Chapter Text
When graduation day arrived, Ren almost didn’t go. As he heard everyone else in the dorm leaving for school, he stayed holed up in his room.
Eventually Morgana asked him, “Aren’t you going to head to the school?”
Ren had been curled up on the bed, staring blankly at the wall. At Morgana’s prompting, he muttered, “What’s the point? They don’t remember.”
“They will,” Morgana insisted. “The whole reason they promised to meet at the school on graduation day was because it’s somewhere important they’re already going. So going there should remind them of the promise.” When Ren didn’t react at all, Morgana added, “Minato remembers, so he’ll be there. You could at least wait with him.”
Stubbornly, Ren mumbled, “I don’ wanna.”
Ren heard a tiny sigh, then felt Morgana nuzzling up against him. After a moment, the cat said quietly, “Minato…really hasn’t been looking good, these last couple of days. This might be your last chance to say goodbye.”
It took a moment for Ren to realize what Morgana was implying. Then he sat bolt upright, sending Morgana tumbling across the blanket. “Wait, you mean he’s…now? Today?”
Morgana scrambled upright, then answered solemnly, “I can’t be sure, but…probably.”
Ren grimaced as he tried to figure out what to do. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about what Minato had done. Some weird mix of mad, sad, guilty, shocked, disbelieving, and a bunch of other things has been roiling about in his head since he last talked to Minato. And he still wasn’t able to forgive Minato or accept what was happening. But if this really was the end, did he want to leave things like this? Would he regret it more if he went or if he stayed away?
Finally Ren nodded. “You’re right,” he said quietly. “I should at least see him one more time.” So he scooped up Morgana and they made their way to the high school.
Ren had never been to Gekkoukan High during the daytime, so he didn’t actually know how to get to the roof. Going up the first stairway he found just led to the third floor, and he had to wander around that for a bit until he found the one stairway that led farther up.
When he opened the door to the roof, he found a space that was much more welcoming than Shujin’s roof. It was big, open, and clean, with a few planters and benches along one side. On one of the benches two people were waiting: Aigis was sitting upright, and Minato was laying across the bench with his head on Aigis’s lap.
Aigis looked up as the door opened, and when Ren drew closer, holding Morgana in his arms, Aigis said, “You came. Do you remember, then?”
Ren nodded. “Yeah. Morgana remembered the whole time, and I remembered as soon as he talked to me. So you do, too?”
“Yes,” Aigis said simply. Glancing at the door, she said, “We will wait for the rest of SEES to join us.”
She didn’t say when she’d remembered. As Ren was considering whether he wanted to ask, Minato turned his head slightly towards Ren and said, “Hey.”
Ren looked down at Minato and immediately felt alarmed. Now that he got a good look, he could see Minato was as pale as a ghost. His eyes were only half open, and he was lying so still. When he spoke, his voice was soft and breathy, as if he didn’t have the energy to speak any louder.
In that quiet voice, Minato said, “I wanted to give you space. But I don’t have much time left.” Ren glanced up at Aigis, but she didn’t seem surprised by this comment. Minato continued, “I just wanted to say...I’m sorry, that I can’t be there for you later.”
Minato blinked slowly, his eyes staying shut long enough that for a moment Ren feared that was it. But eventually they opened again and Minato continued, “Just remember…trust your teammates and form bonds with people. That could make all the difference.”
Ren’s eyes were prickling and his throat felt too tight to say anything. So he just nodded, holding Morgana a little tighter for comfort.
Minato tilted his head back a little to look up at Aigis and said, “Aigis. If Ren’s ever in trouble, can you help him?”
Aigis nodded solemnly back and answered, “You have my word. I will do everything in my power to assist him.”
Minato smiled faintly at her, then shifted his gaze towards Morgana. “And you’ll be there for Ren too, right?”
“Always!” Morgana insisted. “Nothing’s ever gonna keep us apart.”
Minato smiled again, his eyes blinking shut again as he said, “Thanks, both of you.” His eyes stayed shut for even longer this time.
