementos might change, but I doubt the people's Palace would disappear. After all, the Nav didn't delete itself even after Maruki's Palace."
"Right! That reminds me," Morgana says, making his way onto the table. He lets Yoshizawa pets his head a little before he continues. "I checked with Futaba yesterday. She managed to track down the sender of the money partway through before the signal is cut, and it brings us to a name."
"A name?" Ren asks, tilting his head.
"Seems money is wired from the same account to someone else, too," He says, sniffing. "Someone named Shirogane Naoto."
"Ten million!?"
"Shh!" Shirogane immediately slaps her hand over Rise's mouth. She looks around to make sure no one is looking before continuing. "Yes, someone wired this much money to me. I tried tracing it back, but I couldn't get anywhere."
"Someone's desperate to get our attention," Yu says, brows furrowed. "First visiting Rise with these… gun-like things, then you. Do we at least have a name to work with?"
"I doubt it's a real name, but yes," Shirogane says. Rise nods and puts a small card down on the table.
We know who you are. Stay put, we'll contact you soon. – Artemisia.
"Artemisia…" He frowns. "If I have to take a wild guess, I think that's this person's Persona."
"Welp!" Satonako quips up. "They just threw a curve ball at us."
"They did," Yu agrees, crossing his arms, his black coffee forgotten. Even the usually cheerful Kuma is oddly quiet. He picks one of the guns and turns it in his hand. It's light, too light to be firing any live rounds, but not light enough to be plastic gun.
The materials are much more valuable than cheap plastic, that's for sure. And there's this weird instruction stuck to the inside of the briefcase. But he's not brave (or idiotic) enough to try pointing the gun to his head and pull the trigger. He likes his life, thanks.
And there are enough guns for each of them.
"How do I put this," Yosuke begins, twirling the fork in his hand. The cake is only half eaten, and the brown-haired tries to stab it with the fork and misses. He doesn't seem to notice. "All of this means something big is happening, right? If we're going to believe this person is a Persona User, then it's also safe to assume as much, and this time, they want our help."
"But why the secrecy?" Shirogane asks. There is no answer to that, and the girl ponders. "If you want a fellow Persona-user's cooperation, it might be safer to actually explaining the situations right away. Most Persona users fight for the same goals, so it's not that dangerous to assume their situations would incite us to act."
"Maybe they fear there might be someone who'd work with the enemies among us, like Adachi-san," Yu surmises. That brings out a round of agreements from his peers. "But to contact us through the two of you? They're pretty bold."
"They sure are," Tatsumi says. He plays with his hand-knitted doll as he speaks. "But man, ten million? And a briefcase of guns? As if they're asking us to kill someone or something."
The table falls silent.
"Anyways, I think –" Shirogane is about to say something when her phone rings. All their attentions are on her as she pulls the phone out of her purse and stares at the screen.
She shows the screen. The name Alibaba in red is slapped across it.
"…Who's Alibaba?" Amagi questions. Yu shakes his head.
"Should you be answering that, Naoto-chan?" Rise asks, concerned, as Shirogane's finger reaches the green answer button. "I mean… the timing's just…"
"There's no harm. Well, no further harm, since they already know about us," Yu says, leaning back against his seat. "Good thing we ask for the karaoke room. You can put that on speaker, Shirogane."
"Alright. Here goes nothing."
"Good Morning, Shirogane Naoto-san," The voice, heavily distorted, speaks from the other end. They remain silent, except for Shirogane, who frowns.
"Who is this?"
"I'm Alibaba," The voice answers. Well, that doesn't really help, like, at all. Shirogane sighs into her hand and rubs the bridge of her nose. "You might meet us, probably. But first, we need to ask you one thing."
"And what might that be?"
"Do you know a person named Artemisia?"
When Makoto wakes up (he really hates it when his memories just keep skipping from one waking up to the next) again, it's morning.
The room is much cleaner now, he's feeling much better. Someone (there's only one, really) changed his cloth into a more comfortable T-shirt and pants, and took care of all his IVs.
He sits up, the dizziness minimal at most, only to find Ryoji lying on the floor.
He looks over the edge of the bed. "…Ryoji, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," The other says, looking at him and smiles. The boy springs to his feet and almost headbutts him on the way up. He looks at Makoto up and down before grinning. "You look better. I thought it might take you longer than this, but three days of recovery time isn't so bad, huh?"
"I was in and out of it for three days?" He shoots back, blinking wildly. He then checks his phone.
March 9th, 7.21 am
"Goddamnit."
"Hey, no cursing now. All's well that ends well, right?" Ryoji chides lightly. Makoto moves to sit up straight on the bed, still a bit woozy. "If you're getting better then that's good. But it might happen again so we've got to watch out."
His stomach churns slightly at the thought. Being in that state is not… an entertaining thought. "Yeah. I know."
"But for now, we're safe," Ryoji says as he moves to sit beside Makoto on the bed and rummages through files after files on his phone before stopping with one and shows it to him. It's a picture of a building, and a bunch of fliers and posters.
"Um… what's this?"
"Shujin," He says. "Amamiya sent it to me yesterday. They're pretty nice, come checking us out every day. They'll be here soon, probably, so they'll be glad to see you're awake."
"You sure they still don't know about us, right?" He narrows his eyes, in which he receives a shrug in response.
"Apparently, they think your illness comes from a Shadow, but it doesn't seem it crosses their minds that you're a Persona user yet. The cat can't tell, so we're safe… as along as we don't slip up or run into any of your old friends, that is."
He winces at the idea. Running into any of them is going to be awkward as all hell.
"Anyways, Makoto," Ryoji snaps him out of his musing and points at the window. "After Amamiya visit us, wanna walk around Tokyo for a bit? Then we're going to take care of things in Shujin. I also scouted a place called Big Bang Burger, so that should be a treat."
"…Just how long did it take you to do all that while I was asleep?" He asks.
"A few hours," He shrugs. "Ask Amamiya to look after you for a bit while I go looking for places and buy some… um, wallets."
He snorts. "Yeah right. Buy wallets."
"Aaaaaanyways," Ryoji quickly changes the subject. Makoto couldn't help but chuckle a little at that. "I did find us a gym, they hosted MMA and HEMA clubs, too. You know. To work on your fighting skills."
"Gee, thank you," He says dryly. "But yeah, I could use that."
"Let's visit all of those places once our new friend is here, then!"
He smiles slightly.
Friends, huh?
So! That's a bit of a slice of life. Next chapter will be even more slice-ish than this.
But do not fear! A trigger will be pulled in the very near future!
Leave a review if you want to, and see you next time, folks!
