Nightlyy : Yep. Everyone, meet the more fucked up version of Chidori, where the "Holy shit" meter is cranked up to 11... For now.
RosyMiranto18 : Wow, you hit the nail on the head there, nice one. Minato/Makoto is the Death S-Link for Kotone.
RAX : Yep, he's dangerous to just about anyone. If you're in college... Hm... I'd say you're in either your late teens or early twenties.
Ultimate Kuuga : What part..? No, seriously, what part? Was it the cutting? His declaration that many people were about to die? Details... Seriously, this kinda crap I grew watching this, so I'm pretty resistant (if not immune) to the effects of this sorta crap.
Lightlyy : He never signed the contract, but Death being around god-tier means that he can still faintly sense it's presence. As for it's use, Makoto doesn't need it. I mean, he has an entity that can change it's entire freakin' Arcana so I don't think him gaining the ability to perform fusions himself is out of the question.
This is weird... usually, I have someone else here in the AN's to banter with, but still nothing. Wonder how long it'll be before I go insane...
School
Now that Kotone was back, school had returned to it's usual dull self. Of course, Makoto had to deal with her pestering him every now and then, but at least it provided variation, whereas he just slept through everything before.
Though, he'd been very busy watching SEES during their nightly activities. He knew that Mitsuru and Akihiko were veteran persona users, though not nearly as good as he was. Yukari, Kotone, and now even Junpei were all amateurs, but seem to be quickly getting the hang of things.
Interestingly, Kotone was elected as leader since Mitsuru used her persona for support and Akihiko was still injured from Arcana Magician. More interestingly, she could often be seen spacing out at the same spot where Makoto felt that faint presence.
He never actually saw them fight though, Pharos may have been able to avoid Mitsuru's detection, but he wasn't invisible. He was able to hide from sight just outside the tower that they called 'Tartarus'.
During the day, Junpei liked to visit the arcade or simply go to the dorm where the rest of SEES lived.
Yukari occasionally hanged out with friends, liked shopping, occasionally visited a sweet shop, or just went home.
Akihiko liked to eat beef bowls... a lot of them, and seemed to be somewhat obsessed with training, but couldn't due to his injury.
Mitsuru just went home after handling the Student Council responsibilities. She clearly wasn't interested in any 'distractions'.
Kotone on the other hand, was quickly becoming the very definition of a social butterfly. Every day, she seemed to focus on making and spending time with as many friends as possible, almost to the point it was as if she had to be with them or something.
Makoto spent his days as he usually did. All he did was go home, sleep, wake up and wait for the Dark Hour, and then he either explored Tartarus to see how far SEES had gotten, spied on SEES, or just went back to bed. It suited him, not a lot of people to interact with and he has a lot of time to himself.
As usual, the moment school ended he listened to his earphones as he left class, the song playing blocking out all the other students. A little game he liked to play was guessing why all the other students look happy, sad, angry, etc.
The girl crying on the bench probably just went through a breakup.
A group of guys in some sports teams probably lost the game or something.
Kotone standing in the main hall waiting for him-
Wait, what?
Makoto took off his earphones as he tilted his head confused "Um... Yes?"
"Hello, Makoto-kun." She greeted with a smile on her face like always, seemingly radiated a pleasant and warm aura that contrasted with Makoto's eerie and cold one "You do remember what you owe me, right?"
The boy let out an exasperated sigh, she really was dead-serious about this. Either she really liked eating, or she really wanted to get to know him under any means possible... He couldn't tell which one was weirder or more annoying.
Pharos reappeared, standing next to Kotone "You did agree to it." he reminded the bluenette
Makoto groaned for a moment "Fine~... Follow me." he said as he walked past the redhead "Congrats, you get to see where I live."
"Yay me." Kotone said quietly to herself as she followed the boy.
On the way there, Makoto noticed that Pharos had his head down for most of the trip. He rarely seemed bothered by anything as long as Makoto was fine, but now... What was wrong?
