Chapter 28

It was a subdued S.E.E.S. that waited in the hospital hallway.

Yukari and Junpei had been carted away to back rooms ages ago (by Minato's admittedly weary estimate, it had been nearly two hours). The rest of the team hunkered down as best they could in the sadly familiar white halls of the hospital.

Mitsuru and Akihiko had initially sat on the polished floor, stubbornly pretending to be comfortable as they leaned, sat up, scooched around, and generally fidgeted to find a pleasant position. But after half an hour, they both succumbed to their anxiety (and impatience), pacing around the corridor like angry soldiers on guard duty. Akihiko marched back and forth with frustrated strides, almost lapping Mitsuru before backing off and waiting for her to gain more distance. Meanwhile, the other on-duty "guard" attempted to look like she wasn't worried at all, with tight, controlled steps and a blank expression. And hands so stiff they gave plywood a run for its money.

Hamuko and Minato remained on the floor. Minato sat with his back against the wall, having removed his collared dress shirt but still wearing his white undershirt. The undershirt was splotched red with Yukari's blood, mostly splattered on the front with a large stain covering his stomach. His dress shirt lay to one side, crumpled into a ball of biohazard fabric, leaking yet more of Yukari's blood onto the floor and adding a growing splash of color to the otherwise pristine environment. (He should really make sure that gets cleaned up.) Minato's legs sprawled out into the hallway, partly blocking traffic and giving Akihiko and Mitsuru something to step over as they tramped along their patrol route.

Hamuko lay on Minato's other side, completely passed out. He smiled faintly as he looked down at her. Minato had expected his sister to be pacing around the halls with the seniors, but within moments of lying down, she was out. When she had first fallen asleep, her hands had clenched tightly, as if grasping at something, but catching only nightmares. Her legs trembled and twitched erratically, shoes tapping against the wall as a small whimper escaped her. It didn't take Minato long to notice and reach over to her, gently unclenching her fist and lacing his fingers with hers. She had sighed and loosened her fists, her leg stopped twitching quite as much, and her breathing relaxed.

Anyways, that's why Minato's arm was now asleep.

Minato glanced back over to his current task. He was still holding his sister's hand, but in his free hand, he held and clicked away on his phone, typing notes to himself on his phone's rudimentary notes application:

- New Tartarus safety ideas:

- Rplc SEES unifrm w/ bdy armr (get $ from Krjo Grp?)

- Mndtry training days

- Emrgncy Trsto crystal for all

- Elmntl dmg crystals for all

He glanced up as the seniors made another pass, feet cracking against the ground as their expressions darkened (or hands further stiffened) with each passing minute.

- Quieter Shoes for Aki/Mtsru

He paused, brainstorming. In hindsight, he really should have thought of these ideas his first time around, and especially should have thought of them as soon as he got to this world. Sure, he'd been trying to stick as close as he could to the timeline, but...

Well, regardless, he hadn't. And there was no time to feel guilty or sorry for himself. It was time to think.

Or rather, it would have been time to think. Instead, the light taps of yet more shoes (far more controlled than Akihiko and Mitsuru's abuse of the tiled floor) stole his attention from the phone, and directed it towards an approaching familiar figure.

Hashino Shoji had never looked meek, but now, he strode down the hall with iron purpose. His back was straight as a well-disciplined arrow, with two manila folders held firmly in one hand. His hair was its usual salt-and-pepper shade of grey, but it was less-kempt than the norm. As Shoji approached, the tiredness shackled to his expression became clear… although it didn't affect his all-business look.

"Sorry for th' wait," he said as he grew near, his voice seizing the attention of the seniors. They cut their patrol routes short and beelined to the doctor, stopping in front of Minato. Hamuko awoke, blurry-eyed, and raised her head to see Shoji. Once his identity registered, she sat up and disentangled her hand from Minato's to rub the sleepy grunge away from her eyes.

"The doctors are still lookin' at Yukari and Junpei. I don't have any more info on them for now, so get that out of your heads." Shoji's voice was relatively quiet, but still held the taut edge of authority. "What I want now is a full summary of tonight. What happened out there?"

The doctor's eyes were set squarely on Mitsuru. Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, she gave her usual precise summarization, honed by years of prepping reports for S.E.E.S. and school. Shoji was silent for most of it, only interrupting for clarification or confirmation at certain points. Those points included Minato summoning his persona, Yukari's defense against the Emperor, the Shadows changing weaknesses, and also…

"...after which Arisato Minato took over field leader responsibilities."

"Minato?" Shoji flicked his gaze over to the boy in question, still seated on the ground.

"That is correct." Mitsuru also turned her eyes in his direction. "He performed his duties admirably, and I have no doubt that he was by far the most competent leader tonight."

All eyes fell on the substitute field leader. He blinked (but with leadership) in response.

While the others continued looking at Minato, Shoji's eyes darted back to Mitsuru. "Then I'm glad he stepped up. Continue."

And she did. She spoke for several more minutes, concluding her overview by describing the chaos of the dark hour's end, up to when Shoji appeared with the ambulance.

"...Alright. Thanks for the update. I can relay that to your father, Mitsuru, so don't worry about talkin' to him about that." Shoji ran a hand through his uncombed hair. "Now, this is important - I need you all to look at me."

Everyone did. Shoji paused, briefly making meaningful eye contact with all four teenagers.

"What happened tonight - regardless of Yukari and Junpei's condition - is not your fault."

Akihiko winced, Mitsuru's eyes scrunched, and Hamuko glanced down, bangs hanging over her eyes.

Shoji had been looking to Hamuko when he spoke, but glanced over to Minato for long enough to notice the clenching of his jaw and the slight twinge of his visible eye.

"Tonight, some mistakes were made," he continued, glancing between all four of his charges. "But despite that, you are not the ones who hurt your teammates. You are the ones who saved them. And if I see any of you even think about blaming yourselves for this, you'll be getting an earful from me. Mitsuru can tell ya - it ain't pretty."

