It had been ten years since she had last step foot into Tatsumi Port Istand. Ten long years since that fateful night that took her entire family away. The night sky and the moon turned green, the car her father was driving in suddenly stopped, and their parents were replaced by coffins that somehow fit in the car. Only her twin brother and her were moving. Being only seven-years-old at the time, they broke into tears as they begged for their parents to leave their coffins as they helplessly tried to pry the lids open. Her brother suddenly stopped crying and stared at something past her before hastily opening the car door and shoving her out. Two seconds later, the car exploded. She could not even begin to accept the reality in front of her before a death-curdling roar sounded behind her. She turned around to see what it was that made that sound but because of her tears, her vision was too blurry to accurately make out the floating creature in black a few meters in front of her with its back to her. The creature suddenly turned into transparent blue light with only its outline remaining. A person came rushing towards her with clear intent to do something to her. With the disaster still fresh on her mind, she believed that person was out to kill her too after 'killing' the floating creature. She remembered letting out a terrified scream before blacking out. The last thing she remembered was the only clear thing she noted about the person that tried to kill her: That person was a robot.
After being treated at a hospital and regaining consciousness, she broke down crying again as she retold how she remembered her family's death. None of the doctors believed her about the sky and moon turning green, nor about the black floating creature or her robot assailant. It was simply labeled a terrible accident that was reported on the news. The only thing she had left was being an orphan and a scarred childhood. She spent ten years being tossed around like a hot potato between relatives, both good and bad, before her latest relative sent her back to Tatsumi Port Island. She was old enough to start living on her own in school dorms as a second year high school transfer student studying at Gekkoukan High School.
A train malfunction was just the start of her troubles. By the time she arrived in and exited Iwatodai Station, it was midnight. She let out a sigh as the night sky and moon turned that same shade of sickly green and the puddles of water around her turned into blood. It was normal to her by now, having discovered the world's transformation five years ago when she was up past midnight doing a homework assignment. When she went to seek out her relatives for help, she found all of them in coffins. And when she tried making a call to the police, she found the house phone was dead and so was every cell phone in the house. So was everything electronic in the house. She would later question herself why she did not break down into a hysterical mess when she re-discovered the transformation of the world since her family died during that time. After some trial and error for a week, she learned that the world changed exactly at midnight everyday, regardless of the timezone. She never tried to find out when the change ended, only knowing that the world would be back to normal after some time. And as for water turning into blood? It was all aesthetic. Although it definitely looked like blood, water still tasted like water and cola still tasted like cola. After several days of hesitating to drink the cup of 'blood' that was previously water, she finally gathered her courage to take a sip, finding out it tasted like normal water, and then downing the entire cup. She got over the aesthetic change immediately after that experience.
Minako was supposed to report to Iwatodai Dormitory earlier in the night but the train malfunction really set her back and now she was making her way to the dorm when the world was changed. She pointedly ignored all the coffins, knowing the people inside them were safe and would return back to normal when the world turned back to normal. To her slight dismay, she arrived at her destination when the world was still changed. How was she supposed to inform the people managing the dorm that she had arrived? She did not want to wait outside for who knew how long until the world turned back so she tried to enter. It was unlocked, to her surprise. She briefly wondered if it was an electronic lock or the supervisor of the dorm was simply nice enough to leave it unlocked for her.
"Welcome," a young boy's voice said from the direction of the counter.
Minako was rudely snapped from her idle thoughts and her eyes widened in shock at seeing another person functioning normally when the world was changed. She had thought she was the only one capable of doing so.
"You're late. I've been waiting a long time," the boy in pajamas resembling a prison uniform continued as he held out a piece of paper to her. "If you want to proceed, then please sign here. It's a contract. There's no need to be scared. It only binds you to accepting full responsibility for your actions."
Minako took it from him and carefully read through the contract. However, all there was on it was the saying...
"'I chooseth this fate of mine own free will?'" Minako repeated. English was already hard enough for a regular Japanese person, let alone a student, and this contract was written in archaic English? She could barely read the thing right! "Hey, are you sure this is the real thing? This doesn't look like anything a dormitory in Japan would ask its new residents to sign," she asked suspiciously.
"Did you not understand that?" the boy blinked in confusion. "It's just a fancy way of saying that you have to take responsibility for your own actions."
