Instead of my usual alarm, I am awoken today my phone going off. Who would be contacting me now? I check my phone to learn that it is not a call, but a text message from Yosuke.
Yosuke Hanamura:
HEY steak skewers aftr sch. U in?
I'm taken aback not only by the horrid grammar but also the fact that he decided to message ME of all people. Surly he must have other friends and yet he chooses me? Why would he do that? It's probably because Chie is too busy looking after Yukiko-san until she gets better. Either way, it would be rude to decline if I have no reason to.
I stare at the phone for a whole five minutes having no idea what to write. I've never had to text someone before. What am I supposed to do? He spoke in abbreviations, so I should do the same. How about…
Text: Ok, I'll see u aftr shc.
No, no, no, I can't write 'after school' like that. It would be coping him and he would know how inexperience I am. He also used no punctuation and he wrote the word 'hey' in caps lock. Was that to show excitement? He would like it if I showed enthusiasm. I quickly rewrite my message.
Text: OK SEE U AFTER SCHOOL
There, that should be sufficient. I press the send button and begin my regular morning routine.
After school I leave the classroom to find Yosuke waiting for me. "Hey, ready to go?" He asks.
"Oh, hello, Yosuke-senpai. I was expecting to collect you from your classroom."
"Yeah, well I figured you're tired of doing that by now. Anyway, let's go before a bunch of other kids show up."
"That is a good idea." We walk down the hall, out of the building, and onto the main street. Our walk is mostly quite before I gather up the courage to ask him a question. "Did you receive my text message?"
The boy fails to hide his chuckle as he answers the question. "Yeah, I got it."
"Was there something wrong with it?" This question makes his laugh even more noticeable.
"No, it was fine." Why would he be laughing?
"You're lying to me. What did I do wrong? If my message was off in some way I would like to know."
"Seriously, it's fine. And anyway, we're here." He gestures to the food stand." Here, I'll order. Consider it my treat."
"Wait, no, I can't let you do that," I stop him.
"What do you mean? You payed for me last time with that Marie Chick."
"But-" I can't very well argue with that. "Fine." I sit down at the wooden picnic table while he orders. What was wrong with my message? Did I not abbreviate it enough? Oh, I get it! I didn't change 'see' to 'C'. But is that really enough to warrant such laughter? No, there must be something more.
Cutting off my thoughts, Yosuke returns with our food. "Thank you. Are you certain you don't wish for me to pay? As I said before, I have plenty of money."
"Naoto, it's fine," he says while taking the seat across from mine. "So, how has King Moron been for you?"
"King Moron… Oh, you mean Mr. Morooka? He is certainly not my first choice of teacher, but I still stand by the belief that I could have worse."
"Yeah, maybe a murderous psychopath could somehow top him. Still, he's a close second. Have you talked to anyone else in your-" He is cut off by two housewives walking past us.
"Oh, look, it's the Junes Kid," an obnoxiously loud woman says to the other.
"Wow, I'm surprised they even let him eat here after what his father's store has done."
"I don't know, they need any customers they can get nowadays."
The two finally out of hearing range, Yosuke continues. "Sorry, I'm not exactly liked around here."
"That was quite rude of them. They spoke so loudly I believe they may have wanted you to hear."
"That wouldn't surprise me. I just don't understand what they want me to do about it. It's not like I can just go up to my dad and just say 'some people want us to close' and then he'll just be cool with that."
"It doesn't make much sense. Still, it must be tiring."
"Nah, I got used to it a while ago. They mainly focus on my parents anyway. Still it feels like there isn't a single person in this town who doesn't know me. Not that that's a bad thing, but I does get annoying needing to mind my manners all the time. Just one of the things that I miss about the city, I guess."
"Ah, yes. I had almost forgotten you grew up there. I understand that it must be a big change."
"Aren't you going through the exact same change right now?"
"Yes, but I doubt we are on the same level. Though I lived in the city, I rarely went anywhere besides the estate and various locations while on jobs."
"Estate? You're family's that rich?"
"Well, I would call us rich. It isn't a very large piece of land. My home isn't as large as what most people think when they hear the word estate."
"Wow, it still must be nice to live in a huge house like that."
"Believe me; it is not as nice as you may think. Though it does give me plenty of space, it gets extremely lonely whenever my grandpa is at work."
"Oh, that must suck." Before we can continue our conversation, his phone rings. "Oh no, it's my dad. Hold on a minute." He walks away to take his call. He must be needed at Junes.
One minute later, he returns with a sour look on his face. "Sorry, I need to go. Duty calls."
"There's no need to apologize. I completely understand. Thank you again for the meal."
