"Within the labyrinth's depths the Minotaur,
Slain by the sword she gave, lay stark and dead,
And with his finger following her thread
He issued forth to see the heavens once more.
Then Theseus swiftly from the hated shore
With Ariadne on his bosom fled,
Still hearing, as toward Naxos on they sped,
King Minos' cries above the ocean's roar."

Disclaimer: If I were Atlus, Hidetoshi would kick ass. Period.

Some coarse language and violence is present in the text.


PERSONA 3: MEMOIRS OF AN EMPEROR

CHAPTER 2: AN ANCIENT KING


OH SHIT! SHIT SHIT SHIT! This cannot be happening! "HAMUKOOO!"An unshakeable rage began to smolder in me as the image of how she defeated the black blobs flashed across my mind with a sudden clarity. Screw it! Without any falter I brought the gun to my head, pulling the trigger while screaming almost incoherently-

"FUCK YOU! FUUUUUCK YOU! PERSOONNNAAAA!"

Bang!

A queerest of sensations took place as a part of me felt wrenched from my body in a sudden burst of light. Bizarrely, I became calmer, more composed, albeit with the same twinge of white fury raging in the back of my mind. As I lowered my left arm which I used to shield myself from the blinding light, I saw a mighty warrior, taller than the one which Hamuko had summoned, coming into being. Garbed in a golden chestplate and a battle kilt, with a golden laurel sitting atop its crown, the warrior stood in stark contrast to the dreary darkness of the night. It could have passed as an oversized human had there not have been the flickering white flame that was its head. Two yellow streaks of fire blazed continuously where its eyes should have been. In one arm it held a shield the size of a piano; in the other shone a gleaming, golden sword.

Thou art I... And I art thou... From the sea of thy soul, I cometh. I am Theseus, King of Attica.

Reeling backwards from the fleeting brightness that radiated across the street, the Minotaur hesitated, shook its head, and then readied itself with a snort. It lowered its head and charged towards the smaller human, intending to impale another victim once more.

Somewhat unconsciously, I began speaking in an alien language I did not know.

"TETRAKARN!"

A shimmering spherical barrier materialized around me as the herculean summon raised its shield in compliance. Boom boom boom! The earth shuddered as the Minotaur charged towards me; beads of sweat were beginning to form on my brow even though it was the dead of the night. For some groundless reason I decided to take my chances with the flimsy-looking barrier and stood my ground.

With an ear-splitting BOOM! the barrier exploded outwards on contact with the Minotaur's horns, hurling it backwards, dazed. A smug smile curled on my face as I advanced forwards, shouting the next command with a newfound confidence.

"GARULA!"

The dry leaves on the ground fluttered forebodingly before they lifted and flapped gracefully in the wind. A great spell of wind suddenly jetted from the floor beneath the beast, knocking it off its feet. It tumbled down a small flight of stairs and smashed loudly into the glass window of the "Bookworms" bookstore, causing a brilliant shower of glass to rain down upon its hapless head.

"POWER SLASH!"

A funnel of energy began growing on Theseus's blade, steadily growing in force until it glowed white-hot. Swinging its sword in a cross, I heard the sound of ripping wind as the power unleashed a distance forwards, slamming into the Minotaur. A ghastly 'X'-shaped gash ruptured on its torso as it bellowed in bewilderment and pain.

"POWER CHARGE!"

Clasping the hilt with both hands, Theseus stabbed the golden sword into the earth. A moment later, the handle of the sword started to vibrate violently, and the golden warrior plucked the sword from the floor. It raised the weapon in front of its face, almost as if contemplating the new swirling mass of power that surrounded its blade. Mysteriously, the yellow streaks of flame that were its "eyes" burst into the most vivid of red.

Wounded and livid with a burning desire to crush the aggravating foe which meted out such punishment upon it, the Minotaur gave a mighty roar before stampeding towards that unexpectedly purposeful human whom it had so underestimated moments before.

"THIS IS FOR HAMUKO! FATAL END!"

With blade in hand, Theseus advanced swiftly, slashing across the body of the Minotaur, checking its assault. The mythical beast spun around, shrieking in agony, only to have its face bashed forcefully by the shield in Theseus's other hand. In an almighty crash, it fell onto the ground. The enigmatic mask on the Minotaur's face cracked from the impact, shattering, and it instinctively raised its hands to cover its face, exposing its body. Into it thrust the golden sword, and the great beast fell still. Like the considerably less imposing masked blobs before it, a black vapor began exuding from its body, and the huge monster disappeared slowly into the night sky.


