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Chapter Text

Minato crunched a chunk of ice between his molars, listening to the crisp crunch in his head over the chatter of the other patrons. He and Ryoji sat together in a booth at Wild-Duck Burger, Minato slowly making his way through smoothie and a shared plate of fries while Ryoji simply watched him, not touching any of the food on the table. Lunch with Ryoji wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. They talked, they ate, it was about as calm of an afternoon as people like them could hope for.

“It was nice getting to know you.” Ryoji said, idly swirling his chocolate milkshake.

Minato nodded. “You too.”

“You’re an incredibly lovable person. I'm sure anyone would be happy to marry you.”

Minato glanced up, a little confused by what he meant exactly. Ryoji only chuckled in response.

“It’s a little sad, to know that someday all of this will be gone,” Ryoji rested his chin in his hand. “That everything you’ve seen, every experience you’ve had, every bond you’ve made, it’s all going to be gone. Washed away by the tide…”

The mood was soured just like that. Minato nudged his smoothie away from him, not really feeling like finishing it all of a sudden. The conversation lapsed into awkward silence as Ryoji gazed into the middle distance.

“You had fun, didn’t you?” Ryoji mumbled.

That question almost made him laugh. Did he have fun fighting in Tartarus? Did he have fun when Shinji and Chidori died, and he had to simply watch from the sidelines?

Minato shrugged. “I guess.”

But there was some fun had, some good moments he experienced. Meeting Junpei and Yukari, joining S.E.E.S., joining after school clubs, hanging out at the mall. Fun was relative in this situation.

“…I had fun with you.” He muttered.

Ryoji’s head snapped up, his eyes wide with surprise. But then he laughed. Blushed. Turned his head to the side. “I’m glad.”

Minato sipped at his drink, choking a little when the taste of blood filled his mouth.

Then he woke up. He woke up with a gasp, like he wasn't even breathing while he slept. Slowly, his vision focused on the ceiling light blaring in his room, the electric buzz worming into his mind static.

There were birds singing outside. Daylight streamed through the windows. He could hear people talking and children playing. Flowers bloomed.

He could’ve sworn it was December.

Dazed, Minato pawed for his phone and flipped it open to check the time. 6:03 am, April 7th. He blinked slowly at the small screen, the information not reaching his brain. Getting out of bed, he went to the sink to freshen up, and to think for a bit.

That whole thing he just experienced, that was a dream, wasn’t it? It’s not like he wasn’t used to having weird, fucked-up dreams, but this time it felt different. It felt real. 

The sound of running water slowly tethered him back to reality. Breathing helped too. Minato looked at himself in the mirror for a moment.

It was just a fucked up dream. Nothing actually happened.

Someone knocked at the door. “Hey, it’s Yukari. Are you awake yet?”

“Well…time for school. I guess.” He muttered.

He followed Takeba to the monorail like a lost puppy, sticking close to her as people started to wade into the carriages. His headphones remained firmly on his ears, muffling the chattering of people he didn't want to listen to. The monorail shuddered for a moment before starting to move forwards.

The rail line glided smoothly over the glittering blue ocean. He could see seagulls flying in the distance.

“This train takes us to Port Island Station, we’ll have to walk after that,” Takeba explained to him. “Did you know that Tatsumi Port Island was man made? They built our school right in the middle of it.”

As they got closer, he could see it; the large school building standing in the middle of everything. The sun shined off its reflective surface in a dazzling array of light.

“What a marvel, huh?” Takeba sighed, leaning on her handrail.

Minato simply grunted in response. He could agree that it was a very reflective building.

They got off at their stop and walked the rest of the way to Gekkoukan, passing by highrise buildings and stripmalls. The school gates were wide open, and the sakura trees were in full bloom, the petals falling and piling on the concrete path and the grass. He watched as Takeba greeted fellow classmates with smiles and polite waves.

“Well, here we are.” She smiled, presenting the school building. “Allow me to welcome you to Gekkoukan High School.”

They took off their shoes by the lockers with their names on them. There were kids chatting by the bulletin board, and looking at the rosters to see what classes they would be in this semester. There was a teacher complaining loudly to the extremely exasperated school shop vendor.

“You’re okay from here on out, right?” Takeba tilted her head. “You just need to go to the faculty office, it’s at the end of the left hall. Do you have any questions? Concerns?”

He shook his head, muttering a simple ‘I'm fine’. The girl waved him goodbye, before walking off somewhere. He wandered into the bustling teacher’s office, and stood in the middle of the room awkwardly. Thankfully, one of the teachers looking through a filing cabinet took notice of him.

“Oh, you're one of the new students, aren't you?” She stood up, smoothing out her nice pink pantsuit. She grabbed a file and opened it up. “Arisato Minato, second year, correct?”

He nodded.

“Wow, you've lived in a lot of places…” she muttered, skimming through his information. She was half way through the sentence “in 1999 your parents di—” when her face turned pale, and she snapped the folder shut. She looked flustered and a little mortified. “I…am so sorry, I've been so swamped lately, I wasn't able to read your file before—sorry. I'm Ms. Toriumi, welcome to our school.”

“Oh, uh...okay. Thanks.” He mumbled.

She handed him a piece of paper with his schedule block on it, explaining to him that he was in class 2-F, her class, and that the welcoming ceremony was happening soon. Like with Takeba, he followed her down to the large room that was the auditorium and sat down to listen to the principal give a very long winded speech.

Getting oriented, going through his classes; the whole day felt like he was constantly experiencing deja vu.

He met a guy named Iori Junpei in his homeroom class. He was loud. And annoying. Minato listened to him and Takeba bicker about something. He wasn't really listening to what was going on.

Takeba suddenly looked at him. “Hey, you didn't tell anyone about last night, right?”

“Hm?” Minato blinked, taken completely off guard.

“Seriously, don't tell anyone.” She stressed.

Iori, who was still there by the way, glanced between the two of them. “L-last night?”

“Wha-” Her eyes widened, realizing what he was thinking. She started to wave her hands, as if trying to shoo away his thoughts. "Wait a minute! No, don't get the wrong idea-nothing happened!"

Nothing worked, however, and Iori made a smug face at her flustered protesting. Takeba groaned in frustration, turning her nose up to him.

“Ugh, whatever. I have to go take care of something for the archery team—you better not start any rumors.” She pointed at the two of them before marching away. 

Iori rolled his eyes.

“Ah whatever, like anyone believes rumors anyway. Still, if the rumors are true, Yuka-tan's quite popular,” Iori flashed a pair of finger guns. “Pretty lucky, if I do say so myself. You da man~!”

Wow. Minato thought. This guy sucks.

Iori chuckled. “This is gonna be a fun year, I can feel it!”

He walked home with Iori at the end of the day, half-listening to what he was blabbing about this time. He got dragged to the mall at some point, and had to watch Iori fail to get a prize from a claw machine for an embarrassing amount of time.

By the time he came back to the dorms, he crashed onto his bed and immediately passed out.

April 08, 2009, Waxing Gibbous

The next day was pretty much the same as yesterday. He went to class, talked to Iori and Takeba, again he walked home with Iori. Again he didn’t really listen to what he was talking about. It took a lot of willpower to keep from falling asleep on the train.

As soon as he entered the dorm lounge, he saw Takeba sitting in the common room talking with an unfamiliar man.

He looked very sophisticated, wearing a brown suit and thin-framed glasses, and he had an air of friendliness surrounding him.

Takeba noticed him first. “Ah! Minato, you're back.”

“Ah, our new guest. Welcome,” the man gestured to the lounge sofas. “Please, have a seat.”

He took a seat as he was told, sitting down heavily on the leather sofa. 

The man introduced himself, sticking out his hand. “My name is Shuji Ikutsuki. I'm the chairman of the school board.”

“Nice to meet you.” Minato mumbled, shaking his hand briefly.

“‘Ikutsuki’— what a hard name to say, isn’t it? I hate to introduce myself sometimes; even I get tongue-tied!” He chuckled.

Minato stared at him awkwardly for a moment. “...I guess.”

Ikutsuki laced his hands together on his lap. “I apologize for the confusion regarding your accommodations. It may take a little while longer before you receive the proper room assignment.”

Minato simply nodded. He had honestly forgotten that the room he was staying in wasn’t actually his room.

“Do you have any questions?”

Minato opened his mouth, furrowing his brow before asking, “Have we…have we had this conversation before?”

Both Takeba and the Chairman raised their eyebrows.

“What do you mean?” Takeba tilted her head. “Don’t tell me you’ve met the chairman before!”

“I-” Minato paused, his brow furrowing in thought. More deja vu. He eventually shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“I’m pretty certain this is our first meeting, Mr Arisato; You’re probably just tired.” Ikutsuki waved his hand. “It’s pretty hard adjusting to a new school after all.”

Minato nodded. He was pretty tired.

“Be sure to get plenty of sleep, after all, the early bird catches the bookworm!” Ikutsuki giggled a little too long about that terrible pun. “Get it? Because you’re students!”

Takeba sighed and whispered to Minato: “He does this constantly. They only get worse.”

April 09, 2009, Full

Iori yawned.

“Man, I am so sleepy today,” He stretched his arms up to the sky.

“Mm.” Minato nodded. Like last morning, he was walking to school with Iori. It was beginning to feel like this would become a daily occurrence. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“Yo, you ever notice how sometimes when you take a nap in class, you actually get more rest than you do at home?” Iori blabbed. “You go from dead man walking to full of energy! But then I miss the lecture, and I'm screwed later…”

He kept talking until they were seated in class. The teacher's words practically floated through one ear and out the other. Minato couldn't understand how he could still be tired when he falls asleep as soon as he gets back to the dorm. His chin slipped from his palm, and he jolted awake on the monorail home.

“Damn…” He scrubbed his eyes. Dozing on the train was a bad habit he didn’t want to have.

As soon as he got back, Minato was too exhausted to change into his pajamas, and collapsed into bed—

And woke up to a commotion happening downstairs; crashing, yelling, hurried footsteps in the hall. His first thought was that someone was breaking into the dorm.

