Chapter Text
When Kirijo-Senpai told Yukari that there was going to be a transfer student in their dorms, she didn't exactly know what to think. Transfer students were pretty common for the school, but the dorms she resided in weren't for ordinary students, but the shadow fighting members of SEES. And there’s no way this transfer student was somebody with the potential, right?
She had the potential. Instantly. She had arrived DURING the dark hour, focused expression on her face. Although she had no persona, she didn't seem that confused about the situation. Yukari had accidentally pointed her evoker at the girl though, understandably making her tense up. She didn't seem all too scared to effectively be held at gunpoint.
As Yukari lowered her evoker, she took a closer look at the girl. She seemed to be in all black, from her hair to her clothes, with a choker around her neck, with black eyeshadow and lipstick. This was contrasted by her blood red eyes, almost making her look like a vampire. Her skin was pale though, so she was just a goth. She felt her face heat up as she realised that this goth was also the cutest goth she’s ever seen!
The persona user had never struggled with her sexuality, so these feelings weren't all too unexpected, but love at first sight with a cute transfer student seemed pretty cliche. Said transfer student also seemed pretty quiet.
Yukari spoke up first. “Hey, sorry about that! I thought you were an intruder.” She said, trying to assure the other girl.
The girl simply nodded, not making a response. Well this was awkward. Yukari didn't know what to say, and the girl didn't want to say anything. Yukari turned towards Kirijo-Senpai, hoping she would save this disaster of a conversation, and luckily, she did.
“Yeah. It's been more dangerous lately. Anyway, you are Kotone Shiomi, correct?” Kirijo-Senpai asked.
The girl-Kotone (should she be jumping to first names with a girl she just met?), apparently, simply nodded again. Kirijo-Senpai took this as her chance to continue.
“I must say I didn't expect you to arrive so late. You should probably get to bed, Shiomi-San.” She stated, before walking off, cold as ever.
Yukari and Kotone stood there for a moment, awkwardly looking at each other. Yukari’s face heated up again as Kotone’s intense stare bore into her, then she coughed awkwardly.
“C-Come on, Kotone. Follow me, I'll show you around.” Yukari fumbled out.
Once more, Kotone simply nodded, before making a gesture for Yukari to lead, so she did.
As they walked up to the dorm rooms, Yukari felt like she had to say something, anything to clear the awkward atmosphere. “So..im Yukari Takeba, im a second year, and the woman you just saw was Mitsuru Kirijo, who’s a third year”
Kotone walked slightly infront of her and made some L symbol? Rude! Wait. No. She’s just holding up two fingers. Yukari cocked her head to the side, confused, as Kotone pointed to herself, signalling that she was also a second year. It took Yukari a minute to understand, but she grasped it eventually.
“Nice! Hopefully you’re in my class. It would be nice to have a friend. Or just, somebody to talk to who wasn't stupei.” Yukari admitted, a smile on her face, as they reached Kotone’s room. “Well. I guess I'll see you tomorrow! Let me know if you need anything, alright?”
Kotone nodded again, but raised a thumbs up with it. Yukari barely noticed a small smile on the goth’s face as she waved goodbye and went into her room.
Yukari started to blush heavily, turning red as a tomato, before she silently went back to her own room and went to sleep.
Before school, Yukari cornered Kotone and asked her to “not talk about what happened last night”, prompting the usual nod from Kotone, along with a smirk that confused the wind user. Until she entered the first period anyway, where as it turned out, what Yukari said had caused rumours to spread about the two like literal wildfire.
Kotone was told to introduce herself to the class, and..kind of did. She simply waved to the class, smiled specifically at Yukari , and went to her seat without further prompting. The class all started talking about her, from how cute she was (Yukari could agree), to her not even attempting to follow the school dress code to more rumours about what Yukari had said to her.
The day went by in a flash, and Yukari walked up to Kotone in a…very one sided conversation with stupei.
“Yknow, you should probably talk more, especially since we’re friends now!” Junpei exclaimed, causing a sigh from Kotone, the first vocal sound Yukari had heard her make. As Yukari approached, she noticed Kotone’s annoyed expression, which turned to a small smile when they noticed each other.
“Ugh. If she doesn't want to talk then she doesn't have to, Junpei! And you can't just walk up and declare friendship to somebody!” Yukari protested, mostly for Kotone’s sake.
“Hey, I resent that! We’re totally friends, right Kotone-Chan?” Junpei said.
Kotone grimaced at the use of the honorific, and walked next to Yukari, showing her friendship with the girl.
