P3: Bloodlust

by Nightlyy

Minato had been staring down into an abyss for as long as he could remember. He does not know if the darkness stares back, if it calls him in or if he, himself is the abyss staring up, reaching out for the light beyond. Will he be helped up by someone who shares the curse or will he be drowned? A more dark and brutal novelization of Persona 3.

123. Remember

Hello. Good to see you again.

When I got to 6k words here, I considered splitting up the chapter again but no more of that now. The resolution happens in this chapter.

See you at the bottom.

---

Hamuko did not get a wink of good sleep that night. Aside from the ever-mounting pain in her right arm, the figure she saw in the mirror kept her wide awake throughout. She was only able to see the shadow for a split-second and it was a pretty horrific sight, something straight out of a nightmare within a nightmare. The entity she saw was shrouded in several layers of pitch-black darkness and exuded an abnormal amount of fear. One stare too long and a sane human mind would erode; it was that dreadful but while Hamuko did feel fear, she also felt a rather surreal connection, as if she was staring into an old mirror.

"What was that thing…?" Hamuko wondered to herself, staring up at the ceiling, eyes weary with exhaustion and confusion but her mind was awake, still trying to digest all that had happened in the past couple of hours. It started with an ache in her right hand but by nightfall, she was in bizzaro land; on auto-pilot, lashing out at her friends, crying without knowing she was, and seeing haunted apparitions instead of her reflection.

Hamuko glanced once more at her hand and tried clenching it into a fist. It hurt like hell but with some effort, she was able to ball it up. That was another mystery; how the hell was she able to still move her hand? The pain was bad but she wasn't screaming her lungs out, as she should be. Going by the visual, the hemorrhage was severe enough to warrant a surgery but for some reason, she was able to stomach the pain and not fall apart. When was she ever THIS tough?

A knock on her door brought Hamuko out of the impending spiral and she turned her head, not bothering to get up and personally greet whoever was out there but if that person was Junpei, she was going to rip his spine out of his filthy body by her bare hands-

"Hamuko?" Yukari said after another cautious knock on the door, keeping her voice as soft as possible. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine," Hamuko blinked after the little internal outburst. She picked herself up from the bed, still nursing her injured hand and mulling over the insane thought that crossed her mind.

"Want to walk to school together?" Yukari said after a pause, trying to sound as cheerful as possible despite still being shaken up from last night. Hamuko appreciated the concern of her friend but after a few seconds of thought, she answered in the negative.

"Sorry, I'll be a little late," the redhead said, getting up from her and widening her eyes when she stumbled on her feet. Her right leg in particular felt awkward, and she had a hard time putting weight on it. "You go on ahead without me."

"Take care," Yukari said before departing and Hamuko was left alone. She sat back down and took a deep breath. First her right arm and now her leg. Something was wrong with her and the redhead lifted the afflicted limb onto the bed and winced at the surge of pain. It hurt. Not as bad as her arm but the ache was definitely similar and her eyes widened at the implication.

"No way…" Hamuko said to herself, removing her sock to make sure but one look at the ankle and she froze, pupils dilating and her entire body freezing in shock and horror when she saw the condition of her joint. "T-There is no way…"

Swollen, purple and blue due to internal bleeding and pulsing with pain, her right ankle was in a similar condition to her right arm and Hamuko could only stare in bewilderment for the next several minutes.

"What is happening to me?"

---

After some alterations to her regular uniform, Hamuko lumbered her way out of her room and attempted to close the door with her right foot, as she usually did but the attempt made her hiss with pain and she slammed it shut with her left hand instead. Not a single second of sleep and yet here she was, headed for school as the end of the term was right around the corner and she couldn't afford a day off.

There was no way she was going to school with her hand beaten purple and so Hamuko had to add a bit of hardware to hide… whatever the hell was happening to her. Gloves concealed her hands and since it was still chilly, nobody was going to question her. She also wore dark leggings just to be extra safe and anyone who questioned her on this was a pervert and would be slaughtered at the hands of Minato-

The redhead shook her head and blinked to clear up her blurry surroundings. Her thought process was going off on insane tangents lately and Hamuko hoped that the hustle and bustle of school was going to distract her for the day, because she really, really needed a break from all the crazy shit happening around her, and to her. She took one step with her right leg, winced a little but she was able to move and Hamuko rushed out of the dorm as quickly as possible, not sparing a glance to anything else.

Minato stroked his temple to lessen the numbness and looked away from the doorway just as Hamuko slammed the door shut. Straining his mind and eyes to concentrate almost made him pass out but after what happened last night, the former wild card was concerned.

Minato held the table for support as he got up, having to strain his legs in order to stand upright because he could barely feel his limbs under him. He sat at the table ever since dawn and waited, watching each dorm mate pass him by, and each one either didn't acknowledge him or eyed him with suspicion, as if he was up to no good. Hamuko was the last one to leave and she did not stop for a second, and immediately headed out of the dorm.

To the ordinary eye, she looked okay but Minato knew better. There was something wrong with her. She was favoring her right leg when she walked and there was no way the Hamuko he knew would wear leggings that ugly without a damn good reason. In addition to that, she looked panicked and in a hell of a hurry, as if she was running away from something.

That surge he sensed last night had him scared out of his mind and there was no doubt that it came from her room. It felt like Nyx but at the same time… There was just no way. There was no way that was the real Nyx. He had given his life to make sure she would never curse the world ever again so what was that last night?

"H-Hamuko…?"

His mind clicked when he remembered the last battle. That final persona he summoned. That was the fusion of Messiah and-

That persona of hers-

His vision swirling in and out of focus made Minato back off and he stopped stressing too much over what happened last night. After taking a deep breath, he grabbed his backpack and wearily made his way out of the dorm. There was no way he was catching up to Hamuko, not in his current state and while he was terrified of interacting with her, he knew he had to do something. The little incident last night and the change in her wardrobe had him worried and despite his heart screaming at him to stay away from any sort of possible conflict with Hamuko, there was no way he was going to just ignore what was going on.

"First though…" Minato sighed, stumbling his way to the exit.

"Get to school alive…"

His stalker was right on his tail the moment Minato stepped out of the monorail and there was no mistaking the intention this time. Whoever was following him was looking to attack him, not kill, but definitely hurt. Minato joined the massive stampede of people to keep himself safe and while he got tossed around in the ensuing rush, he was able to make it to school without a single new wound.

The usual reception followed him on his way to homeroom and Minato paused briefly when someone insulted his dead parents with a sickening outburst of malicious laughter. The blunet frowned and glanced at his shoes, his jaw clenching as he kept thinking back to the promised day. Every day, every second since then, he tried really, really hard to find a reason and feel even a tiny bit happy about his desperate sacrifice for humanity and yet-

"Tch," Minato shook his head and ignored the volley of insults, moving into the classroom and to his surprise, Hamuko was already there, one of the first students in homeroom which was unusual as she spent her time hanging out with her friends until the last second before commencement. She was sitting on her seat and like usual, as soon as he came anywhere near her, she turned her head away and refused to even acknowledge him.

Minato was about to head over towards her but after looking around the room, he decided against it as he did not intend on creating a scene so early on in the morning. Besides, with the frown settled on her face, the redhead did not seem in the mood to talk to anyone. He took his seat but kept his stare on her, eyeing her right leg and her gloved hand as she had barely moved it at all in the past several minutes.

More students began to hurry inside and Minato lowered his head onto the desk, hoping to disappear from plain sight as every other student emerging from the door threw him a hateful glare or just a look of disgust. Guess this was humanity. He knew he was a bastard before and had done a lot of them wrong but how much abuse did a reformed man have to stomach before all was forgiven and forgotten and he was given a clean slate? As soon as he showed a hint of remorse and regret over what he had done, the student body saw it as a weakness and made him a target. He was weak, frail and introverted and that made him a perfect target in high-school. Heck, even the guys he never spoke to found a reason to mess with him. Peer pressure or plain nastiness, he did not know but one thing he did know; there was no way he was going to shoulder the sins of people like that-

A round of whistles went off in the classroom when Yukari entered and to his surprise, she went right towards Hamuko and started talking very fast but in a whisper. Minato tried to hear what she was saying but his senses were so dull, he could not get a single word. There was a look of concern on her face as she fussed over her friend, even clasping her hand at one point.

Junpei arrived as well. On a normal day, he would head straight over to Hamuko and Yukari but today, he sat on his seat and did not look at the redhead. He actually looked a little shaken up and to kill time, started playing a random game on his cellphone.

Something was definitely not right here.

Did something happen last night when he was wallowing in grief and misery?

Toriumi closed the door behind her and Minato sighed. Now he had to get up. He picked himself up from the desk and answered when his name was called, still clutching his desk.

The class emptied in seconds during lunch break and Minato scanned the room, locating a handful of students who were left in the room and none of them hated him too intensely, as far as she could recall. Junpei ran out to get a bite to eat. Yukari went to her club but Hamuko was still on her seat despite being one of the busiest girls in the grade. She had not moved at all and for a second during class, Minato thought that she was about to collapse. Her shoulders were slumped, her back tense, and she just looked weary and disturbed. With so few students around, this was the perfect time to ask her, and make sure that she was okay.

Hamuko cringed when she heard the creek of the chair behind her, indicating that a certain someone had gotten up. She could feel his stare on her back but there was not a hint of malice in his gaze, only concern. Part of her wanted to look back and see how he was doing as well but-

"WORRY ABOUT YOUR OWN DAMN SELF!"

That sentence of his echoed in her head and the redhead clenched her left fist and decided not to turn and remained in her seat. Hamuko hoped that he would back off but weak footsteps were ambling along the floor and in no time, she could sense that he was right next to her. Why was he making this so difficult? They were done.

Minato waited for her to say something as he was standing next to her desk but Hamuko remained silent, refusing to even acknowledge him. The blunet waited a couple more seconds in hopes that she would say something but in the end, he was the one to initiate the conversation

"Hamuko…" Minato said softly, voice begging her to respond but she still had her face turned in the other direction and did not bat an eye when he called out to her. He glanced at her gloved hand and crouched down slightly, even though it was hell on his joints.

