OC #2!
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"Yu, you got a second?"
Domesticity in Inaba was weird.
Not that being in Inaba itself wasn't weird enough. Dojima and Yu's parents had mostly cooled down about his unplanned vacation, but one of the requirements was that he had to attend school while he was there. Yasogami found it weird as well, but since Yu's records were spotless, and he'd had the best GPA in the second-year class, they decided it made for good press.
No, the weirdest thing ever was having Dojima at breakfast. Last year, he'd been out the door before Yu was even awake, leaving the kids to fend for themselves. Sometimes it didn't even look like he'd had coffee before diving into work. It was great that he was trying to keep his promise to Nanako...but it was painfully obvious that he had no idea what he was doing.
"What's up?"
"First off, I want to say that it's great having you here again." Oh, this can't be good. "Nanako really appreciates you helping out, and so do I. I know you're probably busy reconnecting with all of your friends…" But? "but could I get you to do me a favor?"
Yu knew he was on thin ice with his authority figures, and that Dojima had the power to send him straight home if he so much as put a toe out of line. It did nothing to stop the endless flashbacks to last year's disappointing Golden Week, and the dread washing over him.
"-won't be long, I promise. I wanted to get out of it, but the chief seems to think I'm 'forgetting the bigger picture', and he wants to make an example of me. He's not exactly proud of how the department looks these days."
He was really doing it. He was really leaving Nanako home alone while a killer was on the loose. Again.
"-something about a bonus, which I can't say would be unwelcome. Nanako's been asking about a new piano, the car needs a tune-up…"
Yu tuned him out before he failed to resist the urge to grab the man by the collar and shake him vigorously. He pictured Nanako's little face, so happy to have her family together and whole again, crestfallen that her father had almost immediately fallen back into his own patterns. Why are you wasting your family?
For as long as Yu could remember, he'd been a family of one with two roommates that vaguely resembled him. By the time he was Nanako's age, he was wishing on birthday candles and Tanabata tags for a real family, one that did things together and weren't in such a hurry to get away from one another. He'd never expected to find one until he was sent to Inaba. Now he had a real, working, caring family – and it was imploding upon itself!
"-pointing out how I really can't afford to lose this job. Isn't that nice of him? I'd been putting him off, but he came back with this one last proposal...and hey, the timing's right-"
"Thanks to Adachi."
Shit, he shouldn't have said that out loud.
Dojima actually stopped talking and stood there, stunned, before the shock wore off and he formed a counterargument. "Yu, I can't afford to lose my job."
"But you can afford to lose your family? Nanako's never going to forgive you."
"That's pretty rich, coming from the guy who left his own family!"
"Yeah, but now I'm back."
Again, Dojima was speechless.
"I need to get to school." I need to avoid throttling you. "I gave my word I'd behave, and I'm keeping it."
Dojima's jaw was tense, but he still gritted out, "Have a good day," before Yu practically slammed the door in his face.
Were Persona-users just magnets for heartache?
Another surprise enthusiastically greeted Yu once he arrived at school.
"Sensei! Er...hello, fellow student." Teddie stood proudly with the rest of the group, in what must have been Yosuke's old uniform, pitching his voice deeper but still visibly brimming with bounciness. "Care to join me for some beary important learning?"
It took Yu a full minute before he could form a coherent thought, and that thought was: "Okay, I've really got to stop eating Nanako's science projects."
"I'm going to school, too!" Sparkles looked really weird with the uniform. "I was sooooo bored at Junes waiting for all of you to come home from school, so now I get to hang out with the humans!"
"Dad said he was causing too much trouble, so he needs him out of his hair," Yosuke translated.
"And there are so many beautiful ladies here! I hope I have time to score with all of them!"
"Let's hope Kashiwagi's not his homeroom teacher," said Chie.
"So! When's lunch?"
