Are you... Normal again?
I wasn't normal before?
Okay, he's good... whew...
clevernameeh : Told you, I'm a sadist. I make moments that should be fun and goofy be... that. As for his persona abilities...
Well, there's 1 key thing that Yuki can do that Minato can't due to his fucked up psyche, but we'll save that for later.
Oh, you mean how he-
Shh! On another note : I've been told I make decent enough comedy when I try hard enough, so you can look forward to that (maybe), but now I don't have Liz to use... I miss Liz, she was so much fun.
She seemed like a nice lady.
*shivers* Nope, fuck that! Even *I* follow the rule of "Don't stick your dick in crazy"
You screwed a succubus.
... Still not crazy.
MinaxMina : Do you want her to kiss Makoto or Minato? Those are two pretty different answers.
Very different.
Nightlyy : Yay, I can write for lunatics/sociopaths!
Is there a difference between sociopaths and psychopaths?
From our understanding? They're pretty similar except sociopaths have a weak conscience while a psychopath has none.
Oh, and finally... Jackass! Yeah, person who I bounce ideas off of!
Asshole who banished me to another dimension more times than I can count!
Person who (by their personal request) doesn't want their name given!
Minato might not act how you expect this chapter and I (kinda) made my decision on his relation to Pharos... But don't think I've gone soft... He he ... Oh, do I have mental hell in store...
... Or do i? Maybe I'm just fucking with all of you. I think a few AT readers know that I do take it upon myself to lie every now and then in the AN/s because I'm a cruel bastard.
Shirakawa Boulevard
"Agilao, now!" Kotone ordered her partner as they ran into another shadow
"Orpheus." Minato called as he fired the Evoker SEES gave him less than a month ago. Even the way he called out to his persona was different. Before, he always sounded excited even if he kept a level tone, but now all the excitement was gone and his voice sounded slightly more stern.
As ordered, Orpheus appeared and burned the blob-like creature until nothing was left but a brief appearance of black smoke. The Death Arcana must've been extremely powerful because Minato was able to easily kill a lot of shadows in just one shot.
Normally, Kotone would feel comfortable even a little happy that she had a powerful teammate watching her back, but she couldn't shake the feeling of unease. Whether this unease was out of concern for her own safety or concern with the boy's mental state was a mystery even to her.
There was only one reason that she could think of as to why he was whispering two names while using the pronoun 'we' and having so many behavioral changes at once. But, what was she even supposed to do if she was right? Call a doctor? His foster parents?
"The others are just ahead!" Fuuka notified them that their search was about to end soon.
True to what she said, the other three SEES members were there. All of them appeared unharmed, though, for some reason, Akihiko seemed to be shiver and on his face was a... hand print?
"There you guys are!" Kotone said relieved as she reunited with her teammates "Are you alright, did anything happen?"
"N-No... Nothing happened!" Mitsuru objected a little too fast and she sounded uncharacteristically nervous
"Yeah! Nothing happened at all!" This was then followed up by Yukari.
Akihiko said nothing, he just shivered again as if he'd been frozen solid and recently freed from his arctic prison.
"Wet hair..." Minato muttered seemingly out of the blue
"H-Huh?" Yukari said nervously as her face began to redden
"What're you talkin' about?" Kotone asked wondering if this... side of the boy was delusional or something.
Minato pointed at Yukari "Your hair's wet..." and then pointed at Mitsuru "So is yours..." Then, he looked at Akihiko who was rubbing the print on his face "... Did you slap him, too?"
"W-Well... U-Um..." Mitsuru didn't seem to have any words. Being in that sort of scenario must've been foreign to her, especially given her patrician heritage and upbringing.
"S-So what?!" Yukari screamed at the boy who had tormented her with his constant wicked jokes and cruel nature "Going to make some smart ass joke now? Is that it?!"
"Huh..?" Minato tilted his head seemingly confused and somewhat baffled "Um... Why would I do that?"
Everyone stared at Minato as if they were looking at some sort of alien creature for the first time in their lives.
"Is... Is he okay?" Akihiko finally spoke up as he stared in bewilderment. Usually, Makoto just made some sort of rude/cruel/insensitive joke just to piss them off, but he now he seemed like it was a completely foreign concept to him. Did something happen?
