Consistent scene lengths? What are those?

Happy (week-late) birthday to NinthFeather, who at some point mentioned that I only write sad stuff anymore. I took it as a challenge, and like two years later, I wrote her something happy! (there's still some angst but it's outweighed by the happy do not worry) (I'm very good at this)

Queerplatonic Minaigis bc Ninth and I love it to death (aroace Minato!), but it's not the focus, and it really only pops up toward the end.

Typical content warnings for Persona 3—discussions of character death and suicide, but everyone lives happily ever after (™) in this one~

Spoilers for the whole game, set post-game. Laura doesn't know how to write short oneshots. Anything else I'm missing? Hope you enjoy!

Shinjiro's sleeping in the lounge when the insistent knocking comes in the middle of the night. He's been cleared to return to the dorms, much to Aki's delight, but that doesn't mean he's willing to brave the stairs just yet. His pocketwatch may have slowed the bullet, but too much exertion means he'll be in bed for at least a week recovering.

He hauls himself up slowly, biting back the just a minute as the knocking grows louder. There's no need, after all; Koromaru—stationed on the floor by his couch—started barking at the door the moment the noise started. Despite the late hour, it doesn't sound like he considers it a threat; if anything, the dog's excited about whoever's on the other side of the door. Shinjiro toes him out of the way gently to undo the locks.

It's not that he ever met Ryoji, of course, but he's long been brought up to speed by the rest about what's happened. He's the incarnation of death that Minato was unknowingly harboring—the one Ikutsuki tricked them into summoning—the one that just about killed Minato in his efforts to save the world.

Still, Shinjiro wouldn't know this scrawny, terrified kid from Adam if he wasn't wearing that ridiculous yellow scarf.

They stare at each other for several seconds in silence. "It's good to see you up and about," Ryoji says, and tries for a smile despite the tears on his face. Shinjiro does not bother to ask how he knows who he is.

"Mitsuru's gonna kill you," he says instead, and Ryoji makes a strange noise in his throat before shoving his way into the dorm.

"I shouldn't be here," he says, more to himself than Shinjiro, and doesn't even seem to notice that Koromaru is jumping on his leg, trying to get his attention for scritches. Shinjiro's not sure, but he thinks the dog shouldn't be so attached to someone who very recently tried to end the world. "He cast the Seal, it should have worked—"

"Minato's dying," Shinjiro says, bluntly, because it's true. Though the rest of SEES refuses to admit it, they know it clear as day. It's been almost a month since he fell asleep on the rooftop, after all, and the doctors have seen no change in his health; and if what the others said about the Fall is true—

"He should be dead," Ryoji stresses, running both hands through his hair and looking helplessly around the lounge. "It should have killed him, there's no way he could have—"

"Ryoji?"

Shinjiro turns at the familiar voice to see Akihiko standing, frozen, at the foot of the stairs. "What the hell are—how are you—"

"Something's gone wrong," Ryoji says, despairing. Shinjiro heard plenty about the kid from the others, but he's still surprised at how human such an inhuman creature seems to be. "The Seal, it kicked me out here, I don't know if it stopped working or—"

"It's killing him," Shinjiro says sharply, "it'd better be doing something."

"What are you saying?" Akihiko asks, his hands balling into fists as he steps toward them. "Is Nyx coming back?"

The Dark Hour has not existed since the end of January; there have been no readings on Mitsuru's equipment or from Fuuka's persona. Nyx should have no ability to come back and wreak havoc, but the fact that a facet of it is here, standing sobbing in the dorm before them, is more alarming than Shinjiro would really like to think.

"I don't know," Ryoji says. "I don't think so, but I don't understand how—"

Junpei comes downstairs, wondering what the noise is about as their voices continue to rise—and then Ken and the girls, as soon as he starts yelling. It's the middle of the night, and Shinjiro's head is pounding, and he does not have the patience to deal with this. "Is the world going to end in the next six hours?" he asks, loudly, though his voice is raspier than he'd like.

Ryoji jumps, turns to stare at him. "I don't know," he says, a little helplessly. "I don't think so, but—"

"So this can wait for the morning," he says, crossing back to his couch. After a moment of whining, Koromaru follows. "We can go back to the hospital to visit him—we'll work stuff out from there."

A few of them still look ready to argue, but the grunt that comes out of his mouth when he lies back down seems to stifle their words. Mitsuru—her face twisted in worry—eventually shuffles the underclassmen back upstairs. Akihiko claps a hand on Shinji's shoulder, says to text if he needs anything, and then leaves as well.

Ryoji remains, staring blankly at the two of them as Shinji tries to get comfortable. Koromaru whines again, and Ryoji blinks before all but falling into one of the armchairs.

"I heard a lot about you, you know," he says after several seconds. It probably would have been an awkward silence, if Shinji was awake enough to care. "From the others."

"Ngh," he says. Right now, he cannot bring himself to make small talk with the incarnation of death sitting in their dorm. "Go the fuck to sleep."

Ryoji huffs, but says nothing else. When Shinji finally falls into restless slumber, he still feels the kid's eyes on the back of his head.

.

.

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Minato's condition appears unchanged, and as unsurprising as this is, Mitsuru's worry only deepens as the lot of them cram into his hospital room.

Aigis, of course, has stationed herself at his side and refuses to move. Ryoji only took one look at his face before sinking into one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs by the door.

"He should be dead," he mutters into his hands, and Mitsuru does not have the energy to argue the point.

They've taken shifts with him, in the past few weeks, but with Ryoji's appearance, it felt necessary that they all be here today. Mitsuru's brought a book to pass the time, as she often does, but Fuuka can't seem to stop wringing her hands. Yukari looks like she's been crying, and Junpei's hands are shaking as he only stares blankly at the stark bed sheets.

They all know he's dying, though none of them are willing to admit it. None of them understand what he did, or how he did it, but the sight of that Persona atop Tartarus—blinding and beautiful and impossible—gives Mitsuru some idea.

Minato performed a miracle, and it killed him for his trouble, and now the creature he meant to destroy is sitting, sobbing, beside his deathbed.

(She wishes she understood. She doesn't, really.)

"Minato," Aigis says suddenly, sharp in the silence, a scarce ten minutes after they get settled, and Mitsuru looks up.