Victorious, I slumped onto the ground, completely bushed. The spiritual being that I had summoned had faded into the darkness – together with the surge of courage and adrenaline that had kept me standing before. I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds, and took two long, deep breaths.

Hamuko!

I suddenly remembered about her after I opened my eyes and caught sight of her limp form lying in front of the takoyaki stand. She was surrounded in a pool of blood.

In my anxiety to rush forwards I tripped over my injured leg and grazed my knee. Ignoring the pain that followed, I commando crawled as quickly as I could towards her, and turned her around from her face-down position. A line of blood trickled from her mouth into her shirt, which was so completely drenched with blood from the gore wound I couldn't even see a spot that wasn't red. With each faint pulse from her heart the puddle of blood grew steadily larger.

"HAMUKO! Hamuko, wake up! Please! Open your eyes, you can do it, c'mon girl-" I pleaded desperately as I shook her motionless body. Her arms flopped about lifelessly in response. "Don't die on me- not now, somebody- no, god DAMN IT!" I cursed as the urge to holler for help was overwhelmed by the cruelty of common sense. Shouting at the top of my lungs would be like setting up a neon signboard flashing the words "Hidetoshi is here" for all nearby monsters to see. Plus with the current exhausted state I was in, I didn't feel as if I could handle a third encounter.

I clasped her hand in mine and held it against my cheek. I couldn't believe how awfully cold it felt. She's dead; she's gone, I told myself. The warm, bubbly, always-helpful girl from next door was dead. Fuck me. There was absolutely no way she was going to survive that, not without proper medical attention anyway. Even so… And she had saved my life… I had always thought myself as a person whom everyone could depend upon- a solid pillar of support. Yet now I couldn't do shit to help.

"…Hamuko…chan…"

They say that the leader of the Disciplinary Committee was so emotionless that he shed dry tears; but with a fatally wounded girl in my arms, surrounded by coffins in the lonely silence of the darkness of the night, I began to weep.


Suddenly, I heard some voices from a distance. Shit, are there more enemies coming this way? Maybe I could use the gun-evoker again, but somehow I didn't think I could summon Theseus once more to help. It pained me to just leave Hamuko there for spoils while they arrive, but there was no sense in having two people die while I could still get away. Yet I couldn't go very far with this damaged leg of mine. My eyes sought for a sanctuary and came to rest upon the thick clump of bushes behind the bicycle stands.


"Huh? I don't see any Shadows around. Did Fuuka make a mistake?" an evidently human female voice could be heard. Fuuka…? I thought from my hiding place in the bush. It was hell uncomfortable, but there wasn't much of a choice in the first place anyhow.

"Maybe Hamu-tan got rid of it already. Speaking of which, uh, where is she?" a male voice asked. "HAMU-TAN! Where are you cutie-channnn-"

"Shhhh! Quiet Stu-pei!" the female hissed.

"Huh wait a mo, who is that on the floor?"

"A-Arisato!" Wait a minute, I heard that voice before…

"My god, is that b-b-blood?" the steadily visible outline of a girl squealed, cupping her hands to her mouth.

"WHAT!-?" the boy shouted.

"HAMUKO-CHAN!"

"WHAT THE HELL HAPP-"

"Calm down!" the distinctively familiar female voice commanded. The form of the Student Council president emerged into view and hurried towards Hamuko. She crouched beside the lifeless girl and placed her cheek two inches above Hamuko's mouth.

"I feel… breathing! She's breathing! Arisato's alive, but barely. QUICKLY! She needs medical attention or she'll die!" Mitsuru-senpai shouted urgently. She's still alive!

The remaining three people broke into a run and I saw a teenage male with a blue cap, the popular girl from the adjacent class with a pink sweater and the school boxing champion Akihiko Sanada. Those guys… Isn't it a coincidence that all of them are from Gekkoukan High?

"SHIT- Yuka-tan! Please do something about this!" the male with the cap implored.

"B-but it's still the Dark Hour! The h-hospitals are all closed! W-what can we do?" the girl in the pink sweater sniffed.

