AN: Sorry if the quality is extra crappy, I've spent the last couple of days with a Ti-84+ for company so the creative juices might not have been flowing. If any of you creative writing majors have any tips, go ahead and PM me or some shit. I'm gonna start picking up the pace so I don't end up writing 950,000 words by the time Aigis shows up.

Terms you may be unfamiliar with:

-L16 mortar: Heavy ass metal tube that shoots grenades.

-Type-64: Battle rifle, looks kinda like an FN-FAL.

-PASGT: Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops, essentially a thick water-repellent bullet proof vest. It's soft armor so it doesn't have any of the heavy duty ceramic or steel plates most military's use.

-MEDEVAC: Essentially an airborne ambulance.

-PX: Post Exchange, the closest thing to a Walmart on base.

-BDU: Battle Dress Uniform, camo you usually see troops wearing in movies.

-MEPS: Military Entrance Processing Station. Where they run tests on you, test you with the ASVAB, and let you pick a job before shipping you off.

-ASVAB: Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, it's sorta like the SAT (or GCSE ) for the military. It shows the brass what jobs you're ideal for.

-WZ-10: Pretty badass Chinese attack helicopter.

-MLRS: Multiple Launch Rocket System, just a vehicle that can shoot more than one rocket.

-CFB: Clear as a Fucking Bell.

-E&E: Escape and Evade.

-Klick: Kilometer

Last Edited: 05/25/16, changed some shit to improve the flow of the story.

The Coming Storm

The 30 kilo rucksack was proving to be too much for the young cadet, what had felt like a reasonable load twenty minutes ago was now threatening to invert his spine. It was a far cry from the load he had to carry a few days ago, their instructor had them disassemble their L16 mortars and he'd been stuck carrying the 10 kilo base plate in addition to his usual load under a scorching 37C sun.

The hot and humid 35C air of today had already caused a quarter of his platoon to get pulled aside for potential heatstroke and dehydration, not that their Sergeant gave a damn. He jogged alongside them, cool and comfortable in his cammies as they were stuck lugging around their suffocating body armor and Type-64's. The rifle's already generous 4.4 kilo steel frame was complemented by a cement filled practice barrel and a magazine full of inert ammunition. The only mercy extended to the cadets had been the absence of their steel helmets that usually complemented their PASGT.

Minato had never been one to complain, but after their first summer hump he'd vocalized his grievances to his foster father. He had listened to him intently before bursting out in laughter and telling him that he'd done 8 hour construction shifts under mortar fire in the brutal 44C Iraqi sun for six months. His foster mother also showed little sympathy, she'd done weeks of MEDEVAC training in the brutally humid Philippine jungles with ANZAC and US forces.

The only solace Minato could find was the constant reminder that nothing was permanent, despite the stifling heat and heavy load, he only had to soldier on for a few more minutes. "The only thing stopping you is yourself", his Cadet Lieutenant would constantly remind them as he sent them off to PT and stayed behind chatting with the enlisted men. Minato wiped the thick sweat off his brow and polished off the rest of his canteen before picking up his pace and getting back in formation. He felt a gentle tap on his shoulder and turned his head to face a sweaty cadet.

"Psst, you torrent those games for us yet? We got you the prepaid card from the PX already." Whispered his fellow cadet. He was almost a head taller than Minato, his gaunt lanky frame was ill suited for bearing weight on these long jogs as evidenced by the thick sweat stains on his forest BDU.

He nodded before responding between ragged breaths, "Yeah...I got 'em."

"DID I JUST FUCKING CATCH TWO CADETS TALKING AND JOGGING!?" Bellowed out their Sergeant.

"No sir!" They quickly replied in unison.

The cool air conditioning of their barracks offered a reprieve from the summer heat for the cadets. Minato and the rest of the artillery team rested their sore legs on their bunks as they enjoyed their down time.

"Hey Arisato, you ever gonna cut that hair or are you planning to keep lookin' like a faggot till MEPS?" Asked his cadet Sergeant First Class. The other cadets shared a laugh, most of them had shaved their heads after reaching the rank of "Cadet Leading Private" as a tradition. He'd already passed up three chances at promotion just to keep himself from joining the buzz cut club.

