For Everyone's Souls

Chapter 3 – Troubled

Minato has the sudden urge to bang his head into the wall. Or perhaps 'Evoke' himself with a real gun. Or maybe take up Mitsuru's offer on executions.

When he calmed himself down, he did the one thing he could;

He ignored the Archangel.

"Huh?" the golden-winged Seraph asked confusedly as Minato passed by and sat on a chair beside his dining table.

"Look," Minato said with a tired sigh as he settled down, "I don't know what the hell's going on here. But let me tell you this; whatever it is, I do not want to be any part of it." He stated with a tone of warning.

Michael winced. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that." He said with regret. "Considering the...current state of Heaven, I must have you join us Angels and take over, as the Son of God—"

*SNAP*

The sound of breaking wood cut the Seraph off. He looked at Minato, who broke off the armrest of the chair he was sitting on.

Minato looked at piece. "Shit, this was rented..." he said with sigh, before glaring at the Archangel. "I hope I misheard you..." he warned, "Did you just call me...the Son of God?" he questioned.

Michael nodded cautiously.

Minato stood up, his face darkening. "Let me get this straight..." he warned Michael. "...I'm not sure about this Messiah thing, but there's one thing I'm sure about...I. Am Not. Jesus." He punctuated for emphasis, his hands ready to pull out his Evoker, and the aura around him darkening.

Michael gulped at the unsaid threat."Y-yes, you're very different from Jesus. Quite different indeed." He said, actually believing those words.

Minato relaxed. "Good. Now, while I'm not interested in getting involved anytime soon...how did you know I was the Messiah, anyways?" he asked Michael.

"Well..." Michael began, "It's your aura. While it's very, very different from what I've ever seen...there's a large portion of it that's distinctly holy. And when I say holy, I don't mean Angelic, Exorcist-like or even Divinity. Rather, it's like a combination of those three – like an angelic human that has reached divinity. That is the sign of the Messiah, as I've once felt with your predecessor." Michael explained.

Minato nodded. It was quite possible he received this aura when he achieved his Ultimate Persona, or perhaps when he created the Universe Arcana which he has mostly lost (Although with a few things in return.).

"But...there's something even more peculiar about your aura..." Michael added with worry, "You see...I can sense many other types of auras within yours...including demonic ones. Forgive me for asking, Messiah-sama...but...have you been tainted by devils?" he asked worriedly.

Minato smirked. "I don't know, why don't you see for yourself?" he asked amusedly, taking out his Evoker and pointing it to his head, underneath his chin.

Michael's eyes widened in panic. "N-no, Messiah-sama! Please don't kill your—"

*BANG*

The familiar sound of his Evoker firing filled Minato's ears, along with the smashing of glass. Behind him, a new creature formed.

It was woman with bat-like wings on her back, with long dark purple hair.

Michael's eyes widened as he recognized the creature. "A Lilim?! The children of Lilith?! But how..." he pondered, speechless. His face quickly turned into one of terror. "No...so you have been tainted...!"

Before the Archangel would panic (and destroy Minato's home), Minato changed his personas and evoked it out; this time a blindfolded woman with angel wings...and bondage clothing for some reason, but as if that matters.

"Huh?!" Michael exclaimed, even more speechless. "Inappropriate dress and lack of halo aside, that aura and appearance...a lower-class angel?!" he stated.

Minato smirked. While he could've summoned some higher-levelled beings (maybe Michael himself, just to see his reaction.), that would've attracted too much attention. Nevertheless, it served his purpose.

Now that Michael's seen that Minato can summon both angels and demons alike, he would probably assume Minato's not the Messiah he's looking for, and he would leave the guy alone...right?

If only things were that simple.

Instead, he dropped to his knees, faced the sky, and cried out in happiness.

"Oh Lord...even if you have fallen, it seems you have answered my prayers!" he thankfully cheered.

"...What?" Minato asked, confused as ever.

Micael turned back to Minato, and almost grovelled at his feet. "Great Messiah! You are the person I've been searching for...now, we can finally unite the Three Factions!" he cheered.

