Chapter 1: 7-Years Later
Yukari Takeba sat at the table in her college dorm's common area, holding a small picture. In the picture she and a young man were sitting in a mall, surrounded by Christmas lights. They were both red in the face. Yukari grinned, she remembered how had she had hit Junpei when she found out he had taken that picture. Yukari leaned back in her chair, and thought about what she would do next. She had just graduated college, at 24 years old. She didn't know where she wanted to go, or what she wanted to do. After Nyx's defeat and his lapse into that bizarre coma, she had lost her way, and their group had fallen apart. Mitsuru and Akihiko had both left for college not long after he fell asleep. Ken became distant, absorbed by his studies. Koromaru had returned to his self appointed post over his old master's grave, although he did stop by the old dorm occasionally. Aigis remained at the dorm, and did finish her senior year with Yukari, Fuuka, and Junpei, but like Junpei, she didn't go to college. Junpei said that he couldn't get accepted to a college even if he tried, so he didn't bother trying. Yukari had had decent grades, and so was accepted by an alright college, but no matter what she did, she couldn't forget him. Tears began to roll from her eyes.
"Why?" she sobbed, "Why did you leave me so alone?"
"But you aren't alone Yukari. All of us are still connected. Just because he isn't awake and about, doesn't mean he's not with us." Yukari turned to the speaker.
"Hello, Akihiko-senpai. It's been a while. How have you been?"
"I'm fine, but that's beside the point. I'm here to offer you a job."
"What kind of job."
"How did Mitsuru say it? It went something like, shaping the minds of the future, or something like that. In normal speak, it's a teaching job."
"But I'm not certified as a teacher."
"Mitsuru said not to worry about that stuff. What do you say, everybody else is going to be there, although Ken will be a student and Koromaru will be a mascot."
"What about him?"
"He'll be there, in a way."
"What about Aigis, and Junpei? There's no way anyone will let them be teachers."
"Again, I don't know much, but Mitsuru's got it covered."
"Alright, I'm in."
Marcus Hasegawa was an ordinary high school student. Average grades, smarts, looks, life. Marcus was a totally normal guy, which it why he was so surprised when he received a flyer for a school called 'Tatsumi Port Island Academy for Gifted Students' in the mail. According to the flyer he could go there for a week, to see how things were run, and if he wanted to stay he could, and if he didn't he could go back home. He hadn't been interested, even thought the school itself would pay for him to come, but his parents told him that, at the very least he should go for the week, just to see. His mother had tried being subtle, hinting that his life might somehow get better if he went. His father had been blunter. He had told Marcus that if he didn't go, he'd punch him until he did. So Marcus decided to go. He lived in Japan, so Tatsumi Port Island wasn't far away from home, but he would still need to live in a dorm for his stay. From what he learned on the internet, Marcus discovered that the school was newly founded, and was run entirely by the 'Kirijo Group', that was headed up by a Mitsuru Kirijo. Apparently she had taken over after her father died 5 years ago. According to official records, Mr. Kirijo had died of some mysterious ailment. He looked up the staff hired for the school, and got a list of names. Yukari Takeba, Junpei Iori, Akihiko Sanada, Fuuka Yamagishi, even Ms. Kirijo was a teacher. Marcus figured it must be a pretty small school to only have five teachers. He had packed in a couple of hours, and by the next day he was on Tatsumi Port Island. There was another school on the island, Gekkoukan High School, a public school. The school Marcus was going to was, by comparison, tiny. Including him, there were only twenty students. The classes were split into five groups of four. His class was made up of him, one other boy, and two girls. He arrived at the island on a Sunday, so he had a day to get unpacked and settled into the dorm all the students were being housed in. He spent most of the day in his room, and so didn't meet any of his fellow students. The next day was the first day of school. He and his fellow students were gathered in the assembly hall of the school, which also served as the gym. It was then that they were introduced to their teachers. First to be introduced was Junpei Iori. He was wearing a primarily black outfit, and a baseball cap. Iori was the second tallest man in the group, next to the other man, Akihiko Sanada. Iori would be teaching P.E. The next teacher to be introduced was Fuuka Yamagishi. She was a small woman, by far the shortest of the group, but also looked to be one of the brightest. She had neck length, light green hair, and pale skin. She wore a long, green, flowery dress. She had been chatting quietly with the woman next to her, Yukari Takeba. Miss Takeba was a little taller than Miss Yamagishi, and had shoulder length brown hair and slightly tan skin. She wore a pink shirt, and a black pair of loose pants. Akihiko Sanada, the math teacher, had short cut white hair, and wore a red vest with a white, long sleeve shirt underneath it, and black trousers. Last to be introduced was Mitsuru Kirijo, who along with teaching History would be the Principal of the school. She was the tallest of the women, and looked like she could run the whole school on her own. She was wearing a knee length black skirt, and a white long sleeve shirt. Her hair reached down to her waist, and was a dark red. She told the students how they would be split up, that the Classes would rotate between the teachers, and that their first class of the day would be their home room class. Marcus' home room was Literature and Writing, which was run by Miss Takeba. After the assembly was over the students went to their home rooms. Marcus was the first to his, and so got his pick of the seats. The next person in the room was the other boy in his class. "Hello, my name is Ken Amada. It's nice to meet you. What is your name?"
