Guiding Light

A Persona 3 AU Fanfiction

By Chris D Henry


Summary: In the year 1999 the sealing of Death within Arisato Minato was the last option left in order to stop the coming of Nyx. However this action had unexpected side effects that wouldn't be realised until two years later, when the soul of Death separates into a separate mortal body. In the Year 2009 Minato once again returns to Iwatodai where the events of that night 10 years ago once again start to affect his life. The real question however is; who is the white haired child who calls himself Pharos and why does he keep warning Minato about the difference between fate and destiny.

Author's Notes: Hum interesting responses to chapter 11, as such I think a Q&A is in order. As usual see after the change log.

On other notes, sorry this chapter is late. As I stated in my profile, my desktop went in for a service and came back with a fault list as long as my arm, I tried typing on the macbook pro but the keyboard isn't really comfortable for long period typing. Anyhow as usual your feedback is welcome, please leave a review (constructive feedback is welcome, flames are not). Enjoy.

Disclaimer: The plot, characters and location of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 is copyright of Atlus Co. This piece of fan-fiction has been written for entertainment purposes and no infringement is intended. The alteration to the original Persona 3 contract was suggested by Darkforce222 (and as it was so much more elegant than mine I decided to stick with it).


Chapter 12

Tuesday, 12th of May 2009. 07.42

"Minato-kun!"

Minato turned to see Yukari waving him over, and although he was worried that this could start up the bloody rumours again, he couldn't let such things control his life. "Morning."

"Mornin'," the brunette replied as the blue-haired junior reached her side. "You hear the news...?"

The teen shook his head in response. He usually didn't listen or read the news first thing in the morning, since he didn't want to be faced with that much bad news so early in the day. He preferred to do so once he was more lucid, when he could appreciate that it was all the bad news that the papers could find for that day.

"There've been fewer new cases of Apathy Syndrome the last few days," she explained. "Sempai said it's probably because we beat that Shadow. Wouldn't that be great if it was true?"

Yes, it would be. It would be evidence that the Shadows outside of Tartarus were being controlled by the… what did Pharos call it again? ...ah! An Arcana Shadow. Well it was evidence that these Arcana Shadows were controlling the smaller ones and without their presence the lesser ones had lessened their attacks. "We can only hope that this proves that our work is paying off," the teen admitted.

"I hope so. It was dangerous, but I'm glad we did it," the brunette stated before she turned to more worrying matters. "We shouldn't get carried away, though, cuz we have midterms next week. Let's just hope nothing like that happens again until midterms are over."

"We'll see," the junior replied noncommittally.

Knowing his luck that was not going to happen.

--

Tuesday, 12th of May 2009. 17:04

Minato felt bad. He'd promised himself that he'd at least try to make more friends in Iwatodai. After all, this was now home. Even so he didn't know the name of the student in front of him, even after a month.

"Hey Arisato-san, exams are coming up... I'm so excited," the student with glasses greeted as he noticed the blue-haired teen standing behind him.

Okay... Minato didn't see it that way. Exams were exams, a stepping stone through life as a student

"Er... That's inter..." the teen started, trying to find a way past the student as soon as possible. He was planning to head down to city hall to see if he could find some info about the power supply to the school. Once that was done he'd check out the shrine near the dorm. It was bound to be more peaceful than the madhouse that school had become.

"Why? Because it gives me a chance to flaunt my knowledge," the student carried on, completely ignoring the other teen. "This time, I'm gonna get the highest score in the entire eleventh grade, and impress Mitsuru-sempai..." He paused, realising what he said before he asked the question that suddenly came to mind. "Um, sorry what did you need?"

The teen held back a sigh; maybe going through the other door would have been a better idea. "I was going to ask you to move so I can get through the doorway."

"Ah... Yes, sorry I didn't realize," the teen stated as he moved aside. "Um... please disregard that last comment.

This kid thought that he could impress Mitsuru with good grades, without even trying to talk to her? What was he going to do? Walk up to the heiress and say: 'Hi, I got the highest score in eleventh grade. Want to go out with me?'

