Burn My Regret Chapter 13 - Apathy
Apr. 16th, 2015 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angevonYu had to return to Tatsumi Port Island the next day. Nanako-chan cried, and Yosuke complained that the weekend was too short, but overall the goodbyes were nowhere near as painful as they had been back in March. Yu promised them all he'd return in December during the winter holidays. To cheer Nanako-chan up, he told her to prepare for it by making all sorts of winter-based plans, like building a snowman and making snow angels and going sledding.
He'd taken the noon train so that he'd arrive at Iwatodai while it was still light out. He fished the dorm key from the flowerpot he'd instructed Ken to hide it under.
Koromaru was incredibly happy to see him. No wonder people love dogs, he thought, as the animal playfully ran in circles around him. He decided to play with Koromaru to take his mind off of the distance between him and his family. He threw the chew toy down the hall and the dog chased after it over and over again.
Tomorrow was Monday. At least, he thought, he'd be able to see Ken-chan again and train with him.
Monday afternoon, Yu hummed to himself while he chopped mushrooms and carrots in the dorm's kitchen in anticipation for his meeting with Ken. They should have something to eat between English and training. Something light and refreshing—too heavy and they wouldn't have energy for it—so he was going to make a sautéed chicken dish.
His cell phone rang – the number was Ken's. He put the phone to his ear and used his shoulder to hold it in place while he continued his chopping. "Ken-kun?"
"Narukami-san," the boy began. "I know we're supposed to meet today, but..."
Yu halted in mid-chop, knife poised over a carrot. "You have to cancel?"
"I was hoping... Well, you see, Maiko-chan is still sick. That's over two weeks, now. I'm worried."
"The flu takes some time to recover from," Yu reminded him.
"Narukami-san..." Ken's voice was no more than a whisper. "Her father once hit her."
Yu dropped the knife, and it fell against the carrot. "Let's visit her again right now, Ken-kun."
"No no, she's fine," Oohashi-san protested at the door. "She's... resting." He sounded supremely worried.
Shifting from foot to foot in his agitation, Ken asked with veiled politeness if they could see her.
"A-actually, she's at her mother's place this week..." Oohashi-san wiped his brow.
Yu raised an eyebrow. "You moved a sick girl?"
"She's not that sick!" the man snapped. "She'll be fine any day now!"
Amada-kun growled and dashed under the man's arm and into the house before he could be stopped. "Maiko-chan!"
Oohashi-san's face blanched—not with fury, but fear. "No, don't! Please, don't!"
"I don't know what you have to hide," Yu said, "but he's going to find out. He cares about your daughter." Yu prayed that his worst fears were unfounded.
The man looked defeated. He sighed and stepped away. "...You might as well come in."
With heavy steps, Oohashi-san led him down the hall to an open door. The man stood outside and gestured for Yu to enter the room.
Yu found Ken desperately talking to an unresponsive girl who was resting in a child-sized futon. "Maiko-chan, please...!"
"Ken-kun?" Yu whispered.
The boy turned a tear-streaked face towards him. "Narukami-san... She... She has Apathy Syndrome."
"Ahhhh... Ahhhh..." the girl moaned.
"She's been that way for weeks," said her father from the doorway. "The doctors told us we have to wait it out, that they always get better eventually, but..."
"Apathy Syndrome shouldn't exist," said Ken, sniffling. "It really shouldn't..."
Yu kindly led the boy out of the room, and thanked Maiko-chan's father for letting them in.
"Narukami-san," the boy said after he had recovered. He sounded stiff and formal. "I would like to speak with Mitsuru-san. Please, would you call her for me?"
"Mitsuru-san or Aigis-san?" Yu asked. He pulled out his phone from his pocket.
Ken hesitated. "Mmm, Aigis-san, perhaps."
Yu pressed a button and then handed the phone to the boy. He walked down the street a distance to give him some privacy. Hearing only half of the conversation would be frustrating, and he didn't want to intrude.
Yu leisurely inspected a bush and found a house cat sitting under it. It was brown with a white underbelly and wore a pink collar with a bell on it. Yu was rather disappointed that he didn't have any of the fish treats he used to carry around in Inaba. Yosuke used to complain that always he smelled like fish until he began to carry hand sanitizer to clean his hands after handling the treats.
He tried to lure the cat closer, but it only watched him wave his hand at it in vague cat-amusement. The cat was following his fingers, so he at least had its attention. "Here, kitty," he cooed. The cat flicked its tail, but made no move to come closer.
"Ahem," said a voice behind him. Ken was handing the phone out to him. "She wants to talk to you." Yu blinked and accepted the phone gingerly.
"Hello?"
"Narukami." The voice was Mitsuru's, although he had called Aigis. "After class tomorrow, take Amada to the dormitory with you. We will speak with you there."