"Teddie, you just got here! You need to go to class and be an actual student-HEY, PUT THAT AWAY!" Yosuke was trying to explain school to Teddie when he pulled a Topsicle out of nowhere and began dripping. "We don't eat Topsicles at school! C'mon, we're gonna be late."
"No...Topsicles?" Teddie was aghast. "School is awful!"
Well, now the Investigation Team could rendezvous a bit faster.
Yu allowed the others to lead the conversation as they dropped Teddie off at his classroom, and went about his day lost in thought. Dojima was removing himself from the picture...which meant they were saving Inaba on their own again. The Shadow Operatives couldn't even help them. Everything rested on his shoulders. Is this how Mitsuru-san always feels?
A voice from deep within took it upon themselves to answer him. You are never as alone as you think you are.
Izanagi was right. Yu understood now that, even without a Persona, he would always have his bonds he'd worked so hard to maintain. His friends. They would get through this together.
Meanwhile, in Iwatodai, the Operatives had gone their separate ways...in spite of Akihiko trying to unite them.
He and Mitsuru were cursed to never have a successful date. He really had tried to make himself presentable to avoid embarrassing her. It actually looked like things would be okay for a while. How was he supposed to know she had ex-fiancés, some of whom were pricks? Hey, at least he didn't sock the guy!
Mitsuru didn't seem angry at him, just...resigned. As if she knew they were doomed. She spoke to him more these days, but there was always something missing, as if she was just going through the motions. It killed him because in spite of everything, he still wanted to see her. He'd gotten his foot in the door and somehow, it hadn't been slammed on his toes. He couldn't get their Personas back...but he could at least make life without them more bearable.
When another opportunity presented itself, he leapt at the chance.
"I...suppose I am not that busy." With no Shadow Ops cases to spend time on, they all expected Mitsuru to throw herself into Kirijo work, to have something to do besides dwell on the emptiness. Work wasn't coming, however, and so she just lingered around the house like a ghost until someone tried to contact her. All this time to think wasn't good for her, so Akihiko and Kikuno had been working overtime (in addition to Akihiko's already full-time job) to get her moving, keep her occupied. She'd die if she stopped moving. Like a shark.
"C'mon, my turn this time." It was really presumptuous of Akihiko to assume she wanted to keep dating him, but she wasn't strong enough to realize yet that she could say no. He wanted to keep an eye on her and help her adjust to the possibility that this was her new "normal". Plus, a tiny part of him hoped that she enjoyed being around him just a bit. "Dave leaves in a few days, and I've talked you up so much he doesn't think you even exist." He hadn't intended on making any friends in college, but he'd forgotten how much fun just hanging out and being guys had been. It made sitting through endless courses almost bearable. "He actually thought I was dating Aigis, the way she kept hounding me."
At least that brought a slight smile to Mitsuru's face. "I'm afraid I won't be able to live up to the legend you've created," she said.
"Sure you will!"
With her first excuse shot down, Mitsuru continued to waffle. "So, his name is...Dave? Just Dave?"
"Oh, no, you don't. You need to be more personable. Quit making people feel like they're in the military. Dave's American; keeps thinking he's in trouble when people start surnaming him."
"Yes, but-"
"Is it really that hard? Aren't they more casual in France?"
Mitsuru frowned. "Since when have you been to France?"
"Okay, we'll go there next! Just please let me show you off to Dave, honey, just this once?"
It was a dirty move, and he felt bad for pulling it, but Mitsuru's face softened and she finally agreed. "Do you want to take the bike?"
Bringing Mitsuru to a tourist-trap bar was probably a bad idea, but places outside of Tokyo with English-speaking staff were rare. Dave had a mouth that opened at its own will and was liable to get him into trouble in more authentic spots, so he never managed to live like a local, even though he'd been going to college here for over two years. Even now, he stuck out like a sore thumb, sitting there wearing a loud t-shirt and jeans. Most of the patrons were giving him a wide berth, but there were some punks in the back corner who seemed to be enjoying the free show, making jokes they assumed he couldn't understand.