Minato was almost willing to make sure he didn't get the highest score to see the carnage that would be the result.

Well, this was proof at least that you wouldn't be able to make friends with everyone.

--

Tuesday, 12th of May 2009. 17:42

It was like a trip down memory lane.

During their last trip through Tartarus they had found an old document, something that read like an excerpt out of someone's diary. It mentioned that there seemed to be a lot of electricity being directed to the Gekkoukan site, even though it was just a school. That fact was something worth investigating. Even Elizabeth had implied that the answer to the mystery behind the Dark Hour rested within these documents. There were also Yukari's suspicions about the Kirijo Group's involvement and her belief that there was something else was going on. That something could be hinted at within these logs and maybe it could also lead to an answer to a more personal question. Why had Otou-san and Okaa-san investigated the Kirijo Group all those years ago?

At least this was a welcome distraction to wondering what Ryoji had meant when he'd used the term Cipher.

As such the blue-haired teen found himself walking into the archive within the city hall for the first time in over ten years. This place used to be one of Otou-san's old haunts and since Okaa-san usually worked in more hazardous areas in her line of work the blue-haired teen often found

himself accompanying his father to this vault of knowledge in the past. During these times he'd drift away from where his father set himself up to do his research for his current case, not too far in case he was called on, but far enough into the cases so he could look at the names on the files. He wasn't allowed to touch or open any of them; however he was able to read the titles or descriptions of what was held there. It was amazing what the mind of a five year old could come up with when they were supplied with a few sentences and let loose the power of imagination.

He missed those days when everything seemed simpler. Nowadays his imagination was kept on a tight leash; he wasn't the same person as the child who used to come here with his father all those years ago. Sadly the Dark Hour had claimed that innocence from him years ago.

He looked over the room noticing that not much had changed over the years. By the looks of it they had reorganised the sections and had a small shuffle round, but that was it. As such he instinctively moved towards the counter where the person left in charge was most likely sitting idly being bored out of their mind.

He was right on the money.

The middle aged woman on the counter was leaning back in her chair, the radio playing chart classics while she was preoccupied with a half completed Sudoku puzzle from today's paper. He waited for a moment, hoping that the woman would realise his presence before he'd have to interrupt her. After five minutes of waiting he realised that he'd get nowhere standing around like this and gave in.

"Excuse me?" the teen announced his presence, causing the older lady to jump from her seat and look at the teen with a look of surprise. That was expected; after all how many teenagers came into the city hall archive?

"Oh!" She finally got out. "How can I help you?"

"I'd like to have a look at an article requesting planning permission," the teen requested.

It was the best place to start. If things were done by the book then they would have to put a reason for the amount of power going to the school in the planning permission documents. Did he expect that...? Not really, but at the very least the plans would give him a rough layout of where the power went and with blueprints and some digging he may be able to find out something he could bring back to Junpei and Yukari.

... Alright, just Yukari. After all, Junpei probably would be more interested in watching MS Gundam Horizons or Slayers Reincarnation.

"Planning permission documents?" the lady asked the teen for confirmation, receiving a nod she moved from behind the desk and pointed towards a section in the back. "Those are over there, what year?"

"Nineteen ninety seven," the teen stated. "The new Gekkoukan High School building on Port Island."

"Ah," she stated. "Are you working on a school project?"

"Sort of," the teen smirked; after all he was doing this as a result of his involvement in a school club.

"Well let's see what we can find for you." The old lady gestured for the teen to follow her before she led him towards the large set of drawers near the back of the archive. She stopped, looking over the drawers before she opened the one labelled nineteen ninety seven and started to sift through.

It was odd; when he had been here in the past with Otou-san, the assistant hadn't helped this much. Thinking it over, he could hazard a guess that this behaviour was linked to one of two reasons: First off she was so used to not doing anything, so she relished the chance to prove she could do her job, or because he was a young man she wanted to make sure he didn't mess up the archive and create extra work for her.

Either way, he wasn't complaining.