"GOD DAMN IT, Yuka-tan, are you a healer or not?"

"Oh! Oh, right," Yukari replied meekly, reaching out for her own gun-evoker thing.

"Io, Recarm!" From my hiding place, I watched in astonishment as the figure of a girl sitting on the head of a massive bull materialized. A faint circle of runes appeared on the ground beneath Hamuko, gradually growing in brightness before suddenly disappearing altogether.

"Diarama!" Another pillar of light emerged around the dying girl, emitting little sparkling golden orbs which rose up and descended into her body. From the limited view I got behind the leaves, I watched with concern and optimism at the phenomenon, hoping fervently that a miracle might just occur. Apparently it just did-

"Tres bien and good work, Takeba. Her wounds are mended, but she's still in danger from having lost this much blood, though I daresay she will manage to pull through." Oh thank goodness… I couldn't help but close my eyes and heave a great sigh of relief.

"That was truly close. While the "Dia" skills heal wounds, they don't replace blood loss, so it's lucky we found her as we did or…" Mitsuru paused mid-sentence, biting her lower lip for a second before continuing. "We will have to carry her to the hospital after the Dark Hour ends for a blood transfusion." Dark Hour, huh. If I take that literally, that must mean this madness lasts only for an hour. I mused from my prickly position between a few jutting branches. But by God, it feels like forever since I left Keisuke's home. Now that I was sure Hamuko would be in good hands, I resolved to hear more of their conversation before showing myself to the party, even though I badly wanted to extricate myself from this gnarly arrangement.

"I'll do it!"

"I'll do it!" Both "stu-pei" and Akihiko volunteered. They were the first words I heard from the silver-haired boxer throughout the night.

"Thank you, Akihiko." Mitsuru casually responded without even batting a glance at the more junior of the two.

"You stubborn, stubborn girl, why do you keep insisting on having us remain in groups while trying to handle things yourself elsewhere? Now look at the state which you've got yourself into! For god's sake can you please stop making us feel worried about you?" Despite his rebuke, the boxing champion tenderly lifted the unconscious girl bridal-style into his muscular arms. "I swear you are becoming more and more like Shinji these days."

Mitsuru sighed "After this, I'll need to file in an incident report to Ikutsuki – he'll handle it from there. We'll need to get a damage control team to assess and repair the collateral damage caused in the Strip Mall as well."

"That's a hell lot of collateral damage to cover up, though. Seriously! Gee, it looks like a bloody warzone here," the capped teenager whistled and shook his head at seeing the numerous craters on the pavement - and the twisted metal stairway which lay horizontally on the floor. "Looks like Officer Kurosawa will have his work cut out for him next morning. Oh sweet mother of god…" he whispered as his eyes roved towards the bloodstains on the takoyaki sign, and then at the blood on Hamuko's uniform, and drew the link between the two. "Exactly what in Herme's name happened down here?"

"Junpei's right. How did all this happen?" Yukari asked.

Mitsuru paused for a moment as she mulled over his question. "Hang on Iori… Yamagishi, do you copy?"

"Y-Yes, senpai!" A voice echoed from nowhere, causing me to fumble from behind the bushes in shock. I cursed silently as I recovered and remained still- I didn't want to reveal myself just yet. Thankfully, everyone else was too preoccupied with their thoughts to notice the slight commotion. The voice sounded as if it came directly beside my ear, yet as I looked around, I could see no one in sight. Huh, wasn't that Fuuka's voice? How-

"How are Aigis and Koromaru doing in their sectors?"

The air buzzed with a noise which sounded like radio static before a monotonous female voice replied "…Ran into some enemy resistance. Battle ended in victory. 2 lesser Shadows eliminated; no friendly casualties. Paulownia Mall is secured. Awaiting orders for next deployment."

"Understood. Report back to the dorm for debrief, we will be joining you in a moment. Good work, Aigis." Aigis? The new transfer student from 2-F that all the boys were talking about?

"Woof!" a dog's bark could be heard distinctively in the background.

"Koromaru said that he killed a Shadow too."

"…and Koromaru as well. You have truly been a valuable ally." Mitsuru smiled.

"Woof! Woof!" the dog yapped gleefully in response.

"One more thing, Yamagishi. Could you give me an analysis of the Shadows which Arisato was fighting?"

