April 19th, 2012, Whisper in the Breeze, Afternoon.
The afternoon sun streamed through the windows of Kegawa's antique shop, illuminating dust motes dancing in the air like tiny, lazy fireflies.
Tosen Raion was carefully packing the last of his meager belongings into a worn leather satchel. His movements were slow, deliberate, each item placed with a respect that spoke of his disciplined nature.
"So today's your last day here in Kuoh, Mr. Raion?" Momo Hanakai's cheerful voice broke the quiet.
She and Tomoe Meguri had been sent by Sona on a dual mission: to formally check on their yokai guest's recovery and to discreetly report back on his condition and state of mind.
Tosen looked up, offering a small, polite smile. "Yes. Thank you for letting me stay," he said, his voice formal but genuine. He paused, straightening up.
"Please, send my regards to Lady Gremory and Lady Sitri as well. Tell them I am grateful for their... hospitality." The word 'hospitality' was chosen carefully, a diplomatic acknowledgment of the unusual alliance between devils and a yokai of his standing.
"We'll do," Momo exclaimed brightly, while Tomoe gave a silent, confirming nod beside her.
"Good." The voice came from the corner of the room where Kegawa, the tanuki shop owner, had been observing the exchange in silence, sipping from a small cup of tea. He set the cup down with a soft click.
"Now we can get back to your training, girl." He fixed his gaze on Tomoe, a familiar, challenging smirk playing on his lips.
Tomoe's shoulders slumped almost imperceptibly. She knew this was coming. There was no refusing Kegawa's "invitations," which were always statements of fact disguised as questions.
She merely nodded, mentally steeling herself for the hours of grueling physical and spiritual conditioning that lay ahead.
"You are coming too, right, Hanakai?" Kegawa's eyes shifted to Momo. It was less a question and more a command.
Momo gulped, her eyes widening slightly. She shot a desperate, pleading look at Tomoe, who could only offer a minute shrug of solidarity.
"W-well," Momo stammered, her mind racing for an escape. "I-I promised Senpai Yuki I'd hang out with him this afternoon! I'm so sorry, Mr. Kegawa!"
"Oh, really?" Tomoe asked, one eyebrow arched in skepticism. She knew Momo's schedule almost as well as her own.
"Yes! Of course!" Momo insisted, nodding her head with a vigor that threatened to dislodge her carefully styled hair.
To both girls' surprise, Kegawa's stern expression softened almost instantly. "Ok, you can go," he said, waving a dismissive hand.
Tomoe gasped, looking at her master with a sense of utter betrayal. "B-but—"
"Are you searching for an excuse to slack off, Meguri?" Kegawa interrupted, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous purr.
Tomoe immediately straightened up, all protest dying in her throat. "No, sir," she said, her voice firm despite her internal despair.
With a final wave goodbye to Tosen, who offered a respectful bow before shouldering his satchel to begin his journey home, the two devil girls parted ways at the shop's entrance.
Tomoe turned left, her steps heavy with the weight of impending exertion, while Momo turned right, letting out a long, relieved sigh the moment she was out of sight.
'Phew! Luckily, Mr. Kegawa believed me... Now, what to do?' she thought, tapping her chin. 'Might as well make the excuse true. Dad would surely love to see Senpai Yuki again.'
Pulling out her phone, she scrolled through her contacts and dialed Makoto's number—a digits he'd given her after their unexpected encounter with her father.
The phone rang twice before he answered. "Yes?" His voice was its usual calm, neutral tone.
"Hi, Senpai! I wanted to ask if you'd like to come to the ElegantVille today," Momo said, her voice bubbling with its characteristic energy.
"Isn't it open only in the evening?" Makoto replied.
"During the daytime, we just do bar service. It's really quiet," she explained.
There was a brief pause on the other end. "Alright," he agreed.
"Great! Let's meet out front!"
April 19th, 2012, ElegantVille, Afternoon.
The ElegantVille was a different world in the daylight. Without the warm glow of evening lights, the soft chatter of patrons, and the smooth notes of live jazz, it felt like a stage before the actors arrived.
"Hey, Senpai! You made it!" Momo chirped, waving enthusiastically as she saw Makoto's approach.