"No problem. See ya tomorrow." With that, he is off to his place of work. With nothing better to do, I return home to do schoolwork.
The next day I get a phone call from Yosuke while reading one of the many mystery books I took from my grandpa's study "Hello, Yosuke-senpai. To what do I owe this call?"
"Hey, Naoto-kun. I just wanted to ask you for a huge favor."
"Om, sure, I would be glad to help. What is the problem?" How bad could it be?
"Well, you see, there is a huge sale going on at Junes right now and a lot of the staff didn't show up. My dad is freaking out saying that we need more people."
"So you wish for me to work there for the day?"
"Pretty please! I already asked Chie but she said she was hanging out with Yukiko today."
"Okay, I will be there in a few minutes." I quickly put down my book and race over to the department story. Finally reaching the entrance, a teenage employee meets me out front.
"Are you Naoto Shirogane?" he asks.
"Yes, that would be me."
"Great!" He hands me a Junes apron. "Put this on and go to the food section. Yosuke-kun will tell you what to do from there." After giving me my instructions, the boy runs off in the other direction.
After putting on the apron, I go up the elevator to find my friend. I finally find him running around like a mad man trying to get things done. He lets out a sigh of relief when he sees me. "Naoto-kun, thank god you're here. Restock that self, please." He gestures to a self that looks as if a tornado recently ran through it before running away to handle something else. Is Junes really this understaffed?
After working nonstop for two hours, the sale is finally over. I make my way over to the food court, where Yosuke told me to meet him. A few minutes after my arrival, he runs over to be out of breath with an envelope in his hand. "Here, my dad told me to give it to you." He hands over the envelope. I open it to find 5,500 yen. "That's for helping out today."
"Thank you, senpai."
"What are you thanking me for? I should be thanking you. You are seriously a life saver. You know what, I'm gonna buy you something to eat. What do you want?"
"What? No, I will not allow you to pay for me two days in a row. It's too much and I've done nothing to deserve such treatment."
"What do you mean by that? You just helped me out."
"Yes, the money was plenty to make up for that."
"C'mon, just let me get something for you."
"No, I'm not even hungry. Even if I was, as I said yesterday, I can very easily pay for myself."
"Fine, you know what, I'm going to order something for myself and we can share it. Now sit down and relax." Leaving me no room to argue, he walks off to order while I sit down. I note that this is similar to yesterday's events. I'm officially paying for him next time we meet.
He returns moments later with two drinks and a tray of food. "I figured you wouldn't want to share a drink."
"Thank you." I take a sip of the drink. Melon soda. Not the drink I expected from him. Before any form of conversation can be made, a high pitched, snotty voice comes from behind us.
"Hanamura, there you are," it said. I glance over to see two high school girls.
"Alright, what is it this time?" Yosuke says sounding half-dead.
"Will you tell your dad that we can't work on weekends? He won't stop bugging us about it," the other girl rudely requests.
"Wait, didn't you say you could work weekends when you were interviewed?"
"Yeah, but we didn't have a choice. They wouldn't have hired us if we told the truth."
Yosuke looks like he is about to fight back but decides against it. "Alright, how about this? I may be able to make a deal where you only need to show up every other weekend. That good enough for you?"
"Fine, we'll think about it," the first girl says before leading the other away.
He lets out the world's longest sigh before saying, "I'm sorry about that. I swear, they practically get payed to do nothing."
"My guess is they are only still here because you are so understaffed."
"Ha, you're probably right. Still, I'm tired of everyone using me like that."
"It must be exhausting."
"Yeah, with this plus the murders, I barely have any time left for myself." He glances over at the clock. "Oh crap, it's already 7:00? I should go home. See ya at school!" He runs off leaving the rest of his food behind. Secretly starving, I take a small bite of what's left before throwing the rest away and return home.
After school the next day, I am met once again by Yosuke. "Hey, I have another favor to ask. Don't worry, this one will involve a lot less work."
"Of course, what is it?"
"I'm not scheduled for work today but knowing my dad he may force me to when I get there. Could I hide out at your place for a bit? I really just need a break."
"Are you asking me to hide you in my own house?" Where did this come from? I'm not in any way prepared to host a guest.
"Yeah, but only for a bit. I know that I've been putting you on the spot a lot lately, but I-"
"I understand your predicament. I could allow you to travel home with me, but I must apologize in advance if I prove not to be a very entertaining host."
"Awesome. Then we should probably get going."
"Right you are, senpai. Let's go."
We travel down the road to my home. On the way, we run into a familiar figure. "Oh, hello, Nanako-chan," I call out to my little housemate. Her eyes widen once they meet me.
"Oh, hello. I'm delivering a public notice," she says in a cheerful voice I can't help but smile at.
