Reset - Firebreath Fishslap

8/19/2019 Reset - Firebreath Fishslap

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Reset

by Firebreath Fishslap

In 2010, Minato Arisato died to save the world. Now it's 2009 and he's alive again,but things are different this time around. For one, who's Hamuko Arisato and when

did she become the leader of SEES? P3P AU, possible pairings later on.

Rated: Fiction T - English - Minato A., Female Protagonist - Chapters: 23 - Words:

99,648 - Reviews: 341 - Favs: 799 - Follows: 925 - Updated: 1/19 - Published:

10/3/2010 - id: 6370401

URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6370401

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6370401


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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1. Prologue

2. Minato Meets Hamuko

3. The First Summoning

4. Joining SEES

5. Hamuko Does Not Fear the Reaper

6. Lost Your Answer

7. Minato Does Fear Mitsuru

8. Confronting Shinjiro

9. Master of Priestess

10. Lazy Sunday

11. Scanning for Scanners

12. Minato Goes On A Date

13. A Single Classified Document

14. How To Handle A Shadow

15. Master of Lovers

16. Another Lazy Sunday

17. Yakushima Beat (Hamuko Mix)

18. Yakushima Beat (Minato Mix)

19. Revenge Request

20. Dog-Bark Bebop

21. A Gathering of Witches


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22. End of Request

23. A Child's Justice


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Prologue

Tatsumi Port Island, Tokyo, Japan

April 6 th , 2009, Dark Hour

The streets of Port Island were eerily silent under the yellow colored moon. A green

glow had enveloped the world, as it did every night at midnight. Akihiko Sanadadidn't mind the odd atmosphere, though. For him, it just gave him an excuse to fight.

Events lately had given him more of a reason to go out on patrol. Strange cases of

Apathy syndrome were popping up everywhere, and Akihiko knew that meant

Shadows were wandering about. Mitsuru didn't argue most of the time, though she

did seem to disagree with the fact he was going on patrol so close to the end of the

week long break.

He stood down the road from what had been his school and looked up at the large

tower that stood there now. He hadn't thought he'd wandered so close to Tartarus inhis patrol. It was odd, though… usually there were at least a few stray Shadows

wandering around Tartarus, but he hadn't seen a single one this night. Maybe he

should just go home now and try again another time.

A series of sudden whispers rang around Akihiko, and a smirk spread across his

face. That was the call of a Shadow for sure. He couldn't see Mitsuru being very

happy with him for running to Tartarus when he was alone, but there was ass to be

kicked. Upon running to the tower, he found that the school gates were unlocked,

which was strange in itself, and that there were no Shadows to be seen. Instead,there was a person lying in the middle of the courtyard. Not a coffin, but an actual

person. The collapsed teenager had blue hair and wore a Gekkoukan uniform, both

rather strange traits. While blue wasn't a particularly rare hair color, it was definitely

an odd one. The fact that he was wearing a uniform now felt rather out of place as

well.

Akihiko drew his Evoker and carefully walked over to the teenager. There was

always the possibility this was some kind of trap, and he didn't quite feel like being

ambushed by a bunch of Shadows. He knelt down by the collapsed teenager, andnoted with a bit of horror that he wasn't moving. Or breathing. Was he dead? He was

certainly pale enough to be. Akihiko gingerly reached a hand out and shook his

shoulder. The teenager gave a jolt and groaned. The color returned to the teenager's

face, and he began to wheeze for breath.

The teenager's eyes fluttered open. He sat up and looked up at Akihiko's face. His

eyes widened and he jerked his head toward his hands, and then back up at Akihiko.

"…A-Akihiko? What am I…" He looked around at Tartarus and the surrounding


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courtyard. His body wavered as he moved, and he was rather obviously dizzy."Where am I...? Why… Why am I alive? ! Where's Aigis? ! What's going on! ?"

He's definitely experiencing the Dark Hour… The Shadows would have gotten to him

by now if he didn't have the Potential, so he's definitely a Persona user, Akihiko

thought to himself. "Sorry, I don't think I know you. What are you doing around here,

anyways?"

"H-How do you not know who I am? !" The blue-haired teenager only appeared to

become even more panicked by Akihiko's words. "Don't tell me you've forgotten…

ugh…" He wavered once more and pressed his hands against the ground to support

him. He gave a retch, and Akihiko stood up and moved back from him in time to

dodge the vomit that had just poured from the teenager's mouth.

"You alright?"

"I don't feel very good…"

Akihiko suddenly realized he recognized this person. This was one of the new

second year students that had moved into the boys dorms recently. "You're Minato

Arisato, right? What were you doing wandering around during the Dark Hour?"

"Why do you remember my name but not me?" The teenager, who was evidentially

Minato, asked. The Dark Hour was making him delirious. Well, it did tend to have

that kind of effect on people who weren't used to it yet. He seemed rather convinced

they knew each other well, despite the fact that Akihiko had only seen him duringthose few visits he'd made to the boys dorm over the past week. Every time Akihiko

had seen him, he'd always been listening to his headphones and not really paying

attention to anyone else. They'd never talked.

Akihiko bent down and put Minato's arm around his shoulder, taking care not to step

in the disgustingly fragrant vomit as he did so. He pulled Minato to his feet, grunting

from the effort. "Geez, you're heavier than you look. Come on, I'll help you back to

your dorm." The two of them began to walk away from Tartarus and down the street.

The ground where Minato had lain only a few moments before began to ripple

outwards, almost like it was water and a stone had been dropped into it. A large,

black cloaked figure burst free of the fluid ground and rose into the air. Several

chains rose from epicenter of the distortion and wrapped around the being. It roared

in anger and grasped the chains with its one free hand. With a strong tug, the chains

shattered, allowing the cloaked being to fly free. A black, animal-like hand tore free

from the distortion after the being, and the chains drew back around to restrain the

hand. The animal-like hand sunk back into the ground, and the ground became solid


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once more.

The black cloaked being dropped the remnants of the chains upon the ground and

stared up at Tartarus. It was free.

And yet, this entire world felt unnatural to it. This was not the world of its origin.

Nothing in this world felt the same as the world the being originated from. Even the

Tower of Demise resonated differently with the being. There was only one thing the

being could feel that was the same, and that was the human that had hosted it for

many years, who it could feel was being led away from the tower at this very

moment.

A hand composed of nothing but a black gelatinous mass shot up from the ground.

The black cloak flew away from the being as it reached for its sword and sliced the

entire hand off. The hand went flying and fell to the ground, where it squirmed and

twitched grotesquely before dissolving into a black ichor. The being did not have long

to rest before more and more hands reached up from the ground, clawing at the

being's body. Some of the hands were armed with blades, which the being had to

counter with its own blade. Finally, it spotted what it had been looking for. One hand

that had been clearly staying out of the fight was holding up a Magician Arcana

mask. It moved forward at a speed that tore the hands grasping him from their arms

and sliced the Magician's mask down the middle. The mask fell to the ground and

lay there while the hands around it dissipated. The being stood there, waiting for the

inevitable joining of the energies.

It didn't happen. The cleaved halves of the mask joined together, leaving no

evidence of damage.

You are not the one we belong to. We were mistaken.

The sword wielding being snarled and brought a foot down upon the mask, which

dissolved into a black mist before its foot could touch it. A taunting laugh emanated

from around the being, and it had to take great care not to allow these unnatural

fragments of itself to bother it. It was clear from what Magician had said that even

this world's Arcana Shadows were unnatural to Death. It was impossible for it toabsorb its fragments in this world, and thus impossible for it to connect with its

mother. The reason why became apparent to the being as it realized what it had

been sensing since it appeared in this world. There was another Death, a much

weaker one, far from here. The fact that this unnatural Death existed in this world

meant that this world's Fall was proceeding, but somehow the being could sense

that compared to him, even this world's Nyx was lacking.


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Death's body shuddered before dissolving into a black mist. The mist rose into the

air and began to move in the direction its former host had gone. All it could do was

observe. It was no longer tied to its former host, and staying in Tartarus had become

impossible. The Shadows within would not care that it was the most powerful of their

kind; it was not of their world and thus unnatural to them. They would attack and

overwhelm it the moment it stepped inside. The mist passed over the bay and the

buildings of Iwatodai City, finally coming across the two human figures it had beensearching for. They stood in front of a large dormitory, the words "Gekkoukan High

School Men's Dorm" written on a sign attached to the outer wall of the building.

"…Well, this is where I leave you. You can get back to your room on your own,

right?"

"…yeah."

"I don't really have time to explain everything to you, and you look too out of it to

listen anyways. So I'll come back tomorrow."

"…Okay."

