21 Novemebr 2009

Minatodai Dormitory, 3rd Floor Lounge

Evening

"I am worried that I may overheat." Aigis said solemnly to Koromaru, who in turn whine a reply to the robot. "No, I do not see how talking to the other females can help. They do not have to worry about the same mechanical issues."

"WOOF!"

"Why do you believe that my current predicament is related to my observations of Minato-san?"

Watching from the stairwell, Midori tried to piece together the one-sided conversation. She knew that somehow Aigis could talk to the dog, but this one was just so completely outlandish – even accounting for the participants. Stepping out onto the landing, she made her presence more properly known. "What's this about Ryoji-san and Minato-san?" Her tone of voice indicated that she only added the -san to Ryoji's name out of habit than anything else.

Aigis seemed startled, as though she was so absorbed in talking to Koromaru that she wasn't aware of Midori, despite her lack of stealth. "Oh. I was talking with Koro-chan about some of the physical effects that the presence of Ryoji-san have upon me. I notice that I am assessing him as a higher-class threat than any of the other classmates, and my internal systems spike whenever he approaches or communicates with myself or Minato." She began to speak in more technical terms that cased Midori to slightly zone out, or to look to the dog for guidance. It never came as Koromaru apparently had the same problem.

Midori finally picked enough contextual clues out of what was being said to make a good guess as to what was bothering Aigis. "Congratulations! You have now developed a sense of intuition. I won't call it 'Woman's Intuition' yet, but it's still there. Ryoji's a creep, no two ways about that , and all things considered, if you think he's dangerous... well then, he probably is." She paused, thinking back over things. "Wait. Didn't we already have this conversation?"

"We did," Aigis confirmed. "You recommended physical violence. Are you maintaining that recommendation?"

Thinking this over, Midori realized that Aigis was asking for help in dealing with a boy who may or may not be someone that Aigis shouldn't be associating with. Koromaru was right, girl-talk was far more likely to help than anything else. "Only if he touches you first. And try not to break his arms. So why were you asking Koro-chan for advice?"

"Because he was available." The reply was simple and factual.

"And I wasn't?"

"You were with Akihiko-san, doing exercises. I was not to disturb you."

"... You do realize that interrupting those would have been in my favour, correct?"

"Akihiko-san mentioned you would have that opinion, and reinforced his position with medical evidence of the benefits of the routines he has set up for you. Therefore, I will not interfere with those actions." It seemed that Aigis was taking pleasure in helping their senpai with his imposing of order on Midori's behalf. It almost irked Midori until she accepted that Aigis probably didn't know any better.

Narrowing her eyes, Midori laid hands on Aigis' shoulders. "That's far to many words to say 'You brought this on yourself'."

"You brought this on yourself?" Aigis repeated causing Midori to throw up her hands in surrender.

"Fine! I'm off to bed!" Watching her leave for the end of the hallway, Aigis turned back to Koromaru.

"Was it something I said?"

Late Night

Midori awoke to a pounding on her door. A glance at the clock through showed that it was still before midnight, and she knew that Minato wasn't planning on visiting Tartarus the day after their school trip. "I'm UP!" She yelled, looking for her glasses. Finding them, she opened her door to find Junpei bouncing in tension there.

"Get upstairs! Chidori's missing!"

Control Room, 4th Floor

Mitsuru glared at Junpei as the last person stumbled into the room. Midori hadn't changed out of her pyjamas, and she felt it would be better if she was back in bed. "Anyways, we received word from the hospital that there was a break-in, and several injuries – but no fatalities. Chidori was determined to be missing after a roll call of patients. The hospital contacted Officer Kurosawa and he contacted us."

"So they finally rescued her, huh?" Akihiko pondered this as Junpei paced behind him.

"She didn't go with them, they kidnapped her!" the young man could barely keep his emotions in check. He wanted so badly to go out and find her, but he didn't know where to start. A hand was pressed to his arm, and he spun around to see Midori smiling.

"Don't worry about her." She yawned. "Fuuka'll find her and you'll rescue her and I'll go back to sleep and everyone will be happy. So calm down."

"I can't!"

"Yes." Another yawn. "You can. Trust me. Trust us."

Fuuka looked at the clock. "It's almost time."

As the Dark Hour came over the world, Fuuka summoned forth Juno and began to look for STREGA.

22 November 2009

Minatodai Dorm, 3rd Floor Sitting Area

Daytime

"You sure slept in late." Yukari greeted Midori as she stumbled out into the hallway.

"Blame Junpei. He knows I'm still benched." She clearly hadn't recovered well from her midnight vigil, and was looking to take it out on someone worthwhile.

"I already have. And Mitsuru did as well. Gave him a thorough dressing down this morning." Yukari grinned at the memory. "Oh, let's keep it quiet. Fuuka's still asleep." Standing and brushing off her skirt, Yukari looked Midori up and down. "You look like you could use a good long bath. I'm meeting up with Minato at Paulowina mall later. You want me to pick something up from the pharmacy for you?"

"No, thank you." Midoro shook her head. "Akihiko-sensei has been very particular about things and making sure I'm doing the right things." She sighed in disgust. "Honestly, he almost as bad as Mitsuru-senpai in that regard, but he does have some charm to go with it." Deciding a change of topic was in order, she jumped on the other thread of the conversation. "So, you kissed Minato

Yukari stumbled, her face turning as pink as her sweater. "W... w... wh... what?!"

