Chapter 7

It was easy for Akihiko to find the private room Yukari had chosen. All he had to do was follow the splotches of drying blood on the otherwise spotless floor.

The boxer tore through the hallway haphazardly. He kept his gaze downward to follow his kohais' bloody trail, not even processing the yelps of surprise and indignation from the people he narrowly dodged as he sent paperwork flying off counters in his wake. He pivoted around a corner, and one of the doctors started in surprise before quickly pointing to a door a few meters away. Akihiko skidded to a halt and threw the door open, dashing inside and promptly closing it behind him.

The room was set up in the same way as nearly all of the rooms in the hospital. A white bed with white sheets lay near a shuttered white window, giving the room a bleached feeling. On one side of the bed was a nondescript white (ugh, seriously?) drawer, while on the other there was a small white night table, heaped with… red-tainted gauze?

Yukari didn't even look up from Minato's body as the boxer entered. Continuing to try and stop the bleeding with masses of bandages in her latex-gloved hands, she frantically motioned at the senior. "Senpai! Get over here, you need to help Minato, quickly!"

"Yukari, what you're doing now isn't really helpful," he replied bluntly as he squatted next to the sickly teen on the bed. "With this amount of bleeding he's gonna need something more than those bandages."

The girl blanched and looked up. "Then what are we going to-?"

She stopped talking and widened her eyes as Akihiko stood up and took out his evoker. Firing at his forehead, Akihiko spoke a word as Polydeuces swirled into existence by its summoner's side.

"Dia!"

As usual, the blond persona raised its drill. But instead of causing an attack, a soft light appeared above Minato's body, wrapping it in green. A gasp was heard as Minato's wounds slowly started to close up.

Akihiko saw Yukari smile shakily in relief as the light spread over the boy's body. Before he fully healed, however, the persona and light dissipated, and Minato restarted his rasping.

"That's all I have left," Akihiko panted, now leaning against a wall. "The rest is up to you, Yukari."

The brunette froze at the boxer's words. "What?!" She hissed. "You don't mean-! I c-c-c…I can't do that!" she spat out, looking like she'd rather swallow poison than repeat that. "I c-couldn't even summon my persona when the situation was life or death, Senpai! How the hell do you expect-"

"The situation still is life and death!" The senior retorted, then had to take a moment to catch his breath. "We don't know if those knives had some sort of substance on them, and I'm not about to risk some kind of shadow-based bacteria infection! And he's still bleeding out!" Akihiko pointed his evoker at the boy, whose blood had now stained the bandages Yukari had put on and was slowly leaking onto the hospital bed below him. "Yukari, Minato needs help right now, and you're the only one who can give it!"

"W-wait… Gimme a sec, I need-"

"You're being ridiculous." Akihiko walked over to the girl and grabbed her shoulders with both hands as they made eye contact. "There's no reason that you should be waiting! None! Help him!"

Yukari stared fearfully back at the boxer, hesitance clearly written all over her face. Without waiting for a proper response, the boxer lifted his hands from Yukari's shoulders and took her evoker from her hip. He presented it to her with the barrel pointed towards himself. "Come on, Yukari. You can do this."

The girl took the silver gun with unsteady hands. Akihiko nodded reassuringly to her as she slowly brought the device to her face, and the cold metal touched her forehead. She turned back to the blue-haired boy, who had started coughing lightly as his eyes scrunched tighter in pain. While Yukari gathered up courage, she took a deep breath, twitching her finger closer and closer to the trigger, and finally touching it and beginning to squeeze…

Before she relaxed, taking a shuddering gasp and squinting her eyes in frustrated anger.

Akihiko sighed a little and bowed his head as he sat down in one of the guest chairs. He could practically hear Yukari's consternation without looking at her, and he decided to give her a little privacy by facing away from her. "…It's alright, Yukari," he assured. "There'll be other opportunities. Let's just let Mitsuru handle this one."

Smash!

Akihiko straightened in surprise at the telltale shattering noise, and he whipped his head around to see familiar blue-tinted glass fly out of Yukari's head, bouncing off of the wall and swirling next to her. A figure was formed from the dancing glass, taking the shape of a bound and chained blonde trapped inside the head of a metallic bull. Light from the hospital's fluorescent bulbs glinted off the persona, making Akihiko squint from his seat.