The silver haired teenager walked away, leaving the being's former host alone on the

steps of the dormitory. The blue haired teenager turned to walk up the steps, and

ust as it turned to do so, the black mist sunk into his shadow. The blue haired

teenager did not notice the mist sinking into his shadow. In fact, it would be a very

long time before anyone realized that a Shadow had tied itself to Minato, and by the

time they did realize, it would be far too late to change his fate.

In the moments before the Dark Hour ended, a blue butterfly landed upon a

streetlamp. The insect remained there until the unearthly mist lifted from the world

and time unfroze, at which time it fluttered away.

11:52 PM, April 7 th , 2009

The monorail sped down the tracks toward Iwatodai City with its few passengers.The late night monorail primarily carried businessmen on their way home from work,

so the teenage girl riding on the train was a bit of an out of place feature. She sat in

a seat by herself, listening to music through a pair of odd clip-on headphones.

"Been a little while but I'm still battling moving fast while you's just prattling no time

for me—"

Hamuko Arisato hit a button on her MP3 player, and the song changed.


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"Dreamless dorm, ticking clock, I walk away from the soundless room…"

She sighed and leaned back in her seat. It had been a very long ride from Chiba to

Iwatodai. In the ten years that had passed since the accident that had claimed her

parents' lives, she had moved from city to city, being shifted from relative to relative.

By now, she had become used to being transferred from school to school at least

once a year. The reasons for being transferred had varied; sometimes it was arelative getting transferred to another location, other times they just couldn't handle

her being at their house anymore.

There actually hadn't been plans for her to transfer to Gekkoukan this year. It was a

rather well known and expensive school in Iwatodai, and most students only

dreamed of being able to go there. She must have done something to get in. She

had been top of her class at her last school, so that must have counted for

something.

Despite the fact that she'd been born there, Hamuko couldn't remember much of

anything about the city. Well, it had been ten years since she'd last been there, so it

was probably natural that she couldn't remember much of anything.

Hamuko turned her head toward the window. There was a blue butterfly flying by the

monorail, somehow managing to stay in flight despite the slipstream. It remained in

the air long enough for her to notice it before dropping out of sight. Well, that had

been odd.

" Attention passengers. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by thedelay. Next stop is Iwatodai. I repeat, the next stop is Iwatodai."

The train rolled to a stop at the Iwatodai station, and Hamuko stood up. She walked

out into the station and looked up at the clock. It was nearly midnight.

A few seconds later, the music playing in her headphones came to an abrupt stop as

the world shifted over to the Dark Hour.


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Minato Meets Hamuko

A/N: This is going to be a side fic I'll be working on while I work on my Devil Survivor

fic series. This is going to likely end up being a rather heavy AU fic due to reasons

that should be obvious.

For the MShe's name, I decided to go with the most common name used in theJapanese fandom, Hamuko, instead of Minako (which I used on my own P3P file)

because let's be honest, having a Minato and a Minako is going to get confusing

very, very quickly.

"Well, that should be all of it."

Minato Arisato stood in his dorm room's doorway, frowning at the all too familiar

sight. The room was rather bare, with nothing adorning the walls, save a mirror anda sink to his left. Against the back wall was a single twin-sized bed and one

television wired directly into the wall. It was a room Minato knew all too well. He

turned back toward the silver haired teenager to his side.

"Thanks for helping me move all of this," Minato said. He knew the silver haired

teenager all too well, too, even though as far as Akihiko knew, they had just met.

"Heh, no problem. Mitsuru's downstairs, so ask her if you need anything," Akihiko

said. He closed the door behind him, leaving Minato alone in the empty room withhis bags on the floor and nothing else. He sighed and walked over to the bed before

sitting down on it. The fact was, he shouldn't have even been alive. He'd died . He'd

fallen asleep in the arms of the robot girl who loved him and felt his heartbeats slow

to a stop. There was no way they could have brought him back, even if they'd tried

like Minato knew they had. His soul had left his body long ago. He'd been deader

than dead.

So when he'd suddenly found himself passed out in front of Tartarus, he'd panicked

a bit. Akihiko had been the one to find him, and he'd taken him to the boy's dorm.The date had been April 6th, 2009 when Akihiko found him, one day before Minato

had arrived at the SEES dorm in his world. Somehow, he was back in April of 2009.

That wasn't the only difference. In this world, he had transferred to Gekkoukan High

School very recently and had been staying in the boys' dorm. He was set to start his

unior year at Gekkoukan tomorrow. After Akihiko found him passed out in front of

"the school" (so Akihiko claimed, but Minato already knew it was Tartarus and that it

had been the Dark Hour), arrangements had been made to move him to the co-ed


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dorm. Mitsuru had given some bullshit explanation for why, but Minato hadn't reallycared, and only listened closely enough so he could regurgitate her explanation if he

was asked.

Honestly, he thought he was taking all of this really well. After all, he'd just died and

come back in another world, where the worst year of his life and the last year of his

life was about to start up again, and he was the only one who knew anything about what was going to happen.

I shouldn't be alive, Minato thought to himself. He lifted his headphones to his ears

and switched on his MP3 player. Today was the 6th, so the full moon was in three

days. The fact that he'd been in human form at all during the Dark Hour meant he

had the Potential still in this world. He had to wonder if he still had Death sealed in

him in this world too. Everything seemed almost the same so far, after all.

He yawned and rolled over onto his side. He was tired. He would be expected to

unpack everything, but that could wait until tomorrow. He'd already spent a long time

ust sitting there, staring at the ceiling, and thinking about what the hell had

happened to him.

Without even changing into his PJs, Minato closed his eyes and fell asleep.

"Who's there?!"

"Takeba, wait!"

Minato's eyes fluttered open. He gave a groan and sat up. His head was spinning.

He blinked and looked around at the room. The world was… green? There were

patches of red across the floors and walls… Just the Dark Hour. And someone was

yelling downstairs… That gave him a pause. He headed out the door just as the

green faded and his MP3 player switched back on, the first few lines of the Burn My

Dread chorus playing from the headphones no longer on Minato's ears.

He paused at the top of the stairs. He could hear three voices. One was definitelyMitsuru, another was likely Yukari, and the third… he didn't recognize that voice. It

was a girl's voice, but he didn't recognize it. He began heading down the stairs rather

quickly at first before slowing down a fair bit by the time he hit the bottom step. He

walked over to the lounge where the three figures stood.

There was a girl Minato didn't recognize standing in front of the door. She had brown

hair tied up in a short ponytail, and her eyes were a rather striking red color. Not the

kind of red your eyes got after crying, but her irises were red. She was wearing a


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Gekkoukan uniform, and had a pair of red headphones, the same model as Minato's

own, hanging from her neck. Hanging from a string around her neck was an MP3

player.

"Who's he?" the red-eyed girl asked. Mitsuru and Yukari both turned toward Minato.

Yukari looked justifiably confused; Minato hadn't actually run into her yet, so she

didn't quite know him yet.

"Oh, Arisato. I wasn't aware you were awake," Mitsuru said. She turned toward

Yukari and the red-eyed mystery girl and motioned toward Minato. "This is Minato

Arisato. He'll be a junior this year, just like you."

"…'Arisato?'" The red-eyed girl asked apprehensively.

"Um… is it okay for him to be here?" Yukari asked.

"I'm only staying here while they get some things sorted out at the guys' dorm,"Minato said, repeating what Mitsuru had told him. Yukari still didn't quite believe it.

The red-eyed girl was still watching Minato very carefully.

"Arisato, this is Yukari Takeba and Hamuko Arisato," Mitsuru stated, motioning

toward Yukari and the red-eyed girl this time. She chuckled. "I was admittedly a bit

surprised to see you both had the same surname, but I suppose it is possible."

Minato had stopped listening about the point Mitsuru had said Hamuko's name. This

girl's family name was Arisato. She had arrived at the same time he was supposedto arrive. She had the same surname as him. The arrival during the Dark Hour,

Yukari nearly shooting someone, the weird explanations… this was when he was

supposed to arrive at the dorm, except he didn't. Someone else who had taken his

place had. That was the only explanation. This scene was too familiar for it to be

anything else.

"In any case, it's getting late. Takeba, could you show Arisato to her room?" Mitsuru

asked.

"Yeah, no prob," Yukari said to Hamuko. "Follow me."

The two girls walked toward the stairs leaving Minato and Mitsuru in the lounge.

"Sh-She's… how… why?!"

Mitsuru raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure what's wrong, Arisato, but you should go to

sleep."


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…Sleep. Sleep sounded good. Minato gave a small nod as he walked toward the

stairs. Things had just taken a definite turn for the worse.

"That boy, does he live here?"

Yukari looked toward Hamuko and frowned. "You mean that Minato guy? I guess

so… I wish Mitsuru-senpai would tell me when new people move into the dorm."

No, I meant the kid with the contract... Hamuko decided to drop it. That Minato guy

was weird too, but she supposed Arisato wasn't all that rare of a surname, right? The

fact that they were moving into the dorm at the same time, for really similar reasons,

was really creepy, though. As Hamuko mulled over on these thoughts, Yukari pulled

something from her pocket and placed it in Hamuko's palm.

