Author's Note: Hey guys! So welcome to the party dealing with some real world problems. One of my favorite aspects of Persona is the balance of real life and the supernatural. It may slow down a little in pace for the story, but there is going to be some good stuff building up. However, the group is going to have to come to some social problems since they have members who are troublemakers (Shima), social outcasts (Shiho, Yo), and the bullied (Takeyoshi, Yuuta). They will have to learn to rely on each other in this world as well as the other.
However, do not worry. Trouble from the Mirror World is not far on the horizon. Thank you for coming around.
Yo's recovery seemed to be the slowest of all of them. She was long term bedridden and seemed to be prone to various forms of emotional imbalance. Much like Shiho, the members of the team took turns in visiting her to keep an eye out for her over the following two weeks. They had yet to hear of another incident since. The three most common visitors she had were Nanako, Miwa, and Shima. Nanako and Miwa felt like it was good for them to visit to start rekindling a broken friendship. Shima seemed to get the most reaction out of her over their time together.
Today was Shima's turn and, with hair tied back with the hair tie that she had bought him, he sat down on a couch in her room as he waited for her to need anything. He looked around her room at the various posters, CDs, and a couple of musical instruments. She seemed to be really into music, which was not too surprising for him considering her club life. What did surprise him though was the sheer amount of American Rock and Metal she had represented in her room. Tons of different sub-genres found representation in her sizeable music collection. Shima heard her stir from her rest and when he looked over at her she was watching him.
"So, you like music?" Yo asked him weakly.
Shima nodded. "Over longer holidays, I work for a music shop in the shopping district," Shima told her. "The owner there is a bit of an audiophile both in the technical sense and musical taste sense. He made it his mission to get me into decent music if I was going to work there with him."
"Ah, that's the place with the guy that missing two of his fingers, right?" Yo said, making sure they were talking about the same place.
Shima replied, "Yup that is the place. Dead Beats. He liked the name because it was the name of the band he had tried to start back in his youth before his accident. Had to re-learn the guitar, but apparently it never was the same for him. But he had acquired so much music over the years it just made sense to instead open a store dedicated to selling new and used music. CDs, Vinyls, and even some old tapes find their way into and back out of that place."
"Huh, sounds like you have gotten to know him well," Yo said stifling a yawn. "What's your favorite band?"
"Well for a while I was really into this group called Versailles*. Not too into the whole visual kei subculture but the music was awesome. After my taste shifted more towards the west, I really got into the punk rock scene. So now, I would probably say the group I listen to the most right now is a band called The Offspring," Shima explained.
Yo found his general proficiency on the topic interesting to say the least. "Y'know I think I may have missed them. Could you show me some of their work?" she asked him. Her tone sounded like she was trying to be just a little cute to make him more likely to actually go into it more.
Shima scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I mean I could show you some of their stuff," he told her. He was not use to talking about his interests like this. The only other person he actually spoke to at all about music, besides his boss, was Shiho. Shima decided to show her a couple of songs using his phone and a pair of her headphones. Hopping over to her side as he was still short one prosthetic leg. After a couple of songs, Yo seemed to begin drifting off again.
"So, It is pretty good," she said sleepily.
Shima just looked at her as she started to fall asleep. "You get some rest, Yo," he told her quietly as she dozed off again. He hopped back to his place on the couch as quietly as he could. About an hour later, Nanako showed up to take over for him.
"She still sleeping?" Nanako asked as she came in.
Shima nodded. "She did wake up for a bit, we talked about music then she dozed off again," Shima reported.
"And how's your leg, Shima-senpai?" Nanako asked.
Shima shrugged and responded, "On the mend to say the least."
"Any updates on when you were will be better again?" she continued hopefully.
"If I keep being a good boy, it will be faster than my doctor was expecting. Shiho being so on the ball with me has kept me from irritating it during this treatment period so it is clearing up," Shima answered honestly.
"You kiss her again, yet?" Nanako teased.
Shima gave her a look and simply replied, "Have fun." He proceeded to hop past her.
"That's my line Senpai," Nanako teased further. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Shima proceeded to not justify that with an actual answer at that point as Nanako giggled at her own antics. All he did was half-heartedly wave. Nanako took her place on the couch. After a couple hours, Nanako found Yo stirring in her sleep. "Hey, Yo-chan? Are you ok?"
