robin

Having to move to another city to enroll in one of central Tokyo's most prestigious universities had never really been a problem. You adapted quickly to your part-time job at the ramen shop, where the kind owner also offered you a roof over your head. Before you even realized it, you found yourself sharing your days with a black cat who revealed the power tied to your soul.

Being a Persona user had brought both misfortune and precious moments into your life. Through it, you met other students burdened with the same fate, sharing the weight of your mistakes and the consequences of every decision together.

You had lived too much.

Well... in truth, you'd been given the chance to start over after a black carriage struck you one night while you were heading to a nearby laundromat, your laundry basket overflowing with clothes that needed washing.

Arriving in Twisted Wonderland wasn't all that different from your life in Tokyo. Once again, you had a talking cat by your side—one who caused far more trouble than he ever solved; an old man—considerably less trustworthy than the last one—who gave you a damp, dust-covered room to sleep in; and, of course, a group of friends who were just as troublesome as they were dear to you, whom you met only a few days after arriving in that strange new world.

Oh, and there were the Overblots, though they never truly frightened you. After your first battle against a monster in that long-abandoned mine, you discovered that the power still remained within you—and that you could still summon it, even in a world completely different from your own.

And naturally, the dorm leader fighting beside you noticed the majestic entity rising behind your back, nearly as massive as the Phantom looming behind the Overblot you were trying to stop. Yet despite its overwhelming presence, your expression remained perfectly calm.

Riddle

♡ The crimson leader was utterly astonished. While everyone else chose to run away and hide, selfishly protecting themselves, you stood your ground before the Overblot—one notoriously taller and far more dangerous than your small frame.

♡ He had faint, blurry memories of that very same expression you wore now before the Ink Lion: your narrowed gaze fixed unwaveringly on the target you were determined to stop. You were so resolute that not even Leona's deafening roar made you flinch.

♡ With the same determination, he took his place beside you, gripping his staff tightly, ready to fight at your side.

♡ Out of the corner of his eye, he couldn't help but notice how tightly you clutched the weapon you carried everywhere around the school under the excuse of it being for self-defense—and how your hands still trembled around the trigger. Riddle trusted that you would never hurt anyone with it.

♡ What he never expected was to see you raise it directly to your own head without the slightest hesitation after shouting, "Persona!"

♡ He barely had time to react, fear gripping him over whatever might happen next. His surprise only grew when blue flames burst forth, forcing him backward and halting his movements.

♡ His eyes lit up as an entity nearly as massive as Leona's Phantom emerged behind you, obeying every one of your commands without hesitation. He noticed how lost you seemed within yourself, yet even then, you never stopped worrying about the people around you.

♡ The moment the battle ended with you standing victorious, Riddle hurried to catch you in his arms before you could collapse to the ground. You had exhausted far too much energy, and your anxiety had consumed you beyond what your body could endure.

♡ Without a doubt, once you had fully recovered, the two of you would have a very long conversation about that "magic" you seemed to wield—and how deeply it was intertwined with your very soul.

Leona

♡ The lion had never been one to look after others. Yet, a part of himself quietly urged him to do just that. So when Azul's Overblot spiraled out of control, Leona was the one who chose to remain on the front lines and stop the prideful octopus.

♡ He never expected a mere herbivore—someone he barely knew and who was already causing him more trouble than he cared to deal with—to flatly refuse his order to leave. And while he wasn't about to turn down an extra pair of hands, what truly caught him off guard was the moment you drew the weapon that always rested at your right hip.

♡ What happened next was almost impossible to believe. Without the slightest hesitation, you raised the weapon, pulled the trigger with conviction, and shouted, "Persona!"

♡ Leona held his ground for as long as he could, keeping his eyes on you as blue flames engulfed your body, leaving only your glowing eyes visible. All he could hope was that, whatever this turned out to be, it wouldn't become a problem on the same scale as the Overblot.

♡ When he was finally able to look up, he found a grotesque-looking entity standing behind you. Despite its terrifying appearance, it seemed to acknowledge only your voice, obeying every command you gave without question as it mercilessly attacked the Overblot before it.