Minato flipped off the cadet. "Fuck off Ogawa, I might just forget to activate your VPN next time you want to jack off to furry porn on the base's wifi." He threatened.

The cadet blushed in embarrassment as his fellow NCO's began laughing at his expense. He marched up to Minato before grabbing his collar and raising him from his seat forcefully.

"Listen here you fucking chevron, don't go spreading rumors!" He whispered brusquely.

Minato restrained the urge to punch the man and gave him a nod. The cadet let go of his collar before returning to his group.

"Just wash your fucking hands next time you grab me." Minato muttered under his breath.

He grabbed his laptop from his bunk and took off to the only place that granted him solace.

The librarian greeted him as he enter the small but air conditioned building with a small wave that the young cadet returned before retreating to his usual hiding spot. He'd taken refuge in one of the computer labs for the past couple of days since they began their artillery meet and greet. The troops stationed here ignored him for the most part, only occasionally calling him a "fucking cadidiot" and making him clean or do other menial tasks. He could live with it, the amount of business he was getting from them and his fellow cadets from torrenting games and setting up VPN's was more than enough to offset the mil-spec hazing.

He booted up his laptop and continued with his Python courses. He knew damn well he wasn't going to college, but on the off chance he wasn't killed by Chinese troops within the next decade, it wouldn't hurt to carry some help desk certifications in his resume.

Programming wasn't his favorite discipline, far from it, but whenever he was "in the zone" and the lines of code started coming naturally to him he felt closer to his father. He'd been a Software Engineer for some local investment firm before his untimely death. Minato vaguely remembered sitting in his office and coloring on his fax paper while he typed away on an IBM desktop, something about the compiling of code on his laptop helped bring those memories back more vividly.

"Didn't know they let you become a bullet sponge if you scored above 30 on the ASVAB." A familiar feminine voice quipped.

Minato closed his laptop and turned to face the brunette behind him.

"C'mon, I'm not a bullet sponge. I have some ambition." He joked.

She shook her head and pulled a chair from the nearby computer desks before sitting in front of him. Her brown hair was tucked under a cadet beret and her flecktarn cammies were embellished with red cross insignias. He'd only known her for a few days but given the brutally boring nature of their training they'd been spending every minute of their down time together.

"Yeah right, you're gonna be canned food for the WZ-10's. Real ambitious there Arisato." She chided.

He shrugged, "MLRS isn't too shabby, you gotta know a little bit of algebra to get considered."

"Yet your nerdy ass is in here either programming or reading physiology books." She said before pointing to herself, "I'm the one who's supposed to be into all this anatomy shit, why aren't you going into Electronic Defense or Medical?"

He leaned closer and made sure they were alone before answering her, "I might get treated like shit sometimes but those guys in my platoon are my brothers, we might swing at each other but I wouldn't want anyone else by side when shit hits the fan. We've trained together for years and I don't plan on ditching them for a higher pay grade."

She sighed and leaned back against her chair. "I get that, I really do, but I've never heard you talk about rockets or physics or any of that other arty bullshit. What's the point of picking an MOS that you don't enjoy if you're just gonna be stuck doing it for a decade?" She argued.

He frowned. "I like medicine as a discipline, I just...I can't handle death. From a pragmatic biological sense? Yeah, I get it. Trophic levels, biomes, carrying capacities, all that shit. Holding an artery shut as your buddy cries out for his mother? That fucks me up. MLRS has the courtesy of keeping me 3 kilometers away from the combat while helping on the front lines." He explained.

"Why not IT then? Keep their comms running, fix their tank computers, that type of shit." She asked.

"I fucking hate IT. Yeah, it's useful as hell but if I had to work on our Windows 2000 servers for a decade I'd probably blow my brains out. I'd be interested in signing on as a programmer if the education stipend was more generous, but as it stands we can barely pay for the academy even with my foster's military benefits. I don't see a 4 year computer science degree in my future." He pointed out.

She got off her seat and stood in front of him at parade rest. "You should wake up." She said.

Minato gave her a perplexed look. "Huh? Where did that come from?" He asked.

