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It’s raining.
Fuuka waits next to the teleporter.
Minato holds a brief strategy meeting with the advance party: Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Shinjiro. He nods and makes for the portal.
“Sanada-senpai,” Fuuka says.
Akihiko looks at her with a waiting smile and adjusts his gloves.
“Please remember to guard with your left.”
His gaze turns glassy. Minato puts a foot into the portal.
Fuuka lunges, pulls her arm back, and slaps Akihiko as hard as she can.
Junpei has to pull her off of him, has to lift her up and back as she kicks and screams for Akihiko to please, please keep his left fist up. The team exchanges concerned looks before they disappear into the upper reaches of the tower.
Watch how they fall, Lucia whispers. Submit to your fate.
In eight minutes and thirty three seconds, every member of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad will be dead; every member except for Fuuka Yamagishi and Koromaru.
<<<
The rain lashes against the ceiling.
Fuuka crawls out of bed and scratches a tally mark on the baseboard under her bed. Twelve days have passed since encountering the High Priestess shadow, the shadow that levied a curse upon S.E.E.S.
Twelve days? No. Twelve loops, twelve runs.
Curse of Cassandra, Lucia breathes into her mind every run. Watch how they fall.
After each loop, after each catastrophic ending, she is pushed back three days. Fuuka knows because her phone tells her the date and because it’s always raining. There are a few other pieces of information she knows. She knows that her body is unaffected by the loop. She discovered this when she accidentally cut herself on a kitchen knife seven loops ago and woke up with the cut still on her wrist.
Fuuka will feign illness, she will lock the doors, she will even feed her friends rotten food to trigger indigestion, and nothing she does ever stops Minato Arisato from leading the team into Tartarus.
Nothing she does or says ever compels Akihiko to keep up his left guard. Nothing she says keeps the advance party from stepping through the portal.
Every warning she gives goes unheeded and nothing stops them from dying over and over and over-
Watch how they fall. Submit to your fate.
<<<
She scratches another tally mark above the baseboard.
Fuuka’s room is unaffected by the distortion.
She discovered this after the first three loops, after she thought she was losing her mind and she’d hid under her bed. Fuuka had scratched three tally marks under her bed just above the baseboard.
Fuuka tucks her knees to her stomach and looks at the specialized wristwatch Mitsuru had made for her. It had been given to her before the curse. Before the curse? When was the curse? She looks back to the tally marks. Right. Thirteen runs ago.
She watched them die again last night. As soon as the advance team fell, the reserve team rushed to their aid. Each night they last two minutes and thirteen seconds before they’re killed and it only takes a total of eight minutes and thirty three seconds before all of her friends are dead.
Fuuka presses her cheek to the floor and closes her eyes.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick, sounds the rain against her window. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
<<<
Fuuka rushes into the portal and breaks through the battle lines. Out of desperation, she trips Mitsuru and pulls her back by the hair as the shadow builds up an attack.
Mitsuru crashes backward with a yelp of surprise; Agidyne misses.
Fuuka freezes, unsure of what to do next. Akihiko swings her away and out of the path of the shadow's attack. Bufudyne ends his life. Mudoon catches Minato with the wrong persona. Shinjiro fails to counter a slash attack.
They are dead; they are dead in eight minutes and thirty four seconds.
Watch how they fall.
<<<
It’s not raining.
Someone is sleeping beside her.
This is not her room. This is not her bed.
Fuuka checks her watch when she wakes. The dial is frozen: Eight minutes and thirty four seconds.
She has wrenched another second from fate’s hands.
<<<
Tonight, she rips the ax from Shinjiro’s hands.
It weighs more than her.
Fuuka feels her lower back spasm when she blindly swings. The ax falls from her grip. The proximity to the shadow without Lucia’s protective shield the screaming and pandemonium of her senpai-
<<<
It’s not raining.
Black ooze seeps in around her, slides over her tongue and into her nostrils. The weight of the swamp pushes her down and reaches into her throat. She tries to lift her arms and legs, tries to cry out and the slime fills her lungs.
A pair of arms hook under her back and legs. The swamp fights her rescuer. He curses and heaves, finally prizing her from its long, syrupy threads.
"You keep trying to fight like us,” he growls.
Fuuka hears a slick, squelching sound. She’s pulled out of the black mud, plucked like a lotus out of the swamp. Arms cradle her. Her head falls against his chest. He swipes her eyes and mouth. She looks down.
Her body is coated in black oil.
“You keep trying to knock sense into us,” Shinjiro snarls down at her. “Curse'll pull you down every time you do. You're going to have to do something different, Yamagishi."
Fuuka surveys the landscape.
They are in a field of white lilies.
A pool springs up from the ground and a deep, azure caldera opens up and swallows the black swamp. The water fills in around her. Shinjiro shifts her from his lap and wades into the water. Fuuka peers up at Shinjiro, her lips parting with a desperate question that dies in her throat.
“If we’re playing hot and cold game, you are cold,” he says. “You are ice cold.”
He sets her down in the pool. Fuuka reaches for him but it's too late. She has already slipped beneath the surface. She sinks into the darkness and a screen of lily pads closes over her.
<<<
Fuuka Yamagishi’s room and body are unaffected by the curse.
Fuuka Yamagishi’s friends cannot hear or heed her warnings.
Fuuka Yamagishi cannot fight.
The rain patters against her window; Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
She closes her eyes and adds another tally mark above the baseboard.
<<<
Minato makes for the portal with Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Shinjiro behind him.
“Sanada-senpai,” Fuuka says from beside the portal.
Akihiko looks at her with a waiting smile.
Fuuka swallows and smiles. “Good luck.”
He nods and adjusts his gloves.
Watch how they fall. Submit to your fate.
Fuuka takes a deep breath and slips into the portal. She watches from the shadows as Minato and her senpai approach the shadow. She does nothing to stop them from dying.
<<<
It’s not raining.
Fuuka turns her head.
This is not her bed. This is not her room.
This room is... a disaster. The furious clacking of a keyboard infiltrates the darkness. Fuuka surveys her surroundings. Empty styrofoam cups and energy drink cans are strewn about the room. The glow of several computer screens causes her to squint. The walls are covered in posters and Fuuka spots several familiar looking action figures arranged on a shelf beside a computer.
“A ghost.”
A girl with long orange hair is looking over at her, twisting in her seat in front of the computer. She pushes her glasses up on her nose and adjusts the oversized headphones to circle her neck.
“I hate ghosts,” she mutters.