The teenagers all shifted about following that remark, digesting the thought. Minato tapped his fingers in an uneven rhythm on his pants. He glanced down at his bloodied shirt, dried gore sticking to his skin.

…I don't know how I feel right now, but "guilt-free" wouldn't be my first choice.

A squeaking, rolling noise came from down the hall, and a side door swung open behind the doctor, but Shoji didn't pay it any mind. "So," he said, "right now, we still need to- hey, what the hell-?!"

The rest of S.E.E.S. did pay attention to it. A bed came rolling through the opened door (pushed by a young male nurse with blond-dyed hair), and not a single member of S.E.E.S. continued listening to Shoji as they saw the patient resting on it: Yukari.

"You damn punks," the old doctor grumbled as everyone rushed to the bed, his words flying right over their heads. He sighed and followed at a more reasonable pace.

Yukari's face was calm as she lay asleep, although Minato couldn't tell if her rest was natural or induced by anesthesia. Her legs were covered in bandages, especially her right leg, but it was her right arm that really captured his attention. It was completely encased in plaster, from the base of her narrow wrist to her shoulder, and held aloft by a sling. Her upper body was propped up on the bed, the upper half of the mattress tilted to put Yukari in a semi-upright position. Most of the blood had been cleaned off her, but her hair was still completely matted and filthy.

"You really gonna make this girl try to recover with her hair like that?" Shoji shook his head at the nurse. "For God's sake, get someone to clean that."

"I will as soon as I get her inside, Hashino-san. We were a bit preoccupied with her arm," the nurse responded tightly. He shoved a stack of papers at Shoji with one hand, continuing to push the bed with the other. "Here's the most recent detailed notes regarding her condition. I'm relying on you to let her know about-"

"Do you mind if I sign her cast?"

"Wh-" The nurse was distracted from his discussion with Shoji when Hamuko spoke. He flipped his head around to watch as Hamuko, wielding a marker, walked alongside the bed as it trundled forward. "Yes, I do mind, don't-"

Far too late. By the time the nurse protested, Hamuko was halfway through scrawling a message on Yukari's cast. After a final flourish, she capped the marker and shoved it back into her pocket. "Thanks."

(It finally clicked for Minato. Ah. So that's why I couldn't find my marker.)

Meanwhile, the nurse gave Hamuko a look so scathing it could've fried an egg, but relented before she even got over easy. "Please, everyone, just let me get Takeba-san inside. And Hashino-san, please keep them out until I am finished."

Shoji chuckled, placing a firm grip on Hamuko's shoulder, slightly curbing her unrepentant look. (Keyword: slightly.)

"I will," he promised, using his other hand to press Mitsuru and Akihiko back, letting the nurse roll the bed past the group unhindered.

Minato, currently unrestrained, followed the bed until it stopped (ignoring Shoji's warning look). He held the nearest room's door open for the nurse when he stopped to reposition the bed to fit it through the doorway. The nurse gave him a tired nod of thanks, before doing a double-take. "Oh, Minato-kun. Thanks man."

He hummed in acknowledgement. "Tell Aisha-san I say hi."

"Tell her yourself." The nurse chuckled. "I know it's technically good we don't see you often, but wouldn't hurt to stop by."

"I've been busy." The man snorted at that, but Minato continued. "...I'll say hi soon."

"Good. Now, I've got to settle Takeba-san in her room. Your other friend should be here within the hour; I don't know all the details of his condition, but I'm pretty sure he'll be just fine. He didn't suffer any permanent damage that I'm aware of."

Minato felt a knot inside of him loosen, just a little. "Got it. Thanks."

And with that, the nurse rolled Yukari's bed into the room, and Minato let the door quietly shut behind them.

"...You know him, Mina?"

Minato turned to find himself receiving four questioning stares. He nodded.

"He's going out with Aisha-san, the receptionist downstairs. They went to the same undergrad school."

(Now that he thought about it, one of the last times he saw Aisha was when he and Yukari had gone to visit Hamuko in the hospital, the day she woke up from her week long post-Thanatos-summoning nap. And now he met Aisha's boyfriend upstairs with Hamuko safe, but Yukari bedridden. How ironic.)

Back in reality, his comment was met with nonplussed stares. Minato met them all evenly, and scratched his arm.

Eventually, Hamuko recovered, beating the others by a few seconds. "Well, I'm glad that you're still making friends, Mina, but… Hashino-san." Shoji looked down at her as she faced him. "When can we see Yukari? When can we know her condition?"

"'When can we see her' is a question I can answer: not now. 'Know her condition' is a question for Yukari. Once I take a look at this," he waved the new notes at Hamuko, "I will let her know. She will decide what she wants to tell you all. But, regardless, not a single one of you will go inside until I tell Yukari her condition. Understood?"

Shoji hadn't used his full-on serious voice, but everyone seemed to understand the finality of his decision anyway. With his point properly made, Shoji flipped open the folder and began reading.

Minato kept his eye on Shoji as the doctor scanned the folder. His heartbeat began to thump-thump-thump faster as he watched the doctor's reaction. Shoji's face sagged slightly as he skimmed the notes, flipping pages rapidly, until he reached a page close to the end. He froze and closed his eyes. Then, after a moment of hesitation, he kept reading.

Was it a small reaction? Yes. But in terms of Shoji's reactions, that might as well be a scream of horror. Minato gripped his phone tighter, trying not to jump up and tear the notes from Shoji's hands.

He glanced over to Mitsuru, who had also been looking at Shoji, to see her face also vaguely tightened.

That was enough of a confirmation for Minato. If Mitsuru also thinks something's up with Shoji's reaction… then something must really be bad.

