Minato felt like shit.

He was in a lot of pain, his eyelids felt too heavy for him to lift up, and for some reason he could feel a lot of tubes and wires attached to him.

Then he heard two voices, growing clearer and clearer every second.

"The dude just moved." The first voice—definitely a male—said.

The next one sounded more feminine, but her words were brief. "Huh?"

"No, I'm serious, I swear I saw his face just twitch!"

There was a heavy sigh, "Hawks..."

Hold on a second... this voice sounded familiar to him...

"Shiina, look!" The male hissed.

"How many times do I have to tell you, it's Kiberi—"

He knew this voice. He listened to a fading echo of it every day. It was the girl who was taking care of him...

He forced himself to wake up.

"For fucks sake, woman, look!"

"Ohmygod, you're right!" She gasped.

Come on... Minato thought to himself. Open, open!

With a groan, he finally accomplished his task and his eyes fluttered open...

...Only to gain an eyeful of boobs right at his face.

His eyes widened an inch. Was this heaven?

There was another small gasp that came from the girl as she moved back a bit to give him some space. He watched as the boobs jiggled a bit.

This was heaven, he confirmed.

But honestly... this heaven was a little... bizarre to say the least.

He stared blearily at the scene before him, too dazed to believe it. Standing before him was a handsome winged man and a beautiful girl around his age. They looked like angels, but there was something... wrong about them. The man's wings were red, not white, the girl didn't even have any wings, and neither of them had any golden halos hovering above their heads...

Was this really heaven?

The red haired girl who's voice he remembered dropped her jaw in an unflattering manner. "Holy fuck, he's actually awake."

Yeah this definitely wasn't heaven. He was pretty sure cursing was a huge no-no there.

"Yeah no shit," the man, Hawks, muttered, staring at him wide-eyed.

"Hey Minato-kun?" The girl, Shiina, spoke up, waving a hand at his face. When all he did was blink, she frowned and practically started to scream at him. "MINATO-KUN—CAN—YOU—HEAR—ME?"

He winched.

Hawks stared at her as if she was an idiot. "Dude, the whole floor can hear you."

"I'm not deaf," Minato mumbled.

Shiina's face lit up. "He can speak!"

"What, was he mute before..." Hawks waved at his bedridden form. "All of this?"

She shrugged. "Dunno."

"I was never mute," Minato groaned, wondering what the fuck was going on. The last thing he could remember was fighting Erebus over and over and over again and suddenly everything turned white. And then he woke up here.

His eyes popped open as something dawned on him. If he was here then who was keeping Erebus from getting to Nyx?!

He immediately shot upwards, his heart beating erratically from the panic he was experiencing. Two pairs of hands pressed gently against his chest, trying to push him back on the bed.

"Careful of the wires there, buddy," Hawks warned him, shooting him a worried look.

"What's wrong?!" Shiina fretted.

"Erebus," Minato croaked out. "If I'm here then who's keeping him reaching Nyx?"

Hawks muttered something under his breath that sounded like 'so there are more gods!' but he ignored him and focused on Shiina instead, who was giving him a comforting smile.

"I think he's been dealt with already," she told him. "Elizabeth wouldn't have sent you here if the world was at risk again."

Hawks whipped his head towards her so fast he could've snapped his own neck. "Wait, what? World at risk? Again? What do you mean by tha—"

Without even looking at him, she reached out to press a finger against his lips and shushed him. "Everything's okay now, Minato-kun." She assured. "So please lay back down."

Minato calmed his breathing and scanned her face. How did she know about Elizabeth? Was she a Persona user? A wildcard like him too? She looked a bit like Mitsuru, except her shade of red hair was noticeably lighter. Could they be cousins?

"Who... who are you?" He asked as he laid back onto the bed.

"Kiberi Shiina," she introduced herself.

"Todoroki, actually." Hawks corrected.

She sent him a glare. "Ignore him. This idiot next to me is a Pro Hero named Birdbrain and he has no sense of privacy, just so you know."

Minato gave him a confused look. "Birdbrain...?" Who would want to be called that?

Hawks looked offended. "It's Hawks, not Birdbrain, and I thought you forgave me for sending someone to spy on you!"

Uh, what?

