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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 11, 2009 3:55:19 GMT -5
K1 nodded. "Yeah. I think Himitsu told us... Damn, I hate her... That shop creeps me out." He looked to the side again and went silent.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 11, 2009 4:03:35 GMT -5
Kaini paused as Keiichi mumbled about Himitsu. His twin was right, the woman was damn creepy. But... if he hadn't gone to her he didn't think his body could have taken what Belphegor had dished out. He looked pained, realizing that Belphegor would have probably held back more... the demon had seemed to have an uncanny sense of how much he could take. Kaini shook his head. He'd started this, he had to continue.
"...I learned because of... that's why Belphegor stuck me out there," Kaini looked bitter, "He kidnapped me because he didn't know who he was... He tortured me until we both knew. I... I remember that entire life. It's... I would have gone after Cain even against mom's... I mean Eve's, wishes had God not told me not to," he made a weak tsking noise, "I thought He'd save me... I thought that He'd tell me I didn't have to kill you for the path He'd "chosen" me for."
Naoya had paused outside the door, a bit to the side. He was angled so neither Keiichi nor Kaini could see him. He had the cup from before filled with water, but he saw many reasons to hold off going back into the room. Reasons like not wanting to interrupt where the conversation was going, and especially to alter Abel's reaction.
Kaini looked up, wincing a bit. He felt exhausted and really needed to get back to sleep, "I'm sorry about before... Looks like I had the proverbial wool over my eyes, huh?" He seemed to be trying to chuckle a bit, but it almost caused a coughing fit.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 11, 2009 4:18:11 GMT -5
K1 looked down again, and said nothing for a few moments before walking over to Kaini. He sat down next to his brother. "We're both alive now, and we're gonna do something about Him." He went silent before continuing. "If you hadn't had changed your mind... I probably would have had to kill you too. Since you were going to be the Messiah..." He went silent again before standing up.
"What's taking Naoya so long? He was only getting a glass of water," K1 stared at the door.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 11, 2009 4:23:25 GMT -5
Kaini nodded bitterly. With what he knew now, it was likely. Opposite sides of a war. War against God? He was still having trouble with that. The last one idiotic enough to do that had... then again, was the Bible right? With the way things had been going Lucifer could have been the real victim. He winced a bit at the emotional pain that caused. How many things he'd taken as true were going to be turned on their head because of this?
Naoya walked in. He didn't apologize for taking too long. That's the kind of thing that would have aroused suspicions. He glanced at Kaini for a moment before turning to Keiichi and handing him a note and a wallet, "You need to go buy these supplies. If we take Kaini to the hospital they'll want to keep him far longer than we should wait. I can do first aid here, but I need stuff we don't have. The mall should have that stuff, although don't waste your time at standard drug stores. Kaini, go back to sleep. You know how dire the situation is, don't make us wait for you."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 11, 2009 16:18:04 GMT -5
K1 stared at the list before nodding and running out of the room and out of the apartment, unintentionally slamming the door behind him. Once in the hallway, he stared at Yuugi and Atem's door before shaking his head. They wouldn't want to come anyways. They probably had other things to worry about. Like Minato's steadily dropping Death Clock. K1 didn't doubt that his "friends" were trying to prevent it days in advance.
He sighed and grasped the note and wallet tightly before running down the stairs. Yuugi had Atem, Souji, and all of Souji's friends to help out. They could handle Minato by themselves.
Right...?
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 11, 2009 19:15:27 GMT -5
Yuugi nearly dropped the bowls on the floor at the slam. He didn't know about the conversation next door. While the walls were thin enough he could have listened once he had realized the noise was thanks to K1, Naoya, and Kaini, it would have been extremely rude. So he'd put effort into blocking it out.
Atem woke thanks to the noise. He sat up and glanced towards the front door. The layout of the apartment meant he could with the door to the bedroom still being down. That had probably been K1 or one of his family members judging by the location of the noise. Probably K1 specifically, Kaini was likely still ill and Naoya tended to be too calm to run around slamming doors.
Yuugi quickly got the noodles into the bowls and set the pot on the counter before rushing to the door and opening it. K1 was long gone, and Yuugi looked depressed again. He sighed and shook his head as he closed the door.
"Partner?"
Yuugi looked up and shook his head, "Maybe you should text Seta-kun. Ask about Minato-kun... he said he was going today."
Atem looked away, "If he's going for the reason I think he is, we have no right to stop him."
"We can't let him die!"
"And we can't let the entire Island die, either. Yuugi, I told you there might not be another option. And Minato-kun is operating on a time limit. I don't know how long it is, but for all we know it could be when his clock runs out."
"....No. I mean, if we were all going to die thanks to that Fall, wouldn't the Death Clocks say so?"
Atem hesitated. Yuugi had picked up on that. He smiled sadly, glad that the shorter teen was acknowledging his own observation skills... but it didn't change the situation with Minato.
"We can go check on him in person, then. But don't try to talk him out of it. You've seen him, he doesn't want to do this. He feels he has to."