After about 15 more minutes (which felt like enough time to give Nyx wrinkles), the nurse came back outside, rubbing his hands together as he wiped away the hand-sanitizer in his palms. "Ok Hashino-san, she's all set up in there, and I changed her pillowcase after I cleaned up her hair." He looked at the older doctor. "She'll probably wake up from her anesthesia in 30 minutes or less. I'd like for you to be there to explain her condition when she does."

"...Alright." Shoji slowly folded the detailed notes shut with one hand, tucking it inside one of the other folders he was previously carrying. "Kids, find a place to rest. Feel free to ask for a spare bed."

And with that, he opened the door and strode into Yukari's room, the edge of his lab coat fluttering behind him and clipping the door frame as he left the hallway.

"Get some rest," muttered Hamuko, while Akihiko and Mitsuru began talking quietly off to the side. The nurse waved a goodbye to Minato (receiving a nod in return) before heading back down the hall. "Like hell I'm going to sleep while she's right there," she growled, sitting up ramrod straight and doing her best impression of an uptight, grouchy statue. "I'll wait right here until she wakes up. You can bet your ass on it."

Minato only hummed in reply, getting into a more comfortable position while Hamuko nearly quivered in irked anticipation. He watched as the door slowly closed, before he looked back down to his phone, clutched in his now slightly sweaty hand.

With the other, shoved inside his pocket, he crossed his fingers as the door clicked shut.

Yukari awoke to the steady beep of a heart monitor echoing in her ears.

Her brain was achingly slow (or maybe just aching and slow), her mind's engine starting to turn but mostly sputtering smoke. Her whole body throbbed, except for her right arm. That was odd, but why… why did she find it odd…?

Then, her mind jumped straight from idle into fifth gear.

-the fight-

-the monstrous Shadows-

-the enormous sword-

-painpainpainpain-

Ok, ok, oh God, different topic.

She tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids conveniently decided to be lazy, inching slowly, reluctantly upwards. Once they were half-open, the sterile fluorescent light shining from above pierced straight into her skull with all the power of the sun.

Ow. Her eyes slammed shut again. In hindsight, maybe she should have kept them closed.

A groan escaped Yukari, sounding much more like a dying animal than she would've preferred. Her throat was extremely scratchy and dry, so dry. She began to shift around, but-

"Woah there. Easy, kiddo."

A masculine voice came from her left side, and a hand pressed down on her left forearm. She didn't immediately recognize the voice, but it was... familiar.

Yukari cautiously opened her eyes again, still squinting as the burning rays of the lightbulb streamed down, and looked over to the man standing beside her - Shoji.

She'd met him before, but only briefly. Most of what she knew was from word of mouth… specifically, Hamuko's mouth, and anything Hamuko knew was apparently gleaned from Mitsuru and Akihiko.

So, what would the Hashino Shoji be like in person?

"Hate to say it, but you ain't lookin' too good right now, kid."

…

Wow. Was that him trying to have a bedside manner?

Hamuko was right on the money.

"Thanks, Hashino-san," Yukari managed to gurgle. She took a moment to move her tired eyes around the room, taking in the usual bland combination of white walls, white ceiling, white floor, white and black clock (with hour and minute hands reading 3:03, presumably AM)…

Oh! A painting! That was nice. Too bad it was a still-life of a white building. Who was in charge of interior decoration here, and what was his problem with the color wheel?

"How're you feeling?"

Yukari glanced back at the doctor. He'd moved his hand back to his pocket, and was staring at her intently.

"Mm…" she glanced down slowly, . "I've been better," (and wow, what an enlightening statement) "but overall, I expected I'd feel worse. From my right arm, especially."

Shoji hesitated at that. "...Well, I guess we might as well discuss that now," he said. "You feel able to discuss your condition?"

Yukari sighed, her exhale rippling down her hospital gown. "Yeah, let's get it over with."

Shoji replied with a sigh of his own. Yukari looked back up at him, and found him staring down at his notes, jaw slightly clenched as he flipped through the folder.

"Alright then," he muttered, pulling a stack of papers from the folder. "Let's start easy."

With a lick of his thumb, he turned the first page.

"First, your right leg. You took a pretty nasty spill and cut yourself bad. So, you're now the proud owner of several stitches. You'll have a scar, but that's about it."

Glancing down, Yukari couldn't see much aside from a tiny bit of the wound peeking out from the bottom of her gown.

"Next, various bruising across your body. Nothing that'll cause major internal bleeding, but a lot of your torso will smart for a while. You also lost a lot of blood, but nothing that put you in danger of bleeding out. Tell your persona thanks for that."

Shoji flipped another page.

"...Your right arm suffered the worst damage. It was raised up when you were struck," (Yukari flinched, but Shoji didn't look up from his notes) "so your forearm was broken, and the fracture broke into two fragments."

Shoji continued. "The sharp part of the sword stopped part way through your forearm, which was really damn lucky. But even though the blade didn't literally cut your arm off," (Yukari winced again. God, someone should really teach this man about the right time to be literal) "the concussive impact went through your arm and into your shoulder, dislocating it."

Yukari slowly nodded. She could definitely see that, she could easily remember the-

-feeling of the ground crunching beneath her, being smashed to the ground so hard and fast that the sword stuck inside her forearm was the least of her worries, because her arm shouldn't bend that way, and her shoulder was being crushed with such viciousness, with such unrelenting, unbelievable pressure, and she wasn't sure if it was better or worse when she was suddenly raised up and her shoulder was screaming and she was screaming and it felt like her arm was being torn straight out of her body and-

-yeah, in general, Yukari remembered the impact.

Shoji hesitated again.

Creeping dread began collecting in Yukari's stomach as she watched the doctor. He wasn't fidgeting with his phone, or anxiously tapping his fingers, or anything similar. He just… stalled, eyes riveted to the final page.

Then he cleared his throat.

"The last injury we found was inside your shoulder. During the examination, there were signs that gave the doctors cause for concern about your shoulder nerves, mostly because of the force of impact. So they called in a nerve specialist. Turns out, there was damage done to your nerves, classifi-" Shoji blinked, then sighed, somewhat agitated. "Well, doesn't matter. What you have is diagnosed as Erb's Palsy."

