A/N: Welcome back Riva. It's perfectly fine. I'm just happy you're still here. I love all reviewers but you were the first so here's a gift for your return. An early chapter. Rated M for sexual connotations. Reader discretion is advised.
July 7th Dark Hour Full Moon
"King Frost!" Minako summons her 4th persona of the night and deals the final blow to the Giant Shadow in front of her. It had been a tough fight, but her team was growing stronger. This battle didn't drain her nearly as much as the others did.
Mitsuru and Akihiko had looked visibly uncomfortable all night, for obvious reasons. They were inside a love hotel on Shirakawa Blvd, the site of the mission tonight. The coffins indicating the different people before the Dark Hour struck had left little to the imagination. Minako was sure that in one of the rooms they'd passed, there were three coffins on one bed. She could only wonder about the deviancy that had been going down in that room.
"Well done, everyone. I'll meet you outside." Fuuka's disembodied voice sounds in her ear. This was her first real full moon mission after rescuing their new companion from the tower, but she was already proving her worth. She could identify weaknesses and even the locations of Shadows almost instantly. Minako headed for the door, trying her best to ignore the provocative decorations on the bed and walls. Maybe she'd come back here someday with someone. Life took her down some odd turns after all.
Minako is reaching for the exit when she hears Fuuka's voice again in her ear. "Wait, I still sense a Shadow in the room." Everyone froze, their eyes searching their surroundings. The room was empty. Where was it hiding then?
"Everyone split up, search every corner." Minako ordered, her voice laced with authority. It was still a little strange since she was the youngest, but the others never hesitated to obey her every command. She is their leader without any discontent. They had all put their lives in her hands without the slightest uncertainty.
Junpei goes to the bathroom. Mitsuru the closet. Akihiko is searching behind the furniture. Minako walks to the large mirror on the right side of the room herself. It is in a hexagonal shape, much taller and wider than she could ever be, with golden hearts decorating the corners. The more she stares at the glass surface, the more discontent she feels.
Something was wrong, but what? What?
"Arisato, you find anything?" Akihiko puts his hand on her shoulder, and in that instant she realizes the origin of her paranoia. Their reflections don't exist in the glass at all.
Light. Bright white light. It surrounds everything, bathing her surroundings in the glow of the heavens.
The next thing Minako sees is a purple room, a bit like what she'd been in earlier. The bed is equally as decorative but the room is smaller. Less extravagant. She can hear whispering in the back of her mind, a voice that isn't hers. Who did it belong to?
"You're all I have."
The voice is familiar. Someone she knows? Or is it the voice of an automation? Preying on her delusions. No. It is familiar. She is sure of it. Who?
She can feel hands wrap around her school blouse, her ribbon. The silk slips from the holes keeping her jacket together, landing softly at her feet. She's not wearing her shoes and one of her socks are missing. Where had they gone? Who had undressed her? Minako can't seem to find her voice. What were the words to make the hands on her body stop moving? Had she forgotten how to speak completely?
"Let me take care of you."
Her jacket falls to the floor with a soft thump, and her skirt soon follows. She can feel her shirt loosen as the buttons came undone. One, by one. Sticky hands run over her bare chest. She hates the feeling. That stickiness of sweat. The sweat of her brother in his fear as he bled to death in her arms. Bile rises in her throat. She hated this. "Stop..." Her picture was getting clearer. The world was focusing. The hands were connected to arms, to a body. She turns around to look at the man who is holding her.
"Let me make love to you."
His lips run across her shoulders, her throat. Light touches, like a flame across her skin. She can feel his kisses trail across the top of her bosom, going dangerously close to her breasts. His pale eyes are glazed over as he tries to seduce her. Wrong. Wrong. All of it is wrong. Others didn't touch her. Didn't kiss her. She is always the one who makes the moves. The manipulator. The one who drew others in.
"Let go." Minako doesn't move her hands. There is no strength in her body, but her voice is cold, completely devoid of any of the passion that he holds. The man in front of her resembles him, yet is nothing like him. His eyes contain nothing and he is naked, but he is her senpai. Akihiko Sanada. "Sanada-senpai. Stop."
His lips freeze on her collarbone, but the smile is unwavering. There is so much warmth and love on his face that she is momentarily stunned. How can someone look so in love when his eyes are so lifeless? His fingers cup her chin so she needs to look into his lifeless, soulless eyes. She fights the urge to bite the hand that's holding her.