"Oh, if that's all, then..." Minako signed her name at the blank provided but kept a careful eye on the boy to make sure it was not some sort of joke that the dorm supervisor told him to pull on her.
"...Very well," the boy said as he took back the paper. "Time is something no-one can escape. It delivers us all to the same end. Wishing won't make it go away. And so it begins..." Right in front of her eyes, he seemingly melded with the shadows of the wall behind him.
"...Who's there?" a new, female voice cried out. This time, Minako managed to keep her shock under control and looked towards the source of the voice. A girl wearing a pink cardigan was heading down the staircase from the second floor. "How can you be... But it's...! Don't tell me..." the girl kept cutting off her own sentences, looking shocked at seeing Minako.
Minako was about to explain herself that she was in similar shock seeing another person walking around while the world was changed when she saw the gun strapped to the other girl's leg. The holster was already opened and her hand had gripped its handle in order to pull it out. She let out a scream and dived behind the sofa chair for safety.
"Wait!" Yet another female voice snapped out a command. And almost at her word, Minako saw the world turn back to normal and the lights of the dorm started working again. Minako peeked her eyes over the top of the chair she was hiding behind and saw an older girl with long red hair beside the girl in pink. "I didn't think you'd arrive so late. My name is Mitsuru Kirijo. I'm one of the students who live in this dorm," the red-haired girl introduced herself. She proceeded to explain to the other girl that Minako was a transfer student who was assigned here for the moment until she got a room in the normal dorms. She also introduced the other girl as Yukari Takeba who gave a reluctant greeting.
"Can I please have the nearest address for a cheap hostel?" Minako requested timidly. "I'd rather not live with people with access to guns." She saw Yukari flinch from her statement and stammered trying to give a reasonable explanation. Mitsuru came to her defense by claiming it was for self-defense purposes and was not a real gun. When she saw Minako unwilling to leave the safety of the chair, she demonstrated by taking the gun from Yukari and aiming the nozzle directly at her own hand. Minako watched closely, flinching at the sound of a real gunshot the fake gun emitted when she pressed the trigger. Just like Mitsuru said, it was a fake gun and her hand was not hurt in any way.
"You have to nothing to worry about from us. I apologize for Takeba frightening you," Mitsuru reassured her and Minako finally complied. She told her that her things had already arrived and she should tuck in for the night. Yukari showed her the way, and her assigned room was at the end of the third floor hall. Yukari tried to make small conversation but seeing the uneasy look on Minako's face, she cut herself off and asked if she had any questions. Minako asked about the boy and the contract she had to sign. Instead, she looked scared and asked back about what boy and contract she was talking about. Minako quickly dismissed her inquiry and bade her goodnight.
"Um... Can I ask you something? On the way here from the station, was everything okay?" Yukari asked before she could close the door.
"Yeah," Minako replied, having gotten used to the world changing every midnight. She grew suspicious when Yukari replied with 'Never mind'. Yukari quickly shut down any chance of her asking her anything by asking her to save them for another day and bidding her goodnight. Deciding to leave unpacking for when there was daylight, Minako flopped onto the bed and fell asleep immediately.
***Break Line***
She was awakened the next morning by knocking on her door. It was Yukari, and she was told by Mitsuru to show her the way to school. Minako agreed to follow, knowing it would be rude as well as troublesome for everybody involved if she refused. She requested Yukari to wait five minutes for her to brush out her bed hair and tie it up in her usual high ponytail with additional silver barrettes that very clearly resembled the Roman numeral 22. They made small talk on the way, Yukari seemingly more comfortable around her than yesterday. They had to take the monorail to school and it was indeed a beautiful sight as the monorail made its way to Tatsumi Port Island, a man-made island where the school was located.
Her time with Yukari ended when they entered Gekkoukan High with suggestions for her to introduce herself to the homeroom teacher of her class in the faculty office. She also cautioned her not to tell anyone what happened the night before and left for her own business. Shrugging her shoulders, Minako took a look at the bulletin board and found out she was assigned to class 2-F. Her homeroom teacher was Ms. Toriumi who she greeted politely and cheerfully. She was pleased with her enthusiasm and instructed her to follow her to the auditorium for the school's welcoming ceremony for new students.
