Um...

The meaning of life is 42?

We really need to work on our opening statements.

Nightlyy : #BestBro

clevernameeh : When I want to be, I can be a master troll. You'd do best to remember that.

RAX : Well, I'm here in the AN/s but as far as the story is concerned...

He doesn't exist.

Perhaps it's better this way.

Agreed.

... I hate all of you.

Ultimate Kuuga : Well, you see *censored* How many times do I have to explain to everyone?

The world may never know.

DarkRai99 : Indeed. It was a very close call.

Now, she has to go through the process of un-reversing a link. Ain't that a pain?

SolidShinji104 : I think most of us would.

Raymond Lightbringer : I know not of what you speak of.

He's a dumbass, so...

For once, we agree.

Really? I would've said : Brain-dead, foolish, dull-witted, lazy, moronic, dense, vapid, and dull-witted fucktard.

...

Holy shit, Pharos...

School

It'd now been 2 days after Makoto had figured out what had happened to Fuuka Yamagishi and where her current whereabouts were. He'd always wondered what would happen if one decided to stay in Tartarus even after the Dark Hour ended, apparently you just skip a day and remain in the tower.

Yesterday had been Sunday, so no one could do anything since this was a school related matter. During that time spent waiting, Makoto did his usual cutting and waiting, completely undisturbed by anyone/anything.

Now, well, now maybe SEES would finally get their heads out of their asses and do something. Saving Fuuka wasn't his problem, so why should he concern himself with such matters?

At least, that's what Makoto thought at first.

"I think we should go into Tartarus tonight." Pharos said to his old friend as the 2 of them stood on the roof

"You... Want me to save that girl, Fuuka?" Makoto asked for clarification, he'd do if that's what Pharos wanted but he wanted to be sure he understood everything.

"There'll be another one of those shadows tonight." Pharos explained what he meant along with his reasoning "If those other girls were found here, perhaps the shadow will appear here as well."

"I see..." Makoto said as he leaned against the fence "And if Fuuka's there, she'll be the next target regardless if she's a persona user or not."

Pharos nodded "Precisely." he confirmed "Though, how do we end up in the same area as her?"

"Well, let's figure out where she was..." Makoto said as he thought to himself.

If Fuuka was in Tartarus, that means she was here when the school transformed. If that was the case, then she was likely trapped in an area that she couldn't get out of.

The lockers here were incredibly small, so unless she was the size of a pair of shoes that was out.

It'd have to be somewhere with a lock that people wouldn't hear just by passing by...

"The gym." Makoto said with certainty, if those girls got their hands on the keys and pushed her in then it'd fit the bill perfectly

Pharos tilted his head, seemingly confused about something "How can we get in there during the night?"

"We don't." Makoto answered "We just need to hide really well as to not be noticed by the staff when they lock the place up."

"But, what if SEES finds you before the Dark Hour?" He asked, thinking of all possible scenarios

Makoto shrugged it off, seemingly unconcerned about any potential consequences "Let 'em. Just because they know about me doesn't me they know about you and me." he explained "Besides, might learn a thing or 2 if they know what I am."

Pharos seemed to think to himself for a moment before nodding "I understand."

Several Hours Later

Makoto listened to his earphones as he simply sat and waited for the Dark Hour to come.

Hiding... It wasn't anything new to him. For the first few years since that day, he was forced to hide from shadows when they came.

Every night, he was forced to tremble in terror as he heard people scream in pain and fear as the shadows turned them into one of the Lost.

Every night, the memory of what happened replayed over and over again which forced him to cry himself to sleep. Over and over, he wished that this was all some bad dream that he could just wake up from. He wanted to wake up to being comforted by his parents, maybe even get teased once or twice by her...

But that was never going to happen; They all died long ago, leaving only him.

Suddenly, he heard voices from the other side

"C'mon, move it!" The voice seemed to be in a rush, though it was too muffled to make out whose voice it was

"Alright, alright, cool it!" Said another voice in response

"Quiet down." A third voice warned as the door to the gym opened.

Makoto kept hiding as he saw Kotone, Junpei, and Akihiko enter.

Well, I'll be damned. Makoto thought in slight surprise, they actually figured it out around the same time he did. Though, if they're here, it'd probably be best not to hide anymore.

Makoto stepped out of his hiding place as he looked at the small group, the other 2 must've decided to stay at the entrance for support

"How do you do?" Makoto greeted with a smirk which startled all of SEES causing them to briefly jump

"Makoto-kun?" Kotone rubbed her eyes and blinked rapidly, surprised that the boy was standing here at this time at night

"What the hell are you doing here?" Junpei asked, also surprised by the bluenette's appearance

Makoto looked at his watch, just a few seconds to go.

The boy waved casually at the 3 persona users "See ya on the other side."

