Chapter 1

Life to live and a Vampire

'I finally did it; it's time to end this. I may not be able to destroy humanity's self destructive tendencies but at least I can seal NYX away… even if it costs me my life.' I concentrate on my social links as I prepare to use the final skill I learned from Igor. Their voices support me as I cry "GREAT SEAL!" the world goes white, I close my eyes...

When I open my eyes I see the velvet room. "Igor? Did I do it? Did I save everyone?" I ask tiredly. He smiles. "Yes, you did, however you have not spent your soul yet. I took you from the moment before you sealed NYX because I want to ask you a favor." I stare dumbstruck. "You stopped me from saving the world to ask me a favor. Better be good." I say silently fuming.

He smiles. "I want you to go to a school for monsters in the near future, live there fulfill your life to its maximum and when you are old and dying, I want you to return here and seal NYX." He said with a smirk.

"Wait, you want me to what?" I say surprised. "Like I said, I want you to live your life. I want you to go to a school for monsters and fulfill everything in your life to the fullest." He said.

"You are letting me live my life. And you're having me do you a favor that has something to do with this school for monsters." I said still shocked that he was giving me a life to live. Of course I will be starting from scratch, and in a place populated by monsters too. Probably keeping my persona powers as well, I don't think he would just send me in without a chance.

"Exactly. All you need to do is trust your heart and you can figure out your mission by yourself. You will have access to your persona but you will be starting from scratch, just Orpheus to start with."

I nodded, can't make it too easy can we? "What kinds of shadows are causing the problem?" I ask.

"None. This is a mission with no shadows, but fair warning. Monsters are quite tough. Aside from that I have no more advice for you." I nodded, after all, I was going to live as long as I want till I am close to death or don't want to live anymore, then I save everyone at home. Sure I was delaying the inevitable but that's alright with me.

"Where is this monster school?" I ask. "Don't worry; I have a friend who will be picking you up shortly. He will answer any questions about the school for you."

"Thank you Igor." I say with a smile, I feel tears of happiness coming forth but I hold them back.

He simply replies, "Don't worry about it, I'd never let a visitor perish at such a young age, besides, Elizabeth told me that if I didn't, she would eternally wander the cosmos to find a way to free you." I sweat drop, thank goodness I went on those dates with her.

"So when will-" Knock Knock. "Never mind" "come in." Igor says as the door to the left opens and a man wearing a blue (if I never see the color again it would be too soon) uniform walks in.

"bus for Arisato Minato." He says, creepy grin growing. He tossed a small bad to me,"Here's the school uniform, don't worry you can customize it." I nod to him and grab the uniform. I go into the side room to change. I put on the white undershirt untucked (except for the place my evoker sits),leave the tie off, green coat unbuttoned, beige pants with a secondary belt hanging off the side for my sword, black shoes, and most importantly, my MP3 player.

As I stepped out into the main room I placed my hands in my pockets and to my surprise I noticed I couldn't feel the bottoms. Igor saw my confusion "they're spatially enhanced pockets. That way you can hide your swords and evoker." I nod, that's useful. I grab the evoker off the chair and holster it. Then I place the two swords I brought with me for the final fight in my bigger on the inside pockets.

"Alright then, I'm ready to go." I say as I walk to the door. "Hold on. From now on, if you use the velvet key on any door you can use said door to go here or anywhere you have previously used it. I'm sure it will be useful." I smirk and nod, it feels like he's spoiling me, but I'm sure I will still have trouble, after all, if they find out I'm a human, chances are that I won't be welcomed with open arms.

As we leave the velvet room I see that we are in the back of a bus. I don't question it, I've gotten too used to this sort of thing to be bothered. The person in blue, presumably the driver, goes to the driver's seat and starts it up. I sit near the front and begin asking questions. The information I acquire astounds me. First, this school is called Youkai academy, alright, not the most creative name but that's fine. Second, I was right, if I'm found to be a human I will probably be executed, so I may need friends to help me cover. Personae can only go so far I suppose. Third, the school is in a separate dimension connectible only through this tunnel of the fourth dimension. Then I asked about all the Youkai I should be prepared to see, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. As I continue to ask questions a familiar feeling rings throughout my body.

"Thou Art I... And I am thou... Thou Shalt have our Blessing When thou choosest to create a Persona Of the Hermit Arcana". That's interesting, new social links, but that's to be expected I guess.

We finally reach the end of the road. "Thanks for the ride …" I look at him asking for his name. "Just call me driver-San" he says with a mysterious smile. I nod and get off the bus. The place is quite unique. Looks like something from that horror movie I watched with Yukari and Junpei over the last break.