"Here's your room key. Oh, and don't lose it, or you'll never hear the end of it," Yukari

said. Somehow Hamuko got the feeling she was talking from personal experience.Yukari turned to leave before turning back around.

"Um, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah?"

"On your way here from the station, was everything okay?"

Hamuko frowned. Things had been rather strange on the way to the dorm, now thatshe thought about it… "What do you mean?"

"You know what I-" Yukari sighed. "You know what, never mind. I better get going.

I'm sure you've got other questions, but let's save them for later, okay? Good night."

"Night," Hamuko said in agreement, and closed her door behind her. She looked

around her small room, and gave a smile.

"Mom, Dad, I'm home."

The next morning, Minato was putting on his Gekkoukan uniform when Yukari

knocked as expected.

"Coming!" Minato called before Yukari could ask if he was awake. He pulled the

lanyard his MP3 player hung from over his head and grabbed his headphones off of

the desk next to him as he walked over to the door. He opened the door, letting


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Yukari and Hamuko in.

"Good morning!" Hamuko said cheerfully.

"Morning," Minato said not-so-cheerfully.

"Mitsuru-senpai asked me to take you two to school," Yukari explained. "Are you

ready to go?"

Minato nodded. So far everything was going exactly the same as before… or not,

what with being found passed out in front of Tartarus, meeting a strange red-eyed

girl that should not have been in his place, and the simple fact that he was alive and

not the seal on some cosmic horror.

What was that about everything being the same again?

"…And that concludes the tour. Do you have any questions before I go?"

Minato shook his head. Hamuko did the same.

"Alright, cool," Yukari said. She turned to leave, but something crossed her mind at

that moment, stopping her. She looked back toward Hamuko. "Hey, about last night.

Don't tell anyone what you saw, okay?"

"When you talk like that, you make it sound like we were up to something bad,"Hamuko commented. Yukari flushed red.

"A-Anyways, I'm gonna go find out what class I'm in. See ya later!" Yukari waved

goodbye to the two of them before scrambling off toward the bulletin board. Minato

frowned and looked toward Hamuko. Even though he already knew what room he

was likely going to be in (though with Hamuko here, he wasn't quite as sure now), it

would be less suspicious if they headed to the faculty office anyways.

"Come on, let's go," Minato said. He turned toward the hallway to his left and began

walking. Hamuko followed after. There was an expression on her face that showed

she was still suspicious of things, particularly him. As the two of them walked down

the hallway, Minato noted a samurai-helmeted teacher and some odd foreigner

talking. He gave a grin, prompting Hamuko to raise an eyebrow in suspicion at him.

"I think this is the faculty office," Hamuko said. The two of them walked in. A brown

haired woman looked up as they entered. Minato knew her too. Oh he knew her all

too well, and at that thought he shuddered. If he never touched another MMORPG


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again it would still be one time too many.

"Oh, are you two the new students?" Ms. Toriumi asked. Minato and Hamuko both

nodded. Ms. Toriumi opened up the two files she was holding.

"Minato Arisato, 11th grade, correct?" Minato nodded. "And… Hamuko Arisato, 11th

grade?"

"We're not related," Hamuko stated. Ms. Toriumi shrugged and opened up both of

the files, casually leafing through them.

"Wow, you've both lived in a lot of different places… and in 1999, your parents—"

Ms. Toriumi gave a little gasp. "I'm sorry, I've been so busy, I…"

"It's okay," Hamuko said. Her smile was rather pained. Minato looked away. Even

with what he knew now, he didn't like thinking about that. Nothing really changed the

fact that the parents he'd known and loved were now dead.

"I'm Ms. Toriumi. I teach Composition. Welcome to our school. Have you two seen

the classroom assignments?" Hamuko shook her head. "You're in 2-F; that's my

class. But first we need to go to the auditorium. The Welcoming Ceremony will be

starting soon."

Ms. Toriumi moved toward the door. "Follow me." Minato and Hamuko did so without

objections.

Minato slept through the ceremony.

"Class, this is Minato Arisato and Hamuko Arisato," Ms. Toriumi stated. "They're not

related. The two of them transferred in recently."

Minato bowed. "I'm pleased to meet you all."

Hamuko smiled and gave a quick, rather deep bow. "I'm glad to meet you all!"

The class, being the gossiping students they were, began to gossip about the new

transfer students.

"Woah… two new transfer students in one day, with the same last names?"

"Well, at least the chick's cute."


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"That Minato guy's kinda mysterious looking, though."

"I think he just looks emo."

"Here we go again…" Minato said under his breath.

"'Again?'" Hamuko asked. She was looking at Minato suspiciously again. This time,

Minato didn't notice it.

Thankfully for Minato, he and Hamuko had gotten seats on opposite ends of the

room. The way Ms. Toriumi had decided to do their desks meant Hamuko had gotten

his old seat, while Minato had been given a seat in the back of the room. This meant

he'd easily been able to get away with spending the day listening to his MP3 player,

only stopping during lunch to trade phone numbers with Yukari and Hamuko.

"'Sup, dude?"

Minato flinched and sat up, looking toward where Hamuko was getting up out of her

desk. There was a guy wearing a baseball cap there talking to her.

"Haha, you look like a deer in headlights," the guy teased.

"Who are you?" Hamuko asked.

"Me? I'm Junpei Iori. Nice to meet you."

Minato sighed and stood up from his desk. He put his hands in his pockets as he

walked over to Hamuko. Yukari had already walked over to the two of them.

"At it again, huh? Honestly, is there any girl you wouldn't hit on?" Yukari asked. "Did

you ever think you might be bothering someone?"

"What? But, I was just being friendly."

"If you say so," Yukari said. Junpei looked toward Minato.

"Oh, you're the other new kid, huh?"

Minato nodded. "Yeah, I'm Minato Arisato."

"Huh. Y'know, it's kinda funny we're all in the same homeroom, eh Yuka-tan?" Junpe

turned toward Yukari as he said that.

"Yeah, it is," Yukari admitted.


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"I'm a little surprised we're all in the same homeroom, too," Hamuko said. Minato

nodded.

"So, I heard you three came to school together…" Junpei said with a smirk. "Man,

guys like you get all the luck, Minato. Lovely lady on each arm… Yuka-tan and the

mysterious transfer student… man…"

"Wh-What are you talking about?!" Yukari yelled.

"It's nothing like that!" Hamuko said, shocked.

"Dude, not funny. You better not have been spreading rumors about that…" Minato

said.

"Hehe. Maybe."

Minato groaned. Yukari decided to change the subject and turned back towardHamuko. "You didn't say anything about… you know what, did you?"

Hamuko shook her head.

"Okay, seriously, don't say anything about last night, alright?" Yukari emphasized.

"L-Last night…?" Junpei asked hesitantly.

"…Yukari, remember that point Hamuko made this morning about not saying things

like that because it makes it look like we were doing bad things?" Minato spoke up.

Yukari groaned.

"I've gotta go; I've got something to take care of for the archery team. But you better

not start any rumors!" Yukari pointed an accusing finger at Junpei before walking

away. Junpei waited until Yukari was gone to say anything.

"Ah, who cares? No one takes rumors seriously anyways," Junpei said. Minato

picked up his bag.

"I'm going back to the dorm," Minato said to Hamuko. He walked toward the door as

well. Junpei frowned at him and turned toward Hamuko.

"Geez he's grumpy. Anyways, as I was saying…"

The next day was uneventful. Once again, Minato ignored Hamuko and Junpei for

the most part and headed back to the dorm by himself. He didn't really feel like


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talking to the two of them. Besides, Hamuko was already striking up a friendship with

Junpei. No need to get in between what was likely going to be a wonderful

friendship. Minato was more preoccupied with trying to figure things out with his

situation. For instance, how the hell he'd gotten here, why was there a girl version of

him, and why could he remember everything. He really didn't like the idea of having

to live through everything again. It would be nice if he had some damn answers…

When he arrived at the dorm, Yukari was already in the lounge, talking to a strange

man. Minato just about tripped as he saw that man. Because he knew that man.

"Oh, he's back," Yukari said. The brown haired bespectacled man looked up at

Minato.

"So this is our new guest." The man stood up and walked over toward Minato. "I'm

Shuji Ikutsuki. I'm the Chairman of the Board for your school."

I know exactly who you are, you bastard , Minato growled in his head.

"'Ikutsuki'… hard to say, isn't it?"

If I could punch you without Yukari freaking out, I would. None of this was spoken,

nor did it cross Minato's face. All he said was "Yeah, it is."

"I'm glad you understand! It's a bit of a tongue twister. Even I get tongue-tied

sometimes." Ikutsuki motioned to the sofas in the lounge. "Please, have a seat."

