Saturday, August 8th, 2009, 11:08AM
 Iwatodai Dormitory, 2nd floor, Makoto's Room

Light poured into his room through the curtains, accompanied by the soft blowing of the air conditioner above, birds chirping from branches outside, and the muffled sounds of cars driving by on the street below. Makoto tried to count how many individual birds were singing, whether the vehicles driving by were cars, trucks, or motorcycles, and even watched the shapes the light made with interest.

Anything to keep his mind off the responsibilities he had before him.

Makoto let out a long, drawn out sigh. He was leaving for home in only two days. There was still packing to be done, he had to give Shinjiro his gift, his hair felt greasy, and he felt sweaty even with the cool air flooding the room, so he probably needed a shower. There was a lot that needed to be done. He knew that.

"Well, why don't you come with me?"

But despite all that, he couldn't even muster up the strength to reach over and grab his phone. His uncle had responded to his late-night request to bring someone with him in his usual, taciturn manner, echoing back the same word that Kotone had answered with.

"Okay."

At this point there was no going back. No telling her they had rejected his request, and no taking back his request. Not that he wanted to, bringing Kotone with him wasn't a mistake, but something he hadn't planned on in the moment. The idea of him bringing her to meet his family, to introduce her to his guardians, to have her live with him in his house for a few days...

Once more, his face felt red hot.

"I need a shower." He mumbled out. "A cold shower."

Eventually Makoto crawled out of his bed and slowly made his way downstairs. Every limb felt like it was tied to lead weights. Every step taking with the solemnity of a funeral procession. "One crisis at a time." He told himself as he turned a corner, nearly walking into Mitsuru Kirijo in the process. Both froze in place, eyes wide.

"...hello."

"...hey senpai."

They both took a step back, exhaled, and composed themselves. "Shiomi informed me earlier she will be leaving with you in a couple of days."

"Yeah." Makoto looked away. "Sorry for springing this up on you at the last second." He mumbled out.

Kirijo sighed and shrugged. "I never expected SEES to take priority over your whole lives. It would be unreasonable, even for me." She said dryly. "I would like to merely request that the next time something like this happens, I might have a bit more advance notice."

Makoto nodded. "Of course."

"That being said," she crossed her arms, "with Amada now willing and available as a combatant, I suppose I have the same number of people as I anticipated I would have."

"I suppose you do."

They stood silent, watching each other carefully, neither moving an inch.

"I must admit, I am shocked Amada managed to convince you." Kirijo said. "I would have assumed nothing he, or anyone, ever said would sway you from your viewpoint."

Makoto shrugged. "Ken...what he said resonated with me." He paused. "I think if I was in his shoes, I'd probably feel the same way. If someone told me that I wasn't allowed to fight with them, I'd probably sneak out and fight alone." His eyes flickered downward. "He has his mom to care about, his friends at school, and the people of this city. I...understand how he feels. It still feels wrong letting him fight, but..."

"So long as he has people there alongside him, it would be better than the alternative?"

He silently nodded.

"For what it is worth," she said, shoulders dropping slightly, "I can understand why you would be hesitant to involve him. I should have attempted to be more diplomatic in the first place."

"We both have our personal opinions on how things should be." He said tactfully.

She said nothing.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a shower."

Makoto walked past her, stopping at the door of the men's bathroom as she spoke. "Do you hate me?"

"I-" Makoto turned around, eyes wide. "What!?"

She turned around. "Do you hate me?" Kirijo asked again, just as quietly and placidly as the first time. Her face was as calm and perfectly put together as always. Her arms may have hung lazily at her side, and her posture may have relaxed a bit, but her face remained the epitome of poise and grace.

Except for her eyes. Yukari's were brown and Kotone's were red, with Kirijo's resting somewhere in the middle. But her eyes were never as warm or expressive as either girl's. Dispassionate and calm, most days they reminded him of a Hokkaido winter after the snow had finally stopped falling. Now they reminded him of a crumbling glacier in the middle of the ocean.

"No." He said calmly. "I don't hate you senpai. I don't know why you'd think that."

She laughed. A curt, mirthless laugh without any change in expression, not even a twitch of her lips. "I know that neither you nor Takeba are ones to hold me in high regard. I suppose I cannot blame you for that given your pasts." She tilted her head to the side, ever so slightly. "I-I have tried my hardest not to be like my grandfather, wallowing in my misery, longing to redo the past by any means necessary." Her voice cracked, ever so slightly. "Despite trying my best to clean his mess, I have not been as effective or as strong as a leader as I had intended. I had not been able to convince Shinjiro or you on Amada joining at first.