Yo finally seemed to wake up from whatever had been disrupting her peaceful sleep and her eyes focused on Nanako. "Nanako-chan," she said finally. She propped herself up into a sitting position to help maintain her focus. "Nanako-chan, I need to get something off my chest," Yo said sincerely to her friend.
"Please tell me it isn't your shirt," Nanako said awkwardly.
"What?" Yo asked confused.
Nanako shook her head and said, "Sorry. I've been developing a bad habit of making jokes to deal with awkwardly tense situations. What is it?"
"So, I need to just talk about my life recently. I don't know if I can keep shouldering it on my own," Yo said awkwardly. Nanako sat down and leaned over onto Yo's futon then when she was comfortable, signaled for Yo to talk when she was ready.
Yo was hesitant to get started. Like she was trying to organize her thoughts and had no idea where to start. Nanako decided to offer, "Why don't you start at the first thing you can remember changing after the uh, schism of our friend group?"
Yo nodded and seemed to relax a bit. "So, I began drinking whenever I could get my hands on the stuff about three months after the group split up. Official places would never sell to me of course. But I am resourceful. This was actually how I first got into contact with a particular scumbag in third year. He was a second year at that time, but for whatever reason he found a means to provide and so I became rather dependent on him to supply me with alcohol," Yo began. "It was shortly after that that I began to go clubbing. I found it was pretty easy to get at alcohol in clubs as long as you knew how to get in and find a way to get to tables before the staff did. So I ended up finishing a lot of people's drinks. I was rarely drunk though. Y'know, I figured out after the first time that I got drunk that hated the feeling, Well, I did like the buzz, so I got addicted to that feeling. Then the end of school break in the spring occured. That guy who had been supplying me started getting real friendly beyond just helping me get drinks. So, I decided to be friendly back. This continued for a solid week until we met up at that club. We uh, snuck off to that closet and I realized that something was wrong the second we did not fully undressed. The bond I thought I had with him was not the deep thing I had been hoping for. I realized that to him this was just going to be a transaction. I did not mind that so much. It was not until I realized that he shared that experience with others and that was when I realized the damage had been done. But, it isn't like I didn't want it, I just would have preferred that the aftermath didn't occur." Yo could felt the tears start and desperately did not want to cry in front of Nanako. But harder she fought it, the worse it seemed to get until she was just crying.
"Oh Yo-chan," Nanako said as she leaned forward and hugged her friend. "I am so sorry you went through all of that. I had no idea that our absence in your life had such an effect. If I thought it was going to hurt you that bad I would have never have let it happen."
"I resented you all for that, for the longest time. Maybe I still do a little deep down," Yo said to Nanako between sobs. "Y'know it wasn't fair to any of us. But I took it the hardest and I didn't ask you guys for help. I just wish my pride did not get in the way of asking for it."
Nanako fell silent as she listened to her friend's plight. "Who was it? Who was the guy?" Nanako asked.
Yo fell really quiet. Finally she answered, "His name is Kyoshi Yokono."
Nanako thought for a moment and realized why she recognized the name. "You mean the captain of the Soccer Team, Kyoshi Yokono?" Nanako clarified. Yo nodded. "Maybe we don't tell Shima. I know that he would immediately want to do some… damage."
"Why would he do that?" Yo asked still trying to finish composing herself.
Nanako it seemed did not learn her lesson the last time she spoke about Shima's past without his approval. "Shima used to be a soccer player. The players at the High School he went to, knew about him being some kind of rising star in the sport, so when he shows up missing a leg, he was ridiculed by them. He acted out so much that his parents had to transfer him to Inaba to get him out of the environment. I heard that it followed him a little bit but not nearly to the degree that is had been. Let's just say that he doesn't get along with that crowd anymore. Any given reason would be enough for him, I think," Nanako explained, based on what she knew about him and his personality.
"I keep forgetting," Yo said out loud. "I keep forgetting that all of this means that you all struggled with this type of stuff too."
"We all have our demons, you know?" Nanako told her. "I may not have had to deal with Shadow, it did not change the fact that all of this has come with a lot of baggage."
"That somehow doesn't surprise me," Yo commented. "You have always worn your heart on your sleeve. You never seem like the type of person who would deny that a part of yourself exists. Even if you have your secrets, you never let them interfere with you being who you are."
