A Word of Comfort

Inspired by Self Against Shadow's 'No Sun Today'.

...

The wall against my back did nothing to alleviate my fatigue.

Her voice echoed, "Minato-kun, please..." I stood, still, nursing laboured breaths while searching for the next pack of Shadows. "You're tired. If you keep this up, you could get seriously hurt."

I'd gritted my teeth in some futile show of defiance to Fuuka's warnings. It wasn't that I didn't know—in fact, I might've only been there because of that reason. My muscles tightened, tensed into working shape, the hilt of my sword beginning to dig into my palm. "The others have made it safely to the dorm. You're the only one left."

It was just me and my lonely breathing. The air rattling emptily against my ribcage. Dark sky freezing my lungs. "I... I don't want you to get hurt. I know you're angry but..." She trailed off as she always did, too afraid to assert herself, too afraid to truly get in my way.

"I'm too weak to stop now," I whispered to myself. The horror smothering Mitsuru's face was imprinted into my mind. "He shouldn't have died. We... I was too weak to stop it." My free fist, hovering, trembling just over the grip of my evoker, thudded softly against the black wall behind me.

"Minato-kun... None of us saw it coming," she rebutted. "If anything, I should've prevented it," Fuuka murmured, the voice clear as if she were near me, sobbing into my ear.

My clenched fangs hurt to bare, but it was all I could do to try damming the convulsions of sorrow welling up from my gut, upwards, and the tears threatening to spill—an excess of emotion that I didn't want to acknowledge. "You can't blame yourself for that."

"Neither can you!" I chuckled to myself at the hypocrisy I'd no doubt revelled in. "You have a Traesto gem so... Just use it to get out of there. There's a group of Shadows five metres away on your two and a half."

I swerved my heavy gaze towards the lurching mass coming near, raising my blade; my arm, made a puppet by some unconscious hunger. "Minato-kun... Please don't..." I could only struggle to put it down.

"We could get some cake from the Sweet Shop later," my muscles paused, "just to take our minds off this." Thick memory of brownie washed over my tongue, magma pouring out smiles of regret. "And we'll get a chai latte with it."

And chamomile tea. "You don't have to get stronger against the Shadows to be happy—not like this, anyways..." I reached my free hand towards my pocket. "I don't want you to get into more trouble."

I crushed the gem and I was back in the lobby, leaning against Lucia. Her Persona dissipated and instead, I felt her arms around my torso, cheek against my shoulder blades. "Don't do that again."