"Wha-" Before any of them could ask anything, everything went black as the school transformed into Tartarus.

...

...

"Nrgh..." Makoto groaned as he woke up from the school's transformation. Judging by his surroundings, he was definitely deep inside Tartarus.

"It looks like the plan was a success." Pharos said as he appeared in front of the boy "She should be somewhere around here."

Makoto stood back up and thought to himself, with them seeing who he was, what persona should he use?

He couldn't use Thanatos, he didn't need them to know that he and the hooded boy were the same person. However, considering Kotone could change personas like he could, he needed something that would be exclusive to him.

In the end, he only had 1 persona left that could fit that bill.

Makoto sighed as he made his way through Tartarus . Time to downgrade myself... he thought

Suddenly he heard "Are you... human?"

"Hmm?" Makoto looked around, but there was no one anywhere around him.

"It looks like she has telepathy." Pharos noted "Perhaps her persona is dedicated to scanning?"

"That so?" Makoto asked as he continued to walk through the various blocks of this tower, that would definitely explain how she'd survive in Tartarus this long. Looks like he'd have to be careful to have Pharos disguise his presence in the future if this girl survived and joined SEES.

Come to think of it, they were probably going to ask him to join too. But, it wasn't like they could for him, could they?

Makoto's thoughts were cut off when he heard one of the many shadows from within the tower growl as it took notice of him.

It was then that he realized something.

If Fuuka had sensory abilities and if Mitsuru could sense what was happening here, they'd know that he killed one of them.

If he killed one of them, they'd know he summoned a persona without one of those gun things... Just like the hooded boy did. He wanted to avoid anything that risked them connecting the dots, so if now that he was facing shadow...

Makoto sighed "Goddammit..." he muttered before taking off as fast as he could. He may not of exercised regularly, but he was more than fit enough that he could outrun something as a shadow.

Surprisingly, despite not having legs, the shadow put up a rather good chase.

"Go right." Pharos informed the boy, directing him towards the stairs. One of the stranger things about shadows was that they stayed in their blocks and never up the stairs, even The Reaper followed this rule once he appeared.

Once he reached the top of the stairs, he was able to walk at his leisure again.

This was going to get tedious very quickly.

At least, that's what he thought before he heard the sounds of rattling chains again.

The boy groaned "Son of a bitch..." looks like the shadow was telling the truth, he really was unkillable. And now, he was attacking the one night he can't fight back.

"There's another person here!" Pharos informed, hoping that he/she would get there in time to help in time

"I warned you that you couldn't truly kill me..." The Reaper spoke as its voice echoed through the halls "... And I suspect that you aren't able to fight back currently, are you?"

"What the hell do you want from me?" Makoto asked. The shadow seemed to have a fixation of him, but why?

"You imprison something of importance." The Reaper answered as it progressively came closer and closer "Killing you will set it free."

"I see..." He didn't need to ask, he already knew what he was talking about "... And if he doesn't want to be set free?"

The Reaper seemed to let out what seemed to be a sigh "Your soul tainted him just as his essence has tainted you..."

Suddenly, Makoto felt the pain of electricity from a Ziodyne hit him. With the current persona that he equipped in preparation, the blow did enough damage to knock the bluenette off his feet from the persona's weakness being exploited

"... To put it in words that you'll understand : You're a disease, in need of removal and nothing more." The Reaper spoke as it towered over the boy.

The shadow aimed its revolvers at the boy, ready to kill the boy as many times as it took to keep him dead permanently.

Then, there was the sound of a gun going off followed by breaking glass "Pyro Jack!"

The Reaper's face was suddenly set ablaze which made the surprised shadow grunt in pain.

Next thing Makoto knew, Kotone was right next to him

"Come on! We need to hurry!" She warned. She was able to to catch The Reaper by surprise, but that wasn't going to be the case one it recovered.

There wasn't a need to tell him twice.

Makoto got back on his feet and took off with the same girl that he had a falling out with as The Reaper chased them.

"This way!" Kotone yelled as they turned a corner. The strategy of using the stairs to avoid powerful shadows was a strategy was popular with SEES as well.

The 2 sprinted for the stairs as The Reaper quickly caught up, its floating ghost-like body making it faster than the average shadow

"No!" The Reaper shouted as it fired off a another shot, this one managing to strike Makoto's right shoulder

"Grgh..!" Makoto grunted he felt the pain of the bullet entering the back of his shoulder and out the front "... Motherfucker!" he cussed as the 2 made it to the stairs.

When the 2 made it to the top of the stairs, Kotone's instantly shifted to Makoto's injury.

"Let me see that." She ordered, still having her no nonsense leader-voice

"It's nothing." Makoto shrugged it off, he'd already been incinerated into nothing so a gunshot was nothing to him.

