After the creepy card flew away the tall man finally said his first words to me" Welcome to the team Minato Arisoto" he said to me cordially.

"I suppose you know my name from Mitsuru?" I questioned him.

"Why no actually, I am the chairman of Gekkokan high school and I do know what happens within the school, most of the time."

"Hmph, so can I be released from here before those generous amount of chemicals get taken and used for a more nefarious use? Please? I promise I won't run this time." I stared towards Mitsuru using the patented pretty boy smile that so well melts the hearts of all ladies, young and old alike. "Hmm…" she thought for a moment, seeing that I might be able to break through to her I just needed to wait. And then came the silver headed green eyed monster, "Let's go with no this time. The doctors say that you got injured pretty bad and needed to stay for more observation."

Dam it, so close to getting out of this accursed place. But alas it was not meant to be as the gods themselves tear themselves the plight that I have with this place. Hmm, no more Greek epics for a while.

"Very well might I be able to get a change of close these seem a tad fresh if you get my meaning." I looked at Mitsuru as I said it causing a slight blush to appear on her face, "and yea I will need a whole new outfit." This causes her to blush even farther.

Ah nothing like causing a little mayhem in the morning to liven a day up. Silver head, whose name was apparently Akihiko, save her by cutting in for her "Yea alright, I'll come back later with those clothes for you."

"Alright then, with that settled we will let you rest today and see you tomorrow, go to sleep early the early bird gets the bookworm. Hahaha" Oh god did he just really. He will die a slow and painful death under the holy fires of-"Goodbye for now Arisoto-kohai."

Wait that's you, "Yea see you later, uh sempais."

And with those words the two departed leaving me to my thoughts, which were finding ironic ways for the funnyman to die.

XXX

4/13 Monday

After a pleasantly calm morning in the hospital I was able to get out of the hospital, and I flew out of there as soon as the words you're good to go left the nurse's mouth I was already halfway out of the hospital. "Ah the fresh air, the birds are chirping, and is that the lovely Ms. Kirijo walking to over here? Oh crap I didn't do anything yet did I?" I wondered aloud thinking of anything that she might want to hurt me for; it couldn't be because of the snake was it? No they couldn't have found it so early, was it the weapons that lined my suitcase, or worse.? They couldn't have found my stash could they? If they did, a shudder ran down my back. They couldn't have found my collection of-"Arisoto-kohai, good morning I see that you made liberal use of your time, you're just in time to catch the monorail to Gekkokan high school. I suppose since I'm here I'll give you a hand and take you there." She offered to me.

"Umm, thank you, I'll be in your care then." Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth I took my chances with her and hoped that I hadn't done anything to piss her off. "Thinking about it where exactly was the dorm?" a piece of information that had slipped by me.

"Oh, the dorm was one crossing farther from where Akihiko had found you for the first time. I'll get Takeba to show you the way later." Really, I was that freaking close before the giant vortex of blades found me. Sigh, when it rains it pours I guess.

Slipping on the monorail I gave her thanks for the information. We slipped into the small talk that accompanies traveling. After a small while she gave a small smile and pointed out into the distance, "around that corner is the school that we go to, Gekkokan High School, where you will be attending classes for the next few years." She said with a small amount of malice in her face as if challenging me to defy her. I nodded and remained silent hoping that it would be enough to satiate her for the time being. Rounding the bend on the tracks that view cleared I got a view of the school, "Evil, pure evil, while it might look like an amazing school there is not a doubt in my mind that the school is evil." I chose to voice my inner opinions to her.

"Really and why do you say that?" she asked me looking a touch shocked at me.

I deadpanned at her "it a school, does it need another reason to be evil? Not like there was experiments done in secret in this school that caused some great and evil calamity down upon us right?" I laughed at her.
"…"

"Wait, what?" I stared even harder at her, "you're not serious are you? This is usually the part where you laugh with me and tell me I have an overactive imagination. Or it could just be that I know the actual past of this past. Take your pick."

"How do you even know this?"

"Remember how I said that I was investigating the actions of a certain Kirijo? Yea I found out more about his shady operations that I ever thought possible. Me and my pint sized partner out more than enough dirt on him to put him away for life, but you know the rest." I stared at the school for a while "but that's in the past, now Mitsuru sempai, we move to onwards to the future." I chuckled at my inside joke.

"Can you really not hold a grudge about the past for everything that my father and I did to you?"

I sighed, "Short answer: no. I lost my parents at a very young age, ever since then I have not had any real family, even when I was torn from the closest people I didn't really feel anything other than feeling guilty that I had even got them into the situation that they were in in the first place."