"You said you were gonna take us gear shopping, c'mon get up." She nagged as she motioned her head towards the door of the computer lab.

Minato jumped out of his seat as he felt a sharp poke at his side. He scanned the empty classroom with bleary eyes, Yukari and Junpei stood near his seat, the latter was holding a suspicious protractor that was most likely the culprit behind the stinging he felt in his side.

"You could've shaken me." He said as he rubbed the drowsiness from his eyes.

"Duh, we've been doing that for like two minutes." Junpei groaned before smirking, "I get it though, you were just having a steamy dream. It happens to the best of us."

"My dreams are my concern Iori-san, you can project your browser history on someone else." He deadpanned before grabbing his backpack.

"Not everyone is as perverted as you Stupei." Yukari teased.

Junpei brushed her comment aside. "Yeah, at least I ain't the one drawin' little hearts around a certain someone's name instead of taking notes." He snickered.

The brunette chucked a pen at their capped friend as her cheeks fired up. "I DID NO SUCH THING!" She yelled as she reached out to strangle the teen.

Minato strolled up to them and gingerly pried the brunette's hands from Junpei's throat before stepping in between the duo.

"Let's head to the police station before Odagiri gets me booted off of student council." He said as he gestured to the door.

Yukari groaned, "Why'd you join the student council, you didn't even check out the archery or boxing teams."

Minato stifled a chuckle. "I was voluntold, Kirijo-senpai had the paperwork filled out and turned in by the time she asked me to join." He explained.

"Woah...and you're cool with that?" Junpei asked.

Minato nodded, "She pays for all my expenses, I'm not exactly in a position to be making complaints. Plus, she just wants me check in a few times a month. Not exactly a tough commitment to keep up."

He turned to face the brunette. "And I'm still gonna check out the archery club, I suppose a silent ranged alternative could come in handy." He said.

"Hey Kurosawa-san, what's up?" Junpei greeted as the fire team walked into the police station. The officer sighed and motioned for Minato to come up.

He placed the ledger in front of the team's leader and spoke, "My spare time is scarce this entire week now that cases of apathy syndrome are spiking. You need to make a dent in whatever's causing all this. I've got a lot of new stock in so buy up."

Minato looked over the ledger, a few items caught his eye and he started mulling over different budget plans in his head. The bulletproof shirts are non-negotiable. The 40lb compound bow sounds pretty good, I'll have to ask Takeba if she can handle the draw weight first though. Iori needs a sword, that's non-negotiable. I don't need the .357 revolver, but good god do I want it.

"Takeba-san, can you use a 40 pound bow?" He asked.

She nodded, "Yeah, anything less than seventy pounds I can handle. After that I can't really hold it at full draw for very long."

He turned to Kurosawa. "We'll take the bow, bastard sword, and four bulletproof shirts...How much cash will I have to add if I trade my P220 for that Taurus 608?" He asked as he placed the briefcase Mitsuru had given him on the counter.

"Throw in 10,000 yen and it's yours. I'll need to confiscate the conversion kit and your munitions, can't have anyone find bullets in a high school dorm after this blows over." Kurosawa said.

Minato frowned, he wasn't looking forward to having anything taken out of his stockpile.

"Can't we just turn them in after we eliminate the threat? We occasionally find equipment in the field, I don't want ammo availability to be a problem." He proposed.

Kurosawa furrowed his brow in contemplation before finally conceding. "Alright, but I have a log of everything you buy so don't try and hold out on me...You want hollow point or magnum rounds?" He asked while holding up two cartons of .357 ammo.

"Magnum, hard targets have become a growing problem." Minato said without skipping a beat.

Kurosawa let out a small chuckle. "Alright kid, just don't come crying to me when you break your wrists." He snickered.

"Hey." The voice of a familiar child called out.

Minato groaned as he sat up on his bed, the morning workout with Akihiko had been especially draining and managed to knock him out during Ekoda's lecture. He wasn't about to be robbed of another good night's sleep by a pre-teen prison ghost.

"You need something?" He asked while stifling a yawn.

The child teleported to the foot of his bed before plopping down on his mattress. "There will be a full moon next week, a new ordeal awaits you…" He said ominously.

