Writing Lounge

SkyCladSaya06 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **SkyCladSaya06** on Sat Apr 15, 2017 10:51 am

Basically a storage space for test-writing characters, drabbles, etc.

DeathScythe386 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **DeathScythe386** on Sat Apr 15, 2017 1:18 pm

sweet i needed a place to toss my next drabble into because I didn't want to fuck over the Gunners Academy Chapter 3 in my Livejournal drafts. XD
AKA KanaNagi thing. XD

Borrowed Affections and Childhood Memories -

If one were to ask, the Makinami family, known for their rather humble but hardworking repair shop, was a rather normal one. Mother and father, two sons and a daughter.

After Matsuda and Yuuichi Makinami, Nagisa had been a rather odd twist to the family line. It was almost like Matsuda was born all over again- both parents were incredibly doting over the first ever princess of the family. Of course, the boys didn't really have a problem with this. It was exciting, somewhat, to finally have a little sister after all these years of rough-housing with each other.

Well, if she was their sister, did that mean she couldn't give them cooties?

Surprisingly enough, at a tender young age of 5, Nagisa was already quite the excitable kid. She wasn't the most sociable one, preferring to wait for people to come to her, but the odd red hue of her eyes compared to her brothers' brown ones were a striking feature that somehow led many to believe she was some sort of monster in disguise.

Not that she particularly minded, and she was much too young to process that anyway.

It wasn't long until she heard her parents gossiping with the next-door neighbor as she found herself down on the floor, doodling a crude drawing of a robot covered in spikes on the fifth piece of paper she's gotten her hands on.

"Yeah! I heard they're a very nice bunch, very friendly with the neighbors!"

"I wonder what kind of kids they have?"

"Oh, I heard they only have one daughter."

Nagisa heard Matsuda and Yuuichi groan from where they were playing. Yuuichi shook his head, sticking out his tongue.

"Come on, a girl?"

"Yuuichi, don't be like that. I mean, maybe she's cootie-free!"

Nagisa just shook her head and went back to doodling the cockpit in which she would one day be sitting in.

A week later, and Nagisa found Yuuichi's impatient hands shaking her shoulders. She heard his huff, and her bed creaked a little as he climbed up.

"Nagi! Nagi, wake up!"

"Yuuichi, don't bother me..."

Nagisa pulled a pillow over her head which her brother snatched away, pouting at her from where he had perched himself. Yuuichi put his little hands on his hips after he tossed away the pillow.

"Wake up, sleepyhead! The new people are here!"

New people? The new neighbors?

Almost begrudgingly, Nagisa dragged herself out of bed, ran a comb through her tousled black hair- much to Yuuichi's chagrin- and didn't bother smoothing out her shirt before dashing downstairs while attempting to pull her slippers on. When they burst out into the front yard, she saw Matsuda already there beside her father, who was talking to what seemed to be a lovely couple.

But what caught her attention was the person Yuuichi frantically pointed to.

"That's her! That's her!"

True enough, the usual group of kids that hung out at the playground in their area was gathered around someone. Nagisa attempted to peer through the crowd, but a shadow moved and stepped up on the playground top.

For a moment, cornflower blue eyes met dark red ones.

And almost immediately, that figure jumped down, barrelling through the crowd like an inexhaustible lightning bolt, and skidded to a stop in front of her and Yuuichi.

"Hey! You must be our neighbors right?"

It baffled Nagisa how easily this new girl seemed to get along as she shifted from foot to foot before extending her hand for a handshake.

"I'm Kanade! Kanade Takamine, nice to meet you!"

Yuuichi had not taken her hand that day in fear of cooties, but Nagisa sure did, and it was pretty obvious that they were soon becoming very good best friends. She found herself going over to their house more often- usually after breakfast she'd already be speeding off there, backpack in hand, and playdates were getting longer and longer.

Looking back at it now though, Nagisa decided she wasn't exactly the best person who took losses very easily. Sure, it was often that she and Kanade would cry over the same hero losing, but when it came to their rivalries...oh boy.

Lost in a battle of Garurumon and WarGreymon? Snap, WarGreymon's leg was off.

Heracross VS Pinsir didn't go that well? Snap, Heracross doesn't have a horn to use Megahorn anymore.

Nagisa chose Spiderman in a fight between Spiderman and Venom. Venom got the upper hand-- Snap, he didn't have a head to bite people with anymore.

But for whatever reason, though she saw tears pricking at the corners of her eyes, Kanade always took this with a seemingly exhausted smile.

Nagisa wouldn't lie that some of her choices were still influenced by Kanade though.

"Nagi, I love your shirt!"

She found herself glancing down at the red shirt she was wearing. It was an old one Matsuda couldn't fit in anymore and so it was passed down to her. But Kanade had such a bright smile on anyway.

"...Really?"

"Yeah, yeah! Red looks really nice on you!"

"Well...if you think so."

Nagisa allowed herself to smile...and after that she wore red shirts all the time.

After a while, she and Kanade had started getting closer to the other kids, though they always were the closest out of all of them. They had been discussing Alice in Wonderland, and one of their friends had pointed to Kanade, a bright grin on her face.

"Hey, hey! Kanade has blonde hair and blue eyes! You think she could be Alice?"

"Ehh? But I'd rather be the White Rabbit so I can lead people to Wonderland!"

The conversation quickly evolved into talks of Alice in Wonderland and who would they be until the attention focused on Nagisa.

"Well, who would Nagisa be?"

"The Queen of Hearts obviously!"

Nagisa grimaced. She already knew why.

"Get it? Cause she's always wearing red and she keeps cutting people's heads off!"

While she and Kanade made their way back home, she managed to flash a small smile at her best friend's worried look.

"Off with their heads, I guess."

Deep down, Nagisa knew what she was doing wasn't exactly right- but when Kanade's parents called her over to talk, she knew something was going down, and she felt like she had butterflies in her stomach the entire time. It was this odd feeling of dread, welling up; and Nagisa was sure she would just have her head down the entire talk.

Surprisingly, Kanade's parents weren't mad. At all. They spoke to her almost as kindly as they always did, though it was obvious that she was being reprimanded.

"Come on, Nagisa, I'm sure you don't like seeing your friend cry either."

She definitely didn't. Honestly, the picture of Kanade crying her eyes out in a corner when she wasn't looking tugged on her heartstrings. Guilt was always something that weakened her, despite her envious looks whenever Kanade got new toys during her birthday parties, or when her upbeat friend would want to get her a free toy too. Kanade was never content unless her friends had what she had as well. Maybe it was the reason she always kept letting Nagisa borrow her toys.

So the next day, when they meet up again, Nagisa presents her with something she swiped off her brother's table with a grin on her face.

"You're always letting me borrow stuff, so I brought over something today. It's a tape of something my brother was watching. It's probably real cool!"

It genuinely surprises Nagisa when years later, Kanade has the exact same protagonist from the show they watched.

Their hands end up brushing over each other's when they're picking out cardigans for their school. Nagisa takes a good look at her friend and it was obvious that Kanade hadn't lost the kind of childlike innocence in her face and the brightness of her smile even in middle school.

A scent of cologne wafts from Kanade's neat white collared shirt. She runs a hand through her blonde locks, humming, as if she never even noticed that Nagisa's fingertips was lightly pressing on the back of her left hand. The black-haired girl looked at herself in the mirror- she was sure she smelled of home, of the repair shop and how she had just helped in opening the shop earlier. It was a rather odd sight to see herself dressed in work apron and gloves, but Nagisa feels like the wrinkled white shirt she's wearing right now is enough to at least put her at the same level as Kanade.

"Hey, Nagi, you should get a red cardigan, for old time's sake."

Kanade jokes, and Nagisa feels like the blonde thinks they're all grown-up now. Nagisa felt like she may as well be- she'd been helping Matsuda and Yuuichi earlier. Nevertheless, she grins a bit at her friend.

"You act like my obsession with red shirts is so far off."

"To me, it is."

Nagisa smiles and picks up the red cardigan anyway. For a moment, she pauses, then looks at Kanade.

"Aren't you going to get your own?"

"Hmm, I don't know."

Kanade stretches, crossing her arms behind her head and turning away from the many cardigans on display. She flashes a grin at Nagisa.

"Too hot for cardigans anyway- the weather, I mean."

Halfway through their first year of high school, Kanade's hair was starting to get a bit messy. But whatever it was, Nagisa found that she still mostly acted the same- still smiling, still being patient and putting up with Nagisa's bullshit. Even after she was diagnosed with her disease. A lone strand of hair seems to stick up from the rest of her locks.

She doesn't think she's ever seen Kanade get too mad, but at one point during the sports fest Kanade kicks a ball halfway across the court. Nagisa attempts the same and finds that she can't.

For some reason, she finds this a challenge and hangs out every after school there, kicking soccer balls and whatever round objects she can find across the court, attempting to imitate Kanade. It isn't long until the blonde finds out about her habits and again, effortlessly, with her hair blowing in the wind, she kicks another across the court.

It's become their little game at that point- just Nagisa attempting to imitate her friend's strength. At one point, Kanade had gotten there earlier than Nagisa, idly tossing a baseball and catching it in her hand.

"Hey, Nagi. Did you know I wasn't only good at kicking?"

"Hmm?"

Kanade grinned- a dangerous grin, one Nagisa wasn't accustomed to as the blonde stood.

"I'm good at throwing too."

She watches as Kanade throws baseball after baseball. She must have broken 20 windows.

When the faculty caught up with them, Kanade grinned at her from over her shoulder, the same shit-eating grin. She thought it was awesome.

Nagisa couldn't believe it herself. It was almost like when they were kids again, though this time they were at their high school retreat, that Kanade was attempting to wipe away the tears that stung her eyes.

Kanade's mother had started working abroad and they didn't really see each other that much anymore. She knows Kanade's trying her best to be strong, because she knows her toxic group is watching, but when she and Nagisa are alone in the two person room they were sharing for the retreat- Nagisa managed to pull some strings through an A+ grade-, she can hear her sniffling.

She makes a quick cup of hot chocolate, places it next to her friend, and situates herself right next to the crying blonde, her hand gently resting on the other girl's back. It's only a matter of seconds when Kanade suddenly throws her arms around Nagisa's torso, head buried in her shoulder.

"I-I miss her," She chokes out, and Nagisa feels the tears soaking into her red cardigan. "I miss her s-so much, Nagi."

Nagisa says nothing. She just gently hugs back, and lets her strongest, most patient friend cry into her shoulder.

Kanade cheers up a while later, after she and Nagisa had gotten on the topic of what they planned to do with their lives in college.

"An engineer huh? I can only hope to be as popular as you will be."

Kanade reminds her of a lost duckling, Nagisa realizes.

Nagisa has no idea what happened to Kanade in college. But when they ended up in the same dorm, she could immediately notice the...differences.

It surprises her when she finds a blonde girl dressed in a navy blue vest and black shirt fiddling with a collar on the lobby couch. It surprises her even more, when she recognizes the bored look on her face and those cornflower blue eyes.

Her eyes narrow a bit.

"Kanade?"

Kanade puts down her phone, and instead of running up to her, she simply stands and spreads her arms out, grinning.

"What, couldn't handle the dazzling beauty in front of you? Sheesh, Nagisa, if you were into me you should have told me ages ago."

A quick motion of her head and hand and her blonde hair flies- Nagisa notes that it looks...messier, though elegant in their own way and that Kanade now had two strands sticking up like bunny ears.

"Then again, if you're only falling for me now, I wouldn't hold it against ya. After all- I'm the better, newer improved, Kanade Takamine! Say hello to your new goddess! Kyahahahaha!"

Nagisa laughs along as Kanade keeps a boot on the table in front of her, hands on her hips.

"Yep. Definitely missed you alright. Missed you for like-- the entirety of summer."

"Fuckin' coincidences, am I right?"

The blonde, still taller than her by two inches, throws her arm around Nagisa's shoulders, and grins.

"So, drinks at the Lounge or at the local cafe and we can catch up on whatever the fuck happened to us sound good? I got so much shit to tell you, and you'd be surprised that none of 'em involve weed."

"Sounds good to me."

Nagisa was sure of one thing, at least; no matter how many things she borrowed, no matter how much time would warp them, at least she knew now that this friendship would last- last forevermore if they so willed it to be.

SkyCladSaya06 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **SkyCladSaya06** on Sun Apr 16, 2017 7:45 am

Black History

"When I heard my roommate was some elite kid from Dubai, I honestly wasn't expecting things to turn out the way it did."

Makoto ended up in Blue Lotus Residences upon Haruto's suggestion. The rent was reasonable and supposedly, the community is too. The only downside is that there weren't any single rooms around so eventually, he knew he would have to learn to live with another person for a good duration of the year. Of course, men and women get their separate floors so no. Absolutely no visual novel-esque stuff going on--much to Makoto's dismay.

"Hi! You're Makoto Itsuna right? The new resident of 503?" A blonde-haired lady greeted him on the front desk during the first day he set foot in the dorm. She was rather tall and had just the right build--not too fat and not too slim. It was hard to tell her age but she did look young. Just the right age, Makoto assumed.

"Yes. And you are?" Makoto asked, setting down his bags as he worked on the papers she handed out. He kept stealing glances at her every now and then. "Wow, she's pretty..."

"Oh, I'm Laeticia. You can just call me Cel though. I work at the desk every now and then." Cel introduces herself. "Umm...Sir Ryota's not around but he told me to show you the ropes around here. You don't mind do you?"

"No, not at all. Oh wait! That's heavy!" Makoto reached out a hand to stop Cel who went over to carry some of his bags for him. Surprisingly, she was able to lift them up with ease.

"Don't worry! I'm not as dainty as you think!"

"Yeah, I can see that!"

Cel proceeded to brief Makoto about the various house rules and other things he needed to know for his stay. Things like visiting hours and whatnot. She also helped him unpack in his unit and after that, accompanied him to see where the various facilities are like the small canteen, the pool and the laundry area. Makoto tried to remember all of this in his head as they went on. He did throw a couple of questions her way every now and then and fortunately, Cel seemed to be very nice and entertaining to them.

"And this is the end of our tour. Well, let me know if you need anything. Oh, and if you have any other questions or clarifications--just ask! I'm usually at the desk when I'm not in school or you can check my unit on the first floor. Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I think I've got everything covered." Makoto assures her.

"You know you're quite lucky you get to solo this unit for a little while longer."

"Huh? I thought I already have a roommate assigned to this room."

"Yeah but, it seems he won't be arriving until October. Lucky you. I'd make the best of this opportunity as much as I can."

"Why? Is my roommate that bad?"

"I don't know. You'd have to really live with him in order to find out."

Cel and Makoto parted after that, with him retreating back to his room and her descending downstairs to the front desk. He contemplated his new life for a while as he laid on his chosen bed in the room.

"Living with a total stranger huh? I wonder what it'll be like?"

Makoto's roommate finally arrived in October, just as Cel said he would. And right off the bat, he knew he was trouble when he walked in. Makoto had school that lasted until the evening and so when he came back to the dorm, his roommate had already arrived. And unpacked, much to his chagrin.

"What is all this?" Makoto felt annoyed seeing all the various blank CDs, computer peripherals and clothes strewn all over the dorm room.

"Hey! What'ya doing just barging in here without knocking first?" An annoyed voice rang from the bedroom and out came a strapping young man who was rather short, both in height and in temper.

"Knock? Why would I when this is my room?" Makoto answered back in a neutral way.

"Wait, wait. You're the Itsuna guy?" The guy's face immediately softened up upon this revelation.

"Yeah. Makoto Itsuna." Makoto finally introduces himself. "And you are?"

"Oh, I'm Aziz! Aziz Harumi, nice to meet you and pleasure to be at your service! Now if you'll excuse me--" After that rather short introduction, Aziz immediately vanished back into the room.

"Weird guy...Hey! Get all of this stuff out of the kitchen!"

Needless to say, the relationship of the two inside the dorm room became strained in the span of two weeks. Their interests just couldn't be reconciled. One thing Makoto couldn't stand is the fact that Aziz seemed to be dealing with some illegal stuff namely burning pirated DVDs and porn. Even got caught trying to film the girls in the shower in order to sell their nude pics off. Eventually, people, especially girls started talking badly about room 503.

"You know Blue Lotus' Room 503? Better avoid that room--that place is full of creeps!"

At times, Makoto would also come back to find a bunch of people he didn't personally know but recognized from his school crowding the room, exceeding the maximum number of outsiders allowed in.

"Aziz!!!" Makoto called his roommate over immediately. "What's all this?"

"Yo man, I uh..." Aziz grinned sheepishly as he tried to cover the room and obscure Makoto's vision though his short height wasn't really helping much. From where he was standing, Makoto could see that they were watching X-rated films and videos again.

"That's it!" Makoto proclaimed as he marched for the door only to be blocked by Aziz and his friends.

"Hey, maybe we can talk about this?" Seeing all these guys surrounding him, Makoto felt a little intimidated. He wasn't weak physically but there was no way he would win in a brawl should they all come at him all at once.

"Look." Sighing, Aziz removes his gold watch and gives it to Makoto. "Just...don't tell anyone. Here, severance pay...whatever that means."

As he was practically forced to accept Aziz's "offer", Makoto was also forcefully ejected from the room--his own room--by Aziz's buddies. He didn't take too kindly to the gesture. Somehow, it felt like they could order him around now that they've bought his silence. The gold watch was rather valuable but it still felt wrong.

So instead of keeping it, Makoto went over and pawned the thing, bought a half-pound burger to chow down on and left the rest at the dorm's front desk.

Nighttime, which was usually Makoto's peak of inspiration for writing or reading some good horror stories was slowly being taken over by Aziz's antics.

Kanye West, Metallica, Chris Brown--mostly if it is loud, Aziz blared it even in the wee hours of the night, provided he was working on some stuff like burning new CDs in the middle of finishing his own schoolwork.

"Hey, not that I don't appreciate what you play man but, mind toning it down a little? I'm trying to work here." Makoto asked one night, unable to concentrate at all on the short story his writing given that the only words he hears in the background are the lyrics to Kanye West's Bed song.

"Sorry man, speaker's busted, can't go lower than that." Aziz excused with a slight grin.

"Oh so he can afford to pay with a gold watch but can't buy new speakers? Great!" A little fed up, Makoto politely excused himself out of the room, taking only a pad of yellow paper, a pen and a copy of Yvette Tan's Waking the Dead with him.

As Aziz's music could be heard all throughout the fifth floor and the fourth floor being well, practically non-existent, Makoto lounged around in the third floor for a while. It was the girl's floor but, he supposed no one would mind if he just stayed by the benches near the vending machines given that some of the female resident's boyfriends would sit around there. Plus, it was way past 12 already, and that's curfew for boys and girls.

Most of the girls didn't like hanging out in that spot during late nights, as Makoto had found out. The low lights and cold air seemed to unnerve most people. Not Makoto though. On the contrary, he found the mood rather engaging. He stopped writing after a few minutes to leaf through the book, hoping for additional inspiration to strike him. Halfway through Stella for Star, he hears the slight patter of feet coming up the stairs.

"What the--" Makoto put the book down for a while as his senses went on high alert. The footsteps continued on, drawing closer and closer yet Makoto simply remained seated and waited for whatever was approaching to rear its head into view. He had a good view of the staircase from his spot so it was impossible to miss it.

Tap, tap.

The footsteps were a lot louder this time. Makoto still remained seated.

Tap, tap.

It seemed to be taking forever.

Tap, tap.

Finally, a shadow loomed from downstairs and the one causing the sound finally came into view. A young girl around his age was walking up the stairs, clutching a tote bag from the Vanadis, a popular chain game store around Castle City. She wasn't too tall; definitely shorter than Cel but her build wasn't too bad and she had her hair in a ponytail. Her face also reveals a blossoming maturity slowly climbing up to the surface of her skin. Seeing her now, Makoto was quite sure that in a few years, she'll be drop dead gorgeous. Alerted to his presence, the girl immediately stepped back, her eyes locking with his.

"Uhh..." Makoto was a bit puzzled at this turn of events. "Well, this is awkward."

