Sunday, June 28, 2009, 10:12AM

Junes Department Store

"OK, all that's left is the produce department." Fuuka said, as she checked off another line on her grocery list. "First, we'll need at least 5 kilograms of daikon radishes."

"Jeez, that many?" Junpei asked as he pushed a nearly full grocery cart. "The heck is Aragaki-senpai cooking with all of those?"

"Stews and salads mostly." Fuuka paused and started giggling. "Remember that one time he sarcastically asked Sanada-senpai if he wanted some daikon in a protein smoothie?

Junpei grinned. "Oh yeah, he said yes and they nearly got into a fist fight right in the kitchen. Classic."

As they walked through the store, Fuuka paused and went back to look down an aisle. "Hey, is that...Adachi-sensei?"

Junpei peeked over her. "Oh hey, it is. Yo, Adachi-sensei!" He called out.

"Hmm." He turned and saw the two approaching him. "Oh! You're uh, hold on it's coming to me." He tapped his forehead. "Yamagishi-san and Iori-san, correct?"

"That's us sensei." Junpei said with a big old grin on his face.

"What're you kids doing here this early on a Sunday?" He asked. "Don't tell me this place is your idea of a date?"

Junpei and Fuuka both blushed. "Huh, what-no!" Junpei said. "We're just doing some grocery shopping for our dorm."

"Ah." He scratched his head. "You kids live in a dorm together? Huh." He held up his tote bag filled with cans. "Well, as you can tell I'm doing some shopping of my own. I've been subsisting on take-out and bar food I bum off of the other teachers so far." He paused. "Uh, don't tell anyone I said that, I don't think teachers are supposed to tell students that."

Fuuka giggled. "Your secret is safe with us sensei."

"Sounds like you're enjoying Iwatodai so far. You said you moved here pretty recently, yeah?" Junpei asked.

Adachi chuckled. "Yeah. Uh, it's fine I guess. My hometown was just north of Nagoya, so the big city isn't anything new for me. I do like the atmosphere in the town. It's pretty refreshing." His normally jovial face slowly morphed into a frown. "Not so much of a fan of all the layabouts around here. The uh, what do you call them? The Apathetic Syndrome people?"

The two looked sad. "Yeah," Junpei scratched his neck, "Apathy Syndrome is kinda wack."

"You think it's something in the water? I sure hope not."

The two students glanced at each other and back to him. "I'm sure it's just stress and mental exhaustion."

Adachi gave a lopsided grin. "Well that bodes poorly for teacher and student." The three of them chuckled. "Alright, it was good seeing you kids. Stay safe and be careful of the weather, I hear it's going to be pouring later today."

"Bye sensei." Fuuka waved him off. "Sensei is right, we probably should hurry before it starts raining."

"Yeah. Oh!" Junpei's eyebrows jumped up. "That's right, I gotta stop by the drugstore and get Makoto and Aragaki-senpai some painkillers. Can you get the rest of the stuff while I run and get it?" She nodded. "Thanks.

"Honeyyyyyy, I'm hooooome!" Junpei bellowed out as they arrived home, hands packed full with bags. Yukari put down her magazine and glared at him.

"Can it." A tired, groggy voice ordered. Shinjiro languidly got up from the couch and walked over to them. "Here, I'll take some of this stuff off your hands."

Fuuka offloaded her share of the groceries to him and sat down next to Yukari. "Phew, that was exhausting." She ran her hands through her hair. "Thankfully the rain wasn't falling too hard yet."

"I've heard it thundering all day." Yukari said. "Sanada-senpai spend like an hour looking for the umbrellas upstairs. Apparently the previous owners left a dozen of them when they sold this place to be converted into a dorm.

"Oh wow."

From the kitchen they heard Junpei yell, "You got it compadre!" followed by Shinjiro yelling at him to be quiet.

"Ughhh..." Yukari shook her head. "At least they're doing better today."

Fuuka nodded. "They were injured pretty badly last night, weren't they?"

"You better believe it." Junpei said as the two returned. He sat down next to Yukari and patted his leg. "If it wasn't for our amazing Yuka-tan and her miraculous healing powers, I'd probably be laid up in bed for a while."

Yukari chuckled. "Ah come on, it wasn't that impressive."

"Kinda was." Shinjiro said as he reclined in the sofa chair. "My ribs were cracked when that Shadow slammed me into the wall. Red-eyes could only do so much."

"H-hey, stop it, both of you." Yukari blushed and looked away. "Flattery's not gonna get you anywhere you know~." She curled a lock of hair around her finger.

The two boys looked at each other and silently smirked.

"Well," Shinjiro shook the pill bottle, "I'm going to go deliver this to Makoto and take a nap."

Junpei waved him off. "Take it easy dude."

"Speaking of which," Fuuka said with a frown, "how is Makoto-kun?"

Yukari's gaze darkened. "Better, but still pretty sore. He was trying to act tough this morning, but I caught him wincing as he moved around. Even trying to make breakfast looked painful."

"And Kotone?" Junpei asked.