"Roger that! Gimme a second…" An air of expectant silence ensued, which I made use of to assess my injuries. There was a deep laceration above the heel of my right foot which hurts like hell. Grazed knees. Not forgetting the glass cuts I had received on my hand earlier on– a patch of red had formed on the makeshift bandage wrapped around it. This was bad; I could really use a pick-me-up from that Yukari girl there. I cursed after I jumped again at Fuuka's voice.

"Um… my analysis shows that Hamuko-chan had fought two separate groups of Shadows. There were five Maya-class Shadows from earlier on and then… a… a Minotaur IV…" Fuuka's voice ended with a whisper as the four figures shook their heads in disbelief.

"A… Minotaur IV…" Akihiko echoed weakly, and stared at the girl nestled in his arms with silent awe.

"That would explain the amount of debris all over the place," Junpei gazed darkly at the fallen stairs.

"B-but we had so much trouble taking one down even when there are four of us!" Yukari exclaimed incredulously. "How did she manage to kill one all by herself? Or did it hurt her and left her there?"

"No Shadow would just leave its victim before making certain that he or she is killed, Takeba. No, I believe somebody must have helped her destroy this Shadow. Furthermore, her level is still too low for her to tackle such a beast without any foreign aid," Mitsuru Kirijo took a step towards the inert Hamuko cradled in Akihiko's arms. I realized that all of them have a gun and holster attached to themselves in different places.

Junpei took off his cap and scratched his head. "Someone else? Another Persona user?"

"Do you suppose she could have summoned the powerful dark Persona which she had used to save me on the rooftop back in April?" Yukari ventured.

"Possibly, but if she could have summoned it right from the start, how do we explain the severe injuries which she had received? Look," Mitsuru pointed at the 4-inch diameter hole in Hamuko's uniform exposing the now-healed flesh in her midriff, "this was probably inflicted by the horn of the Minotaur IV..." She winced as she made a mental image of how that might have occurred. "You can't summon a Persona subconsciously, and no one would have remained conscious after a blow of this nature, so she couldn't have called that Persona to help. Non, quelqu'un n'a cette. Someone else did this; either with great skill or Persona, and killed the Minotaur IV."

There was a slight shuffling of feet as each returned to his or her own thoughts. Yukari spotted the broken fragments of the naginata and picked them up, examining them. Suddenly, she turned around and beckoned for the rest of the group.

"Hey guys, if Hamuko-chan was there-" she pointed at the takoyaki stand "-and her naginata is here, where's her evoker?"

I suddenly remembered what I had in my back pocket.

"Wait! I sense someone near you!" Fuuka cried. "The bushes- check the bushes!"

How the heck did she know that?

Seeing that our little hide-and-seek was over, I (somewhat contentedly) emerged from the darned prickly hiding spot and half-raised my hands in submission while four pairs of eyes simultaneously turned towards me.

"Er… h-hi." I mumbled. Deciding that I probably looked like an idiot with bits of twigs and leaves on my dust-caked jacket, I took it off and gave it two vigorous flicks, then put it back on and tried my best to look dignified.

"H-Hidetoshi…san?" Fuuka whispered, astonished.

"Oda…giri?" Mitsuru stuttered.

"Senpai." I recovered my usual posture and tilted my head upwards in acknowledgment.

"Did you defeat the Shadow?"

"Shadow?"

"Yes. That is the name we coined for the monsters that lurk about during the Dark Hour, though most of the time they remain in Tartarus, except when the moon is full." I nodded solemnly in… mock comprehension. Tartarus? The Underworld below Hades that I had read about in my Greek history book?

"Yes, I believe I killed it. I used this thing here," I took the gun out of my pocket and showed it to Mitsuru, whose eyes grew wide, "and something strange happened. A guardian appeared from nowhere and I gave it some orders before I- the Minotaur sort of, uh, died." I ended rather lamely.

"You summoned a Persona?" Mitsuru quizzed.

Without warning, the streetlights flickered on, momentarily blinding me. As my pupils dilated to adjust themselves to the change, I finally perceived the full extent of the damage sustained by the mall – and Hamuko's tattered Gekkoukan uniform, which had been reduced to nothing more than bloodstained rags. Looking at her ghostly pale face which had all but drained of blood, the haughty façade which I had tried to sustain shattered completely. I choked back a sob.