Possibly to stop him from reporting her being out way past curfew, the girl treated him to a drink from the vending machine. In all honesty, Makoto felt a little annoyed at this. It was the second time since Aziz that someone "bought" his silence. Did he really seem like someone whose silence can easily be bought? Well...probably yes since he accepted the offer but, the incident with Aziz was practically forced and for this one well...he just opted for a bottle of milk chocolate.

"You didn't really have to go this far--it's not like I'm going to tell on you or anything." Makoto assures her as he took out a couple of coins to pay for the difference. The girl didn't take it though. Rather, she just inched a little further away from him on the bench.

"Uhh...is she one of them loners? Doesn't seem like she's too interested in talking." Makoto thought. Normally he would've let it be at that but, he found himself rather intrigued by her shy persona. He thought of trying to reach out to her again.

"U-uh, why were you out so late anyway?" Makoto asked but immediately regretted it. In his experience, girls who stayed out that late were all fooling around with their boyfriends. Save for Haruto, his sister though. She does it for the laughs. But still, if it were true then that might mean his chances with this girl is practically zero.

"T-There was a sale at Queen's..." The girl finally managed to get the words out, still clutching the tote bag in her arms.

"Huh? So she does speak after all." Makoto thought as he takes another swig from the chocolate.

"The lines were long and--I missed the bus home." The girl finally finished.

"So you waited for the next bus which comes around later than normal huh?" Makoto could already half-guess what happened next, having been thrust in the same situation already when at Queen's. "Couldn't you just hail a cab or something?"

The girl seemed to flinch at the idea upon hearing it, puzzling Makoto even more. He didn't press on too much though. He reckoned he should let her divulge the details on her own.

"Being alone in a sealed room with a guy...urghh..." The girl finally managed to say it out loud though she seemed pretty uncomfortable saying so. From what he can gather, it seemed like she has a fear of guys? Well, how was he going to talk normally with her then?

"You know..." Makoto started. "If you don't trust the cab driver enough to use the convenience, you can always inform the women's desk of the cab driver's name and plate number. Sure, that may only alert the police so they'll be on the lookout but, that will also put them on edge, if ever they planned on doing anything to you."

The girl looked up at him meekly. Makoto continued. "Taking a cab is like living in this dorm. You know it'll be dangerous either way yet you still lived in it. I don't know what skeletons you've got in your closet but sometimes, you need to have a little faith."

"Faith in what exactly?" The girl asked.

"Yourself. Others. God, Buddha, whatever you subscribe to. Otherwise, you'll just live your life never really knowing anybody but yourself. But I'm just parroting what a good friend taught me so take it with a grain of salt." Makoto finished as he gulped down the last of the drink. He could tell she really has a hard time trusting boys like him.

"Name." The girl suddenly spoke up.

"Huh?" Makoto asked, surprised.

"Your name."

"Don't you normally name yourself first before asking for other's names?" Makot spoke up first. It took the girl a while to answer but when she did, it was--

"Menou. Koizumi Menou."

"Makoto. Itsuna Makoto." Makoto extends a hand to her but Menou inched further away. As she did so though, she accidentally dropped the tote bag she was holding.

"Ah--!" Menou exclaimed as she immediately bent down to pick it up but Makoto also did the same thing, allowing their fingers to touch for a split-second as they both reached for the bag at the same time.

"Ah..." Menou gasped. On the other hand, Makoto only smiled.

"See? That wasn't too bad, was it?" He assured her politely as he helped her up. As he was about to hand over the tote bag back to her, he managed to catch a glimpse of the game's title inside.

"Ardent Knight 2 huh? Great choice." Makoto complimented her on her choice of game.

"You know it?" Menou suddenly asked, a little more enthusiastic upon realizing he was familiar with the game.

"Yeah. Well no. Not this title since it just came out today. But I was able to play the original Ardent Knight so I'm quite familiar with the franchise." Makoto explained.

"Really?" Menou was finally a lot more relaxed as she sat back down, evident on the smile on her face. "I just got it today since I heard it's got great reviews. What's it like?"

"Ah well, it's kind of a horror RPG puzzle really. You take control of a character in third person and you have to solve the mystery of the castle. The controls are rather simple but more than gameplay, Ardent Knight delivers well in its scares and plotline. At least, the original did." Makoto explained.

"Heh...I hope I'm not too much of a scaredy-cat to play this."

"I'm sure you'll be fine." Makoto assured her as he checked his watch. "Well, it's a little late so I'll be going now. See you. And enjoy the game~"

"Wait--!" Menou suddenly called out to him.

"Hmm?"

"Uh--can I have--your messenger?" Menou asked shyly. "I may need a little help with the puzzles."

Makoto smiled at this. She seemed to be afraid of guys for the most part but, just by conversing with him about this particular game, she was able to hold her own even for a little while. He reckoned that if he is able to help her in coping with her fear then he'll surely do so. Small steps but ones that will hopefully, make a difference in this girl's psyche.

"Sure. I'll be glad to help you out anytime."

Guardian Aelita · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Guardian Aelita** on Sun Apr 16, 2017 7:19 pm

The Appeal of Women

"Akeno~ Darling, would you mind coming downstairs?"

Akeno winced at the sound of her mother's voice. It had still been a month since the incident happened. She still felt the pain ache in her chest whenever she thought about her father or her mother thanks to it. She felt the hard impact of the lamp and the lacerations on her face from the shattered glass of the lamp. Still, she was trained well as a child. Whenever you family member calls you, good little girls come immediately to assist them. Akeno's body was on autopilot as she walked downstairs. She was greeted by the smiling face of her mother and the stoic face of the man who had been her biological father. Akeno tried to speak but stopped herself. Trying would be pointless. The doctor told her that the chances of recovery were next to impossible.

"Ah, little Akeno~ You're growing up so well. You're becoming a fine young woman now that all of that silly music nonsense is dealt with."

Akeno's face was unyieldingly blank but inside, her emotions raged. Music was her only claim to an identity of her own. Whenever she sang or even listened to music, she would feel free from judgement and expectation; free from the burden of being everyone's perfect little doll. Now it was all gone. She was back to being Akeno Furuya, the perfect girl for all to admire.

"Now then, Akeno, dearie. I'm sure you know that you're reaching the point where you'll be graduating from high school. Don't you think it's time to start learning how to attract men?"

Men... Just hearing the word made her feel sick. She wasn't talking about boys; people her age that she should actually be attracted to. No, her mother meant men; men who came from successful areas of life. Heirs to a wealthy fortune, rich kids, men who belonged to important business figures; all those qualified as worthy men to attract in her mother's eyes. Akeno just looked away, not wanting to hear any more.

"Akeno~ You really should know it's impolite to not look away from your elders."

Sucking in an upset sigh, she turned her gaze back at her mother. Her smile was still on her face. She wanted to smack it off of her but it's rude to touch your elders. Did she even care about her father? Or did she just trick him into marriage just to ride off his coattails. Akeno knew without a doubt it was the latter and now her mother was going to groom her into being the exact same way. She dreaded every second of that idea.

Akeno's eyes shot awake as she rubbed at her head. A nights worth of sleep only greeted her with the grim reminder of the truth. She existed only to be everyone's doll to admire or ignore. Nothing more and nothing less. No one would actually care. No one would actually try to help her. She glanced over at her bed to see Noa Arai awake and getting ready.

"I heard you tossing and turning."

Akeno put on her usual mask and smiled warmly, loading up the text to speech app to talk.

"Ah, is that so? Guess I must have had an uneasy sleep~"

Noa studied Akeno a little before shaking her head.

"In any case, you should get ready. Today is a free day and I wish to accompany you on your day out."

This surprised Akeno a lot. Normally Noa and her never interacted too much and while Akeno did want friends to help her break free, she wasn't going to force anyone into hanging out with her.

"You sure? I thought you had homework?"

Noa gave a half hearted shrug.

"You're implying that I couldn't take care of it in a matter of minutes."

Akeno weakly laughed a little. She kept on forgetting just how smart Noa was. Still, if the girl wanted to hang out with her, fine.

"Sure~ Well, where do you normally like to go?"

This caused Noa to frown a little.

"My tastes would not correlate with yours so I prefer if you took charge of this outing."

Well that was blunt. Shrugging it off, Akeno thought a bit. Where did she want to go? This was a bit of a surprise for her as she expected it to be a lonely day like always. Yoite couldn't be there with her forever after all. Still, there was one area where she would like to go...

"Well, why don't we go to Bishop Park? I'm sure the flowers look good~"

Noa nodded.

"So, you wish to get in touch with the beauty of nature. It's a reasonable wish and one that I share. Shall we be off then?"

As the two girls started to leave, Akeno caught wind of a lighter sounding male voice and a laughing female voice. She glanced over to find it was Makoto who was talking with his friend Cel. Her eyes focused on Makoto first. Any idiot could see he was at least somewhat smitten with the blonde country girl. Her smile immediately faded as she compared herself to Cel. The differences between Cel and her were too much for Akeno to stand. Cel was definitely prettier. She had a more natural hair color, a more womanly figure and she had a relatable and fun personality while Akeno was stuck as the doll of her mother. Noa's eyebrow quirked a little.

"We'll discuss what's the matter with you when we arrive at the park."

Akeno weakly and bitterly laughed.

"T-There h-h-had to be s-s-somet-thing left to f-fix for you to h-help me..."

Noa blinked, a flash of surprise crossing her face for a moment before pushing it back. That's what Akeno liked about Noa; she knew better than to fight in any losing battles.

"Akeno, dearie, sit up straight~"

Akeno was sitting in a chair in front of a large mirror. Two months had passed since she became mute and her mother was already making her into the perfect doll to make up for lost time.

"Now then, today, we're going to learn how to apply makeup! Every woman needs to look their best when going to impress a man. Makeup is just the tools you need to help you look beautiful every time."

Akeno choked back her bitter words, knowing they would fall on deaf ears. Yes, makeup made you look pretty on the outside but it did nothing more for Akeno than emphasize that she was just an empty shell that only existed to look pretty. Small tears fell down as she thought of this.

"Oh... Oh dear, Akeno. Tears aren't pretty. Stop that nonsense right away. It'll get in the way of the makeup."

There it was... There was the bitter old hag. Any thoughts that Akeno had about her mother possibly loving her died the day her father and her found out the truth. Akeno was and always will be her mother's plaything and there was nothing she could do about it. Still, her tears stopped under her mother's request. The crone smiled at this.

"Such a good little girl~ Now then, hold still. I'm going to fix the damages done to your pretty little face by putting on foundation first."

Akeno groaned quietly as she heard Yoite talking to her.

"You okay, Akeno?"

Akeno nodded, smiling at him a little. Yoite was one of the only people she could feel genuine around.

"Yeah... I'll be okay... My head..."

He put a gentle hand on her forehead.

"You're really burning up... I'll go ahead and call your instructors to tell them you aren't feeling well."

Akeno paled a bit, sitting up with a weak groan.

"You don't have to... I'll be fine... Just need rest..."

Yoite raised an eyebrow.

"For an hour? Akeno, you haven't typed out anything longer than four words. You need rest and medicine."

Akeno moved to protest but the headache and nauseous feeling got a hold of her and she couldn't keep conscious anymore. She heard Yoite dial the numbers of her professors on his phone before passing out.

Akeno came to when it was about 7:45 in the evening and still felt incredibly sluggish. She groaned softly to herself, coughing badly when she heard a quiet knock on the door before it opened. Her bleary eyes focused on a shy girl in a ponytail and a brown haired young man.

"A-Akeno-san... C-Can we come in...?"

Akeno only had the strength to nod a little as Makoto and Menou sat next to her. Makoto looked over at her for a bit.

"We heard you weren't doing too well so we went and got you some medicine."

Akeno felt a small crack form within her icy heart. Ah... So someone actually cared enough to help her aside from Yoite. She didn't quite know how to describe the feeling of warmth blooming in her chest. Coughs wracked her as Menou panicked a bit and moved to help her.

"T-Take it easy, Akeno-san..."

She weakly smiled at the two of them.

"T-T-Tha-ank... y-you..."

The statement was wracked with even more coughing, much to Menou's panic.

"A-Are you okay??"

The brown haired male also appeared to be a bit worried for her. More of that warm feeling bloomed inside of her upon seeing the look of worry.

"Don't talk so much. You're still sick, aren't you. Get some rest."

Rest... What did he think Akeno had been doing for the past eight hours? Still, Akeno noticed how he looked at Menou. It was almost like he was proud of her. In her right frame of mind, Akeno would be too. After all, it was very rare that the shut in left her room unless a certain blonde wanted to hang out with her. Still, she also noticed something else in the gaze... It was almost a similar gaze to the one he was looking at Cel with. Immediately the mental comparisons hit. Akeno and Menou were a bit similar but vastly different as well. Menou was a quiet type of beauty while the biggest compliment Akeno had was how cute she was. Menou was shy, reserved, terrified of those around her; yet she was still considered to be a beautiful woman in the eyes of males. Akeno gripped the sheets tightly in an attempt to suppress the bitter feelings.

"In any case, are you doing okay, Menou?"

Her thoughts were interrupted as Makoto spoke again. Menou nodded.

"Feel better, Akeno-san..."

Akeno nodded, smiling again. The mask was weaker than normal due to her not being at her full strength but it was the best she could muster. Before she passed out, she thought back to Makoto and wondered how her heart would feel if he looked at her with the same gaze he looked at Cel and Menou with.

Akeno was seventeen at this point. She was miserable and got several compliments of being cute rather than being beautiful. Any men she tried to get to know simply brushed her aside because she looked too much like a child. The pain etched deeper into her heart when her mother would express her disappointment in her and shun her until she came home with a new target. When she came home one day, Akeno saw her mother stare at her.

"Dearie, I think I found the issue with you."

Of course it was. Akeno seemed to notice that whenever her mother failed something, it was somehow all her fault. For someone she once called "my precious baby girl", one would think her mother would show her at least a little bit of kindness. But she supposed the only kindness her mother gave her was allowing her to live as a Furuya rather than a Kurusu.

"I don't believe you have enough womanly charm to attract men. Don't worry, we'll fix that~"

Akeno suppressed a frown, knowing better than to question her mother. Still, wasn't that supposed to be what she was doing the past year? Teaching Akeno how to properly attract men so she could be a housewife for a successful husband? Bitterness aside, she felt a little scared on what her mother was going to do when she noticed her mother had brought something over. A padded... bra...? Her mother grinned down at Akeno.

"Wear it~ Wear it~!"

The fake cheeriness only sent a small shiver down Akeno's spine as she went into the changing room to put on her new bra. Putting her shirt on over it, she noticed that her chest size appeared to be bigger but not as big as her mother's. Still, her mother clapped.

"I knew it would work~ You see, you can only get so far on a pretty face and a nice smile. What you really need is a figure that will attract men but not so much of one that they'll think of you as a slut."

Her mother was seriously trying to make her sexy. Wasn't a mother supposed to be helpful to their daughters? Weren't they supposed to teach them how to be kind, hardworking and live a happy life. Her mother so far has done nothing but teach her how to be more like a woman, live off the coattails of a successful man and do nothing in her life aside from look beautiful so the world can admire her. All things that her mother wanted so the Furuya family can continue to look good. What about what Akeno wanted? Granted, she never got the chance to do what she wanted as her voice was taken from her, but she seriously wasn't going to be given any chance to become someone who actually mattered?

"How do you like it, Akeno~? Don't you feel like a real woman now?"

Akeno nodded slowly. All automatic. Her mother didn't care either way if she liked it or not. It was all about what her mother wanted and all other opinions could be ignored or trampled over. All Akeno could do was grin and bear with it for one more year...

Or so she thought...

Akeno had been getting ready for another Saturday. Today was normally the day she would go and hug everyone in the dorm. Her mother had taught her that hugging men would bring out her sexy charm and get them to at least acknowledge her. At the very least, she no longer needed the padded bra as she finally had a figure. Her mother was so proud of her the day she grew into a c-cup. It almost made her feel disgusted but she was too used to being seen as a toy for her mother to mold into than an actual daughter.

She saw her mother text her and frowned at the message.

"Go get them today~ I want you to have a husband before you turn twenty one! Make mommy proud!"

Not even an "I love you". Then again, Akeno only recalled her mother saying that when she was little. Did she ever really mean it though...? Regardless, there was one person who she wanted to hug first before moving on to the others. The quiet yet kind Makoto Itsuna. She didn't know why she liked him so much but something about him really made her feel like a human. Moreso than Yoite did. Maybe it was just an adolescent crush that she never got the chance to experience but she wanted to at least try to get his attention. At least for a little while. As she went to look for his room, she heard cocky laughter and a frantic male's voice.

"Seriously...? We were almost done with the kit..."

"Hah! That's what you get for being too fucking fast, scrub."

Akeno peered in through the opened door to see that it was Makoto and Kanade hanging out together. Kanade was definitely the definition of a sexy woman. Her figure was one that would make even girls turn their heads and stare in wonder. Her hair, though messy, was still long and blonde to compliment those feisty blue eyes of hers. Had it not been for the foul mouth and abrasive personality, Kanade could get anyone she wanted. Though she supposed it added to the charm of her. Once again, Akeno was woefully inadequate in comparison to her and once again, Makoto looked at Kanade with the same gaze he did with Cel and Menou.

"Just once... Just once I want him to look at me like that... Why...? Why can't I ever do anything right...?!"

She stepped away as quickly as she had arrived. Air. She needed air and time alone. She needed to relieve her stress...

It was a destructive and dangerous habit but it was one Akeno was all too happy to partake in. She normally did it at the cover of night when no one else was awake but she needed to release the anger before she could function like a normal person. Luckily, the local dance club was closed and security was not around. She arranged the dolls in front of her, drew out her baseball bat and got to work in destroying them.

It wasn't healthy. She knew it wasn't healthy. But fuck if it didn't feel good. She broke the fine china dolls, ripped apart the plush dolls and just tore and destroyed them with all of her might. Just like her mother destroyed any chance of her being anything more than just a doll. Just like the other dorm girls destroyed any chance she felt she had at being noticed by Makoto Itsuna. Just like Makoto Itsuna destroyed her willingness to go along with her mother's wishes. Just like she destroyed any chances of ever being normal...

She fell to her knees afterwards, sobbing loudly and uncontrollably. It wasn't pretty to cry. Akeno knew it wasn't pretty to cry but she needed this moment. She needed the security that she was allowed to be somewhat human in some way. She needed to be shown that there was someone out there who was willing to break all the masks that Akeno had built. To show her that she could just be Akeno and that would be more than enough... But, the chances never came. So long as she had that disgustingly ugly shade of blue hair... So long as her eyes were envious and trained to scan for qualities of girls that were better than herself... So long as her figure was inadequate when compared to more well endowed women... So long as her psyche was shattered because of events her mother had created... So long as Makoto Itsuna looked at other women with a kind and fond gaze that Akeno felt she would never get...

So long as Akeno Furuya was Akeno Furuya...

She would never be free from her mother's influence...

DeathScythe386 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **DeathScythe386** on Sat Apr 22, 2017 3:09 am

Morning Coffee

Though Orange Blossom was a fairly popular cafe in its area, most of the workers there had been around long enough to start memorizing names, orders and most importantly, faces. Faces were always different, unique in their own way. No smile was the same, and every scowl had a different turn that differentiated one from the other.

If there was one person you could count on to make it his duty to remember faces, it was Koga Nakamura.

And for some reason he finds himself anticipating the odd, silent customer every single Tuesday at around 9 in the morning. It's not that hard to tell her from the others. She's got long red hair tied in a loose ponytail (Koga doesn't think it's dyed, at least from the little things he can observe about her when she's at the counter) and is always dressed in a hoodie. Whenever she's coming into the cafe she's pulling out her earphones as she takes the few steps leading up to the door, and she's always painfully quiet when she's there at the counter.

Every single form of conversation between them is literally her order and his delivery and Koga doesn't know why he's frustrated about it.

This Tuesday is no different; she shows up in a different hoodie than usual, pulling her hat down over her eyes like she always does after pulling out her earphones. He's already busied himself with her drink the moment he sees her coming at him. It's an instinct he's adopted for every regular he's memorized.

