A Scar and Kind Words Chapter 3: Remembrance:
Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3.
Made on: 23 Dec, 2020
Word Count: 1,047 (4,561 overall)
Relationship(s): Yuuki Tougou & Akane Kasai & Shino Kominami,
Characters of Focus: Yuuki Tougou, Akane Kasai, Shino Koinami, Ghost OC,
Metadata: Soulmate-Identifying Marks (AKA: Soulmate AU), Ghosts (of course), Mystery, Canonical Character Death,
Setting Canon and post-canon,
Warnings: Major Spoilers in Chapter 3 for the ending of the game, There's hint of spoilers for the last chapter throughtout but not anything that gives it away (minus chapter 3)
Beginning Authors Note: Last chapter time! This is the one with SPOILERS to chapter 7 of the game and has major character death! Proceed with caution! (or don't! I can't control what you do!)
“honor it with a touch of pain from thy hand and pluck it. I fear lest the day end before I am aware, and the time of offering go by.” -flower, Rabindranath Tagore
“I love you.” Shino whispers, laying on Akane’s lap with her hands grasped in the others.
“Please, please Shino—”
Akane's right wrist glowed a solemn blue and then Shino was gone, leaving only her skeleton.
Yuuki shuffled into the clubroom, watching Akane out of the corner of his eye.
“We should really clean up in here.” he announced to the room, glancing at the overflowing storage before turning his attention back to the figure at the table.
Akane's reply is unintelligible with her face still pressed into the table.
Yuuki waits a few more seconds before sighing and sitting down in the chair next to Akane.
“Akane, I—” Yuuki paused, “I'm here for you. Shino— Shino meant a lot to both of us, but it's been almost a month. She wouldn't want us to be all moody about her forever.”
Akane mumbled something into the table again.
“I know it's hard to, but we got to do something.” he stood up, “We could open up the forums again, or make the next newspaper, or, um, or just clean up the clubroom, but we got to do something.”
Akane lifts her head up slightly, still avoiding eye contact, and whispers, “Ok.”
Yuuki smiles at her, “Alright, what do you want to do?”
Yuuki honestly wasn't sure how the clubroom even got this messy.
Sure it was used partly for storage by other classes and clubs, but some of these boxes didn't even belong here.
Not to mention it was their second day cleaning up and they're less then half way through all of the litter.
“Hey, look!” Akane announced, sitting on the floor with a box open in her lap, “Some old art!”
“Oh,” Yuuki grinned and held his hands out, “Let me see.”
It was old, he could tell from the thick dust and yellowed edges, and inside the box papers upon papers of art from one of the classes.
Some of the art pieces were silly, a guy with a billion kittens, or a ghost in a present box.
Some of them were incredible, detailed and shaded in a way that made the drawings look almost real.
Some were sad, with red or black coloring and weird twisted body parts.
And some were of soul marks.
“Aw, how cute!” Akane remarked, holding up a picture of a cartoon bird on someone's foot.
Yuuki was glad she was smiling again, even if it wasn't as big or as joyful as it was before.
“Look at this,” he pulls one off of the stack, it's a cute puppy on someone's leg, accidentally knocking a few papers over while doing so.
“Hey, wait.” Akane grabs one of the scattered papers, “Don't these's— oh.”
Yuuki sets down his paper. “What's up?”
“Look.”
She turns the paper around and, ah—
It was a drawing of a girl's hands outstretched so you could see the inside of her wrists. one the left there was a red sunflower, and on the right a yellow acacia.
It was Shino's marks.
“These pieces are that old huh.” Akane mutters, “It's nice that she chooses these— oh, Yuuki.”
She reaches out, setting the picture gently on the floor where they sit, and brushes the tears off of Yuuki's cheek.
“Akane,” he touches his own cheek, sniffling, “I'm sorry, I didn't— oof!”
Akane suddenly wraps her arms around him and gently squeezes.
“Hey, it's ok.” Now he's really crying, “shhh, I know.”
They sit like that for a while, Akane rubbing Yuuki's back and Yuuki squeezing Akane. when Akane pulls back Yuuki can see that her cheeks are wet as well. Akane rubs her eyes and nose before looking up. They stare at each other for a couple of minutes until it becomes too much for him and Yuuki busies himself with rubbing his own eyes.
“I'm sorry,” he sniffs, “I wanted to stay strong for you, but I ended up making you sad.”
“Aw, Yuuki,” Akane smiles with a touch of sorrow, “you can try and be strong if you want to, but you gotta have time for yourself. I don't need you to be strong all the time." she waves her hands a bit before bringing them back to her chest, "You can cry as much as you want and I certainly don't mind helping you. You've already helped me a lot.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.” she scoots closer to him, leaning her weight onto his side, “You got me to do something, didn't you? I'm sure Shino would be proud, I am.”
Yuuki tears started up again, “I just, I still really miss her.”
“I do too, but we'll help each other through this.” Akane pulls back a bit in order to look at him and grins despite her glossy eyes, “We'll help more people and we'll never forget her, never ever.”
Yuuki clasps Akane's outstretched hand, “Yeah, we'll do great.”
They smile at each other, the previous sadness disregarded for a while, but not forgotten. Yuuki and Akane hug again, surrounded by forgotten paintings and the soft light from the window.
“And there!” Akane announced, adjusting the picture frame one last time and placing her bunny in front of it, “Doesn't it look lovely.”
“It sure does.” Yuuki stares hard at Shino's art, “You picked out a good frame!”
“Of course I did!” Akane puffs up, jutting her chest and chin forward, “Only the best for the best art!”
“Of course.” Yuuki sighs fondly, “Should we look at the forms then?”
“Yeah! Let's get into it!”
“Oh, Yuuki senpai! Who's this other girl in this picture?”
“Huh?” Yuuki looks up from his phone to look at Rin, the newest club member, “Here, let me see.”
Rin hands the picture over, brushing her green hair out of her eyes with her other hand and rocking slightly on her heels.
“Oh, I was wondering where this went.”
The picture was taken by Akane, who was somehow hogging the camera and also pushing against Yuuki's cheek with her free hand. In-between them was— “This is Shino,” Yuuki points, “She was the club president before Akane. She's also our soulmate.”
“Oh!” Rin leans forward, “She looks nice! Can I see her mark?”
“Of course!” Yuuki lifts his left sleeve and there sits a scared over blue spider Lily.
End Author Notes:Finally,,, I have this chapter posted,,,
I didnt end up changing as much as I thought I would, so sorry about how long it took for me too come out with this.
I'll probably write another MF&7R fic,, someday :P
(I have an idea for a reverse!AU where akane and yuuki are ghosts while shino is a normal human but who knows if I'll ever get to writing all that,, plus I have a bunch of persona 2 fics I wanna write before that oof)
If you ever want to talk about MF&7R feel free to comment here! I also work on the MF&7R wiki (same name) so you can also talk to me there :)
I hope you all enjoyed this! hopefully I'll see you soon!
RETURN TO MF&7R ARCHIVE, FIC ON AO3.