“Hah! See? She considers me more of a friend than you!” Yukari declared, a smirk on her face. Which dropped when she saw Junpei smiling at her mischievously.
“just a friend , ey? Sure, miss ‘don't tell anybody about what happened last night!’” He cackled.
Kotone let out an amused grin as she turned towards Yukari with an expression that just screamed “I told you so” , leading Yukari to let out a huge sigh. “You were right..”
Yukari and Junpei continued to bicker as they left the school building, Kotone pointing towards one of the two whenever she sided with their opinions.
A few days had passed, and the two girls were on the roof of the dorms, as Yukari fumbled with her evoker, desperate to save her new friend from the shadow that had climbed it. She was totally unaware as the shadow spat a fireball at her, but luckily Kotone had noticed it, dragging Yukari out of the way.
Then, Kotone looked towards Yukari with a stern expression, before snatching the evoker from her.
“Wait! That's not a real gun!” Yukari screamed, panicked. But Kotone pushed it to her head, let out a growl and fired.
Her persona awakened, and it was beautiful. But kinda small, it had long hair, a robotic body, and a lyre on its back, Yukari noted.
And then both the persona and Kotone let out piercing screams as the persona was shattered from the inside, as a black, mask wearing creature ripped out, with a sword in its hand and coffins on its back, it roared as it charged into the shadow, practically mauling it to shreds. The smaller shadows being torn apart too.
“Kotone! Oh my god are you okay!?” Yukari shouted, running up to a now exhausted Kotone. The newly awakened persona user weakly nodded and made a thumbs up..and then crashed to the ground, unconscious.
With Kotone hospitalized, seemingly in a coma, Yukari felt horrible. She should have defended her! All because of her cowardice Kotone was forced to do it herself. But all she could do now was visit the unconscious girl every day in hope she wakes up.
As Yukari walked in once more, she expected no new news, and to apologise to her friend once more before walking off, but to her surprise, Kotone had woken up! Instantly, Yukari dashed to her side and embraced her in a hug.
“Kotone! You’re okay! Thank goodness!” She exclaimed, joy infecting her tone.
Kotone tensed up for a moment, before awkwardly hugging back. It was only brief, however, so Yukari took that as Kotone saying she had enough of the hug. Kotone then looked at Yukari with her head tilted to the side, confused.
“Oh, uh. You awakened your persona, but it went berserk maybe? It was weird, and unlike any normal awakening. Or at least that's what Kirijo-Senpai told me. And then you fell into a coma for like two weeks.” Yukari admitted.
Kotone let out a small gasp, before looking down sadly. Yukari didn't know why she was sad, but she had to apologise herself.
“I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry, okay? I..was meant to protect you and I failed. I'm sorry..”
To her surprise, Kotone shaked her head, Grabbed Yukari’s hand and squeezes it, before smiling at the girl. Clearly signalling that she was okay and that she forgave Yukari.
“Really? Thanks, Kotone..”
The two were then interrupted as the door opened, with Kirijo-Senpai walking in, ruining the moment as she usually does. The rest of that day passed in a blur, as Kirijo-Senpai made an offer for Kotone to join the team, Kotone accepting readily. Once Kotone was allowed to leave the hospital, the rest of SEES explained what the dark hour was to her.
“Just to make sure your persona is stable, would you mind summoning it for us?” Kirijo-Senpai asked the newly awakened user, as she handed the girl her own evoker and SEES armband.
Kotone had already slipped back into usual behavior, nodding as she slipped on the armband. The red really worked well with her clothing style.
Then, she pulled the trigger on the evoker, summoning the robotic persona. This time, it didn't seem to shatter, or do much of anything. Likely because it hadn't been commanded to do anything. Without anything to do, it disappeared.
“Hm..Interesting” Ikutsuki said idly, prompting a nod from Kirijo-Senpai.
“I agree. There's something off though..i can sense a far more powerful presence inside her, different from her persona” she noted.
This caused Akihiko-Senpai to pump his fist in the air with a cheer. “Well, either way. I'm glad to have a new ally! Hopefully we can find out what that presence is, it could do us well!” He agreed.
Kotone looked slightly uncomfortable being viewed as if she was under a microscope, causing Yukari to let out a scoff. “Sorry about those two, Kotone. They don't know how to interact with people” She said, causing both third years to let out protests, which were ignored, “welcome to the team!” She finished, holding out her hand.