"Are you delusional or something?! I never forgave you for shit!" Shiina cried out, gawking at him. "I only got sidetracked because you found out about me being a Phantom Thief!"

A what? Minato furrowed his brows.

"So... so you don't forgive me?" Hawks asked, looking hurt.

"Definitely not!" She snapped.

"Aw, but Kiberi—"

"—Screw you!" She shouted impatiently. "Now get outta here and go take a birdbath or something, I gotta deal with him."

He dropped his jaw. "There's no way I'm leaving now, I still got so many questions to ask you!"

"That's even more of a reason for you to leave."

"Nope. No way. I'm staying."

Shiina let out an aggravated groan before walking away to grab her phone. "I can not believe the amount of bullshit I have to go through on a daily basis..." She muttered as she tapped rapidly on the screen.

Hawks eyed her warily. "Who are you texting?"

"Animal control," she replied sarcastically. "I'm sending a doctor over."

"Oh," he relaxed. "Wait I thought you said you couldn't trust hospitals?"

"This doctor's special."

He tensed up. "W-wait, it's a legal doctor, right? 'Cause I don't wanna get dragged into whatever illegal mess you're into."

She glared fiercely at him. "Excuse me, dragged in? The only one being dragged into any mess is me! You willingly barged your way into this mess!"

Hawks gave her a cheeky grin in return.

Minato looked cautiously at Shiina, who was about a second away from exploding and decided to cut in. "Uh, excuse me? Can you explain what's going on here? What actually... happened?"

"Yes, please tell." Hawks said eagerly.

She sent him a scathing look before turning to Minato with a pretty smile. "Well, like I said, Elizabeth came over here a few nights ago and just dumped you with me. No warning whatsoever. All she said was that I should avoid taking you to a hospital since your records show you as deceased."

Minato nodded slowly in understanding. He could get that. He knew his body would start to decay after he gave his soul up to be the seal.

"I've been taking care of you ever since," she continued, her cheeks tinting pink. "Er, well, I've been trying to. I called Dr. Takemi over to help me out—that's who all the machines came from. She'll be here soon to give you a check-up."

"What happened with Erebus and Nyx?" He asked.

She send a furtive glance at Hawks before replying, "I think it's best we talk about that later."

"Oh come on," Hawks moped. "You can trust me."

"You sent a spy on me." She hissed.

Minato wanted to ask, but decided against it. There was something else he wanted to know.

"Where are my friends?"

She straightened up. "Oh you mean the SEES group?"

He nodded.

"Well, I don't know about the others, but Aki's over at his apartment in Tokyo with Koromaru and Kenny's over at Tatsumi Port Island for his internship." She answered.

He didn't know what she meant by 'internship', but there was something bugging him. "Wait, Akihiko? He's living in Tokyo now?"

She gulped nervously. "Yes... He's graduated from Gekkoukan High School..."

"Oh..." He mumbled, looking down at his blanket. Akihiko was in his third year back when he was still alive, of course he had graduated from it. But... just how much time has passed since his sacrifice?

"How long have I been... how long have I been gone?" He fixed the question.

Shiina seemed to shrink and even Hawks—who had been laid-back and casual up until now—looked mildly uncomfortable.

"Um..." Shiina swallowed thickly. "It's been two years..."

"Oh," he said, trying to keep himself calm. Two years. It wasn't that big of a deal. It could be worse, she could've said 'a decade'. It wasn't like he had anyone grieving over him or anything either. His parents were dead, he had no other relatives, and his friends had long accepted his death.

This is fine, he told himself.

"D-do you wanna watch something on the TV?" Shiina randomly blurted out, and it was obvious to him that she was trying to keep his mind away from his death.

She was nice, he decided. He had to give her some brownie points for everything she had done for him. She had been taking care of him, after all.

They were watching some gossip show where the hosts obsessed over this 'Akechi Goro' person and the 'hot and sexy fanfiction' that was written about him. They even showed the audience a video of his fans circling around him begging for a signed autograph on their printed versions of the fanfic. The Akechi guy didn't seem to like it though since his face was deep red with humiliation and he was desperately trying to get away—even crawling through peoples' legs to do it.

"Poor kid," Hawks snickered as he watched the video. He shot Shiina an amused look. "Why'd you guys post that fanfic about him anyways?"