Tears prick at Fuuka's eyes. “Please, don’t call me that.”
The girl frowns and opens the curtains. She heaves the window open and a brisk air rushes into the room.
The girl points out the window and closes her eyes.
“You aren’t welcome here. I want you to leave.”
<<<
It’s raining.
Akihiko looks at her with a waiting smile.
Fuuka swallows returns his smile. “Good luck.”
She follows them into the portal, silent and unseen.
<<<
It’s not raining.
Fuuka looks over at the girl hunched in front of the glowing computer screens.
She looks over her shoulder. “I told you to leave.”
“I know,” Fuuka says. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m back here.”
“If I tell you to leave, you have to leave. That’s how ghosts work.”
“I’m not a ghost,” Fuuka whispers. “Please don’t call me that.”
The girl swivels around in her chair and says nothing. Behind her is a poster with the words Take Your Heart.
Fuuka drags her wrist against her eyes.
“I didn’t know ghosts could cry.”
“I’m not a ghost,” Fuuka sniffles. “Please, don’t call me that. Don’t call me that, I... I...”
“Why are you crying?” the girl demands.
Fuuka runs the back of her hand against her nose and shakes her head. “They used to call me that. The girls who bullied me.”
“Someone bullied you?”
Fuuka nods.
The girl sits down next to her on the bed. “Want me to hack their phone?” she deadpans.
“No... No, she’s my friend now,” Fuuka responds.
The girl watches her in silence. “You have a persona.”
Fuuka nods. “Yes. Lucia is very similar to Necronomicon.”
The girl stands up. “I have to go now. Don’t touch my stuff.”
Fuuka reaches out and captures her by the wrist.
“That shadow will counter any and all physical attacks. It will cancel out any skill boosts. Whatever you do, don’t use fire.”
<<<
Watch how they fall. Submit to your fate.
Fuuka obeys.
She relays her warnings. Her friends do not listen.
Fuuka follows them into the portal. She does not issue any additional warnings. She watches them fall, one by one.
She returns to the entrance after both the advance and reserve parties have been killed.
Koromaru sets a dagger at her feet and whines.
<<<
It’s not raining.
The orange-haired girl is glaring down at her. The room is aglow from the screens and Fuuka can hear the processors humming.
“How’d you know?” she presses. “About the shadow?”
“I told you Lucia and Necronomicon are—”
“But how did you do it from here?” she demands.
Fuuka shakes her head. The glow from the computers shift into a prism of colors as the screen goes idle.
“Lucia helps me see from great distances.”
“From here?” she pauses, mouth agape. “You could see Mementos from my room?”
“Yes,” Fuuka nods nervously.
“Holy shit!” she springs up on the bed beside Fuuka. “Holy fucking shit!”
She jumps around and Fuuka balls herself up to avoid being trampled.
“I’m Futaba,” she says and drops down beside Fuuka. “You can call me Oracle.”
“Nice to meet you, Futaba-chan - Sorry, Oracle.”
“I gotta call you something,” Futaba says and pushes up her glasses.
Fuuka nods. “My name is Fuuka Yamagishi.”
“Cool,” Futaba says. “I’ll call you Scout.”
Futaba grabs a permanent marker and opens Fuuka’s hand. She bites the cap of the marker between her teeth and draws a smiley face on Fuuka’s palm. Fuuka traces the smile with her finger.
Futaba lays down next to her and pushes her finger against Fuuka’s nose.
“Boop.”
<<<
It’s not raining.
She has been to Futaba’s room eight times. When she falls asleep on Futaba’s bed and wakes up in her own room, Fuuka counts her visits here on the baseboard under her bed with red ink.
Oracle hears and understands and believes everything Fuuka tells her and tells Fuuka to stop crying so much; but Fuuka doesn’t restrain her tears: Someone hears her. Someone believes her. Someone with a persona.
Futaba captures the information on a whiteboard: So you’re trapped in a time loop and no one believes you, 8:33, fire, ice, God’s Fist, High Counter.
“If I were you, I’d be pissed, Scout,” Futaba says.
Fuuka nods.
Futaba takes a slurp of her energy drink, types a few things on her keyboard, and returns to the whiteboard.
“If I were you,” she murmurs to herself. “I’d be on the front lines.”
“Why are you doing this?” Fuuka whispers. “Why are you helping me?”
Futaba doesn’t hear her this time. Instead, she makes another note on the whiteboard: Fuck around and find out.
<<<
It’s not raining and on the previous run Fuuka tried to slide between Akihiko and the shadow.
She needs to stall him for eight seconds. She only slowed him down by three and shattered her wrist and her ankle in the process.
Fuuka explains all of this to Futaba in a shaky voice. “I went to the front lines. I thought I could help if I—”
Fuuka wipes the tears from her face, still gripped by the phantom throb of her broken wrist, when Futaba grabs her by the collar of her shirt and shakes her.
“Did I say go full T1000? Did I say go All out attack?”
“I need to do something. I can’t just—” Fuuka buries her face in her hands.
“When are you going to get it, Scout?” Futaba snaps. “You see what other people don’t. You know their weaknesses. You know exactly what’s going to happen before it happens.”
“What good does it do if I can’t fight?” Fuuka moans. “If they don’t listen to me?”
Futaba throws her head back with a dramatic groan.
“You said they called you ghost girl? What if you became one, just for a day? Just for eight minutes and thirty three seconds?”
Fuuka lifts her head from her hands. “What would happen...?”
Futaba stands up and draws a slash between one of the sentences on the marker board.
“Fuck around,” she points and pauses deliberately. “Find out.”
<<<
Outside, it’s pouring.
Fuuka finds a whiteboard and draws two columns.
Experiment (Fuck around): Data Analysis (Find out).
<<<
It’s not raining.
She’s covered in black sludge.
Shinjiro overpowers her every time she tries to seize the ax from his hands. Last night he threw her out of the shadow’s path and cracked her skull against a wall.
"I’m going to let you in on a little secret,” he whispers, setting her down in a field of chrysanthemums.
Fuuka shudders at his gentle touch.
“If you ask me to taste your food, I will,” he says. “If you ask me to pick something up for you, I will. If you ask me to run into a dark room and start swinging, I will.”
Fuuka swallows back a lump of black ooze.
“And you know what?” Shinjiro smiles. “It’s not just me. There isn’t a single person among us who's gonna to deny you anything.”
“Why are you here?” Fuuka croaks. “Did...did something happen to you?”
He doesn’t answer.
“Can I save you?” she whispers.
