Chapter Text
Tatsuya blinked his eyes open, staring around the empty, yet familiar classroom.
Seven Sisters High School, Classroom 1-C.
Somehow, it made sense to him that he had ended up there. It was the last place in the city that he had been before they had made it into the Heart of Xibalba. Before they had fought Nyarlathotep. Before Maya had died. Before they had decided to make the new timeline.
The new timeline…
The new timeline where everything was good and fine and normal. The new timeline where all of his friends lived now - happy and content with their lives. The new timeline that he could never, ever return to.
He swallowed hard, his chest aching.
Part of him wanted desperately to go back to that timeline. Back to where the world wasn’t destroyed. Back to where he could get to know everyone again. Back to where the people he cared about were. But, he had made the decision. He didn’t belong there anymore. Just being there, he risked everything ending like it had here. He needed to be here.
He had just finished the fight with Maya, Katsuya, Baofu, and Ulala. The fight against Nyarlathotep to protect that Side. He had just said goodbye to everyone, deciding to return back here, not wanting to be the cause of another world ending.
He looked down at himself. He was wearing his school uniform - the same thing he had been wearing when they created the new timeline. It looked so weird on him now after all this time. While technically, he was still a third year, school and everything that entailed seemed so long ago now.
Was school even a thing here anymore? Based on the sun outside, it was the middle of the day, but the classroom was abandoned and he couldn’t hear any students outside. There was the possibility that it was a day off, but he wasn’t too sure about that.
He couldn’t exactly blame people for not wanting to come to school after the world had ended - he definitely wouldn’t have. Even if school was still a thing, he didn’t think he would be attending.
What was he even supposed to do now?
Should he go home? So much had happened - a horribly dangerous situation all throughout the city - had his family even survived all of that? His mother? His father? His brother?
He took a sharp breath. Katsuya. He wanted to go see Katsuya.
He had just seen the version of him on the Other Side, but, while he acted like his brother, and, he did genuinely care about him, he wanted to see the brother that he had grown up with. The brother who had been with him his whole life.
His legs were slightly unsteady as he headed through the classroom door, getting out into the hallway, and walking to the front doors.
Katsuya had an apartment on the other side of the city, but, would he really be there after everything? If he knew him, he would probably be staying with their parents - he swallowed hard - assuming they were all still alive.
He reached into his pocket, pulling the familiar lighter out of it, flicking it in his hand. Just doing that made him start to feel better.
He ran his thumb over the engraving. That was right. This was the lighter Jun had given him. Jun… he missed him. This was the only thing he had to remember him by.
As he headed toward home, he looked around him, noting the city. It was relatively sunny out - there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky - but there was still something dark spread out over everything. He had seen a couple of people - they seemed to be all right, alive, at least, but they were all far away, moving around without any purpose - discontent. None of them even acknowledged his existence beyond a few wary looks.
People were still alive, but it didn’t seem like they were too happy about the state of things. He supposed that made sense. They were quite literally on the other side of the end of the world.
Guilt started to pool in his chest. This was his fault. He had done this. If only he had been able to do something to get everything back to normal or to stop all of this from happening. He had been too incompetent though and now there was this.
He needed to do something to fix this. He knew already that parts of the city had gotten destroyed - he was going to make sure those got fixed. He was going to make sure the city got up and running again. He had to. He had created this problem - he was going to deal with it.
He walked on complete auto-pilot until he got back home. The house looked relatively untouched, almost strikingly normal. This was the place he had lived for his entire life. The place with so many memories of everything he had ever done.
He headed up to the door, hesitating on the steps. Did he knock? How long had it even been since he had last been there? Would people be surprised that he had shown up? Would there even be people here at all?
He bit his lip. He didn’t want to chance anything.
He brought his hand up, knocking on the wood.
There were a few, terrible seconds of dread where he was absolutely convinced no one was going to come get the door. That no one was there because they had all died when everything had happened. But, before long, there was the sound of footsteps coming from inside the house.
He waited with baited breath as the door opened.
As soon as Katsuya saw him, his eyes widened, something akin to relief melting across his face. “Tatsuya?”
He couldn’t help the tears that formed in his eyes. He was alive. Whatever had happened, he had survived it.
He looked about the same as he remembered - maybe a bit more tired, maybe not quite as put together as he usually was - but this was his brother. The same person who looked out for him. The same person he fought with over inconsequential things. The same person who deeply annoyed him sometimes, but who he also cared so much about. The same person who had been there for him his entire life.
“Nii-san,” he whispered, stepping forward and burying his face against his shoulder, wrapping his arms tightly around him.
Katsuya immediately hugged him back, his grip on him almost too tight, making it hard to breathe. He didn’t care though. This was his brother. He had his brother here at least. He had someone that he cared about. Not everyone was gone.