"Your hand…" the blunet said, contemplating grabbing a hold of it but he relented, fearing another slap across the face. "Are you… okay?"

"…"

"You were favoring your right leg today," Minato continued despite the silence he was getting from her. "If there is something wrong, we can go get you checked up-"

"Oh, really?" Hamuko finally spoke, almost sneering at him. He flinched at the reaction but Hamuko went on. "Did you get a checkup, Arisato?"

Minato said nothing but the ache along his chest intensified upon the tone of her voice; harsh and cold, and the fact that she had used his last name to address him. That was a first because even when they first met, Hamuko always called him by his name.

"That's what I thought," Hamuko spat after a bit of waiting and with a little difficulty, she stood up from her seat, wanting to get the hell away from Minato because every second of the interaction was brutal. Just looking at him, all weak and ill, made her want to slap the taste out of his mouth again but at the same time, part of her wanted to hold onto him so badly, so tightly and never let go.

After a shake of her head, Hamuko moved past him. In a last ditch effort, Minato held onto her wrist and but she slapped his hand away with her left and quickly reached the door, sliding it open-

"Hamuko…"

That voice of his, so broken and empty, finally made her flinch. She took a deep breath and considered looking back at him, as he was surely on the verge of tears-

"Please…"

Images of the blonde-haired student made her grit her teeth and Hamuko moved out of the classroom, leaving him alone. Minato stared at the empty space for a few and had to sit on the desk as his legs were gone, mobility sapped after the little interaction.

"Why do I keep doing this…?" Minato asked himself, panting loudly with a hand to his chest.

Every second of the talk felt like death to him.

There was an easy way out; tell her everything that had happened and that was going to happen. Even if she did not remember, his impending death was sure to soften her up a bit but Minato refused.

"Better me than her…" he exhaled.

Hamuko stood outside the tennis club and took a deep breath. There was still an awful taste in her mouth and she figured that a good session of practice would help her get her mind off Minato and how she should mutilate herself for hurting him yet again-

The redhead shivered on the spot, shaking her head to get rid of those wayward thoughts and she reached for the doorknob with her left hand-

Her left hand, the hand she had used to slap him, didn't move. She took a glance and it was numb and discolored just like her right-

Hamuko stared at her left hand with wide eyes and shrieked in horror when she realized what had happened.

---

Minato emptied the entire content of the can into the bowl and watched on, sitting cross legged in the back alley, as the cat, now healthy and injury free, sauntered out from under the trash can and began to eat. The blunet simply watched, fingers rubbing along the throat as it was getting difficult to work his vocal cords. Every cell in his body was decaying and Minato knew his time was short, and the end was right around the corner. The only living being that gave a crap about him was before him, on four legs and Minato had to let him know.

"I won't be able to come here again," the blunet said after another brutal cough, lungs burning on the inside. Usually, this little activity brought him a tiny bit of happiness but today he wasn't even feeling that as knew for a fact that this was the last trip he could manage. "I'm sorry but you'll have to find food on your own from now on."

Minato didn't even need to hold out his hand as the cat moved along and nuzzled against his knee, mewling lowly. Even this display of affection didn't bring a smile to his face but Minato did stroke the top of its head, letting out a wry sigh.

"At least you're healthy now. I'm sure you'll be fine," the former wild card said and was just about ready to make the effort of getting up and returning back to the dorm but there it was again-

"N-Not again," Minato said with a hiss, the hair on the back of his neck standing up and goosebumps running down his body when he sensed that stalker again. This time, he had enough of the cat and mouse game. Minato was in no condition to fight but enough was enough; he knew he had to make sure and settle it once and for all. Elizabeth was not going to save him this time but he channeled just a bit of his old courage and stood his ground.

"You go on. Run and hide," Minato gently nudged the cat and it scurried away, easily able to sense the disturbance as well. Now alone, Minato used his hands to push himself off the ground and he stood up, slightly hunched over but still standing. He glanced around the place and tried to concentrate, filtering out the blurry patches and black dots impairing his vision but he still could not see anyone in the vicinity, just like before. Either his soon-to-be-assailant was really good at hiding or was moving too fast for his eyes.

"I'm not running away this time," Minato announced, shouting as loud as he was able to, hoping that whoever was stalking him would come out but still nothing. He looked back upon catching footsteps thundering along the ground and his head began to spin, not able to stomach the stress and the quick body movement but-

"I'm not going anywhere!" the blunet clenched his fist and while he found it disgusting and almost hilarious, he took a fighting stance, the usual stance he took during his fighting days with his lead leg out and his fists raised. The switch amped up whoever was running around circles around him and Minato heard a familiar grunt-

"I'm right there!"

That someone was closing in. He caught a reddish blur and gritted his teeth, hardening his pitiful body for a bit of abuse-

"If you want a fight, you got it!"

"F-Fight?"

Even with his dull, nearly non-existent senses, Minato caught a blur streaking at him from the left. He caught that in his peripheral and hastily turned in the direction to at least guard himself but he was nowhere near as quick as before and as soon as he turned, he felt something crash against his stomach-

"Gah!" Minato remembered vomiting out blood but not much after that, only bits and bits of agony and suffering. He blackened out as soon as his neurons registered the impact and his whole body was wrapped around the leg of whoever had kicked him, kicked him hard enough he considered letting go of the borrowed life right there and then-

Whoever kicked him was not done with just a single shot. Minato was trying not to die on the spot, heaving out blood and bits of flesh until he felt a harsh grip on collar, followed by a jerk backwards. The blunet tried to maintain his ground but he was easily manhandled and shoved backwards at insane speed and with tremendous force-

CRASH-

Minato shivered when he realized that he laid in a pool of blood and filth as his assailant had smashed him into the garbage cans nearby. His vision was still mostly blank and he knew that the guy who had attacked him, still had a hold of his collar and was on top of him. Minato could hear him growling and hissing but in his delirious state, it was hard to liken the voice to someone.

His vision came back on briefly and Minato panted, eating a crisp shot in the face that blackened his sight again but in that brief second, he did see the face of his attacker.

"Hahaha…"

Minato laughed through a mouthful of blood. There was no mistaking that scar-

"It's you…" the blunet breathed out with a small smile and this stopped another punch just shy of his face as his stalker froze at his words, gray eyes widening and the same hand, the fist he used to punch his face in, began to tremble-

"Good to see you again…" Minato said, eyes nearly rolling to the back of his head but now he was not too concerned about the danger to his life. Even if he passed out, he was sure that he would be left alive by his-

"Old friend…"

"Y-You…"

"Minato-san!"

BANG-

That gunshot rattled his already muddled brain and his old friend released the grip around the collar to dodge the bullet and Minato was finally free, slumping onto the bed of garbage and drawing in a desperate breath to keep himself alive. He had to chuckle a little. Figures. Out of his friends, Sho would be the most likely to do something like this as their bond on built on beating the shit out of each other.

"Minato-san!" the figure in the alleyway called out to him and Minato propped himself up on a single elbow, coughing out some more blood to drain the fluid pooling in his lungs. The voice was distorted and he couldn't really recognize it but there was currently only one real person in the world who gave a shit about him and that was-

"Aigis?" Minato blinked once and the android was right next to him. She widened her eyes at his condition and was not sure where to grab him. His limbs were twisted outwards and she could see his rib cage protruding grotesquely against his school uniform as he struggled to get oxygen in his system.

"A-Are you okay?" Aigis crouched down to his level and gently wrapped one arm around his waist and pressed her other hand to his back in order to lift him off the ground. Thankfully, Minato didn't have to do much as the freakishly strong android hoisted him up to his feet and the blunet clung on to her for support, knowing that he would not be able to stay standing on his own.

That kick was brutal. Minato knew for a fact that Sho threw at like 5 percent of his power but with the way he was now, even that was too much for him. The kick, followed by the collision and the punch to the face left him very, very winded and Minato was grateful for Aigis as there was no way he would have gotten up until the next day, leaving him easy pickings for any common thug.

"L-Let's get out of here," Minato managed to say, wiping the blood on his lips with the back of his sleeve. His legs failed him and Minato just collapsed on top of Aigis like dead weight but the android easily endured and circled her arms around his stomach to hoist him off his feet. Even Aigis knew he was in no condition to walk and while carrying a teenage boy in broad daylight was going to be a strange sight, she had to do it.

Minato exhaled softly as Aigis carried him out of the back alley and he rested on her shoulder, trying to attain some level of comfort but even in the arms of someone like Aigis, someone so devoted and powerful, Minato could not find peace.

He knew and understood the physical pain and fatigue. Those were always going to haunt him as long as he breathed but-

The mental agony… There was no respite from that; it was constant and even more debilitating. No matter whom he talked to or leaned on, Minato could not get a second of rest from the anguish that had plagued him ever since-

"…"

Ever since Hamuko…

---

Minato lay on the shrine bench and checked his vitals as he had recovered just enough on the way to the place. His heart was pitifully alive and he was able to draw air into his lungs without drowning in blood so there was some definite improvement. He was able to see a little better as well and he had his stare fixed on the sky, mind idle as he reveled in the little bit of comfort after a brutal couple of minutes.

Aigis was looking around the area for any danger but she was still nearby, in case something else pounced on Minato while he rested. The android kept glancing back at him every now and then but not for too long as each time, she would choke and look away to ease the building emotion.

"That person who attacked you…. I feel I know him," Aigis said after a couple of minutes of silence. After one last glance around, she walked back to Minato and stood right next to him, trying hard not to lose it at the sorry sight of the blue-haired teenager, beaten and exhausted.

Minato sat up with some effort and glanced at her, face still swollen due to the single punch to the cheek and he eyed Aigis with a hint of curiosity and panic. That little bit was interesting and Minato patted the spot next to him, inviting her to sit alongside him. Aigis sat next to him but her stare was still on the ground, almost ashamed to look him in the eye.

