It took me longer since I wanted to give some of the Social Links an equal chance and new Social Links to come up. I hope you enjoy the story so far.

Memento Mori

Chapter 6: Troubled

"Hi, how've you been?" A familiar voice broke Tai out of his sleep. His brown eyes then were drawn down to the end of his bed where the little boy was sitting. The little boy giggled.

"How did you get in?" The words broke out from Tai before he can stop himself.

The boy wilted. "What kind of welcome of that? Besides I'm always with you." The boy then smiled creepily. "One week from now, there will be a full moon… Be careful. A new ordeal awaits you…"

"What kind of ordeal?" Tai's eyes were now open, his fists scrunching his comforter.

"You'll encounter one of them…" The boy then dropped from his seat, grinning a Cheshire Cat smile. "You must prepare for the ordeal but time is the essence… I'm sure you're aware of that, of course." Then the boy disappeared and reappeared at foot of his bed. "I'll come see you again when it's over. Goodbye for now."

The boy vanished into thin air.

Tai sighed, dropping down on the stool in the Velvet Room. After another round in Tartarus, he managed to find new cards. He groaned into his hands as Elizabeth helped him fused those new Personas to those of that of the Priestess but he told her not to fuse it yet.

"Here's the sword you wanted." Tai sighed as he presented her with one of her requests' completion.

Elizabeth grinned brightly, examining the sword.

Tai pleaded to the gods that she doesn't hit anyone accidentally with it.

"Do you have any more requests?"

"Yes."

He scanned the journal and sighed, accepting two of the new requests and walked out of the Velvet Room.

Tsuna was still staring off into space when his tutor, a tall handsome man wearing a fedora, smacked him.

"Pay attention to Reboyama-sensei's history lesson. Midterms are coming up and you need these information for that." Reboyama admonished.

The brunet groaned, watching Tai rigorously writing down notes. He once again buried himself in his arms. Try to think nothing about him…

Tsuna peeked into the Faculty Office timidly. He, under Kurosaki-Senpai's request, was to get the roster for Class 2-E but could he go in there...

"Ah, Sawada-kun!"

He looked beside him at the Faculty Office door where a girl with long brown hair stood. "Mouri-kun!"

"Just call me -chan, could even call me Ran." The girl puffed and her gaze softened. "What were you doing here?"

"Um, just going to get the class roster for 2-E."

"Then, why- Never mind, I'm sure you have your reasons." Ran sighed and took out something out of her pocket. "Here's an extra copy of the roster. I have two just in case."

"Thank you." Tsuna blinked when her words hit him. "Why are you here getting a copy of the roster?"

"My dad who was sent here to investigate the Apathy Syndrome for a friend's request wanted to see my class roster just to see my new class." Ran replied readily.

"I have no idea you can answer that with a straight answer."

Ran broke into laughter as Tsuna tentatively smiled.

Tai sighed when he noticed Utena picking away with the roses at the front entrance of the school.

"Do you like roses? Maybe your 'stalker' knows about that?"

Utena scoffed. "Ohtori Academy's logo is a rose and there's even a rose garden in one of the courtyards." She then smiled gently, gazing at the droplet of waters on the roses. "But roses are beautiful…"

"I don't usually have suitors like my roommate Anthy." Utena said wistfully.

"Do you want to have… er.. suitors?" Tai asked inquisitively.

Utena shrugged, leaning her back onto the wall. "I don't know. I just need to search for that guy." The last part was almost a mumble.

"What guy?"

"Oh!" Utena was entirely red-faced, a shocking change from her stoic and stern demeanor. "Well, you can say he saved me sort of from my grief. He was so princely…and I wanted to be like him…"

"So is that why you're like the best at everything?" Tai furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yep." Utena grinned. "I could say he's just as interesting like you. Even as a little kid, I know he's interesting."

"So are you in love with this guy or something?" Tai grinned.

Utena flushed. "No! Even if we are friends now, Tai, you will die next practice!"