"Where are you taking it to?" I ask sounding as invested as possible.
"I'm going to Takeyoshi-kun's house with my friends." I glance over her to see two other young girls behind her. "Who are you?" she asks Yosuke, just now noticing him.
"Oh, I'm Yosuke Hanamura, a friend of your… um…"
"Right, how rude of me," I interrupt. "This is Nanako Dojima, the daughter of my temporary guardian."
"Right, got it. Hello, Nanako-chan." A loud sound comes from his pocket. "Oh cr- I mean," he corrects himself, "Sorry, give me a minute." He walks away with a sour look on his face.
"C'mon, we need to hurry!" one of Nanako's friends calls.
"Sorry, I need to go. Bye!" She runs with to her friends right when Yosuke returns.
"Sorry, but duty calls. Man, I can't get a single break anymore."
"They want you to work another shift?"
"No, they want me to deal with the two chicks you met yesterday." He begins to turn and walk in the other direction.
"I could go with you," I offer.
"Sure, if you want to. I could use a person to stop me from murdering them."' With that, we are off.
In front of the store, we see the two girls from the day previous to this one. "Alright, what do you want now?" my partner asks.
"We want more days off. We are tired of needing to work all the damn time."
"Yeah, well guess what, that's what a job is for. I can't give you days off just because you asked. That's hardly fair!"
"You would have done it for Saki." That sentence made Yosuke go from angry to raging.
"WHAT DOES SHE HAVE TO DO WITH THIS!?"
"Oh come on, don't try to hide it," the other girl says. "You always treated her special. Now that she's dead why don't you move on and give us some special treatment!"
"Do not bring Saki into this!"
"Why not? And why did you like her so much anyway? It's not like she ever liked you. She was just using you like the bitch she was."
"Excuse me," I cut in, "but I would advise you to refrain from speaking ill of the diseased. It's quite rude."
"Yeah, and who are you?"
"My name doesn't matter. I'm merely giving you a harmless suggestion."
"Hey, I recognize you," the first girl says. "You're that one transfer student."
"Oh yeah," the other agrees, "I heard about you. Wow, I still can't believe the school would allow a crossdresser on campus."
"C-crossdresser?" I ask surprised by the sudden terminology. "I can assure you that's not what this is. And what exactly do my fashion choices have to do with our current topic?"
"What do you mean that isn't crossdressing. I'd call you a drag queen, but that doesn't really work here. How about drag prince?" The two of them laugh, causing Yosuke to become angrier than I'd ever seen him before.
"Stop it! You don't have any right to talk about anyone like that! Not her, Senpai, or anyone else! JUST SHUT UP!" One could practically see smoke rising from his ears.
"Fine, what every." The two girls walk away, still chuckling. With them gone, Yosuke begins to calm down.
"I'm sorry about that. You didn't need to defend me or anything."
"Yes, I believe I did. I wouldn't stand by and let others talk about a human being like that. I did not know Konishi, but I'm sure she was not deserving of such comments.
"Thanks. Sorry you got roped into this. They shouldn't have said those things about you."
"Believe me, I have heard much worse." I should do something to take his mind off of this. That is what a friend would do. "Now that we are done here, do you still with to go to my house. I'm certain Dojima-san would be okay with that."
"Sure, that sounds cool. I'm kinda curious about what an ace detective's room looks like."
"Oh, well, it's mainly books. There isn't anything interesting about it."
"Yeah, well I'm sure it's better than my room. It's basically just posters and dirty clothes." He smiles as he walks past me in the direction of the Dojima residence.
Our conversation for the rest of the day is overrun by small talk. In the beginning ,most of the talking comes from my friend, but I talk more as the day goes on. We stay talking together until it gets dark out and he has to go.
The next day while walking home from school, I get a call from Yosuke. "Hey, have you seen the hill yet?" he asks suddenly.
"No, I don't believe so. Why do you ask?"
"Meet me over there." He hangs up the phone. He is aware that I have no idea where that is, correct? Now at a loss of what to do next, I ask a few strangers where to go and they point me in the right direction. Finally reaching my destination, I spot the person of interest staring over the cliff onto the town.
I stand by him and look over the ledge. "This is a beautiful view."
"Oh, hey. Sorry to call you out here all of the sudden. I have something I want to tell you."
"That's quite alright. What is it you wish to speak about?"
"I have a confession to make. I…um…" He struggles to find the right words. "I was jealous of you when you first got here." What? Why would he be jealous of me? What is there to be jealous of? "When I came to Inaba, there was nothing. All I could do was stare over this ledge at the city and pray something would happen.
