11 February 2010

Minatodai Dorm, 3rd Floor, Aigis' Room

Evening

Midori knocked on Aigis' door, hoping she was home. She hadn't seen her after practice, so she hoped she was here, and not out doing something else.

"Who is it?" Aigis asked from behind the closed door.

"You should know it's me," Midori responded, "It's not like I'm sneaky or anything."

"Come in."

Midori quickly slid into Aigis' room, closing the door behind her. "Hey, you have some time?"

Aigis was sitting in her maintenance chair, one of her arms open and her other hand was manipulating some tool or another in it. "I can be available in half an hour. What's this about?"

"Oh, I just wanted you to watch me while I did something." Deflecting the crux of the question, Midori looked at Aigis' arm. "Problems?"

"No, just some routine work." Aigis did something that Midori couldn't possibly understand. "I'll see you after I'm done."

"Alright. Just knock on my door." Midori turned to leave, only to be halted by Aigis' voice.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Always! What about?" She turned around again, going full circle in less than a minute.

"I had a look at a calender, and I was concerned about a certain date coming up." Aigis said as she maintained her focus on the adjustments she was making on her body.

Midori tried to think, but there was only one date that came to mind, plus one other that she didn't know. She went with Option B. "Your birthday?" She looked around the room. "What exactly does a robot get for their birthday anyways? I don't have experience with that sort of thing."

"No, but thank you for thinking about that." Aigis said with a slightly bemused look on her face. "I was more concerned with the cultural holiday coming up on Sunday."

Midori froze. Option A it was then. "Oh, you mean Valentines. And you want my help?"

"Of course. We're friends, aren't we?" Midori flinched inside as Aigis went straight for the throat, so to speak. "I need someone I can trust to make sure I follow the correct protocols."

"Sure I'll help!" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Thankfully that bought her enough time to come up with a delaying action. "Just give me some time to think about that. When we meet on the roof, we an do my thing and help with yours at the same time."

"That sounds acceptable."

"Cool. I'll see you in about half an hour then."

4th Floor, Rooftop

Rubbing her arms against the unexpected chill, Midori waited impatiently for Aigis to arrive. A glance at her COMP told her that the half-hour wait wasn't over, yet she still felt like it was too long.

Less than two weeks without the Dark Hour and she was already going out of her mind. It didn't help any that she pretty much went right from beating up Bels to fighting Shadows back when she first moved here, she had an outlet for her energy.

Now, nothing. And tennis wasn't cutting it.

The door behind her opened, and Midori spun around, hoping it was Aigis. She would have trouble getting anyone else to be somewhere else if it came down to it. But thankfully, it was Aigis, who closed the door behind her. "Hey. How's your arm?"

"Better. What did you want to talk about?"

Midori reached into her pocket and produced Frosty's card. Aigis immediately looked around, worried. "Shadows?"

"No!" Midori calmed Aigis down. "No, I... well... I..." She took a breath to steady herself. "I want to try summoning Frosty."

"Why?" Aigis quickly came to a conclusion to her question that she approved of, but knowing how sometimes unpredictable Midori was, she had to be certain. "Everything is over and done with. You said it yourself. We get to live our lives now."

Midori's heart beat hard in her chest, and it wasn't about the impending chocolate giving day. "Well... I mean..." She suddenly realized that she didn't have a reason to try. She wanted to do it, and wanted Aigis there in case things went bad, but Aigis' question just led to another string of circular self-justifications. "I want to try!"

A moments silence passed between the two of them. "You want to see if you retain the ability to call forth your Persona outside the Dark Hour from your time in the Tokyo Lockdown, and wish to do so now that there is not pertinent threat in case it fails?"

Midori nodded, not quite sure what Aigis said.

"Then why did you need me?"

"Because you're my friend, and I wanted you to be in here in case I screw up!"

Aigis agreed that when put that way, it certainly made sense. "Have you tried before?"

Midori shook her head. "I've kinda been afraid too." She fiddled with the card. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen? The heavens open up and angels descend to take over humanity, right?"

Completely missing the point, Aigis shook her head. "I haven't tried to invoke my Persona either," she confessed. "I just never saw the point. We won. But I hadn't considered your situation." She looked expectantly at Midori. "Did you want to try first, or shall I?"

Looking at Frosty in her hand, Midori's decision was already made. "I'll go first. You check to make sure no one is snooping first?"

Aigis didn't bother to move, she simply focused on her other senses for a moment then confirmed "We are alone on this floor."

"Thanks. Now, let's do this properly." She held Frosty in her hand, holding it up to the sky in order to make the same invocation that she had when Igor first made things right. "I! Magical Warrior Girl Dolly, do hereby invoke the power of Love and Magical Justice! BLACK FROST!"

She crushed the card, and darkness took her.

Midori's Room

"Oh, I think I'm going to lose my supper." Midori rolled over as awareness and pain came back to her. Opening her eyes, she saw Aigis about an inch from her face, looking very, very worried. "AAAHHHH!" She bolted upright, pain forgotten in the rush, then restored as she folded over. "Owww..." She moaned for a moment as Aigis gently rubbed her back. "What happened?"