"Drop the tough guy act." She chastised as she moved closer

"Not what I meant." Makoto said as he opened up his shirt and showed the bullet had completely healed already. If Fuuka was able to use telepathy, then he should be able to pass off his healing as one of his abilities.

"Whoa..." Kotone blinked rapidly, as if she was shocked "H-How'd you do that?"

Makoto shrugged "Just kinda happens." he answered before looking around them "So... Don't suppose you can explain why a tower comes every night?"

"It's... a long story." She said as she looked around "At any rate, we're going to have to look for the rest of the guys. We won't get very far without 'em."

"If I had to guess, we're probably on if not around the same block as them. We did come in the same way at the same time." The boy theorized, not even needing Pharos to come to that conclusion.

"Hope your right." She mumbled as the 2 walked on, Kotone always keeping that gun thing by her side

Now that he thought about it, now was the perfect time to ask.

"Mind explaining the gun?" Makoto asked

"It's called an Evoker." She answered "It's used to summon this thing called 'persona'. That's another long story."

"Fine by me." he replied, happy that he at least had a name for the thing now.

And then, the two began to walk silently again. Makoto couldn't help but feel that the situation was somewhat awkward given their previous encounters.

Whenever a shadow came, Kotone was more than capable of taking them out with one of her various personas. Though, this might've largely been due to the fact that the shadows were in relatively low numbers here for some reason.

During the battles, Makoto had nothing to do but sit and wait like a helpless child. While this did irk him somewhat, he was still able to bare with it to maintain his cover.

Eventually, after what felt like hours of wondering, the 2 of them finally saw what looked like human figures.

"Hey!" The figures approached, revealing themselves to be Junpei, Akihiko, and a new short girl.

"There they are..." Kotone said in relief as the 2 groups converged "Glad to see you guys are alright."

"Right back at ya." Junpei said with his typical Junpei smile before noticing Makoto "I see you found him, too..."

"Nice to see you, too." Makoto said sarcastically before looking at the short girl "Fuuka Yamagishi, I take it?"

After a moment in hesitation, the girl nodded "A-And you are?"

"Yuki." Makoto answered "Makoto Yuki."

"And why were you even here to begin with?" Akihiko asked what'd been on everyone's mind

Makoto shrugged "I was bored and wanted to solve a mystery."

Everyone stared at him "Y-You came here... because you were bored?"

"Pretty much." He answered without a moment in hesitation "So, are we going to leave, or sit here until that Reaper thing tries to kill us again?"

That was enough to remind Kotone of the situation at hand "He's right. We got what we came here for, time to go."

And with that, they group were forced to wonder the halls of the Dark Tower yet again, much to Makoto's personal ire.

After awhile, they came across an area with open windows that revealed the large full moon. Everyone took a moment to take in how alien something as ordinary as the moon had become now.

"Full moon, eh?" The bluenette muttered before something clicked in his head.

Tonight was a full moon...

Last month on the 9th, the same day he killed the Priestess, that was also a full moon.

Akihiko turned towards Kotone "Hey, do you remember what the moon was the night the dorm was attacked?" Apparently Akihiko was thinking the same thing

"It was full." Kotone answered as everyone put the pieces together.

Akihiko reached for what looked like some sort of communication device and began calling out to Mitsuru but only received static, how those things worked despite the Dark Hour taking hold along was anyone's guess.

"Damn." Akihiko cursed as he faced the rest "If my guess is right, those shadows appear every full moon!"

Now with a large sense of urgency, the group ran until they found one the strange transportation devices and finally leaving the main blocks of the tower.

...

...

When the group arrived at the entrance, they saw Yukari and Mitsuru were both being attacked by 2 large shadows, while lacking numerals still have the colors/designs for the Emperor and Empress.

Yukari was lying on the ground next to an all but destroyed bike (yet another thing to question)

The brunette grunted "Argh, nothing's working!" she explained the main issue.

Meanwhile, Emperor who had been painfully holding onto Mitsuru with one hand threw her next to the brunette

Makoto glared at the 2 shadows as he had to fight the urge for his eyes to glow as a response to his hostility. 2 shadows, 2 targets... and 6 people that are responsible for handicapping him.

Out of nowhere, another girl suddenly marched into Tartarus seemingly in some sort of daze. Judging by her being here, she must've been the remaining 3rd girl who were responsible for Fuuka being here to begin with.

"Moriyama-san!" Fuuka exclaimed before running to the girl's side which just so happened to be right next to the shadows as well

When the shadows prepared to attack, Fuuka pulled out an Evoker of her own (presumably given before the 2 groups met)

"Wait, that's not a weapon!" Akihiko warned, apparently he must've not explained its function very well

"I know!" Fuuka said using telepathy again before putting it to her head and pulling the trigger as Emperor swung its sword

Then, her persona Lucia appeared which also formed a protective barrier around her and Moriyama which prevented the Emperor blow from doing any damage

Makoto simply rolled his eyes, completely unmoved by what had just happened. All he could think was So the one who can't fight gets one, huh?

