And now we get into some really surreal and vaguely pretentious shenanigans. Enjoy!

The staircase spiraled higher and higher. Hiyori continued to climb more because she couldn't imagine doing anything else, rather than because she wanted to see where the stairs ended. A woman walked a few steps in front of her, long brown hair cascading down her shoulders and a red scarf flowing behind her. Whether she'd noticed Hiyori or not, she said nothing. "Hey," Hiyori said when she climbed more than she'd normally have to in order to reach her room in the dormitory. The woman didn't so much as flinch. "This is a dream, isn't it?"

Without missing a step, the woman chuckled lightly. "What makes you think so?"

"I'm not getting tired," Hiyori answered.

The woman chuckled again. "Well, aren't you an interesting one? Usually, the first thing people ask is what's at the end of these stairs."

"If this is a dream, then that shouldn't matter."

The woman stopped abruptly and spun around so that her back faced the bannister. She put both hands on the railing and lazily kicked her feet out in front of her, laughing all the while. "You are an interesting one." There was more laughter in her bright red eyes than in the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. "You're looking for something, aren't you? That's why you're here."

"I… don't know?"

The woman tilted her head back, staring up the black expanse above. "There was once an alligator," she said. "He was born in the calm forest of green, but he turned out to be pink. He was so pink that he couldn't hunt for food, and so he was always hungry. But the other animals – they hated him. Soon, he started believing that he was just as awful as they said he was. So the pink alligator put on a mask. He was always very polite, tried to cause as little trouble as possible in hopes that the other animals would accept him. But the animals didn't accept him, even though the pink alligator kept this mask on all the time. Before long, he didn't know what his true self was anymore."

"I bet she's just doing it for the attention!" said a cacophony in her mind, the voices of too many aunts, uncles, and cousins to count.

"Why are you telling me this?" Hiyori asked.

The woman's red eyes shone like two beacons. "Isn't this what you were looking for?"

"Why would I?"

The woman laughed again, and a shiver ran down Hiyori's spine. "Oh, I don't know. Perhaps to indulge in a bit of self pity?"

"What difference would that make? It's not going to change anything."

The woman tilted her head back and stared at Hiyori from the corner of her eye. "Could it be that you don't know what it is you're looking for?" Hiyori couldn't answer. "Then, when you learn what that is, you'll come back here."

"I can't really do that unless you tell me who you are."

The woman laughed. "I've gone by so many names, they're all meaningless to me now. But, I suppose you'll have to call me something." Her smile was brighter than the sun. "Minako will have to do."

And then, Hiyori fell. It didn't quite feel like she was falling – rather like she was slipping away, slowly and gently. As Minako grew farther and farther away, Hiyori could no longer see her brown hair, her golden dress, her red scarf – only her red eyes, still shining in the darkness as the stairs disintegrated into glittering dust. "Don't forget, okay?" said Minako's voice in her mind. "I'll be waiting."

Everything was too bright and too loud, and the air smelled too strongly of antiseptic. Hiyori's body felt heavy, and yet her head felt very, very light. She didn't have to open her eyes to know that she was in the hospital – the IV in her right arm made it obvious.

"Are you awake?"

Yukari's face blurred above hers. Hiyori blinked a few times, and her vision cleared slowly. "Yu…kari…"

"Oh, thank goodness," Yukari sighed. "You were unconscious for so long, I didn't think you were ever going to wake up."

The sunlight was harsh, even through her closed eyelids. It made her head hurt. "I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I caused trouble for you, didn't I?"

Yukari frowned. "Wait… Caused trouble? You?"

"I collapsed, didn't I?" Hiyori asked.

"I mean… yeah, you did, but still… You don't remember what happened?"

Hiyori frowned. Something about monsters and fake guns skirted the edge of her mind, but it couldn't have been anything more than yet another nightmare. It wouldn't have been the first one after coming back to Port Island, at any rate.

"So…" Yukari said slowly. "You don't remember the Shadow or your Persona or anything?"

Hiyori bolted upright, ignoring the IV tugging on her arm. Everything came back to her with startling clarity – images flashing through her mind so quickly that she could barely process them. "That was real?" Everything spun, and she pressed her hand against her forehead.