"I think I'll stand, if that's alright."

"Oh no, I insist."

"No, I really need to get going," Minato said. "I've gotta go study."

"Can't it wait?" Yukari asked. "The Chairman's never here. At least take the chance

to talk to him."

"I thought I just was," Minato growled in a low voice. He turned away from Ikutsukiand Yukari and began to head toward the stairs, ignoring Yukari.

"Geez! What's his problem?" Yukari asked. Minato heard the sound of the door

opening behind him, and turned. Hamuko was walking into the doom. "Oh, hey

Hamuko! There's someone I'd like you to meet."

Hamuko looked over toward Ikutsuki, who was once again introducing himself.

Minato was scrambling up the stairs to the second floor. He made his way over to a


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chair and sat down on it. This wasn't good. Ikutsuki would still talk to Hamuko; she

was their second potential Persona user to join this dorm in the past day. There had

to be a way to send her a message…

And then the obvious answer hit him. They'd traded cell phone numbers at school

yesterday. It was possible Hamuko wouldn't believe his message, but he had to at

least get it out there. He flipped open his cell phone and began typing out a veryquick text message.

-Ikutsuki-san can't be trusted.

He hit send. Down below, Minato could hear a light beeping noise.

"Sorry, that was my phone." A slight pause before the conversation began again.

"Um, about the other night… …never mind." A sound of someone standing up. "I'm

gonna go to my room. I've got a lot of studying to do. It was nice to meet you Mr.

Chairman!"

"Geez, is everyone here chronic studiers?"

"Well you know what they say! The early bird catches the book worm!"

Yukari very audibly groaned.

Minato could hear Hamuko's footfalls from below. He thought about moving from

where he was sitting so Hamuko wouldn't see him, but before he could do so, shereached the top of the stairs. Her expression was serious.

"Why?" she asked.

"Why what?" Minato asked, feigning ignorance.

"Why did you warn me?"

"I thought it'd be obvious," Minato said, and leaned back a little, resting his arm on

the table behind him. His expression was just as serious as Hamuko's. "They're allhiding stuff from us. Like why that weird space of time occurred at midnight the other

night." He leaned forward again. "And I've seen guys with Ikutsuki's attitude before.

He's only acting like that to fool you into believing him. Yukari and Mitsuru tell the

truth most of the time and their intentions seem to be altruistic, but Ikutsuki's

definitely doing it just out of manipulation."

"I didn't ask your reasons. I know those," Hamuko said. "I was asking why you cared


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enough to text me that."

Now that caught Minato off guard. He frowned. "We're in the same boat, aren't we? I

figured I might as well help you out a bit."

Hamuko sighed. "Is that so…"

"Did you sign a contract?" Minato asked, deciding to change the subject. Hamuko'seyes widened.

"So there was a contract…! I knew I wasn't imagining that!" Hamuko breathed.

Minato frowned and stood up. His hands were in his pockets as he started walking

down the hallway to his room. "Hey, wait! Where are you going?"

"Bed. You should go to bed, too," Minato said.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Hamuko yelled. "You know what's going on here, don't you?!Tell me!"

Minato paused in the doorway to his room for a moment before shaking his head. "I

have no idea what's going to happen anymore. Night." He closed the door behind

him, leaving Hamuko standing alone in the hallway, speechless.


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The First Summoning

No strange dreams.

Somehow Minato thought he should feel thankful for that fact, but with how uncertain

things had been, it wasn't as much of a relief as it should have been. But he knew at

least a few of his questions were going to be answered tonight. At the moment, allhe could really do was sit at his desk, stare outside, and wait for the Dark Hour. The

full moon was easily visible from Minato's dorm room. Far off into the distance was

where the school was, though it wasn't visible from here. It would be in about a

minute.

Minato had considered going to sleep. He'd decided against it when he remembered

his rude awakening last time. He'd thought he was still dreaming, only for Yukari to

barge into his room carrying a fucking sword . And it had been a real one, too, not

one of those fake wooden ones those Akihabara nerds were always waving around.Really, there were only two events that night he remembered clearly: Yukari running

into his room carrying a sword, and when he summoned Orpheus for the first time.

He remembered that first summoning well. They'd been attacked by whatever the

hell the thing that had attacked Akihiko had been. Yukari had called it a "Shadow",

and then pulled the gun from her thigh holster and put it to her head. At the time,

Minato had still been under the impression it was a real gun. The only explanation

his mind could come up back then with was that these Shadow things were so bad

suicide was preferable over being killed by them. The shadow had attacked her withthis spiraling blue energy attack and Yukari's gun had been knocked away from her,

right into the puddle of blood at Minato's feet.

He'd picked it up. His thoughts had been muddled; whether it was by the Dark Hour

or by the Death sealed inside him, Minato hadn't known. All he knew was that his

thoughts had been telling him to put the gun to his head and pull the trigger. His

hand had been shaking; he'd known he was going to die if he did that, and somehow

he knew if he didn't do that he was going to die too. And then a word had appeared

in his head. Persona.

He'd shot it, and the most wonderful feeling had gone through his body. He'd felt like

there was pure ecstasy running through his veins as the shards of light moved

around his body, and there had been a rush of power he'd never felt before in his

entire life, and he'd begun to grin madly. Most of the time, he told himself it had been

the influence of Death or just the rush of power that had brought that on. Mitsuru had

once told him that most people had similar reactions when summoning their Persona

for the first time.


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A figure had appeared in the air above Minato, and announced itself as "Orpheus,

Master of Strings." The rush of power had dissipated as quickly as it had come,

replaced by sheer pain. He'd felt like something was trying to tear his head in two,

and he'd grasped his head in pain as the newly summoned Orpheus began to writhe

and scream. Two hands had reached out of Orpheus' robotic body from its neck and

ripped the entire thing in half. Minato hadn't recognized the being at that time. It

wasn't like he remembered when his parents had died. The Persona, Thanatos, hadattacked the Shadow and tore it to shreds, arm by arm. Minato saw none of this

fight, because his knees had given out and he'd been struggling not to pass out. The

pain had only finally faded because Thanatos had given one last roar before

flickering back into Orpheus' form.

None of Minato's other Personas had ever had that happen to them. It had been that

moment that allowed SEES to realize Minato could summon multiple Personas, but

none of the other instances where he summoned one had happened so violently. At

least Minato could solidly blame that one on Death with the info he had now.

He grabbed a water bottle off of his desk and unscrewed the cap. Waiting around for

the Dark Hour to come was incredibly boring. Maybe he should have just gone to

bed and slept until Yukari inevitably woke him up, but he really didn't like being

woken up in the middle of night, and plus, by the time that idea had occurred to him,

it had been 23:30 anyways. No point in getting only thirty minutes of sleep. Just as

Minato was taking a drink from his water bottle, the world shifted over, and the taste

of water was replaced by the metallic taste of blood. He spat the blood from his

mouth and coughed a couple times. Minato looked down at the water bottle, andthen he tossed the thing at the wall, where it burst and left a rather large blood

splatter.

There had to be a reason he'd appeared here, but all he could see was that some

quirk of fate had decided to fuck with the Great Seal, drop him off here, and force

him to relive his entire time in SEES. As far as he could tell, he couldn't change a

damn thing, and because of that, Hamuko was going to end up becoming the Great

Seal. The situation fit: she'd shown up at the same time he had originally, and signed

an odd contract before getting attacked by Yukari. She probably had the Wild Cardtoo. And once everything was said and done, she'd end up sacrificing herself to seal

away Nyx so humanity could be saved from something they wouldn't even

remember in the end.

This was just so fucked up.

Two floors up from where Minato was waiting for the Dark Hour to start, Yukari and


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Mitsuru were watching Hamuko sleep. The screen they were watching Hamuko on

was split down the middle into two video feeds. On one side was the image of the

sleeping Hamuko, while on the other, a video showing Minato awake and sitting at

his desk.

"How are they?" Ikutsuki asked.

"Hamuko is the same as last night. Minato, on the other hand, has opted to stay

awake all night. I thought about going down to tell him to go to sleep, but…"

Mitsuru was interrupted by the sound of the water bottle being thrown against the

wall. Yukari grimaced as she realized what had happened. She hadn't even noticed

the time switch over to the Dark Hour, but when it had, Minato must have gotten a

mouthful of blood.

"Geez…" Yukari said in a low voice.

"Hmm… rather interesting," Ikutsuki noted. "Even those with the Potential tend to be

unstable at first, but both of them seem to have adjusted quite well to it."

Mitsuru nodded. Initially, Minato had shown several symptoms, but after a couple

days they had seemed to fade. Hamuko on the other hand had shown none from the

beginning.

"But… we're treating them like guinea pigs," Yukari said solemnly.