The moment the bills touch his hand and her drink is in her hands she's immediately left. It's like everyone here at this time already knew that she was always stuffing herself into one corner of the cafe, bag on the table beside her drink and her console held in her hands. Koga finds himself staring after her.

If anything, Tuesday is the best time to actually go up and talk to her because halfway through her order, his shift's done, and judging by the emblem on her bag she goes to the same school as him and it really wouldn't be that hard and more practical if he offered to join her on the trip to school.

But each time he stops himself, stares at her as he's leaving, and walks out of the cafe, shaking his head and berating himself on his cowardice.

It gets worse when he sees that she's on the same damn bus as him.

On Friday Koga's head is against the wall, fist stinging from hitting the tiles. He groans; not from pain but againt, for himself. He can't believe it either. This was like middle school all over again, the fear that stemmed from him attempting to hide his awful test grades in Math almost matched the fear he had that he'd fuck up in front of the girl.

"Are you alright?"

The voice of his coworker reaches his ears and he turns, seeing Hotaru Emirsdottir. The local hardworker and a giant ball of sunshine. Koga appreciated her positivity around the cafe, it certainly helped in dealing with the ruder customers. And for one he needed her positivity right now.

"I'm a wimp. Yamamoto-san hired a wimp."

"Aww, don't say that! What's wrong?"

The conversation goes as naturally as Koga thought it would. He didn't tell Hotaru the details, only that he's been wanting to talk to one of their regulars lately and wasn't feeling like he could do it, and it just resulted in her telling him the same thing he always did- if he just acted like himself, he could easily talk to them!

Hotaru worded it a bit nicer than himself, of course, so he asked about her day and she spoke about how her friend was apparently moving into the same dorm as her and how she was very excited. Koga humored her for a while longer until they both had to get back to work.

He thinks he can unwind with a bit of War Gunners. Turns out he can't.

The Stranger, his machine, was already rocketing past most of the other machines in the race when a spiked mace like object slams into the back of his left leg. He curses, looks over and sees a machine painted in a dark gray speeding past him.

"Hound takes the lead! Can Stranger catch up?!"

"Of course I can!" He growls, mostly to himself as he's alone in his dorm room. He hits the energy boost button and feels his finger practically forcing the key down as his machine abruptly speeds up, boosters opening and emitting a neon green light as he caught up with the offender.

In the heat of the moment, he rams into the other machine. It creaks, nearly slams into the energy field, but it's enough for Koga to get a lead on. In the heat of the moment he keeps his energy boost until it runs dry.

Moments later the finish line is flashing before his eyes; but then he hears the telltale sign of a machine right behind him, and a jet swoops past him and through the finish line. He bangs his fists on the table, crying out to thin air as the announcer's voice hits him in the ears.

"And with a lucky timed Overdrive mode, Hound wins the race!!"

Out of irritation, he looks up the offender's username online and finds himself calming down as he listens to the great remixes she makes.

He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but at one point he saw the same username on Hotaru's phone, and hears her talking to someone. From the speaker on her phone, he hears the very same voice he does every Tuesday after Hotaru asks her conversation partner how she's doing.

"I'm doing fine, I'll be heading to the dorm in a few days or so."

His heart drops to his stomach, but an idea blossoms in his mind.

The next time she shows up, Koga writes "BREAK RACE WINNER" rather than the usual "Mario Kart Player" on her cup. When she glances at it, her eyes widen and she looks up at him briefly. He flashes a sheepish grin, but the guy behind her lets out an exaggerated, annoyed huff and she quickly pays and leaves for her usual seat.

"Finally," The guy groans, and Koga almost crushes the pen in his grip as his knuckles turn white; he just wants to slam his fist in this guy's jaw for ruining his attempt at conversation.

But when his shift ends, he's almost immediately headed for that seat, telling Hotaru about it, and since she's busy she just gives him a smile and a cheerful, "Good luck!" before she disappears again.

He makes his way over to the table, and she looks up at him briefly and squeaks- he briefly sees a Game Over on her screen but she shuts it off anyway.

"Mind if I sit?"

"U-Uhh-- um..."

She's stuttering badly, but whips out her phone and types something out. A text-to-speech app.

"Sure."

He smiles and sits down, and the moment he's comfortable again she quickly asks him a question.

"H-How did you know I won the Break Race?"

"I was competing. StrangerinTown. You're Hound, aren't you?"

She nods sheepishly.

"S-Sorry...everyone else in the back were already firing at each other so I g-got caught in the heat of the moment and hit your machine."

"In all honesty I should've seen it coming. It's not a Break Race if it doesn't involve parts being broken off. And besides, I hit you too. Is your machine's right arm okay?"

"Y-Yeah...repairs were pretty cheap."

Koga feels like this is going great already. Now, he just had to throw down the gauntlet--!

He puts his own green console on the table, grinning at her.

"Oh, but if it's just cars, I bet you won't be able to get past me."

He feels like this is too straightforward, he should apologize, he should just back off and have Hotaru serve her instead since they knew each other but she smiles at him, she smiles at him, and she turns on her console again.

"You're on."

He can't even be mad that she beat him at the last second again, he's too busy looking at the focused look in her eyes and the small smile that forms on her lips when she gets a lead.

He climbs onto the bus Wednesday morning, eyes drooping and a yawn passing through his lips. He puts his earphones in, and collapses onto a window seat, staring out at the cloudy morning. He almost drifts off before he feels a tap on his shoulder and looks up to meet violet eyes and red hair.

"Hey, mind if I sit?"

He blinks the sleep out of his eyes and laughs.

"Should have seen that coming. You're here awfully early, Amamiya-san."

Her eyes widen a bit but he gestures to the ID hanging around their necks. She glances down, giggles again and sits down next to him.

"Please, just Misaka is fine. M-Makes me feel weird being called by my last name. Old, even."

"Glad you share the sentiment. As you've probably read on my ID, I'm Koga Nakamura."

He grins, and notices the dark bags under her eyes looking a bit heavier than usual.

"You look like you haven't gotten rest, are you alright?"

"Yeah...just moved into a new dorm, and my roommate's nuts. Feel like she's a mad scientist or something."

"Oh yeah? Tell me about it."

As his newfound friend starts to ramble on about her new roommate, he pulls out his earphones for the first time and listens intently.

The next days pass like the rest, and it's like nothing has changed; though when she comes up to him at the counter, or shows up sitting in his window seat at the bus, he has no problems talking to her.

Just like that, the inclusion of another face finally made Koga's mornings just a tiny bit brighter.

SkyCladSaya06 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **SkyCladSaya06** on Sat Apr 22, 2017 3:56 am

Black History Chapter II

"OHHH!!! SHIIIT!!!!" Aziz yelled out as he turned down an alleyway in order to escape over seven guys chasing him down. They were all yelling profanities at him as they chased him down but fortunately, his small size made him just a bit more agile than his pursuers.

"Come to think of it...this wouldn't have happened had I not screwed that plan up..."

"R-Really? You can get that?"

"Oh come on! Who do you think I am? Listen, I can assure you guys. These ladies may be good at keeping their doors closed--but against Aziz--piece of cake." Aziz was confidently boasting about something to a small crowd that gathered around him. Having caught their attention, he produced a small black clear book containing photocopies of the registration files of Blue Lotus' female residents.

"So...which babe do you want me to get a nude of?" Aziz asked the group who frantically picked out their favorites.

"Oh! This lady with the high twintails look great! Total waifu material there!"

"I'm leaning on this black-haired lady myself. Man, talk about a cool beauty!"

"The blue-haired girl looks nice too! So young and cute looking!"

"No way man! We'll get arrested!"

"Nah, Aziz is going to risk his life for us instead, haha!!!"

"Hey Aziz! I want this one!" In addition to just picking out a girl he might like, he also produced a small wad of cash as downpayment. "It says she works for the admin office so I figured you might want something in advance for the trouble."

"Yeah, now we're talking! Let's see--oh." Checking out the girl the guy with the downpayment picked out, Aziz felt a small shiver up his spine. Tall blonde with very peculiar features. "E-excellent choice! Haha..."

"Of all people, why does it have to be Cel?!"

Despite the difficult requests, Aziz set his plan in motion. Sometime during his wanderings in the dorm, he came across a flight of stairs in the attic--concealed by a thick wallpaper that was slowly tearing away from the walls. He followed it down and realized he ended up behind a one-way mirror that peered right into the girl's shower on the second floor. It was where he got the idea of taking nudes of the girls, hoping to make stronger connections for himself among the other guys later on.

"Well, here goes nothing!" Down in the same cold spot barricaded by imposing stone walls, Aziz patiently waited. The girls had been frequenting the pool lately--he was sure any one of them would come barging in any time. And he was right. After only a couple of minutes, he heard light footsteps and giggling headed his way.

"Honestly, I'm quite surprised you don't know how to swim Makinami-san~"

"Hey! It wasn't my fault! Kanade practically dunked my head--!"

"Hey! I was just trying to get the ball you know? Not my fault your head looked like a nice dashboard!"

"What did you say?!"

"Please...don't fight..."

Cel, Hotaru, Nagisa and Kanade soon entered the shower rooms, laughing and teasing each other over a light swim at the second floor pool. To his dismay, they didn't really put on swimsuits as they were all just dressed in shirts and shorts.

"Oh, well...You're all going to take it off anyway..." Aziz rubbed his eyes and adjusted the focus on his camera. They were setting down their toiletries on the counters near the showers while still teasing each other.
Seeing this, he felt desire swell up within him along with a small sense of guilt. It wasn't right but so is going against his word.

"Damn it! Bros before hoes man. Bros before hoes." Just as he struggled with himself, his heart skipped a beat when he espied Nagisa approach the glass in order to fix up her hair a bit. He usually saw her with her scrunchies on so seeing her hair down was quite a different feeling. But that wasn't the best part.

Before he knew it, Nagisa leaned on the glass to check something in her eye. Aziz felt himself blushing a little. Watching her made him feel mesmerized and admittedly, hard. There was barely two inches of mirror separating her from him.

"S-she's p-pretty..." He sighed as he lowered his camera. In his smitten state however, he didn't realize he was still sitting up when he loosened his grip, sending the camera down on the floor with a loud--

THUD! CRASH!

"Hey!" Nagisa stepped back, hearing the faint yet still audible sound. "What was that?!"

"What's wrong, Makinami-san?"

"I heard something from behind the mirror..." Nagisa pointed out, taking a few steps away from the mirror, leaving Aziz in a slight state of panic.

"Hold on, let me--" Cel had also gone to give the mirror a look. "My fingers' reflection look odd...There's probably something behind this thing--!" Her hands immediately gripped the frame in attempt to move it out of the way.

"Shit! Stupid! Stupid! Abort mission, abort mission!" Aziz was about to get out but then he remembered his camera. If they got their hands on it, they would immediately see his photos which would only lead to one conclusion. He immediately turned tail to collect it but by then, it was too late. Cel managed to force the mirror off,
exposing the secret passageway and Aziz.

"Oh, I--ah..." Aziz struggled to explain his side as all four girls glared at him menacingly. "Can I just say that this is all a misunderstanding?"

"Makinami's not coming out of her room. Takamine's parents are furious and demanded to see the perpetrator--"
Mitsuru recounts the aftermath of the incident inside the administration office.

"His roommate's taking some of the heat from the other girls as well." Cel added in. As to own up to his sin, he has thrown himself in the mercy of the court. Seeing him now, Mitsuru could only sigh.

"I can overlook some of your offenses Harumi-kun. However, this one doesn't just involve the dorm this time. You're quite fortunate that Cel here has chosen to overlook this incident. Same goes for Emirsdottir-kun. However, you would still have to explain yourself to Makinami and Takamine's parents."

"I understand sir. I promise I won't get the dormitory involved!" Aziz kept his head bowed, avoiding eye contact with the rest of the people in the room.

"I am amazed though." Kirika spoke up. "I've heard this building had a bunch of hidden passageways built to avoid the enemy forces during the war. For you to just stumble upon it--"

"Yeah, how did you find this passage anyway?"

"W-well...Don't get mad okay?" Aziz started. "I was looking for a place where I can practice spraying my logo on and decided on the attic since no one comes around there anyway. I would've done so on the wallpaper but for some reason, my spray can didn't adhere to the wallpaper too well. So I found a weak spot and tore it down so I can practice on the wood underneath. I saw a very old door within so I just followed it down and managed to reach the bottom where I saw--" Aziz gulped, forcing a wad of spit down on his throat.

"Well, go on."

"Saw what?"

Aziz took a deep breath and looked at Mitsuru straight in the eye. "Kirika-san taking a shower."

"Aniki!"

"WAAAHHH, it was an accident Kirika-san, I'm so sorry!" Aziz immediately apologized. "However, I will own up to it. Same goes for Emirsdottir, Concepcion, Makinami and Takamine-san's case! If there's anything I should do--"

"Is that right?" Mitsuru seemed to be a bit more concerned about the attic. "Take me to this attic. And show me this "wallpaper" you peeled off."

Aziz led the Katsuragi siblings and Cel over to the attic, showing them the hidden door and the remains of the wallpaper he peeled off.

"There it is! I thought it was leather since the texture felt different so I just swept it off to this side."

Mitsuru knelt down and felt the questionable fabric in his hands, trying to register if it felt somehow familiar. His eyes widened a few moments later though.

"This is--!"

"Kirika, Cel--get the police over here right now!"

"I'm not sure how I feel about this..." Kanade grit her teeth as she glared at Aziz from across the lobby. "Why is the pervert hailed as the hero of the day?!"

"Hey, I just solved a 50-year old murder, how can I not be a hero of the day?" Aziz smiled at her as the police took out the "wallpaper" in large black plastic bags while people from the Department of Health checked the place out.

"Tch! I knew I should've spray painted on the attic too!" Kanade sighed. "Well, you still have to face charges."

"Huh? What charges? I didn't do anything wrong." Aziz suddenly puts on an innocent act in front of her while the police rummaged through the place.

"HAAAHH???!!! Your sexual harassment case? Just to let you know, I'm not just letting this one go!"

"Please, Kanade-chan--you were probably remembering wrong. I wasn't peeping in on you!"

"HAAAHH???!!! OF COURSE YOU WERE! You were trying to film us with this damn camera--!"

"And where is this camera, Kanade-chan?" At that statement, Aziz smiled in triumph. "The police have already checked my room. There was no camera there."

"He must've already disposed of it while we waited...Damn, this kid's smart." Cel realized.

"Tch!!! I swear, someday you'll get your own for sure!" Kanade resigned herself to live with the fact that Aziz isn't getting jail time. "Anyway, if it wasn't wallpaper, then what the hell is that thing in the attic?"

"Ah-umm...Kanade-chan? Believe me, you don't want to know."

"Oh come on! I'm a big girl! I want to know!" Kanade pouted as she protested against the withdrawal of information from her.

"Trust me. It's not something you want to find--"

"It was human skin." Kirika answered her bluntly.

"H-Huh? H-Human s-skin...?" Kanade felt a little scared upon hearing it.

"There was a supposed killer residing here in the 60s. They said his victims were all females and went missing sometime around--"

"WAAAHHH!!! I take it back! I don't want to hear!"

And that was why Aziz tried to avoid all the customers he couldn't satisfy. Bad luck struck however when he accidentally turned into a dead end and all his clients caught up with him. They kicked him down and was about to shove him in the huge garbage can when a voice called out to them from behind.

"Hey, you idiot! What do you think you're doing in my turf eh?!" A rather scruffy looking man, glared at them. "How many times do I have to tell you to stay the hell out of my turf you nerds!!!"

Upon hearing this, all of Aziz's clients came running away, allowing him to dig himself out of the dumps. The scruffy looking man approached him and gave him a hand, lifting him out of the rather deep dumpster.

"Thanks man. If you hadn't come--"

"Huh? O-oh, it's nothing." The scruffy guy looked away as Aziz dusted the rot away from his uniform.

"No, I really appreciate it." Smiling, Aziz extended a hand towards the guy. "I'm Aziz. Aziz Harumi."

"Huh, O-oh, I'm Kujo. Kujo Nobuyuki."

"Kujo huh? Well, if there's anything I can do to repay you, just let me know." Aziz laughed as they shook hands. "Let's see...how does the answer sheet for tomorrow's biology class sound?"

Kujo's eyes perked up at the offer. "Really? You can get that?"

From his pockets, Aziz produced a small crumpled up paper and straightened it out, showing Kujo that it was indeed real.
"Already have it, my good man."

"Did someone say answer sheets?" The people chasing him earlier all started pouring back as well.

"Whew! What a day!" Aziz stretched as he walked up the stairs back to his room. "Man, I guess luck really is on my side. Not only did I get payment from my customers, I also made a new friend and was able to become a hero! How cool is that?!"

As he was about to turn the knob on his room however, a voice called out to him from behind.

"Oh, you're still here? I thought you had already left a while ago." Kirika asked as she passed by the boy's floor.

"Nah, I just arrived."

"No, what I mean is--that's not your room anymore." Kirika clears up her statement."Technically, you're no longer a resident."

"B-but--but, why?"

"Well, apparently "someone" filed a lot of complaints against you and petitioned you to be removed from Room 503." Cel immediately explained with a sly smile. "You should thank your roommate though, he did take the time to pack your things up for you. They're all downstairs in the lobby."

Hearing this, Aziz immediately raced down to the lobby to look at all his things. Fortunately, everything seemed to be accounted for. Except--

"Huh? Cel-san, where's my CD's? I still have to deliver those tomorrow!"

"If it's the one in the black duffel bag then I threw it away. It looked old and musty so--" Kirika explained.

"AAAHHH!!!" Aziz raced outside to where the garbage truck had just started shredding the garbage bags--including the duffel bag where he kept his CDs.

"Itsuna..." Aziz growled as he looked up on the fifth floor. "I told you that was due for delivery tomorrow! And that should've earned me 50,000 too!!!"

Guardian Aelita · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Guardian Aelita** on Fri May 05, 2017 9:45 pm

Akeno hummed to herself as she sat down on a bench, waiting for Kazuya to show up. She had gotten a text message from him recently saying that he wanted to explore a bit around the town with her and because Akeno wasn’t busy and wanted to hang out with him, she agreed. She decided to try and wear something a little bit casual since it was approaching the fall and she rather liked her new clothes. Her clothes consisted of a long sleeved black shirt with a pink crossroads sign, a dark pink tank top underneath, a grey vest over the shirt, dark grey shorts, thigh high white socks and knee high white boots with white laces. Akeno felt comfortable enough in those as she adjusted her new glasses. Ever since she decided to wear glasses full time, she got a new prescription so they helped her see better. The glasses in particular had black thick rims and small pink bunnies on each side. She heard the footsteps and smiled happily at the young man waving to her.

“Akeno-chan!”

The male cheerfully called her name as he approached her. Akeno took the moment to observe him. He looked the same in that he wore his hair the same and still had his glasses on. However, she noticed green headphones around his neck and he was wearing a tan colored hoodie, dark yellow shirt, green plaid undershirt, dark brown pants and tan shoes with fasteners. Akeno smiled to herself; it appeared he had a similar idea in dressing in layers to combat the cold. She cleared her throat. Her reflexes tried to get her to type on her phone but she wanted to talk. If she didn’t, she’d never truly improve in her speech. She flashed him her genuinely happy smile before speaking up.

“A-Aren’t you late?”

Her voice was weak though a teasing quality was still there. Kazuya just rubbed his head and laughed a bit sheepishly.

“Sorry, sorry, Akeno-chan. I wanted to get here earlier but I ended up bumping into this mom and her kid. They were going to a park and the kid was crying because I ended up knocking down her ice cream. So, to take responsibility, I paid for the new ice cream. She seemed really happy though and I’m pretty sure my father would have been proud of me.”

Akeno smiled warmly at Kazuya.

“I’m p-positive he would be… Y-You’re a kind young man…”

Kazuya chuckled.

“Aw, Akeno-chan, you’re gonna make a guy blush with words like that. Still, where are we heading off to today?”

Akeno hummed a bit.

