DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

[violent-varmint.livejournal.com]

There was something fishy going on in the Institute today. All over the bulletin board, people were talking about having "woken up", having been "cured"... and it seemed as though ZEX was one of them. Tanaka wouldn't have recognized the note at all if it hadn't been signed - his wording, his handwriting, even his name had changed - and a part of him still wondered if it had been an imposter, trying to pull the wool over the Captain's allies.

But it'd be easy enough to find out the truth. Whoever it was had agreed to meet him, and Tanaka was waiting for him just outside the cafeteria doors, ready to catch him as he came from breakfast. If "Max" was an imposter, then he'd discover the identity of a hidden enemy. And if he was really ZEX...

...well, he'd have a whole new set of things to worry about.

[for a spoiled rich brat brainwashed Admiral]

Comments

[remedying.livejournal.com]

The subject change was rather abrupt, although if Yukari had been actively thinking about that point alone, she might have not minded it; how much could be said over the new, strange turn of events? Eventually, they'd both wind up going in circles and getting nowhere, and Minato likely realized as much. That was pretty much how most things always turned out when something new cropped up.

Instead, though, Yukari faced him in mild surprise. "Like us?" she echoed as she mentally deciphered what he was implying. When it came right to it, there was only one unique thing between them, and with that much in mind it was easy to figure out what Minato had meant. She'd been paying attention to the bulletin before when the topic came up, as usual, and continued on in a hushed voice; "You mean our..." Regardless, she trailed off, gesturing a hand in circles as if that would get her point across.

[foolishmessiah.livejournal.com]

If Minato could motion to his temple with a shooting action to get his point across, he would—but the nurses would likely interpret the action as something completely different, interrupting their conversation. So he simply nodded again. Finding out there had been at least one other from their world with a Persona—especially with a tie to the Velvet Room—brought about a lot of questions. Since Souji hadn’t been with their group, or in their city for that matter, he had to wonder how he had awoken to his power.

An Evoker wasn’t exactly commonplace, after all.

“He arrived here when I did. He’s from Inaba.”

[remedying.livejournal.com]

"Another?" Yukari said surprisingly, further emphasized by the look on her face. There had been a few before then, too, but she remembered they had mentioned something about Inaba as well. They must have known each other, then.

"I know there's some others," she added in, in case Minato didn't know. "I haven't talked to any of them yet, but I think Mitsuru-senpai managed to before she disappeared." A pause, then Yukari finished curiously; "Do you think we should, too? Since we all have the same power, maybe we'd be better off if we all stuck together from now on, instead of the way we are now."

[foolishmessiah.livejournal.com]

Minato blinked at Yukari’s reaction, listening intently as she explained her exclamation. He must have misunderstood something in the process of getting to know Souji, if there were actually other Persona-users out there. Next time he saw the other, they would need to have a talk. “We should. Strength in numbers.” He had never been the one to recruit people into S.E.E.S., but… It couldn’t hurt to talk to these others from Inaba about it. “I’ll talk to him.” And by ‘him,’ Minato meant Souji. Even if he knew the others from Inaba, he wouldn’t know how to breach the topic with them.

[remedying.livejournal.com]

Yukari made a small smile when he approved of the idea. "Great. And not only that, maybe they'd be able to help in figuring out what to do." Her smile faded a little, and she turned her gaze in front of her, staring at nothing in particular.

"I'm still not sure what direction we should go in," Yukari admitted, leaning back into the sofa some more. "It's kinda pathetic, huh? It feels like I've been here for ages, and sometimes I still feel just as clueless now as I did in the beginning."

[foolishmessiah.livejournal.com]

"It can be overwhelming," Minato comforted, glancing at Yukari as she leaned back. He wondered if she could relax at all in the institute; he knew she didn't like the pressure associated with not being able to live a normal life, and this place really exacerbated those circumstances. "But it's not pathetic. We don't know what we're fighting." That was exactly what had hurt their group once the final Arcana Shadow was vanquished and Ikutsuki had been exposed. They just had to be patient.

...But if the revelation at the end of that wait had been any sign for comparison, they weren't going to like what they learned about the institute. At all.