"...what?" he asked once more. It was official, someone casted Tentarafoo on him.

Michael on the other hand was ecstatic. Finally, the Messiah has come, and under this Messiah, the Three Factions may finally unite! While his powers were odd, Michael had certainly faced stranger situations, like that time a blue butterfly made a contract with him...

"...Ah, sorry, Messiah-sama. I guess I should explain it to you." Michael apologized sheepishly.

Minato groaned. "Number one, my name's not Messiah-sama, it's Minato." He told, "Number 2, explain things now." He ordered.

"Very well then, Minato-sama. Tell me, Minato-sama..." he said, face becoming serious. "Would you believe me if I told you that God is dead?"

-x-x-x-x-x-

Once again, Minato exhaled as he took in all the information (What? Like last chapter?). So God (at least the one in this world, he wasn't even sure if his own world had an overdiety.) is dead. And just this evening, he learned about the Three Factions.

Why was all of this happening to him in such short intervals? Heck, why are they even happening at all?

Minato rubbed his temples, trying to make sense of all of this. "Okay, thanks for the history lesson...but now may I know what does any of this have to do with me?" he questioned the golden-winged angel.

"Ah yes, almost forgot. Moving on." Michael realised. "You see, after God's demise, the duty of managing Heaven and the systems fell unto me. And while I admit I haven't been too bad at it, I can pretty much barely keep it from falling apart. Heaven is in shambles. We have a lowering population, as it is quite difficult to reproduce without falling. We don't have that much firepower either, in fact most of our forces are human exorcists." Michael sadly stated.

"I agree that it's a bad situation, but again, what does this have to do with me?" Minato asked once more. He didn't want to be rude, but this was getting tiring...

"Ah, apologies once more, Minato-sama." Michael said sheepishly, before turning serious again. "I was originally going to ask you to take over and become the new Lord, but I can see you clearly don't want that. So change of plans; I want you to join us and unite the Three Factions." Michael offered.

"Hm? But aren't Devils and Fallen Angels the enemy of Angels?" Minato asked.

"Indeed. But that was from long ago, when the Lord and Maou were still alive. Now, however, all three factions are in a weak state, especially we Angels. Defeating Devils and Fallen Angels may have been what the Lord wanted, but with him gone, shouldn't we try to unite instead?" Michael reasoned.

"...It's weird to hear 'He who is as God' to say something like that."

The Seraph smiled wryly. "Indeed. If this was the old me, I would have forced myself to 'fall' after saying such a thing...but alas, things change." said Michael regretfully.

Minato nodded. "Indeed they do. So you want me to unite the Three Factions, correct?"

Michael nodded. "Yes. Will you please help us, Minato-sama?" Michael pleaded.

Minato pondered about the request. While he really wanted to avoid anything supernatural-related, if he managed to unite these factions and make them stop bickering, they might stop bothering him...

Minato sighed. He turned to the Seraph. "Michael, I've made my decision..."

The Archangel focused on him, face full of anticipation.

Minato smiled at him. "I refuse. Now leave."

After that, he kicked God's second out of his home. Somehow.

And so, Minato lived the rest of his normal life as an everyday person, content with his life.

Just kidding. This would be pathetically boring if that's the case.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Minato yawned as he walked to school. (Please tell me nothing weird's going to happen...)

Okay then, I won't tell you. Even though it does happen.

"Hello there, Messiah-tan!" a cheery voice called out from behind him. Struggling to keep his poker face, he turned around to see a lady with blonde hair, wearing armor.

"I'm Jeanne D'Arc! Would you like to join the Hero faction?" she cheerfully asked.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Hey?"

"...Mara."

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Come meet me at the old school building. Again."

Wonder what Rias's reaction to Mara would be...

-x-x-x-x-x-

Too bad he won't be finding that out anytime soon.

However, when he arrived at the Old School Building, he stumbled upon an expected sight; Issei Hyoudou.

"Arisato?" Issei questioned, "What're you doing here? Are you a devil too?"

"Last time I checked; no." Minato answered dryly. "Why are you here, if I may ask? I never realised you were a devil." Minato commented.