"'Cause he tried to kill us." She said casually.

His face fell. "Wait what."

There was a knock on the door.

Shiina jumped up from her futon—Minato couldn't help but wonder why she never placed him on that rickety old thing and kept the nice bed all to herself—and bounded for the door. "She's finally here!" She whispered excitedly to herself before swinging the door open and ushering a woman in.

The first thing Minato noted about her was that she was gothic. The second thing was that she was a doctor—obviously—because of the white lab coat she was wearing.

The short haired woman spared Hawks a glance as she strode into the room, before freezing and zeroing in on the hero again. She snapped her head back to Shiina, dumbfounded.

"You brought a hero along in this mess?" She said.

"It's fine, he doesn't know shit." Shiina said, waving a dismissive hand.

"I really don't. I'm so lost." Hawks confirmed.

"But still, you trust this guy?"

"Oh definitely not," Shiina smiled tightly, ignoring the indignant 'hey!' from Hawks. "Long story short, he sent a spy after me, then barged into my room where he saw him." She jutted her chin towards Minato.

The doctor looked at Hawks and clicked her tongue in disappointment. Other than that, she seemed to basically ignore his existence as she resumed checking Minato over.

Shiina and Hawks were arguing in the background while it was happening. Or, well, Shiina was arguing and Hawks was just annoying her.

"You're all good to go," Takemi announced after almost an entire hour. "Think you can stand?"

Minato, now completely unplugged from all the wires and tubes, grunted as he maneuvered himself off the bed. Takemi had a hand on his arm, helping him out when necessary. He stood, his legs no longer shaky.

Takemi nodded to herself. "Okay, good. How about walking?"

Minato gulped and took a few small steps forward. "I think I can manage that," he said after having yet to fall. "But I still feel a bit weak."

"That's understandable," she told him. "Simple exercises like walking will get your energy back in no time."

"Good," he muttered. He didn't like feeling this weak. It reminded him of how he was the day after his first Shadow attack. He trudged back to his bed and crawled under the blankets, feeling drained already.

"That's it now," Takemi said with a tone of finality. "Shiina, call me if anything happens to him, though I doubt it. I'll be taking my leave now."

"See ya," Shiina waved.

"Byeeee." Hawks said boredly from his spot on the couch.

Takemi didn't even bother to look at him as she walked out the room.

"Seriously?" He muttered under his breath.

Shiina looked smug about it before her expression turned nicer to face Minato. "You wanna eat something? I can order room service. Don't be afraid to get the expensive stuff, birdbrain's the one paying for it all."

"Hey!" Hawks cried out again.

Fortunately for him, Minato shook his head. "No thanks. I'm not feeling up to eating right now. I'm a bit tired."

"Sleepy, huh?" She said knowingly before letting a small yawn out. "Yeah, me... too..."

Hawks frowned. "Uh, should you guys really be sleeping in the same room?"

"..."

"..."

There was no answer. Blinking, he got up from the couch and checked them over. He couldn't believe it. They were both asleep.

He caught sight of the drool slipping through Shiina's lips and snickered mischievously. He snapped a picture of it for blackmail purposes.

"Sweet dreams kids," he whispered, before shutting off all the lights and tiptoeing out the room.

— ❤ —

When Shiina woke up the next morning, it was already time for lunch. She had a mild panic attack about her internship, but she saw an hours-old text from Hawks telling her that she was exempt for today since she had stayed up so late.

Minato wanted to go out and exercise his legs, but all he had on was his funeral clothes and the hospital outfit Takemi had provided for him. So after giving her some measurements, Shiina made a quick shopping trip to nearest store to buy him some clothes.

Now dressed for a casual day out, he joined Shiina in the outside world where they ate lunch (or brunch) at a cafe. The streets were bustling, so Shiina explained to him what had happened while he was gone.

"I think us defeating Yaldabaoth might have stopped Erebus from coming through," she said. "I don't really understand it that much, but Yaldabaoth wanted to control peoples' lives. Back in Mementos, the people there didn't seem to care if they lived or died, so that might connect to the whole 'craving death' shit that Nyx was all about."

"It makes sense," Minato murmured in agreement before taking a greedy bite out of his sandwich. "And Elizabeth helped you guys out?"

