Chapter 10: The Pain Of Contact

'So. You're officially engaged.' And somehow, that notion didn't leave her skin crawling. If anything, a pleasant thrum had settled over her, ever since they had exchanged those kisses-

'Best not to dwell on that now. It's almost distractingly… Pleasant.'

Mitsuru risked another glance at Akihiko, eyes lingering on his shoulders as he adjusted his jacket. He'd grown into the suits the stylist had chosen for him… Or at least he put up a good act of being comfortable.

He spoke with Yamagishi in an easy manner, before turning to Iori and giving him a bright grin. The others were doing a good job of keeping Akihiko busy; just a little too busy for business partners and party guests to ask any probing questions, but still see what sort of man he was.

He seemed to grow a little more restless whenever he looked back to her, looking ready to prowl back to her side. To her chagrin, Mitsuru found herself wishing she could get him back and keep him close to her. It would make the congratulations and strained smiles from the board members that much more easy to handle.

'Then again, you wouldn't want to subject him to this.'

"A… A unconventional choice, to be sure." One of the suited men was telling her. Mitsuru put on her most tranquil smile.

"But to be sure, we are secure enough that we can afford to be unconventional, correct?" She smoothly countered. Another man pounced on that with an eager grin.

"Yes. A bold direction-" She wasn't sure if he was trying to secure a promotion or simply trounce a rival. Either way she felt her smile straining at the seams.

"I'm not interrupting, am I?" She started at Akihiko's voice. So did the rest of the board, with how they all stepped back for a moment. Leaving Akihiko to step up and extend his hand to Mitsuru. "Sorry, thought you might like to-?"

It took Mitsuru a moment to realize someone had started up music on the ballroom speakers. And she was very certain she caught a sly grin from Iori. Even Yukari was looking a bit smug.

"That is… Would you like to dance?"

"I suppose that is expected, during such an engagement." Before any of the board members could protest, she took Akihiko's hand. His grip was strong, easily capable of pulling her out of her seat and towards the center of the floor.

"I thought you didn't like dancing-?" She whispered to him.

"I didn't like being out of my element. Having no training for it. But I've been working on that." She was about to ask how on earth he'd been training for dancing… When Akihiko pulled her along in a swinging and dipping series of motions. She had little choice but to match her movements to his, feeling like they were swaying between aggression and dodging. Between a dance, and a boxing match.

"…You figured out how to make a boxing bout work like a dance." Mitsuru drawled, even as she struggled to keep up with Akihiko and match her movements to him. "I should have seen this possibility, in hindsight."

"Yeah, and you're matching me step for step, if you didn't notice." Mitsuru shook her head at that… But she also couldn't deny how easily she'd found herself mirroring Akihiko's movements. This was a far cry from their first, halting dance as they struggled on who would take the lead.

'And… You don't mind ceding control to him.'

Another strange thought to process.

'And this also feels right-'

Mitsuru found herself leaning a little closer, so Akihiko couldn't see the blush on her face. That may have been a mistake, as he pulled an arm around her, and their dance began to slow. Becoming something more gently paced. And far more intimate, with how she could feel their bodies pressing together. How she could feel Akihiko's breath warm against her neck. And how that was oddly appealing for her.

Just like how pleasing it had been to kiss him for a moment. To let herself stop treating this as a pretense, and-

"Ah… S-sorry. I guess this is too… We're doing a good job of being convincing, at least." Akihiko told her. When Mitsuru risked a look at him, his face had gone bright red. And he was giving her a look very akin to when they'd kissed. Bewildered and almost longing-

"Do you need a moment to breathe?" She forced herself to ask, and Akihiko gave a jerky nod.

"Y-yeah. Could go catch up with Yukari and the others real quick… Are you going to be alright on your own?"

"I'll manage. I've had a reprieve from the board members. And they seem rather convinced that we're entirely attached to each other, after that performance." She didn't want to linger on the fact that this "performance" felt oddly real. She could feel the warmth from his hands trying to seep into her skin, and relax her shoulders. Trying to convince her to stay-

So instead she broke away from Akihiko, leaving him to get a drink from one end of the table, while she picked out a wine glass from the other end. She just needed time to breathe. To get her balance back, and perhaps stop lingering on Akihiko-

"…Unbelievable. He'll never satisfy you the way I can." A voice slid into her ears, and all of Mitsuru's ease evaporated.

She wasn't entirely certain how Seiki had managed an invitation. But he was looming over her shoulder, and standing much too close to be proper.

