~~A/N~~ The Walkthrough I use to write this (My Life is a Goddamn Mess) seems to skip the nineteenth. Like *Poof* it doesn't exist. I mean, I don't hesitate to use time skips, but it's still weird… I hope I didn't miss anything important…
Disclaimer: I don't, and never will, own Persona. Unless I inherit a small fortune, and can purchase it.
Chapter 15
July 19th
"Hack into the Police's database? That doesn't sound highly illegal at all."
Naoto's voice crackled over the speakerphone in an annoyed response. "I'm afraid my curiosity has gotten the better of me."
I sighed, propping my bare feet on the Command Room consoles. "Yeah, yeah. I know how you are. I can do it, but honestly. I'm a day away from a beach vacation! And I have to work!" As I listened to my sister's reply, I turned to the keyboard, beginning to type furiously.
"A beach vacation?"
My words were automatic, my mouth moving without getting permission from my preoccupied brain. "Yep~ Ikutsuki – who lives to scare the hell out of me – thought we were overworked from the whole 'Shadow' busine- Uh…"
"'Shadow Business?'"
"Um, no… I said…" 'Crap, what rhymes with Shadow? Damn! This is why I don't write poetry!' "I said studying!" 'That doesn't rhyme! Agh!' "Hehe… Studying… of course! Ya know, because of Finals!"
"…I see." Naoto's voice clearly said 'The only thing I see is that you're a horrible liar.'
"Ah… Okay, you wanted to know about this suspect the police have, right?"
"That's correct, but-"
"His name is Mitsuo Kubo, if my sources are reliable. And they should be, seeing as I'm looking at the Police Force of Inaba's database." I said quickly, ignoring whatever Naoto was about to say.
"All I can really say is what you already know. I could look into the kid personally, but…"
"That won't be necessary…" My younger sibling sighed. "I don't imagine that would tell us much. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens."
"Yeah… Suppose so."
"Hm…" A soft noise issuing from the doorway put me in a ridged state of shock. Slowly, I twisted my body around to meet impassive gray eyes. Minato Arisato leaned against the doorframe, hands in his pockets as usual, and gray eyes hiding any emotion behind an apathetic mask.
"H-Hi, Minato… Wh- What're you doin' up here?" I squeaked out.
"Could ask you that."
My mind went blank for a brief second. "Ahh, um… I could explain, but that would take forever, and I have to go pack! So, talk to ya later, Naoto!" I hung up the phone, shutting down the computer I stood up. "See ya, Arisato!" As I went to flee the room, I found my path blocked by a certain blue haired boy.
"You know, I'm not going to explain myself to you."
"…" He still didn't move. The second year was at least a head taller than me, peering down with a gaze that was emotionless, yet still intimidating.
"Look, this is really a long story, and honestly, who wants to listen to me prattle for who knows how long? Can I just talk to you about this later? And, ya know, if you wanna not mention this to anyone? That would be fantastic!"
"…" As Minato contemplated – well, who knows what goes on in that guy's head? – I held my breath. "Later." He finally said, and I sighed.
"Great, awesome, amazing, fantastic, and any other adjective I can't think of~! Bye, Minato~!"
'Great. Now I have to discuss the Port Island problems with Naoto, and the Inaba Case with Minato. ... Eventually. Maybe they'll forget if I don't bring it up.
Oh, who am I kidding? Good job, Kasumi.
Gooood job.'
"Wow…" I couldn't help but marvel at the tropical island we were approaching. Beside me, Junpei let out an excited cheer. He turned around to gauge the reactions of the others on the boat, which hadn't changed from what they were when we left. That is to say, everyone was sullen. Well, in all technicalities, Minato looked perfectly content to stand in the shade and listen to his music, but everyone else looked tense. An awkward silence hung over the boat like a fog. I sighed. 'Is this really going to be any fun at all?'
When the seven of us arrived at the Kirijo's beach house, it was again all I could do to gape, opened-mouthed, at the lavish palace. I swear, it was like I had stepped into the castle of a princess.