"Uh, sorta?" She snorted. "She walked in on us while we were in the middle of a meeting, told us that we'd need to bring along one other member—Goro-chan—or else we'd die a gruesome death."

"That was nice of her." He said dryly.

"Yep. After that, she told us that 'The Big Cheese' was the guy behind all of our misery. Then she walked out after telling us that she was an Attendant of the Velvet Room who completely abandoned her duties."

He shot her a confused look. "What do you mean by that? She quit?"

She shrugged. "I honestly have no clue about that girl. To be honest I kinda forgot about her until she appeared outside my hotel room and basically threw you into my arms."

He sighed heavily. "Yeah, that sounds like something Elizabeth would do."

"How'd you know her?" She asked curiously.

"She was my attendant," he explained.

"Ah. Interesting character." She commented.

"Have Akihiko or Ken responded yet?" He asked, changing the subject.

She pouted angrily at her phone. "No!" She fumed. "I don't understand why they're not answering! I've been trying to contact them since you were first delivered to me!"

He frowned. It wasn't like Akihiko to not respond to calls or messages. He didn't know about Ken since he didn't even own a phone the last time they saw each other, but he didn't seem like the type either. "Maybe they lost their phones..." He trailed off. "Have you tried calling the house phone?"

She stared blankly at him. "What."

He stared back at her, equally as blank-faced. "The house phone." He repeated. "The phones that stay in the house. The landline?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...You never thought of that, did you." He didn't even bother to phrase it as a question. He could see it all on her dumbstruck expression.

Oh my god, he thought in pure amazement, his face never changing. How did I not die under her care?

Shiina, whose face and ears were as red as her hair, hastily turned her attention to her phone and went directly to her contacts. Much to her dismay, she couldn't find the number for the home phone anywhere.

"Damn..." She cursed quietly, setting her phone down. "I don't have it on here."

He inwardly cursed. Well there went that idea... "I guess we'll just have to wait. When is your internship over?"

"Tomorrow, actually." She replied. "Though he let me off today, I still have to go over to the agency in the morning for an official goodbye or whatever that is."

He nodded in understanding, then opened his mouth to ask something before closing it shut. Shiina noticed his hesitance though and said kindly, "What is it?"

"Can you..." He began tentatively. "Can you tell me more about how my friends are doing? I know you haven't met all of them yet, but can you tell me how Akihiko, Ken, and Koromaru are?"

She smiled at this. "Gladly," she said. "Koromaru's as adorable as always and he's a helpful little doggie. I sometimes take him out on runs and he scares off the perverts for me. He also allows me to secretly feed him my veggies when Aki and Ken aren't looking because honestly, those two are like a pair of moms. I saw him fight with his Persona once, Cerberus I think, and I think his curse attacks are stronger than mine, which is sort of embarrassing to admit. Aki's attending college now to be a cop, but I think I saw him on tv once 'cause he punched a bear or some weird shit like that."

Minato nodded absentmindedly, smiling slightly without realizing it. "That sounds like him."

"And as I said before, Ken's a hero now. Or, well, he's trying to be. He attends UA with me, which is considered the best hero school in Japan. He had to lie about having a Quirk though, so he told the staff that his Quirk's called 'Persona' which is the exact same thing I told them, whoops. He's super strong too, I'm pretty sure his Persona could kick my ass any day." She sighed.

"I'm surprised he chose to become a hero," he mused.

She smiled slightly. "Yeah, I know. He told me about his former distrust with the authority and what happened to his mother..."

His eyes widened. "He told you that? The two of you must be really close then."

"Well we are living together," she giggled.

"How did that happen?" He asked.

"Um," she bit the inside of her cheek. "Let's save that for another day. It's a bit of a long story."

"Ah," he backed down. "I see, sorry for prying then. Can you tell me more about Ken?"

"Sure! We had a Sports Festival recently—do you know about those?"

"Yes."

"Okay, good. Well Kenny got third place. He could've won first but his blind ass stepped out of bounds on accident," she snickered at the memory. "After that, our class was allowed to create hero names. He picked the name 'Castor'."

His face lit up with recognition at the name. "Castor..." He echoed softly. "Of course... He named it after... the Persona of someone he once knew."