"Hey, Rock!" he called out when Akihiko and Mitsuru had gotten in his line of vision, but far away enough to warrant shouting. "Didja find your dream girl-" He stopped short at the sight of an understandably confused Mitsuru, the smirk melting off his face. "HELLO, you are gorgeous! What's he blackmailing you with?"
The punks in the back were split between laughing at Dave and also ogling Mitsuru, so Akihiko took them all out with one move; wrapping an arm around Mitsuru and bringing her forward. "Very funny," he said in English, figuring his slow and methodical style of speaking would get the point across. Still, he was unable to keep the pride out of his voice when he added, "This is Mitsuru. Mitsuru, this joker is my buddy Dave."
Mitsuru's English was much smoother – and he'd forgotten how much she actually knew. "It's a pleasure to meet you...David." Oh, you little shit.
Dave, to his credit, laughed. "Oh, no, the pleasure's all mine! I was beginning to think you didn't actually exist – or you lived in Canada or something." At least half of his jokes failed to hit, and this seemed to be one of them. "Rock here would not-so-subtly bring you up every five minutes or so – if he wasn't talking about protein. Once he actually said something about you and protein in the same sen-"
"Did you want a drink?" Akihiko quickly cut Dave off before he could sentence him to an execution he didn't even know existed. Why did he want to introduce this clown to Mitsuru again? He took a gamble and assumed his lack of Japanese had left him stranded there waiting for them. Indeed, the rest of the bar had turned frosty even without Mitsuru's help when it became clear they were all going to speak English the whole time. He distinctly heard several people hiss "gaijin", and at least one still leering at Mitsuru: "such a pretty little mouth speaking that vulgar language."
He knew Mitsuru'd heard them, too, but she was still trying. "How are you finding Japan?"
"There's a lotta squid." Oh, man. Akihiko had heard this story, but he wanted to see how Mitsuru reacted to it. "Dried squid. Jellied squid. Pickled squid. Candied squid! Why is their squid in your potato chips? WHY IS THEIR SQUID IN YOUR ICE CREAM!? So much squid…" As Akihiko plunked a glass down in front of him, he squinted at it. "There's no squid in this, is there?"
"Oh, is that what you wanted? Sorry! Here, lemme-"
"God dammit, Rock, no!" Dave sputtered, and Akihiko laughed so hard he nearly spilled the green tea/fruity mixed drink he spent minutes agonizing over before finally getting for Mitsuru. This was not a wine establishment, and Mitsuru was not a beer girl, but she may have wanted something else to look at if the conversation went south.
As he passed her the drink, Mitsuru took a moment to stare at Akihiko quizzically. Why does he keep calling you a rock? she asked in Japanese.
Long story, he replied, Kind of funny, though. "So, Dave here," he began in English once more, "got lost his first day on campus and ends up looking for Calculus in the gym where I was training."
"Not my finest moment," Dave added. "So there's this guy, whaling away on a punching bag like it owed him money...and the first thing that comes out of my mouth is, 'You should try a side of beef next, Rocky!'" Mitsuru just stared at him. "Yeah, that's the look I'd gotten used to seeing – except hey, found a guy who speaks English enough to ask me what the hell I was talking about!"
Mitsuru chose the most Mitsuru-like part to focus on. "Yes, but...did you ever make it to Calculus?"
"Uh...no," Dave looked sheepish. "But can you believe this guy hasn't seen THE boxing movie, the one everyone quotes? I thought that was required viewing!"
Mitsuru still looked politely confused, so Akihiko added, "The movie's called 'Rocky', if you were wondering."
"Ah."
"Aigis has no idea why my English grades went up so fast." Akihiko happily punched the air.
"I'm no good with names, so it helps me to remember his: Rocky...Rockihiko...Akihiko! He's the only reason I have a Japanese grade – and haven't died of an allergic reaction to shrimp."
