Chapter Text
Kotone lays on the floor of Tartarus. The cold tile beckons her to stay down forever. She doesn’t even bother to look up as Orpheus’s strings hum a melody that pierces through the air like laughter. A bright orange light fills her peripheral vision. The soothing coolness of the tiles is overpowered by the burning heat consuming her.
She jolts into an upright position, the blanket falling to her lap. The alarm clock on her nightstand shows ‘6:50’ and there’s a polite yet commanding knock on the door. It’s unfair. Saving the world and still having to go to school. Who even cares if she’s not there? She sluggishly gets out of bed, if only to get the knocking to cease.
The cold wood of the dorm floor does little to push the dream away. Whatever, her morning routine was already getting going. Whoever decided having a sink and a mirror in a dorm room was a saviour, having to walk down 2 flights of stairs to brush her teeth right after waking up would be hell.
She walks over and marks her calendar with a smiley face, a little trick her mother taught her. It's important that you start each day with a smile, or at least let everyone think you do.
As Kotone reaches the ground floor the sound of Akihiko and Mitsuru conversing at the table silences her thoughts. She walks past them to the couches, sitting next to Junpei as he plays some game on his… DSvita was it?
“Kotone, please eat breakfast before you leave.” Mitsuru asks, but it feels like being scolded. Ever since she had awakened she had Mitsuru and Akihiko babying her. Making sure she ate and got enough sleep. Yeah she’s important to the team but it’s too much sometimes.
The walk to school felt shorter than usual. Junpei talked the whole time about whatever was on his mind. He rambled about Summer, and then girls, and the finals that stood between the summer and girls, the new arcade in the mall, and the dorms…Although by the time they were at their desks waiting for class to start she wished Junpei would stop, she closes her eyes and tries her best to block everything out.
And the next thing she remembers is being woken up by Ms. Toriumi after class had ended. Whoopsie. She really should fix her sleep schedule, or drink more caffeine.
“Kotone you cannot sleep through class everyday, and I can’t interrupt every lesson just to wake you up.” She scolded.
As tempted as she was to throw the dark hour out as an excuse she knew she couldn’t. Outside of that she really has no reason to be sleeping during the day. So instead of talking back, Kotone mutters "I'm sorry ma’am.”
“That aside, you must join a committee. Since you joined the school late we gave you time to get adjusted. The only two that are still in need of members are the Library and Health committees.”
Kotone makes a note to herself to beg Mitsuru to let her be the exception. S.E.E.S should count as a committee.
“I suppose I’ll join the library committee.” Kotone says trying her best to sound somewhat chipper. It comes out in that obviously fake tone. Whatever. Great. It's a library, who even goes to the library anyway.
…
After school she goes to get coffee with Junpei. Honestly she’s trying to tune him out completely at this point, her mind is just too busy right now. Constantly hearing about all the dates her classmates are going on stresses her out. They’re so stress free. She’s not bitter. Having a persona is cool. It makes her unique and special…not that anyone even knows about it.
“So K-man!-er K-woman, got anyone in your sights?” Junpei says with the same cheerful tone he always had. When you were in a good mood being around him was wonderful, but being in a sour mood around him would make it worse. Kotone’s only response to his question was to glare.
“Aww don’t be like that. I’m the only guy on the team! I need someone to yap with, and Yuka-tan isn’t ever gonna be friendly with me.”
“I don’t have time for romance.” Kotone finally manages to mutter.
“Dude what? You’re too pretty to not date anyone! You wouldn’t even need to try! If you were more confident you could have a following like Mitsuru-senpai too.”
Kotone picks up her mug before roughly slamming it back into the table “I barely have enough time to train with school, and there's no way Mitsuru and Akihiko would ever approve of anyone I bring to the dorm. And it would interfere with any meetings or missions we go on.”
“Dude they aren't your parents, and you deserve to find happiness no matter what our Senpais think.”
Junpei’s insight was surprisingly helpful, maybe she could date in S.E.E.S to avoid the headache of it all. Though that only offers Junpei and Akihiko, definitely not her first choices.
