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There are times Yukino has to be the leader of the group.
The kids all follow Maya like ducklings, and she’s great at keeping morale up, but sometimes morale needs to take a hit for the sake of the mission.
Take now, for example. It’s common sense that Personas get stronger by using their powers; same as a muscle only grows stronger after regular workouts. And while they’ve been using their Personas plenty, fighting through whatever demon-infested areas they wind up in, there’s no such thing as being overprepared. Whoever is powerful enough to make rumors come true and warp the fabric of reality isn’t someone they can afford to do bare-minimum training for.
Still, this comes from her experience years ago at St. Hermelin. The kids have never done something like this before; it really does feel bad to ask them to push themselves even harder. But if it’s to save the world...Yukino takes a quiet breath and prepares for impact. “I think we should do some training in the Abandoned Factory.”
Even when she’s prepared for it, the immediate chorus of noooo-ugh from Eikichi and Lisa batters her like a physical force.
“I know we’re tired,” she interrupts, raising her voice, “but nobody’s seriously injured, and there’s still daylight left, so it’s best to train up our Personas for whatever comes ahead.”
Lisa and Eikichi simmer down, albeit somewhat unwillingly—she’s sure they don’t want to sound spoiled or weak by arguing with her, even though they must really be exhausted.
“I think that’s a good idea, Yukki!” Mood-maker Maya comes to the rescue. Her smile is bright as she pats the two kids on their shoulders. “We don’t have to venture too far in. The demons on the first few floors don’t stand a chance against us! Right, Tatsuya-kun?”
Yukino turns to face the boy at the back of the group, same place he always is, fiddling with that old lighter of his. He glances up with a slow blink when spoken to and responds with a single, short nod.
With that, it’s a majority vote. In thirty minutes’ time, they’re slinking around the Abandoned Factory, on high alert for any surprise demon attacks. It doesn’t take long for them to find a suitable training dummy.
The Lich is alone, dragging itself along the floor with a dull screeching of scythe-against-tile. Ducked behind a dented locker, she turns to her team and jerks her head in the direction of the demon. They all respond with silent nods and thumbs up.
Yukino nods once in acknowledgement, and summons her Persona.
“Vesta, Agilao!”
Before the demon can even turn around, it’s subsumed in a blazing inferno. Its howl rings in her ears awfully, even more grating than the sound of its scythe. Maya and the kids rush to her side, battle-ready, just as the creature manages to put out the flames with a magic-infused swing of its weapon.
In the next moment, the Lich raises its arms over its head as it lets out another ghastly howl, charging something visible not through Yukino’s eyes but the resonance her Persona constantly sends out. Its eyes begin to glow, and she feels rather than sees the shape of the attack as it beams straight toward Tatsuya, who takes it head-on with a shout.
“Chinyan!” Lisa screams, same as she does every time Tatsuya takes a hit.
Yukino doesn’t freeze, doesn’t dare to in the midst of battle, but she switches gears from charging up another attack to assessing Tatsuya’s condition. He drops to one knee and gives his head a hard shake, but she sees no blood and his clothes are dry, so it wasn’t a Water attack that tends to send Vulcanus reeling. She’s about to write him off as alright when Lisa reaches him, puts a hand on his shoulder, and he flings himself back with a high-pitched cry. It’s terrifying in how out of character it sounds.
“Shit!” Yukino takes off, directing Vesta to send a Dormina the enemy’s way. She hops over old debris scattered across the floor, beelining to Tatsuya while trying to remember what healing skills her Persona have.
“Chinyan?! What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?!” Lisa, panicking more over Tatsuya’s extreme reaction, gets closer and tries to grab his shoulders to assess the damage.
“Don’t,” Yukino yells in warning, right as Tatsuya wrenches himself away with a scream and runs for it.
“The shit?” Eikichi turns around from where he’d been firing his weapon, apparently not noticing the hit Tatsuya took. Maya’s footsteps are quick behind Yukino.
“It’s fear,” Yukino explains, yelling over her shoulder. “A fear spell, just leave him be and keep fighting, I got this!”
Eikichi frowns, apparently confused but not enough to disobey her order. Lisa still looks frantic, but the demon begins shaking off the Dormina Yukino had hastily cast and she has no choice but to listen.
Maya, though, is right behind her. “Maia can heal,” she explains at Yukino’s quick glance. “Maybe I can help?”
Yukino just nods and rounds the corner. Tatsuya, too panicked to figure out a doorknob, crouches in the corner closest to the exit, back pressed flush against the wall and sword held out in front of him with one shaky hand.
Yukino immediately lowers to a crouch, and Maya follows suit. She puts her hands up and imagines she’s speaking to a spooked baby deer. “Hey, it’s alright, Tatsuya-kun, it’s just us.”