Tai froze, eyes wide. Utena crossed her arms in satisfaction.

Milly tapped the radio again.

Nothing.

"Come on!" Milly tapped it more roughly. She growled and took out a wrench, grousing, tuning it then and there with passion.

Ichigo ambled inside, wincing at the sight of a rather wrathful Milly. "You're still at it?"

"Yeah, you'll never know when a Shadow may appear." She grunted, trying to make sure the nozzle work.

"I thought you couldn't scan outside of Tartarus…" Ichigo scratched the back of his head.

Milly sighed. "I lacked that power, to be honest… This is at best Zelus can do when it comes to information gathering." She smirked smugly, staring at the now fixed radio. "I'm more surprised that the power of Persona is much broader than I had imagined. I mean we even got someone who can switch Persona at will. There's something special about him. It hasn't been long since his awakening, either."

"Even I had to admit I was surprised too." Ichigo nodded in agreement. "But in the end, it is still up to him whether or not he can reach his full potential as a Persona-user."

Their conversation was interrupted by a buzz from the radio. Surprised, Milly tuned it again and scowled. "It's a Shadow!"

Ichigo stood up quickly. "You actually found one!?"

"Something's not right. The reading's too big to be a normal Shadow…" Milly muttered.

"Wait…" It struck them at once. "It's one of those!"

Milly took the microphone on the control panel, turned the volume to high and screeched. "WAKE UP! RISE AND SHINE!"

Tai leapt out of bed, falling hard to the floor. Tsuna had tears in his eyes, his hands plugged to his ears. Amu shrieked at the top of her lungs.

"I don't think they'll like that…" Ichigo himself didn't look too happy either, his ears burning bright red.

Three angry glares made Milly smile with pleasure.

"Are you a sadist?!" Amu yelled.

Milly instead diverted her attention to the radio. "We detected another Shadow outside Tartarus. We don't know for sure but we think it's another big one."

Now all three are standing at attention. "We have to defeat any of them we find as quickly as possible. Most people don't know the Dark Hour exists so if half of the city is destroyed, there'll be a panic. That must be avoided at all costs." She then gave a glare at Ichigo. "Since you somehow managed to sustain an injury on the last visit to Tartarus, you are going to be taken off this mission for now. Wait for the chairman for now."

Ichigo knew when Milly's stubborn, you have no choice. He bowed his head resigned.

Satisfied, Milly nodded at the trio. "As usual, Tai would take over." Tsuna bit his lip and nodded. "We're counting on you three. Meet me down at Honou Platform Station, okay?"

"Got it!" Amu gave her a thumb up.

Tsuna and Tai sat on the steps as Amu paced back and forth in front of the station.

"Sit down. Don't get too worked up now." Tai tried to comfort her.

"I can't help it. We're doing another operation on our own." Amu groaned, looking up at the green moon. "It's a full moon tonight and it looks even creepier during the Dark Hour…"

"That, I have to agree…" Tsuna took a gulp of his energy drink he brought along. "Speaking of which, wasn't machines supposed to be shut off? Why's the electric-based monorail still running?"

"That's true…"

That was when they heard the revving of a motorbike.

Milly took off her helmet with a gleeful breath and turned to the trio. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Now listen carefully. I'll support from here and everything is the same. The Shadow is located in the monorail, not far from the station. You have to walk on the tracks."

"That's dangerous." Tsuna squealed, sitting up from the stairs.

"You should already be aware that any electronics is inoperable during the Dark Hour so don't worry too much on it. Hopefully we don't spend here as long as we usually do with Tartarus."

"But your bike…" Tai pointed feebly.

"It's special." Milly patted the head of her motorbike. "If any circumstances change, I'll notify you immediately." Her radio transmitter radiated a sound as she nodded. "Good, everything's ready."

"Let's do t-this." Tsuna gulped.

They reached the monorail thankfully located just a walking distance from the station. The monorail was dyed green from the moonlight. Tartarus could be seen with the large full moon behind it creepily.