She's half expecting to see him flatlining—to see the oxygen mask over his face doing nothing to encourage his lungs—but instead she sees him moving, his brows twitching in discomfort and his fingers flexing. She finds herself on her feet, and hears her book hit the ground.

Shinji reaches over to slam his fist into the nurse call, his face pale—Aigis is leaning over him, now, touching his shoulder and speaking urgently to him. As he shows more signs of waking—as Junpei collapses over the bed, sobbing into the sheets—as the nurse hurries in—

As Minato opens his eyes, Mitsuru feels the bottom drop out of her stomach because this is impossible, this is a miracle except—

Ryoji is on his feet as well, beside her, toward the back of the group, and she can see the tension in the set of his face and the trembling of his hands. This went wrong—this didn't go according to plan—and no matter how happy they are to see him awake—

"Minato," Aigis says again, urgently, and this time he turns his head toward her slightly, blinking, trying to focus. "Please tell us what is going on."

He blinks a few more times before seeming to recognize her, to notice Junpei's weight thrown across his stomach. His mouth moves, but beneath the mask, with his surely raspy voice, none of them can understand him.

The nurse shoves her way to the front, checking him over quickly, but Aigis refuses to move, and even Junpei seems unwilling to be detached from his friend. Minato is attempting to sit up now, straining against the weight and his unused muscles, and there is so much noise in the room and the hallway that Mitsuru can barely hear herself think. She's supposed to be the rational one—their administrative leader who took charge when their field leader fell—and why does this feel wrong; what is this unease settling heavy in her gut?

"No," he says, and it's true that his voice is ruined as he tears the plastic from his face, as he looks around with an increasingly desperate eye. "No, this can't—"

"You fell asleep nearly one month ago," Aigis says, and for all her growing empathy, she cannot seem to fathom the panic on his face. "You have been cared for in—"

"No!" he says again, and mostly fails at trying to keep the nurse's hands away. "I had to—she—"

Mitsuru considers the nurse, the odds of her familiarity with the situation, and ultimately decides it doesn't matter. "Nyx is defeated," she says. "You killed it in January, there's nothing—"

"I didn't!" he says, and Ryoji shifts beside her, looking uncomfortable. She can see Minato trying to see her, above the heads of their friends, but it's a lost cause. "I locked her away, but I'm not supposed to—"

"I'm here," Ryoji cuts him off, and Minato freezes, "but the Dark Hour is still gone, and the world hasn't ended in the last twelve hours."

"I don't—"

"Out!" the nurse snaps eventually, after having to nearly shove Akihiko off his feet to gain the access she needed. "All of you, out, now!"

Ken gives a cry of protest, but a doctor is hurrying into the room as well, her coat billowing behind her. Mitsuru knows they will get nowhere quickly.

"We'll talk with you later," she promises Minato hastily, who's still looking rather wild as he watches them reluctantly file out. "I swear to you, everything is fine."

"Is it?" Ryoji asks under his breath. She only shuts the door firmly behind them in response.

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An hour later, Minato has calmed down, and they have been allowed to see him again, and exactly nothing has been explained to Junpei.

Ryoji babbled about some kind of seal, when they were stuck in the floor lobby, further shooed off the ward by other irritated nurses. A seal that was keeping Nyx in place, that Minato was—was guarding, or something, he wasn't making a lot of sense, and even Mitsuru seemed a little lost—

But now that Minato is awake, it'll all start making sense again. His best friend, with the special power to use hundreds of personas—the one who killed Death—surely will know the answers to all their questions.

(Ryoji's continued existence nags at him, something like dread growing in his gut, but for now, Junpei decides to ignore it completely.)

He's the first one back into the room, shoving ahead of even Aigis as Minato looks up at the noise. His oxygen mask is gone, and that's—that's good, right? He still looks pale and really, really skinny, but he's been asleep for a month—he's sure that's to be expected—

"Minato!" he blurts, because he doesn't know what else to say. His friend's face softens.

"Hey, Junpei, everyone," he says, nodding to the rest with a little smile as they pile in behind him. His gaze lingers on Ryoji, still hanging at the back of the group and staring at his feet, but he tears it away as Aigis steps to his side.

"Ryoji is incapable of explaining the situation to us," she says, with something like a dirty look back in his direction. "I was hoping that you would have more success."

The smile freezes on his face, though, and his gaze flickers between the group of them. That same look from earlier grows again on his face, like he's overwhelmed, like he can't handle this right now. "Give him a minute, Ai-chan!" Junpei says quickly, plopping down next to Minato on the mattress. "Not even a 'hello'? I thought we taught you better than that!"

Aigis' eyes widen a little, and her face grows pained. "Please accept my apologies," she says to Minato, whose face has almost instantly relaxed. "I was too hasty. After all…" she hesitates, swallows, and reaches for his hand. "You are our dear friend, and we are very glad to see you finally awake."

Minato grasps her hand tightly, and smiles weakly again at them all. "It's all right," he says easily, and Junpei's still amazed at how difficult it is to actually piss this guy off. "And you all deserve to know what's going on, anyway. Or, as much as I can explain. I'm not…" he swallows, and looks away, and twists his free hand in the sheets. "I wasn't supposed to wake up."

.

The explanation is complicated, and a little winding. Sometimes Minato takes for granted something they cannot understand, or Ryoji butts in to correct him on some small detail, but eventually it all comes out, more or less in one piece.

But—the seal, Junpei picked up on that much earlier, but Minato wasn't guarding it, he was a part of it—and with him waking up, neither of them are sure whether that means Nyx is coming back, or whether his spell wore off, or…

Minato seems to grow more pained the more they talk about that, though, and Junpei decides to turn the subject just to get that look off his face. "So what was that Persona you summoned?" he asks, because he knows every one of them has wondered since it happened. "That thing was incredible—"

"It's called Messiah," Minato says, and Ryoji looks over a little sharply. "It's like Trismegistus or Juno. My ultimate Persona."

They all blink at him for several moments, but soon Junpei grins widely. "Only you," he says, reaching over to knock him lightly in the shoulder. "Just gotta show the rest of us up, huh?"

Minato smiles a bit, then, and Junpei's grin grows even wider.

.