He stumbled out of bed, pausing when he saw outside of his window. Black clouds smothered the night sky, swirling around the full moon, and the moon; it was larger than he had ever seen it, bathing his room and the city in sickly, green light and oily shadows.

“Hey!” Takeba pounded at the door, nearly making Minato jump out of his skin. “Hey, are you in there? Wake up!!”

Before he could go over there and open it, the girl burst through on her own accord, her eyes searching and frantic before they finally settled on him.

“W—”

“There's no time, we have to get out of here, now!” She exclaimed.

She dragged him through the halls by the wrist, leading him down the staircases to the ground floor. He couldn't help but notice that all the lights in the dorm were off, and that the only light came from the moon.

“Come on, we'll leave through the backdoor.”

They stopped by the kitchen, Takeba letting go of him to fumble through her keys.

“Takeba? Can you read me?”

Kirijo's voice crackled from her sweater pocket. Takeba stopped fumbling briefly to pull out a weird looking communication device.

She hit the button on its side and spoke into it. “Yes, Senpai?”

“There’s more than one shadow.” Kirijo’s voice warbled in and out of focus. “The one we’re fighting isn’t the one Akihiko saw.”

Just then, something slammed into the back door, making the two of them jump. It slammed again, cracking the wooden door and its frame. Takeba dragged him away before they could see what burst through it. As they were running, there was the distinct sound of furniture breaking and glass shattering.

“The roof…okay, the roof is probably safe…we just need to go to the roof…” she muttered frantically to herself, trying to ignore how the whole building was shaking.

Minato dared to glance back down the stairwell. Something was definitely following them.

The roof exit slammed shut, and Takeba locked it behind her. She breathed for a moment, her body gradually relaxing. "I think-I think we're okay for know. Just got to wait out the hour..."

But then she froze. They both did. They turned around, and time seemed to slow down as they saw a pair of hands reach up and grab onto the edge of the roof.

And then another pair.

Another four pairs.

Too many hands, belonging to the same body, dragging its tangled mass onto the roof. Along with them came one hand holding a blue mask, featureless besides the cutouts for its eyes, nose and mouth, and the roman numeral I on its forehead. The hand turned its mask, like it was using it to look around. It paused on the two of them.

And a dozen swords were immediately drawn. It dashed towards them in a deafening stampede. Takeba drew the gun from its holster and pointed the barrel of it straight at her forehead. Her hands shook.

“Come on…come on,” She whispered. “You can do it. Do it.”

She almost pulled the trigger before the thing slapped her away.

Minato looked down at the gun sitting in the pool of blood.

He couldn’t tell if the blood was Takeba’s.

He couldn’t even move.

Looking up, he couldn’t do anything but stare as the monster ran up to him, as the swords it held surged forward, as his body was skewered by blades and torn apart by hands upon hands upon hands upon ha-

Minato woke up.

He woke up, and the first thing he did was throw up over the side of his bed. His head buzzed from the pain that racked his entire body.

And then it faded, like it was never there.

The second thing he did, after a moment, was check his phone. April 7.

It was April 7th again.

There was a knock at his door. “Hey, it’s Yukari. Are you awake yet?”

“Oh my God.”

Chapter Text

April 9th, 2009 II, Full Moon

He paced back and forth in his room, deep in thought. He was repeating days.

At first, Minato had thought he was dreaming. But when both April 7th and 8th were the same, down to Takeba and Iori saying the exact same things, he started to piece it together. Now, as the sun was setting on the 9th, he was trying to figure out what to do.

He came back to the 7th when he died to that thing on the roof, right? So, all he had to do was…not die, correct? That seemed easy enough.

Minato sat down on his bed, palming his eyes. Of course something like this would happen. He expected something to happen when he came to live here, maybe not something this sci-fi, but something bad nonetheless.

He didn’t sleep. He simply watched the sun sink below the horizon, listening to the ticking of the clock as he waited for nighttime. He only looked back when he noticed how the ticking had suddenly stopped.

The roof exit slammed shut, and Takeba locked it behind her. She breathed for a moment, her body gradually relaxing. “I think… I think we're okay now. Just got to wait out the hour-”

But then, like last time, she froze. They turned around, and time seemed to slow down as they saw a pair of hands reach up and grab onto the edge of the roof.

Hands upon hands upon hands, belonging to the same body, dragged its tangled mass onto the roof. Along with them came one hand holding a blue mask, featureless besides the cutouts for its eyes, nose and mouth, and the roman numeral I on its forehead. The hand turned its mask, like it was using it to look around. It paused on the two of them.

And a dozen swords were immediately drawn. As it dashed towards them in a deafening stampede, Takeba drew the gun from her holster and pointed the barrel of it straight at her forehead. Her hands shook.

“Come on…come on,” She whispered. “You can do it. Do it.”

She almost pulled the trigger before the thing slapped her away. Her body tumbled, and her gun slid to a stop at Minato’s feet.

This time Minato didn’t hesitate. He quickly snatched up the gun, and pressing the barrel to the side of his head, he pulled the trigger.

And

Something in his chest lurched to the side, the sound of glass shattering filled his ears.

I Am Thou… And Thou Art I… From The Limitless Sea Of Thy Soul, I Cometh.

The voice that spoke to him was like a melody, light and low, with a watery echo trailing it. When he went to look at who spoke, he found some kind of puppet made of pale metal, with a large harp strapped to its back.

I Am Orpheus, Master Of Strings.

There was another name there, something that wasn’t spoken aloud. Another voice that spoke below Orpheus’s, dark and familiar to him. That thing in his chest tugged again, almost painfully this time, and he fell to his knees as horrible screaming filled the air. Orpheus was ripped apart from the inside, and from it came something more terrible than anything he had experienced in the last 20 minutes.

It was wrapped in belts and chains, and had a metal head with jagged teeth. It pounced on the monster and started ripping it to shreds. Swords clattered to the ground, oily black blood spilled and mixed with the red puddles all around. It even crushed one of the arms to dust.

And then it was over. With a blink, the thing returned to the form of Orpheus before slowly fading away.

Takeba sat up with a groan, gripping her head with one hand. Worryingly, blood stuck to her palm when she took it off her head, an unseen wound slowly oozing blood down her forehead.

“Is it…is it over?” She slurred.

The body of limbs stirred, wriggling like worms to their swords and broken mask. Their fingers curled around the swords, and rose up their masks into the air. The one monster had now split into two. One of them dragged its way over to Takeba, who shuffled away  as fast as she could, but Minato could see she would not be fast enough to escape it in time.

Snatching up one of the discarded swords from the ground, Minato rushed at the monster and bashed it over and over again, hacking at its fingers and wrists, smashing its mask to tiny bits, pulping it until it was nothing more than black sludge on the ground. His muscles burned from the exertion. These things were much tougher than they looked, it was like cutting through a tire.

The other half surged forward and missed him by a hair. He could hear the edge of the blade singing in his ear. He swung at it again, though he was less lucky this time, the thing blocking his strike. Its swords cut into his arm and leg but thankfully nothing else. All it took was one more downwards swing, and the other half-mask broke into pieces.

After a moment, the corpses of the monsters faded into black smoke and ash before vanishing permanently. It was quiet now, the only sound he could hear being the rushing of blood in his ears and his own heavy breathing.

By now, the adrenaline was starting to wear off. Minato stumbled, unable to catch himself in time as he crashed onto the ground.

When he woke up, he almost thought he went back to the 7th again. But the ceiling was different, tiled plaster instead of painted wood. Pale sunlight shone through the thin white curtains that covered the windows. The smell of chemical cleaner and disinfectants filled the air. 

He was in a hospital.

Minato sat up with a groan, rubbing the gunk out of his eyes. Takeba, who he just noticed was there, shot up from her seat when she saw him awake. She looked okay, if not slightly surprised. There was a bandage on her head.

“Oh my God, you’re awake!” She let out a nervous laugh. “We thought—well honestly, I thought you wouldn’t wake up again.”

“Why would you think that? I haven’t been out for that long.” He looked at the clock as he said that. Both hands were pointed exactly at 12. He guessed passing out for twelve hours was long for some people, but it could’ve been worse. 

“It’s the 19th.”

Oh.

That was all he could think to say. “Oh.”

Her judgmental stare softened a bit before she glanced away. They both found something to be interested in other than the other person in the room; Takeba took interest in a corner of the room and Minato studied the seams of the curtains.

Takeba eventually broke the silence, clearing her throat before speaking. “So, um, how are you feeling?”

“Fine.” Minato shrugged; nothing hurt at least. He had healed well from the few injuries he did get.

But that wasn’t what was important, was it? He had things to ask, questions he needed answered.

“What were those things?”

Takeba sat back down. “Do you mean the Shadows or your Persona?”

When she saw his blank stare, she sighed and explained both. Basically, Shadows were the monsters on the roof and Personas were what they used to fight them.

“There's much more to it, but we'll explain it all later. Speaking of Personas… that thing you did on the roof was crazy!” She exclaimed, startling Minato a little bit. “I mean, your power was amazing! Terrifying, but amazing. It was nothing like Kojiro-senpai or Sanada-senpai's.”

He shrugged. “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“Neither did I!” She nudged his shoulder. “It was my first time fighting them too, you know.”

A laugh came out a little forcefully from Takeba. “But then I panicked! Froze! Ha… what help I was, right?” Her laugh faded and her smile turned sour. She twiddled her thumbs before setting them down in her lap. “I'm sorry. None of this would've happened if I wasn't such a coward.”

“It’s not your fault.” He said automatically, his tone too flat to be comforting.

Takeba huffed at his words before she stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “Come on, let's check you out and go back to the dorms. We have school tomorrow.”

Minato shifted out of the stiff bed and followed Takeba through the featureless hospital halls. The receptionist was nice enough, checking him out quickly. The train ride home was quiet, with nearly no one else on the train besides them. They didn’t speak to each other the whole time.

April 20, 2009 II, Waning Crescent Moon

Minato walked to school, music blasting in his headphones, like he wasn't just in the hospital the other day. When he got to his locker, Iori greeted him immediately.