"Can you hear me?" Milly said through the transmitter.

"Yep!" Amu answered. "Clearly!"

"The readings definitely come from the monorail. Be careful when you're in there. Stay together."

"Got it, Senpai." Tai nodded to his friends and climbed into the monorail.

Tsuna stared at the coffin near of the entrances. "I wonder who this guy is…"

"No use pondering over that. That guy's safe in his coffin." Amu readied her bow and paused. "Wait, we're not at the station but the doors are wide open!"

Shocked, the trio hurried to one of the exit doors, trying to pull it open. "This is bad." Tai gawped.

"What happened?!" Milly's voice yelled from the transmitter.

"We're trapped inside. All the doors are shut." Amu answered swiftly, scanning for any rouge Shadows.

"It must have been that Shadow… It knows you're there. Be ready for anything! Proceed with caution!"

"Roger." Tai nodded to his friends and began to tread carefully.

By the time they reached Cart 6, Tsuna tightly clenched his fists, the vinyl of his gloves were almost visible. Tai lowered his weapon just in case to strike. Amu reached for an arrow in her quiver.

"It's so quiet it's creepy…" Amu's voice broke the silence.

Suddenly a Shadow dropped down in front of them, looking creepy as always, shocking the trio. However before anyone could react, it escape as soon as it appears.

Tsuna took off after it.

"Wait! Tsuna! Stop!"

Tsuna had already disappeared by then.

"You have to find him." Milly shouted in a panic from the radio. "The enemies are already acting strangely. Why did it leave?"

"We should go after them." Tai said, running through the doorway with Amu.

"Alright! Wait, behind you!"

They were attacked by Shadows from behind. Grumbling under his breath, Tai ordered Orpheus to use Agi out of agitation. As soon as they were destroyed, Amu and Tai ran off.

"This is what the Shadow wanted." Amu grouched, hunching her bow and shooting arrows.

"You have to go after him or you'll pick off one by one." Milly said with a frown.

"That- I thought he had more common sense!" Amu yelled. "I am going to scream at him!

They continued to exploit the weaknesses of the Shadows they encountered (mostly weak to Agi and Physical) and later found Tsuna battling some Shadows completely surrounded.

"We have to help him!"

They dove into the battle and finished the battle easily.

"You should already know the dangers of going off alone!" Amu admonished and her gaze softened. "But…are you alright?"

Tsuna looked away, glancing at Tai at the corner of his eye. "I am…"

Amu's eyes darkened.

Before she can retort, the monorail started to rumble and began to move forward at high speed. Tsuna was almost thrown back from the shock.

"What!? We're moving?!"

"It seems the Shadow took control of the monorail."

"'It seems'?!" Amu argued.

"If we don't stop this soon, we'll crash into another train!"

"WHAT?!" Three yells nearly blew out Milly's eardrum.

"Listen carefully: There's a strong presence in the front car. That must have been the one we're after. Go! You have exactly eight minutes to stop this train and defeat that Shadow!"

"Yeah!"

The trio nodded at each other and raced onwards, destroying random Shadows who got in their way.

When they reached the front car, they quickly took Snuff Souls and healed before taking on the main boss.

Tsuna's eyes nearly bulged at a half-naked woman who wore a red mask and green long skirt, an assortment of black and white hair completing the half black and white skin tone, a B and J embedded on its breast.

"We have to defeat this one quickly! You only have 5 minutes!" Milly shouted.

"Got it, Orpheus!" Tai shot himself hastily, a blast of flames hitting it on the chest.

"Penae! Cleave!" Tsuna yelled, slicing one of its minions that it summoned.

"Garu!"

It took almost the rest of the minutes. It was long and difficult as they each repeated their attacks, trying to find some weakness.

"Crap! Amu's Panicked! Anyone got a Patra Gem?" Milly shouted. Tai threw his Patra Gem at Amu, healing her from the state. She quickly followed up with a Garu.