"…I-Io! Dia!"

Yukari sounded just as surprised as Akihiko felt, but the same gentle light swept over Minato's body, embracing his frame as the bleeding once again halted. After the persona disappeared, Yukari took another moment before firing again, and again, and one last time, each attempt taking less effort than the last. After her fourth firing, she stopped to look at the boy in the bed as his breathing returned to normal, and a look of peaceful relief softened his face. Yukari loosened her grip on the gun and let out the breath she'd been holding.

"I knew you could do it," Akihiko's voice rang out with a smile, making the girl jump and almost fire her evoker again. "I don't know why you doubt yourself so much."

"It's not me that I'm doubting," the girl replied with a bit of a huff as she slowed her heart down. "It's… well, the gun. Of all the things to make evokers out of, why'd they have to make it a gun?"

Akihiko looked at the silver handgun in the girl's hand. It really was strange, and he had no idea why they had made it that way… even though he was almost positive Mitsuru had explained the reason at some point. "Hell if I know," he said with a shrug. "I just do what I'm told."

Yukari almost snorted in her attempt to conceal her light laughter, shifting her head to hide her face from her senpai.

The room fell into a semi-comfortable silence after that, the two impromptu doctors resting while their patient nodded off. After another minute, however, the brunette spoke up again. "Hey… Senpai? Why's Minato-kun's leg still…?"

Akihiko turned and followed her extended finger, pointing to Minato's left leg. The boy in question had now completely fallen asleep after the initial healing, but his leg was still clearly bent nearly 90 degrees too far to the right. The boxer mentally cursed himself and leapt to the boy's side. He was an athlete, dammit, how could he be so stupid about this?!

He tore back the remains of Minato's pant leg and cursed out loud. The boy's leg had swollen up into a grape-purple blotch, much too large for the boy's slender frame. Akihiko lifted the leg up, pushing down the flicker of guilt that lit up when Minato awakened with a small cry of pain.

"Senpai?" Yukari asked worriedly from behind him. "I'm guessing that's not supposed to happen…?"

Akihiko loudly exhaled from his nose. "No, it's not, and it wouldn't have if I hadn't been so stupid. You're supposed to elevate a broken ankle so it doesn't… y' know, swell like this."

"But I healed him, right? Or…"

"It's not your fault, I just don't think dia is good enough to fix breaks. You'd need a higher-ranked healing spell for that."

Yukari hummed in acknowledgement. But she still rested her eyes on the injured boy with no small concern as the room again fell into silence.

Another moment or two passed before the door slid open, and a familiar redheaded face entered the room. "Are you two all right? How's he…"

Mitsuru laid her eyes on Minato's contorted face, before turning to Akihiko with a raised eyebrow. The boxer sheepishly turned his gaze away from Mitsuru. "I messed up," he admitted. "I forgot to elevate the leg, so it's pretty damn swollen."

"…So I see," Mitsuru replied. "But at least you got his other wounds healed."

"Actually, it wasn't me." He tilted his head in Yukari's direction. "You can give the credit to this girl here. First persona summon in a high-stress situation, if memory serves."

Yukari's cheeks tinged pink as she shook her head. "T-This wasn't really high-stress, y' know… and I… probably couldn't have done it if I was alone…" she muttered darkly.

"Actually, I'll have to agree with Akihiko here," Mitsuru replied, ignoring the other girl's negative musings as usual. "You performed a critical operation in a time of great need, most likely helping Arisato avoid serious harm. Great job, Takeba." A light smile ghosted over the redhead's face.

The addressed girl awkwardly adjusted her bangs and looked to the side. Akihiko could practically see her going through possible responses in her mind before she responded with a stilted, "…Thanks, Senpai."

Without waiting for the conversation to descend further into awkwardness, the brunette stood up and walked over to the waste disposal area, slipping her medical gloves off and trashing them in a red biohazard container. "I think I'd better get back to the dorm," she told them while washing her hands. "I don't think I'll be much help here anymore, right? No point in staying, especially since there's school in a few hours."