"You're looking better already," he says, flippant, an hour or so later when they have finally allowed themselves to relax. He's telling the truth—some color has already come back into Minato's cheeks, and his hands are steady, and his eyes are more focused than Junpei thinks they've been for months.

"I feel better than I have since before the Fall," Minato agrees, and clearly means it as comfort, but several people around the room stiffen.

"The Seal's not draining you anymore," Ryoji says quietly. "So you're really here, again."

"Yeah," Minato says, suddenly a little quieter, and then he looks away. Yukari grasps for his hand.

"You—you weren't really here? In February?" she asks, and makes a brave attempt at steadying her voice.

Minato squeezes her hand. "The Seal didn't want me to be," he says, "but I promised that I would meet you all on the rooftop, and I didn't want to break it. So I held on as long as I could."

Something is rising in Junpei's throat, and for once he can't blame the tears that are welling in Yukari's eyes. "You're a great big idiot," she says, even as she yanks on his hands, pulling him into a tight hug. "Don't you ever do that again, you hear?"

"I'll do my best," he says quietly, and Yukari only grips him all the tighter.

.

Junpei hangs back, when most of the others leave to get lunch. His hands are twisting his hat in his lap, and his gaze skitters across the floor as he thinks. Minato—he's—he's supposed to be dead, and he's still trying to wrap his head around that fact. He should have died, but just like Shinjiro and Chidori, he pulled through by—by some miracle that none of them can really explain. And he's happy—ridiculously happy for all three of them—but at the same time…

The sudden quiet of the room seems suffocating, with Minato and Aigis and Ryoji lost in their own thoughts, and he feels suddenly desperate to fill the silence. But what is he supposed to say? He's in a room with a guy whose ultimate Persona is literally called Messiah, an android, and the personification of Death. What is he doing? What the hell is he supposed to say?

"Hey, Junpei," Minato asks suddenly, and he whips his head up. "Has school started back up yet? You guys get a good homeroom?"

"Next week," he says, shaking his head. "But we signed you up to be in the same room as the rest of us, so once you're well enough to come back, we'll have a great year! For real this time!" he grins at him, and Minato smiles back.

"Last year wasn't so bad," he argues gently. "I mean, I got to meet all of you, right?"

"Risking your life every other night," Junpei shoots back. Sure, making a bunch of new friends was great, but he would definitely have liked to meet them under different circumstances.

"Eh," Minato grunts, shrugging a bit. "It wasn't so bad. I wouldn't change these links for the world."

It's not the first time Minato's referred to his friendships as "links," but he's never given a straight answer when Junpei pressed him on it. And, after everything, he figures it's probably not that important.

But Aigis butts in—"What do you mean when you say links?" she asks, staring at Minato, and Ryoji looks up. "It is an odd choice of word to replace friendship."

"Bonds, links," he says vaguely, shrugging again. "It's… hard to explain. I have a lot of friends, but some of them—you guys, some people around town and at school—it's more—tangible? It's like our souls are connected, somehow." He shakes his head, scratching at his chest for a moment. "I dunno. He never really explained it to me, but…"

He trails off, frowning at nothing for several seconds. "You went to that blue place," Ryoji says suddenly, leaning forward. Minato startles, turns to look at him. "With the man with the long nose."

"You know Igor?" Minato asks in surprise. Ryoji shakes his head.

"I saw him, just before I woke up in Iwatodai," he says. "He told me—he told me that this was possible because of the bonds you made in the last year. He said that you performed one more miracle, and that I shouldn't waste this chance. I thought I—well, not dreamt it, but…"

"He never did make much sense," Minato says, though Junpei thinks he is smiling.

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The doctors want to keep him at the hospital under surveillance for at least another week, but even they seem astonished at how quickly Minato's recovering. By the time everyone's forced out of his room for the evening, Fuuka notices a marked improvement in both his health and his mood.

Juno hums her approval, in the back of her mind. Minato is truly here again.

She thought something seemed wrong with him, in February, even beyond his obvious illness—she had a persistent sense that there was something missing, though she could never figure out what. Now, she knows it was Juno, trying to communicate with her through the veil of her lost memories. Juno, who always told her if one of her teammates was hurting or afraid. Juno, who has never before let her down.

This time, she reminds herself, Juno did all that she could. It was Fuuka who failed to see what was wrong with her friend. (She's trying very hard to squash the guilt that's been rising in her heart for the last month. It's not really working.)

But in the end, her relief is all-consuming. He is awake and alive when he has been sleeping for so, so long. He had smiled at them all, and hugged each of them in turn from where he sat in his hospital bed, and assured them again and again that he is fine now.

Whatever caused this, they'll deal with it together. But in her deepest hopes, she wants this to be a miracle with no repercussions, and she wants, more than anything, for this to be the happy ending they've always longed for.

Historically, SEES has not been so lucky. But with the Dark Hour gone…

.

"Minato," she says, the next day, when they are mostly alone in his hospital room. Aigis, of course, refuses to leave his side, and Ryoji seems to be dozing next to his bed, but she thinks this will be the most privacy they will ever get. "I wanted to ask. You...you never forgot, right?"

He looks at her, his face falling a bit. "That's right," he says quietly. "Whatever magic cast the Seal...it didn't lock away my memories."

"That must have been horrible for you," she says, and feels tears prickling at her eyes. She reaches up hastily to wipe them away, a bit ashamed that she's the one crying when he—

"It wasn't easy," he nods, "but the important part was staying with you all. That was all I wanted, in February."

"Because you thought you were…"

She cannot finish the sentence, and chokes, and covers her face again with one hand. "What kind of friends are we? I thought—I could tell there was something wrong, but I didn't understand, I didn't—"

"You couldn't have understood," he says gently, and reaches for her free hand. "Nyx's power was absolute. I know Juno tried, and you tried, but you couldn't have remembered. It's a miracle you all remembered when you did."

"But—"

"You guys took care of me, too," he says, and squeezes her hand. "You and Yukari, I know you skipped studying for exams looking up my symptoms. Akihiko and Junpei weren't exactly subtle when they invited me out for beef bowls. And…" here, he laughs, "I'll need to check with Mitsuru, make sure she didn't fire any of the doctors who couldn't figure out the problem and fix it."

"Minato," she says, and her voice cracks.

"All I've wanted, these last few months, was for my friends to be happy," he says, and Aigis shifts, behind him. "I don't blame you for anything, I promise."

