2025-08-31: Her Place in This World
- Cutscene: 2025-08-31: Her Place in This World
- Cast: Minako Arisato
- Where: Tatsumi Port Island
- OOC Date: August 31, 2025
- IC Date: Wed, Jul 04 2012
- Summary: After the SEES operation to rescue Fuuka Yamagishi, Minako pays a visit to her parents' graves. She finds she doesn't have the words she needed... and never did.
"Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad."
Minako stood before the gravestone, hands tight around the leather strap of her bag. Standing there in her Gekkoukan uniform, looking at the gravestone, she tried to think of what to say. Her knuckles whitened as she tried to find some words. She didn't come to the small cemetery on Tatsumi Port Island often. She liked to tell herself that was because she lived so far away from Port Island, but when she lived in Sumaru, it wasn't that long of a train ride away. She liked to tell herself that it was because she was busy with school, but she somehow always managed to be busy on her breaks. She liked to tell herself that it was busy because of SEES's work, but they had saved Yamagishi-san and things evened out.
The names on the smooth, polished gravestone looked back at her like an accusation: DAISUKE ARISATO and NATSUKI ARISATO.
The redheaded girl swallowed. She came alone, not quite knowing how to navigate having her brother here. She needed to do this alone, she told herself. But the truth was, Minako wasn't sure what she was supposed to do or say. Looking at the gravestone, it proved impossible for Minako to think of anything other than the last time that she saw them. Her father slumped lifelessly over the steering well, and his neck at a terrible angle. Her mother, who threw herself over Minako, and the way shrapnel had embedded into her back. Minako closed her eyes, like it could banish the remembered sights.
It felt like such a betrayal. They had been kind, loving parents. They deserved to be remembered for their smiles, for everything they did for her, and for their love. But those memories felt distant and empty, like they were on the verge of slipping away from her. What could she say to them, to try to make that right?
"Minato-kun is... he's doing better," she said. "He..."
The words fell apart. They took care of her -- her mother had thrown herself over Minako, so she could live -- and she was supposed to protect her brother and help him. But in the end, even if she had encouraged him to stay behind, he came to their rescue in Tartarus. He was moving ahead with his life -- hurt, maybe, but he could let those feelings show. She had to keep them inside. She smiled down at the grave stone.
"...he's all right."
She finished lamely and then looked down. She tried to think of what else to say. "I've made friends, maybe," she said. The qualifier felt so pathetic to voice aloud. "Amamiya-san. And Takeba-chan. They're..." But how could she encapsulate that? And could she really call them friends? She tried to imagine her parents meeting either of them. It came up blank -- like a canvas she couldn't fill in. Her words came more automatically, than out of any real sentiment. "...I think you'd like them."
Her smile faded as she looked down at their names. Her fingers curled tighter around the strap of her bookbag, until her knuckles whitened.
"We saved Yamagishi-san," she said quietly. "I thought it might... it might pay it forward. What you did for me, Mom." She hesitated for a second. "I tried to do my best. I said I--I don't want to look away again. The way I..." The way she kept looking away from the both of them and what it meant for her life. She couldn't voice those words, though. The thought that she did this for her dead parents, rather than it being the right thing to do. After everything she said to Takeba, to Yamagishi, to everyone, it felt like a betrayal of them and herself. It felt like a betrayal of Yamagishi. Saving her should have been about saving her. Her eyes squeezed shut.
She knew what her mother's sacrifice meant. Why she must have died, and what it meant for Minako Arisato. She knew her place in the world, and it felt heavier under grey and cloudy skies that promised rain that wouldn't come.
"...I'm sorry. I'll look after him," she said. "I'll look after all of them. You can count on me."