He leans in so that he's whispering into her hair, her ear, and then her shoulder. "Why don't you take a shower? Maybe then you'll feel more comfortable." Akihiko grabs her waist with his other hand, pulling her to kiss him fully on the lips. She doesn't feel the assault, only his subsequent push for her to take a shower.
Minako walks out of the room with light steps she doesn't remember. Her next scene is turning the water on full blast to the coldest temperature. The icy feeling numbs her skin but it clears her mind. She recites the facts as she remembers them. They are on Shirakawa Blvd. Inside Hotel Champs de Fleurs. It is the Full Moon Operation. They have already beaten the giant shadow. Except Fuuka said there was another one. They were looking for this other shadow when something blinded her. Took her to this hotel room. Where Akihiko had undressed her. Where he had kissed her.
Jin.
His face appears in her mind, as clear as if he is standing in the room with her. What would he say? Would he be sad? Angry? Would he even care? The man had not talked to her since that night three days ago. Why did his opinion matter? He would never know, and even if he did, why would his opinion matter?
Minako grabs a cup from the counter top, filling it with the freezing water that seemed to tear at her skin like hail. She recites the facts one more time before turning off the shower, and wrapping a towel around herself. It takes two steps to walk out of the small bathroom and out to her naked senpai. Akihiko is sitting on the bed, touching a part of himself that she never thought she'd see. He caresses the spot next to him.
She dumps the cup of water on his head, Drenching him from head to toe. Her pile of clothes is on the floor next to his. She can see Akihiko jump off the bed in her peripheral vision but she is focused on her clothes. It would look rumpled and messy if she put them on but there wasn't much choice. It was that or walk around naked. Akihiko was waking up behind her. His voice cut through the blankness in her mind.
"What...What the hell? Why it is so cold...? WHY AM I NAKED?! What did we...?"
"We didn't do anything. I'll meet you outside." Minako's sentences are curt but they betrayed no emotion. Not anger. Not embarrassment.
Akihiko can't help staring at his leader. The girl almost always had her hair tied up, but now it flowed freely, going slightly past her shoulders. The longest strands come almost to the middle of her breasts. They are bare. Bare like the rest of her pale, soft-looking skin. He can see the very end of a pink scar on her left hip and another one above her right shoulder. They decorate her body like badges of honor. Scars from battle? Or something else altogether. He punches himself before his eyes can wander any further. Grabbing his clothes from the pile next to the bed, he rushes into the bathroom, trying his best to push the image of her out of his mind.
"I can finally reach you!" Fuuka's soft voice resonates in both their minds. "I'm sorry I couldn't reach you sooner. The shadow was controlling your thoughts. You've all been separated, please regroup and go back to that big room from before. The shadow is still there."
"I hear you loud and clear!" Akihiko is shouting from the bathroom. Minako expected him to take a shower but he appeared in front of her after only a few minutes. If it weren't for his obvious sexual excitement and profuse sweating he would've looked almost normal.
Akihiko rubs the back of his neck. He isn't meeting her eyes. There is shame written all over his face. How much would he remember? Minako found that she didn't really care. "About what happened earlier..."
Minako closes her eyes and pastes on a smile. "Nothing happened, senpai. Don't worry." She tries to find the right emotion to describe what had happened in that room, but nothing comes to her. There is no shame, no desire, no disgust. She can't even pull up the most basic emotion: anger. There is nothing. The idea of Akihiko running his hands over her naked body had brought her absolutely nothing.
Rage. That was the only thing I could feel. Chidori had seen everything, more or less.
"They're about to come out." She'd been watching me almost the entire time. Something like apprehension flitted across her face. I've never seen her worried before so it might've been that.
"...Faster than I expected." Takaya is frowning. My anger escapes him completely. He'd been too focused on the scene in front of him to notice I'd been acting strangely. We watch them leave and when we are sure they are gone, he smiles. I can see a new plan forming behind his eyes. "That was quite a show. Absolutely fascinating. Don't you think, Jin?"
He didn't turn to look at me, but his voice cuts into my anger. I pushed the thought of Sanada and Minako to the back of my mind, fighting to keep my voice calm. "Very."
"Let us go. There is much to be done."