"N-No reason!" Yukari wasn't going to complain. She just silently counted her blessings on the fact that the bluenette was finally going to do something other than mock her. She didn't know if this change in behavior was temporary or not, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Mitsuru narrowed her eyes slightly. Everything was... off about him. He looked more alert and cautious than before, his voice sounded a bit more relaxed and comforting than before, his posture was a bit more forward but not quite hunched over, and his eyes looked like they harbored genuine concern rather than nothing but apathy.
Kotone suddenly realized the situation they were in. What was she supposed to do? Explain what just happened and risk having him scorn her and possibly completely shatter her Death link? Lie to her friends and teammates, the people who've had her back from the very beginning?
Minato blinked, not really understanding the strange looks he was receiving from everyone "Don't we have a shadow to take care of?"
"Yes... Yes, of course." Mitsuru said as she remembered her objective
"Before... that, there was that weird mirror right?" Yukari asked, reminding everyone of what caused this situation.
"Anything you can tell us, Fuuka-chan?" Kotone asked her fellow junior
"Give me a moment..." Fuuka asked before pausing for a moment to focus before saying "I'm detecting two sort of 'locks' on each floor. You're going to have to find them and destroy them before you proceed to the room the shadow is in."
"Some sort of 'locks'?" Kotone repeated, what would constitute as a lock in this case
"Mirrors are everywhere in these rooms. Considering one got us in this mess, they're likely what the shadow is using to keep us out." Minato said matter-of-factly "Kotone and I can take care of the one on this floor while the rest of you take care of the one on the next. After that, we can rendezvous outside the shadow's room."
After laying out a fairly solid plan, Minato looked at everyone "That work?"
"U-Um... Yeah, that works perfectly." Kotone said, a little surprised at the fact that he just took over as leader for a moment there.
"Understood." Mitsuru also seemed to agree with the plan as she lead Yukari and Akihiko up the stairs to go look for the mirror that protected the shadow.
Minato turned to Kotone "Shall we go?"
Kotone blinked, still not used to this sudden behavioral change "Y-Yeah! Let's do it." she agreed as they entered the nearest room.
In the room was a sight similar to the room they had seen not too long ago. There was a large bed, an adjacent room with a shower, and a very large mirror.
Minato walked to the front of the mirror and stared at it "No reflection..." He noted
"That means we need to break it, right?" Kotone asked remembering that the mirror before also had no reflection. But, what if it was the other way around? What if they were just going to be put into... that scenario again?
"No telling if this is going to backfire so..." Minato turned to the redhead beside him "So how're we doing this?" He asked "Draw straws? Rock, paper, scissors?"
Kotone blinked "... Seriously?"
"Hey, I don't wanna go through that again..." Minato said dryly as he looked back at the mirror, and he could've sworn that he could feel something emanating from that mirror now "Alright, how 'bout we play fair and both of us break it?"
"Well... um..." Kotone thought for a moment. If both ended up snared, there was no telling if they'd be able to break out of it again. Then again, with him being how he was, he was pretty unpredictable and there's no telling what he'd do if she got charmed again. And if he was the one charmed, he'd probably have to go through that all over again.
"Alright, let's get this over with..." Kotone said as they both held onto their respective weapons tightly, silently praying that this works out for them.
"On three?" Minato asked which the girl nodded to
"One..."
"Two..." Please work, please work, please work... They silently prayed in harmony
"Three!" Just as they agreed, both of them attacked the mirror as hard as they could, both closing their eyes the moment their blades made contact with the mirror.
...
...
...
"I don't feel different..." Kotone said somewhat relieved, but still reluctant to open her eyes "Do you?"
"I think I'm good..." Minato answered, making everything seem alright so far.
"A-Are you still wearing everything?" She asked, still keeping her eyes shut in case anything was out trying to corrupt her virgin eyes.
"... Just open your eyes." Minato ordered, completely disregarding his status as her temporary subordinate.
With a loud gulp, Kotone slowly opened her eyes, ready to see... Things she wasn't ready to see.
All there was to see was her body stiller than a body preserved in ice and the mirror which was now leaking a black mist from the cracks that had formed from the damage it had sustained from their attacks.
"Whew..." Kotone sighed in relief "And my innocence is secure!"
Minato just stared with a blank face "... You're the weirdest person I've ever met." he announced before walking past her
The girl groaned Great, now both versions of him are saying that... Wait.