"A new ordeal? Shit…So we need to be ready for it in one week?" He asked while subconsciously clearing his schedule of everything but tartarus operations.

The kid nodded, "When the moon grows full your greatest challenges will emerge. Prepare yourself, time is of the essence."

With that, the ghost child disappeared. Minato sunk back into his mattress and got to brainstorming.

Yukari sat down with Minato and helped him string his practice bow. Their team prodigy, Kazushi Miyamoto, tapped his feet impatiently as he waited to see what their newest recruit was capable of. Yuko Nishiwaki walked around their range and recorded their scores while throwing the trio an occasional glance.

"So you've never used a bow before?" Kazushi asked in disbelief.

Minato shook his head.

The athlete groaned, "Ugh, Yukari, I wasn't serious when I said anyone would do. I was hoping for someone who had at least fired one before."

"Give him a shot Kaz, he's a quick learner." Yukari said.

Minato stood with his newly strung bow and a hip mounted quiver.

"Let's get this over with." He said dryly as he walked up to the range. The only thing keeping him from collapsing was the dose of adderall he'd taken in the morning and he was in no mood for any of this, not after that cryptic warning he'd received.

Kaz and Yuko stood near him, eagerly awaiting to see what their new member could bring to the table. Yukari drew her practice bow and Minato mimicked her posture. She released her arrow and landed a shot in one of the red circles.

"Eight points, not bad at all." Yuko commented as she jotted down the brunette's score.

Minato stood up straight and emptied his lungs before lining up the foreign weapon as best he could before releasing his arrow. The shot landed in the outermost blue ring of the target.

"Five points, pretty good seeing as you've never done this before." Yuko complimented.

"Yeah it's decent for a beginner but we can't settle for decent with the tournament being so close." Kaz grumbled.

Minato rolled his eyes and fired an arrow with a half-assed stance. The arrow flew in a wild arch before landing dead center in the target. He stared blankly at the target before firing his two other arrows in the same fashion, they twisted around haphazardly before digging into the center of the target.

Yukari's eyes widened. "How the f-" She whispered before getting cut off by Kazushi.

"Arisato, my man! Welcome to the team." Kaz happily exclaimed as he put his arm around Minato's shoulders. The athlete dragged him off to their storage room to fetch him a uniform.

"Good find Yukari." Yuko commented as she closed her journal and leaned against the wall opposite to her.

"Yeah, I had a feeling he'd be good at this. I'm just worried that Kaz is gonna push him too hard, he's already got a pretty busy schedule." She mentioned.

"I'll keep an eye on them, Kaz may get overzealous at times but he means well." Yuko promised.

"We're going to Tartarus tonight, I want you suited up by 11pm." Minato ordered.

The teens lounging in the lobby groaned audibly, no doubt still feeling the effects of Akihiko's weight room workout. Yukari nodded begrudgingly and went up to her room to retrieve her fatigues. Junpei sunk deeper in his armchair and did his best to look invisible. Every consecutive trip led to Minato and Yukari improving their skills and taking out more enemies, but Junpei felt increasingly obsolete. His injuries were getting worse with each operation and his contribution to their firepower seemed to be dwindling.

Minato plopped down on the couch adjacent to the teen. "You're usually the most eager to go out in the field. Something happen?" He asked.

My fuckin' foot exploded last time.

"I dunno, I just don't feel up to it today." Junpei said nonchalantly.

Minato nodded respectfully and leaned in his seat. "Your assistance will greatly aid us but I won't make you enter the AO if you aren't at 100%. I still want you suited up and ready. Bring some homework or something to pass the time while Takeba-san and I get some practice in. You never know when something will come up and we'll need all hands on deck." He instructed.

You tryin' to take pity on me? Fuck off.

"The hell do you even need me for? All I ever do is bleed out while you and Akihiko play hero and the chicks swoon over you." Junpei spat.

Minato's face switched from concerned to stern within seconds. "If I didn't think you were an asset to SEES I'd have booted you from the team. If you're just not feeling up to it today that's fine, but don't put our lives at risk because you feel inadequate." He hissed.