As I walk through the forest in the direction of the school I begin hearing noises in the woods behind me. I should be- "LOOK OUT!" crash! "Careful…" I say as I pick myself up.

I feel something soft as I support my self with my left hand and hear a very feminine moan. I look up already knowing what to expect, but still I am blown away. She's gorgeous. Pink hair(slightly odd, but who am I to judge, I'm bluenette), green eyes, porcelain skin, unearthly beauty. I stand up and hold out my hand. "Sorry about that. I should have moved quicker."

She takes my hand and starts to get up. "No it's my fault; I was dizzy from my anemia." Suddenly she starts sniffing the air, immediately I start thinking, smell, what could she- "I'm/your bleeding." So she's a vampire.

She falls into my arms and says, "When I smell blood I just can't control myself, it's because-" I lean my neck to the right, she's only a teen, my age probably, it must be difficult to control the urges, like hormones.

"You're a vampire, I figured it out already." She blushed and nodded as she bit me. After a few seconds she pulled away. "Sorry… I just couldn't control myself. You don't hate us vampires, do you?"

I shrugged, "of course not, and don't worry about it, we all have to eat. Want to join me in walking to school?"

she nods, blushing. "What's your name?" I ask. "Oh sorry. Akashiya Moka, and would you like to be my friend?"

I smile. "Arisato Minato, and I would be thrilled." And we walk to the school with the feeling of a new social link in my heart, "Thou Art I... And I am thou... Thou Shalt have our Blessing When thou choosest to create a Persona Of the Fortune Arcana"…

After the introduction ceremony, the one back at Gekkoukan was more interesting, I found my home room. As the day started I took out my headphones.

"Hi there class, I'm Ms. Nekonome, I'll be your homeroom teacher this year." Nekomata, nice. "Now as you know, Youkai academy is a school exclusively for monsters. this school was built for helping monster to integrate into human society so we can co-exist!" at this point one of the students to my right asked " wouldn't it be better if we killed the men and molest the sexy women he he he" that is not a good omen

"The school however does not have humans, but hurting a human in other public places of earth is illegal because we must hide our existence from them." continued Ms. Nekonome. Wow, that is some skillful ignoring, way to go. "this brings us too our two most important rules, first" she became somber" humans are to never know we exist, bringing humans in, or if a human comes here the punishment is death ... Or something." She ended happily, wow…" the other is not to tell others what kind of monster you are." That's useful for me.

Suddenly in comes Moka "I'm sorry I'm late, I got lost after the ceremony." "Oh that's alright. Just take a seat." Moka said a quick thanks as the other boys (and even a few girls!) started complimenting her.

"Who is she?"

"That hair… Those eyes…"

"She's so beautiful…"

Oi vei…

Suddenly she sat next to me, then she turned and noticed me. "Minato?" oh boy, bad feelings about this. "Hi Moka." I reply evenly. "Minato!" yep, I knew it.

She threw herself at me and crushed me in a vampire hug. And of course now every male in the room looks ready to disembowel me now… joy.

As break arrived Moka dragged me around, well, I say dragged but I was walking with her. Eventually we stopped at a drink machine. We both got some tomato juice. Everything was nice and peaceful as we made small talk, then, "hey there gorgeous, what are you doing with an emo punk like this kid when you could be with a real man like me?" as he says this he lifts me by the shirt.

I hear the other students say his name, Saizo Kamiya. I reach to my pocket and quickly draw my katana, slashing his wrist. He yells in pain and drops me. "And you call me emo. You're the one with bloody wrists." I say as I grab Moka's hand and start running down the hall.

I put away the katana when we reached the forest. "Wow Minato! That was cool! A little mean, but cool. What kind of monster are you?" I looked around and said, "I'll tell you, but only because I trust you. So don't react until I tell you the full thing, alright?" she nods. "I'm a human."

Her face turns to one of disbelief and horror. "But, I am not a normal one. Neither were some of my closest friends. I am a persona user."

Now she seemed confused. "What's a persona?" I smile "the mask one wears against the world, however, I'm special. Whereas most persona users have but one, I, being one of the wild card, can wield hundreds." She seems impressed. "At least you are technically a monster." She says smiling.

I frown. "Why don't you like humans?" she frowns, "I hate those humans! I… I actually went to human schools before, but I just couldn't make friends there because they thought I was different. They're nothing but a race of cruel and heartless people."

