Heyo, here's another long chapter.
As always, be sure to review-ACHOO!
...
Ah shit, now no one is gonna review. ._.
Fuck me, I guess. ._.
Anyway! Onwards to hell!
Hamuko was mildly interested when Mitsuru met her one morning just before the commencement of classes and inquired whether she had joined any clubs. The redheaded senior was one of the few people Hamuko actively paid attention to as she often had words of wisdom, and a knack for micro-managing the team but surely that was done with good, if not ulterior intentions.
Back on the subject, clubs? Yukari, Junpei and even her homeroom teacher urged her to join one but Hamuko was often half asleep whenever the suggestion came up. This time however, she was attentive as yesterday, Minato had slept earlier than he usually did and that left her some extra time to catch up on her sleep.
That mild interest turned to apathy when she found out that the boxing club was for guys only and the only sports available to her were badminton and volley ball. As if. And so, she sought out Akihiko who was the captain of the boxing team and probably had good pull in the school. Still no luck as the regulations were made by the board of directors and there was no changing that.
Plan B was that she pestered the senior for a few exhibition matches in the dorm and after much persuasion he did oblige. Of course, being Akihiko, he held back until Hamuko kicked him in the gut and yelled at him to take her seriously and he finally did and to say that he was surprised was an understatement. The girl was decent with her boxing but the way she moved, slipped and then countered with kicks was seamless and effortless, a thing of beauty and that was coming from a boxer.
After another spar, Hamuko jumped out of the ring and Akihiko clapped, like he often did after a quick session. "You are truly something else."
"Thanks," Hamuko said, removing the gloves and wraps from her hands and grabbing a bottle of water. "I need to work more on counter punches. I learn a lot from watching you, senpai so right back at you."
"Maybe if you spar a few team members in public, the school administration might change the rules and allow you entry into the club," Akihiko suggested, stepping out of the ring as well. "We could surely use someone like you."
"I'm over that," Hamuko chuckled. She was content on honing her skills with the senior back in the dorm, which was her only reason to join a club and put up with the extra obligations that came along. "Sparring guys in a sports bra and shorts, well that's inviting another stalker."
"About that," Akihiko vaguely recalled her and Junpei talking about someone stalking and taking pictures of her a few times during the walk back to the dorm. "What exactly happened?"
"Oh, nothing," Hamuko shrugged and sipped on a can of Mad Bull. "I got Junpei to track him down and then I beat the pervert out of him. I wanted to shove the camera down his throat but... ewww!"
Akihiko was not surprised, instead he stood there looking quite impressed. No wonder the team was able to scale Tartarus without much issue now as the redheaded junior was a monster but there was something that Akihiko always wanted to ask.
"Why do you do this?" Akihiko asked and shrank back when Hamuko stopped laughing and fixed a cautious stare on him. "I mean, sparring so much and wanting to get stronger. I know Tartatus is there but you have been training for a long time, haven't you?"
Hamuko glanced at the door for a quick exit but at the end she gave a sigh and the frown went away. "Well..." she fumbled over her words and shied away from his gaze. Akihiko was about to cancel and change the topic but she finally spoke. "It's not easy moving from slump to slump, with relatives and foster families who couldn't give a crap less if you lose your teeth, or your life."
The silver haired senior remained silent, although he did clench his fist in contempt at what the girl had to go through.
"I was fine with it, really," Hamuko continued, going through a trip of painful nostalgia in her head. "I was bullied for my eye color and I learned how to put up with it but..."
Akihiko took cautious steps, hoping that a sharp noise would not startle and send the girl into a painful spiral of emotions.
"I knew I had to change when Minato started growing up," the mention of her little brother finally cracked her impassive voice, although only for a bit and the redhead cleared her throat and carried on. "There was no one else to protect us as nobody else cared so I signed up for extra classes and learned on my own, from old tapes that I could buy on rent."
"So you want to get stronger to protect your little brother?" Akhiko asked, experiencing a blast of painful memories himself. Hamuko caught the torment in his voice and decided to keep the conversation short as this was the first time her senior was genuinely upset but the admiration in his voice was greater than before.
"Yeah," Hamuko replied and glanced at her own hands, tattered and worn out from the years of using gloves and wraps. "It was painful at first but I am glad, I got to keep him safe and nobody has laid a finger on my little brother since then."
"Is that so?" Akihiko smiled for her. So she had succeeded where he had failed...
"Yeah," Hamuko headed towards the door but looked back with a faint smile. "Thanks for listening senpai, and the spar."
"Anytime," Akihiko replied and gestured towards the ring. "Come back whenever you want and we can spar, that ring is yours now."
"Thank you..."
Minato happily sipped on the shake his sister had brought him after he had devoured half a dozen boxes of takoyaki. They sat on the bench outside the stall, with Hamuko adopting a position more appropriate for home but she was not bothered enough to care, not after the past few missions in Tartatus.
The younger of the two scooted closer and pushed the container of her milkshake in her face and Hamuko took a small sip, ruffling his head in response to his concern. She sat up upon noticing she was starting to attract attention, particularly from the boys passing by and normally, she would be okay wasting time on the ugly punching bags but Minato was with her and she avoided starting conflicts in his presence, fearful that someone would extract revenge on him for what she did as her brother was an easy target.
He had expressed an interest in joining martial art clubs to get stronger but Hamuko was strongly against the idea. One little scratch on him led to Hamuko blowing the hell up and yelling at everyone and everything and she did not want to imagine Minato with bruises on his face or worse, broken bones and ligaments which were very common as she would know.
Minato noticed her panicking and urged her to take another sip to calm down and she did. The two simply observed the different variety of people passing by the busy Strip Mall, from ugly to stupid to both. She even saw a half naked freak with ugly tattoo sleeves glancing at the two from the corner of his eye with mild interest and she clutched Minato close until the freak went away.
