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That's The Best Part	By : Gestalten Category: +S through Z > Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (all) > Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (all) Views: 129 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: All characters are intellectual property of Atlus. I do not own their characters, nor do I make any money from this fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 1-Confidante's Confidante
- 2-The Hermit, Revisited
- 1
- 2
The Hermit, Revisited
The next time I heard from "Becky-san" was several weeks later. She was in Hawaii. The postcard and e-mail indicated that much. I saw the lightness in her smile as a photograph of her and her boyfriend smiled back at me from the islands in the photo attached to her thank you message. She looked even younger than she did during our conversation. Perhaps the casual shirt and striped bikini had something to do with it. She also seemed to have taken better care of herself. She had rearranged her hair. Her skin glowed, though I doubt she had used ointments or other physical beauty treatments.
I wasn't surprised. The young man she had chosen as her romantic partner was handsome (Not quite as attractive as Minato-kun, though he was a close second.). He emanated a familiar sense of ease, charisma, and maturity that had probably attracted Kawakami-san to him, just as my Tatsuya had done to me.
Maybe I should form a club or something.
Kawakami-san called weeks ago and asked to meet ASAP. She set the code names, the time and place, everything. I would not have granted such a request from a veritable stranger except for the urgency in her voice. She mentioned she needed help regarding something only I could understand.
I didn't have to think hard to surmise what it was about. Kawakami-san's boldness was persuasive enough, too. I canceled my previous appointments and caught the next available train to Tokyo that day. Besides, my gut told me to go, and I always listen to my hunches.
My only question was how she found out about me. It turned out that she was as intelligent as they come. She explained things in our text chat on my way to Tokyo. The hints I dropped in my book, The Butterfly Hermit (which she had read), and my body language during the interview suggested that my relationship with Minato-kun was more than platonic. She had acquired a copy of the book. She had also set my contact details aside for future reference without realizing she would need it someday. She had taken a gamble on calling me through my publishing house. I wasn't about to ignore it, especially when it came from a kindred spirit.
Becky and I were a lot alike. We had learned from the young men in our lives. And though we were supposed to be their teachers, they were the ones who ended up teaching us the most. She and I mirrored their best qualities. We were reflections of their kindness.
It was a kindness I was willing to pay forward. Terauchi-san and my other colleagues had noticed how I'd changed. They encouraged me to pursue graduate education. After initially resisting, I eventually relented when I realized I could be a more effective teacher that way. However, none of the letters after my name would have mattered if it were not for him.
This is why I do what I do. This is why I am perfectly willing to catch a train to Tokyo on short notice to help a fellow teacher I hardly know navigate the convoluted mess of a teacher-student romance.
It would be a lie if I said I didn't want to be vicariously happy through Kawakami-san. Part of me couldn't stand the thought of her giving up on something and someone who makes her happy, controversy and ethics aside. I didn't want history to repeat itself with her. I made my mistakes so that she didn't have to.
Sighing, I typed, "Happy for you. Enjoy and take care. Keep in touch, okay?" clicked on "Send," and gazed out the window. Unlike last time, no blue butterfly entered through my window and encouraged me when I needed it most. There was no need for it to do so. No, this time, I was encouraging others the way I envisioned I would.
You would have been proud, my Tatsuya. Even today, I'm still honoring your memory.
Satisfied, I took my laptop and started clacking away at the keyboard. Whether Kawakami-san realized it or not, Becky had inspired me to write my next book, and I was loathe to let the inspiration pass.
END
The final stage of healing is using what happens to you to help other people.
— Gloria Steinem
Afterword
Hello, everyone! Despite this story's ethically/morally questionable themes, I did my best to write it as tactfully and authentically as possible. I hope you enjoyed it regardless of how you stand on romantic teacher-student relationships.
Some fifteen or sixteen years ago, I wrote a fanfic entitled "The Butterfly Hermit." (Unfortunately, I lost the original documents when I switched computers. I shall attempt to recover and post the story here.). I never thought I would revisit it many years later. The advent of Persona 3 Reloaded and its "The Answer" DLC, coupled with a confidant subplot from "Persona 5" and "Persona 5: Royal" reignited my interest in my old story and led me to explore it again.
There have been other real-life reasons for revisiting the Toriumi subplot, besides. In my Afterword in "The Butterfly Hermit," I spoke of the reality of loss and how it moved me to write. I experienced more loss and grief since then, experiences which deepened the original lessons. The final quote I posted in this story is my take-away from all those experiences. It aligns with Toriumi-sensei's experience as well. The sensitive nature of the overriding theme also makes for good reflection and inspiration. I have done my best to treat it as tactfully as possible, even if the nature of such relationships is controversial.
Nevertheless, the connection between Isako Toriumi and Sadayo Kawakami did not click until very recently. I have the comments section of YouTube videos and subreddit threads to thank for that. Several commenters mentioned the common thread and the differences between the two teachers. In effect, they helped inspire me to write this. Thank you, YouTube and Reddit people!
You may be wondering what Dr. Toriumi did to inspire Kawakami to say yes to a relationship with her student. I studied a bit of NLP and conversational hypnosis in the years following the original publishing of "The Butterfly Hermit," so I figured I'd have Toriumi-sensei use them. Remember how, in the Persona 3 FES social link ending sequence, she talked about ways to communicate her lessons better to her students? I figured she would have picked up a few nifty communication skills with her Ph.D and used them to help her colleague.
Lastly, I intended this story to be a short, sweet, two-part tale with two perspectives. I love both characters (though I feel Toriumi-sensei edges out Kawakami-sensei slightly because of the tragedy and online angles). I couldn't choose which perspective to use more of, so I used both. It gives equal weight to their thoughts and feelings, which is significant.
Once again, thank you very much for reading and joining me on this journey down memory lane. Take care, all of you.
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That's The Best Part