"No words? Did the dumb muscle affect your own mind?" Saeki hissed the taunt low into her ear; a private little barb, meant only for her. Mitsuru tightened her grip on the wine glass, and throttled the desire to throw it into Saeki's face. He could easily spin this into a scandal, depending on her reaction.

"…You have a very interesting way of congratulating people on their engagement." She said instead.

"I won't congratulate you for poor decisions… But I am here to offer my admiration for surviving." His voice dropped from a hiss to a whisper. "I don't know how you upset the DEVA system. I can't pin anything on you… Or your fiancé."

He turned that word into a sneer. And Saeki kept digging at her, heedless of how his words made her flinch. Or how she squirmed as he perfectly summed up everything she'd tried to keep hidden.

"But you had your chance, and failed to do any damage. I'll look forward to tearing you off your perch, princess... And if I feel like it, maybe I'll keep you around for a pet."

Mitsuru forced a deep breath, wishing anyone would pull her away from Saeki and his sneers. At this point she would have welcomed a concerned board director, or slightly tipsy business partner eager for another toast. But no such rescue was likely.

"You're a little too frigid. But your figure mostly makes up for it-"

His hand slid from her shoulder and traced over her side. Her pulse quickened, and there was a flash of cold rage coiling through her stomach.

"Takeharu Kirijo's little prodigy. Koetsu's grand-princess. He talked you up, when he wasn't lording his research over SEBEC. His STOLEN research. Only fair that we take it back. And I take you in the bargain, don't you think?"

Her eyes snapped to him, and the temperature in the room seemed to plummet. Mitsuru knew there was rage in her eyes. And it made even Saeki still for a moment.

"I'd suggest you leave NOW, before I have you thrown out." Mitsuru snapped that out.

"Mitsuru. I thought you were smarter than that. But then again, considering your choice in toys…" His hand snaked along her hips. And Mitsuru's hand flashed out, cracking across his face. Something blue flashed in the corners of her eyes, and the air went frigid.

"LEAVE." She still snapped out, hoping she'd bruised his smug face-

Instead, she saw a strange, black welt boiling up along his cheek.

"…As I was saying. You disappoint me, Mitsuru. You should have realized that I was never here." At his words the black spot burst open, eating his entire form. In the next breath it dissolved away completely, and the room came back into sharper focus. There was only a lingering puddle of black and shadow on the floor… And even that was fast vanishing.

'A shadow…' The room was coming into focus, even as the Shadow faded.

And with the focus came a screaming. Her ears ached from the sudden shriek. More followed, assaulting her ears, pulling her attention. Mitsuru's head was still swimming from Saeki's words, and a sudden strange pressure trying to push down at her neck. The clamor did nothing to help. Mitsuru forced herself to raise her eyes anyway.

She gasped from the effort, and her breath came out in cold clouds; the temperature of the room had plummeted. Even she could feel the sudden chill washing over her skin… But still that cold did nothing to stop the crying from so many throats.

She followed the sounds.

And when she looked up, Akihiko was bleeding.

-o-o-o-

Akihiko didn't feel the ice at first. He was still puzzling out the sudden pressure that seemed to push down on his head, and weigh at his limbs. It left him feeling slow, like each breath was an effort.

'What's…?' Even his thoughts seemed a bit slower.

'What's going on?' He couldn't have spent himself from just that dance. No matter how much Mitsuru's touch had threatened to take his breath away. The thought of her made Akihiko start to turn, seeing if he could make eye contact with her.

"Senpai…?" That was Yukari. Still calling him by that title, and still with that familiar note of worry in her voice. "What… What's going on here-?"

'It's not just you; she's feeling it too.' Akihiko managed a confused noise in the back of his throat. Worry was starting to take root in his head now, and a sudden need to find out where Mitsuru was in this-

"I… I don't like this." That was Fuuka at his other side. "Something… Feels wrong-"

It was also feeling familiar, Akihiko realized. The only thing that was missing was the hum of the DEVA device. And that thought sparked a sudden, desperate energy into him… Right as the temperature of the room plummeted. His eyes darted about, and wondered over how slowly the room was moving. It was like everyone else was getting frozen in a moment, leaving just himself and the other Persona users moving normally.

He spotted Junpei, tensed up, looking around wildly… And reaching for a baseball bat that wasn't there. He was braced for a fight, the same as Akihiko. But of Mitsuru, there was no sight. No matter how he searched, all he could find were shadows. And they were getting darker, almost swallowing up the room.