"What's up?" He whispered quietly as to not get the girl's attention
"She wears shorts..." Pharos responded which nearly made Makoto break into a fit of laughter on the spot. Pharos had one critical weakness, and that was girls who wore shorts underneath their skirts.
Makoto's Apartment
"And here we are." Makoto said as he held the door and let his guest in "Home sweet home."
"Hmm..." Kotone looked around, seemingly eyeing anything and everything. He'd been here for a few weeks at this point, but it looked almost completely barren. There was evidence that he spent some time here since, while not messy, the apartment had a few things lying around.
Interestingly, there was even a board game or two out, even though Makoto was the only one who lived there.
"Someone else live here, too?" Kotone asked the boy who still had that blank, emotionless face to the point where one would have to be extremely good at reading people to even remotely understand what was going on in his head.
"No." He answered directly, answering in one worded sentences like usual.
Unlike everyone else he had ever met, Kotone didn't seem terribly bothered by that "Then what's with the board games? Y-You..." She looked very concerned for a moment "You don't play against yourself... Do you?"
Makoto avoided eye contact "... My friend likes them." he answered vaguely. If he said yes, then that'd raise concern and concern leads to seeing people a lot more.
"Who?" She'd seen a lot of people around school, but he paid no attention to the girls and the guys didn't seem to like being around him for even a moment
"No one you'd know, let's leave it at that." Makoto said, wanting to change the subject as quick as possible
"If you say so..." She replied, taking the hint. Instead, she continued to look around. He was definitely a man of simple of taste, and was obviously not a people person. Other than that, she barely knew much about him, he was pretty much an enigma.
The redhead then sat on the sofa in front of the TV that looked like it wasn't used too often.
As far as aesthetics went, the walls were white with a dark blue carpet everywhere except the kitchen which had black and white tiles. The whole place just felt like... nothing. It was like when you enter a hotel, it's a place to stay but not a home.
"Feels a bit empty here." She gave her honest opinion of the place
"I didn't bring you here to criticize my home." He responded as he rolled his eyes "What do you want?"
Kotone shrugged her shoulders "You pick."
Makoto stood there for a moment as he blinked. So, she was trying to figure out what he liked by giving him the choice? She may act like a child at times, but she wasn't a complete idiot.
"Fine." He agreed as he went to the kitchen. He wasn't going to give his 'A' game for this, but he there was no reason to piss her off by putting in no effort. It wasn't going to be anything special, but it was something.
...
...
...
Some time later, the two of them were sitting at the table with a pilaf of curried rice with pieces of peas, meat, and onions mixed in as well.
Kotone just took 1 bite out of it, and she fell in love. She didn't know what sorta magic he performed in the kitchen, but it was absolutely amazing. Just the way everything perfectly blended in together...
Makoto simply ate at his usual pace as Kotone just started to wolf the thing down, luckily he gave her a very large portion.
She had nearly forgotten her true reason for coming her until she tried to swallow too much and had to drink some water to wash it down, and thus ended up looking at the boy on the other side again.
"Um..." She had to think about this. He wasn't an easy person to hold a conversation with, but she also knew very little about him on a personal level so it was even harder. If she didn't have any good questions, then it was time to ask basic ones.
"Uh... What's your favorite color?" She asked almost as awkwardly as she felt
"Blue." He answered without even a moment in hesitation. This was going to take awhile.
"What's your favorite song?" She asked next, desperate for an answer that wasn't just few words
"Don't have any." He responded, the whole time not even looking at her.
This was quickly getting ridiculous "Have you ever.. licked a lamppost in winter?"
"No." It was like he was trying to set a record for answering with as few words as possible
She did have one embarrassing question that worked on every guy, he'll either get embarrassed and stutter a bit, ask why she's asking, or be boastful...
"Have you ever kissed a girl?" She asked with a sly grin. He was still a teenage boy, surely that'd get some form of reaction out of-
"No." Apparently not, she was honestly starting to question if he was even human at this point. Every other boy of his age that she'd asked this for fun, almost always freaked out.