"Oh, that one was extra ugly," Hamuko retched and tried to get his disgusting appearance out of her head. "Don't you agree, Minato?"
"He looked like a serial killer," Minato exclaimed.
"Serial killer of flies I'd say but I'm sure that's in self defense," she scoffed. "They're clearly attracted to him after all."
"So, he's shit?" Minato exclaimed with another happy giggle.
"Minato!" Hamuko scowled in response. "I told you to not say that word again."
"B-but!"
"Not a word, mister," she glared, well tried to anyway. "You're lucky I'm not the type to wash your mouth with soap."
"Who taught you that anyway?!" Hamuko demanded to know, punching the bench with her knuckles. "Was it Akihiko?"
Minato sighed. There was no stopping his sister when she went on like this.
"Iori-san..."
"Why that scrawny pencil neck..." she trailed off, already imagining the same pencil neck in her callous grip. "When I get my hands on him... corrupting my innocent little brother."
"He is nice though," Minato said with another long sip, quite happy at the place where they were staying at. "He gave me a few more games and they're really cool too!"
"Are you happy with the dorm, blueberry?" Hamuko asked with an affectionate smile, tugging him cheek and giggling when her younger brother gave an annoyed scowl but he brightened up fairly quickly despite the teasing.
"I do!" he chirped, getting off to toss the empty container in the dust-bin before he walked back and bounced on the ball of his feet. "They are all nice and they take care of me. Akihiko-san even scared off the older boys who were trying to pick on me!"
"Oh, he did that?" Hamuko said out loud, making sure that she would give a proper thanks to her sparring buddy later at the dorm.
"Best of all, I feel they really want us around too," the blue haired boy widened his smile, happy for his sister more than himself. "Especially you, nee-san! They really like you! Yesterday I heard Yukari-san and Mitsuru-san talking about the team would fall apart if you weren't around."
'Is that so?" Hamuko gave a smile, resting her cheek on her palm as she listened to the younger boy ramble on happily about how nice her dorm mates were to him. Much like her brother, she was more happy for him than she was for herself, content that her brother had finally found a place where he was cherished and her friends had certainly taken a liking to him. She did not care whether it was out of respect for her or they genuinely liked him, all that mattered was that Minato could sleep peacefully knowing he had people to depend on.
During his rambling, Hamuko caught a sight which sunk her happy mood down to her stomach, much like her heart. A middle aged lady was dragging her son along and the complete absence of expression, pale skin and soft groaning coming from his drooling mouth was a dead giveaway that he was afflicted with apathy syndrome and while Hamuko was no stranger to such cases, there was something terribly frightening about this kid-
He was the same age as Minato.
"Come on," the middle aged lady was clearly suffering from depression herself and the forced smile on her lips made the redhead's own face ache. "The hospital is not that far from here..."
Her voice was broken and Hamuko was amazed that such a mess was able to leave her mouth-
"Just a little more...
"Ugh!"
The more she watched the more her vision began to darken and flashes started to dance around in her peripherals. The shapes around her began to twist and turn and Hamuko hallucinated, even when she had squeezed her eyes shut but there was no respite and her mind started to twist the scenery before her-
For a split second she saw her own brother in place of the boy that was getting dragged to the hospital. That moment, her vision froze and she tried desperately to blink the nightmare away but the syndrome ridden version of her brother turned ever so slowly in towards and howled in her direction, with a distorted cry of pain and the frightening pitch of a banshee, the same noise reverberating and tearing through her psyche in a rapid, never ending succession-
"Nee-san!"
"Gaaah!"
Mercifully, she escaped from the torment of her own mind when the child next to her shook her harshly and she came back to reality with a loud gasp and then a short wail which she bit back on as they were in a public place.
"Nee-san, are you okay?!" Minato shook her again, worry plastered on his young face. He had to shake his sister extra hard as she would not stop muttering and shivering in broad daylight while staring ahead at literally nothing in particular.
Hamuko tried to recompose herself when she saw her younger sibling very close to sobbing as he began to sniff upon her miserable condition. She bottled up whatever was tormenting her and quickly counted to ten. That did not work well so she quietly pressed Minato close to side and began to calm down, even more so when her brother returned the embrace and began to wipe the sweat off her face with his handkerchief.
"Are you okay, nee-san?" Minato asked for a few minutes of silence, now patting her back to console her. "You started to space out and shiver all of a sudden."
"I'm okay, Minato," Hamuko assured and luckily, her young brother was innocent enough to not question her lie, or her forced smile. "Just stay close to me for a few minutes, okay?"
"Okay!" Minato exclaimed with a small amount of cheer back in his voice. "I was really worried, nee-san."
"I just need to sleep more," Hamuko lied again, ruffling the tuft of hair on the back of his head. "You shouldn't worry about your older sister. Hey, remember the time I beat up that bully for you?"
Those conversations were simple distractions which always worked on Minato as he would begin to beam and giggle whenever she recalled her heroic acts of beating up bullies or just gym stories about her being tough. She had not let go of him ever since the last hallucination and somewhere during the middle of her story, her phone buzzed and she took a quick glance at the screen. That message was from Rio, a school mate she had sort of befriended when she bumped into her during her way back to school.
Normally, she would put her phone on silent and go back to focusing on her brother but the vision from earlier that left her rattled more than she liked to admit. She stole another glance at her phone screen and Igor's words about social links began to gnaw at her. Theodore himself had cautioned her that she would not go far in her journey if she did not establish social links.
"Hey, Minato?" Hamuko abruptly stood up and hurled the two school bags over her shoulder before taking his hand. "We have to go. I have to meet up with someone soon and I'll drop you at the dorm, okay?"
"Awwww!" Minato whined, jumping on his feet. "We were going to visit a park, nee-san!"