"What's wrong, Aigis?" Minato asked, resting a hand on her shoulder to encourage her. Aigis flinched at the contact and lowered her head, staring at her trembling hands in confusion and horror.

"T-That's all I know…" the mechanical female spoke, a hint of disgust in her tone as she felt her metal hands. "My name is Aigis. I am a machine… That is all I know about myself."

Minato widened his eyes slightly. Aigis had forgotten as well? The way she was behaving around him, he was convinced that Aigis remembered at least a little of what they went through but he was wrong.

"I feel like I was born a few months ago," Aigis continued. "I have no recollection of why I was made, what I went through, what I am supposed to do at the dorm, or at school."

Minato was not sure what to say. He squeezed her shoulder, gesturing her to go on as it looked like Aigis was going to collapse if she did not let it all out.

"I keep looking through my memory logs whenever I am in my room," Aigis buried her head into her metallic hands and clenched a fistful of blonde hair, almost tearing it off. "And yet, nothing makes sense. No matter how many times I read, I don't remember anything."

"Aigis…" Minato whispered, gently removing the harsh grip she had around her head and forcing her to look at him. The android reeled back, partly in shame, partly in confusion but managed to hold his soft gaze with a troubled look.

Minato looked at her for a few more seconds and moved towards her. At one point, he loathed every last circuit in her body and wanted nothing more than to have her experiencing and trembling in fear next to his feet and now here she was, seized by fear and shuddering right next to him. One wrong push and Aigis was going to crumble, just like he wanted before-

"Calm down, Aigis," Minato said, giving her another smile as he cupped one side of her face and began stroking her cheek. The android jumped up slightly when her skin felt his touch, cold and clammy but she did not shy away this time. She blinked away whatever was building up along her eyes and moved towards him as well.

"Y-You are Minato-san," Aigis said, going through the jumbled mess that were her memory logs, confusing and all over the place. Something about an additional hour. Something about the thirteenth arcana. "Minato-san…"

"Y-You appear quite often in my logs," Aigis said, grasping his hand gently and Minato waited, slightly concerned about the entries before November of the previous year but then she began to talk, and she did not stop reading out what her old self had recorded into the memory bank.

"Protect Minato-san at all costs,"

"Earn the forgiveness of Minato-san,"

Minato widened his eyes as she continued, not blinking as she read the logs out loud, voice cracking more and more-

"Become a human and…"

Aigis drew a deep breath, and a single drop of tear escaped the corner of her eye, wetting his hand that was still around her cheek-

"B-Became a human and shed a tear for Minato-san…"

Minato moved a finger to her lips and Aigis quieted down, obeying him and the blunet studied her face for a few more seconds, noticing more unshed tears glistering in the corners. A few more escaped her eyes and Aigis broke down-

"I-I'm sorry, Minato-san…"

"..."

"I don't know why I'm saying this to you…" the girl began to pant, out of breath despite her systems operating without issue or errors. The ache came from somewhere else, a pain her memory logs or system could not explain or put into data.

"My systems are functioning properly but there is something else…" Aigis said, clutching her chest as it was constantly in pain, something deeper than the mechanical and artificial neurons. "Something else inside me… Constantly crying out for relief of any kind-"

"S-Something human…" Aigis finished and softly touched his face, trailing a finger along the fresh wound on his cheek. She cringed at the swelling as the other side of her cried out in pain, overwhelming her auditory system. The reverberating scream jolted her body and Aigis ducked her head, suffering another episode of unknown pain, pain that she was not able to comprehend and the confusion terrified her as her system relied on logic and not emotion-

"Come here, Aigis…"

Minato called out to her and Aigis felt his arms wrapping around her, and she blinked. She froze up for a second but did not resist when Minato pulled her over and hugged her close-

The confusion and shock faded when Aigis felt him pressed up against her and she released a shaky exhale of breath, withholding the flood of tears building along her eyes-

"You truly are a precious living thing, Aigis," Minato breathed out and Aigis began to return the gesture, hugging him with trembling arms and finding solace in his words. She was a living being? A machine like her?

"I wish I could give you peace, Aigis," Minato continued, and even with his failing health and strength, tightened the hug, his right hand ruffling the hair on the back of her head, trying to pacify her the best he could. "But I can't… I can't even find peace for myself…"

Aigis shuddered upon his words but Minato did not release the embrace and kept his voice low and soft, determined to help her. For once, he didn't care if even Hamuko came along and saw the two of them. The relationship was hostile and rocky for the most part but as of right now, considering all they had went through, Minato considered her a friend, a comrade, someone who fought alongside him to get rid of the Dark Hour, but most importantly, a living, breathing human being in desperate need of help.

"But know one thing…"

Aigis moved her head to look at him and she saw Minato giving her a sad smile-

"You are a human now…"

"M-Minato-san…"

"As a human…"

Minato ran a finger under her eye and pointed at his own chest and somehow, Aigis figured out what he was implying-

"It is better to let go than hold it all in…"

Her lower lip quivered-

"Let it go, Aigis…"

"I…"

"That's how we cope…"

The last bit of self-control faded away and Aigis let out the cry that she had been holding for months, ever since she woke up in her room one night, confused and lost, with nothing to live for. A flood of tears erupted from her eyes and the girl did not hold back and sobbed as loud as she could, hoping, begging, praying that the burning sensation in the middle of her chest would dissipate upon crying-

Minato held her close as his former nemesis cried into her hands, shedding tears like a human and he stayed with her, staring up at the sky and remembering how they got to this point.

"I forgave you long ago Aigis, ever since you saved me from Makoto," Minato whispered, remembering how Aigis fought to her and limit and beyond to keep him safe. She herself had to endure a lot in this journey, and maybe the suffering she had gone through, the suffering she had watched them go through, had turned her from an emotionless machine to a fragile human, just like everyone else. "Someday…"

That night on the bridge flashed before him and Minato clutched her more firmly-

"I hope you can forgive me too…"

Minato remained with Aigis for a long time, comforting her, consoling her, and teaching her the little bit of humanity he himself knew.

---

Minato, by some miracle, made his way back to the dorm, and for once, the lounge was empty and he didn't have to hide his busted-up face from the others. Every step he took blackened his vision and the blunet collapsed against the railings of the steps, casting a wry look at the staircase that now seemed a hell of a lot longer than usual. With a sigh, he began to climb, taking a small break every 5 seconds, and eventually, he arrived on the second floor.

Thankfully, the usual group was not occupying the couches and Minato sighed, grateful that nobody would be able to see him in his current condition. He already looked like a pale scarecrow and now add the busted cheek and the facial swelling and he was back to looking like an ugly freak, just like the good old days.

"So exhausted…" Minato breathed out and held the wall for support as he made his way over to the last room on the floor. He barely pushed it open and stepped inside, back sliding down against the door as his legs refused to work any further, and Minato himself was content on spending the night in the same position, too tired to even drag himself towards the bed.

Today was a rather productive day, comparatively speaking. Minato was able to converse with Hamuko for a bit and ate another slap from her, this time on his hand but at least she didn't cuss him out too much. He also met Sho for the first time since the promised day and his whole body was burning with pain from the short, one-sided scuffle that left him gasping for life but his brawlin buddy was okay, and Minato was glad to know. Finally, he was able to talk to Aigis, and as far as he was concerned, he did a good job of handling her, even getting a small load off his chest but despite all that-

"I-I don't feel any better…" Minato said to himself, voice a shallow whisper as the anxiety, stress, uncertainty and depression kept eating away at him, back then and even now. "I don't get it…"

"I met Elizabeth and said my goodbyes…"

"I found out Sho is alright…"

"I even met Aigis and gave her peace and yet…"

His heart was still drowning in cold sorrow and every breath he took felt cursed, incomplete, empty-

Minato pressed a hand against his chest to breathe a little easier. The discomfort around the area lessened only slightly but he was able to think and lament. He knew he was a dying man. The end of his days was coming very shortly but even a dying man had some level of peace and yet the so-called savior of the world, someone who had sacrificed himself to save humanity sat in a daze, nowhere close to salvation or respite. He was living in a hellscape, constantly struggling to stay alive, keep his soul from collapsing AND desperately searching for a reason to keep going like that. Minato had fought through shadows, demons, a corrupted avatar of power, gods and the literal personification of death but all that paled in comparison to the agony he had gone through now.

His friends had forgotten him and they loathed his guts, as much as they did during his early days at SEES. At first, Minato found it unbearable to endure and he did remember shedding a few tears at how distant and cold they had grown towards him. It was rocky at first but towards the end of the full moon operations, Minato genuinely considered them as close friends, even family and so enduring their scorn was painful but now that he thought about it, their hatred didn't hurt as much as before. Maybe he got used to the despair or maybe it hurt less because it was dwarfed by something much greater.

The moment Hamuko glared at him with nothing but scorn in her eyes, the already desperate race for survival became a brutal death match against the ticking clock. The physical curse was bad enough; crippling exhaustion and pain but Hamuko tore a hole through his already mutilated soul that day and thoughts of paranoia and suicide became much more prominent and recurring.

Minato thought back to the promised day. As soon as they left the campus, his friends forgot all about the Dark Hour, as if it never existed in the first place, as if they hadn't gone through utter hell to erase it. The only exception to this was Hamuko and he knew that because she was beside him every second during the walk back to the dorm, exactly as he knew her. By the time they reached the dorm, his friends had forgotten so much that they found him revolting but Hamuko hadn't changed one bit, and she looked ready to beat their asses right there and then for mistreating him. Even when her head was about to split open, Hamuko resisted as hard as she could and was a second away from either dying from a neural collapse or retaining her memories.