“Some things you can’t change,” Shinjiro pauses. “Some things you shouldn’t change.”
The pool springs up from the ground. He sets Fuuka down in the water.
“Is this one of those times?” she asks, her arms floating to her sides.
Shinjiro presses his palm to her chest and pushes her under.
“Hell no.”
<<<
It’s raining.
“Kirijo-senpai, would you mind tasting this tea I made?”
<<<
It’s raining.
“Minato-kun, would you like to listen to this playlist I made for you?”
<<<
It's raining.
“Yukari-chan, would you try this lotion and tell me what you think?”
<<<
Thunder rages outside and rattles the windows.
“I’m worried I’m not going to pass my physical education test. Would you teach me how to breathe properly when I run, Sanada-senpai?”
<<<
Fuuka approaches Junpei on the baseball diamond, an umbrella over her head.
“Would you show me how you slide into the plate, Junpei-kun?”
<<<
It’s drizzling.
“Aigis, would you like to try this synthetic oil I found online?”
<<<
Koromaru lays a dagger at her feet at Naganaki Shrine.
“Koromaru-san says: I am ready to assist you,” Aigis pauses. “What could he mean, Fuuka-san?”
Fuuka throws her arms around his neck and weeps into his fur.
“It seems the rain will persist for a while longer,” Aigis frowns.
<<<
Futaba adds a line under Column A: Fuck Around/Experiment.
“All right, whaddya got today, Scout?”
Koromaru remembers the loops. Koromaru can assist Fuuka in defeating the shadow’s curse.
“What else?” Futaba says, noshing her way through a mouthful of crunchy snacks.
When Fuuka is a ghost on the front lines, she is returned to Futaba’s room. When she does nothing, she wakes in her own room. When she uses physical force, she is returned to the swamp and covered in black ooze. Shinjiro pulls her out every time and sometimes, he kisses her.
“Blech!” Futaba declares as she captures the information on the white board.
<<<
It’s sunny outside and dark in Mementos.
Fuuka accompanies Futaba through the strange labyrinth. She observes the Phantom Thieves and feels her heart yearn for her friends. She assists Oracle, but only when requested, which is surprisingly often.
The advance team encounters a shadow.
Fuuka takes Futaba by the shoulder.
"She's so small,” Fuuka says and points to Noir. “How does she swing such a heavy weapon?”
"Hey, Noir!” Futaba shouts, mid-battle. “How do you swing that thing?”
"Hmm? Oh, it's simple really! The most important thing is a strong foundation. I simply load my core,” Noir pats her stomach. "And once it's reached momentum, I treat the ax as an extension of my arm.”
Fox dispatches one of the shadows with a blistering ice attack.
Fuuka gives Futaba a dubious look.
"That doesn't sound that simple,” Futaba sighs.
"Like anything, it takes a little practice,” Noir smiles. “The important thing is to breathe, hold it, and then when I release the ax, I exhale. Easy!”
“Don’t be shy, Noir,” Joker says with a grimace as he flips his knives. “Give us a little show and tell.”
“With pleasure!”
Noir provides a visceral demonstration on the shadow.
<<<
She steals a box full of flasks from the laboratory: Erlenmeyer. Volumetric. Straus. Schlenk. She steals another box full of equipment: Pipettes. Burettes. Graduated Cylinders. Condenser. Column. Extractor.
After she sets up the equipment in her room, she visits Paulownia Mall to buy a mortar and pestle.
She finds a website that teaches her how to pickpocket and spends three afternoons at Paulownia Mall practicing lifting 1000 yen notes from old women’s purses - and returning them - without being detected.
<<<
It’s raining.
Fuuka prepares a mug of tea for Mitsuru.
Her senpai falls asleep on the sofa downstairs and doesn’t wake up. Akihiko carries her into the emergency room where Mitsuru is declared comatose.
<<<
It’s not raining.
“I can’t do this,” Fuuka sobs in Futaba’s bed. “I can’t hurt them like this. I can’t take it.”
Oracle walks up to the whiteboard. The surface squeaks with the sound of her marker before she tosses it on her desk. She places a Phoenix Ranger action figure next to Fuuka and resumes typing at her keyboard.
Fuuka opens her eyes and finds a new sentence on the whiteboard:
FOR OUR FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
<<<
Fuuka nods at the fading smiley face on her palm and walks into the living room. Mitsuru is reading a book.
“Kirijo-senpai, I made tea. Would you like to try some?”
Mitsuru smiles appreciatively. “That sounds lovely, Yamagishi.”
Lightning crackles and Fuuka prepares a tea bag: Kava. Mugwort. Passionflower. Chamomile. Dizzy and a drizzle of honey.
Fuuka catches the porcelain cup before it shatters to the ground.
Mitsuru is slumped over on the couch. Fuuka drops an encyclopedia on the ground next to her head.
She doesn’t move.
Fuuka pokes her senpai in the ribs. Mitsuru wrinkles her nose and turns over with a soft whimper. Fuuka runs up the stairs and waits until she’s on the second floor to let out a sigh of relief.
Fuuka knocks on Shinjiro’s door. His hair is shaggy and loose around his face. He squints down at her.
“What is it, Yamagishi?” he rubs his eyes.
He sounds tired but not irate.
“Kirijo-senpai fell asleep on the couch,” Fuuka explains. “Could you help me take her to her room? I’m worried she’ll catch a cold if we leave her downstairs.”
Fuuka watches his expression shift. He leads the way back downstairs.
“Wake up, Kirijo,” he says mildly, tapping her shoulder.
Mitsuru’s chest rises and falls steadily. He leans over her and runs the back of his fingers over her cheek. Fuuka catches him whisper:
“Mitsuru.”
She does not stir.
“It's not like her,” he pulls her into his arms with a disapproving mutter and the way he cradles her head to his chest ignites a whisper from Lucia.
Watch how they—
“She pushes herself too hard,” Fuuka murmurs, following him up the stairs.
“Yeah,” he sighs. “Guess this is sort of like her, after all. She'll lecture everyone else about taking care of themselves but can't take her own damn advice.”
Fuuka peels back the covers and Shinjiro carefully puts Mitsuru down on the bed. He moves a lock of her hair from her face, the motion so tender and automatic that Fuuka doesn’t think Shinjiro realizes what his fingers are doing.
“I’ll talk to her in the morning,” he says, leading the way out.
<<<
“It’s not like her,” Akihiko frowns.
