[Persona] The Mouse Has Died

People die three times.

The first death is when the heart stops beating, breathing ends, and the signs of life disappear.

The second death is at the funeral, when everyone who knew you says goodbye and you cease to exist.

The third death is when the last person who remembers you forgets you. From then on, no one in the world knows you anymore, and every trace of your memory vanishes.

This is death of the spirit, and it is also true death.

A rat dies only once.

The moment it is forgotten, it is already pronounced dead.

No one cares about the rat in the cage. When oblivion comes silently, physical death follows like a shadow, and decay strips away every last trace of its meaning. It's that simple.

So I hate being forgotten.

With nothing at all, only pain can keep me awake, only suffering can remind me that I'm still trapped at the bottom of this prison, struggling to scratch marks into its walls with my fingernails.

The one-eyed school nurse removes his eyepatch. Jagged scars cover half his face. He turns his gray-white eyes and casts a meaningless gaze at the supremely gentle savior.

I resent suffering, but I can't bear to imagine it being hidden beneath lies.

The rat will die in the end.

The cover character is my own creation (I drew alternate versions and an animation, but couldn't upload them). This is essentially an archive copy. Please don't use it. If I find anyone using it without permission, I'll take it down.

The pairing is Maruki Takuto. The romance is a slow simmer, and I mainly want to explore the collision and understanding of two different value systems.

I checked, and this seems to be JJ's first fic pairing someone with Maruki. But I've been craving him since the Royal Edition announcement, sob sob sob. The plot follows the original P5R, but since Maruki shows up rather late, there will be a lot of invented details and major changes to the story. This is a short non-ending trial run. If anyone reads it, I'll start the longfic that's been living in my head.

The protagonist is the school nurse in the infirmary, with the unnamed Arcana (La Mort), from the Marseille Tarot system. It is usually considered equivalent to Death, corresponding to the Death card in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot.

Recommended listening: Lonely Sun (the right voice actor)

Finally, I call for love from this rarepair.

Theme: Self-righteous salvation and the resentment that runs through everything