"Mitsuru, where are you-?" He tried to strain his senses, tried to reach for her-

"LEAVE." The voice snapped across his ears; only Mitsuru could make her voice go that cold and that commanding. Akihiko flinched from it… And then he flinched again, as he finally felt the ice growing along his sleeves. Something had Mitsuru angry-

And that anger suddenly lashed out and flooded the space. He shoved Yukari and Fuuka back a pace, even as he tensed and braced… And the cold lashed him once again. Ice lanced up from the floor in spears and daggers. He could feel Mitsuru's anger behind it. But it hadn't been directed at him. Even as it sliced him, opened his old wounds all over again…

'If Mitsuru had really meant it… I'd be dead already.' He had just enough room to think that.

Then the attack relented… And left Akihiko bleeding as the pressure lifted off of him. The world sped back up, the ice melted away, and color flooded back into the room. As did the red turning his blood vivid. Akihiko grimaced as it splattered on the floor, knowing it would be a pain to clean up.

Someone was screaming. It could have been Yukari, or perhaps one of the ceremony guests. He probably should have done something about that. But he couldn't quite manage words… He could, however, still move his eyes. And that was when they finally found Mitsuru, as the shadows gave up their hold on her.

She wasn't screaming like some of the others. But all the color had drained from her face, and she could only stare at Akihiko. She staggered towards him, a hand half stretched out and shaking.

"Mitsuru…" He finally found his voice. "I-it's okay. I'll be okay-"

That didn't seem to convince her. Or any of the guests, with how the room turned into a swirl of chaos. Everyone seemed determined to see him patched up; he was vaguely aware of Yukari working on his wounds, staunching the bleeding with a first aid kit someone had found.

There were hands pushing him towards the outside… But away from Mitsuru. And she still looked so haunted. Frozen in place, only her eyes moving between the blood on the floor and the blood on his side.

"I'm not leaving." He managed to raise his voice over the chaos.

"I'm not leaving without her." Akihiko announced, and dug his heels into the tile for good measure. "She's my… My partner. Not going anywhere without her-"

They were still trying to push him towards the door. Akihiko broke away from looking at Mitsuru to try and fight back… But to mixed results. That cold had sapped a lot of his strength, and his limbs felt oddly watery.

But he still couldn't leave her like that-

"I… Can take him home. See him mended." Mitsuru's voice slipped through the clamor. Just like her hands carefully fell on his shoulders. They were still chilled from the spell, almost painfully so. But Akihiko didn't want to lose that contact again.

He wasn't entirely sure whether it was himself, or Mitsuru who convinced the others. But eventually the chaos died down… And Akihiko was faintly aware that he was back in the Kirijo estate.

And somehow he'd lost his shirt along the way.

There were cushions pushing into his back, and he finally pieced together the rest of the scene. He'd been placed into a well upholstered chair, all his wounds had been bandaged… And there were a pair of cold hands still moving over his skin, leaving him shivering.

Mitsuru was little more than an arm's reach away from him, worried over him. Yukari and the others weren't in the same room… But he could faintly hear them talking, one room over.

"You can be amazingly persuasive when you put your mind to it." Mitsuru found her voice at last, speaking softly to him. She wouldn't quite meet his eyes. "They wanted to rush you to the hospital; you forced them to reconsider, and allowed us to retreat to the Kriijo estate… An interesting result for a ceremony-"

Her voice hitched at the end. And for a long time, Mitsuru went silent.

-o-o-o-

Akihiko was bleeding an alarming amount in her company. Mitsuru had enough clarity for that thought as she looked over his bandages. The hints of red showing through made a frown bleed across her face in turn. She looked over him and saw fresh wounds … And she knew what had caused them. The chill clinging to his body was unmistakable.

And it was all because she'd lost her poise, and lashed out… And he'd been caught in the crossfire. All at once the weight of the situation slammed into her, and her knees almost gave out.

"Mitsuru-?" And yet Akihiko was still concerned for her. Not paying attention to the way he was still bleeding, how close he'd come to losing his life by ice or…

…Or even a few weeks back. He'd nearly died by ice and Shadow alike, and it kept being too close of a call.

She could see the scene play out again. The ice almost cutting him open, the guests recoiling in shock. And then further into the past, the memory of his body arcing from the blow the Shadow had visited on him, and the way she'd been too slow to stop any of it.

"It's alright-"

'No it's not!'

She forced herself to breathe. To look over him again…

…And that was when she saw the rent in his ribs. No larger than a coin.