He nudges the door open with his foot and gently positions Mitsuru on her bed. Fuuka draws the covers up around her and adjusts her pillow. Akihiko brushes a lock of her hair from her face, just as automatically and unconsciously as Shinjiro demonstrated two runs ago.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick, goes the rain against the window.
“Don't worry about her. But maybe don't bring it up,” he whispers. “She'd be embarrassed as your senpai.”
“Don’t worry,” Fuuka murmurs after she shuts the door. “She won't remember.”
<<<
Fuuka throws up halfway through her run with Akihiko.
He pats her back and reminds her to stay hydrated.
Fuuka returns to the dormitory and combines incense, potassium nitrate, and mugwort into a smoke bomb.
She pickpockets a Frost Magatama out of Minato’s back pocket before he leads their friends into the teleporter to meet their deaths.
Watch how they fall. Submit to your fate.
<<<
The Phantom Thieves take the position of the S.E.E.S. advance party.
Futaba arranges them in accordance with Fuuka’s instructions. Futaba relays the drill and tells Queen how to react to the hypothetical shadow’s attack.
Futaba is playing the role of the shadow.
“Okay, so you’ve got your left guard up. Noir is weak to fire, and you’re weak to ice, so then I throw Agidyne—” Futaba makes a throwing sound in Noir’s direction.
Queen politely raises her hand.
“Yes?” Futaba pushes up her glasses.
“Noir’s on my left?”
“Yep.”
“And I'm left handed?" Queen presses.
“Yep,” Futaba nods.
“And Noir is weak to fire?”
“Yes!” Futaba says, stamping her foot impatiently.
Queen shifts on her feet. Fox, who is playing the role of Shinjiro, takes to looking around Mementos, idly tracing his fingers down his throat.
“If I'm left-handed, I'm not going to guard with my left. I'm going to pull her out of the way with my dominant hand,” Queen explains, holding up her left hand.
“So you’re gonna guard yourself with your right?” Futaba crinkles her nose.
“If it's Noir?” Queen shakes her head. “I'm going to use my left hand to pull her out of the way and guard her with my right.”
“How would you guard yourself?” Joker asks from Minato’s center position.
Queen shakes her head in response, a flush of red filling her cheeks.
Noir's lips part. “Mako-chan...”
“That’s some good data, don’t you think?” Futaba asks.
Fuuka covers her face, horrified that it’s taken her this long to form this hypothesis.
“Um, Oracle?” Queen asks. “Who are you talking to?”
<<<
Fuuka fills a suitcase full of rocks and waits for Shinjiro to leave his room before she starts to heave it up the stairs.
“‘The hell?” he runs over to her. “Give me that.”
Shinjiro pulls the suitcase out of her hands with a grunt.
“This could have broken you in half,” he says, gentler this time. “If you need help with this, come get me or Aki.”
<<<
It's raining and Fuuka adds more rocks.
“Yamagishi!” Shinjiro snaps. “What the hell are you doing?”
Shinjiro pulls the suitcase out of her hands with a grunt.
“Come to me if you need help lifting this.”
<<<
It’s raining.
Fuuka signs up for Tai Chi.
She crushes each of the pilfered skill cards to a fine powder: Sukunda. Tarunda. Fear. Rage. Tentarafoo. Frost. Shock.
Fuuka takes detailed notes on how each and every one of her friends dies that night.
Drip, drip, drip goes the extractor into the Erlenmeyer. Tick, tick, tick, goes the rain.
The flowers in her closet are blooming when she wakes in her bed the next morning.
<<<
Fuuka has to sit on the suitcase in order to get it to close.
Shinjiro pulls the suitcase out of her hands with a grunt.
Watch.
“Don’t try to lift this yourself. This could have broken you in half.”
And there—
Shinjiro Aragaki favors his right side.
Fuuka shrieks with delight.
<<<
It's raining.
Her hypothesis today: My senpai will bleed for each other.
She approaches Mitsuru before Minato recruits her into the advance party. Fuuka hands her a mug of tea, which her senpai gratefully accepts.
“Kirijo-senpai,” Fuuka says quietly. “Have you noticed Aragaki-senpai lately?”
Mitsuru glances over to Shinjiro and Akihiko, who are talking closely nearby.
“How do you mean, Yamagishi?”
“I’ve seen him favoring his right side. I think he may be struggling with an old injury.”
Mitsuru frowns. “Aragaki,” she calls out. “A moment, please.”
Shinjiro approaches Mitsuru with a sly smile. “You rang, princess?” he drawls.
“Swing your ax, please,” Mitsuru instructs.
He raises his eyebrow at her, but doesn’t push back. He gives the ax a swing and Fuuka sees up-close just how different his technique is from Noir. He doesn’t brace his core as strongly as her because he favors his right side.
Mitsuru sees this as well.
“I want you on Akihiko’s left tonight. I’ll assume your position on Arisato’s right.”
Something about this interaction earns Fuuka a suspicious glare from Shinjiro. She smiles up at him weakly.
“I’m here to support you,” she tries.
Shinjiro shrugs. “Whatever. As long as Aki’s at the center of things, it doesn't matter.”
They step into the portal.
Fuuka’s hypothesis about her senpai is proven correct.
She wakes up in her bed with Ken’s cries for his mother echoing in her head.
<<<
After school, Fuuka pickpockets a businessman in Paulownia Mall and runs from Officer Kurosawa when she’s caught.
She asks Junpei to take her to the baseball diamond and has never seen him as serious as he is when she asks him to teach her how to properly slide.
“I’m only going to let you do it once,” he says gravely, adjusting his hat. “It’s cool that you want to learn and all, but I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Just once,” Fuuka smiles.
He teaches her on the grass. She slides, just as Junpei shows her. Her tights are ruined and her rear-end is aching well into the evening.
<<<
A roll of thunder shakes the walls of Tartarus.
Fuuka covertly follows Minato and her senpai to the front lines. She cuts communication with the reserve group so as not to arouse suspicion from the advance team and offers support from behind a corner and does not try to join the battle.
The shadow casts Agidyne. Mitsuru is on Akihiko’s left. He pulls her out of the way with his left and guards her, not himself, with his right.
When Fuuka wakes, Futaba is standing over her and slurping a cup of noodles.
“I know how to take them down,” she murmurs to Futaba. “I know how to take down the advance team.”
Futaba grins. “Let’s review.”
<<<
Fuuka Yamagishi beats Akihiko to the top of the bleachers through a torrential downpour.
He gives her a competitive snarl once the shock wears off.
“Looks like I win, senpai,” Fuuka pants.