He glanced to Yukari. She stared right back. With a quiver to her lips and the heartbeat of a racehorse in her chest.

"We're not sure yet what treatment is possible, but I don't want to get your hopes up – it's unlikely that you'll ever go fully back to normal," Shoji said. "Nerve damage is tough to repair, so we'll have to see what the neurosurgeons say. And I doubt any healing spell from your personas will be able to fix it. From what we know, healing spells only speed up the healing process, but can't fix anything that wouldn't heal over time. We can get your friends to try, but first we would need to tell them, and I didn't want to do that without asking you-"

"Wait, just… wait a minute." Yukari's mind was exploding with the avalanche of new info. "...What are you saying? What- what is Erb's pa-palsy?"

Yukari's question hung heavily in the air. Shoji remained stiflingly silent.

Then, shifting forwards, Shoji stooped down to bring himself level with Yukari's eyes. And while his words were soft, they struck straight through Yukari's soul.

"It means you can't use your right arm, and it'll never go back to normal."

Yukari froze.

She tried to analyze Shoji's expression, parsing through his greying hair and the pronounced stubble surrounding the heavy, deep bags weighing on his eyes, even through his usual, serious expression.

Those were the details Yukari focused on. Not his words. She couldn't quite understand them.

So she asked again.

"I… sorry, I can't… what…?"

Shoji's labcoat draped over the bed as he leaned in further, placing a cool hand, smelling vaguely of alcohol wipes, on Yukari's uninjured shoulder.

"Yukari, your right arm is paralyzed."

Yukari just stared. Didn't even blink for several seconds. Her eyes drifted downwards to her cast, a slate grey color, which she now noticed was already signed by one person: "Call me when you wake up. I'll always be here for you. -Hamuko."

"But…" she replied in a minute, empty voice, while the scrawled words on her cast became blurred, "…But I need both arms to draw my bow…"

"I know."

"A-and doing my hair… I need two hands to do that…"

"...I know."

"Will… will I be ever be able to take a driver's test? Or… or can I take a shower alone? God, I really hope I don't need help for a sh… a sh… a sho…"

Too much. It was all just too much.

With that last thought, Yukari's tears finally overflowed.

They spilled down her face, cascading down her cheeks and onto the crinkled hospital sheets as her chest heaved sharply. Hiccups rose into sobs as her breathing grew ragged, and she slapped her working hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her gasps.

Yukari began to curl in on herself, only stopping when her movements shifted her right arm and pain fired up the neurons in her upper back. Despite the agony, her right arm remained numb, unfeeling, and locked in place. The hand she held in front of her mouth clenched into a tight fist.

She sat in that position, meek whimpers slipping past her lips, until she felt the hand on her shoulder squeeze lightly. Yukari looked up to find Shoji, expression still tired but tougher than steel, now with an overlaid sheen of understanding. The edges of his eyes scrunched in a wordless I'm here... and I'm not going.

Now, some of that may have just been Yukari imagining things. She couldn't see much through her tears. And she really didn't know Shoji very well (like, at all).

But despite her doubts…

She threw her free arm over his shoulder, yanking him towards her (he let out a surprised "woah!") and burying her face in his lab coat.

Because for once, she didn't care if it was weird.

She didn't care if she barely knew this person.

She didn't care if her upper back suddenly burst into agony.

She just needed someone there.

After a second of Shoji sitting perfectly still, he carefully wrapped an arm around her, and awkwardly rubbed the uninjured part of her back.

But despite his stilted movements, his words felt perfectly genuine to Yukari.

"You'll be alright, kid," he murmured, while her sobs slowly, slowly faded away against his shoulder.

"You're gonna be alright."

Shoji stepped out of Yukari's room feeling like 10 extra years had been slammed onto his shoulders.

This wasn't the first time he'd given bad news to a patient, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. But giving it to someone so young? The girl probably hadn't even had her first kiss and here she was without an entire arm. All because the Kirijo Group kept messing shit up.

If he didn't care so much for Mitsuru and her old man Takeharu, Shoji would've hung up his Kirijo-sponsored lab coat years ago. Reported this to the military years ago. But he was close to them, and so he knew that no military could resolve the supernatural problems these kids could.

All these kids, fighting battles they didn't start, for people who'd never know, or even believe it if they were told.

Damn, at times like these, he wished he hadn't quit smoking. But of course, Mitsuru was always annoyingly inquisitive, even at age 8, and soon discovered the dangers of his longtime habit. The tiny Kirijo heir had marched right up to him (with the predecessor to her now famous death glare, or whatever she called it now) and demanded he stop.

Don't you know that causes cancer?

Shoji, you shouldn't do that!

Shoji, I don't want you to die!

It was way too late to stop any forthcoming diseases; he'd been smoking for over half his life. But he'd thrown all his cigarettes out the same day regardless. Because he's a big softie at heart, and Takeharu and Mitsuru knew and know how to play him like a damn fiddle.

But despite the fact that his last puff was just shy of a decade prior, he still reached into the empty pocket where he used to keep his cigs as he walked back into the hallway where the other teenagers rested.

Hamuko was once again sound asleep, still as a stone next to her brother, head pillowed on her jacket. Well, almost still, since her now-untucked shirt rose up and down with each of her breaths. Minato was still typing something into his phone, legs now crossed underneath him, but otherwise in mostly the same position.

Those who were not in the same position: Mitsuru and Akihiko. Instead of pacing around the halls, they were both sitting beside Minato without a peep. And looking at the elderly nurse (with a crooked nose sharper than a saber, and a gaze piercing through her spectacles to match) that had moved into the hall while he'd been in Yukari's room, he had a solid guess as to why.

He nodded to the nurse. She flipped him the bird.

Heh. That was Suzuki, alright. The fact she acknowledged him at all was essentially a friendly greeting.