“Sup dude! How ya been?” Iori remarked with his usual smirk. “Skipping a whole week? I didn't know you were a delinquent!”

Minato shrugged and walked past him. The day passed by unremarkably, and soon enough, the final bell rang. Takeba had told him to go to the fourth floor of the dorm building to meet with the other dormmates to talk about everything.

Minato quietly stepped into the room. Takeba, Kijiro, the chairman, and a boy he hadn’t met yet were all sitting around a small coffee table presumably waiting for him. Ikutsuki was the first to notice him.

“Ah, Mr. Arisato. I’m glad to see you’re looking well,” He gestured at the remaining seats left, the ones next to Takeba and the unknown boy. “Please join us.”

Minato walked closer, but didn't sit down anywhere. So he just stood there awkwardly as he tended to do.

Ikutsuki blinked, like he suddenly remembered something, and glanced at the unknown boy. “Oh, have you met Mr. Sanada?”

Minato shook his head, and he was officially introduced to Akihiko Sanada, who apparently also lived in the dorm with them despite Minato having never seen him during his stay. He seemed friendly enough, offering him a wave and a ‘Yo’ in greeting.

“Alright, let’s get on with the explanation you’ve probably been desperate for.” the chairman clasped his hands together. “You know how it’s common knowledge to assume that there are 24 hours in a day?”

Minato nodded, because it was obvious information.

“Well, what if I told you that was false?” Ikutsuki leaned forward, trying to gauge the boy’s reaction.

“…okay.”

“Do you remember the night you came here?” Kirijo interjected. “The street lights going out, technology suddenly ceasing function, coffins appearing everywhere; didn’t it feel like you were in a dream of some kind, or that you were in some alternate reality?”

He shrugged, muttering an ‘I don’t know’ . He didn’t really notice all that before the 9th. Did it happen when he first came to the dorm?

Kijiro hummed at his response. “It’s a phenomenon we call The Dark Hour—a period of time between one day and the next.”

He had to ask. “Between?”

“It happens every night, it will happen tonight, and every night to come.” Ikutsuki stated.

Minato, after a moment to chew on it, nodded in understanding. It was…interesting information, to say the least.

They explained more; they were a secret organization tasked to despatch Shadows called S.E.E.S, how the Shadows fed on people, and how that created the cases of Apathy Syndrome he had been hearing about around town. They explained that Personas, summoned through the gun-like Evokers, were specifically used to fight shadows, that they only appear during the Dark Hour, and that they were essentially a shield against Shadows.

An Evoker sat gleaming in the case, the anagram S.E.E.S engraved on the side of it.

“What we are trying to say is that we would like you to join us.” Kirijo leaned back into her original perfect posture. “You are not obligated to join by any means. The choice is entirely yours.”

Minato looked down at the Evoker. He wasn’t sure what was going on. That hiccup in time…it might’ve been caused by the Dark Hour, and that was reason enough to try and pursue some answers. Minato reached over and lightly gripped the Evoker in his hand, lifting it up to study it more closely.

It wasn't currently loaded, and it didn’t need to to work, but there was a place to insert a cartridge. He carefully put it back in its spot in the carrying case.

“Why not?” He shrugged.

Kijiro huffed out a small laugh, before standing up and smoothing out her skirt. “We'll meet tomorrow evening to properly orient you into S.E.E.S.”

Minato couldn’t help but notice Takeba gave Kijiro a brief nasty look before crossing her arms and sitting back in her chair.

April 21, 2009, Waning Crescent Moon

That evening after school, they all met in the first floor lounge. Which apparently included Junpei Iori now. Takeba freaked out when she saw him stride in through the door, luggage in tow.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Him ?” She waved her hands at Iori. “ He has the potential?!”

“He only just awakened to it, like you guys.” Sanada said.

“You guys must be thrilled to have me join, huh?”

Takeba glanced at Minato, unable to hide her expression in time.

“What? I mean, sure…yeah.” She kicked at the ground.

“How’d you find out?” Minato asked.

“Sanada-senpai found me bawling like a baby in front of a convenience store!” He said with a confidence that did not match the situation he just described. “But he said that’s completely normal in the beginning. Ya know, being all confused and forgetting things.”

Minato remembered his battle on the roof. “Didn’t happen to me.” 

Before Iori could get properly disheartened, Sanada spoke up. “Alright, that about does introductions. Everyone should get geared up.”

On the coffee table there were two cases for Minato and Iori of them, both of them containing an Evoker, a heavy black jacket and a red armband with S.E.E.S and a number on it, his own being the number 3. Minato put on his jacket, the Kevlar-like material crinkled around him. The armband made a crisp snap when putting it on his arm.

The motion of it all felt familiar.

Once they were all ready, they followed Sanada and Kijiro through town to the Tatsumi Port Island until they finally arrived at Gekkoukan.

“What are you talking about? This is just our school. Are you saying the Shadows den is in our school?” Iori asked incredulously.

Sanada flipped open his phone, glancing at the time. “You have to be patient. It isn’t midnight yet.”

They silently watched as the last few seconds of 11:59 passed by. As soon as midnight hit, the clocks stopped. The street lamps shut off, their phones turned off, the pale blue light of the moon shifted that to sickly green. Everything was terribly silent for a moment.

The windows of the school split apart and melted. The doors multiplied. The arches and flagstones shifted and replaced each other. All the recognizable shapes of Gekkoukan High School were malformed and turned into something foreign, forever marching up into the dark sky. It was a twisting structure of non-Euclidean architecture, ever moving, its mass pulsating like it was a living thing.

This was Tartarus. This was the labyrinth all of the shadows came from.

Minato could feel his heart slowing down when he looked at it.

They went through the towering front doors and entered some sort of lobby area. The ceiling must've stretched upwards at least 15 meters, although staring only seemed to make it stretch further upwards. It had no walls, so they could see Tartarus moving all around them. 

Standing tall atop a flight of stairs was what Minato assumed was the true entrance into the labyrinth, dark velvet curtains surrounded by a large golden clock with its mechanisms slowly ticking down the seconds.

“Woah…” Iori's small voice echoed around the entrance.

“I will be communicating with you throughout your expedition right at the entrance.” Kijiro opened one of the packs on her motorcycle and put on some thick headphones. “Since he hasn’t fully recovered, Akihiko will only go as far as here—right, Sanada?” 

She gave him a pointed, icy glare.

Sanada only rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know…don't have to remind me.”

Takeba blinked. “Wait, we're going in alone?”

“Just the first few floors,” Sanada assured her. “We want you guys to get a feel for this place.”

“But…”

Minato glanced at her worrying at her lip, not protesting any more even though she looked like she wanted to. When Sanada brought up the topic of leaders, Iori offered himself up enthusiastically, but was dismissed in favor of Minato. When asked, Sanada simply asked:

“Can you two summon your Personas like he can, without any difficulties?”

The brief silence before they both spoke was more telling than their words.

They each got their weapons; a combat bow for Takeba, a claymore for Iori and a short sword for himself. Takeba took a few deep breaths to psych herself up. Iori loosened his joints and jumped around. Minato did nothing in particular. Then it was time to venture into the unknown.

The three of them entered Tartarus.

Chapter Text

April 6, 2009, Waxing Gibbous

The train to Iwatodai ran smoothly across the dark green countryside, slowly approaching the edges of the urban areas. People swayed with its movements, standing and sitting down. Reading the news, looking at their phones, eating.

There was a girl who was kicking her feet and bobbing her head to the beat of a pop song, humming to the tune occasionally. A half eaten apple strudel sat momentarily forgotten in her lap. This girl was Shiome Kotone, the newest transfer student attending Gekkoukan High School. She was a second year, but at least she was starting at the beginning of the school year and not in the middle of one; she hated being the new kid joining in the middle of the semester.

The PA system turned on with a screech, and the conductor spoke with a bored, monotone voice. “Hello passengers. We regret to inform you that due to a malfunction in the switching system, today’s rail schedule has been greatly altered. We apologize to daily commuters and those who wished to be at their destination on time.”

A couple people groaned at the announcement, grumbling under their breath in frustration and annoyance. Kotone herself wasn't all that thrilled. She ate the rest of her snack as she punched through her playlist. Settling for a mellow, instrumental track that somehow snuck onto her Walkman, she leaned back in her seat and decided to take a nap.

“The next stop will be at Iwatodai...”

She woke up from her nap to the train screeching to a stop and a grumbling stomach.

“This is the last train bound to Tatsumi Port Island. Please take care to board before departure.” Crackled the intercom system outside the train.

Kotone walked onto the station platform with a bounce in her step, weaving in between people heading to get on the train. She had eaten most of her snacks on the way here, so there wasn’t much left in her bag. She settled on some cherry flavored bubblegum, the packet lying crushed at the bottom of her bag.

Glancing at the clock, she realized it was almost midnight. She was really, really late. The person that was supposed to show her to the school dorms probably wasn't even here anymore.

Stopping outside the station, she pulled out the pamphlet for Gekkoukan High School. There was a picture of the school on the front and the dorm she was supposed to be living in showcased inside. She could probably find her way on her own, right?

When she looked back up, everything was… darker. Quieter. No one was roaming the streets, no lights were on in the storefronts. Even her Walkman wouldn’t turn on, so she found out. And looking further upwards, she could see the sight that was the moon. The green moon above seemed impossibly large, surrounded by still, black clouds.

Kotone popped her gum. “Huh.”

She continued downtown, walking past the darkened shops and skipping over the dark puddles. It might’ve been eerie, but at least it was kind of peaceful.

No people, no cars.

When she finally got to the red brick dorm building, the inside was pitch black and absolutely silent. She walked in with no problems, as the front door was unlocked for some reason. Every surface of the lobby was shrouded in shadow, with sickly green light pouring in through the street-facing windows.

“Hello?” She called out.

No one answered.

At least, at first.

“Hello.” The small, innocuous voice floated into her ears, drawing her eyes to the front desk.

There was a young boy sitting behind the counter wearing striped pajamas, his wide blue eyes staring unblinking at her.