♡ His muscles tensed as he watched you issue each command with unwavering confidence and calm precision. You moved as though this was far from your first time doing something like this—a detail that certainly didn't escape the dorm leader's notice.

♡ Once everything had settled, Leona pulled you aside to a secluded spot so the two of you could talk about what he had just witnessed. Had you lied to them about who—or what—you really were?

♡ That was when you told him the story of your life before arriving in this world: how you had constantly fought to stop disasters caused by others, risking yourself to protect people while never expecting anything in return. Leona found himself at a loss for words. Even for someone who had grown up surrounded by magic, what you described sounded utterly unbelievable.

♡ Even so, he chose to stay by your side and help however he could. From what he had come to understand, the path you walked was one filled with danger—and he wasn't about to let you face it alone.

Azul

♡ The heart-wrenching scream that tore from your throat snapped him out of his thoughts. Azul had been so absorbed by the Overblot before him—and by the plan he was already devising—that he had barely noticed your presence behind him.

♡ The moment his eyes landed on you, he had to shield his face from the intense wave of scorching air radiating from your body. Through narrowed eyes, he watched as your school uniform transformed, changing before his very eyes while the blue flames surrounding you slowly faded away.

♡ He didn't even have the chance to speak before his pupils shrank. Without realizing it, he instinctively took a step back at the sight of the figure that had appeared behind you—an imposing entity that seemed to mirror your every movement.

♡ He remembered very little of what happened afterward; the memories were frustratingly blurred. But one thing he was absolutely certain of was that the graceful fighter before him was the very same prefect from another world.

♡ For weeks afterward, Azul couldn't get those events out of his mind, even after everyone else had stopped talking about them. As far as he understood, you didn't possess even a trace of magic. So then... how had you—

♡ After conducting an extensive investigation through methods that were... ethically questionable, yet remarkably effective, he finally decided to pay a visit to the abandoned dormitory. He had been fully prepared to strike any kind of contract if that was what it took to learn the truth behind what had happened that day.

♡ As it turned out, there was no need. The moment he arrived and asked his question, you simply invited him inside, and before he knew it, he was sitting in the dorm's lounge, quietly listening as you told him your story.

♡ He hadn't known you could speak so well with black cats, too. Though yours seemed considerably grumpier than Lucius.

Kalim

♡ Before anything else, Scarabia's sun thought only of protecting you from Jamil's Overblot—the very one he had unknowingly caused. Kalim knew you could take care of yourself, but what kind of person would he be if, once again, he let others bear the consequences of his own mistakes?

♡ Although he felt proud to hear you refuse to leave him to fight alone against the monster his right-hand man had become, worry gripped him once more as he watched you step forward to claim your place on the battlefield against the boy blinded by blot.

♡ He tried to pull you back and create some distance to keep you out of danger, but a powerful gust of wind erupted from your direction, pushing him back several feet. The force was so strong that he instinctively shielded his face and squeezed his eyes shut.

♡ When he finally opened them again, the world had been bathed in an eerie blue glow from the flames pouring out of your body. He noticed that your school uniform had changed, and that you were holding a mask tightly in your hand before slowly placing it over your face.

♡ What followed was a battle unlike anything he had ever witnessed, not even in the most fantastical movies. The entity standing behind you mirrored your every movement with unwavering precision, obeying each of your commands without the slightest hesitation. Kalim could only stare in stunned amazement, his mouth hanging open at the unbelievable sight unfolding before his eyes.

♡ And of course, once everything had finally settled down, Kalim wasted no time visiting your dorm to ask what had happened and what all of that had been. If you were Overblotting as well, then you needed to tell him as soon as possible so he could find you help before you ended up like the others.

♡ A few weeks later, when things had finally calmed down, Kalim couldn't help telling everyone just how incredible you had been in battle—while doing his best to keep your secret safe.

