towerofanimus | 1st Bus Stop

Entry tags:

1st Bus Stop | Introduction

Characters: Shinjiro and anyone who want to bump and talk to him and probably try to kill him if your name is Ken.
Location: All the floors, he'll be moving around to explore, feel free to bump into him wherever you want.
Format: Pick your poison, I'll match in suite.
Summary: A dude wakes up and wonders where the hell he is.
Warnings: Shinjiro has a potty mouth. Also probably some violence.

He shouldn't be here. That's the first thing he told himself upon waking up. Just a few minutes ago, he was off to fight the rest of his friends for the right to wield the keys, and now his first thought was that either he had never actually awoken from his hospital bed before, or that he had failed. Regardless it did not bode well.

Of course the letters pretty much confirmed his fears. Maybe this was some sort of personal hell, or maybe the keys had malfunctioned and he had ended up here. There was no way the way had ended after Minako had worked so hard to protect it from Nyx. Regardless, even if he didn't quite believe what he was told, he needed to look around and see what this place was like. Without Aigis, Metis, Aki or the others...strange how he didn't mind being along not just a few months ago, but now...

He picked up a few items from his trunk, idly remembering that the bus stop sign would require work before he could actually use it. For now the large golden hammer could be useful, as was the Evoker. Stepping into any area could be dangerous, and Shinjiro was borderline paranoid by trade. As 'nice' as that letter had been, he didn't want to be caught unguarded.

He stepped out of room 2-02, looking around before slipping into the shadows and darker corners. He operated better that way.

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Her body language spoke so much for her. The cheerful disposition gone, he could see even more difference between the two. She wasn't the only one disappointed, he realized, and the pain on her face was terribly evident. The forced cheerfulness wasn't lost to him. He had been hoping it was Minako. She had been hoping it was the Shinjiro she knew. The tower's cruel fate for the both of them was to meet each other.

And in her words there also lay the final clue to the puzzle he needed. The Minato of Strega had mentioned his death, Jin had provided the details and then for her to mention 'the Shinjiro I knew' provided him with the final nail on the coffin (so to speak).

"..." The sigh that followed was short and exasperated, although not cruel. The pain of losing Minako had been hard on him, he could imagine the situation reversed after his own death, as strange as that concept seemed to him. "It's...alright. I already know what happened to me," he explained, dodging her eyes and settling for the nearby floor. "Seems like I was supposed to die in all the other worlds anyway. Talked with the Minato who leads SEES too." He gave off a small shrug, before slumping his shoulders even lower than hers. "Dammit, this all just so confusing right now, I--"

He couldn't deny there was some degree of caring buried deep inside there, even if she wasn't his Minako. She might be younger, but there seemed to be more pain to her and...maybe he could try to help her out.

Confusedly.

"Don't pretend to be happy. I told you to--I told Minako I liked to see her smile, but it's gotta be genuine." He was finally looking at her again, and his stare wasn't hard as before, or disappointed. Just confused and trying to understand as best as he could. Orpheus would probably get angry, otherwise. Minami might not be the same, but she was still an Arisato, a leader of SEES in another world. That deserved some (very Shinjiro-like-pretending-not-to-fully-care) respect. "I bet you're pretty strong too, but..."

This was really hard for him to say what came next.

"...but it's okay to cry, be angry and disappointed, if you want." It felt strange to have a situation reversed, used to Minako having his way with him, and now telling someone who could be almost her younger twin sister what to do. He attempted a small smile himself.

"We should sit down somewhere, huh."

She laughed. She couldn't help it. The look on his face and the too fresh memories and the sheer surrealness of the situation? It struck the redhead as being cosmically funny somehow.

"My Shinjiro told me that once, too." When she had begun to open up to him and Akihiko, told them about her time in the foster homes, what she'd been told. That.... that she learned that it was easier to feign happiness than to be gloomy all the time. That she played upbeat tunes all the time to keep herself from being too depressed about everything.

Minami's smile was a little more genuine thinking about the memory, how she'd laughed in Shinjiro's face when he gave her that proclamation because there was just something about how serious he looked that struck her as odd. She'd made a deal with him:

"I made him and Akihiko promise me that if I could only give genuine smiles when we hung out together then they had to, too. It was.... they...."

Minami shook her head.

"I'm not angry, but I.... I miss them. That's it." Her Shinjiro or not it was just the two of them in the hallway at the moment. She could be honest with him. Part of her even had a feeling he or Akihiko would've been her first full Arcana if things hadn't been cut so short. Well, if Aigis didn't beat them to the punch, that is.

"But yeah," she said, turning a bit, "We should sit down. My room's near here if you don't mind being in it? I managed to get the door unblocked."

Next time she requested clothes she was making sure to be very specific about what she wanted and who they were supposed to go to.