"I-It's all my bloody fault, Kirijo-senpai. Arisato-san tried to protect me from that… thing while I tried to run away at first… then it impaled her. I thought that she was d-dead. Damn it, I-I was such a bloody coward!" I stamped the ground angrily with my uninjured leg.

"I've never seen you swearing outright before, Disciplinary Committee leader," Junpei grinned cheekily before falling silent again at the sight of Hamuko's bloodied form. He took off his blue jacket and gently draped it over her body for good measure.

"It's not your fault Odagiri," the red-haired council president soothed. "Had it not been for your intervention, the situation would most certainly have been direr. However," her eyes lit up with a sense of purpose, "we will need to debrief you in the Iwatodai dorm. The yellow moon, the power you used, the spiritual being which you summoned: all these require an explanation which I am sure you would like to be given-"Mitsuru checked herself after I stifled a big yawn from under my teary eyes which she completely saw through. "-after you have had a good rest." She smiled.

But I was not to be shaken from my train of thoughts. "And Hamuko-"

"-Will be treated by an emergency blood transfusion. Be rest assured we have the resources available to procure one without delay." Mitsuru said with a tone that suggested that that conversation was over. As I looked around, I saw two coffins behind the telephone booth vanish, becoming a human couple who were giggling and making out in the privacy of the night, apparently oblivious to everything that had happened in the past hour.

She took my silence for consent. Studying me for a moment, Mitsuru spotted the ugly lesions on the back my leg. She drew her gun and pointed it smartly at her attractive head.

"Penthesilea." A tall, slender maiden clad completely in steel and satin materialized, holding a rapier in one hand and a main-gauche in the other. On its head was a helmet with a small golden crown.

"Dia!" The wounds on my leg glistened with light and I watched in amazement as the torn skin began to mend. The pink handkerchief on my left hand peeled off to reveal my perfectly uninjured palm underneath. I gazed in astonishment.

"This is… amazing…" I proclaimed as I turned my left hand back and forth in examination.

"Akihiko, you will need to stay low for a while." Mitsuru urged as a small group of people began to gather around the ruined mall and stare. Junpei and Yukari instinctively moved to shield Hamuko's body from sight. "Get Arisato out of public scrutiny. I'll call for an ambulance under the Kirijo entreprise." They possess an ambulance all for themselves. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised; her family owns the entire Tatsumi Port Island anyway, I thought. Why, then, does she live in a dorm and not in a mansion with a dozen maids and a swimming pool?"

"Iori, Takeba, escort Odagiri back to the Iwatodai dorm. Try to keep out of sight; people will stare if they see him in the open. Let him have the room at the end of the second floor hallway for the night. The keys are in the Meeting Room, second shelf from the left, bottom drawer."

"Yes ma'am!" Junpei cheerfully responded. Oh perfect. Of all people…

Not entirely happy with having the school idiot as my guide, I quickly interrupted, "Kirijo-senpai, is it possible to let me retire to Keisuke's home for the night? I believe he must be quite worried because I was supposed to be there an hour ago. And I also need to retrieve some… some items…"

"Take a look at yourself, Odagiri, and the bloodstains on your shirt." I gave a start, realizing that while I had held Hamuko in my arms some moments before, some of her blood had rubbed off against my uniform. "What would Hiraga say seeing you like this? Apart from that… I'm sorry, but I must absolutely insist." There was something in her eye which hinted that any further attempts for a compromise would be futile. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

"Alright… Let's go, Odagiri-san" Yukari said with some uneasiness. For some reason her nervous expression reflected that of almost everyone else in school whenever they were asked to work with me. I wondered why.


Just as I had expected, despite my best efforts to look in some other direction, Junpei broke the silence barely a minute after we had left Hamuko with Mitsuru and Akihiko.

"Hey dude… I mean, Odagiri-san, is it true that you can summon a Persona?" Junpei blurted.

"Yeah… I guess…" I replied coolly, unwilling to be dragged into a brainless conversation with this punk.

"Man, how awesome is that!" he grinned. "You know, the rest of us actually can, too. Like my Persona… its name is Hermes. It can conjure some really spiffy fire spells! And Yuka-tan here…" Junpei fished her towards him with an arm around the shoulder.

For the first time in my life I was pretty sure I could read a girl's thoughts from the look on her face. It was an expression of her unwillingness to join the conversation plus her urge to sock one at Junpei plus her reluctance to do exactly that in front of a stranger(me) from the Disciplinary Committee.