"Hey, thanks," Nanako said to Yo. "Yo-chan, can I ask you about something your Shadow said?"
"Umm, sure," Yo replied, pretty sure she knew where this question was going.
Nanako hesitated a moment at her tone. Finally she just mustered up the willingness to ask, "When your Shadow said that it would swing either way, would you say you're bi-sexual?"
"Umm," Yo started, "That is right. I kinda found out during our separation. Some of my nights of club debauchery were partnered up with men or women. When I realized that it did not matter to me was when it occurred to me why I found people like you just as attractive as I do people like Shima." Yo explained carefully and then covered her mouth. "I-I-I-I mean, not specifically you but y'know… also you, I guess."
Nanako blushed a little. "Well that is nice of you to say," she said awkwardly. "Anyway, how are you feeling? Shima mentioned that you woke up a little earlier and then fell back asleep pretty quickly."
"I am just a little overwhelmed with everything that happened. Also," she paused. "I may be going through some withdrawals from my short stint with alcoholism. It has been four days since my last drink. See?" She showed Nanako her hands were shaking pretty heavily. "I didn't drink much but symptoms of withdrawal have been kinda kicking my ass. Luckily, I haven't progressed to the second wave of symptoms after the first 24 hours so I should be fine once I get it all out of my system. Y'know, just ride the symptoms out."
"Oh," Nanako grabbed her hands and helped her steady them a little. "Well I do hope you start feeling better soon," Nanako told her. "I'll be here for a little longer but then I'll need to go home."
"Oh," Yo said quietly. "Nanako… would you maybe be willing to stay the n-n-night? I am just nervous to be alone again. Since I am awake now, I just wanted to know if you would be willing to stay near. Since I got taken by my reflection, I have just been a little paranoid." She mentally reprimanded herself for getting so flustered as to be so redundant.
"I'll call my dad and let him know. I may need to leave early though so I can go home and get ready for school in the morning," Nanako warned her. She stepped out of the room to call her father. But when she came back in she sat down next to Yo again so the two of them chatted for a while longer.
As Yo finally started to get drowsy again, Nanako realized that she managed to grab Yo's hands again at some point. She was just keeping her hands from shaking so she could sleep. At least that was the only reason Nanako could come up with that made sense. Nanako realized that at this point there was no way for her to leave without disturbing Yo, so she was stuck holding her hands and just tried to get comfortable next to the futon.
When Yo woke up she was a little disappointed to see that Nanako had already left. However, Yo looked at her hands as she remembered Nanako's hands there helping with the shakes. The shakes were really minor at this point. She looked at the clock and realized that it was almost 12:00 Noon. How was she sleeping so heavily? Was the withdrawals to blame? Her Shadow experience?
Yo sat alone on her futon as she thought about the events that led up to this moment. She started to try to organize her thoughts. Thinking about that night she was saved. Shiho had to be left behind for some reason. Something shook her, because Miwa mentioned needing to leave her back with Shima. Nanako was also really protective of her when they found her sitting inside the Mirror World. Which implied that she was supposed to come help save her originally. Why did she need to be left behind?
Moving along her memories she thought about her visit with Shima the previous day. He was into music. Maybe more than she was based on the way he spoke about it. He was a pretty cool dude. Really laid back with people when they are not on his bad side. Maybe Nanako had a point about not telling him about her times with the Soccer Team Captain. Between his past and his protectiveness, that could result in a bloodbath. Something just gave her the feeling that missing his leg was just the handicap other people needed. He never talked about how he lost it, now that she thought about it a bit more.
Her thoughts then went to Yuuta who showed up at the end of the fight. When did he get so cool? He has always just been just that weird nerdy kid that tagged along with their group. Mostly following Nanako around since she lived with that guy Yu, and he had been real fond of that guy. From what she pieced together over the conversations she has heard since she was saved, he was still into Featherman stuff, but he had been focused on working to support his step-mom while she was sick. That was pretty cool all on its own.
Takeyoshi apparently leaves his house now, though she had yet to see it outside of the rescue attempt. To think that a guy who became paralyzed by the idea of taking risks would go out and put himself in danger to save someone was interesting. Maybe that was the demon he was facing up to thanks to getting this power? Yo simply shook her head as she could never know until she got the chance to talk to him about it directly. He was apparently under the impression that she might has some kind of virus and was therefore not healthy enough to visit yet. Nanako had tried to convince him otherwise but apparently he has elected to wait until she went back to school.