“No!” Tatsuya shrieks, louder than she’s ever heard him. His eyes are focused somewhere behind her, pupils dilated, his resonance rattling like nails on a chalkboard against hers.
“Yukki, what’s...” Maya trails off behind her, unsure.
“I’ve seen it at St. Hermelin,” Yukino whispers back. She herself has never experienced it—inflicting terror was a pretty rare skill for the demons to have, if she remembers right—but she could never forget the first time one of her friends fell victim to it. “It makes you panic. All you can think about is running and hiding.”
“Oh, Tatsuya,” Maya breathes, voice thick with sympathy.
As Yukino explains, Tatsuya curls up, one arm around his stomach and the other hovering protectively around his neck. He’s still clumsily holding his sword, grip tight and eyes squeezed shut.
“I need to get close to fix it, okay?” Yukino doesn’t move, speaking slow and soft. Still, at her words, Tatsuya flinches harshly, and—
It takes Yukino a beat to realize the heat-haze glimmering above him is Vulcanus, struggling to manifest itself amidst Tatsuya’s panic, but there nonetheless.
“Oh, wow,” Yukino mutters.
“Is that bad?” Maya is stock-still next to her, following her lead.
Yukino hesitates, trying to mask her nervousness. It won’t help any of them, least of all Tatsuya. “I’ve just...never seen someone summon a Persona like this.” Her friends, when under this spell, unanimously chose flight over fight, dropping their weapons and finding someplace to hide while babbling in terror. She assumed it would be the same for everyone, but what if Tatsuya’s the type to lash out in perceived self-defense?
Well, it doesn’t change what she has to do. “Come, Longma!”
The dragonlike Persona is summoned not in a flashy burst of light, but in a slow, graceful plume of vapor, like it was simply waiting to come out from within her jacket. Just as she opens her mouth to cast Kotoludi, she hears Eikichi’s voice behind her, shouting her name.
Several things then happen very quickly:
The demon crashes straight through the wall, right behind Maya—
Longma vanishes as she instinctively shouts Vesta, Agi! and flames burst forth—
Tatsuya screams—
There is something faintly and distantly warm right behind her—
Maya is screaming too—
And the demon crumbles into dust under an assault of fire.
Yukino blinks twice. The fire spell she cast wasn’t that strong. She was saving her strength to heal Tatsuya. Maya is still yelling. Why is—
She whips around to face Tatsuya again.
He’s crouched low to the ground, eyes wide, pupils so dilated his irises have only a tiny ring of color to show. But above him, Vulcanus is fully summoned, wreathed in flame as it prepares another—
“Shit!” Yukino throws her arms around Maya just in time for Vesta to absorb the full force of Vulcanus’ blaze. She’d barely noticed the first hit, thanks to Vesta’s natural immunity, but Tatsuya must have attacked them, blind in his fear, and Maya—
She’s crying, clutching her arms and pleading to somebody under her breath—if Yukino didn’t know about her fear of fire, she’d worry the demon had hit her with the spell too.
“What’s going on?! Did it get you?!” Eikichi races over to them, Lisa close behind.
“I’m so sorry!” the girl cries. “It broke right through and—”
“Stay back!” The kids immediately freeze at the authority in her tone. “Lisa! Take Maya and heal her! Don’t come near us until I say it’s okay!”
Despite the fear in their eyes, they immediately obey, pulling Maya from her grasp and ducking back behind the (now partially wrecked) wall. Smart kids.
Yukino turns her full attention back to Tatsuya. Vulcanus is still out, hovering just barely above Tatsuya’s skin, protecting him with its full body. His katana is on the floor, instead using his hand to pat frantically around his own shoulder, as if trying to reach his back.
“Maya,” he chokes out, suddenly sounding very young.
“Longma! Kotoludi!” She doesn’t waste a second more; the dragon once again springs forth, and showers green light over Tatsuya’s trembling form.
The effect is immediate. Vulcanus retreats back into Tatsuya’s soul as the boy slumps to the ground, barely managing to catch himself with one palm flat against the floor.
She waits, frozen, heart still pounding from adrenaline.
Tatsuya looks up. Shakes his head. Blinks. “...What happened.”
Yukino relaxes. “Scared the shit outta me, kid.”
Not what she should’ve said, probably, but it’s true from the bottom of her heart. She always assumed it was impossible to summon a Persona under a spell like that. Nothing worse than learning something new about demons the hard way.
Tatsuya’s brow furrows. “...Demon hit me,” he deduces. “Was—was it an illusion spell?”