"I see..." She said with mild understanding. She had an inkling that she knew who that 'someone' was, but didn't want to pry. It was Ken's past after all, he'd tell her if he wished to. "And that's it I think... Oh, wait! The rest of your friends created an organization called the Shadow Operatives. I think it's being led by Kirijo Mitsuru? I'm not sure. Aki gave me a really long explanation of them, but I could hardly remember it..."

"That's fine," he assured. "I can ask for more details when—when I see them again." He accidentally stammered in mid-sentence, but could you blame him? His heart was practically about to burst out of his chest at the prospect of seeing his friends again—even if they were now two years older than him (or more).

Shiina looked down at their table and saw that they were both finished eating. "We're all done with lunch now. Want to go walk around to get you more exercise?"

He nodded. "Yes please."

She beamed at him, then rose from her seat to throw away their trash. After she did that, they left the cafe and started to roam around the streets.

"Um, Kiberi-san?" He glanced at her.

"Hmm?" She hummed pleasantly, window-shopping at the stores they passed by. He figured she didn't stop to enter any of the shops for his sake.

"Thank you for telling me about my friends," he said earnestly, allowing a small smile to crawl over his face. "And thank you for taking care of me while I was comatose. I probably wasn't a very easy patient."

She grinned. "Oh you definitely weren't, but it's all good. I couldn't just leave you in the middle of the hotel hallway, now could I? Not after all you've done for this world." As an afterthought, she added: "By the way, you can just call me Shiina. I think we're passed the point of strangers after I had to change your pee-bag and whatnot."

His cheeks turned into a furious shade of pink. Dear god. His pee-bag? He couldn't help but wonder what other gross horrors she had to endure while taking care of him and felt his gratefulness, pity, and embarrassment increase tenfold.

"R-right. Thank you, Shiina-san. I guess you can call me Minato too then."

— ❤ —

The next day finally came and Shiina was eager to go home. But not as eager as Minato, whose mind was full of thoughts of seeing his old friends again. After the farewell event at Hawks' agency, the two immediately hightailed it to the nearest bullet train where they spent the next several hours growing increasingly more impatient.

When they finally reached Tokyo, Shiina decided to make a quick stop at Sweetie's Ice Cream Shop to order a special treat from Yusuke. Once it was done, they hurried over to the apartment.

"I'm baaaaaaack~" Shiina sang with a wide smile as she grandly stepped into the apartment. She noticed Ken sitting at the couch and grinned. Good, he was here. "And I brought a surprise~!"

"Is that cake?" Ken quirked a brow at the box she was holding.

"Yep, but that's not the surprise." She said teasingly. She noticed that Koromaru had suddenly stopped playing with his Endeavor chew toy (given to him by yours truly because she enjoyed watching him destroy Endeavor's face) and was now sniffing the air curiously.

"Umm, did you bring us a souvenir?" Akihiko guessed.

"Nope. Not that either!"

"Then what?" The white haired man asked.

Her grin was practically about to split her face at this point. She shoved the cake box into Ken's arms, who stood up to give it to Akihiko, and hurried back out the door and grabbed onto Minato's sleeve, ready to yank him into view. "I bring you... THIS GUY!"

She tugged on Minato harshly, causing him to stumble and crash into her shoulder, but she was too buzzed with excitement to care. Their reactions were hilarious. Koromaru's started to bark like crazy, Akihiko's jaw dropped to the floor and Ken stood frozen for several seconds before he fainted.

"MINATO?!" Akihiko screamed. He rushed over to the pair—stepping over Ken's body in the process—and yanked the guy into the living room. Shiina snickered wildly as she shut the door behind her, watching the scene with great joy.

"Y-you died, you died in Aegis' arms, we all saw, so how—?! What?! We went to your funeral and everything and I even broke down in the middle of my eulogy, how are you alive?! Minato, you're really alive?!" Akihiko spluttered, not at all looking like his regular 'cool dude' self.

"Um—" Minato began to say something about Ken but was interrupted by Akihiko.

"—A-a-are you really Minato? How'd you even—?! Did you resurrect yourself or something, is the world safe, did you beat Erebus or—?! I don't understand!"

"Ken fainted—" Minato said but was interrupted once more.

"—Shiina where the hell did you find this guy?!" Akihiko turned to the girl, eyes bugging out.