"Makoto-kun!" She called out which made the boy stop in his tracks "Um... About what happened..."
"Thank you."
"Huh?" She was expecting a 'no' or 'not now' or something along those lines. Besides, what did she have to be thanked for? "W-Why're you..?"
"Not saying anything... or leaving..." Minato clarified before he felt fear beginning to take over "That.. um... How much did you hear?"
"Hear?" She repeated, not sure what to say.
"I was uh... I was mumbling some stuff, right?" He asked as he looked back at her, there was an undeniable look of worry on the boy's face "... How much of that did you hear?"
This was it, the moment of truth. Did she let him know that she knew?
If she did do that, he might try to avoid her due to not wanting to confront the issue. If he did that, not only might their link shatter, but god knows what would happen to him if left alone in the meantime.
If she didn't do anything, then he might try to avoid her due to not wanting to have another close call. Then, the same exact thing would happen.
... There really was no good answer to this, was there?
"Um..." She looked around awkwardly as she thought to herself.
Makoto was an antisocial, rude, apathetic, and at times very volatile as seen when he killed Hierophant. He frequently said crude jokes in order to anger people and always seemed to have fun while doing it.
Still, he wasn't all bad if one decided to try hard enough and for enough time. He could be nice if he wanted, and he clearly showed that there was more to him than just the person he let himself appear as.
Then, there was this one who Kotone could only the one called 'Minato'. He seemed a lot nicer, gentler, and generally a much better person than Makoto normally was. He stopped making crude jokes, he took the shadows seriously, he refused to insult anyone (hell, he looked at everyone weird for even suggesting it), and actually acted like how a normal person would for the most part.
She hadn't seen much of him yet though, but from judging from the little she had, maybe this was who he really was? They didn't seem like two different people from the bottom up, but rather two vastly different interpretations of the same person.
What was she supposed to do? She barely even understood what was going on, never mind how to react to it all.
"... I... I dunno. I definitely heard your name in there somewhere." She panicked and partially lied "Why? Anything serious?"
"..." Minato kept silent as he looked forward just hung his head for a few moments of silence before saying "Let's get going."
...
...
"Déjà vu." Minato noted as everyone gathered outside the room just like they had done less than an hour ago.
"Everyone okay?" Kotone asked as she looked at everyone up and down. The girls didn't seem anymore embarrassed than they were before, and Akihiko didn't seem to have any new hand prints or anything on him.
"We're fine, and I trust you're the same as well?" Mitsuru asked to which the girl nodded to in confirmation "Yamagishi, anything you can tell us about what's behind this door?"
"Let me see..." Fuuka said as she began scanning "Its Arcana is the Lovers, and it seems to specialize in charming foes and can also use moderate fire attacks." She warned everyone.
"Here we go again..." Minato muttered as they went through the door and saw the shadow that caused all of this.
Above them flew what seemed to see a giant heart with wings. The heart itself was both made up of and partially bled a jelly like substance while the wings were made of a more solid variant. Within the heart were the floating Mars and Venus symbols representing male and female.
Yukari seemed to be pretty pissed off for some reason "You're the reason i was forced to home to this disgusting place!" she screamed at the shadow which made Minato tilt his head. Didn't she ask to come here?
Whatever logic there was in that statement could be debated later. Now, they had to face the shadow that made this entire operation a nightmare for everyone.
"Guys! Debuff, now!" Kotone ordered as the male members of the grouped fired their Evokers with Makoto casting Tarunda and Akihiko using Rakunda
"Yukari, stay back and if it tries charming anyone, use Charmdi." She continued to bark out orders "Everyone else... surround it, keep it weakened, and wear it down."
Just as they were ordered, Yukari stood by the door with her bow and arrow as everyone else surrounded the flying shadow. The strategy itself was fairly solid if not a bit basic ; It was simple, but effective. But, there was one major flaw in the plan.
While not resistant, Arcana Lovers had a slight affinity to fire...
... Mitsuru had a strong affinity to ice.
In the midst of the battle, Lovers summoned multiple fire balls from an Maragion at the group of four that surrounded it.
Mitsuru gasped as she was caught off guard as one of the orbs of nothing but pure fire was launched at her. Even though it was weakened with a Tarunda, everyone's current affinities assured that even an attack like that would be devastating. And since Mitsuru was weak to fire, even with a Tarunda...
