Persona Trinity Seal

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Kotone wakes up cold, which was strange considering how she recalls using Shin as the equivalent of a body pillow. She opens her eyes slowly and carefully where she can clearly make out the now empty space besides her. An ident left over tells her that Shin had left recently. She turns her head trying to focus her gaze under the light of the now risen sun and sees the boy in question sitting on the edge of the bed looking down with a thoughtful yet distant look in his eyes.

"Shin?" she manages to say, her voice not yet awake.

"Morning" he says turning to her and seems to smile a bit at her struggle to keep her eyes open and focused "Did you sleep ok?"

"Yeah" She stretches and lays forward propped up on her hands swinging her legs idly "Just a little cold" she says as a shiver runs across her body making her shake.

He lets out a quiet laugh "Sorry about that, I was trying hard not to disturb you" he says rubbing the back of his head.

"I'm surprised you managed to slip free, I had such a tight hold on you" she says the last part quieter, but he still hears her.

He says nothing, only chuckles a bit louder.

She pouts, "It's not fair you make such a comfy pillow..."

He turns away as heat quickly rises to his face. She notices his sudden action and offers a warm smile as he slowly turns back to her.

Her smile turns instead to a concerned frown, "Are you ok?" she asks.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about something"

She says nothing and only keeps her gaze focused on him. He sighs.

"Takuro needs to know about what really happened to Okazaki" he says holding a firm gaze her way, despite how lost he seemed moments ago instead is a look of resolve.

She nods slowly then lowers her eyes to the mattress seeing Shin's indentation long gone.

"I don't think he'll take it very well"

"He probably won't believe it, but today at school I'm going to tell him"

"I should go with you"

Shin tilts his head to her. At his confusion she decides to elaborate.

"We don't know how he will take it. He might even get angry at you. If he doesn't believe you then me being there might help since I was there too"

He pauses and lowers his head. Moments later he looks back to her and nods, their plan set.

During a break in classes Shin and Kotone call Takuro out to the trees just outside of the school. As expected, he didn't take the words seriously. Instead Takuro moves towards Shin and even grabs onto his uniform jacket yelling further but Shin stares him down not budging. Kotone explained everything they saw at the old stage and about seeing Okazaki's persona. At the end of it all, Takuro let go of Shin and remained quiet with his eyes closed.

He finally spoke, "You two...you are absolutely sure of what you saw?"

Shin nods his look of determination not faltering in the slightest.

"We only wanted to look out for you, you deserved to know what happened to him... you two seemed close" Kotone says meeting the afro student's eyes as they now fall to her.

He breathes in and sighs "Yeah, I appreciate what you did..." he turns to Shin "I shouldn't have taken out my anger on you, you only tried to help"

Shin nods again and places a hand to Takuro's shoulder.