Eventually they make their way to the dorm. She mumbles a promise to Mitsuru that she would go to Tartarus and train, but she’s tired from all the stress of the day. They always say she needs more sleep anyway.
…
The cold floor of Tartarus feels nice after a rather warm April. The evoker held securely in her hand burns, it always did just after pulling the trigger.
The gentle hum of a harp echoes through the halls. She opens her eyes to Orpheus. She watches her play the harp for a while floating above her. Orpheus pauses her song to raise her instrument over her head, before slamming it down.
Kotone quickly gets out of her bed. The cold wood of her floor--. She throws on shoes and silently makes her way out of the dorm and to Paulownia mall.
“Welcome to the velvet room, my esteemed guest.” The long nosed man says before lowering his voice slightly. “…you know this won’t bring any peace.”
Kotone simply nodded as she fused Orpheus and Pixie together, accepting Angel into her heart as quickly as possible, even if she was…questionably dressed, or well undressed.
…
May 9th. There’s a full moon today. The calendar has the date covered with a drawing of the moon, so she draws a silly face on it! Full moons have always been something small to look forward to.
The day is so boring and normal. Walk to school with Junpei, sit through classes, and eat lunch alone.
While eating she notices a girl being picked on. Admittedly she only knows her by the names that everyone calls her, shes heard “Mitsuru superfan” and “creepy obsessive girl” and “faggot”. She should really go help but becoming a target for the bullies would only make her life miserable, at least her school life just has her being ignored. Junpei and Yukari have plans so she’ll probably go back to the dorms to relax after school
…
She wakes up to the unnatural green light of the dark hour pouring through the windows, the moon ever so slightly visible through a slit in her curtains.
“Shiomi! Come to the operation room ASAP!” Akihiko shouts from behind her door. She quickly gets dressed and follows him. Everyone, even Ikutsuki, is watching the monitors. There’s a large shadow by the monorail. She pulls out her phone to check how cold it will be…and puts it away cause she forgot phones don’t work in the dark hour.
The walk over to the monorail is surprisingly warm, she almost didn’t need her sweater. Junpei and Yukari seemed fine, they were even joking around. Somehow not tense at all despite the fact that they were walking towards a fight they had no information about.
…
Kotone and Yukari finally make it to Junpei, he’s seemingly frozen staring up at the shadow. Yukari smacks him on the back of his head
“Pervert. Who knew all it took was a shadow having boobs to throw you off your game.” Yukari readies her bow and stands beside Junpei. The second he looks away the shadow sends out one of its tentacles. Out of instinct Kotone starts to reach for her evoker but without thinking she throws herself in front of the attack.
The pain shoots through her very quickly. She barely registers the brand new hole in her stomach as she falls to her knees. Junpei and Yukari are yelling something but she can’t make anything out through the ringing in her ears.
She finds herself lying on the floor of Tartarus, the sound of a shadow wandering around fills the air. She feels colder than usual. She should probably get up…but she can’t seem to muster the will.
Her eyes barely open as she’s dragged across the floor. She manages to catch the faintest sight of Orpheus before she closes her eyes again. Only opening them back up after Orpheus tosses her off of the tower, she braces for impact as she barrels toward the ground.
…
Kotone wakes up in Tatsumi Memorial Hospital with a jolt, she falls back as pain shoots through her stomach. Junpei immediately lights up as she sits up. Him not being dead is a good sign, guess the fight went well without her. He calls everyone and tells them that she’s awake. Goodness, how long has it been?
Junpei puts his phone away and focuses back on her “Oh Kotone! Thank goodness you’re okay! How ya feeling?”
How was she feeling? How was she even alive?! What in the world was she thinking throwing herself into harm's way? She could have easily died from that!
Right, Junpei would’ve been hit. Would he have lived? Did she do the right thing? She needs to stop overthinking things. Everything played out the way that it did and there's no changing it. Everything is fine.
“I feel…okay…There’s some pain but it's manageable…How long have I been here?” Kotone started to panic as she asked.
Junpei was quick to notice and try to comfort. “Only about a week, and I got all your homework from your teachers. I tried to solve ‘em but…you’re probably better off just doin’ it yourself.”