"Here we go," she stated as she pulled out a small file and a cardboard tube. "The planning permission request documents and a blueprint to go with."

"Thank you," the teen thanked the assistant as he moved over to one of the tables so he could have a quick check through.

After a few minutes of looking through the blueprints, the teen realised that the person who wrote the document they had found wasn't kidding; the power being directed to the school was insane. They had even had to pay for a separate sub-station in order to regulate the power to meet their demands, however that wasn't the thing was screamed out that something was off. The fact that the school also received power from the standard grid set off alarm bells within the student's head.

He looked through the documents accompanying the blueprints to see what reason they had for the amount of power. After all, no local government in their right mind would allow a school, no matter who funded the project, to draw that amount of power from the grid without good reason.

Power requirements granted for reasons discussed in meeting dated 17th July 1999. See minutes under reference 170799-18X24B.

The teen placed down the document, browsing through the sections until he found what he was looking for. After a few moments of browsing through files something because obviously apparent.

None of these files used the same reference style as the reference given in the planning permission document.

Oh well, he hadn't expected to be that lucky to be honest. The Kirijo Group had, after all, funded the complete redevelopment of Port Island; as such the local government was bound to turn a blind eye especially when incentives were probably being offered. Sadly that was something you had to expect, companies didn't get where they were without this sort of thing going on. When people are willing to work that hard to keep their firm on top then you had to expect them to bend their morals a bit.

Did he agree? No. But he understood the reasons, even if he didn't agree with them. In order to stop this from happening, someone would be required to appear in the conglomerate world, who could compete without using such tactics. Granted, finding such a person would be next to impossible, especially since all the other companies would be watching like a hawk for an iota of hypocrisy and if they found such a thing they would destroy this newcomer in moments.

Anyway, there was enough here to be working on, all he needed to do was get some photocopies and spend some time going over things in the confides of his room where he could relax and see if there was anything he had missed. Moving up to the assistant he waited for her to, once again, put her Sudoku to the side. "What do you need?"

"I was just wondering if I can have some things photocopied," he stated as he gestured with the documents he had in hand.

The assistant responded by pointing towards a photocopier in an area to the side of the counter, noticing the device attached to the machine that seemed to take coins. As he got closer he found himself to be straight on the money as he noticed the sign above the machine.

20 Yen per copy

The teen could only sigh.

--

Tuesday, 12th of May 2009. 18:26

After much consideration, Minato decided that it would be wise if he looked over the copies he'd taken from the archives somewhere other than the dorm. After all, if Mitsuru or Akihiko saw him looking it over, it would draw more questions than he wanted to answer. Yukari would be all over this like a rash, so he wouldn't be able to give this the amount of concentration that it required, and finally Junpei couldn't be trusted to keep his mouth shut. But to be honest there was one person that he wanted to avoid more than the others.

The Chairman.

Maybe he was still bitter that the man still hadn't told him about the hidden camera in his room, but there was something about Ikutsuki Shuji that worried him. Frankly, he didn't have any real reason for this feeling; however, there was something off about the 'club advisor.' From what he had discovered, the Chairman had been a scientist working for the Kirijo Group for a long time before he had joined the board at Gekkoukan, quickly moving to the position of Chairman just in time to coincide with Kirijo Mitsuru beginning her education there. There was something… off about all of this. Maybe it was something about how he seemed to have tethered himself down to Gekkoukan, the same place that turned into Tartarus at night, or maybe it was the fact that the only thing he could tie the scientist to researching was the Shadows.

There was also the information Yukari had told him when he'd been in the hospital. Her father was working for the Kirijo Group on a project here in Iwatodai, and she'd implied that things had gone badly and the resulting explosion had killed her father and a few others. It would be worth a try to go to the main library at some point in order to see if he could tie what Yukari had told him to an event in the papers. While it was obvious from that discussion, and the one at the barrier in Tartarus, that the brunette was convinced that the Kirijo Group had something to do with this, there was no doubt.