"Yeah, big talk comin' from Mr. Fucking Perfect here. Nothing ever phases you does it? You just take it like a freakin' machine!" Junpei yelled.

"I get scared too Junpei! I just found a way to cope with the fear. If you can't do that pack your fucking bags and forget all of this ever happened!" Minato barked.

Fuck you I just might!

...But anything beats living him.

Junpei stared at the table for what felt like hours before finally nodding.

"Alright...I'll suit up." He whispered.

"Arisato, I overheard your-" Mitsuru stopped herself as a pungent odor filled her lungs. She paused to gag before looking at the teen sitting on the rooftop. He was wearing a kitchen apron and disposable gloves along with a white disposable respirator. In front of him were several torn cold packs and rolled up newspapers, a few of them were soaking in a clear plastic bin while another pile was laid out to dry.

"Should I be breathing any of this?" She asked through the thin fabric of her blouse.

The teen shrugged. "It's perfectly safe to inhale, just smells awful." He said through his respirator. He reached into his pocket and chucked her a spare. She deftly caught it and hurriedly put it on before standing next to the teen.

"What are you making?" She asked as she stared at the suspicious liquid in the tub.

"Ammonium nitrate smoke bombs." He replied with a hint of excitement in his voice.

She smiled at his enthusiasm. "I never took you for a chemist, is this something you learned in class?" She asked.

Minato shook his head as he took out a batch of the newspapers. "I learned this in cadet training. The riflemen stole our barracks TV so we smoked them out and took it back using our M40 masks." He recanted.

"I hope you won't resort to the same tactics should something go missing on or off campus." She teased.

He laid the last batch out to dry before sealing the foul liquid in its airtight tub.

"No promises ma'am." He quipped.

Mitsuru shook her head and let out a small laugh. "We're off duty right now, no need to be so formal." She said.

Minato stood at attention and straightened his posture as best he could.

He nodded curtly, "Understood ma'am."

The aristocrat facepalmed and waved him off. "Get this cleaned up, I'm going to prepare our armaments. We'll discuss your conversation with Iori some other time." She ordered before removing her respirator and retreating into the dorm.

Minato loaded the last of the hefty magnum rounds into his new Taurus revolver and slipped it into his holster. Yukari was geared up and ready to go but Junpei was barely slipping on his plate carrier. Minato walked up to his friend before placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You alright Iori?" He whispered.

Junpei gulped, "Yeah...Never better." The fear etched on his face betrayed the false bravado he wanted to project.

"Alright, I trust you. If you think you're not good to go you're free to sit this one out." Minato cautioned before patting him on the back. He didn't blame the Junior, he'd be sweating too if the anti-depressant in his system wasn't forcing him to stay calm.

Mitsuru stood regally with her black trench coat that covered her olive fatigues and the officer's cap he'd given her. Akihiko flanked her, the boxer was wearing his officer's beret and plate carrier as he did his best to complement the aristocrat's pose.

The aristocrat surveyed the team before clearing her throat."This operation was assembled on short notice, as such I won't be the one briefing you. Arisato, if you would."

"Of course, today we're going to run a search and destroy operation in the thirteenth floor. I've repaired our headsets so you'll come in CFB Kirijo-senpai." He debriefed.

"CFB? That's a new one...I get the feeling some of these acronyms aren't in the handbook." Mitsuru mused.

Minato scratched his head nervously before glancing at the entrance of Tartarus.

"Disregard that last acronym." He said before stowing his gear and corralling his team behind him. The teen climbed up the stairs of tartarus with his team in tow before Mitsuru could interrogate him further.

Yukari swept up the Grave Beetle with a garu attack while Junpei hacked off one of its legs with his new blade. Minato lined up his revolver's sights and fired a powerful magnum round at it's small armored head. The 142 grain bullet smashed through the shadow's thick chitin; the round traveled down it's cranium and punched clean through its skull splattering the tile with chunky yellow blood. The revolver's powerful recoil left Minato's wrists sore as he lowered the firearm.

"Two new contacts inbound on your position." Mitsuru reported.

