A/N: Then help me. Tell me what you like, what you don't. What part of the story makes you uncomfortable or what doesn't make sense? I love positive comments but negative ones are what drives me to work harder.

September 6th 10:34pm Rank 8

"Tell me about Chidori." Minako bursts into our room a little later than our usual time. We'd promise not to talk about our missions, or the members of our team. It was one of the few rules we had with each other. We talked about everything else: food, politics, even the weather. She started decorating the place a few weeks ago, putting in stuffed animals, clothes, and a few personal items. There is a picture of us sitting on the wardrobe. Musashi, a monk she occasionally talked to, had taken the picture the night we went to the summer festival without either of us noticing. Next to it, she'd placed a framed photo she'd taken with her family as a child.

The frame is new but the photo is old and worn. The scene shows her brother throwing up onto her shoes from the right. Her cousin is laughing at him on her left. Mina is crying, her face furrowed into angry tears. Their parents are laughing behind them. It's easy to tell who is who. Minako looks like her father with his brown hair, red eyes, and kind face. Further back is a large roller coaster and a Ferris Wheel.

"It's my favorite memory." That's what she said when I asked her about it.

"Why?"

She was lying on her side so she could watch me while I worked. Her hands are rubbing my back, soothing. It's warm, but not distracting. "My brother had this really blank expression on this face throughout the roller coaster ride and our parents were saying how he was so brave and stuff. They're always praising him for being really mature and responsible. It really got on my nerves, but then he threw up, and everyone started laughing. Minato never let my dad carry him. That was the first time and it was just to the car, but I think it was the first time I thought my brother was really useless.

"So your favorite memory is thinking your brother is useless?"

She laughed, wrapping her arms around me. "No. It was the idea that even the strongest people need help sometimes. My brother was amazing but that day, he was just a weak little boy who couldn't handle the roller coaster. It's my happiest memory. I want to remember him always as someone who needed our family as much as we needed him."

That was a good night. She told me a lot of stories about her family, and she asked me a few about mine. I told her about my first, and a little about the Kirijo group, but nothing about Takaya and Chidori. That was the rule. If I told her anything about them, it would be a betrayal and she didn't ask questions. She let it go.

But now, she is standing in the doorway, ignoring her surroundings and the rules we made for ourselves. She's asking about Chidori.

"No. You know I can't."

She throws her bag on the floor, closing the door behind her. She climbs around the desk and my arm so she's sitting in front of me, staring into my face. She doesn't say a word.

It's bothering me. She knows it. I know she knows it. She knows that I know she knows it. This is her tactic. Minako thinks that with enough discomfort, I'll crack, but I won't, not this time. I can't crack because I don't know what it is she wants. Chidori left without telling either of us anything.

That night had been odd. Takaya had been so angry that we'd let them escape. He was well aware that we couldn't beat them through physical strength. They had more members and better control of their personas. His back up plan was to take them out one by one. He'd sent Chidori into the field and she disappeared for a week, sending messages back only occasionally, and always through Medea.

They had no weaknesses. Not really. Their members covered for one another well. It was impossible to take them out when they always fought in a group. Chidori had gone after Iori, the closest thing Minako had to a friend. He make contact with her before, and Chidori told me he was an easy target. I knew he probably had feelings for her. Most men only engaged her attention when they did, so I expected her to get him alone and kill him. I didn't expect her to go to the dorm and attack him but that's what she did. When we found her again, it was already too late. She'd been captured, and trying to get her back would've been suicide.

I sigh. "Mina, no questions. We agreed on that."

She's pouting, but the expression doesn't fit her. I know her better now. "C'mon. Talk to me. I'll make it worth your while." Her hands rub up against my thighs, and I can feel her teeth nibbling softly on my earlobe. I enjoy her flirting most of the time, but this was blatantly solicitation. To try and seduce me into answering her questions about my team violated every line I'd drawn for her.

She's a small girl. I push her with enough force, that she's thrown to the floor. It looks painful, but I make no move to help her. "No."