“W-Well, there’s this new m-movie coming out… I think it’s called Switchers: Final Warrior?”

She coughed a bit as she spoke, causing Kazuya to rub her back gently.

“Akeno-chan, I think you’re getting really better when it comes to talking. Good job!”

Akeno grinned happily at him.

“R-Right? It took a while but I can at least b-be understood…”

She straightened up.

“W-Wanna go watch it?”

Kazuya cheered a bit.

“Heck yeah! Though, I’m kinda surprised you wanted to see that, Akeno-chan. I was expecting you to recommend a romance movie since a lot of girls I talk to like that kind of thing.”

Akeno shook her head.

“Not really… I heard that Everyone, Everywhere was supposed to be g-good but it’s not my thing. Besides, I started to watch the S-Switchers series with Katsu and really liked it.”

Kazuya rubbed the back of his head.

“Seriously? I really gotta get in on marathon night with you and Tadakatsu-kun! Ah, what time should we go?”

Akeno got on her phone to check the time and a small and surprised noise escaped her, causing Kazuya to jump a bit.

“C-Crap! It’s going to start in 5 minutes!”

This caused Kazuya to relax. He thought it was something to do with her mother again and laughed a bit. Mostly in relief.

“No worries, no worries~ Hey, how good are you at running?”

Before Akeno can ask what he meant, he quickly grabbed her hand and made a mad dash to the theatre. They luckily arrived in two minutes though Akeno was extremely out of breath. Kazuya panted as well, laughing a bit.

“Sorry, Akeno-chan. I wanted to get there as soon as possible.”

Akeno just coughed and raised up a hand to show she was fine with it. She then paid for their tickets, got some sea salt popcorn for them to share and got there as the trailers started. During the duration, the two were completely engrossed in the film.

“Whoa…~ Those explosions look so awesome!”

Kazuya whispered to Akeno who giggled a bit.

“I know, right? The director r-really came a long way from the first Switchers movie…”

By the time the movie had ended, Akeno got up and stretched before sitting back down, confusing Kazuya.

“Ah, do you like watching the credits, Akeno-chan?”

Akeno happily nodded with a wide grin. Kazuya sighed in relief.

“Me too! Ever since those superhero movies decided to tease for the next one after the credits, I always watch until the end to see if any other film does it!”

Akeno giggled.

“Same… Still, hopefully they show us a glimpse at the next one…”

They did and it ended up being the main good robot rising from the ashes before the movie ended. The two young adults left with happy smiles and laughter.

“You think Supremetron really got better from his code being rewritten?”

“We can only really hope so. I mean, he did j-just get the Correction cube. Anyway, where to next?”

He hummed a little, pursing his lips in thought before snapping his fingers.

“Got it! We should go see that concert!”

Akeno tilted her head, puzzled.

“Cosmic Beings? But I thought the t-tickets were all sold out…?”

Kazuya grinned and flashed her two tickets.

“I worked really, really hard to get them. When I initially reserved them, I didn’t have the funds but I worked a lot of overtime just to get these bad boys. It wasn’t even that bad since the customers were super nice. Well, except for this one guy who seemed to be having a pretty bad day and didn’t really like me much. Besides, I know you really like Cosmic Beings so I figured I’d treat you, Akeno-chan.”

Akeno grinned happily as Kazuya said that.

“Thanks a million, Kazu! I owe you one. Still, wanna tell me more about the g-guy that hated you while we walk?”

Kazuya obliged as the two of them walked side by side. When they got to the rock concert, Akeno was completely enthralled by the music and cheered on the lead singer. Kazuya looked over at how happy Akeno was and smiled a bit to himself. He was genuinely happy that Akeno was allowed to be as happy as she was right now. He felt for something in his pocket and smiled in relief when he felt something was still there. Once the concert ended, Akeno stretched a bit.

“That was so cool~ Lovely Angel always manages to be fresh and awesome every time I h-hear it!”

Kazuya chuckled to himself.

“Yeah, yeah! And the guitarist during that solo for Nice Guys killed it as usual~ Ah, Akeno-chan, before we go to bed in the dorm, I wanna take you one last place.”

She hummed a bit, curious as to what Kazuya was up to, but nodded.

“Sounds good to me.”

He mentally cheered as he led Akeno to Black Rose. She tilted her head.

“Uh, Kazu? Why are we at your work-”

As Akeno said that, she soon heard some pops as streamers flooded down on her. Kazuya grinned as his fellow staff members held the streamers.

“Happy Birthday, Akeno-chan!”

Akeno’s eyes were wide with small tears in the corners. She wiped them with the biggest smile she had in years.

“Kazu… You shouldn’t have…”

Kazuya dismissed her statement with a wave of his hand.

“Nonsense~ I know we only know each other for a few months but you’re really awesome, Akeno-chan. You did a lot to help me out with getting used to this town and you’re an amazing friend. How could I not celebrate your birthday?”

Akeno was already feeling a lot of happy emotions swirling around her. She couldn’t even remember the last time her birthday was celebrated like this. Her mother never really celebrated her birthday as it just meant she’s one year older so she didn’t really get to experience that many parties. Still, Akeno’s thoughts were cut off when Kazuya showed her a present he had kept in his pocket. She quickly opened it and smiled happily. In it was a black ribbon held together with a gold bead and a white hair clip. Kazuya chuckled a bit.

“I didn’t really have much funding to get you anything special. Most of my budget went to the Cosmic Beings tickets. Still, they looked nice and I’m sure they’ll look even better on you.”

Akeno fastened the hair clip into her hair and tied on the choker before hugging Kazuya tightly.

“I love them, Kazuya. Thank you so much…!”

Kazuya just smiled softly and hugged her back.

“Glad to hear it, Akeno-chan…”

The two stayed in the hold for a while before Akeno let go with a small blush. Kazuya just chuckled and ruffled her hair a bit.

“Come on, come on! I got you some cake with strawberries on it! Hopefully you like chocolate~”

Akeno giggled.

“I wouldn’t be a girl if I didn’t.”

Kazuya laughed.

“Actually, there was this one girl I met who hated chocolate.”

“Seriously?!”

The night went on as the two enjoyed the chocolate cake. Akeno was left with a genuine and happy smile on her face for the whole night as she continued to talk with Kazuya about many different things. Kazuya definitely considered the surprise party he had in mind as a massive success and Akeno considered the day as one of the best birthdays she’s ever had in her life. Once the clock reached 9 PM, the two went to bed for the day, incredibly happy for the great day that they had. Akeno walked into her dorm room with a giant smile on her face. Noa raised an eyebrow as she saw this.

“Well, that was a long time. How was your day out then?”

Akeno fell on her bed with a happy sigh.

“Kazu’s the absolute best~ We went to see a movie, then a concert and then he surprises me with a birthday party in Black Rose!”

Noa cringed at the mention of Kazuya, still never quite liking the easygoing male.

“Today was your birthday, hm? You should have told me.”

Akeno just sat up to look at Noa.

“You never asked.”

Noa just shrugged.

“In any case, happy birthday. Want me to work on your homework for you as a present?”

Akeno nodded, sheepishly laughing.

“Thanks, Noa. I’m going to go to sleep.”

Noa shook her head disapprovingly.

“Take your clothes off and put on pajamas first. I don’t want you getting your clothes all wrinkled with your incessant tossing and turning.”

Akeno just shook her head, laughed and did as she was told. She put the hair clip and choker right on the center of her desk as a reminder to wear at least one of those things from now on. She just hugged herself with a happy go lucky smile and fell to her bed after getting into her pajamas. Yes, today was decidedly one of the best days of her life and she had her wonderful, handsome and amazing friend Kazuya to thank for it.

SkyCladSaya06 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **SkyCladSaya06** on Sun May 07, 2017 12:32 am

Black History Chapter III - Part 1: A Second Initiation

”I never exactly prided myself in my strength. I don’t believe I possess any significant traits that may make men swoon or fawn. Nor do I possess a set of flowery virtues befitting a saint. However, despite all my shortcomings, I wanted to treasure that memory forever.

She glanced up from her drawing when I entered the room. Long brown hair and hazelnut eyes. Pencils and pens neatly arranged on her desk. She smiled at me and shook hands, welcoming me into the place.

”My name’s Ruth Borden! It’s a pleasure to meet you~” She introduced herself.

“Makinami. Nagisa Makinami.” Likewise I did the same as I set my bags down and started unpacking. “Are you my roommate?” I asked.

”Yep. This used to be my room too~” She cheerfully answered me.

“Great.” I replied though I did find her answer odd at the time. “Listen, I’ve got this weird illness so I might end up bothering you in the wee hours of the night. Hope you can put up with me.”

”Of course! I usually stay up late anyway so I’m sure I can help you out! You’re my first roommate after all~”

Days passed by and pretty soon, I was engrossed in both study and leisure. I made a couple of friends around the dorm too. Inside the room, Ruth was quite an amiable roommate too. She actually kept mostly to herself which I like since she’s not intruding or messing with my stuff. If I had a complaint about her it is well—sometimes I would catch her sleeping on my bed but we would be able to resolve it fairly quickly afterwards with a quick talk.

”Sorry! I didn’t realize. It’s just that when I work, I lose all sense of boundaries.”

Minor problem. Not worth kicking out a perfectly amiable roommate over. Especially not after an incident three nights from the day I confronted her about falling asleep on my bed.

I woke up around 3 in the morning, feeling a dull pain in my stomach. ”It’s my illness acting up again…” I realized and I struggled to head to the bathroom to relieve myself. I found it hard to walk or even stand up. Then and there, I was certain. I would inevitable end up messing my sheets. Weird thing to be concerned about is there? Here I was, probably choking on my own blood and the only thing I am worrying about is staining the blankets.

What saved me that night was Ruth waking up to my cries in pain and helping me up. She helped me expel all that has been building up as she gently caressed my back, asking me if I was okay. I told her I was and once again, she smiled.

”Thank goodness…I’m glad you’re okay.” She seemed even more relieved than I was.

Me and Ruth rarely talked about school. I was from Kurogane, she was from St. Gabriel’s. I took up engineering and she took up Architecture. We didn’t have a lot of things in common save for our hatred of mathematical subjects I suppose. I was at least better than her in that aspect so she would sometimes ask for my help.

Quid pro quo. She helps me with my daily illness and I help her out with math. Fair trade.

Towards the end of the first month since I stayed at Blue Lotus, Ruth started taking a different turn. It wasn’t that our relationship started going south; far from it in fact. But it seemed like something was always bothering her. She would often look around the room upon coming back, as if she was wary of something. I would ask her but she tends to avoid the question. She also started sleeping more and more on my bed than she does on hers. At that point, I decided not to confront her about it anymore and just slept on hers. Despite looking rather new though, her sheets had this old, wooden smell to them. Not that it was any deal breaker but I guess now I can see why she didn’t like sleeping on this bed.

Even as she started getting more stressed by the day, she still manages to help me out in my daily midnight excursions to the bathroom. Honestly, it was already making me feel bad. I wanted to help her. Do something in return. At this point, I decided to pester her about what was wrong until she gave up and fessed up the truth.

”I’ve been receiving threats from this guy. He’s been sending me all these odd letters lately. I don’t want to seem paranoid but…I think he’s stalking me.”

Needless to say, I was shocked. I assured her there was nothing to worry about. Security is tight and that I’ll be here if she needed me.

”Thanks. It matters a lot to me.” She told me.

Despite that, things didn’t really pick up too well. There were times when Ruth would be the one to wake up in the middle of the night, listening in to sounds only she can hear. I grew worried. I debated on whether to ask the management to talk to her but I didn’t think the problem was too bad.

Until it happened.

Our finals had just finished and all I could think about was hitting the covers as soon as I got back to my room which is exactly what I did. Ruth wasn’t home yet and in my own dazzled state, I crashed into the covers and sleep soon took me.

Drip…drip…

8:30 PM. I was woken up by drops of warm liquid dripping on my body. “Damn it!” I thought as I recalled not taking out my water bottle from the bag when I got home. The damn thing must’ve spilled inside! Tossing and turning, I groggily rose up from bed only to be greeted by an unforgettable sight which would remain scarred in my memories forever.

Neglecting to turn on the lights before I slept, the whole room was in total darkness save for the light coming from the streetlamps outside. There was a silhouette of a person, floating above my bed slowly turning at the wind. A sharp protrusion extended from their eye and it was clear from how lifeless their hands hung at their sides that they were dead.

The “liquid” dripping on me was blood coming from their eye.

As I stood there dumbstruck, the wind caused the cadaver to turn allowing me to see its face—which was the biggest regret in my life. I knew I should’ve bolted out of there. I knew I should have ran away when I had the chance.

Because what was staring at me was the pained face of my roommate. It was then that I noticed that she wasn’t floating. She was suspended from the ceiling fan by her own bedsheet.

She had killed herself.

I refused to gag. Refused to scream. What I did was run. Run the hell out of that room. Run until I reached the lobby where two ladies idly chatted. When they saw me, they were confused and concerned. I tried to tell them the story but somehow, I kept stuttering. They gave me a glass of water to calm me down. When I did, all I could blurt out was—

“My roommate—my roommate killed herself…”

The two girls looked at each other in confusion. I expected them to be shocked or panicked, not confused. Probably sensing my own confusion one of them sat next to me and looked me straight in the eye.

”Makinami-kun…You don’t have a roommate.”

Long pause.

“W-what? T-that’s impossible! I knew her! I talked to her!” My voice protested what my mind refused to register.

And I saw her dead right before my eyes.

”Then let’s go. I have something to show you.” The girl of course, took me by the hand and walked me not to a phone or the office but back to my own room. In all honesty, I didn’t want to go back there.

I didn’t want to see her like that again. Yet the girl was having none of it. Borrowing my key, she opened the door and what was waiting inside was—

Nothing. No dead Ruth hanging from the ceiling. No blood from that cruel wound in her eye. But that wasn’t the worst part.

There wasn’t even any bedsheets. No clothes. No drawing board. Not pencils and pens. No tangible evidence of Ruth ever existing in my room.

“B-but that’s impossible…” I cried out. “I lived with her…”

”Makinami-kun…” The girl calmed me down. ”Ruth Borden died over 15 years ago. You never had a roommate starting from the beginning. What you experienced was a sort of incident—something like a natural occurrence in this dorm. So much that it has become an initiate rite of sorts.”

”What do you mean?” I asked.

”Alright, come with me to the lobby. I’ll explain everything.”

The woman known as Cel explained to me how almost every year, Ruth Borden returns to exist with us. Often she appears and presents herself as a roommate to a girl who was unlucky enough to get a solo room during their first stay here in the dorm.

She also told me the circumstances of Ruth’s death. She was a solo resident here in the dormitory fifteen years ago. She was murdered when a stalker managed to climb into her room. She tried to fight back but was brutally beaten—one of her pencils was used to stab her eye before she was strangled to death.

The perpetrator then set it all up as a suicide by fabricating the scene. It didn’t work though. He was arrested three days after committing the hideous crime.

A small vigil and a mass was held for the peace of her soul. Then, the dorm tried to move on. However, whenever a resident rents a solo room in this place on the first term, they reported having a roommate with them who goes by Ruth Borden.

Cel herself experienced having her.

”You are the first one who actually witnessed her death though. All the others reported her vanishing when they realized the truth before they reached her final days.”

I was speechless all throughout the story. I didn’t even realize I was crying.

”Do you know your room was her room back then? She manifests in any room but maybe that was the reason why you lasted longer with her than everyone else.”

We talked to my landlord after that. He was very apologetic and said that he’d understand if I wanted to leave the place which was in hindsight, the most logical thing to do at the time.

Yet I stayed. I don’t know why I did. Maybe I guess it was my own way of respecting the memory of my roommate who died. However, I did have a request. A rather selfish request.

“May I have a roommate?” I asked. “I don’t think I want to be alone in that room.”

Surprisingly, my landlord’s lips curved into a slight smile upon hearing that.

”You’re in luck then Makinami-san.” He told me. ”Someone had just requested to transfer rooms.”

Guardian Aelita · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Guardian Aelita** on Tue May 30, 2017 5:30 am

Not really a drabble but I didn't really want to clutter the OOC with this fun little idea I had. XD So, I got into something called the Shadow Challenge. It's essentially a thing where you say a monologue about something that's related to your Palace in Persona 5. You create your own palace, describe it as much as you can and then say a monologue about it. So, I kinda hate my voice and don't have any recording software but I really wanted to do this so... compromise! XD For this, I'm gonna do two versions. The first is Akeno's Palace which goes first and will actually fit in the whole "writing lounge" type things and the second is my Palace, AKA the thing I wanted to do but didn't really have any capability to record my own monologue of it. XD Enjoy and feel free to do your own! XD

Before I get started, I wanted to give a quick rundown on how I formatted this just in case you needed a reference sheet. XD So, for starters, I gave the name of the person, the location of where the Palace would be located and the keyword that makes up the whole Palace. From there, I give a brief description on what the Palace looks like and it can look like anything so long as it ties in to the character itself. After that, I'll give a brief depiction on the Treasure of the person that caused their desires to distort like in the game. Lastly, I'll write out the monologue of what happens when the Phantom Thieves are close to stealing the Treasure of the Shadow.

Akeno Furuya - Old Black Rose - Dollhouse

Palace (Ake-chan's Manor): The place is essentially a giant dollhouse complete with pastel colored walls and floors, multiple rooms full of mini furniture and clothing, mannequins with stuffing coming out of their faces, pictures of Akeno with a demented looking grin and eyes in the walls because "mother dearest always watches". The further you get, the more distorted the palace gets and there are more and more eyes covering up the pastel colored wallpaper. Also, the mannequins follow you as you progress further and further down. Attacking them reveal more shadows in addition to the other shadows formed into multiple ripped up teddy bears and stuffed animals.

Treasure: Pink Ribbon (The first gift Akeno received from her mother that made her look "beautiful".)

"How do you like the place~?! I really should have approached you earlier but mother does come first. I shouldn't disappoint her, otherwise we wouldn't be able to play after the chores were all done. I have to say, Phantom Thieves, you did such a good job with the place. Mother says that you'll be amazing as cute little servants for the house. Though, that means we can't really play as friends anymore~

... Like I even had any friends to begin with. Tadakatsu? He's off sleeping. Kazuya? I'll be forgotten in favor of Kirika. Her? She's off running the new Black Rose. What's so bad about the old one?! It was a safe haven, dammit!! A place where I could be free from that manipulative bitch and her sugar daddy for one fucking second!!!

In any case, I'm not that stupid. You're here for my treasure, right? The supposed source of my distorted desires that causes me to be an absolute bitch or whatever? As cool as that is, I can't exactly let you take that. You see, if I'm even an inch out of line, my mother will punish me. She'll take away my friends, cut off my money, hell, one day I was even homeless because I tried to sneak in a puppy. I know I should be grateful for this because it'll make me a better person, but mother says I can't let you do this.

Hah? Of course I should think for myself, but even when I do, it just gets me in trouble with those around me. It's easier to be the perfect doll, don't you think? The one that everyone can bend to their will and play with while still smiling and taking it~ That's just the best course of action for everyone involved. So, sorry, Phantom Thieves but I'll have to stop you here. But hey~! It'll all be fine! Mother and I will patch you up as soon as you're dead and then it'll be all better~! *laughter*"

Guardian Aelita - Mall - Sanctuary

Palace (Memoir Reservoir): It's a mall with each individual store containing distorted memories of my past. Any happy memories don't exist in here and are instead replaced with either sad memories, memories of disappointing people or just recreations of guilt and despair. The shadows here are stylized as people I know who love me in reality but who I feel I disappoint or annoy every single day in my head. Attacking them raises the Palace security up by a lot so the Phantom Thieves need to be careful. As the Palace gets more distorted, the people who love me disappear and are replaced with personifications of my guilt and insecurities. The whole time, I don't say anything or appear to them. I just hide in the one place I feel the most comfortable in, the basement which contains a perfect replica of my room.