Mitsuru nodded. "That's fine, Takeba. Thanks again for your help."

"It wasn't a problem," she replied quickly... maybe a little too quickly.

Regardless, Yukari dried her hands and walked to the door with a wave in her seniors' direction, exiting the room without another word. When the door slid shut with a click, Mitsuru let out a breath and collapsed into one of the chairs, much too similar to a puppet cut from its strings for comfort. The boxer looked over in alarm. "You alright, Mitsuru?"

She didn't even glance over at him. "…I'm fine, Akihiko."

"Like hell you are! How long has it been since the last time you lost your composure when someone was around, even me? And when was the last time you slept?"

"Too long ago, I'd guess," replied a deep voice before Mitsuru could reply. Akihiko looked to his left at the door, which slid open to reveal Hashino, ducking his head down as he stepped into the room. "Just professional intuition here… I'd guess you haven't slept in two days?"

Akihiko looked sharply over at Mitsuru, who sighed. "You're wrong."

"Ah, three days then?"

The redhead attempted her icy death-glare at the doctor, but the effect was totally nullified by her slouched posture, disheveled hair, and the fact that Hashino was totally ignoring her look as he examined Minato's bulging leg. Mitsuru angrily blew a piece of her hair out of the way as she folded her arms. "Don't act like you know everything about my life, Shoji."

The doctor stopped his examination to turn and give Mitsuru an incredulous look. "Did you just call me Shoji? Mitsuru, when was the last time you called me that?"

"…Fifth grade," she muttered sullenly.

"Fourth," Hashino corrected. "Mitsuru, how're you still conscious? You're so tired you're using the name you called me when you were ten years old. Take a nap in that chair you're in, for God's sake, before you collapse and your Dad skins me alive for not lettin' you rest."

Mitsuru glanced over at the barely conscious boy, but Hashino interrupted again. "No way, Mitsuru, you are not interrogating this poor kid anytime soon. Go. Sleep. Now."

It was another sign of just how utterly exhausted the Kirijo heir was that she didn't really argue the point further. She grumbled something to herself in protest, but shifted her position around and rested her head against the hard wall without anymore sound.

Hashino glanced over at Akihiko, who was looking at him with an eyebrow raised. "You two know each other?"

"She never told you?" Akihiko gave him a look that smacked of Are you kidding me?, and he chuckled. "Ah, nevermind, of course she didn't. I'm a family friend, more or less: I've been the Kirijos' physician for years. Mitsuru always says my name with the '–san' in public because saying anything else is 'not proper conduct for a Kirijo,' or somethin' dumb like that."

Mitsuru again muttered something indignant and unintelligible from her seat in response. Akihiko gave the doctor a look, clearly saying 'she's hopeless.' The doctor returned a bemused smile in acknowledgement. 'Trust me, I know.'

Hashino then returned his focus to his patient, and sighed a little as he looked at Minato's leg again. "Looks like you and I were a little too slow," he muttered. "I heard he had knife wounds earlier, too?" Akihiko tightened his jaw and nodded his head slightly, and Hashino shook his head. "This poor kid. Had he even been introduced to Personas?"

"…No. It's a miracle he's still alive."

The doctor ran a weatherworn hand through his hair. "Hm. Well, I suppose he still is alive, and that's all that matters for now. Can you go grab this floor's ice machine for me?"

Akihiko had been injured enough that he knew exactly where all of the icing equipment was located on each of the floors. It helped that each hall was pretty much identical, anyways. He inclined his head and gave Minato's leg to Hashino, then left the room to pick up the equipment at the end of the hallway.

When Akihiko returned with the machine, the greying brunet had already propped Minato's leg up on a wadded bundle of pillows and sheets, shed his white lab coat (now draped over Mitsuru like a blanket), and stuck Minato with a needle in the crook of his left arm, opposite his elbow. Attached to the needle was a syringe filled with a milky white liquid, lying parallel to the boy's arm. "Sedative, for when we can set his leg," he explained when Akihiko's eyes wandered over it. "It's expensive, but I'm guessin' he's under the same Kirijo insurance as all of you kids. Although, honestly, I'd pay for his bills myself even if he weren't. Setting this leg'll hurt more than breaking it."