"Still locked in her room." Yukari shook her head. "Mitsuru chewed her out pretty badly last night."

Junpei scratched the back of his head. "Yeah."

They all remembered how furious Mitsuru looked when she returned to the ground floor last night. She remained quiet and composed up until they arrived home. After she dismissed them upstairs, she must have been yelling at Kotone for a good twenty minutes. None of them were close enough to hear what she said exactly, and none of them were brave enough to try and listen in, but they could assume what it was about.

"It was a bit much what senpai did." Fuuka admitted. "But it wasn't completely unwarranted."

Yukari whipped her head around, startling Fuuka. "You have got to be kidding."

"I mean..." Fuuka shrunk in the face of Yukari's glare.

Junpei looked back and forth between the two before taking a deep breath. "Look, Kotone's my bro, I'll always have her back, but Mitsuru-senpai is kinda right, isn't she?"

"Ugh." Yukari rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you're pretending to be Kotone's friend while you're taking her side."

"I'm being serious here!" He yelled back. "If senpai was constantly locking herself in her room, skipping school, and losing her shit in Tartarus when she's supposed to lead us, wouldn't you want someone to step in?"

"Well-" Yukari paused. "T-That's different."

Junpei narrowed his eyes. "Oh yeah? How? Explain it to me like I'm an idiot."

"Whatever." Yukari stood up. "I'm going to my room."

Junpei snarled as she stomped off. "What's her deal?"

Fuuka frowned. "Yukari-chan and Mitsuru-senpai...to be honest, I'm not quite sure what's going on between them."

A knock on the door knocked Makoto out of his stupor. "Come in." He called out, or at least tried to with his dry throat.

"Yo." Shinjiro entered with a pill bottle in one hand and a cup of water.

"Thanks." Makoto sluggishly got out of bed and took the two.

The older boy inspected him top to bottom. "You look like shit."

Makoto shrugged. "I'll be fine." He took two of the pills and slowly drank.

"If you say so."

As he left, Makoto called out to him. "How is everyone else?" Shinjiro turned back, seeing the younger boy tense up, eyes pleading. "Are they OK? I only got to talk to Yukari this morning."

He scratched his neck. "Well, Aki and Mitsuru are fine, Iori is...Iori." They both chuckled. "Yamagishi and Takeba are doing fine. Haven't seen Shiomi all day, so I can't say."

"Ah." Makoto's eyes dimmed. "Thanks senpai."

Shinjiro grunted and left.

Makoto crashed back into his bed. Everything after his own Agilao exploding on him was mostly a blur. A painful blur. Yukari healed the worst of the damage, he could barely even tell his skin was burnt off not too long ago, but it was still tender and everything underneath still ached and throbbed.

Outside he could hear the thunder crackling in the distance, overpowering the light drizzle of the rain against his windows.

Their expedition to rescue the girls from Tartarus had been a success, that much he could at least take pride in. But several of them had been injured, and their battlefield cohesion, up until now fairly consistent, shattered to pieces. And there was only one person he could blame for it. He hated to even think it, but she messed up and failed to lead them.

Makoto squirmed in his sheets. He wanted to talk to her, but didn't know if she'd even be willing.

"Well, I'll let you get acclimated. I live one floor up, end of the hall just like yours, same side of the room and everything." She snapped her fingers and made little finger guns at him. "You can knock on the ceiling if you wanna get my attention. I'll be down in a jiffy!"

Makoto looked at the bottle of painkillers, then up at his ceiling, then back at the bottle. He emptied out its contents, carefully putting all of the pills on the nightstand, and threw the bottle up at his ceiling. Then again. Then a third time.

He waited a few seconds before readying it for another throw, only stopping when he heard his phone vibrate.

"that u?"

"Yeah." He typed. "Can we talk?"

"sure." A few seconds later another text arrived. "can u meet me upstairs?"

"OK. I'll be there in a sec."

With a grunt, Makoto forced himself out of bed and walked out of his room, only to be met with Kirijo, standing on the other side of the hallway.

"Oh, Yuki, you're awake. Are you feeling alright?"

Makoto glanced down at the back of his hand. Even from a few feet away, she could probably see that his skin was perfectly smooth, missing all the hair on it. Yukari could heal broken bones, gaping wounds, and burnt flesh, but regrowing hair was just a bit beyond her power. Not like he would complain, not after all she'd done for him.

"Well my skin is still a bit sensitive, but nothing the painkillers won't fix once they kick in." He turned back to her. "But I'm guessing that's not the only reason you're here?"

"I did not want to say this in front of Shiomi, considering how much I chastised her last night..." Mitsuru sighed and crossed her arms, "I am not sure what is going on with her, but it has become clear she is no longer capable being the field leader to the juniors anymore. She has been acting far too erratic as of late, both on and off the field. I'm making the decision to replace her with you."

"No thank you."

A long, uncomfortable silence passed over them. Makoto leaned on the wall, opposite to the upright and tall Mitsuru. Neither moved as they stared the other down.