Miwa was a bit of mystery to Yo, though. She was over often but it felt like she never really knew what to talk about when she was over. However, Miwa seemed to still be as easy going as she used to be. However, she seemed to be stuck somewhere in her head while she was thinking. Yo could remember that Miwa had problems with her parents' expectations. Even back then, she spent a lot of nights at the Dojima Residence. Yo remembered staying the night a few times, but Miwa was there a few time a week. It was impressive. Yo could fully admit to feeling a little left out back then.
Yo forced herself to get up off her futon, then made her way over to her window and looked outside. Placing her hand on the window she felt her hands shaking still and tried desperately to make them stop. Her mind went back to Nanako holding them still. "She was just trying to make me feel better. Keep your mind straight, Yo. Figuratively and metaphorically," she told herself. Looking back at her clock she found that it was already 2PM. She was losing time still which was something she was hoping would stop soon. But with it being so late, school would be letting out soon.
Finally, Yo got her head in order and decided that she needed to get some air. She put on a pair of loose fitting trousers and a t-shirt. Nothing showy or flashy today though when she looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, she noticed that her hair was still two-toned like it was during her trip to the Mirror World. Duality was the only word she could think of to describe what her life had been like. A double life where in one she pretended to be happy and well adjusted. In the other, she continued to dig a hole that she was not sure she could ever climb out of, not on her own at least. Where in one she had to pretend that nothing was wrong and the other where she forced herself into practices that would let her temporarily forget the things that were wrong. She decided to put a beanie on to cover most of it, help put the topic out of her head. Taking her first tentative step out of the house she immediately felt like she was breathing normally again after a long time underwater. Was this really what the world looked like when you stayed sober? She stepped away from her door and decided to take a walk around the sleepy little town.
As she walked, she began noticing things that had just not been really catching her sight before. The new shops seemed to have inspired improvements from the older ones in the Shopping District as places like the bookstore and the liquor store looked like they got new paint jobs and updated signs. It looked like the Tofu shop was getting ready to close as its owner was readying for retirement. Leaving the shopping district behind she found herself up on a hill looking over the town.
"This place," she commented to herself. "It isn't so bad, is it?"
Looking down at her phone she realized that she had somehow been walking around for over an hour and it was 3:30 PM. The school would have been let out for nearly 15 minutes by now. Leaning against the fence she heard voices that sounded like they belonged to teenagers but she ignored them for the most part. At least she tried to until one of them said her name,
"Well would you look at that," she heard a familiar voice say. "The little alcohol pixie has made an appearance again. You are still looking good, Yo-chan."
Yo turned her attention to the owner of that voice. There he was in all of his arrogant and disgusting glory, Kyoshi Yokono. "Kyoshi-senpai, still preying on first years or have you grown a pair since then?" she asked harshly.
"I am still trying to remember the last time I saw you," he commented ignoring her biting commentary about his practices.
"Oh, now let me think. I think the last time we met was when I did your desperate ass a favor at the club. And I didn't even tell people that you cried when we were done, though it surprised me when that part of the story didn't end up being circulated around the school," Yo replied venomously. This even got a snicker out of some of the other soccer guys who followed their captain around.
Kyoshi seemed to actually get a little steamed about this and answered, "Means a lot coming from a drunken whore."
"Oh nice," Yo said as she began to walk away.
"Where you going? Sounds to me like this party is just getting started. Need me to get you drinks again?" Kyoshi asked snidely as he followed her down the hill.
Yo shook her head. "I already got addicted once because of you. I make a point to not repeat the same mistake twice. Especially when it comes to my disappointing dating history, which accounts for you and… no, just you. Only mistake I made," she replied.
"Alright, where is all this anger coming from? You came to me for drinks before and I was your life's hero," he said. "If anything you should be on your knees thanking me, if you get what I mean."
Yo did not like the direction that this conversation was taking. Looking forward she realized that she was close to the neighborhood. She need to get people nearby until she could get home. Putting a little bit of speed in her step she replied, "Yeah, I was also hurting and a real man would have recognized that. So there really isn't anything to thank you for in that case."
