Minato paced around the lobby, Nyx watching on in interest. She thought that if he had been walking any longer in the same places then he would have gotten stuck in the floor a long time ago. "Minato, you've been walking for a while. If you don't stop either your legs are going to give out or you're going to tear holes in the floor."
"But I've been feeling kinda weird about this party," Minato sighed. "I feel like something bad's going to happen and I don't know whether I'll be able to do anything about it. If I don't walk I don't know what I'd-"
"Oh Minato," Nyx shook her head lightly. "Just sit down. If something does happen then you know that each person here will be able to defend themselves unlike the last time."
"That… that is pretty true," he admitted.
"Hey guys!" Hibiki walked back into the dorm. Presumably he had some other business to do outside, which was why he had only come back then. Around that time it was early evening.
"Hello Hibiki-kun," Nyx nodded.
"Hey," Minato smiled a little at Hibiki. "Are Yashiro, Kanashi and Kurow going to be along soon?"
"Yeah, they should be," Hibiki said, ruffling his hair. "Um, if you don't mind, Minato-senpai, I kinda don't know how you guys came together and all that. I'd feel a bit out of place here if I didn't know what happened between the two of you guys."
"Nah, it's not a problem," Minato chuckled. "I met Nyx at the beginning of the year, as a transfer student. My friends urged me to show Nyx the ropes around here, even though we actually didn't like each other at all when we first met."
"Make that borderline hate," Nyx added amicably.
"Or that," Minato chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.
"Is that so?" Hibiki's eyes widened.
"Yeah. After a while, some snapping and spending time with each other I guess we started liking each other more until we ended up in love, so that's just kinda what happened, loosely," Minato finished his explanation. "It's not really that much…" he mumbled.
The brunet nodded. "That sounds nice," Hibiki said.
Minato sighed. Unless Hibiki really wanted to join SEES or something, he couldn't very well tell him the whole story. If he could, he would have very well added a few details to the story that made it more interesting. "That is basically it," Nyx agreed. "I never would have thought about the idea of love with him myself until yesterday."
Hibiki looked up curiously, but it appeared that he preferred to shrug it off. "I see," he nodded.
"In any case…" Minato began, however the door was bust open.
"We're back!" Kanashi announced with a trailing Yashiro behind him.
"They can all see that," Yashiro muttered under his breath. "You kicked down the door for Agni's sake…"
"Hey Kanashi, Yashiro," Minato nodded. "Where's Kurow?"
"Oh, he'll be around later," Kanashi shrugged. "I think he was taking it pretty seriously when he said that he wanted to bring stuff."
"I see," Nyx nodded.
"That means… we're starting the party without him," Kanashi said, promptly throwing the black box he was carrying near a power socket and plugging it in. "I found this thing lying around in my apartment."
"Why you have a random amplifier in your house, I'll never know," Yashiro shook his head before shrugging off a black case from his shoulders and gingerly laying it near the couch.
"What's that?" Hibiki asked.
"I play guitar," Yashiro mumbled. "I only have an acoustic one, but it'll do…"
Nyx raised an eyebrow at that. "Isn't this a bit much?" she asked.
"Kanashi insisted, especially after he pretty much pushed me in the direction of my house and rummaged through my things like a maniac," Yashiro said with a considerably salty expression.
"I did NOT rummage through your things like a maniac," Kanashi said defiantly. "I was perfectly calm."
"So you say after laying waste to my room," Yashiro groaned, unzipping the guitar from its case, sitting down on the couch, and checking to see if the guitar strings were tuned properly.
Kanashi merely grinned at that and slapped him on the back.
"Are they always like that?" Hibiki asked Minato quietly.
"Yup," he nodded simply. "You wouldn't know it, but they're probably as close as friends that they'll ever get."
"You say that as if I'm friends with this dolt," Yashiro rolled his eyes, experimentally strumming.
"What do you mean we aren't friends, friend?" Kanashi grinned.
Again, Yashiro shrugged off Kanashi's jab at him and went back to his guitar.
"When will the rest be along?" Nyx asked.
"Should be any time so-" Minato began.
"Hey bro!" Junpei ran up to Minato through the doors, waving his hand.
"Oh hey Junpei," Minato chuckled. What was it with him and getting cut off recently?
"Congrats man," Akihiko followed after the capped teen.
"You say it as if I just got married or engaged," Minato said jokingly, prompting guffaws of laughter from Kanashi.
"Might as well be buster!" Kanashi laughed.
"So you're the one with Minato, huh?" Yukari, Fuuka, Mitsuru and Aigis approached Nyx.
"I suppose so," Nyx nodded with a wistful smile.