"Hey!" Yukari's hand was suddenly on her back, and Hiyori lay back down with her help. "You shouldn't get up so fast."

"Sorry," Hiyori said again. She exhaled slowly and waited for everything to stop spinning.

Yukari shook her head and smiled. "It's fine." She sat down at the stool next to the hospital bed and clasped her hands together in her lap. Thick bandages were wrapped around her thigh – where she'd been cut, if Hiyori remembered correctly. "Actually… I'm the one who should be apologizing. I've been such an awful friend…"

"You didn't do anything, though."

"That's exactly it!" Yukari sighed harshly. "I… I know about what happened to you. Your parents died in that explosion ten years ago, right?" Hiyori couldn't bring herself to answer. "I kind of understand. My dad died back then, too. It must've been so hard for you to come back here, and I didn't do anything to help make things easier. And then all this had to happen…" Yukari sighed and shook her head. "I'll go call the doctor, okay? He couldn't find anything wrong with you, so you should be good to go soon."

"Okay," Hiyori said. "Thanks."

"And don't worry. I promise, we'll explain everything."

The hospital had been rife with gossip that week – apparently, the Kirijo heiress had personally brought in an ill high school girl. The nurses tended to gossip around Akinari Kamiki – they liked to think he either couldn't hear them, or that he simply didn't care.

For reasons he didn't understand, Akinari was compelled to visit the girl Kirijo had brought in – perhaps it was his own curiosity, to indulge in the nurses' gossip. The first day, she'd been white as a ghost, lying still on her bed with the only indication that she was still alive being the steady beeping of the heart monitor and the whirring of various life support machines. By the third day, only the IV drip remained, and the rise and fall of the girl's chest was more visible.

Today, on the ninth day, she sat outside the bed sheets, her newly washed brown hair pulled into two long pigtails that hung over her shoulders and her equally brown eyes wide and open. She wore a large, baggy white and blue sweater over black pants, instead of the normal hospital shift, a sure sign that she was going to leave soon. A girl with shorter, lighter brown hair helped her stand and guided her toward the door.

And that was Akinari's cue to leave. The girls didn't notice him – he'd done nothing to warrant their attention, after all – but as they walked farther and farther away, the less real everything felt.

And then, the image of a girl with red eyes and pins in her hair flashed through his mind. Logically, he hadn't seen such a girl even once during his lifetime – and yet, he needed to remember her. They sat together on a bench at the Naganaki Shrine, just sitting and talking about meaningless things.

But before he could commit the image to his memory, his companion changed – instead of a girl, it was a boy with silver eyes and a tired smile.

Logically, Akinari knew that he hadn't seen either the boy or the girl even once during his lifetime – and yet, he needed to remember them. They were both real, and they weren't, as they danced along the edge of his memory.

"Akinari-kun?" A nurse had laid her hand on his bony shoulder, looking concerned. She looked young, inexperienced – judging by the clipboard tucked messily under her arm, Akinari suspected some accidental needle pricks and vague condescension in his future.

"I'm all right," he said with a polite smile. "I just decided to go for a walk."

"Are you all right?" the nurse asked him pointlessly, even though he'd just given her an answer. "Would you like me to come with you?"

"I'll be all right," Akinari answered. "Thank you."

He set off in the same direction the girls had before, not really looking for a particular destination.

Hiyori gave up all pretenses of wellness when she leaned tiredly against the wall while struggling to catch her breath outside the lounge on the fourth floor of the dormitory. "Are you okay?" Yukari asked. Hiyori managed a small nod, and Yukari huffed in disapproval. "I told them we should've just had the meeting on the first floor…"

"It's okay," Hiyori gasped. She pushed off from the wall and tried to hide how she felt like she was going to collapse again. "I'm fine."

Yukari frowned and pursed her lips together. "Let's just get this over with."

The lounge on the fourth floor was spacious, with a large screen on one wall and a few soft-looking couches scattered across the center. Mitsuru, the chairman, and an unfamiliar boy with silver hair sat on one couch while Shinjiro sat on the armrest of another. "Welcome," said the chairman, giving her a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Are you feeling better?"

"For the most part," Hiyori answered. She sat gingerly on the couch whose armrest Shinjiro occupied, careful not to sit too close to him. "I'm so sorry about all of this…"

"It was no trouble at all," Ikutsuki replied. "Actually, we called you here to discuss… well, to discuss the conditions of your stay in the hospital."