Akihiko nodded in understanding. Moving his eyes over the rest of the set-up, he involuntarily smiled a little when he saw the doctor's unique way to keep Minato's leg propped up. "That's not exactly what they teach you in med school, is it Hashino? ...-san?"

"'Course not, but whatever works, works." He replied. "And just drop the honorific if you want, I don't care for 'em either. Now hand over that machine, Akihiko. Please n' thanks n' all that."

The boxer obediently transferred the icing machine to the doctor's waiting hands with a snort. The doctor's lips twitched up at the sound of Akihiko's amusement, but he kept his gaze down as he unraveled the blue cloth attached to the machine and wrapped it around the boys' leg. He frowned as he noticed that the Velcro was on the wrong side.

"That's the wrong way, Hashino," Akihiko pointed out. "Try doing it like this." He proceeded to take the cloth away from Hashino and began twisting it in an intricate knot around the boy's leg, making it almost seem like an art.

After he completed it, he looked over at Hashino, who had a look of high amusement on his face. "Now, that, they don't teach at med school."

Akihiko shrugged sheepishly. "I doubt they teach it anywhere. This is just something I came up with on my own after my third break back in middle school. I dunno why it works, but this knot really gets the machine colder, faster."

"Did you say third break? In middle school?"

"Er, yeah?"

"…That doesn't strike you as odd?"

"Nah. It just strikes me as… well, me."

Hashino paused, then chuckled as he turned the machine on with a click. "Guess I can't argue with that one."

The ice machine began whirring as the room drifted into a comfortable near-silence, the two men keeping quiet as Minato's breaths became less prominent. After a while, Hashino spoke. "You might as well get some rest, kid. You're goin' to school tomorrow."

"…Yeah, I guess so," he replied, although flicking a worried gaze over the redhead passed out in the chair a few feet away. Cuddled up with Hashino's white lab coat, her nose barely peeking out over the top, she seemed… small. Too small for the Kirijo heir famous for her bufu-rivaling freezing glares.

"Oh, don't worry about her. She's not going anywhere," Hashino promised, casting an eye over her as well. "Mitsu-chan'll be staying right where I can see her. I'll just write a doctor's note for her."

Nodding appreciatively at the doctor, Akihiko moved to get up. Suddenly, Minato gasped, causing him and Hashino to whirl their heads around and look him over in alarm… until they interpreted what he was saying.

"Haaa… Senpai's… called… Mitsu… chan…? Aahahahaha…"

He was obviously still more than a little dazed from the pain. But that little out-of-character comment was enough to make Akihiko start laughing, and Hashino soon joined in with deep chuckles. By the time the three stopped their sleep-deprived laughter, the earliest hints of dawn had stolen in through the blinds and painted the white room orange.

AN: I just realized that I should probably tag Hamu in this story…

Shout outs to: oxopoha, Pea Brain Writer, Raven Rein, Murdock93, lawlietbaba, Cheezeburger, sagitarius, emelian65, Lord Sake, and Incendie de Glace for following; Aeroskywind, Raven Rein, Akasui, Petrichor in May, and lawlietbaba for faving; and Chris ShadowMoon, Doom Marine 54, Asahar4, Gue3t, Hoshiro Raider, crymblade, DarthPrince, and emelian65 for reviewing!

[In response to gue3t: :D]

Also, I've been getting a bunch of questions and suggestions about/for Minato's personas and powers. I'd like to say thanks to everyone who's done that… but I should probably explain what the deal is with Minato.

Minato is a normal persona user. You'll see what the deal is with him and the velvet room soon, but he won't have any special powers. Multiple personas? Nope. Fusion? Not here. Compendium? Nonexistent. However, he still has his own fighting abilities, so when he gets back into the fight, he's not gonna be totally nerfed. Also, in terms of his social skills (academic, charm, and courage), he's maxed… but, he's not always gonna show it, since he knows that this is Hamuko's show now. Not to mention that he doesn't necessarily want to be the most popular kid in school, even if he has the ability to be.

Hopefully that clears a few things up, but let me know if you need some more clarification! Now, it's time for another episode of…

MYTHOLOGY CORNER!

