Friday, 17th of April 2009. 18:37
He had been tired. When he roused from his sleep, it was afternoon.
"You're awake...!" He turned his head to the side to see Takeba Yukari sitting by his bedside. "Um, how do you feel?"
"Where am I...? Haruto asked as he moved into a sitting up position.
"Thank goodness. You finally came to..." She sighed in relief before going on the offensive. "How much sleep do you need!? It's been a whole week! ...I was so worried about you..."
There was a few seconds of silence before the brunette finally found something else to say.
"... Oh yeah, this is Tatsumi Memorial Hospital. It's just a short walk from the station," the brunette explained. "The doctor couldn't find anything wrong with you. He said you were just exhausted... But, you kept sleeping and sleeping. You know how worried I was?"
"Um… Sorry?" The white-haired teen edged backwards at the sudden aggression from his visitor.
"Um no... I'm the one who should be sorry... I couldn't do anything..." Yukari admitted with a touch of embarrassment. "Even though I was supposed to protect you, I... But, your power... It was amazing."
She didn't know the half of it... And from how things sounded, neither did he.
"I take it that you thought I was one of those things, the night we met?" An unobstructed ruby eye locked onto amber as the teen nodded. "These Shadows... What are they?"
"The Shadows? They're what we're fighting against and the power you used... We call it 'Persona.'" Well that told him squat. "We'll explain everything later. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before..." There was a quick pause before the brunette decided to say what she wanted to say. "I, uh... I wanted to tell you that... I'm sorta like you."
"What do you mean?" the bedridden teen asked.
She looked down at her hands. "My dad died in an accident when I was little... And my mom and I aren't exactly on good terms... You're all alone too, right? To be honest, I already know about your past... But, it didn't seem fair, so I wanted you to know about mine..." With that she started to explain her reasoning for being here. "It was back in '99... There was a big explosion in the area. Supposedly, my dad died in the blast, but nobody really knows what happened... He was working in a lab run by the Kirijo Group."
Well that made sense. "You're doing this to see if you can find anything out."
She nodded. "That's why I'm going to Gekkoukan High, and why I was there when this happened to you." She let out a self derisive laugh. "... Of course, I panicked and wasn't much help... It was my first time fighting them, too. I'm sorry... You wouldn't have to go through all this if I wasn't such a coward..."
He doubted it. Although the idiot had been tight lipped last night, there was one thing he was sure about: He was supposed to destroy that thing. "Don't worry about it," he reassured the brunette.
She gave him a small smile. "Thanks... but still..." She stopped, letting out a groan before continuing. "And here I am telling you all this the minute you wake up. While I was waiting, I thought to myself, 'I've been hiding so many things from him... As soon as he wakes up, I'll tell him the truth.' So, thanks for listening, I've wanted to share that story with someone for a long time."
"No problem." Well it wasn't like she'd given him a choice not to listen.
The sighed in relief as he guilt was somewhat eased. "... Alright, I'm gonna get going. I'll let the others know you woke up."
"Oh? Have you been the only one visiting?" Granted the idiot had already told him that Mitsuru had visited as well but he was still hoping that had only a nightmare.
"No," she admitted. "Mitsuru-senpai has come a few times as well, probably wanting to apologise and try and explain everything. Akihiko-senpai has popped in as well, and even Stupei found the time to come and visit."
"Well that's good to know." Ugh... that meant he had two weeks, if he was lucky, before chaos engulfed the school. As if this wasn't enough.
"Take it easy, okay? Be a good patient! And don't hesitate to call the nurse. I'm sure she'll take good care of you." With that the brunette moved towards the exit. "Bye."
With that Haruto found himself once again in his own company. Getting up from the bed, he had a look over the small selection of books his visitors had left for him, looking over the selection before choosing one on Kendo. He recovered his mp3 player, cranked the volume up a couple of notches and settled himself for a night in.
Saturday, 18th of April 2009. 07:37
He quickly approached the gates. Although everything he needed had been at the hospital, the nurses hadn't exactly been in a rush to discharge him. Although many would have seen this as a valid excuse for playing hooky, he couldn't see himself doing that. After all he had enough to catch up on as it was. As he reached the gates he spotted Yukari leaning against the wall obviously waiting for someone.
As he suspected that someone ended up being him. "Mornin'. You seem to be doing pretty well."
"I feel better," the junior replied as they started walking towards the building.
"That's good to hear." She smiled before she turned more serious. "Hey, sorry to add this to your worries, but... Ikutsuki-san wants to talk to you today. Come to the 4th floor of the dorm after school, okay? Don't forget."
He nodded his response as they entered the school.
Saturday, 18th of April 2009. 17:37
Well, school had gone as well as he expected. He'd been flogged by members of his class asking what had happened, and when Junpei had asked him for the seventh time that day, he had just about reached breaking point. In fact that he almost told him that he and Yukari had a night of wild passionate monkey love and he'd spent the last 8 days in hospital recovering. It was only the fact that his friend had a mouth like a sieve, and the comment would get back to the brunette in question, that he kept his mouth shut. The outcome of that would probably be another hospital trip, only this time there was no telling how bad the damage would be.