I shake my head. "Trust me, not all people are like that. I've met a lot of people, and while that's true for some, many are just like you or me."

She looks apprehensive. "Look, just think for a while about what I said, I need to use the bathroom." I don't really but I know she needs thinking time.

So as I walk through the forest I begin feeling anxious "Minato!" shit that's Moka's voice! Saizo is after Moka, I take my sword out of my pocket and affix it to the second belt, and then I unlatch my evoker as I ran. As I draw closer to her I mentally prepare Orpheus.

When I get there I see Saizo released his true form, looks like a monstrel. "Oi, Saizo, put her down or you may just lose your hand."

He turns to me and yells, "Emo punk! oh now your going to die! Nobody makes me look like a fool and lives!" great, now I got to distract him while Moka removes her seal, good thing the driver told me how rosary's seal a vampire's power.

I keep dodging until I realize she isn't even trying to undo the seal. "Moka remove the seal and help me!" she looked surprised that I figured it out but said, "I can't, someone else has to!" great, well here's nothing. I pull the evoker and point it at Saizo, he stops, surprised probably, then I slowly inch my way over to Moka before turning it on myself, surprised at what I did Saizo simply gawks. "Alright, Moka, let's take him together." She is stunned at my evoker being pointed to my head so she doesn't react. I pull off the Rosario as I pull the trigger.

BANG!

I can feel the power rising around me as I summon Orpheus and Moka transforms. When Saizo sees what's happening he's stunned to silence. He probably never even heard of what I am, plus Moka releasing. When the air settled down Moka was standing next to me looking a bit different. Taller, more…filled out, silver hair, red eyes, and when she smiled, longer teeth. "Thank you for waking me up, you are very observant Minato. We didn't even tell you about the rosary, I applaud you. And your 'persona' is quite a unique power."

I smile and say, "You're not looking too bad yourself." She blushed, she thought I couldn't see but I did. "Alright, Orpheus, Bash!" Orpheus smashed Saizo over the head with his harp.

Looks like a critical hit. "Your turn." I say. Moka seems impressed that I managed to hurt him so much, as he was on his knees. Well, as impressed as she could seem. "Thanks, I needed time to stretch anyways." She says as she stretches, I suppose she doesn't get out often. She then proceeds to run at the monstrel and unleash a bone crushing flip kick to his jaw. I cringe slightly as he goes flying into the forest.

When Moka turns to look at me she seems to be analyzing my every feature. Finally she says. "you seem too strong to be a human. care to explain why you say you are a human?" I smile and say, "sometimes life shows us a path and we must follow it. All you need to know is, my path took me on a journey that allowed me to grow more powerful than any other human being." As I remember the events that made me who I am, I begin to lose concentration on reality.

"Are you crying?" she asks. I blink, I am crying. "yeah, sorry about that, so, we took care of Saizo, what do you want to do now?" her eyes widened slightly.

"I-I'm still tired, I'll let you talk with omote, she can explain our situation." I smile, "alright Moka, I can tell you aren't used to people caring about your opinion, and don't deny it, I was the same way about a year ago, so I see the signs. So, until next time Ura-Hime." She blushes heavily and I put the rosary back on before she can respond.

As she begins to change back I feel the familiar sensation, "Thou Art I... And I am thou... Thou Shalt have our Blessing When thou choosest to create a Persona Of the Empress Arcana". one person, two social links… that's new. When Moka finished reverting I caught her and noticed she was asleep. " I hope ura doesn't mind me carrying omote like this." I say as I lift her up and carry her bridal style.

When we reach the infirmary I notice Moka waking up, she goes to stretch and punches me in the face. It hurts. A lot. I'm pretty sure it broke my nose. "Huh?" says Moka when she finally realizes I'm holding her. "oh hi Minato. Oh you're bleeding what happened? Was it Saizo!?"

I sigh and say "you punched me in your sleep." She had the decency to look horrified; I guess that makes sense because I told her I'm a human technically. (I think she uses my persona powers to justify my being at a monster school) "don't worry, you just broke my nose. Nothing major. I'll fix it later."

"but your…bleeding…uh." I smile, she's fine. That's good. I lean my head exposing my neck, my body long since adjusted for severe blood loss. So this was my new sense of normal. At least it can't get any weird- wait, don't even think that. Murphy has my face on his most wanted list; if I so much as think that phrase it could get me killed.

Meanwhile, in an upper plane a minor deity says, "close enough buddy boy, close enough." and drops a pebble in a cup of water. A name is on the side of the cup.

I'll give you two guesses whose it is.