Treasure: Wacky Award (Remember the award I got for basically being a goof in class? I treasure that a lot because I feel like it's the first thing I've done right this entire time. XD)

"H-Huh?! No...! The Phantom Thieves?! I got the calling card but I didn't think you guys would actually come down here! You're here to take it, aren't you? My Treasure, I mean. Please, please, please don't! It's the one thing I actually did right in my life!

You did see it, didn't you? All the times I failed, all those times I disappointed everyone, all the times I disappointed myself... What will taking away my Treasure even change? I'll still be a parasite, a leech just corroding away at everyone around me. Even if I do lose my Treasure, who's to say I won't just find another one in the process of trying to better myself?

I'm not a good person. Every time I hear that I am, I just keep reminding myself of things I've done to make people mad or upset. Would a good person lie about how she feels? Would a good person hide away food when they're on a diet to eat later? Would a good person waste everyone's time and money by having problems that just annoy everyone like feeling sorry for themselves? No... No good person would ever do any of that.

Why...? Why are you so desperate to take it from me...? Why are you all being... nice...? I don't deserve this... I've never deserved this...! You're only going to get yourself hurt. You'll only hate me with your attempts to help me. I don't think I'll ever get better... so what's the point of even trying...?

... You're still here... Heh, you guys sure are determined to save society, huh? Still, I can't give up my treasure. It's the one thing I did right after all. You keep saying how I'm not a monster, right? That I'll get better. Then... I need to show you just how wrong you are..."

DeathScythe386 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **DeathScythe386** on Wed May 31, 2017 11:53 am

author's note: aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
shadow palace? shadow palace

set in guardian's persona au. XD

"Figured that the palace would be in something as...sentimental, as this place."

Kujo's joking comment sounded half-hearted as they finally saw the location of the next Palace. It was strange- not only was the almost eternally insane Takamine Kanade acting odd, but the fact that Merlin spoke about a familiar aura of some sort becoming extremely clouded by a dark presence set everyone on edge. And her odd reactions was enough to set even her friends off.

Nagisa, who had been one of the more concerned people had mentioned that Kanade most likely went home. And they were right, because the palace had been in her home.

Throwing themselves into the Mirrorverse, the group's suspicions were confirmed. Noises of metal and old pistons working resounded through the whole place, and steam rose almost everywhere- the heat was very much unlike the fresh air of the rest of the world.

"I'll have to give it to her. This does seem like something she would make," Madoka remarked, looking around himself. The others seemed to be somewhat bothered by the heat, though it was obvious who was the most bothered amongst everyone.

Menou didn't seem to be doing so well, staring up at the scrap metal junkyard of a palace, as if the gates were threatening to swallow them alive. They had to bring their navigator along on her own insistence- after all, this Palace was Kanade's.

"Menou-chan..."

A quick glance beside him showed Hotaru having the same concern, but more for her teammate if anything. Madoka couldn't tell whether the sweat already starting to form on her brow was from the steam or worry. But, as if on cue, she shook her head and a determined look formed on her face.

"Alright, guys! Let's go!"

The lack of a rousing speech from their leader only served to show the morale of their battlegroup. Doubt settled in on them- so far, there had been no sounsd except for the grinding metal and pistons working, and far away, there was something being crushed. It was like being in a desert all alone.

Until the first voices rang out.

A voice, sweet, soft and light, cut sharply through the bleak air. A chill ran down Kujo's spine as he brought his fists up.

"What the hell--?"

"Nagi-chan, hurry along! We're almost to the hill!"

"Yeah, I'm coming over! Geez, you run too fast."

"Nagi-chan? They couldn't mean--?" Yoite mused, his steps halting. Footsteps causes more paranoia and confusion, right before Asagi's voice rings out-

"Look, over there!"

It's faint, as if they were seeing ghosts. Or it could have been mist, or steam- but there's a flickery image, of bright green grass and a hill. Two small figures- children, quite obviously- ran towards the hill, heads of blonde and black hair turning and laughing and joking.

It didn't take a genius to know who it was. Kujo wrinkled his nose.

"Are those...Takamine's memories?"

"Definitely, Bro. She and Makinami are cousins and well-- it's a no-brainer to see that it's a childhood memory!" Aziz is quick to agree, though he stops soon after apparently hearing something.

Hotaru perks- she's heard it too, and she can tell that something is definitely coming closer.

The image flickered weakly, the sound of sweet laughter died- and was soon replaced by the incoming mechanical footsteps. Hotaru was quick to warn everyone.

"Everyone, on your guard!"

Everyone tenses, pressing close together as several Shadows in the shape of old, mechanical soldiers come out from the darkness of the deserted junkyard. They moved with almost frightening coordination, marching. The thuds of their footsteps clattered all at the same time, and their eyes glowed eerily from within their metal helmets.

What concerned Hotaru though, as she felt Blanchefleur stir to life, was the rather dangerous weapons they came with. They had dealt with mannequins and guards, but the scrap metal soldiers seemed to carry guns.

She could only hope their Personae and own scarce fighting skills would be enough to get them through. Steeling her nerves as she heard a machine in the back start a drill up, she looked at her friends.

"Stay calm...and we'll break through their formation. Ready?"

After getting several nods of approval- and honestly, Kujo cracking his knuckles served to help her nervousness begone- she took another deep breath.

"Then...go!"

They progressed through the Palace, slowly but surely. Everytime a new memory would come up, the soldiers would come to life and attack them. The memories progressed through most of the inventor's life- her childhood all throughout her life in school and even college days. But some of them would distort- distort into another, darker outcome. One time, a memory of watching Nagisa's parents scold their daughter, the daughter shifted and turned into the scared, crying blonde.

The scrapyard didn't seem to change much even as they moved, though it seemed to grow darker and darker. Finally, Fuyumi's voice rang out.

"Guys, I think you're getting close!"

"Sheesh, finally! This place is really freakin' me out. Machine soldiers at every turn." Kujo heaved a sigh of relief as they reached a heavy door.

"Stand back, I'll just have Geraint kill the door."

The brawny figure of Kujo's Persona soon manifested, stretching his arms before flinging the doors open with a loud crash. But before Kujo could recall him, Geraint stopped- turned his head briefly, and spoke lowly.

"I sense...an odd aura. Exercise caution."

Geraint soon disappeared, and Kujo glanced at his comrades and shrugged. Madoka glanced around as well.

"You heard him. Let's be cautious. We never know if more of those mechanical soldiers are going to show up."

"Ease up. I mean, Geraint gets those things a lot."

"But still. Percival's acting up too, and I wouldn't be surprised if the soldiers come pouring it just as we're about to grab the Treasure."

Before a fight could ensue, Koizumi's weak voice spoke up.

"O-Over there..."

She was pointing. At the end of the hall, in a strange display case, was a figure. A figure of a knight, it seemed, with glossy cape and a pristine sword. A toy.

"Is that the Treasure? I think it is," Yoite spoke.

"I didn't think Kanade-san's Treasure would be a figure...is it because she collects them?"

"Haha! Let's just rush in and take it, then we make our escape! Or, maybe this place has some security system, like in action movies?"

"Step back! Only one way to find out!"

Kujo marched in, much to the concern of all of the members. Before they could stop him though his fingers had barely brushed the display case- and three pairs of red eyes lit up.

Gunfire filled the air as Geraint manifested and quickly dragged Kujo away.

"J-Jesus! What the fuck?!"

"Enjoyed the trip down memory lane? Fucking around in the scrapyard...just cause it's a fuckin' scrapyard doesn't mean it's fuckin' public property, you scrubs."

The shockingly familiar voice rang out, as if it were being emitted from the three gigantic scrap machines positioned around the place. The center machine stirred to life- its eyes flashing once, before its chest cavity opened and a humane figure started to step out. Menou flinching was the only signal they needed to see who this was.

"...Kanade..."

The blonde jumps down, coat fluttering behind her like some sort of torn cape. She's messy as ever, though the malicious aura that they had felt with other Shadows was there. Her hair was tied back, a torn coat heavily resting on her shoulders. It barely hid the oil and grease stained tank top and her boots made a thump as she lands. She reaches up- hands still covered by gloves but not her usual studded ones, but something more akin to a mechanic's.

She dusts off her cargo pants half-heartedly, and a scowl is present on her face when she looks up at the group.

"What the fuck are you goody-two-shoes doin' here? Come to steal? So much for a group of knights."

Normally, Kanade's biting words didn't affect anyone. But she sounded harsher, and her expression looks oddly resigned and angry at the same time- as if she's exhausted. She grunts, waving a dismissive hand.

"Come for the treasure?"

"Kanade-san, please-- you know this isn't you. Just give the Treasure over and we promise, we'll do our best to make it better--"

"Excuse me, did I let you fuckin' talk?"

Hotaru flinches again. Kanade looks downright angry at first- then her expression changes to that exhausted scowl again.

"...Tch. Do me a favor and fuck off, will ya all? This factory--" She gestures to the entire area, "Can build anything I want it to. Make me a deal and wish for something and I'll build it, then fuck off. But you're not taking the Treasure."

"Oi, Takamine! Quit resisting! We're not leaving until we've got that Treasure!"

"Oh? Should I shove a dozen missiles down your throat? Bet that's a bone you can't handle, fuckin' mutt."

Kanade throws her head back and laughs- but it's not one of her usual proud laughs, it's a raspy barking that almost sounds like a sob played backwards. She's clenching and unclenching her hands as she throws her head back down, taking a breath to calm herself. When she stays quiet, the other speak up.

"--Kanade. Please, you need to snap out of it." Yoite's the next to try and reason with her. Kanade simply arches an eyebrow at him- maybe she would listen to a friend?

"We're worried about you, and that's why we need the Treasure. The others--" The green-haired man steals a glance at Menou as he continues, "--the others need you there. If we want to stay strong then you'll need to--"

"--Shut up."

This startles him- he furrows his eyebrows, but Kanade's positively shaking now- her breaths grow raspy, and she's mumbling something under her breath.

"Shut up...shut up, shut up, shut up, SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

She lashes out, her eyes filling with fury.

"What the FUCK is wrong with you lot?! Can't you see I don't want any part of your bullshit! So-- So quit packing all your fucking emotional shit on me! Why can't you leave other people out of your business?! Why do you insist on dragging them in?! Huh?!"

More raspy breaths. Menou's trembling too, and she steps back. Hotaru steps in front of her almost unconsciously, concern etched on her face.

"Why...Why does it always have to be you?"

Kanade's voice drops to a low whimper.

"Why can't...why can't I ever be the one that matters?"

The group watches as she drops to one knee, voice starting to crack more.

"You think...you think just because I'm weird, and I'm always cheerful...that I don't have any problems? Do you only ever see yourself...and tell me, do you really care about the people you end up hurting with your own?

I'm...all alone. I don't have anyone to run to. You guys...you guys all understand each other, and that's the reason you can comfort and brush off each other's problems like it's no one's business! But-- you don't understand me.

You're ignorant- have you ever thought about the hardship of someone who tries to bring the most fun when you throw your problems onto them? You're killing their color. They can't help you if you won't fucking help yourselves!

Is that...is that what you want to happen to me? Do we all just fucking hug each other and cry over our problems?! Huh?! Is that all we're gonna fucking do?! Then-- Then I'm not having any of it! You're never taking the Treasure! As long as you never understand-- YOU'LL NEVER CHANGE ME!"

As her voice rises, so do the machines. They move as if they were humans trapped in a long slumber- joints creaking, and as they rise, their malicious glares focus on the group. The center machine kneels and picks up Kanade in its hand, raising her.

"Ha...hahah....ahahahah--! For that reason--! I'll do it alone if I have to! I'm the best fucking inventor in the world and I'll never need anyone to help me! I can build myself my own friends! I'll be my own friend if I need to! So for that reason- all of you should just fucking DISAPPEAR!!!"

"She's lost it--!" Madoka snarls as the first of the gunfire starts, stepping back as Percival manifests to defend them. One by one, the Personae manifest, forming a protective shield around the group. Kujo groans as Geraint brings up his beefy arms to shield him from the fire.

"That's not all--! She's got the treasure with her!"

"Our only chance is to bring down her machine! The middle one!"

"--! Guys, look! The ones on the left and right seem less defended!"

Hotaru swallows nervously as her friends all try to come up with plans. Kanade had long disappeared into the chest cavity of the middle machine, which starts to move as if it were controlled by her.

"Looks like there's no way out of this but to fight--!"

"G-Guaaaaaaaa--!"

They've done it. Scrap metal all over the battlefield, Kanade's machine falls to its knees once more, its chest opening again before the blonde falls out. She hits the ground with a sharp thud, but as the dust clears, the group could see that she was curled up, shaking- seemingly protecting something.

"It's over, Takamine! Hand over the treasure!"

"N-N-No...no!"

She's still clinging onto it- her voice is shaky and fearful, seeing as her machines were destroyed by the Personae. Kujo starts to advance to take it- Madoka soon tries to follow but was startled when Yoite's hand lands heavily on his shoulder. Looking at his friend with a quizzical look, he sees the green-haired man shake his head just as Hotaru blocks Kujo's path as well.

"Emirs--?" Hotaru gives him a small smile before she turns back to the cowering Shadow.

Kanade had pushed herself back into a corner, taking heavy breaths and shaking so bad that she couldn't even bring herself to put together another soldier. Hotaru crouches in front of her.

"Kanade-san?"

"U--Ugh...you'll never take it...my...my precious memory..."

She cradles the figure as if it's an important family heirloom, and Hotaru makes out tears pricking at her eyes.

"T-T-This figure...it's the figure that Mom sent me after she left for another country...and it's the only figure Nagisa and I ever shared between us..."

She wiped her tears off on the sleeve of her coat.

"The only people I could ever run to was my mother and Nagisa...and now that mom's gone and Nagisa's busy, I can't run to anyone anymore...I'm...alone..."

"You can run to us, Kanade-san. I know you think we can't understand you, but that's because we need your help to understand yourself. After all, you know yourself better than anyone."

Kanade says nothing, but the machines around her stir to life. Hotaru grows alarmed, but it seems that even Kanade's confused as to why they're moving. She springs to her feet as everyone tenses again.

"Kanade-san, please! We'll help you, we promise!"

A machine falls apart and builds itself again. The soldiers are coming in droves now- Hotaru manifests Blanchefleur to fight back as the mechanical army goes completely berserk.

i'm a coward i'm a coward i'm a coward i'm a coward

She hides.

She squeezes herself just behind her fallen machine. Everyone's fighting all around her. Everyone's fighting for her. Everyone wants to help her and she's not doing anything about it.

A drill threatens to come near her and it's met by Mordred's blade, the knight releasing a victorious shout as he cleaves through the machine. Somewhere near, she can hear Asagi.

Geraint's fist bursts through one as Elaine hovers near, healing everyone to the best of her abilities. Percival throws his dart at a retreating soldier, and Gawain slams his shield into one's head.

All aroud her, the Knights of Round are fighting.

They're fighting for her. And she feels pathetic.

"Is this truly what you think?"

At first, a voice.

Then, a throbbing pain in her head. She cries out in pain, feeling a white hot flame searing through her. A voice, that's definitely not hers, is speaking to her.

"You seem to think you are pathetic because you are terrified. But everyone and everything fears one thing or another in their lives.

Is that truly what you desire? These people, that are just as frightened as you are fighting for you.

If you truly are the best, then you should be able to do the same as them.

Even better."

"A...Aaaah..."

She finds herself struggling to her feet. The figure is glowing. The machines are getting to her now. A particularly large one hovers above her, its blade poised to strike.

"Sheesh, you all run with some scary folk...but if they're all gonna help me...can I make a special request? Just this once...?"

"...I am thou...Thou art I...

For the sake of the beaten and the oppressed, and to defend the weak-- I will take up arms and fight alongside you.

Let us herald your arrival with a blaze of glory!"

"This-- isn't over!!"

"ARONDIGHT!!!"

Kanade's machine splits apart before her eyes- and then blue flames warm her, and a powerful figure emerges from the broken pieces of her shield.

A glorious sight greets her as the strange figure cleaves through the machine about to kill her like a hot knife through butter- and it feels as though her heart is inflamed with this strange, blue flame.

"This...is fucking awesome."

She hangs off his shoulder as the knight turns to his next enemy, greatsword poised and ready to cleave through the confused machines.

"I'll do it. I'll fight for them, the same way they fought for me today. And I'm gonna be the fuckin' best at what I do...because I'm the fuckin' strongest--!!"

The entire group is shocked as the great knight stands before them, his blade poised and ready to strike down his foes. He makes quick work of the machines, striking thunderous blows each time that sends them rattling to the ground, unable to move or reform.

"Arondight...?"

Merlin's voice cuts through the air. The group looks over to find their own wizard coming closer, his eyes seemingly widened in shock.

"Is that truly...?"

The Personae stop. Their eyes are affixed on the great knight, and Elaine seems to shrink back as he raises his greatsword in front of himself, held in two hands. The white and royal blue delivers a sharp contrast to the bleakness of the area, cape flowing freely behind him. But unlike the other knights, this one seemed to be mechanized.

"I am Sir Lancelot du Lac! Son of Benwick, and Knight of the Round Table!"

Kanade is hanging on his shoulder, seemingly with her bravado back. She grins wildly.

"You scrubs never told me you hung with these fuckin' cool ass knights!"

"Kanade-san--?"

"Hey! Tell you what?! I might actually help ya shmucks! If it means I get this cool mecha and shit, then sign me up! Kyahahahaha!"

Even as the place shakes and threatens to collapse, Kanade seems unfazed. She just flicks a lock of blonde hair back and shrugs.

"Now, you guys gonna stand there or are you gonna hitch a ride with me here?"

Escaping was easy. When Kanade got a moment of peace to herself, she sees the mecha manifest again, though not as humongous as he was earlier.

He bows before her, lightly taking her hand. She wonders how it's even a kiss on the hand at this point, considering he doesn't have a mouth. What was his name? Oh yeah, Lancelot. Like that one machine she saw on TV.

"You really are a knight aren't you?"

"Being courteous to women is in our code."

Kanade freezes for a moment- it's been so long since she's been treated like a lady, and right now, she was being treated as one by a machine. Well, a knight machine, but still.

"Now that you have summoned me into this world, it is my duty henceforth to serve as your knight- if you will have me."

"I don't think I got much of a choice in that."

She grins. Lancelot seems unsure, pausing briefly as he stands to his full height again- Kanade notices that he's way taller than her, and she chalks it up to the fact that he's not exactly human- and he leans on his sword.

"If-- that is how you word it, then I must assume that it was an affirmation. Then, Lady Takamine, I will do my best as your knight. You need only call on me and I shall manifest to serve you at any time. I hope this bond will be a long and prosperous one."

"Heh! You bet your fuckin' robot ass it will!"

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SkyCladSaya06 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **SkyCladSaya06** on Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:17 am

Black History Chapter III – Where No Animals Go

You know about the rule about not having pets inside the dorm yes? I’m sure many people have wondered why it is that a man who’s quite good with animals would ban animals from the premises. Well, I’ll tell you. There’s a story behind this.

My story, to be exact.

I’ve heard that the dorm, particularly the girl’s floor is very active with hauntings and whatnot. In my experience, the sixth floor is even more terrifying than ours though. However, I will not deny there are things that happen here that I cannot explain and sightings I cannot be sure if it was real or not.

I’ve seen a shadow peer at me from the stairwell when I was climbing up the stairs past midnight. I’ve seen a faceless nun float past the window even when there is no balcony outside, a white sheet-like object wafting in a friend’s unit and the sounds of giant wings flapping outside during cold and late nights.

I’ve seen some of the girls being wheeled around outside to a priest while spouting incomprehensible language and even watched a girl go mad after a prank gone wrong. Throughout the days, many girls have come and gone in the place before ending up with its more, permanent residents and I suppose I can be proud for counting amongst their ranks.

This story I’m about to tell almost made me move out of this place, out of fear for my own life.

The first room I got in this notorious place was Room 305 and I had it all to myself. I was supposed to have a roommate but she backed out at the last minute—apparently, her mother caught her screwing around with some guy and cancelled her enrollment. Weird.