"She remembered…" Minato whispered, cringing when he recalled the amount of pain she was in that night, desperately trying to cling to her memories and suffering every second, all because of him. She was a second away from resisting the erasure by the sheer power of will and if Minato hadn't disappeared from her sight, she would still be here, beside him, probably holding and comforting him at this very moment. With Hamuko by his side, he would have saved himself from a lot of abuse he had to put up with in the past few months and he would have spent his remaining time on earth in some amount of happiness but in the end, it all boiled down to one thing-

"Better me than her…" the blunet whispered and with his legs still devoid of mobility, he started crawling towards the bed as he had to sleep this night or he was not going to see tomorrow. Minato pushed himself up by clasping onto the edge and collapsed on the mattress, not even bothering to pull the blanket over as nothing was going to stop the deathly cold.

Minato took a glance at the calendar and his eyes drooped with exhaustion but before he fell unconscious, he made sure to remind himself that he had to wake up tomorrow. As bad it was living with a broken body, heart, mind and soul, he still had the promise to keep, and he had to crawl towards that day, no matter how brutal it got. On graduation day, his friends were going to remember-

"N-No…"

Minato breathed out, memories of the time he spent with his friends fading away-

"I-I don't care anymore…"

"E-Enough of this…"

"I'm not asking for much anymore…"

"Hamuko…"

"She must remember…"

"Please, Hamuko…"

"Please remember…"

One floor above, Hamuko had been staring at her left hand for the past half an hour and it looked no different from her right; colored purple due to internal bleeding and pulsing in pain. She could not get it to move during school and while she considered a visit to a doctor, she decided against it because Hamuko was in no condition to make that walk, too freaked out and confused but aside from that, she doubted a regular physician would be able to cure her.

This was something else, something beyond ordinary. Aside from the wounds and the pain, she had been crying in her sleep for the past couple of days and there this ferocious grip around her throat, like something… or someone was strangling her neck.

Hamuko rubbed her neck and winced, trying to ease the suffocation. It was like someone was punishing her, as the bleeding was systemic and there was a clear pattern. She struck Minato on the face with her right hand and suffered. She recalled slapping his grip away earlier today with her left and was punished for it within the hour. Her right leg was busted up as well but the fact that both of her hands were crippled directly after hitting Minato was freaky and Hamuko didn't know what to make of it.

"Did I…" she took a deep breath and thought over the past couple of months. Her memory was a bit hazy and for some reason, she could not recall January very well.

"Did I forget something…?"

On second thought, she could not recall the entire year in perfect clarity. She hung out with Minato when he first arrived all the way back in April? They fell in love sometime during summer? They started dating soon after but-

"No…"

Their bond was something much more than simple boyfriend and girlfriend but for the blasted life of her, she could not remember. How could she forget something so important? The answer was swirling around in her head but she just could not put her finger on it.

Hamuko glanced at the floor and widened her eyes, the phantom hand around her throat tightening, derailing her breath and forcing her to rest on her back to alleviate the pressure. The fact that she was somehow able to endure the pain and was not crying and screaming out hysterically was another mystery and her head was just about ready to explode.

Hamuko glanced at her right hand once more and her lower lip quivered when she connected the dots, a wave of sorrow and regret washing over every fiber of her being.

"Is this… punishment for something I have forgotten?"

---

At one point in his cursed life, Minato was captured and mercilessly abused by the manifestation of his own desires and this continued for several weeks. During that awful time period, he was teetering on the border between life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, and every single second, even when he was put to sleep with half a dozen sedatives, was hell on earth. Minato considered that to be the worst phase in his life but something just topped all that. The sleep last night, if he could even call it that, was somehow worse and Minato was sure that he touched the threshold of clinical death more than a few times.

As he sat on his bed, Minato tried to recall what he went through but he shook his head and tried not to think over it too much, afraid that he would not be able to endure it a second time, even as a memory.

There was a light buzzing sound in his right ear and the blunet chuckled, knowing that his being was at the absolute limit and the hell he suffered in his sleep would be nothing compared to what awaited him at school. Today was going to long, long day and as he sat on the edge of his bed and gazed at the sun beyond his window, Minato was not sure he would be able to see the sunrise tomorrow.

The former wild card got up, fetched his school uniform from his closet, and made his way toward the showers. He remembered stepping inside, almost barfing at the abysmal condition of his physique and face before turning on the water, and then blacking out as soon as the first drop of water dampened his scalp-

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Tearing-

Shredding-

Burning-

Minato was sure it was another near-death experience as he could not recall his senses, no matter how hard he tried and every nerve that he felt burned with decay. He felt his heart lodged in his throat, threatening to burst out his neck and lead running through his veins and despite being pathetically malnourished and weak, his body felt like a literal ton of weight, being swallowed up by earth as he began to sink towards the ground-

"Don't you DARE FUCKING DIE on me!"

"Gack!"

Minato focused on the fleeting voice in the back of his head and rested his head against the glass, attempting to breathe but his body was just not cooperating anymore and his mind was swimming in confusion. That was close. If her voice didn't bring him back at the last second then the floor was going to be his grave. He knew he was in for hell but this was just absurd but then again-

Minato stood straight on shaky legs and ran a pale hand through his damp hair to swipe his fringe backwards. Tomorrow was graduation day, the end of the road. His time was almost up so this was expected.

"More effort than usual today, huh?" Minato coughed, standing under the shower and murmuring soft, feeble encouragement to himself, battling the cold wave of impending death to remain alive for today, and a few hours tomorrow-

"So be it-!"

"Gah!"

The surge of death overrode his senses again and Minato remembered no more-

The rest of the day, his brain, whatever was left of it, was on auto-pilot and Minato was only able to retain control in sporadic bursts. Or maybe he was in control the whole time and it was his faulty memory that made him think that but whatever the case was, the whole day was a blur to him. By some miracle, he made it to school and the chatter was almost outrageous as tomorrow was the special day and students were running all over the place to get themselves ready.

Minato recalled a few students laughing at him for his swollen face and vacant stare but he paid little attention to it, forgot about it the next second, and made his way to homeroom. He could see Yukari and Fuuka discussing something with agitated looks on their faces but he couldn't bring himself to be concerned as his head was still swirling and once he sat on his seat, he rested on the desk and tried to survive.

A thunderous roar erupted from the class at the sound of the final bell and the class emptied in seconds. This was the last class of the current calendar year and the students were free but Minato remained seated in the exact same place, hanging onto his borrowed life by a thread. Nobody paid attention to him throughout the day and Minato was thankful as one little push would have been his end.

Someone was calling out to him as he stood up to exit the classroom but the voice was so distant and distorted that Minato could not recognize who they were. He tried to focus but another sharp jolt of pain across his skull warned him not to and the blunet just limped away, not even bothering to pick up his backpack as he didn't have any further use for it. Whoever had called out to him before did not stop but Minato ignored the calling and headed out of the homeroom. He had to get to the dorm as soon as he could or he was not going to last.

Hamuko stood in the doorway and watched him depart but instead of feeling upset that he had ignored her, she was worried and concerned. Minato looked dazed as if he was struck on the head and suffered a concussion. She glanced back to see that he had left his backpack on his desk and simply stared at it for the next several seconds, her idle hand massaging the area around her neck because it was getting progressively worse with every passing minute.

Yukari stared at her best friend with concern and approached her with a plan in mind. Hamuko seemed on edge for the past few days and the brunette feared for her sanity. Maybe a nice chat over coffee would cheer her up a little and with Fuuka coming along, they were sure to have a good time.

Hamuko did not respond when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She just kept staring at his desk, tears welling up in her eyes when unexplainable and unspeakable sorrow began to creep up her throat, making her choke and cough out horribly.

"Hamuko!" Yukari cried-

Minato recalled bumping into someone as he entered the dorm but with his vision so blurry and surroundings so disorientated, he didn't know who he was. The guy snapped at him as soon as he entered so high chance it was Junpei but there was something different about his voice this time, almost a little unsure-

"Ugh," Minato stared at the steps that led to the second floor and panted, knowing that he was not capable of climbing in his current condition. Another episode of vertigo nearly toppled him over and Minato dragged himself towards the couches, collapsing on the large one and curling up into a ball as everything around him was moving so fast, so loud, so painfully-

"D-Dammit…" Minato hacked out and a chill ran down his spine, worsening his condition, the vestiges of his spirit withering under the amount of pain he had endured up till this miserable minute. He had no strength left in him to get up and fetch himself a blanket and so he resorted to wrapping his own arms around his chest to keep himself warm and for a second, he considered who was calling out to him at school-

As soon as Minato placed a bit of pressure on his psyche, the world around him faded and the blunet felt his spirit eroding from within, just about done with the world. He tried to stay alive but his senses left him one by one and within seconds, he was reduced to a near-lifeless shell of a man waiting for death, all alone and under a tremendous amount of sorrow and regret.

Flashes of a certain redheaded female brought him back to his senses for a few moments and while he had lost the sense of sight, smell, and touch, Minato, for the first time in a while, did shed a single tear that traveled down his cheek but it did nothing to relieve his agony.

A blue butterfly fluttered past his fading vision and Minato gave out a bitter chuckle.

"S-So this is how it ends…."

---

Yukari and Fuuka exchanged a nervous glance and the brunette fidgeted on her seat, the cup of coffee cold between her fingers as she hadn't taken a sip until now. The brunette's focus was on her friend who sat opposite to her, looking as bewildered as she did before. Fuuka had ordered a cheesecake but her appetite was gone and much like Yukari, she was staring at Hamuko in worry, and a small amount of fear.

Hamuko had accepted the offer to hang out at the café but she was clearly not there mentally and it was obvious she was in a great amount of distress. She was constantly looking left and right, wary of her surroundings, cringing due to pain pulsing in her arms and coughing to ease the invisible grip around her neck.

"Hamuko…" Yukari broke the tense silence and leaned in, eyes flashing concern for her friend. "Are you okay? You look like you are in pain…"

"I-I'm fine," Hamuko replied, her hoarse, troubled voice betraying her words. She reached for the cup of cold coffee and took a sip and it was hell to swallow. Another bad cough cleared her throat and Hamuko noticed that Fuuka was staring at her too, with the same concerned gaze as Yukari. "G-Guys, don't worry. I'll be fine. Just a bit… under the weather."