Vil

♡ The leader of Pomefiore had heard about your achievements against the previous Overblots that had occurred at the school, but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't understand how a human with no trace of magic could possess enough strength to stand against the black blot.

♡ It wasn't until he was personally caught up in the battle against Idia that he finally realized why. You never backed down—instead, you rushed headfirst into the fight without a hint of fear.

♡ Vil didn't stop you when you hurried to fight alongside him, though his curiosity wasn't enough to let him allow you to put yourself in more danger than you could handle. His wand remained at the ready, prepared to strike the moment it became necessary.

♡ The deafening crash, accompanied by your piercing scream, was what finally made him react.

♡ You looked like something straight out of a movie scene. No special effects could ever compare to how magnificent the blue flames looked as they engulfed you.

♡ And then he understood your power when he saw the entity standing behind you. It resembled the Phantoms he had only ever read about in ancient magic books, yet it also seemed far more subdued and sorrowful than any of them.

♡ Some time later, once peace had returned, the dorm leader summoned you to the library. You found him waiting beside a small stack of books, all of them about the Phantoms of his world, eager to learn more about the being that seemed so deeply connected to you.

♡ Everything finally made sense once you explained that it was tied to your soul and the way your mind worked.

♡ So that was why your Persona seemed so melancholic...

Idia

♡ For the love of the Great Seven, you had almost given him a heart attack. Right in the middle of the battle against Malleus's Overblot, he caught you pressing a gun to your temple—one he hadn't even realized you'd been carrying beneath your uniform vest this whole time.

♡ His fingers flew across his keyboard with the same speed he used to snag limited-edition merch online, desperately trying to stop whatever you were about to do. But your movements were faster.

♡ He barely had time to react when you shouted, "Persona!" An entity that looked like the final boss of a turn-based RPG materialized behind you, standing tall without a hint of fear.

♡ The battle ended before he could even process what had just happened. By the time he'd finally started piecing everything together, the Overblot had already vanished. Once life returned to something resembling normal, he asked to speak with you in private about what seemed to be something only he had noticed—everyone else was convinced that Idia himself had somehow programmed the Phantom.

♡ Wait... seriously? Everything you were telling him was actually real? This was a goldmine. Your story could become an entire RPG franchise. Hold on a second—he needed to grab his tablet before you continued so he could write down every single idea and anecdote you had.

♡ After the biggest scare of his life had finally worn off, the explanation you gave him about how every Phantom you could summon was tied to a different facet of your psyche completely captured his attention. It felt just like one of those games where you had to collect dozens of rare and unique companions to complete the entire roster.

♡ Oh, and of course, he was absolutely fascinated when you explained how the switching system between them actually worked.

♡ ...Are you absolutely sure he couldn't have one? You know... without having to risk his life every time he tried to summon it?

Malleus

♡ The dragon had encountered countless warriors who never feared battle, each possessing the courage that a seasoned fighter needed to keep under control in order to continue fighting with honor. But you... You were merely a human who refused to run from trouble, choosing instead to face it head-on without asking anyone for help.

♡ Needless to say, you had done more than simply catch his attention—you had awakened a deep curiosity within him. You were as fragile as any magicless human, and yet you hadn't taken even a single step back when the Overblot erupted right before your eyes.

♡ From your hip, you drew a weapon. Malleus watched with quiet anticipation, waiting to see what you would do next. For the first time in a long while, the serious expression he always wore faltered when you suddenly pressed the weapon against the side of your head and shouted, "Persona!" with a strength he had never heard from you before.

♡ What followed was seeing you engulfed in flames, much like the fire that surrounded him whenever he appeared somewhere. But your flames were warm, shimmering in shades of blue as they completely enveloped you before revealing your face once more. Behind you, an imposing figure rose into view.

♡ Malleus hadn't realized that this was how human weapons worked... He would have to ask Lilia about it later.

♡ And a few days later, while recounting the incident to Lilia, he watched in confusion as the older fae let out a startled cry, his face turning pale with horror. It was then that Malleus realized this was probably not something normal after all.