Tai soon became Panicked himself but he was able to lead the penultimate attack, allowing Tsuna to make the final move, destroying it forever. Tsuna peeked at him at the corner of his eye, clouding with unknown emotions.

He then helped heal Tai with a Patra Gem.

"Wait! The train's still moving!" Amu shouted, pointing ahead. "And there's a train ahead!"

"We have to stop this now!"

Screams echoed as Tai raced forward to the controls.

Tsuna and Amu held their heads on the floor, looking around in shock. "Did it stop?" Much to their shock, they saw Tai standing by the controls.

"Y-you knew which was the brakes?" Tsuna mumbled.

Tai shrugged. "I followed my instincts."

"Thanks." Amu smiled happily. "You saved me again."

Once more, Tai felt a light smash in his head, indication of the Fool Arcanum ranking up.

Tsuna watched them converse and stared downward at his gloves. A smile curved his lips.

"Hey, Tai…"

Tai blinked and nodded him to continue.

"Sorry for my behavior though… I promise I won't do it again."

Tai shook his head and said, "I'm sure you have your own reasons to do what you did awhile ago."

Tsuna burst into tears, shocking the two. The two hurried to comfort him, exchanging surprised glimpses.

Tai barely heard another smash in his head, a Social Link with the Temperance Arcanum.

In the control room back at the dorms, Ichigo and Law were waiting for a response until they heard a peep. "Ichigo here." He said pressing the button.

"This is Milly." The senior smiled at the laughing trio approaching her. "We successfully completed the operation. The monorail didn't sustain any damage thankfully."

"Thank you, Milly." Law nodded. "When I heard they hijacked the monorail, I feared for the worst. Well done. Now tomorrow wouldn't have any troubles."

"They did a great job." Milly agreed, clapping her hands, shooing the juniors home. "They're learning quickly."

"But what are the Shadows up to?" Ichigo contemplated loudly. "Taking over a monorail… This is getting out of hand."

Law exhaled. "I'll be looking into the matter."

"Does that mean it begun?"

"We cannot jump to any conclusion." Law said diplomatically. "We cannot afford to always wait for them to make the first move."

"If only I had more power, things wouldn't be so difficult for the others." Milly revved her motorbike and rode on to the dorms.

"Don't be hard on yourself. You're doing fine." The chairman reassured gently.

Tai sighed, watching the TV in boredom. That is until his phone rang.

He picked up his cellphone and to his shock, Elizabeth answered. "Hello, this is Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth? Why you're calling?" Tai shot up from his bed.

"I'm calling to inform you a change in Tartarus… I believe a path that had been blocked is now open. I thought you like to know. I wish you a safe journey."

She hanged up. Tai groaned into his hands. He has to meet up with Joe today for lunch and take Amu for a walk afterwards to get her to talk to him. After that, Tartarus.

What a busy day…

Joe happily chewed on his rice. "Man, this is good. The beef bowl here was said to be good and I never thought it would be this good."

Tai chuckled. "I was surprised too when I went here with a friend of mine." He then raised an eyebrow.

"So how it's going at the hospital?"

Joe raised one finger as he finished munching his meat. "Fine. For some strange reason, there are less amount of people catching Apathy Syndrome for the past two months. I'm very thankful for that though."

Tai smiled secretively behind his beef. "So what do you figure where the Apathy Syndrome come from?"

"I believe it's depression in a deep level. Even though the symptoms are similar, the doctors had run many tests and found no exact cause." Joe replied through a mouthful of rice. "The similarities to depression are striking…" He put down his chopsticks. "That girl… Her name's Jun, a student from Ohtori Academy's conjunction college. She wanted to do so much with her life…"

"When I was talking to her, she was talking how her parents died when she was young and how she hoped to find love one day." Joe lowered his gaze on his bowl. "I want to help her…"

"I think you can help her." Tai said with a smile. "There is no cure yet for the Apathy Syndrome, right? Maybe talking to them may help."