"Hello, Hanakai," he greeted her with a slight nod.
"Let's go inside! Dad wants to say hello, too," she said, leading the way through the heavy wooden door.
Inside, the atmosphere was serene. Mr. Hanakai was behind the bar, meticulously polishing glassware until it sparkled. He looked up as the bell above the door chimed, his face breaking into a wide, genuine smile at the sight of his daughter and her friend.
"Oh, Yuki! It's good to see you again!" he boomed, coming out from behind the bar to shake Makoto's hand with a firm, welcoming grip. "Please, sit down. I'll bring you two something."
As Mr. Hanakai retreated behind the counter, Makoto's gaze swept the room. It was nearly empty, save for a single figure in the back corner.
A young girl, no older than eight or nine, was sitting alone at a small table, completely absorbed in a world of her own creation. Her head was bent over a large piece of paper, a determined frown on her face as she moved a colored pencil with intense focus.
'I have a bad feeling, Makoto.' Orpheus Telos's voice was a soft, melancholic strain in his mind, a feeling of resonant sadness.
'I can feel it too,' Kohryu's wise, rumbling tone confirmed. 'A deep loneliness surrounds the little one.'
'We must do something, hee hoo! Universe, I demand you cheer up the girl, hee hoo! On my honor as an influential member of the Frost Family, I swear no kids will feel sad with me around, hee hoo!' Jack Frost's voice was uncharacteristically insistent, a paternal instinct flaring within the usually playful Persona. The doll's first and most sacred duty was to protect the joy of children.
'Solitude. I envy her,' Leviathan murmured, his voice a distant, abyssal echo.
"Who is she?" Makoto asked, his eyes lingering on the solitary child. She reminded him painfully of another little girl from another time—Maiko, the Hanged Man social link, whose quiet loneliness had once mirrored his own.
"That's Rem," Momo explained, her own smile fading into a look of gentle concern. "Her mother and mine are good friends. When her mom has to work and there's no one else to look after her, Rem comes here."
She sighed softly.
"She... doesn't have many friends. We all try to talk to her, but with few results. Her mother often complains about her poor social life."
Makoto nodded slowly, a familiar ache settling in his chest. Looking into Rem's downcast eyes was like staring into a mirror reflecting his own past.
He saw the Makoto Yuki who had first arrived in Iwatodai—the silent, apathetic boy who walked through life untouched and untouching, for whom death would have been a quiet, unremarkable end. Without realizing it, his jaw tightened, his teeth gritting against the memory.
"Senpai?" Momo asked, noticing the subtle shift in his usually impassive demeanor.
"It's nothing," he replied, shaking his head slightly to dispel the ghost.
'Universe, ask the Lovers if she can get us paper and a pencil, hee hoo!' Jack Frost suggested, his voice brimming with a new plan.
'What do you have in mind?' Makoto thought back.
'Trust me, Universe, hee hoo!' Confidence radiated from the frosty Persona.
"Hanakai," Makoto said aloud, turning to the devil girl. "Can I have some paper and a pencil?"
A spark of understanding lit up Momo's eyes. "Oh! Okay, Senpai! I know what you have in mind!" She hurried behind the bar, whispered something to her father, and returned moments later with a handful of blank printer paper and a cup of assorted pencils and crayons.
Makoto took the supplies, pulled a chair up to Rem's table, and sat down without a word. He selected a pencil and began to draw. Rem, sensing a new presence, didn't look up, but her rhythmic coloring slowed.
After a minute, her curiosity got the better of her, and she peeked sideways from under her dark green bobs to see what the stranger was creating. Momo watched from a respectful distance, a soft smile on her face as she observed the scene unfold.
"W-what are you drawing?" Rem asked, her voice so faint and hesitant it was almost carried away by the quiet hum of the refrigerator.
"I'm drawing him," Makoto answered simply. He turned his paper to show her: a skilled, clean-lined portrait of Jack Frost, his familiar beaked mask and mischievous posture captured perfectly on the page.
A small, almost imperceptible smile touched Rem's lips. She looked from his drawing to her own—a meticulously detailed but lonely-looking bedroom. Momo, seeing the breakthrough, crept closer, her heart swelling with a strange pride.