Not too long after that, everyone started engaging in idle conversation with each other.
"Yo guys, Kurow-sama is finally in the house dumbfucks!" the scraggy teen announced, as he burst into the dorm and left a box on the table.
"Oh dayum," Kanashi commented. "Dude, you smell like you just came out of a fucking bakery where'd the hell you go?"
"Places," Kurow said with a devious smile.
"Yashiro-sensei, you look unhappy," Hibiki pointed out.
Said capped boxer just shrugged at that with an unamused expression. Hibiki gave a 'hmm' of contemplation before softly hitting his hand with the side of his fist. "Oh! Do you want a girlfriend like the rest!?"
Yashiro's eyes widened and he took a spit take. Well, he wasn't drinking anything, but it might as well have been one. "W-Where'd you get that idea from!?" the flustered teen blurt out. "Girlfriends must be troublesome, why the hell would I want one!?"
Hibiki just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I w-was just asking man!" he said, putting up his hands in defence.
Yashiro rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Just. No," he sighed, rubbing around his left shoulder with a brooding look.
"If you say so sensei," Hibiki sighed.
"Then why don't you tell me something," Yashiro looked at Hibiki with a near deadpan gaze.
"Huh?" Hibiki blinked.
"Why're you looking at Minato and Nyx with a glare?" Yashiro asked, idly looking to Hibiki.
"What makes you think I'm doing that?" Hibiki laughed amiably. "You must be imagining it Yashiro-sensei."
Yashiro was about to press on, but he stopped himself from going on. Mostly because he didn't get time to before he was slapped on the back again by Kanashi. "So boxer boy you gonna play?" he asked with a grin.
"Yeah, yeah, I still do not know why you're making me do this," Yashiro shook his head.
"Because, why the fuck not?" Kanashi laughed. "Or are you scared that you'll mess up for whatever reason?"
Yashiro glared at Kanashi, who merely gave him a cheeky grin in return. "I'm not scared goddammit!" he growled, raking his nails across the strings before breaking into a series of picking sequences. Without looking.
"Oh really!?" Kanashi laughed, as he slumped down onto the couch next to Yashiro and idly grabbed some cake.
"Well duh," Yashiro rolled his eyes, nearly choking the moment afterwards courtesy of Kanashi as he promptly shoved chocolaty goodness down the boxer's throat in retaliation.
"Kanashi, that's mean!" Hibiki crossed his arms and looked at his senpai disapprovingly.
"It's not mean. This stuff tastes good. I'm doing this stick in the mud a favour!" Kanashi rolled his eyes. "Don't believe me then eat some." Munch.
Hibiki merely shook his head but he went along with Kanashi's suggestion anyways.
By now, everyone had their attention turned to the sounds that were coming from the amplifier. And then to the duo that were staring each other down.
Yashiro narrowed his eyes, stroking down before picking once again.
"Can we start singing now?" Junpei asked with a hopeful grin.
"I can't sing," Yashiro started slurring, "I'm tone deaf to my voice."
"On a cold winter morning, in the time before the light," Minato sang in the background.
"Haha, that's how you do it! Let's butcher this song!" Kanashi laughed uncontrollably and all the guys that knew the song chorused in an ungodly clamour, "In flames of death's eternal reign, we ride towards the fight!" Even Yashiro started getting into it albeit losing focus as he led into the second part of the first verse.
"They sound horrible," Nyx mumbled under her breath.
"I wonder whose fault it is, Junpei, Kurow's, Yashiro's or Kanashi's?" Yukari wondered aloud.
"I don't think it's HIbiki-kun," Fuuka commented.
"Definitely not Minato," Aigis added. "I believe it's a combination of Akihiko, Junpei and Kanashi."
"Tsukigata is slightly off key, but considering he's playing at the same time…" Mitsuru muttered. "Miharu seems to be shouting the lyrics instead however…"
"Soooo far awaaaaayy we wait for the daaaay, fo the lives all sho wasted and gooooone," Yashiro and Kanashi's singing progressively became more and more slurred as they went through the chorus.
"We feel the paaaaiin of a liiifetime lost in a thoooousand daays through the fiyah and the flaaames we carry oooon," Yashiro yelled, "Motherfuckers!"
"What's happening to Yashiro?" Nyx mumbled, looking curiously at the brownies in the box that Kurow brought in. She reached out to eat on, finding that it tasted completely normal but…
"Aaaand on the wings of a goddamned dream, so far beyond realityyyy," Yashiro still managed to sing although he was starting to add very unnecessary cuss words into the lyrics. But everyone was ignoring it as they were eating and singing at the same time. It was getting to be way too normal. "All alone in desperation, now the time's come! Lost inside you'll never find, lost in my fucked up mind! Day after fucking day this misery must goo ooon!"
