2 May 2014

Disclaimer: I do not own Persona or any of its characters. This story is my only pride and joy. ;)

Chapter 21: The Tigress

Minato had fallen asleep in class again.

To make matters worse, he was actually snoring.

Mr. Ekoda had slapped his head with a textbook while the entire class looked on.

Perhaps it was the maxed Courage working its magic that Minato didn't feel embarrassed or shameful at all. Whether that's a good or bad thing, he didn't know, and he didn't care.

What's important now is the upcoming full moon shadow. The team had been going to Tartarus in alternate nights ever since their recovery, with Minato leading one night and Minako, the other. The team had certainly grown a little stronger, but that would be subjective to how strong the Emperor and Empress shadows were.

Minato ruffled his messy bed hair and yawned loudly. Mr. Ekoda was mumbling about classic literature, something he couldn't bother with. All the blunette did was stare at the blackboard while Ekoda's voice lulled him back to sleep.

He'd spent the previous night unable to fall asleep as he was far too excited from just thinking about the new information that has been fed into his brilliant mind.

Sure, he had a ton of questions left unanswered, but he was certain that the answer to avoiding the road to their doom lay in his deceased father's reappearance. Minako and he would be able to survive, and Fate would roll in his grave as they beat his challenge down.

Yes, he's got victory wrapped around his finger.

He was sure of it.

Just from that baseless deduction, the simple-minded blunette began to see the world with newly refined hope that he hadn't realized to have diminished before.

Birds sang, the trees danced, and the grass waved at him.

Oh yes, the world is such a beautiful place!

He hadn't realized that he had been lost in his thoughts smiling all the while until Ekoda appeared beside him with his textbook poised to smack his head again.

"Having lewd dreams early in the morning eh, Arisato?"

Minato only blinked at him as giggles erupted around the class.

He smirked at his teacher. "What could you possibly mean by that? I'm somewhat hurt that this is how you think of me."

The edge of sarcasm in his voice erupted a few more cracks of laughter across the class.

Minato smirked at his teacher's annoyed face again. "Ah, perhaps you had lewd dreams earlier this morning, but decided to put the blame on me to feel better about yourself?"

Annoyed at being ridiculed, Minato was sent to stand outside the class. Shaking her head, Minako, on the other hand had no idea what her brother was thinking of.

The Light Hour took over during Miss Toriumi's class.

It was a rather lonely experience, since Minako had always been by his side ever since they were babies, foetuses even.

Miss Toriumi had called him to read a passage from the book, but by the time he had finished, he looked up to face a bunch of crystals with frozen humans in them. The classroom was as silent as a graveyard, while the blackboard looked more like a greyboard.

Putting down the book, he decided that maybe the world wasn't that beautiful after all.

The moment he left the school grounds, he was attacked by a gang of Laughing Mayas.

Prometheus finished them off quick enough though.

Minato didn't even have to lift a single finger. In fact, it didn't even look like a battle. The Laughing Mayas were so weak that it made Prometheus look almost like an adult abusing a couple of harmless kids. Whatever Zeus had said about the brutality of the Light Hour was probably a load of bullshit meant to scare them.

Minato deduced that his previous encounter with them was only difficult because he was injured, and had just awakened to his full potential to the Light Hour. Moreover, Prometheus too had just awakened to his full potential. The two of them were almost like newborns in a new world. Obviously even the weakest monsters thrown in their way would seem ten times harder than they really were, right?

Just as he was having a little victory celebration with his persona, a giant figure appeared from nowhere and loomed over him.

He decided to never underestimate the Light Hour after that.

Turns out, the small group of Laughing Mayas were just the appetizers.

The main course of the day was a giant white blob that stood as tall as the school building with stubs for arms and legs.

It would've appeared to be cute if it weren't for the masks of every type of Mayas stuck all over its body. From the masks, Minato guessed that this giant was made up of a huge bunch of Mayas that had combined their bodies together for a gang bang session.

Some of the masks were laughing, some crying, cussing, and many more.

It was like looking at a manifestation of the human emotions; it was ugly.

It wore a gigantic mask; a collage of small masks neatly arranged over its face.

Minato stared up at the towering giant in front of him.

"Well, screw me."

To emphasize his point, the angel gave him a deafening roar and reached out for him with its stubby little arms.

Never ever underestimate the Light Hour.