“You’re late. I’ve been waiting a long time.” He pushed forth a piece of paper. “Before we continue any further, could you please sign this contract?”

She looked down at the contract, skimming through the terms and conditions when she noticed something strange.

“It’s already signed.” She pointed at the bottom line, at the scribbly handwriting that spelled out a name written so many times that she couldn't see what it said.

The boy only hummed in response. Lifting her head, she went to meet the eyes of the boy again, to repeat what she said, only to find no one there.

“You—”

Kotone whipped her head around and found a girl in a pink sweater looking back at her with wide eyes.

“How can you be...” Her shocked expression morphed into one of hostility. “Don't tell me...”

The girl reached for something on her thigh, and Kotone realized that something was a gun in a holster, and subsequently realized that this girl was going to shoot her.

Before that could happen, another girl came in just in time to stop her. Thankfully.

“Wait.” The other girl grabbed pink-sweater by the arm.

Flickering for a moment, the lights of the dorm turned on with a buzz of electricity, chasing away the darkness. The box television sparked and returned to whatever talk show it was on previously. Even the moon returned to its original pallid coloring.

The girl in the pink sweater visibly relaxed, and slowly holstered her gun.

“Please excuse us, we were a bit startled by your sudden appearance. I’m Kijiro Mitsuru,” she introduced herself before gesturing to the other girl. “This is Takeba Yukari.”

Yukari awkwardly waved. “Hi.”

“…Hi!” Kotone hit them with finger guns and a wide smile, before asking the pressing question on her mind. “Why do you have a gun??”

Yukari stumbled over her words. “Oh, uh, this? I-it’s a hobby, yeah. I collect them—”

“It isn’t a real gun.” Mitsuru clarified.

“Yup. Model guns, that’s a thing I do now…” Yukari looked down at the ground, looking a little mortified.

Kotone nodded in understanding, filing away the fact that Yukari, a high school student just like her, was going to threaten her with a fake, model gun. And the fact that she collected model guns in the first place.

“It's getting late.” Mitsuru moved past the conversation with grace and ease. “You'll find your room on the third floor at the end of the hall.”

“I can escort you!” Yukari jumped. “I-I mean if you want to, of course.”

Kotone offered her an easy grin. “Sure! Lead the way!”

She followed Yukari up the staircase to the third, noticing that the dorm smelled like mothballs and aging wallpaper paste. She noticed how the stairs creaked loudly when she stepped on them. How tense Yukari was.

“It’s alright, you know. You probably thought I was a burglar or something.” Kotone reassured her.

Her tone was clipped when speaking to her. “Yep. Totally.”

They arrived in front of her dorm room, the furthest at the end of the hall. Currently, the plaque just said ‘guest room’, but she was sure that would change eventually. Before she could go inside, however, Yukari cleared her throat.

“Um, by the way, before you go, I need to ask you something,” Yukari glanced around nervously. “On your way here from the station, was everything okay?”

“It…depends? Is this dorm haunted, by any chance?” Kotone asked. She was still thinking of that strange boy in the lobby.

She stared at her for a long moment. “...What?”

“Nevermind!” Kotone nervously laughed, probably a bit too loudly considering how late it was. “See you tomorrow!”

She shut the door behind her and looked around at her new living situation. It was a nice room, all things considered; comfy bed with a heavy duvet, lights that worked and windows that weren’t falling out of the wall. Perfect, perfect. School was right around the corner, too.

She couldn’t wait.

Chapter Text

April 30th, 2009 II, Waxing Crescent Moon

Paulownia mall was jam packed with students fresh out of school, shopping at various stores and chatting with each other. There were some people who stood around, dead-eyed, mumbling to themselves—people affected by Apathy Syndrome. More and more of them seemed to be cropping up. Minato stood in the middle of the mall by the fountain, staring at his reflection rippling in the water and the many coins sitting at the bottom.

Lately, Minato had been feeling that something was wrong, besides the whole looping back thing; he felt like something was missing. He’d go to school, he’d talk to people, he’d go to Tartarus. But there was still an emptiness in those places.

He flipped open his phone for the fifth time that day, checking once again to see if anyone called or messaged him.

No one.

He snapped it shut again and began looking around the mall. Something was here. He knew it. He knew it so deeply that he could feel himself getting a little agitated about it.

Someone was supposed to call him today, that’s why he kept checking his phone for missed calls. What the hell was her name? Betty?

No, it was Beth... Something-Beth…

His eyes wandered to the dark shadowy spot underneath the stairs. It was illuminated by a single lamp with a flickering yellow light bulb…but that wasn’t right, was it?

The more he focused, the more that dark little space twisted and changed. The light that shone from beyond the stairs was a deep, wavering blue, like the light from an aquarium. And there was an ageless woman standing there, looking down at a clipboard. White hair, white skin, yellow eyes and a strange dress that was deep blue.

Elizabeth! That was it! That was her name!

He called out that now familiar name. “Elizabeth!”

In response, she turned back, a little surprised by him yelling her name. He quickly made his way through the crowds, ducking into the shadowy alcove where Elizabeth was, standing in front of a glowing blue door. The door to the Velvet Room, he remembered.

“Hm.” Elizabeth tapped a finger to her lips. She spoke in that high-pitched, almost nasally voice of hers. “Curious. You can still see me, even without the power of the wildcard.”

“Uh-” he paused and blinked. “Am I…not supposed to?”

“No.” She said very matter-of-factly, a smile still on her lips.

“But I do see you.” He said. She was as clear as day.

“That is correct!” She nodded. “Well…goodbye!”

“Wait, no. You can’t just leave. You’re here for a reason—you were supposed to call me today about something.” His thoughts spilled out his mouth, messy and unorganized. “And-and the Velvet Room! I haven’t seen it anywhere, I couldn’t even get in it—the door isn’t there .”

She smiled at him. “Correct again! It is because your services are no longer needed, Fool.”

Elizabeth took another step towards the door.

“Wait!” He reached out, catching her by the shoulder. “Wait, what? What do you mean?”

“What else could I have meant? You have already completed your contract with my master,” Elizabeth smiled. “There is no need for you to enter the Velvet Room, or conduct any further business with us.”

“But…this is the first time we’ve met.” Even when he said it, he knew it was wrong.

Her eyes narrowed, and her smile widened. “Is it?”

His hand slid off her shoulder and fell limply at his side. It felt like there was something stuck in his throat that he couldn't swallow down.

Elizabeth curtsied. “It was delightful to see you again, but you shouldn’t count on meeting me a second time. Goodbye, Fool.”

She then walked through the door, and both her and the Velvet Room vanished. The sounds of the crowded mall returned to his ears. He didn’t even realize that they had faded away. He stepped up to the wall, feeling its surface with the tips of his fingers. There wasn’t even a seam or impression that would imply that the door was still there. It was just painted brick.

May 1st, 2009 II, Waxing Crescent

After school, Takeba, Iori and Minato went to the hospital. Not for anything extreme, but apparently Sanada needed the student roster for some reason. Minato wasn't exactly paying attention to the conversation, he just nodded when Takeba asked if he was coming along. He didn't even know they were going to the hospital until they were already walking up to the doors.

Tatsumi Memorial Hospital. Iori slammed open the hospital room that Sanada was supposed to be in, despite Takeba telling him not to do that, and yelled out: “Akihiko-senpai! We got the—”

Iori stopped mid-sentence as they all saw the unfamiliar young man sitting on the stiff bed instead of Sanada. He was wearing a large red coat and black beanie, and he was scruffy-looking and unapproachable. He narrowed his eyes on the three of them.

“Um...I-is Sanada-senpai here?” Iori asked, his voice getting smaller and smaller the longer he went on. “Are we in…the…right room?”

The stranger didn't answer, making Iori shrink in on himself even more. Takeba slapped him on the arm. “Nice going, Stupei .”

“What are you guys doing here?”

They all turned to see the man they were looking for in the hall, his jacket thrown over his shoulder.

“We came to give you the student roster— and to visit you!” Takeba said, quickly checking him over. “Although, it doesn't look like anything's wrong with you...”

He chuckled. “It's just a standard checkup. I practically feel better already.” He flexed his injured arm to show them.

“That's it, Aki?” The stranger spoke up in an irritated tone.

Sanada’s smile faltered, and faded a little bit. He huffed out a brief sigh. “Yes, Shinji.”

The stranger stood up, shaking his head as he walked out of the room. “Fuckin’ waste.” He even shoulder checked Sanada when he went out the door.

“W-who was that?”

“He’s...an old friend.” There was something about the way he said it, and the way he looked when he said it, that made a few eyebrows raise. Sanada waved his hand, like he was shooing away the questions to his vague answer. “Did you bring what I asked, Iori?”

“Yessir!” Iori proudly presented the paper to him.

Sanada took it, folding it carefully and putting it in his pocket. “Thanks, sorry for the trouble.”

Iori scratched his nose. “Eh. It was no problem.”

They walked out of the hospital onto the street, the sun high in the sky. Iori finally asked Sanada what they were all thinking. “Who even was that guy? Why was he there?”

“More cases of Apathy Syndrome have been cropping up. He knew a few people suffering from it, so I wanted to ask him about it.” As he spoke, Sanada rolled his shoulders and popped a few joints.

“Should you really be moving your arm like that?” Takeba asked.

“I’ve been out of the fray for too long already. I need to get back to training.” Sanada then started to walk ahead of them, waving goodbye. “You three go home without me. I’ll be back later tonight.”

With the last shadow cut down and dissipating into nothing, the gang decided to take a much needed break. They had the time.

The three of them sat by the transporter, only a little worse for wear. Chips, bottled water, and some leftover takoyaki were their snacks for the night. Minato sipped on a Mad Bull he had bought for himself, which was becoming his favorite drink as of late. Sweet and tangy, with a bitter aftertaste to keep him awake for longer.

“What do you think is up with Sanada-senpai and that Shinji guy?” Iori asked through a mouthful of chips.

Takeba gave him a look. “Junpei, be honest with me, do you really think that this is any of our business?”