Finally they opened again, and Minato’s eyes met Ren’s. In a voice that was barely more than a whisper, Minato said, “I have faith that you’ll overcome any trials before you. You’re going to do great.”
Ren’s eyes were definitely watering now, but he couldn’t let go of Morgana to wipe them. So he just sniffed and managed to squeeze out, “Thanks. You…did great, too.”
Minato was smiling at him as his eyes blinked shut once more.
As Ren struggled to think of something else to say, Morgana’s ears perked up and he twisted his head to look towards the stairs. A moment later Ren heard what must have caught Morgana’s attention: shouting voices and pounding feet, coming closer.
Perking up, Morgana cheered, “I knew they’d remember! Listen, they’ll all be here soon!”
Ren turned to face the door just in time to see it burst open, and most of the rest of SEES spilled out onto the roof. Even Ken and Koromaru were there, though Shinjiro wasn’t. Everyone was cheering and laughing, with triumphant grins on their faces. It felt a little out of place, to see so much joy when Minato was so sick.
As they trotted over to their other teammates, Junpei raised a hand to wave and called in Ren’s direction, “Yo, you beat us here! Ah, whatever, at least we got here. Now we can celebrate!”
As Akihiko approached, he said, “It’s all thanks to you, leader! You got a victory cheer for us?” Then he drew close enough to get a good look at Minato, and his expression turned concerned. “Hey, you OK?”
Ren turned back to Minato. His eyes were still closed. Even as everyone crowded in around him, chattering loudly, his eyes stayed closed.
A spike of alarm shot through Ren and he insisted, “We need to call an ambulance! Right now!”
Yukari looked at him with confusion, asking, “Why? We know he sleeps a lot, he’s probably just tired.”
Ren was shaking his head hard as he shot back, “No, he’s dying! He told me so!”
That caught everyone by surprise, judging by the shouts of alarm. They wasted precious minutes trying to rouse Minato, by shouting at him, shaking his shoulder, even pinching his arm. Minato didn’t respond to any of it, not even a twitch. It was only once they were sure Minato wasn’t waking up that Akihiko finally called an ambulance, while Mitsuru called for her company to send a vehicle to bring them all to the hospital.
When they arrived, everyone scrambled out of the Kirijo van and swarmed towards the front door of the hospital. Only to slow to a crawl when they spotted someone familiar sitting on a bench in the courtyard in front of the building.
“Shinji?!” Akihiko cried. “What are you doing out here?”
“Aki?” Shinjiro called back, then shrugged. “The docs want me to walk a little bit each day, and it’s nice out, so I took a stroll out here.” He cast a puzzled glance over the rest of the group, then asked, “What’re all of you doing here?”
Akihiko stammered uneasily, glancing at the hospital. So Ren answered, “It’s graduation day. We promised to meet up, like I said. Do you remember?”
“Remember?” Shinjiro echoed. For a moment he just looked confused. Then his eyes widened and he said, “Oh. Oh! Wait, so if we’re all here, that means you won, right?” He started to grin.
Only for his grin to slip when everyone started casting uneasy glances at each other. Eventually Yukari said, “Well, yeah, but…”
When she didn’t finish, Aigis eventually said, “Minato-san has fallen unconscious and is no longer responding to stimuli.”
Shinjiro blanched and turned to Ren. “So that’s who you meant when you said your friend was dying?” Ren nodded sadly, making Shinjiro curse under his breath. Then he grabbed the cane resting beside him on the bench and hauled himself to his feet with a grunt. Once he was upright, he said, “Well, what’re we waiting out here for?” He started shuffling towards the door, with everyone following along at his pace.
Morgana and Koromaru weren’t allowed in the hospital, so everyone split up between waiting in the courtyard with them and sitting in a waiting room inside. Ren opted to stay outside with Morgana, and kept petting the cat while they waited for news. He wasn’t sure how long they waited, but eventually Mitsuru came outside with a solemn look on her face.