"Senpai!" Surprising just about everyone there, Minato used Orpheus to push his senior out of the way while taking the full force of the attack that was heading towards him on top of the pain from his persona's injuries bouncing back to him, the force of which made him impact with the wall just as Makoto did before when facing Hierophant.
Makoto growled loudly at the boy's actions Taking the blow for the Kirijo bitch? I doubt she would've died from that.
I don't care... Minato responded as he stood up and glared at the shadow
Beside Minato, Pharos titled his head as he looked upon the boy. Even he knew something was different about him, but he couldn't explain what it was. He kept silent in the meantime, but after watching that... What happened to his friend?
Regardless, it was at least still his friend's body and that had to be healed. Whether Lovers' charm somehow broke his mind or not was irrelevant at the moment, he still needed a body to live.
Minato felt a pang hit him as a headache began to form. Makoto wasn't trying to take over now, a sudden shift again would raise too much suspicion... So what was it?
"Polydeuces!" Akihiko called out to his persona who took the opportunity to hit the shadow as hard as he could while augmenting the punch with electricity which caused the shadow to let out a screech despite it not having a mouth.
"Ares, Getsu-ei!" Kotone followed this up with the Greek god of war, Ares attacking with his blade
"Media!" Yukari shouted as she summoned Io which healed everyone from any wounds they suffered and even sped up Minato's already fast healing properties. The bluenette shook his head and started to think while the shadow was distracted.
Hmm... Minato silently hummed as he began to form a plan in his mind.
"Senpai!" Minato called to his redheaded senior who looked at him, now more than ever willing to let everything he had done up to this point be forgiven "C'mere, I have an idea!"
Then, he turned to Yukari "Yukari, I need you in this too!" He called to the brunette who despite his previous actions, was willing to let him make up for them... especially if it leads to ending this fight once and for all.
"Whatever your going to do..." Akihiko grunted as the shadow used its jelly-like wings to hit the senior who was forced to absorb the blow while blocking with nothing other than his human arms.
"Hurry it up!" Kotone finished for her senior as she barely dodged a Holy Arrow which probably would've lead to her being charmed.
Suddenly, hearts started to form above all of them. Judging from the surprised and somewhat panicked gasp Fuuka made when they did, this was likely going to be a very powerful attack unless someone stopped it immediately.
"Get ready!" Minato warned as he suddenly started taking off into a full sprint
"Mitsuru!" He called out to his senior before he jumped onto a block of ice summoned by Mitsuru's Penthesilea
"Yukari!" He then called to the junior that Makoto had the most distaste for, and then he was suddenly lifted up high in the air by a Garu from Io.
Before the shadow had time to react, Minato took his chance to cut Lovers' fragile right wing clean off as if it were literally jelly. Suddenly, all of the hearts that had appeared above everyone suddenly faded away from the damage the shadow had taken.
"Akihiko, zap it!" Minato ordered as soon as his feet hit the ground.
"Got it." Akihiko agreed seeing how well the plan was going. His personal disliking for the junior aside, he was proving himself to be quite useful in combat.
As soon as Arcana Lovers landed on the ground, Polydeuces followed it up by zapping it with a bolt from a Zio to render it into a state of shock.
"Kotone! You, me, together, now!" Minato explained his plan as quickly as he could which was thankfully enough for the redhead to get the hint.
The bearers of The Fool and Death ran to the weakened shadow as fast as they could before attacking with their respective weapons simultaneously as hard as they could which finally knocked the shadow down and left it completely vulnerable.
"What was that you said before?" Minato asked which made the girl smirk at the implication
"All-Out Attack!" Kotone ordered as everyone charged at the shadow and continued to circle it as they made various small strikes in every angle they could find until the shadow let out another shriek before fading away into a black mist
Everyone panted as they all felt like falling onto their knees.
"Heh... That worked..." Minato muttered to himself. He seriously expected to be blown to pieces, but it all actually worked out for everyone.
"Great work you guys!" Fuuka congratulated them on a well earned victory "Let's go home."
...
...
...
Everyone gathered in front of the hotel that everyone would dread for the rest of their lives.
"Another operation well done all of you." Fuuka congratulated them again, her words actually seemed genuine rather than being there to simply boost morale.