But no time for further reflection. After he greeted Suzuki, his presence had been noted. And his personal space invaded.

Three teenagers (not Hamuko; thankfully that punk remained asleep, and unable to wreak more havoc for the moment) were up and right next to him in a heartbeat. Mitsuru spoke first.

"How is-"

"She's awake," Shoji interrupted. "But still not fit for visitors; at least, none of you all. I'm not giving her more stress, and your good intentions be damned, that is all you'll do right now."

"...I understand," Mitsuru replied (she had also donned her pouty face, though Shoji was sure no one else noticed). "If that is the case, then maybe we should-"

"Excuse me. You there, excuse me!"

Mitsuru, having an unprecedented second interruption in under a minute, was caught between nonplussed, bewildered, and angry (Shoji caught himself about to smirk, but decided he'd better tuck that away for later). She turned on her heel towards the new arrival, with Shoji and the others following suit.

The new arrival was a young woman. Not "young" compared to Shoji's below-drinking-age charges, but at least a decade or two younger than the doctor himself. And she was clearly dressed to impress. Her red high heels tapped sharply against the sterilized hospital floor as she strode towards him. Just above her shoes were tight, dark leggings, leading up into a thin pencil skirt, colored with a look-at-me shade of pink. The skirt followed the woman's curves up (passing by a glossy, black purse hanging from her shoulder) to her caramel-brown hair, well-kempt and let down to frame her red lips and mascara-lined caramel brown eyes. Both of her eyebrows were drawn together in an angry expression out of place on her perfectly made-up face.

"You," she barked at Shoji, ignoring Suzuki's glare. "Are you the doctor in charge of Takeba Yukari?"

Ah, damn. Another strong personality. Because he needed another one.

Shoji nodded. "Sure am. I'm Hashino Shoji. Takeba Rin, yeah?"

The woman stopped in front of Shoji, folding her arms as she looked up (Shoji was barely taller than her, even with the high heels). "Saito Rin, but yes, I'm Yukari's mother," she snapped, the sound carrying across the room.

(Minato's head jerked after she spoke, but Shoji brushed it off. Minato was always a bit odd.)

"Well then, Ma'am, I should go over Yukari's condition with you." (Unfortunately.) "I'd also like your help with another matter-"

"...Mommy…?"

All conversation in the hall snapped to a halt at the faint voice. The fury was instantly erased from Rin's expression as she turned to the door next to her, opening it and striding inside before Shoji had the time to speak. He slightly winced, exhaling quickly, before walking in after her, closing the door on the other S.E.E.S. members outside (with one last warning look… though with Suzuki prowling outside, it probably wasn't necessary).

"...Oh my God."

Rin's strangled whisper was loud after the door shut, but Yukari didn't react to that. Instead, the younger girl's face was bursting with confusion as she stared at her mother. Rin stared right back, hand over her mouth.

After a moment, Rin dropped her hand to her side and stepped forward, approaching the bed carefully, like it was a mirage.

"I-I thought you'd have a date tonight? W-weren't you out?" Yukari's voice wavered.

"It is, and I was," Rin said, gently, "but I got a call that you'd been hospitalized."

"B-but you had a date… and you live so far away... I-I haven't even called you in, like, months… why would y-"

"Yukari, you're in the hospital!" Rin sat on the opposite side of the bed as Yukari's cast, laying a hand on her uninjured shoulder. "I don't care what I said or you said last time we talked. I'm going to come see you."

While her mom removed her high heels with her other hand, Yukari tried to decipher. "But… but, I thought you…"

"Yukari… sweetheart," Rin murmured. "I… know that we yelled and fought and… well, you know. But did you think I didn't care about you?"

Yukari paused, then shook her head, staring down at her lap while her hospital gown sagged around her shoulders. "I mean, sort of. …Well, no, I didn't really. I just… I-I dunno…"

She hesitated. "Y-you're always out with men… so I thought it was a priority, I guess…"

"No, it's not a priority," Rin said, strongly. Then, she glanced away. "Well, I know what you mean, but…"

Rin briefly shut her eyes. But when she looked back at Yukari, her focus was entirely on her daughter. "I'm here now. And I'm not going anywhere."

Rin moved her right hand from Yukari's shoulder, and cupped Yukari's cheek. "I promise."

Yukari stared at her mom for a moment longer. Then, squeezing her eyes shut as a few more tears leaked out, she tilted her head, leaning into her mother's hand. Rin scooched closer and leaned forward, letting mother and daughter touch foreheads, while a gentle silence filled the room, broken only by Yukari's occasional sniffs.

...Now, at this point, Shoji felt truly out of place. But he still had a job to do.

A shitty job. But still a job.

He coughed lightly into his elbow, a little message of 'Remember I'm still here?' for both girls.

After a beat, Rin spoke.

"...Have you not heard of privacy?"

"Well, you didn't let me finish earlier, ma'am," Shoji said, moving forward from the base of Yukari's bed to Rin's side. "Some time, I need to go over Yukari's condition with you. But that can wait, if you want. What can't wait is another outstanding matter. One that I'll need to talk to you about outside."

Rin turned her head and dropped her hand from Yukari's cheek, while Yukari's red eyes peeked back open, peering past her mother's scowling face.

"What on Earth," Rin growled, feral as a tiger, "could be more important than this-"

"If ya'd be so generous as to come with me, ma'am, I can tell ya."

Rin's laser-focused glare bounced off Shoji's stone wall expression. The two stared each other down for a few moments (while Yukari grew increasingly uncomfortable, awkwardly glancing between the clock hanging on the wall and the window), before Rin turned back to her daughter, angry expression melting away.

"I'll be back in a minute, alright? I promise."

Turning back to Rin, Yukari gave a little laugh, sparking a small flicker of light into the drab room. "I know Mom, it's fine."