The punks were getting restless behind them, but Dave didn't seem to notice. Akihiko wished he'd brought the badge he really wasn't supposed to have. Kurosawa broke at least three different policies by letting him pretend to be an undercover cop, in order to lure out shady criminals and make them think they were about to be arrested unless they ratted out their buddies. Akihiko had enjoyed the dangerous work...until he ran into a guy who lived across the hall from him in the orphanage and reality saw fit to sock him in the jaw. That could have easily been him. This sad future was all you had, if you were an orphan. Without a Kirijo Group to take an interest in you, you'd just age out of the system and be forced to fend for yourself. False, one-sided camaraderie was your only family.
He'd zoned out while Mitsuru was vainly trying to install the importance of education into an incompatible Dave, who continued to misread the room with, "In America, they...well, it's not like that in America…" A few of the punks actually got up and left, they were so disgusted.
"But yeah, it's going to be weird going back. There's like a 16-hour time difference – I might get back before I even left!"
"Not exactly possible, but I know the feeling," Mitsuru commiserated. "Set your watch to your destination instead. You'll adjust to the time difference much faster."
"Damn, you really are smart! I mean, Rock said as much, but wow…"
"She made it to Calculus," Akihiko couldn't help but joke.
"No shit! You wouldn't happen to have a sister, would you?"
Amazingly, Mitsuru smiled. "Unfortunately, no." She actually seemed to be enjoying herself. Akihiko was one of the few people that knew her standoffishness was really a door and not an impenetrable wall like it seemed. She never made friends because most of the people that approached her only wanted something superficial from her. Personas had been a life-saver.
Dave's phone went off, and he winced as if he'd been hit. "And somehow my mom knows when I'm trolling for girls. Ugh. I'd better call her back." He excused himself and headed to the door. From what Akihiko knew of Dave's mother, she seemed a bit overbearing, but she loved her son. That must have been nice.
Akihiko was about to relax until he saw a few more punks suddenly decide to leave. The trouble was, there was only one way out of the bar, and Dave had gone that way, too…
Mitsuru noticed his frown and misunderstood. "I did try," she began.
"Wh-oh, no, you were great! Dave can be a bit of a handful, but I think he likes you. It's just...did you see how many guys were in here when we came in?"
"Quite a few. I'm certain that they saw me, as well."
Akihiko looked at the counter and began to panic slightly. "None of them finished their beers." Sure enough, shouting could be heard from outside. "Shit...!"
The gang had gotten the drop on Dave as he tuned out his surroundings, and he was outnumbered and clueless as to what they were shouting at him while they punched him.
"Otaku trash!"
"Go back to your president, America!"
"Not so tough without your bombs and your guns, huh?"
As a cop, Akihiko wanted to cuff them all and throw them in a tank until they'd cooled off. As a friend who was slightly intoxicated himself, however, his brain told him to smash heads together until no one was left. Six against one wasn't fair...unless that one was Akihiko.
Make that six against two. He'd completely forgotten about Mitsuru until he heard an unmistakable wail of male anguish behind him that indicated she'd just nailed a guy in the crotch. Good thing she could take care of herself.
Dave, on the other hand, was looking pretty bad. He was puking up his beer and hopefully that wasn't blood, too. Seeing him on the ground – along with other guys in various stages of pain – triggered something unwanted in Akihiko. His friend was lying there badly injured. He couldn't heal him. What was he supposed to do now?
Fuck, he was a cop. He couldn't go around beating the shit out of people for beating the shit out of somebody else! Who were these guys, anyway? Part of a gang? What if their gang decided to go looking for the pig who got too involved in their business? Did he just involuntarily put a mark on his head? OR MITSURU'S?
"Akihiko."
The voice stopped him cold. Mitsuru's commanding voice, the one she used whenever they were in Tartarus or on serious missions, overrode his brain's fight-or-flight mechanism and kept him on track. This is what made her the leader of a bunch of stupid teenagers and the head of a successful corporation. No one could ignore that voice commanding them.