September 13th 10:29pm

"Aragaki told us everything." Her eyes are angry when she shows up. She is visibly shaking with rage.

There was no point in pretending. I could already guess what had happened. Medea was invisible to everyone but Chidori. She probably lost control, and when Medea started strangling her, Aragaki shoved what was left of his pills into her mouth to make her stop. He didn't know about the other method. A fatal injury was just as good of a suppressant but the pills were more stable. They worked better and longer.

I keep my eyes glued to my computer screen in quiet defiance. She didn't ask a question and her statement doesn't need a reply.

"Jin, look at me." I ignore her demand, but then she closes the door, walks the 2 steps to the bed, and punches me in the face. My glasses fall to a pillow I had in my lap. My head flies back, knocking into the wall behind me with a loud bang. I'm about to yell at her, when I notice that there are fat ugly tears brimming in her eyes. They haven't fallen, not quite yet, but they're close. She looks like she's about to burst. Like a volcano.

"Will your persona kill you?"

The truth was maybe. Me and Takaya had stopped taking the pills when this whole thing started. We needed our personas. We couldn't take the suppressants anymore, which made it easy for Moros to kill me. He could appear at any second and strangle me, but he hadn't. A long as Takaya was nearby, I would be okay. Before, lethal injuries were enough to send Moros back, but I couldn't rely on those anymore. Chidori had been taken. She wouldn't be able to heal us. We were stuck, in the middle of a crossroads where trains were coming in every direction. The end was inevitable. I settle on that. "I don't know."

Her eyes tell me that she either doesn't believe me or that there is more to say. "Can I save you?"

"No." My voice is nonchalant, because that is the truth. The truth I've always known. Death was always close at hand. The pills, the requests, Moros. There were a million ways for me to die, and my chances were much higher than the next guy. I was living on borrowed time. Time Chidori's healing had given me, and now Chidori was holed up in a hospital, being watched day and night by SEEs.

She looks like she's about to punch me again, but that would defeat the purpose. Instead, she backs away into a wall and curls up into a ball on the floor. She has her head in her hands but her elbows are in her lap. Her body is rocking back and forth like a child possessed. I can hear her mumbling a string of words over and over again into her palms.

"You can't die. You can't die. You can't die. You can't die. You can't die. You can't die. You can't die. You can't die. You can't die. You can't die. You can't die."

"Mina...?"

She's repeating the words in rapid succession, as if chanting a shinto spell. My hand reaches for her shoulder, but at the slightest touch, she shrieks like a banshee and jumps to her feet. In the next second, she's gone out the door. Shock comes first, and it bolts me in place. I can't move, my body is stuck. The next emotion is panic, and I run after her. There is no sign of where she might've gone. No signal on her phone, no trail to follow, and absolutely no girl in sight. She was just gone.

The park by the shrine is empty except for a man named Akinari. Minako would prefer to be alone, but Akinari is pleasant enough company and her mind is too clouded to go back to the dorm. They'd met one Sunday when she'd come here looking for Maiko. He held a sickly pallor, and she'd been wary of him falling down unexpectedly. After a few conversations, it was revealed that he had a heart complication. Here was another man who would die soon.

Their conversations had been more than a little one-sided. He was bitter at his predicament, at his inability to lead a normal life. He liked to share in his pain, and often times it soothed her to hear him rant. She wondered if this was what her brother and family felt in the moments before the Shadows took them. He asked for neither pity or compassion, only an ear. Listening to him was simple, easy. It required her to feel nothing in the process.

"Hello, Akinari-san." She greets him as she sits down. He smiles, but says very little. His face is pale, as usual. There is another book in his hands. Often she finds him reading, but today, the pages of the book are blank. She can only see a few words scrawled on the top.

"Hello, Mina-chan...What do you think of a pink alligator?" In their previous conversations, Akinari contemplated writing a story about a pink alligator, but she did not honestly believe in his resolve, but here he was, putting in the effort for his idea.

