You're still sort of worried about Morgana being left on his own, honestly. You're pretty sure he can take care of himself, most of the time, but he's begun to wonder about things that are better left hidden, and you need to distract him from that as best you can.
Mostly, you can do that just by sticking around and bringing up various things not related to Personas, but you're sort of running out of those kinds of things to talk about. Most of the people you know are involved in this sort of thing to begin with, and even those that aren't at least know about it, so the various things you do aren't as far removed from magic as you'd like them to be right now.
Fortunately, you don't have to stumble along looking for a topic for too long. Eventually, you mention Akira, and the cat's ears perk up.
"How is Joker, anyway?" He asks. Given that his Shadow apparently had some sort of problem with the future version of your friend, you wonder for a moment if you should be worried, but decide against it. As impulsive as Morgana is, he has gotten a lot better in the past few weeks.
Which has a lot of implications, but none that we have time to think about right now.
"He's... as okay as he could be, I guess." You don't mean it to be reassuring. "I mean, I take him food on school days, but I never see him when I don't have school, so..."
"Isn't he getting to eat at home?" Morgana sounds worried, but maybe he just picked that up from you. It makes just as much sense as anything else.
You shrug. "All I really know is that he isn't getting a lunch on school days. I'm not even sure what started it, really..."
That's not entirely true. You know that, in a sense, it started when Akira decided to start having you and Maiko take turns keeping his homework, because he didn't think it was actually safe to bring it home. You aren't sure when it spiraled into him being denied food, though.
You think, if you were to ask, Akira would just apologize again for making everyone look out for him. You don't think you're going to be getting good information from him.
We just have to keep feeding him, and maybe things will get better.
Morgana starts mumbling under his breath. You don't catch most of it, but from what you can hear, you're sort of glad the cat doesn't know where Akira lives. Whether or not his parents deserve it, a tornado is not a toy!
There's a very, very good reason Mitsuru-san isn't budging on his wanting a diet of fresh fish. Maybe once he's grown up a little.
Even then, you still aren't sure she'd go for it. He's not as cute as Koromaru.
The reason that the library scares you is different from everyone else's reasons.
It's not the flickering lights, or the twisted shadows, though they can be a bit unnerving if you aren't in view of the exit. It's not even really how you can step in there, and come out at the end of the day with no idea what you were doing in between.
It's the fact that the stock seems far too advanced for elementary school. Case in point, the psychology texts that are about eye level with you, by a number of authors who you've never heard of. These books are probably too advanced for you to really make it through.
At the same time... it probably couldn't hurt to try.
Some of the books have terms you recognize, though not in that context. Others are completely strange to you. Either way, you fail to really understand any of the information you were presented with, though not for lack of trying.
You wonder if you'll be able to understand it by the time you go off to middle school. It'd certainly be nice.
Maybe you'll keep trying on occasion, just to see if you get anywhere.
Lavenza seems oddly happy today. "Did something happen?" You venture, wondering if shes going to ask you to hide any bodies or something.
Look, once you spend enough time with her sister, it becomes a valid concern, okay!?
"Well it's not set in stone yet," She admits, reaching back and splashing her fingers into the fountain, "But my master believes we may be getting a new Guest soon!"
Well, he's not wrong.
"...Guest?" Right. Akira's here, too. "What do you mean? I don't think you're talking about stuff like when my aunt comes over."
She shakes her head, silver hair whipping from side to side under her baseball cap. "When I refer to a Guest of the Velvet Room, I speak of someone who is ready to embark on a Journey of some kind. Not that we have found any proper Fools recently... They are easily the rarest kind of individual, and not all of them end up in a position to go on their Journey."
Okay, you're actually somewhat involved in this kind of thing, and you have no idea what she's talking about. Unsurprisingly, Akira seems to be completely lost. "And you think you'll be getting someone like that?" You ask, hoping to keep the conversation going despite not understanding what's going on.
Lavenza nods, unable to fully contain her excitement, even as she tries to keep her face perfectly neutral. "If we really do get a new Guest, I expect I will be very busy, if only to stay out of the way and not interfere in their Journey. But this could mean a new chapter in the story of humanity, and one that I will actually be old enough to experience."
Honestly, it's not all that different. Unless you count a few deities being dethroned, a new Izanami... Okay, I can sort of see why she's excited.
"So... you won't be around as often?" Akira checks, receiving confirmation in return. "But... you'll still be here sometimes, right?"
"I will try my best to be," She promises. "Though this location... isn't the best for that. It is entirely possible that this will be where the newest Guest operates. Even then, however... there should be times when it is safe. If possible, I will see if I can inform you of those times."
You suppose that's the best you can ask for.
"This next year's going to be interesting," Nemi comments. "I mean, more than things already are."
"So... Lavenza-san was right?" You ask, pushing yourself up. The desk has two new pictures now, neither of them completely normal. There's Akira, who sometimes shifts into a teenage form wearing an odd outfit, and then there's Lavenza, who occasionally fades from the picture, replaced by a pair of one-eyed girls.
You have no idea what any of it means, and you aren't sure how much good it would do to wonder.
"Well, I don't think we've managed to do anything to stop it," He points out. "And I don't think Morgana could, either. This is something that's a lot bigger than anything we've dealt with before."
You don't think that's saying a lot. Most of the things you had to deal with before were personal issues of some form or another, while Lavenza made whatever's going to happen sound like something grand. "Bigger than Shadow Morgana?"
"Most likely, though I guess it depends on what he ends up being, in the end. He's definitely not a normal cat, that's for sure." If he doesn't even know, that's probably a bad sign.
Still, he seems to know a lot about this sort of thing. It makes sense, given that he's lived it once before. But given that you're the one who will be going through it this time, it'd probably help if you knew just a bit more than you do now. Not even necessarily about the future, just in general.
[ ] Does he have any sort of idea what Morgana actually is, then?
[ ] ...You just got Akira and Lavenza's pictures. Why are they so strange?
[ ] Could he give you some advice on helping with Akira's problems?
[ ] Does he know what's wrong with the library?
[ ] Does he have any clue how to keep Morgana from poking around Shinjiro-san's issues?
[ ] Just what happened last time?
[ ] There's a few things you're wondering about the closet...
-[ ] The presence of Shadows.
-[ ] What Nemi was doing in there back in October.
-[ ] If there's anything in there you might be interested in.
-[ ] Is it safe to use a light in there?