"Akihiko! The ambulance is coming. You need to go with David to translate for him. Tell them all the bills will be paid. DO NOT MENTION YOUR INVOLVEMENT. Tell them you found him this way."
"Yeah...yeah, okay."
"The witnesses have agreed to inform the police David was attacked from behind. The bar owners already know the identities of these men. Stay at the hospital. I will meet you there."
"Right."
"See to it that David gets whatever care he needs – and inform his emergency contacts."
"Okay."
"Go."
"I'm going, yeah!" Thank goodness Mitsuru knew how to take charge. He grabbed Dave's belongings, flagged down the ambulance, told them he was going along, kissed Mitsuru goodbye, walked away…
Wait.
Did he just…
Akihiko got to the ambulance and sat down hard. I just kissed Mitsuru. We kissed. Seven years of buildup, and it just happened as an afterthought as I was leaving. Our first kiss. My first kiss!
Fuck, she's gonna kill me.
I think it was worth it, though.
Wow!
Mitsuru stood in the middle of a violent crime scene outside of a dive bar and decided this just might be the greatest night of her life. She was too stunned to even move at first. Akihiko had kissed her. It was only for a moment, and they were both concerned for David's well-being, but...they had finally kissed!
Her lips were still warm from the brief contact and she fought the urge to lick them. She'd dreamed of kissing Akihiko for years, always wondered but never had the courage to try, not even after Shirakawa Boulevard. In his panic, he actually took the time to show his gratitude towards her for taking charge of the situation.
By teasing her with the fleeting taste of him.
Ooh, that man!
She was only out of it for a moment before shaking the hormones out of her head and making her way to the bike which, thankfully, had not been burgled. Poor Akihiko must have been flashing back to watching Shinjiro die while he could do nothing. She'd been fearing the same thing herself. But David wasn't dead. This wasn't the Dark Hour. They could still save him.
Riding to the hospital took up most of her focus, and it was a miracle she didn't crash on the way there. Akihiko needed her now, just as he'd needed her then. She may have failed Shinjiro, but she would not fail this time.
This was a multicultural mess.
The hospital accepted that Dave was in a fight easily enough. The problem was that Akihiko didn't have any of Dave's information besides his name. Dave was conscious, but not alert enough to speak or respond to Japanese, which left Akihiko translating until the hospital promised to get a doctor who could speak English. This left Akihiko trying to contact the college, who knew more about Dave officially than he did. There was also a contact in his phone that said "old folks", which would have thrown Akihiko for a loop if he hadn't remembered Dave ranting about his parents with those same words. He took a deep breath and dialed.
Mitsuru found him twenty minutes later pulling his hair out. Evidently, "hospital" was a loaded word. The woman who answered was in hysterics, wailing about surgery and funerals and blood transfusions and how was she supposed to get to some place in Japan when she didn't speak Japanese and she seemed to have conflated Japan with China because she was sobbing about chopsticks, too. Oh, Davy was always frail, she shouldn't have sent him away...his great-uncle had that fatty disease, you know! (Akihiko didn't know, and really, REALLY wished he'd waited until Dave was awake before doing this) When the woman paused for a breath and to yell at (presumably) her husband in the background because this was all his fault, Akihiko gladly excused himself to go talk to the doctor and passed the phone to Mitsuru. Please let her no-nonsense diplomatic personality smooth things over!
Thankfully, Dave was fine. Nothing was broken, but he had enough bruising that they wanted to keep him for a few days to watch for blood poisoning and monitor his concussion. He was awake and at least speaking coherent English.
"Rock," he declared, "you're s'posta let me die to fuel your quest for vengeance."
"Please, I walked out of that movie, it was stupid as hell! They called that a robot? It was a bunch of tin cans tied together with string!" Aigis would have accompanied him to class for the rest of the year if she'd seen him watching that! "You gonna live? Your mom's on the phone."