“We’ll see about that,” he gives her a boastful grin. “You better look out, Yamagishi. I’m coming for you.”
“I’ll be ready, senpai.”
Akihiko gives her a strange look.
<<<
Fuuka secures an air filter device to Koromaru’s evoker.
“For our friends, Koro-chan,” she slips her fingers through his fur and drops her forehead to his.
He gives her a whine that requires no translation.
<<<
After the advance party steps through the teleporter, Fuuka hurls the first of four smoke bombs against the ground.
The entrance to Tartarus explodes with pandemonium.
<<<
It's raining.
“I’m only going to let you do it once,” Junpei says down to her with a frown. “I dig it when cute girls want to learn to play baseball, but I’m not going to let you get hurt.”
“Just once,” Fuuka smiles.
After perfecting her slide, Fuuka returns to the dormitory with her thighs and bottom caked in mud. She hobbles over to Minato and gives him an MP3 player. She watches his normally aloof expression shift when he pushes play.
“Whoa.”
Fuuka nods.
“What is this?” he asks her, cupping his ear.
“It’s a drone instrument. It’s called a Shruti Box.”
“I like it. Actually...” he pauses. “I really like it.”
“Why don’t you use my MP3 player tonight?” she suggests. “The enemies you’ve been facing are weaker than you. It’s probably safe if you play it at a low volume.”
Minato closes his eyes and does not respond.
<<<
Fuuka’s body remembers.
She wakes with her entire left thigh covered in purple welts from sliding on Tartarus’ floor. She wakes wheezing from the smoke bombs. She wakes with stomach cramps from the microdoses of poison. Her hands remember every break, her skull remembers every crack, her muscles remember every pull and snap.
8:42. She has extended her friends’ lives by nine seconds.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
<<<
Each bundle made for her friends contains a smoke bomb and an item crafted especially for them.
Each run she adjusts the ratio of poison to antidote, curse to remedy, dials the potency of the ailments up or down, and watches, always watches her friends as they fall. She wakes in Futaba’s room and Oracle takes notes as fast as she can before Fuuka falls asleep and each morning, Fuuka awakes with a smiley face drawn on her palm with permanent marker.
She cannot lift an ax. She cannot pull back the string of a bow. Each day Fuuka goes to Tai-Chi. She runs four flights of stairs.
Each night she prepares the bundles for her friends. Each night she infuses smoke bombs, crushes skill cards and magatamas, distills herbs, and laces the grooves of blades with poison.
Each item is made with Fuuka’s love for her friends.
Watch as they fall. Submit to your fate.
“I’m watching,” she says as Minato steps into the teleporter.
Fuuka hurls the smoke bomb against the floor.
She’ll watch them fall a thousand times.
She’ll watch them die a thousand times in order to save them.
<<<
Fuuka sets off a smoke bomb in the basement level of Tartarus and slides into the teleporter.
The reserve team goes down and leaves the entrance to Tatarus smelling like burnt rubber, damp earth, and blood. Everyone is alive. Everyone is incapacitated. Everyone is grounded except for her and Koromaru.
Her senpai bleed for each other.
A hand reaches through the smoke and seizes Fuuka by the collar of her cloak.
Shinjiro lifts her like she’s a willow sapling he’s plucked from the ground. He holds her several inches off the ground so that she’s eye-level with him.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
<<<
She slides under the cover of smoke.
A bloodied hand reaches out—
“Where—”
<<<
Shinjiro pulls her close, his face pale and bloodied.
“—Do you think,” he swallows.
<<<
A bloodied hand reaches out—
“—You’re going?”
<<<
It’s not raining.
Futaba is hunched over and furiously typing on her keyboard, muttering incoherently to herself.
“I keep getting caught,” Fuuka whispers miserably from Futaba’s bed. “I think it’s my uniform. I stick out of the white smoke like a sore thumb.”
“Chin up, kiddo,” Futaba flings a box of Pocky over her head without turning from her station. The box smacks Fuuka in the face.
“Ow,” Fuuka rubs her forehead.
“Your buddy Oracle is whipping up something special for you.”
<<<
Her senpai bleed for each other.
A hand reaches through the smoke and seizes Fuuka by the collar of her cloak.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
She needs to put an end to this absurdity. She needs more information and there’s only one way to get it.
Fuuka throws a punch against Shinjiro’s chin and breaks her hand.
<<<
Shinjiro lifts her from the swamp and sets her down in the field of lilac.
“It’s not fair,” she wheezes. “I can’t overpower you and you don’t have any weaknesses—”
“Don’t I?”
Shinjiro leans over and kisses her.
He turns her over to the water's azure throat with a smile.
“Why do you do that?” she whispers just as the water swirls in overhead.
“Payback, Yamagishi.”
<<<
Before leaving for Tartarus, Fuuka blots a layer of superglue over her lips. She dots her lips with her homemade lip balm and asks for Shinjiro’s help in the kitchen.
He leans over to adjust the heat on the stove.
Fuuka kisses him and fails to catch him when he faints.
She pickpockets a Shock Magatama off of Minato that evening.
<<<
Fuuka transfers her sliding skills from grass to the cold floor of Tartarus. Her confidence with Tai Chi grows. She learns how to borrow, use, and steal momentum from Akihiko and Shinjiro. She pits their strength against each other and watches.
She manipulates the teleporters to disorient Minato, pushing him in one, smoking him out, pulling him into another, until the Shruti Box and Tentarafoo have him too turned around to move.
Her plan stalls.
For eight consecutive runs, after she’s neutralized Akihiko and Mitsuru and separated Minato, Shinjiro Aragaki’s hand reaches through the white smoke and prevents her from moving forward.
She has watched him enough to know he favors his right side. If she pushes two fingers against ribs 6-8 and kisses him, she can drop him to his knees but still he won’t let her go.
“Can you load your core, Aragaki-senpai?” she whispers.
Shinjiro drops her to swing his ax.
He cleaves the shadow in two and falls to the ground, his lips tinged with poison from her kiss.
<<<
It’s not raining.
Futaba stands over her. She wears a skin tight white suit with a thick hood. There’s a utility belt slung over her hip and Futaba’s orange hair is tucked under a secure cover underneath the hood. A buff reaches up her neck and covers her mouth.
She lowers the buff from her lips.
“Rise and shine, Scout,” she grins. “We’re cooking with gas today.”
<<<
It’s not raining.
Mementos fills with thick white smoke.
Futaba emerges from the cloud.