Neither Yukari nor Fuuka was convinced but they decided not to press the issue. The brunette nodded at her with a small smile and took a sip of her coffee, trying to start up a conversation to distract Hamuko from whatever she was suffering.

"So… Tomorrow is graduation day, huh?" Yukari said, a real smile emerging on her face. "Been such a long year but we made it."

"Yes," Fuuka smiled as well, eyes still focused on her redheaded friend. "It all went by so fast, didn't it?"

Hamuko managed a smile for her two friends but it was forced and a second later, the wild card went back to fidgeting on her seat, alternating between massaging her left and right hand. Yukari gave another sigh and another 5 minutes of silence passed between the three best friends, tense, awkward and stifling.

"U-Um!" Fuuka almost squeaked in desperation and Hamuko looked at her. "You were supposed to tell us something, Hamuko-chan."

"Oh yeah," Yukari exclaimed, remembering that Hamuko had promised them some exciting news one day before graduation. "You said it was something really, really good so spill all the details!"

That brought her back-

"H-Huh?"

Hamuko took a second to process the demand but as soon as she understood, warmth and happiness began to bubble in her chest and for a second, the redhead came alive, nearly yelling and squealing in joy. The misery, the confusion, the pain, all of that faded away under the warmth and an old smile came to her face, so wide, cheerful, and contagious that the two other females started grinning as well.

"Oh yes!" Hamuko spoke clearly, like her old self and she could not help but giggle as the pleasant sensation began to soothe her restless soul and she sat up straight, having forgotten all about the pain. "I can't believe I forget! Listen here, girlfriends!"

"You're teasing us way too much," Yukari giggled, playfully smashing her fist on the table to encourage her. "Tell us!"

Hamuko opened her mouth and announced with all the happiness had that gathered in the past few minutes-

"I'm getting proposed tomorrow!"

Hamuko screamed out the exciting news and soon as her ears picked up what she herself said and her mind comprehended what she had blurted out, the redhead froze in her seat and a cold, broken gasp escaped her mouth, laced with every bit of pain imaginable. The sound reverberated over and over again in her head and the lively world around her faded into darkness-

"P-Propose to me…?" the redhead repeated those words and she had no idea where they came from. She just blurted it out, as if someone else had possessed her for a few seconds just to say that. The surreal confusion began to set in but at the same time, Hamuko felt so very close to finding out what she had lost, memories that she cherished above all else.

"S-Someone promised me…" she breathed out, already getting up from the seat and ignoring the excited chatter of her two friends. She walked in a daze, her own words echoing in her head, nearly splitting it open but the pain didn't concern her as much anymore.

"Someone very dear to me…"

Blurry, forgotten memories began to resurface and Hamuko found herself standing outside the café, alone in the cold night. She looked up at the moon and simply stared at it and before she knew it, she had already started walking, eventually running as fast as her body was able to, and beyond-

The memory of a certain blue-haired male made her run faster and Hamuko, for some reason, had already started begging for forgiveness, fearful that she would be cursed forever if she didn't-

"M-Minato…"

The next step was followed by a blast of mist exploding from under her feet and the redhead gasped in surprise when she bolted from one point to another in a split second but the shock lasted for a split second and her semi-conscious mind focused back on the only objective that mattered-

Minato.

Her life depended on his forgiveness-

She did not know why-

Something…

Someone…

No…

There were many…

They told her.

All speaking/growing/howling in unison, demanding the same.

…

Hamuko smashed the door open and panted, not exhausted in the least bit but she was anxious beyond her senses. She opened her mouth to scream and beg for Minato to come down and forgive her but the words died in her throat and the wild card took a step back in fear when she saw someone resting on the couch to her right-

"Minato…" her heart withered at the sight of Minato curled up on the couch, shivering all alone in the cold lounge of the dorm. He was not moving, barely breathing and Hamuko started walking over to him, her frame trembling, shackled by a foreign, unexplainable but brutal sensation-

Hamuko stopped next to him and she bit her lip at the sight. The little, barely noticeable escape of breath calmed her down somewhat and for the next few seconds, she focused on his breathing to attain a little more peace. Part of her wanted to yank him awake and cry in his arms the whole night but she recalled how exhausted and tired Minato had been in the past few weeks and relented.

"Minato…" Hamuko softly whispered his name to start and he did not respond. She spoke a bit louder and still nothing. He was breathing but not responding to her, probably deep asleep but Hamuko was shivering worse than he was and after a few more verbal attempts, she crouched and sat next to him, resting a hand on his shoulder-

A unison of screeches and howls went off in the back of her mind as soon as she touched him, and a shrill screech made her gasp out loud. She blackened out for a moment and she came back to her senses, she was already shaking him awake, softly, trying not to hurt him.

"M-Minato?" Hamuko leaned down and whispered next to his ear. His breathing picked up a little bit but he was still asleep and she briefly wondered if Minato was actually awake and was ignoring her for what she had done.

"Minato…" Hamuko shook him with a bit more force and prayed that he would wake up and this time, he did, stirring up on the couch but only barely. Something resembling a groan came from the blunet, indicating that he had woken up but it took a while for Minato to make any sort of movement, and Hamuko began to crumble further with every passing second. He looked so weak, so exhausted, so close to death-

Hamuko paused when Minato opened one bloodshot eye to stare up at her, and he cowered backward when he realized that it was her, sitting right beside him. There was a clear flash of fear in his single eye and Minato turned his head away from her, terrified that she was either going to hit him again or curse him and he was in no condition to endure another heartache.

Hamuko flinched at the reaction and her stomach churned in self-disgust and shame, remembering what she had done and said to him. Minato, of all people, was afraid of her…. "N-No…" she whispered, trying to keep her voice as soft as possible.

"I-I won't do anything," Hamuko promised, stopping just shy of his face. Another swirl of fear and doubt in the eye of the blunet made her choke and Hamuko raised her hands and backed off slightly, mouth wide open as she was out of breath already. "I-I won't hurt you…"

"…"

"I-I'm sorry, Minato…"

"For all that I've done…." Hamuko continued, once again moving towards him and Minato did not shy away this time. Unable to retain his focus, his eye snapped shut as soon as she got close but he remained awake, breathing out faintly to let her know that he was awake and listening.

Hamuko glanced at her trembling right hand and bit her lip, unsure but she had to try. Slowly, she reached out for him and gently ran her hand through his messy blue hair. The former wild card tensed up for a second but he soon calmed down and for the first time in months, he gave a soft sigh and began to lean into her touch.

Minato nuzzling against her hand made the redhead smile slightly and she continued running her fingers along his head, combing and tidying his hair into something neat. She brushed his fringe to the side and observed the wet track of a single tear along his cheek. Minato had cried again? Her chest heaved at the thought and now more confident, she opened her arms and hugged his curled-up form on the couch.

Another soft, peaceful sigh escaped his mouth and Hamuko herself eased a little when she felt him in her arms again, breathing steadily as warmth began to seep across his cold frame. She whispered a slew of apologies into his ear and shifted closer to him, pressing a kiss against his temple and staying in the same position for the next few minutes because the embrace, despite the awkward position, soothed her as much as it did him.

Hamuko hugged his head to her chest and despite the beads of sweat wetting her face, the smile on her face grew as his breathing stabilized in her embrace, and while he laid still, she could tell that Minato was happier than he had been in weeks. She glanced around the deserted lounge and scowled at the fact that nobody had bothered putting a blanket on Minato. Those bastards. She was definitely going to give them a piece of her mind now, even if Minato had ordered her not to-

"H-Hamuko…"

The blunet under her began to move and Hamuko gave him some space, watching on as he attempted to sit up on the couch, arms shaking as he tried picking himself up despite the inhumane levels of fatigue constricting his body. Hamuko shook her head and wrapped her arms around his waist, helping him sit up and she kept the hold around him, fearful that Minato was going to collapse if she let go. She took one glance at his face and nearly shrieked in horror upon observing the condition of his face; bruised and his cheek swollen. She recalled and cursed herself for slapping him and that was the cause of the bruise but why was his face swelled-

"No…"

Hamuko shook her head. Now was not the time to press him for answers. Minato was finally comfortable around her and she was not going to ruin the moment, not after the little spat that they had. Her concern and questions could wait until tomorrow, when he was in a better condition to answer. For now-

Hamuko gazed into his eyes and smiled softly, stroking a finger under his right eye and almost cooing when he breathed out her name without a hint of fear or hesitation. She tightened her grip around his body and glanced at the steps.

"Let's get you to your room, okay?" Hamuko said, gently picking him up from the couch, arms still coiled around his waist. He was almost weightless and it made sense as he was not sleeping properly for weeks but tonight, one day before graduation, Minato was going to sleep peacefully and she was going to stay awake the whole night to make sure those sons of bitches were not going to disturb him.

Hamuko began to guide him, slowly and with great caution as she did not want to stress him too much and too quickly. She was extra careful when they traversed the steps and after a short while, they ended up on the second floor and Hamuko was blasted by another torrent of old memories, all blurry and unfocused and she nearly lost her footing-

The redhead shook her head and began walking towards the end of the hallway, with Minato still clinging onto her, unable to stand on his own. Hamuko was surprised, stunned even at how easy she had accomplished this. She had basically carried him all the way up to the second floor and she was not even out of breath. Hamuko was expecting it to be a tough task as he was quite a bit bigger than her but still no problem at all. She wondered… When did she get so strong?

Hamuko had questions about her pain tolerance as she was able to function despite massive internal bleeding in her limbs but her new-found strength was another big question mark. She was confident that if she punched the wall, she would shatter it, maybe even the dorm itself if she tried hard enough.

What was happening to her? Hamuko didn't stop to think too much because they had arrived at the last room on the second floor. She opened the door and brought Minato inside, kicking the door shut before she guided Minato towards his bed-

"Rest easy, Minato…"

Minato sat on the bed and with the last bit of strength, he gripped her wrist and tugged on her sleeve, silently pleading with her to stay for a few more minutes. Hamuko had no intention of leaving whatsoever but that little tug made her heart swell up with more warmth and happiness. He hadn't fallen out of love with her after all.