Ikutsuki had opened his mouth to respond, but at that moment Minato had stood up

and looked right up at the camera. All three people in the command room were

focused on his side of the screen as Minato reached into his pocket and pulled out a

handkerchief and a couple of thumbtacks. He pulled the chair away from his desk,

moving it to the middle of the room before standing on it and pinning the

handkerchief up over the camera lens.

"Di-Did he…?" Yukari gaped. Mitsuru chuckled.

"He's quite observant. To have figured out we were observing him and exactly

where… tres bien," Mitsuru said to herself.

Ikutsuki didn't quite hold the same opinion. Minato had been acting rather

suspiciously toward him since the first time they had met. From what Mitsuru and

Akihiko had told him about this new arrival, he already seemed to know his way

around the dorm, and seemed to know more than he should. Mitsuru and Akihiko

hadn't found it odd how much he knew. Ikutsuki thought otherwise. And now the fact


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that Minato knew they had been observing him at that very moment… Just who was

this kid?

At that moment, there was a loud beeping from the bank of consoles. Mitsuru

pressed a button. "Command room. Is that you, Akihiko?"

"You're not gonna believe this…! This thing is huge! Unfortunately, I don't have time

to talk… it's chasing me…"

Yukari didn't even bother knocking. She didn't even bother yelling for Minato to open

the door. She just kicked it open and ran in, followed by a confused and scared

looking Hamuko. Hamuko was tightly gripping a naginata, while Yukari was carrying

a bow in one hand and a sword in the other. Her Evoker was strapped to her thigh,

and there was a red band around her left arm.

"I don't have time to explain! We have to get out of here, now!" Yukari yelled. Minatoblinked.

"You kicked my door down!"

"Just go!" Yukari yelled. Deciding it was best to not argue with the woman carrying

the pointy objects, Minato ran out into the hallway, Yukari and Hamuko following.

"Wait, take this, just in case."

She handed him a short sword. Now this was the part he remembered. He lookedbetween the sword Yukari had handed him and the naginata Hamuko was carrying,

and a thought occurred to him.

"Where did you even get these from?" Minato asked.

"I just grabbed whatever I could find really fast in the armory, okay?" Yukari said.

"We have an armory? !" Hamuko asked incredulously.

"We have an armory! ?" Minato asked excitedly.

"Look, we don't have time for this! We have to go!" Yukari yelled. She started running

for the stairs, and Minato and Hamuko both followed after her. Eventually they made

it to the back door.

"Alright, we should be safe now—"

There was a beeping from Yukari's direction, and she put her hand up to her ear.


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Minato didn't know what Mitsuru was saying on the other side of that communicator,

but what was important was the fact that something had just tried to bash the door

down while Yukari was talking to Mitsuru.

"U-Upstairs!" Hamuko exclaimed.

The three of them ran for the stairs. As they were halfway up the first flight, Minato

heard something crash to the floor from behind them. At the sound of that, the three

of them sped up. By the time they reached the top floor, they were all out of breath.

Yukari looked over toward the one door on the top floor.

"O-Oh yeah! If we go out through here…" Yukari pulled the door open and ran out

first. Minato and Hamuko burst out into the cold air on the roof, and Yukari slid a

large metal bar into the door, barricading it.

"I think we're safe for now…" Yukari said, and then gave a loud gasp. Hamuko shook

her head slowly.

"No we're not…" Hamuko said quietly. A black hand grasped the edge of the roof,

followed by several others. Then, one holding a blue mask looked up over the roof's

edge and moved it from side to side, and Minato got the intense feeling that

somehow, something could see from that mask. The hand holding the mask stopped

moving when it "saw" Hamuko, and then several other hands, all of them holding

blades, burst from its body. Hamuko took a step back as the Shadow began to

scramble toward the three of them.

"Those monsters," Yukari breathed. "We call them Shadows." She unholstered her

Evoker and pressed the barrel to her forehead. But she didn't pull the trigger

immediately, and that was the only opening Magician needed. A spiral of blue energy

rose up from the ground under Yukari, sending her and the Evoker flying. The

Evoker landed in a puddle of blood at Hamuko's feet. Minato looked toward her for a

moment before being swatted away by a shadowy hand and being sent flying He

landed on his back, stunning him for a few moments. He scrambled to his feet just in

time for Magician to swing a blade down at his head, which Minato brought his own

sword up to block.

"Use it!" Minato yelled at Hamuko. Hamuko looked down at the Evoker on the

ground, and Minato nodded vigorously, and then threw his weight forward against

the blade. Magician pulled its sword back, giving Minato enough time to refocus his

stance before the Shadow brought two blades down onto his own feeble sword.

Hamuko stared down at the gun, her eyes glazed over, lifeless. Slowly, she bent

down and picked the Evoker up. She held the gun in her shaking hand, and


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gradually raised it up to her head, placing one hand on top of her breasts as she did

so. She closed her eyes.

"Hurry!" Minato yelled. He was beginning to realize why they'd never used any of the

weapons in this "armory" before. This was a practice sword, and it was beginning to

crack under the weight of Magician's superior weaponry.

Hamuko still didn't hear him. Her mouth curled into a smile, and her hand stopped

shaking.

"Per…. so…. na."

There was the sound of glass shattering, and glass shards actually flew out from

Hamuko's head. They fell to the ground, and then rose up and spiraled around her

body. She was grinning, her red eyes glittering, sweat dripping down her forehead.

The shards of glass began to form into something above Hamuko, and a strangely

feminine voice rang out. Minato stared at the being. It had the same robotic body hisOrpheus did, but the colors, the hair, the harp, they were all different.

"Thou art I… and I am thou… from the sea thy soul I come forth. I am Orpheus,

Master of Strings!"

This new Orpheus gave a roar. Minato's blade finally shattered under the Shadow's

weight, and he rolled to the side to avoid the Shadow's blades. He found himself

staring up at the new Orpheus. Yukari was staring in shock. Hamuko's expression

was still maddened, completely unlike her, and Minato felt more than a bit unnerved.That look on Hamuko's face… that was what he'd looked like the first time he'd

summoned a Persona.

There was a loud squelching sound, and Hamuko grasped her head and began to

scream. Minato's gaze immediately swung from Hamuko to her twitching, screaming

Persona. Two large hands tore themselves free of Orpheus' mouth. They grasped

this Orpheus' robotic body, and tore it in two, shattering the much too small

Persona's body. Hamuko gave another scream and dropped the Evoker as the black

cloaked Persona that had torn itself free of Orpheus' body lept into the air. Yukariscrambled to her feet and pressed herself against the wall. Hamuko fell to her knees

as Thanatos flew at Magician, landing right on top of the Shadow and crushing its

body into a black sludge. The Shadow's mask went flying, and Thanatos sliced it and

several of its arms in half with one slash. One arm landed and twitched a bit before

dissolving in front of Yukari.

Thanatos gave another roar, and its body began to flicker. Two Shadows rose up

from the sludge Magician had left. Minato ran over to Hamuko and grabbed the


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Evoker just as Thanatos flickered back to Orpheus' form, and then put the Evoker up

against his head.

Let this work, Minato thought. He pulled the trigger without hesitation. "PERSONA!"

There was the sound of glass shattering. Minato's mouth curled into a smirk. Above

him hovered a familiar, green armored, white-haired Orpheus. The Persona didn't

even do its introduction speech; the two of them already knew each other too much

for that. Orpheus pulled the lyre off of his back and strummed it. Fire leapt from the

strings and consumed the Shadows, leaving only a fine pile of ash. Its job done,

Orpheus disappeared in a flash of light. The roof was silent.

Minato looked back toward Yukari. "…I think we're safe now."

"Yeah," Hamuko said. "I think he's right."

The two of them hit the ground at the same time. Before Minato's vision wentcompletely dark, he could hear Yukari's increasingly panicked voice calling for him.

"Hey! Are you two okay? Hey!"

Minato was greeted by a vision of a door opening up to a blue elevator, and he found

himself sitting in a familiar lyre-backed chair, staring across the table at the long-

nosed man he called Igor. There was a strange absence of the other denizen of the

room, but Igor spoke up before Minato could ask anything.

"This is quite the unexpected development," Igor said. His hands were clasped in

front of him, long, spindly fingers crossed over each other. "Your contract has long

since expired, and yet you still return."

"I died," Minato said.

"Correct," Igor said. "Your soul was made into the Great Seal, while your body simply

ceased to move. However, it was deemed that your soul was to be released from itsbonds, and so you were resurrected."

"Then explain why I woke up in this world, where that girl is running around in the

same place I am?"

"You have no body to return to in your world."

At first, Minato didn't understand. His eyes slowly widened as the meaning of Igor's


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words sunk in. They would have cremated him by now. His "body" was nothing but

ashes in a graveyard, likely buried next to his parents' ashes in the family grave.

They were one big happy dead family.

