Work Text:
Sumire had taken a liking to walks in the late afternoon. After classes and gymnastics practice, it was relaxing to stroll through Inokashira Park; the quiet stream of the water and the wind through the leaves calmed her nerves. Snowflakes fluttered through the air, adding to the serenity of the moment. Compared to the chaos of January and early February, going on these walks felt abnormal. Was she really allowed to enjoy her life with Kasumi and Akechi-senpai gone?
She tugged her scarf further up her neck, covering her chin. The March chill seeped into her skin despite her winter coat, and she sought refuge at a bench by the water. Thin trees with slowly-budding leaves stood at her side and behind the bench, nearly enclosing her into a world of her own.
Once she was seated, she sighed to herself. Small flecks of snow dotted the wood of the bench, and she swiped it away before resting her hands on her lap. Kasumi had liked winter when they were younger, and that meant snowmen and snowball fights after the school day would end. Since they had started middle school, playing in the snow had been out of the picture… and once they were about to enter Shujin…
Her fingers curled into the bottom of her jacket, cotton doing nothing to alleviate the burning in her heart. When tears began to prick at the corners of her eyes, she ducked her head in shame, a small laugh escaping her. Hadn’t she hardened her resolve, down in Maruki’s Palace? Why wasn’t she as strong as Kasumi had been? Why was Sumire the one who was still here?
She shook her head, wiping the tears away with a sniffle. Crying wasn’t going to change anything, and besides - she had decided to live her life as Sumire, no matter how hard it was. If Kasumi wasn’t here to fulfill their dream, Sumire would have to carry that burden instead. She’d have the help of Akira-senpai and the other Thieves, so she wasn’t truly alone.
A loud thud caught her attention, and Sumire’s head whipped towards the sound. A girl with very odd headgear stood at the other side of the bench, her hands carrying most of her weight considering how off balance she looked.
Sumire jumped to her feet, eyes wide. “A-Are you okay?” she asked, taking a cautious step forward. Her heart was pounding in her chest, breath coming out in short, wispy puffs in the winter air.
The strange girl failed to answer, her head ducked and bangs veiling her face. She seemed unconscious, and her long ponytail swayed with the breeze; Sumire was certain that the girl would be blown away if she didn’t do something to help.
“Please excuse me,” Sumire said, making her way towards the girl and helping her onto the bench. As she expected, the stranger was unconscious, eyes shut and… not breathing? Sumire cast a frantic look around the park and found no one near them at all. Just her luck. “Maybe I should call the emergency line…!”
In her shock, she dug through her pocket and fumbled with her phone. Her fingers were chilled despite wearing gloves, making it difficult to maneuver to her phone app. As she typed in the beginning numbers, she allowed her gaze to drift up to the stranger before her.
“Hello?” the girl asked, blinking bright red eyes at her.
Sumire dropped her phone with a squeak, and it fell to the ground and into the snow at her feet. “You’re awake!” she gasped, holding shaking hands to her chest in surprise. “U-Um, are you okay? I should probably ask that first…”
“Of course I am,” the stranger answered quizzically, raising an eyebrow. “Did my systems shut down or somethin’?” She tilted her head to the side with a small pout, eyes drifting away from Sumire. “And Fuuka-san just did repairs…”
“Repairs?” Sumire asked dumbly, and then her thoughts snapped back to her phone currently plunged in the pile of snow at her feet. “Hold on a moment…!” She leaned down, retrieving her phone and brushing snow off the screen. After cleaning it with her sleeve, it powered on with a slight delay. “Still works,” she sighed in relief.
“Sorry about that,” the girl said sheepishly, offering a tentative smile. “I didn’t mean ta cause ya any trouble.”
Sumire got to her feet, pocketed her phone, and made her way back to the bench. “Are you from the Kansai region?” she asked instead, recognizing the accent. Her father had interviewed people from there before, and the dialect had always stuck out in her mind as a result.
“My mom was,” she answered, her high ponytail falling over her shoulder when she shook her head. In the orange hues of the sunset, Sumire could have sworn the locks were maroon instead of the turquoise color she knew they were. “I guess I just picked up on the accent, even if I wasn’t from there.”
“That’s nice, though!” Sumire said, nodding in response and ignoring her stray thoughts. Considering the girl’s use of was, it meant that her mother was no longer in her life; the accent could serve as a reminder, of sorts. Suddenly, Sumire gasped, “Oh! We haven’t even introduced ourselves, have we?” She turned in her seat a little, offering a small bow. “My name is Yoshizawa Sumire, but just Sumire is fine!”
