{ Restart }
Title: Restart
Fandom: Persona 3
Characters: Shinjiro Aragaki/FMC hints, Aigis
Word Count: 1207
Comm & Prompt: 78_tarot : The World
Rating: PG13
Shinjiro Aragaki woke up at 3:24 in the afternoon on a lonely day in March, watching his hospital room's curtains flutter in the breeze from an open window.
Huh.
"You know, you'd figure that I'd finally learn my lesson and stop trying to come back." He stretched as much as he could without causing himself pain; his chest still felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it or something. He wasn't disoriented: he'd been awake for snatches of time before. It was like waking up after sleeping in for a long time- you knew that you were asleep but you couldn't do get up, just kept sinking back into the dream where you'd left off.
The dream, though, never seemed to change. Green sky, gold moon, streets washed red with blood. He knew that somewhere, in the distance, were things that he had to confront, but what he kept coming back to, focusing on when he should have been trying to talk to that kid about how none of this was his fault, was something entirely selfish.
Hell, he'd never wanted to make her cry. But he did anyway.
"So, you are awake."
Shinjiro nearly fell out of his bed. The machine nearby that monitored his heart-rate let out a series of agitated blips, red spikes poking up on the screen in rapid succession. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Aigis cocked her head to one side as though this was the most illogical question that she had ever heard. "Today is the day you wake up. Since I am the only one that remembers, then it makes sense that I am the only one here."
Rolling his eyes, Shinjiro sank back onto the hospital bed, noticing that the white terrycloth sheets suddenly seemed a lot less crisp and brilliant and now verged more towards sterile and suffocating. He wasn't going to say anything to the robot about it, but hell, he'd be lying if he admitted that this was what he'd thought would be waiting for him when he woke up. Not that he got along great with all of those guys, but he'd figured that Aki would show. Mitsuru might put in an appearance, for old time's sake.
But really, what got him wasn't the absence of his former classmates, or even the team that he had left and then rejoined. He hadn't even expected Junpei or Yukari, and Ken seemed like he'd need some time to himself to get himself together before they talked again. But he had been hoping for one person, one girl with her goofy barrettes and infectious smile...
And she was nowhere to be found.
"Thanks for coming, I guess." He replied at last, aware of the cold timbre of his voice. It wasn't like he hadn't been wrong about people before. It was just that this time he was hoping that that girl would have been different. Guess not.
"You seem dismissive." Aigis commented dryly. "Perhaps it is because you're wondering why I am the only one, even though I have already told you that I am the only one that remembers?"
"Look, whatever, okay?" He closed his eyes as if ending discussion of the matter. "If those guys are busy, then that's fine. I mean, it's probably the middle of school, right? How long was I out?"
"It is currently late afternoon in March."
Shinjiro's eyes flew open. "Holy shit."
And sure enough, when he looked outside he could tell that things were different. There were still few leaves on the trees, as there had been in October, but instead of leaves falling off, it seemed like new buds were growing. He could almost make out the pink of the cherry trees threatening to burst out into full color.
"The rest of the team has forgotten. Perhaps you have not, because you were sleeping. They do not remember the existence of the Dark Hour, even though they were the ones to put an end to it. They do not remember defeating the Shadows because that time has disappeared. But they made a promise to meet up at graduation. Perhaps..."
Shinjiro shook his head. "If you say that all of them forgot what they did and that I only know about it because I slept through it, then how come you still remember?"
Aigis was silent for a long time. "Machines do not forget."
Deciding that that was all the answer that he was going to get, Shinjiro nodded and then looked at his bedside table. Something battered and silver gleamed up from the wood surface. "What's happened to this?"
It was his old pocketwatch, but hell, it looked like someone had beaten it up, too. God damn it, Shinjiro thought, first he almost died, his closest friends forgot about him, and then someone wrecked his stuff. What a great time to be alive.
"It was found in your pocket." A man in a white coat leaned against the door convivially. "Glad to see you've regained consciousness, Aragaki-san. We've been monitoring your condition over the past few days and we had a feeling that you'd come back soon. Forgive me for not being present right away to explain; we've been treating a lot of cases recently."
Shinjiro swallowed. "Apathy syndrome?"
"Oh no!" The doctor laughed, his eyes already quickly scanning the machines for signs that everything was operating smoothly. "That was a while ago. Just about all of our patients in that category have been discharged. Nah, what we've got now is a fresh influx of people with cases of the common cold." He smiled good-naturedly. "But, that's the thing about being a doctor: it never ends. Oh, you wanted to know about this watch, right?"
"Yeah," Shinjiro nodded. "How'd it get all banged up?"
"When you were brought in, we found this in your left breast pocket. At first we thought it was a bullet, since it was in the middle of the affected area." The doctor shook his head, smiling. "You better thank your lucky stars next time you visit the shrine: turns out it absorbed most of the impact of one of the bullets. See this indentation here, by the clasp? The bullet got stuck there. Heck, if that watch hadn't been in your pocket that night, we might be having a very different conversation." He bowed. "Anyway, I'll get your exit exams scheduled. It'll still be a little while before your release, but we can get some of the paperwork and preliminaries out of the way."
Even as the doctor left, Shinjiro turned the watch over and over in his hand. He'd lost it near the end of September, thought he'd never get it back, only to have it returned to him in the nick of time. If she hadn't...
"Small things," Aigis mused, "sometimes have great consequences."