She just shrugged. "Saw that some gift shop was selling a Messiah so I decided to buy one."

Akihiko was lost. "W-wha—"

"—Just kidding, Elizabeth lobbed him at me on the first day of my internship. Speaking of that day, why the hell haven't either of you two returned my calls and messages? I've been trying to contact you guys like crazy!" She exclaimed.

Akihiko had the decency to look ashamed. "S-sorry, Ken lost it at the airport and I couldn't my find my phone—"

"—I swear to god if I find it in your car again, I'm gonna burn your entire supply of protein shakes." She threatened.

"I checked my car and it's not there." He said confidently.

Minato looked over at Ken, who was being licked excessively by a determined Koromaru as if that would somehow revive him. "Guys—"

"—Oh really?" Shiina challenged, moving over to the kitchen to grab his car keys. "I'm gonna go check then if you're so certain."

Akihiko crossed his arms and smirked. "Go ahead, but I'm telling you, it's not there."

"Yeah, we'll see about that." With a swish of her hair, she turned around and left the apartment.

Minato sighed for the millionth time. "Ken fainted."

"Huh?" Akihiko whirled around and gasped when he saw the younger boy on the floor. "Shit, help me get him on the couch—wait, are you able to lift him or—?"

"Nope," Minato replied. "Can't." Plus, he was feeling kinda lazy.

A few minutes after Akihiko placed Ken on the couch, Shiina returned with a smug look on her face. "Look what I found wedged between the seats!" She taunted, waving a cellphone around in front of Akihiko's pale face.

"Oh..." He said awkwardly.

"Humph." She tossed it over to him.

"Thanks." He mumbled sheepishly, plugging it to a charger.

"So..." Shiina trailed off, grabbing the cake box from the counter. "Who wants to eat cake while I try my best to explain what the fuck's going on? I had it specially made," she offered, opening the box to show off a large rectangular ice cream cake with the only design being the cursive words in icing reading 'I'M NOT DEAD, YAY!' with a smiley face drawn under it.

Both boys stared hard at the cake, speechless.

Akihiko turned to Minato, who immediately said, "I had no idea she was doing this."

Akihiko just shrugged, accepting the weirdness that was Shiina. "Alright. Shiina, cut up the slices. I'm gonna call everyone to come over here ASAP."

"Won't that take a while?" Minato tilted his head.

The older man snorted. "Not if they're taking a helicopter."

Shiina let out a gasp. "We're going to have guests over?! I gotta get dressed!" She dashed away.

"You're already dressed?!" Akihiko called out to her in pure confusion.

"I can't believe you just said that, you KNOW that I have better outfits than this!" She cried out, followed by a loud slam of a door.

Akihiko sighed.

"Still don't understand girls, huh?" Minato asked knowingly.

"They're a whole different species..."

— ❤ —

Ken woke up a few minutes after Akihiko made the call to his friends and after taking a look at Minato, he looked ready to faint for the second time that day. Thankfully, he didn't and asked him a flurry of questions as Akihiko did. When Minato merely pointed a finger to Shiina as if to say 'ask her', the flurry of questions were directed to her instead, much to her chagrin.

She shoved a fork full of cake into his mouth to silence him. "I'll explain once everyone's here! I don't wanna repeat myself again and again!"

"Okuh," he said, mouth full.

After some time, the old SEES crew finally arrived. Ken went to go open the door, but was immediately shoved aside as a stampede of people flooded in. The first to enter was a young man with a goatee and a baseball cap.

"Where's he at?!" He asked desperately. "Where is he?!"

"Over here," Minato merely raised his hand from where he sat, just chilling on the couch.

The man gawked. "DUDE!" He lunged at him, yanking him up from the couch to put him in a bone-crushing hug.

"Careful!" Shiina squealed with panic, rushing over there in an instant. "He literally just woke up last night!"

The man released a mind-boggled Minato to gasp at her. "It's the mini Mitsu!"

She blinked. "What."

"Junpei, where are your manners?" A familiar young woman scolded.

It's the Pink Argus! Shiina inwardly marveled. She glanced over at Ken, expecting him to go into fanboy mode when she suddenly remembered that they'd known each other for years so he was probably used to seeing her now.