"It's like we're in an episode of 'Lifestyles of the Rich and fabulous…'" Junpei gasped as two women clad in your typical maid uniforms approached us. They bowed respectfully to Mitsuru.
"Welcome back, Milady."
"Milady?" I muttered to myself, incredulous.
"And you must be her schoolmates, correct? Welcome to the Kirijo vacation home." The maid on the right greeted us. My friends' reactions ranged from;
"Um, is this the right place?" to, "Dude, real-life maids!" But of course, I hang out with weird people.
Anyway, as we continued to be lead down the long staircase by the maids, another figure approached. This one was entirely different from the others we'd seen – I.E. the maids. The gentleman was quite the opposite. He wore a well-tailored suit, and had an expression on his face that clearly said not to mess with him. He also had an eye-patch. Now, how intimidating is that?
He didn't say a word, stopping for only a brief second near Mitsuru, brown eyes boring into the redhead's own orbs.
"It's good to see you." Ignoring Mitsuru's stiff greeting, the mysterious man kept walking down the hall, disappearing without a word into another room.
"Was that…?" Fuuka started.
"…Her father?" Yukari finished the sentence with a look of shock on her face.
I was tempted to say, 'like father like daughter,' but I figured that wouldn't go over well, so for once, I managed to hold my tongue. However, Junpei wasn't as wise.
"Dude, talk about scary! He's not gonna make us walk the plank, is he?"
I proceeded to giggle into my palm as Akihiko just rolled his eyes with a mutter of, 'don't be stupid.'
Mitsuru chuckled, obviously amused by our antics. "We won't be here long, but make yourselves at home."
"Sweet! This is gonna rock!" The hat-wearing boy exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. "Hey, wanna go to the beach? It's right there! Dude, this place rules! Come on, let's go!" This brought on another bout of giggles from me.
"What, already? I mean, sure, but let us get changed first!" The girls and I, lead by Mitsuru, retired to the rooms the four of us would share, while Junpei rushed off to the beach without delay.
Yep.
This was definitely going to be interesting.
"I have a bad feeling Junpei's going to be even worse than he usually is." Yukari's voice sounded from the bathroom. Only half-listening, I mumbled an agreement, too preoccupied with the reflection in front of me. "I mean, he usually acts like a perv, but now…"
"Yeah, I guess." I prodded the small part of my midsection that was visible with my index finger.
"You guess? Hey, is everything okay?" A brunette head poked out from behind the bathroom door, brown eyes worried.
"Mmhmm… I just never liked swimsuits. It… runs in the family." My mood brightened slightly at the thought of dragging Naoto out here with me, but then Yukari stepped into the room, and of course she had to look amazing.
"Wha? But that barely qualifies as a swimsuit!" Again, I turned to the mirror. Staring back at me was a girl wearing purple, plaid Bermuda shorts, and a black tank top that stopped just above her belly button.
"I feel naked…" I muttered.
"You look fine."
"I don't care how I look!" Slightly untrue, "But I feel like I'm dressed like a prostitute!"
"…Exactly what qualifies as slutty to you?"
"…" I glanced down at my bare feet.
"Oh no, her knees are showing! What a scandal!" With that, the brunette dragged me from the room.
"Geez, what's with Akihiko-senpai's swimsuit?" Yukari asked while we were still out of earshot. The boys were standing on the beach, obviously waiting for us. Admittedly, I hadn't been paying close mind to the senior, but when I did, I groaned.
"Well… He is Akihiko. It's probably for… Ya know, training…? And yeah… I'm not going to try and justify it."
"…What?" I followed my friend's line of sight, to find it fixed on a certain smirking boy.
"Say hello to Contestant Number One, Yukari Takeba!" 'Oh, dear lord.' "As you can see, she's chosen a bold design – quite unexpected! It takes a lot of confidence to pull off a swimsuit like that! And Contestant Number Two, Kasumi Shirogane! I gotta admit, I'm kinda disappointed at her choice of swimwear, but it suits her just fine."