"Bright, bubble gum, or subdued?" Her voice is serious, as if the question is the most important in the world. Akinari smiles. He liked this about her. That she neither laughed at his dream, nor pushed him too hard. It was as if he was talking to a mirror, or an apparition. He could almost believe it in this shrine.

"Bright...maybe like a neon..."

Minako smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. "Sounds a little silly."

"Yes...I suppose...it does, doesn't it..." He writes down bubble gum in his notebook, circling it twice.

"Many things in life are silly...aren't they?" This gives him pause and Akinari puts the pencil down, placing a light hand on her shoulder. She flinches, violently, but doesn't push it off.

"Is...something wrong?" He has never seen her this way before. She's always been a bit of an airhead, distracted, like there is always something else on her mind. But it is much worse today. Her eyes and her heart appear confined elsewhere. Trapped.

Minako waits a long time before answering him. "I'd...like to hear how far you've come in your story Akinari-san."

The story is about a pink alligator born in a green forest. In this forest, he is ugly and hated because of his color. However, a canary takes pity on the alligator, and is willing to sing to it. They are happy, for a short while, but the alligator is unable to hunt. Its pink color always alert its prey to flee. So one day, in a tragic accident the bird is accidentally swallowed and killed.

"What do you think, Mina-chan?" Akinari is watching her intently. Constructive criticism, is an author's favorite sort of feedback after all, but unfortunately, she couldn't find any for him.

"Do you think the bird only chose to be with the alligator because of pity?" All around them are signs of Autumn: falling leaves, scarves, children in puffy sweaters. All around them were signs of change and the progression of time. Soon, it would be winter, and all these signs would fade to discolored versions of themselves. White.

"No...I don't...think...that would be...the only reason...but I can't think of another." Perhaps it would be nice to add a new element to his story.

Minako watches him for a moment, taking in this dying man's features. He's a little older than Jin, but not quite an adult. There is a naivety on his face that comes from someone who has not seen much to question about. A tired confusion of never knowing where to look. She takes off her scarf, wrapping it around his neck. She would knit herself another one later with Bebe. "Maybe the bird fell in love with the alligator. In their forest of green, maybe the bird was enraptured by the one color that she never saw elsewhere."

Akinari is momentarily shocked by her gesture, but accepts the gift. The scarf is warm, clearly handmade. There are obvious mistakes in several places, but that makes the gift all the more special. "Yes...ugly to some...but to the bird...the brightest of all..." The dying man nods, coughing once or twice into his hands. This will be enough for now. He would think more on this idea in a few hours.

"Do you mind...sitting with me...for a little while longer...?"

Minako offers her lap for the man to lay his head, and he falls asleep quickly in her warmth. Akinari would die soon. She could practically see the clock that floated above his head, counting down the days to the end of his life. His death would not hurt her, not like Minato's did and Jin's eventually would. When would he die? How? Jin, whom she'd given a piece of herself she could never get back. He was going to die, at any moment because his persona was not like hers. His persona would kill him, and she could not stop it. No, she could not stop him from dying. So what could she do?

"Minato...What can I do for him?"

She's staring into thin air, she knows this, but she can see his face. This is not the face that she remembers, but an older one that she knows he will never wear. His hair covers his eyes like it always did, leaving only his nose and mouth out to the observer. He's kneeling so that if she reaches straight out, she can almost touch his face. She knows she will never reach him.

Live. Live your life with enough happiness to make up for the happiness that he can't have.

"I can't. I'm trying, but I can't. I don't know how to be happy without you. How can I be happy all alone?"

You're not alone. You have the friends you've made this year. All the people you've met have given you a piece of themselves. If you die, those pieces die with you.

"And me? What about the piece of me I've given Jin? It will die with him."

Minako, dying for someone is easy. Living for someone is much harder. Can you live for him?

"I...I don't know."

Try. Mom and Dad don't want to see you yet. I don't either. Use the pieces these people have given you and fill up that hole in your heart that we've left behind. It's not wrong to let us go. All we want is for you to be happy.

NC: Rank 9