Minato had forgotten the mental note he had made earlier as he stood before the towering white giant with his arms crossed, wondering how a stub could possibly grab or inflict any form of harm to him.

Just as the seemingly harmless stub approached just an arm's reach away from his face, it changed its shape to form fingers.

It didn't stop at being just fingers though.

The fingers grew longer and longer into tentacle-like projections. They grew in bundles, making it look like a cluster of sea anemones attached to its hand.

Contrary to popular belief, a bunch of sea anemones clumped together wasn't a beautiful sight.

It was plain disgusting.

No joke.

Despite being sickened and possibly, scarred by the sight, Minato dashed through the giant Angel's short stubby legs in record time using the incredible athleticism he had honed from his years as a track and field star to escape grasp of the tentacles.

Although he was already safe over the other side, he dreaded to think about what would've happened to him had the giant sat down on him, or if its legs grew into tentacles too. Minato was sure he would've been traumatized for life had the leg-tentacles grabbed him while he was in between its legs, thus presenting him the magnificent view of its secret garden. The blunette was sure he didn't want to explore the anatomy of this hideous creature with his pure, naked eyes; if it even had one, that is.

Without further ado, Minato called for his persona.

"Prometheus!"

The sound of shattering glass ensued, and Prometheus materialized from his realm of consciousness in an instant.

The gold plated full-body armour shone brightly under the Sun. Heat radiated from his flaming right hand while the great black eagle stood perched on his left hand, looking all ready for action.

Despite looking good to go, all the persona did was stand as still as a statue in front of Minato while the eagle's eyes glinted at him with anticipation.

It wasn't until Minato realized he hadn't issued an order to his persona that the giant had turned to face him with an annoyed look on its giant mask that said 'how dare you run between my privates?'.

Just as he opened his mouth to issue a command to Prometheus, Minato realized that he didn't even know what element Prometheus held, let alone know what skills he carried with him.

The giant angel reached out for the blunette with its tentacles again with a much faster speed this time. Minato jumped to the side and screamed at Prometheus.

"Eliminate the Bloated Tentacleman!"

He later realized how stupid it sounded. In fact, he hadn't even realized that he had given this hideous creature a nickname in his head.

Of course, all Prometheus did was stand rooted to his spot, where the tentacles shot past his shoulder and missed him by a hair's breadth. The persona seemed dumbfounded. Underneath that metal mask, his face probably said, "What the hell did you just say?" while wearing the most horrified expression he could make.

Minato eyed his flaming hand and grinned.

"Think you can manage some fireballs? Prometheus, I command you to burn that… thing!"

In return, Prometheus gave a little huff, like he wasn't satisfied with the way Minato had used the term, 'command'. The eagle took to the air though, and Prometheus went into action.

First, he transferred the flame to both of his hands. Half expecting him to perform the iconic Dragon Ball manoeuvre, Minato was taken by surprise when Prometheus swung his right arm and threw a fiery ball of fire towards the angel's mask like a professional baseball pitcher. Alternating between his left and right arm, a torrent of flaming balls were sent flying towards the angel's mask without any delay in between.

Though impressive, the fireballs barely did any damage to it. The fact that the angel even looked tickled by it was barely any consolation to both persona and its user.

The angel directed his attention to Prometheus with an irritated look.

The tentacles shot forward again, reaching out for the shiny chunk of metal that had just shot fire at its face. Prometheus dodged, jumping around nimbly.

After much failure with its tentacles, it decided to give up. The tentacles retreated, growing shorter and shorter until it was back into a mere stub of white flesh.

Minato expected it to walk away having given up like the lazy fatso it was, but it didn't.

Its bloated stomach became thinner. All of its belly fats that had been there earlier moved to different parts of its body in fat droplets as though an invisible force were squeezing its abdomen.

Slowly, the angel began to change its form.

Droplets of fat moved to its arms and legs like raindrops running down a windshield. The stub of its arm elongated to form the normal human arm, where the fats moved in to give bulk as muscles now. Its stubby legs too undergone the same process, giving it the look of a very muscular pair of legs.

Anyone with a certain muscle fetish would certainly savour them.

However, Minato was neither a leg nor arm fetish. It was a refreshing sight, but it wasn't pleasant given the situation he was stuck in now.

The transformation made the angel look more humanoid. The only thing that looked out of place was its body. In contrast to its muscular limbs, its body had no shape nor tone that would match it, looking much like a strip of white plasticine. It had the head of a mannequin, except that it had retained the giant mask on its face. The Bloated Tentacleman was no more, replaced by a muscle-crazed giant.

