Memories of Us

Home At Last

"PERSONA!"

From the depths

From the soul that needed breath and with chances given, he'd snatch them when that air refilled the same lungs that were gasping. Gasping for solace and with the turn of the Evoker, Makoto was saying adios to the dreams that he constantly fought through.

"Death..." Hajime could only fixate his voice on the singular moment that reverberated once the shadows loomed over Makoto's shoulders. A fierce and unnerving creature-a Persona of ultimate power appeared with rows of coffins engraved with nuns and wings and clutching a cross, white as pure but these coffins were squished together and held onto by chains as the Persona Thanatos roared in it's humanoid shape but again, Makoto was extending an heart out to the newly formed Persona, taken from Alice, Nagito's Persona and others. The time in the Velvet Room had paid off immensely and manifesting those Social Links was the entire contract that Makoto had signed so nonverbally. So flippantly yet, it was the unturned stone that mattered and here at the cusp, the Evoker was upward as sweat beaded down his neck.

"You can't!"

K-Komaru? No, shifting on was the amalgamations of faces-S.E.E.S.

"MAKOTO!"

"You...You crossed that line, didn't you?" Makoto weakly asked as the whiteness of Hajime's hands struck Makoto till bruises spotted on him. The inside of his veins breaking under. The pain just unnerving and spilling out.

"THAT IS ENOUGH! LEAVE MY--"

Byakuya.

The proud Togami reappeared in a sudden flash as Hajime collapsed... "Still an idiot, aren't you?" The words were even weaker than Makoto's.

Byakuya don't be shrill, be triumphant right?

Don't be meek in times of battle and certainly not in the gaze, the shadows of an emptiness that couldn't swallow up more of Makoto's unpreparedness. Time did go by, and time wasn't a master of anyone but of phrases that were tying around his throat and restricting the need to live, the will to matter.

"You've done your part well, Makoto."

"What was...?"

The blurring of life struck Makoto further and further but with a hand, a palm close to his, a palm that offered salvation all which he took. A taking of another contract and with that, the birthing pains stung, and he screamed as if the world hung on his words.

"MAKOTO!" Kazuichi dropped his Evoker and dived but...

"No, Souda. It's what was intended, and he knows."

"But-"

"I know that Makoto will be alright, won't he...?" Chihiro squeaked as if replying only to the sanest of them all-Byakuya Togami. The mighty Togami, the mighty bringer of chance.

"I AM NOT DOING THIS ANYMORE!" Kazuichi's hands dove onto the collapsing Makoto but a burst of mentions...

"PERSONA!"

"MAKOTO! Please don't-you're my best friend." Kazuichi didn't hear the tears streaking into his mouth and nose clogging up but with a moment's notice, Makoto smiled as the pain subsided and threw his Evoker nearer to his forehead.

"It's that, it's that I can't let anyone down. I let myself be carried away and now, it's my fault for allowing this to continue."

"You'll die don't you realize this? We'll all die-"

"We won't. We'll face death and..."

Was silence really the absence of sound or was it subtle and menacing? Rather than fearing for the life obtained, could they instead rejoice in the home they inhabited in the flesh? Was the body a mere vessel for breath? For no goals came from nothing and there wasn't any fright from it, there wasn't anything worth rejecting. With the pain came birth and ultimately sacrifice and one that had to be made.

"Nagito..." Makoto whispered trailing over his newly soaked lips as the blood and tears mingled as they ought to as if fate had the worst stored in them. "I'm ready."

"MAKOTO!"

"M-MAKOTO! You're my only friend...you're my only..." Kazuichi's sobs were distant as Makoto felt lighter and the monstrosity was emerging.

Nyx.

Let the chorus yell for him but he was untouchable and alive. So alive...

He was Nyx. He was always this monster, the representation of death and not Nagito, he was just a falsity one that corrected itself immediately as Makoto's face buried in the wall of death, hands flailing and sacrificing the feeling.

"It's happening..."

Fuyuhiko.

Hajime.

They too were in awe but it was their doing, no, never but Makoto's.

It was always Makoto's wish.