Yuugi brightened a little at the shift in direction the conversation had taken. He nodded and ran into the kitchen to put the bowls into the fridge while Atem got dressed.
-----
Kaini winced at the slam. Naoya shook his head, "I'm leaving the water here, but you still shouldn't drink it quickly. And I wasn't kidding. Keiichi won't be happy if we have to leave you cause you're still hurt."
The younger twin nodded and closed his eyes. He'd been wondering if Naoya was making that threat before. Sure enough, if he took too long to get on his own two feet, Naoya would leave him behind. Keiichi wouldn't react well to that... but really, what was his life compared to all of Tokyo? The government had really lost it, even if the plot did seem out of some cheesy conspiracy film.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 14, 2009 0:28:14 GMT -5
On his way down the stairs, K1 wasn't exactly keeping an eye out for where he was going, and such, he ended up running right into Minato. And when this author says "right into him", it literally caused Minato to stumble backwards, right down the stairs, and drop the grocery bag he was carrying in the process. Needless to say, it wasn't particularly pleasant, and Minato ended up tumbling down almost a flight before K1, who had rushed forward, was able to catch him. After a particularly tense moment, K1 was able to pull Minato back to his feet.
"Ow," Minato said. He looked up at K1. "Thanks."
K1 didn't reply for a moment. "Huh? Oh... yeah."
Minato caught where K1 was staring. "I know I'm going to die."
K1 looked back at Minato's face. Minato continued. "The fact is, when we defeated that Shadow we had to to wake you and Naoya up, we set the Fall in motion. But I'm not going to wait for it to have started this time. I'm going to stop it now."
"...Good luck," K1 mumbled. He didn't care what happened to Minato at this point. "Go get some sleep, while you're at it."
And almost on cue, Minato yawned. "You don't care?"
"No. Besides, Naoya, Kaini, and me, we're going to be going back home soon. If you fail, we'll still be safe," K1 said coldly. "Sucks for you guys, though."
He must have found out we know his secret... guess he's still pissed, Minato thought to himself. "Sorry to bother you."
"Likewise." K1 walked around Minato and ran down the stairs. He didn't realize he'd dropped his own wallet, though he still had the one Naoya had given him. Once K1 had gone around the corner on the first floor, Minato opened up the wallet. There were two pictures in there, one of a younger K1 and Naoya, and one of K1 in a summer uniform together with two other people, a boy and a girl. The boy was wearing a hat and carrying a laptop, while the girl kind of looked like Yukari. Tucked into the wallet was a cellphone strap, which fell out when Minato opened the wallet. He bent down and picked it up. It was smeared with blood... and not human blood. The shade was off; it couldn't have been human. Much too bright to be it.
Minato decided the right thing to do would be to return it to K1, but with how he'd been running, he was probably long gone by now. After a moment, he turned around and headed back up the stairs, his legs sore from the tumble he'd taken before. Thankfully, the bag he'd been carrying before was right where it'd fallen, and the contents were safe inside. It really wasn't much. Just breakfast for the morning and some medicine for that night.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 14, 2009 3:23:14 GMT -5
(OOC: That post was absolutely epix. And yay for directly referencing the Yukari = Yuzu thing. XD At least its not as bad as MC = MC though, right? I rather liked the reference to the Beldr fight with the strap, and also nice including a picture of young Keiichi and Naoya. X3)
One has to feel a bit sorry for Minato. First he gets unintentionally tackled by the cold shoulder, and then he meets Yuugi and Atem. The former of which probably wasn't helping his depressive feelings about the entire situation. Yuugi saw Minato first, just as he was exiting the stairs. Atem was right behind Yuugi, keeping his standard sense of punk style with his outfit. One had to almost wonder how he got those jeans on, let alone moved unhindered in them.
Atem saw Yuugi try to harden his expression as he made his way down the stairs. He hadn't quite seen Minato, but there was no doubt in his mind that his partner had. Minato was already half way down the hall as Yuugi came off the stairs on that floor.
"Minato-kun!" Yuugi said, his voice flooded with concern. Minato looked like he had taken a recent spill or something.
Atem kept his pace as Yuugi ran over to Minato. His partner had noted the Death Clock still read the same number as that morning judging by where his eyes had wandered, but was now acting as if it wasn't even there. He was just concerned for how Minato looked. Exhausted and scuffed up. Atem was still only a few steps from the stairs as Yuugi ran up beside the blue haired teenager.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 14, 2009 8:18:07 GMT -5
Minato looked up as probably the last people he wanted to see approached him. He supposed it could be worse, but even still. It sucked. Still, he put on a small smile and looked right at Atem and Yuugi.
"Mornin'..." Minato said. He yawned. He still had K1's wallet out, and had tucked the cellphone strap back into the wallet on his way up.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 14, 2009 8:22:27 GMT -5
Yuugi caught the hesitation on Minato's face, but didn't show he had. His eyes were full of concern, "What happened! You look like you fell or something!"