"It's my job to look out for everyone," she insists.

"And you've done a great job," he says, his voice warm. "But you can relax now. We're all gonna be okay, right?"

"Yeah," she says, a little quieter, and she thinks she feels something settle at last in her heart.

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Koromaru is beyond excited when Minato walks through the front door.

He hasn't known where he went—just that he disappeared a long time ago, and that everyone else in the dorm was very sad, even though Shinjiro came home and started sleeping with Koromaru on the couches. It seems like it's been forever since all of his humans were home with him, and when Aigis leads Minato through the door by the hand, he can't quite contain his excitement as he leaps against his human's shins, yipping and whining.

A smile splits Minato's face, and he pulls his hand from Aigis' to crouch down. "Hey, Koro," he says, his eyes warm as he gives him some ear scritches. Koromaru gives him slobbery kisses all over his face in return. "Were you a good boy while I was gone?"

Of course he was! He's been guarding the dorm, and only letting in those that can be trusted, and making sure everyone has plenty of cuddles when they get particularly sad. He barks, and wiggles a little harder, and kisses Minato's chin again. He laughs.

"Of course you were," he agrees, and boops him on the nose. "You're always a good boy, right?"

He wiggles even more, and Minato's smile widens before Aigis helps him to his feet. Koromaru whines, staying close to Minato, and both of them laugh.

"I'm not going anywhere," Minato says, and though Koromaru doesn't understand the words, the warmth in his voice is unmistakable. "You don't need to worry."

Koromaru barks again, and keeps wiggling, and doesn't think he's ever been so happy in all his life.

.

Minato doesn't seem to have a lot of energy right now, but that's all right with Koromaru. It just means they get lots of cuddle time on the couch. After all, Ken and the others are perfectly happy to take him on walks to the shrine a couple times a day. He likes being lazy, too. And if Minato and Shinjiro are feeling bad, then it's his job to make them feel better.

Minato used to sleep on the couches a lot, before he disappeared. Koromaru remembers because sometimes when he and Ken got up extra early to go running, they saw him still asleep, wrapped in a blanket. Koromaru doesn't understand why he didn't sleep in his bedroom, because he knows human beds are much comfier than human couches. But, he learned a long time ago that humans just do weird stuff sometimes. It's better if he doesn't think about it too hard.

Today, Minato's doing it again. Most of his other humans have gone off to school, which Koromaru only knows as some weird place he's not allowed to be. But Mitsuru and Akihiko and Shinjiro stay home from school now. Minato stays home, too, and doesn't stir from his spot on the couch even when the others make a lot of noise on their way out. Koromaru snuffles, climbs onto the couch, and nuzzles into his favorite spot under Minato's arm.

He's dozing off a few hours later when his human finally stirs. His grip on Koromaru tightens for a moment before he sits up, and Koromaru leans closer into his side. Minato's warmer than he remembers. "Hey, Koro," he says, and rubs at his eyes. "Everyone already left for school, huh?"

Koromaru yips, and stretches, and then settles back down. He's comfy—he doesn't want to move anytime soon. "That's all right," Minato says, and fishes blindly for the TV remote. "We'll just have a lazy day together, you and me."

He turns the television on low, and Koromaru glances over to see a man dancing to weird, high-pitched music he doesn't really like. But Minato is here, and that makes everything okay—and so he allows Minato to wrap his arms around him, and he falls back asleep as his human gently pets his back.

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The first day of school is an event for Yukari and the others, since Minato didn't come back with them.

He's home, but the doctors have ordered bedrest and lots of sleep, and said he shouldn't go to school for at least a week until they're sure he's better. None of them seem to remember the Dark Hour, so they can't exactly explain the situation to them—and, really, it does look like Minato needs the rest.

(The panic and abject horror on his face when he woke up in that hospital is seared into the backs of her eyelids. She hopes she never sees that look on his face again.)

The first day back at school, they're approached almost constantly in the classroom, out in the hallway, even outside by people they've barely met. Yuko, the girl who manages the track team who's never spoken two words to Yukari—Kenji, Junpei's obnoxious friend—a second year girl Yukari's never seen in her life, who clearly tries very hard to meet Aigis' eyes as she asks:

"Is Minato awake?"

It's the biggest gossip at school, the most interesting thing in the world, because apparently Minato had more friends than Yukari knew. Every person she reassures that he is awake, just resting and recovering at home, all but collapses in relief. Kaz—big, wiry Kaz who towers over even Junpei—wipes something from his face before he thanks her and jogs back down the hall.

"It's good to see that so many people care about him," Fuuka says with a little smile after school. A kid from her art club, a year ahead of them, just texted her asking if Minato was feeling any better. "He really meant a lot to a lot of people, huh?"

"His links," Aigis says, too quietly to be for anyone but herself, and Junpei looks over.

"Yeah, that still doesn't make a lot of sense to me," he drawls, leaning back precariously in his chair. "I figure, it's just his way of saying he cares about us, right?"

Yukari remembers that afternoon in November, days before their world went to hell, when she gave him her old cell phone strap. She remembers the way he's had it on his phone ever since, even though it's pink and cutesy and not at all his style.

What a sentimental jerk. How dare he do that and then almost die on them? She'd be mad if she weren't so overwhelmingly relieved that he's still alive.

"I'm not sure," Fuuka says slowly. "Remember when we climbed Tartarus for the last time, in January? I felt something growing between all of us. I wouldn't call it a link, but I guess someone else might call it that."

Yukari scarcely remembers this, though she guesses it makes sense that Fuuka would. The night of January 31st is mostly a blur in her memory—except the horrifying clarity of Nyx, and of their own mortality, and of Minato's miracle.

…Yeah, on second thought, he's definitely getting chewed out once he's feeling better.

"It aligns with what he described in the hospital," Aigis says, looking thoughtful. "He has also mentioned the fact that the more friends he has, the more powerful his Personae can become. Perhaps there is a connection there, after all."

"Ooooooor," Junpei says, slamming his chair back onto four feet, "we could just ask him once we get home. Oh, hey, Odagiri—Minato's fine, he's awake, just gets to stay home while he heals up!"

Hidetoshi Odagiri, who had been approaching their group from the doorway, flushes red, nods his thanks, and walks right back out. "Let's head back, then," Junpei continues without missing a beat, leveraging himself to his feet and stretching.