"Ah...I just became recently. Buchou reincarnated me after I was killed by Yuuma-chan...or Raynare, as I heard was her true name." He said a bit wryly. Issei's face became more serious. "Hey, Arisato, yesterday you told me to go on forward, right?"

"That I did."

"Well, you see...I've found a new goal to fight for!" Issei cheered.

Minato raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? What is it?" he asked, interested. He leaned forward in order to hear it better.

"So you see, my new dream..." Issei continued with a confident grin, "...is to become a High-Class Devil and Harem King!"

Minato nodded with a slight smirk at the first part, but almost lost his poker face at the latter.

Thankfully, Rias and the rest of her peerage came and saved him from having to respond.

"Ah, Arisato-san, you've come."

"That I have. Now, what was it that you wanted?" he asked, secretly thanking her for saving him from an awkward situation.

It wouldn't last very long.

"Oh, you see, since I've been tasked to observe you, I thought it would be easier if you joined the Occult Research Club!" she said with a mischievous grin.

"And what makes you think I'll join—"

"Too late! I've already enrolled you in."

"Welcome to the club!" Kiba said with a smile.

"...welcome." Koneko muttered.

"Kukuku, I'm sure we'll have lots of fun together..." Akeno said with a chuckle.

Minato groaned.

"I hate all of you."

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Siegfried, what happened to Jeanne?" a man with black hair and a golden lance on his back asked his companion.

Siegfried sighed. "I'm not sure, Cao Cao. After you sent her out to recruit the new Messiah, we found her like this." He said, referring to Jeanne, who was in fetal position, trembling and tears flowing.

"P-p-penis M-m-monster..." she managed to stutter out.

"Hmm, so I take it that he rejected the offer, then?" Cao Cao pondered, ignoring the state of his ally. "As expected. I see that he values his neutrality..." he said with a smirk, watching as a black butterfly flew in and sat on his finger.

"...Let's see how long that lasts."

-x-x-x-x-x-

Minato practically jumped onto his bed. Surely, he won't be bothered while he's asleep?

Well, you know the drill by now.

The moment he closed his eyes, he found himself transported to a room of blue, sitting in front of a familiar old man with an absurdly long nose.

"Welcome to the Velvet—"

"Shut up, and let's just get on with this."

.

.

.

End of Chapter 3

Personally I think my quality dropped this chapter. I'm experimenting whether or not I could actually write humor or a trolling protag. A bad idea to do so with my current main project, but still.

You know I've always wondered why Angel wears bondage.

Poor Minato can't get any normalcy. It's just one thing after the other.

There's quite a lot of foreshadowing in this chapter, actually. Persona 1 and 2 (IS and EP) fans may pick it up.

The Hero faction shows up early on. They, Cao Cao in particular, would have a larger role in this story.

I'm thinking of a Minato-only version of the Evil Pieces or Brave Saints, except based on the Major Arcana. As he is neutral, these wouldn't reincarnate the target into anything, so they wouldn't have to switch sides to Minato or anything and thus not shatter canon into a million pieces, considering I'm already planning that.

Guest Review Corner:-

Personafan: Undecided yet, since the harem itself is undecided.

Jetsmillion: A friendly spar between Minato and Sirzechs? Noted.

Krulla Chief: Yeah...I'm surprised myself at my update speed.

will: *shudders* Fangirls...that's what you get when you drink too much Pheromone Coffee! You're actually almost spot on about the Universe Arcana. And as for Persona-summoning, I originally thought about card-crushing as in P4, but let's admit it; Persona 3 wouldn't be Persona 3 without teenagers shooting (and a gynoid, dog and shota) themselves in the head in order to summon their facades that manifest as mythological creature. Try explaining THAT to someone.

King of Heroes G: The harem thing is a good idea. As it stands, the top 3-4 girls who win the poll would be in the harem.

Also I'm going to try to name all the chapters by Persona 3 OST. Let's see how that will work out.

It's quite hard to find pictures of Nyarlathotep without stumbling upon a certain alien. Most of whose pictures are NSFW. Which makes things difficult.

Now, time marches on in our world. See you next time.