“I need a few more runs to work out some kinks with the air filtration in the buff here,” she says, her voice muffled by the cowl neck pulled up around her mouth. “If this had been one of your smoke bombs, I would've knocked myself out.”
The smoke clears and reveals the Phantom Thieves, each with fluorescent orange handprints on their backs, chests, arms, and stomachs.
They observe themselves and each other in shock, each coughing ever so slightly from the smoke.
“How did you—” Joker holds out his hands, his wrists streaked with orange paint.
“Genius!” Fox laughs maniacally to the orange handprint on his derriere.
<<<
She wakes in her own bed, still dressed in the infiltration suit Futaba engineered for her. There is a smiley face drawn with permanent marker on her palm and a note taped to her chest.
New suit, new codename.
She turns the note over and reads.
“Yes,” she says.
The suit fits perfectly.
<<<
It's raining.
Fuuka prepares tea and incense. Lotion and a smoke bomb. A playlist and a smoke bomb. A poison salve. A poisoned dagger. A layer of superglue over her lips. She pickpockets a Frost Magatama from Minato, switches his MP3 player, kisses Shinjiro in the kitchen and lets him fall when he faints.
Oil. KNO3. Poisoned arrows. Lip balm infused with whispers of nightshade and foxglove. Magatamas and herbs all made with love for her friends.
Fuuka secures the air filtration device to Koromaru’s collar.
She attaches a dagger and smoke bombs to the medical pack on Koromaru’s back and kisses his head.
“For our friends.”
>
The advance party enters the teleporter.
Fuuka screams and deploys a smoke screen for Koromaru.
The entrance explodes into chaos.
She removes her black cape and emerges from Lucia’s protective orb cloaked in her white infiltration suit.
Fuuka slides into the teleporter.
>>
It’s up to Koromaru to take out the reserve party.
While Fuuka takes out the advance team, the reserves will go down in the following order:
Provided a smokescreen, Koromaru will tell Aigis to fire with her right arm.
For Aigis: Bullets filled with tar and Mudo for her right hand; a smoke bomb infused with Shock Magatama, lavender, Diarama, and coptis root in her left arm.
The chambers in fingers 1-3 will jam due to the tar. The remaining two will fire Mudo. The Mudo bullets will ricochet. One will pierce Ken through the thigh.
Ken will be the first domino to fall.
For Junpei: Homemade crackers infused with Rage, Tarunda. A smoke bomb infused with Cyclone Magatama, balsamroot, Diarama, and Echinacea.
The enzymes from the crackers Fuuka prepared for Junpei will take effect. He always eats them upon arriving and always tells Fuuka that they’re just a little dry.
He will swing in blind rage. He won’t see that it’s Aigis due to the smoke. He’ll take down her down with double damage, dropping her health to almost nothing, but not killing her.
Koromaru will deploy the smoke bomb infused with the Cyclone Magatama and Junpei will be the next domino to fall.
For Ken: Hand chalk mixed with dried fragments of Fear. A smoke bomb filled with orange, cinnamon, Diarama, and red clover. A butterscotch cookie for when he wakes.
After Ken is struck by one of Aigis’ Mudo bullets, Koromaru will deploy the smoke bomb crafted for the youngest member of S.E.E.S. Ken always gets up, always finds the courage and Fuuka will not let that happen tonight. The chalk she made for his hands has permeated his skin. The chalk Fuuka made to help him grip the staff of his spear, the chalk distilled with Fear.
Ken will stay on the ground, weeping for his dead mother. Ken will live.
Yukari’s smoke bomb will detonate next, but Aigis will be the next domino to fall.
For Yukari: Hand salve. Arrows dipped in oil infused with Shock Magatama and aloe vera. A smoke bomb made from ashwagandha, Diarama, rose, thistle, and stinging nettle.
The oil production in her hands will have tripled from the hand salve Fuuka developed for her. Her grip on her bow will be shaky. She’ll nock an arrow and let it fly into the smoke. Koromaru will nudge Aigis into its path.
The arrow will lodge between her chest and arm plates. Aigis, who will have already been incapacitated by Junpei’s enraged attack, will be shocked. She’ll fall back like a brick and enter emergency cooldown mode, but before she does so, she’ll make one last attempt to help her friends on the reserve team.
Aigis will fire the smoke pellets from her left arm, from fingers 1-4. In finger five, she will fire Shock Magatama. The Magatama will sail through the smoke and land squarely against Yukari’s chest.
Yukari will be the last domino to fall.
In four minutes, Koromaru will enter the teleporter.
One by one, he will drag their unconscious senpai back to the entrance.
>>>
Her senpai will bleed for each other. Fuuka cannot allow them to do this tonight.
She approaches the advance party from behind and creates an empty smokescreen, this one to separate Minato from their senpai.
For Minato: An MP3 player looping a Shruti Box in D-A. A smoke bomb infused with Tentarafoo.
Mitsuru calls out for Fuuka’s support with a cough. Fuuka does not answer. Instead, she hurls another smoke bomb at Minato’s feet, this one loaded with Tentarafoo. She can hear the hum of the Shruti Box in his ear buds when she shoves him into the portal and sends him seventeen floors lower.
Another smokescreen, this one to shatter Akihiko’s visibility so that he cannot see her when she beats him to the top of the stairs where the shadow is waiting.
Mitsuru is on Akihiko’s right, Shinjiro on his left. Fuuka disappears into a shroud left by another smoke bomb, this one with Mitsuru’s name attached.
For Mitsuru: Tea made of kava, Dizzy, chamomile, passionflower, lemon balm, and mugwort. A smoke bomb filled with eucalyptus, and yarrow.
The enzymes in the tea Mitsuru consumed at the entrance take effect seconds before the shadow casts Agidyne.
Mitsuru withers to the ground in a deep slumber. Agidyne misses.
Akihiko reaches for her, the smoke feathering around his fingers. He catches air with his right and guards against the shadow’s attack with his right hand.
Fuuka forms her legs into a figure four once more, just as Junpei taught her, and slides under the smoke.
She separates Mitsuru from the group while Shinjiro and Akihiko call out for each other.
If she moves too early, the shadow won’t be destroyed. Fuuka crouches under the smoke for three seconds before she deploys Akihiko’s smoke bomb.
For Akihiko: A dagger with a Frost Magatama gelled in the center groove. A smoke bomb infused with Sukunda, Diarama, marigold, and hawthorne.
Fuuka moves like water.