Yu and Ken rode the train to Iwatodai Station in relative silence. Yu was not often talkative in the first place, and Ken had seemed subdued ever since Yu had picked him up at the middle school's gates. He hoped Koromaru could cheer the boy up, but he also couldn't help but feel tense himself. It wasn't the same feeling as meeting his team right before entering the TV World for a rescue mission, but it was similar. That gnawing uncertainty of what was in store for him...
He unlocked the dorm's front door and entered to find the lounge already occupied by three women: the red-haired Mitsuru in a white blouse and black skirt was seated in one of the armchairs with one leg crossed over the other; yellow-haired Aigis in—nothing, she wasn't concealing her robotic nature with clothes at all; and a newcomer sitting on the couch with a laptop open in her lap. She had braided teal-blue hair and wore a simple white cotton dress.
All three stood up to greet him, the last one hastily putting her laptop on the lounge's small table. Mitsuru stepped forward and crossed her arms. "Narukami, Amada. Good. You're here." She turned her head towards the teal-haired girl. "Narukami, this is Fuuka Yamagishi. Yamagishi, this is Yu Narukami, whom I've told you about."
She curtsied. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Narukami-san."
He nodded and waited for Mitsuru to continue.
"Yamagishi is our support. Her Persona is similar to your idol friend's. I've brought her in because we're certain to need her abilities. Before we get into that, will you tell us about the child with Apathy Syndrome?" She turned her sharp red eyes on Ken.
Ken explained Maiko-chan's situation. "It's definitely Apathy Syndrome, Mitsuru-san. She has all the signs."
"That should be impossible," Mitsuru said, "but I don't doubt you. Narukami, if you aren't aware, Apathy Syndrome is caused when Shadows feast on someone's mind during the Dark Hour. Since there is no more Dark Hour, it is presumed that there should be no more victims."
"Ken-kun's friend is not the only one with it," Yu contributed. "I know of a few others." He halted. "If I'd known it was related to Shadows, I'd have reported it to you sooner."
"The Shadows are one step ahead of us," Aigis murmured, eyes downcast. "Narukami-san, who are these others?"
"Kenji Tomochika, Kazushi Miyamoto, and one of my teachers, Ms. Toriumi."
Aigis's unnatural blue eyes widened. "Those names... Mitsuru-san, two are former students at Gekkoukan."
"And the connection with the teacher is obvious as well," Mitsuru noted.
"There is also an elderly couple with it," Yu added. "They might still be at the hospital. I didn't see them myself, but..."
Mitsuru pursed her lips. "Tatsumi Memorial Hospital? We should have been informed by the staff. Well, regardless, it seems we must assume that Shadows are active in the region once again."
"I'm ready to scan," said Fuuka.
"Then let's proceed to the command room."
They climbed the stairs, Mitsuru in the lead, followed by Fuuka and Yu, with Koromaru, Aigis, and Ken trailing behind.
"Aigis-san," said Ken quietly, "does it feel strange to you to be here again?"
"It does," the robot admitted. "In fact, I was hesitant to allow the dorm to be reopened for Narukami-san, but it seems Mitsuru-san was correct in the end."
"There is a superstition in Western culture," Mitsuru said, "that trouble comes in threes."
"It has been three years since we lived here," Ken admitted, "but that's silly. Any number could do..."
"W-Well," said Fuuka, "there was Shinji-kun, and then there was Aigis-san, and then there was... U-umm, but at least Aigis-san was repaired."
A long silence elapsed. Yu felt quite the stranger, having little knowledge of his comrades' reminiscing.
They stopped at the large double-doors on the fourth floor. "Oh, it's locked," Yu told them.
"We have the key," said Mitsuru. "Aigis."
Aigis nodded and took out a ring with several keys. She selected one and used it to unlock the command room door. She held open the door while the others entered.
"Wait, Aigis-san," Yu said as she made to put away the key. "That key... You have a Velvet Key?"
Aigis held up the key in question. "I do, but..."
Yu took out his own Velvet Key and showed it to her.
"I had assumed as much," said Aigis, "when we met during Golden Week. There was that resonance... You are more similar to him than I had thought... Unfortunately, the Velvet Room seems to be closed to me. Is the same true for you?"
"The only entrance I know of is in Inaba, or was. It wasn't there when I left... The last time I was in the Velvet Room was near the end of Golden Week, and it wasn't Igor who had called me. It was his assistant."
"Elizabeth-san?" Aigis asked.
"Margaret, but I know who you are talking about. They're sisters."
Aigis smiled kindly at him. "I'm glad you are with us. Come, we're keeping the others waiting."
