Midterms are ending this very morning, and the manic juniors can finally stop stressing over everything at the dorm.
At least until the results get posted.
All that energy buzzing around him will calm down, yet his heart keeps fluttering with excitement, he can almost feel the sparks traveling under his skin, using sinew as a highway from the tip of his finger to his soles. Mitsuru will have nothing to say this time, since the doctors gave him the go-ahead to go back to his normal active lifestyle, finally.
Akihiko practically ambushes Minako that morning, who's walking through the gates of Gekkoukan by herself for once, to ask her if they're planning on visiting Tartarus that night.
Minako just smirks at him playfully, at least she seems to have a pretty good idea how much he needs this. After all, she's been helping him sneak out on an unsponsored run or three at this point, she even gave a convincing excuse when Mitsuru started to get suspicious of his morning routines. Her owes her and he will owe her even more if she agrees to this.
"Yes senpai, I was already planning on it. If I spend another day cooped up with my nose in a book I will scream!"
She almost shouts her last words in despair, and he chuckles at her exuberance, feeling the same. Actually, he probably feels somewhat worse than she might, because of, well, everything.
She turns around, glancing at the nearby gossiping female students. Akihiko barely registers a throng of girls loosely hanging out some distance away, hand on their lips, looking at them. They're far enough but he lowers his head closer to hers just in case anyways, discovering her coppery hair smells like sun-kissed strawberries.
"By the way, I have a favor to ask. You've been doing a great job leading the team in Tartarus… Would you mind continuing after I come back?"
She widens her red eyes in surprise, looking up to him quizzically, so he keeps talking.
"That way, I can concentrate on building my strength."
He can almost hear the gears of her mind assessing this information as she purses her lips, thinking furiously. So far, she's demonstrated an uncanny understanding of the team's capabilities, both known and suspected, and together with her brother as a second in command, made her strategies an effective reality. It's probably easy for her to slot him somewhere in the scheme of things, perhaps she's even considered that possibility beforehand.
"Leave it to me!"
These simple assertive words, accompanied by her head bobbing in the affirmative, make him smile. This was that, and all that's left is to look ahead to the night's exploration. Joints buzzing with unspent energy, he walks her to class in thanks, to the jealous glare of the corridors' morning denizens.
The night of May 23rd feels to him like a breath of crisp air after a near-drowning experience. Following weeks of inactivity and just indirect exposure to the efforts of the junior team in Tartarus through secondary hearsay and prim proper reports from Mitsuru, Akihiko is eager to just step into the ring of hell and let loose.
He's so ready for action, having drilled a light routine in his room prior to the Dark Hour to invigorate himself. Yet, nothing could have really prepared him for this brand-new group combat experience with the twins.
Weapons are flexed, evokers get strapped to body parts, shoes are tied, then it's finally time to go. Ruffling his hair and feeling like a ball of unspent static shock, he adjusts his gloves then straps one of his knuckles tighter as they all step into the teleporter.
Not only is this new block of Tartarus a jarring, unreal visual experience of colors, but the air feels stale. Nonetheless, he admires as the juniors take positions around their leader like they've been doing this all their lives. Takeba stays in the center, Junpei takes point with Minato and Minako holds the rear. She holds her naginata loosely but looks alert, eventually glancing at him with a question in her eyes. He just falls in step next to her, nodding. Akihiko will have to observe if this is the best spot for him to complement everyone else but for now, defense seems optimal.
It takes them less than a minute to find trouble, which Junpei engages wholeheartedly, bastard blade high like he's about to cleave everything in half with a single hit.
He's worked in a team before with Mitsuru and Aragaki, but this is entirely different. Shinji tends to do his own thing, ignoring but the direst of orders, while Mitsuru, despite being aggressive and cool-headed, is always too controlled. There's a certain looseness required to really fall into harmony, and he's now witnessing it firsthand with the twins. Not to mention the variety of their persona apparitions, which ranges from faeries to demons and weird effigies of power.
Minako is truly the anchor of the group, half her time is spent providing directives or eyes to her peers who can't always grasp the full picture of the fight. Hands outstretched and eyes glowing, she summons beings after beings, calling columns of light to vaporize shadows or strengthening their capabilities with showers of colored sparks. A flick of a wrist, a pointed naginata or simple commands relay information she's getting live fed from Mitsuru on weaknesses or focus fire targets.
Takeba, bow at the ready but mostly focused on healing, envelops each of them in soothing mists if shadows have the fortune to make a decent dent in their defenses. Cover fire is focused and well-timed.
Minato is an agile fighter, darting around Junpei's broader and front-facing gait like a deadly falcon. When no openings present itself, or if the large groups could even cause a few shadows to break towards his sister, he immediately falls on the defensive, at least initially. Once he figures Akihiko is aware of their positioning at least as much as he is, the twin relaxes and remains on the offensive, after all he has eyes at the back working for him. They exchange a few glances here and there, almost as if Minato is challenging him to slip at his job.
Hearing Takeba say it, their speed of execution almost doubles that night. Minato has a large arsenal of elemental offensive capabilities, both with blade and persona abilities, and when he's not busy hovering around his sister, he fells large swats of weakened shadows like a child attacks his cereals.
It's also not like Minako approves of her brother's protectiveness until he relents, she keeps grumbling about her twin's attention like it's an affront, but as a fellow big brother, Akihiko understands exactly what and why this is occurring.
Good fellow, Minato, with the proper priorities.
Perhaps she wouldn't take so much offense if Akihiko takes over, it's never quite the same as with a sibling.
Taking confidence after a few easy encounters where he barely breaks a sweat, they manage to engage larger groups with their increased firepower, just to test the waters.
As soon as Akihiko punches through a shadow's body with a straight hook of his knuckles, hand falling through a haze of dissipating black particles, he grabs his evoker. He summons swats of lightning to clear up the flanking field, eyes alight with glee, then he rolls toward another enemy as Minako boosts his attacks, then his speed with featherlight sparkles of green. His limbs become a blur and he keeps going for the targets she asks him to handle.
Punch, roll, evoker to the head, block, lightning bolts to the left, quick sprint then dive, drill punch, rince repeat. He's exhausted, mind void of any buzzing thoughts in a good way, once the carnage ends. Their front and secondary ranks somehow fall back in a half moon near Minako and Akihiko finds himself half-crouched between the twins like they planned a victory pose.
Cracking his wrists to shake off some tingle in his battered fingers, he claps Minato on the shoulder with some force, admirative of the performance. The blue-haired twin has his hair away from both his eyes for once and he grimly faces his senior. Then, he glances at his very safe sister, unscathed, and smirks as if to congratulate him for a test he aced. Minako rolls her eyes, a wan but excited gleam in her irises.