Unlike most, I moved into the place around vacation time, just after my enrollment at St. Gabriel’s. So it was still rather empty as there were only a few people in the building at the time. I got a scholarship for working students and so I didn’t really have to worry about money that much—despite running away from home after high school. This also ensured I was away most of the time so the strange going-on’s didn’t really bother me much.

I had a couple of friends in the dorm; notably the receptionist Ritsuka and the newest member of the administrative staff, Cel. Should things get too tight, I can always count on them to help—of course, I pay them back on time. Besides, such situations were very rare anyway.

It was a rainy day at that time, and us three had gathered into the lobby, chatting. Girl’s talk and whatever. Didn’t know when it got to ghost stories but it probably shifted to that direction after Ritsuka had downed around three glasses of tequila. Don’t tell anyone about that—drinking is not allowed in this dorm.

”Hey~ You know that big o’l plant at the side of the place? Some girls think it’s haunted!” I recalled her say.

”Creepy isn’t it? Apparently, some girls have heard someone whispering from that bush. Whenever they would walk close to it, they tend to feel odd things like a chill running down their spine or their hair suddenly standing up.” Cel recalled. I just kept quiet.

Come autumn, just as the dorm resumed its regular routines with all the students being in the place at the time, a series of burglaries had the neighborhood on high alert. Just in the street alone, around ten houses had been broken into. For our sake, our landlord Mitsuru started placing guard dogs all over our perimeter. I remember him bringing over three Belgians and a German Shepherd with him when he arrived. These four dogs were placed on all four corners of the dorm’s perimeter. Not that they weren’t comfortable—Mitsuru seems to have a knack for raising these animals. At night, he would let them prowl around the place—a good deterrent for any wannabe Lupin looking to get away with some loot.

I was rather fond of these dogs and they seemed to like me back. I would bring them scraps from work which they enjoyed so much that Mitsuru didn’t even mind when I take them out for a walk sometimes. I’ve grown acquainted with their names as well. The German shepherd was Louis. The two Belgian males were Doug and James while the female Belgian was Lassie.

What I observed with these dogs was that they seemed to be agitated by the plant Ritsuka was talking about earlier. The plant was a bougainvillea shrub that has grown rather tall over the years and nearly took up the whole middle left side of the yard. Not to mention it stood directly outside my room. Lassie would often whimper in fear should we approach it while Doug and James would suddenly perk up and bare their fangs at it. I’ve yet to see how Louis takes it but from what I can hear about Mitsuru and another boy, Arakaki’s discussions, he didn’t seem to take kindly to it either.

Even I felt uncomfortable being near it and I would often close off my drapes at night so I don’t have to see it before I slept. At some point in the night, the room would start to get very cold with the mild whir from the AC becoming a blast of icy wind. The empty bed beside mine would creak and heavy footfalls can be heard from the carpet. I would often wake up at this point and everything would be back to normal once I turn on the lights, save for the freezing cold temperature in the room.

As school and work started piling up, I started coming home more exhausted than ever and I’m not always able to get up to turn the lights on when things start acting up allowing the malevolence to get much, much worse. My mind is awake yet my body’s still unresponsive, leaving me defenseless in face of this thing that has nestled in my room for the past days.

I can’t fully describe what it looks like. It feels like a heavy shadow slowly covering every inch of my body like a blanket but heavier. As heavy as a sack of potatoes even. Everything starts to turn dim and the room gets so cold that I can see my breath and this shadow solidifies into steel: Hard, heavy and cold.

The struggle is always mental with it pushing me down and me trying to push it up. I win and it disappears, only to come back the following night. The struggle was wearing me down. I would go to sleep exhausted by the day’s events and go through that ordeal to wake up even more exhausted than I went to sleep. My alertness in class starts slipping and my coworkers have already caught me zoning out more than once during shifts. The nightly visits keep coming and with midterms around the corner, I really can’t afford the drain.

A week after the terrors started, James was found dead.

His body was found lying outside the window, directly in between the dorm’s walls and the bougainvillea shrub. Mitsuru was aghast. He had rubbed his neck raw escaping his restraints from his post near the left wall and his eyes were glassy and lifeless. We suspected robbers had poisoned him but Cel seemed to think otherwise.

”Maybe he was trying to protect someone…” I heard her mutter under her breath as I passed her on the lobby on my way to school. I didn’t really make much of it at the time.

One night, I received an unexpected visit from my brother. He had already made it as a successful actor and for some reason, decided that the haunted dorm his own sister is staying at is a good place to hide from paparazzi. Of course, he stayed in that malevolent room with me. We didn’t exactly get along but I figured having someone inside would deter that thing from visiting the room. I was wrong too.

”If you were having a boyfriend over, you should’ve told me so I would’ve looked for a hotel instead.” He suddenly confronted me over breakfast.

“What?” I asked him.

He told me had woken up sometime in the night to grab a glass of water. He surprisingly has good vision in the dark so he didn’t bother turning on the lights as he did. The room was partially lit by the moonlight and when he supposedly went back, he claims to have seen a rather tall, naked male huddled over me in bed.

We both faced the wall when we slept so my brother wasn’t able to make out the man’s features aside from pale skin and lack of hair. He was also rather lanky according to my brother. I told him that was impossible as I wasn’t seeing anybody at the time and I always lock the window. He just shrugged.
The same morning, Doug was also dead. Same spot, same wound and same glassy, lifeless eyes.
From then on, things have started becoming even more malevolent. The nightly visits still continued yes, but even mornings no longer brought me comfort.

I would wake up with black and blue marks on my arms and legs and a sharp pain at the back of my head. I would sometimes lose important things like keys and change only for them to turn up in unlikely places like the inside of the fridge or bathroom.

The window, which I kept closed like some kind of shield started showing cracks. When I tried to cover it up with some tape, I noticed the crack took on the form of a tall, skinny, naked man.

One time, I even woke up from an afternoon nap to find a beautifully decorated coffin lying next to my bed. It was opened up like it was waiting to swallow me as soon as I got out of bed. I practically ran out of my room to Mitsuru’s office. Even they couldn’t explain where that came from when they took it out of my room. If it was left to me, I would’ve burned it.

Another time, I woke up from another afternoon nap to find Lassie sitting next to my bed. I don’t have an idea how she got there but in a way, I was glad I had company inside, even if she was a dog. I immediately got up and got her a treat from my fridge. She seemed to like it. While she ate, I headed to the bathroom to go about my business and was greeted with an unnerving sight.

All the meat I’ve stored in my fridge had been taken out of the packaging and arranged on the shower floor in the shape of a heart. And right there in the center, my name was written.

In blood.

As I stared, the radio suddenly turned on to The Police’s Every Breath You Take. Upon closer look, I noticed it wasn’t even plugged on. Instinctively, I grabbed Lassie and ran out of the room.

Mitsuru was quite surprised to see us from the lobby. He wondered where I got Lassie and I honestly told him that I woke up and found her inside my room.

”Figures. We were down here at the lobby when she suddenly perked up and started bolting towards your floor. What I’m wondering though, how the hell did she get in your room? I mean, you girls keep your doors locked every time don’t you?”

It was when I realized that that thing probably opened the door.

The visits and the mysterious bruises continued of course so I brought it up with Cel once. Honestly, I was a bit unnerved by what she said.

”I think it wants your life, Sora-chan.”

”Why?” I asked, feeling the hairs on my arm stand up.

”I don’t know. But with all the malevolence it has shown you so far—that’s the only conclusion I can think of. It kind of explains the coffin…and why James and Doug both turned up dead.”

Cel told me that sometimes, dogs die in place of their master suffering from some kind of illness. Following that logic, that means whatever it is in that place wants to kill me and had already made the attempt twice, had it not been for the two dogs.

“What can I do to stop it?” I asked her.

”Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m no expert or anything. Sometimes, these entities were just disturbed though and should be appeased with a simple offering or apology. My guess is that it's from the scary shrub planted outside. Have you done anything to it or near it lately?”

I shook my head.

”Then I don’t know. Maybe you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time…” Cel thought for a bit. ”Or maybe it has taken some kind of perverse attraction towards you?”

I recalled the damn heart and for once, I felt a chill run down my spine.

Cel’s words were sure concerning but in any event, I soon forgot all about it once midterms neared. I’ve been very engrossed in studying that I was barely sleeping and if I do, it’s usually in school. The terrors of the night had been pushed to the back of my mind as I started getting occupied with coming up with recipes to impress my panel.

Two nights before my presentation, the kitchen at school had been fully booked so I had to resign myself at cooking in the room. No problem. I thought. I’ll be up all night so that thing shouldn’t bother me right? Again, I was wrong.

To keep me company, Mitsuru let me borrow Lassie for the night. Besides, according to him—

”She’s been rather restless. She only calmed down when you arrived.”

Me and Lassie practically stayed up until midnight. I tried perfecting my dishes and of course, Lassie seemed to enjoy tasting anything that didn’t end up in the final product. Come 1 or 2 in the morning, I was ready to turn in for the night. I buckled down to my bed and soon enough, I found myself dozing off—

Only to find myself waking up almost immediately as Lassie started barking angrily inside the room. I tried to get up to calm her down, but for some strange reason, I found myself unable to move. My vision’s very blurry and the world seemed to be spinning but through it all, I can see Lassie standing opposite my window barking.

Through the darkness of the room, the window seemed to creak as it slowly opened and for the first time since the whole ordeal started, I was able to catch a fraction of what it was that tormented me though my senses were all blurry.

A thin, pale arm appeared, slowly pushing up the window and grasping the windowsill. With both hands, it slowly lifted its thin frame to get inside my room. Before it could do so though, Lassie attacked. Through my blurry vision, I saw her leap at that thing, sending both of them crashing down below.
That woke me up with a jolt and I was able to scamper out of bed not of fear this time but out of worry. We were on the third floor, and Lassie just jumped out of the window. My vision still blurry, I groggily made my way downstairs where I can hear Lassie’s barks and cries as she tries to fight the beast that had tried to take my life twice.

“Lassie!” Before I knew it, I managed to make my way outside down to where the bougainvillea shrub was. But I was too late. At the exact same spot where Doug and James gave their lives for me, Lassie also laid down.

I tried to walk over to my protector but suddenly, I felt a cold, icy grip on my shoulder. Long, thin fingers seemed to bury deep, causing me much pain. Angry, I tried to turn around but I was only met with darkness as I fell down to the cold earth as my consciousness slipped away.

I didn’t know how long did I pass out but when I came to, I was inside the lobby with Ritsuka, Cel and Mitsuru all watching over me.

”Thank goodness you’re awake!” Cel immediately hugged me as I rose.

“Lassie?” She was the first thing I asked about once I found the strength to speak. Sadly, Mitsuru just shook his head and sighed. She didn’t make it either.

”Listen, you still have your midterms right? Want to sleep in my room tomorrow? It’ll be like a sleepover, promise! Plus, I have a bigger kitchen too!” Cel offered me.
Her offer couldn’t have come at a better time.

Surprisingly, the night went well. I was able to finish my recipes quickly and for the first time since I stayed in this dorm, I was able to get a good night’s rest. Whatever it was that tormented me, seemed to only have power inside my room. That or it can’t get me when I have a roommate. Probably the former since it still managed to get in when my brother visited me.

Come morning, I felt rejuvenated enough to go back to my room to freshen up before going to school. Probably since they were worried, Cel and Ritsuka decided to accompany me upstairs and keep me company.

However, what we saw in my room only made us want to run out again.

Most of my stuff was scattered all over the floor. The fridge looked like it had been terribly ransacked and the beds had three of their posts broken. All my food items had been opened and blood and grease were strewn all over the walls and floor and some of my appliances were missing.

Nonetheless, we didn’t run nor did we scream. We simply gathered up the pieces and tidied up. Fortunately, we would hear from Mitsuru that the incident this time was just the work of robbers. The perpetrators were caught just seven hours after they looted my room.

I wish I can say I managed to find a proper resolution. I wish I can say I managed to at least avenge the three dogs that gave their lives for mine. However, I can’t. In the end, I never really did find out what it was that tormented me and what I did that set it off. Did I do something to set it off? Or was I simply at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or maybe, it’s just as Cel said.

That malevolence felt a perverse attraction towards me. In the end, I would never know.

I still live in the dorm however. One day, Mitsuru approached me with an offer to move rooms. As proven by my sleepover at Cel’s room, this thing can only get me if I stay in there. However, I told him I’m not sure if I can bear having a room all to myself after everything that’s happened.

”Well, you won’t be alone. You’ll be sharing this room with someone else.” Mitsuru smiled.

“Who?” I asked.[/color]

”Someone who also refused to leave despite witnessing the horrors of the place.”

I moved to Room 303 immediately afterwards and that malevolent entity hadn’t been seen nor felt since then. Last thing I heard, some guys tried to get it off the property. I don’t know if they succeeded and if they did, I don’t know where it went now. For sure, I don’t think I’ll miss it.
However, while that uncertainty still lingers, no pets will ever be allowed in Blue Lotus. And it isn’t because the owner doesn’t want any.

But it’s because that thing doesn’t want any.

Guardian Aelita · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Guardian Aelita** on Tue Jun 13, 2017 11:18 pm

Welp, with a new challenge comes a new drabble. XD I'm not gonna write out the characters since they're getting their own awakenings come my Persona AU (I swear to god, at some point, it'll come out). Instead, I wanna try and write my Awakening. XD What? I wrote my Shadow and the palace so it's only natural I should write out my Awakening cutscene and my Persona. XD Think of this as a Persona 5 AU where I ended up becoming a Phantom Thief. Onto the thing!! XD

"Have you finally realized just how wrong you are?"

The pink haired girl's eyes widened as soon as she heard the voice echo inside her head. Her hands reached up and clutched at her skull in a desperate attempt to make the sudden pain stop.

"Yes, the outside world is scary. Yes, the people are scary. Yes, life itself is unpredictable and yes, you are going to get hurt. But by staying in your bubble, you do nothing but let those fears fester inside you. They become tumors, growing ever more malignant and ever more detrimental."

She grit her teeth and shook her head.

"E-Even so... I-I want to cut out the tumors..."

"Do you now? Are you willing to do everything to break away from the sin of sloth?"

Genevieve narrowed her eyes.

"Yes! I'm tired of being a contradiction!"

"Then let's begin the contract."

The pain inside Genevieve's head became more unbearable as she started to scream and cry out from pain. As she squirmed and screamed from the pain, a mask suddenly materialized in front of her face.

"I am thou. Thou art I. You're an intelligent woman, Genevieve. Powerful, compassionate, determined; all of these words and more categorize us. Grasp onto the blade that you once lost and carve out your identity once again. Break free from the faceless masses and stand up! Embrace what good qualities you have and fight valiantly in the ongoing war of life!"

With that speech, Genevieve screamed out, ripping away the mask. As she did, blue flames surrounded her, cloaking her until they died away, revealing a woman with a scythe in one hand and dressed in a garb suited for combat.

"Thank you, Persona... I was blind. I was just content to fade away in the background and disappear off the face of the planet. But, I'm done with holding myself back. I'm done with being the one who people step on! I am worthy! I am important! I do matter in the grand scheme of things and I'm going to leave my mark on society! Let's do this, Bellona!"

Genevieve Aldora's Codename: Monarch

My thief outfit is a bit garish but I'm not really an official Persona user and just picked out stuff that looked appealing to me. XD Sleeveless shirt, upper arm length gloves, shorts, tights, ankle boots and a mix of white and black along with some pink and purple accents. The mask is more like a butterfly hence why my code name is Monarch. I probably sound really egotistical and kinda unoriginal because Queen is someone from a monarchy as well. Whoops, that's why I'm not an actual Persona character. XD Anyway, here's how I look: Monarch

Genevieve Aldora's Persona: Bellona

AKA the goddess of War, Conquest and Peace. She's also associated with Mars and Mars's Greek counterpart is Aries hence why I chose her. I also chose her because of the whole war thing going on with myself. It's a daily conflict of sloth and determination but I do think I'm doing much better than how I used to be. Therapy definitely helps along with trying to pay attention during class hours when class is going on. As such, I feel Bellona more resembles the me that I know I can be, headstrong, powerful, compassionate, intelligent and independent. It'll take a while to get there but I know I can get there. XD

DeathScythe386 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **DeathScythe386** on Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:45 am

(aka: alligator lounge stories with kanade are the best stories with kanade)
~~alsoiwritekanadealot~~

Tales from The Lounge

There's a place for everyone in the dorm. That place happens to be the certain area where they always hang out- Tanizaki liked hanging out in his own room, Nagisa made it a habit to come down and go use her phone in the lobby when she could, and Emirsdottir...fuck all if I knew were Emirsdottir hung out. Her cafe, probably?

As for me? Well, there was no other place a drop-dead gorgeous genius inventor could hang out!

Huh? No, not at science fairs, you scrubs. Loathe as my friends would probably be to admit it, I'm a hard drinker. And there are only a few places here in Castle where you can get totally wasted.

Club Quicksilver was the go-to club for parties. Not unusual to see college kids running around in there getting completely wasted. Sometimes they played electro swing, which was the only reason I was there. Some creeps hang out at Quicksilver, but most of the clientele are pretty high-brow. I mean, Ichinose loves the place.

The other, was my favorite. The Alligator Lounge's a lot quieter than Quicksilver, definitely, but I love it all the same. They've got barkeeps that don't ask too many probing questions unless you want 'em too, good booze, and a house band. More importantly, I'm a regular face at the Lounge. People love me there.

Hell, why the fuck do you think I'm called Party Junkie?

Besides, I know most of the people that hang there. I've gotten the chance to go around with the house band once for five days since they apparently got the chance to go around playing gigs. Guess they loved my little antics and stunts. Wouldn't have been able to do it without my Face Melter though.

It's impossible to miss the Lounge. It's real close to the Red Camellia Hotel, and it's the Alligator Lounge because of its neon sign with an alligator holding a cocktail.

But we're not here to talk about the place. We're here to talk about the shit I've seen and gone through when I'm there. Hmmm...where should I start?

The Start of The Rumor

Now there's rumors about me around the Lounge. Most of them having to do with whips and chains and all the fun stuff you do behind closed doors. But, I have to admit, that was practically my own fault, and Shrimpy's.

Huh? Shrimpy? Yeah, he's the kid that hangs around me a lot. My assistant, aside from Scripter. Kid with white hair and an antenna too pointy to be human. Always wearing his gray cybernetic jacket and a blue lightning necklace. His real name's Tetsuya Kobayashi, but Shrimpy's his name to me.

We were hangin' around with some friends at the Lounge once. Vaguely remember boasting about one of my inventions and my experience at a previous Renaissance Fair, when some guy pretending to be a gentleman who saw me as some lady in distress from a kid six inches shorter than me hustled up to us.

"Is this guy your boyfriend?" He asked, as if Shrimpy was the most loathsome guy in the world. Shrimpy, bless his heart, knew how to go along.

"Actually," the smug little shit said, with a grin on his face, "She's the dominant one in this relationship."

If that wasn't a cue for me to start moving, I don't know what was.

So I went over to him and grabbed him by the hair, mustered all the ojou-sama I still had in my system, and stared into this fucker's blue eyes.

"The hell, shrimp? Did I tell you to speak?" Unblinking, this fucker went--

"No, Mistress."

Oh fuck me sideways, this guy was hilarious when drunk. Barely keeping my straight face on, I said,

"There you go again, punk. Look at me when I'm talking."

Not that I wanted the shrimp to actually look at me. But he looked me in the eye and said,"

"Yes, Mistress."

Oh, shit. Motherfucker. He’s done it now. Shrimpy’s done it now, and I was just about to fall over myself dying from laughter. I barely managed to rein the little shit in and dragged him off by the back of his collar and dragged him all the way back to our table, where he just about started bursting into uncontrolled laughter. I swear to god, this kid gets so brave when he’s drunk.

Not that I mind. It wasn’t like I was any different from the fucker.

Anyway, after our little stunt, I got pretty famous in the Lounge as some sort of awesome and respected dom who just happened to be friendly as fuck while drunk, loved Guinness like no other and knew how to play a sick riff on a guitar.

And speaking of guitars...