“Uh, yeah! ”

Takeba rolled her eyes and groaned.

“We know nothing about him, other than he’s cool and popular with the ladies. He’s an enigma! This is like, the only lead to his backstory that we have.” Iori snapped his fingers and pointed at the two of them. “Theories? Anyone?”

“I’m not doing this.” Takeba shook her head.

“You gotta be curious too! I know you were thinking about it!” Iori poked her repeatedly.

“Fine!” She slapped him away before crossing her arms. “They were… old friends, like he said, but something happened in the past to make them resent each other.”

“ Eh! Wrong!” Iori ignored the death glare he got from Takeba in favor of weaving his narrative. “They're totally old rivals that fought to the death one day, but it ended in a tie. So now, whenever they cross paths they’re reminded of that fateful day.”

Takeba scoffed. “That doesn't even sound right.”

Minato stared blankly at the moving pillars in the distance, at the tiled floor crawling up the walls and the windows looking into pitch black darkness. He was still thinking about Elizabeth, about the Velvet Room, about what she said and what that whole interaction meant. He already knew that something was wrong about the situation he was in, but this… there were things missing in Iwatodai that were supposed to be there.

What else was gone that he just hadn't noticed until now?

“Hello~ Earth to leader!” Iori waved a hand in front of his face, reminding him that he was part of a conversation.

“Oh, I don't really have an opinion.” He answered automatically.

Takeba raised an eyebrow. “We asked if you wanted to go back now.”

“Oh.” Wow, he really wasn't listening. Embarrassing. “Yeah sure. Let's go.”

Iori grumbled under his breath. “Can't believe Akihiko made someone as spacey as you leader.”

Chapter Text

May 9th, 2009 II, Full Moon

An alarm blared through the dorm building, causing Minato to tumble out of bed and crash onto the floor. He groaned, half-awake and hurting; he didn’t even know that the dorm had an alarm until he was rudely awakened by it.

A banging on his door and Sanada’s voice woke him up further. “Rise and shine! We got a big one!”

After quickly getting his S.E.E.S. equipment on, Minato hurriedly made his way to the command room, where he found Iori and Takeba in similar states of disarray. Sanada looked excited, sporting a wicked grin on his face.

Kijiro slid her headphones off, swiveling the chair to face them.

“There’s been a shadow detected outside of Tartarus with a similar power signature like the one you two fought.” She gestured at Minato and Takeba.

Takeba blinked. “Really? I know that we’ve been training, but that Shadow was really strong…how do you know if we can do it?”

“We have to do it.” She simply stated. “Most people don't know the Dark Hours exists, but if half the city is destroyed overnight, then there will be panic.”

“Alright, let’s do this!” Sanada punched the air before picking up his fighting gear.

Before he could take another step, Kijiro caught him by the shoulder. “Akihiko, you stay here and wait for the chairman.”

He blinked in surprise before furrowing his brow. “Wha— are you kidding me? I’m coming with you!”

“Akihiko, no. You're still recovering.” Kijiro stated firmly. "You're staying here."

He glared at her. “I'm fine.”

“I’m not going to tell you a third time.”

After a tense moment, he finally relented. “Damnit.”

“Don’t worry. They’ll be fine.” She squeezed his shoulder a fraction before letting it drop to her side.

“Yeah, don’t worry, senpai; I've got it covered!” Iori bragged in that very stupid way of his. “I’ll kick enough ass so it’ll feel like you were there!”

“You're in charge.” Sanada pointed at Minato, much to Iori's dismay.

Iori exclaimed what Minato muttered. “Again?”

Takeba tapped her foot on the ground impatiently. “When is she going to get here?”

“She’ll get here when she gets here.” Iori drawled, leaning back on the step he was sitting on.

Takeba huffed and looked up at the sky, staring up at the full moon. It sat large in the middle of the sky, unmoving. They continued to wait at Iwatodai station.

As Minato sipped on his Dr. Salt, he reflected how he never noticed how much blood seemed to seep out of the stones of this city during the Dark Hour. Even the sea was that deep red.

Kijiro came tearing through the street on her cycle, coming to a stop in front of the three of them. It was the same motor bike Minato had seen her with in Tartarus with all the equipment on it. As she prepared the stuff on her bike, she debriefed the situation to them: the Shadow they were after was hiding on a monorail not far from where they were at, only about 200 meters. They would have to walk along the tracks to get to it. Like in Tartarus, she would be providing them insight and support.

They ran along the monorail tracks until they got to their destination. The inside was empty, save for a single coffin; a passenger who didn’t get off the train in time.

“Can you three hear me?” Kijiro's voice crackled to life in their pockets.

Takeba was the one who answered first. “Yes. We're at the train cart, but there doesn't seem like there's anything here.”

“The Shadow is somewhere around where you are,” Kijiro repeated. “Proceed with caution and stick together.”

“Weird how the doors were open.” Takeba muttered mostly to herself.

Of course as soon as she said that, the doors had to snap close. The train rumbled to life, the metal inner workings hissing, creaking and popping, the yellow announcement text above the handrails blinking the same two words erratically: NEXT STOP NEXT STOP STOP NEXT NEXT NEXT-

Then the monorail started to move. Faster and faster and faster until the three of them could barely keep on their feet. Iori fell on his ass.

“Shit!”

Takeba hung on to a handrail and swiftly grabbed her communication device. “Mitsuru! The train’s moving, something’s wrong!”

“I know.” There was a sharp edge to the older girl's voice. “The Shadow must be manipulating the power in the train. You have about 8 minutes to stop the monorail before it crashes into another train.”

Eight minutes was not a lot of time.

Takeba’s breathing quickened. “O-oh my God! What are we going to do?”

“Just try and keep calm.” Kijiro advised with a steady voice. “Find the shadow. It’s the one controlling the train; if you kill it, you'll be fine.”

“What are we doing just standing around then? Let’s go!” Iori ran ahead of the two of them, claymore held at the ready.

They ran as quickly as they could through train car after train car. Shadows hindered their path occasionally, dropping from the ceiling and catching them off guard. Iori was reckless, always charging forward despite Takeba and Kijiro warning him not to. Not only that, but Minato noticed something; Takeba’s hand always strayed to her Evoker, but she never pulled it out. Even in Tartarus, she hadn't used her Persona once. She never used it.

“You’re getting close. Be ready.”

They entered the front cart, and there it was. The second Major Arcana Shadow: The Priestess.

It was in the shape of a woman, its body half black, half white and entirely provocative. Unlike the Magician, the numerals weren’t on its red mask but rather on its…Minato tried not to look where the numerals were. Its black and white hair was scripture written in a language he couldn’t read, scrolls tangled along the handrails and seats and most importantly, the controls.

It smiled at them, cruelly.

Minato didn’t hesitate. He pulled out his Evoker and called out: “Orpheus!”

It was a messy battle. The Priestess summoned other lesser Shadows to protect it, while it lazily attacked from the back. Iori slashed at the many floating heads that swarmed around the Priestess, before immediately summoning Hermes to cleave at the greater Shadow's mass. Takeba shot at it, dodging most of the attacks it threw at them. She was a good shot.

“Four minutes left.” Kijiro warned. “Keep at it.”

Minato rolled out of the way of an ice spike bursting out of the windows of the cart, thrusting forward and stabbing her through. It cried out and with surprisingly fast reflexes, it grabbed Minato.

“Shit—Minato!” Iori cried out.

Its hand wrapped around him fully, lifting him into the air so that they were eye level. And then it started to squeeze. It wasn't quick with its method for killing him. He could feel his joints pop one by one, slowly edging towards being painful.

Metal screeched, a blast of heat that didn't hit either him or the Shadow. Tighter. It was getting harder to breathe.

He could hear them being overwhelmed, Kijiro yelling something on the communication device. Tighter. Something popped loudly, the soft pain reverberating in his chest.

He was going to die and he'll go back and he'll have to do this all over again. Strangely, everything around him faded away. No more monorail carts, no more lesser shadows, no more Iori fighting. It was just him, the Priestess—

And Takeba.

She stood, frozen to her spot, the only thing she could do was meet his eye as he was slowly crushed to death.

Tighter. Tight enough to finally crack something.

“He's going to die.” She didn't speak, but he could hear her anyway. “Come on, do something, Yukari!”

Her fingers twitched. They strayed to the Evoker on her thigh, as they've done so many times before.

Tighter.

Like that time on the roof, Takeba whipped out the Evoker and pointed it straight at her forehead. Her chest rose quickly, up and down, up and down. But unlike the roof, she didn't look as afraid as she did then.

“I'm tired of being useless!” She screamed.

He heard glass shattering. He felt the wind on his skin, cutting into his flesh, and he heard the Priestess scream.

Minato fell to the ground hard, the breath he just gained back forced out of him again. Hermes cleaved the Priestess again, finally silencing it for good. Its hair fell limp to the ground before dissipating into black mist.

Minato caught a glimpse of Takeba's Persona, a shadowy girl trapped within the head of a bull, before it returned to her.

But there was still a problem: the train was still moving. A violent shake knocked them all to the ground again.

“It didn't stop?!” Iori yelled.

Minato stood up and rushed towards the control panels. The break was the lever on the right with the red handle. With a grunt and a great deal of effort, he pulled the lever and the monorail screeched to a sudden halt.

It was very quiet for a moment.

“Is...it over?” Takeba rose from the ground unsteadily.

Iori let out a sudden, breathless laugh. “Oh my god. We did it! We're alive!”

Minato didn't answer. He tried to, he really did. The words came hoarse and unintelligible to his ears. His surroundings blurred together, green and black and white and red and floor became ceiling as he fell.

Chapter Text

April 9th, 2009, Full Moon

Kotone was sitting in class taking notes, sneakily eating a snack and just generally minding her business. Mr. Ekoda was trying (and failing) to keep the attention of his students as he taught Japanese Lit. She herself was only managing not to doze off with the help of some extremely sour gummies she was eating.

She was reading Ise Monogatari while the teacher droned on, scratching at her running nose, when she heard someone hiss at her.

“Psst!”