Whatever was going on, it pointed towards one fact; there was something off about Ikutsuki Shuji and he was sure that the scientist knew more about what was going on than he was willing to admit to anyone.

Now he just had to try and find a way to prove it.

Which was why he had just entered the Naganaki Shine. His bag full of photocopied sheets that had the information from the planning permission documents that he was interested in, a couple of cans of Mad Bull and a container filled with Takoyaki from Octopia. He had to admit that it was an odd name for the place where the Takoyaki didn't actually include octopus, but he'd been told by manu people that the Takoyaki was top notch, so he was willing to give it a try.

Taking a quick look around he instantly noticed that the shrine was pretty much as he'd expected. The Koi Pond, the donation box in front of the shrine itself, a small area off to the side where you could purchase fortunes and a small children's playground.

Where a young child was playing by herself.

Although the look on the child suggested that she was lonely, lost, or abandoned, the teen didn't feel comfortable in approaching to see what was wrong. Minato was many things; this included the fact that he was male and if someone saw a lone man go up and start to talk to a small child, they would instinctively think the worst of the situation, and he could end up being accused of being an abductor or something far worse. He took a quick look around to see if there were any women in the shine whom he could ask to check for him, or who would at least go with him. Sadly, that wasn't the case.

Oh well, the best thing he could do was to take a seat down on the benches and carry on with what he had meant to do. At least that way he could still keep an eye of the girl and make sure nothing untoward happened while he was there.

Well it was best to get back to the matter at hand. He'd had to give Yukari some credit, this did point to the Kirijo Group having more to do with the incident than they were letting on, and there were only a few things that required that amount of power but could go unnoticed within the school. The main thought that came to mind was that it was research of some sort, what exactly he couldn't tell b...

He could feel a presence watching him. He started channel his Persona, allowing its power to enhance his physical ability before he realised that it wasn't anything that could be a threat and in fact the small girl who was in the playground was staring at him from a few feet away. Taking a few seconds to beat back the feeling of unease, he finally decided that, while it wasn't something he wanted to do, he'd have to address the small girl in front of him.

"Err..." He paused, realising that he had no idea what to say. "Hello."

"Hi," was the child's slightly stuttered response.

There was silence for a few seconds, partly because of the teen's desire to not get involved with this, and partly because the girl was nervous about speaking to someone that she didn't know.

After a few more awkward moments, the young girl, who if he had to guess an age was probably around six, maybe seven, years old, he'd never been good a guessing ages, finally addressed him. "Are you a bad man?"

Right... How the hell did you answer that?

Well he wasn't a saint; however he tried to do the right thing, no matter how much it mucked his life up at the moment. "Well I wasn't a bad person the last time I checked," he settled on.

She contemplated this for a moment, before deciding that the response was valid enough in her eyes. If he'd had to guess he'd suspect that she'd listened to the tone of the response more than the actual words. "I'm sorry, but I'm thirsty."

Eh?

It was then he noticed what the girl had been staring at; one of his cans of Mad Bull.

Oh Hell's teeth. Was this what this had all been about?

He spent a few moments looking at the girl, who had started to sport a face he could only describe as the 'Helpless, pathetic little puppy eyes face'. He paused to take a look around, hoping that her parents were close, but it was to no avail. It looked like she'd been dropped at this place and left to her own devices until her parents could pick her up. He had to wonder how

long she'd been here before he'd turned up. Of course, there was no way of knowing for sure, however that made it apparent as to the reason why she would say such a thing to a complete stranger.

She had no other option.

He gave in, passing the can over to the girl, who lit up as if someone had just given her a pony for Christmas... Okay that was drawing too much on the common stereotypes, but you got the point. He watched as she took a seat on the bench next to the teen and opened the can, taking a drink before smiling at the blue-haired stranger in gratitude.

Minato merely returned his attention back to the sheet he'd been scanning, his thoughts once again being drawn into the mystery of what exactly was going on at Gekkoukan High before the Dark Hour had come into existence and what did that have to do with the tower's creation?

"Erm..."

Maybe the dorm was a better idea after all.