♡ That very night, he appeared in the garden outside your dormitory window, still full of questions. Lilia had practically forced him to go and make sure that his Child of Man was still alive.

♡ You couldn't help but laugh at Malleus's innocence. Sometimes, his lack of understanding when it came to human matters was almost unbelievable. Even so, you patiently explained everything that had happened.

♡ He listened attentively, asking question after question whenever something confused him. By the end of your explanation, he fully understood that your Persona was deeply connected to both your mind and your soul. Though he never voiced it aloud, he had noticed that the beings who appeared alongside you carried an unmistakable air of melancholy... and, quietly, he resolved to find a way to help you bear that burden.

"Do you believe in a God, doctor?"

The man by your bedside looked at you-- as if he wasn't looking at you already--- his fingers twitching with every swift movement of the wind flowing through the open window. He smiles. In a way you've seen many times before.

"Yes." His voice always carried a certain kind of gravitas that pulled you in every time he opened his mouth. Your eyes widen only slightly. Your limbs felt weak and frail. Your neck hurt to twist and look at him.

You barely went on the walks that Doctor Kitazoto would invite you to. The lack of moving made you have little to no energy to do damn near anything. So he instead prompts to sit by your hospital bed. You didn't mind. It wasn't anything you cared about, really.

"Is that so?" You questioned. "I didn't take you for someone to believe in God." He sets down his chart. Straightening his posture only slightly.

"What you asked was if I believed in a God. Not any specific God." He sounds like he's holding back a chuckle. As if you've just cracked a joke he hadn't heard in years, and yet it still hits the same. You roll your eyes at his response. "I do believe that there might be some bigger force out there responsible for all of this. However, that's something I wouldn't want to think too much about."

You simply nodded. Fluttering your eyelids close. Each time you drifted off to sleep, you'd hope not to wake up. You weren't sure where the sudden lack of passion came from. It's another one of those things that happen without you having any say.

You've heard the many chatters all around Shibuya. About people being as sad as they could be, giving up their lives for no apparent reason. For no reason other than to escape the cycle of boredom that they were constantly repeating.

And that's exactly how you ended up here. At a local hospital right in Tokyo. You were hospitalised a couple months ago, though you've been in and out of the hospital since you were younger. Multiple treatments, medicine that was way too big for your weak, frail body to drink. Eventually you just gave up. The repertoire of life was tiring. You wouldn't really mind stopping everything and having a long, long sleep. Get some rest.

It was only about a week ago that you were admitted into Doctor Kitazato's hospital. You had a problem with your heart.

Coronary Artery Disease-- as they call it. A nuisance, is how you would describe it. Only making things harder for everyone around you. Down to the last nurse that would that fed you your meds. A blockage in an artery in your heart. How you had gotten it was a mystery. Your Doctor explained it a bunch of times, you never listened, you were always too busy zoning out to listen. Your mom would take care of it, she'd tell the doctor anything he needed to know, she was the backbone as to why you were still alive.

Even now that he would lead your routinely checkups. You stayed quiet during all of it. Which is why your doctor had to go to you personally, he spent half an hour of his time sat on the chair placed right by your bed. Another nuisance, but you could deal with it. He was really only doing his job.

He stood up, the wood of the chair scraping on the porcelain floor. "I have to go."

You nodded. Eyes still closed, trying to drift off to a deep slumber. Until you felt something light drop on your stomach. You fluttered your eyes open, gripping the edge of the paper with your thumb and forefinger. You held it up in front of you. The brightness of the ceiling light shined through the flimsy form.

Informed Consent to Surgery

Your eyes darted up at him in an instant. "Surgery?" Was all that meek little voice could muster out. He nodded once, hands snug behind his back. "Coronary artery bypass surgery." You widen your eyes. Stuttering over your breath.

"Oh" you whispered out. He nodded once more.

"We'll create a new path for your blood to go around the blocked artery in your heart."

You shook your head, your free hand coming up to rub on the bridge of your nose.