It was the weirdest thing Minato had seen throughout his entire fighting career. Sure, its body shape was designed with 100% functionality in mind, but its looks were -100% attractive.

The angel stretched its new pair of arms. It roared, baring a set of razor sharp teeth that weren't there before.

For the first time since his awakening, Minato could feel the terror of the Light Hour's merciless nature just from the roar of the shape shifting predator before him.

Soft thuds echoed throughout the gym.

His breathing was ragged from fatigue while the cold air burnt his throat and lungs whenever he breathed.

Akihiko had been at the punching bag for more than three hours now.

His knuckles were numb and sore, and his feet about to snap from trying to perfect his side kicks.

Although he was supposed to be a boxer, his coach had demanded every one of them to master kicks in the name of self-defence.

The poor punching bag looked worse than a chewed up bone. If it could speak, it would probably be crying out for Akihiko to stop.

Yet, he had no intention of doing so.

The words of his twin juniors ate away at him since last night.

"We have sort of 'time travelled'," Minato had said. "We died in protecting mankind by being the Great Seal against Erebus' wrath, and was brought back to life for the eighth time to prevent our deaths."

Akihiko frowned at the memory, his punches and uppercuts picking up speed.

He was told that by defeating all of the full moon bosses, they would aid in the awakening of Death, or Thanatos that dwelled in them. This would then lead to the end of the world, called the Fall.

It all sounded so silly, the silver haired boxer thought Minato was just playing games with him. However, their grim faces told him otherwise.

Then there was also the Light Hour, the counterpart of the Dark Hour. It seemed all so surreal, but highly plausible.

But when Minako spoke up, she delivered the news that literally made his blood run cold.

"Shinjiro will meet his doom," she muttered gloomily. "On the October 4th, Shinji intends to give up his own life in exchange for Ken's mother's out of guilt."

"You're joking… right?"

But he knew that Minako spoke of the truth, because nobody else but he and Mitsuru knew of this. As she retold the incident, her hands trembled as well as her voice. The look on her face and the fear in her eyes told him that it was a terrible incident that haunted her even in her nightmares, unable to be forgotten.

At the same time, Akihiko couldn't help but notice how Minako had never once met his gaze.

Was it guilt? Grief, maybe?

No, Akihiko didn't think so. He'd seen enough to know that there was something going on with Minako and Shinjiro from their first journey, as they had called it.

What was it?

Love, perhaps? Were they lovers?

One strong punch in the present sent the punching bag crashing to the floor, its stuffing pouring out, creating a mess on the floor.

Whatever it was, Akihiko decided he didn't care about it.

His sore knuckles pulsated with pain, but the physical pain he felt in his limbs were nothing compared to the thought of losing Shinji, his one and only precious childhood friend and brother. Losing Miki was hard enough, so why did they have to take Shinji away from him too?

The only thing that Akihiko knew he could do now was train harder. If he wanted to protect those that mattered to him, he needed to become strong enough, even if it means he has to fight a crazed bear. After that, all that's left to do is brace himself for the worst and pray for the best.

The twins had relayed their plan to him, and requested his assistance. He agreed, of course. How could he say no when so much was at stake?

Despite having a solid plan in action, Akihiko couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

Plans usually never go according the way it's wanted.

Akihiko feared that in their struggle to change the future for the better, they may end up being the one to destroy it.

"As expected, you're here in the gym boxing alone, huh. You never change, you know that?"

Akihiko turned to face the male student council president leaning by the doorway. A grin crept over his face as he peeled his boxing gloves off. So he was like that in their first journey too? Awesome.

"I guess not. I mean, I'm not gonna lie to you since you know everything, but Miki's death really shook my core you know. The feeling of being unable to save someone, it really sucks. You know what I mean, don't you?"

Walking towards him with his hands buried in his pockets, Minato sighed. "I get where you're coming from, so I don't really blame you. But to put your own happiness aside is just…" Minato grinned at him. "Hey, how about a trip to the arcades? Surely you're strong in Tekken and not just boxing right?"

The boxer picked up his bag and slung a sweaty arm over the other male.

"No way I'm turning that challenge down then. Just try to dodge my Lightning fist!"

"Get off me, you're soaking wet. You stink too you know that? It's really unattractive."