"Sorry, but this is really important," Hamuko flashed an apologetic smile and promised that she would make up for it and that was just another lie.
Minato was young but he was no dummy. From that day on, he noticed a change in his sister and while she did her duties of helping his homework, making him meals and putting him to sleep, their frequents trips to restaurants and parks became almost non-existent.
The door to the dorm opened way past 9 and Minato was the first one to bound over, greeting his sister like a wide grin. "Nee-san!" he stopped right next to her and began to chatter. "The new episode of Featherman R is out! Come on, I've already downloaded it for you!"
Hamuko sighed and rested her backup on her counter, clearly weary after school and helping Rio with her club, a club she was not even a part of but social links demanded her to do extra favors. "I'm sorry blueberry but I have someone to meet," she quickly signed the paper at the counter and gave another apologetic smile, which was fast becoming a norm for Minato to see. "Some guy needs help in the mall. Don't wait on me and go to sleep, okay?"
She did not even wait for his response and was out of the dorm.
Yukari saw the disheartened look on the face of the youngest resident and crouched next to him, patting his head. "Don't worry, Mina-chan. We can watch with you if you'd like?"
Minato smiled politely, although the sadness was obvious. "No, thank you, Yukari-san. I'll be going now. Good night."
Back in their room, Minato deleted the episode that he had searched hours for and sulked around on his bed. Despite his obvious ire at his sister, he still waited and waited for her to return but close to eleven, he gave up and slept all alone. This was the first time in ages he had to sleep alone and without his sister nearby, the young boy quickly slipped from one nightmare to another and had one of the most awful nights of his life.
Unfortunately for him, he had to get used to sleeping alone as Hamuko often came back home late and even when he was awake, she would give him a quick hug and pass out due to exhaustion and then there were times when she had to fight evil monsters on specific nights, like the one they saw on the door and the following day she would sleep the whole while.
Hamuko too began to notice that Minato was getting somewhat distant and he would not wait for her anymore, neither would he bug her to watch shows with her or help him with homework. Often times, he would head straight to Mitsuru and Yukari for help and Hamuko would wince but whenever she attempted to make plans, her phone would buzz and she would get a reminder about the numerous plans she made for the day.
She never expected her life to get so busy in Iwatodai and while she loved nothing more to just spend the whole day with her brother, the peaks in apathy syndrome had her scared out of her wits, not for herself but for her brother. God forbid, if something were to happen to him, that would be the end to her life right there and then.
"I've got to eliminate every last shadow," Hamuko said to herself during another solo run in Tartarus, with not even Fuuka to guide her. She had gone straight from the club to the tower to train, get stronger so she would eradicate the Dark Hour and create a safe world for her brother. "Keep him safe, no matter what."
After reaching the barrier, Hamuko glanced at her words. She was undoubtedly the strongest member on the team and had grown to quickly surpass both Akihiko and Mitsuru, thanks to her special ability but each trip to Tartarus would lead to a discovery of a new shadow and she would spend weeks trying to figure out the mystery and the cycle never came to an end, which led her to spending more time in Tartarus even on weekends, days that were solely for her and his enjoyment.
"I'm sorry, blueberry..."
Hamuko was dragged off by the club members and then Saori the moment class was done. She had to pick up Minato from his school but time would now allow that and so she quickly requested Akihiko to bring him back to the dorm.
Minato sat alone on the school benches, way past recess and yet there was no sign of her sister. Who was he kidding? She was not going to show up and was probably going to send a dorm mate to pick him up while she hung around with her new friends, completely forgetting that he existed.
"Hey, twerp!"
Minato tried his best to ignore the jeers of the few older boys who loved to bully him out of jealousy, due to the special treatment he received from the teachers.
"Where is your demon eyed sister, huh?"
"Just ignore them, Minato..." the blue haired boy repeated to himself after another jeer. He turned towards the opposite direction and hoped that someone from the dorm would show up and take him back.
"Guess she finally figured out were dead weight, huh?"
Minato jolted up straight, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. While he promised not to pay attention, he slowly began to turn towards the trio of seniors.
"Who would want a crybaby like you?" one of them snorted, rubbing his eyes to mock him for crying often in the class.
"S-Stop it..." Minato whispered, curling up on the bench and trying to block out their voices by clasping his ears but they countered by simply shouting louder, delighted at the chance to humiliate the stupid prince of the school.
"Hey, isn't he an orphan?"
"Yeah, lost his parents in some accident,"
"Well, I bet his sister wishes he joined em!"
That finally got to him and Minato broke into tears, the past few weeks of being alone at the dorm and school came back to haunt him and something began to claw at his throat, each tug more vicious as their words seemed to boom over and over again in his head until the final shout blocked the breath in his body and Minato let out a piercing wail-
"SHUT UP!"
Before he knew it, he was already running at the trio to punch them but he was easily held back and then got a punch in return which knocked him to the ground. He tried getting up but got stomped on, followed by a kick which left him gasping and wailing for someone to help him-
"Cry baby, like I said!"
The most burly looking out of the three was just getting started but thankfully, before he could beat the already broken mess into a pulp, Akihiko finally arrived and the three kids scampered as they too had heard of the boxing legend of Gekkoukan.
"Oh man," Akihiko grabbed a few tissue out of his pocket and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth but the big bruise on his cheek would require something more and he dreaded to think of what he'd say to Hamuko.
"Minato?" the older male gently shook him but the blue haired boy did not respond. There was something terribly off about him, especially his gaze with not even a flicker of hope or life in his eyes, as if he had died sometime during the day.
"Can we go home, Akihiko-san?"
"Are you okay, Minato?"
"Please...?"
Akihiko took him back home and while Minato usually hung around the lounge and had fun with the other teenagers, this time he went straight to his room without even greeting them. The words of his bullies had never left him and he silently stood in the corner of his room. The time was close to 4 and the boy did not move from his position for the next several hours and was completely unresponsive to every knock on the door. Even when someone barged in, like Fuuka often did out of worry, he would tell them to leave him alone.