Rin stared into Yukari's face for another second before she withdrew, standing up and facing Shoji. With an undercurrent of you'd better have a damn good reason, or a damn good last will and testament, buddy in her face.

Shoji had to tap into his rapidly draining reserve of willpower to not react. Children. Every one of them, including Rin. He was surrounded by children.

And speaking of which, as soon as Shoji ignored Rin's unspoken threat and opened the door, three gazes leapt to Shoji.

"No. Stay seated," Shoji ordered, which they all did, albeit reluctantly (Minato and Mitsuru especially gave him looks that blurred the lines between we won't forget this, you know, and you have personally offended our families by not allowing us in).

Surrounded. By. Children.

...Though literally in this case.

Shoji led Rin to an empty room two doors down from Yukari and opened the door, ushering her in. (Two doors down since Yukari would probably be able to hear parts of their discussion from just one door down; these walls were notoriously thin.)

The door shut, and they faced each other, Rin's arms crossed and Shoji's hands in his pockets.

Rin spoke first. "What."

"You're not just the emergency contact for your daughter. You're also the emergency contact for Iori Junpei. You know him?"

Rin looked to the side, through the window and the opened blinds where the city continued to sleep. She reached up and absently twirled her hair as she spoke, expression still brimming with you haven't been forgiven yet. "Junpei-kun? Yeah, I do. Not surprised I'm his emerg-"

Suddenly, Rin's head jerked back to look at Shoji with eyes wide, hair escaping from her finger. "Wait, he was injured too?! What the hell happened?!"

"We're not sure yet," Shoji replied. A murmur in the back of his mind told him to feel bad about lying, but the voice had gotten far weaker as he'd gotten more used to covering up supernatural shit. (It also helped that he couldn't convince her of the truth if he tried.) "We think it was some sort of hit and run, but the security cameras had a malfunction at the time of the incident. So right now, we don't know who did it, and we haven't had a chance to ask the kids about what they saw, so we don't know anything more."

"Well isn't that fucking convenient," Rin muttered, spitting out the curse with a foul expression shuttering her face.

Shoji, frankly, agreed.

After collecting herself, Rin released a sigh and pulled her hair back in a practiced manner, holding her hair in one hand while she fished for a hair tie in her purse with the other. "Alright. I can handle the paperwork for them both," she said, snapping her hair into a neat, pristine ponytail once she located her hair tie. "Just send it my way when you can… oh."

As soon as she said it, Shoji had already reached into the folders he was carrying and pulled out two large stacks of papers, held together by binder clips. "Take 'em," Shoji said with a light, wry smirk as Rin took in her new assignment. "It ain't as bad as ya think, kid."

Rin's expression was, ah, not exactly complimentary as she took the papers. "I am not a kid."

"You sure about that?"

Rin blinked as Shoji's smirk exited stage left, the frigid stare that replaced it locking her in place. "I ain't exactly a psychologist. And the Kirijos will be going bankrupt the day someone calls me a therapist. But it doesn't take a PhD to know that you and your daughter have some shit to sort out. Doesn't really sound like you're actin' like an adult to me."

Those were the magic words that broke the spell. Rin clenched her jaw and looked away. "...Yeah. Yeah, I know."

Shoji almost spoke up again (something like "Yeah, you damn well better know,"), but he got the sense that Rin wasn't actually done speaking yet. So he stayed quiet. And, after a few more moments, Rin continued.

"...I… definitely have work to do. I mean, before tonight, my last words to Yukari were an insult. I think it was 'you still just can't understand what I'm going through, you goddamn, hormonal child.'" She cleared her throat, bringing up her hand to shift a strand of hair away from her face, and then chuckled shakily. "No. Actually, I know so. Because I remember I left it in her voicemail."

Her hand moved down to cover her mouth. "I couldn't stop thinking about that," she said, voice small and vaguely muffled, "Repeating that line over and over as I drove over here. Praying that I hadn't lost my daughter like I did her… her f-father. Or, at least, at least, that I could say something else to her before she…"

Swallowing, she raked her hand through her hair, mussing it (and disheveling her previously scientifically aligned ponytail).

"And then I get here, and Yukari..." She huffed out an agitated breath. "...It's been years since Yukari last called me Mommy."

Rin hesitated.

"God. My own daughter wasn't sure if I loved her. And I can't blame her. It took her nearly dying for me to come visit her." She laughed, strangled, approaching hysterical. "God, what the hell is wrong with me?"

"A lot."

Rin blinked as Shoji finally cut in, and she re-entered the world of the living (or maybe exited her world of regret), then looked at Shoji with a narrowing expression before he continued. "Fortunately, there's still time to do something about it."

She scoffed, turning back away from Shoji.

"...Is there?" she muttered.

"If you mean your relationship with Yukari, I have no clue. That's up to her. But you can change how you act. And regardless of how she acts, you should behave like the person you want to be. Whoever that is." Shoji looked out the window. "Least, that's my opinion."

"...It makes sense," Rin replied. But didn't further comment.

And that was fine with him.

Rin mimicked Shoji's position and gazed outside the window too, letting both of them absorb the presence of the night. The revving of a car's engine occasionally echoed from the streets, but aside from that the night was quiet, the glow of the skyline a placid night light bouncing off the meandering clouds above.

Several minutes passed before Rin took the initiative. "Y' know," she said, with the shadow of a smile, "you'd be a better therapist than you think."

"Don't say that. You'll ruin my reputation as an asshole."

This time, Rin laughed naturally, like a quiet stream trickling down a woodland hill. "Alright. As one asshole to another, I won't tell." She glanced at Shoji, a slightly playful look in her now-reddened eyes. "Well, unless I get a good opportunity to use it as blackmail."

Shoji just shook his head, his smile hiding in his eyes as he didn't acknowledge the comment, opting instead to watch the city lights as the night came to its end.

Surrounded by children, I swear.

When Minato awoke, the laws of gravity had apparently taken the day off.