"You really are strong for you age."

"You're one to talk Ms. Student council president." There was slight shock in her eyes, raising an eyebrow "did I guess wrong?"

Chuckling a bit, "it's not quite official yet, but yes I do think that I have gained that position."

"Well then congratulations are in order." I told her, doing my best to steer the conversation away from my past. "Regardless, it does looks like we have arrived at the school now, Mitsuru sempai."

Nodding I looked at the school that I would be going to for the foreseeable future. 'sigh, worse schools to go I guess.'

XXX

After going through a typical first day for me the day ended and I was left pondering the day's actions after I awoke to the bell. 'Another teacher that can't even remember to look over her own students records' sigh oh well at least there was a real cutie in the class, some brunette in the class that keep looking over at me. Wondering if the store in the school had any more buns after I raided them during lunch, twenty buns and still hungry, I was approached by a male student with a blue hat on "Yo, thought I'd say hi, seeing as I remember how it was to be the new kid. Names Junpei Iori, nice to meetcha." Looking at him I saw something, magician arcana. Wait what? The hell was up with this. I need a meeting with Igor asap.

"Nice to meet you Junpei."

Grinning like a maniac he started up a conversation with me before we were interrupted by the cute brunette that was eyeing me all day. Looking at her I saw, lovers arcana. Studying everyone they all had one arcana or another .'Hmmm…. I must have really missed my daily required amount of sleep by about 5 hours if I didn't notice this earlier. "Seriously stupei? I swear you'll talk to anyone that will listen, ever think you might be bothering him?" Ouch that was kind of mean.

"And who are you cutie?" I asked her before Junpei jumped in. Jumping slightly she answered.

"My name is Yukari Takeba, Kirijo sempai asked me to take you back to the dorms." She replied simply as if though that told me everything. "Sure, Cya, Junpei san, looks I need to head back now."

"Yea cya man." He answered back. Following Yukari we went by the mall when something caught my eye. "Hey Yukari I'll be right back." She was transfixed by the jewelry at a very blue shop, she merely hummed back. I saw a big blue door, it screamed of the velvet filled place from the dream, walking towards it, it opened by itself as I stepped into the confines of the room where I was Igor sitting behind the bar cleaning some glasses. "Welcome to the Velvet room. I see that you have found your way back. I knew that you were a perceptive guest, we truly expected you to arrive by the entrance in the tower, but you are here now, and you seem to have questions. I will do my best to satiate your desire for knowledge." He calmly told me.
"Okay first I want to know what the hell happened in the hospital, everything seemed to slow down and I saw a card flying through the room and suddenly vanish, what the hell!?"

A hearty laugh came from him "That, my dear guest, was a social link. These are links that you will form that will fill you with power and allow you to access greater power in the future."

"Hmm. Clear as mud, what a persona?"

"That is the mask you take on to face the external world."

"Is that it?"

"Yup."
"… Your not going to tell me, are you?"

"You have to find that out for yourself my dear guest."

Sigh should known the creepy man wouldn't tell me anything. "fine the, how did I see the arcanas of the people around me?"

"Quite an interesting question, perhaps it is one of the powers of your persona."

"Now this isn't really fair you're not really telling me much, can you at least tell me how I use this power of Persona that you keep mentioning?"

"Why, my dear guest, you channel the power through you. Use like you would an arm."

Looking within myself I found that I did feel a little more powerful, my breathing was shallow and few, and I felt my mind sharper. "Hmm I think that I get it."

"Well then, if that is all the lovely Ms. Takeba is waiting for you at the store."

Walking I found Yukari at the same spot with the same glazed over look on her face, "Uhh we ready to go now?"

"! Oh yea, um lets go then."

XXX

Reaching the dorms I found that the building was typical, but the lounge, that was a thing of beauty, a huge TV, a great kitchen, although looking at the kitchen there wasn't much of anything there. It had no personal affects within it, hmm that would have to change. "…and that all." Shit, I completely missed everything she just said.
"Uh huh," being the coherent answer that I came up with. "and where is my room again?"

"Sigh, you didn't hear a word I said, did you? I told you that your room is on the second floor at the beginning of the hall on the right. Heres the key." She then pulled out a key from within her pocket.

"Wait… why exactly did you have the key to my room?"

Suddenly blushing bright red she answered, "Mitsuru sempai asked me to hold on to and give it to you"

Hmm, I need to keep an eye on both of the scorching hot women, a very close eye. "Hmm. Alright then, well then if you'll excuse me I need to go and organize my stuff." She gave a nod to this and waved waling back outside the dorms. 'I'll go make something to eat and then I'll go and organize my room.

