Work Text:
“What the hell is that?” Ann gasps, looking at the bruises all over Ryuji’s back and arms.
He’d spilled coffee on his shirt and immediately taken off in the middle of Ren’s room, no worries about anything.
Ryuji blinks and looks down. “Oh, you know. Persona stuff.”
“What?!” Ann “What the hell are you talking about, if you’re hurt you need to be healed–”
“No, no this isn’t from enemy attacks?” Ryuji says. “Seiten Taisei does it.”
“ WHAT?!” Ann repeats, and everyone else is staring at her like she’s the crazy one. “What do you mean your Persona does that to you?”
“I mean you know when I have Seiten Taisei do that cool thing where he,” Ryuji makes a fist in one hand and punches down towards the other to illustrate his point. “Then the scars happen.”
“And you’re just talking about this now? ”
“Ann,” Makoto says carefully. “We all knew about this.”
Ann whips over to look at her. “You knew Ryuji’s Persona was hurting him and didn’t do anything?!”
“No, Ann.” Ren says. “That’s how Personas work. All of ours do it.”
Makoto rolls up her pant leg to reveal what seem like blast marks from an explosion, Yusuke also takes off his shirt to show slices criss crossing his back and hare slips an arm out of her coat to show off what look like scarred over bullet wounds.
“No…” Ann says. “I mean, C-Carmen doesn’t do that?”
“I guess you do exclusively use magic,” Makoto says. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you weren’t aware.”
“No, shut up! What does that mean?” Ann demands. “When you use a spell with your Persona it… it just makes you tired! Maybe a headache if you really push yourself but–”
“Some of them,” Ren says. “Others cause injuries for their price.”
Ann wants to scream. “So… no what? What?! ”
“I mean, you know how in video games there are skills that cost mana and some that cost HP?” Futaba says.
“This isn’t a fucking game! ” Ann screeches, and her breathing is getting heavy. Her friends were hurting themselves and she didn’t know because, because why? Carmen was nicer to her? Didn’t have the ability to learn a spell that would injure her? What was the difference? What makes her different? “I mean… what happens if you use one that’s too strong?”
“What do you mean?” Haru asks.
“I… I mean if this is an attack that… uses HP as Futaba put it, what happens if you use all of it?”
“You’d die,” Yusuke says, matter-of-factly.
“Not that that happens!” Haru says. “Just like if I don’t have the energy to cast a Psychokinesis skill, I can’t cast it, I can’t cast a Gun skill if I’m too hurt.”
“Besides, isn’t keeping us alive your job?” Ryuji laughs, putting his shirt back on. “I mean what would we do without Ms Mediarahan here?”
“Shut the fuck up !” Ann says. “You’ve been hurting yourselves and you’re acting like it’s all fine!”
Everyone looks taken aback by her outburst.
“What do you think would happen if you used too much energy for magic?” Yusuke asks. “That couldn’t be good either.”
“You’re right! If I go too hard setting things on fire or healing, I wake up with a migraine or I get sick but that gets better with a good night’s sleep! It doesn’t leave scars .”
“Well only some of them scar,” Makoto starts but Ann just glares at her.
“We’re sorry,” Morgana says. “We thought– no, I guess it just didn’t occur to any of us that you didn’t know.”
“Don’t apologize,” Ann says. “I–” what is she looking for here? Not an apology, they don’t have anything to apologize for. And she can’t demand they only use magic like her from now on, not with the kind of stronger enemies they’re facing.
No, the person she’s angry at is herself. For being blind to her friends’ pain. For never once wondering what the cost of their powers was.
“I’m going to take a walk,” Ann says. “I need to clear my head.”