Wednesday, June 10, 2009, 5:46PM

Iwatodai Station, Wakatsu Restaurant

"Mmm, this is so good." Yukari said as she finished her meal. "I'm so glad we came here."

"Nothing like sushi after a long day, huh?" Makoto said as he leaned back in his chair, his plate having been completely cleaned of every last speck of food.

Yukari nodded. "I know I still technically owe you a meal at Wild Duck Burger, but..." She clapped her hands together and looked at him with pleading eyes.

Makoto chuckled and shook his head. "This is more than enough. It's fine."

She sighed. "Thank goodness. My wallet is pretty tapped out with how little we've gone to Tartarus lately."

"Oh? Did you buy something recently?"

"Well, it's more so I'm budgeting for travel. I wanted to pay my own fare, and pick some stuff up to take over there, and bring you guys back gifts."

Makoto tilted his head.

"I'm going to Kyoto over summer break." Yukari said, an air of melancholy in her voice. "I'm gonna visit mom."

"Oh." Makoto sat up.

"I don't know if things will go well or not, but..." she sighed, "I want to meet her face to face. I want us to at least be on speaking terms. I don't know if things will go well, or if this guy she's raving about is actually a good person, but...I'll at least give her that chance."

"Alright." Makoto smiled and held up his fist. "Just know I'm rooting for you."

Yukari chuckled and lightly rapped her knuckles against his. "Thanks. How about you?" She asked. "You have any plans for summer break?"

"Same as you. I'm planning on visiting my family back in Kumamoto. Since the full moon in August is the...sixth of the month, I think? Whatever the actual day is, it's been a pain scheduling everything around it."

She rolled her eyes. "Ugh, don't even tell me about it. I talked to mom yesterday and she wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise. 'How come you won't come earlier?' 'Why won't you let me pay?'" She said in an annoying, high-pitched imitation of her mother's voice. "'Why don't you don't wear those cute little headbands anymore?'"

"Sounds like you two are are already back on speaking terms." Makoto said with a light smile.

"Shut up." Yukari blushed and lightly kicked him under the table. "I barely got two words in edgewise." She smiled. "It...felt good to talk to her again. She gets my blood rising sometimes, but..." she looked away. "I dunno. It was good to talk to her again."

Makoto nodded.

"You see," Junpei said as the credits started to roll on the TV, "I just wouldn't be eaten by the zombies. I would not have my brains be zombie chow. I wouldn't let that happen to me."

"Um, did we even watch the same movie?" Yukari asked. "I'm pretty sure everyone was thinking the same thing."

Junpei crossed his arms. "Yeah, well, they thought it, I'd do it."

"They should have used their guns on the zombies instead of each other." Kotone said, not moving an inch as she stared with narrowed eyes at the TV. "Classic mistake." She mumbled out.

Fuuka peaked out from behind the sofa. "E-Everyone was stuck in that bunker for days, th-they were probably all stir-crazy." She said before hiding again.

"I just wouldn't have gone stir-crazy." Junpei insisted. "I wouldn't let that happen to me."

Yukari rolled her eyes. "Yeah right, Stupei, we all know you'd getting eaten by the zombies first."

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

As the two began to bicker, Makoto poked Kotone, breaking her out of her trance. "Any other movies besides this one you want to watch?"

"Yeah I got-" she paused to yawn loudly. "Mmm. Sorry."

Yukari stopped her quarreling with Junpei and turned to her. "You know, if you're tired Kotone, we can continue this another day."

Fuuka peeked out again. "I saw Kotone-chan rented the Sun Battle movies. Maybe we could marathon the first three on Sunday with our senpai." She said as she climbed back over the sofa.

"I'm down with that. A Sun-Day if you will, hehehe." Junpei said with a grin. "I still haven't seen any of those."

"You haven't?" Fuuka asked, astonished. "Those are some of the best movies ever made. How could you not have seen them?"

"Yeah." Yukari said. "I'm surprised you of all people have never seen them. I would have thought you'd seen each, like, dozens of times." She squinted at him. "Come to think of it, didn't you tell Hana back in middle school you loved them?"

Junpei looked away, sweating. "Well, I mighta lied just to get a chance with her, alright?" When he turned back to Yukari and Fuuka, he saw the former look annoyed and the latter shaking her head. "H-Hey! Don't look at me like that. I just haven't gotten around to it, alright?"