"I'll kill him. I'll kill him." A hand grasping the end of my ponytail stopped my murder plan in its tracks, Yukari exclaiming 'Stop it, Kasumi, he's just an idiot!' Of course, that didn't stop me from flailing wildly, all the while attempting to maim a laughing Junpei. "Don't just stand there, Arisato! Help me!"
"…Why?"
"AGH!"
Before I could continue my crazed gesticulation, a shy voice approached from behind. "Um, is that umbrella taken?"
Completely forgetting about me, Junpei continued with his idiocy. "Next up is Contestant Number Three, Fuuka Yamagishi. ...Wow, Fuuka, I had no idea you were so...I mean, you should wear a swimsuit more often!"
A blush spread over the innocent girl's cheeks as she gasped, crossing her arms over her chest in obvious embarrassment.
"Oh, come on! There's nothing to be embarrassed about!"
"You… you… I WILL MURDER YOU AND LAUGH OVER YOUR CORPSE!" Again, I tried to attack the idiot, and again I was restrained by an exasperated Yukari. Junpei laughed a very… disturbing laugh that only angered me further.
"THERE IS NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT THE PAIN I WILL INFLICT UPON YOU!"
Speaking loudly over my cries of rage, Junpei addressed the approaching Mitsuru. "And here's our final contestant!"
"Oh, I give up!" With a sigh, I collapsed onto the sand, to find myself staring up at amused gray eyes. "Not a word, Arisato."
"…Hm? Is something wrong?" The redhead asked, questioning the strange behavior everyone seemed to be displaying.
"Wow, Mitsuru-senpai… You're beautiful…" Fuuka, seeming to forget about Junpei, turned to swoon over Mitsuru.
"Yeah, your skin is flawless! Did you already put on sunscreen? …Up you go, Kasumi." I felt a pressure on my wrist that was accompanied by the brunette pulling me to my feet, dragging me over to fawn some more over the Kirijo. I suppose this would be qualified as 'female bonding?' I cast a glance to our male companions, finding 'female bonding' dull. Junpei and Minato had formed their own little huddle, while Akihiko looked on.
"So, which one's your type?" Junpei asked the other.
"…" The reply he gave was so muffled, that I couldn't quite make it out. 'Wait, no! I don't care! Why should I care about that?'
"Oh reeeeally? Wait- really?" 'What did he say? No! Stop caring, Shirogane!'
"Man, this is great! I'm in heaven! How 'bout a swim?" With a ridiculous sounding battle cry, Junpei ran into the waves. "Whoa, it's cold! Ahahaha!"
"Oh, looks like the guys are already swimming." Turning my head slightly, I saw my female companions breaking up, their bonding time spent. "Are ya going to join them?"
"Hmm… Nah… If I did, I'd probably end up murdering Junpei…" I let out a small chuckle, before heading off to a reasonably quiet part of the beach, as far away from whatever antics the previously mentioned Junpei was cooking up. I sat on the dry sand, still close enough to the waves for them to wash over my feet, but far enough from them to do what I had in mind.
With a childish grin, I smoothed the sand next to me, and reached forward, scooping up a pile of the wet variety. I allowed it to slip from my fingers, and then proceeded to mold it into the desired shape. I formed one tower of sand, about a foot or so tall, before beginning work on two other, shorter towers. As I reached for another handful of sand, a shadow fell across the under-construction castle.
"Wha?" Standing above me, head tilted curiously, was none other than Minato Arisato. His hands were shoved in his pockets – leave it to the guy to have swim trunks with pockets. "Whaddya want?"
The boy shrugged, his gaze trained on the pile of sand next to me. "May I?"
"May you…? Uh… Sure?"
Without another word, the blue haired boy plopped down onto the beach on the other side of my castle. I could only stare at him as he started to scrape together his own pile of damp sand, about half a foot away from mine. It was a few more moments before I realized that he was building his own sand castle, and when I reached this conclusion, I couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Hm?"
"Oh, it's nothing… I just would never have pictured you doing something like this."
Minato just smiled – an actual smile - and went about his tower building. While he was busy with that, I stood up, venturing out a little ways to gather gleaming stones, shells, and an especially slim, long piece of driftwood. When I returned, my companion shot me a strange look, to which I just smirked.