Yukari rolls her eyes, but smiles and follows anyway.

.

"So did you ever go meet with your mom?"

The question's unexpected, and Yukari jumps as she and Minato work on homework over dinner. "No," she says, shaking her head and setting down her chopsticks. "With everything else going on, it just...fell by the wayside."

"You didn't want to go without me," Minato translates, but there's a little smirk on his face as he looks at her. "What, did you not trust yourself to keep your cool on your own?"

"It wasn't that!" she argues, and then deflates. "Well, sorta. But—!" Here, she pokes him in the arm, a little offended, and he laughs at her. "I just...I started spending a lot of time at the hospital with you, and she's working weird hours now. And, well, yeah, okay, I didn't really want to see her without you there, because you promised, and you're always better at staying calm than I am!"

He laughs again, and takes a bite of his dinner. His cheeks have filled out a little more in the last couple weeks; Yukari never noticed how gaunt he got, after the Fall. "Call her up right now," he says, gesturing with his fork. "Schedule something before you talk yourself out of it. I promise I won't nap through it, this time."

"Now?!" she recoils a bit, looking down at her phone as if it might burn her.

"Sure," he says, and tilts his head. "What's stopping you?"

She's always had to psych herself up to talk to her mom, just because it's so draining, mentally and emotionally. But, she supposes, that's a little insensitive to say to her friend who hasn't had a mom to talk to in eleven years.

"All right," she says, and picks up her phone gingerly, and scrolls through her contacts to find the right number. Minato gives her a smile and a thumbs up around a mouthful of food, and then she hits call.

"Yukari?" Her mom picks up after half a ring. She remembers with some guilt how she stiffed her for their planned meet-up, on graduation day. With Minato in the hospital, she didn't even think about it until she saw the dozen missed calls a few hours later. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah," she says, and glances to Minato again as she switches her phone to speaker. "I, um, I'm sorry about last month. Some stuff happened, and I—I forgot, basically."

"Mitsuru told me what happened," she says, sympathy in her voice. Yukari wonders harshly why she even bothered to call her dormmates, when she's never cared so much about her daughter in the past. "Is your friend doing any better?"

"Yeah, he's home now," he says, and does her best to keep her voice level. Her mom makes a pleased noise, like she's actually glad to hear it, and Yukari wants to slap her—she's sure it's faked. (On second thought, maybe it's a good idea that Minato's coming along, after all.)

"That's really good to hear, hon," she says, and Yukari swallows down her knee-jerk reaction. Even she can tell that she's just being petty, at this point. "So, what do you need?"

"Um," she starts, eloquently, "I was wondering if you wanted to try meeting up again. Now that Minato's awake. He said he'd come with, if you don't mind it."

Just try arguing it, she challenges silently, but her mom agrees immediately. "Sure thing," she says, and she sounds happy—even eager—to accommodate, and Yukari doesn't understand.

"I just wanna talk!" she hurries to say, and Minato levels a look at her. "I'm not—I'm not trying to be buddy-buddy again. I just. Think we should try talking."

"Whatever you want to do," her mom says, and Yukari can't deny that there's something different in her mom's tone, now. "I've been doing a lot of thinking, since January, and...I know we don't get along, but I'd—I'd like to try and do better by you, if you'll let me."

Yukari blinks, feels the breath leave her lungs all at once. Minato smiles. "What brought this on?" she manages eventually, and her mom hesitates.

"I'm not really sure," she says. "I just…a couple months ago, I took stock of where I'm at, and I'm not happy with it. I want to start to live again. Really live. And that means actually being a proper mother, not...whatever the hell I've been for the last eleven years."

Yukari takes a deep breath. "Yeah," she says, and Minato's smile grows broader. "I think I'd like that, too."

.

.

.

.

Junpei sends them all pictures, the morning Minato returns to school, and it's even worse than they anticipated.

There's a picture of no less than three girls crying and hanging off his arms. There's a picture of most of the track team surrounding him in a group hug. (He looks extremely uncomfortable.) There's a selfie the five of them took where Minato looks tired, and a little disheveled, but more awake than he has since January.

Akihiko isn't sure whether he wants to laugh or cry as the photo reel only continues.

Shinji, for his part, is laughing his ass off. "Who knew he was so damn popular?" he says, though there's a genuine smile on his face as he pulls up the group chat on his own phone. "For a kid who doesn't talk much, he's sure got a lot of friends."

"You know how he is," Mitsuru says, though she's smiling as well. "There's a reason he's our field leader."

"He was our field leader," Akihiko corrects her, and ignores the way his stomach flips at the reminder. There's no more Dark Hour, after all, and no more Shadows to punch. If any more monsters come after his friends, he'll be powerless to stop them. "After that stunt he pulled, I won't feel comfortable letting him do anything by himself for a while."

Mitsuru nods, looking a little thoughtful, though a smile remains on her lips. "Are you planning to cocoon him in bubble wrap?" she suggests. "Or maybe just follow him everywhere he goes?"

"I don't have time for that," he says dismissively, though truly, neither of them sound like horrible ideas. Unlike his friends, he's not really joking at this point. "We've just had too many near misses this year, and I'd rather not chance it again."

Shinji's face grows a little grim, and he sets a heavy hand on Akihiko's shoulder. "I'm fine," he says. "Minato's fine, we're all fine."

"I know," he says, and is horrified at the sudden lump in his throat. "I just can't stop thinking of what could have happened if you weren't."

.

"So, you survived your first day back?" he calls from the couch, a little grin on his face as a rather haggard Minato wanders back into the dorm. The others came back an hour ago, and Akihiko pretends he hasn't been worrying incessantly this whole time.

"More or less," he says with his own smile, and drops his bag by the door. "Sorry I'm back so late—I wanted to make my rounds, make sure I talked to everyone in town who missed me. Turns out, there's a lot of them."

"Yeah, no shit!" Shinji calls from the kitchen. Akihiko ignores him.

"Seriously, though, are you feeling okay?" he asks instead, the smile slipping off his face as Minato falls heavily onto the couch next to him. "Don't want you ending up back in the hospital…"

"I'm fine," he says hastily—maybe too hastily, in Akihiko's opinion. "Just a little tired, that's all."