Shame since the look on Junpei's face would have been priceless.
This was followed by a lecture with Ono-Sensei, which until they reached the Sengoku era wouldn't really be that useful. Shown by the fact that he had to pull Junpei's arse out of the fire and give him the answer to the question that Ono-Sensei had asked.
He'd excused himself from hanging out with Junpei before heading back to the dorm for this meeting.
He returned to find the lounge empty, realising that he'd have to meet everyone on the fourth floor before climbing the stairwell. Resisting the urge to make a quick stop at his room in order to destroy that camera.
Yukari was waiting for him on the fourth floor landing. "Oh! There you are!"
The white haired teen nodded in greeting as the brunette held open the door for him. Mitsuru, the Chairman and an older teen that he would have to guess was Sanada Akihiko all sat around a table in the centre of the room.
"Ah, there you are. I'm glad that you're okay. The reason I asked you here is because I needed to talk to you. Please, have a seat." The scientist pointed to one of the available seats left around the table. Haruto ended up taking one of the stools while Yukari took a seat on the couch opposite. "Oh, before that. I believe I mentioned him earlier, but this is Akihiko."
"How ya doing?" the boxer asked as he raised his arm in greeting, which was responded to with a slight nod of the head.
"Okay, I guess we can cut the preamble?" the Chairman asked.
"If you mean about the fact that for some unknown reason, this world has 25 hours in a day, then yes you can," the teen replied.
"Then we don't need to waste time on that," the boxer stated, leaving the Chairman fully put out. "Especially as that isn't what makes it so interesting... You saw those creatures. We call them 'Shadows'. They only appear during the dark hour and attack everyone who's not in a coffin." If that was the case where the hell had they been for the last eight/nine years? "It's our job to defeat them. ...Sounds exciting, huh?"
Okay chasing after creatures that only appear during an hour designed to make humans expend their strength at a faster rate... There were better things he could think of doing with his time.
"Akihiko!" the redhead snarled. "Why are you always like that? You just got hurt the other day!"
There was silence for a few seconds as the boxer pulled at the collar of his uniform. Finally the boxer was saved as the Chairman interrupted, "Now, now. He does his work well."
The redhead intensified her glare for a few seconds, silently stating that this wasn't over before turning her gaze away from the boxer. The boxer breathed a sigh of relief for his temporary escape.
"Long story short, we're the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad or S.E.E.S. for short. On paper, we're classified as a school club..."
"Oh really?" the white-haired junior cut in. "Does the school know of this?"
"Well no," the Chairman admitted as the stare from the new recruit intensified. "But in reality, this group is dedicated to defeating the Shadows. Mitsuru is the leader. I'm the club advisor."
"A Shadow feeds on the mind of its prey; the victim becomes a living corpse," Mitsuru explained. "They're responsible for most of the incidents on the news, if not all of them."
"So let me get this straight," he tried to comprehend. "People suffering from Apathy Syndrome are actually soulless husks?"
"Indeed," the Chairman replied. "However, there are those who can function during the Dark Hour. Some may even awaken to a power that enables them to fight the Shadows. That's 'Persona', the power you used the other night. The Shadows can only be defeated by Persona-users. Which means, in the end, it's all up to you guys."
"So where do I come into this?" The junior inquired.
The answer came from the redhead as she got up from her seat, opened the metal case that was on the table and moved it towards him. Inside was a silver handgun like the one he'd used that night and a red armband with the S.E.E.S. on it. "What he's trying to say is, we want you to join us," she explained. "We've prepared an Evoker for you. We'd like you to lend us your strength."
Haruto let out a sigh, really there wasn't much of a choice. Although the idiot hadn't given him much to work on, he knew he needed to fight these things and he needed to find out about this Tartarus. "... Alright."
He watched the brunette opposite sigh in relief. "I was afraid you were going to say no," she explained as a bright smile lit up her face. "Welcome aboard!"
"Thank you so much. I'm really glad." The Chairman smiled before standing up. "Oh, I almost forgot... About your room assignment... Why don't you just stay here, in your current room? I don't know what the holdup is, but I guess it worked out in the end."
"It would have helped if it hadn't been a ruse for you to check me out," the white-haired teen accused as his eyes locked onto the man in question.
"What's done is done... In a way, I guess it doesn't matter anymore." The brunette tried to mediate the situation.
Haruto let it go as once again he felt a faint surge of power.
Thou shalt have our blessing when thou chooseth to create a Persona of the Fool Arcana...
He could feel a change inside him this time, almost as if Orpheus had reacted to it as well.
"Well, now that this is settled, I'll be on my way." The Chairman stood up.
"I'll show you out Mr. Chairman," Mitsuru stated as she followed the scientist to the door.
After a few minutes of chatting with Yukari and Akihiko, procuring a belt and holster for his Evoker and the short sword he'd used on that night. Once that was sorted he excused himself for the night.