He found himself sitting in his usual chair in the Velvet Room, firmly locked onto the wall. In the real world, he hadn't actually moved from his spot across from Yukari's room. But apparently he'd dozed off against the wall after Shoji went to the other room with… with Yukari's mom. Minato wasn't sure he'd ever met her in person, but he supposed now was as good a time as any to meet his longtime friend's remaining parent.

But that would happen once he was back out of his dreams. In the meantime, here he was.

The Velvet Room looked the same as it always did: blue, pristine, and currently inhabited by his three mysterious friends. Elizabeth, Igor, and Theo all waited in their usual spots: Igor in his chair, with Elizabeth and Theo flanking him.

Igor's smile stretched wide, though still genuine. "Hello, my dear old guest."

"Igor," Minato replied. He sketched a lazy salute with one hand. "Elizabeth, Theo."

"Hello, Minato-san!" chirped Theo.

Elizabeth ignored the comment completely. She glanced down at Igor, who nodded. Stepping away from her boss, she walked straight towards the wall Minato was on, not breaking stride as she went from walking on the floor to walking on the wall and headed straight for him.

As soon as she arrived, she leaned over and wrapped her arms around Minato, squeezing slightly too hard. But Minato didn't mind, and he returned the favor.

"Do not worry yourself, Minato," Elizabeth said quietly in his ear, while his arms tightened around her. "What happened was out of your control. It is as the doctor said: you saved them, you did not hurt them."

"...I wish I could believe that," Minato said, voice muffled in her shoulder. "But I could have done so much more to protect them, done so much more to stop these things before they even began. So far, seems like the only thing I've done is make things worse."

"Your self-doubt is quite unbecoming of someone with your achievements, Minato," Igor said. Elizabeth and Minato released each other (although Minato took a second or two longer). The duo (plus Theo, who looked a bit scandalized by Elizabeth and Minato's easygoing contact) looked over to Igor. "You shall always have much to learn and improve upon, but you have done good already. Think of your friend Fuuka. Think of how you saved everyone's lives during the last fight. Think of the comfort you bring your sister when she needs it most, and the stability you provide your team in the direst of straits."

Igor tapped the side of his head, smile never wavering. "Perhaps you have made mistakes, but do not forget your victories. The way you view this universe is all bound to your perspective, my dear Minato. This is true of all universes. Do not forget that."

Minato glanced down at his feet, digesting that thought. After several seconds passed, Igor spoke again.

"Allow me to ask a question, Minato. What is your plan? Your current plan?"

Good question.

And honestly? He wasn't totally sure.

Up until now, he'd been caught up in the idea of keeping all the big things the same, of making sure that he knew exactly how to react to everything that happened. But, of course, he still had messed things up. He'd pretty much immediately gotten his leg broken, and the train fight had gone (off the rails! laughed the Hamuko in his head) completely differently than what he expected.

No one was seriously hurt on the train. And he could (and, in fact, did) ignore his own injury; that was just him being stupid, after all.

But now Yukari and Junpei had gotten hurt. He didn't even know the extent of their injuries from a medical perspective (he could only hear fragments of words from Shoji and Yukari's discussion), but he was there. He saw it happen, and he'd held Yukari's small, delicate frame as she clung to life after what easily could (and arguably should) have been a fatal blow.

Just one more butterfly effect-induced change, and there's no doubt in his mind:

They'd be dead.

He couldn't ignore that. He had done this. There were so many preventative measures he could have taken, so many warnings he neglected to give. And why? Just because he was scared to change the future too much, scared of warping this world, scared…

...scared of people not believing him. Or rejecting him.

If he was being honest, those were pretty high up on his list of reasons too. Although maybe that was his guilty conscience blowing things out of proportion; he wasn't exactly thinking straight at the moment. Now that he was in the Velvet Room, and could loosen up his act just a bit, he could finally say 'yes, I am just a bit distraught.'

Like a tsunami has just a bit more water than a puddle.

But either way, he had a huge list of things to do. There was a security drive that needed hacking, a future Persona user unsure of her abilities, more persona users who weren't aware of or weren't currently willing to join S.E.E.S., a sister who needed guidance, and, oh, just a casual mythical being that needed to be stopped. Among other assorted tasks. (Homework might be on the list somewhere. Maybe.)

Igor, as usual, had a point: he had done some good things. But he couldn't deny that in certain respects, he had just sat idly by and let this universe do whatever it wanted to his teammates… no, damn it all, to his friends. His family.

So, now that he thought about it: even though he didn't know exactly what his plan would be, there was only one real course of action to take.

He couldn't wait for Yakushima anymore.

Hell, he couldn't wait another second.

Minato looked at Elizabeth, whose smile had grown huge as he pondered. After all, she knew him well enough to guess exactly what he was thinking.

Elizabeth's grin threatened to split her face as Minato's mouth snapped into a smirk of his own, matching Igor's. (Theo's face was a big question mark, but he'd come around.)

"It's time to get serious," he said.

Arisato Minato stood up, and cracked his knuckles.

"It's time to change the future."

3:52 AM

Mission: Success

Casualties: 1

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.

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AN:

Wow.

That took a while… but holy cow everyone, we made it.

That's the end of season 2!

Given all the stuff that happened here, hopefully you can see why this took a while, on top of my usual slow update speed.

Now, first off, I want to say thank you to my amazing, incredible beta, who has incredible patience rivaled only by his writing skill and love of sci-fi visual novels: Disasternoj! Yes, my beta's name has changed from masternoj to Disasternoj, and you should absolutely go check out his tumblr and his own works on AO3 – trust me, you'll be able to see why I need his help. As always, his input was/is incredibly vital to this story, and I want to give a huge shout-out to him for spending his free time editing my stuff.

www(point)disasternoj(point)tumblr(point)com

www(point)archiveofourown(point)org/users/Disasternoj

I also want to say thank you to all of you for waiting on me and my molasses slow updates, as always. I have some of the best fans out there, and your patience for my update speed is just one of the reasons why.

