Friday, August 7th, 2009, 2:22PM
Iwatodai Dormitory, 1st floor
"I'm home." Ken announced as he arrived. The muffled but familiar sounds of daytime television ads, only barely audible over the noise of cars driving by outside of the dorm, were the only things that greeted him in response. He walked over to turn it off, only to freeze in place as he noticed that there were people there.
Shinjiro sat in the chair, Akihiko half-sat, half-laid on the sofa, and Mitsuru laid on Akihiko. All three passed out, with the soft sounds of breathing the only thing confirming that they were still alive.
Wow. Ken carefully procured the remote from Akihiko's side and turned off the TV. Their fight must have drained them pretty badly. While he had only known them for a short time, Ken had internalized a certain image of the three high school students. Tall, powerful, cool under pressure, suave, and capable of doing seemingly anything, Persona-related or not.
Looking at the three right now, in their disheveled, vulnerable, harmless states, it reminded him how they were very much human. No more and no less powerful than anyone else.
Ken shot the sleeping Shinjiro one last lingering look before he extracted himself from the common area. Those three, Aigis-san, and Junpei-san fought the other Shadow last night. Ken thought as he climbed the stairs. I wonder...
He tiptoed not to his door, but to Junpei's. Very quietly he tested if the door was unlocked. Finding that it was, he carefully opened it and peaked inside. As he expected, Junpei was still in his bed, or rather half in his bed and half falling out of it. And half of his bed was falling out onto the floor. In fact, half of his room was on his floor, scattered about in one of the worst pigsty he had ever seen.
Mom would kill me if my room was ever that dirty. Ken closed the door. The only other person who fought with them last night would be Aigis-san. But Aigis-san is a robot, and robots don't get tired. He crossed his arms and put his hand under his chin. But she's a robot that looks identical to a person. But she's still a robot. But she looks like a person. Robot. Person. Robot. Person. Does she get tired or not?
His train of thought was derailed as he heard a fit of giggling from down the hall. Ken squinted as he tried to recall if the giggling was coming from, of all places, Makoto's room. Giggling that sounded decidedly...feminine.
"Oh dear." Fuuka muttered as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "I feel kind of bad laughing at them, but..."
"If it's funny, it's funny." Makoto said. A knock at the door drew his attention. "Come in."
Ken peaked his head inside. "Oh, hey guys."
Fuuka waved from Makoto's chair, as he lazily leaned against it. "Hello Ken."
"Everyone still dead downstairs?" Makoto asked the boy as he entered.
"Yep." He said as he looked around Makoto's room. "Looks like we got off pretty easy last night compared to them, huh?"
Makoto sighed. "Like you wouldn't believe." He unconsciously rubbed his stomach.
"I peaked in and saw Junpei-san is asleep in his room. Does that mean Aigis-san is exhausted as well? Do robots even get tired?"
Makoto's jaw clenched shut.
"I think Kotone-chan took Aigis out around town, and she looked fine before they left." Fuuka said. "I'm not sure if Aigis ever gets tired. I think she mentioned that he needs to power down occasionally, but I don't know if she gets physically exhausted."
Ken nodded. "By the way, what'cha guys doing?"
Makoto sighed and walked over to his bed. "I was having some issues with my laptop." Makoto said as he gestured to his desk. "Fuuka helped me fix it, and after that we spent the last hour just watching random videos."
Ken peaked at his screen. "Oh, is that video of that guy and his horse stuck in quicksand?"
Fuuka nodded. "You've seen it?"
"Yeah, Haruto's brother showed it to us when I went to his house last week." Ken's nose scrunched up. "He tried to scare us by saying they never escaped the quicksand and they died, but Haruto called him a dumb liar."
"I think the video description said they got out okay." Fuuka looked back at the laptop. "Well, that's what the online translator says at least."
"Well the internet would never lie to us, now would it?" Makoto asked rhetorically.
Ken rolled his eyes. "Hey, I'm eleven now, I know not to believe everything I hear from people and everything I read online."
"And that alone makes you smarter than some of my classmates." Makoto said as Fuuka nodded.
"Since you're here Ken-kun, would you like to see some of these?"
"Have you seen the one with the Russian car that flipped three times?" When Ken shook his head, Makoto started typing. "Then you're in for a treat."
"We're hooooooome!" Kotone announced as she and Aigis returned. Both of them carried several bags, all filled to the brim.
"Hey." Yukari put down her book and beckoned them over to the couch. "Did you two have fun?"
Kotone nodded vigorously. "Heck yeah! Half of the bags are new clothes we bought for Aigis, and the other half contains our spoils of war." She reached into one of the bags and handed her a Jack Frost doll and a Ganesha piggy bank. "Here you go. Aigis managed to outsmart all of the crane games in the mall and rob them blind."
"Oh, cool." She turned to the blonde girl. "Thanks Aigis."
"No problem." She said stoically. "If you would like me to procure further prizes, I will do so by any means necessary. Even if I must pry them out with my bare hands."
The other two girls laughed. "I don't think it's that serious Aigis." Kotone said with a grin.
"Please don't break any crane games." Yukari said, desperately trying not to smile. "The trouble will be way more than the prizes are worth."
"Understood. Do not break crane games unless they are incredibly valuable."
Yukari sighed and shook her head as Kotone grinned ear to ear. "Aigis also got top scores at Game Panic." Kotone put her hand next to her mouth and faux-whispered. "Don't tell Akihiko-senpai that she beat his score in the boxing game, I don't want to hurt his feelings."