As Minato groaned and grumbled, Akihiko laughed, wondering how long this peace would remain in their lives.

"And just so you know, I ain't losing to you in that competition as King Idol of the school."

"Yeah, yeah, you can have the victory for that one."

"Hell no, you're going to compete with me, or I'll have you cross dress."

"Please do spare me the image change, King Arisato."

As they talked and laughed their way to the arcades and spent their time battling each other fiercely, Akihiko couldn't help but think that maybe, it wasn't so bad to slack off from practice every now and then.

After all, it's been so long since he's had so much fun like a normal male teenager in his last year of high school. If their peaceful time together with everyone was limited, Akihiko decided he would make the best out of it, something he realized Minato and Minako had been doing since the start of their meeting.

In the evening back at their dorm, Akihiko put off repairing his boxing gloves for the first time. Instead, he'd spent his time playing with Minato and Junpei on the Playsexy 3, much to Mitsuru's surprise.

It was fun, even though it felt really lazy of him, and made him feel guilty later.

During the Dark Hour, they battled yet another powerful shadow, the tango dancers again. Sure, it was difficult and tiring as hell, but Minato was a great field leader.

He backed them up nicely, leaving room for every member to improve their battle tactics. It wasn't as if he was slacking either. Despite having a rather nonchalant attitude and a constant grin on his face, Akihiko knew that Minato took this rather seriously. With firm, strong and definite attacks, he dealt the heaviest damage to the shadow.

Minako was nothing short of dissatisfaction either. Her attacks weren't as powerful, but they were precise and clean ones. Unlike Minato who depended more on physical attacks, Minako utilised her personas to their fullest. Then of course, she has those extraordinary powers that nobody could believe to exist. She took care of everyone nicely, healing them while they're injured and protecting them from the heavy blows.

Their battle skills were revolutionary, but with the experience they'd gained during the seven long journeys, it had to be a given.

Judging from the way they handled their weapons, it was clear to anyone else that they knew what they were doing, unlike Junpei who seem to think of a heavy two handed blade as a baseball bat.

Akihiko wondered if he'd ever become as strong and dependable as them.

"I'm sure you'd be successful with that."

He turned to see Minako smiling at him.

"Did you just read my mind?"

She laughed as she cast a Diarahan onto Junpei, who regained his energy instantly and flew at the shadow, idiotically swinging his sword as though expecting to hit a homerun. Obviously, it didn't work, barely touching the shadow before he was sent tumbling towards the wall again.

"I don't need to, not when I know you more than you can ever imagine."

Akihiko felt slightly exposed when she said that, but she wore a melancholic smile that made him wonder just what kind of relationship he used to share with her in the first journey.

It really isn't fair, how they have one sided memories of them.

By the end of their Tartarus session, Akihiko was certain he could put his trust in them and lend them his strength.

Maybe if it were those two, everything would turn out to be alright.

All he needed was a little trust.

But little did the twins know, misfortune is always on their tail.

Using the difference in size to his advantage, Minato ran in circles around its feet. It was a risky move, but it was better than stoning, and waiting for his demise. The blunette adopted the hack and slash technique, delivering multiple quick light blows all over the angel.

It irritated the angel highly, and it grabbed wildly at Minato between its legs.

He dodged every swipe of the arm with his acceleration skill, barely escaping most of them.

Minato stared up at the mask. Just how was he going to get up there to crack that damn thing open? It wasn't as if he could fly, right?

"Damn, just grab yourself and trip won't you?"

Prometheus used the chain on his non flaming hand, which was attached to a heavy steel ball he lounged around as a prisoner to trip it up.

The chain wrapped around its ankles successfully, but what came after that was either a comedic scene or a horrendous outcome, depending on the eye of the beholder.

What happened was that Prometheus had the giant's right foot in his grasp, his prisoner's chain wrapped around its ankle, the metal ball acting like an anchor. In an attempt to bring it down for Minato to deliver the finishing blow, the persona tugged on his chains with all his might.

Even though he looked as though he was on wit's end with his breathing growing ragged from effort beneath that golden helm, the situation looked akin to an ant trying to move an elephant.

Prometheus grunted like a constipated man as he tugged and tugged on the chains, but the foot never even moved an inch. Minato moved in, thinking he could put his superhuman strength to use.

Eventually, it became a game of tug-o-war, with the angel on the winning side by just standing still.

Having waited for the two to topple him, the giant grew bored and decided it was his turn to play.

