A Persona Problem

[09.07.08 - Late Night]

That trip to Tartarus had been hell. Oh, the investigation team had made great progress. A good ten floors in one run! By her standards it was great. The labyrinth was just exhausting as ever. Once they decided to call it quits, the quartet were on the verge of collapse.

The dark hour was finally dissipating by the time they got back to the dormitory. Akihiko and Junpei had gone to their rooms, and Yukari to hers. Akihiko had muttered a worn-out congratulations before disappearing behind his door, while Junpei had pleasantly offered to escort the ladies to their rooms.

The hat-wearing trickster was rewarded with a tandem 'NO' from Minako and Yukari before he depressingly retreated from sight. Yukari was more empathetic, and wished Minako a good night's rest before she also went away.

Minako was left with the floor all to herself, pretty much. The building was co-ed, but as was standard, genders were separated by floor. The girls had to sleep on the third, boys on the second. After retreating to her room at the end of the hall, she fell back on her colorful bedding with an exhausted sigh.

The redhead was in one of those moods where she was too tired to be on her feet, but too wired up to turn in for the night. She hated those times. Well, there was no school tomorrow, at least. Minako could sleep in as late as she wanted on Sunday!

Still, there was the whole restless thing. Minako felt icky. She always worked up a sweat by dungeon crawling. Wielding a naginata was no easy feat, especially for a girl who was more accustomed to shopping and club hopping than fighting.

The thing that sucked the most about living in a communal dorm? Shared facilities. One could use the bathroom whenever they wanted, and of course they were gender-specific.

It was just kind of limiting to know that someone else could want to use it at any given moment, and the amenities weren't exactly spacious. Minako preferred to have the showers to herself. Not that she was shy, she just liked her personal space, and she didn't feel like she knew either Yukari or Mitsuru well enough to leisurely bathe around them. That required a certain level of familiarity.

Minako was patently aware of one benefit, especially at this hour. Neither of those two were up this late. Yukari always showered in the morning, and Mitsuru in the late evening before retiring. Which meant she'd have the shower alll to herself!

That gave her muscles a little boost of energy. She pushed up from the bed and gave a stretch while looking over her ebony uniform. Yes, she always went investigating in the traditional blouse and skirt attire. Aside from being the team's unofficial uniform, it was sure preferable to potentially ruining her casual clothes.

Except it was also in need of a good wash, and at the moment, not at all something that was comfortable to be sitting around in. Minako's hands deftly undid the blouse and tossed it over the foot of her bed, followed by the undone length of her skirt. It joined a few other stray garments.

Yes, her room was kind of a mess. Minako looked around her cluttered living quarters and held back a helpless sigh. She was just too lazy to keep things organized regularly. One day she would come back and fix everything up, do her laundry, and have everything in the right place.

Just not that day. She used one foot to kick off her right shoe, then mirrored the action to remove the other. Then her socks were balled up and tossed into the hamper in the corner of her room. That was easy enough, at least.

No, Minako wasn't one to lounge around in her underwear, that was just silly when people barged into her room like her thoughtless dormmates often did. She preferred pajamas. Except she wasn't changing. No, everything was going off. Her bra and panties were the next to go, and into the hamper they went. Lastly, she plucked out all her barrettes, which let her pinned-up hair fall freely down around her shoulders. Her crimson tresses  weren't excessively long, as they came to stop just around the bottom of her neck, but they had enough length to allow being tied up as an option.

Minako was in a bathing mood, and far be it from her to resist the notion. Her towel was waiting on the floor by her feet in a disheveled array of pink cotton. She leaned over, picked it up, and drew it around her before tying it lightly under her left armpit.  She was used to this, after all. No one ever was out after hours in the dorm, so there would be no one to object to the sight of a towel-clad girl making the trip down the hall to the bathroom.

She still was cautious enough to peek outside the door before leaving the safety of her room, just in case. Minako would be in for one chewing out about the specifics of feminine modesty if Mitsuru saw her, no doubt. Well, it was late, and she was lazy. Putting her uniform back on afterward only to take it off yet again was silly, not to mention impractical. Wearing dirty clothes after a shower? Yuck.

The coast was clear, so the door was shut and down the hall she went. Her bare feet shuffled lightly along the carpet as she walked. Always a nice effect. Minako resisted the temptation to hum melodically along the way. That may as well have sent up a signal flare that she was out and about after hours.

Once past the flight of stairs leading to the other floors, and the rectangular table in the alcove across from it, she reached the female-emblem door which lead to the showers. The phrase 'bathing' wasn't a literal option, sadly. Minako assumed it was a privilege the dorm just couldn't afford.

That was fine, she guessed. A shower took only a few minutes, a bath was liable to keep her there for closer to an hour.

A quick look to either side, then she went in and shut the door behind her. There were only three curtained stalls to make use of. At least they were courteous enough to not have it be completely open, talk about awkward. Minako went into the middle one, slung her towel over the adjacent wall, and started up a warm spray of water.

That was heavenly. Thankfully they had no stipulations about using the hot water like back home. So she put it as hot as could be, at least initially. Once it was almost scalding, Minako set it back down to a more comfortable level.

Then, obscured by the sound of the shower running on full, she let herself indulge that whim to hum all she wanted. Even a wordless bit of singing while she was well into lathering up.