Hamuko arrived late as usual but found the dorm oddly quiet. Usually, Minato would be running around bugging Junpei to play with him or asking Mitsuru to help him with his homework. Something was wrong and Hamuko quickly scaled the steps and headed for their room. She knocked one to gauge and got no response and so she barged in and saw her brother standing in the corner.
"Hey, blueberry?" Hamuko called out to him but got nothing.
"..."
"Are you okay?" Hamuko dropped her backpack and hurried over to him, obviously concerned but Minato remained silent, not bothering to even look at her but then she caught a drop of blood escaping his mouth and rushed over without a second thought-
Minato slapped her hand away the moment she tried to get him out of the corner and while the blow did not hurt, Hamuko did back off in surprise as this was the first time he had hit her. That finally got him to look up and Hamuko gasped, catching his bloodied mouth and the black bruise on the side of his cheek.
"Oh God, what happened to you!?" Hamuko made a quick turn to fetch the first aid kid but Minato spoke-
"Why do you care?"
"W-What?" she turned back to him, opening her mouth but the younger kin spoke again before she could.
"You left me, didn't you?"
"Minato, I told you I had some work to do at school," Hamuko did not know where the conversation was heading but it was already awful.
"And left me alone..."
"Minato," Hamuko tried to explain the bullshit that were social links but what could she explain to the kid? That she was hungry for power because the shadows were getting stronger and she wanted to protect him? As if she would disclose her worries to Minato. "Listen..."
"I hate you!" Minato suddenly exploded out of his position and pushed her backwards with as much force as his young and frail body could generate and while that was not enough to make her budge, Hamuko did give a small gasp at the abrupt explosion of hatred.
"You left me!" Minato started shouting, something he never did to her or anyone else and his pitch and volume made her cringe because he was screaming his lungs out. "You left me! You left me! You left me!"
"Minato, calm down!" Hamuko was sure that his voice was echoing all across the dorm but any attempt to pull him close was met with hostility as Minato would either slap her hands away or just shove her. He carried on shouting and screaming at her, holding back the tears as he refused to cry before anymore as she did not care.
"You don't even talk to me anymore!" he gasped upon the pain building in his throat but thrashed the moment she reached out to him. "Everyday, I wait for you and wait for you but you never show up! You hang around with your new friends and forget that I even exist!"
"That's not it!" Hamuko actually yelled back to get some sense into him but her brother was lost to reason and glared at her, which did a good job of startling her and she blinked. Was this really happening?
Were they fighting...?
"Fine! Leave me alone. I hate you!" Minato stomped several times on the floor and shut his eyes, continuing the little tantrum while Hamuko just stood there, still trying to come to terms that this was actually happening. "You think I'm dead weight, huh?"
"You want to me disappear, don't you!?"
"You are just like the others!"
"I know you wish that I died in that accident-!"
"..."
"I WISH I DID-!"
SLAP-
Without warning and without conscious thought, Hamuko finally lashed out and slapped her younger kin hard across the face for the first time in her life. The blow knocked Minato down and Hamuko reeled back in shock, noticing the splatter of blood on the floor and the small wail that left his mouth when he collapsed down-
"Shit!" Hamuko wanted to rip her own hand off for slapping him but those last few words had pushed her to the breaking point and her broken heart and psyche fired that slap as a reflex. "I'm sorry, Minato."
Minato kicked at her shin the moment she attempted to help him and after minutes of holding his tears, the slap finally broke his efforts and the younger sibling began to sob loudly, wailing and screaming on the floor as if he was going through something incredibly painful, with his breaths lodging up inside his throat but he fought back against his sister when she tried to help him, giving her more than a few scratches-
"Leave me alone!"
His wailing grew in volume and Hamuko was completely pale and done by that point.
"Minato..."
"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"
"..."
Hamuko made a turn towards the door-
"I wish I was dead!"
"..."
"Mommy!" that final cry was what did her in mentally and something smashed against the part of her psyche that harbored her many personas and each one of them began to screech and claw in her head, making a vein throb on her temple and settling a dull pressure around her throat.
Hamuko ran out of the room as fast as she could and slammed the door shut. Her body went limp the moment she was out and she collapsed against the door, still hearing the sobbing and screaming of her younger brother for the next several minutes. She said nothing and did not move, not even when she heard footsteps coming from the lounge.
"Hamuko-chan?" Fuuka came up and hesitated to speak.
"..."
"You're crying, Hamuko-chan..."
Hamuko touched her cheek and noticed that she was, pent up tears after years and years of suppression were cascading down her pale cheeks.
The last time she cried was when she lost her parents and tonight, she may have just lost her cheerful brother forever as there was no healing what had happened between them. Hamuko coughed into her fist and just sat with her back against the door to her room, red eyes blank and the pressure stealing each gasp of air from her throat.
After a while, Minato fell silent and Hamuko figured that he had fallen asleep but even then, she could not bring herself up to head back. Not after what she had done. She would have to sleep in the lounge for the night but as she got up, she noticed something on her left hand, the same hand she had used to slap him and found a small drop of blood on her finger.
Hamuko punched the wall as hard as she could with the same hand. Once, twice, thrice, until she was sure that her hand was numb and a few knuckles were busted. One on the marble wall for good measure.
When she left, Minato picked himself up from the floor and crawled into the corner of his room. The Dark Hour struck seconds later and the child simply cowered, trying to wipe away his tears as he had made a mess of himself. His jaw, cheek and throat were aching and he swore to never speak to his sister again, no matter how much she apologized to him.
She wouldn't anyway. She wished he was dead, after all.