A cowardly maya ran into their line of sight before freezing at the sight of the eviscerated beetle. It tried to run away but to no avail, a broadhead arrow dug into it's back and pinned it to the tile floor. The blob let out a small squeal before reducing to ichor. Minato heard a wet, crunchy noise from behind him. He spun on his heel and saw an obsessed cupid cut up into halves at the feet of Junpei. He gave the swordsman a thumbs up before stowing his revolver.

His team plundered the corpses of the slain shadows, pocketing the occasional wad of cash or munitions that they carried with them. Minato ejected the spent casing in his new revolver before sliding in a new round and resting against the granite wall of Tartarus. He closed his eyes and focused on the sounds of banter between his team and the cool breeze of the Dark Hour. Yukari was trading quips with their capped friend, his previous fear seemingly gone after their twenty minute training trip. Their back and forth was slowly being overtaken by a faint but clear sound of rattling chains that began to echo in the distance. Minato's adrenaline gland kicked into action and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

"C1, we hear something about a quarter klick away. You have eyes?" Minato asked anxiously into his headset.

"Negative...I sense something powerful though. E&E, this is far more powerful than anything I've ever sensed." She ordered.

"Affirmative, fire team is pulling out." He replied before gathering his team.

Minato raised his revolver before turning his head to face the fire team. "You heard that rattling right? C1 says we should pick up sticks." He said.

Junpei's face turned grim. "You think it's that... 'thing' we fought on our first op?" He asked as his whole body tensed up.

"Whatever it is, it spooked Mitsuru." Yukari mentioned as she notched an arrow.

The team swept the corridors quickly as they raced to find the teleporter. As the rattling of chains grew closer and closer, Yukari's breaths were getting shakier and Minato's heart struggled to supply his legs with enough blood to satiate them. Junpei was constantly looking behind them as they jogged through the hallways with his blade at the ready.

Eventually the comforting glow of the teleporter emanated from a nearby hallway. They turned the corner only to encounter a trio of gloves that cut them off from their escape. Minato wasted no time and whipped out his revolver, he squeezed the trigger and tore a large hole in the metacarpals of the centermost glove. One of the gloves chucked a sharp shard of ice at Yukari in retribution for it's slain comrade; it shattered harmlessly off her aluminum plate carrier and the angered archer fired a steel tipped broadhead arrow that skewered the shadow to the floor as it let out a dying groan. Junpei cut the last glove in half with his bastard sword and kicked its corpse across the hall.

A deafening gunshot rang out and a large crater appeared near their feet, sharp ceramic fragments sprayed the fire team and left them coughing as the cloud of debris coated their fatigues. The Reaper let out a deep laugh from behind them and calmly walked towards the trio. It fired its enormous revolver's all around the fire team and toyed with them whenever they tried to flee.

Minato spat out the small chunks of tile that made their way into his mouth and fired a magnum round at the shadow, the powerful full metal jacket bullet dug a few millimeters into the shadow's flesh before bouncing off harmlessly. The Reaper kept one gun trained on them as it reached out to their leader with his rotten hand. Junpei and Yukari stood frozen in fear as the towering shadow got closer and closer.

Plans raced through the teen's mind as he tried to examine their situation objectively. We can't hurt it, it doesn't want to kill us outright...fuck it, I gotta take a chance on this.

"Get ready to run!" Minato muttered as he reached into his plate carrier and lit one of his rolled up newspapers before quickly tossing it at the shadow's feet.

Thick white smoke rapidly enveloped the Reaper and the team bolted to the teleporter as the shadow fired blindly into the hallway. After a brief flash the fire team fell face first into the lobby, Mitsuru and Akihiko raced to them and helped them up while bombarding them with questions. Junpei shrugged Akihiko off and laid down on top of their supply crate, he covered his face with his cap while whispering obscenities. Yukari was trembling slightly as Mitsuru helped her to her feet, she mumbled something incoherent before walking away to take a seat on the stairs. Minato dusted himself off and faced his senpai.

"We're far too weak, I couldn't dent that shadow and I doubt my persona's would've done much to it." He stated, "We need to train again tomorrow."

Mitsuru frowned. "Is that wise? Everyone needs R&R, exams are also coming up so we need time to study." She argued.