"You let us know if you think there's something wrong," he presses, and Minato looks over at him. "We don't know how this—this thing works. What if you get sick again because you overexerted yourself?"

"Ryoji showed up," Minato points out blankly, which does nothing to assuage Akihiko's worry. "My entire plan of dying to save the world is already out the window."

Akihiko swallows, tries to still his shaking hands, and glares at Minato with everything in him. "You let us know if you start feeling worse," he says again, and Minato's brows rise in bemusement.

"Sure," he says, and Akihiko can't bring himself to argue more.

.

He finds himself on the rooftop, some nights, because it's better to be out in the cold than alone in his room, facing the nightmares that will never leave him alone.

He shadow-boxes until he's drenched in sweat and too tired to think straight. On particularly bad nights, he pulls his Evoker out of the command room and brings it up just to stare at it. It doesn't work outside of the Dark Hour (it doesn't work at all, not anymore, and Caesar hovers in the back of his mind but is never able to surface), and again and again he is forced to confront his own powerlessness in the face of human mortality.

He lost his parents, and he lost Miki. He almost lost Shinji and Minato, and he vows with shaking hands that he will never allow that to happen again.

It's one of those nights, where his arms are shaking from exertion and his vision is blurry from the sweat pouring down his forehead, that he's staring blankly at his Evoker. And just when he's decided to try and get some more sleep for the night (try and ignore the thought of his dearest friends buried beside his baby sister), the door behind him opens, and a soft voice calls his name.

He spins to see Minato flip the light, and walk out to stand next to him. "What are you doing out here?" he manages, a little horrified. Just because he does this regularly doesn't mean anyone else should.

"Couldn't sleep," he shrugs, his hands in the pockets of his pajama pants as he looks out at the skyline. "Figured this was better than lying in bed alone."

Akihiko can't argue this, exactly—not when he had the same thought process less than an hour ago. "You should rest," he says instead, frowning and dropping his Evoker to his side, wiping at his brow. "You're still not up to full strength, right?"

He half-shrugs again, not looking at him. "Shinjiro told me," he says, his voice low, almost drowned beneath the noise of the city. "About your sister. I'm sorry for making light of dying, the other day. I didn't realize it bothered you so much."

It's so far out of left field that Akihiko can't find anything to say. "It's funny," Minato continues after a moment, a sardonic little smile growing on his face. "Our stories aren't so different, I think. But I stopped caring whether I lived or died, and you…"

He turns to look at him now, and Akihiko sees that warmth behind his eyes that's made him trust Minato for the last year without question. "You decided to never let anyone die, ever again, right?"

"You've got it," he says quietly, looking away, because there's no point in lying about it. He's not sure he's ever been laid so bare. "I survived the fire that killed Miki. It wasn't fair. She was so little, she barely...she probably didn't even know what was happening. And now she's…"

He trails off, rubbing suddenly at his eyes. What is it about Minato that makes you spill your guts? Mitsuru's done the same, he knows, and probably the rest of the dorm at this point.

"You know I survived the Moonlight Bridge incident," Minato says quietly after a moment, and when Akihiko looks at him, he's staring again at the city. "But my parents...and my sister...they didn't. I watched them die."

Akihiko blinks, digesting this. He would have been six when it happened—when Ryoji was implanted inside of his soul. Old enough to remember, old enough to—

"I stopped caring, about everything," he continues. "Hamuko, she was always the happy one. She dragged me along on all her adventures, but after she was gone…"

Akihiko remembers the boy who moved into the dorm, last year. He remembers the boy who didn't hesitate to pull the trigger on Yukari's Evoker without being told what it would mean.

"You wanted to die," he finishes for him, just as quietly. Minato shakes his head.

"That all changed when I moved back here," he says, his voice a little stronger. "All of you, the people I've met here...I've found my reason for living again. And I'd like to think Hamuko would be proud of me." He turns bodily to Akihiko this time. "I think Miki would be proud of everything you've done, too."

Akihiko is ready to argue, say that he doesn't know the first thing about Miki, but he stops short at the look in his friend's eyes. It's ancient and wise and knowing, and Minato Arisato is only seventeen years old, but he has seen the Universe and come back from Death and been named a Fool for it.

If anyone were to know the truth about this, it would be him—and Akihiko thinks something tight and heavy begins to unravel in his heart.

.

.

.

.

Ken's more surprised than he should be when he sees Minato one evening at the shrine.

He knows his friend's always spent a lot of time here. He used to hang out with Maiko on the slide, and talked with that sickly man on the bench over there, and even prayed, sometimes, as the year wore on.

(Ken was never brave enough to ask who he was praying for. Now, he thinks they're far beyond that.)

He comes upon Minato when he's just finishing up—he's standing, tucking a few hundred yen into the offertory box, and rubbing at his knees for a moment as he stares at the playground.

"Hey," he calls, and unclips Koro's lead, and watches him dash off into the bushes. He trusts that he'll be back by the time Ken wants to leave.

Minato jumps, turns. "Hey," he says with a smile, gesturing him over as he walks toward the playground. "How're you doing?"

"All right," he says, and sits maybe a few inches closer to Minato than he needs to on the bench. After the Fall—after everything—he's found himself holding his friends a little tighter. "Just school, mostly. I came here to let Koro let off some energy, and say hi to his old master."

Minato nods, looking a little thoughtful. "It's good for him," he says, and smiles when Koromaru barks insistently from behind the shrine. Maybe he's chasing a squirrel. "Being back where it's familiar."

"He seems happy here," Ken admits, "but he's happy with us in the dorm, too. I'd like to think he sees us as his new family."

"Aigis says he does," Minato points out, and Ken perks up.

"She never told me that!" he says indignantly. Sure, he's not as close with Aigis as the others are, since he goes to a different school, but—

"She thought everyone knew already," he said with a shrug and a little smile. "Said it was obvious, even without talking with him."

"You never know with dogs," Ken argues. "Sometimes, if I forget to feed him, I think he's gonna hate me forever!"

Minato laughs, and Ken realizes that he hasn't heard it nearly enough. It's one of the nicest sounds he's ever heard. "I don't think we have to worry about that," he says, his smile broader. "He's a good boy, and you're a good kid. You'll get along just fine."