The command room was expansive, with a conference table and several chairs, but what grabbed his attention was the huge set of display screens and the switchboard that looked like it came right out of Naoto's Secret Base dungeon.
Fuuka and Mitsuru were already seated before the controls and turning knobs and switches until the primary display turned on. It took a moment for Yu to recognize what he was looking at: the dorm's roof. With another flip of a switch, the screen changed. Now it spat out a series of numbers that held no meaning to Yu.
Fuuka left the panel and took a seat at the conference table, and Mitsuru soon joined her.
"Are you ready to perform the initial scan?" Mitsuru inquired.
Fuuka nodded. "I'm ready." She then took out a gun—no, an Evoker—and put it under her chin and pulled the trigger. Yu moved his own hand to his chin reflexively, wincing.
Fuuka's Persona shimmered into life, encompassing the girl in a sphere, which seemed to be the Persona's lower half. Above the sphere was the upper half of a human-like body wearing a magenta, strapless top with lacy white frills and matching long gloves. The Persona had a mane of hair the same teal as Fuuka's own. Peacock-like wings spread from the Persona's back; perhaps these were utilized in the scanning process somehow.
The Persona faced the heavens—or, rather, the room's ceiling—with its arms outstretched.
"Are you picking up on anything?" Mitsuru asked.
"No." Fuuka's voice was somewhat muffled by the Persona surrounding her. "Let me keep trying."
Mitsuru took the time to explain Fuuka's Persona to Yu. Juno could detect Shadows throughout a fairly large radius—but only if the Shadows were of a size that could be noticed. "From here she once detected a powerful Shadow at the Paulownia Mall. My own Persona has similar abilities, but not to the same degree."
"I can't find anything... I'm sorry." Fuuka's Persona faded out of existence.
"We'll have you scan again later. In fact," Mitsuru turned to face Yu. "Narukami—Yamagishi will be staying at the dorm with you for the time being."
He supposed he should have been more surprised, but... "All right," he said. "But there isn't a room ready for anyone else to stay in."
Mitsuru waved a hand. "There's still time today. If you'll excuse me, I'll make it happen." She took out her cell phone and stepped outside of the conference room to make a call.
"I wonder if I can have my old room," Fuuka mused.
"I'm staying in a room on the third floor," Yu told her.
"Oh... That's the girls' floor," Fuuka noted.
Yu blinked a few times. "I wondered why it smelled so nice."
Ken snickered.
"It's room 3-1," Yu added.
Fuuka moved her hand to her chest. "Umm, that's my old room..."
"That would be my fault. I was the one who assigned it to him," Aigis admitted. "I believed he would appreciate a cleaner room."
Fuuka was thinking. "I don't mind being on the same floor as you, Narukami-san. Maybe I can take Mitsuru-san's old room."
"That shouldn't be a problem," said Aigis. "If that is amenable to Narukami-san?"
Yu was dubious. It didn't seem quite proper that only a hallway separate them.
"If only I could stay," Ken commented wistfully. "Then I could play with Koro-chan every day."
Aigis looked at him closely. "Do you truly wish to?"
Ken seemed surprised. "Umm, I'm actually kind of happy where I'm at. I'd miss the other boys."
"You can come visit us any time," Yu told him with a faint smile.
The doors opened and Mitsuru returned. "Then that's settled, at least. Moving forward, Aigis and I will look into these Apathy Syndrome incidences and contact Sanada, Takeba, and Iori to see if they've noticed anything."
"Takeba-san might not be in any condition. She's sick," said Yu.
The group turned to him in surprise. "You know Takeba?" Mitsuru asked.
"No, but..." Yu explained how he'd asked Rise about the Featherman ranger's condition after Ken had brought it to his attention.
"I see," said Mitsuru. "Perhaps we should look into that first."
"Takeba-san..." Ken's eyes were on the floor.
Yu put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner. But maybe she's recovered by now."
Ken nodded.
"With that, Aigis and I will take our leave," Mitsuru said. "Amada, we can take you back to your dorm. Yamagishi, representatives from Kirijo will be here soon to furnish your room. I suggest you and Narukami go to the ground floor to greet them."
Fuuka and Yu saw them off and then moved to the lounge. It was strange to know that he would not be alone in the building anymore. Well, Koromaru was always there...
"Narukami-kun," Fuuka said after placing her laptop back on her lap. "Mitsuru-san told me about you... That you were there during Golden Week."
"You saved us there at the end. Thank you." He nodded at her.
"O-of course," she said.
Yu asked her a little about her Persona's abilities, and indeed, Juno's skills mirrored Rise's Himiko. Yu wished he could create a Persona with scanning abilities, but although his power of the Wild Card could fill several different roles, this was not one of them. He suspected that Fuuka would be an important ally to him. He hoped they'd become good friends.
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