"Ouch..." Minato winced at the spasm of pain on his cheek and tried to reach for a band-aide but he glanced at the moon and a voice buzzed into his ear, distorted and heavy and from that moment, he remembered no more.
"Must kill myself..."
The voice told him to follow the path to a certain tower and he did without question.
Hamuko was coughing constantly, having trouble sleeping in the lounge as it was hot and while Yukari had offered her to sleep in her room, Hamuko declined by way of not responding at all. She was alone, trying to think of ways to apologize but too shameful to actually head up there.
"What can I even say to him?" sure, he had attacked her and given her a few scratches but the most painful part about his breakdown was that he was cursing and wishing himself dead. Another stray tear escaped her eye and Hamuko buried her face into the couch cushion, quietly crying against the fabric to muffle the sounds.
"Damn this persona bullshit," Hamuko cursed, glaring at the evoker on the table. "What hell have I got myself into?"
Suddenly, she remembered the wound on his cheek and panicked. What if the wound festered into something worse if left untreated? She had no intention of coming across her brother out of regret and shame but while he was asleep, she could at least patch up the wound. Kiss on the forehead too for the slap earlier too, at least that would put her broken mind at ease somewhat.
Quietly, she made her way back up, tip toeing until she reached his room. To think, she left him to sleep all alone in the past few weeks. She cursed herself one more time as she turned on the doorknob-
"Minato!?"
Her brother was nowhere to be found and the pressure around her neck worsened to a choke-full of burning lead in her throat. She could not even begin to scream as she noticed that the window was open and that Minato had escaped-
She checked the ground below and he was nowhere to be found in the vicinity.
"Fuck!"
Hamuko trembled and started shouting at her friends to come out, her screeches echoing across the dorm and rattling everyone as they sounded like someone on the verge of dying a very painful death.
Miles away, Minato was headed straight for Tartarus under the command of the voice in his head. He dragged himself along the ground, walking through the puddles of blood and occasionally bumping into coffins but that did not snap him out of the trance and he soon walked into the gates of the tower.
Back in the dorm, Hamuko told Mitsuru to piss off when she urged her to calm down and meet her in the command room. She shoved Fuuka out of her room and screamed at her to summon on the spot and the teal haired girl quickly did, evoking Lucia and scanning across the entire city for her missing brother-
"He's in Tartarus!"
Hamuko nearly vomited her own guts out when Fuuka shrieked out the location-
"Tell me the goddamn floor!" Hamuko nearly lunged at the the support persona user and the rest of her friends were spooked, fearful that Hamuko would just crumble into a nervous heap at any second and every few seconds, she would cough as if something was killing her from the inside. "Work your fucking worthless persona!" her voice cracked at the last word and she spat out blood, much to the horror of everyone else present.
"Hamuko-"
"TELL ME THE FLOOR, YOU BITCH!"
Fuuka finally blurted the name of the block and number of the floor and Hamuko did not bother waiting for the others. She snatched the evoker from Junpei and a rapier from Mitsuru and then bulldozed her way out of the group of teenagers, rushing down and then out of the door in seconds.
"Hang on, Minato..."
Minato was an easy prey for the shadows and upon reaching the floor of his eventual demise, he simply sat in the corner while the enemies of humanity began to form in the darkness and crawled towards their prey slowly. A few of them began to snarl upon sensing the potential within the blue haired boy and their forms began to morph, no longer content on just devouring the soul but actually murdering him as he would eventually become an obstacle to the revival of Nyx.
Minato began to wake up with every crawl of the shadow towards him and his vision returned to an unknown corridor, bloodied walls and a row of scary looking monsters around him. His muddled mind took a few seconds to process where he was and he let out a helpless shout when he recalled the similarity between them and the monster they encountered on the roof months ago.
"H-How did I end up here?" Minato kept crawling backwards until his back met the bloodied wall, and a cold sweat ran down his body. The last thing he remembered was reaching out the kit and now he was in some sort of hell and nowhere to escape-
"L-Leave me alone!" Minato grabbed a nearby rock and chucked it at the nearest shadow, an actual lion chained to a masked ball. That did nothing and more of the shadows emerged from the darkness, growling, snarling and hissing at the defenseless persona user in the corner of their tower.
There was no chance of escape and he had lost the mobility in his legs the moment he took in his dreadful surroundings.
Minato's short life began to flash before his eyes and he curled up, much like he always did when he was afraid and then his sister would show up to protect him-
"N-Nee-san..."
The last thing he had said to the same sister of his was that he hated her and that he never wanted to see her face again-
Last few moments of his life and he began to recall what happened earlier, she had slapped him but the moment her hand made contact with his face she burst into tears for the first time in her life and yet he still told her to get lost-
"I-I deserve this..." Minato said to himself amidst his panting and shivering. Now it all made sense, this was the tower and the scary place that her sister had to go through every night and all those monsters that he was terrified of, she had to face them each and every night to keep the city safe-
"..."
Minato closed his eyes in surrender and relaxed his body. He heard a snarl and felt a strong amount of heat building up nearby, already causing his skin to melt off the bone and a strong flash in his shut eyes was the signal of the end for him-
"Ravage them!"
Death did not come for him but he did feel a thick and disgusting liquid splattering on him by gallons. He heard a cough far off and opened his eyes, finding several of the same monsters next to his feet. Another shine in the distance led to another explosion of flames but he also caught a glint of red before the entire area was taken over by magma-
Minato had to shut his eyes again to avoid the burn but someone pulled him off the wall by his wrist, jerking him away from a slash that would have surely taken his life. He ran into someone and sneaked a glance, finding a familiar face, ruined by sweat and tears-
"Nee-san!?"
Hamuko was hurled off her brother when something tackled her into the wall, getting a few gashes in before she sliced the head off with her blade and kicked the head off the shadow nearby-
"Minato!"