The girl responded in turn with a slight nod of her head. “Name’s Labrys,” she allowed a small giggle, “so just Labrys is fine.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Labrys-san,” Sumire said with a smile of her own, pulling her legs to rest under the bench. Nervously, she wrung her hands together. “If I may - I’ve never seen you around here and I come to Inokashira almost every day. What brings you here?”
Labrys shifted in her seat, her coat moving to reveal… silver-colored skin? “I was in the area for... work, I guess. I was takin’ the scenic route home because I never come to Tokyo.” She allowed her eyes to drift towards the lake in front of them, the surface freezing over and shimmering in the light of the sinking sun. Despite the winter wonderland around them, her tone was friendly and warm when she continued, “Nice place ya got here. It’s a lot quieter than Tatsumi Port!”
“Is that where you work?” Sumire asked, eyes glimmering with interest. It was always nice to learn about other people and their lives, even if you might never see them again. It added another dimension to people, making them more of a person rather than a stranger. Hurriedly, she added, “I-If that’s not too personal, I mean.”
“I like talkin’ and meetin’ new people, so don’t worry about that,” she answered with a grin. With her bright tone and kind smiles, Labrys seemed like a beacon of happiness, just like Kasumi had been. “And yeah, I work back in Tatsumi Port for the most part. I have to travel around a lot though, as you could probably tell.”
Sumire offered a small shrug, doing her best to disquiet the persistent reminder of Kasumi in the back of her head. “If you enjoy traveling, I’m sure you have a lot of fun,” she said, genuinely happy for her new companion. It was unfair to displace her feelings about Kasumi onto Labrys, so she pushed down the guilt festering in her chest and focused on the present.
“I love seein’ the world,” Labrys answered, tilting her chin to watch snowflakes flutter through the air in the winter breeze. She placed her hands on her knees, looking the part of a child experiencing their first snow. “I didn’t really get to see the world when I was younger, so I guess I’m makin’ up for it now.”
“I’m glad you’re able to do that,” Sumire said gently, allowing her own gaze to trail to the sky. She had always preferred spring; she loved seeing the blooming flowers and watching the life of nature return. Spring was also admittedly a nicer temperature to do gymnastics in, which added to its appeal. “Do you like the snow?”
“It’s very…” Labrys paused, struggling to find the words. After a moment, she said, “Calming. It makes me feel like… I dunno, at peace? It’s nice.”
Sumire laughed a little, her shoulders shaking with mirth. “I know what you mean,” she said reassuringly. “It’s nice to just sit out here and enjoy it. It almost feels like being in a snowglobe…”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Labrys answered with a giggle, her voice a pleasant sound in the relative silence of the park around them. “I’m usually so busy with work that I neva really get to enjoy stuff like this, y’know?”
“I’m sorry…” Sumire said, letting her eyes drift to the frozen-over lake before them. She linked her fingers together in her lap nervously. “I feel like that too, sometimes. I was super busy with things these past few months, so I hardly had any time to enjoy nature. It feels a bit…”
“Cathartic...?” Labrys offered quietly, the word tentative. “I think that might be the word you’re lookin’ for, at least.” When Sumire responded with a small nod, Labrys shifted in her seat with a small shrug. “My friend uses big words like that a lot, so I guess it just stuck.”
In the lull of their conversation, Sumire turned her head towards her companion, and for the first time since their chance encounter, she examined her. Labrys’ long blue hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and her metal headgear fit securely around it; it almost looked like a knight’s visor pushed up on the top of her head, almost like a headband. And what Sumire had assumed were headphones at first looked more like… a continuation of that headband. Taking a quick glance down, the metal that composed Labrys’ hands stood out starkly from the dark color of her winter coat.
“Starin’s a little rude,” Labrys chided with a giggle, her face a bit flushed.
“I-I’m sorry!” Sumire gasped, tearing her gaze away in an instant. “It’s just that… um…”
Labrys shook her head, as if to dismiss Sumire’s floundering. “Ya don’t meet a robot girl every day,” she answered with a knowing smile. “I get it a lot, so don’t worry too much about it.”
After a moment, Sumire returned her gaze to her companion. “Sorry again,” she said. “I’ve seen stranger things, so maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised…”
“Like a Shadow?” Labrys offered without missing a beat, causing Sumire’s eyes to widen in shock.
“You… You know about Shadows?” she asked tentatively, blinking in her stupor.