Minato motioned Akihiko over before huddling with his CO's. "I have it on very good authority that something powerful is coming soon." He whispered.

She glanced at him skeptically.

"Who's your source?" She questioned.

A ghost kid that only I can see and only appears at night.

"...My persona." He said.

Akihiko scratched his head as he tried to digest that information. "Your persona told you that? Which one?" He asked.

Minato paused to think before answering the boxer. "You remember that trenchcoat wearing one during my first battle? The one with the huge blade? He can talk to me sometimes, and he's never been wrong."

He gauged their reactions carefully, not expecting his gamble to pay off. Akihiko mulled it over for a few seconds before looking at Mitsuru for guidance. The aristocrat looked deep in thought before turning to the NCO and giving him a nod.

"You've risked life and limb for our cause, you have my trust." She affirmed.

Guilt washed over Minato, he'd lost track of how many times he'd bent the truth to his CO and it left him feeling sick to know that she placed this much trust in him.

"...Thank you, Mitsuru." He said with a bow before leaving to check up on his fire team.

"You alright Iori?" Minato asked as he sat on an ammo box adjacent to the supply crate.

"Level with me man, I didn't piss my pants did I?" Junpei whispered through the cap obscuring his face.

Minato looked at the teens pants, the olive drab fabric was coated in white ceramic powder and small tears from the shrapnel, a few wet crimson stains adorned the crotch and upper thighs of the fabric.

"You're good in that department, might need some band aids though." He whispered back.

Junpei snickered, "Heh, guess I got that goin' for me."

He shared a small laugh with the teen before leaning in. "Seriously though, you good?"

Junpei chuckled before removing the cap that obscured his face. "Nope. You're right though... We need to get stronger. I may not show it all the time, but I like SEES. I'll find a way to get rid of the shakes if it means staying on the team."

The serious response caught Minato off-guard; Junpei was usually either extremely jovial or thoroughly pissed. Seeing him act more level-headed was a welcome change.

"We're going on another extermination run tomorrow. Be ready by midnight." Minato instructed.

Junpei frowned before flashing a competitive grin. "Alright, I'll be ready. Don't wuss out on us, kay?" He teased.

The NCO rolled his eyes and stood, stopping to wipe away the thick powder coating his uniform before leaving to check up on their archer.

He set his rucksack down and took a seat next to Yukari. She looked far better than she had when they originally returned to the lobby. The thick ceramic powder that covered her uniform had been mostly patted away and only a few small tears in the sleeve of her fatigues remained. She was gazing at the green sky of the Dark Hour through one of the open arches of Tartarus, seemingly deep in thought.

"How you holdin' up?" He asked he undid the thick velcro of his plate carrier.

The brunette turned to face him and gave him a tired smile. "I'm alright now, all the adrenaline is starting to wear out...How about you?" She asked, "Our senpai usually talk us through things like this after a mission, but you just go straight to your room and act like nothing happened the next day."

Minato looked away from her as he contemplated different lies in his head that might sate her curiosity. How about you tell the truth you piece of shit? He brushed the thought away; the truth was far too personal to disclose.

"I'm a private man, sharing that type of information... just doesn't come naturally." Minato divulged before chuckling.

"That makes me a pretty big hypocrite doesn't it?" He snickered.

She shook her head and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"That just means you care about us." She reassured.

"Ugh, this ain't one of your novels Yuka-tan." Junpei groaned.

Just like that, the moment was gone and his two team members went right back to bickering with each other like they hadn't almost died. Minato got up and joined Akihiko as he surveyed the scene.

"This kinda takes me back to the old SEES. Our old member and I used to get at each other's throats when Mitsuru had her back turned on us." Akihiko commented.

"I take it there was less olive drab back then?" Minato quipped.

"Yeah, everyday was casual friday back then." Akihiko replied before leaning in to whisper, "I caught Mitsuru looking at uniforms online. Brace yourself for a change in the dress code."

Minato gulped, "What are you thinking?"

Akihiko made sure Mitsuru was out of earshot before speaking in a hushed tone, "Big Kirijo Group trademarks on all our gear."