Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 3, Persona 3: FES, Persona 3 Portable, the Persona 3 manga, or the Persona 3 movies. They belong... primarily to Atlus. And if you can't tell from this disclaimer, this fanfic will be mixing all those mediums.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Your fate does the thinking. Two across, yet one gets up. Odds are against you... but they're just numbers after the two-to-one. You're playing the hand you've been dealt, but you don't let it rest. You shuffle and stack, and a gamble... a gamble that may pay off? But how? Good and evil over the world, at each other's throats... but a light from the darkness? Ball spinning on the wheel, more than two at the table. Placing bets. All lose in different ways. But who and in what shares? Even the dealer doesn't know. The here and now. Little of interest. False hopes, broken dreams, and regrets watered down, washed down in dirty dishes. With regret comes a girl... smiling sad, red eyes, big appetite, half here. Wraps her and her heart up like a pack. In the pack, a key, some say. Conclusion? Would you rather perpetually wear a false smile... or never wear one at all?"

XXXXXXXXXX

Persona 3

Two Across

By Cyberweasel89

Prologue: Shuffle and Stack

XXXXXXXX

Time never waits. It delivers all equally to the same end.

You, who wish to safeguard the future, however limited it may be...

You will be given one year.

Go forth without falter, with your heart as your guide.

"Attention, passengers. Train service today is significantly delayed due to a fatal accident. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by the delay. Next stop is Iwatodai."

She'd been on the train for a long time. It was only natural she'd get hungry. As she gazed out the window, munching on a block of Calorie Mate, she could've sworn she saw a glowing blue butterfly flutter past the window. How odd...

"Iwatodai. Iwatodai."

As the train finally pulled into the station, it was dark out. As the potato chips she was snacking on rained crumbs, the head in her lap began to stir.

"Mmmmmph..."

With a barely-audible groan, the boy currently using her lap as a pillow began to stir, lifting his head to sit up, rubbing his icy blue eyes.

"Onii-chan! You're awake!" she chirped as the boy brushed the potato crisp crumbs from his boyish face.

He turned, giving her a mere stoic, blank glance. She loved calling him Onii-chan. He didn't show it, but she knew it annoyed him, since, technically, even though he was ten centimeters taller than her, she was older by five minutes.

"We're just pulling into the station, Onii-chan! You woke up at the perfect time!" she told him happily, placing another handful of chips into her mouth. Her twin brother only yawned in response. Such a sleepyhead! Though... she knew why.

They were on their way to the very island their parents were killed at ten years ago. They'd yet to receive the uniforms, so... Her brother was dressed in a light gray double-breasted jacket, black slacks, a khaki turtleneck sweater, white socks, and dark brown loafers, along with his trademark earphones. As he settled against the seat next to her, he placed them over his ears and flicked his MP3 player on, the song 'Burn My Dread' faintly heard from them.

She was wearing a short red scarf, a pale yellow sweater with an orange stripe over the chest, a plaid skirt reaching just above her knees, black leggings, and mid-shin brown boots. She also had the same MP3 player and earphones as her brother. NW-S20x series player and model ATH-EM700 earphones, only hers were red instead of blue. She... didn't listen to them much. Mostly just wore them around her neck, but they were an accessory that she rarely didn't wear.

Many pointed out how, despite being twins, even fraternal, they looked the opposite of each other. His hair was dark blue, hers was auburn. His eyes were a pale blue, hers a very unusual red color. His hair was shaggy and hung in front of his face, while she always tied her hair in a high ponytail and wore silver barrettes that spelled out the roman numeral XXII. She'd always felt that red and orange were her colors and 22 was her number. Her brother preferred blue and silver, and was rather drawn to the number zero. Funny, right?

Their personalities couldn't be more different, either. While growing up, he was quite the cheerful child, and she was quite meek and shy. After the death of their parents ten years ago, though, she rarely ever stopped smiling, while he... not only had never smiled... he'd rarely ever talked. She could probably count on both hands the number of times he'd spoken in the past ten years to people other than her. She rarely left his side, so she tended to do the talking for the both of them. To her, it really wasn't hard to tell what he wanted to say, and she actually found his stoic expressions kind of funny.

Of note was that both of them were rather short for their ages, but that was easily explained with them being twins. Twins tended to be on the petite side in both height and body frame. Her brother was pretty scrawny and prettyboy-like in looks, and tended to wear full clothes to hide it. She, likewise, was rather uncomfortable about her striking red eyes, and kept her eyelashes quite long in hopes of hiding them, as silly as that sounded. When she was younger, she constantly wore a pair of sunglasses to hide her crimson eyes, but gave them up when her parents died.