“It looks like you do, too!” she said mirthfully. The android allowed a sheepish laugh, shrugging. “Ta be honest, I was just testin’ the waters with that one. If ya asked me if I meant the shadows that light cast, I would’ve just moved on…”
Sumire shook her head, focusing on this new information. “Does that mean you’re also a Persona user?” she asked, hopefulness seeping into her tone.
“Yeah,” she answered simply, placing a hand to her hip despite them both sitting down. “My full name is actually Fifth Generation Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon Labrys.” She laughed again, “So, ya know, just Labrys is still fine.”
“Wow!” Sumire breathed, a smile tugging at her lips. “I didn’t know there were other Persona users out there. I mean, of course there could be, but I didn’t think-”
“You know others?” Labrys asked, her voice a little sharper. “Would they happen to be here in Tokyo as well?”
Sumire sat up slightly, her fingers tightening in her lap. “Is this related to your job?” she questioned lightly.
“Yeah,” Labrys confirmed with a small nod. “That’s the reason I’m here in Tokyo, actually. We know about the Phantom Thieves, but we’re looking for a... um…” she lowered her gaze to the bench, examining the snowflakes between them. “An accomplice of theirs, I guess.”
Sumire’s heart seemed to clench at the thought. “It wouldn’t happen to be Akechi Goro, would it?”
Labrys’ head shot up as she blinked at her, finding her voice a moment later. “You remember him,” she breathed. “Maybe Persona users were exempt from that mindwipe thing Mitsuru-san was talkin’ about…!”
“The other Phantom Thieves, a handful of other people, and I are the only ones who still remember him,” Sumire continued, her chest tightening until it hurt to breathe. Her voice caught in her throat as she hung her head. “But he’s… he’s gone now.”
Sumire felt a hand on her shoulder, and Labrys gave a small, comforting squeeze. “My friends… we’re looking for him,” the android said quietly. “We don’t think he’s really gone.”
“But… he…” Sumire lifted her chin, making eye contact with the girl before her. Labrys looked determined, as if Akechi-senpai really were alive, somewhere out there. Maybe he was, and she and the Phantom Thieves gave up on him too early. “No, maybe you’re right. He’s always been too stubborn to just give up and die.”
Labrys laughed at that as she leaned back, slipping out of Sumire’s personal space. “He sounds like a good friend of mine,” she admitted, and from the shine in her crimson eyes, Sumire could tell that this friend was someone very close to Labrys.
Her thoughts trailed back to Akira-senpai and Akechi-senpai back in Maruki’s Palace when it was just the three of them. Even after their final trip back in February where Akechi-senpai vanished once they left the Metaverse, there had always been something unresolved between the two of them. Akira-senpai wouldn’t let go that easily, and Akechi-senpai always followed through and tied up each and every loose end; there was no way it was the end for them.
“Can I ask for something selfish?” Sumire asked suddenly, gathering the strength and resolve that Kasumi had always easily mustered.
Labrys nodded. “Yeah, of course ya can! What’s up?”
Sumire wrung her hands once again, taking a deep breath. “Can you find him?” she asked, her eyes meeting Labrys’. “Not just because of your job. Can you… can you find him for Akira-senpai?”
“Akira…” Labrys perked up at that, recognition lighting up in her features. “Kurusu Akira, the leader of the Phantom Thieves?”
“He and Akechi-senpai were very close,” she continued. “I think that, if Akechi-senpai is really out there somewhere, he would like to meet Akira-senpai again.”
Labrys nodded solemnly, allowing a small smile to cross her lips. “You’re very kind, Sumire-san.”
“J-Just Sumire is fine,” she said with a wave of her hand. “But… thank you.”
The android stood up, turning her gaze from Sumire to the lake. The sun had almost completely set, leaving the moon to rise into the sky behind them. “I need ta head back now, but I’ll definitely keep that in mind.” She gazed back at Sumire, offering a kind look. “I really hope we can meet again, Sumire.”
Sumire jumped to her feet as well, and she reached for her small handbag in the pocket of her winter coat. With a minimal amount of digging, she retrieved a small charm and brandished it out to Labrys. “A good luck charm,” she said in explanation, a small blush coating her cheeks. “I collect them, so please take this one.”
After a moment of stunned silence, Labrys nodded and accepted the gift. “Thank you, Sumire,” she smiled, her gaze softening. “Now I’m sure we’ll meet again.”
And after exchanging farewells, Sumire let out a breath she didn’t remember holding. Talking to Labrys, learning more about Akechi-senpai, and finding a confidant in another Persona user…
Well. Maybe it felt a little cathartic.