Kotone faced Yukari, smiling slightly brighter than usual, and shook Yukari’s hand, officially joining SEES.
A couple days passed after that, with Akihiko-Senpai dragging in Junpei to the dorms, telling everybody that Junpei would also be joining the team. While Yukari had groaned at the news, Kotone didn't seem to mind, smiling at the news. But apart from that, it wasn't until a few days later that Kirijo-Senpai told everybody that they would be heading to tartarus, before then explaining to the rookies what tartarus was.
Once they got in tartarus Kirijo-Senpai spoke up.
“I won't be accompanying you inside the main area, as I have to navigate, and Akihiko is still injured. So for now, Shiomi-San will be the group leader” She ordered.
“What?! But she wouldn't speak if her life depended on it! Err..no offence, Kotone” Junpei exclaimed, as Kotone nodded solemnly, pointing at her throat.
“Yeah, you have no clue how quiet she is, Senpai. I haven't heard her speak once.” Yukari reluctantly agreed.
“While this is true, Iori-San has little maturity and not to offend you, Takeba-San, but the incident on the roof proves that you wouldn't be able to handle the role” Kirijo-Senpai countered. After some back and forth, they relented and Kotone became the leader anyway.
Kotone summoned her persona, making it use the skill “bash” at nothing, then turned towards Yukari and Junpei, pointing at them. Asking what skills they had.
“Oh, uh- I use wind magic and healing, mostly,” Yukari informed.
“Fire and Physical for me, man!” Junpei declared proudly.
Kotone nodded before gesturing for them to follow her inside.
As the trio made their way into tartarus, they approached a shadow, Kotone turned towards the duo. First, she pointed at Junpei, and made a punching motion.
“What, you want me to attack it?” He asked, as Kotone nodded. Then she turned towards Yukari, making a heart gesture. Yukari had to fight a blush forming on her face as she realised what the leader was signalling.
“You want me on support?” She asked, prompting another nod from Kotone.
With the tactics sorted out, Kotone ambushed the shadow, summoning her persona to make some kind of red glow appear over Junpei.
“Hell yeah! I feel stronger now! Take this, Hermes!” He shouted, summoning his persona, it cleaved through the shadow, destroying it in one hit.
The trio all cheered as Yukari summoned Io to heal up Junpei.
They got into a pattern of Kotone signalling tactics before every fight, up until they had cleared a decent amount of the block. A big shadow was standing in the center of the floor, with poles for arms. Kotone put Junpei on attack duty and Yukari on support, as usual.
The battle was going decently well, until the shadow spun wildly, landing a nasty critical hit onto Junpei, following up with another critical, downing Yukari. As it turned towards Kotone, she tensed up as both downed teammates looked on with horror as it prepared for a third attack.
But before it could, Kotone pulled the trigger of her evoker, summoning not the robotic woman, but the mask wielding beast from before, instead of going berserk though, it calmly followed its user, using its sword to land a huge slash onto the shadow, defeating it instantly.
As the shadow and persona both faded away, Kotone walked up to Yukari with a comforting smile, holding her hand out, which she gladly accepted to help herself up.
Junpei groaned from behind as he got up himself, pouting. “Why am I always left behind? You’re playing favourites here, leader” he said prompting Kotone to stick her tongue out at him. “But man that persona was wild!” He finished.
Before the conversation could continue, a ring of cards circled around Kotone, and she closed her eyes before reaching out towards the one with the fairy on it. She then used the fairy to help Yukari heal the team up, before signalling that they were going home.
As they walked home, Kirijo-Senpai spoke up. “Are you all alright? I felt a massive spike in power up there.”
“Yeah, no worries Senpai, Kotone just summoned some freaky mask wearing persona to save her girlfriend! I'm kinda jealous.” Junpei responded, causing a small blush to form on Kotone, and a much larger one on Yukari.
“She is not my girlfriend!” Yukari shouted, embarrassed, causing Junpei to cackle. “It is weird though, can you just..summon that thing whenever?” She asked, nervously.
Kotone nodded her head with vigor, a smug smirk on her face as she summoned the giant persona. The team instantly tensed up as it bore holes into every member of the team, before vanishing quietly.
Yukari then remembered the pixie she summoned before they left. “Can you summon that pixie, too?”
Kotone nodded before summoning it, it seemed much cheerier than the other two, and even spoke up! “Hello! You two are a lot more chatty than my user is! What’s up with that?”
Before anybody responded, Kotone scoffed and dismissed the pixie, embarrassed at its behavior, before walking ahead of everybody else.