Her hand wafts the dagger into Shinjiro’s hand. Fuuka brushes his wrist and opens her stance, gliding her hand over his forearm and arcing it downward—
Shinjiro plants the dagger in Akihiko’s shoulder.
Akihiko screams. Shinjiro stumbles back in shock and the shadow strikes him with a poison blade. Shinjiro counters the attack, snarling from the bite of the toxin.
Fuuka reaches out and stops him from falling; his job isn’t done yet.
She flows to her next sequence.
Tai Chi has made her a ghost, has made her arms and legs whispering thieves of energy.
Fuuka dips and guides Akihiko’s left hook into the mask of the shadow just behind Shinjro’s left shoulder. She slides into the space in front of his chest and seizes both wrists and guides Akihiko’s momentum into Shinjiro’s chest. Shinjiro falls back into the smoke.
Akihiko falters and drops to the ground, the dagger still buried in his shoulder. His entire left side is pocked with ice crystals. He’ll be in agony, but the smoke will help alleviate some of his suffering. He, like the rest of her friends, will live.
The next row of Fuuka's dominos moves forward. She is one step closer.
A hand reaches out from the smoke.
Shinjiro seizes her by the collar of her white infiltration suit. He reaches one bloody finger to her buff and lowers it.
“And where do you think you’re going?” his voice quakes.
His face is swathed in blood.
Fuuka swallows.
“Load your core,” she whispers.
Shinjiro drops her and shields her from the shadow’s attack. Fuuka curls herself in and buttresses herself to Shinjiro’s right side, holding him up so that he can swing his ax in one, full arc.
“Please load your core!”
Shinjiro grunts, swings the ax again, and destroys the shadow.
He drops to the ground and takes her with him. Fuuka straddles his waist. Shinjiro’s chest is heaving from the poison, from the exertion of battle, from the horror of what he's just done to Akihiko.
Shinjiro clenches his hands around her biceps.
“Explain,” he snarls.
Fuuka leans over and brushes her lips against his.
His hands fall slack to the ground. Too much poison will kill him, too little won’t prevent him from pinning her down and restarting the loop. It seems she’s finally struck the perfect balance between the shadow’s poison and the poison from her lip balm.
Fuuka leaves a packet of salt from Naganaki Shrine in his palm.
“For protection,” she whispers.
She enters the teleporter just as Koromaru exits. He gives her a bark of encouragement.
For our friends.
>>>
Fuuka emerges from the teleporter. Seventeen floors below, Minato is still wandering around in a trance.
She seizes him, spins him around, and flings him into the teleporter and back to the entrance of Tartarus. Fuuka returns to the floor where her senpai have fallen.
Koromaru has returned them all to the entrance and left her a dagger.
She collects it and rushes to the top of the stairs.
>>>
The High Priestess shadow swings the moment Fuuka reaches the landing of the stairs.
The dagger tumbles out of her hands.
Fuuka drops to her knees.
A bold line crosses her torso from hip to shoulder and begins to weep profusely. Her infiltration suit is instantly dyed red.
Fuuka looks up, her body succumbing to uncontrollable shaking. She’s never been cut by anything sharper than a kitchen knife.
She’s never gotten this far.
She has no stamina.
She has no weapon.
She has no friends.
Submit to your fate, the shadow tells her.
Fuuka sags to her side—
—And doesn’t hit the ground.
“Gotcha.”
Fuuka looks down to find a red glove cupped around her shoulder. Joker hoists her up into his arms and begins to run. “Where to, Oracle?”
“We gonna fight this thing or what?” demands a boy with a high-strung voice.
“No!” Futaba shouts. “Joker, don’t let Skull touch anything! Just get to the big orange door; we need to regroup.”
“You heard her, Skull. Let’s move out, everyone.”
Fuuka's eyelids are heavy. She captures flashes of a fox tail, a whip, barbed knuckles, a musketeer hat, and a spaceship floating overhead—
“Hang in there, Ghostflower,” Futaba’s voice reaches down to her. “We’re gonna figure this out.”
They reach the door when Oracle lets out a scream.
“Get through it and shut it as fast as you can!”
“Is it the shadow?” Joker asks.
“Worse!”
Fuuka’s vision narrows and turns to white.
>>>
She wakes not in her room, not in Futaba’s room, and not in a swamp.
Fuuka wakes up in Joker’s lap. She blinks.
Shinjiro’s ax is pressed to his Adam’s apple.
The Monad door has been shut. The full entourage of Phantom Thieves have Shinjiro and Minato surrounded. Neither of Fuuka’s friends seem particularly worried.
“How about you lower your ax?” Joker asks amicably.
Shinjiro is swaying. How could she have misjudged the dosage? How has Minato managed to get here? What went wrong? She can’t move. She can’t speak. Her body seizes with pain and a tiny rattle escapes her chest.
The edge of Shinjiro’s ax presses harder against Joker’s throat. “How about I cut off your fucking head?”
“Come and get some asshole—”
“Noir, Queen,” Joker snaps.
“Right!”
“On it!”
A loud and brief scuffle ensues. Skull is neutralized in a matter of moments.
“What gives!?” Skull grunts.
“Oracle,” Joker continues evenly. “This guy isn’t messing around.”
Oracle doesn’t respond. Fuuka forms a weak fist around Joker’s coat; the shaking won’t stop.
“Lay down your weapons,” Fox says. “You are outnumbered.”
Shinjiro looks at him and Fuuka has never been more frightened for someone else's life.
“You hear that, leader?” Shinjiro says softly. “These sweethearts say we’re outnumbered. What do we say to that?”
Minato steps up to Shinjiro’s shoulder. A path of dried blood leading from his nose and into his mouth cracks with his smile.
“I say it’s a beautiful day for Theurgy.”
Fuuka shakes her head. She cannot speak, why can’t she—
“I don't like the sound of that, Oracle,” Joker says.
“You think it sounds bad, wait till you see it,” Shinjiro says. “Give her here.”
“They're not weaklings, Joker,” Oracle says in a breathy voice. “I don't have a good reading on it, but you don't want to mess with that ability.”
“Okay, okay,” Joker says mildly. “Let’s just take it real slow here, folks.”
Fuuka feels Joker take a steady inhale. The room whets with tension.
“A friendly reminder to the Phantom Thieves in the room,” Joker begins. “If it was this guy with our navigator, we'd be just as unhappy. Everyone just take a deep breath.”
Fuuka senses Fox’s katana lowering ever so slightly. Someone scoffs. Panther’s grip crunches on the handle of her whip.
Joker pivots his gaze to Minato. “Call off your dog.”
