Persona 3: Spring of Rebirth

Burn My Dread

"This is a nuisance," Kotone groaned, carefully slipping out of the window into the fire escape just outside her room.

"If you fall and hurt my body I'll kill you," Minako threatened.

"It's our body for now," the boy-turned-girl corrected. She balanced herself carefully on the edge as she moved towards the stairs, "And if I do fall it's because you ain't in good shape."

"Are you calling me fat?!"

"No, but you're almost there..."

"Ugh, fine, alright, I'll shut up..." Minako sighed and stopped talking, letting her companion concentrate in sneaking out without being seen.

"Makoto's not here yet..." Kotone looked down at the alley the stairs led to; there were only a couple of stray cats there, fighting for some scraps of food they found. "He might not have found the note I slipped under his door earlier."

"I don't think we need to worry about that." Minako said as they began hearing footsteps.

"What the hell are you doing up there?" Makoto looked up at the red haired student, visibly confused at the scene.

"Speak of the devil..." Kotone sighed, climbing down the stairs, "I didn't feel like having to explain why I'm leaving the dorm so early, in case I bumped into anyone."

"I guess that makes sense," the blue haired student stepped back and gave Kotone enough space to jump down to the ground, "Everyone else was still sleeping, though. Except for the other guy in my floor — unless he sleeps with his door halfway open."

"That'd be Sanada— I think. He apparently goes out to 'train' during the Dark Hour, whatever that's supposed to mean, so he might've just fallen asleep without closing it."

"Or he woke up and went for a morning jog, he might be the type of person who'd do that." Minako added, although she knew Makoto wouldn't be able to hear it.

"Okay..." Makoto began heading away from the dorms, realizing waking up this early would be pointless if they just stuck around and someone decided to look out the window and spotted them, "So, where are we going? Paulownia mall?"

"I was thinking about the strip mall. I don't know if anyone's gonna bother us, since we ain't wearing our uniforms, but just in case it might be best to avoid a place like that," she explained, adjusting the red scarf Minako had insisted she wear.

"Works for me," Makoto followed Kotone's lead, looking as indifferent as ever. "You seem to be used to skipping class," he decided to voice his thoughts. He had decided the other transfer student was interesting enough to him that he would break his self-imposed rule of staying away from others and attempt to strike a conversation; see if he could learn anything about her.

"That's... uh..." Kotone stumbled with her words, "I'm not the type of person that just skips constantly, if that's what you're implying. I just..."

"What?"

"I guess I used to skip a lot more often, specially when I was younger."

Memories. Memories that Kotone were certain were his, from when he was a boy, flowed through her head as she spoke. A feeling of nostalgia crept up on her, forcing a soft smile out of her. A lot of things were still unclear to her, and still would be for quite a while, but what became clear was clear as the water on the rivers of the boy's hometown.