"This is the final train bound for Tatsumi Port Island. Please make sure you board in time for departure."

As they each grabbed their bags, she ran out onto the terminal platform, a smile on her face as she gazed around at the bustling train station. Her brother walked up calmly behind her, his left hand in his pants pocket and leaning slightly back, his right hand grasping the Iwatodai Dormitory move-in guide, gazing at it with disinterest. With a pout, she looked up at the nearest clock, right about to strike midnight.

"Look how late we are, Onii-chan! I hope I'll have time for dinner when we reach the dorm! I'm still hungry! Since lunch, I've only had two boxes of Calorie Mate, three bags of potato chips, and that picnic bento we bought at the station before we left!"

"Iwatodai. Iwatodai." a voice rang over the station announcement system.

It was just as the clock struck midnight that her brother's headphones went silent. The station was cast into shades of green and blood began running from the walls and over the clock, with any water nearby having also turned to blood.

"So? Which way do we go to get to the dorm, Onii-chan?" she asked him, just as unphased by the sudden shift as he was.

Her brother merely glanced up at her, walking past her and stepping through a puddle of blood on the ground as he led her outside the terminal and into the streets. She followed after him, also stepping through the puddle of blood with a harmless splash, and walking right past several human-sized coffins standing upright in the middle of the path.

XXXXXXXXXX

Her brother opened the door to the dorm for her. It was rather dark inside, and as he closed the door for his sister, a youthful voice spoke.

"Welcome. You're late. I've been waiting a long time for you both."

She jumped a little, turning to see a little boy with tightly-cut dark blue hair and pale blue eyes standing with his elbows on the sign-in counter. He... looked familiar. His voice, too... it was youthful, but oddly familiar. It... kind of sounded like a younger version of her brother's voice, actually. Weird...

The little boy snapped his fingers. "Now if you want to proceed..."

And just like that, he was gone. A book with a red cover and a quill sat on the counter, and the red-eyed girl jumped when she sensed a presence next to her, turning to see the boy was now standing there, instead.

"Please sign your names, there." he gestured to the book, which seemed to open on its own. "It's a contract. Don't worry. All it says is that you'll accept full responsibility for your actions. You know, the usual stuff."

She gazed down at it, quirking an eyebrow. It had four rather short lines of English text on it. 'Time never waits. It delivers all equally to the same end. I hereby agree to the statement above, and I chooseth this fate of mine own free will.' Below it were two blanks to sign her name... and her brother's, she presumed?

"Whoa, kid. I dunno what you're pullin' here, but I'm not signing anything that-"

She was interrupted by a hand on her shoulder from her brother. She gazed up at his face, and though it didn't change, it spoke volumes to her.

"Ugh. Fine. But I better not be selling my soul, or something."

Walking up, she signed her name in slightly sloppy handwriting. Arisato Hamuko. Ladies first, heh! Her brother followed suit, signing his own name in meticulously neat, downright perfect penmanship. Arisato Minato. Her brother was often told how his name rolled off the tongue, and how it sounded nice with the way it rhymed. She got no such compliments. Instead kids often made meat or hamster jokes with her. Until she kicked them in the nards enough. That shut them up. Feisty didn't even begin to cover it with her.

When they were done, her brother, Minato, picked up the red book and handed it to the little boy, who Hamuko now noticed was wearing odd pajamas with horizontal white and black stripes, almost like some kind of cartoony prison uniform.

"Very well." he stated in his polite, lighthearted voice. He took the thin red book from her brother, holding it up over half of his face. "Time is something no one can escape. It delivers us all to the same end. Wishing won't make it go away, not even if we cover our eyes and plug our ears."

Turning the book sideways, it seemingly... vanished into thin air. Darkness began to envelope him from behind, and the little boy reached out forward with his right arm, grasping at the air.

"And so it begins..." he said just before the darkness enveloped his hand and he seemingly melted into it. When the darkness faded... he was gone.

"Who's there?!"

Hamuko turned to see a girl with short light brown hair standing there in an alert position, dressed in a pink sweater jacket, loose red ribbon over the chest, black mini skirt, knee-length black stockings with a white vertical stripe on the outer sides, brown Mary Janes, and a white choker with a heart on it. Both her ears were also pierced, wearing a white stud in each one. Hamuko was noted for being pretty short, but this girl looked almost her height, maybe even shorter by a centimeter.

"How can you be... But it's...!" Her brown eyes gazed at her and her brother with cautious suspicion. "Don't tell me..." She lowered her right hand, reaching for something at her thigh. It looked to be a holster with... a gun?