She turned to see Junpei, with wide eyes, silently pointing at his nose.

Raising an eyebrow, she wiped at her nose with the back of her hand. Her nose wasn't that runny, was it? Then she saw it. Blood. On her hand, gushing from her nose onto her book. No wonder Junpei looked so wigged out.

Kotone pressed a hand to her face and stood up. “I need to go to the nurse!”

“You know, I’ve never had a nose bleed before in my life. Let alone something this bad.” Kotone sighed, popping out the twisted tissue stuffing her nostrils. It didn't feel like it was bleeding anymore, so that was good.

Yukari winced. “Jeez. Are you okay?”

“Yeah! I'm fine, I don’t know what happened.” She shrugged. She snapped her shoebox closed and grabbed her school bag.

The two of them walked from school to the station together, idly chatting together. Despite their… strange first meeting, Yukari was actually a really nice person. She woke her up before she overslept on her first day, she showed her around school.

She turned her head when she started to pass by the strip mall. “Hey, we should go to the mall! You’ve never been, right?”

Kotone blinked. “No. We should go.”

They went into Paulownia mall as Yukari told her all about it. There was a Karaoke bar, CD store, a popular café...

“Oh hey! They have a claw machine here now!” Yukari pointed it out, the machine sitting next to an arcade. There were some cute plushies and boxed figurines inside.

“Wanna try and get one?” Kotone smirked smugly. “Not to brag, but I'm pretty good at rigged games.”

Yukari let out a small exhale from her nose. “Yeah, sure. Why not?”

Turns out, this particular claw machine was really rigged. Kotone tried every trick she knew (excluding the stuff that was basically just breaking into the damn thing), but she couldn't get it no matter how hard she tried. They went home with a little less money in her pockets, and no Jack Frost Plushie.

April ??, ????, ??

Kotone had a dream that she had the barrel of a gun against her head. She felt its cold nose nuzzle into her hair as she watched a snake tear into the carcass of something she couldn't recognize. The finger fiddled with the trigger, squeezing but never all the way.

It took her a moment to realize that it was her own hand holding the gun, and when she did—

She pulled the trigger without any hesitation.

Then Kotone woke up, daylight flooding into her eyes and momentarily blinding her. It was quiet, and the ceiling looked different. She could hear the sounds of machines beeping, smell the scent of chemical cleaner and disinfectant.

Her eyes slid over to her left. Yukari was sitting next to her dozing off, her chin resting in her hand.

“Hey,” Kotone tried to say, but her parched throat garbled the word beyond recognition. Yukari woke up to it anyway, startling awake with wide, surprised eyes.

“You're up!” Yukari sat up straighter in her chair. “Are you alright? How are you feeling?”

Kotone glanced around the room, looking more closely at where she was. “...Are we in the hospital?”

Yukari nodded as she handed her a water bottle that Kotone eagerly guzzled down. “You passed out. The doctor couldn't find anything wrong with you, so he said it was just exhaustion.”

“What happened?”

Yukari made a weird face before sighing.

“...I guess you wouldn't remember. It was a lot, after all.” She then explained events that sounded like they came out of an RPG, from monsters attacking them on the dorm roof to Kotone summoning a creature to protect them by shooting herself in the head.

Kotone nodded slowly, her eyes narrowing. Despite the absurdity of the story, she kind of remembered it. Kind of. The past few days were very fuzzy and hard to remember. She didn't even know what day it was today.

“What day is it?” She asked.

“It's the 19th.”

That made her fully sit up. “I missed a whole week of school?!”

“Hey, hey! You were unconscious, it's not your fault.”

Kotone groaned, flopping back down on her pillows. Of course something crazy like this would happen. Of fucking course monsters would come out of nowhere to ruin her first week at school. Silence settled over them.

“I wanted to tell you that…” Yukari twiddled with her thumbs. “That I'm sort of like you. In a way.”

“What do you mean?”

“My dad died in an accident when I was little, and I'm not that close with my mom.” She said.

Kotone wondered where this conversation was going until she heard her ask: “You're all alone too, right?”

Ah.

She scratched the back of her neck. This was awkward. “Ah. Right, yeah.”

“I'm sorry, I just...I knew about it before I met you. I guess I felt sort of guilty?” She glanced away, biting her lip. “I wanted to tell you everything, not just the Persona stuff. And if I didn't freeze up on the roof, you wouldn't even be in this situation — ”

Kotone was starting to get the sense that Yukari seemed to have a habit of rambling whenever she was nervous, so she stopped her with a raised hand.

“It's okay, you don't have to apologize.”

Yukari pressed her lips together. “...Thanks.”

She stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “I'm going to get going. You're okay with getting back on your own right?”

Kotone nodded, waving her goodbye.

Yukari stopped at the door and turned to glance at her. Her eyes looked more serious. “Do me a favor. When you come home from school tomorrow, come up to the fourth floor of the dorm. Everything will be explained better then.”

Then she left.

April 21, 2009, Waning Crescent

Kotone watched as the school distorted itself into something impossible and brain-bending. If she had a hard time believing Yukari back in the hospital, now she was a firm believer that something was wrong with Iwatodai.

Junpei yelped. “ This is the nest you were talking about? What the hell happened to our school?!”

“Once the Dark Hour passes, everything will return to normal.” Mitsuru said as she confidently strode past the school gates. “Come on. We only have an hour to do this.”

They went through the towering front doors and entered some sort of lobby area. The ceiling must've stretched upwards at least 15 meters, although staring only seemed to make it stretch further upwards. It had no walls, so they could see Tartarus moving all around them. 

Standing tall atop a flight of stairs was what Minato assumed was the true entrance into the labyrinth, dark velvet curtains surrounded by a large golden clock with its mechanisms slowly ticking down the seconds.

The three of them gathered their weapons, a claymore for Junpei, a combat bow for Yukari, and a naginata for Kotone. Then, they entered Tartarus.

The inside of Tartarus was very green, and it wasn’t the light of the moon that made it that way. The walls shifted and pulsed away from them whenever they got near. Not only that, but there was a constant thrumming in the air. Their steps echoed as they walked through the winding halls.

There were Shadows crawling everywhere. They didn’t even have to see them to know that one was near; they could just hear their raspy, wheezing breaths bouncing off the wall.

“Ready your weapons, everyone. And remember; your Personas are your greatest tool here, use them.” Mitsuru said.

They striked first, catching the things off guard. They fought them fiercely, dodging attacks when they could. Kotone rolled and sliced one of the Shadows in half with her weapon.

“Ladies, leave this to me!” Junpei whipped out his Evoker and pressed it to the side of his head with a cocky grin. He still winced when he pulled the trigger.

“Hermes!”

A crazy thing with metal wings and blades for feet came out of the air and tore through the last Shadow easily.

“Holy crap!” Kotone laughed. That was super cool.

As they continued up the structure, they found treasure chests, loose change, trinkets, weapons, old clothing; all things Kotone found strange. Did Shadows steal stuff from people?

“Where did you learn how to do that?” Yukari asked suddenly, making a wild gesture that resembled Kotone fighting.

Kotone smiled and shrugged. “I was in a club in middle school. I was okay at it.”

Yukari hummed at that information. The communicator crackled again. “More Shadows are in the area, get ready.”

Chapter Text

May 13th, 2009, Waning Gibbous

Paulownia Mall had a café in it called Chagall Café. It served coffee and fresh pastries and even a couple of entrees for people who were feeling super hungry. The lighting was soft and tasteful, and the seating consisted of round tables surrounded by round plush chairs.

It was actually a romantic restaurant, with couples coming in all the time, so it kinda felt weird to bring Junpei of all people with her. They would usually just go to a ramen place, or Wild Duck Burger.

“Wow,” his eyes gazed around the place. “I’ve never actually been inside this cafe before.”

“Really? Why?” Kotone asked as they got a seat at one of the tables.

“Well, guys don’t really go to places like this together. It’s kinda embarrassing.”

“Then why don’t you go with your girlfriend or something?” She teased.

“Shut up.”

They ordered their food, and were brought it pretty quickly. They both got their choice of drink and Kotone got a couple fruit tarts for herself. She took a bite of one of her flaky pastries, humming as the sweet strawberry filling and sugary frosting hit her tongue.

Junpei took a sip from his cup and nodded. “This is some damn good coffee.”

“Really?” She took a sip from her cup, hot cocoa passing her lips. She never really understood coffee, it was too bitter to enjoy, even with cream and sugar in it.

Plus, she liked to have marshmallows floating in her drinks.

Kotone listened to Junpei winge on about coffee and aroma and infusing it in water and stuff she didn’t really understand. But she liked hearing him talk about it. 

It was weird how she liked hanging out with Junpei. When she first met him, he was kind of…annoying. And going on missions with him was tedious and stressful. But they went to movies together, because they liked the same movies, and they talked about new Featherman  episodes excitedly as they ate ramen.

She took another sip of her drink. Who knows, she probably just hung out with him because he paid for their meals. She could definitely appreciate someone who does that every excursion.

May 17th, 2009, Half Moon

April passed by, leading into May. It seemed like a very smooth shift, until Midterms suddenly reared its ugly head. After fighting for her life in a tower, on a roof and on a train, Kotone genuinely forgot that was a thing she had to do. Now she was cramming on the weekend before the test started. At least she wasn't doing it alone; Junpei was in the same boat as her with Yukari helping the both of them.

The girl groaned, staring at the textbook in front of her. She was already fighting monsters, she didn't need to do this too!

“Are you having trouble with something?”

Mitsuru’s voice coming out of nowhere made Kotone jump a little, maybe even squeak the tiniest bit. Junpei snickered.

She turned sheepishly to look up at the senior. She had her hair pinned up in a messy bun, a leather jacket over her fencing suit, and a duffel bag held loosely in her hand clinking with equipment.

“We’re just studying for Midterms.” Yukari explained.

Mitsuru nodded. "Would you like any help?"

Junpei and Kotone nodded, muttering yeah and sure. But Yukari was quiet, her expression going a bit tight.

Then she smiled the tiniest amount. “Sure. Why not?”

