Blazing orange, the sun dipped down the horizon on a cool Sunday afternoon. Akihiko hummed as he gleefully came home to the dorm carrying his favorite take out beef bowl. Beyond the entrance was Minako on the sofa, blankly staring at Koromaru who was at her feet tongue out waiting patiently. He greeted the girl who looked sincerely focused on the dog but was greeted back with a cold string of responses that did not make sense. Basically it went like this:
Akihiko: What are you doing?
Minako: Later.
Akihiko: Is Koromaru hungry?
Minako: There in the fridge.
He assumed the girl was on one of her days and decided to wave off the incoherent conversation they just had. She must have been pondering on something so important that it had caused a malfunction in her cognition. He even considered asking Aigis to confer with her. Alas, he gave up and proceeded to the dining area where he unraveled the plastic bag of goodies taking out the bowl of juicy meat topped over the glorious mount of rice to enjoy.
Just when he was about to partake his meals (already saying his graces), Minako pulled the chair in front of him and decided to sit across him. Taking her silence as a sign to continue what he was doing, Akihiko split his bamboo chopsticks and dug in to the bowl, leaning in for the first bite. As expected of beef bowls, Akihiko was tremendously pleased. The soft juicy pile of meat had the same effect as a massage on a very tiring day. Aside from protein shakes and energy bars, Akihiko considered beef bowls to be food of the gods. Not that he was a god, but it just felt like it.
After several bites of his meal, he noticed Minako's gaze fixed down at his bowl. It was either that or she was staring at his chest which also did not seem right. He laid down the tip of his chopsticks slightly lifted against a folded receipt paper―a chopstick holder he had made earlier and began saying, "You okay?"
"Mmm." she replied in a daze.
"You don't look okay."
No reply.
Seeing this wasn't going anywhere, he tried a different approach.
"Is it the shadow you fought last night? You did great despite it being―"
"Aki." Her eyes flew open. Now she was staring directly at him with a very instense look on her face.
"Yeah?"
"Do you..." She shifted as her lower lip folded inward, "Do you remember when we fought that shadow in that love hotel?"
The mention of a love hotel made his face feel hot. But being Akihiko, he fought the urge to burst into a fragment of stutters in contrary to how he confessed to her the day they began dating.
"Yes. What of it?" He replied sternly.
Seeing how Akihiko did not look as alarmed as she was, a wave of shock and embarrasment washed over Minako.
"You mean you haven't thought about it?" she muttered.
"Thought about what?"
She scowled. She slammed the table eyes closed stunning the boy, "Damn it Aki! Why am I the only one bothered about it?!"
"Again, I have no idea what you are talking about." His tone edged. "It's been so long Minako. We've fought several shadows after that. You don't expect me to remember every single one."
Her hands shook. Her face was so crunched up that he was afraid she was going to summon a Persona without an evoker, possibly engulfing him in thunderbolts. And as an electricity user himself, he was afraid of that.
"Fine!" she spread her hands, "I'll tell you because you don't seem to recall about it."
"Are you sure? You don't look like you want to."
Yet despite his naïve remark, she did.
"After we defeated the first shadow that night, there was another shadow in the room that we couldn't find. The next thing we knew, the team was separated, furthermore, charmed by the enemy. When we woke up, we were all clustered in rooms."
"I think I remember that." He leaned back to the chair, "When I got back to my senses, I was with you."
"So you do remember!" She accidentally kicked him under the table.
"Ow!"
She covered her mouth and gave him a peace sign.
"Yes," Akihiko mumbled as he stroke his burning shin, "But I don't remember that much. It was a blur."
Minako pursed her lips, "And yet I always end up remembering most of the things."
Akihiko sat forward, "Really? So what happened?"
Reluctant of the question, Minako managed to recount how she woke up in a haze of voices in her head and realized how she was only in a towel on the bed. And when she came to, Akihiko had come out of the shower, buck naked, saying it was her turn.
As soon as she finished retelling it, she had already turned bright as a tomato.
Catching up on what she was thinking of, Akihiko's cheeks flushed.
"You don't mean.." He hesitated.
"I don't know!" She grunted, "It could mean anything!"
"We didn't spend a long time there did we?"
"Aki, we were both under the shadow's control. Even I couldn't track time."
