Alone in this World
Feb. 16th, 2025 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Persona 2/Persona 4 crossover (Broken Hero)
Chapter Summary: Jun and the Investigation Team catch a glimpse of Tatsuya's plan.
Word Count: 1008
Rating: Teen
Pairing: past and future Tatsuya/Jun
He’s been there before, visiting Maya-nee and Katsuya, on occasion, and, despite all attempts to keep a reasonable distance, asking about his old crush when he simply couldn’t help himself. Always, of course, carefully when Tatsuya was not actually present.
“This place looks cool,” Hanamura-kun breathes, and Jun can’t help but smile at that. He’d thought the same, when he’d been younger, but since had gotten used to the sight.
“This is the Shadow Operatives Headquarters. It’s where Tatsuya works.” At his explanation, Satonaka-chan looks around with even greater interest, even though she’s still too hesitant to actually ask any of the questions that no doubt threaten to burst out of her.
The keypad requires a password, but he knows it, and entering it makes the door open exactly as if this were actually the real world. He knows where he’s going, too, because Tatsuya will probably be in the briefing room. “just so creepy” one of the statues informs him as he brushes past, and a second one adds, “staring into my soul”.
“Some people need to learn manners,” Yukiko snaps, eyeing the statues with venom. It’s sweet.
“let the freak use it” a third tells them when Teddie reaches out curiously to touch one.
When they enter, Jun’s hands ball into fists, and fury and rage mix in his heart, though it’s Hanamura-kun who voices the “damn”. Rather than stare, Seta-kun appears to be using the excuse of ‘securing’ the room to look everywhere else but the statue. Because there standing before him, familiar katana in hand, is the honest truth to every single time Jun, or another, has asked Tatsuya how he’s doing. Cracks have already appeared in the ice sculpture, and they haven’t even touched him yet, and crimson seeps through the cracks from a seemingly clear center to stain the ice, dripping to spatter the floor below endlessly. Tatsuya is not all right, and has not been all right for a long time. He should have known, but he’d turned a blind eye because he didn’t want to see. Tatsuya didn’t need him deeply involved in his life, after all, so why be nosy? But in the end, the heartbreak didn’t excuse the pain he had inflicted on the man he loved in return. Tatsuya had needed him. They were still friends. Nothing could excuse the fact that he’d chosen not to look, not to lift a finger, to help. Even if they were no longer dating, that didn’t mean they weren’t friends.
Another figure Jun barely recognizes as the Shadow Operatives’ computer expert and hacker Katsuya is always complaining about stands watching, and going by the carved expression, judging. Seta-kun reluctantly reaches out to hear what he has to say. “...sure you wanna do this, kid?”
Tatsuya’s statue shrugs, rare smile further cracking his lips and face, nonchalance undercut by the flow of blood. “Absolutely not, but what choice do I have? Doing nothing is no choice at all, and even if I break, even if this kills me, I have to try.”
And then a voice that chills Jun’s heart, a voice he knows all too well, and he looks around wildly for the source, though He’s not visible like in the museum. “You’ll never escape your sin, never clean the slate.”
It’s amusing, in some sort of twisted way, to watch Tatsuya roll his eyes at Nyarlathotep, even if it’s just his voice. “So be it. If I never leave this purgatory, fine, as long as the rest of the world survives. As long as those I love can live their lives.”
Here Tatsuya’s statue doesn’t shatter, not completely. It just fragments even further, bleeding endlessly, leaning slightly on the katana as if he couldn’t stand without aid. None of the statues tries to help him, and touching him just causes more cracks to form, so Jun can’t even offer his assistance even if this isn’t really Tatsuya.
The sirens start going off, and a video pops up on all the screens, as if it’s live—but it isn’t, it can’t be, and Jun has never seen any of this before. Katsuya has never mentioned this. Katsuya would have, if this had happened. Tatsuya being brought in gently, while a man with an earring watching in quiet concern as Katsuya breaks down, and no wonder. Tatsuya’s skin is pretty much devoid of color, and it doesn’t look like he’s breathing. A skip in the tape, and Tatsuya’s nearly lifeless body is lying there, with equipment Jun can’t identify. Machines, drawing his blood and putting it right back in, an oxygen mask, tubes. Katsuya sweating, carefully, ever so carefully using his cat Persona to heat his brother. To keep him alive.
And then all of that shimmers, like a mirage, and disappears. Tatsuya’s still there, and still the exact same. Well—no, not exactly. He’s pretending as if he’s not holding himself up. Not entirely successfully, not like his real life self, but he’s still making the attempt. They hadn’t seen him move, but under a bloody handprint on the computer consoles lies a stalk, purple bells more at home in the more mountainous region near Inaba than in Sumaru.
“An Erica. Solitude, or perhaps loneliness. Whatever happened here set him apart, so he didn’t think he could ask for help.” Jun packs this away as well, carefully. The flowers probably won’t make much of an arrangement, but even if they were mere gifts from Tatsuya, he would treasure them—and has a feeling that is not, in fact, the case. That just like much else here, there’s more to this dungeon than meets the eye.
“He’s wrong,” Seta-kun insists, which at least makes Jun smile.
Persona 2/Persona 4 crossover (Broken Hero)
Chapter Summary: Jun and the Investigation Team catch a glimpse of Tatsuya's plan.