As though lifting a finger, the giant lifted his foot and brought up Prometheus whose hand was attached to the chain on its leg, together with Minato who was holding on to the chain during the tug of war.

The giant swung his foot in circular motions so that the two dolls on the other end spun in circles.

For the first time, the mask took on a gleeful expression as it guffawed amusedly.

The shadow was having fun swinging them around, and it made Minato mad at being played by this bird brained organism.

Already exhausted from using his powers earlier, the swinging only exaggerated his headache, added with a side dish of dizziness.

In these sort of situations, it's a do or die.

Going with the do, Minato waited for the swinging to reach a desired angle where he used the momentum and released his grip on the chains to propel towards the mask of the now laughing giant.

The laugh turned into a confused growl, then a howl of realization and horror.

Then again, the angel turned out to have brains after all.

It grabbed at the air wildly as though shooing a pesky fly. Unable to control his flight movements, Minato was caught by the giant. His trusty blade, Lucifer's Blade fell to the ground.

Trying to free himself, he squirmed and thrashed about the giant's grip, but in vain.

All he had now was the shortsword Yukari had given him on his first day.

It wasn't sharp enough, and if he were that lucky, the blade might just break without inflicting any damage to the angel.

Even so, he had to take chances.

Fatigue consumed his body, his mind starting to go blank. Every energy he had left must be saved for the finishing blow at all costs.

Minato whistled to Prometheus and nodded at him. Prometheus nodded back and looked to the sky, where the great eagle emerged, returning to action.

As it approached nearer to them, it tucked its wings, and free fell, its beak pointing downwards.

The giant didn't know what hit him when the bird crashed straight into his eye.

It howled in great pain, and its hands let go of Minato to shield its wounded eye.

The eagle swooped down to catch the falling blunette and took to the air again.

Once they achieved a certain altitude directly above the giant where the bird decided it could fly no higher with this huge load, it dropped Minato to a free fall.

As he propelled head-first towards the giant, now angry about its injured eye, Minato summoned his last bit of energy to replicate the Lucifer's Blade. At this momentum, the shortsword is sure to break instead.

Once the giant recovered, it was hit by yet another unforeseen missile to its face.

Minato crashed into his face at full force, jamming the newly replicated blade into its mask.

However, the momentum achieved was so great, the mask not only pierced upon contact, but dragged Minato down to slice the entire body apart.

By the time Minato hit the ground, every momentum he had earlier had dissipated. The giant's solid form immediately melted into thick, white ichor, raining down on Minato standing in the middle of the mess as it did so.

The battle is over; the giant angel is dead.

Once the sense of victory sunk in, Minato's energy levels sunk as well. He looked to his kinetically driven watch, which told him that more than one hour had passed in the Light Hour.

As if the Light Hour was saying, 'well done', Minato found himself back at the classroom, where Miss Toriumi and all his classmates stared at him. Still holding on to the textbook, he was the only one standing in the room.

"Minato-kun? Why did you stop reading halfway?"

He stared blankly at the worried face of his teacher. His ears rang, and his focus on her face began to blur. Bit by bit, pain started to sink in at all parts of his body from the fight earlier. Once he looked down at his arm and lifted his sleeve by a bit, he saw wounds opening up on its own.

The last thing he remembered was the concerned faces of his classmates as he blacked out and collapsed, realization dawning upon him that due to the unusual return of a user back to the normal hours, the injuries he had sustained during the Light Hour will emerge a little later, just like a little time lag.

How amazing, indeed.

I wonder if there's any more surprises waiting for me.

Life continued on as usual for the remaining week.

Fuuka held new resolve, which aided in her bullying case. Natsumi and her gang looked at Fuuka with slight scorn, seeing as their victim was no longer fun to play around with.

Question that still remained was, what's going to happen in its stead now?

On the promised day, SEES got their answer.

Things started before it was even close to the time of the Dark Hour.

The Light Hour was the first stop.

Minato had been dozing off when the Light Hour struck, only to be awakened by a loud bang and the sound of shattering glass.

It wasn't that he summoned a persona in his sleep, someone else did.

The User of the persona was unseen, but an angel flew in through the window, crashing into the desks before the blunette's sleepy eyes.

It wasn't a Maya, but rather, a more sophisticated looking creature.

