Story Title: The Arcana in Mourning
Chapter Title: III: Empress
Author: Mathais
Rating: T
Fandom: Persona 3
Warnings: Persona 3 Spoilers, based on FES.
Pairings: Social Links/Minato
Summary: After the Journey but before the Answer is the mourning. Shorts on the Social Links.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Persona 3; I'm just here to play.
OoOoO
III: Empress
As soon as Yamagishi was out of sight, Mitsuru turned back to her phone. Pacing, pacing, ever-pacing, she quickly patched through to some of the Kirijo doctors she retained. Their purpose had evaded her during the intervening month, but with her memories, she now realized their purpose.
She would wring every bit of use of them.
Mitsuru tried her best to ignore Akihiko's and Aigis's desperate resuscitation attempts. She tried to ignore the fact that Amada and Yukari gravitated toward each other in their shared grief. She even tried to ignore the fact that one of her closest friends, Akihiko, was holding back tears in a way that reminded her of the death of one of her other closest friends.
"Ice," she told herself. "Ice."
For years, that had been her motto. She was a woman who was to enter the business world, daughter of the Kirijo Group's head. She was a frontline warrior on the battle against the Shadows, a weapon to be wielded for her father's sake. In the end, ice had been easier to summon than steel, and though she eventually tempered herself into the blade she was now, ice remained her companion.
The warmth she only allowed herself to feel was with her father, when the two of them softened just for each other.
Until she'd lost that warmth and then discovered it anew for Minato, who had been her rock in her father's death.
Minato had been a counterpoint to herself. She ruled with an icy sword, only ever budging when it was with Akihiko and Shinjiro, and even then only to a point. On the other hand, he'd been SEES's leader with a markedly different style than her own. He'd been quiet but attentive, and he'd had a subtle warmth that comforted all who talked to him, even without losing that razor-sharp edge which had been why she'd trusted him first in her stead and then as her leader.
Mitsuru had learned a lot from him. From observing and from talking, she'd learned to be something more than ice and steel.
She learned warmth.
Mitsuru knew she would never have the same kind of leadership he did. It just wasn't part of her personality, in which silence and quiet openness drew out secrets.
But she learned to lead with compassion in the times where she could afford it. No longer was she the Ice Queen of Gekkoukan High; some of that same compassion had influenced her everyday actions and made those who worked with and under her all the more loyal.
And she owed her blossoming as a leader to Minato. To the kindnesses he instilled, to the examples he left.
When she finally let him in, Mitsuru found someone so fascinating. He was quiet, yes, but he had a charm which drew in so many people. Simply being around him gave her new views, new experiences, until she found her horizons and her thoughts maturing even more.
She even found a new love.
She found some things that she would not sacrifice. She swore to forge her own path in the world.
Even if Minato wouldn't be by her side for it, even if his path differed from hers, all of the things he'd taught her, over the food at all those different restaurants and in the various places she had never truly explored before-they were the things she would take with her into the future.
Yukari had turned Penthesilea into Artemisia. Mitsuru would never forget the strength Yukari had given her, the ability to walk into the future despite her fears, and she would always owe Yukari an unspoken debt for it.
Minato had let her soar.
The freedom she sought on her motorcycle now sat nestled in her heart, enabling her to run into the future. If she closed her eyes, she could feel the wind in her hair and the endless road in front of her. The future was open if she willed it. All she needed to do was reach out and grab it with her own two hands.
Ice and warmth and steel could all coexist in the same person, as long as that person could handle it.
Mitsuru could handle it.
All of it.
But it all paled at the possible loss of Minato.
Seeing Minato slowly go pale. Seeing Akihiko and Aigis fail at their trials.
It made those lessons harder to grasp. Her warmth became buried in the blizzard.
It was easier to fall into old habits.
It was far easier to summon ice to her veins than to remember the warmth that Minato had taught her. It was the frost in her that lashed out at whoever came near, the steel which girded her as she fought to make her will be known.
Everything would be taken care of.
Minato would only have the best. The best of anything, everything.
He deserved it after all he had given.
So Mitsuru watched with icy eyes as the paramedics burst onto the roof, as they took over Akihiko's and Aigis's attempts at reviving Minato with simple efficiency. She directed Amada and Yukari to head off to the side, and then she told Akihiko to aid Iori in making sure that the paramedics weren't disturbed.
As Minato was lifted onto a stretcher and rushed down the stairs to the ambulance, Mitsuru thought she heard something fall to the ground.
She looked down and noticed that his keys had slipped out of his pocket. As she bent to pick it up, she froze.
Mitsuru zeroed in on the key on its chain.
She remembered the promise she'd made him.
But she locked it inside of her as she picked it up, her precious motorcycle key (but not as precious as the boy she'd given it to) clenched between her fingers.
All of the ice in her, however, couldn't stop the tears which welled in her eyes as she started speaking again into her phone.