***Break Line***
"What's up, dude?" the person sitting opposite her spoke, causing her to look up and look at her classmate, wondering if she was the one being addressed. "Haha, you look like a deer in headlights," the boy joked. So he was addressing her.
"Who are you?" she asked, unable to remember his name even though they had a class introduction earlier that day.
"Junpei Iori," the boy gave his name. He said he knew how tough it was being the new kid who transferred in, so he was just checking up on her to make her she was not freaking out. Minako was stunned, looking very much like said deer in headlights. This was the first time anyone had ever bothered extending a helping hand to her in all her years as the new kid in school. Up till now, all her classmates always kept her at arm's length and were hesitant to approach her. She missed out on the short conversation Junpei had with Yukari until the latter asked her if she thought it was a coincidence they were in the same homeroom. She agreed that it was, and Junpei reinserted himself back into the conversation, feeling left out already. He asked if the two girls knew each other since he heard they came to school together. The whole class, or at least the male population of the class, was buzzing about how two cuties came to school together.
"Ugh... Could you just cut it out? I hate dealing with rumors like that," Yukari groaned. She scolded him for involving Minako, a new student, in their school rumors when she just got here. She left citing some archery club activities and warned him not to try anything funny.
"What is she, your nanny...?" he mumbled to her, making her giggle at the exasperated look on his face. "Well, just to clear something up," he brightened up as he grinned at her. "I seriously didn't come over here to hit on you or anything. If you ever have a problem, you can tell your old pal Junpei about it!"
"Sure! Thanks," Minako replied happily, very glad that someone as friendly as Junpei was willing to lend a helping hand to her even on the first day.
"No problem! My door's always open, so to speak." As they left school, Junpei mentioned the school's clubs and she should join one if she was interested. When she asked if he was part of any club, he proudly declared that he was part of the go-home club. She stared at him in surprise before letting out a small laugh. "Hey, don't laugh!" he complained.
"It's the first time I've heard someone be proud they were part of that club," Minako replied with a smile. "I'm part of it too. Or was, at least."
"Oh yeah, you transferred a lot for a few years," he remembered her introduction to the class. "You probably didn't want to commit to any club with all that moving. Since you're here now, let me be the first to say welcome to the club!" he joked.
"Glad to be here," she said, glad that he was making her feel welcome. Just like he had said, he was more than happy to help the new kid out. It was to their pleasant surprise that the Iwatodai Dormitory was on his way home and they continued chatting until they reached the dorm where they split ways. When she entered, only Mitsuru was in the lounge. She welcomed her back and advised her to retire early since she looked pretty tired. Minako agreed with her statement since she had a lack of rest since she arrived in Iwatodai. She spent the rest of the evening and night of the day unpacking and then heading straight to sleep.
***Break Line***
The second school day passed just as quickly as the first, with Junpei already being comfortable enough to lean over slightly and ask her what was the answer to the question he was asked during Composition period. He had apparently zoned out and missed whatever the teacher had said until he was put on the spot, so she gave him the correct answer. He was thankful for that and since she 'saved his bacon', he offered to show her around Paulownia Mall. Since she had nothing to do for the rest of the day, she agreed to his tour of the local area. Fortunately or unfortunately, their tour was cut short by Minako herself. She stood transfixed in front of a certain building called Game Panic.
"Uh... Minako-tan?" Junpei called her. "Something wrong?"
"Is that... an arcade?" she pointed her finger at it while looking at him. Her eyes were sparkling in excitement.
"Yep," he nodded. "Why? You interested in checking it out?" She nodded vigorously. Junpei cracked a wide grin at that. "I'd never thought I'd find a female gamer here. Now you're speaking my language!" They both rushed into the arcade with gusto. "So, what games are you interested in?" he asked as they explored the arcade and seeing what games they had to offer.
"Everything!" she exclaimed excitedly. "...Except the ones clearly meant for kids," she added sheepishly.
"Then you don't mind playing a boy's game, do you?" he challenged, making air quotes when he said 'boy's game'.
"What kind of boy's game?" she joked back.
"A fighting game, of course!"
"Bring it, big boy!" her red eyes shone with excitement and anticipation as they waited their turns. By the time they were done spending their allowance for the day, evening had fell and they made their way back home.