He turned back to the girl noticing that she now had her eyes on the polystyrene container that held his non-octopus Takoyaki. He let out a sigh as he reached into the bag that the lady at the stall had given him and removed one of the few cocktail sticks that had been placed inside. For some reason that he couldn't find a reasonable explanation for, the people at these sort of stands always gave you too many utensils and napkins, at least this time the extras were going to be put to some sort of use.

He opened the container, putting the stick into one of the pieces of Takoyaki before he offered it to the kid sitting at his side. "Just don't finish it all," he warned. "I haven't tried it yet."

"You haven't?" the child asked, all sense of shyness having evaporated. "Octopia's Takoyaki is the best in town!"

He nodded his reply to that statement before he returned to his research, a few moments of peace passing before a female voice pierced straight through it.

"Maiko!"

"Okaa-san!" The child looked towards the woman who had called her name with the same expression as someone who had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "Sorry, I've got to go," the girl stated to the blue-haired teen as she left the rest of the Takoyaki and stood up from the bench. "Thank you for the Takoyaki!"

The teen paid attention as the girl got back to her mother, not surprised in the slightest when her mother gave her a mouthful as she ranted about how the little girl wasn't supposed to speak to strangers, before the older woman calmed down enough to usher the child out of the shrine. Once he was sure that they were gone he turned back to the sheets in a final attempt at trying to find

something of note. Sadly he knew already that it would be a futile effort as his eyes kept being pulled back to the opened container of Takoyaki that sat by his side.

The best in town, eh?

He pulled another stick out of the bag and helped himself to a piece, giving it a once over before he popped in into his mouth and started to chew. It wasn't octopus alright, to be honest he wasn't sure what the main ingredient was, however even though he had no idea what the secret ingredient could be he knew one thing; it wasn't half bad.

Minato helped himself to another portion of the food in front of him, being taken in by the new mystery that had just come to the fore: What the hell did Octopia use in this stuff?

He'd be here for a while.

--

Tuesday, 12th of May 2009. DH:14

"Good evening."

The teen opened his eyes, recognising that voice immediately, even though he'd had only heard it on four different occasions. Taking a moment to rub the sleep out of his eyes, the teen took a moment to gain his senses before he looked towards the white-haired child that was sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Pharos," the teen greeted as he rose to a sitting position on his bed.

"You remembered," the child smiled as he looked at the teen from his place, sitting on the end of the teen's bed. "I promised that I would see you again after your ordeal was over."

Indeed he had, although Minato was surprised that it was this soon. He gave the white-haired child a nod of acknowledgement before the child continued.

Pharos stood up walking a little before he turned back towards Minato. "Even though I knew you would succeed, it is good to see that you are unharmed." Well, that was reassuring. "The Arcana Shadows are not to be taken lightly."

Although it was an obvious question, the teen had to ask. "What are they?"

"Even Shadows have a hierarchy," the child started to explain. "All shadows are linked to the first twelve facets of the Arcana, and the Arcana Shadows are the embodiments of these facets. As a result the lesser Shadows treat these beings with reverence."

"So these larger Shadows organised the raids from the tower in order to hunt their prey?" Minato asked. That would explain the rise and fall in cases of Apathy Syndrome around the last full moon.

"Not exactly," the child corrected. "The Arcana Shadows are not allowed inside Tartarus."

That opened a whole new kettle of fish. "Why?"

"Because their nature keeps them away," the child stated. "Shadows are intelligent, but they are more like animals than humans. The Arcana Shadows are in some ways an exception, even so, they are driven by instinct as much as the others."

That made matters more confusing. "Hold on," the teen started. "So these Shadows are bound by instinct to stay away from Tartarus, correct?"

"Yes."

"Then I don't understand." He looked at the child. "Why do they remain in Iwatodai?"

It didn't make sense; if the Shadows behaved like predators that were bound from going inside the tower then why did they stay here? Granted their prey was congregated around here, but even so they would have to compete with each other. If they spread out more than they would all be able to have an ample supply of prey and would have territories away from each other. He guessed that it could be something to do with them having a more territorial nature, but there would be evidence of that as well. He needed to get access to whatever information the Kirijo Group held on the Shadows.