Hamuko yanked him away from a frigid explosion of ice but left herself open to blast of wind which sent her crashing into the wall. Minato could only stare in horror as her jacket sleeves were torn apart and her arms took the brunt of the damage, drenching her limbs in crimson-
"Persona!"
Something exploded out of the mist around her, much like on the rooftop and tore in the bulk of the shadows while Hamuko grabbed his arm and began to run in search of the access point-
"What the hell!?"
She ran into another army of shadows and clicked her tongue. "What the hell got them so active suddenly?" she wondered. Maybe Tartarus was unstable but they never gathered up in so many numbers at the same time.
The minute they charged at her, Hamuko shoved her brother to the side and attempted to summon, only to get her evoker snatched out of her grip and then a collective maul from the creatures, hearing the helpless scream of her brother while she was getting torn apart-
"Gack!"
Hamuko lashed out with her blade, cutting the heads of the smaller ones but a blast of magic knocked her on her back. She hacked out blood and clenched her fist, attempting to stand up but the numbers were simply too great to deal with and she only had the weak blade of Mitsuru-
"Nee-san!"
Hamuko caught the evoker in her grip and immediately summoned, evoking a surge and explosion of purple energy that blew the nearby shadows to ichor but soon after that, she collapsed down, still coughing violently as every second spent fighting worsened the awful grip around her throat-
"Tch, to think it'll end like this," Hamuko muttered and then someone ran into her, nearly knocking her over due to her frail state but the aching wounds calmed down somewhat when Minato refused to let go and just held on tighter when more shadows began to lurk out of the darkness, sensing the vulnerability of the Wild Card.
"I'm sorry!" Minato wailed next to her ear but the voice got lost somewhere and never truly reached her head as her body was exhausted and there was barely a breath of oxygen left in her. She was hacking out blood with every second now and her personas had never stopped screeching ever since she slapped Minato back in the dorm. Minato had started whimpering into her ear by then and she was able to make what he was saying, sinking her heart even further.
"I don't want to die, Nee-san..."
"Please, please save me..."
Hamuko struggled to reach for her evoker with all her strength but her body just failed-
"I want to live!"
"..."
"SAVE ME!"
Her body temperature plummeted but her pulse began to skyrocket, pupils dilating when the last bit of will started leaving her body.
She hallucination one last time, this time finding her own corpse just a few feet ahead and a group of shadows just ahead feasting upon the dead body of a boy with blue hair-
The last molecule of energy in her body evaporated and Hamuko simply collapsed against him but Minato held her up, trying to shield her just like she had done so at the rooftop but every blink of her eyes and the shadows would come closer and closer, to make that hallucination a reality-
"Persona!"
Hamuko got some life back in her upon the collective yell and forced Minato against the ground to save him from the collateral damage of the fusion spell. She saw streaks of red, blue and green and then a familiar senior pulling her out of harms way-
Mitsuru shoved a bead and precious egg into her hands and Hamuko quickly healed her the wounds and replenished her spiritual energy, setting the barrel of the evoker to her temple and growling at the seconds who had attempted to take the life of her younger brother-
More of her team summoned to battle back the wave of shadows and Mitsuru yelled at her to get her attention-
"They're after Minato!"
Hamuko widened her eyes-
"They can sense his latent potential and will do anything to kill him! We will hold them off! Get him out of there right now!"
Hamuko grabbed the young boy by the wrist and escaped the warzone, eventually picking him up as she ran through the god-forsaken corridors to locate the damn access point and she eventually came across the device. She could hear the yells of her friends behind her but she quickly set the parameters to the lobby and looked to grab her brother-
"M-Minato?"
Minato was a literal mess of blood, sweat and tears and he was simply standing on the same spot, shivering with his eyes devoid of life and color, as if he had seen his childhood demon in real life and the same had ripped the heart out of his chest. She feared the worst, thinking that the shadows had sucked out his soul but a sharp gasp of horror let her know that he was still there-
"Hamuko!"
The voice of Fuuka blared in her head and the redhead winced-
"The Reaper is here!"
The operation to rescue Minato had quickly turned into a nightmare but Hamuko shook her head and looked back, ready to rescue her friends who had saved her brother-
"Listen Minato, I'll send you back," Hamuko explained as calmly as she could, trying not to freak out over the rattle of chains. "You'll be in the lobby. Do not go back to the dorm and stay there, hide behind the pillars, okay?"
"W-What about you?"
What about her, indeed...
"Do you forgive me...?" Hamuko questioned, holding his chin so he was looking at her. Minato could only stare in bewilderment, after all the trouble he had caused her, she was the one apologizing to him? "Have... Have I been a good sister?"
"T-There is nothing to forgive..."
"..."
"I love you, nee-san,"
At that moment, her personas stopped screeching and the phantom grip around her throat dissipated. She was finally able to breathe in properly and gave out a small sigh of relief, alive after the most grim hour of her life.
"I'll be back, okay?" Hamuko pushed him into the access point and then stood up. At times she used to think that he was the last link to her life but now she was beginning to think that he carried her life in his hands. God, he had sent her personas into a frenzy just by shouting at her.
Hamuko ran back into the battlefield, holding the evoker to her temple and summoning the moment she caught the tattered coat of the ungodly shadow.
...
Minato waited and waited, every gust of wind outside making him flinch and yell in horror that the same monsters were coming to get him. He would randomly shout the name of Hamuko every now then, hoping that his begging was reaching her in that unholy tower. Whenever he would close his eyes for a bit of rest, he would suffer glimpses of those blood soaked walls, the creepy faces and the shadows. Her scream of pain would echo in his head and Minato would wake up calling out here name but Hamuko had yet to appear.