"Oh, she's back," she heard Yukari say the moment she entered the dorm. There was a man with her, dressed in quite the sophistical clothes.
"So, this is our new guest..." he gave Minako a once-over. "Good evening. My name is Shuji Ikutsuki. I'm the Chairman of the Board for your school," he introduced himself once she had seated herself. He came to the dorm to apologize about the confusion concerning her accommodations since she was supposed to move in to another dorm and not the school's private dorm instead. It would take a little bit longer for the proper assignments to be sorted out. "Is there anything you'd like to ask?" he asked.
"The relatives I was staying with prior to my moving here have already paid in full for my belongings to be transferred to the correct dorm, something you made a mistake in as you have admitted. They will not be entertained with this error and having to pay more for your mistake since I do not have enough savings of my own to pay for movers, not helped by the travel fees I am forced to spend on just to come and go from here. How will you compensate us?" Minako asked as politely as she could despite her irritation at the error.
"I will, of course. Once this mistake has been sorted out, I will recompense you by paying for your movers fully as well as reimbursing a small sum for the travel fees you are forced to spend coming to and from this dorm," he answered smoothly. She nodded in agreement and visibly settled down from her tense posture. "Is there anything else you'd like to ask?"
She asked who else lived in the dorm, mostly to sate her curiosity about the boy in prison pajamas. Rather than getting any information about the boy, she found out a senior by the name of Akihiko Sanada also lived here. When she shook her head to show she had no more questions, he advised her to retire early for the night since the early bird caught the bookworm. A groan was heard from Yukari who told her she would get used to his lame jokes and puns eventually. Minako dismissed herself as she had more things to unpack if she wanted to catch enough sleep in time.
***Break Line***
"...Master... Master Minako Arisato..." she heard an indistinguishable voice call her name while she was sleeping. She cracked her eyes opened blearily to see who it was that called her. When her brain finished processing that she was no longer in her room, her eyes snapped wide awake. Minako was sure she fell asleep on her bed, not seated in a chair facing an extremely long-nosed old man with elf-like ears sitting behind a round table. Swinging her head left and right in a panic, she found herself stuck with the old man inside a giant elevator decorated in blue everywhere that appeared to be going upwards endlessly.
"W-What the heck!" she exclaimed as she tried to scramble back, only to find herself stuck in her seat.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room," the old man greeted her. "My name is Igor. ...I am delighted to make your acquaintance."
'Oh, it's velvet, not blue,' Minako's mind randomly registered that fact in the midst of her panic as she tried to pull herself off her seat. "No, that's not it!" she found her voice again. "Where is this!"
"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter... Only those who have signed the Contract can enter this place..." Igor explained as he produced the slip of paper that Minako had signed a few days ago and placed it on the table. "Henceforth, you shall be welcome here in the Velvet Room. You are destined to hone your unique ability, and you will require my help to do so. I only ask one thing in return... That you abide by the Contract, and assume responsibility for the choices you make."
"I refuse!" Minako yelled, anger gradually replacing her panic as Igor spoke. "I signed that contract because that boy said it was just to state that I am held responsible for anything I do in the dorm. I did not sign it for your business! You sent that boy to trick me!" she accused hotly.
"You will understand in time," Igor replied cryptically. "I can tell you that the boy you are referring to is not a resident of this place. Hold on to this..." With a small snap of his fingers, a velvet key mysteriously appeared in her hand. He mentioned there was another resident who could not be present for her arrival but he would make sure they would be properly introduced at another time. "Until we meet again..."
Minako could not even put a word of refusal in before her vision whitened out. When it cleared, she found herself snapping into a sitting position, in her room once again. She was panting hard and sweating profusely. The key she was forcefully given was not in her hand. She took deep breaths to relax herself, mumbling under her breath that it was just a stupid dream. She had a poor mood as she made her way to school until she coincidentally met Junpei at the gates where they made small talk, cheering her up slightly. After school, she finished her tour of Paulownia Mall with Yukari before they headed back to the dorm where she immediately retired to her room for some studying and a long sleep.