What was so special about Iwatodai?

"That has to do with instinct as well," Pharos stated. "They are all drawn here."

Well that left one very simple question "Why?"

The child leveled him with a small apologetic smile. "I can't tell you."

Oh 'whatever is out there'; this was beginning to sound like a broken record.

"I'm sorry," the child responded to the teens look. "Anyway, there is something we need to talk about."

Minato nodded in reply; taking note that Pharos had turned away from him his deposition becoming more bashful.

"After you awakened your power, we talked about how you think of Thanatos as a member of your family," the white-haired child started.

Thanatos? Ah yes that was what the kid called Ryoji. "That's right."

"Well there is something I wish to talk to you about." The white-haired child still didn't face the blue-haired teen. There was silence for what had to be at least a full minute as Pharos seemed to gather his nerves before he finally made a decision. "You will have a few issues with Tartarus as you get higher. Don't lose heart; these problems will be resolved with time."

"Right," the teen replied.

"If you sense Death within the tower, get out of there," the child warned. "If you are cornered; call on his aid, don't hesitate."

That didn't sound good. "Death?"

"You will realise who I am talking about on your own," the child said before he started to back into the shadows. "I will let you sleep. We will see each other again."

"Until then," the teen bid farewell, however there was something off... Well maybe that wasn't the best way to phrase it, but he was missing something, something bleeding obvious.

"Goodbye."

Why did he have the feeling that the white-haired child had avoided the real reason why he had come to see him?

--

Wednesday, 13th of May 2009. 07.42

As Minato approached the front gates of the school, he found himself pausing for a second as he looked at the main building. Sometimes it still amazed him that this place turned into Tartarus, the tower that appeared during the Dark Hour.

"Arisato." Minato turned from the building to look at the redhead who had stopped at his side.

"Morning, Mitsuru-sempai," he returned the greeting. Taking note that he'd stopped in the middle of the gateway, he moved over to the side in order to make sure that he wasn't being an obstruction to the flow of nervous students.

"Exams are next week." She stated. "Are you prepared?"

Not to his usual standard. As to be expected since his life had become much more complicated since he had returned to Iwatodai. However since he usually over studied for these things, maybe this was a good thing. "I'll be fine."

"As expected," she muttered as looked towards the building. "Well I'll be interested in seeing your grades."

Alright then... No pressure.

As they started to walk towards the school he realised that this was an opportunity to try and dig out some of the information he's been looking for. "Mitsuru-sempai?"

"Hum?" the redhead responded, looking at the junior.

"Well, there is a tree in the outside corridor, just before the gym," he started to explain; after all it was best to start with the easier to get pieces of info, then work his way up. "There are rumours that it's going to get chopped down."

"The Persimmon Tree?" she asked for confirmation, surprising the blue-haired teen with the fact that she knew the name, although to be honest he knew he shouldn't be. After all this was the heiress of the Kirijo Group and the Student Council President, it should be no surprise that she knew the ins and outs of this place.

"I think so," Minato gave her the needed confirmation.

"It's just a rumour, as far as I know," she stated before asking a question he'd expected earlier. "Why?"

Deciding that telling the truth would be the best policy, he started to explain. "The couple who owns the second hand bookstore in the stripmall was asking." He looked towards the school. "They asked me to see if there was anything I could find out."

"Ah," was her only response for a few moments. "You're timing couldn't be worse. With the Student Council closed due to the exams, I have fewer resources to call on." She let out a sigh before she stopped by the entryway. "I'll ask around. If I hear anything I'll send you a text."

A small smile appeared on his face. "Thanks." With that he checked the school clock realising that he was going to be late for class. "See you later."

As he rushed off he never considered how the redhead had got hold of the number of his cell phone.

--

Wednesday, 13th of May 2009. 17.42

He hadn't received anything from Mitsuru by the time that he'd arrived outside Bookworms. Even so he decided that he could at least tell the couple that as far as he knew the rumours were just that, rumours.