Once the scented body wash was all rinsed away, she went to work on her hair. Thankfully hers wasn't as extensive as Mitsuru's. The elder redhead in the dorm, and also her senior by at least two years, had a lot to regulate by Minako's estimation.

It only took around a minute to apply the shampoo, conditioner, then rinse it all way. Minako might have been lazy, but she didn't cut corners when it came to taking care of her hair. She was pretty fond of it!

Then, finally, the water was turned off, followed by a relaxed exhalation. That had been nice. She pulled her towel down, briskly but thoroughly dried herself off, and ran a hand through her hair as she exited the stall. Minako felt a lot better. She'd go back to her room, put on some pajamas, and maybe read some manga before passing out. That seemed like it would be a lot easier. After resecuring the towel around her body, she left the tiled room behind.

Minako's fingers were still passing through her bangs as she walked back out into the hall. Her toes settled into the carpet, her feet coming to a swift stop while the door closed behind her.

She hadn't thought to look before leaving. And sure enough, at the meeting table just between the bathroom and the hall, a young boy looked up.

He was maybe 9 or 10. Minako never thought to ask. Either way, it was the youthful face of the dorm's youngest resident currently staring at the towel-clad girl.

Minako stood there for a moment, frozen, almost unaware of the hint of blush creeping into her cheeks. Awkward.

Thankfully, Ken was the one to break the silence. "It's a little late for that, isn't it?"

The boy was one to cut to the chase, and very passively, as if there weren't a barely-dressed girl merely ten feet away from him. Minako was very thankful for those character traits of his in that moment.

He didn't seem to care that Minako was in a towel roaming the halls, more curious about the why. "Oh, um... hehe..." Minako gave a carefree giggle while innocently rubbing at her heck. "...I was... you know, just freshening up..."

"In the middle of the night?" Ken blinked, a pencil in his hand frozen against the open book. Minako took the opportunity to indulge her curiosity, and sure enough, she could see he was studying.

"Well, um-... it's late for you to be up too, right? I mean, I really don't miind, but-"
"I'm studying."
"Oh right, of course! Totally cool by me..."

There was another awkward silence during which Ken just stared the girl down, while Minako idly fidgeted, finally looking around the hall. That was a damn good time to make sure they were alone. "You... like, won't tell anyone you saw me, right?"

Ken gave a quizzical look, as if it was a totally foreign concept. "Why? No big deal."

No big deal!? Either that kid was mature beyond his years, or had cast-iron will. Usually any kid his age would be teasing her to no end, if not trying to snatch her towel and run off! Or at least that was how it usually went with the little brother types... not that Minako knew from experience. Manga tropes, usually.

So instead of pressing him, Minako just quietly added. "Um-... right, no big deal." She flashed an innocent smile, and began walking away from the bathroom, finally finding she had the will to move her frozen muscles.


Ken watched the girl awkwardly shuffle past him, totally detached. He had no interest or even awareness as to why a teenage girl dressed in a towel was worth extensive notice. He was just trying to figure out why she was acting so weird.

He didn't feel right asking, and Minako wasn't telling. So he went back to his open book, when...

"What're you reading?"

He straightened abruptly, and looked to his left with a perplexed expression. The cheerful redhaired girl was sitting right across from him, smiling as she watched him and the open book with genuine interest.

Ken didn't care about the particulars about a girl being out and about in a towel, but he wasn't dead to his senses. Minako had that freshly washed look and faint aroma of whatever kind of flower body wash the girl must have used, and a male would have to be dead inside to be completely oblivious to that.

It took considerable effort for Ken to look at the toweled girl's face and not her shoulders, given his smaller height.

"Um... history..."
"Ooh, that sounds fun!" Minako replied cheerily, and stared down at the book, before leaning casually across the table for a better look at its contents.

The alcove was often used for studying, and recessed within the walls to allow relative privacy, aside from the faint hum of the nearby vending machines.

Either the girl was emboldened because of that, or she just had no real notion of modesty to begin with.

Whatever the reason, Ken's gaze wandered down... saw a hint of fair-skinned cleavage... and reacted by casting his stare back upward. "Miss Minako, you-... um. Shouldn't you get dressed?"

Minako had been genuinely focused on the upside down page across from her. Wow, Ken was studying heavy stuff. It seemed easily up to her level, if not above it.

Then the boy's words stirred her out of it, and with a soft 'hmm?', she leaned up and looked back at him.

"Go... put something on? I think that's inappropriate." To make the comment clearer, Ken pointed at Minako's towel.

The older girl sat back, stared down, and gave a bashful giggle. "Hehe... my bad... I'm just gonna distract you." Minako set her hands down and swung her legs out from under the table as she stood up. Ken's maturity and innocence just had a way of causing Minako to drop her guard around him, she guessed.

"Well, don't be up too late now..." With that said,  she turned to the side and began walking away from the desk towards the hall. It was well past time she went to bed, anyway.

Then a much softer voice drew her attention. "M, Miss Minako..."

"Mm?" She sweetly asked as she looked back towards the nearby youth.

The sensation of a growing, cool draft finally registered with Minako as Ken shakily pointed towards her. The cheerful girl stared downward just as the pink fabric of her newly undone towel swiftly plummeted down to her ankles, tugged out of place by a snag on the table's bench.

[End]