“No.” Her reply is short, and Tatsuya looks up at her with a small frown. She’s not going to hold this against him or anything—she’s long outgrown getting offended at the things demons could force others to do. It’s only once you’re hit with a good Charm spell that you realize how weak the mind truly is.
So it’s not that, really, it’s that she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to tell him. Doesn’t know if she should bring up the fact that he attacked Maya, and if she’s supposed to comfort him after the fact, or...
“...The others are worried too. I’ll explain it to all of them.” Avoiding his eyes, she stands up and dusts off her knees. “Okay, guys! We’re all set over here.”
The kids waste no time running over to Tatsuya, questions overlapping in a jumbled shout.
“Chinyan, are you okay?! What did it do to—”
“That was crazy, how’d you fix—”
“Easy!” Yukino raises her hands to try and calm them down. She sees Maya sitting down on the floor behind them, pale but free of any injury. She lets out a sigh she must have been holding. “Like I said earlier, it’s a mental ailment. Some demons can inflict fear.”
“Fear?” Tatsuya mutters behind her.
“You can use Kotoludi to fix it, just like with possession. Longma has it. Maya, I know you and Longma don’t mesh well together, so you can carry some Ohnusa on you, that’ll work too. Or maybe next time we’re in the Velvet Room—"
“How awful!” Lisa interrupts, rushing forward and pulling Tatsuya into a tight hug. Just like always, Tatsuya stiffens up like a board, hands freezing at his sides. Yukino sighs; nothing wrong with young love, but it kind of hurts to watch how Tatsuya goes as far from reciprocating it as possible. He never hugs back, but usually he at least lets her do as she wants without shoving her away. This time, though, when Lisa’s hands rest on his back, he shrinks from her touch, a hand jerking up to brush her off.
She immediately jumps back, looking alarmed. “Are you hurt? Do you need me to heal you?”
“No,” he replies, short, hand rubbing at his shoulder.
Yukino frowns. She saw him protecting the same spot when he was under the spell; it wouldn’t surprise her if he was hiding an injury he decided was too small to worry about. “You sure?”
“Yeah, just...” he gives his head a hard shake. “Sorry. Still...wearing off, I think.”
“Tough, man,” Eikichi offers sympathetically. Lisa, however, has her fists clenched, looking more upset than ever.
“Kehhei! Stupid demon!” she spits. “It hurt Maya-san and my Chinyan too! If Mayuzumi-san hadn’t already killed it, I’d kick its head off!”
Yukino blinks. They...think the demon hurt Maya, and Yukino killed it in return. Of course they would; they weren’t there to see what Tatsuya did. She glances behind the kids to where Maya is sitting—to where Maya is meeting her eyes intently with a big smile.
“Yukki really showed it what for, though!” she laughs, cheery as ever. “She even used Vesta to protect me! Thanks for the assist!”
...Is it possible Maya doesn’t know either? She was behind Yukino, maybe she didn’t...
But as bright as Maya’s smile is, it doesn’t reach her piercing eyes, locked right onto Yukino. Play along.
“...Yeah, you guys chipped it down for me,” she hears herself say. “Team effort.”
Maybe it’s because she really didn’t want to tell Tatsuya he’d attacked Maya in his terror. Attacked her with fire, no less. Lying leaves a bad taste in her mouth—she’d rather her team know the truth, even if it hurts, so they’re better prepared for next time—but she’s lost her chance to speak up.
“Anyone else need healing?” Maya stands up, a bit shaky but apparently determined to ignore it, dusting herself off.
Eikichi and Lisa confirm that they’re fine, but Yukino notices how Tatsuya is silent, gaze fixed on the floor. He better not be actually hiding a wound...
She’s about to ask him when, unexpectedly, he speaks up on his own. “Um, Amano-san, are...are you okay?”
The smile on Maya’s face freezes for a second, along with Yukino’s heart—was she wrong, and he does remember attacking her?—but she just laughs with a “Totally fine! Lisa-chan healed any scratches I had!”
Tatsuya looks a little lost, eyebrows furrowing. “I thought...nevermind,” he mumbles. “I must’ve imagined it.”
He’s still got that hand on his shoulder. “What about you, Tatsuya-kun?” Yukino asks, since she has the chance. “You’ve been grabbing at your shoulder for a while now. Need me to take a look?”
Tatsuya startles, bringing both arms down to his sides. “No, I’m not hurt,” he says. He frowns, glances around him, and brings out his lighter. “I don’t know. It felt like...someone was behind me.”
Ominous enough, and it doesn’t really explain the shoulder thing anyway, but she’s willing to trust him. If he is hiding an injury, he has access to the same Personas the rest of them do, and can heal it himself.