The sizzling of bacon quickly filled the room as I was humming along to a song that was playing. "Bacon, lettuce, tomato, ham, cheese, anything else I need to make this better?" I asked my self. Looking at the copious amounts of food in front of me I chose to make another sandwich as a good deed to lucky first resident to return. Writing a quick note, I left the spare and took my sandwich up to my room to clean up and move stuff. Eating slowly, I took stock of my weapons and hid them throughout the room, leaving only my black dagger out in the open, "hmm… that should just about do it." I said aloud munching on my sandwich.

"Perfect." A voice spoke behind me as something hit me on the back of my head, I was able to see a blood red vest and high hells on my way down as the world went black.

XXX

Feeling the ground shift underneath me I woke with a start, "Where's my bacon?"

"Nice to know that your priorities are straight, Minato kohai." Huh? Oh, taking a quick look around I saw that this was not the dorm, it was the foyer to some ritzy ballroom, a flight of stairs stretched I in front of me, looking around I was pools of blood around me, "Why is it the midnight hour?" I asked the two older students.

"Because, my dear cute little kohai, we dragged you here to make sure that you were up to the task we have set out for you." Mitsuru told me with more than a little malice in her voice. Akihiko actually looked apologetic. 'Shit I knew that they found our something.' "Now we have another member that might join and with that we will actually chance at figuring out more about this place. Before that happens, they need a leader, and because Akihiko is out of commission for a while, and for certain reason I cannot lead the missions within the tower, we need the most battle ready person and that is you. However you have yet to use your persona so here we are to train you on how to use your persona." Ah I see "And why did you have to knock me out and drag me out in the middle of nowhere. And don't I need a weapon of some sort?" She threw my dagger and a pistol at me.

"There are your weapons, now turn around and march up those stairs and towards your execution." Huh? I don't remember doing anything in this country to deserve a execution, I thought Japan didn't have death penalties, wait if they did why was this girl performing it, and why was I given weapons. So it was a punishment of some sort.

"Uh.. Mitsuru sempai? Why am I being punished?"

"You don't remember?"

"Nothing that could deserve this."

"…" a bright red blush appeared on her face, she had pushed me farther up the steps until I was at the summit with a big clock above a door frame. "You fell onto me as you were falling unconscious."

"Wait, so I had a faceful of your boo-." Was all I managed to say as she kicked me through the door and I fell spiraling through the darkness until I felt ground underneath me. "Damn, that kick of hers hurt. Sigh she didn't even give me a way to contact her. Well this is just great." Looking around I saw the hole where I had come from closing with what looked to be a wooden door looking plank, I could just feel the hate from behind the thing. Just great I'm stuck in who knows where and my only way out is blocked off by the red headed beauty. Might as well explore this place, taking out my dagger I hugged the wall closely blending into the darkness of the hallway. Seeing a dark mass with arms coming from the shade I peered closer into it and saw distinct shapes within it. Taking my dagger in hand I crept up to it and used both hands to pierce through it breaking it into three different monsters. One caught directly under my dagger, squirming underneath it. Twisting the dagger I felt the mask break and my dagger break free, facing the two mound shaped monsters I steeled myself for something as I felt something coming my way, rolling I saw a ball of ice fly right where my torso was, using the moment I lashed out to the closet hand and ripped apart the mask. Seeing only one left I stood and watched it, I suddenly rushed me and I jumped into the air using the wall as a stepping stone and quickly lunged breaking the mask apart. As I wiped the black blood off my dagger I continued farther into the maze.

XXX

"Mitsuru, how is he doing?" Akihiko asked her as she was in a meditative state.

"He is fine for the time being, he just fought to cowardly mayas with only his dagger. He rolled away from an attack that he somehow felt coming. It's interesting."

"Uh, I know we talked about it before but why exactly can't I at least follow him and give him back up?"

She shot him a look that would have killed a lesser man on the spot, "Well first of all he did kill the shadow that you couldn't kill with your persona, without any use of buffs or any persona help on his end. So that by itself makes him stronger than you, but more to the point there is nothing in these first floors that he can't take out by himself, we need to believe that he will be able to lead a group into there, and the best way that we thought of was to send him alone without backup and without any real means of communication to let him see the true terrors of the tower without ever having him in any real danger."

"But what if he really does get into trouble here?"

"…"

"… right, well then, let's hope that he doesn't really need help then right Mitsuru."