The smirk that Dave was wearing vanished almost immediately. "You know what? I think I'm dying. Rock? You there, Rock? I can't see you anymore…"
"Yeah, he's fine." Akihiko was able to laugh for the first time that night. "Let me go rescue Mitsuru." He opened the door just in time to catch Mitsuru desperately looking for them so she could get away from Dave's mom going a mile a minute on the phone.
"It's no trouble at all, ma'am. I apologize for worrying you so. Rest easy for now. David appears to be doing just fine. I'll let you talk to him now. Thank you. Goodbye." She passed the phone to Dave and sighed, her expression comically flustered. "Can I have a word with you, Akihiko?"
Oh, boy. This was it. He hadn't been in his right mind for sure when he left, but it's not like he meant to kiss her! It was only a little peck on the lips, after all. None of their friends had been there! Had it been that bad?
Mitsuru stopped and turned to face him, cloaking her emotions so he couldn't get a read on her. That meant trouble. "Aigis has assured me you've maintained nearly perfect attendance at school, and that your grades have been exemplary," she said out of nowhere.
"Uh...yeah?"
"Why, then, did you need me to speak to David's mother? Surely your English would have sufficed?"
Akihiko let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. They weren't talking about the kiss. "I wasn't thinking…the doctors hadn't come out yet, I didn't know what I was supposed to be telling her about Dave. She started crying, and I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying. She had a funny accent, too, nothing like the professors'…" He tried to play his nerves off as concern. "People listen better to you."
"In some cases, perhaps." Oh, thank goodness, she was smiling! "This woman was...very fond of tangents. I could hardly get a word in edgewise, especially when I promised her all the charges would be paid for. We've now been invited to visit them, should we find ourselves in America. Copious amounts of food have been promised as well."
"No shrimp, though."
He thought it was a funny joke, but Mitsuru instead groaned. "Oh, no, David's honorary uncle's sister tried serving them shrimp one Easter brunch because her husband successfully completed the Anderson account, but unfortunately, her Bichon Frise had a taste for seafood…"
That was when Akihiko lost it. "What the hell?" he chortled.
"I have absolutely no clue, but I am now privy to the whole sordid affair." They laughed for a while until Mitsuru decided to get serious again. "Does...does this count as a success?"
"Well, no one died?" Maybe the problem wasn't finding something suitable to do on a date. Maybe they just shouldn't announce to the universe that they were dating, and nothing would go wrong. "I don't know any more than you do. Maybe we should let someone else plan these."
Neither of them said they wanted the dates to continue. Neither of them said they wanted to stop. They both seemed terrified to start that conversation. Do you like me, or...what?
Mitsuru chose to leave before things got too awkward. "I suppose I should talk to the doctor," she said. At least, when the doctor wasn't poking at her, she seemed okay with them.
Akihiko watched her go down the hall, taking his confidence with her. This was all supposed to be part of his half-assed plan to get everyone's Personas back by making them friends again, but somehow, it turned into getting closer to Mitsuru. He'd learned absolutely nothing about Personas. Was he going about it all wrong? Was Yukari right about him just using this opportunity for his own ends?
No. Mitsuru wanted her Persona back, and so did he. They were lost as they fought, so maybe they'd come back if they made up. Sure, it sounded simple, but it was better than doing nothing. Akihiko was never one to be passive. He was going to get those Personas back or die trying. Mitsuru being eternally grateful to him was just icing on the cake.
What they needed, Akihiko decided, was outside help. He'd been on the right track going back and doing everything they'd done in the past...but he'd forgotten one very important detail.
They needed a Wild Card.
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Dave here is the closest thing I have to an audience-insert; the one person who has absolutely no idea what's going on in the universe he's just been dropped into. (Also a little clue as to what Part 3 of this series will be about.)
Rocky 4 is the movie they're talking about in the hospital, where Rocky's rival-turned-friend Apollo Creed dies from his injuries, and his brother-in-law Paulie receives an...interesting birthday present.