A teal haired woman stepped in next, politely removing her shoes and setting the beside the door. She looked over at Shiina and smiled. "Wow, I've seen you on TV, but you really do kind of look like Mitsuru."

A robotic girl—Aigis, from what she'd been told by Ken—walked in and instantly began scanning her. "That is correct. I see a 51% of similarity between her and Mitsuru-san."

Another robotic girl stepped in beside Aegis. This one had long blueish grey hair tied up in a ponytail. "Ooh, they're right, Mitsuru-san! Come take a look!" She had a noticeable accent to her.

Labrys? Shiina guessed. According to Ken, she was the newest recruit to the Shadow Operatives.

The last person entered the house and quietly shut the door behind her. Judging by her wavy red hair, Shiina knew that this was the Mitsuru everyone was talking about. And she definitely shared some similarities with her. Not too many though. They both had red hair, but Mitsuru's hair was a few shades darker, their skin were fair, they had similar body types, and they were about the same height.

But that was where the similarities ended. Mitsuru's eyes were brown (one of them was covered by her hair), and Shiina had applied a few more curls to her hair. Mitsuru also looked much more mature (duh, she was an adult) while Shiina still had that teenage spirit.

Usually she'd be bothered whenever someone openly stated how she looked like a certain someone they knew, but Shiina didn't mind if the person was Mitsuru. She'd rather be called Mini Mitsu than be reminded of how similar she looked to Endeavor or be mistaken as some psychopath's little sister (Minazuki Sho).

"Hmm, so you must be the mini me I keep hearing about," Mitsuru said with an amused smile. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Kirijo Mitsuru. These are my friends. I apologize for their rowdiness."

Shiina shrugged. "It's fine. I live with two dudes, so I'm used to rowdiness." Actually, now that she thought about it, Akihiko and Ken were both pretty tame compared to most... "It's nice to meet you guys too. I'm Kiberi Shiina."

"Yeah, Akihiko told us about you. How's living with them by the way?" Yukari asked curiously.

"Like living with two moms," Shiina sighed heavily. "Kenny's always making me do my homework and Aki's shoving vegetables in my mouth every meal. Koromaru's the only one who gets me."

Koromaru barked as if to say 'you get me too'.

"Veggies are good for your skin, Shiina," Akihiko said wisely. "You should be grateful. Because of me, you're practically glowing."

"I was glowing before you started your whole vegetable regime." She rolled her eyes.

"Damn," Junpei winced sympathetically. "Vegetables and homework? Must be hell."

Shiina nodded. "It sometimes is."

Mitsuru chuckled before turning her warm brown gaze to Minato, who was smiling a bit as he watched them interact.

"I just can't believe you're alive," she said softly. "How, though?"

Minato merely jutted his chin towards the other redhead. "Shiina will explain over cake."

"Oh, screw you."

Over a delicious helping of cake—where Junpei had a great laugh about the words iced on it—Shiina explained for what felt like the hundredth time how she came upon Minato.

"Sorry," she apologized sheepishly after she finished explaining all she knew. "I feel like if we had just remembered what Elizabeth had told us before we went to Mementos that we'd be better prepared for all of..." She motioned in the air. "All of this."

"Don't be," Yukari snorted. "I'm pretty sure that this isn't what you'd imagined would ever happen."

"Okay, true."

"It's real nice to meet ya, Arisato-san," Labrys chirped. "I've been told stories aboutcha."

"Yeah, I even told her all about that bathhouse incident," Junpei sighed dreamily. "Ah, the good ol' days."

Yukari glared fiercely at him. "Did you tell her about the time where we had Aigis blast your asses out?"

"Shhh, Yuka-tan, have some cake." He gestured to her plate.

"I'm just surprised at how much you've grown up," Minato looked over Ken, who turned beet red from the comment. "Everyone else doesn't look that much different than before, but you grew up a lot."

"Ken-kun's a lot taller now, isn't he?" Fuuka smiled fondly. "I remember when you were barely just five feet."

Ken shot an embarrassed glance at Shiina, who was snickering, and shrunk in his seat. "Guys..."

"How tall are you now?" Minato asked.

"Five foot eleven," Akihiko answered proudly. "He's been drinking a lot of milk."