"…can cast some neat little Garu spells. Though Agilao looks so much cooler than Garula, right, Yuka-tan?"

"Uh-um…y-yeah," Yukari replied awkwardly. Garula…? Isn't that the same one which I had just-

"The hell it ain't. Because it's hotter! Get it? Hahaha…oh snap! I'm becoming more and more like Ikutsuki-san!"

Whatever, man.

"Anyway, you da man, Odagiri-san! None of us can defeat a Minotaur-class Shadow yet, but I'll do my best to train to catch up! How did it feel like when you first experienced the Dark Hour today? Or did you experience it before already? I remembered the first time I saw…" Junpei's chatter seemed to go on forever.

Oh just shut up already, wouldn't you?

I tried my best to deflect his never-ending questions with a series of "Mmm…", "I see…" and "If you say so…"s. Though there was something reassuring in hearing someone's voice going incessantly beside me. Maybe it was because it helped me stop thinking about her. The "Dark Hour" had past and the air was warmer than before, but I still felt the chilly breeze which blew by because my shirt was wet. Wet because it was soaked with her-…

Ah shit. I started feeling guilty all over again.

Junpei must have seen the expression on my face. All of a sudden he stopped in his tracks.

"Hey buddy-" he turned around "-look at me." I ignored him. Seeing the lack of response, he placed his hand on my shoulder and firmly spun me around. "Look at me. I know that you're feeling responsible for whatever that happened to Hamuko and all-"

That got my attention.

"-but it's NOT your fault. You hear me? It's not your fault." He emphasized each of the last three words with a nod of his head.

"What the hell do you know, punk?" I snarled, but refused to look straight at him.

""It's not my fault Hamuko got hurt." C'mon dude. Say it with me. "It's not-"" Junpei insisted.

"Screw off." I turned my head away.

"Say it."

"No."

"Say it."

Another draft of wind howled across the street. It was cold. Junpei had still had his hand firmly on my shoulder. He had no intention of removing it. Something was causing my shoulder to shudder, but it wasn't me who was shivering. I suddenly remembered that that idiot had left his jacket with Hamuko. I looked up and saw that he had only a singlet between him and the wind, but that smarmy bugger was determined as hell.

"What difference does it make?" I said softly. For some reason, words were beginning to flow. "That monster could have killed me there. When I didn't see it, she pushed me to the ground, and took the blow herself. When it came for me, she defended me. But when it stuck her, I just stood there… AND WATCHED!"

My voice became a shout. I grabbed Junpei by his shirt and pulled him towards me roughly, screaming into his face. "WHAT KIND OF A GUY JUST STANDS THERE AND ACTS LIKE A USELESS PIECE OF SHIT WHILE THAT DAMN BEAST MURDERS HAMUKO?"

I loosened my grip. "Are you trying to make me confess again? I've already said it before. I'm a coward." I whispered. Damn it, why do I feel like crying all over again?

I'm a coward…

The blare of several police sirens could be heard as they sped past us along the street. I stared furiously into the eyes of the blue-capped man, who resolutely returned my gaze. I lost the battle of stares and turned my eyes downwards in disgust. Disgust at myself, and my weakness. The noise died down as the patrol cars disappeared towards the direction of the Iwatodai Strip Mall.

"No. You're a hero." Junpei's voice shook me from my self-pity.

Hero?

"Do you think she could have taken that thing on by herself? We may be able to summon Personas, but we can't fight something like that by ourselves… yet. For three damn months I've been spending almost every night training with the rest to improve my skills against those Shadows. And my grades suffered because of it-"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Yukari rolling her eyes. Junpei saw it too, but he continued without missing a beat.

"-But no matter how much I tried, I still can't pull off whatever you did back there. None of us can. Not even cutie-chan. It takes nearly our entire group to defeat a Minotaur, yet you did it all by yourself. Do you know how amazing is that? Hell, sometimes I even have problems dealing with a stupid pack of Mayas.

Do you know what I did the first time I saw the Dark Hour? I screamed. I ran in circles around the coffins bawling. I huddled myself in a corner and cried like a baby until Akihiko-senpai found me. And what did you do on your first Dark Hour? You killed a Shadow. Not just some half-assed Shadow, too. A Minotaur IV

She would have died if you hadn't been around to save her. You saved her. You."