Minato suddenly felt like he was going to puke.

"This world's fate is much the same as your own. In ten months, tragedy will come

and be averted due to the sacrifice of your counterpart in this world, and Nyx will be

sealed away from Erebus' touch once more," Igor said. "You are no longer required

to do anything for the sake of this world. Your Persona has weakened due to Death's

influence leaving your body and the conclusion of your contract, but they are still

more than strong enough to prevent your mind from being devoured by Shadows."

Minato stared down at his hands, his knuckles white from how hard he was

clenching them. He'd been right, everything was happening the same way it had

before, and just with Hamuko in the same position he'd been a year ago, and

because of that, she'd make the same choices he had in the past using the

knowledge she had. In the end, she'd die all for the sake of everyone else. A modern

day messiah, and not a person would know about it. In the eyes of everyone but

SEES, she'd die for absolutely nothing.

Words rang in Minato's head. The voice they were being spoken by was very similar

to his own, yet distinctly different. He'd heard them said once before, when all hope

had been lost, and only now could he appreciate the sentiment behind them.

I don't want you to have to endure such pain.

"Hamuko's already signed her contract, hasn't she?" Minato asked. Igor nodded.

Minato looked down at his lap, and then clenched his hands into fists. He placed his

unclenched hands on the table. "...I've made my decision. Give me one of those

contracts too. I can't sit here and watch all of this happen."

"You wish to change this world's fate?" Igor asked.

"I have to change things. I can't just sit here and let this so called 'fate' come topass," Minato said. His mind went back to the thoughts he had earlier, about how

powerless he was and why he'd appeared here. There had to be something he could

do. And now that he'd realized what he could cause to come to pass, he wasn't just

going to sit here and let Hamuko sacrifice herself for something that could be

prevented.

"If you die this time, you will not have a chance to come back," Igor stated. "This is

your last second chance."


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Minato stared down at his hands, and then back up at Igor. There was a determined

expression on his face as he spoke. "I don't care. I'll still do it."

For a moment, Minato thought he saw the vestiges of a smile curl across Igor's face.

"Then let us make the contract." Igor waved his hand, and a blue book and a feather

quill appeared on the table in front of Minato. The book opened on its own, opening

to a page with some test and a line to sign one's name on.

"This is a different contract than last time," Minato said. The last one had simply

asked him to assume responsibility for the actions he had taken, but this one…

"Correct," Igor said. "Before, your heart was empty. There was no resolution in it that

you should follow, and so the only condition for my services was that you would take

full responsibility for your actions. Your heart has changed over the past year, and so

have the terms of your contract."

Minato wondered if he should feel insulted by Igor's comment about his empty heart,

but instead of following up on it, he looked back down at the contract.

I vow to do everything in my power to prevent the coming tragedy, it read. Minato

lifted the quill and wrote his name. The book closed the moment he finished the last

stroke in "Minato", and a key floated down in front of Minato, and he grasped it from

the air.

"And so it is done," Igor said. Minato put a hand on his head as the dream began tofade. The Velvet Room disappeared, and he was falling through black space, past a

large door covered in eyes. Chained to the door was a marble statue of a naked

woman, her arms outstretched. A black shadow rose from the ground Minato was

falling through, but before she left his vision, he realized exactly who she was.

"Elizabeth?"

And at that moment, Minato woke up.


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Joining SEES

A/N: Ugggh this chapter is so much filler and so much of the dialogue came directly

from the game and I'm so sorry

Ikutsuki closed the door to the command room and locked it behind him. He slowlystrode over to the bank of consoles. He had several papers in a stack, and his

expression was fairly serious compared to the façade he usually put up. It had been

over a day since the attack on the co-ed dorm, and the events on that night weighed

heavily on his mind.

The attack on the dorm had been a shock to all involved, with a different reason for

everyone. While SEES' reasons involved the fact the dorm had been attacked by a

giant Shadow, Ikutsuki's involved the two newest Persona users they had found.

Upon defeating the smaller shadows that had followed their master, the three hadrealized Yukari hadn't been able to escape through the back door. By the time they

had arrived at the command and found Yukari, Hamuko, and Minato on the security

cameras, Hamuko was already raising the gun to her head. Ikutsuki had managed to

stop Mitsuru and Akihiko from running after them long enough to see Hamuko

summon her Persona… or rather, Personas. They had expected she could summon

a Persona. They had not expected to see another Persona tear hers apart from the

inside and then dismember the large Shadow that had attacked the dorm.

Hamuko had not been the only one to awaken that night. Minato too had his chanceto summon a Persona, and it was that that intrigued Ikutsuki most of all. He pressed

few buttons on the console, turning the screen on and causing the recording from

the rooftop of that night to play.

The three of them ran onto the rooftop. The Shadow appeared, and Yukari tried to

summon her Persona, but failed. The Evoker landed at Hamuko's feet, and Minato

was sent flying by the Shadow, but managed to pick himself up again almost

immediately. The blue-haired teenager had then blocked Magician's attack. No kid

who had just picked up a sword that night could block like that, and Ikutsuki doubtedthey taught that kind of guard in kendo. As the Chairman for Gekkoukan High, he'd

taken some visits to the school's kendo team's practice room and watched a few

practices. The stance Minato had wielded his blade with was completely unlike a

stance used in any conventional kendo. He couldn't find any way to blame that skill

with the blade on some kind of school club.

Following his parry against the large Shadow, Minato had yelled for Hamuko to "use

it," referring to the Evoker. And there was another strange moment. Minato had


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encouraged Hamuko to use the Evoker. Even if he'd thought it was a normal gun, hehadn't reacted the way any normal person would when she had lifted the gun to her

head. In fact, he'd told her to "hurry." Nothing about the events had shocked that boy

except for when the second Persona had emerged from Orpheus' body, and even

then the shock had not lasted very long. When the second group of Shadows had

emerged from the large one's remains, Minato had snatched up the Evoker and,

without hesitation, summoned his own Persona.

It had been the same as Hamuko's.

This wasn't the issue of similar appearing Personas, like Akihiko and Shinjiro's had

been. Their Personas were opposite-gender versions of each other, with literally the

only differences being in coloration, hair length, and the shape of the lyre. He had

researched Shadows and Personas for over ten years, and he knew no two people

possessed the same Persona by now. This was not normal.

He turned off the recording and pulled two files out of his stack of papers. One was

labeled Minato Arisato, the other Hamuko Arisato. They were clearly not related;

their surnames were even written with different kanji. The differences ended at their

names and appearances. Upon delving into their backstories, they were almost

creepily similar. Hamuko's parents had died on December 2nd, 2000 from a car

accident on Moonlight Bridge. Minato's parents had died on December 3rd, 2000

from injuries sustained around midnight the previous day. From there, the orphaned

children had been shifted from relative to relative before finally being transferring to

Gekkoukan High School. On the official record, Hamuko had transferred due toreceiving a scholarship for the school. In truth, Ikutsuki had been behind it, choosing

to transfer her in after finding out that she possessed the Potential. Minato, on the

other hand, had been sent to Gekkoukan by his relatives, who supposedly had used

his inheritance (which he couldn't access for another three years) to pay for the

entrance fees. Ikutsuki had told himself that their simultaneous transfers were

nothing but a coincidence until the attack on the dorm occurred. There was still

nothing in Minato's history to explain his suspicious behavior.

This was not to be mistaken as Ikutsuki being nervous about Minato. Despite theteen's odd behavior, Ikutsuki doubted Minato knew as much as he thought he did.

Even if Minato knew about his true purpose here with SEES, Ikutsuki highly doubted

Mitsuru would believe him. After all, the word of an adult who had worked with the

Kirijo Group to combat Shadows for over ten years versus the word of some kid who

had just transferred into Gekkoukan a week ago? The obvious choice would be the

adult.

He made a mental note to keep an eye on this Minato kid. On the off chance that


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Minato actually knew anything and Mitsuru trusted him, he'd need to make

precautions.

"….Minato Arisato… and Port Island is part of Minato-ku. He's Minato-kun from

Minato-ku!" Ikutsuki giggled to himself and stood up from his chair. At that moment,

someone jiggled the doorknob. Ikutsuki didn't quite hear Mitsuru's voice coming from

the other side of the door.

"Mr. Chairman, I—"

"And Hamuko-chan, too! When I first saw her name, I couldn't help but think 'Hamu-

chan? So hamsters can possess the Potential now, too? What an interesting

development!'"