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Shima and Yuuta. If she could just get to them, then she should be fine. However when she was spun around to face Kyoshi, she realized she was not going to be able to get over to them.
"Now listen here, you bitch. You owe me, so if this is how you are going to act then I am just gonna have to punish you. You belong to me until that debt is paid," Kyoshi said angrily pinning her arms to her side. If it were not for the subtle squeak of a wheeled vehicle approaching at a fast rate, Yo would have felt completely alone and helpless. But when a Shima ridden, Yuuta pushed wheelchair slammed into Kyoshi and knocked him on his ass, Yo felt so much relief.
"Oops, sorry about that," Yuuta said apologetically to the person in the wheelchair. "Shima-senpai, I didn't mean to lose control like that. It was so good of Kyoshi-senpai to lend us use of his legs so we could stop."
Shima was trying his best to hide a smirk which was rightfully earned when Yuuta tried to make it look like he could not control the speed of a wheelchair on an almost flat road. He replied, "It is perfectly alright Yuuta. I would have done the same thing if it were me. You ok, Yo?"
"Um, I-I-I'm fine," she said. "Let's get you guys out of here so we can make sure this doesn't happen again, yeah?"
"Practice will make perfect," Yuuta said. "Thanks again for the assist there Kyoshi-senpai." The three of them began to leave when Kyoshi finally go back onto his feet.
"Oh, hell no!" Kyoshi yelled after them. "You are not just gonna walk away from the conversation, Yo-chan."
Shima stopped himself and turned about to face the angry third year. "Really, Kyoshi? Because I am pretty sure that is what she is doing. But look, if you want to make this a problem, I can always call someone about your aggressive approach to underage women in this prefecture. So, if you don't mind we have some walking away, or in my case rolling away, to do." This did stop Kyoshi in his tracks. But the look on his face as they went pretty much confirmed to all of them, that they were all going to have to face a real world problem. Soon they were going to have to be as much a complete person out here as they were in the Mirror World.
As the three finally got away from the guy Shima looked up at Yo and asked, "So you want to explain what that was about?"
"That's," Yo started remembering was Nanako said about Shima. "A really long story that I am in the process of fixing. Sorry it got that heated though." She hoped that would be enough to shut down any further questions from her upperclassman. While she got a strange look from Shima, he did seem to drop the subject for her.
"Oh, Shima-senpai you were saying you got some good news from your doctor, right?" Yuuta asked suddenly.
Shima remembered, "Oh right. Doctor called me today and said that my infection is clearing up. I should be back in my prosthetic and kicking ass in a few days. However, it does come with a bit of a condition. I am being given a second prosthetic. It a running leg. I have been ordered to participate in regular running exercises."
"Not a bad exchange for getting to walk around again," Yuuta commented.
Shima nodded. "Neither of you can tell Shiho, alright? I am going to surprise her with it," Shima said aggressively to both of his traveling companions.
"Sheesh, alright," Yuuta replied putting his hands up in surrender.
Yo just laughed and replied, "Whatever you say, senpai." After a moment she asked, "What about your cane? How are you going to run with that?"
Shima's face took on a slightly less happy tone as he replied, "The doctor believes that my infection may have been caused by an over reliance on the cane. My weight being focused on my prosthetic from leaning over on my case caused an excessive amount of irritation. Certainly didn't help that we then started all this Persona shiiii-tuff. So in the next month, I'm supposed to avoid using the cane for 8 hours a day. The the following month that is to increase to 12 hours. Eventually all waking hours will be done without my cane."
"Well we got your back," Yuuta said happily. "And we are sure that Shiho will keep you honest."
"Don't remind me," Shima said with a sarcastic tone. "You would think she was my wife with how steadfast she has been on these issues." While his tone was sarcastic, the smile on his face was genuine. The three continued to walk until they got to Yo's house.
"Thanks again guys," Yo said as she head to her door. "Tomorrow, I am going to try to go to school. Would you guys would be willing to walk with me there?"
"Of course," Yuuta said with a goofy grin.
Shima scoffed and said, "Well if you are done mocking my condition then sure, I could make the effort. Not like Shiho's gonna let me not go anymore."
Yo looked at the two of them and simply smiled. Finally she said, "Good."