"I'm Marcus Hasegawa. What do you know about our teacher?"
"Oh, you mean Miss Takeba? She's a very nice person, smart too. Although she did change a bit after..."
"Ken, I don't think that is anything your classmate needs to know about."
"I'm sorry Yukari-senpai, I wasn't thinking."
Marcus watched the exchange, noting the use of first names. Ken and Miss Takeba apparently knew each other well. They were so busy talking to each other that Marcus was the only one to notice the two girls entering the room. One had long blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. She was taller than the other girl, but a head shorter than Marcus. The other girl had dark green eyes, and her black hair was cropped short. Marcus decided that he could stand to stay if all the girls were as pretty as them. The brunette didn't give him second glance, her eyes were locked on Ken, but the blonde was trying to look at Marcus out of the corner of her eye, while pretending not to. Marcus pretended not to notice, and turned his attention back to Ken and Miss Takeba. They were still busy talking about whatever it was they were talking about, when Mr. Sanada poked his head in the room. "Yukari, you in here?"
"Oh, yeah. What is it?'
"Mitsuru wanted me to make sure that you actually taught your class, instead of just reminiscing with Ken. By the way, how are you Ken?"
"I'm alright, what about you, Akihiko-senpai?"
"That's Sanada-sensei, or Mr. Sanada, and I'm fine. Now, I need to check on Junpei, and then my class." With that Mr. Sanada left, and the class took their seats. The rest of the day went like any other first day of school, and Marcus learned the girls' names. The blonde was named Mika Arai, and the brunette went by Benehime Fumitsu, although Mika just called her Fu. At the end of the day, Ms. Kirijo made an announcement, telling all students that they would need to return to their dorms right after school. Marcus didn't understand why, and was annoyed particularly because he had asked Mika to the movies and she had said yes. He became even more annoyed when he learned that Ken was going to be having some special meeting with the teachers, Marcus wanted to do something, anything to relieve the boredom, as it was he ended up watching T.V.
"So Mitsuru, why did you really set up this school, and none of that "shaping minds of the future" crap." Junpei, Yukari, Fuuka, Akihiko, Mitsuru, Ken, Koromaru, and Aigis were all gather in the faculty office of the school. Mitsuru had told them to come there after school was out. In order to insure that none of the other students learned what was going on, she had made sure they would all be in the dorm. Mitsuru spoke, "The truth is, the Dark Hour isn't gone. For some reason it has resurfaced, and just recently too."
"But I thought that when he beat Nyx, the Dark Hour went with her.", said Yukari.
"It did," Akihiko interjected, "but it came back."
"We got that bit Akihiko," said Junpei, "what I think we're wondering is WHY it came back!"
"We don't know."
"Wonderful, man, I wish he was able to help us. He may have been kind of odd, but he was able to figure stuff out. That and he was way more powerful than any of us. I mean, how are we gonna fight? We're five years out of practice."
"True," Fuuka said, "but our Personas have not lost their power, so we shouldn't be at too much of a disadvantage."
"Ok, but that leaves my first question, although I've got a good idea."
"I'd bet your idea is right, Junpei. These kids are all capable of using Personas. When I discovered that the Dark Hour had returned, I contacted Fuuka and asked her to begin searching for potential Persona users. I had her pay special attention to search for Persona users with scanning abilities like hers and my own."
"That was the hard part, but I did find five support oriented Persona users."
"I assume that there is one for each home class.", Ken said.
"Right, Ken. The one in your class is a Miss Benehime Fumitsu."
"Hmm..., I guess I'll have to do most of the fighting for my group, just like he did in the start."
"Actually," Fuuka interrupted, "you might have some help. That other young man in your class, Marcus Hasegawa. If what Juno told me about him is right, then he has a lot of potential, to say the least."
"So why put him with me? And what about Ms. Mika?"
"Ms. Arai has a Persona inclined more toward healing, although, with training, it could become powerful in combat as well. As for why we put Mr. Hasegawa in the same class as you, well, according to what Fuuka sensed, the power he has may be hard for him to control. Anyhow, I wouldn't worry about fighting just yet." Mitsuru was wrapping up the meeting. "For the time being we're monitoring the students, seeing how they are reacting to the Dark Hour."
Aigis finally spoke, "What about him, have the Kirijo scientists figured out why he is still asleep?"
"They think it has something to do with his exposure to the massive amount of power that he used, and the opposing power Nyx had. The other theory is that he was actually supposed to die as a result of the battle, that his victory was supposed to cost his life, but that part of that price was paid by something else, so instead of dying, he simply sleeps. As for how long he'll sleep, they have no clue."
"I don't know, Mitsuru, maybe we should find a job for Aigis in the school."
"It is alright, Yukari-san. I am content with maintaining the school."
"If you're sure, then ok."
"Our first priority is preparing the new users for whatever it is that has called the Dark Hour back into being."