Midori saw an opening and exploited it for all it was worth. "Have you kissed Minato yet? I mean, the only one who doesn't see it is Mitsuru-senpai. And Junpei was asking Minato for advice where Chidori was concerned." Midori stopped when she realized that Yukari was starting to stare at her. That was the same stare that Yuzu used when she got to close to him, during that week.

It was the stare that said 'say one more word, and I'll gut you. Now lay off'.

Valuing her life, Midori beat a hasty path downstairs to get some food and watch some Featherman R with Ken.

But Yukari stayed. She thought over what Midori had said. Sure, she and Minato were getting closer, but that doesn't mean she had to throw it in her face like that.

Pulling her knees to her chest, Yukari remembered that night on the island, when he came down to talk to her on the beach. That evening after seeing the doctored footage of her father's last message. He was so kind and understanding, and there was something there that they had shared. A sense of loss?

Why was it that her heart ached every time she saw him?

Paulowina Mall

The two of them pulled each other close, lover and fool.

Minatodai Dormitory, 4th Floor Control Room

The Dark Hour

"I found them!" Fuuka cried triumphantly as the rest of SEES moved to attention around her. "Wait... why are they at the entrance to Tartarus?" She looked at the others through Juno's eyes. "I don't understand."

"What would they want there?" Minato asked the question that Fuuka couldn't. He also wasn't sure he wanted an answer.

"There's only one way to find..." Mitsuru was halted mid-sentence as Fuuka shrieked, clutching her head in agony. "Yamagishi! What's wrong?"

They were all surprised when it was Chidori's voice that echoed from the chamber that protected and amplified Fuuka. "Long time, no see. For most of you, at least."

"Chidori!" Junpei yelled as he brushed past Akihiko to get to Juno, hoping that the presence of his Persona would allow Chidori to recognize him. "Where are you? Why are you doing this?"

"I... I can't stand the sight of you, any of you anymore! Come to me! I'll do something about it!" Chidori's voice vanished as soon as it had come, leaving Fuuka on the floor, gasping for breath. Junpei helped her up.

"Did she say anything to you?" The demand was panicked and it showed how badly Junpei was taking this turn of events.

"Junpei!" Yukari tried to reign in her classmate. "Let her go! What do you think she's doing?"

"... hell should I know?" Junpei backed off from Fuuka then broke for the door, forcing his way past an unresisting Akihiko and Midori with a barely audible "sorry".

Mitsuru made sure her Evoker was secured in her holster. "We go after him. This is obviously a trap, but we have to spring it if we are to gain insight into our situation with The Fall. Now after Iori!"

They ran.

Outside Tartarus

Junpei skidded to a halt. There she was, beautiful and alone. "Chidori! What's going on? Where's those bastards that took you?"

She folded her hands in front of her, refusing to answer.

"This doesn't make any sense!" He took a step closer. "I... I know I'm not all that smart. I don't see what others do." Another step. He knew that if he could reach out and touch her, everything would be alright. He tried to ignore the imposing mass of Tartarus behind her, trying not to think about what Jin and Takaya were doing in there. "We don't need to fight. We can talk!" Another step and he reached out his hand. All she had to do was reach out as well...

"JUNPEI! LOOK OUT!"

He reacted, twsited and sliding to the side as Chidori threw her hatchet where he stood a moment before. "Chidori!" He tried to grab the chain attached to the weapon on impulse, but missed. "Why?"

The rest of SEES finally caught up to them. "Junpei! Back! She's not going to talk." Akihiko said as he grabbed Junpei by the arm and yanked him away from Chidori and into Midori. True to his word, the white-clad woman recovered her weapon and hung her head, still silent.

The battle that followed was short. Minato led Yukari, Mitsuru and Akihiko in beating down the enemy Persona user while Midori found herself hard pressed to keep Junpei from jumping in and trying to stop the fight. She understood that sometimes violence was the only way to solve anything.

But Chidori wasn't used to fighting, and her long convalescence in the hospital had taken their toll on her strength. Soon she was relieved of her weapon and exhausted allowing Midori to let Junpei go to her side.

He dropped to her knees beside her and reached out to take her hand. But she reacted like head bitten her instead. "DON'T TOUCH ME!"

"Chidori? Why? I can protect you from whatever it is you're afraid of." Everyone watched in silence at Junpei tried to talk his friend down.

She screamed back at him, bottled emotions coming to the fore. "NO! You CAN'T!" She sobbed. "You don't understand... I don't fear it. I don't fear death. I fear..." Chidori looked him in the face. "What I fear is... you."

Junpei looked like she had just slapped him. "What?"

"You... I fear... being attached to you... Once I gain something, I always feel like I will lose it. That's why I only lived for the moment. You brought me pain. Every time I saw you, you were nothing but pain in my heart."

"Huh?" Junpei had no clue how to respond to this, and so he did the only thing he could. He got closer to her to try and share in her pain.

"I never asked for this... Whenever I saw you, I feared not you, I fear your loss, your death... I fear that my time with you would end."

They saw them emerge from Tartarus, Jin and Takaya. Junpei moved to cover Chidori, while Akihiko broke ranks to advance on them. "You sons of bitches! You won't escape this time!"

Takaya ignored the outburst to sigh. "Oh, Chidori. How you've been poisoned by them."

Junpei snarled right back. "What the hell does that mean, you pale freak?"

"A freak? Oh, how right you are, yet how wrong. Are we not special? Chosen even? Yes... we are the chosen of this world." Takaya ignored the insult as he lectured Junpei.

"Whatever." Junpei reached back to put a hand on Chidori's shoulder. "I won't let you hurt her. Nothing matters as much as that."

Takaya laughed, raised his gun, and shot Junpei down.