***Break Line***
For the second time in two nights, she was woken up by an outside source again. Her body had not completely fallen asleep yet, so she was still at full awareness when she was woken up. She noticed it was during the time the world was changed. Someone started banging on her door and Yukari yelled from outside for her to wake up. She then apologized and claimed she was coming in. Minako was surprised when she heard the jingle of keys before her door was unlocked. The moment Yukari opened the door, she was met with a highly offended look from Minako and flinched slightly from it.
"What is so important that you had to use the master key of the dorm to invade my privacy when I was about to answer your knocking?" Minako demanded with folded arms.
"I don't have time to explain. We have to get out of here, now!" Yukari quickly got over herself and handed over a long and thin implement. "Hurry! Downstairs! We'll leave through the back door!"
It was easy for Minako to recognize she had been given a weapon in the form of a naginata. Her anger now replaced by worry, she ran down the stairs after Yukari. Yukari had some sort of receiver on her as she started replying to Mitsuru's voice. Mitsuru seemed to be fighting an enemy with Akihiko and that there was a second one after the two juniors.
"L-Let's pull back!" Yukari stammered after the dorm shook once from a heavy impact coming from outside, drawing her fake gun from its holster.
"What are you going to fight with? I thought you said that was a fake gun!" Minako exclaimed, stopping Yukari from running upstairs.
"It is, but-" Yukari was interrupted by a second shake of the dorm which seemed to come from above them, discouraging her from her initial plan to escape to the roof. "Oh no! This way!" she ran out the front door instead and Minako followed close behind, constantly sneaking peeks behind her to see just what was after them but saw nothing. They quickly came across Mitsuru and a silver-haired teenage boy confronting blobs of black goo-like substance with masks attached to them. They both had the same fake gun Yukari had and were pointing them towards their own head.
"Penthesilea/Polydeuces!" both Mitsuru and the boy, most likely Akihiko, called out weird names as blue glass shattered on the opposite side of the head where the nozzle was pointed at, even as their head recoiled from an unseen force. Blue mist swirled around their feet before expanding and forming into...
Minako's eyes widened in terror as the humanoid/robotic entities appeared from the blue mist and attacked the blobs. Her pupils dilated as her mind's eye replayed the disaster that took her family's lives and the blurred-out robot that attacked her ten years ago.
"Hey! Hey, snap out of it! What's wrong?" Yukari shook her shoulders when the sound of her naginata dropping on the ground caught her attention. Minako's eyes were not focused as she seemed to stare at nothing. Her breathing became erratic all of a sudden and sweat broke out all over her face.
"Yukari! What's wrong with her?" Mitsuru came to them after taking care of the blobs. Before they could attend to Minako, a giant monster that was walking on multiple hands with no feet approached them from the top of the dorm. One of its hands was holding up a mask similar to the blobs of goo earlier.
"That's the one!" Akihiko exclaimed, an arm holding his ribs protectively. "Yukari, look out!" he warned when he saw it charging up an attack. A small explosion of fire detonated in front of Yukari, knocking her off her feet and her fake gun sliding to a stop in front of Minako who snapped out of her daze when she heard her scream in pain. She reached down and picked it up, guessing that the gun had the ability to summon some sort of robotic entity when shot at oneself in the head. Minako froze when she placed the nozzle to her temple.
'No! No! NO! I don't want a robot-looking thing! Never!' her mind yelled at her, the disaster from her childhood now at the forefront of her mind.
"Hurry! Shoot it!" Mitsuru urged as she dove out of the way of another explosion of fire.
If you believed in alternate universes, 99% of them would have her, or him in certain universes, summon a robotic entity named Orpheus who answered to her call who then momentarily morphed into a more deathly being named Thanatos to make quick work of that giant monster. Here, because of her seemingly intense fear of robots, she failed at her summoning despite the appearance of the blue mist that signified a successful summoning. Her head recoiled and the blue glass shattered, but nothing appeared to come to her aid. No Orpheus, and certainly nothing for Thanatos to momentarily take over and show himself. Her head only hung lifelessly from her suddenly still body as her arm dropped to her side and the gun dropped to the ground.
"She failed...!" Akihiko gritted his teeth in disappointment at the failure.
"Thou art I, and I am thou," Minako suddenly said with a presence of power, surprising the two seniors as she raised her head. "My goodness, what an uncomfortable way to introduce oneself. Please rest peacefully, Anchin-sama. I will introduce myself to you once again when you have sufficiently recovered. Leave this rabble to me. Rest assured I will take the utmost care of your body," she seemed to talk to someone that neither of the seniors could see.