He did not know how much times had passed and every attempt to count the seconds led to a break down of nerves when he would reach the count of ten, fearing that too much time had passed and that her sister had died-
Minato hugged his knees to his chest and shivered, daring to take a glance around the massive lobby of the ominous tower. He then thought back to the monsters, each one of them freaky and powerful enough to put each nightmare of his to shame.
"This is what nee-san has to fight every night?" Minato wondered and his eyelids began to droop. He rested his head against the pillar and fought against the sleep in his eyes so he could see her sister emerge from the strange device so he could grab onto her leg and plead for forgiveness but the night was far too taxing on his frail body and mind and Minato rapidly starting losing consciousness, eventually passing out against the stone pillar with a final mutter-
"I'm such an idiot..."
Hamuko emerged from the access point a few minutes later with the rest of her friends, beaten and bruised but they were all alive after an encounter with the Reaper itself. The leader of the team dropped her weapon and her evoker and hurried over to the ball of blue curled up against up the pillar. She picked him up and glanced at his face, stained with blood, sweat and tears which was something she swore was not going to happen on her watch.
"Is he okay?" Yukari asked with worry evident in her tone, stepping over to check on Minato in case he needed healing.
"He's fine, just passed out," Hamuko was relieved herself. She clutched him close to make sure everything was for real and then faced her team mates with a deep bow.
"Thank you..."
"For what?" Junpei cried. "You saved our ass against the Reaper!"
Hamuko chuckled but soon fell silent.
"I couldn't save my brother..."
Minato woke up under the familiar lights of his room and gave a sigh. He just knew that her sister carried him all the way to the dorm, which meant she had won and he quickly located her sitting on the desk and patching up the smaller wounds she sustained in the rescue mission.
"Ah!" Hamuko caught him sitting up and smiled. "You're awake!"
Minato gasped and hid under the blanket, wrapping the cloth around his body so he was out of her view. He slithered away and almost fell off the edge of the bed until Hamuko hurled him to the center and began to wrestle the blanket off his body-
"Let go, nee-san!" Minato fought back, taking the bed sheets off the mattress and burrowing deeper into the mess of cloth to hide from his sister.
"Come out, Minato," Hamuko tore apart the blanket and the bedsheet and that left him with nowhere to hide. Instead, Minato ducked to the other side and refused to show his face to her, stubbornly shrugging off the hold on her shoulder.
"Hey, let me see if there a wound," Hamuko said, pulling out her evoker for a healing spell. "I can heal you."
"It's not that..." the boy murmured.
"What then?"
"I'm..." Minato swallowed the lump in his throat and spoke in a whisper. "Ashamed..."
"That makes the two of us, blueberry..."
Upon that, Minato finally faced her but after a quick glance, he hung his head and gave a slow sigh. He rubbed the back of his neck and Hamuko gave a sigh in response as well, cautiously taking a seat next to him.
"Why did you run towards the tower?" Hamuko finally asked after a few minutes of tense silence. "I know we had a fight but you know, you know what would happen to me if something were to happen to you."
"..."
"I know we fought but dammit blueberry, this isn't fair," Hamuo actually gave a small scowl. "If you wanted to hurt me you could have slapped me as many times as you wanted but this...?"
"I didn't," Minato responded, looking up at her. "All I remember was reaching for the first aid kid over there and something... just happened and I fell asleep."
Hamuko gritted her teeth. The method was not lost on her and now it made sense, Minato was drawn in by the voice of the shadows which led him to Tartarus, similar to Natsuki during the full moon.
"I just woke up in the tower and that's all I remember..."
"Those damn shadows," Hamuko hissed, balling up her fist.
"Nee-san," Minato poked her on the cheek and the redhead snapped back to attention. "I'm sorry for what I did. I'm just..."
"I'm sorry for slapping you too," Hamuko clutched his tiny hand in her grip, giving him a small squeeze. "But you said some real hurtful words back there..."
"I missed you..." Minato admitted. "I know you have friends and people who like you but... I don't..."
"..."
"Even today, I was just waiting for you to pick me up and some older students starting saying..." Minato paused and faced the other direction. Now that he thought about it, the spiral started from that moment and he almost thwacked himself on the head for listening to them and doubting his sister.
"What did they say?"
"Just forget it, nee-san..."
"No, tell me," Hamuko forced him to look at her, cursing whoever had started the whole mess when saw the glistering of tears in the corner of his eyes.
"They said I was dead weight..." Minato said with a broken sigh, hiding the front of his face by his fringe. "They said you wished that I would died along with our parents and I just... fell apart."
Hamuko clenched her fists again, swearing to pay a visit to whoever had tormented her brothers with words like that but another tug on her sleeve later, Minato rose up to her height.
"I just missed you very much," Minato said again. "I felt real lonely the past few weeks since you... hung around with your friends and... not me..."
"Minato," Hamuko gave another deep sigh. Now how could she explain this to her brother? She had hinted upon social links to Yukari and Junpei and the two laughed it off so how was her kid brother going to react? "Remember what I told you once, about whatever I do, I'll always keep your health and happiness at the front?"
"This power of persona... it's really awesome," Hamuko admitted, twirling the evoker around her finger but she then tossed the damn device halfway across the room. "But in order to build up my strength, I have to form bonds with other people, some of those I don't even like but if I don't get stronger then I..."
"You won't be able to protect me?" Minato interjected.
Hamuko had the feeling that he was mocking her but she attempted once. "I know it sounds strange and like a poor made excuse but, that's the reason I started hanging around with other people," she continued. "I honestly don't want any of this. I just want to earn enough money, grab you, buy an apartment at the edge of the world and stay there forever but if something is not done about these shadows, the apathy syndrome will rise and I'm... scared that you'll get afflicted with it too."
"So you're doing all of this just for my sake?" Minato blinked. "W-What about being the hero of justice like Featherman!?"
"Screw being a hero of justice," Hamuko scoffed. "My main objective was and always will be the same, give you the life that I lost and no amount of justice is going to change that."