"Oh, Minato-chan," Bunkichi greeted the teen as he came through the door. "We were just talking about you."

He'd expected that much; after all, this tree seemed to be important to the couple. It was only natural that they'd be interested in finding out what their best source of information had found out.

"I'm sorry for troubling you about the persimmon tree..."

"Don't worry," the teen assured the older man. "From what I've found out so far," bugger all, "this seems to be just a rumour."

That didn't seem to make the couple feel any better.

Minato held in a sigh before he continued to try and reassure that couple that their tree would be alright. "I'll keep asking around, I'm sure that I'll be able to root out the truth."

The teen was confused for a second as the old man burst out laughing; it wasn't until he calmed down slightly that he got a clue as to what he's just inadvertently done. "Good one, Minato-chan!" He was still confused, what was so funny?

Root out the truth.

Oh Hell's teeth.

"It's really nice having you around..." Bunkichi stated with a sigh as his laughter started to subside. "I can make stupid puns whenever I feel like it!"

Oh crap, the Chairman was contagious.

The older man became more somber as the topic turned back to the tree at hand. "That Persimmon Tree is a reminder of our son," he explained, answering a question that Minato had wondered about since he'd heard of the tree. "Before his death, he was a teacher at Gekkoukan High School. He planted the tree on graduation day with the students in his first class."

No wonder the couple were so attached to that tree. It was the last link to their deceased son and that explained a lot, although he had to wonder if this was a genuine accident or the result of a Shadow attack.

"That tree is about to bear fruit..." Mitsuko stated, her voice starting to break. "Why now...? Why do they want to cut it down now?"

"Don't worry," Minato told the old woman. "We don't even know for sure that they are planning to cut it down," he tried to reason.

"...Thank you, Minato-chan," she replied as she aimed a shaky smile at the teen. "That makes me feel a lot better. It's very comforting talking to you."

Well he'd never been told that before.

"Wow, Minato-chan, you've really captured her heart!" Bunkichi stated as he moved to the teens side and gave him a slight slap on the back. "You must be popular with the ladies! My wife's no sucker, after all!"

Well he had to admit that he'd garnered the attention of some of the more giggly members of the opposite sex at Gekkoukan, even if it was the last thing he needed. In fact he still found it harrowing when he'd discovered that his glare only seemed to make them giggle even more instead of having its desired effect.

"I feel I'm looking at myself when I was in my prime!" the old man stated with a tone filled with pride, and even though Minato thought that the comparison was a bit of a stretch, that could just be a lack of imagination on his part.

Thou art I... And I am thou.

Thou shalt have our blessing when thou chooseth to create a Persona of the Hierophant Arcana...

He felt the bond between himself and the couple cementing.

"Don't worry too much about the tree," the old man stated. "Just stop by when you get the chance."

Well that was something he knew he could do easily enough. "Alright."

"Good!" the owner exclaimed as he removed a small paper bag from behind the counter. "Oh, and take this. It's left over, but it's still good..."

"... Thank you," Minato took the offered package and checked it over before he put it away. He didn't have the heart to tell the old man he didn't particularly like crab bread. "I'll see you later."

After the couple had bid him farewell and a few moments after he'd gotten out of the store the text alert tone on his phone rang. He flipped open his phone reading the message over before he let out a curse.

Persimmon Tree is slated to be removed when the school starts the redevelopment project next year.

--

Wednesday, 13th of May 2009. 18.34

As the blue-haired teen moved into the dorm, he found it hard to ignore the look of relief on Junpei's face since it gave the baseball-capped teen an excuse to leave his 'studying'.

"S'up, dude?" the junior welcomed Minato as he closed his book with a long suffering sigh. "I'm tired of studying. Let's go to Tartarus, bro."

On any other night he may have agreed to the request, but with Pharos' visit last night and the fact that he would have to tell Bunkichi and Mitsuko that the Persimmon Tree was going to be removed for a school expansion project, he wasn't in the mood. "Go hit the books."