"Ugh," he says, suddenly reminded of his youth. "My headmaster's bugging me to move back into the elementary dorms, since I wasn't supposed to stay this long, but I don't want to. I want to stay with you guys, at least until you graduate."

"So stay," Minato says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Ken shakes his head. "He's being kinda nasty about it," he says. "I don't—I mean, I don't really have a good reason to stay, not even a real one now that the Dark Hour's gone. But I—I don't want to go back!"

"Let's talk to Mitsuru once we get back," Minato suggests. "She's the boss lady, I'm sure she'll talk him around to it."

"Yeah, I guess," he mutters, because he really hates asking the older kids for stuff, even if they keep assuring him it won't be any trouble. "I just…"

"It'll be too quiet without you around," Minato says, "especially if you take Koromaru. I insist you stay in our dorm."

He laughs, then, and nods. "Okay then, Leader," he says, a little mockingly. "Whatever you say, right?"

Minato laughs, and cuffs him lightly on the shoulder, and stands up. "Let's go then, Underling," he says with a grin, offering a hand. Koromaru comes running out, his tongue lolling, and Ken smiles wider as he accepts the hand up.

.

"Who were you praying for?" he asks, breaking the silence as they walk back to the dorm.

"A lot of people," Minato says, a little solemn as he glances down toward him. "My family, Akihiko's and Shinjiro's families. Yukari's and Mitsuru's dads, your mom…"

"Everyone, then," he says. It's not a surprise—Minato's heart has always been too big. They all know this, no matter how much crap they give each other. "Everyone you know who's died, at least."

He nods. "Jin and Takaya, too," he says quietly. "They were as much victims of all this as we were. And I doubt…" he trails off. "After the Fall, I doubt anyone's still around to pray for them."

Ken considers this. Chidori, maybe, would pray for them if she remembered—but from what Junpei's told them, her memories of her childhood are all but gone.

"That's good of you," he says, and Minato's brows furrow. "After everything they did, I don't think I could pray for their souls."

Minato's quiet for several moments, thinking on this. "I saw a lot of things, when I was the Seal," he says eventually. "The most important thing I learned is that every human soul is fundamentally the same, and we're all worth the same, too. I think, if they had better luck in life, they would have turned out differently."

"How did you learn that from the Seal?" Ken asks curiously.

Minato shrugs, tilting his head. "It's more just something I understand, now, that I didn't before," he says. "Does that make sense?"

"No," Ken says, bluntly, and Minato laughs.

"I don't understand a lot of things, still," he says, "and neither does Ryoji. But there's nothing any of us can do about it, so…"

He trails off, humming for a moment. Koromaru whines.

"What was it like, being the Seal?" Ken asks after another moment of walking in silence. Usually, it's not so uncomfortable with Minato, but now that he seems willing to talk about his time away, Ken realizes he has a lot of questions he wants to ask.

Minato hums again, looking thoughtful as they turn onto their street. "You know, I never really thought about it," he admits. "I just...was. I don't think I was really human? It was just my soul, so I didn't get hungry or tired. I just needed to keep the door to Nyx closed, so that monster couldn't reach her."

Ken remembers this much, at least, from his halting explanation in the hospital. Ryoji hadn't seemed to know any more than Minato did, but the Seal's purpose was definitely to keep Nyx away from humanity. "Did it hurt?" he asks quietly, a little afraid of the answer.

"What, almost dying?" Minato asks, though there's a glint in his eye as he digs in his pocket for his keys. Ken thought his meaning was perfectly clear. "Nah, it was just like falling asleep. With you all, and the cherry blossoms...I'd say it was nice, even."

"No," Ken says, a little louder this time. "I meant being the Seal."

Minato doesn't look at him as he unlocks the door and steps inside.

.

.

.

.

The Seal was beautiful, and impossible, and absolute.

Now, it is nothing at all.

Ryoji Mochizuki is human now—for real this time—and out of all the endings he has envisioned for himself and for humanity, this has never been one of them. What is he supposed to do now?

"Stay in the dorm with us," Minato says one day when he returns from school. "I wouldn't mind."

He wouldn't mind, but Ryoji can think of a few others who would. Mitsuru still looks at him sideways, like she's waiting for him to manifest Nyx's avatar here and now; Junpei still looks at him like he kicked his puppy, when he thinks he isn't looking.

Minato trusts him implicitly, but then, hasn't he always? Over a year ago, now, was when they first met, and Minato trusted him enough to sign a binding contract without question. And—after all—they truly met long before that.

(Aigis, of course, mistrusts him just as much as Minato trusts him, for the same reason. He supposes that would be a losing battle, should he ever be stupid enough to fight it.)

"Stay with us," Minato says again, doing homework with Fuuka in the lounge. Ryoji has never heard the word calculus in his life. Somehow, he knows all the answers to their questions. "Honestly, where else are you going to go?"

He supposes he has a point, there.

.

Ryoji Mochizuki transfers into Gekkoukan High as a third year student one month after term starts, and he's instantly popular with everyone for his good looks, winning smile, and friendly demeanor.

("Doesn't he look familiar?" "Didn't someone have a Helpers Club last year?" "I swear I've seen that scarf before…")

Ryoji Mochizuki has never been here before, at least, not as a human.

He supposes that since he's been given this chance, he might as well try it out.

.

.

.

.

"You know, you've changed a lot since we first met," Minato says to her one night. They're alone in the lounge, which is a small miracle in and of itself. Even a month after he returned to school, the rest of SEES seems to treat him as something fragile, something they fear will break before their eyes. Aigis does not understand their worry. Minato is the strongest person she has ever met.

"What do you mean?" she asks, tilting her head toward him. Usually, he is not one to break such a comfortable silence.

"You're slouching, for one," he points out with a little smile. "The Aigis I met last year never would have dreamed of doing that."

She considers this. "You're right," she concedes after a moment. "Perhaps Junpei has had a negative effect on me."

"Nah," he says, his grin firmly on his face now. "It just means you're relaxing around us. I'd say it's a good thing."

"Hm," she says, and shifts a little closer to him. Even after so long, the desire to be at his side is strong and unshakeable. "What else has changed about my behavior?"