He could understand her frustration, considering he had the same emotions for his own Minako. He wasn't angry, but he did miss her. Shinji missed his entire team, come to think of it (not that he'd would admit such a fact out loud.) For most of her talk, his face was unmoving, but it did soften more as she went on...the tone wasn't quite the same, but she still was, as he thought before, an Arisato.

Then when she mentioned going into a room, he broke into an annoyed grunt and pulled down his hat closer to his forehead. Of course. Even if she wasn't Minako, somehow it returned to visiting her room. At least she wasn't talking about going to his.

"Tsk. Why does it always end up with either one going to the other's room..."Shinji, Minami probably hadn't gone that far with you. He shook his head and sighed a little. The type of sigh that pretty much explained he'd still do it and pretend to be extremely annoyed by the actions undertaken. "Whatever. Lead the way." Maybe they could compare notes after that. As they walked on, he couldn't help but add a few words as well.

"You've been here long?" There was a small amount of worry in his voice.

"Four months. Maybe five?" Minami said, looking to the ceiling and trying to think, "I'll have to count my tally to be sure. It was November back home when I got here, but it was January here and now it's April according to the dates they have here."

Minami didn't quite understand his reaction to the idea of going to her room. Shinjiro and Akihiko had gone to hers all the time to chat. Then again Akihiko ~~was oblivious~~ and it wasn't until shortly before Shinjiro died that Minami had developed her crush. It wasn't like either one was going to do anything to her, though Yukari always gave her looks and Junpei always tossed dirty jokes.

Stupid Yukari had told Junpei he wasn't allowed in any of the girls' rooms. Which sucked since Minami would've liked to play multiplayer for that new game she'd gotten.... before....

"And if you're nice, you'll get to meet my roommates. Promise we won't be alone," she jokes, forcing her thoughts away from home. This was Shinjiro, no matter what. The only difference it seemed was her. That was something Minami was used to running into around here, after all.

Four or Five was Four or Five Months too much, Shinji decided as he followed her mostly in silence letting her do the talking. He mentally tried to remembered what had happened between October and November that Junpei, Aki and Aigis had told him, but nothing came to his mind. There had been things, he just couldn't recall them right now. Working with memories of others did cause that problem, after all.

All he had had during that time was dreams of a girl to keep him afloat.

Then snapped right back into reality. "D-don't get the wrong impression," he said rather quickly, grumbling. "I ain't nice anyway. We're going in there to talk. Your roommates better not make the wrong assumptions cause I..."

What he didn't expect was for Orpheus to suddenly come out of him and hit him for saying that. The Persona didn't take too kindly at what he was doing and saying, it appeared. Regardless of her reasons, it surprised the hell out of Shinji whose expression suddenly turned to utter surprise.

"H-hey! Don't do that!"

"Orpheus?" Minami asked, standing stock still as the persona came out. Her persona never did that--she had no idea they could. And now hers had--what else was different in his world?

"So.... have you met Igor?" was the first thing she could think to ask.

If Shinji knew what she was thinking, he would have answered that this was one of the only times it had done that. The second he looked back, she was already gone, right back in him. With a groan, he rubbed his head and looked at her again, nodding.

"Big Nose? Yeah, sure I met him, and his attendant guy too." He opened the door for her and waited until she walked in. "Kinda explained a lot of things while yo--Minako would sometimes stare weirdly for a few seconds."

"....we stare weirdly when we do it?"

Seriously, from her perspective she had always thought there was no change in time outside her body. Oh god, the others must've thought she either got too lost in her music or was having problems or any other laundry list of things. No wonder she got looks sometimes when she came back from talking to Theo and Igor!

"Yeah..." And that was about as much as she would get out of him at that moment, before he realized something. "Shit. I probably did it too."

Well, wasn't that a good though to think about this moment. Don't mind him too much, he was a bit grumpy about the entire situation. So close...yet so far. He gave her another look before sighing again.

"So. You wanna tell me how your world was like?" Regardless if she was different and their voices was not quite the same, it...it was still comforting, strangely enough.

"Not a lot to tell. From what I understand the major differences between all the versions of our Worlds is Minato, Minako, and me, and our situations. In one world, Minako and I--sorry, it's easier to think of us as different people even if I'm talking about someone who is both of us and that doesn't make much sense, does it?"

She paused for a second, counting on her fingers to help keep track of things as she thought out how best to phrase it.

"I think I'm going to keep it to Minato and me just for clarity. Sorry. Anwyway: In most worlds, Minato and I are siblings. In one world, I die in the car accident and he lives to become the leader of SEES. In another, he dies in the accident and I become leader of SEES. And then.... in my particular world, I barely survived the accident and Minato was fine. More than fine. He.... ummm...."