She quickly closed the distance between them and rested her knees on either side of his body, quickly wrapping her arms around him, just as he wanted. The two breathed out in unison and the redhead snuggled closer when he leaned his head against her shoulder, his breathing steady and stable for now.

Hamuko blinked when she felt his arms coiling around her as well, hands clutching her jacket. For the first time in weeks, even months, Minato was hugging her and while his grip was weak, almost non-existent, she could tell that he was holding onto her, clinging onto her with all that he had left in him.

Hamuko straddled his lap for a more comfortable position and rewarded him with a kiss on his forehead, and he shivered in pleasant anticipation of another and she gave him one, softly smiling against his cheek while her finger moved along his jaw. She wanted to kiss his lips but given his current condition, plagued with fatigue, she decided to wait for tomorrow-

"Tomorrow…"

Minato loosened his grip around her and lolled his head against her shoulder, shuddering against her as sleep began to wash over his dim senses. He was awake for a couple of minutes at most and that was all he could handle and within a second, he slipped back to deep slumber. Hamuko double-checked by nudging him and sure enough, he was fast asleep within seconds.

Hamuko grimaced at the quick transition to sleep and wondered if he had actually passed out due to exhaustion. Regardless, she handled him carefully and after one last, apologetic kiss on his face, she rested him down on his bed and the blunet immediately drew a deep breath, trying to adjust his body after the shift in position.

Hamuko stayed alongside him, hovering above, and worry evident in her gaze. The little cuddling session had erased her concerns for a while but after the abrupt shift of consciousness, she was back to worrying about his health again. This level of exhaustion was not okay and while she was not going to blow up and curse at him like she did before, the redhead was once again stressing over what had happened to him, what had reduced Minato to such a weakened state.

Hamuko watched him sleep for a few more minutes and while she did not want to wake him up, she gave in to her worries and once again shook him awake, a little harsher than before because she needed some comfort.

"Minato…"

The blunet barely opened his right eye once again but no use as all he could see was black and while he heard her voice, it was distorted with static and his brain could not decipher what was being said.

"Will you be alright…?" Hamuko said, tears already in the corners of her eyes as she felt his shoulders and arms; deflated and bony, almost completely devoid of mass or muscle.

"Minato…" she nudged him softly.

"…"

"Remember, Minato…" she whispered.

"…"

"You have to propose to me tomorrow…" she reminded

"…"

"You promised me…" her thoughts came to a screeching halt and Hamuko felt her heart beat in her throat-

Blink-

"R-Remember…?"

Hamuko froze, her own words stopping her heart for a second-

Remember…?

Another shrill, maddening screech boomed in the back of her psyche, inducing the same feeling she experienced back in the café but far more crippling and agonizing than before, burning in the center of her soul. Her vision began to twist and turn and Hamuko tried screaming out for help but the words dissolved in her throat and her battered psyche began to unravel, remembering all that she had lost-

In this room-

In the same room with Minato-

Minato-

The moment Hamuko gazed at his bed and saw him, she blackened out-

"R-Remember…"

---

"Amazing," Hamuko finished, getting close to him and giggling. "I loved every minute of it, Minato."

"Me too," Minato flipped himself over and looked up. "Best moment of my life, thank you."

"Mine too," Hamuko said softly, still panting because the climax had left her drained and she couldn't wait to sleep in his arms. "Just what I needed before tomorrow… I want more moments like these."

"Me too," Minato said, brushing his bangs away upon her order. "Wore me out and broke my conditioning but it was worth it."

"Hehehe," Hamuko stuck her tongue out.

"Everything is worth it for you," Minato said. "You're special, you know that?"

"You know what you can do?" Hamuko sat up and giggled some more. "How about you propose to me on the rooftop when we meet up after the battle?" she cooed, already imagining the event in her head.

"Propose?" Minato blinked. "Darling, that is-"

"It'll be super cute!" Hamuko exclaimed. "It'll give us both a reason to beat Nyx so you can propose to me in front of everyone."

Minato sighed. "Hamuko… We're fucking 17 years old!" he reminded her.

Hamuko stopped giggling and frowned, shaking her head at him in a dismissive way. "I don't think you get how this works, even now," she said, climbing his lap and removing the hair from her eyes to stare at the blunet under her. "What are your weaknesses again, baby?"

"I uh..." Minato gulped. "Hormones..."

Hamuko frowned, sliding her fingers down his stomach.

"A-And Hamuko!" Minato said quickly. "Hormones and Hamuko, especially Hamuko!"

"That's right!" Hamuko spat. "Don't force me to make you submit! Next time, I'll be sure to sink my teeth in!"

"Alright, alright, alright!" Minato gave up, shuddering at her warning. "Whatever you say, babe! Whatever you say, we do."

---

Hamuko wailed on the top of her lungs when she came back to her senses, face drenched with tears as she had cried her soul out in a single second and the scream emptied everything she had left but the horror had only begun. She could feel it bubbling in her veins, something insidious and cruel, and in a reflex, she screeched his name for help-

"MINATO!"

Hamuko choked on her own blood, her spotty vision desperately trying to locate the blunet-

The moment she saw Minato again, for a split second, lying lifelessly on the same bed, she remembered-

Her personas came alive after months of slumber and the united howl from the gods and demons nearly shredded her brain to pieces, as every last entity lurking in the sea of her soul cursed her for forgetting the single most important person in her life, who now laid broken and tormented on the same bed, having lost everything for her sake-

Hamuko could not think straight and she desperately tried to get a hold of her delirious mind but between the howls of her persona and the abnormal pain tearing through her mind, body and spirit, she found it impossible to maintain her composure. Every passing second, an old memory tore into her brain and her personas roared each time, pushing her towards the brink of her sanity-

Hamuko could feel the strongest persona of them all, Nyx, threatening to burst through her chest and decimate everything around her in a single burst of darkness, reduce all to mist-

Despite suffering an immense amount of physical pain and mental agony, Hamuko clenched her fist for a bit of self-control when she realized that she was in the same room as Minato, and her bloody eye widened slightly. Minato was lying on the bed, still unconscious and he was completely defenseless. One attack and Minato was going to die-

"N-No!" Hamuko drew back, and her remaining sense screamed at her to get the hell out of his room, or else Minato was going to die-

Another torrent of old, cherished, forgotten memories made her hack out blood, as the grip around her neck had returned, even worse than before but Hamuko endured it and bolted out of his room, desperate to get the hell away from him-

Hamuko ran as fast as she could, towards her room and with every step, she remembered more and more. It all began when Minato arrived at the dorm in April of last year, returning to her life just as she had hoped and then-

"Ugh!" Hamuko kicked her door open and headed inside her own room, clutching, grasping and clawing at her own throat as her persona was threatening to crush her larynx, punishing her as it had done insidiously over the past couple of days-

"Gack!"

Whichever way she looked, her eyes would burn with tears and visions-

More memories-

Memories she swore she would take to her eternal resting place-

Memories of the boy who saved her at the bridge over ten years ago-

Memories of the boy who saved her countless times in the battle against the shadows-

Memories of the boy who rose up one last time and saved her, her friends, and the world from Nyx-

"M-Minato…"

Memories of her messiah-

All forgotten-

Hamuko could hear every last persona of hers cursing her, wishing her a vile death for the sin she had committed. It crawled and coiled around her already shredded neck and the redhead remained frozen in place, black mist escaping from her bloodied fists and from under her feet as she had given up-

She had forgotten Minato-

She was beyond redemption-

She deserved a cruel death-

She was going to perish-

The last memory, the night before the promised day, when they built their love from scratch was the final nail in the coffin and upon regaining all that she had lost, Hamuko let out a bloodcurdling scream of sorrow and pain that shredded through her throat and sent droplets of blood spraying through the air-

The darkness of Nyx exploded from within her as soon as the scream left her throat and silenced the noise, quickly spreading throughout the entirety of her room and beyond, spreading throughout the dorm in a matter of seconds. The persona, motivated by her own desire for punishment, silenced her wailing, blinded her eyes and proceeded to shred, crush and abuse-

Just as she deserved.

"Minato…"

---

"I'm alive…?"

Minato sat on the edge of his bed, confused and shaken as he glanced at his palm; pale, listless and devoid of life as usual, as expected. In fact, he was sure that he had actually died a bunch of times in the past two to three hours and yet here sat, somehow still alive and his heart still not completely at peace.

It was that surge again. That burst of evil energy that brought him back from the clutches of death, just like it did a few nights ago. That was definitely Nyx, or at least something very close to her but there was something else… someone else along, suffering her wrath in muffled silence-

"Hamuko…" Minato grabbed the frame of the bed to stand up. It was tough and his body was being a bitch, refusing to cooperate and abide by his meager will but he made it to a vertical base and staggered his way towards the door, knowing that he had something to do-

Someone was calling out to him, he could feel it pulsing in his spirit-

To save her-

Hamuko was in danger. His flickering senses were screaming at him to rush up there, as pathetic and worthless as he was, and save her from whatever was happening to her while his body was begging him to lie down, rest and die already.

Minato leaned against the door and thought back to a couple of minutes ago. Even when he was drifting in and out of what he could only describe as a coma, he still remembered Hamuko waking him up on the couch, apologizing to him over and over again and holding her in his arms, and not letting go.

There was something different about her this time around. She was a lot more comforting and her touch was much more warm and relaxing than before, still not what it used to be but definitely a lot more than before. He actually found himself leaning into her touch, and holding onto to her with his meager grip, murmuring for more.

Minato widened his single eye and got off the door, standing up once more when he realized.