"Um Nyx, are you okay?" Yukari asked. "I have to say, these kinda do taste good…"
"I'm not quite sure," Nyx mumbled.
The capped boxer continued playing and through the solo, getting the notes perfectly, although he sped up and slowed down periodically. "Now here we stand with our cocks in our haaaands," Yashiro growled, "We fought so fucking hard I think I'm gonna die!" And no-one batted an eye at what he was snarling.
Aigis and Nyx weren't sure what was happening at this point.
"I'll break the seal of this curse if I possibly can! For freedom of every man!" Minato soloed that one line while Hibiki and Akihiko chimed in with a 'whooooooa' in the background before everyone broke into the main chorus.
"Guess there is a very good reason why Orpheus was his first Persona," Nyx laughed a little at that.
"He does listen to the most music around here," Yukari agreed. "But thank god the song is ending."
"Indeed. My aural processors have been temporarily overwhelmed," Aigis noted as Yashiro put the finishing touches to the song and scratched up his strings.
"Ohhhhh fuck yea guys!" Yashiro grinned as he placed his guitar down and faceplanted on the floor.
"Dat was mothercanucking awesome!" Kanashi laughed his ass off.
"Who wants some more fucking brownies!?" Minato yelled.
By then, everyone had had some brownies and most of them raised their hands.
"Nyx, I suspect that these are not ordinary brownies," Aigis said.
"I figured," the goddess groaned.
"I believe these are what people call 'space cakes'…" Aigis said.
"What exactly… are space cakes…?" Nyx mumbled.
"They're brownies, and they contain a sort of drug, possibly 'weed' and they can make people high," she explained. "I'm not affected since I am an android…"
"I guess that might be why I have a headache as opposed to getting high like the rest of them, my godhood is rejecting it," Nyx coughed.
"Hey guys," Akihiko shouted, getting everyone's attention. "Lesh play a game…"
"I've got a load of chopsticks and a marker," Yukari declared.
"This is not going to go well, is it?" Nyx mumbled.
"No, I do not believe it will," Aigis nodded in agreement as Koromaru, who had been watching idly the interactions between everyone sidled up to her leg.
"Kiiiing's Game!" Junpei announced.
Aigis nodded, "As I feared."
AN: Nice thing to know: I had no idea where I was going with this chapter, only where I wanted to get to. That's why it's crazy.
Plz box me yo thoughts and imma see ya guys later.
Decode: I'm glad you did. And yessum, the reasons are pretty interesting. Yes, that'd be nice, right?
Yoshikunitsu: Just so happened that when I ended this chapter it was a cliffhanger. I don't really intend them if they happen. Suries…
Anakin: But why? Do you want this end so soon?
But why? Do you not trust me as to how I handle my own fanfiction? *hangs head*
Nights: Yes, yessum and indeed. There is more to come. Mmhm.
Q/A SECTION
(Erebus) Question 1: Yoshikunitsu
Erebus: Nyx then the egg. It's easy.
(Erebus) Question 2: Yoshikunitsu
Erebus: If he does have the same power as me or yet less, he certainly doesn't show it.
(Minato) Question 3: Yoshikunitsu
Minato: They made me… *hangs head*
(Hibiki) Conversation 4: Yoshikunitsu
Hibiki: That's some advice there!
(All) Question 5: Decode
Minato: Burn My Dread, Shoji Meguro.
Nyx: I don't have a particular favourite however Battle Hymn of the Soul by Shoji Meguro has always caught my interest.
Mitsuru: Snow Queen, Kenichi Tsuchiya.
Akihiko: That Mass Destruction song that Minato has. It's catchy.
Ken: Um… Memories of the City by Shoji Meguro? I'm not exactly sure…
Koromaru: *bark* (I don't have much of a favourite.)
Yukari: I don't really know, I couldn't pick one from all the songs I know…
Fuuka: Um, I don't have an absolute favourite, but among the group that I do like a lot, they were the CDs that I put on while everyone was exploring Tartarus. Those were some of my best.
Junpei: Ehh… I'm not really sure on that one…
Aigis: Heartful Cry, Shoji Meguro.
Kanashi: Hero by Skillet!
Yashiro: Say Goodnight or I guess Bittersweet Memories by Bullet For My Valentine.
Kurow: Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds!
Hibiki: I dunno! I have too many songs to like just one.
Erebus: Darkness, Shoji Meguro.
(Nyx) Question 6: Anakin
Nyx: I don't really need one, do I?
(Kanashi) Conversation 7: Nights
Kanashi: My name is a fucking language! Your argument is invalid!