“Well,” Yukino sighs, “I know we’ve got a grand total of one demon defeated, but it caught us off guard with that spell and I don’t want to try our chances again when we’re all tired.”
“It was a good learning experience, though, right? Now we’re prepared in case it happens again,” Maya adds warmly. Eikichi and Lisa just look relieved to be getting out of here, leading the charge towards the exit.
Tatsuya trails a little ways behind, stopping occasionally to look back at the rubble from their battle, before following dutifully along with the rest of the group.
Yukino waits until her stride matches Maya’s. “You okay?”
The smile Maya gives her is slightly less strained than the one from before, but still not quite genuine. “Yeah, you know I can take a fire attack and keep going. Just startled me, is all. Really, thank you, Yukki.”
Yukino turns away, embarrassed. “Wasn’t anything to thank me for. I should’ve just healed him right away and not wasted any time talking.”
“It was worth a shot. Something about his resonance felt...” Maya trails off, furrow in her brow.
“Smaller?” Yukino suggests.
“Smaller,” Maya agrees. “But...something familiar, too.”
Yukino thinks back, unsure what would be familiar about it. Sure, maybe for herself, because she’s seen the ailment before, felt the acidic tinge it brings...but for Maya?
“I can even still feel it a little bit,” Maya continues in Yukino’s silence. “Vulcanus is on high alert. Still spooked. I just get the feeling I’ve felt it somewhere before.”
“Well, he’s good at hiding it, but I’m sure he’s been plenty spooked at all the stuff we’ve seen.” Her offered explanation doesn’t seem to fit with whatever Maya’s thinking, though, if the look on her face tells her anything.
“I think he was scared of the fire.”
Yukino blinks, turns to face her in surprise, but she won’t be getting any explanation for now—just like that, they’ve reached the exit of the Abandoned Factory.
“See you guys tomorrow!” Lisa is saying, bright and determined despite the dirt on her face and clothes. “Um, we meet back up tomorrow at Shiraishi Ramen, right?”
“That’s the plan!” Maya answers, in her well earned role of leader once again. “Get a good night’s rest, you guys.”
They wave goodbye, Eikichi humming a tune as he heads off. Yukino can tell Tatsuya is approaching without looking back, signaled with the flip-click, flip-click of his lighter like a dog with a bell collar.
“Thanks again for fixing the spell,” he murmurs, voice low. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Mayuzumi-san, Amano-san.”
“Goodnight, Tatsuya-kun,” Maya returns, warm as a candle. “Sweet dreams!”
Flip-click, flip-click. Tatsuya nods once, and walks off into the evening.
Yukino watches him go. There’s a moment where he pauses, turns around, eyes searching.
Yukino sees, and glances sideways at Maya. She’s staring ahead, meeting his gaze, candlelight smile burning low.
Even from here, she feels the spark of Tatsuya’s resonance. Of Vulcanus. Something familiar, Maya had called it.
“You too, Yukki,” Maya is saying. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” Yukino returns her smile. “Be safe.”
Tatsuya’s memory isn’t the greatest.
He’s never been one for studying. Nonsense numbers and dates that’ve got nothing to do with him don’t stick in his head easy. Classmates and even teachers call him air-headed. He doesn’t remember dinner yesterday, or the first ten years of his life, or what happened in the battle an hour ago where he was hit by some mysterious new “fear spell”.
When he tries to think about it, tries to remember what the spell made him see, how it made him act—it’s like he’s brushing up against a raw wound on his brain, like an awful rug burn just behind his eyes. But he has to know, morbidly curious, like a sleepwalker might be if they woke up to all the glass in their home shattered to bits. He’s forgetful, but not stupid. He saw the look on Mayuzumi-san’s face.
As he takes the familiar path back to his home, he tries to retrace the steps of the battle. The initial ambush...then Vesta’s flames...Eikichi and Lisa at his side...the Lich meeting his eyes as he unsheathed his blade...a flash of light and
hot
Tatsuya stumbles on flat pavement, grimacing as he tries to—think past it—
trapped
Come on—the ailment was cured, there’s no danger—
behind—there’s nothing behind him, ignore the—inside, me
Instinctively, his hand jerks up to clamp his shoulder. Why always his shoulder? Mayuzumi-san commented on it too. He’s been healed. There’s no injury there. The demon didn’t even aim there. It doesn’t even hurt. He forces himself to lower his hand, and finds himself under a dim streetlamp. Apparently he’d stopped walking. He swallows, taking a slow breath in as the rubbed-raw feeling fades out from his skull.
...He can think about this more when he’s safe in his room. Safe from—wandering around and missing a turn.
He can’t help it. He checks behind himself one more time.