As the two of them began to grill Junpei, Kotone looked at all of her rented movies, homework, and magazines splayed out over the table, mixed in with the various belongs of her four other dorm-mates, and frowned.

"Need help?" Makoto asked.

"Please." She said as she began haphazardly shoving her things into her backpack. Makoto chuckled as he carefully picked up her stuff. He couldn't help but notice that she shambled her way up to the third floor like one of the zombies they had spent two hours watching. At least she's not trying to eat my brains.

"Just throw them wherever." Kotone said as she opened the door to her room. She walked over to her bed and fell face first into it "Ahhhh, soft, soft pillows." Within seconds, she began snoring.

Makoto took a moment to pull her sheets over her. As he looked around, he realized her room was...rather sparse. It wasn't too dissimilar from his room, just with a few more Jack Frost plushes, a Risette poster above her bed, and a pink desk lamp.

As he was about to leave, Makoto turned back to Kotone, watching her snooze the night away. "Good night." He whispered as he gently closed the door.

Thursday, June 11, 2009, 6:24PM

Gekkoukan High, Track Field

"Alright," Yuko said, "that's a wrap for today everyone. Good job to all of you."

As Makoto drink the last few drops from his water bottle, and was about to leave, he saw Yuko wave him over. "Yo. What's up?"

"Hey, sorry to bother you Makoto-kun," she said, "but have you talked to Kaz lately?"

"I talked to him on Monday, but that was about it." He said.

She looked away, eyes downcast. "So you don't know why he's been missing practice lately."

Makoto opened his mouth to speak, and then snapped it shut.

"It's funny. Kaz is always so gung-ho about practice. I can't imagine him missing it on purpose." She mumbled.

He looked away. "...I'll be sure to ask him if I see him."

She looked at him and smiled. "Thanks Makoto-kun."

Makoto balled his fists and took a deep breath as he walked back from track practice. A track practice missing a particular friend on it. A particularly friend who was on his knees in the school lobby, hissing in pain.

As he walked up to Kazushi, the boy looked up and flinched when he realized Makoto was there.

"H-Hey!? Makoto!" He said, trying to sound casual. "Wh-What's up...?"

"Not you apparently." Makoto said drolly, eyes narrowed. "Need some help up?"

"N-Nah man, I'm fine." He smiled unconvincingly. "You're probably wondering where I've been..."

Makoto crossed his arms. "More so Yuko." Kazushi looked away. "I didn't say anything when she was asking where you were. I'm guessing you've been in the hospital? Getting the results from those X-rays you mentioned on Monday?"

"Y-Yeah." He scratched his head. "Figures you'd remember that. I uh, I just got 'em back. The results are-" He tried to stand and fell back down to his knees, as he hissed once more in pain.

Makoto knelt and offered him a hand.

"Th-Thanks man." Kazushi grabbed onto Makoto and wrapped his arm around Makoto's shoulder. "S-Sorry to be such a pain."

"It's fine."

He gave a weak chuckle. "It's funny, I was just trying to tie my shoes and I fell. If anyone else had seen me, then the whole team woulda found out."

Makoto sighed. "I'm guessing the results weren't so good."

"W-Well." He looked around. "Let's talk about it somewhere else."

With a Cielo Mist each, they sat down on the steps of the Iwatodai Station.

"Yuko was prolly pissed off cuz I missed practice, huh?" He asked, looking inside of his drink rather than at Makoto.

"Moreso worried." Makoto said. "I know it's not my place to ask, but..."

Kaz sighed. "The doctor, the results, they're..." he balled his hands up into fists. "My hamstring is all messed up. He said it's gettin' ripped apart. If I keep this up, I won't be able to walk anymore. He said I put too much strain on it during practice." He scoffed. "How pathetic."

"Why?"

"I just want to win." He said. "I promised to be the number one athlete in Japan."

"To who? Yourself?" Makoto asked, a bit louder and more aggressively than he had intended.

He looked offended. "It ain't all 'bout me dude!" He exhaled and looked down, at his leg.

Somehow, he looked smaller and weaker, almost pathetic. Nothing like the enthusiastic guy he had grown to know.