“Huh. So her persona can talk. I figured it was just Hermes that could until now” Junpei admitted
“Yeah, they all can. But it's probably because the rest of us actually know when to be quiet.” Yukari countered.
“Ouch.”
They approached the dorms, and all went to bed soon after.
They had all fallen into a routine after that point, normal school days, occasionally going to tartarus, repeat. Until the full moon, anyway, where they were sent to stop a shadow from crashing a train. Nothing too special, even if it was terrifying. But after that, they had went back into normal routine until the full moon rolled around once more.
The group found themself walking to gekkoukan in the middle of the night, but not exactly during the dark hour.
“So, why are we here again Senpai?” Yukari asked
“We believe that Fuuka Yamagishi may be trapped within tartarus, she might not survive if left alone for much longer.” Kirijo-Senpai responded, tone as cold as ever.
Eventually, they got to the school, went inside via the back entrance Junpei had unlocked, and separated into two groups. Junpei with the third years (mostly to keep him out of trouble) and Yukari with Kotone, since they seemed to work best together.
As the two girls walked down the dark halls of the school, Yukari groaned. “Why does it have to be so dark?! It's giving me the shivers! What if there was a ghost?”
Kotone promptly spun around to face Yukari, and made a standard ‘Boo!’ Expression, causing Yukari to jump and shriek “AAH! KOTONE, THAT'S NOT FUNNY! HOW D-”
She was interrupted by a laughing sound, was there a ghost?! Was it mocking them?! Wait..no that's just Kotone. Wait- KOTONE was laughing?! Yukari had never heard her voice before! (apart from her awakening but that barely counts). She stared at Kotone’s laughing fit as her face began to blush, both from embarrassment and from finding the other girl adorable.
‘Nevermind, I don't mind as much now,’ Yukari thought to herself.
They continued into the halls until they found some kind of locker key, Kotone quickly swiping it, but then the dark hour started, and they were put into an unknown floor of Tartarus, all alone.
The two teens tensed up instantly, drawing out their weapons, as a crackle was heard, seemingly blocked by some interference.
Bzzt! “Can…he-......respo…-” Bzzt!
Hm. Not good. Yukari and Kotone glanced at each other, unnerved. Kotone pointed at the floor, before making a circle motion and then pointing it lower. Was she signalling to find a teleporter? Good idea either way.
“Y-Yeah.. lets find a teleporter” Yukari shakily agreed. Kotone noticed how scared Yukari was and grabbed her hand before leading them along
“Huh-?!” She shrieked, face turning as red as a tomato.
Eventually, after a couple tense fights they found the girl they were looking for.
“Hey!” Yukari shouted, startling the blue haired girl. “We’re here to get you out of here!”
Fuuka took a second to respond, drawing shaky breaths. “Y-You are? I-I don't know where i am..” she admitted
“You’re in a place called Tartarus right now, don't worry, we’ll explain later. I'm Yukari and this is Kotone, she doesn't speak” Yukari informed Fuuka.
As Fuuka turned to face Kotone, the goth waved at the shy girl, smiling slightly, before making a gesture for her to follow them.
“A-Alright! Lead the way, Kotone-San.”
They walked some more before Fuuka leaned in towards Yukari and whispered “Your girlfriend is a life saver. Thank you both for finding me!”
Yukari once again felt her face heat up as she shrieked “SHE IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!” causing both Kotone and Fuuka to let out giggles.
The conversation was cut short as they found a teleporter, going through it, they saw a trainwreck of a scene. Junpei, Kirijo-Senpai and Akihiki-Senpai were struggling against two massive shadows, and there was that girl who had bullied Fuuka having a very bad time on the floor right now. Deserved, honestly, if Yukari could say so herself.
Yukari and Kotone entered the fight, and by the end of the night the two shadows had been defeated and Fuuka had awakened to her persona, Lucia. And promptly passed out.
“Soo..who’s gonna carry her?” Yukari asked absentmindedly.
“I can do it. Im the strongest, after all” Akihiko-Senpai offered, before carefully picking the newly awakened persona user into his arms.
“Glad that's sorted” Kirijo-Senpai responded, cutting the conversation to a close.
The walk home was silent but relatively comfortable, but Yukari was stuck in her own head.
‘Fuuka called Kotone my girlfriend..do we really look like that much of a couple? And there's no way Kotone would actually like me like that..’ Yukari thought to herself. ‘But there is no denying that I think I've fallen in love with Kotone.’