Hamuko gave a "Meep!" and hid behind her twin brother, Minato showing no reaction to what he was seeing. The girl seemed to be clutching the gun, but not drawing in, breathing heavy as she waited to see what the siblings would do.

"Wait, Takeba."

The girl, Takeba, gasped at the sound of another girl's voice. She turned to look at a girl with long red hair, her bangs covering one eye, walk down the stairs. Hamuko couldn't help but feel a little jealous of the girl's height and bustline. I mean, sure, she was no slouch herself in the chest department, but this girl, even in her modest school uniform, made her feel small. The red-eyed girl couldn't help noticing that the red ribbon on the front of her white blouse was larger than the other uniforms for this school she'd seen. She seemed to exude an aura of class all over.

"But, Kirijou-senpai, they-"

"Don't worry. They're ordinary transfer students." she stated calmly and seriously.

That gave the first girl pause. "What do you mean, ordinary?"

At that moment, the green hue faded, the lights came back on, and even Minato's MP3 player started back up again. "The lights?" the first girl noticed, gazing around.

The redhead, Kirijou, continued her walk down the stairs. "We were expecting you to arrive earlier. My name is Kirijou Mitsuru. I'm one of the students who live in this dorm."

"Who are they?" the first girl asked.

"They're transfer students. It was a last minute decision to assign them here. They'll eventually be moved to rooms in the regular dorms."

"Is it okay for them to be here?" she asked nervously.

"I guess we'll see." Mitsuru mused, a small smile gracing her elegant features. She turned to the twins, Hamuko having just come out from hiding behind her brother, while Minato continued to simply stand there, his left hand in his pocket and wearing a stoic expression. "This is Takeba Yukari. She'll be a junior this spring, just like you two."

"HI. I'm Yukari." she introduced herself, trying to be friendly despite the obvious aura of distrust she was emitting and the doubt in her eyes.

"Nice to meet you!" Hamuko greeted with a bright smile. "I'm Arisato Hamuko, and this is my twin bro, Minato!"

The brunette looked to the blue-haired boy, waiting for him to acknowledge his sister's introduction of him, or Yukari's own intro, but when he continued to stand there, not moving a muscle, she spoke anyway.

"Uh, y-yeah... Nice to meet you, too..." She managed an awkward smile at the boy, hoping to get a reaction, but finding none.

"Uh, so, why do you have a gun? That scared me pretty bad, ya know!" Hamuko pointed out, pouting.

"Huh? Um, well, it's sorta like a hobby... Well, not a hobby, but..." Yukari stumbled in her explanation. Mitsuru seemed to bail her out.

"You know how it is these days. It's for self-defense. It's not a real gun, of course." She smiled mysteriously.

"I can understand that, I guess. So, is this a girls' dorm? I mean, are you sure it's okay for Onii-chan to stay here?"

"No, it's not, but... Umm, how should I explain it...?"

Mitsuru, again, bailed Yukari out. "Not quite. It's not your typical dorm. Unlike the other buildings, this one's co-ed, for one thing, and there are other differences as well. I'll explain it to you later when I get a chance. Now, it's getting late, so you should get some rest. Your room is on the third floor, at the end of the hallway, while your brother's should be in the same spot on the second floor. Most of your things should already be there."

"Oh... I'll show you the way. Follow me." Yukari offered.

"Oh! Hold that thought! I need to make a quick pit stop. You go ahead and lead Onii-chan to his room first."

The brunette quirked an eyebrow. "Uh,. sure. Bathroom's over-" She barely had to point before the ponytailed girl made a mad dash for the rest room, dropping her bag just outside the door and ducking inside. Turning to Minato she gave him a small smile, one she hoped was genuine. "Okay... I'll lead you to your room then, Arisato-kun."

Showing no reaction, he began walking toward her, which she took as her cue to lead him upstairs to the second floor. She stopped just at the door at the end of the hall.

"This is it..." she explained, stopping in front of it. She gave the boy a small smile. "Pretty easy to remember, huh? Since it's right at the end of the hall. So, any questions?"

He merely shook his head. It was the first time she'd seen him react to anything since she first saw him. It made her pause a moment longer than usual, seeing him actually react.

"Um... Can I ask you something? On your way here from the station, was everything okay?"

He merely nodded. The second reaction she'd seen him give all night, and it was the opposite of his first.

"I see..." she smiled awkwardly. "...Never mind, then. Well, I'd better get going..." she turned and began to walk away, the blue-haired boy watching her as she left. Pausing, she turned back, facing him with her arms clasped behind her back. "Um... I'm sure you still have other questions, but let's save them for later, okay?" she managed a small smile. "Goodnight."