Minato furrowed his brows. "Aren't you lactose intoler—"

"—D-does anyone want seconds?!!" Ken cut in hastily.

"Nice save," Shiina muttered to him.

"Shut up, you." He grumbled.

"Careful there, Kenny, you're turning red. Don't faint on us again~"

He responded by kicking her under the table.

"Ow!" She said loudly. "Aki, Ken kicked me!"

"Ken," Akihiko gave him a firm look.

"Oh my god." Ken mumbled under his breath.

"What will we do now that Minato is no longer deceased?" Aigis asked out of the blue.

"Whaddya mean, sis?" Labrys asked.

"Minato's records have him as deceased," the blonde reminded everyone.

"That's right," Mitsuru said, troubled. "All your bank accounts have been closed, you probably can't use your ID anymore, and there's lots of other problems now... We'll have to create new documents for you."

Minato frowned. "Do I have to go by a new name?"

"I'm not sure, but I'll handle this so don't worry too much." She told him.

"If you have to change my name, don't make it ridiculous." He pleaded.

She smiled, and nobody knew if it was a devious smile or a reassuring one. "Don't worry." She echoed. "Now all we have to worry about is where you'll stay..."

"He should stay here!" Akihiko grinned broadly. "Shiina found him first so he's practically stuck with us, right?"

"Finders keepers, losers weepers," Ken agreed.

"Is that alright with you, Minato?" Mitsuru asked.

Minato thought deeply. He couldn't go back to the dorm for obvious reasons, and everyone else seemed to have jobs and whatnot. Everyone had moved on without him... It would feel weird living with their adult selves. Ken was still a teenager—and was still younger than him, thank god—and he liked Koromaru's company, and he had Akihiko too. Shiina was really nice to him too, which was a plus. But... there was already a lot of people living in this apartment...

"We got an inflatable mattress," Akihiko said. "Either of us can use it."

"Is it really okay?" He asked unsurely.

"Course it is," Ken said as Koromaru barked affirmatively.

"I'm cool with it too," Shiina grinned excitedly.

After a few more seconds, Minato nodded. "Okay. I'll stay here then."

"Yes!" The three cheered, while Koromaru threw himself onto the boy's lap to celebrate with licks and kisses. Minato chuckled at the affection and ran a hand down his smooth fur.

Mitsuru seemed pleased. "You'll be in for quite a ride. The Phantom Thieves are in the city too."

"The who?"

"I'll explain later," Shiina said, waving a hand.

Minato just shrugged.

The old SEES crew plus Labrys left a few hours later once their helicopter came to pick them up. It was passed midnight by the time they left (they had a long celebration) and the three of them were ready for bed. Koromaru had fallen asleep by eleven o'clock and was now dozing peacefully in his bed beside Ken's.

"I'll take the inflatable mattress," Shiina offered. "Let Minato-kun have the bed, he needs it more."

"No, you should keep the bed," Minato insisted. He felt a bit bad since she had done a lot for him already (he was still trying to keep from thinking about the whole 'pee bag' thing) and he wanted her to sleep in a comfy bed after staying on an old futon for the whole week.

"Nah," she said. "It's fine."

"I don't mind—"

"—I don't mind the mattress either—"

"—Guys," Ken cut in. "Shiina, you keep your bed. Minato-san, you can sleep in my room on my bed. I'll take the inflatable."

"That works the best," Akihiko noted.

Both Minato and Shiina accepted it. They stayed in the living room while Ken and Akihiko left to go prepare the inflatable mattress and move it into the room. Once everything was ready, they all bid each other goodnight.

"Sweet dreams, Minato-kun," Shiina smiled at him.

"You too." He said, feeling a familiar sensation of a bond forming. Everything around him darkened as the sound of glass shattering echoed in his head followed by a familiar voice.

"Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Charity Arcana..."

Everything returned to normal and he blinked as he watched Shiina wave at him before she disappeared into her room.

He quietly walked into his new bedroom where Ken was already settling into bed.

"Nighty night," the younger boy whispered, not wanting to wake up Koromaru.

"Goodnight," Minato whispered back.

A new social link, huh? He thought before his eyes fluttered shut.

— author's note —

For those of you curious about Shiina's new Arcana, it's from the Minchiate deck and here's it's meaning: