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Mementos is overwhelming when the eight of them go in as a team. Alone, it’s indomitable. Akira rapidly finds himself running from foes that, were he with the others, he would have had no problem taking on. He crouches in shadowy corners of the subway system, waiting to make sure he’s not being pursued before moving on. His legs ache. His feet feel like they’re developing blisters from the amount of running he’s been doing. Why did he think coming in alone was a good idea again?
He flattens himself against the wall and checks around the corner, one side and then the other, listening for enemies around the strange, omnipresent hum of Mementos. He hears nothing, and he breaks into a run. As he rounds another corner, a Shadow turns and looks straight at him, and before he can devise a strategy to escape, he’s surrounded.
The Shadows forming a circle around him laugh, and the first one flies into him, giving him no time to dodge. He falls, scrambling to get up as another Shadow rakes him with its claws. A third launches a blast of fire at him. He’s still reeling from the sensation of being burned, trying to put out the errant flames on his coat, when the last Shadow dives at him and cuts his sleeve open.
Unable to catch his breath, Akira tries to crawl out of the circle of Shadows. Their laughter rings in his ears, reminding him of how goddamn helpless he is like this. He barely has time to think about what they might do to him if he’s knocked unconscious when one of them grabs him by the throat and hoists him up.
“Where are your teammates, little fool?” the Shadow snarls, and the others laugh. One of them comes close, brandishing a blade, and presses the edge to his cheek.
“Y’know, I’m usually careful with my blades, but who knows what I’ll do with this one,” the Shadow says. “Or maybe you’ll beg me to save your life?”
“Just—just let me go,” Akira says through gritted teeth, trying to wrench himself from the grip of the Shadow holding him.
“I dunno,” the Shadow says. It waves its blade, finding the cut in his sleeve, the warm blood dripping there. “I think I’d rather have some more fun with you.” The blade digs cruelly into the cut, drawing a cry of pain from Akira. In response to his surprised sound of pain, the Shadow pushes the blade deeper.
“Stop,” Akira gasps, half blinded by the pain in his arm and panicking, wondering if the Shadow would go so far as to sever the limb from his body. “Please. No, stop, please—”
The Shadow lets him go with a cackle and gazes, impressed, at the blood staining its blade. “Wow, that was nice. You even said ‘please.’” It settles its beady eyes on him for a moment and then makes a dismissive gesture. “I’m bored of that one. Do what you want with ’im.”
Akira only has time to register another laugh from behind him before something hits him hard in the back of the head and he blacks out.
Coming to in Mementos is dizzying. It’s either Mementos, Akira thinks, struggling to push himself up from where he lies in the middle of a set of tracks, or it’s the blood loss. His jacket is stained with his own blood, the fabric gone cold from where it’s spilled from the wound.
He’s equally thankful and despairing that he’s alone. At least the Shadows lost interest in him—but if he can’t manage to contact his teammates here, he may well never make it out. He could reach into his pocket for the familiar weight of his cell phone, but there’s no service in the Metaverse. There’s no chance, then, of sending them a text message.
He crawls forward, groaning at the ache in his arm. He wishes he could walk, but his legs are shot, either from running through Mementos earlier or having the shit beaten out of him by those Shadows. He wonders if he’ll see any more of them and if they’ll be interested in a half-dead human. If he could make it to that damn rest area, the one he passed on the way here, maybe he’d get a chance to rest. But how far from here is it? And which way?
Akira pulls himself forward again, well aware he’s leaving a trail of blood. Going to Mementos alone is a mistake he’ll never make again, if he even gets the chance. Regardless of whether he felt he wasn’t strong enough as a leader. It’s not worth risking his life.
At a crossroads, he spots more Shadows, but they don’t notice him. Maybe he’s moving too slowly or isn’t conspicuous enough on the ground. Still, he doesn’t think he has the strength to go on. Is the wound on his arm still bleeding? He feels lightheaded, like he does after those medical trials Takemi calls him about. Like he’s going to lose consciousness again. Please, I can’t pass out, I’ll be eaten alive—
“Akira?” A voice, echoing behind him in the corridor. He must be imagining it. There’s no way his teammates would have found him here. “Akira!”
He feels a hand on his shoulder, a finger under his jaw, tipping his face upward. A voice speaks, indistinct, and he sees a face, hazy, looking down at him. A fox mask, pushed up over a fall of dark bangs. Relief floods him so strongly he goes limp. “Yu . . . suke?”
“Akira, please, stay with me,” Yusuke says, and that’s the last thing Akira hears before darkness falls over him again.
When Akira opens his eyes, he’s still in Mementos, and the sight of that is enough to have him sitting bolt upright, his breath coming in tight gasps. His vision is still blurry, but he recognizes the faces surrounding him. His teammates—Yusuke, Morgana, the others—have made it to him, and the realization makes his wild heart rate calm a little.
“You’re awake,” says Yusuke. Akira nods, grateful to have the chance to see them, to talk to them, again. He’d thought he’d lost that chance.
“How did you find me?” he asks, his voice grating in his throat.
“You weren’t answering your phone,” Yusuke says. “Panther said we should go to Leblanc to see if you and Mona were there.”
“When we got there, Boss said you’d gone out, and Mona was there by himself,” Ann adds.
“I told them what you said about wanting to get stronger. I hope that wasn’t taking it too far,” Morgana says. “That’s what led us to Mementos. It was pretty much Queen’s idea, though.”
Akira looses a breath. “You found me. That’s all I could have asked for.”
“Well, don’t go dying on us now, Joker,” Ryuji chimes in. “You’re friends with that doctor in Yongen, right? Is it cool if we take you there?”
Akira voices his agreement. The team falls into their usual chatter, arguing over who should take Akira’s arms and who should give them directions to the clinic and which way they should take. He lets their voices fade into the background as they make their way to Yongen.
As it turns out, the wound in his arm is deep, and part of Takemi’s treatment involves a blood transfusion. The rest is antiseptic, stitches, and bandages, none of which is pleasant. Takemi doesn’t ask questions, though, even with the rest of the team sitting outside in the waiting room. She only makes a comment about how she wouldn’t want to lose her guinea pig and is glad he came to her, and sends him on his way.
He stands outside the clinic with the rest of the team afterward, all of them expressing their relief that they don’t have a Palace to take care of at the moment, since their leader is clearly in no shape to fight for the next several weeks. Ann says she’ll come by and bring him things from the convenience store, and Futaba chimes in. Ryuji says he’d better not let Boss see the pain meds Takemi gave him. Once their clamor has died down a bit, they agree that they should all be getting home. Yusuke offers to take him back to Leblanc.
“That’d be great if you could, Yusuke,” Ann says. “You and Morgana can make sure he’s resting.”
“Will do,” Morgana says, and Yusuke gives a nod.
Akira forces a small smile. “Thanks, guys.”
Back at Leblanc, Sojiro greets them, tells Akira he can lock up after Yusuke leaves. Akira voices his agreement, hoping he doesn’t look like he’s just had the daylights beaten out of him. Once Sojiro has left, Morgana says he’ll watch the door, and Yusuke goes upstairs with Akira.
“Akira, I am so sorry we didn’t get there sooner,” Yusuke begins as soon as they’ve reached the top of the staircase, but Akira shakes his head.
“Don’t worry about it,” Akira says, voice soft. He’s exhausted—he just wants to lie down and rest, and deal with everything else tomorrow. He has a feeling Yusuke’s presence has something to do with it. He feels safer with Yusuke here than if he had been alone.
Yusuke sighs. “I will try not to, but—I can’t imagine what I would have done had we lost you.”
Akira shuffles forward and puts his arms around Yusuke’s waist, pulls him in close. Yusuke settles against him, and for a moment neither of them moves. It’s comforting, feeling the warmth of another person after so long alone in Mementos, and Akira files the sensation away in the back of his mind for after Yusuke leaves.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Yusuke says at last, and Akira makes a small sound of acknowledgment.
By the time he drifts into sleep later, Morgana is curled up across his legs, weighing them down, and Akira doesn’t even mind.