"…U-Um, perhaps I should come back later…"

Ikutsuki frowned as he heard the footsteps leading away from the door. Perhapsthose hadn't been his best, but they hadn't been that bad, had they? "No one here

has a sense of humor…"

Minato gave a groan and sat up, and then immediately flinched from the bright

sunlight streaming in his eyes. He lifted a hand to block the sunlight before looking

around the room. The white walls and instruments around the various cots in this

room indicated that it was a hospital room… looked like he was at Tatsumi Memorial

Hospital. Unconscious in the bed next to him was Hamuko. Her barrettes had beentaken out and her ponytail undone, so her hair hung freely around her face. She

looked like she was sleeping, but Minato knew otherwise. No, she was just

exhausted more than she'd ever been exhausted in her life. Oh, don't mind me; just

gonna pass out for a week.

Now that he thought about it, just how long had he been asleep, anyways? It always

felt like whenever Igor called him in his dreams he was asleep for ridiculously long

periods of time, even in cases where he went there out of force of will. As usual,

hardly anything about his experience in the Velvet Room had made any sense.Especially not what he'd seen as he was about to wake up… he knew that door.

"Elizabeth…" Minato found himself mumbling out loud. He had seen her naked body

chained to that door in the place where he should have been. Minato had loved

Elizabeth. There was no denying that. He'd loved a lot of girls, and indeed, he'd

gained a bit of a reputation back then for just how much of a player he'd been.

Indeed, one could easily say his definition of love was a bit shallow, but he had felt

something a little more when he was with Elizabeth. In the Velvet Room, Igor had


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said it had been decided that Minato could be freed from his duty as the Seal. Was

this because Elizabeth had taken his place…? That wasn't right…

He heard the door open, and waved at Yukari as she walked in. He'd expected her

to show up soon.

"Oh, hey, you're awake," Yukari said. She gave a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, I

thought you'd never wake up. I was so worried…"

"How long have I been out?"

"Like, all day." Yukari sat down in a chair between Minato and Hamuko's beds. "The

doctor couldn't find anything wrong with you two. He said you were just exhausted.

But then you kept sleeping… you know how worried I was? Um…"

Somehow, or another, Minato and Yukari ended up speaking at the same time. "I

want to apologize." The two of them flinched and looked away for a moment. Yukarilooked toward Minato again.

"What, you've got something to apologize about too?" Minato asked.

"You first," Yukari said.

"If you insist." There was a slight pause before he spoke, but he was looking right at

Yukari as he said what he needed to. "I wanted to apologize for how much of a

ackass I've been lately. I've been confused and I didn't know what I was doing for a while there, but I think I finally understand what I need to do."

"…wow. That's way better than what I wanted to say," Yukari said after a moment. "I

wanted to apologize for not being able to do anything to protect you. Mitsuru-senpai

made it my job to protect you guys, and I couldn't even do that. But wow… your

power, it was amazing."

"…I guess Personas are pretty cool, huh?"

"Huh? You already know what they're called?"

Oh shit. "Oh, uh… I heard Hamuko-chan say that before she shot herself in the head

before," Minato said, making up an explanation on the spot. He kept forgetting he

technically wasn't supposed to know this stuff yet. "…speaking of which, what was

that gun thing?"

"Oh, uh… we'll explain all that later, okay?" Yukari said. "Uh… I'm sorry I didn't tell


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you about this before. Mitsuru-senpai asked me to keep it secret."

Minato shrugged. "I probably wouldn't have believed you anyways."

"Yeah, probably," Yukari agreed. She stood up. "…Y'know, I'm kinda like you and

Hamuko. My dad died in an accident when I was little… and my mom and I aren't

exactly on good terms."

Minato looked away. He really wished people would stop bringing that up, especially

since he knew now why his parents died. Yukari continued rambling on about her

mom and dad, but Minato didn't pay much attention.

"Hey, are you alright? You look kinda pale."

Minato blinked. "I'm fine, sorry." He shook his head. "…Y'know, my parents died on

the day of that incident, and if what I've heard from Hamuko-chan is right, her

parents died that same day too. I think it's related."

"Yeah, I think so too," Yukari said. "Hey, thanks for listening. I've been wanting to

share that story with someone for a long time."

"It's no prob." Minato climbed out of bed and stood up, giving a bit of a stretch as he

did so. "Hey, have you seen my headphones?"

"Uh, shouldn't you wait for a nurse to come up before you do that?"

"I'm not staying in this hospital any longer now that I'm awake. I hate hospitals,"

Minato said. "And I've got a few things I want to talk to Mitsuru-senpai and Ikutsuki

about," he quickly added.

Yukari looked over toward Hamuko.

"Hey, she'll be okay, right?" Yukari asked. She shook her head and gave a nervous

chuckle. "What am I doing asking you…?"

Minato gave a kind smile and put a hand on her shoulder, causing Yukari to turntoward him. "She'll be fine. Just give her time."

Yukari's face flushed a little red and she nodded. "Yeah. Alright, come on, let's get

you out of here and back to the dorm."

"Yeah," Minato said. As they were heading down the hallway, he asked, "Hey, did

you get the notes for the past couple days for me?"


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In his head, though, he was thinking to himself, Yes! I've still got it! Eat your heart

out, Ryoji!

Minato and Yukari walked back to the dorm together after Minato checked out of the

hospital. On the way back, they had struck up a conversation, but it ended up being

rather one sided. Minato's thoughts were elsewhere, and he wasn't really payingmuch attention. For the most part, it was thoughts of Hamuko, Elizabeth and

Ikutsuki. Hamuko had taken his place as Wild Card, Elizabeth had taken his place as

the Seal, and Ikutsuki was still scheming and lying. Minato knew he couldn't do a

thing about two of those three things, but he still had a chance with that third thing.

As they walked to the dorm, Yukari had revealed that Ikutsuki wasn't even at the

dorm today. This worked quite well in Minato's favor, mainly because the less time

he spent around the pun spewing bastard, the better. Minato pushed open the doors

to the dorm, and he couldn't help but grin at his luck. Mitsuru and Akihiko were bothsitting in the lounge. The two of them looked up as the door opened. Yukari walked

in behind Minato, and closed the door behind her. Minato raised a hand in greeting

to Akihiko and Mitsuru. "Hey."

"I didn't expect you to be out of the hospital so soon," Mitsuru said. "Where's

Arisato?"

Minato blinked. He was right there, wasn't he?

"She's still unconscious," Yukari said in response, and Minato understood. He wasnever going to get used to the fact that there were two people with the surname

Arisato in this dorm. Minato and Yukari sat down on a sofa.

Akihiko put his boxing gloves down on the table between them. As he bent over,

Minato noticed that his clothes didn't quite rest right around his midsection. From the

looks of things, there were some rather stiff bandages around his ribs. There was

possibly a metal brace too, but he couldn't be sure. Akihiko looked up at Minato and

smiled. "How ya doin'?"

"I'm still a little sore," Minato admitted. "Probably nothing compared to Hamuko-

chan, though. She had that Persona tear its way out of that other Persona's head,

after all. If I'm that sore from just summoning my Persona, I don't even want to think

about how she's feeling." Got to stick to what information I would know at this point…

have to act clueless about Personas and Shadows for the most part.

"I suppose that means you already received some basic information about Shadows

and Personas from Takeba, then," Mitsuru said.


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"Just the Personas," Yukari input. "I thought I should let Ikutsuki-san explain

everything else."

"Unfortunately, the Chairman is not here today," Mitsuru said. "However, I've heard

from him that he will be here tomorrow night, so—"

Minato's eyes widened. "N-No, wait! Tell me everything now. This isn't a normaldorm, and you guys aren't normal students, and obviously, I'm not some normal guy

either, otherwise shooting myself in the head would have killed me back there. I'm

dying for answers!" It was almost painful just how thickly he was laying it on.

Mitsuru looked between Akihiko and Yukari, and then looked toward Minato again.

"Would you believe me if I said there were more than 24 hours in a day?"

The conversation degraded into small talk after that. The important part was Minato was now a de facto member of SEES. He was now up in his room copying down the

notes he'd asked Yukari to get for him back at the hospital. If he was going to be

reliving this whole year, he needed to refresh himself on the information. It wasn't

like this kind of info stuck in your head when you had more important things on your

mind, like girlfriends or the end of the world.

As for the more important things, it would be a few days before Hamuko woke up,

and once she did, things would start going along normally again. "Normally" was not

a good thing in this case, but he was going to have to cross those bridges when hegot there. What a shame that time neither waited nor sped up for any man. It always

sucked when the creepy kids you saw in your head turned out to be right.

The tip of the pencil snapped, and Minato swore before flicking the pencil to the side.

It flew over the desk and landed on the ground, where it rolled under the television in

the corner. He couldn't concentrate. No one had removed the cloth from the camera

while he had been in the hospital, so at least he didn't have to worry about Mitsuru

accessing the recordings and catching him in the horrible, unforgivable act of not

studying.