Wait, he came here around the same time she did, there was one question left.
"H-How're you liking the city so far?" She asked one of the most basic questions "I mean, you're new here, too, right?"
"..." He paused for a moment, almost as if he didn't want to answer "... I was born here." This place was almost exactly as he remembered it, despite it being 10 years later. He the crowded spots were still crowded with people, people still whined about school relentlessly, and there was an oddly welcoming atmosphere... During the day, anyway. The only real difference between now and then was that they... they...
"Hey!" The girl shouted and snapped her fingers as the bluenette shook his head as he awoke from his daze "Gee, thought I lost you to Apathy Syndrome for a moment there."
Apathy Syndrome... Such a weird name for an ailment. Those who fell victims to shadows didn't appear as those black blobs in reality. On this end of the world, they basically go completely brain dead.
"Why're you here?" He asked as he looked her straight in the eye "You got what you wanted... You don't have any reason to stay, nor ask any questions about my personal life."
She shrugged as if this was just a casual everyday thing "You looked lonely."
"I'm not." As long as he had Pharos, he was never lonely
"Oh yeah? You said you have 1 friend..." She narrowed her eye suspiciously, her tone sounding like a child pretending to be a detective "What's their name?"
Shit... Makoto thought to himself as he clenched his left fist that was under the table. She actually managed to back him into a corner. If he told the semi-truth, then she'd ask more follow up questions, and who knew where that could lead. If he didn't say anything, then she'd consider it a lie and try to be around him more.
No matter what, there was no good end to this for him.
"Alright, fine, you win..." He responded, no one else could know about Pharos... No one could understand.
That was enough to make Kotone's smirk shift into a cheeky grin "So, if I decided to spend more time with you..."
Makoto supported his head with his right elbow as he frowned with cold eyes "... I hate you." he complained
"Uh-huh..." She giggled before she stopped abruptly. She just seemed to zone out suddenly as she placed a hand on her head, before mumbling something along the lines of "... Death, huh?"
"What?" Makoto asked, doing his best to hide the feeling of paranoia that came over him at that moment.
Did she just say 'Death'? She couldn't of known about him, right?
She shook her head and blinked rapidly "I-It's nothing!" She quickly said as she stood up, and looked embarrassed rather scared. Whatever the reason behind what she said, it was probably unrelated to Pharos if it actually embarrassed her.
"Okay~" He said awkwardly before leaning back into his chair, feeling the urge to sleep soon "You can leave if you want, I'll clean the place up."
She nodded "Until next time, Makoto-kun." she said farewell before going to the door "Thanks for the food."
"Whatever." He responded with his usual disinterest as he pushed the door shut when she left
She's going to be a bigger pain in the ass than I thought.. Makoto mused to himself, he thought that she'd be good for basic information on SEES' condition or something should they ever discover his status of being a persona user.
Hmm... I like her.
"You already said that, Pharos." He reminded his strange friend
"I didn't say anything." The 'boy' responded as he tilted his head confused. Whatever Makoto was talking about, he didn't hear any of it.
"Huh?" Makoto looked back and saw the confusion in Pharos' eyes. He looked around, but there was no one else around. Whatever he heard, only he heard.
"Guess it was nothing." He dismissed it as him just hearing things before yawning "I'm goin' to bed, you know the drill..." He said as he walked to his bedroom
Pharos looked down, knowing that this night would be the same as last night, and the night before that, and the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that...
I'll be honest, writing for Kotone is a little tricky for me right now. From my understanding of the FeMC, she's a bit childish but still as caring/responsible/understanding as the regular MC.
This is made even trickier since there's not a lot to go through. Makoto doesn't have SEES to bond with/advance the plot, Makoto isn't too close to Kotone (yet), and the first potion of the game kinda drags a bit, at least, for me.
Oh, and I don't believe I've said this yet, but... I really like reviews. A lot, a lot... A LOT! So, please review... oh, and if you think it sucks, at least be constructive since the whole point of reviews in the first place.