The unfinished beef bowl called to Akihiko. Suddenly the beef looked so interesting but not in an appetizing way. He reached for the chopsticks resting on the other end, but decided it was best to cater the battle of thoughts at hand.
His mouth tasted like iron. Not sure how he knew the taste of iron. Possibly from all the supplements he's been taking. "You don't think I was...cleaning up, right?"
Minako couldn't quite place the thought considering the pretext of his question. She wanted to say: Of course not!, and move along to another day like this never happened. It was unsettling how she could not remember what they have...not done. Instead, she settled for the nearest neutral answer: I don't know. With a tinge of sadness in her eyes.
Amidst the amnesia begetting dread, hope had somehow come trotting in from the door, carrying bags of newly bought silverware.
"Fuuka!" Minako rushed to help the resigned member who was beginning to resemble a panicked maya (a slob like Shadow) in the dungeon. They both settled the bags at the kitchen counter before the girl melted into the head seat of the table.
Minako offered her a glass of water and proceeded to ask why had she been carrying tins of what looked like cake molds all alone.
"Thank you." Fuuka managed after she inhaled half a glass of water, "It was hard to carry all that from school."
Minako's eyes widened, "You borrowed those from the cooking club?"
Fuuka gave her a side smile, "We are the cooking club, dummy." She gestured to Minako then back at her. "And yes, I did. I thought of using the free day tomorrow to practice baking."
Minako glanced back at Akihiko realizing the kitchen might be in trouble. The two had known of Fuuka's amazing skills in fighting shadows (well mostly detecting them and analyzing their stats, but you get her importance). Among those skills, cooking was an alien to her despite her being the president of the said club.
Having said that, Minako felt responsible in watching over Fuuka to make sure she does not end up combusting herself and the kitchen.
Minako held her hand, "I'll help."
"Really? Oh that would be great! I always have a hard time keeping track of the cups and the timer of the oven."
Not sure how she could miss the timer for the oven, but the mention of keeping track gave Akihiko an idea.
"Hey Yamagishi." he said.
"Yes senpai?"
"Remember that shadow we fought last time? The one in the love hotel."
Minako flinched but managed to keep her nerves to herself.
Fuuka blinked. "Yes. But which one?"
"The one when we all got separated and confused." As if confused was the right word to use while having an intense desire to...nevermind.
The girl jogged in her memory, "Ah yes that one. It was really hard to restore communication for a while there."
"For a while..." repeated Akihiko, "Exactly how long was 'for a while'?"
Minako began sweating behind her thighs. She wasn't sure how her muscles decided to tense up in that certain area, but Fuuka's silence had made her face spasm as she intentionally scanned the living room for anything that could distract her.
Fuuka broke silence. "Considering how there is no certainty of tracking time within the dark hour, I am not sure."
Great, Minako thought.
"But I can tell you it took Lucia seven full scans to reconnect with you."
Minako gulped. "And how long does one scan normally take?"
"About 2 minutes or so."
Relieved sighs escaped from Akihiko and Minako.
Fuuka gasped. "What? Why? What happened?"
"Nothing...nothing happened." Minako said weakly.
"Not in fourteen minutes it won't." snickered Akihiko in which was sniped back by a glare and decides to finish his meal before he says anything else.
Minako faced Fuuka and gave her a tight hug. "Let's leave him to finish his meal. I'll walk you to your room."
Fuuka, who was slightly disoriented, decided not to pry on the matter and stood up with Minako.
Outside Fuuka's room, the girls spoke a little about the baking fest they were about to do the next day and Minako waved as she went back downstairs.
Fuuka rummaged through her bag and pulled out the recipe book she had also borrowed from the library when a hardbound clattered on the floor. She bent to pick it up and realized it was the journal she wrote on for the battles they've had in Tartarus and on Full Moons.
She scanned through the pages and stumbled on the incident Akihiko and Minako had been talking about earlier. While reading, she took a long pause to realize she had forgotten to mention something.
"I did say it takes Lucia normally a good two minutes to make a full scan, but that night wasn't normal."
On that page of her journal, on the night of that full moon, a sentence highlighted in bright pink said: Lucia took eight minutes each scan compared to the usual. Must monitor next scan.
"Let's bathe." And Fuuka strutted out of her room in excitement.