Like a candle suddenly being blown out, the light in her eyes disappeared, and her gaze drifted off somewhere far away.

"You and the other juniors have proven more adept at summoning your Personas, Takeba has become more proficient at healing than I have, Yamagishi was a more talented navigator almost immediately after joining. I...cannot say that Penthesilea and I have been as capable as the rest of SEES these past few months. I would not begrudge any of you for resenting my inability to keep pace as you fight and risk your lives for my family's mistakes."

Makoto gulped. "W-We're all trying to pull our weight." He said carefully, trying to keep his voice from cracking. "None of us want to be left behind or let anyone down. We all have our own reasons for fighting as hard as we can. And one of those reasons we all have is so no one else gets hurt. You know that senpai."

For only a few seconds, each of them more uncomfortable than the next, she remained quiet. Her body still like a statue, completely unresponsive, as if he wasn't there and couldn't hear him. Eventually the light in her eyes returned. "And I appreciate all that you have done for SEES." She said, with an uncomfortably fake smile on her face. "My apologies for asking something so out of the ordinary."

"Senp-"

"Please enjoy your trip. I hope you do not begrudge us all traveling to Tartarus one last time tonight." She turned and walked upstairs, leaving Makoto deeply confused and uneasy.

Sunday, August 9th, 2009, 12:34AM
 Iwatodai Dormitory, front steps

Ken let out a long, loud yawn as they returned to the dorm. Junpei guffawed and slapped him on the back, sending the boy forward. "Tired kiddo? You didn't even fight tonight."

"Nuh-uh!" Ken paused to yawn again. "I'm not tired at all." He protested weakly, eyes struggling to stay open.

"I am." Shinjiro said as he left for his room. "Peace."

Akihiko cracked his neck. "I gotta go help out a friend from boxing club tomorrow, so I'm going to clock out too."

Junpei crashed into the sofa. "I can't sleep just yet, my blood is still pumping."

"How about some tea to end the night?" Makoto offered. When everyone who wanted some agreed, he left for the kitchen.

As they sat down and began commingling with one another, Ken looked at Aigis' armband, Junpei's armband, and then his own. The gears turned in his head as he eventually turned to a half-asleep Mitsuru. "Hey, I've noticed that no one has the number 9 armband. Am I missing someone?" In an instant, the room went silent. "D-Did I say something wrong?" He asked, shrinking slightly as all eyes were on him

Mitsuru let out a long, tired sigh and slunk into the sofa. "No, not at all." She glanced at Kotone, already looking away and curling in her seat. "On request, we posthumously granted that number to Koromaru, a Persona-wielding canine who came to assist us in the operation last month."

"Post-hum-ous-ly..." A few seconds passed before it clicked in Ken's mind. "O-Oh, you mean he..."

"He unfortunately did not survive the battle." She stated in a clinical tone. "That same night, Shinjiro, and to a lesser extent Akihiko, were also severely injured. Thankfully we have several Personas with healing abilities who were able to tend to their wounds in time. Takeba, for one, excels in this regard."

Yukari blushed and looked away. "I-I just did what I could to help Aragaki-senpai."

"And what you did is far more than I could have in your place." She stated plainly.

"Hey, we had a tough battle too." Junpei groused. He turned to Ken. "Me, Makoto, Sanada-senpai, and Kirijo-senpai fought pretty hard on the bridge the same night. If it wasn't for Makoto getting his second wind, man I don't know if we would've won that one."

"Really? Are they usually that tough? Because our fight was pretty easy a couple of days ago." Ken said innocently, as Mitsuru winced next to him.

Junpei rolled his eyes. "That's cuz you had Makoto and Yukari's super Personas. We had to actually put in some work into beating our Shadow."

"Can it Stupei." Yukari shot back. "We got a favorable match-up, it happens."

"I was surprised by how quickly Ken-kun's Persona was able to spot the Shadow." Fuuka said. "Some Shadows can escape detection by Lucia, but not by eyesight. It was a good thing you thought to bring out Ptolemaios."

Ken chuckled as Mitsuru slunk lower into her seat.

"I was always curious about something," Kotone said as Makoto returned with their tea, "how many of those armbands do you even have senpai?"

"I have ten sets numbered zero to fifty stored upstairs." Mitsuru said as she took her cup. She sipped her tea, and noticed after few seconds passed the resurgent silence in the room, and she looked around to see everyone staring at her incredulously. "W-What?" She said defensively.

Junpei scratched the back of his neck. "That's kind of a lot. Did'ja expect us to lose them every week or something?"

Mitsuru looked away, the lightest hint of red on her face. "There is nothing wrong with being prepared." She mumbled out.

"Did you expect us to be finding new Persona users every week or something?" Makoto asked. "I know we've increased our membership since I got here, but that's still a lot."

"Yeah," Yukari said, "not counting the chairman, we've only barely cracked double digits. At this rate we'll have climbed Tartarus before we even hit twenty five members."

Mitsuru looked away and mumbled something as everyone took their tea, and the conversation turned to lighter subjects.

About ten hours later, Shinjiro came out of his room, whistling some kind of tune, stopping when he realized that there was an audience of one waiting for him. "Perfect timing there." Makoto said.

"Yo." Shinjiro greeted. "What's up?"

"I know it's not much, but since I'll be leaving right before it happens," Makoto handed him a small, wrapped jewel case, "happy early birthday."

"Oh." Shinjiro gently took it from the other boy. "Thanks man."

"I burned you a tracklist of songs I thought you might like." Makoto scratched the back of his head. "I'm not really good at getting gifts."

Shinjiro chuckled. "I feel you. I always just get Aki something boxing related, like new gloves, or a case of protein bars, and he's as happy as a clam every time. Then we moved in here and, well imagine what it's like getting a gift for a girl who has several mansions."

"I imagine that's why she kept her birthday a secret from us."

"Nah, she just didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Plus she wouldn't want you to spend any money on her. Aki and I had to bug the shit out of her just to let us get her some grub when it happens."

Makoto nodded. "You know her better than I, so I'll take your word for it."

The older boy looked at his gift once again. "Thanks again man, I'll be sure to listen to it later."

"Of course." Makoto let out a droll smile. "Sorry that so much of us are going to be gone for the next couple of weeks. A CD doesn't really make up for the extra SEES work, now does it?"

Shinjiro snorted. "We survived well enough before all you kids moved in, I think we can handle ourselves."

"Absolutely."

Monday, August 10th, 2009, 1:06PM
Iwatodai Dormitory, 1st floor

Makoto walked down the stairs, bag and tickets in tow. He could see Kotone sitting on the sofa across the room, wearing an orange shirt, and light brown shorts. As he approached her, he could see she was wearing much brighter lipstick than usual. The moment they made eye-contact, he froze. She waved to him, and he waved back.

They hadn't spoken one-on-one since he had asked her to come with him on Friday. He summoned all of the intelligence and charm he had possessed to greet her.

"Hey." He said lamely

She smiled. "Hey." her eyes flickered over to his travel bag. "That's all you're bringing?"

"Most of my stuff is still in my room back home. This is just gifts for everyone." His eyes slowly made their way over to her travel bag and luggage, the latter being a bright lime green and almost as tall as Ken.

She looked away, a light blush on her face. "I know I said I'd bring the one bag, but I kind of overpacked." She mumbled out.

He snicked.

"You should've seen how much Yukari packed for her trip." She turned her head up and crossed her arms. "She made me look like I was just carrying one of those hobo bags you see in old movies."

"If you say so." He offered her a hand, which she took and stood up. "I...meant for you to give me your luggage."

"...oh." She whispered out.

They stood there, holding hands in awkward silence, before bursting out in laughter.

"Sorry." She wiped a tear. "I'm being weird."

"Me too." He said. "Come on, I want to get to the train early."

"Heck yeah. Let's gooooooo!"

Couple of things. First, I want to thank everyone for all of the support this story has gotten. We reached 20k views on FFN and 10k hits on AO3, both on March 7th. Every view, review, favorite, and follow motivates me to keep churning out chapters, and I want you all to know how much I appreciate every one of these.
Second, this isn't going to mean anything to anyone after the story is finished publication (and I do intend to finish this story, believe me), but I've changed the summary on both FFN and AO3 from its usual layout. Instead of an excerpt from chapter 1, it's an excerpt from chapter 44. I'm considering doing this every time we hit a new arc going forward, basically a couple of lines taken from a chapter that will tell you what the focus of said arc is going to be. Let me know what you think, if it's good, if it's bad, if you want the old one back, whatever.