He was incredibly worried about Hamuko, but at this point in time, he wasn't sure if

he could change things or even how to go about doing so. Igor had said his power

was weaker now, and while Minato didn't know exactly what that entailed quite yet,

he had a feeling he'd know soon enough. He didn't know if he could convince the

others that Ikutsuki couldn't be trusted, either. It wasn't like the man had ever

outwardly shown his nihilistic tendencies before he'd revealed that he was

completely out of his mind.


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"Screw it," Minato said. He grabbed the notebook he had borrowed from Yukari and

headed downstairs. He needed to clear his mind. This meant getting out of this dorm

and doing something non-school or SEES related.

"Hey, Yukari, wanna go out for karaoke?"

Still got it.


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Hamuko Does Not Fear the Reaper

A/N: Ugggh still so much game script in here. I promise there will be less next

chapter, honest. This chapter was harder to write than a five page essay in a non-

native language.

Also, the third chapter of Rei no Kaado was uploaded the other day by Mugenginga.Since she's a way better writer than I am and I'm cowriting that fic, I'm obligated to

promote that fic at any chance possible. That means go read it, people.

Even after Minato woke up, it was still several days before Hamuko did the same.

The school had been told that they had both ended up in the hospital after coming

down with a bad fever. However, this unsatisfactory explanation had led to rumors

circulating, mainly from their resident rumormonger, Junpei, who was telling anyone

that would listen that the Arisatos had been mauled by bears.

"Okay, first of all, we live in the city. Bears live in the mountains," Minato said one

day after hearing about this from Junpei. "Second of all, do I look like I was mauled

by a bear?"

"Hey, hey, hey! It could happen! Besides, Kenji saw a cougar last week!"

"That I did," Kenji called from the back of the room. Somehow Minato got the feeling

Kenji and Junpei were talking about completely different things. He groaned and puta hand on his forehead in exasperation.

"Okay, fine. It was a bear," he relented. He honestly wasn't sure why he bothered

trying with these two. At that moment, Minato felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and

pulled it out. There was a new text message from Yukari. After reading the contents

of the message, Minato stood up.

"I've gotta go," Minato said. "Hamuko-chan finally woke up, and Yukari wants me to

fill her in on some things." Mainly things related to SEES, though if anyone asked,

Minato would say it was all of the work Hamuko had missed. Not that anyone

actually did ask about it.

"Alright, see ya," Junpei said. As Minato made his way to the door, Junpei added,

"And watch out for that bear!"

"…Wow."


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If Hamuko hadn't already lived through it, she wouldn't have believed what Minato

was telling her. A hidden hour between two days? Monsters that prey on human

minds? A special power that she possessed that could defeat them? It was almost

unbelievable. But with this explanation, that made two people that had told her about

these things. Yukari had filled her in on some basic stuff, and Minato had given her

the details. Add that to the weird dreams with the Velvet Room she'd had lately, and

hell, she'd believe anything. You could have told her angels were about to shootnuclear missiles at Japan and she would have believed it.

Hamuko and Minato were seated around a table on the third floor. Minato was sitting

across from Hamuko while she copied down his notes from the past few days. She'd

actually stopped about ten minutes ago to listen to his explanation of things, which

she figured had been coming soon anyways. She just hadn't expected it from him…

she'd expected it from someone like Mitsuru or Ikutsuki.

"It's all pretty crazy," Minato said. "I didn't believe it when I heard it either, but it's theonly way any of this makes sense. Monsters and people turning into coffins…"

Hamuko nodded. "And robots coming out of our heads when we shoot ourselves."

She frowned at the memory of that moment. "Why did that black thing with the sword

come out of my Persona?"

And that was when that expression hit. Every now and then, Hamuko had seen him

get this odd expression like he was hiding something. As far as she could tell, there

was no real correlation for when that expression came up. Sometimes, it was when

they were talking about serious things like this, and other times, it was during

innocuous conversations. There was one thing Hamuko knew for sure, though.

Minato knew way more than he was telling them.

"Not really sure, to be honest," Minato said. "I think it might have something to do

with your power to summon multiple Personas…"

"Huh!"

And there, he'd done it again. That was one of those things that had led Hamuko torealize Minato was hiding things from them. He let things like that slip. Hamuko had

learned about her "unique power" from Igor in her dreams, but she hadn't told

anyone else in the group about it.

"O-Oh, right, I haven't told you about that," Minato said rather quickly. "Do you

remember when I asked you about that contract? I've signed one too. I think you and

I are the only people here that can summon multiple Personas."


39/263

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a dark blue key, holding it up so Hamuko

could see it. She frowned, and he put it away.

I guess he's telling the truth, but how did he even know in the first place- She

stopped that thought before it could finish. What was she doing? She was treating

Minato suspiciously why? Because they came from creepily similar circumstances

and had similar surnames? Because he knew some things she didn't? They were inthe same boat here! It only made sense he might know about her "special power" if

he'd signed the same contract she had! He'd asked her about that last week! Was

she really that jumpy?

"Multiple Personas, huh…" Hamuko mumbled. This was a bit of a leap, but it was

worth asking about. After all, he'd known about her contract… "Hey, you wouldn't

happen to have seen a weird kid around here, would you?"

"…weird kid?" That damn expression again. "Might have. Was he wearing this black

and white striped outfit?"

Hamuko jumped up. "Yeah! That was him! I knew it, he does exist!"

"Sorry, I don't know a thing about him. You sure you weren't dreaming?"

Hamuko blinked. "Wha—Hey! You can't say things like that and then pretend you

don't know anything!"

Minato stood up, putting his hands in his pockets as he did so. "Don't you need tofinish copying down those notes? Ekoda's gonna give you hell if you don't know

everything about Heike Monogatari by tomorrow." And at that, he walked down the

stairs to the lounge.

"Hey! You can't keep running away every time I ask about something you don't

wanna talk about!" Hamuko yelled. She slammed her hands down on the table.

"Hey! Get back here! Hey!"

She was rather red in the face. That unbelievable jerkface! She was now convincedhe was just screwing with her. She was going to have to get him for this one of these

days. She looked down at her papers, and grumbled before picking them up and

heading for her room at the end of the hall. He could have his notes back in the

morning. Right now if she saw him, Minato would likely get a boot to the face. How

could anyone seriously think she was related to a jerkface like him? Maybe this was

a petty thing to get mad at him over, but this was the second time he'd walked out on

her like this! And when they were talking about something important too! She walked

into her room and slammed the door behind her.


40/263

She sighed before placing the papers on her table. She was just so tired, for more

than a few reasons. Notes… yeah, notes could wait. Without even bothering to

change out of her clothes or even turn out the light, she collapsed on top of her bed.

She was asleep the moment her face hit the pillow.

The next day passed with absolutely no incident, which was a bit surprising. Duringthe day, Hamuko had managed to sneak a couple looks back at Minato to see what

he was up to… and found him asleep. Hamuko had no idea what he did all night, but

whatever it was made him sleep through half of class all day long. This Minato guy

was a mystery to her. He knew a bunch of stuff no one else in SEES seemed to

know, apparently had the same power as her, and spent all class sleeping. He even

slept through Ekoda's lessons, which really took some guts. Hamuko had never

seen anyone escape Ekoda's scanning gaze, but someone, Minato could.

On the way to school that morning, Yukari had stopped her and Minato and said thatthey needed to come to the lounge on the fourth floor that night. Minato had left

ahead of her with Junpei, so she'd left school with Yukari, which gave her a chance

to talk to her. Instead of taking the monorail, the two of them decided to head back

via the Midnight Bridge so they'd have time to stop at Paulownia Mall. It actually had

been Yukari's idea to go; Hamuko didn't need any more clothes right now, and the

only store she really had interest in going to was Power Records, where she ended

up picking up Reiko Tanaka's new CD.

After Yukari had taken Hamuko into Be Blue V about fifteen times and for whatYukari assured Hamuko was the last time, Hamuko decided to shift the conversation

to the command room thing that was going on tonight.

"So why do I need to go up to the third floor tonight anyways?" Hamuko asked.

"Mitsuru-sempai didn't really say. If I had to guess, they probably want to ask you to

oin our group."

"Oh."

"You're gonna say yes, right?"

Hamuko frowned. "…Probably. I mean, not like there's anything else to do here…"

Yukari suddenly stopped walking. The sudden stop caused Hamuko to walk a few

steps ahead of Yukari without realizing it. "What, so you don't have a reason to

fight?"


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Hamuko looked away from Yukari's indignant expression. She wasn't even sure why

she was here, or why she'd even ended up in their dorm filled with Persona users.

But somehow she felt compelled to help them out. Besides, it seemed a bit stupid to

not do anything now that she knew about all this. She couldn't just return to a normal

school life when she knew that the world turned all crazy-wonky at midnight and

there were a bunch of monsters preying on people's minds that ran around then that

only they could kill.

"…Forget I asked," Yukari said. She still looked a bit grumpy, but it faded quickly

enough as she spoke again. "So I was walking around school earlier, and it turns out

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