"That's true." Joe smiled, finishing the last of his meal. "We go talk to each other more often. We can exchange advice then and there when our conversations popped up."

Tai laughed.

At the back of his mind, the Hierophant Arcanum ranked up.

"So Amu, you want to talk to me?" Tai sat on the Honou Shrine's staircase, the bright moonlight shining beautifully on the city.

"Well, we haven't spent together much aside from our group interaction with SEES." Amu sat down next to Tai, melting into her seat. "I just want to talk you a little more." She sighed. "Well, to everyone except some of my friends I am the 'Cool and Spicy Amu'. I only showed that mask of coolness because people think I am that kind of person: unapproachable but at the same time popular."

"So what kind of person you want to be?"

"A friend of mine once said she was inspired by the 'true me'…before she died before she could even accomplish her dream as a singer." Amu turned her gaze to the pavement. "But I don't even know the true me myself… In fact, I don't remember anything before I became 'Cool and Spicy'."

"We could discover you." Tai smiled. "Together. If you don't know yourself as much as you think you do, we could discover why you react to things that bother you so much, what you locked up." He sighed. "I don't want to pry on any personal business."

Amu stood straight and tall. "Come on! Let's go ask Milly if we can go to Tartarus today!"

Before he could reply, she whisked away with a proud smile.

"Hey, Tai, mind tagging along with me to the hospital?" Tsuna suggested after school that day. His relationship with Tai had strengthened since the monorail incident.

Tai smiled and nodded. "What for?"

"Kurosaki-senpai asked me to pick up a roster and take it to him at the hospital where he is having one of his many check-ups lately."

"Really?"

Amu popped up between them, interested. "Then I should go too. I want to check up on Senpai as well."

"Sure, why not?"

The trio walked into a relatively empty hospital room. By the bedside sat a man with long violet hair and remarkable dark eyes that both immersed strength. They paused slowly.

Unless Kurosaki suddenly turned into a slightly shorter man who wears his clothes so dark than yeah... maybe it's him.

"Ah, sorry for making you come here!"

There he is. Ichigo stood at the door, looking perfectly fine. "It's okay, you don't have to come check up on me." The trio didn't know if he's trying to reassure them or the man over there.

The man rolled his eyes, waved casually and left the room.

"Just wondering about this... why do you fight? I mean you are the strongest member and captain of the Kendo team but you must have some reason to fight like we do..." Tsuna asked, handing him the roster as Ichigo thanked him. Tai was completely unaware that his new friends were staring behind him like a hawk.

"I fight because I want to protect." Ichigo shrugged. "It doesn't matter as long as I have this power. As long as I have it, then I can protect my friends and family."

"That's a good reason to fight!" Amu smiled as Ichigo spun on his heel. "Come on, Senpai! Let's go eat at Hagakure!"

Amu dragged Ichigo away, trailing behind laughing friends.

I hope you enjoy it. Please read and review. It would help me and the story.

Author Notes

Social Links: Asterisks would mark which rank (10). All links dealt with canon events in respective anime rather than sticking to what Persona 3 gave us. Some social links would take place in like a few months and I wanted to give them at least a chance. I might have a few chapters that dealt with Social Links only. There are some Social Links that I planned that are very much story-related but that's till later.

Strength - Utena Tenjou: **

Upright: inner strength, know inner desires and keep them in check, inner female empowerment, control of passion over instinct,

Chariot - Nagihiko Fujisaki: **

Upright: conflicting energies in harmony, working with boundaries to build success

Emperor - Lelouch Lamperouge: **

Upright: authority, maintaining power over a situation

Lovers - Amu Hinamori: **

Upright: Love, passion, choices, struggle of two paths, duality

Magician - Black* Star: *

Upright: self-motivation, potential, determination

Hierophant - Joe Kido: **

Upright: Giving wisdom to others, taking what already know and apply it, solution to problem

Temperance - Tsuna: *