He wasn't approaching the subject of Minato's death. Maybe Atem was right. He didn't want to face it, but maybe he was right. At this point all he could do was help Minato while he could. Atem looked annoyed at Minato's condition. He obviously still hadn't slept. However, he said nothing. And it was possible the silent critical gaze was more unsettling than any words could have been.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 14, 2009 8:48:35 GMT -5
Minato looked away from Atem as he answered Yuugi. "I ran into K1 on the way up the stairs. Literally. Nearly fell all the way down to the first floor before K1 caught me." He suddenly remembered that he was still holding onto the wallet, and held it out to Yuugi.
"Speaking of K1, if you see him, could you give him this? He dropped it on the stairs," Minato said.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 14, 2009 8:55:18 GMT -5
Yuugi looked down at the wallet. It fell open as he grabbed it, but Minato had hooked the cellphone strap in a way that prevented it from falling out again. He remembered when K1 had handed it to him to help him fight. It looked like it was carved from some kind of wood, and had a Japanese charm attached to it.
He hesitated as he saw the two pictures. For some reason the one with the two teenagers made him think of Anzu and Jounouchi... he wondered why, the thought that the girl and K1 liked each other but wouldn't admit it not even crossing his mind. His eyes flicked over to Naoya and K1. He grinned a bit at it. For all Naoya seemed to be now, he seemed very much the caring big brother in the image. Okay, the annoyed by his little siblings antics big brother, but caring nonetheless. Yuugi began to speak without looking up.
"Minato-kun, I'm... I know I've probably made things harder for you. With what I've said, this probably isn't clear. I'm not going to stop you. But," Yuugi looked up at this, "you're exhausted. If its your Persona, can't Atem and I keep watch while you sleep? I... I don't want you to fail just cause you're too worried to sleep! Don't make the sacrifice in vain!"
Yuugi had gotten rather animated near the end. Atem seemed very slightly surprised, but a soft grin had spread on his face over Yuugi's words. He'd noticed it too. He looked up at Minato with a softer gaze than he'd given the blue haired teen in some time. He nodded, an indication that he agreed with Yuugi.
To observers, it might have been humorous. Yuugi and Atem really did think the same way. Far more than even they realized most of the time, it seemed.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 14, 2009 9:18:45 GMT -5
Minato sighed. They were right. They were right. If he was going to do this, he had to sleep. If he was tired, there was no way he'd make it to the top of Tartarus. If he couldn't make it to the top... He shook that thought away. He had to make it to the top.
But he was afraid, more than anything, of Thanatos. He couldn't oust him from his mind like he could other Personas. It was practically stuck there since he gained the power to use a Persona. Even though Minato wasn't the seal on Death anymore, he still had lingering effects of it in his psyche... like Thanatos. Thanatos would enjoy killing him. More than anything, Thanatos would enjoy every bit of it.
He looked down. "...Can you... watch me? Just for today... and it'll be all over after then..." He sounded beyond depressed as he said that.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 14, 2009 9:26:40 GMT -5
Atem's face was kind, even with the hints of what might best be described as angst. A bittersweet happiness, perhaps. It was actually a little close to that final gaze Aigis had given for Minato's comfort. Sure, it was on the face of the harsh eyed male teenager, but the similarities were so easy to draw.
He nodded, "Neither of us would have offered if we hadn't meant it."
Atem was grateful that Minato had finally come to his senses about the situation. It was true, the sacrifice had reached the point of unavoidable. Unless something drastic occurred, Minato was going to die soon. Atem knew the feeling, in a way. Back when they were leaving the tomb where he had regained his memories, back when the cave in that lead to the Island had occurred, he had suspected he'd have to leave Yuugi soon. Making the choice to let oneself die... it was hard when those that cared for you didn't want it any more than you did.
Minato would be hearing a voice in his head now. Ironic. Two days before his death and he reached rank three in the Duelist Arcana.
Yuugi seemed happy at Minato's comment as well. While Atem seemed bittersweet, Yuugi seemed downright angsty with his relief. He reached for the bag, "I can take that..." he said. So it was going to happen... he had to put on his best face. If Minato had to die, he shouldn't make the last days with his friends hurt.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 14, 2009 9:44:55 GMT -5
Minato smiled. "I can carry it," he said before yawning again and starting to walk back down the hallway. In the back of his head, words were fading.
...ersonas of the Duelist Arcana.
Not that that did any good for him. He couldn't fuse any Personas now anyways. And it didn't matter if he did; it wouldn't matter after that night.
Upon reaching his door, Minato fumbled with his keys for a moment before grabbing his door key and managing to get the key actually into the lock. The lock had been being difficult lately. Maybe he needed to get some graphite to spray into it...
And then he remembered again what was going to happen that night. Right.
He'd actually figured out why his death clock was reading one more day than it should have. He was going to hang on for one more day after making the seal, probably. He was going to make sure that last day was the best of his friends' lives. No matter how tired he was when that day happened.
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