"My nephew got into an accident a while back. His leg got all messed up. He can't walk right now, but if he goes through rehab, he might be able to!" Kaz said with a flicker of hope in his eyes. "He always talks about how much it hurts, about how he doesn't want to do it...how he...can't." He bit his lip. "He's only five, man. There's so much stuff he's never done."

Makoto felt the tension in his shoulders fade away, as he slumped back against the wall.

"I made a deal with him – don't laugh alright – that if I become the best in track and field, he'll go through rehab." He smiled as he reminisced. "I gotta get to nationals, and that means I gotta get to this meet, and that means," he stood up, despite wincing in pain, "I gotta train."

"But what if you don't." Kaz turned to him, eyes narrowed and ice cold. "What if you can't get there even if you do your best? Then what?" He stood up stared him down. "What if you fuck up your knee with nothing to show for it?"

Kaz flinched back. "I-I won't!" He said unconvincingly. "I'll be fine dude. I can do it."

Makoto sighed and fell back down. "Fine, do what you think is best." He said. "It's not my place to tell you that you can't, or that you shouldn't."

"...sorry for all the trouble I caused you dude." Kaz scratched his head. "And for the depressing conversation."

"It is what it is." Makoto stated.

"For real, thanks." Kaz said. "It's tough keeping it all in. You're the only one I can talk about this." Makoto turned to him. "Someone like Yuko or the other guys on the team...they're gonna dogpile me about it for sure." He said, with the dawning realization to Makoto that he had likely been anxiously thinking about this for days if not longer. "If anyone grills you 'bout it, just send them to me. I don't you to have to cover for me. It's something I gotta do on my own."

"On your own?"

Kaz nodded, and smiled. "Sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, you know? Just push through the pain and make it to the finish line."

Makoto sighed and nodded, not having the strength to say anything else to him.

"So you guys really can just...summon your Personas now?" Kotone asked. "Just like that? With no Evokers?"

"Yeah." Makoto said. Yukari, Junpei, Fuuka, and him sat on one side of the dinner table, while Kotone and the seniors sat at the other. "It's a bit tougher than summoning them with the Evoker, but I can still do it if need by."

Sanada glanced over at Shinjiro before speaking. "Summoning your Persona without the use of an Evoker is always something that's been possible for us, it's just not ever been a practical option."

"You know," Junpei crossed his arms, "I never did get an explanation 'bout how the Evokers work. The only think you ever told me, senpai, was that I just shoot and it works."

Sanada shrugged. "It was a functional enough explanation."

"Maaaan, you don't got a clue either do you?" Junpei said as some others at the table began to chuckle, as Sanada looked embarrassed.

"Evokers contain something called Magatsuhi." Kirijo explained. "It is what allows them and some of our other electronics to function in the Dark Hour. I'm not privy to all of the technical information, but it was described to me as being a compressed and crystallized element that can be used to summon Personas. Specifically by providing a shortcut to the incredible mental strain needed to manually do it."

Fuuka leaned in and rested her chin on her palms. "It does make me wonder. The way you describe, senpai, it sounds like it's something you can train to be able to do on command. But the four of us didn't so much as train as we simply managed to... She trailed off as everyone remembered the fight against Hierophant and Lovers.

"You are your Persona," Makoto mused, recalling Kotone's words, "so what affect you, affects them, and vice-versa."

"The strong you are," Sanada said, "the stronger they are. Physically, mentally, and...emotionally." He said, mumbling the last bit.

Though unstated, everyone understood the further corollary to his claim. The ability to grapple with, and overcome, one's personal turmoil connects one deeper to their Persona. The four of them that were able to overcome the emotional attacks from the Full Moon Shadows became more in-tune with their Personas, despite being the junior-most members, and having the least amount of practical experience with them.

"Indeed." Kirijo said. "I am curious to see how you perform in combat with this newfound ability. It will unquestionable be a boon to us."

Junpei leaned in, eyes wide with excitement. "You're gonna let us start going to Tartarus again?"

"I am willing to restart our expeditions, yes." She stated. "And so long as we don't see that Shadow again, I will allow the juniors to resume taking point."

"Woooo!" Junpei and Kotone yelled.

Makoto turned to Yukari. "Looks like you'll be able to start saving up again." He said with a small grin.

She rolled her eyes and smiled. "Woooo."