She sighs, scratching the back of her head as she thinks some more. Normally she and her brother avoid one another, things being too awkward, and normally she doesn't bring up the fact he's her brother because they both saw their relation as their business and their business alone. It kept things from getting too weird. How many people had to deal with finding out their greatest enemy and tormentor was actually the sibling they had thought dead for a decade?

"It's.... complicated, but I lead SEES where I'm from."

This does get a frown from him, as his eyes light up in surprise as if he's just realized the very idea and possibility that Minako could have had a brother. It...never had crossed his mind, really. They didn't speak that much about their past - either of them, and while he had learned a few things, it was all that much. He had stuck mostly to talking about his past with Aki, really.

He didn't understand why she was sighing, but did so in turn, with his own frustration at the situation.

"Tch. And they still made you do it." Damn Shuji Ikutsuki. "Can't be easy leading around the Dark Hour at your age." It wasn't an insult nor a compliment, merely Shinjiro assessing the fact like he tended to do. "You mind telling me what date it was before you..came here?"

"November 11th," she said with a shrug. For all she knew their world really was gone and it was her fault for not seeing how Ikutsuki was leading them on--leading her on--sooner. She stretched her arms above her head a bit to get a kink out of her back.

"And I do pretty well. I'm just the field leader since I'm really good at it. Mitsuru-senpai is the one who does the actual leading. She gets our equipment and helps me set up our training schedules and stuff. Besides: Minako and Minato are a year older than me. A year can't be that much of a difference, right?"

Please don't start treating her like a kid, Shinjiro. The last thing she wanted was to whack him over the head for treating her like a kid--again.

He didn't speak against for a while, bringing a bit of unneeded tension in the room, but he needed to think before speaking, least his Persona would come out and whack him again. The hell had that been anyway.

When he finally spoke, he leaned on the bed he was sitting on.

"A year's a year more in fighting experience. She did start at the same time with Tartarus, so I ain't thinking it would have made much difference there...but that's still a year less with your weapon." In other words, it wasn't so much treating her like a kid than thinking she probably had a lot more to learn about how to use her weapons. Shinji was considered the battle expert after all...maybe so did his doppelganger as well. "Mitsuru staying the leader, now that ain't too surprising, if she didn't feel you were ready for the full burden yet."

He finally looked at her again and sighed. Again. November 11th. Before the final days...maybe even before the visit, he realized, considering he himself had not been there.

Despite everything there was a need to protect her. He wasn't sure if he could let her do the same path Minato had undertook. But how do you tell that to someone? Did he even have this right?

...he'd make that right to himself if it meant things could turn out differently.

"Tch. Alright. I'm from March 31st. If you got questions, I'll answer 'em."

"How do we stop Nyx?"

Right out of the gate the very question that had been on her mind. Her team only knew bits and pieces about the situation and had still been going through the records. She didn't think about commenting on Mitsuru taking part of the leadership load or pointing out that Minato not Minako had spent more time with their weapons as far as she knew. That was the thing she wanted to know the most and she, for once, let her worry show through.

How, just how, do they defeat something like Nyx? A being who is beyond human comprehension, who seeks out the end of all humanity and sees this as a favor? If how Minami had felt like she was doing the right thing while on her rampage with Death itself possessing her was any sign, at least.

Oww, right in the one thing he had hoped to dodge. He looked at minami, studying her reaction after she said that and knew the girl had no idea about anything that would happen - about the Great Seal, about how she was doomed to walk this path and...he found himself unable to answer it. Unable to tell her the truth quite yet. His voice turned raspy and he was talking more to himself than to her.

"I...dammit! That ain't....that won't happen again, you hear?!" He made no sense. He knew it. He tried to calm down, holding his head with both his hands. "I was in a coma when it happened...it...her..."

"Again?" Minami asked, looking alarmed as Shinjiro held his head. Was it--she knew Nyx would be hard to kill, maybe even impossible. Minami knew people would die during the attempt.

Minami got up from her bed, moved next to him, and knelt down to look up at his face.

"....she died, didn't she?"

It would make sense. Between Pharos and the contract, the hinting in the Velvet Room, and Death being inside her, what other fate could there possibly be? Minami wasn't sure if it'd be true for herself or not: for all she knew the world had already ended. But if that would be the end result, if Minami was supposed to be the only one to die....

She found herself oddly okay with this, and guilty.

Here was Shinjiro, not hers, never hers, torn up over the fact, the very idea of her dying. As torn up as she'd been over his. Part of that made her happy, but then she had to remind herself that was Minako he was upset over, not her. The concern was nice, but it wasn't for her.

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1st Bus Stop | Introduction

HE'S A MAN HE GOES LAST. OR WITH THE SHIP. IN FACT, HE'S THE CAPTAIN.

Minami will STILL shove him into the lifeboat!

GDIT you girls and wanting to save him no matter what.

We'll even save you from the bajillion edits~!

I'M SO SORRY SOB. This is what happens when you log with me.

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