Shiori Miyashiro (P2-EP) 14/01
Tatsuya's older brother comes to visit her in the hospital, before she is released. He questions her about her investigation of JOKER, what Tatsuya got up to that she of, and -amusingly- what their father knows about it.
"Is this interrogation official police business, or personal?" She asks.
"Personal."
"Is Tatsuya doing ok?"
"He's fine. You can't tell him about this."
He's not relaxed, but Shiori can understand that. This is about his brother. Shiori can understand that urge to protect. Wishes she still had Takuya to protect. It was part of the reason she joined the police.
Not the whole reason, and she has come to know investigation for what it is instead of searching for an answer in every crime scene for answers.
She now believes there is never a good enough Why, only how's, where's and when's. No reason anyone can give is a good reason for murder.
At some point she stopped looking for why, and started planning her vengeance. It won't make things right,- she had thought - hands shaking as she dialed her own number.
But it will mean that he can't kill anyone like that again, and that would be enough for her.
"Is there a reason I can't talk to him about it?" She asks. Anna had said that she would never meet the Tatsuya she knew ever again, and while she had accepted that, she wanted answers that she knew Anna couldn't give.
Maybe Katsuya could give them to her?
He rubs the back of his neck. "It's a long story."
"I want the truth."
"I can't talk about it here."
He takes out his notebook, and writes down a number.
"Call me when you get out of the hospital. I should let you rest."
He walks out of her room for a moment and brings in a tin. Then he leaves.
She opens it up and finds cookies. Obviously homemade.
They are delicious.
She hesitates on calling him, when she gets out of the hospital.
Her hands shake whenever she thinks about pulling out the phone.
She looks guiltily at the tin sitting in her bedroom for several days before she works up the nerve to call him.
Her hands are shaking as she taps in his numbers, and holds her phone to her ear.
But he doesn't pick up.
She leaves her name and number in a message, and tries to calm down.
She nearly jumps out of her skin when her phone rings.
It's Katsuya. He's off his shift in half an hour, does she want to meet at the Alaya shrine, in an hour?
She sets off to get ready.
She grabs her coat just in case, and makes sure to grab his cookie tin and put it in her backpack.
She has enough time to make tea, so she heats up her water and measures out her Kabusecha into her teapot.
She doesn't want to wait too long for him, nor does she want to keep him waiting. After her tea steeps, and she pours it into two travel mugs, she adds her sketchbook to her backpack and sets out the door.
She isn't left waiting long. She has the bare rudiments of a sketch when Katsuya shows up. She puts her book away, and makes a note in her notebook to come back and finish it.
He starts the story clumsily, but as he continues to talk, he falls into the formality of reporting, and seems to become far more comfortable with his speech.
It is a long story, and as the tea in their cups cools and dwindles, the sun sets and there is still more story to tell.
She gives him his tin back, and tells her he will bring cake next time. She brings bentos the time after that.
Her sketch of the shrine becomes a drawing, which becomes a watercolour, as they continue to meet there after work.
Sometimes they don't talk about it, and they talk about work instead. Other times, they talk about Tatsuya. She talks about her nightmares, he talks about his once-dream to become a pâtissere.
One night they talk late into the night, and he offers to escort her home. When they get there she invites him inside to warm up.
That night as the moon climbs higher, he finishes the story. He talks about facing shadows, the Crawling Chaos, and the grief of losing his brother from the other side.
"I still worry about him. Both of them. Tatsuya's… terrible at answering the phone if he knows it's me calling. But… I can't tell him. It could mean the end of the world."
"I can't ever thank him enough. To think that he lives on, in a world that ended… "
It makes her sad. But paradoxically, she's also glad he's out there somewhere. Alive. She will never see him again.
Then, all of the lights in the house go off. Even the refrigerator is silent.
"Are we having a power outage?" She asks.
They go outside, and find that no light is on in the city. The ground is covered in blood, and the moon is green.
Shiori goes back into the house, and gets her gun and bullets.
Katsuya summons his persona.
They walk into the city together to investigate and come across several things that are NOT demons.
Fire lights up the night accompanied by the sound of bullets.
The deeper into the city they go, the more coffins they see, but also more people. The effects of the rumors didn't just go away, and weapons are attainable to those who know who to ask.
Sumaru's citizens defend her once again.
It's a relief when the lights come back on.
They stay up together the next night waiting for it while telling themselves they are being silly.
It comes the next night.
And the night after that.
Shiori's gunfire joins Katsuya's against the NOT-demons under the green moon.