"But then you come along and instantly the whole town becomes the most entertaining place in the world. I thought it wasn't fair. Then to top it off, you get this amazing persona power. Sure, I have a persona too, but you have more than that. You are so much more powerful than any of us. Without you, we may have lost the last few battles. You are an amazing leader, and I was jealous of that.
"Of course, now I realize that that was wrong. So… I want you to hit me."
"What!?"
"I want you to punch me right in the face. Knock all of that crap out of me."
Has he gone mad!? "Yosuke-senpai, I refuse to hit you! You haven't done anything that deserves such treatment!"
"I want us to be equal. We can't be if I keep thinking crap like that."
"That doesn't make any logical sense. If you want us to be equal then you should punch me as well!"
"What!? No, I'm not going to hit you!"
"Then I refuse to hit you. That wouldn't change anything about the situation. I have no need to, as you put it, 'knock all that crap' out of you. You just said you realize your beliefs were wrong. There is no need to punish ourselves over mistakes we have already learned from."
"But, I… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you up here. I'm being selfish again, aren't I?"
"No, do not worry about that. I believe that people should be allowed to get their feelings out in whatever way works for them, but self-punishment is not a thing I wish to assist anyone with. However, I am willing to talk about it."
"Ha, that is the girl thing to do, talk about their feelings."
"Excuse me, but I firmly believe that men have the same need to speak their feelings as females. They only try to hide it because society tells them it's a feminine act."
"I-I guess you're right. It was stupid to think you would actually hit me. I… I think I want to talk."
"Then do so. I am willing to listen."
"I-I guess I've been a bit messes up since those girls were talking about Saki-senpai. She was so much better than them. She didn't do things half-assed like them. She was so nice to me, even if it was all fake. She made me happy, but then she-" He hides it as best as he can, but I spot a few tears on his cheek. "Why…? She didn't deserve that. To think she had to die in such a cruel way…"
"I-I…um…" I have no idea what to say. I'm his friend and I have no idea what to say to him when he's crying. What kind of friend am I if I can't even comfort him?
"You don't need to say anything," he says surprising me. "I'm fine. I…I just want to talk to her again. Just one more time would be enough. Even just seeing her again, her smiling, that would be enough. At first, I wanted to forget about her. I thought it would be easier. But… After my shadow, I decided I shouldn't run from these things. She wouldn't want to be forgotten, and I want her to be happy."
"That's good. One should never forget the dead. That would be the greatest insult you could give them."
"Ha, that's good. You should sell that quote to some sort of author somewhere."
"I couldn't do that. It's what my grandpa told me a while ago. I wouldn't want to steal from him."
"Yeah, something tells me stealing from a detective isn't a very good idea, even if it is just words." A smile forms on his face. "You know, when I first moved her I hated this town. It was so quiet, so boring. But now, I realize now that that's what makes it special. Sure there isn't much to do, but that's what brings people together. It's nice."
"That is very true. It makes me wish I grew up in a place like this."
"I… I've always wanted to be special, to be hero. I got super excited when I got my persona. I figured it would be my chance to do something that would make me special to someone. But that isn't what's important. As long as I continue to want to be the hero of a story, I will be the same as everyone else. Everyone wants to be a hero. What I wish I had realized before is that I have always been special, since the moment I was born. I didn't need this power; I just needed to be myself."
He has changed a lot since our first meeting. I can feel him growing, even now. I can feel our bond.
The two of us almost jump when the sudden image of Jiraiya appears in front of us in a spiral of gold light. "Whoa, what the…" His persona erupts in light as it transforms once again. It is now a lot more humanlike. It is mostly silver with red hands and has large, spiky red hair and a raiser circling around his neck. His power has grown. Is this because of our bond? Did I help him reach this power? No, he did it himself. He found the strength to grow, I only watched him.
"Heheh," he laughs as his evolved persona disappears from our vision. "This is my true power, huh. The power to protect this town, it's just what I wanted." He turns to look at me. "Let's do it together, leader."
"Please, I prefer the term partner. It is you who wanted us to be equal, correct?"
"Haha. Yeah, you're right… partner."
A voice overruns my thoughts.
Thou art I… and I am thou…
Thou hast established a genuine bond…
These genuine bonds… shall be your
eyes to see the truth.
We bestow upon thee the ability to
create Mada, the ultimate form
of the Magician Arcana…
Oh, so this is the true power of these bonds. A new persona, I will be sure to use it to protect this town alongside my new partner.
The two of us spend a long while looking over the city until it signs bright with lights, informing us that the night's darkness is upon us. We part ways, promising to meet each other up there again at some point. I return home and fall asleep thinking of my new, first strong bond. It seems more are to come.
Author's note
Hey, I hope you liked my first social link. Next up is Kou.