Now, I do want to address the elephant in the room: Yukari's arm. Yes, Yukari now has only one functioning arm. If you're curious, you can google any of the medical terms (I think the main one remaining is just Erb's Palsy) to get more background on the injury. Essentially, the Emperor's sword tore some of the nerves (specifically the Brachial Plexus nerve) in Yukari's shoulder to the point where they were separated, paralyzing her arm. Yukari got the worst version of the condition, where recovery is… well, at best, very, very difficult.

This has been something I've been planning in the story for some time now, and I'm not doing it lightly: I want to show the full impact (no pun intended… maybe) of teenagers fighting enormous, dangerous monsters, especially when they're not as fully prepared as they could be.

What S.E.E.S. does is dangerous, and people will get hurt.

Further, I want to show the impact that losing a limb to paralysis has on someone. Because while (hopefully) Shadows will remain in the world of fiction, people with paralyzed limbs do exist. And I think it'd be pretty cool to include a real-world struggle in this story about teenagers with magic and a secret hour in the day. (It's for that same reason I'm including the parents more predominantly than I usually see in fics; people have issues with their parents, and some people's parents have issues, and I want to show that struggle as well).

So if anyone has any personal experience with a paralyzed limb(s) (or knows someone that is) and is comfortable sharing/talking about it, definitely let me know! I'd love to hear your story and see what your experience was/is like.

Alright, enough of that!

One last note before shout-outs: you'll be hearing from me sooner than you might think, BUT the next chapter of Lateral WILL NOT BE A STORY CHAPTER! It'll be something else, which I think is important for everyone. You'll see what I mean.

And with all that out of the way, here are the regularly scheduled shout-outs.

Shout outs to:

Exe(point)re, JEST3R-MEB, Solstin, imadorica, Vina15, TamerSpoon3, reiseverance11, phillipofgoat, WanderingReader10, bored kid 48, burnoutrevengeracer, aimankamal2306, Nenya22, Randomgear, Bobofen, coolanimau98, nobodyreallyimportant, Cseska, kingcarl, SSJGamerYT, PickledCucumbers, Gwyn2, Vraizer, Thekirby8u, Jollib95, Kirosha, Razgriz4323, Roxy 5938, Allstarall, tarkus013, and Sol for fav'ing;

Exe(point)re, JEST3R-MEB, CPU Azure, Azureashblade, Random guy dude, Soneforever, DragonTearBR, Vina15, reiseverance11, phillipofgoat, WanderingReader10, bored kid 48, burnoutrevengeracer, aimankamal2306, Reginleif2004, Nenya22, Randomgear, Bobofen, Cheshide, coolanimau98, vJakeeeyo, nobodyreallyimportant, Cseska, Kentukas, LostContinent, kingcarl, SSJGamerYT, PickledCucumbers, Derek Barona, knoll, Thekirby8u, Zenoblade, Nine To One, Jollib95, captain333, Razgriz4323, Averroes93, Allstarall, and Sol D(point) Mars for following;

And llat-2, Shadow1001, Vykat, crymblade, "guest" (aka KageFuego4), EmD23, Firaxtial, PickledCucumbers, RyougaZell, and Allstarall for reviewing!

In response to:

"guest" (aka Kage): Thanks as always! Yep, definitely wanted to give a "not-OP persona" to Minato, in keeping with Lateral's major theme of "ain't no Minato like an underpowered Minato." And glad to hear you were stoked for the next chapter, though my bad for making you wait so long for it. I'm betting this wasn't what you expected, but hope you thought it was good! (I would say "enjoyed it," but… ah, this wasn't really an "enjoyable" chapter, haha!)
Thanks for reviewing!

Firaxtial: Awesome, I'm glad to hear you're liking the character writing and such so far! As you now know from Minato's last comments here, he'll be more willing to go off script from now on, but you can definitely still look forward to more background/cast intermingling/canon twists.
Regarding Minato's plan: I don't think he's too worried about "destiny", since his existence here is sorta proof that the rules of the universe are more malleable than it seems. I won't go into detail about specifics (since I haven't yet discussed what Minato thinks about this), but as you say, regardless of all that, he'll still try, at least. (Not to mention, he'll be taking anything Ikutsuki said with a grain of salt – he's very smart and wily, but he's also, y' know, crazy. And Ikutsuki may be prone to biases that help promote his opinion.)
Now, about "answer to life:" That has not specifically been a factor in this story, at least not directly. I actually didn't know about its existence (by that name, at least) until your review (although I'm writing a Persona 3 fanfic, I am definitely not by any stretch a master of its lore. The SMT Wikia has been a good friend). But what I'm doing in this story is working with what I know about Minato in the game (and my additions to the backstory), and making that my own sorta "answer" for him based on my own characterization. One that he may or may not have already realized yet himself.
DM me if you want to talk more about this though – as I said, I'm no persona lore master, so there's definitely a possibility I've missed something big.
And, of course, thanks for reviewing!

Allstarall: Hey thanks! Yeah I love writing these twins, since they're so close and friendly/familial with each other, it makes me very happy too. And yes, Hamu is always a stand-out with her antics, always fun to write.
Yep, making those scenes that follow unseen canon or make up concurrent canon was one of the basic/original premises for writing Lateral, so I'm glad that you're enjoying those parts! Will definitely keep writing those sections too, it wouldn't be Lateral without 'em.
Haha well, here's that new chapter, as requested!
Thanks for reviewing!

Phew. And with that, I'm done for now.

I've got plans for Season 3, but to no-one's surprise, I haven't begun work on that yet. But I'm very excited to get started! As you all know, Minato's stuck pretty close to the timeline so far, but as he said in the last line of this chapter… it's time to change the future. Which means it's time for me to start going crazy!

But that's for later. For now, one last huge thank you for reading Lateral, and I'll see you in the next update!