7th side [accidental video]

[masukukunai]

[The feed flickers on, immediately showing Yousuke's troubled face. He looks confused and frightened, and anyone who knows him knows just how uncharacteristic this is. He's feeling at the back of his head obsessively, between holding a hand on his chest to feel his own heartbeat. Several times he closes his eyes and takes deep breaths. This whole

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[eatsyourscience]

[For the first time in several days, Souji's asleep. Not that he chose a comfortable position: sitting on the floor with his back against the side of Yousuke's bed, and his sword propped against his shoulder with his head, in turn, propped against the sword's hilt.

He can't have been too deeply asleep, though, because he jerks when Yousuke speaks and looks up, bleary-eyed.]

[masukukunai]

Souji...

[It's strange. It feels like just a second ago he was having his face smashed into the ground and was choking on his own blood while Adachi said things he didn't remember at all. He touches his face this time to confirm that his nose isn't broken. There was still a weird sensation of phantom pain, and he didn't want to move for fear of setting off his knee, which he's still too frightened to check.]

What happened?

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji rubs his eyes with the end of his sleeve to try to make them stop stinging. He's looking--and feeling ugh--kind of grimy, or at least his clothes are.]

...You died.

[masukukunai]

[Died.]

[Yousuke feels like back of his head again. That was where the shot was, that he felt for the slightest fraction of a second before everything went black. It's weird... He's not mad, or sad, or upset. He doesn't feel much of anything at all. His wires aren't connecting.]

[He looks up, and his stare fixes on a spot on the wall again.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji watches him. There's more to say, but he wants to give Yousuke some time to process, if it's even possible to really process something like that.]

[masukukunai]

[Yousuke continues to look straight ahead. His mind starts to go through the blow-by-blow to reorient itself. First he got shot in the shoulder, and then in the knee. That pain was explosive. He moves that leg a little to prove to himself that it wasn't busted anymore. Then he remembers begin thrown into a dark and dingy room, and screaming for his persona, and getting nothing but a pistol dug into his cheek.]

[Then he hears that final shot, over and over and over. He trembles as the trauma starts to set in.]

[eatsyourscience]

...Yousuke.

[Souji gets up finally and sits on the bed, inserting himself between Yousuke and the nothing he's staring at.]

Look at me.

[masukukunai]

[Yousuke feels ridiculous for this, but looking away is really, physically hard. But he does, and there's a little pain behind his eyes. He's breathing manually.]

[eatsyourscience]

I'm sorry. [That's not what he meant to say, but it's what comes out. He amends with:] You're alive now. You're not hurt.

[masukukunai]

Yeah. [He curls his fists into the sheets of his bed to try and still his shaking.] Yeah, I know. I'm okay.

[eatsyourscience]

...It's fine if you're not yet.

[masukukunai]

[He takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly.] I'll be okay.

[That was good enough for now.]

What about you? You've got... [He motions to his face, meaning his red eyes and dark circles, but then starts to motion to... everywhere in general. He looks like he'd been hit by a truck.]

[eatsyourscience]

[The pause before he speaks is long, even for Souji.]

It took a long time to find Kanji.

[masukukunai]

[That worries him immediately. He's not sure what to say though.]

Is he okay?

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji nods and rubs at his eyes again.]

[masukukunai]

Are you okay? You look awful-- and Adachi was still there, right? Did he... Get you too?