"Your speech, obviously," he says, and begins ticking off on his fingers. "I saw you crying, on the school roof—which I'm pretty sure you couldn't do before. And—I mean—you just seem a lot more relaxed than you used to? I'd even say you're more human, if you wouldn't execute me for saying it."

He grins some more at her, though Aigis does not understand the joke. "I would not execute you for saying that," she counters instead. "I realized in December that I have grown more human-like. It was not a part of my initial programming; however, it is not a change that I am unhappy about."

His smile softens. "That's good to hear," he says, and slouches further into the couch cushions. "So, what're you gonna do, now that you're human?"

"I have put much thought into that," she admits, "but have not found an answer as of yet."

"It's a big question," he says, nodding thoughtfully. "I bet any of us would be happy to help out, if you had any questions. But you can take your time."

"I know I would like to remain at your side," she says, because this—despite everything that's happened—has been the one constant in her life. "If you will allow it."

He turns to look at her, his eyebrows rising a little. "Of course," he says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world, and Aigis smiles.

.

She spends a lot of time thinking about her utility, now that there are no Shadows to fight.

The others have long since returned their Evokers to the command room. Even Koromaru, still outfitted with his decorative paper wings, has had his Evoking collar removed. Now that the Dark Hour is gone, they have no need of their weapons.

But Aigis cannot remove her Evoker. She cannot turn in her weapons, because they are a part of her. No matter how human she may become in her Papillon Heart, there are still bullets that emerge from her hands; her Evoking device is still firmly implanted into and upon her head.

She is indelibly a weapon of war. How is she meant to ever become peaceful?

The others have accepted her without question; even people at school have stopped asking questions about her appearance and speech. Minato has taken to sitting next to her given half a chance, ignoring the looks from the rest of SEES (what used to be SEES) as he only smiles.

It does not matter to him that she is, above all, an android. It does not matter to him that she is a weapon, built only for destruction. "You're Aigis," he says, once, when she builds up the courage to ask him. "You're one of my best friends. That's all that matters to me."

It doesn't matter to the person most important to her—or to the rest of her friends, when she eventually asks them as well. So why does Aigis struggle to accept it herself?

"Humans are messy," Junpei suggests with a grin. "You're just gonna have to get used to it if you wanna be one of us!"

"We don't always make sense," Mitsuru admits with a wry smile. "You shouldn't waste your energy to try and understand why humans do everything we do."

Humans are weird, but I love them anyway, Koromaru tells her, and wags his tail ever harder.

"I'm figuring it out as I go, too," Ryoji tells her with an expansive shrug. She thinks it's a testament to her desperation that she approaches him about it at all. "We've got all the time in the world, right?"

She supposes he's correct about that. She can no longer smell the stench of Death that used to cling to him; she can no longer sense the power lurking just beneath his skin. Ryoji Mochizuki is just as human as the others—more human than her, now—and he doesn't seem to plan on leaving them behind in the foreseeable future.

With the way Minato seems so attached to him, she supposes she will have to get used to his presence. Maybe, in this foreign concept of peacetime, she can even come to enjoy it.

.

Junpei brings Chidori to the dorm, sometimes, and this is when she sees him at his happiest. He grasps her hand tight within his, and embraces her tightly, and even—when they think they are alone—Aigis sees them press their lips to each other's.

She does not know what these gestures mean to Junpei and Chidori. She does not understand the feeling rising in her chest as she looks on, as she thinks such closeness might be nice to experience for herself.

And when she does not understand something, nowadays, she brings her questions to the person she trusts most in the world.

"They're dating," Minato says, sounding a little confused about the whole process, himself. "It's—uh, it's called romance, but I'm probably not the best person to ask about it."

"Why not?" she asks, frowning. Minato has never failed to explain an aspect of humanity to her, before.

"I don't understand it myself," he says with a little shrug. "Romance, and—and other stuff. I've never wanted anything to do with it. I just want my friends."

"Oh," she says, and deflates a little. She pretends that she has not spent the better part of the day imagining the feeling of Minato's hand intertwined with her own. "So—you would not like to hold my hand, then."

Minato stares at her for several seconds, as if thinking on something. "I'd like to hold your hand," he says, and reaches to do exactly that. "And—hug, and sit close. But I've never been interested in having a girlfriend."

Aigis still does not understand what a girlfriend is, exactly. But her goal in life is to stay close to Minato. "I would like to make you happy," she says, and squeezes his fingers gently with her own. "And I would like to stay by your side. If these things would please you, then I will do them gladly."

Minato smiles, then, and nods. "We can figure it out as we go," he says, like a promise, and squeezes her hand back.

.

.

.

.

He is eighteen. He is alive.

He is happy, and that might be the most incredible thing of all.

He thinks he was content, last year, though it doesn't compare to what he feels now. Back then, he was under the constant stress of keeping his friends alive in Tartarus—making sure he had the appropriate spread of Personae for the teams he was planning to lead that night—monitoring everyone's health and energy with Fuuka's help, and pulling people out of combat when they pushed past their limits.

He's always had an analytical mind, though he thinks he much prefers peacetime, instead.

Seeing Akihiko punch sandbags or human opponents, rather than Shadows, is exhilarating and safe. He can watch Koromaru dart around the dorm without having to worry about him tripping over the knife in his mouth. Ken can act like the kid he is, not try to stay on the battlefield even when Shadows latched onto his weakness to Mudo spells—

It's peaceful, and it is good. He thinks that if the world stays just like this, forever, he will die happy, whenever he does end up passing on.

He surprises Maiko with a visit, that summer, and the delight on her face as she squeals and throws herself at him makes up for the long train ride.

He sends Bebe an IM in faltering French, his fingers unfamiliar with the strange keyboard, and receives a message back full of excited emojis and hearts.

He visits Akinari's grave—only a few rows away from where his parents and sister are interred—and puts his own bouquet of flowers beside the several already there.

He spends a weekend with his dormmates—Mitsuru and Akihiko are back from a mission for their new Shadow Operatives group, and Shinjiro's crashed on the couches again, and the rest of them are avoiding their homework. They spend a weekend being lazy and happy together, and Minato falls asleep in Aigis' lap as she plays with his hair.

This time, he expects to wake up. This time, he feels happy like he has not in over a decade.

This is the beautiful, vibrant world that he nearly died to save. The more he sees of it, the more sure he is that even if it damned him, it would have been the right choice.

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