"Senpai truly brings out the best in people," she thought, watching him. "Since he came to Kuoh, even our usually cold president is starting to open up. He has a gift."
"C-can you t-teach me how to d-do it?" Rem managed to ask, her voice gaining a tiny fraction of strength. She held out a fresh piece of paper to Makoto, a silent plea in her brown eyes.
Makoto nodded. He took the paper and started with basic shapes, showing her how to block out the form of the cheerful winter sprite. Soon, Momo was pulled into the lesson too, and the three of them sat around the small table, a silent pact of creation formed between them.
The only sounds were the scratch of pencils on paper and Mr. Hanakai's quiet humming as he worked, a contented smile on his face as he watched his daughter and her friend connect with the lonely child.
'Mission complete, hee hoo! The kid is now smiling!' Jack Frost proclaimed, his voice puffing with pride.
'Well done, my comrades! You did an excellent job!' Robin Hood cheered.
'You did great, Universe,' Kohryu affirmed, his approval a warm, steady presence.
After some time, Rem held up her finished drawing. It was a child's interpretation of Jack Frost—a little wobbly, wonderfully exaggerated, but full of character and joy.
'It's perfect, hee hoo!' Jack Frost cooed.
"I-is it good?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper but now laced with a hint of hope.
"It's so beautiful, Rem!" Momo proclaimed, her eyes shining. "I wish I was as good as you! Dad always said my drawings were good, but..." Her voice trailed off as she looked down at her own attempt, a lopsided, charmingly clumsy sketch.
"It's horrible," Rem stated with the brutal, unfiltered honesty of a child. The words, devoid of malice, landed on Momo with the force of a physical blow.
"Yeah..." Momo laughed sheepishly, her cheeks flushing slightly. "I've never been the best artist."
The moment was interrupted by the chime of the door clock striking six, its sound echoing in the quiet room. Simultaneously, the front door opened, and a woman stepped inside. Rem's shoulders immediately slumped.
"My mom is here..." she whispered, her voice dripping with disappointment.
The woman, Miss Urakemi, paused just inside the doorway, her expression one of mild shock. She was clearly not prepared to see her daughter not just in the company of others, but actively engaged with them. She recovered quickly, a professional smile gracing her features as she approached the table.
"Hello, sweetheart," she said, her eyes flicking between her daughter, Momo, and the unfamiliar blue-haired boy. "Could you please introduce me to your friends? Oh, hello, Momo."
"Good evening, Miss Urakemi," Momo greeted back politely.
"Hello, mom..." Rem said, the words dragged out with palpable reluctance. She slowly began to gather her drawings, her movements slow and sulky.
"Thank you for staying with her," Miss Urakemi said, her voice filled with genuine gratitude and a touch of wonder as she looked at Makoto.
"No problem," he said simply.
"Yeah, we had fun, too!" Momo added brightly.
They watched as Rem was led away, the little girl casting one last, longing look back at the table where magic had briefly happened.
"I would never have guessed you were so wonderful with kids, Senpai," Momo joked once they were gone, covering her smile with her hand as she saw a faint, almost imperceptible flush touch Makoto's cheeks.
"Senpai," she began again, her tone turning serious. "May I ask you to come here sometimes? I know you have many things weighing on your shoulders, but... I've never seen Rem like that. She usually seems so out of reality, just spaced out. Today was the first time I've ever heard her speak more than two words to someone who wasn't her mother."
"Is she often here?" Makoto asked.
"Yeah... almost every day after school. Except Sundays and holidays," Momo confirmed.
'We'll do whatever we can to be there for the girl, hee hoo!' Jack Frost declared.
'We don't have time to waste playing with a brat,' Lucifer's voice cut in, cold and dismissive.
'Shut up, Morning Star, hee hoo!' Jack Frost retorted, his voice uncharacteristically sharp.
'Do not use that tone with me, doll,' Lucifer growled, a hint of celestial menace in his voice.
'Stop fighting,' Kohryu admonished, his authoritative rumble silencing the bickering Personas.
Makoto gave a slight shake of his head, dismissing the internal argument. He looked at Momo's hopeful face.
"I'll manage to come by sometimes," he said.