"What's a sand castle without shells?" I divvied up the decorative things between us, starting to decorate my own towers without another word.
After all the shells and rocks had been placed, Minato held up the driftwood in curiosity. I stretched out my hand expectantly, and he – looking confused behind his lethargic mask – handed it over. I spun it in my fingers once before snapping it into desired length. Fitting it in between his castle and mine like a bridge, I let out a satisfied sigh.
"I christen thee Fort Shirogane~!"
"Ahem."
"Huh… Fine, Fort Shirogane-Arisato."
"Fort Arisato-Shirogane."
"What? NO! I started it, my name comes first!" As I was ranting, I completely missed the boy's scribbling in the sand. "My part is bigger, anyway, so ther- what are you doing?" Written in the sand before the two-part castle were the words, 'Fort Arisato-Shirogane.'
"NOOOO!"
"From what I understand, Mitsuru has already given you the short version." Every dorm resident save the aforementioned Mitsuru fidgeted slightly, uncomfortable under the sharp gaze of Takeharu Kirijo. The man with the eye patch from earlier had indeed turned out to be her father. Now, after our beach time fun had ended, we were gathered in the lounge at his request. "Well, it's true. We adults are to blame. If I could've atoned with it for my life, I would have done so...now I have no choice but to rely on you."
I got the distinct impression that we were about to learn something big.
"What my father wanted to create with those monsters' power… Was a Time Manipulation device."
'Well, that wasn't what I was expecting.' From the confused exclamations around me, I could tell I wasn't the only one who had thought that.
"That's what he was trying to do?" Mitsuru frowned.
"Imagine if you could control the flow of time...eliminate unwanted events before they occur. With such a device, you could shape the future to your liking."
"Damn, that's insane…" Though Junpei's remark wasn't unjustified, I could understand where this Grandpa Kirijo was coming from. The idea of being able to prevent or erase things you wanted not to happen… Like that car wreck all those years ago… Yes, I could definitely understand that line of thinking.
"However, under my father's direction, the research began to stray from its original goal. In his later years, my father seemed to have only nihilism in his heart. Now that I think about it, his madness may have resulted from his struggle to break free from that... It's only natural that you want to know the truth, and it's my duty to tell you." As if on queue, the lights in the room dimmed, and a monitor on the far wall flickered to life. "This is the only existing footage of the accident, recorded by a scientist who was at the scene."
The video started, and a man dressed in typical scientist apparel appeared in a blurry image.
"I pray this recording reaches safe hands."
"That voice…" Yukari's shocked reaction had me looking from the man on screen to the girl sitting across from me. They weren't obviously identical; the man's hair and eyes were a noticeably darker shade of brown, but there was something about that man that kept me glancing towards the girl.
"My employer has become obsessed with a loathsome idea. This experiment should have never even been conceived... I'm afraid what I've done will result in an unprecedented disaster, but if I hadn't, the entire world may have paid the price."
"The whole world, huh?" I leaned forward. "So that's what we're dealing with."
"Please, listen carefully...the Shadows that were amassed here have been dispersed as a result of the explosion." At this point, the video quality decreased drastically, the white noise becoming unbearable, and the video tearing much more frequent. "To end this nightmare, you must eliminate all of them! I am to blame for this. I knew the risks, but I was blinded by the promise of success, and so I didn't raise any objections... It is all my fault." Yukari stood up sharply, and with one word, confirmed my suspicions.
"…Dad…"
"Father…" Mitsuru turned to the man with the eye patch, as if to say, 'what is the meaning of this?'
"His name was Eiichiro Takeba… He was the head researcher at the time, and a very talented man. But we are the ones who are responsible. We pushed him to continue the research. The Kirijo Group is to blame for his death." That last part was said with just noticeable guilt.
"I… I can't believe it…"
Ignoring Mitsuru, Yukari spoke softly to the floor. "So that means... My dad caused it all...? The Dark Hour, Tartarus... the people who died in that incident... It was all his fault...?" She continued, her voice rising in pitch. "So that's why you were hiding this? Because you felt sorry for me? Is that it?"