But if the puncture had gone any deeper, the size of the wound wouldn't have mattered.

Her father had shown her that… And she hated how much their injuries were a mirror. Bullets and ice, both drawing blood. Both making her heart race, heedless of how she fought to stay calm.

"Akihiko, you could have…" Mitsuru's words and emotions rushed out of her like blood from a fresh wound.

"You could've died… You could have died, Akihiko." And it would have all been because of her. Whether by her own ice or her negligence, and both those things cut into her. "I could have…"

She hated the way her voice went raw and choked. She was supposed to have more control than this, more poise… But all the etiquette of a lifetime didn't matter, when faced with the fact that she'd almost lost another person.

Akihiko kept trying to speak, trying to offer something… But if her voice was half strangled by sobs, he'd lost his completely. Her face burned as tears spilled out of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. Another form of disgrace-

And then she felt something else brushing over her face. It took her a moment to register the sensation of fingers wiping away her tears, and another moment to realize the hand on her cheek belonged to Akihiko.

"Hey… It's okay. We're still okay." He finally spoke, and she wondered at the roughness in his own voice. It was at odds with how gentle his touch was; even as she looked at him, he kept brushing his thumb over her cheek, while his fingers drifted down to hold her chin up.

The gesture was almost too familiar. Yet she didn't shrink from it, instead dwelling on the warmth seeping into Akihiko's fingers; it was all a reminder that against all the odds, he WAS still alive.

Her own hand stretched out by reflex, resting over the scars on his chest peeking through the bandages. Her fingers traced along them with care until her palm rested over his heart. She said nothing at first, just soaking in the feeling of his pulse, breath, and heart all thrumming beneath his fingers.

"It was my fault…" She said at last, the words like bile on her tongue. "I-I'm… Sorry."

"I'm not going to die anytime soon. I made a promise to you, remember-?"

'A promise.' The contract they'd signed flashed through her mind, almost mocking her… And yet Akihiko hadn't called it an agreement, or an arrangement. Just a promise shared between two people.

It was astounding, how someone so adept at fighting eldritch creatures hand-to-hand could also have such a gentle touch. Akihiko's contact was feather light, as he threaded his fingers along her hair, and gently brushed it out of her face.

"And it looks like you're still not bleeding. That's got to count for something. I just wish I could do something about the crying." He told her… And it seemed just like that, Akihiko realized what he was doing to her. His eyes widened, and he started to jerk his hand away with a muttered apology-

At least until Mitsuru's hand flashed up, and caught his. Just then, she didn't want him to draw away from her. To leave her back in the cold, without his touch warming her face.

"…Don't." She whispered, all her words deserting her, save for one. Her fingers brushed over his knuckles, keeping his hand against her face.

Her eyes slid shut under Akihiko's care, and she found herself tilting her head up, breath starting to pant out between her lips. At that moment she wanted to let go of any control or plans. She wanted to let this moment play out to whatever conclusion waited for the two of them. She wanted-

'…Akihiko-'

Shadows flooded the world alongside a sharp jolt; it all was harsher than any slap to the face, and she could FEEL the world shift beneath them, as the bottom dropped out of her stomach.

And she could feel the thrum of the DEVA Device pressing against her skin.

'Not now, not now-!' Her thoughts tried to protest, even as Mitsuru tensed and readied herself for combat. Beside her Akihiko went rigid, before jolting upright and into a fighting stance.

But he had no chance of fighting this. Not when the bottom dropped out of the world. The shadows sank into the floor, distorted the space and twisted Mitsuru's balance, pulling her down while the room dissolved around her. Akihiko fared no better, staggering and then keeling over… But despite that, he didn't stop struggling. And didn't stop reaching for her. His fingers grasped towards her hand. Trying to reach it. Trying to hold on.

The blood on his bandages was still vivid, even in this shroud of shadows. And it was a reminder.

She was the one who had hurt him. Goaded into it by Seiki or not… She was still that one who had torn him open. Which meant that Mitsuru could only stare and wonder why he still reached for her-

"Mitsuru, come on! We've got a better chance of facing this together!" Akihiko shouted to her. Tried to urge her to reach back. And something about his words made her hand shoot forward… Though not all the way. Even through the shrouded distortion, she could still see the bandages on his skin.

The blood soaking through.

'You don't deserve someone like him-'

The thought snarled through her mind… And the shadows engulfed them both, leaving Mitsuru falling, spinning into oblivion alone.