Before Minato could react, a pair of boobs flew in through the same window the angel had flown in from.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say that a big breasted persona equipped with rather suggestive metal armour flew in. Had Prometheus been here to witness the arrival of this somewhat female version of himself, Cupid's arrow would've pierced his heart at once.

The persona trudged in with malice aforethought, and proceeded to grab the frightened angel by its neck. After squeezing the life out of it with the aid of freezing the air around her, the persona jumped out of the window again, not even giving a rather stunned Minato a single glance.

Sounds of metal sword clangs and howls of angels reached his ears. Minato went up to the window and gasped.

There were many other persona users, all clad in different coloured 'capes' bearing different emblems on their backs.

There were easily about more than ten of them, all battling two giant angels that looked somewhat similar to the Emperor and Empress shadows, save for the difference of their white bodies, the natural colour of all angels.

Minato stared with amazement and surprise.

He never imagined to meet this many persona users in the Light Hour. Their fighting techniques were advanced, perhaps surpassing even his own. As a fighter himself, Minato knew these were battle veterans. Even the big breasted persona he had seen earlier had a sort of malicious aura to her. Her ability to freeze the air was something Minato had never seen anyone perform before. Even though Mitsuru was the 'Ice Queen', she never did cause the temperature of a room to drop to freezing levels, only forming an ice block around her victims.

Apart from that, Minato felt somewhat grim when he saw the two misshaped figures battling the group of persona users. They showed great resistance, switching vulnerabilities with their 'Paradigm Shift'. The angel version could also summon minions, hence the angel that had flew into the classroom. Even for a group of veteran persona users, they seemed to experience difficulties in dealing with the two bosses.

The young Arisato stared at their swishing capes, before pulling out a pair of binoculars from his bottomless pocket to get a better view.

What in the world is with that? He couldn't help but think this looked very much like a plot development of a supernatural manga.

One of the fighters, a female, wore a blue cape with an emblem of a snowflake on it. Another had a red cape, the symbol of two swords crossed over each other embedded on it. There were many other colours and emblems like a roaring tiger, a turtle, flames, and even kanji characters of 'water', and 'earth'.

Minato could only guess that…

One. They were leaders of a pack, working together to eliminate this threat to their respective community. Then again, it wasn't as if he were in the medieval era, where you had the Romans who wore such things on their backs, their colours and emblems representing their own region or group.

Or maybe a cult.

Anyway…

Assumption two. Those pieces of cloth were actually a sort of combative weapon, maybe even an impenetrable armour. Maybe persona users of the Light Hour required advance weaponry and armoury to aid in their difficult battles. It seemed highly plausible, but when he saw a wolf-like angel claw and tear one of their capes, Minato decided that assumption number two was out of the window.

His last assumption was that they just decided to wear something for the fun of it, like a bunch of kids role-playing the Featherman R. Peering through his binoculars again, Minato decided that these people were far older than he was, hence reducing the possibility of these adults wearing capes to feel like Superman down to zero.

So what the heck is going on here?

To answer his question, one of the persona users felt his gaze on her back and turned to spot him. The last thing he saw was a fierce scowl on her face before she vanished from his sight.

Feeling somewhat fearful that one of those warriors were now pursuing him, Minato crouched down behind the wall and clutched his head.

Who knows what kind of super powers this woman held, perhaps something akin to his own super-jumps, but her shadow appeared before him as she landed on the broken window.

Before Minato could even turn to get a look at his mysterious pursuer's face, she grabbed his neck like how the persona from earlier did to the angel. Minato squealed rather unmanly as she pinned him on the ground in the classroom, one hand on his neck and her other, restraining his two hands behind his back like a policewoman arresting a criminal.

"Who are you? Why were you spying on us?"

Minato squirmed about, trying to escape from her iron grip.

"I don't know anything, I don't know who you are, or what you're doing. Let me go, I'm innocent!"

Her death glare subsided, and her grip on him relaxed.

She eyed his uniform as Minato sat up and dusted himself.

"A student here, huh…"

Minato didn't like how she stared at him, wondering what to do with him while her comrades fought noisily downstairs.

"Can you fight?"

The younger of the two was taken aback. "Well uh, I guess now's not really a good time…"

While he wanted to avoid getting thrown into the battlefield, or getting his identity and abilities exposed, he wasn't really lying about what he had just said. He'd have a major fight tonight involving the darker side of the two bosses, and wearing himself out right now wasn't a very pleasing thought.

"Do you have a persona?"