Something in his words was beginning to ring in my head. But I still refused to give in. "I could have summoned something earlier…"

"You couldn't because you didn't know how to."

"I stood there and watched…"

"-You stood there and won."

"I tried to run…"

"-It doesn't matter."

There was a pause. It was hard to argue against Junpei when his arm was still shaking violently on my shoulder. I glanced to my right and saw Yukari nodding her head in encouragement.

"She wouldn't blame you, you know?" Junpei added softly.

I sighed.

"Fine. Fine, you win, alright? Let's just go back to the dorm." I surrendered.

He wasn't convinced. "Say "It's not my fault Hamuko got hurt", first."

"I won't. But I get what you mean."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." I replied in exasperation, but I nodded.

Junpei grinned. "Heheh. Now that's more like it!" He released his grip, but not before slapping me hard on the shoulder. The three of us continued walking down the road.

"So you think you're some big shot eh, Iori-san? After you managed to talk the leader of the Student Council Disciplinary Committee around?" I abruptly snapped. I still can't believe I had let myself be cajoled by that sneaky bastard back there.

"It's Junpei. Call me Junpei." he replied serenely.

"I don't even know you yet, you fool!"

"Can I call you Hidetoshi?"

"No."

"Hidetoshi-san?"

"No!"

"Okay! Okay! How about…Odagiri…sama?"

"Why you impertinent-"

We argued our way back towards the dorm. I felt better.


"So here is your room for the night. Last room down the second floor hallway! It's quite easy to remember, isn't it?" Yukari said as she showed me around the dormitory after I took a shower. My eyelids felt like lead. I was too tired to even bother to reply. I shoved open the door lazily and lumbered towards the bed.

"Good night, Odagiri-san," Yukari bade as she quietly closed the door. I instantly plopped onto the mattress and fell asleep even before my head hit the pillow.


END OF CHAPTER 2


AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This chapter was originally supposed to have been combined with the next one, but the more I typed and the more ideas that surfaced, I had to split them up into two because it became too long. Yucks, there's something I don't like about this- the conversations before Junpei's feel a bit forced. I'll probably look through them and edit them again. I'm a bit confused over my writing style too; I'm still new, so I'm still trying to figure it out.

If you are wondering why Shinjiro dies / becomes hospitalized in the game while Hamuko survives through something much worse with a well-placed Recarm and Diarama, well, I'll find a way.

As usual, any mistakes or suggestions or comments, please feel free to point them out!

MINOR SPOILER: Theseus's skill set is, by level: (Power Slash, Apt Pupil, Fatal End, Garula, Power Charge, Tetrakarn), Endure, Garudyne in his first form; the skills in bold being the ones which would be in his final 8. The skills in bracket are the ones he has for now; he is around level 40-ish I guess. 4 more skills would be revealed after he morphs into a different Persona nearing the second half of the story.

neko-neko-aishizu In the words of FrizFroz - Hooray amazing psychic powers of deduction! No wait, I not-so-subtly bolded "Theseus" in the first chapter. Woops! But thanks for catching that actually, goes to show some people are reading ;) Mmmm... btw, that "history book" doesn't exist irl heh

RyougaZell You know. Thanks for... a lot of things :)


TRIVIA:

-In Greek Mythology, the mythical founder-king of Athens, Theseus, was the son of Poseidon and cousin to Hercules. His name came from the root word "thesmos"; Greek for institution. He is best known for slaying the Minotaur in the Labyrinth of Crete. In a war between the Athenians and Crete from which the latter took victory, King Minos of Crete demanded that for every 9 years, 14 Athenian boys and girls should be left in the Labyrinth of Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull beast. Disguising himself as one of the Athenian boys to be sacrificed, he slew the Minotaur with the sword given to him by Ariadne, King Minos daughter, and escaped the Labyrinth with the help of a ball of string.

-King Theseus ruled by an iron fist - he was believed to have cleansed the way of evildoers by making them suffer the same death – or worse- that they had inflicted on others. On his way to Athens, he came across Sinis, a sadistic man who forced passersby to keep bending pine trees to the extent where the humans were tossed up by them and perished. Theseus punished Sinis by killing him using the same method, and afterwards ravished his daughter Perigune.