“What makes you think I can do that?” Minato asks.
“Leader's intuition," Joker smiles. "What do you say?”
Minato contemplates for a moment and then nods. “Sure, but yours first, if you don't mind. We're the ones who are outnumbered, after all.”
“Thieves, take a deep breath,” Joker repeats, less patiently this time.
Fox lowers his katana. Panther relaxes her grip.
“Aragaki-senpai,” Minato says and gives Shinjiro a light nudge with his shoulder. Shinjiro is reluctant to lower his ax from Joker’s throat. Fuuka cannot speak, but she can still move just a little so she reaches up and slips a finger between the edge of Shinjiro's ax and Joker’s throat. She gives Shinjiro a tiny, weak nod.
Shinjiro pulls the ax back immediately.
The silence drills into the room.
“Oracle,” Joker swallows. “Can I please let this girl go now?”
“No!” Oracle snaps.
The room piques with sharp, quick movement.
“Everyone calm your tits!” Oracle barks. “I’m still conducting the analysis!”
A chorus of irate muttering comes from the Thieves. Shinjiro looks ready to rip Fuuka out of Joker’s arms and Fuuka snarls her fingers harder against Joker’s coat.
“Okay, okay, that's fine,” Joker says softly. “We're all friends here. Let's start off with a little trust fall.”
Joker turns to Minato. “Let us heal you up. You're all in rough shape and I don't think your navigator is used to being cut like this.”
“That’d be real nice,” Minato deadpans.
“Panther, if you please,” Joker says loftily, his eyes not leaving Minato's.
“Joker, I could—” Panther growls, her gloves twisting against the pommel of her whip.
“Just some healing for our new friends, Panther,” Joker says easily.
Fuuka feels Carmen’s heated presence rise to her left.
“Her first,” Shinjiro points down at Fuuka.
“No shit, dickhead,” Panther snaps and Shinjiro raises an eyebrow.
“Sassy,” Minato lisps through the blood in his mouth.
“You have no idea,” Joker says.
“Lovers?” Minato asks.
“He wishes,” Panther mutters and Fuuka’s laceration dissolves in a wave of heat. Carmen moves to heal Shinjiro next.
“Arcana,” Minato smirks to Joker. “Lovers arcana?”
“How’d you guess?” Joker asks casually.
“Leader's intuition,” Minato says and then thanks Panther for his share of healing. Shinjiro is less grateful.
“Give her over,” Shinjiro says softly. “And we’ll be on our way.”
Necronomicon drops to a landing and Futaba vaults out of the hatch. She parks herself in front of Shinjiro and pulls her goggles up to her forehead.
“Listen up, dickbag! The reason I’m not giving her back is because she’s under a curse - A really fucking bad curse.”
Joker winces.
“Language, Oracle,” he trills. “A little polite language for our new friends.”
Futaba stabs a finger against Shinjiro’s chest. Fuuka creases her forehead and chokes when she realizes; she cannot speak because of her proximity to the shadow and to Cassandra’s curse.
“You poor saps have been stuck in a time loop,” Futaba continues heatedly. “She’s been trying to pull you out of it and if you take her back now before the shadow’s been knocked out, there’s no telling what'll happen.”
Shinjiro looks down at Fuuka. The anger wanes in his expression.
“Who are you people?” Minato asks.
Joker opens his mouth—
“We’re the Phantom Thieves,” Futaba says. “And I’m the navigator. Lucia created a bridge between me and Ghostflower over there. I’ve been helping her figure this shit out. Her persona called for backup and we just so happened to be exploring Mementos at the time. Me and my crew responded.”
“Your crew?” Joker repeats incredulously.
“Shush!” Oracle says over her shoulder.
Fuuka’s lips move as she tries to piece together what Futaba is saying. Lucia and Necronomicon must have created some sort of nexus between Mementos and Tartarus. Oracle must have heard Lucia’s distress.
Futaba looks down at her with a nod. “It’s not going to last much longer. Don’t worry, Ghostflower. I know what we need to do now. You stay there with Joker and the others and you meatbags—”
Futaba points to Minato and Shinjiro.
“Load up that Theurgy thingie. I’ll be backing you up in her place.”
>>>
Joker gently shifts Fuuka into Shinjro’s arms.
The Phantom Thieves have fallen back several feet. They don't seem afraid, but nearly all of them appear less eager to test their mettle against Shinjiro and Minato after seeing the display of Theurgy.
“These are some tough guys you got on your team,” Futaba says to Fuuka. “Make sure you watch their backs. They seem like they can get kind of dumb.”
Fuuka can only nod, her cheek grazing against Shinjiro’s shirt.
“You know where to find me if this ends up in the shitter, but I think...” Futaba clicks her tongue. “I think this is goodbye, Ghostflower.”
Fuuka opens her palm to Futaba. Futaba reaches into her infiltration suit and pulls out a permanent marker.
She caps the marker and pokes Fuuka’s nose.
“Boop.”
>
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It’s raining.
Fuuka waits next to the teleporter.
Minato holds a brief strategy meeting with the advance party: Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Shinjiro, before he makes for the portal.
“Wait, Minato-kun,” Fuuka says from beside the portal.
The advance team comes to a halt.
“Please move Aragaki-senpai to your left,” Fuuka asks. “Sanada-senpai needs to help cover him when he compensates for his right side.”
The group exchanges puzzled looks.
Minato shrugs and gestures to his left. “You mind, Aragaki-senpai?”
Shinjiro fixes Fuuka with an annoyed and bewildered glare. He huffs and does as he’s instructed.
“Anything else?” Minato asks, a playful smile on his lips.
“Yes. Please switch Kirijo-senpai with Koro-chan or Junpei-kun. The shadow will use Agidyne to attack.”
All eyes fall on Mitsuru. She clears her throat.
“Very well,” she says primly. Fuuka watches her take the sidelines. Minato beckons Koromaru over and the Shiba Inu gives an elated bark at being placed on the advance party.
“Anything else?” Minato asks again.
“Just one more thing,” Fuuka says and turns to Akihiko. “Keep your guard up. No matter what.”
Akihiko adjusts his gloves and grins. “You got it, Yamagishi.”
Minato puts his foot into the portal. The shadow is eliminated in under eight seconds. The advance party moves forward.
Fuuka flips over her hand.
A faded smiley face with x’s for eyes grins up at her.
She traces the smile with her finger. She can’t remember drawing it but for some reason, it makes her feel like she’s not alone.
Fuuka looks at her palm and smiles back.