"Persona? Ehh... I-"

A scream from downstairs took her attention away. She scrambled to the window and clicked her tongue.

Minato had the chance to carry out a full body scan on her then. Even with her back facing him, Minato decided she had nice curves, a stunning but fierce expression to complement it. It's a shame though, that she appear to be the impatient, alpha woman kind of person.

Her red cape fluttered behind her, the emblem of the roaring tiger growling at him.

She turn back to him hastily.

"You there, do you have a rank?"

Ok, what?

Before he could open to mouth to answer that question, the confused look on his face told her more than enough.

She clicked her tongue in annoyance again, as though she had just found a deadweight to carry with her.

"Stay here, don't do anything reckless." She pulled out a shortsword from her thigh and threw it to him. "Should any of those white things you've just seen come up here, defend yourself to the best of your abilities."

Then without a warning, she climbed up the window and jumped off the third floor.

Stunned and somewhat relieved, Minato slumped against the wall of the broken window and sighed at the weapon in his hands.

"Honestly, what's with people and shortswords for noobs."

At that moment, he couldn't help but think back to his first encounter with a fellow persona user from the Dark Hour, Yukari who had also given him a shortsword. In the Light Hour, he found it rather ironic that he was given yet another shortsword upon an encounter with this uncrystalized person in a red cape.

He turned the shortsword around in his palms. Compared to the cheap touch of the one Yukari had given him, this one had weight, and a nicely made grip. Upon closer inspection, a name was engraved on the side of the metal blade.

Sasaki Y.

The blade appeared chipped at a few places, indicating heavy usage while the worn handle suggested that this weapon was used rather frequently.

Minato stood up and watched the person named 'Sasaki Y.' clad in the red cape furiously battling the Empress with a sword.

"I wonder if she'll be alright without this…"

Suddenly, a loud groan pierced the air.

The Empress Angel had fallen, leaving only the Emperor to fight for his life.

Minato looked on in awe as the caped fighters moved into a circle surrounding the last remaining angel. It looked like they had a plan in action; a plan they often used in their battles, for each and every one of them moved and attacked systematically in planned rhythms.

Not long after, the Emperor too gave a groan as he fell and melted into white goo.

The persona users cheered. They put away their weapons, and clapped each other's back. The team was rather unified, shouting words of encouragement, thanks and victories.

Before he knew it, the woman from earlier stood before him by the broken window again.

Taken by surprise, Minato took as step back and slipped on the tiny shards of glass. He fell on his bottom, the unamused shadow before him sighing at his clumsiness.

She extended her arm and Minato placed the blade she had given earlier in her palms.

"There was nothing that came to attack you, was there?"

Minato got up, dusted his uniform once more and shook his head.

She vaulted over the window sill into the classroom and regarded him with folded arms, drawing Minato's unneeded attention to her breasts who looked like it was about to spill out of her rather low cut top.

Honestly, first a persona, and now a user. Are females of the Light Hour required to dress suggestively, not to mention have huge cup sizes?

"So, how long have you been aware of your surroundings?"

"About a week… I think."

Once again, she stared at him with furrowed eyebrows, as though trying to decide what to do with him.

"What's your name?"

"Arisato Minato."

Her frown deepened for a split second, then returned to her usual stern expression.

She gave him a cold smile and extended her arm for a handshake.

"My name is Sasaki Yuzuki, nice to meet you."

Still surprised from the change of attitude, Minato took her hand and shook it.

"Yeah, nice to meet you, Sasaki-san."

The smile dissolved, and she got down to business.

"I'm a Senior Mentor, a rank given to the experienced to guide new users such as yourself."

Minato's eyes widen in realization as he recognized the word, 'Mentor'.

"Was that what you meant when you asked me about my rank?"

"That's right. As a hidden society in this scared hour, we distinguish ourselves by ranks to protect one another."

Hidden society? Sacred hour?

"Until you have a Mentor taken under his or her wing, you hold no rank. Upon mentorship, you receive the rank of 'Apprentice', where you slowly rise up to the ranks of 'Junior Mentor'. Once you've received the title of a Mentor, no matter how low it is, you are required to wear a battle veil to missions."

Squinting, Minato racked his brains. "So in other words, this 'battle veil' is that cape you're wearing, and your mission was to eliminate that… thing?"

"It's called an angel. Our battle veil symbolises our power, our specialized element, and an emblem that best describes yourself. The bunch of us whom you've just seen are all Mentors. We are acting on the order of the highest ranked in this region, as all of us are."