"We'll take a healthy blood vessel from your leg, the vessel will then be connected below the blocked heart artery. It is and open heart surgery, so it might be invasive and extremely vulnerable, but you would be sedated the entire time so there's nothing much to worry about."

"Doc--"

"Worry not, I have asked only the best cardiovascular surgeons of this hospital. And I myself will also be shadowing in the surgery, I just need you to sign the consent fo--"

"Stop it." You swallowed the lump of nervousness down your throat. You took a deep breath, unsure of how to break the news. The way Doctor Kitazoto seemed fairly optimistic that the surgery will work with little to no risks made him fairly excited. To you though, the complete opposite. "I don't want the surgery." You sighed out.

"Y/n please." Blurring the line between being stern and desperation. "We talked about this, you cannot just refuse treatment and wither away in pain." He sat back down, hands folded on his lap.

"Doc, I just.." you turned your head as to not look at him. "I just don't really see the point in continuing treatment." You shrugged. It was as simple as that, you didn't want to keep on living, so you'll just stop any useless medications or exercises that'll only waste your time and the hospital's resources. Nothing good was really going on in your life either, so it was really a win win on your part.

Kira however, oh Kira. It was not a win win if Kira would be involved. And when it comes to your case, he is very involved. He's a lot more involved than your own mother is; besides paying any and all medical expenses and force feeding you medicine you don't want to take. Doctor Kira Kitazoto is the one person who seems to be concerned about you.

See, he has this.. obsession towards you. You're right at his comfort zone. It doesn't make sense in the slightest but he's not one to worry. You entered his life around late spring about a year ago. Any outsider looking in would think that he started out as your doctor. It's quite the opposite, he was never assigned to you.

He originally saw you walking up and down the hallway outside of his office. Shifting your weight on each foot in a nervous wreck. You bumped into him by accident. Profusely apologising, and it sort of spiralled from there. You looked at your charts one day, and the doctor that you were supposed to meet with had suddenly been replaced with the man that would always steer suspiciously close behind you.

It wasn't too difficult to blackmail that original doctor into giving you his patient charts. And to not mention anything about it. That came as easy as reading a book. And so was charming you into opening up to him.

"I would like to request to leave, doctor." You smiled, it wasn't a sad smile, like the many that he has seen before. It was one of serenity, knowing. Like you held the secret to inner peace.. yet that was death.

Inner peace is impossible to achieve, not unless there are things that you're ready to give up. Your life could very well be one of them. If death is something that'll put you at rest, then so be it.

For a beat, he didn't speak. Only stared at you with a half-diminished face. Disappointment. Expectingly. As if you weren't the first to say that. And you weren't. He fully expected you to be much like his other patients. Those who have lost the will to live.

"No." Another beat.

"No..?"

"No as in, no, I refuse to let you die." A fact. He didn't spend all those hours getting to know you, disguising the deepest, most personal questions as a friendly jab. He kept track of everything you took, every pill bottle you've gone through, maybe even kept it. He knew every little detail about you, months of so-called investigating had to pay off. He planned to do something after you've recovered from the surgery. Perhaps offer to buy you a drink.

He wasn't going to let that go to waste.

"I apologise Y/n, but you're a patient under my care, and I would hate to see my own patient lose their will to live."

Your face morphs into shock, regret. "Waitwaitwait, it's nothing about you. It's just something that I've been thinking about for a long time."

For a long time, huh?

But that's only because you've never met him!

"Please doc, grant a wish from a dying girl, won't you?' You let out a soft laugh. Hoisting yourself into a sitting position. Reaching for your phone somewhere in your bag. "It's not like it's illegal or anything."

"Will--" Beat. "Will you let me drive you home?"

"Well that's.. that's nice of you to offer doc, but I really wouldn't want to trouble you." You scratched the back of your neck.

"Nonsense." The smallest grin you could see was etching onto his face. "I have my lunch break in half an hour. I'll drop you off."

You gave him the slightest bow of your head in gratitude. The sparks are flying, aren't they?