"No, Takeba, I…" Yukari didn't spare the redhead a glance as she darted out of the room.
"Um… Shouldn't someone go after her?"
Mitsuru turned to Minato, discomfort apparent in her brown orbs. "Will you go…?"
As the boy left the room, I reclined, letting my head rest against the plush couch.
"Miss Shirogane?" A small purple head, swathed in bandages, looked up from the pillow it had been resting on. Two green eyes met the sympathetic gaze of an unknown man, devoid of any emotion. "Miss Shirogane, your sister is here to see you." The six year old only turned her head, not wanting to see the child standing at the foot of the hospital bed.
"It's okay, Nao-chan. Why don't I let you two talk for a little bit?"
"…'Kay…"
There was silence for a while after that, broken only by the beep of a heart monitor, and the awkward fidgets of a sad five year old.
"Kas?"
"..."
"Kas, remember how daddy would read us those detective stories, but then he'd always have us tell him the ending?"
The girl in the bed just sighed, finally meeting her sister's gray eyes. Her own widened to see that they brimmed not with tears, but with a nostalgic happiness one would never expect to see in such a young child.
"Yeah, and when we were sad, he'd always poke us in the belly, tell us to… to smile…"
"I loved Mommy and Daddy…"
"So did I…"
I sighed, my slightly unfocused gaze still on the door Yukari had fled through. I always had such a high regard for my parents, even after their passing. Whenever I was sad, I could always think back on them, and smile… But seeing the hurt in the girl's eyes, I couldn't help but wonder... What would have happened if I didn't have that anymore? What if the memory of my father had been tarnished, and now I couldn't even mourn his passing because of some horrible thing he did?
Despite my constant annoyance with Yukari, I suddenly felt overwhelming sympathy for her. I stared at the door for only a few more moments, before I rose to my feet.
"I'm gonna go check on them…"
I ran out of the villa, down to the beach, where I could easily see a splash of blue I knew too well.
"Hey!" I reached them in a heartbeat, casting my gaze between the two, both of whom were avoiding the others gaze, tension in the air. "Sorry, was I interrupting something?"
"A- Ah, no! Nothing…"
"Ooookay then…" I sighed, not wanting to think about what the two of them could have possibly been doing. "Anyway, it's almost the Dark Hour, so… Yeah."
"Oh yeah, that's right… I-I almost forgot... It doesn't matter where you are when the Dark Hour comes." Yukari definitely seemed preoccupied with other thoughts. I tried not to think about how annoying that was to me. "You know, I've been thinking lately… Once you awaken to the power of Persona, you remember everything that happens during the Dark Hour… It's like trading away your innocence. In exchange for power, you can no longer look away from things you don't want to see." During her – admittedly deep – monologue, she had turned around to stare at the ocean, but now she faced us again. "So, I guess I'm stuck with you guys, huh?"
"No matter how hard I try to get rid of you!"
"…I'm kidding."
I turned, ready to head back to the Kirijo home, Yukari following closely after me.
Minato stepped forward, preparing to follow the girls, when a queasy feeling made him stop in his tracks. He had experienced the same sensation earlier. It was as if he were being watched.
"Minato?"
The boy met the concerned green eyes of his eccentric dorm mate, who had glanced back at him. He gave a small smile, and the feeling passed.
~~Author's Note~~
YA-KU-SHI-MA!
I seriously did love this vacation, and I very much looking forward to writing the Aigis part of the arc. I was going to put both parts in one super-mega-awesome-ultra-long chapter, but it got late, and I got lazy. Soooo… I guess we'll just have to wait until next time.
Well, well, is someone jealous? Muahaha~!
Oh yeah, Spring Break started, which means I might write a bit more.
I'M SORRY NO INABA. THERE'S NOTHING TO WRITE THERE… *Feels guilty*
So yeah. Nothing really important to say, except I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, because I am slowly getting over a bad case of Writer's Block…