There was a moment of silence between them so Junpei kept talking
“Duuuude you got so lucky! You didn’t get hit anywhere important. And I appreciate you protecting me and stuff. Also Mitsuru-senpai said the only reason you lived was ‘cause your persona! She uh…burned your wound shut? Or something.”
Mitsuru pushed the door open with nothing but relief on her face, but it was very quickly replaced with disappointment. Mitsuru stepped aside as a doctor rushed in to make sure Kotone was stable, but the dread in her chest never lessened.
…
Missed a week of school, chewed out by Mitsuru, and had to go to this stupid library all in 24 hours. She would say someone should put her on suicide watch, but that stunt on the train already has everyone on edge.
She hesitantly walks into the library only to find it empty. Even the librarian is missing. As she turns to leave she nearly slams into a woman who is definitely older than her but not quite librarian age. Somewhat taller than her too, Kotone was nearly up to her eyes. Her eyes were a light grey, matching her hair. The type of woman someone would have a picture of in a locket while they were at war. She kinda smelled like–
“Are you Kotone Shiomi?” The woman asked in this low, timid voice, pulling Kotone out of her rather strange train of thoughts. She opened her mouth to respond and promptly closed it when she couldn’t muster any words, instead she silently nodded.
“...Okay great! I heard you were joining the library committee! We have a lot to get done today so lets just get right into it.” The woman said rather emotionlessly while handing Kotone a stack of books. “Make sure you put them on the shelf alphabetically, there is a list next to the computer on the librarian’s desk with every book listed for reference. Unless you would rather help put a barcode in every book.”
This woman runs the library like the navy. Definitely couldn’t ditch this. She’d probably hunt her down herself…she's still gonna try.
…
Kotone and the older woman worked in silence. It was actually kinda relaxing. It felt nice to be helpful to someone. The older woman worked astonishingly efficiently, Kotone couldn’t help but stare a little. After a long bout of silence a girl came into the library and approached the older woman.
“Saori-senpai! Do you have the notes for physics class? The teacher writes soooo fast and I can’t keep up!”
“Oh yes, I have to try hard in that class so I make sure to take notes diligently-” Saori says as she searches through her bag, the second the papers are out in the open Saori’s ‘friend’ snatches the notes out of her hand and starts leaving
“Thanks Hasegawa-san! I’ll totally pay you back later!”
Hasegawa silently returned to taping barcodes into the books. Things felt heavier. Kotone felt the need to say something, get Saori’s mind off everything. After an unbearable silence she finally says “So who was that? Was she a friend of yours?”
Saori pauses for a moment before looking at Kotone. “...I doubt she would call me that. We’re really only classmates.” Hasegawa smiles but her eyes are dull. She's clearly putting on a facade. That peaks Kotone’s interest. Her task is all but forgotten at this point.
Kotone took a bit to think about what to say to spark conversation, she never was good at small talk. “Why the Library committee, Saori-senpai?”
That caused her to pause before she turned to Kotone. “Please. I'm a 2nd year just like you. There's no need for such formalities.”
2nd year? She looks older than even the 3rd years. Is it rude to ask her age? It's unlike Kotone to get so caught up in her own thoughts like this. Saori, seemingly sensing her struggle, says unprompted “I'm 18, I was abroad for a bit so they held me back.”
“I'm actually 18 as well…but the staff were told not to disclose that.”
“Oh! What a fun coincidence! I’ve never met another student who’s my age…” Saori trails off seemingly happy with the exchange.
“My parents died when I was 6 and they kept me out of the school system while they searched for a foster home.” why the FUCK did she just say that? There was no need to crush her high spirits. What is wrong with Kotone right now?
Saori’s face drained its colour, clearly not expecting the reason to be so grim. “I’m so sorry for your loss…and for the awkward conversation.”
“It was years ago Saori-san, don’t worry about it. I’ve moved on-” Kotone was cut off by the screeching of a chair against the floor. Saori was approaching her with a determined look on her face.
“I apologise for the lack of a proper introduction until now. My name is Saori Hasegawa.” She outstretched her hand to a surprised Kotone. She took Saori’s surprisingly soft hand in hers. “Nice to meet you, Shiomi-san”