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"Does this mean you won't be taking your medicine anymore?" He asked form the driver's seat. Eyes meeting yours through the rearview mirror. You shook your head. Eyes growing heavier, you spent hours filling up paperwork just to leave the hospital.

"I want to spend the couple of years of my life not surrounded by the smell of sterile metal and uncanny white furniture." You laugh out. Kira didn't seem to find it funny. Not at all. Not when the patient he's been so obsessed has little left to live. That is, little time, and very little reason to.

For the entire drive home he's been thinking. Eyebrows furrowed and lips in a tight frown. Wondering to himself what he could say to make you stay. "In my personal opinion, Y/n, I believe since you have a higher chance living a longer life, it's better if you just do it." He's not worried about coming off too strong. If you couldn't accept him as that, then he's happy not to waste any more time on you. "I do not want you to die."

Your smile was unwavering. It seemed you couldn't tell the deeper intention behind his words. "I appreciate you worrying about me doc--"

"Please, Kira is good enough."

"Oh right, since you're not my doctor anymore." You joked, earning a strained look on his face. Hiding the grimace he so desperately wanted to show. The uneasiness peaking up his stomach. That along with another feeling. Like a need. A need for him to keep you for himself. Something darker than he'd ever imagine.

"Anyway, I appreciate you worrying about me, Kira. But this is a decision I'd like to stick with."

He stayed silent for another minute or two. Before he stops at the side of the road, parking right near the sidewalk. Your head darted right at him. Confused, and admittedly, a bit scared. He sighed, slumping down further to his seat.

"Y/n, why exactly do you want to die so desperately?" He still wasn't looking at you.

"It... not desperately, I just.. it just seems right." You tried your best to explain, something you've always found as difficult to do. It was far from easy processing what you were feeling into words.

"Seems right?" He parroted, you nodded.

"I don't know." You shook your head in defeat. "I really don't know, just something that I've been thinking about." You shuddered, before you turned to him. "Listen doc-- ah, Kira. I truly, truly love that you're concerned about me, but please respect my wishes."

He remained quiet once again. Before stepping on the gas pedal, driving up the road slowly, continuing the commute to your house. "No."

You shifted your gaze to the road, the road back to your house. Speaking of, you don't remember telling him your address. Well, he probably saw it on your file, right?

"I don't want to see you die, so I'm not going to let you die." He said as a matter of fact. "I don't care if you refuse surgery, you can live your life with enough medication."

You held onto your seatbelt.

"Outside of the pain that you'd experience every once in a while, at least you won't die in about ten months time."

You shook your head. "You don't know that."

"Then get the surgery."

'Do--.. Kira, trust me, it's fine, this is what I want."

"No it isn't," he raised his voice, "I've seen this before.. people suddenly losing their will to live, it's been about ten of my patients that have said the same exact thing that you have." He tells you. Something you find hard to believe.

"What.. do you mean?" You slowly look up at him.

"Something's happened, and it's making everyone suicidal."

You look at him in disbelief. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, I don't want to see you turn like them."

"I'm not, I've been like this for a long time."

He slammed both of his fists onto the top part of the steering wheel. Making you jump in your seat in shock. The grip on your seatbelt tighter. "That's what all ten of them told me."

You sighed out, scared. Did you believe him? You couldn't tell. There's no reason for such a doctor like him to lie. He loves to play pranks on people, but you didn't take him for the type of person to lie about something as serious as this.

"So no, I'd prefer not for you to die. And I don't care if you wholeheartedly believe that you want to die. Do the surgery." His tone getting louder with every last word. "Your mother has enough money to pay for it."

You stayed silent. You really didn't want to think too much about it. You didn't think living would be this boring. This spoiled.

And yet. This man beside you, begging for his life for you not to die. Wanting so desperately for you to live. "I'll uh, I'll think about it."

And that seemed to be enough for him.

"Keep your word."

You nodded. He inched closer to you, face impossibly close yet still so far apart. His eyes bore into yours, half lidded and lazy.

"Run if you want, if you so have the courage to. But I'll track you down to the ends of the earth. Keep that in mind."

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