His eyes continued to wander as SEES continued, now using Fuuka as a means to analyze the 2 shadows while the injured girls simply stood on stand by.

It was then that he noticed that Yukari's Evoker was also on the floor just like it was on the roof of the dorm 2 months back.

She should really take better care of these things... Makoto thought as he picked up the gun. At least now he had a means to actually do something other than sitting around.

"Wait, what're you doing?!" Yukari shouted as the boy walked closer to the fight

"What you're apparently bad at." Makoto responded as he placed the gun against his temple. He didn't need Fuuka, he could tell just by looking at them.

The boy took a deep breath as he pulled the trigger and summoned one of his oldest personas "Orpheus!"

Above Makoto, a humanoid figure formed above him. The figure had a metallic pale silver body with an equally pale lyre by his side, near the stomach was what looked to be some sort of speaker in the place of actual vocal cords. Most notably, the persona's face heavily mimicked Makoto's.

Makoto didn't even bother wasting time pausing like the rest of SEES, he just looked at Empress.

Agi. He silently ordered as Orpheus played his lyre and caused the shadow to suddenly burst into flames

In retaliation, Emperor rushed to the boy and attempted to cut him in 2.

Makoto easily side stepped the shadow's easy to telegraph attack "Too slow." he taunted as Orpheus used his lyre to strike the shadow's face.

The rest of the fighting members of SEES made their way to the boy.

"Alright, let's keep in short." Kotone said, never taking her eyes off the shadows "Those things, shadows. Shadows, bad."

"And we need to hit 'em until they die." Junpei finished with a cocky smirk on his face, he certainly was excited about all this.

Makoto sighed, so this is what being treated like rookie was going to be like; Being told all the crap that you already know and probably know better in some instances.

As the two shadows recovered, Makoto could feel each one of their affinities change suddenly. What worked before wasn't going to work now. Suddenly, the girls having issues with them made much more sense.

"The one on the left is weak to ice!" Fuuka informed, referring to the empress "And the other should be weak to slash attacks!"

Kotone fired her Evoker again "Jack Frost." God must have a sense of humor, because she summoned the same thing she teased Makoto for having a toy of.

Jack Frost merely looked at Empress before the shadow was trapped in a literal block of ice that knocked the thing down as soon it shattered.

"Get a load of me!" Junpei boasted as he fired his own Evoker and summoned his persona, Hermes.

Hermes seemed to fly to Emperor before using the edge of his heel to both slash and knock the shadow off its feet.

With both of them knocked down, Kotone saw their chance "All-Out attack!"

Then, the members of SEES charged at the shadows, repeatedly using their weapons to make small injuries on the shadows as they kept their momentum going hit after hit while Makoto was reduced to simply watching again. Eventually the helpless shadows simply faded into a black mist from.

Makoto sighed Boring. He mentally rated the fight as he dropped the Evoker he 'borrowed' and walked past Fuuka who had passed out from exhaustion.

"Wait!" Makoto stopped in his tracks as soon as he heard Mitsuru speak

Not even giving her a chance to continue, he said "Call me when she wakes up. Until then, would you kindly piss off?" before walking off again. He already knew what it was about and he didn't have any reason to say 'yes' to anything.

Home

Makoto took off his uniformed as dressed into his night clothes and hit the bed as soon as he got home. It'd been a long day, and that warranted a long night to sleep.

"They know your secret now." Pharos warned, concerned about what repercussions may come

"Only one." Makoto shrugged it off, they were going to find out 1 way or another.

"Minato..." The boy sat up as soon as he noticed the somewhat nervous tone in Pharos' voice "... there's something I remember now."

Makoto leaned forward, now providing his full attention "What?"

Pharos placed his hand on Makoto's as the latter closed his eyes and felt foreign memories enter his mind. There were various things he felt, he felt the pain of deconstruction and reformation in an unstable body, the sight of a white room, and thousands of voices all talking and overlapping at once...

..But there was 1 name that still stood out even among all that.

Makoto's eyes glowed as he felt hatred stronger than anything he'd ever felt before surface "... Kirijo."

Dun, dun, DUH!

Well, shit, he knows now.

Bits and pieces. Though, I don't think details matter too much, just more names for his list.

Pretty much. So, the shittiest initial persona in history decided to show..

Yup. Oh, and a little change here is that Orpheus' Arcana is Death this time around. Why? Well, it's been theorized that Minato's/Makoto's true Arcana is Death up until Philemon blessed him and made him a Fool.

Now, he only has me.

He still has his 'broken' Wild Card though. So, he's not restricted.