Hamuko fell silent after admitting that, probably crushing the super hero image that her brother had but she heard some shuffling sounds next to her and gasped when a glass was shattered somewhere-
SMASH-
"I understand now," Minato's voice rang through her ears and Hamuko widened her eyes. The world had lost color and the flow of time stopped but her brother was alive and smiling at her. "I'm not strong like you but I'll do my part."
Thou art I... And I am thou...
Thou hast established a new bond...
"So, don't worry about me and keep building your bonds," he poked her on the cheek to snap her out of the stupor. "I'll be rooting for you and I promise I won't get mad again, hehe."
It brings thee closer to the truth...
"No," Hamuko shook her head and suddenly pulled her brother into an embrace. Minato was taken aback by the force of her grip but quickly returned the hug and squeezed her as tightly as he could. "I don't need to anymore."
Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Judgement Arcana.
"I have everything I need right here, little brother..."
"Okay, so subtract the two here and add the others up," Hamuko guided her brother in his homework, sitting on the first floor lounge while the rest of her dorm mates were out. "Good work, brother! Now, move onto the next one!"
"This is getting easy!" Minato exclaimed, flipping the page over to a set of new problems.
"Well, you have been putting in more effort than usual," Hamuko pointed out. He would usually bug her to complete his homework for him and she always would oblige but ever since that disastrous night, Minato was attempting to do basic stuff on his own. Hell, she even saw him attempting to cook... with Fuuka of all people!
"Ehe, I have to do my part too," Minato admitted with a shy smile. "And it's fun doing work by yourself!"
The door was slammed open by the grace of a rabid rhino and Hamuko sighed. There was only one person stupid and energetic enough to do that-
"Heya, Hamu-tan!" Junpei yelled from the doorway. "And Mina-chan!"
"Hey there, Junpei,"
"Hello, Iori-san,"
The two siblings greeted him and Junpei took his seat on the single couch. "So um, Hamu-tan, can we kick a few asses in Tartarus tonight?" he grinned. "I just saw a hot goth girl at Port Island and I am ready to take on the world!"
"Well-"
"Baby!"
Hamuko rolled her eyes. "While I am happy you found someone who tolerates you I'm sorry, I have to watch a show with Minato today so."
"It's fine," Minato interjected. "We can watch tomorrow when you're free, no problem."
Hamuko gave her capped friend a murderous look from the corner of her eye, making the once cheerful teen gulp and jump behind the sofa for safety.
"You ruined my brother's plans!" she yelled at the moron behind the sofa and would have jumped over if not for Minato.
"It's fine, nee-san," Minato chuckled. "I'll complete my homework and sleep early, you can go with the others."
Hamuko sighed but stood up. So did Junpei, cautiously from behind the sofa.
"Good luck with the hot goth girl, Iori-san!" Minato gave a bow of goodnight and went up the steps, carrying his backpack.
"Oh no..." Junpei gulped, sweating in the presence of his irate leader.
Safe to say, Junpei was not picked for Tartarus that night.
While he promised Hamuko that he would sleep through the Dark Hour, Minato was wide awake and by his estimation, half an hour had passed. Currently, he was looking out the window and could see the scary tower even from the dorm, the scary tower where he had almost life his life.
Mostly he was not able to sleep due to worrying about his sister. He knew she was more than strong enough, her strength having grown several times over in the past week, enough to even surprise Fuuka but there was always this nagging feeling in his heart.
The feeling of worry and uselessness...
Sometimes, he would wonder about using one of those gun devices to summon his persona in secret but not after Hamuko made him swore that he would never attempt such a stupid thing.
Minato moved out of the room and strolled around the hallway, just counting the seconds until he heard a few cackles coming from upstairs.
"Ikutsuki-san?"
The ditsy chairman often remained back in the dorm as he was not able to summon a person and Minato honestly never bothered with him as he was way up there in age but his laugh was somewhat startling and after brief contemplation, Minato quietly made his up the steps.
"Fools..."
Minato stood just outside the door to the command room, biting down on his thumb to not make any unnecessary noises.
"They're all playing into my game as expected..."
That was what he was saying? Minato could not really make out what he was mumbling to himself but he doubted it was anything good but after a while, Ikutsuki fell silent and Minato quickly ran his way down when he heard footsteps. He locked the door to his room shut and hid under the covers, praying that the chairman wouldn't show up in the doorway.
Meanwhile, Ikutsuki double checked the camera feed and Minato, the pesky little brat was indeed there, highly likely listening to his rambling. "Tch..." he scowled and switched the feed over to his room and while killing the brat in his sleep would be easy, the suspicion would be on him and given how attached the team was to the dead weight, he was not willing to take risks.
He had a more efficient way to deal with the issue at hand. Mitsuru had mentioned an encounter between other persona users and well, he had just the idea in mind to arrange a meeting between said persona user and his own 'team'.
Ikutsuki logged into a certain revenge website and after another quick look at Minato sitting up on his bed, cowering all alone, he punched a few buttons and whispered the name he wrote.
"Minato Arisato,"
I don't know how this got so long but this should be enough proof that yours truly is back!
For all the ten chapters. ._.
Feels a little different writing a Hamuko heavy fiction but it's nice, cause again, Minato is the main sibling in way too many fics. At least I think the story works better with Hamuko as the older sibling and lead character.
Due to how this chapter got, the rest of the story will be done in 2 more, a nice even number.
Also, to the guy who asked about sex in the story. Get help. I know this was a pathetic attempt at trolling but seriously, seek out the nearest insitution and bang your bone head on the walls until they're painted stupid. Trolls don't even try these days.
Anyway, that's that. Hope you enjoyed that and I'll see you soon on... either that dancing fic or pimpsona 5.
Cheers!
Bdw, fuck 2020. ._.