"Minako...?" Mitsuru cautiously called out, sensing that all was not right with Minako.
"Please move out of the way. Do not blame me if you are foolishly caught in the range of my attack," Minako brushed her off with a dismissive tone.
"What...?" Akihiko was surprised by the warning but obeyed nonetheless, moving away from Minako and giving her a fairly wide berth. Mitsuru did the same, supporting the injured teen. Both of them were surprised when blue lights appeared in her hand, forming the framework of a folding fan. The framework then made the sound of shattering glass with shards of blue glass falling off and disappearing, materializing the object. The folding fan had a black-and-gold front and the paper sheets were designed with flames as the background with a white snake slithering in the middle. Minako slowly and delicately fanned herself as she looked squarely at the giant monster who paused in its tracks, seemingly stunned at the sense of power that emanated from her being.
"She didn't fail her Persona summoning..." Mitsuru looked at Akihiko who nodded back, having come to the same conclusion she had arrived at. "Whatever her Persona is, it appears she's under its influence... Or under its control..."
"The power coming off her... That's something only a Persona has," he agreed, correcting his initial judgement. They watched with apprehension as well as amazement when Minako laid out her fan horizontally and a small ball of fire came to life on top of it. She took a small breath and blew, blue flames exiting from her mouth and turning the small orange fireball into a big blue fireball. She snapped her fan shut and pulled her arm back, leaving the fireball floating in front of her.
"I am not able to transform to use my absolute full power, but I can certainly enhance my regular flames to have the same destructive power. There is simply less of my full power to use, not that my flames are weaker," Minako explained to seemingly no-one again. She straightened her arm and pointed her fan straight at the giant monster. Apparently sensing its demise was near, it tried to flee. "I will eliminate the huge liar as of now. TENSHIN KASHOU ZANMAI!" The blue fireball expanded even further into the shape of a dragon as it flew towards the giant monster and encircling it several times. It was trapped within with no escape, its fate being to only be burnt alive. When it was dead, Minako snapped her fan shut with a flick of her wrist, extinguishing any flames that were still burning.
"Amazing..." a now conscious Yukari whispered in awe, having seen the attack.
"Yukari, are you alright? Let me heal you," Mitsuru summoned Penthesilea to gain access to its healing spell and proceeded to repair any damage done to the junior.
"You, the one in pink," Minako addressed Yukari, her fan resting on her chin.
"Y-Yes?" Yukari replied, weirded out by how she was being addressed from someone who knew her name.
"That's not Minako. We believe it's her Persona using her body," Mitsuru told her, adjusting her posture slightly in case she needed to fight back and protect Yukari.
"As much as it saddens me, I must leave Anchin-sama's care to you. I am sure the red-haired girl will have her hands full tending to the injured boy. I trust you will provide the proper care for her once I leave?" Minako asked.
"Yes, of course!" Yukari immediately agreed, not wanting to upset a being of power such as a Persona.
"Very well." The blue mist that preceded a Persona's summoning appeared around her feet and dispersed along with her folding fan. Minako suddenly collapsed to the ground unconscious like a puppet with its strings severed.
"Mitsuru-senpai, I think it's best we take her to the hospital," Yukari suggested.
"I agree. We don't know how much of a toll her first summoning has on Minako's body and mind," Mitsuru nodded. "Akihiko needs to see a doctor as well."
"Let's go now. I believe we'll make it there just before the Dark Hour ends," Akihiko told them.
"Very well. I'll inform the Chairman of our plans before we leave."
***End Of Chapter***
Hello everyone and welcome to this Persona 3 fanfiction! P3 is actually my second Persona game, P4 being the first. Let's just say I am far more intrigued and excited by the darker tones of P3's story than P4's. Not saying P4 doesn't have its serious and solemn moments or that P3 doesn't have their silly and stupid moments, but I just can't take P4's Shadow annihilation locations seriously. Think about it. Which sounds more menacing and dangerous, the Tower of Demise or the TV World? I also liked the suicide aspect of summoning in P3 more than the simple card crushing of P4. The end goal in P3 is also more exciting than P4's end goal. Fighting to prevent humanity's demise is way more exciting than solving a murder mystery with a random discovery of what produced the fog at the end. I'm not counting P4: Golden because it added what I felt was the missing element in the original P4, explaining how severe the danger of the fog in Inaba actually is. I'm not dissing on P4, though. I liked their light-hearted and funny moments more than the ones in P3. I liked the gameplay better as well, but that's a given. If we're talking about additional content, I liked P4: Golden way more than P3: The Answer.