“Wonderful. I’ll be back in a moment.”

A couple of minutes passed by and Mitsuru came back down the stairs, dressed a bit more casually—and by that she was dressed in her very fancy turtleneck and designer jeans. She sat next to Kotone of all people, leaning forward to look at the material more closely. 

She even tucked some of her hair behind her ear as she explained why. Kotone averted her eyes when her face began to feel very, very hot. She learned…a little bit of what she was supposed to that evening.

May 24th, 2009, New Moon

They searched the score boards for their names.

And Kotone whooped, punching a fist in the air. She didn’t do too terribly! She couldn’t say the same for Junpei, but oh well.

“Come on, let’s take a picture together! For surviving Midterms!”

Yukari rolled her eyes. “It’s just Midterms. It’ll be worse during finals season.”

“Do not remind me about Finals.” Kotone flipped her phone around, squeezing the three of them together to make sure they got in the photo. “Say cheese!”

They did that, and the camera flashed brightly. Kotone flipped her phone around once more to see how the picture turned out. She was met with a pretty good photo of the three of them with a little message at the bottom: Memory full. Not enough phone storage space.

“Aw dammit. Hold on…” With the tapping of several buttons, Kotone went through the pictures in her phone. Pictures of the sky, alley cats, cool street art, the ground for some reason. All recent photos that she could get rid of.

But then she got a little curious about the older stuff. She had this phone for a while, what things were on here that she just forgot about?

Mostly just pictures of her in middle school; hanging out with friends, nighttime streets, club practices, destruction of property that Junpei eagerly commented on.

She stopped on a picture of her and someone else standing together next to an incinerator. They were in middle school, by the looks of their uniforms. Kotone had her tongue out and was making a rude gesture with her hand, while the other simply smiled and made an awkward peace sign.

“Woah, who is that? Is that your twin or something?”

“Ugh, don’t be weird.” Yukari glared at him, only briefly glancing at the photo on the screen. “Although, hey…”

He was right—standing next to each other, they both looked extremely similar to the other. They both had the same hair color, face shape. The only thing different was the color of their eyes; Kotone’s burgundy, almost red ones next to the other’s pale grey ones.

But she didn’t know them; she couldn't have, Kotone couldn’t place a name on that face. But they had a name. She had to. Everybody had a name, even this person who she knew in this picture. Kotone knew, she knew who this was, she just couldn't remember .

Who was that?

Who was that?

Who was—

“I don't know!” She laughed a little too forcefully. It was middle school, she couldn’t be tasked with knowing every name of every student in that school. It was just some random kid she took a picture with. They didn’t even look that similar.

She quickly deleted the photo.

Chapter Text

June 1, 2009, Waxing Gibbous

Summertime was finally here, and with it came withering heat, humidity and rumors that Gekkoukan was haunted by ghosts. Or, at least one, from what she heard by the school gate. The girls that were usually whispering rumors to each other by the gate every morning, and sometimes at the shoe boxes, were talking about a girl who was found on the grounds, lying unconscious in the grass. That wasn't the only thing they were talking about; apparently, a student from class 2-E suddenly stopped coming to her classes. In fact, most of the student body was talking about it.

That missing girl in 2-E was the current target of S.E.E.S.

During May, Akihiko brought their attention to another Persona user in their school— Yamagishi Fuuka. Kotone had seen her on occasion, having lunch on the roof. Yukari had heard about her from some girls who were seemingly bullying her, and Junpei noted she was cute but not in a way that he would be interested in her. That last bit of information was pointedly ignored by their seniors.

Now, she was gone.

Junpei proposed that evening, through one of his overdramatic stories, that the maniacal school ghost got her. He even dimmed the lights and shined a flashlight under his chin, to add atmosphere.

Mitsuru, arms crossed, said nothing for a moment after his performance before glancing at her fellow senior. “...what do you think, Akihiko?”

“It's less likely a ghost than it is a Shadow. It's worth investigating.” He replied.

“Aw c'mon. That performance was Oscar worthy!” Junpei whined.

Kotone snickered. “Sure it was, buddy.”

Junpei stuck his tongue out like a child.

“Please.” Yukari huffed, her expression stiff. She had been weirdly silent throughout the ghost story.

Junpei paused, before smirking. “I didn't know you were scared of ghost stories, Yuka-tan.”

“I am not! Shut it!” She rose abruptly from her chair, glaring down at Junpei. “We're going to do this investigation and I'll prove that this is nothing but an urban legend, and a stupid rumor!”

Suddenly, Mitsuru let out a noise that sounded suspiciously close to a laugh. “I appreciate the fervor, Takeba. That story was pretty unnerving.”

“Yeah, Takeba, we leave this investigation entirely up to you, Iori and Arisato,” Akihiko grinned. “Just make sure to keep one eye open.”

She blushed, realizing they were making fun of her. Yukari groaned and stormed off.

June 6th, 2009, Waxing Gibbous

Yukari, Junpei and Kotone stepped into the shadowy area behind the Iwatodai Station, all of them with various levels of wariness. The three of them had been investigating, specifically about the rumors about the school ghost, the unconscious girls, and Fuuka’s strange absence from school.

The first that they had learned at school was that there was no ghost involved with anything. It was just a rumor, much to Junpei’s dismay. Second, the unconscious girl wasn’t the only one affected by this phenomenon. There were two others found before the most recent incident, quickly put into the hospital before too many people saw. Third, those girls were connected to each other by two things; they hung out together a lot, and they frequently messed with and bullied Fuuka.

“You're making such a big deal about this, so what if it's a little 'dangerous?' ” She rolled her eyes at him. “Come on! Think of it as an adventure.” Yukari said, before practically bouncing right out the front door.

Junpei had scratched his neck, muttering under his breath: “More like a suicide mission.”

“Yeah, come on— You’ll protect us, right, Junpei?” Kotone batted her eyes, saying the words in a teasing way.

Of course, he started blushing and stuttering about being a man and stuff, vowing to protect them. He didn’t even know she had him hook line and sinker.

Now the three of them were in an alleyway. There were some thugs hanging out by piles of garbage, sleazy weirdos that leered at them as they passed by, women in tight dresses and gaudy jewelry. It was obvious to everyone there that they weren't supposed to be there.

A couple of punks walked up towards them, hands in their pockets and their strides wide. “Hey you. Goatee.”

Junpei jumped and very shakily pointed to himself.

“Yeah, you, stupid.” One of them sneered. “The hell do you think you are, coming over here?”

The other snickered. “Did you wanna beat up some lowlife to impress your little girlfriends or something?”

“W-we aren't dating…” Junpei weakly replied, getting Yukari to roll her eyes.

The first punk shoved his chest. “ Shut it! ”

They were very quickly veering towards dangerous territory.

Yukari wasn't making it any better. She planted her fists on her hips, her expression resolute. “We don't need your permission to be here.”

Some of the women laughed to themselves, muttering behind their hands and outwardly jeering at them. There were threats laid clearly in their eyes. Kotone felt her hair stand on end.

One of the punks scoffed. “This bitch…” His fist clenched tight.

Kotone stepped in front of Yukari out of instinct.

Luckily, before anything could get worse, someone came to their rescue. A rough voice called out from the shadowy parts of the alley. “That's enough.”

It was that guy from the hospital. The one that Akihiko had such a weird relationship with. Although it was surprising, the fact that he was there wasn't. This place seemed to fit him perfectly.

“The fuck you want, Shinjiro?” One of the punks stepped up to him, sneering. “’You suddenly interested in messing with our business—?”

It happened so fast that Kotone couldn't process it properly at first. The punk cursed and held his nose, blood quickly streaming out of it. The tough girls laughed and left, and with a stern glare from Shinjiro, the punks ran away from the scene entirely with their tails between their legs. The three students had their jaws dropped to the floor because this guy just head butted this punk and broke his nose .

Shinjiro turned to them, his glare not lessening in the slightest. “What the hell are you three doing here?”

Junpei took that opportunity to seem cool. “S.E.E.S business, investigating n’ stuff, ya know…”

Shinjiro just stared at him for a long moment until Junpei withered enough for him. Then he addressed all three of them. “This place isn’t for you. Go back to where you came from, and don’t come back.”

“Wait! You can't just kick us out, we came here for a reason.” Yukari exclaimed.

“What reason could you possibly have to recklessly endanger yourselves?”

“We're looking for a classmate of ours,” Kotone explained. “Her name's Yamagishi Fuuka, she’s someone with the Potential and we haven’t seen her in school for a while.”

He raised an eyebrow. “So, you think I would know anything about your shit?”

“Didn't Sanada-Senpai ask you specifically about Shadow attacks?” Yukari cleverly brought up that point.

The corner of his mouth twitched. Shinjiro then sighed. “Fine. Fine , I’ll tell you what I know.”

He then went on to explain some rumors he heard, specifically from the girls that were in the hospital. They bullied her, that they knew for sure now, to the point that she vanished after a prank they pulled on her. The girls even wondered with each other about the reason they ended up unconscious, if the reason was because of Fuuka’s spirit seeking revenge towards them. That caught the three’s attention.

“Fuuka's...spirit? Wait hold on,” Yukari shook her head. “Fuuka isn't dead , she's just...”

Her eyes glanced around, trying to come up with a reason.

A puff of air exited Shinjiro’s nose, clearly annoyed with them. “She never came home. Her parents haven't seen her in over a week.”

“Are you serious? I thought she was out sick or something…” Junpei muttered in disbelief.

“I mean she could be missing.” The older boy shrugged. “Rumors aren’t the truth. That's just what I heard.”

The three of them glanced at one another nervously. Even if it was a rumor, spread by the girls who bullied the poor girl, Fuuka was still missing. There was still the possibility of it being true.

Kotone suddenly decided to speak up. “Thank you for helping us back there. We were in…a little bit of a pickle.”

“Don't make me catch you around here again.” He said to them, before stalking off deeper into the dark alleyways, disappearing from their sight.

They took the last monorail to Iwatodai for a long, quiet ride back to the dorms. There were no other passengers besides a sleeping old man and some office workers returning home from a long shift.