She whirled back around and made her way downstairs, but just as she was about to turn the corner on the stairwell, she turned to see Minato gone. Odd... she didn't even hear his door open and close.

Descending down to the first floor, Yukari headed for the bathroom, but hearing Mitsuru clear her throat got her attention.

"She's in the kitchen, Takeba."

"Oh. Thanks, Kirijou-senpai."

Yukari... couldn't help smelling something good as she went to the kitchen. Stepping inside, she found... Hamuko, she said her name was? She was sitting at the table, slurping from a cup of instant ramen. But... Yukari had never known instant ramen to smell this good.

"Arisato-san? What are you doing? Aren't you tired?"

Jumping a little, the ponytailed girl turned her waist to look at the brunette, the cup and chopsticks in her hands and noodles hanging out of her mouth mid-slurp. Sucking them into her mouth sloppily in a way that actually made Yukari cringe a little, the girl answered.

"Yeah, I guess I'm a little tired. But I'm way hungrier than I am tired! And please, call me Hamuko! It'd get confusing since Onii-chan is also Arisato-san."

"Um... Kind of awkward, since I just met you, but you have a point. And I see you found the instant ramen. Why does it... smell so good, though?"

Hamuko only shrugged. "I added a few things to it, I guess. Just some things you had lying around and some spices, is all."

The brunette quirked an eyebrow at that. "That's... odd."

The ponytailed girl tilted her head to the side. "In what way, Yukari-chan?"

Yukari... chan? First name basis already, and chan? Yukari would object, but she honestly found the girl's upbeat attitude and energy... oddly contagious. "I... don't know, actually. I guess since I'm not that good a cook and Kirijou-senpai doesn't do things like that, I find it odd that a girl I know can... make something as simple as instant ramen smell so good."

Hamuko shrugged again. "I guess you pick up a few things over the years when you have to cook so much."

That aroused Yukari's curiosity but... she had more pressing things to talk about. Taking a seat at the table, and noticing the ponytailed transfer student glance at the gun holstered to her hip as she did so, she waited between slurps of Hamuko's ramen before she spoke.

"Uh... Did you have any questions, Ari... Uh, Hamuko-san?"

Another slurp of ramen before the girl spoke.

"Yup! What's that contract I signed for?"

"Huh? What's this about a contract? ...What contract?"

Hamuko tilted her head to the side. "Um... okay. Does that little boy live here too?"

"What are you talking about? ...C'mon, it's not funny."

Ugh... Curse her ghost phobia! She honestly had no idea what Hamuko was talking about. Despite her cheerful nature, she didn't seem to be stupid, and caught this fact.

"Oh, well... Nevermind, then."

"What about you, Hamuko-san? Was everything okay on your way from the station?"

"What do you mean, Yukari-chan?"

Now it seemed to be Hamuko's turn to not know what the girl she was speaking to was talking about. "You know what I- ...Never mind. It seems like you're alright." She managed a small smile. "Uh, but... can I ask you about Arisato-kun?"

"Onii-chan? Sure! Ask away!"

"Okay, first thing... You're twins, right? Why call him Onii-chan?"

The ponytailed girl grinned mischievously. "I just do that to tease him! We may be twins, but I'm five minutes older, even though he's ten centimeters taller!" She giggled at that.

Yukari couldn't help but find her laugh contagious. Unlike her brother, who had very little presence and almost blended into the background, this girl seemed to brighten up the room. "Is he... normally so quiet and... inexpressive? I mean, he only nodded and shook his head when I asked him things, and only once each."

The girl nearly choked on her ramen, getting concern from the brunette. When she successfully swallowed, she shouted out "You got a response from Onii-chan?!" in alarm.

Yukari felt herself lightly sweat in nervousness. "Um... yes. Why?"

"Onii-chan doesn't respond to anyone!"

"That's... an exaggeration, right?"

"Okay, well... Yes, it is. Usually, though, I do the talking for the both of us. Onii-chan is pretty easy to read once you get used to him. But I can honestly say with no exaggeration that I can count on both hands the number of times he's spoken to someone other than me in the past ten years."

Yukari's eyes widened. "Wh-What? But... Why?"

Hamuko merely shrugged. "He's just a really laid-back guy, I guess."

The ponytailed girl said that, but... Why did the brunette think that wasn't the whole story?

"So... After you finish your ramen, I... guess you'll want to head to your room?"

"Yup! It's past midnight! I need to do some unpacking!"

"You're... not going to sleep?"

"Nah. Tonight's not a sleep night. Tomorrow is, though."

A sleep... night? The implications... Why did Yukari think... there was definitely more to the Arisato twins than met the eye?