Now, about this fanfic. We know the MC is orphaned because of the fight between Aigis and an incomplete Death on the Moonlight Bridge during the Dark Hour where Death gets sealed inside MC by a losing Aigis. Otherwise, why else would the MC be so near the site of battle during the Dark Hour if his family got caught in a random accident that just happened to occur near midnight? Not to mention, flashbacks during the game show that the MC was clearly able to move during the Dark Hour even as a child since MC was not transmogrified into a coffin. The MC also doesn't seem to remember or care about that disaster. In this fanfic, I made the female MC actually remember the accident that took the lives of her family which included the male MC, similarly to Ken. But how they cope with it is different. Minako had ten years to deal with the death of her family while Ken only had two. Ken lives with swearing vengeance to find the one responsible for killing his mother, but Minako lives with...? The hints are in the chapter.
I tried to give more personality to Minako since the male MC was dull as all heck and while female MC had a brighter personality from her dialogue options, it wasn't enough for me. I'm trying to make her optimistic just like in the game but secretly hiding the emotional scars from the disaster and general negative emotions. I'm trying to showcase her negativity more often when situations reasonably call for them while avoiding turning her emo with no justifiable cause or making her all smiles and sunshine with the understanding of a saint. That means most Social Links will happen off-screen. Which also means Social Links will play a very small part in this fanfic.
What about Personas? If you're reading these notes here, you already know that what I did with Minako's Persona. I removed Orpheus from the equation entirely and replaced it with something new. What about Thanatos? He didn't appear to maul the first Full Moon Shadow. I purposely did that. He'll make a proper appearance later, but not anytime soon. While Minako will have the Wild Card ability, her Personas won't be like the ones in the game, period. She won't have over a hundred either. At most, it's just a handful, at least one for each of her Social Links.
So just who did I replace Orpheus with? Well, this character comes from a mobile game I've been enjoying for over a year now called Fate/Grand Order. Anybody who has played this game and knows the basic lore of the playable characters there will know just who exactly I replaced Orpheus with. Do you really think Orpheus has untold amounts of potential? Of course not. Orpheus Telos is the one with infinite potential. Or at least that's what I believe. So don't worry, the Servant I replaced Orpheus with is not going to go 'Telos' at all or have any type of form that resembles the power of Orpheus Telos. A 'Level Up' is a completely different story, though...
Here's the list of the revealed Servants I am aligning with the Arcana. I have already decided on some and I will not budge on them. However, for those undecided ones, feel free to suggest some Servants as well as reasoning why they should be aligned with a certain Arcana and I will consider them. The Aeon Arcana is missing for a reason. The World Arcana is unusable in-game and only for the story, so it's not included.
Fool: Unnamed (It's really obvious for players of the mobile game)
Magician: ? (Already decided)
Priestess: ? (Already decided)
Empress: ?
Emperor: ? (Already decided)
Hierophant: ?
Lovers: ?
Chariot: ? (Already decided)
Justice: ?
Hermit: ?
Fortune: ?
Strength: ?
Hanged Man: ?
Death: ? (Already decided)
Temperance: ?
Devil: ?
Tower: ?
Star: ?
Moon: ?
Sun: ?
Judgement: ?
Please remember that Personas are based on myths and legends so the entire Emiya family is disqualified from being Personas. I apologize for any fans of the Emily family members. Mashu/Galahad and Ryougi Shiki are definitely out, so don't bother with them. Pseudo-Servants are also out, so no Waver, Ishtar and Jaguarman. No Alters or Lilies. Playable Servants only. Unreleased Servants do not count. Unintelligible Berserkers do not count. Servants with multiple classes count as only one Servant.
I look forward to finding readers who enjoy this fanfic and the concept I'm going with this! Please Follow/Favorite/Review if you like it, and big thanks for those who do!