Is You Is or Is You Ain't

I remember that one time I got asked by the house band to play with them. Singer was a good guy who just happened to love smokes and music, but apparently their guitarist wasn't the most upright person and decided to go MIA when they were opening for a pretty popular band who was going to be performing in the Lounge.

Like, I'm talkin' random as shit. While taking a break, the singer just hustled up to me with his drink in his hand and made small talk that I entertained. Genius inventor Kanade Takamine-sama can talk about anything once she's got several glasses of Guinness in her.

"Say, our ass of a guitarist decided to go on a trip to Hawaii during one of our big performances,"
He told me as he took a long swig from his glass. "You know that band LOHZ?" "Fuckin' definitely." I loved that band. At least when I was in high school. I heard they broke up once, but were getting back again.

Sheesh, explained every single romcom I've seen so far. Singer dude explained they were going to be performing here. I could borrow Guitarist dude's gear for the time being, since I didn't have Face Melter with me- it was with my dad. I did, however, have Babyface, my acoustic.

Shit, still remember the tears in my old man's eyes when he saw me walk into the music store and come out with a shiny new electric guitar.

Anyway, the act went pretty smoothly. Crowd loved us and got more hyped for LOHZ.

I slipped off from the band with Babyface in tow to go have a few drinks on my own. I felt unclean from using something other than Face Melter, for some reason. But imagine my surprise when I saw familiar purple hair at the bar.

I was planning on surprising him, but what came out of my mouth was an overly cordial "Hey, Spaceman! The fuck are you doing here?!"

Kujo whirled around, his eyes wide. Soon though, he relaxed and grinned at me.

"Should have known you were gonna be here." He gave a jovial wave and turned back around. I took a seat at his table, situating Babyface across my lap though I wasn't planning on playing. Kujo called another round, and I carried on swigging Guinness.

"Good performance on-stage. Didn't think the Partisan Rose kids were telling the truth when they said you were a natural showman."
"Ha, great Kanade-sama's just good at commanding everyone's attention!" I gave Kujo a big grin though, at least to show that I was joking and appreciated his input. Kujo reciprocated the grin and raised his glass a bit.

"That being said, what are you doin' here, Nobuyuki? Not with the little gremlin today?"

Kujo gave a half-hearted shrug. "Nah, Bro went home early today from one of our operations. And we got a fuckton of cash so I have some to burn."

A friendly grin showed up on Kujo's face. "Hell, I could treat you to another round of Guinness, right now and I'd have no worries over it." I laughed and raised my already somewhat-full glass.
"Nah, I think I'm good here."

We both paused as we took long swigs of our drinks. Kujo sighed as he put his glass down.

"That and I've got big plans tomorrow." "Hoh? What plans?"

The dog of a man scratched at his neck.

"I'm actually plannin' on asking Hirabayashi if she wants to go around the city with me a little. Y'know, since she made those lunches for me and the others."

"I'm sorta wounded I didn't hear of that." I pretended to pout, but easily smoothed my face into my usual cocky grin. "You're askin' her out?"

"It's a hang-out, Takamine! I just know this great restaurant with awesome pork sets and I wanna share that magic with her." I watched as Kujo raised his fist, as if he was declaring a law or a challenge or something.

"That's the way the Nobuyukis always do it! We do it straight-out! No skulking around!" "Says the guy who's working with the sneakiest bastard in the dorm," I mumbled under my breath. Kujo took no notice and lowered his fist, sighing.

"Speakin' of romance and shit, how's Makinami been?"
"Did the purple gremlin put you up to this?"
"Nah, of course not! Just concerned for a friend is all, Takamine. Sheesh." There he went again with his neck scratches. Kujo laughed and gave a half-hearted shrug.

"It's just that I can't figure out what Makinami's thinking half the time." "You're just not good at reading minds in general, Nobuyuki," I chimed in. Though, I had to agree. Nobody knows what Nagisa's thinking half the time. Not even a fuckin' genius inventor like me!
"Though, Nagisa's pretty hard to figure out. But you know what they say--"

The Guinness kicked in as my words slurred into a half-assed song. "A woman is a creature, that's always been strange~"

I saw brief recognition in Kujo's eyes as he laughed and continued, "Just when you're sure of one, you find she's gone and made a change!"

"Is you is, or is you ain't, my baby?" We broke out into drunken chorus, and my hand mindlessly strummed the strings on Babyface. Ah, the wonders of drunkenness.

"Maybe baby's found somebody new?

Or, is my baby, still my baby true~!"

How I Learned That I Fucking Love Guinness

Everyone's wondering at this point. Why does Kanade Takamine, love Guinness of all the beers to fall in love with?

First off, fuck off, I love it.

Second of all, it was mostly due to a thing that happened before. A thing that involved a fuckton of Guinness and an arrogant little shit.

People say if you stare at something for long periods of time, you grow to love it. Apparently the same could be said for alcohol.

I was at the Alligator Lounge with Nagisa and Akame- Akame mostly because she needed a place to work off her pounding headache from Quicksilver. Nagisa helped her out of the kindness of her soul.

As for me, I was busy shooting the shit with the barkeep.

It wasn't long until some guy came around, and my god, the guy just screamed cringe. Wolf shirts, fedoras and trench coats. Shit you shouldn't be seeing in a bar. Morikawa had better fashion sense than this guy. Most of all, he just screamed neckbeard.

Another worse part was that the fucker squeezed himself into the stool next to me. Fuck's sake. Looks like Kanade-sama's gotta make a mental invention to keep her from falling asleep thanks to this guy!

I vaguely heard the guy ask for something the bar wasn't serving. Barkeep confirmed. He, with a scoff of "I am mightier than thou," said, "then just Guinness will have to do."

Just Guinness. I don't know what sort of alcohol demon possessed me, but I leapt to the drink's defense almost immediately. Bad move- fucker looked at me with the most smug smile on his face, and the clearest look of admiration and "i'm so going to get laid tonight."

As if. Shit, made my skin tingle with disgust.

He made a vague comment about women who knew how to appreciate good beer (motherfucker! He just insulted Guinness to my face damnit!) and gave me the challenge of a lifetime.

If I outdrink him, he's buying all the rounds. If I don't, he gets to go on a date with me.

Fuck. Fuuuuck, no. I'd rather go on a date with Shrimpy or Koizumi. Not this motherfucker.

It. Was. On.

The rest was blurry- I vaguely remember the guy was asking me when he could take me out while I was busy trying to slam drinks. I mean, I didn't even like Guinness that much before, but now that I was slamming drink after drink of it, I was actually starting to like it.

And it fucks me up quickly, apparently. I looked like I was about to pass out at any moment, but the arrogant fuck said one thing he shouldn't have.

"That's why this is a man's drink,"With emphasis on man.

Imagine his surprise when I pulled my greatest trap card- the fact that I sober up quickly.

Slam more drinks. Guinness is starting to taste better and better with everyone and my head's spinning. By the end of it, bartender calls my win, he's raging, and he storms out of the room after paying for the drinks and I'm grinning like the smug little fucker I am.

"You could have just used the boyfriend excuse." Nagisa deadpanned, her eyes locked on my extremely inebriated form.
"I know. But I couldn't turn down free booze."

(A/N: may continue this into a miniseries of some sort. XD)

Guardian Aelita · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Guardian Aelita** on Thu Oct 26, 2017 8:50 pm

9/15
Menou had collapsed in her bed as she looked up at the ceiling, slightly frustrated by the events that had happened today. There had been an ambush. Arthur had expected all of them to show up and ambushed them with an attack by his shadows and one of the Black Knights. They had left Menou as the only one to not get hurt or attack simply because she was the weakest out of all of them. Her eyes had narrowed as she felt that fire surge up inside of her. She could remember what that Black Knight had told her in perfect detail.

“Hm? Why even bother with that Shrine Maiden? If what I’ve seen of her in real life is any indication, she’ll kill herself soon anyway. There’s no point in trying to fight against her. She has no real strength to speak of; it’ll be like picking on a child that refuses to fight back because he’s too stupid to defend himself.”

For whatever reason there was, Menou snapped at that. She felt fiery rage and felt Elaine’s chains break as she cut off her in game avatar’s ponytail. In a way, she felt her own chains break as well as she yelled back at the Black Knight that she could fight back only for the knight to laugh at her.

“Oh, my mistake. Of course, you can fight… when it involves other people. You’re too scared to defend yourself because you know that every single bad comment that gets thrown your way is true.”

At that point, Hotaru had attempted to defend her only to get kicked down for her troubles. It was at that point, she heard Elaine scream in her head and she in turn screamed out as well. Her power suddenly grew stronger and stronger until there was an overwhelming surge of it and that was when a new Persona was born from her soul; a Persona that she only unlocked after finally having enough of the shit she gave herself and the shit other people gave her.

“Norn…”

As Menou whispered that name, she could see a faint outline of the Persona manifest in the corner of her room. The black clock ticking in a slow yet constant movement as three golden angels surrounded it. It had reminded her that time kept on going. Time that was spent moping around over something that happened years ago or over her own suicide attempt was time she wasted on trying to get out of the rut and feel happiness for the first time in years. She understood that and finally grasped that concept that day on the battle field. But to her, there was a question that remained…

“… Why did you activate now?”

Why was now the best course of action for any for Menou to suddenly get that amount of power? It wasn’t even like she had gotten a tiny amount of power, either. She went from having nothing but healing spells and maybe Kouga or Makouga to defend herself with to Agidyne, Ziodyne, Bufudyne, Garudyne and her strongest healing spells along with a powerful full party revival move. To her, it didn’t make much sense. Why go for multiple different types of attacks along with her strongest healing moves? She appreciated it a lot as she felt less like a sitting duck and more powerful than she ever had been in her life but why now…?

Menou focused back on Norn, the ticking of the clock sounding menacing and yet somewhat soothing. To her, she felt like she wasted a lot of time feeling sorry for herself and wishing that someday her parents and other people would love her. However, something in that battlefield hit her and hit her hard enough to change her tactics. The only way things were going to change is if she changed them. If Menou hadn’t have had that realization, her friends would have surely been dead by now. She shook off the morbid thought and instead thought of something else.

“Now that I have you, Norn… What should I do now?”

Norn didn’t answer back, the ticking of the clock being the only sound it made though the angels seemed to look at Menou curiously as if to ask her “what do you want to do”. It was an uneasy question for Menou as she never really had much courage to even try to change a plan that fit her schedule better or even say “no, I’m uncomfortable with this”. She was someone who was considered to be filth by her parents just because she was bisexual. She felt it was time to do some things that she wanted to do. And those things would start tomorrow when she had school off and her parents were away. She had an impulsive idea bloom in her mind but there was no better time to start it.

9/16

Menou walked around on the streets of Funabashi with a giant amount of cash in her pocket. She couldn’t really explain how or why but somehow, there would be money given to them in the real life in addition to in the game whenever Shadows were defeated. The money they would receive would appear the day after via electronic payments as a supposed thank you for all the hard work they’ve been doing cleaning up the game. Still, Menou wasn’t exactly complaining, money was money after all and lord knows she feels she was earned it after yesterday. She stretched and looked around the busy streets. Families were walking into the shopping mall with their children and couples were holding hands and cheerfully talking amongst themselves. Normally, she would feel a bitter envy towards these two scenarios. Her parents never really cared that much to take her to shopping malls and any romantic interests she had left in one way or another.

“Hm… Let’s see if I can make this day a success as well~”

Menou found herself not caring for them now. The envy she had towards others was gone. While she was unsure as to why she felt this way now, she wasn’t going to complain. She entered the mall first to look for some clothes. While jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers were fun to wear, she wanted to try something new. She wanted to see if she could pull off some different types of clothing outside of her uniform and her casual clothes. Taking some steps with her head held high, she entered H&M.

“Welcome!”

The cashier had greeted her and she bowed back in greeting before browsing the wares. She soon caught eye of a fitted jersey dress, taking a small sized dress and walking into the fitting room. She tried it on and was surprised at how snug it felt. It emphasized the natural curves of her body and felt really comfy to wear. Slipping on some black ankle boots to compliment the look, she felt amazed at the woman looking back in the mirror as she let her hair out of the ponytail held up by her red ribbon. She looked… mature. She looked like she was ready to take on the night itself and felt amazed at the feeling of confidence blooming inside of her.

“Wow… I never knew I could look like this…”

Inspired, she had to try on more clothes. The next dress she tried on was a purple one with lace sleeves, a lace bodice and a free-flowing skirt that went well above her knees. She didn’t think much of dresses in the past; to her, she could never really pull them off but now, she felt empowered wearing them. She felt as though purple and black really helped bring out her empowered side rather than the usual white t-shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers. Don’t get her wrong, she still loved them, but now she could understand the appeal of dresses more. She decided to buy those two dresses and the ankle boots before walking out of the store. She hummed a little to herself.

“Wonder where I should go next…?”

She then noticed an electronics store. She narrowed her eyes a bit as she remembered her parents felt that the game was taking over her life and that she would no longer be allowed to play on Neosiris for the next few weeks on their computer. Menou smirked a bit to herself.

“Well, the deal said that I can’t play it on your computer, but if I buy myself a laptop, you can’t do anything about it.”

With that idea in her mind, she giggled to herself as she pranced into the store, looking for the finest laptops they had. There, she saw one that was painted in purple with small pink cherry blossoms adorning the purple paint. She giggled.

“How apt~ This looks perfect.”

She then decided to buy the laptop and it cost her quite a lot, almost 34,000 yen. But it was worth it for her. She bought herself at least a tiny bit of freedom from her parents and bought herself a tiny bit of care since she loved playing on Neosiris. She stretched, feeling a bit hungry. She still had about 190,000 yen left for herself so she decided to treat herself to some sushi. She made her way over to a nearby table and sat down, ordering some water to start with for now. She looked through the menu.

“Ah, so many items to choose from. But where do I start? Decisions, decisions~”

“Wait a second… Koizumi?!”

Menou blinked and looked over at the sound of a male voice suddenly shouting. The female shushed him.

“Keep your voice down, Aki. I swear, you can be so overdramatic.”

Menou blinked a bit and stared at them. The girl smiled, brushing aside some blue locks.

“Ah, I’m sorry. We never really got the chance to talk. My name’s Chiyoko. Hatsune Chiyoko. But please, call me Chiyo~ This dork is Namayaka Akio.”

Akio smirked, his grey eyes crinkling in amusement.

“Call me a dork all you like but this dork is the one who won your heart.”

“Yeah, out of the millions of people I could choose from. Oh, are you eating all by yourself?”

Menou blinked and nodded. She inwardly cursed herself a bit before straightening up.

“Yeah, I was planning on eating alone but since fate has a funny way of working out, wanna sit with me?”

Akio and Chiyoko both blinked.

“Seriously…? Yeah, that’d be cool.”

Chiyoko answered as she sat down. She hissed at Akio to sit down with her and the man did so, still somewhat shocked that Menou asked that. Menou grinned.

“That’s great. I actually had a couple of questions related to our history homework.”

Menou decided to start up with that ice breaker. It was true that she struggled a little bit on history and it could be easier for her to talk that way. Akio sighed heavily.

“Sorry, Koizumi, but you’re out of luck there. I suck at history and that’s why I have my sweet and adorable little tutor here to help me out~”

Chiyoko sighed.

“Flattery gets you nowhere, I thought I said that. But if you need some advice, I’d be more than willing to help out! What’re you stuck on?”

Menou hummed.

“Well, I was mainly confused on the Muromachi period. How did Takauji…”

With some small questions of history spoken out, Chiyoko answered to the best of her abilities while Menou took some mental notes. Afterwards, Menou sighed in relief.

“Thanks a million, Chiyok- Ah, Chiyo.”

Chiyoko giggled.

“Any time, Koizumi-san~ Still, I’m a little curious. You’re normally such a mouse during class and never really speak to anyone. Why are you talking to us now?”

Akio looked over at Menou.

“Yeah, I was pretty curious as well. Nothing wrong with you, that is. It’s just…”

Menou smiled a bit.

“I understand. I guess… I’m tired of being the quiet and mousey girl. I… I want to sort of break free, try new things, make more friends, cut class every once in a while! Things like that…”

Chiyoko smiled.

“Minus the cutting class thing, I totally get it. But what brought all that on?”

Menou made the motion to twirl her hair, an act she often did during talking when nervous but took a deep breath and put her hand down.

“You know how you feel stagnant after doing the same things over and over again? It’s kind of like that except multiplied by a thousand. I guess… I finally reached my breaking point and wanted to try new things.”

Akio hummed.

“Not sure if I understand it all too well… but it’s pretty cool all the same that you’re talking and being friendly and stuff.”

He grinned, brushing back his orange hair a bit. Chiyoko’s amber eyes brightened a bit.

“Yeah, I feel the same~ And you picked a good place to try new things. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a more perfect mall in all of Chiba. So, what are you going to get?”

Menou blinked.

“Honestly… I don’t know. I’ve never had sushi before.”

A gasp escaped Akio.

“Seriously?! Man, you’re missing out! I’d get the yellowtail, eel, squid, salmon- Ow!”

His statements were cut off by Chiyoko elbowing him in the ribs. Chiyoko smiled.

“Order whatever you want. If you don’t like it then at least you can say you tried it~”

Menou grinned.

“Actually, after this, I was thinking of getting some ice cream. Want to tag along?”

Chiyoko pouted.

“As much as I want to, I can’t. I’m on a diet and don’t want to get fat.”

“Even though you said that you were going to stuff yourself with as much sushi as you pleased.”

Akio muttered that, causing Chiyoko to glare a bit at him and causing Menou to laugh a bit.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve been a bit cautious about my weight in the past too. I’ll just be content to eat sushi with you guys.”

Chiyoko grinned a bit.

“Yeah! Let’s eat away~!”

Menou, Chiyoko and Akio ended up ordering a giant boat of assorted sushi. Along the way, they talked a little about interesting things like the recent activities in Neosiris related to the Shadow Hunters, fashion that would look good on Chiyoko and Menou, certain anime that Akio and Menou both adored, how awful they felt their history teacher was at explaining anything in class and other such topics. By the end, when the bill came out, all three of them were in hysterics.

“Wow, Koizumi. I didn’t think you’d end up this cool~”

Menou blinked a bit at Akio’s statement and he immediately tried to backpedal.

“A-Ah, not that I thought you were uncool back then, I’m just-”

Menou giggled.

“Don’t worry. I was a Hikkikomori in class without being a shut in. Just closing myself away from all types of social interaction and focusing on my own school work.”

Chiyoko laughed a little uneasily.

“I mean, yeah, when you put it like that, you were…”

Menou clapped her hands.

“But! I’m not going to be like that. It’ll take a little bit of time but I’m going to try and reach out to other classmates.”

Chiyoko smiled.

“That’s the spirit, Koizumi-san~”

“Ah, but I have a request, Chiyo.”

Chiyoko blinked, a bit confused. Menou smiled.

“If I’m going to call you Chiyo, wouldn’t it make sense to call me Menou~?”

Chiyoko smiled.

“Yeah. Yeah, it would, Menou.”

Menou grinned a bit.

“You too, Aki. If we’re going to have that Gundam marathon, we gotta at least be on a first name basis.”

Akio grinned cheerfully, nodding.

“Absolutely, Menou! Still, I’m telling you, Iron Blooded Orphans is the absolute best!”

“I’m still privy to SEED myself but I guess we’ll see which one ends up being the winner- Ah…”

The bill ended up being very expensive. Akio groaned loudly at the total.

“34238.10 yen…? How much did we eat??”

“We ordered a giant boat of sushi, dummy. Of course, it was going to be expensive. Ugh, I don’t have that much on me right now…”

Menou soon got an idea.

“How about we split it three ways? That way we’ll all save on some money and get to cap off this night perfectly?”

Chiyoko blinked.

“Ah, that’s a good idea! Thanks, Koizumi!”

Menou grinned as the three paid 10,000 or more yen for the sushi boat. With that, the three ended up parting ways with Menou looking at the clock on her phone.

“Ah! 7:00 PM?! I need to get myself some sleep! But where should I go? I don’t want to go home if I don’t have to…”

She then got an idea and looked up where the nearest hotel was. Turns out, that hotel ended up being the Trend Funabashi hotel and she decided to stay there. Renting out a room that had a window where she could see the city, she looked outside, smiling a bit to herself.