Katsuya’s voice was shaking. “I thought… I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
Tatsuya’s chest ached. He had left this timeline. He had abandoned him here. He was only back because his existence on the Other Side could potentially destroy it. If he hadn’t come back, Katsuya would have spent the rest of his life thinking that he was dead.
“I’m sorry.”
Katsuya reached his hand up, beginning to softly touch his hair, running his fingers through it. It was something that he had often done when they were children when he was sick or upset. Something that was deeply comforting. He was treating him like a child, but, he really didn’t mind it - not right now.
He wasn’t sure how long they stood there before Katsuya pulled back. “Come on, we should get inside.”
Tatsuya nodded, following him into the house. They walked into the living room where he was led over to the couch, both of them sitting down.
Katsuya examined his face, gaze moving down to scan his body. “Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“Good.” He reached toward him, laying his hand on his shoulder. This was a lot of physical contact between them, but, if he was being honest, he really didn’t mind it.
He hesitated. “How long have I been…”
“About three months.”
He closed his eyes. three months. That lined up pretty well to the amount of time he had spent on the Other Side. He had thought he was dead for three whole months. He hadn’t even considered the repercussions of that. That meant that all of his friend’s families all thought that they were dead too. Well… everyone’s family except for Jun’s. Both of his parents were… He pushed the thought away. It was too painful to think about Jun right then. He was never going to be able to see him again and that was too much to add on to everything else at the moment.
“Sorry.”
“Just… What happened? Where were you?”
“I… It’s a lot to explain.”
“I’ll listen.”
He probably didn’t have a choice. He needed to tell him what had happened.
“Everything that happened here… that was all my fault.”
He tightened his grip on his shoulder, furrowing his brow. “What do you mean?”
He took a deep breath and started explaining. About the Joker game. About how he, Lisa, and Eikichi had all awakened to the power of Persona (Katsuya seemed confused about that, but didn’t question it too much - after everything that had happened on this Side, it probably wasn’t the weirdest thing he had heard). About how they had met Maya and Yukino. About everything they had learned about the Masked Circle and their goals. About how they had eventually remembered that they had known each other as children. About how they thought Maya had died. About how they had realized Jun was Joker. How they had gone and saved him. About how they had tried to stop the end of the world from happening. About how they had failed. About how Maya had died.
About the deal with Philemon to create a new timeline. About how they had all agreed to go over to it with the condition that they couldn’t remember what had happened between them. About how, at the last second, he had panicked, not wanting his friends to forget about him. About how, in the new timeline, he had remembered. About all of the things they had done together on the Other Side. About what they had needed to do in order to prevent it from reaching a similar fate. About he had eventually decided to come back to this Side so as to not endanger everyone on the other.
About how he was back now, here to stay.
By the end of it, Katsuya was clutching onto his arm, a small frown on his face. “Tatsuya, none of that is your fault. It sounds like you did everything that you could.”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t enough.”
“Sometimes, it’s not, but that still doesn’t make it your fault. What happened was out of your control. I’m just glad that you’re safe.”
He nodded, just to appease him, not actually believing what he was saying. “Yeah. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
Katsuya gave him a small smile. “It’s not like you to apologize so much.”
He looked down at the floor. He had abandoned this Side to the fate he had created for it. He should be doing far more than just apologizing.
He took a breath, another question weighing on his mind. “What about mom and dad? Are they okay?”
“They’re fine. They should be home in a few hours.”
He let out a sigh of relief. They were okay too. That was good. His whole family had survived.
“They’re going to be really happy to see you. We already…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “That’s not important. They’re just going to be happy.”
They already what? Held some sort of funeral for him? If they thought he was dead, that would have made sense.
He found that he really did want to see both of them again. It had been way too long since he had. Just like with Katsuya, he just wanted to see that they were okay with his own eyes.
Tatsuya nodded, leaning his head on Katsuya’s shoulder, closing his eyes. Everything was going to be okay now. There were clearly going to be things to do with the city itself, but that was something he could worry about later.
For now, he just wanted to feel safe - at home with his brother. He couldn’t remember the last time he had done anything like this, but it was nice. It almost made him feel like a little kid again, during the period of his life when he had been obsessed with his older brother, wanting to spend as much time as possible with him. It was just so familiar and comfortable like this, reminding him of simpler times.
Times when the world hadn’t ended. Times when his biggest concern was coming up with his plans after high school. Times when he hadn’t been responsible for so much bad stuff.
Katsuya wrapped his arm around his shoulder, pulling him against him.
He started to drift off into unconsciousness. Even though this body hadn’t been a part of the fight earlier, his mind had been, the exhaustion beginning to weigh on him.
Everything was going to be okay, right?