I spend the next few weeks in a stupor. All I do is work. Get requests, dig up information, work on grenades, bombs, bullets for Takaya. Kill. Repeat. I give my phone to Chidori and try my best not to think about the girl who sometimes made me want to laugh and sometimes made me want to stab someone. I didn't want to talk to her. I didn't want to think about her. My brain had other ideas.
When I wasn't paying attention, my mouse would hover over the Hemelin icon. Sometimes, I'll sign on, only to play a few matches until I see her log in and immediately run away like a coward. Things had been so much simpler. Chidori had been right.
She reads through all my messages. She's read the old ones several times, and I can hear my phone beep when a new one comes. She's sworn not to respond to any of them, but the girl wasn't known for keeping her promises. Her eyes seem to spark with intrigue every so often and she'll draw in her sketchbook with my phone open to a specific message. Despite my best attempts, I can't help myself from looking over her shoulder.
The dreams happen almost daily. Sometimes it's pretty simple. Just images of her face, or things we did together. At other times I'll see something that will cement itself in my mind for days. A hug. Holding hands. Us as children. Us kissing. Impossible dreams. The worst of it are the nightmares. I'll see her that night in July, on Shirakawa Boulevard with Sanada. Where he'd held her. Where he'd probably kissed her and even... I couldn't finish the thought. I didn't allow my mind to wander that far. Ever.
The fact that the Shadow had been controlling them didn't matter. Every inch of me screamed in anger. I wanted to know what he did to her. What she'd done to him.
One night, long after Takaya had disappeared for his Dark Hour mission, I enter Chidori's room to get her for a late dinner. She is working on her sculpture. Numerous sketchpads litter the floors. I pick up the one I'd seen the most often. There is a single rose on the front. I flip through a few pages before her drawings give me pause. I throw the pad open at her feet.
"What the hell is this?"
Inside is an incredibly detailed sketch of me and Minako, rendered in complete black and white. Her right hand is reaching up to touch my face. The fingers of my left hand are locked between tendrils of her hair, tilting her up to look at me. My eyes are closed. It almost looks like I am leaning down to give her a kiss. My glasses are in her left hand, but her arm is wrapped around my neck. Her hand resting in my hair at the back of my head.
Chidori glances at the drawing briefly before returning to the slab of stone that is halfway into becoming a throne of kings. "It's what I see when I read your messages."
"Are you kidding?"
She doesn't answer. Her way of saying no. I pick up a different sketchpad, looking through more of the drawings in the back. Many of them are the two of us in positions that are equally as provocative. They aren't horrible. If I was completely honest, I liked a majority of it even though I couldn't imagine the two of us ever being this close. As I reach the end, my heart stops completely. I can feel a blush creeping up my neck and into my cheeks. This is impossible. Even the muses wouldn't be able to give someone the ability to draw this.
Minako is in a frilly two-piece bikini on a beach. She has a volleyball in her hands. The sea water is coming up to her thighs. Her hair looks messy but dry, falling around her shoulders. Sanada and Iori are across from her in similar beach attire.
"What about this one?"
Chidori sighs before turning to look at the drawing. Clearly, she is already sick of me. Chidori wipes the chalk from her hands onto her apron and pulls my phone from her pocket to open up a picture I have never seen. It is almost a direct replica of what she'd drawn. "She sent it 2 days ago. The lighting is pretty. Whoever took that picture knew what they were doing."
I make a grab for the phone but Chidori is faster. "You've been banned. You're not getting this back until the next full moon."
I growl from the floor. I'd fallen in my poorly executed attempt to steal the thing. "It's mine! If I want it back, you need to give it to me."
"Your exact instructions are to hold on to it until the next full moon. If Takaya calls or needs something then I will relay the message. That is all."
"Cancel that order."
"Denied." She goes back to her sculpture, once again hiding the phone in the pocket of her apron and ignoring me completely.
The drawings from her sketchpad are still open in front of me. As tempting as they were, I hold back from looking any deeper. I could feel two emotions raging in my chest that night. The first was regret that I'd asked Chidori to watch my phone, and by extension, me. The second is a deep and sharp pang of jealousy at Akihiko Sanada. The man had touched her. Probably kissed her. He'd seen her in a bikini. Possibly even had her in his bed. Every fiber of my being told me one thing: I would kill him. Without any hesitation.
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