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“Geez,” Ryuji groaned, dragging himself up onto the seat of the Mona Bus. “Coulda used a little help out there…”
Although he didn’t name any names, Ryuji did manage to shoot a pointed glance over into the corner of the back row where Futaba sat, before Haru and Makoto clambered in as well, scooting him over.
Futaba only shrugged, turning her attention outside the window as Akira began to drive, continuing their search for the lower level. “I’m doing my best in here! It takes a lot of energy to get Necronomicon out there to pick up your sorry butts.”
“I think she’s doing quite fine, Skull,” Yusuke said, setting aside the sketch book he had occupied himself with while Akira and the others had been out on the tracks fighting off roving shadows. “Oracle aids us with status enhancements in each and every battle, after all. It would be unfair if she was never allowed an occasional rest.”
“See?” Futaba preened. “Sometimes Inari knows what he’s talking about. So I mean, unless you want me to sleep for two weeks again-“
“’Every battle’?” Ann repeated, confused. “I thought that Oracle only steps in when things get really dire out there?”
It may have just been Yusuke’s imagination, but Futaba seemed to become smaller where she sat beside him, nearly disappearing into the corner of the seat and the door.
“You must be misremembering, Panther,” Yusuke insisted. “For every battle I have fought, Oracle has either healed me, or at the least increased my fighting capability..."
A stray thought occurred to him then: During the last few battles that Ryuji and Ann had been sent out for, Yusuke had been instructed to wait inside the bus…
“Joker, if you would, please allow me to go out this time,” Yusuke asked as Akira slowed the bus, a Shadow looming up ahead.
Akira nodded, pulling up his phone. “Mishima did make it sound like this next target might be tough. It would probably be best if we keep rotating to converse strength.”
“You sure have been talking to that NPC a lot lately,” Futaba smirked from the backseat.
“He gives good intel,” Akira shrugged.
“’Good intel’ makes you smile the same way Inari does when he sees food? Okay then.”
Yusuke frowned. Did he really make that sort of a face at the sight of food? How shameful.
“Anyway,” Akira said, stowing his phone, and pushing the door open, while deliberately ignoring Futaba, “Fox, Panther…Mona, you’re with me.”
As Yusuke exited the bus, he stole a glance at Futaba. She always hated it when Mona was sent out to fight, leaving her exposed, without the safety of his interior to work from.
The Shadow was fast approaching, however, leaving little time for worries.
The battle wore on for sometime. Clearly, the shadows were getting tougher the farther down they went, and hacking away with Goemon was fast beginning to take its toll. Yusuke could feel his grip beginning to shake on the hilt of his katana. He really should have stopped by the café earlier, before the strategy meeting began, to see if Akira could spare any leftovers, as much as Yusuke always felt the guilt at doing so gnaw in his stomach more so than the hunger did…
“Fox, watch it!” Akira shouted.
The Shadow was gearing up for something big, and its beady eyes were trained right on Yusuke.
Rather than the searing pain of an attack, a warm and soothing light enveloped Yusuke then. Although he couldn’t remember the last time he had ever received a hug, he thought that it must feel very much like what Futaba and her Persona were doing for him now. As strength flooded back into him, he chanced a thankful glance upward toward their navigator’s UFO before summoning Goemon once more for a final steady blow.
The Shadow now vanquished, Futaba was already climbing up into the bus, Morgana having already transformed. Even so, Yusuke hadn’t missed the expression that had flashed over her shoulder, one that all but confirmed his suspicions.
“You have my thanks, you know,” Yusuke said, sliding in beside her. “I know it’s difficult for you being out in the open like that.”
“Don’t mention it…Inari…” Futaba breathed. Although she tried to sound casual, Yusuke could tell that she was nearly out of breath. Using her Persona did truly take a toll on her, yet there was no one with the ability to aid her as she expended her own energy for their sakes.
At times, Yusuke found himself attempting to quash down a niggling spark of envy at the skills of Ann, or Makoto, or even Morgana. While there was a certain beauty in raw strength, such as Goemon held, there was also an entirely different sort of allure held in the power to quell the pain of one’s friends.
Yusuke fished under the seat, producing the water bottle he kept stowed there, before pressing the edge of it into Futaba’s cheek.
“What-?” she began, petite nose wrinkling up in that way that always made Yusuke’s fingers itch with the want to capture it in ink.
“You look fatigued,” he said, unscrewing the cap, before pushing the bottle into her hand. “I am unable to heal like Panther, and Joker is in charge of handling the medicine bag, so this is really the least that I can do, but I hope you’ll accept it nonetheless.”
Futaba’s expression was skeptical for a moment as she inspected the bottle- a repurposed soda bottle filled to the brim with the finest lukewarm tap water money couldn’t buy- before tossing her head back, Yusuke’s eyes falling on her pale throat as she gulped.
“Thanks, Inari. Guess you are good for something after all,” she said, smiling lips glistening, now dampened.
Yusuke knew that expression, it was the same one she had made after aiding him in battle, the same look Akira had when texting with Mishima.
A vague thought came to Yusuke then that he wished that he had brought a second bottle. His mouth had become awfully dry suddenly, the interior of the bus having grown oddly warm.