XXX

"GRAH!" I sliced another mound into oblivion, "how many of them are there?" Just defeating the latest grouping of little mounds, I looked around and saw the fifth staircase since I had gotten there nearly forty minutes before. Running up the stairs I saw yet another blob meandering about looking like it was looking for something.

"FIND… KILL….FIND..KILL" the blob keep repeating over and over as it slid across the floor. Hiding within the darkness of the hall I observed it for a while then moved in to try and kill the thing. "THERE…!" whipping around it dispersed into five pink hands one punching me in the stomach knocking the wind out of me. While I was doubled over from the hit I felt a bolt of lightning hit me knocking me to the ground. Coughing I look up to see another one gather energy and send it towards me, a green burst of light filled my vision as a felt the edges of my sight fade as I fell again to the floor.

XXX

"Shit." The single profanity came from the red head.

"What's wrong?"

"We have three troubles, the first higher level monster just appeared, the second they targeted Minato kohai, and the third they knocked him out."

"WHAT? We need to go there now!"

"I would normally agree however there are no stairs within the lower floors. We cannot reach him even if we tried. Dammit I let my emotions cloud my judgment and sent him to his death. His only chance is that his persona answers his call for help."

XXX

Seeing fire gather at the fingertip of two of the monsters there I knew that I had to move. Rolling I was only just able to dodge the fireballs, having it singe the edges of my clothes. Having rolled towards the nearest one I used my dagger to stab into it, it reels back emitting a scream taking my dagger with it. Faced with an angry hand and its four buddies I backed into a corner as the four seemed to join their energy and form a large fireball. 'hell what do I do, what do I do', remember the gun I took it out, however looking at I saw that it had now clip, it was empty and couldn't fire. 'What the fuck, they gave me a toy gun? No, it doesn't feel right to be a toy.

"There are your weapons." Mitsuru's words echoed in my mind, so if this gun wasn't meant for shooting than it had to be used to summon the personas! So how do I do it?

A small boy flashed in my vision, "Do it."

I lifted the gun, turned it to my head and uttered a single word as I pulled the trigger, "Per…so…na." Glass broke as the shards gather around me giving shape to a figure as a deep voice echoed around the hall.

"Thou art I and I am thou,

From the sea of thy soul I come from,

I am Pandora, Keeper of secrets."

The shards continued to form as his shape to form.

A classical swordsman hung in the air, his shaggy red hair covered his eye. A long sword hung in his right hand while his left rested on his gilded scabbard. He wore a hakama and a long sleeved shirt both silver in color with black outlines. On his sword hung a small box, roughly the size of a rubix cube. His very presence stopped the pink hands from doing anything. Suddenly a cry came from both him and me; it felt as if though I was being torn apart. Suddenly the box on his sword flew open and a figure flew out as the orginal was sucked into the box. The new one was black as the night, a long sword in this hand, a silver mask adjourning his face, a cape of coffins surrounding him. With a cry he set out brandishing the sword slicing across three of the hands. The other two threw fire and ice at him; he merely held out a hand and stopped either attack inches away. With another roar he rushed the two and cut the masks with a single slash that cleaved the masks like a hot knife through butter. He suddenly turned to me "Son of man, listen well." His voice echoed in the same voice as before only deeper and more distorted, like it came from a bad phone "You have drawn upon power with was not meant to be used, Be wary of he who plans the future. When the time is right you will hear from me again." Turing again he flipped his sword and the box closed transforming the coffin wearing one, into the Pandora. He nodded to me before disappearing in to air.

XXX

"Mitsuru we have to do something, anything. I mean how will be able to explain if suddenly he ends up-"

"He used his persona, he's alive and well. However there is nothing that we CAN do Akihiko. The stairs have disappeared. And the return points have also disappeared; the only way that he can get back is if he gets to the tenth floor where I can feel a small resonance that feels like the teleporter over in the corner. Ah, that is not good."
"What could possibly be worse than all that?

"Two things, the first the midnight hours ends within a few minutes and the second he just black out."

Hello again. Phew that was a little bit long to write. Sorry that it has taken so long to post this chapter. To make it up a bit I made this one a lot longer the ones before. I toke a bit of a liberty with his initial persona as id didn't think that Orpheus was quite the right, face, for my Minato. I personally believe that the levels shouldn't mean squat and that fighting skill should determine how easily or hard a battle is won. So in that aspect Minato is stronger than Akihiko for reason that will be made clear later. Alright hoped you enjoyed this chapter and I'll be back, sooner this time I promise.