That response was simple, blunt and, by the look on Junpei's face, effective.

"Are you serious, bro!? Isn't saving the world more important?" he tried to argue back. Although Minato had to wonder if Junpei realised that while saving the world was important, having something to do after you saved the world was an equally important thing. Something that the movies usually ignored. "C'mon... Yuka-tan wants to go..."

He looked towards the brunette, who looked startled that her name had been brought into the conversation.

"Even so," he stated back. "I'm not up to it tonight."

"You okay Minato-kun?" Yukari asked, the tiredness on his face finally registering now that her attention wasn't absorbed by her revision.

"I'll be fine," Minato assured the brunette. "I'm just going to get some sleep. Junpei." He looked at the teen. "We'll go to Tartarus on Friday or Saturday. I'll see you two tomorrow."

As he climbed the stairs he could hear Junpei ask Yukari just what had got up the teen's arse and hear the yell of "Stupei!" in response as she started what would most likely be a long rant.

However none of this really mattered to the junior tonight, he needed to recharge his batteries.

And hopefully find answers to the growing list of questions that he now had to answer.

End of Chapter 12


Version Changes:

1.00 – Completed with self-checking for errors.

1.01 – Usual corrections and small changes to smooth the rough edges.

1.02 – Completed withediting from Vocarin

Review Q&A:

Too lazy to sign in: 'Heheh, Akihiko.'

More a question from me here to be honest. I'm not sure what you mean by this but thanks for the review.

Darkforce222: 'Nice. I like how the social links are tying together, and I'm curious as to how you're going to swing the girls' S. Links platonically(though I suspect crushes will develop). Chihiro's is probably the most difficult, as the romance part of her S. Link starts at like, level 4. Then again, hers also briefly involved Mitsuru, so there's probably a way to tie everything together.'

This is a usual thing that comes up in the reviews, after all Atlus' Minato seems to be blessed with the luck of being able to form a Harem and to be honest I'm not so fond of that. On topic this is the main reason why the social links are being written out in this fic, although they are also a great device for allowing you to see Minato's character.

To be honest Chihiro's isn't the hardest to modify in my eyes, that'll probably fall to Yukari's. Also on a side note the Hermit link isn't changing one jot, I have plans to make full use of that later on.

Potential Spoiler Territory: Leave if you don't wish for anything to be spoiled.

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That should be enough.

Megaolix: 'So in the end, it will be a fight against Igor huh? Too bad. I admit I like him. He is here to do what he has to do.'

Well that's a big assumption to make after two full moons and its wrong. The explanation is in the response below.

Alexander the Indiscriminate: 'I'm curious yet worried about the old man. If it's original then I'll be completely fine with that. If it is Igor, then that's where I'll worry. Mainly because you seem to be setting him up to be something of a negative force here. If it were Philemon I'd have no problem; the guy has enough going for him to sugest some of his more... 'assholish' tendencies, to put it nicely. Igor, on the other hand, is more of an assistant type of person. He can aid you through certain ventures but not directly. There is a reason big-nose is named after the assistant of Dr. Frankenstine.'

First off thanks for the longest written review I've had so far although the 'Man oh man oh man' did worry me a bit. Anyway in response to both this and Megaolix's review, I have to say that maybe I need to have a look back at the lines from chapter 11 when it comes to Igor at the scene of the second Arcana Shadow. As it seems that he may be coming off a bit more... evil than I had planned.

To be honest Igor will be a bit of a negative force in this, just not in the way you're thinking. It's hard to explain without opening up huge spoilers but let's just say that Igor is someone who is stuck in his ways and usually that would be fine, but this time he's targeted someone who has people who care for him in positions where they can do something about it. This should become more apparent as the forces in the background talk to each other more, but let's just say that they aren't arrayed against Igor, they just want him to stop interfering so much, for his sake as much as their own.

I'm not sure I've explained this in a decent fashion, but Igor is not the final boss in this AU, his actions are just another plot arc.