WARNING: GREEK MYTHOLOGY IS M-RATED, AND THERE ARE OFTEN THINGS IN THESE MYTHS THAT WILL MAKE PEOPLE UNCOMFORTABLE! TURN BACK NOW IF YOU AREN'T READY!

Thanatos:

Who was he? Thanatos was the ancient Greek god of Death, and the son of Erebus (the god of Darkness) and Nyx (The goddess of Night), as well as the twin brother of Hypnos (the god of sleep). He also has a ridiculous number of siblings aside from his twin, including Geras (god of Old Age), Oizys (god of Suffering), Moros (god of Doom) and Nemesis (goddess of Retribution/Revenge), among many other negatively oriented deities.

Thanatos had the job of leading people to the underworld (Hades), although his job was often superseded by Hermes (the Messenger god). This has led some mythologists to speculate that at one point, Thanatos and Hermes were actually the same god, or that Thanatos is just a separated attribute of Hermes.

Depending on the myth, Thanatos sometimes hated (and was hated by) many of the gods, and was considered indiscriminate and often merciless in his duties. However, that doesn't mean that he couldn't be tricked or beaten. Sisyphus (The king of Korinth, known for his trickery) tricked Thanatos into his own shackles, stopping death for the period of time that the god was chained. Similarly, Heracles successfully wrestled the god to the ground, preventing Thanatos from taking the wife (Alcestis) of a man (Admetus) who had shown hospitality to the hero.

A common misconception about the "death god" in Greek and Roman mythology is that Hades (which is both the name of the underworld and the name of its ruler) is the Greek god of death. However, that's not true. You can look at Hades as the "ruler of the underworld" and the "god of the dead." However, Thanatos is the "god of death." Basically, Hades rules over the underworld, and is thus the god of the dead (i.e. he is the ruler of the dead's souls), but Thanatos is the god of death itself.

Thanatos also had many symbols representing him, such as the Greek letter theta, the poppy, and an inverted torch. The most interesting one for us? The butterfly! …Make what you will of that.

Why does is he in the game? [SPOILERS!] Well, hopefully you understand the main reason at this point, but I'll spell it out: Thanatos = death, in Greek & Roman myth and in Persona.

Having said that, there are some more interesting connections that require a little more thought. First, the fact that he's the child of Nyx and Erebus is very symbolic. We know that Ryoji is the Avatar of Nyx, and since Ryoji = Thanatos, the decision to make Thanatos Nyx's avatar might make more sense now: after all, he's her son!

Even more interesting is the relationships between Thanatos and his siblings. As explained above, Thanatos is siblings with Moros, and is the twin of Hypnos. Those other two gods should sound familiar because they're also personas: Moros is Jin's persona, and Hypnos is Takaya's. This, of course, directly links Strega to Thanatos (and thus Nyx), but it also links Minato to Takaya.

It's pretty well set in stone that Takaya is supposed to be Minato's foil or "shadow figure" (to use the term from Jungian psychology). This is due to their dual roles as leaders and messiahs (well, fake messiah in Takaya's case). Now, however, we can see another connection: their personas are effing twins! I don't think you can get more direct proof of their relation than that.

[EDIT 1/23/15] For those of you reading this... surprise! And hi! Here's an extra section written by the awesome G.A.S.A.!]

[In Persona 1,] Thanatos is the Persona of Yuriko Yamamoto, guardian of Thanatos Tower. Yuriko was a beautiful and popular girl who commited suicide because she feared that her high school days were the peak of her life and everything would only go downhill from there, leading to her becoming old and ugly. Because Thanatos is the god of death, any character who is knocked out inside the tower loses their Persona, which means they cannot use skills and their magical defense is reduced to 1 so even the weakest spells do 1k+ damage to that character. Did I mention that once you enter you cannot leave the tower until you defeat Yuriko, there are no save points inside it and you have a time limit of three hours?

[For a little more info on Thanatos' Tower... check out the edit section for this date (1/23/15) in the Tartarus myth corner!]

Phew! That was pretty disjointed, but hopefully it wasn't too bad for you all.

Got any comments, criticisms, or compliments (about myth corner or the story)? Drop a review or send a PM!

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next week!