Hiyori clasped her hands tightly in her lap. The memories of the night she'd collapsed were clearer now, and they felt more real, as impossible as they seemed. The monster that had attacked the dormitory, the fake gun, Aeacus… "What happened that night?" she whispered.

"Tch," Shinjiro said next to her.

"I'm sorry," Hiyori said again.

"Wait, he wasn't trying to—" the silver-haired boy started. "Shinji…"

"Alright," Shinjiro said briskly. "So you know about the Dark Hour, right?"

"The what now?"

"It's a pocket of time hidden between one day and the next," said the silver-haired boy.

"This essentially means that a day lasts for more than twenty-four hours," Mitsuru elaborated. "Though judging by your reaction, am I right in assuming that that night wasn't your first conscious experience with the Dark Hour?"

"I didn't know that's what it was called," Hiyori said slowly, "or… that other people could see it too."

The silver-haired boy smirked to Mitsuru. "So when did you first start seeing it?" he asked.

"A long time ago," Hiyori answered. "Back when… when I first moved from Port Island."

It had been horrifying then, too. A nightmare had woken her up to a dark and eerily green world, less than a month after she'd moved, and her aunt, uncle, and cousin were nowhere to be found, coffins where they were supposed to be… Hiyori had cried until long after it passed, her uncle clumsily trying to calm her down while her cousin Maho complained loudly to her aunt. "I bet she's just doing it for the attention," her aunt had said back then, every time she found Hiyori crying.

The silver-haired boy exchanged a look with Mitsuru. "So, all this time, you haven't noticed them?" Mitsuru asked. "The Shadows."

Hiyori winced as she recalled the monster that had attacked them earlier. "Are they always that… big?"

The silver-haired boy smirked. "Not always, but it's exciting to fight strong ones like that, isn't it?"

"Akihiko!" Mitsuru snapped. "Why are you always like that?"

"What he meant to say," Shinjiro interjected, "was that those things only ever show up in the Dark Hour. And that thing was something else."

"So…" Hiyori said slowly. "If they show up during the Dark Hour, then why wasn't I ever attacked before now?"

"It's hard to say," Ikutsuki answered, "but I'm willing to bet that it has a lot to do with the power inside you. Maybe it's been protecting you for all these years." He cleared his throat and lifted a small suitcase from the table at the center of the room and handed it to her. "I suppose we should cut right to the chase, so that you can get some rest." Inside was a gun much like the fake one Yukari had used – or tried to use – the night the Shadow had attacked, and a red armband with the letters "SEES" embroidered onto it. "We're the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad – SEES for short. Our mission is to defeat the Shadows."

"As of last week, you're no longer a stranger to the power of Persona," said the silver-haired boy, Akihiko, "so you should already know how this Evoker works."

"Will you lend us your strength?" Mitsuru asked.

Yukari sighed, but didn't say anything in response. Hiyori took the gun in her hands. Its surface was blissfully cool, and its weight felt familiar in her hands. A man's voice whispered excitedly at the back of her mind. "I'll do it," she said more because she didn't want to see their hopeful looks morph into looks of disappointment.

Mitsuru and Akihiko exchanged relieved smiles. "Welcome aboard," Mitsuru said warmly.

"I've already devised a training regimen to get you into shape," Akihiko said.

"Ah…" Hiyori said uncertainly. "Thank you. I'll do my best."

"Tch," Shinjiro said too quietly for anyone but Hiyori to hear, averting his eyes to the side and scowling.

The smell of cooking meat was overpowering.

It wasn't a bad smell, but it made Hiyori think of relatives she'd stayed with who tried to cut down on hospital bills by forcing copious amounts of protein down her throat. But the smell that came from the kitchen was pleasant, if anything, with the smell onions and garlic and other seasonings mixing into it.

Surprisingly, it was Shinjiro she found in the kitchen, instead of Yukari or Mitsuru. He wore a pink apron over his school uniform, and he'd pulled his hair back into a low ponytail. He'd never struck her much as a morning person, but here he was, awake hours before school was supposed to start.