"You summoned Black Frost for 0.3 seconds, during which you fainted, causing your Persona to remove itself from existence." Aigis dutifully reported. "It would appear that your first experiment was a success."

"Tell that to my stomach!"

Aigis handed her a can of soda from the machine out in the sitting area, which Midori gulped down. "Better, but still... What's the point if I collapse?"

"Actually, I think the issue is one of energy."

"Huh?"

"The Dark Hour was composed of variant physics, and even then, Persona users had to, with your exception, use an Evoker to manifest. Through Kirijo Group research, it was determined that the base energy gradient of the Dark Hour was different that the real world, and thus less energy was required for Persona usage." Aigis stopped to let Midori finish her drink. "Mitsuru-senpai actually participated in several experiments a decade ago to help discern this."

"So what you're saying is that in summoning Frosty, I exhausted myself?"

"Correct."

"So what about you then? I mean, don't you have more energy than a human?"

"The relation isn't direct. I'm optimized for operations in the Dark Hour, and my Orgia Mode isn't meant for sustained use."

"Huh." Midori's stomach grumbled. "I need to eat something. Let's continue this downstairs."

1st Floor, Kitchen

The two of them, and Koromaru, sat at the table, conversing quietly as Midori ate leftovers to restore her energy. The bluenette looked down at the dog as he looked at the food. "No, Koro-chan. You have yours." Upon the dog's pleading look, she turned to Aigis. "Hey, what about Koro? Did he forget too?"

Aigis nodded in response. "I will get you a treat Koro-chan. Please be patient."

Koro barked happily at his new best friend, spurning the one who wouldn't give him treats. He returned to his cushion over by the television to await what was coming to him.

Back at the table, Midori was putting things together in her head. If what Aigis was saying was true, that sorta fit in with what Igor told her about the Dark Hour, and about the barrier between the human and demon realms. The way she figured it, if Personas drew on the power of Demons, then it was natural that it would take more energy to go farther into the real world than into the border between the two. "So what you're saying is that I need more energy?"

Aigis nodded. "Correct. Humans have a better capacity to grow in response to stress, so it is likely that with enough practice, you should be able to recover your previous strength." She paused to greet Ken as he went by and up to his room, homework in tow. "But if you collapsed so quickly, I do not know how much effort it would be to make your power useful. And even then, even without access to Pallas Athena, I am still capable of fighting."

Midori smirked. "Oh, you have no idea how much I want this." She finished off the last of her food. "Now, what about you? You had your own concerns, right?"

Not sure that she had made her concerns clear enough, Aigis accepted the change in topic, hoping that Midori would prove to be her own downfall in forcing herself to re-learn how to summon her Persona. "Yes, about the 14th..."

"You want to know the correct protocols. Yes, I remember. Alright. Valentines Chocolates. Girls give them to guys, and guys give them to girls on White Day in a month. Got that?"

"Yes." Aigis nodded, "I have done my research."

"So, there are two types of chocolate. Store-bought for the guys you don't feel connected too. Classmates, fellow club members, that sort of thing."

"I understand", Aigis allocated funds for the purchasing of chocolate in her head. "And the other?"

"Homemade chocolate for the guys you really like, or have a good relationship with – or hope to be in a good relationship with."

"Like Minato."

Midori groaned. "Oh, now that's a problem. You see, I can get away with the homemade stuff for someone like Akihiko-sensei, because he's been helping me with my workouts. It's a gesture of appreciation in that case, not a romantic one."

"Why is that a negative aspect?"

"Because you'll be giving chocolates to Yukari's boyfriend." Midori instantly regretted the words as Aigis' face and shoulders fell. "I'm sorry. I know you really like him, but it's the truth." She reached over to wrap the blonde robot in a hug. "Now, there's nothing stopping you from giving him homemade chocolates, but you have to hold yourself back. They can't be as good as Yukari's."

"I... understand."

"Alright. Look. How about this. Tomorrow, we go to a mall and buy the chocolates for everyone else. That way we avoid the crowds of girls on Saturday. And on Saturday, you, me, Fuuka, Mitsuru, Chidori and Yukari, we all get together, take over the kitchen, and have a girl's bake-in?"

"A bake-in?"

"Sure! It'll be fun! All of us in one room, being friends! It'll be great!" She looked up from her seat and into the sitting area that fronted the first floor. Thankfully, Chidori was there, watching the evening news on one of the more distant channels. "Hey, Chidori, you have plans on Saturday?"

The red-head looked up at her two juniors. "No. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, just trying to get everyone together so we can make chocolate for Sunday!"

"No."

"WHAT?" Midori raised her voice enough to put her even further down on Koromaru's friend list. "Why would you say that?"

"I'm not giving anyone chocolates."

"But! But!" Midori watched as her plans started to come crashing down around her. "But we're friends, that's why!"

"We're dorm-mates, not friends." Chidori turned her attention back to the television in full.

Aigis offered a sympathetic look. "That's how I feel whenever I talk to anyone who isn't you."

Slumping, Midori only hoped her life could improve.