"...what do you mean 'no thank you'?" She eventually asked through clenched teeth.

"I know she's been having a bit of a rough time, but I think she needs a bit of a break, not to be replaced. We've got time for her to recover." He said. "Besides, I lack her charisma, I don't think I can do her job as well as she can."

"Listen." She said tersely. "I understand you respect her, I do too, but she has been acting erratic for far longer than I feel comfortable."

Makoto opened his mouth to speak, and just sighed instead.

"We cannot afford to take this lightly." Stated in a tone of absolutely finality. "A single Shadow can be impossible to defeat without unit cohesion."

"Why not Yukari?" Makoto countered. "She's been on the team longer than me."

She paused for a moment. "As I said, I would rather you lead the juniors." She said, dodging the question.

"...do you really have faith in me to lead the team?" He asked quietly.

"Of course I do." She said nonplussed. "You have proven yourself more than adept at the role of a front-line fighter, you are intelligent on and off the battlefield, you are capable of following orders and functioning on your own. I have faith in you to lead the juniors, and even Akihiko and Shinjiro should the situation call for it."

"...even with how things went in May?" He asked, looking away. "To this day, I'm still embarrassed with the way the Shadows got under my skin back then."

Kirijo scoffed. "Do you not think I feel the same way when I make mistakes, or need to be assisted? This month's full moon encounter was a humiliating encounter, but I cannot just give up because of it. I am not asking either of you to be perfect, Yuki. This is not some kind of punishment aimed towards Shiomi, or to you. I am simply doing what I believe is best for the team."

"You may trust me, but I don't." He sighed again. "Ask me again in a week."

"Yuki."

Makoto shambled up to her, his face inches from her. His blues eyes burning with a fire she hadn't seen from him. "Everything hurts right now, senpai. Please give me a bit of time to think it over."

"...fine." Kirijo said through gritted teeth. She turned and left, walking downstairs with only the sound of pouring rain filling the hall.

Makoto carefully opened the door. "Hello?" Her room was almost pitch dark, only being visible because of the bit of ambient light pouring in through the windows. With that, he spotted a Kotone-shaped lump hidden under the bed sheets. He walked over and sat next to her. "If it's a bad time, I can leave."

"It's fine." Kotone said, voice muffled. "Are you OK?"

"Never been better." She peaked her head out, and even in the dark he could tell she looked rough. Bags under her eyes, face pale, and her eyes lacked her usual spark. "You?"

She sat up, covering herself in her sheets. "Fine."

The seconds passed in silence. Neither moved to say anything. Makoto glanced at Kotone, and Kotone simply stared forward.

Makoto scratched his head and looked down. "So uh-"

"Senpai wants to bench me, huh?" Kotone whispered out.

Ah shit. He turned to face her. She was trembling, her breaths coming in at erratic intervals, and she refused to look at him. He had never seen her look smaller or more pathetic. "H-How did you-"

"I was wondering why you were talking so long, and when I walked over there, I overheard that she wants to replace me with you." A girl always teeming with energy and charisma now just looked like a beaten dog. "She's not wrong to." She choked. "I did mess up."

"Yeah." He responded quietly. "But she didn't. She didn't replace you."

She wiped her nose looked down. "W-Why not?"

"Because I refused." She looked up at him, his gut dropping at how dull and empty her eyes were. They didn't even look red anymore, more like a dull rust.

It dawned on him that the reason she wasn't crying right here was because probably had been bawling her eyes out earlier.

"You're the right pick." Makoto said. "It's as simple as that."

She lowered her head, shoulders shaking. "...I-I screwed up." She whispered. "I can't help out Rio-chan, I can't fight as well as you guys, I can't lead us in battle anymore, Shinjiro-senpai nearly got crippled. You got burned." She bit her lip as she tried to stop the oncoming tears. "Everyone probably hates me now."

Makoto balled his fists and took a deep breath. I gotta be very careful with what I say. I cannot afford to fuck this up. I absolutely cannot.

"...do you remember back we fought those Shadows back in May? " She lifted her head. "The ones at the station? I screwed up badly. I nearly burned down the station, I hurt you guys because I was in far over my head. I...thought this was the end for me here. You guys were just going to throw me out for sure. When you came to drag me out of my room, to encourage me to stay, I...was honestly thinking of just packing up my bags and leaving Iwatodai that night."

Her eyes went wide.

Makoto looked away. "If it wasn't for what you said back then, I don't know if I would have had the courage to stay." He sighed. "We all have our bad days. Sometimes bad weeks. I know you're strong and capable, I've seen it, but that doesn't mean you won't make mistakes. Please, just rest up until you're ready." He turned back to her "We'll all wait, I promise."

Kotone sniffed and nodded her head. "O-OK."

Makoto nodded back.

"Your hand, can I see it." He lifted it, and suppressed a wince when she grabbed it with both hands. "Promise me you'll do it too." When he tilted his head, she chuckled. "Promise me you'll rest up and not try to act tough either."

He laughed. "OK, fair enough."