"Yeah, great~ job..." Junpei muttered under his breath as he hid his eyes with his cap.
Minato stood to the side as SEES continued to celebrate their victory before Mitsuru approached the boy.
"Yuki, while you did it for selfish reasons, your assistance during this operation was invaluable." She complimented before giving a small nod "Thank you, for your assistance."
"Um... Thanks, I guess." Minato said awkwardly as he looked around
"Yeah, you're the hero..." Junpei said as he approached the boy "Must feel good, right?"
"..." Minato said nothing as he looked at the capped boy. The jealousy in his voice was obvious... It looks like what Makoto said before was still bothering him
He he ... he ha ha ha HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA..! Makoto laughed within the boy's head Go ahead, cry like a bitch... Maybe you'll finally do the world a favor and get yourself killed.
Minato simply blinked as Makoto's thoughts echoed through his mind "I'm just lucky."
"Luck? Pf, yeah right." Junpei rolled his eyes, he was clearly annoyed... All courtesy of Makoto.
"Whoa, cool it!" Kotone said as she stood between them "We already took care of the shadow. No need for us to fight each other!"
"Each other? He's not one of us!" Junpei refuted in blind rage as he glared at the bluenette before looking back at the redhead again "Of course you'd defend him. Ever since you two came here you've been all buddy buddy!"
"Iori, enough of this!" Mitsuru chastised the capped boy. While Junpei's maturity had been called into question, she didn't expect him to act this childish.
"Tch, whatever..." Junpei said as he turned his back to everyone and walked away without another word
"He'll be back." Kotone said matter-of-factly, something that was proven when her Fool link strengthened despite everything "He just needs a few to calm down."
"What's up his butt?" Yukari wondered out loud as she and everyone else began to walk home as well... All except two.
"Hey..." Kotone called out as she looked down and slowly twisted her right ankle "... So um... Where um... Where do we..?"
"Nothing needs to change." Minato answered, he didn't know how much she truly heard in the middle of all that... But he also didn't want it to change anything "Just... Keep it between us, please."
Kotone smiled weakly as she nodded "Alright..." She agreed as she felt her Death link strengthen again. If she was right and the links were mutual in the since that the bond would have to strengthen both ways, then she knew that she was making progress with the boy.
"G'night, Makoto-kun." Kotone said farewell as she left to catch up with the others.
Minato looked off as she slowly began to fade from view "... Night." he whispered, but now he was left all alone.
Alone...
Alone...
...
...
No one else...
...
...
Nothing keeping Minato necessary anymore.
Abruptly, the boy hung his head and closed his eyes as his breathing suddenly slowed and could easily be mistaken for stopping as his knees slightly bent.
When the boy opened his eyes, they flared a bright yellow before reverting to a dim blue and then reverting back to normal.
Makoto smirked as he slowly raised his head and looked at the building where Strega was still watching. Even if they wanted to kill him, they didn't have enough time during the Dark Hour to face him now.
They were too far too see well, but the boy could make out the images of them turning away and leaving to go to wherever it was that they decided to live for the time being.
"Minato..." And then there was one other matter.
Makoto turned to Pharos who had a puzzled look on his face "What just happened to you... Was it an act?"
Makoto chuckled as he shook his head "Little bro, I wish it was an act." he answered as he began to walk home "What you saw, was the ghost of a long dead man that refuses to stay where he belongs."
"Why don't I remember him?" Pharos asked to which Makoto only replied with a blank stare which made Pharos look down "... Oh."
"Let's just go to bed." Makoto said as he let out a yawn "I'm going to have so much bullshit to deal with now."
Welp, that happened. I think I highlighted the differences between Minato and Makoto pretty well...
Yes, and now, we're going to be confused. Seriously, please if you mean that asshole who shares my name say either 'Makoto' or 'Yuki' and when referring to the other one say 'Minato'. Otherwise... Yeah, we're literally writing for 2 here.
We? As I recall, Grim does all the writing and planning and... Well, everything. The closest he has to help is occasionally bouncing ideas off of others, but that's it.
Little dude has a point.
Oh, not this again!
Whatever. I hoped you guys enjoy... Next up... Oh fuck it, you guys already know... Or maybe not... Who knows? I do whatever the hell I want, he he.