Kotone sat between Junpei and Yukari. Junpei passed out as soon as he sat down. Careful not to wake him, Kotone took out a melon bread from her pocket. The wrapper crinkled around the sweet treat as she took a bite out of the soft bread. It tasted like melons, as advertised.

“I saw you go in front of me.” She suddenly said. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah I did.”

Yukari pursed her lips. “You know I can handle myself.”

“I know.” Kotone nodded. “I also knew right then that you were in way over your head. I mean, did you see those people? They could've beaten you and left you in that alley to die or worse, ya know?”

Yukari opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated long enough for her argument to fade into nothing. She averted her gaze before changing the subject. “Do you think Fuuka actually…you know.”

Kotone stared at her for a moment before shrugging. Took a bite of her snack.

“We’ll know soon enough.” She muttered, a little too grimly for her liking. Swallowing, she put on a reassuring smile. “I mean, she probably isn’t. Right?”

“Right…” Yukari nodded, becoming more resolute. “Right. We have to believe that.”

Kotone’s smile grew wider. “That’s the spirit!”

“…Thanks.” Yukari smiled back.

Chapter Text

June 17th, 2009, Waning Crescent

Going into Tartarus without Mitsuru took a little getting used to for all of them. Fuuka wasn’t as assertive or confident in leading, and often mumbled or tripped over her words. She also had trouble using her Persona during the first few missions, stating that seeing them outside of her own body made her feel dizzy.

But now they could go farther into the labyrinth without losing connection, because that was the main issue with Mitsuru’s Persona; it was more battle oriented than it was reconnaissance.

Moreover, Fuuka was far quicker with the warnings.

“The enemy is about to unleash a huge attack! Get back!”

The four of them jumped back, avoiding being slashed a thousand claws before putting it down for good.

She was even quicker than Mitsuru was. It was like she was right there.

As the group traveled through the Arqa block, the halls built out of human bones and intricately carved obsidian stone, Kotone looked around.

Arqa wasn’t like Thebel. And it wasn’t just in looks, either. The endless mechanical churning were replaced with far off stones crumbling, rattling bones and the dripping of water. There were no towers or endless windows looking further into the labyrinth, but endless holes of bottomless void. Nothing. Her friends didn’t like looking down them.

There would be an occasional window to the outside, allowing them to see the green moon, impossibly large and imposing. It was relieving to see when they would appear, allowing them a break from endless macabre corridors.

Sometimes people and animals would get stuck in the labriynth. Sometimes they were dragged in. They would try their best to find them, and get them out before anything bad happened to them.

Sometimes Kotone wondered what happened to the people who never got out. She knew it happened, because Akihiko told her it had happened a few times before back when she wasn’t in S.E.E.S.

Sometimes she wondered what would happen if…she got lost.

If she ventured the depths and heights.

If no one found her.

Just silly little thoughts like that.

"We should totally go to Wild Duck Burger!" Kotone bounced over to Yukari, hanging onto her shoulders. She grinned when she Yukari stumbled and yelped, trying to keep upright with the unexpected weight.

“Fine, fine! Just get off!” Yukari shrugged her off and groaned, straightening out her sweater. She checked her phone before picking up her bag. “You’re lucky that I have free time.”

Kotone snickered as she followed her out of the classroom. “You would’ve gone with me anyway.”

They squeezed into the crowded monorail to Iwatodai. Some guy immediately bumped into them when they got off, not even apologizing. They chatted as they walked downtown, the evening sun warming them.

“Do you want to go anywhere else besides Wild Duck?” Yukari asked, looking around at the shops around.

“I don’t know. I don’t mind either way,” Kotone shrugged. “By the way, could you pay this time pretty please? I don’t have a lot of money.”

Yukari rolled her eyes. “Hold on. Lemme get my wallet.” She rummaged around in her bag, pausing before looking through it more frantically. “Shit. Where is it?”

Kotone raised an eyebrow. “Did you drop it?”

“I-I don’t think I dropped it…I had it when I pulled out my train ticket.” Suddenly she froze. “That guy who bumped into us.”

“You don’t think…”

Kotone didn’t even finish her sentence before Yukari ran off, telling her to stay there.

‘She could handle this herself.’

And she did stay for a minute. She knelt by the curb, looking around and being bored. Then 20 minutes went by, and Kotone started to worry. So, she stood up and walked back to the station, just to check if she was okay.

Kotone looked around the station, calling for her, until she spotted her in some shady part of the station. She saw that guy there too, just screaming at her while some other guy (his lackey?) stood in the corner, leering at her. Yukari's pink leather wallet was peeking out of his pocket, even though he tried to deny it.

It was instinct, just like last time. Just her taking a can of soda from her bag and lobbing it at his head. It made a heavy sound as it cracked against his forehead, drawing blood and a curse from him.

"Hey, what's going on over here?" A man called out, jogging over to the sound of fighting.

With the sound of people coming, the thief and his lackey quickly fled. They dropped the wallet, too.

"Yukari!" Kotone ran over to her. "Yukari, are you okay?"

She didn't answer. Her hands shook as she picked her wallet up from the ground.

"...thanks." She finally said, breathing out the word. Her hands still shook.

Kotone started to reach out, almost asked her if she was okay again, when Yukari suddenly stamped her foot on the ground.

"Goddamn it! I'm so pissed off!"

Kotone blinked. "About getting robbed??"

"I said I didn't have to rely on anybody, that I could handle this on my own," She whipped around, glaring at Kotone. "And then you come strolling in like some-some knight in shining armor!"

Yukari groaned and huffed, storming off before Kotone could even say anything. She just left her standing there, confused, hungry and...a little bit hurt, for some reason.

Chapter Text

???? ??, ????, Half Moon

Was his heart beating?

Was blood running through his veins?

Did breath leave his body?

Minato couldn’t tell.

He could see a boy sitting on his bed, swinging his legs back and forth, back and forth. Over and over and over again, giggling occasionally. The sound of it was wrong, the sounds of laughter layered on top of one another.

“It’s coming. Can’t you feel it?”

He could. The rumbling of something shaking him to his core. The roar of a train. Louder and louder and louder and louder and louder and he awoke, taking rapid shallow breaths in and out, in and out. His eyes glanced around, slowly recognizing his room all covered in shadows. It was dark outside, but there was no green aura pouring through the windows. It was just dark.

The first thing he did was check the date.

June 1st, Monday. 3:03 am.

He let out a sigh of relief. Not that he needed to, he already knew that he looped back on a morning— how early in the morning, however, he didn’t know.

With a grunt, he got out of bed and quietly tiptoed downstairs. It was empty, and dark, and quiet. There was no sound, save for his padded footsteps on the carpet. He walked over to the kitchen, where he poured himself a glass of water that he eagerly guzzled down. Then he poured himself another, and looked around the dorm lounge.

It was empty, as expected. And dark. He was the only one awake.

Until he wasn’t.

Suddenly, Sanada quietly creeped into the dorm through the front door, boxing gloves and jacket slung over his shoulder. They both froze when they saw the other.

“…you’re up.” The senior stated.

“I am.” Minato nodded.

He pointed at him with a stern look. “Don’t tell Mitsuru.”

“I won’t.” Minato shook his head in confirmation that he wouldn't.

Sanada stared at him a little more before looking away, quietly walking to the couch and sitting down with a brief exhale through the nose. Minato creeped over, sitting down on the edge and as far as he could from the senior.

They sat there in silence before Minato asked his questions. “What…happened?”

“A mixture of Persona fatigue and your injuries. Thankfully, it wasn’t anything too serious that some rest couldn’t fix.” Sanada didn’t look at him when he spoke. His eyes stayed closed as he relaxed into the soft leather of the couch.

“I meant while I was asleep.”

“Not much. You missed Midterms.” With a grunt, Sanada sat up and set his boxing gloves onto his lap before starting to un-and re-stitch them. “And we found another person with the pontenial, and someone from our school no less.”

Minato hummed, not particularly interested.

Sanada pointed at him sort of accusatory. “This is the second time you’ve passed out after using your Persona too much. You need to train more.”

“I already go to Tartarus.” Minato mumbled.

And in Tartarus he was fine, great even. He learned about the different Arcana and their weaknesses and— God he fought monsters for crying out loud, wasn’t that training enough?

But Sanada shook his head. “Pushing yourself like this only hurts you. Body, mind and soul, Physically, Mentally and Emotionally. You need to train yourself so you have the stamina required to fight. It’s like trying to go on a 5k run without warming up first, or deadlifting without a spotter.”

Frankly, he was really tired and all the working out metaphors Sanada used went right over Minato’s head, so all he said was: “...okay.”

“So, are we going to work out together, or something?”

“Yeah, later. I’ll text you when you have free time.” Sanada stood up, slinging his stuff back over his shoulder. “Go get some rest, we have school in a couple of hours.”

June 11th, 2009 II, Gibbous Waning

The days blurred by until they were back in the command room, two more Full Moon Shadows under their belt.

Yamagishi was oriented into S.E.E.S. that evening. She was nervous, which was understandable and obvious due to the kind of person she was, but quickly accepted the proposal. What she said was very similar to what Minato did: “Sure, I don’t have much else to do.”

“Wait a minute!” Takeba shot up from her seat, quick to object.

“Fuuka.” Takeba took her hands and looked into her eyes, searching for something. “Do you really want to do this? Really, really want to? You’ll have to move and live here and face all kinds of dangers and-and—”

Yamagishi nodded, even after all that forewarning. “Yes. I’m sure.”

“Then we'll talk to your parents about moving you into the dorms.” Kijiro nodded to Ikutsuki.

“Hold on—” Takeba whipped her head around, her lips pursed. “Aren’t you going a little bit too fast? It’s only been a week—”

“Takeba, it’s fine,” Yamagishi reassured her one last time. Only then did Takeba relent, sitting back down with a huff.

Minato didn’t say a thing, as usual.

Weird, he thought. She didn’t do that for him.

Or maybe she did.

Did it matter? The outcome was going to be the same anyways.