The blunette felt like laughing, for this 'battle veil' thing looked so silly. In other words, it's like a uniform that openly displays your strength while you are on 'duty'. Also… Minato eyed the roaring tiger. Does that emblem mean that she's a ferocious beast?

In bed?

Ha, just joking.

He could clearly see why she was given such an emblem. Sasaki Yuzuki was as fierce and stern as a tiger.

"So… the reason you're telling me all this is for…?"

Minato looked expectantly at her face, who glared somewhat irritated at him.

"You can chose to be a one man army and not receive a rank, or you can join this society by having a Mentor take you in and fight alongside other persona users."

"If I decide to accept a rank, does that mean you'd be my Mentor?"

She sighed. "Normally your Mentor would be the first mentor you meet, but under certain circumstances you can choose not to accept that Mentor, likewise for the said mentor himself."

"Your point is?"

She eyed him sharply. "Have you met any similarly dressed people as us before this?"

You mean the low cut top and those massive jugs?

"Never in my life."

She furrowed her brow, as though rather disturbed by that.

"Do you wish to join the ranks of the society?"

A mental image of Minako crossed his mind. If he joined this cult-, I mean, society, what would happen of her? He was certain that she too would awaken to the Light Hour.

"What would happen if I were to reject the offer?"

"Naturally, you become a one man army."

Minato frowned. He knew that it wouldn't be wise to travel alone in this deserted land called the Light Hour.

Finally, he looked up at her, still glaring at him with the same intensity from earlier.

"Would it be alright if you took me in?"

"It's not alright."

She said it without a moment's hesitation that Minato was once again, stunned for the millionth time today by this tigress.

"Didn't you just say that the first Mentor I meet will normally be the one who takes me in?"

"Normally, that is. I also did mention that the mentor can choose not to. Plus, it'd be troublesome if I were to be your Mentor."

Minato frowned, a little annoyed at that.

First, she said that the first Mentor he met would become the one that will guide him up the ranks of apprenticeship, then now she's telling him that she refuses to be his Mentor.

Just what's up with this person?

The two of them exchanged sparks. While her cold glare and demeanour may have frightened most people like a kitten before a tiger, Minato who has stared Death down and defeated a horde of Reapers didn't feel any fear before her.

Suddenly, something came flying at them.

As quickly as they had been ambushed, the angels were chopped into half within a split second.

The two stood in similar offensive stances, each welding shortswords.

The tigress, as Minato had nicknamed her, sheathed her secondary blade by her thigh and smiled at him, somewhat pleased with the outcome.

"You have quick reflexes, I like that."

Minato snorted. "You're not bad yourself."

She eyed him once more, and then turned to leave through the broken window again.

Before she leaped off the building for the second time today, she threw a rock at his head, snapping the blunette out of his trance. "I'll be meeting you again, so don't go around harassing other persona users as you wish, got it?"

Just like that, she jumped off from the third floor again without waiting for a reply from him.

Minato was once again, stunned.

"Did I just get accepted by that tigress?"

He peered out of the window, where she had joined the other Mentors and was now chatting with them freely.

Suddenly, the Light Hour was over and he was right back at his seat, staring open-mouthed at the back of the student sitting in front of him, drool falling out of the corners of his mouth.

He straightened his back, stretched, and yawned loudly.

As Mr. Ekoda yelled at him to be quiet, Minato chuckled at how he had just met someone so impossible, she had stunned him countless times in less than an hour.

His mind wondered back to the full moon event that would take place tonight, and how he would need all the energy he had.

With that reasoning, Minato slumped over his table, going back to sleep.

Getting into the ranks was for the safety in numbers. His attention should be on the Dark Hour, SEES and The Fall. Ranks, Light Hour and angels can wait, for they are secondary to his interests.

Surviving tonight, and for all the nights and afternoons to come was a huge priority.

That, and the tigress' huge rack.

Right before the blue haired boy fell into a deep slumber, he couldn't help but think about how much he looked forward to their next encounter more than the full moon battle tonight.

A/N: Episode-, I mean, Chapter 21 is here!

Took me nearly half a year for this. I'm starting to wonder when this story will be finished.

I still don't have the intention to abandon it, so do stay tuned, no matter how slow it is.

If you find any grammatical errors, leave a comment for it. :)

Thanks for reading! Constructive criticism much appreciated.