The outside group turned towards her hopefully. But Mitsuru reported gravely, “Unfortunately, the doctors report that Arisato’s brain activity has ceased. The fact that he’s on life support is the only reason he’s still breathing. The hospital is contacting his legal guardian to ask how to proceed, but…it may be time to say our goodbyes.”
Nobody took that well.
Once everyone had calmed down a little, they all (besides Morgana and Koromaru) crammed into Minato’s hospital room. Each of them took turns going up to him and murmuring whatever they wanted to say to him. But then they milled around, not wanting to leave yet but unsure what else to do.
Eventually Junpei said, “Man, this sucks. We saved the world! We should be celebrating! But how can we when…” He glanced towards the bed and sighed. Minato was as white as the sheets around him, hooked up to all manner of tubes and wires. It was a far cry from the leader who had stood tall before them when Nyx was trying to crush them all to dust.
A moment later Fuuka asked, “Um, Ren-kun? You said Minato-kun told you he was dying, right? Do you know what happened?”
Ren felt like a stone had dropped into his stomach. He knew for the last couple weeks that this was coming, and even though he’d been dreading it, he’d had time to think about how to answer. They wouldn’t know what the Sea of Souls was, or anything about a Wild Card’s journey, so he couldn’t tell them everything. So he’d decided to keep it simple: “He said Nyx couldn’t be killed, but he could seal her away. But the seal took all his energy and he couldn’t keep going any longer.”
“Seal?” Ken repeated. He turned towards Aigis hopefully and asked, “Like how you sealed that Shadow in him? Do you know how to fix this?”
But Aigis shook her head and said, “I do not know how he formed this seal. I am unable to nullify his seal, nor replicate it.”
Everyone started pressing Ren for more details. How did Minato make the seal? How did it work? Why was it killing him? Could they do anything to help and revive Minato? But Ren had no more answers for them, no matter how worked up they got.
Eventually Shinjiro called out from the chair where he’d settled, “Hey! Pipe down, he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.” Turning a grim look at the bed, he added quietly, “This might just…be something we have to live with.”
Even so, everyone was reluctant to move. Eventually a nurse came to find Shinjiro to bring him to his physical therapy appointment. As he left the room, he called back to everyone else, “If you can’t do anything for him anymore, then take care of yourselves. It’s what he’d want, right?”
For a minute nobody looked at each other. Finally Akihiko said, “He’s right. We need to just…keep going.” So finally everyone drifted out of the room to head back to the dorm. There was no reason to stay any longer.
Later that night, someone notified Mitsuru that Minato’s guardian had decided to turn off life support.
The funeral was held a few days later. A surprising number of people attended, sharing stories about how Minato had helped them out in various ways. It seemed he’d touched a lot of hearts in the year he’d spent in Iwatodai.
Afterwards, there was nothing left for Ren but to get ready to leave and wait for his parents to come pick him up. He tried to be productive, but it was hard to focus. He kept thinking too much about what happened, and what that meant for him.
At one point Ren was in the middle of trying to pack up his closet when Morgana rubbed against his ankle and asked, “Do you wanna talk about whatever you’re thinking?”
Ren realized he’d been staring in the closet for at least 10 minutes without moving. So he sighed and shut it, then went to sit on his bed. Briefly he wondered if the hidden microphones were still working, decided they didn’t matter any more, then said, “It’s about the end of the journey. Fighting Nyx felt a lot like fighting the Grail, right? When it felt like no matter what we did, they could just shrug it off and crush us.”
“Yeah…” Morgana agreed. Then he perked up and said, “But Minato beat Nyx in the end, so there’s gotta be a way for us to beat the Grail!”
Ren’s hands tightened on his blanket as he shot back, “But that’s the thing. Minato had to die to stop Nyx. What if I have to die to stop the Grail?”
For a moment Morgana didn’t say anything. Then he climbed into Ren’s lap to look him in the eye and insisted, “We won’t let that happen. We’re more prepared now, and have a lot more allies. We’ll find a way to beat it for good, and that’s a promise!”
When Ren didn’t look convinced, Morgana added, “Remember, I’m Hope. And with hope, you can get through anything. So we’ll handle anything that comes our way. Together.”