"Um…" Hiyori said slowly. Shinjiro startled, blinking at her in a way that suggested that she didn't belong there. "S-Sorry. I'll just…"

"Wait," he said. He stared downward, avoiding her gaze, and began piling chunks of meat into a bento. "You have anemia, right? If you're going to fight for us, then you need to take care of that." He handed her the bento after closing it and looked to the side.

Hiyori couldn't fight the blush that rapidly formed at that. She'd heard of girls giving lunchboxes to the guys they liked, but a guy giving a lunchbox to a girl whom he'd just met? That was practically unheard of.

His face turned red as well, and Hiyori took the bento from him with shaking hands. "Um… Th-Thank you. I mean, you didn't have to… I mean… Thanks."

He began piling what was left in the pan into another bento and grunted something in affirmation.

She didn't ask for permission to travel to school with him, but they left together anyway – if Shinjiro had a problem with it, he didn't voice it. The monorail was almost completely empty, but the two of them sat next to each other anyway. Hiyori dozed off for a few minutes, thankfully tipping toward the window instead of onto him, and Shinjiro was nice enough to nudge her awake just before the monorail stopped at the last station.

The bento in her bag felt conspicuously heavy as she walked through the school gates with them. There were hardly any students around – no one to stare at them, to ask why they'd come to school together. "I'm going to the faculty office," Hiyori said, the first words she'd said to him since before they left the dorm together. Shinjiro grunted in affirmation. "Um…" She bowed clumsily before him. "Excuse me!"

She sighed in relief as she finally put some distance between herself and Shinjiro, but it would be a long time before her heart stopped thundering in her chest and her palms stopped sweating. A few short minutes of having no one hovering over her shoulder, no one watching her every move lest she collapse again, were better than nothing.

The faculty office was just as she remembered it – except there was only Ms. Toriumi and Mr. Ekoda inside. Her homeroom teacher stood up the second she noticed her presence. "You're back!" Ms. Toriumi said sharply.

Hiyori bowed her head. "I'm so sorry," she said. It wasn't the first time she'd had to apologize like this, and it likely wouldn't be the last. "I…"

Ms. Toriumi smiled gently – and she too wasn't the first to do so. "I was worried about you," she said. "It's not right for kids your age to be so exhausted that they collapse." She sighed. "I wonder if it's because of all your recent changes…"

"I'm sorry," Hiyori said again. "I promise, I can make up the work—"

Her teacher laid her hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it," she said. "I'll come up with something. Why don't you head over the classroom now? We can talk more after school."

Hiyori nodded. "Thank you."

There were students crowded in the hallway by the time Hiyori left the faculty office, and though the other students left her alone, the walk to her classroom was much louder and less peaceful than her walk to the faculty office. Junpei and Yukari were already in their seats when she slid into hers. "Yo, Hiyo-chan!" Junpei greeted. "You're finally back! Must've been one hell of a cold to knock you out for a week, huh?"

"Leave her alone, Junpei," Yukari said in a deadpan.

"All right, settle down!" the teacher barked from the front of the classroom, and Hiyori settled quickly settled back into a familiar routine.

Hiyori was halfway through the packet of homework Ms. Toriumi had given her to make up for the week of school she'd missed when there was a knock at her door. "It's open," Hiyori called without looking up.

Mitsuru pushed the door open gently. "Come to the lounge on the fourth floor," she said. "We're having a meeting."

Hiyori stood up from her desk after finishing the problem she'd been working on. "Oh, sorry. I didn't know we were—"

"It's fine," Mitsuru said. "So I hear you've been adjusting to the school well."

"Oh, um…" Hiyori said slowly. "It's nice. I like it here."

"Good," Mitsuru replied. "Some of the faculty has expressed some concern about your health, and with SEES activities, I fear that their concerns will not be entirely unfounded."

"I'll be all right, Senpai." For further emphasis, Hiyori regulated her breathing while climbing the stairs so that she appeared much less winded than she felt – she still felt tired and groggy, even though it had been a day since she left the hospital, and it was hard to tell if it was due to residual exhaustion from her hospital stay or from her anemia.

Yukari and Ikutsuki were already sitting on the couches in the lounge, and Shinjiro lurked in the corner of the room. "Hey!" Yukari greeted as Hiyori sat down next to her. "How are you feeling? Any better?"

