avalar | [Voice] Arcana III

Entry tags:

persona 3: minato arisato

[Voice] Arcana III - so much to lose

[Minato couldn't not notice, this time. He'd thought at first that he might be wrong, but well... A few days and no contact can only mean one thing, can't it? The message comes late at night, and is brief. His voice is level and calm, but trained ears could tell it's only barely so.]

...I know not many of us were close to them, but I figured it's worth knowing: Marie, my housemate, seems to be gone. I'm pretty sure Shirogane Naoto is, too.

[He shuts it off quickly. Two of his closest friends here, vanished. He doesn't know if they went home or what. He's...never really thought about where the people who are no longer in Avalar may have gone. Home? Some other world? He can't help but be sad about it, no matter what the case may be. It hurts.]

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Well, I'm sorry they left. But hey, maybe their back home and who knows? They might come back here one day.

...Maybe. But as far as I know no one else who's left has returned.

[There's a pained, bitter smile. He knows they're probably both happier in their own worlds, where they belong, but he can't bring himself to be happy for them.]

Sorry. I'd just...gotten to thinking of this as my second chance at happiness. Started thinking things wouldn't change.

Second chance? Did something happen back home?

A lot of things happened, most of them bad. I guess the easiest explanation is that I'm dead.

[And that makes Pit's eyes widen.]

Whoa... I-I'm sorry.

[Being dead is just the tip of the iceberg, really.]

Don't be. I chose this fate of my own free will. I was going to die anyway, I just made sure no one else would.

What do you mean?

[He looks away.] It's a long story, ad not a happy one. The nutshell version is my world was ending. My friends and I fought to stop it, but in the end we couldn't. At the last minute, I found it in myself to seal away the thing causing the death of all things, but doing that took everything I had.

[That makes Pit pause as Minato's tale brings up some painful memories of his own.]

Believe it or not, I went through something similar.

Really...? ...Are you dead, too?

[There's no judgement or anything, just curiosity.]

Well, no. An evil monster called the Chaos Kin possessed Lady Palutena, a goddess I serve. It turned her against the humans. It took three years, but I managed to free her. But I nearly died. My friends managed to save me by taking me to the Rewind Spring.

...That is pretty similar. In my world, there's a goddess of night and death named Nyx. Her duty is to respond to humanity's wishes for destruction. Her descent began, and as hard as my friends and I fought, she couldn't be defeated. I was able to turn the strength from all the bonds I'd formed into a power great enough to seal her, so that's what I did.

...But Nyx was never the real problem. When I created the Great Seal, I wasn't really holding her back from Earth. I was protecting her from an entity called Erebus. Erebus is the embodiment of all humanity's despair and sorrow, that little piece of everyone that craves death, which Nyx can't help but respond to. If Erebus gets to her, the death of all things will begin again and the world will end.

Being dead doesn't mean resting in peace. All I have waiting for me when I leave here is an eternity of Erebus trying to rip me apart.

[All Pit can do is put a comforting hand on Minato's shoulder.]

That's... terrible.

...I'm okay. It was my choice. B-Besides, there was no stopping any of it, my course was set since I was six, and set in stone months before I died.

["I'm okay". It's a lie. He's good at being okay, good at seeming fine. After a year of practice with pretending to be a normal student by day and leading a half-militarized group of kids in battle by night, his facade is near perfect. Especially with his face being nearly expressionless after ten years of apathy.]

[For a while, Pit sits in silence. He's completely unsure of what to say. Hell, what could you say to someone who died?]

Well, at least you're here. So this is a second chance. And like I said, maybe they'll come back. You just gotta have hope.

[Minato wants to live. He learned to love life over the course of his last year, which is probably why he was able to leave it behind.]

A second chance, where I lose people anyway... I'm just tired.

Losing's, unfortunately, a part ot life. But I'm sure you've got other friends here. And you've got me. And I'm not going anywhere.

...Yeah. I've still got you and a couple other friends. But..also an enemy. Pretty sure he'd love to kill me if he got another chance.

Really?! Who is he? [A bad guy? In Avalar?! Pit will not stand for it!]

Souzen Seito. He's been here as long as I have. He committed several murders back home, and has attempted murder at least twice since getting here. But careful of him, he's powerful.

[He won't even get into the mess that is Minako's involvement...]

[Part of Pit wants to get out there and stop this guy, but he acted on impulse once before... with horrendous results. So, he'll heed Minato's advice.]

Why would he do something like that?

I don't really know his motivations, he's from after my time. But... I have a guess.

He's a lot like I used to be. Apathetic, can't give a damn about anything. Bored all the time. His life is completely empty. My guess is...the only way he feels anything at all is through killing.

[That causes Pit to clench his fist in anger. Minato's description of this guy reminds him too much of Hades. Pit hates people like that. People who could harm others for no other reason than "because they can".]

Well, that's a stupid reason to kill people. So why's he after you?

I can see why he would, actually... But maybe that's because if I'd had different influences, I could have become exactly like him.

He hates me in particular because..because I'm a Fool. Capital F, like the arcana.

Arcana?

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[action] Sorry for the delay.

[action] No worries!

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