Word Count: 1008
Rating: Teen
Pairing: past and future Tatsuya/Jun
It is, in Jun’s opinion, rather extravagant to simply buy the penthouse suite of a hotel outright for headquarters, but Nanjo-san is a rather extravagant person, however he might personally see himself. They had in fact continued to maintain this and a repurposed lab also located in the Narumi Ward, which is their actual destination.
He’s been there before, visiting Maya-nee and Katsuya, on occasion, and, despite all attempts to keep a reasonable distance, asking about his old crush when he simply couldn’t help himself. Always, of course, carefully when Tatsuya was not actually present.
“This place looks cool,” Hanamura-kun breathes, and Jun can’t help but smile at that. He’d thought the same, when he’d been younger, but since had gotten used to the sight.
“This is the Shadow Operatives Headquarters. It’s where Tatsuya works.” At his explanation, Satonaka-chan looks around with even greater interest, even though she’s still too hesitant to actually ask any of the questions that no doubt threaten to burst out of her.
The keypad requires a password, but he knows it, and entering it makes the door open exactly as if this were actually the real world. He knows where he’s going, too, because Tatsuya will probably be in the briefing room. “just so creepy” one of the statues informs him as he brushes past, and a second one adds, “staring into my soul”.
“Some people need to learn manners,” Yukiko snaps, eyeing the statues with venom. It’s sweet.
“let the freak use it” a third tells them when Teddie reaches out curiously to touch one.
When they enter, Jun’s hands ball into fists, and fury and rage mix in his heart, though it’s Hanamura-kun who voices the “damn”. Rather than stare, Seta-kun appears to be using the excuse of ‘securing’ the room to look everywhere else but the statue. Because there standing before him, familiar katana in hand, is the honest truth to every single time Jun, or another, has asked Tatsuya how he’s doing. Cracks have already appeared in the ice sculpture, and they haven’t even touched him yet, and crimson seeps through the cracks from a seemingly clear center to stain the ice, dripping to spatter the floor below endlessly. Tatsuya is not all right, and has not been all right for a long time. He should have known, but he’d turned a blind eye because he didn’t want to see. Tatsuya didn’t need him deeply involved in his life, after all, so why be nosy? But in the end, the heartbreak didn’t excuse the pain he had inflicted on the man he loved in return. Tatsuya had needed him. They were still friends. Nothing could excuse the fact that he’d chosen not to look, not to lift a finger, to help. Even if they were no longer dating, that didn’t mean they weren’t friends.
Another figure Jun barely recognizes as the Shadow Operatives’ computer expert and hacker Katsuya is always complaining about stands watching, and going by the carved expression, judging. Seta-kun reluctantly reaches out to hear what he has to say. “...sure you wanna do this, kid?”
Tatsuya’s statue shrugs, rare smile further cracking his lips and face, nonchalance undercut by the flow of blood. “Absolutely not, but what choice do I have? Doing nothing is no choice at all, and even if I break, even if this kills me, I have to try.”
And then a voice that chills Jun’s heart, a voice he knows all too well, and he looks around wildly for the source, though He’s not visible like in the museum. “You’ll never escape your sin, never clean the slate.”
It’s amusing, in some sort of twisted way, to watch Tatsuya roll his eyes at Nyarlathotep, even if it’s just his voice. “So be it. If I never leave this purgatory, fine, as long as the rest of the world survives. As long as those I love can live their lives.”
Here Tatsuya’s statue doesn’t shatter, not completely. It just fragments even further, bleeding endlessly, leaning slightly on the katana as if he couldn’t stand without aid. None of the statues tries to help him, and touching him just causes more cracks to form, so Jun can’t even offer his assistance even if this isn’t really Tatsuya.
The sirens start going off, and a video pops up on all the screens, as if it’s live—but it isn’t, it can’t be, and Jun has never seen any of this before. Katsuya has never mentioned this. Katsuya would have, if this had happened. Tatsuya being brought in gently, while a man with an earring watching in quiet concern as Katsuya breaks down, and no wonder. Tatsuya’s skin is pretty much devoid of color, and it doesn’t look like he’s breathing. A skip in the tape, and Tatsuya’s nearly lifeless body is lying there, with equipment Jun can’t identify. Machines, drawing his blood and putting it right back in, an oxygen mask, tubes. Katsuya sweating, carefully, ever so carefully using his cat Persona to heat his brother. To keep him alive.
And then all of that shimmers, like a mirage, and disappears. Tatsuya’s still there, and still the exact same. Well—no, not exactly. He’s pretending as if he’s not holding himself up. Not entirely successfully, not like his real life self, but he’s still making the attempt. They hadn’t seen him move, but under a bloody handprint on the computer consoles lies a stalk, purple bells more at home in the more mountainous region near Inaba than in Sumaru.
“An Erica. Solitude, or perhaps loneliness. Whatever happened here set him apart, so he didn’t think he could ask for help.” Jun packs this away as well, carefully. The flowers probably won’t make much of an arrangement, but even if they were mere gifts from Tatsuya, he would treasure them—and has a feeling that is not, in fact, the case. That just like much else here, there’s more to this dungeon than meets the eye.
“He’s wrong,” Seta-kun insists, which at least makes Jun smile.