“The city really does look beautiful at night…”

Yawning a bit, she hooked up her laptop to the internet before stretching and laying down. Today had been a busy but exciting day and tomorrow was going to be even more busy. She had plans to try out her powers with Norn in Neosiris and needed her rest. Laying down on the twin bed, she found herself falling asleep very easily for the first time in years.

9/17

Menou decided to put her new laptop to use and start to log on to Neosiris for the first time on it. She was pretty surprised at how good the reception at the hotel she stayed at was but for paying 10,000 yen just to stay for two nights, she had expected there to at least be something to make it worth all that money. She had felt like a queen getting that massage and was reminded of all the things she did for herself to give herself some self-care. She found it a lot of fun putting herself out there and having people respond back to her. It was the first time she took a risk and spoke to people without feeling forced to do so and was surprised at how good it felt to talk to people on the fly.

“Heh… if only Hotaru and Asagi-kun can see me now…”

Her mind fell back a bit as she remembered her friends. Hotaru, Madoka, Yoite, Kujo, Aziz, Asagi, Fuyumi, Noa… even Kanade to an extent… She wondered if they missed her. One look at her phone told her everything she needed to know and she winced a bit at some of the messages.

Madoka: Koizumi, are you feeling okay? You haven’t answered your phone in two days now. Everyone’s upset.

Menou blinked. Everyone was upset? Even the supposed ice king? Menou hummed a bit to herself.

“I guess the sentinel has his weak spot. Hotaru really did a number on him…”

She decided to continue reading.

Fuyumi: Menou-chan, please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help out! That Black Knight said you were going to kill yourself. Please tell us if there’s anything wrong.

Already guilt was creeping in. Menou saw a few misspells on the text itself but she paid it little mind. Fuyumi was blind and there wasn’t really much a phone could do for blind people. She already felt guilty and decided to read the next one.

Kanade: Oi. You’ve gone radio silent. The scrubs are worried about you so they asked me to text you. Come back, alright.

Ordinarily, Menou’s heart would have leapt with joy. She got a text from her crush and should have felt elated, but something bothered her. She knew from the start that Kanade wasn’t interested in her and still held on to that hope that maybe she would like her back. Menou felt bad for what she put Kanade through and needed to tell her she was sorry and that she was over the crush so that Kanade can relax a little bit and move on without feeling pressured into anything. Putting those thoughts aside for now, she scrolled down past the text messages to read more.

Kujo: Hira’s getting really concerned. Talk to us back.

Aziz: Menou-chan, please talk to us soon, alright? We’re all worried about you.

Noa: Koizumi. I’m writing this not because I care but because you’re a vital part of the team with your healing prowess. Killing yourself, whatever the reason you think may be, is the wrong kind of reason.

Menou had to chuckle a bit at Noa’s direct nature. She knew that despite Noa coming across as uncaring, it was probably a mask like hers. Still, she continued to read.

Yoite: Hey, Menou-chan. I know everyone is scared that you’ll commit suicide because of what that Black Knight said but if you are thinking about doing that, please don’t. You still have so much life ahead of you…

Menou smiled a little at that. Yoite always was one of the more caring people within the group. Still, she felt a little disappointed that he too believed she was going to commit suicide but supposed he couldn’t help it.

“Yeah, that was my idea before back when I hated myself but…”

Shaking aside her thoughts, she scrolled down to see Asagi’s texts along with one text she didn’t really expect; Makoto. She decided to dismiss Makoto’s text for now as it probably had to do with him hearing about her possibly killing herself and wanting to stop her. She decided to read Asagi’s first.

Asagi: Don’t worry, Menou-chan~ You wouldn’t kill yourself now. After all, how are you going to be an idol if you’re dead? Still, maybe a heads up next time before you go radio silent, okay?

Menou sighed in relief. Asagi understood somewhat that Menou wasn’t feeling depressed. But she still felt guilty. She had gone radio silent and it must have worried him something fierce. She felt a little disappointed that Hotaru didn’t text her but then her email icon on her phone indicated that she received an email. Clicking on it showed that it was Hotaru.

Me-chan~

I’m sorry if you’re only reading texts but there was so much I wanted to say to you that it didn’t really fit within a text message. Not without blowing up your phone at least, ha ha ha. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you a couple of things.

The first is that I’m really proud of you! I know you felt bad at the party that you couldn’t activate Elaine again but I had an idea. Elaine was kind of a like a cocoon, right? That’s why there were all those chains wrapped around her. That was her shell so to speak. Elaine was just waiting for the moment when you would become strong enough to come out of that shell and that’s when Norn came to be. Isn’t that cool?? Your own strength finally came into fruition. The exact strength everyone knew you had in you~

Second, I know you wouldn’t kill yourself. Everyone else may be but I’ve known you for a few months now and suicide is probably the last thing on your mind. More like trying to get away from your parents if anything and maybe spending some time for yourself. That Black Knight may have said that you were a weakling and you were going to kill yourself soon but I highly doubt that to be the case. It would have meant putting those sewing lessons and talking practice to waste. You’re probably just doing something to get some time back for yourself if anything. But no matter what you do in the future, you’ll always have my support. I’m not leaving you that easy~

Lastly, take all the time that you need. Now, I don’t mean going radio silent and not answering phone calls, texts or e-mails but what I do mean is if you need alone time, let us know how long you think you’ll need it. I’m not quite sure how the others will feel but I completely understand and just want you to feel better about yourself. Maybe an update would help out, though? If you do end up reading this, maybe send out a mass text to all of us to let us know what’s going on with you. I’ll be online on Neosiris if you need me. Tonight, I wanted to do some shadow cleanup with Asagi-kun, Noa-chan and Yoite-kun. Fuyumi-chan has homework to do, Mado-kun is a bit busy babysitting, Kujo-kun and Aziz-kun are doing some nightly crawling and Kanade-chan’s still unsure about this whole Persona thing so we’re giving her as much time as she needs too, so it’s just the three of us with Noa-chan being the navigator. I don’t know about you but whenever I get a new Persona, the first thing I want to do is give it a test run to see what’s going on. You should try it out too~

Anyway, let us know what’s going on with you at least. Seriously, going radio silent like that isn’t fun for any of us as we were pretty worried about your mental state. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see you in the cleanup but if not, keep taking as much time as you need to figure yourself out. We’ll be waiting with open arms when you do come back.

Love you~

Hotaru

Menou felt her heart grow completely warm at the e-mail. She felt relieved that Hotaru had understood her completely and was being completely supportive of her like Asagi was. Steeling her nerves, she decided to open up a mass text for the Shadow Hunters.

Menou: Hey everyone. Sorry for being silent the entire time! I was taking some time for myself back after realizing I wasted so much of it feeling sorry for myself. I ended up going shopping to buy a couple of new outfits, got myself a laptop with the money we earned Shadow fighting and even rented up a room at a hotel for a couple of nights! I got to meet a couple of new people in Chiba in the hotel. Man, you would not believe some of the stories they had to tell.

Menou: Anyway, I’m fine. I wasn’t going to kill myself despite the popular opinion being that I was. But, I probably should have told you guys that instead of being completely silent at that party we had taking down one of the Black Knights. Lack of communication again. But, what’s past is past and we should focus more on the future! Don’t worry, I’ll be back at school tomorrow. Maybe we can catch up on what the next course of action is.

Sending both texts, Menou decided to write up another text, this time going straight to Makoto.

Menou: Hey. Sorry if I made you so worried. I just needed a break for myself to get my thoughts together and I did a lot of things that I never got to try before thanks to the devils known as my parents. Still, maybe over the week we can hang out sometime and catch up? It’s been too long since we last hung out and I wanted to see what sort of novel you’re reading next.

The next text she wrote for Kanade.

Menou: Also, I’m sorry. During my trip to feel better about myself, I realized how shitty of a situation I put you in. I was watching from afar and doing nothing but idolizing you and feeling bad when you wouldn’t notice me. But really, what was there to notice? A sad girl who had no real passions in life? The point is, you don’t have to stress over me anymore. I realized that I don’t like you in that way. I just really admired how carefree you were and I guess my twisted brain mistook that for love. Still, let’s just focus on being friends for now.

Finally, she wrote personal texts to Hotaru and Asagi.

Menou: Thanks, you guys. After getting so many messages over how I shouldn’t kill myself, it’s nice to hear that you guys believe I wouldn’t. I can’t express how much that means to me. I plan on tagging along during the Neosiris cleanup, don’t worry. Thank you for helping me understand that loving myself is better than having others love me…

She felt a surge of warmth surround her as she sent that final text. She wondered if it was Norn reassuring her that her words are right or if it was her own cold soul finally finding happiness for the first time in a while by forgiving herself and loving herself. Whatever the reason, it could wait. For now, she had Neosiris business to complete.

Login Complete. Welcome to Neosiris.

Tsuki had arrived in the Guild the Shadow Hunters were staying at. She decided to take a look in the mirror.

“Oh…”

Her hair still looked rather choppy and uneven. She sighed.

“Guess the hair doesn’t grow back automatically. Still, I was pretty desperate to get out of that guy’s grip on my hair. I kinda like it short, but it won’t take too much to cut it so that it’s at least even…”

Seeing some scissors laying on the table, Tsuki cut her hair so that it felt a bit more even. Along the way, she tied the two longer locks up with bands of cherry blossoms.

“It’s good to see you again.”

A voice echoed through the room and Tsuki looked over at Merlin, smiling.

“Hello, Merlin.”

Merlin blinked but retained that small and carefree smile.

“Ah, Tsuki, so it seems you’ve become a little more confident with yourself. Normally you wouldn’t answer me.”

Tsuki grinned as she looked through the wardrobe. She felt her first shrine maiden outfit was a bit lacking and wanted to try something different.

“Well, I figured there’s no real point in doing that anymore. If I keep silent and stay unco-operative, I’ll remain stagnant and just end up as a liability. Plus, I learned it’s more fun to just talk to people rather than remain a wallflower.”

“I see. Well then, I’m rather happy by these turn of events-”

“Menou!!!”

Tsuki blinked once and let out a small yelp as Robin almost tackle hugged her.

“A-Asagi-kun?!”

“Jeez, Menou, you really know how to make someone worry their brains out!”

Tsuki laughed awkwardly.

“Yeah, I do… Sorry, I just needed some time for myself.”

“I got it but still, a little warning would be nice.”

Robin pouted at Tsuki. Tsuki in turn giggled, smiling.

“I promise that I’ll tell you guys from now on if something happens.”

“Please make sure to keep that promise as much as possible.”

Tsuki focused her gaze on the cold white-haired Dragoon.

“Don’t worry, Noa. I will.”

Claire huffed a little.

“I mean it, Koizumi. All of us were scared for you except for Emirsdottir. If nothing else, tell us for her sake.”

“It’s alright, Noa-chan~ I knew Me-chan was going to be just fine.”

Avery stepped into the guild, grinning happily.

“Even so, that wasn’t going to stop me from missing you, Me-chan~”

Tsuki gently broke free from Robin’s hug to tightly hug Avery.

“I missed you too, Hotaru-chan~”

Noa allowed herself a small smile at the scene. Asagi caught it and grinned.

“Ah~ It seems Noa-chan isn’t immune to happiness after all.”

Noa blushed lightly and pouted.

“Shut up. Still, where is Arakaki. He should be here by now-”

“Here! I’m here!”

The green haired lancer ran inside, panting a bit. Atreus greeted them with a weary smile.

“Sorry, sorry. The traffic on the way home was an absolute nightmare, but I’m here now.”

Avery grinned as she looked over at her teammates.

“Awesome, looks like everyone’s here! Now, let’s try our best to make this cleanup a success! Merlin, do you have any sightings to make a note of?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.”

Merlin brought up a map and near the Lake of Flowers was a dark cloud.

“Seems like there’s a cluster that manifested itself into a giant Angelus like shadow. That’s all the information I could get off of it though. It seems like Avery can counter it with her multiple Personas but I’d like to see the extent of Tsuki’s new Persona if possible.”

Tsuki nodded.

“Yeah, I actually wanted to try out my new Persona too. This should be fun~”

Avery grinned, clapping her hands together.

“That’s what I like to hear, Me-chan! Is everyone ready?”

Robin grinned as he shuffled his deck to say that he was, Atreus spun his lance around for a bit before nodding with a carefree smile and Claire closed her eyes and summoned up her Persona, eyes glowing white from the clairvoyant powers she now gained, before nodding. Avery pumped her fist up.

“Then let’s get started! Everyone, to the Lake of Flowers!”

When everyone approached the Lake of Flowers, the party looked around for a bit. Atreus was the first to speak up.

“That’s funny… Sir Kay isn’t really picking anything up…”

“Neither is Chevalier but I’m sure that Angelus will pop in its ugly head any second now~”

Robin grinned and shuffled his cards again. Avery hummed a bit.

“Claire-chan? Can you sense anything…?”

“Not yet. It appears to be dormant for the time being- Wait! I’m picking up something!”

As Avery was about to ask what, darkness started to gather into a small black mass on the ground in the middle of a nearby violet flowerbed. The flowerbed soon started to come apart as petals scattered away from the flowers. Atreus gripped his spear, Robin flicked out a hand of cards with a smile, Tsuki gripped onto her bow lightly while Avery pulled out her trusty hammer as the Angelus sprouted out of the flowerbed.

“There it is! Let’s take it down!”

Robin’s cry echoed out as the four ran over to it. The Angelus cried out as it completed its manifestation. Unlike most Angelus, this one had something different about its wings along with no mask or face. The wings had one gems on each wing, one red, one blue, one yellow and one green. Tsuki blinked as she realized something.

“Guys… I think the gems have to do with my Persona’s new abilities. Red for Agi, Blue for Bufu, Yellow for Zio and Green for Garu. I think if I can concentrate these new powers onto my arrows, I can shatter those gems.”

Avery blinked.

“You sure, Tsuki-chan?”

Tsuki nodded.

“Yes. I’m going to try out something to see if I can get rid of those gems.”

Claire’s voice echoed in the head of the Shadow Hunters.

“While Tsuki is trying out her tactics, try to see if you can injure it somehow. Don’t consume any SP yet. Focus on physical attacks.”

Avery nodded and slammed her hammer down on the Angelus. It took no damage. The same thing ended up happening when Atreus slashed at it with his spear, Robin threw his razor card and Tsuki fired an arrow at its chest. Avery grunted a bit as Claire sighed.

“As I thought, this Angelus is immune unless those gems are taken out. Your biggest priority should be the gems.”

The Angelus soon screamed into the sky and seemed to charge up before slamming her fist into the ground. The party ended up getting injured a fair bit. Avery soon switched her Persona to Kikuri-Hime to heal up the party with Mediarama. Artreus tried again with his spear but to no effect. Robin decided to try and help Tsuki concentrate with Psyche Up. Tsuki nodded in gratitude before focusing on her arrow.

“Let’s see if this works… Norn!”

Norn opened their eyes and lit the arrow ablaze. Focusing, she aimed the blazing arrow at the white gem and grinned when the gem was hit, cracked and burst into pieces.

“Looks like my little theory worked out~”

Claire’s voice echoed in the Shadow Hunters’ heads.

“Tsuki, that was an excellent call. It seems like this Angelus focuses all damage given to it into those four gems on its wings. If you can take out all four of those gems, you can knock it down rather easily. Your top priority should be keeping Tsuki alive so she can get those gems taken care of. Then, eliminate it quickly so cleanup can be completed.”

Avery, Robin, Atreus and Tsuki nodded while the Angelus charged and used its first attack again. Avery, Tsuki and Atreus got hit while Robin gracefully dodged. Avery decided to heal up the party again while Atreus attacked with his spear. To his surprise, the Angelus got hurt that time.

“Guys! I think the Angelus can get hit now. If everyone’s feeling okay enough, we should take on the Angelus with physical attacks before wailing on it with special ones.”

Robin grinned.

“Perfectly fine by me~! Let’s do this, Chevalier!”

Robin cast Kouga on the Angelus. The Angelus resisted the attack. Robin pouted.

“Still resists Bless attacks… I guess Angelus can’t be too different…”

Tsuki concentrated as she made a freezing arrow and fired it at the red gem. The gem shattered, leaving the Angelus weaker than before. The Angelus soon roared out and slammed its fist on the ground twice. The party dodged the first attack while getting hit the second time. Avery healed the team as Atreus slashed at the Angelus. The Angelus cried out in pain as Robin cast an Eiga attack. Robin grinned.

“Weakness confirmed~”

“That’s excellent to hear but again, the Angelus is still heavily protected by those gems. Tsuki, take care of those last two gems quickly.”

Tsuki nodded and concentrated, firing a green arrow into the yellow gem and watching it shatter. The Angelus decided to surround Robin in holy light but the attack ended up missing him. The Angelus tried again with Atreus and it succeeded, killing him. Avery gasped before casting Recarm on Atreus, reviving him.

“Thanks a million…”

Atreus groaned out in pain as Robin casted another Eiga. Tsuki took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes as she fired the yellow arrow into the green gem, shattering it instantly. The Angelus screamed out, enraged now as it casted another wave of power before guarding itself. Avery narrowed her eyes. Claire’s voice echoed again.

“It looks like that Angelus is protecting its weak point. Don’t waste any SP; just guard yourself.”

The party decided to guard as the Angelus decided to use Megidola on all of the party members. Despite being severely injured themselves, the Angelus was injured as well and needed to recharge. Avery then quickly switched her Persona to Hell Biker.

“Hell Biker! Eiga!”

Avery shouted out before the Biker laughed and cast his spell, knocking the Angelus down. Avery grinned.

“All Out Attack, everyone!”

The party let out a collective yell as they charged at the Angelus, knocking it out very quickly now that it no longer had the protection of the gems.

“We did it!”

Robin cheered. Atreus wiped his forehead, grinning.

“Excellent work team~”

Avery moved to hug Tsuki.

“Tsuki, you did amazing~! Without you, I don’t think we ever would have figured out what to do.”

Tsuki grinned a little.

“Yeah~ Glad I was able to help out. Still, now that cleanup is done, let’s log out.”

“Ah, Menou-chan.”

Tsuki blinked and looked over at Robin. Robin grinned.

“You aren’t going to cut class tomorrow, are you~?”

Tsuki stretched.

“Ordinarily, I’d say no, but… there isn’t a lot of classes going on tomorrow or at least, there aren’t any I can’t catch up on. So, maybe I will.”

Claire’s irritated growling can be heard throughout the party member’s heads.

“I understand you may be on a power trip after realizing the importance of loving yourself but you shouldn’t neglect your studies like that. The absolute last thing I want are any delinquents here in the Shadow Hunters.”

Tsuki grinned.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah~ But what if I wanted to ditch and just didn’t tell you? What then?”

Claire huffed angrily at that.

“I’m serious, Koizumi. Studies are important.”

Atreus laughed.

“Easy, Noa-chan. Menou-chan’s going to be fine if she misses one day of school compared to all the other days we have to go.”

“You’re encouraging this behavior?! I expected better from you, Arakaki.”

The group just laughed. Avery grinned.

“Still, Menou-chan. I’m really proud of you.”

Tsuki blushed a bit at Avery’s comment but smiled warmly.

“Yeah… I’m pretty proud of me too…”

With that, the group all logged out and Menou fell back to her hotel bed, sighing out of pure happiness.

“I did it, Norn! I finally accomplished something with my own two hands!”

Menou then realized her statement and shook her head.

“No… I felt proud of accomplishing something for the first time today… Still, I’m really happy to have gotten all that work done!”

She stretched.

“It’s going to be a long and rather complicated life ahead of me now that I don’t have all that hate clouding my head.”

Her eyes narrowed a bit as she thought of returning home but she shook it off.

“I’m going to talk to my parents at some point this week. I want respect in my life, dammit and they’re going to give it to me.”

With that last thought in her head, she fell asleep, excited for tomorrow and the rest of her days to come.

Writing Lounge

a part of “Arc 4”, a fictional universe by SkyCladSaya06.

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