Hamuko was starting to regain her memories and her personas-

"F-Fuck…"

Minato held a hand to his chest to keep his heart in place and lumbered out of his room, vision still swimming around as he was running on fumes of fumes. The condition of the second floor lounge, darkened and cloaked in shadows brought his sight back and Minato glanced at the floor-

Darkness-

The darkness that had given birth to his ultimate persona had flooded the dorm, and more of the murky element was proliferating across the building, seeping down from the third floor.

Minato began moving again, using the wall for support and every step muddied his vision, drove more pressure around his chest and brought him closer to the grave as he was pushing his soul well beyond the limit but he kept moving, not stopping even despite knowing he was going to suffer a whole lot more than what he had endured before.

The blunet arrived on the third floor and could barely see the light from the ceiling bulbs. His sight was already impaired and the darkness didn't help one bit. It was getting harder to breathe now as the shadows were nauseating but Minato found the wall and used it to move towards his destination; the last room on the third floor.

Minato stood outside her room and checked for his pulse. Barely there and here was, about to venture into god knows what but Hamuko was inside and somehow he knew she was in pain, suffering, and very close to death-

That thought made him reach out for the doorknob and with a small prayer for her safety, he pushed the door open and saw pitch black that exploded outwards a millisecond later-

"S-Shit!"

Minato was expecting to get crushed into bloody paste but for some reason, the darkness didn't hurt him one bit, simply rolling off his weak frame and escaping sideways, leaving him unscathed. While he was unharmed from the explosion, his vision was obscured and straight ahead, he could see nothing but the darkness of the night sky-

The presence inside her room was especially vile and as soon as he sensed the malevolence, his mind flashed back to the promised day and his knees began to tremble, remembering what he had lost-

"No…" a quick shake of his head later, Minato focused on his goal; saving Hamuko and with a deep breath, he stepped inside the room and noted the stark change in atmosphere, markedly different than the rest of the dorm as the room was definitely the source. The darkness was all-consuming and he could not see his own hand, hear his own heartbeat, or even feel his own touch. It was like he had entered a whole different dimension, a special pocket space that existed in the border between time and space, a different plane of existence altogether.

This was a dark abyss, the nexus of everything unholy in the world, all condensed into a single room. He was breathing in the real world but his body seemed to be on a different sphere of existence, outside the border of conventional reality. This was something truly otherworldly, fitting for the core of a being such as Nyx, even her imitation.

A blackened distortion of hell itself, and he stood right in the middle.

Anyone who had the misfortune of stepping inside this special hellscape was either going to be crushed to dust or lose their mind at the absurdity of it all but Minato was still standing, unharmed and with his sanity in check. The primordial darkness, Nyx, did not consider him an enemy and that was the only reason he was still alive and not outright crushed.

Minato drew a deep breath to calm himself down. He was severely weakened, mentally shot and so very close to death but he trusted the bond he had with Hamuko and took another step forward, locating her spiritual essence amongst all the chaos, a faint pulse somewhere in there.

She was alive, Minato could sense it. She was still there, breathing in the dark abyss and after another deep breath to gather his resolve, he opened his mouth and whispered-

"Hamuko…"

Minato could not hear his own voice as the dense darkness stifled all but he knew he had uttered her name and as soon as the last word left his lips, he heard something from the shadows-

Gasp-

A shrill gasp pierced through the dense darkness and the festering black imploded into itself, forcing Minato to put a hand against his eyes as it was impossible to see through the raging tempest but he was able to hear his own breathing now but nothing else, not even a whisper from Hamuko. The silence unnerved him and Minato started to move, wading through the darkness to reach her. He placed every last bit of force and will into his vocal cords and called out to her once more, with everything that he had left-

"Hamuko!"

The second time he spoke her name, it all dissipated instantaneously, retreating back to the source upon a single call of the messiah. With a final pulse, the darkness evaporated to nothingness and bit of light poured into his sight, giving him a small glimpse of her room, and it looked like hell. Minato blinked a few times and squinted and all stabilized, and his heart shrank in horror at the sight before him-

The room was totaled, flipped upside down and turned inside out because everything was in there decimated, every piece of furniture shredded to pieces and the structure of the room itself; the walls, and the floorboard were shattered and barely held in place. A special kind of destructive force torn through the room and if not for the encompassing darkness, the infernal sound from the demolition would have woken up the entire district but the room didn't matter to Minato because as soon his horrified eyes followed the tracks of red towards the source of blood-

Hamuko laid in a heap in the corner of the decimated room, in a puddle of her own blood as every patch of skin he could see was lacerated down to the bone, continually gushing out blood with every labored breath she took. Her limbs twisted outwards, joints forcefully bent at opposite angles and ankles crushed into heaps of broken bones and skin but her eyes-

Her eyes were vacant, emptiness shimmering faintly in her ghostly orbs as every last of life was eviscerated from her being and the wild card was simply staring at the bloodied ground, her head titled slightly to the right and her jaw hanging open, teeth shattered and blood dripping down her chin. She had gone through a lifetime of physical torture and an eternity of mental agony in the past ten minutes and while it had come to an end, so had her soul.

At first, his brain simply refused to process the hellish sight, already muddled and marred and for a second, Minato considered surrendering right there and then but on the way out, he was going to gouge his accursed eyeballs out because he was not going to live with that. Fuck the abhorrent world. Fuck the promise to miserable his friends because it had happened again-

Hamuko, the girl he had sacrificed it all for, the girl who considered him her messiah, was a pile of bloodied, broken bones but this time he had nothing left to give. There was nothing he could do to help her. He had lost it all months ago and now he stood a mere human, without a single persona in the sea of his soul to heal her.

Minato took a step back as his world spun several times over, another brutal episode of vertigo derailing his thoughts and he was nearly knocked on his back. His chest compressed inwards and his ribcage began to protrude against his skin and even with his tumbling senses, Minato could tell he was going through some sort of a heart attack because it hurt, his chest hurt so fucking bad and he could feel his lungs filling up with blood and yet-

Minato gritted his teeth and kept himself from falling backwards, regaining his clumsy footing to remain upright. He swallowed the blood that had pooled up in his mouth and clenched his fists, repeating one mantra over and over again, unblinking eyes fixed upon Hamuko who had not moved an inch, broken, paralyzed and mentally shattered.

"Gotta be strong…"

"Just this one last time…"

As broken and mutilated as Hamuko was, he could sense a faint beat of life within her and collapsing right now, when she needed him, was not an option. He was a shell of his former self, having lost the fragment of Death that fueled his spirit and the Wild Card that gifted him limitless potential. All his curses were sacrificed in an attempt to fend off Nyx and he stood a regular, broken human being but-

Even a broken man was capable of feats of courage from time to time. He just had to reach out to her and bring her back. He was capable of that, even in his current worthless state.

Minato shook his head and tried to emulate his old self, the fearless, war-hardened persona user who had battled through an onslaught of shadows and gods without taking a step back. That was who he needed to be, even if for a short while.

"Just this one last time…"

Minato recovered from his hunched position and assumed his old stance; upright and firm and he concentrated the last bit of life around his eyes in an effort to appear alive and well. It hurt. The strong posture was cracking his spine but he sucked it up and began to walk, without limping, footsteps loud and firm and his gait as close to his old style as possible.

Arisato jerked his head and vision came back completely, splotches of black and spatial distortions clearing up and he focused on Hamuko, withholding the despair from crashing out his throat and made his way over to her.

The loud footsteps clicking against the bloodied floor made her fingers twitch and her unblinking eyes began to tear up, her broken spirit regaining a bit of life as Minato drew closer and closer to her, radiating the same comforting aura that she was used to; the aura of a messiah.

Minato stopped next to her and bit his lower lip when he observed her mangled condition up close, way worse now that he was forced to look without shying away every two seconds. His knee joints crackled and splintered when he crouched down to her level, holding her vacant, lifeless gaze with a mix of concern and uncertainty.

She was still there… Somewhere in there….

He cupped her bloodied cheek with his right hand and warmth began to gather around the place on contact, spreading across her cold and battered frame. The redhead exhaled a short gasp of breath, the void in her eyes retreating back ever so slightly, just enough that her sight began to work and she caught a glimpse of blue and silver.

Minato pressed his forehead against hers and smiled softly, bringing a bit of color to her aghast face and she finally blinked, processing the smile on his face and the life in his silver orbs, so close to her.

"Hamuko…" Minato called out to her softly and a heard a faint cry of his name from her, voice hoarse and marred with abuse and grief but she had begun to move, her right arm shivering with tremors of life, dark mist and healing magic smoking from her sleeve, bending the broken bones and healing the ruptured muscles-

"I'm right here…"

Her pale eyes, bleached with horror and grief, finally blinked.

"I'm not going anywhere…"

The remnants of her berserk personas retreated into the back of her psyche and his voice echoed in her head, quelling every last god and demon looking to hurt her. Her right arm grasped his shoulder and unshed tears started escaping her red eyes. Her lungs began to burn for air and one complete beat of her mended heart later, Hamuko emerged from the void and to her senses, screeching out his name in sorrow as soon as she found her vocal cords-

"Minato!" Hamuko released the lingering bits of grief and pain with that shout and Minato opened his arms, not minding the jerk of his heart when she threw herself in his arms and started apologizing profusely, crying on the top of her heart while she clutched him with a vice grip, just like the Hamuko he knew.

Minato clutched her as well, with all that he had left, drawing in one complete breath for the first in weeks, the first time since they had the ugly spat in school… No, even before that. When he woke her up on couch on the promised day and found out that she has lost her memories, Minato lost a part of himself but now-

The Hamuko he knew was back, curled up against him, finally giving him all the salvation he desired… and how fitting, just a couple of hours before graduation day. Fate clearly hated him for messing up the messianic destiny written in stone but to spend a few hours with her… he considered himself blessed.

Hamuko was hyper-ventilating in his arms, nearly clawing off his jacket as she struggle to compose her thoughts, her body, mind and heart racing one hundred miles an hour, as if she had woken up from a terrible nightmare and was not sure how to let it go, or how to get back to normal. With her memories back, Hamuko recalled every last painful second of the prior year, from the first time she summoned a persona, all the way to the final battle but all that agony paled in comparison to the physical and mental torment she went through in the past ten minutes.