"Your secret is safe with me, don't worry."
Kotone looked around. "Speaking of senpai, where the heck is he? And everyone else for that matter?"
"Well I just got back. Apparently, all of our senpai left earlier to do...something. Everyone else should be upstairs though."
"Cool." Kotone picked up a couple of the bags. "Let's go hand out some treats. They're going to be calling me Santa Kotone, hehehehe."
As Kotone scampered off, Aigis walked a few steps before she turned back to Yukari. "Should we refer to her as Santa Kotone as well?"
"Um, no." Yukari paused. "Well, maybe during Christmastime."
"Understood."
"-I'm leaving in a few day to visit family." Kotone overheard Makoto say as she climbed the stairs to the second floor. "So no summer school for me even if Kirijo wanted it."
"Duuuuuude..." Junpei slammed his head on the table. "No faaaaaaaair..."
"There, there." Makoto leaned over the table and patted Junpei on the shoulder. "It'll be fun."
Junpei snorted. "Yeah, fun like a tonsillectomy." He muttered.
"I have to go to cram school." Ken said as he sipped his Cylon Tea. "Bleh! So I'm in the same boat as you."
"That's a bit different isn't it?" Junpei asked.
"For one thing," Makoto paused as he saw the two girls and motioned them over, "Junpei will have to go in the morning rather than later in the day."
Junpei sighed again. "I wouldn't even mind so much if I could just sleep a bit longer."
"Would this make you feel better?" Kotone asked as she pulled out a Jack Frost doll. "If that won't work, how about this?" She pulled out a Ganesha piggy bank.
Like a child just informed that they were allowed to stay up late, his eyes lit up in excitement. "Well don't mind if I do." Junpei said as he eagerly took them. "You guys bought these?"
Kotone grinned and crossed her arms as Aigis handed out a pair to the other two boys. "Nah, Aigis won them. There's not a crane machine in Iwatodai that can match her!"
"You guys probably spent hundreds of thousands of yen getting all this, didn't ya?" Junpei teased.
"It cost us sixteen thousand and eight hundred yen." Aigis stated.
Ken looked over at the bags, containing nothing but multiples of those two exact prizes. "Wow. That must have taken a while to win them all."
"I always thought those things were rigged." Makoto muttered as he poked his Jack Frost doll.
"I have methods to procure victory by any means necessary." Aigis stated.
Ken chuckled. "That makes you sound like some kind of crane game assassin, Aigis-san."
"I am capable of many functions. Winning prizes is but one."
Kotone smiled proudly as Ken and Junpei looked on her with awe.
A knock on his door roused Makoto up from bed. He sluggishly forced himself up to open it, finding Kotone waiting right outside. "Yo."
"Hey." She sniffed the air a couple of times. "Is that...chamomile I smell?"
"Incense burner."
"Ahhhh." She nodded. "Right."
He leaned on the door frame. "I can loan you some sticks if you need them."
She shook her head. "Nah, I'm good. I um," her eyes darted away, "I forgot that you're leaving for summer break. I know you mentioned it before, but I didn't think it'd spring up so soon."
Makoto nodded. "Yeah, I'm going home to Kumamoto. I'll be gone from the tenth to the twenty-fourth."
"Wow. That's half of the month." Kotone said with a twinge of sadness. "You and Yukari are both gonna miss the festival. I was hoping to go with at least one of you." She said wistfully.
"Yeah, sorry." Makoto rubbed the back of his head. "I figured once I finished track stuff, and once we got the month's full moon fight out of the way, I could afford to leave for a bit."
"Oh, I didn't mean it like that." She said quickly, force a smile. "It's just, I didn't realize how quickly it came." It was her eyes that gave away her true feelings. "I was hoping we could do some stuff together this summer." She mumbled out. "I'm not going anywhere myself, so my schedule is pretty open, you know?"
"Sorry." He said, his apology sound even more pitiful a second time. "I had to really fight to convince uncle Daisuke to let me come. Visiting for summer vacation was a condition him and my aunt gave me. And it would be way more of a hassle for them to come over here with my cousins, you know?" He said with a weak smile.
Kotone chuckled. "Yeah." Her smile faltered. "It's a shame, I'd love to meet your aunt and uncle, you always speak so fondly of them." Her eyes flickered down away from his gaze, dimming ever so slightly.
"Well, why don't you come with me?" Makoto blurted out.
"Hmm?" Kotone looked up, eyes wide. "You mean like...?"
"Come meet my family." He said. "I'm sure they'd love to meet you too. You said you didn't have any plans for the rest of the month, so why not? They sent me two tickets, and it's only a few hours on a train before we're there."
Seconds passed before Makoto's face started to feel warm, and then hot, and then burning hot.
Shit shit shit. Makoto bit his tongue. What's wrong with me, why did I ask that? That was way too forward, that was way too sudden, there's absolutely no way in hell that she's going to say
"Okay."
He blinked. "Okay?"
"Okay." Kotone repeated. "I'll go pack my stuff." She left, hands clasped behind her back as she walked to her room. She stopped and turned around, face oddly serene. "You think I can fit everything I need in one travel bag?"
Finding himself suddenly bereft of his voice, Makoto simply nodded furiously. She nodded back and left. Seconds passed before he remembered to breath. "Okay!?" Makoto's voiced cracked as he flipped out his phone and started hurriedly dialing his uncle's number.