Shinjiro could only nod.
Fandom: Persona 3
Characters: Shinjiro Aragaki/FMC hints, Aigis
Word Count: 1207
Comm & Prompt: 78_tarot : The World
Rating: PG13
Shinjiro Aragaki woke up at 3:24 in the afternoon on a lonely day in March, watching his hospital room's curtains flutter in the breeze from an open window.
Huh.
"You know, you'd figure that I'd finally learn my lesson and stop trying to come back." He stretched as much as he could without causing himself pain; his chest still felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it or something. He wasn't disoriented: he'd been awake for snatches of time before. It was like waking up after sleeping in for a long time- you knew that you were asleep but you couldn't do get up, just kept sinking back into the dream where you'd left off.
The dream, though, never seemed to change. Green sky, gold moon, streets washed red with blood. He knew that somewhere, in the distance, were things that he had to confront, but what he kept coming back to, focusing on when he should have been trying to talk to that kid about how none of this was his fault, was something entirely selfish.
Hell, he'd never wanted to make her cry. But he did anyway.
"So, you are awake."
Shinjiro nearly fell out of his bed. The machine nearby that monitored his heart-rate let out a series of agitated blips, red spikes poking up on the screen in rapid succession. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Aigis cocked her head to one side as though this was the most illogical question that she had ever heard. "Today is the day you wake up. Since I am the only one that remembers, then it makes sense that I am the only one here."
Rolling his eyes, Shinjiro sank back onto the hospital bed, noticing that the white terrycloth sheets suddenly seemed a lot less crisp and brilliant and now verged more towards sterile and suffocating. He wasn't going to say anything to the robot about it, but hell, he'd be lying if he admitted that this was what he'd thought would be waiting for him when he woke up. Not that he got along great with all of those guys, but he'd figured that Aki would show. Mitsuru might put in an appearance, for old time's sake.
But really, what got him wasn't the absence of his former classmates, or even the team that he had left and then rejoined. He hadn't even expected Junpei or Yukari, and Ken seemed like he'd need some time to himself to get himself together before they talked again. But he had been hoping for one person, one girl with her goofy barrettes and infectious smile...
And she was nowhere to be found.
"Thanks for coming, I guess." He replied at last, aware of the cold timbre of his voice. It wasn't like he hadn't been wrong about people before. It was just that this time he was hoping that that girl would have been different. Guess not.
"You seem dismissive." Aigis commented dryly. "Perhaps it is because you're wondering why I am the only one, even though I have already told you that I am the only one that remembers?"
"Look, whatever, okay?" He closed his eyes as if ending discussion of the matter. "If those guys are busy, then that's fine. I mean, it's probably the middle of school, right? How long was I out?"
"It is currently late afternoon in March."
Shinjiro's eyes flew open. "Holy shit."
And sure enough, when he looked outside he could tell that things were different. There were still few leaves on the trees, as there had been in October, but instead of leaves falling off, it seemed like new buds were growing. He could almost make out the pink of the cherry trees threatening to burst out into full color.
"The rest of the team has forgotten. Perhaps you have not, because you were sleeping. They do not remember the existence of the Dark Hour, even though they were the ones to put an end to it. They do not remember defeating the Shadows because that time has disappeared. But they made a promise to meet up at graduation. Perhaps..."
Shinjiro shook his head. "If you say that all of them forgot what they did and that I only know about it because I slept through it, then how come you still remember?"
Aigis was silent for a long time. "Machines do not forget."
Deciding that that was all the answer that he was going to get, Shinjiro nodded and then looked at his bedside table. Something battered and silver gleamed up from the wood surface. "What's happened to this?"
It was his old pocketwatch, but hell, it looked like someone had beaten it up, too. God damn it, Shinjiro thought, first he almost died, his closest friends forgot about him, and then someone wrecked his stuff. What a great time to be alive.
"It was found in your pocket." A man in a white coat leaned against the door convivially. "Glad to see you've regained consciousness, Aragaki-san. We've been monitoring your condition over the past few days and we had a feeling that you'd come back soon. Forgive me for not being present right away to explain; we've been treating a lot of cases recently."
Shinjiro swallowed. "Apathy syndrome?"
"Oh no!" The doctor laughed, his eyes already quickly scanning the machines for signs that everything was operating smoothly. "That was a while ago. Just about all of our patients in that category have been discharged. Nah, what we've got now is a fresh influx of people with cases of the common cold." He smiled good-naturedly. "But, that's the thing about being a doctor: it never ends. Oh, you wanted to know about this watch, right?"
"Yeah," Shinjiro nodded. "How'd it get all banged up?"
"When you were brought in, we found this in your left breast pocket. At first we thought it was a bullet, since it was in the middle of the affected area." The doctor shook his head, smiling. "You better thank your lucky stars next time you visit the shrine: turns out it absorbed most of the impact of one of the bullets. See this indentation here, by the clasp? The bullet got stuck there. Heck, if that watch hadn't been in your pocket that night, we might be having a very different conversation." He bowed. "Anyway, I'll get your exit exams scheduled. It'll still be a little while before your release, but we can get some of the paperwork and preliminaries out of the way."
Even as the doctor left, Shinjiro turned the watch over and over in his hand. He'd lost it near the end of September, thought he'd never get it back, only to have it returned to him in the nick of time. If she hadn't...
"Small things," Aigis mused, "sometimes have great consequences."
Shinjiro could only nod.