She really forgot…

The blue haired persona user who she was clinging onto for sanity… she really forgot all about him, and what he did, despite swearing not to-

Her personas were ready to ravage her again as the thought echoed again and again but a soft grip around the back of her head soothed her numerous masks and Hamuko calmed down when he ruffled the back of her head lovingly, his other around coiling around her shoulders and his head resting against her temple, lips right next to her ear.

"I-I forgot about you…" Hamuko finally spoke and she shuddered in disgust at the reality. "I really forgot about my messiah…."

"It's okay," Minato assured her, speaking into her ear so she would not miss a single word. "There is nothing to forgive. You remembered… Remembered before everyone else did…"

Hamuko remembered the past few months and the rotten memories came screeching back in her mind, tensing up her body. For the past three months, she lived without a care in the world for Minato, oblivious to the promise that she had sworn the moment he came back to her on the promised day; to protect him and not let him suffer anymore, for even a microsecond and yet-

Hamuko started wishing for her personas to strangle her when she remembered what she had done to him. She had slapped him in front of the entire school and told him to die and she spent the next week either completely ignoring him or being hostile and hateful towards him-

"It's okay…" Minato brought her back again with another whisper, stopping her thoughts of self-mutilation and allowing her allowing her airways to function without collapsing.

"I'm so sorry…" Hamuko said, panting after every word, nearly slipping into cardiac arrest as her heart threatened to burst from the guilt.

Minato drew back from the embrace and Hamuko suppressed her scream when she witnessed his weary face, busted up from the slap she hit him with a week ago and swelled up from what she could only assume was blunt force trauma to the face-

Minato saw a flicker of self-hatred and pressed a finger to her lips, silencing her but the tears kept on flowing as she remembered every last bit of what she had done to him. She actually, of her own will, told him to go die-

She was past redemption and deserved to suffer the moment she raised her hand against him-

"It's alright, Hamuko," Minato said, wiping her tears, fingers still pressed up against her lip and Hamuko remained silent, shivering slightly, trying so hard not to bawl her eyes out again.

She was a worthless piece of garbage for ignoring him out of petty jealousy-

"Take a deep breath…" Minato urged, giving her an encouraging smile. He glanced down at the condition of her; still sliced open and broken and cleared his throat or a more convincing lie. "I'm right here with you…"

She deserved to burn in the vilest pits of hell for forgetting about him-

"Do you trust me, Hamuko?"

"More than anything else…" the redhead answered in a split second, just as she did during the last battle-

SHE HAD TO DIE RIGHT HERE AND NOW-

"Then let it go…"

Hamuko swallowed the despair still clawing and looked him in the eye. He was not asking her now, he was demanding her and after a shaky nod, she took a deep breath and started pushing the negative emotions to the back of her head, finding solace in the fact that she had finally remembered and that Minato was right beside her, holding her just like he always did.

"It'll be alright…" the redhead whispered and reached into the sea of her soul, drawing on her previously berserk personas-

Her personas resurfaced with full potential and Hamuko started healing the wounds she had suffered in the past few days. The internal wounds occasioned by the outburst of her persona began closing up and the broken bones started mending. Black and gold mist escaped from her collar and sleeves as Hamuko channeled every healing spell in her repository, the growing smile on his face encouraging her to go faster.

The last wound on her throat closed up and Hamuko dismissed her persona, having resurrected her mangled body in a couple of seconds, all under the watchful and hopeful gaze of Minato. The physical pain had subsided completely but she was still not completely at peace. There was still a dull ache of regret and shame on her heart and she shifted closer to her messiah, and the blunet leaned towards her as well, resting his forehead against hers.

Hamuko cradled his face with trembling hands and remembered the oath she swore after the end of the final battle. When Minato descended from the skies and returned to her, she promised to protect him and give him all the happiness in the world, for as long as they alive. She failed on that oath the next hour but no matter, she was willing to swear it all over again.

"I'm not going to let anything touch you," Hamuko promised, caressing his face, eyes not blinking. The little surge of regret in his eye went unnoticed by her and she continued, tears still cascading down her face but she pushed through and finished her vow. "I'm going to make sure, on my life that you will not suffer anymore."

Minato said nothing, afraid that he was going to cause her pain more later on, as he knew what awaited him. Instead, he just smiled and relished in her warmth and the comfort she brought, something he had dearly missed in the past few months. At times, he was terrified that he was going to die before she remembered but now here was, with the girl he loved right next to him, gazing at him with the same level of love and affection that he expected out of her.

The façade he had maintained for her crumbled and Minato felt a rupture somewhere inside his body, and his posture broke, back hunching over and his shoulders slumping down. The blunet nearly collapsed face-first but Hamuko, now healed and in her senses, caught him before he could.

"Minato!" Hamuko broke his fall and wrapped her arms around him, shivering slightly when she realized how weak he had gotten. Now that she remembered, the panic was ten times more intense, as she knew how strong he used to be and now-

"I'll be fine," Minato coughed now and held onto her for support, lifting himself up to her level and giving her a tired smile.

"You're not going away, are you?" Hamuko dared ask, mind flashing back to the moment when he left her at the top of the tower. She thought she had lost him forever and the same feeling was beginning to gnaw at her. "You're not going to leave me, are you?" the fear was back in her voice and she clenched a handful of his jacket, nails nearly piercing his skin.

"Like you did at the last battle…" Hamuko recalled him disappearing and leaving her for dead during the final few minutes of and her eyes were once again bleached with horror. She opened her mouth but nothing came but with the mere gesture, she demanded an answer and Minato lied through his teeth with another sweet but broken smile.

"I'm not going anywhere, Hamuko…" he assured and the relief washed over her face, the emerging panic in her eyes fading away as she trusted every he told her, not doubting it for even a second because Minato was never going to lie to her.

As Hamuko hugged him and started repeating her vows and apologies, Minato could barely keep his eyes open. The little act was brutal to keep up but everything had worked out well, for once in his life. Hamuko had regained her memories and she had healed herself, free of every wound but most importantly, she had taken care of the despair that had been clawing his heart for the past several months. At last, they were reunited, as he had prayed for every waking second of his borrowed life and Minato, after months of suffering, was finally given peace.

His senses were getting hazy again. Hamuko had begun weeping again and he kept her from spiraling with a hand on her cheek and he focused on her voice to remain awake. She then said something about their friends and Minato woke up again-

"No wait," Minato said suddenly, grabbing her wrist and stopping her from going after the rest. The redhead obeyed his order and remained seated, awaiting what he had to say. "Just stay with me for tonight…"

"I'm right here," Hamuko said, finally giving her an old smile and the blunet laughed lightly, his husky laughter driving Hamuko into another small state of panic as he sounded so exhausted and just a second away from passing out. "M-Minato!" she called out to him and Minato looked at her, soaking it all in and releasing another light chuckle.

In that moment, with everything so tranquil and his soul so at peace, Minato considered letting go and dying in her arms, with nobody else to bother them. As much as he loved and cherished his other friends, this was what he kept himself alive for. The cancer in his soul festered because Hamuko had forgotten but now that she had regained her memories and he got to feel her warmth and love again, he was content and ready to face eternal suffering for her sake.

Looking at her, however, Minato hesitated. She was still sniffing and crying, still shaken up from the terrible ordeal she had went through and Minato started piecing his soul back together, ready to endure his cursed life for a few hours more, for her sake. There was no way he was going away without consoling her a bit more, preparing her for life without him as she had a lot of years ahead of her but that could wait for tomorrow. For now-

Hamuko was panicking over his condition when Minato called out to her and she turned in his direction when the blunet cupped her jaw and forced her to look in his direction. She was expecting him to slap her across the face for her sins but he drew close and for a first time in a long time, he kissed her.

Hamuko froze when she felt his lips against her own and her body jolted awake when she realized that Minato was kissing her. Warm memories of the past began to pacify her restless soul and Hamuko melted into the kiss, placing a hand against his cheek and rolling her tongue into his mouth to deepen the kiss.

Now that she thought about… Minato hadn't kissed her even once since then. She recalled the last desperate one she gave him before she battled Ryoji but it was nothing like this, nothing as passionate and as loving as this. Her unfocused mind flashed back to the time when he kissed the breath out of her on the same bed and she had nearly passed out during it all. Currently, Minato was not even a fraction as strong and intense as back then. His grip around here was so soft and he was already panting just seconds into it but for Hamuko, it was perfect, and all that she needed. Minato was kissing her with all that he had and more.

Hamuko wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in close, the little bit of self-loathing and disgusting left dwindling out completely as she explored his mouth and felt his arms wrapping around her waist, trying to keep up with her and refusing to part, just as hungry as her. She moaned into his mouth just like that night and suddenly, all that happened before didn't matter anymore. This moment with her messiah, with the boy she loved, was all that mattered.

Everything was finally right in her little world.

Hamuko drew back for a second but devoured his mouth again, missing the little flicker of death in his eyes-

Her lips crashed against his and she climbed onto his lap, forcing his jaw open so she could kiss him with all the love she had for him.

They were going to be together forever now. This was the first night of the countless ones to come.

Minato could hear the warning bells ringing in his head, even with Hamuko moaning against his mouth, kissing him feverishly and without pause or a second of rest. The deathly bells tolled again and Minato estimated… Just a couple of hours to go.

Death was right around the corner but he pushed his brutal fate to the back of his mind and focused on her for the last night of his life.

It had been a long couple of months.

Graduation day was tomorrow.

---

I can say for sure now. 2 chapters left and they're both short, comprising of 1-2 scenes. It is finally ending and I can't believe it. This concludes the post journey saga. This is something I always wanted to show, present it as a brutal and cold and I hope the past few chapters were just that.

I haven't said this in a while but... review? :P

Ah, brings back review hound memories.

Get ready for peak angst and tragedy. Graduation day in the next chapter and the epilogue in the one after that.

See you guys. Cheers.