"I'm okay," Hiyori answered, not for the first time. It felt like everyone had been asking her this question, lately. "Really."

"Well," Mitsuru said sharply. "I've called this meeting to—"

But before she could continue, the doors to the lounge swung open, and Akihiko strolled in with school uniform jacket slung over his shoulder. A boy walked in behind him, wearing an all too familiar grin.

"Junpei?" Yukari shrieked. "What are you doing here?"

He waved at her almost carelessly. "'Sup, Yuka-tan?"

"This is Junpei Iori from Class 2-F," Akihiko said. "He'll be staying here from today onward."

"Welcome," Hiyori greeted him politely.

"Akihiko says that he has the potential," Mitsuru said, a twinge of pride to her voice.

"Junpei?" Yukari demanded. "He has the potential? You've got to be kidding me!"

Junpei chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. "So there were some coffins at the convenience store the other night, and Senpai here found me cryin' like a baby, so, uh… I'll do my best?"

"Welcome aboard, Mr. Iori," the chairman said. "Now that we have more Persona users, perhaps we can finally commence the exploration of Tartarus at midnight tonight."

"Tartarus?" Hiyori echoed. "Like the underworld?"

"Oh, you haven't seen it yet, huh?" Yukari asked. "It's… well, it's kind of…"

Mitsuru chuckled. "You'll see."

Takaya Sakaki smirked when Jin slammed his laptop shut as the lights flickered off and the sky turned green. Chidori didn't move, squinting through the dim moonlight at the canvas before her. "No calls tonight," Takaya said. Jin huffed in affirmation. Chidori didn't react.

Without another word, Takaya slinked out the front door to their shared apartment. He didn't miss the girl standing by his door with her back against the wall, with her golden dress, her red scarf and equally red eyes, and the pins in her long brown hair positioned into the number twenty-two. "It's been a long time, Takaya-kun," she said. Her voice was lighter and airier than he expected, and it tugged at the corners of his memory.

Takaya stopped, shoving his hands in his pockets, and turned to face her. "Do I know you?" he asked, though he supposed that he should already know the answer.

The girl glided toward him and pushed a few greasy strands of hair behind his ear with an ice-cold hand. She was shorter than him – shorter than Chidori, even – and her full height only came up to his collarbone. Still, there was something imposing about her, something larger than him.

"Maybe," she said, and her breath tickled the skin on his throat. He dipped his head downward for reasons he didn't understand, and she pressed her forehead to his. "But I definitely know you. We are brothers, after all."

All of a sudden, the past came crashing down onto him in a deluge of images and voices. His laugh sounded hollow and brittle in his ears, and her lips curved upward into a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

Yes, of course. Sleep and death – the sons of Nyx. "Oh Thanatos, how I've missed you."

"Takaya?"

The girl withdrew her hand, allowing Takaya to turn to face his comrade. Jin looked straight at him. "Who were you just talking to? Is everything okay?"

Jin didn't see her – he never did. "Everything's fine," Takaya said.

"Okay…" Jin said slowly, uncertainly, just like he had many times before. The shorter boy walked back into the apartment with an uneasy frown. Takaya gave the girl one last smirk as he followed suit.

Her red eyes gleamed in the moonlight. The smile she gave him was beautiful and cold – just like death itself.

She led them to the school gates later that night. "Aw c'mon, Senpai!" Junpei wailed. "We only have to go back in the morning!"

"Would you just be quiet and watch?" Yukari snapped.

"Are there Shadows in the school?" Hiyori asked.

"You'll see," Mitsuru said again, chuckling. "Akihiko, you—"

"I know, I know," Akihiko grumbled. "I'm staying at the entrance."

"I'll make sure he does," Shinjiro said in a low voice. "So that he doesn't go charging in like an idiot—"

"What did you say?"

But before either of them could get another word in the sky shifted from dark blue-grey to dark green. In the blink of an eye, the school began to shift and grow, spiraling up higher and higher as pathways and corridors jutted out from the side, connecting windows seemingly at random. You could practically touch the moon from the highest point with how close to it the tower had stopped. There were no traces on the tower of the school it once had been.

"Everyone," said Mitsuru, "welcome to Tartarus."