The coming days went on normally. S.E.E.S would book a trip to Tartarus twice a week. All of them were going strong, thanks to Minato.
... However, a new mystery soon came knocking on their doorstep, days before the full moon.
"How did we end up here again?" Minato sighed, dodging a fist and replying back with a vicious uppercut, which sent the thug a few centimeters up in the air.
"LOOK OUT!" Yukari cried. Minato sighed again and dodged a kick, before digging his knee right into the attacker's gut, knocking him backwards.
"Man..." Minato groaned, smashing his fist onto an oncoming punk, before sidestepping a punch, before replying with an elbow to the chest.
"That's enough!" A gruff voice made Minato stop. Just as he was about to pummel a punk senseless. The blue haired persona user let go of the collar and turned around, facing a familiar beanie wearing teenager.
"Oh, you're... Not Akihiko." Minato joked as Shinjiro looked around the place, finding a couple of punks lying on the ground.
"Who the hell did this?" Shinjiro asked.
"Not my fault! They called me a pretty boy!" Minato scowled at an unconscious teen.
"You sure opened up a whole can of whoop ass." Shinjiro commented, sitting on the steps. Yukari and Junpei slowly made their way towards Minato.
"What do you want?" Shinjiro asked, fixing a cold stare on the three.
"Is it about that ghost girl?" Shinjiro continued, making Yukari gasp.
"Yeah... How did you know?" She asked.
"Don't you know?" Shinjiro scoffed, "The girls who ended up in hospital were here talking shit every night. About some things they did to a girl named Fuuka Yamagishi."
"The one from 2-E?" Minato tiled his head.
"Don't you seriously know? This girl might be dead. She hasn't been in home for over a week." Shinjiro continued, "That's why people are saying that its Fuuka's spirit who did it."
"She's missing?" Minato's eyes widened slowly.
"Mister Ekoda is the homeroom teacher for that class. He should know something about this." Yukari mused.
Minato looked towards the moon. It was almost full, "Something big will be happening..."
The next Monday, Minato dragged both of his friends towards the Faculty Office, hoping to get some answers out of Ekoda, to find Mitsuru already there, interrogating Natsuki.
"Yo!" Minato saluted his senpai, "So, same reason as us?"
"Indeed." Mitsuru nodded, before turning to Natsuki who was shaking, "What did you do to Yamagishi?"
Ekoda barged right in, "Hold on, Mitsuru... This isn't an interrogation. Natsuki, you don't have to say anything if you don't want to. You wouldn't want to give her the wrong idea."
"I, um..." Natsuki was torn.
"SPIT IT, WOMAN!" Minato snapped, glaring at Ekoda.
Natsuki flinched and finally spoke, "Fuuka... She... She always looked so frazzled whenever I gave her a hard time... Then, I realized..." Natsuki took a deep breath, "She's an honor student, but deep inside, she's the same as us. I knew exactly which buttons to push. We were just messin' with her that day, too! May 29th... We took Fuuka to the gym... and locked the door from the outside..."
"Good going, girl." Minato mock clapped, sending a nasty look at Ekoda who was sweating.
"You locked her in!?" Junpei snapped.
"That night, Maki came to school alone, but she didn't come back..." Natsuki said slowly, "I went to the gym to let Fuuka out, but the door was still locked... So, I opened it and went inside, but she wasn't there... We all freaked out. Starting that night, we all went looking for her. But every night, another one of us went missing... and they each ended up like Maki!"
"... I see..." Mitsuru said slowly, processing everything.
Minato smirked, "When you're done tearing this guy a new one, meet me in student council.." He said, walking out, leading to Mitsuru verbally curbstomping Ekoda.
...
Minato waited in the room until Mitsuru and the rest came, commencing the meeting.
"Tonight we will infiltrate the campus! We're going to rescue Yamagishi." Mitsuru started.
"I don't get it, is Fuuka inside the school?" Junpei blinked.
Minato pointed his finger accusingly at Junpei, before shouting, "You've got that wrong!"
"Makoto Naegi, much?" Junpei said in surprise.
Minato stroked his chin, "Fuuka is in Tartarus!"
"Wha?" Junpei asked.
"Dude, its really simple. She got locked inside the GYM, the school's GYM! And the schools at 12 turns into Hell." Minato mused.
"Oh man..." Junpei shivered.
"Exactly! That's how Yamagishi wandered into Taratrus." Mitsuru nodded.
"But that was ten days ago." Junpei cried, looking at the ground.
"We can't jump to such conclusions. This is only a theory but..." Akihiko stroked his chin, "I think time may function differently in Taratus. So, even though its been ten days for her, but it could be possible that its been only 10 hours for us."
"The Dark Hour is pretty brutal. We can barely handle an hour..." Junpei bit his lip.
"Are you going to let her die then!?" Akihiko snapped, glaring at the capped teen, "If you don't wanna go, then fine. I'll go by my own."
"I'll go too." Minato stood up, "I love dangerous situations." He shot a look at Mitsuru, "We'll go, I'll break the place apart if we can't find a way out."
Mitsuru closed her mouth and sighed, "Very well."
"In that case!" Junpei stood up with a grin, "Leave the sneaking around to me!"
...
"Good going asscap!" Minato sighed, as Junpei tried to open the backdoor.
"I thought I unlocked it!" Junpei snarled.
"Can I blow this up?" Minato said, charging up a purple sphere in his palm.
"Absolutely not!" Mitsuru snapped.
"Awww!" Minato groaned, plucking out a hair pin from Mitsuru's wine colored hair, "Move aside, Junpei." Minato inserted the pin inside of the keyhole and began his work.
"AH!" Minato sighed as he heard a 'clink' sound. He threw the hairpin to the side and opened the door.
"Impressive..." Mitsuru smiled.
"You gotta teach me how to do that." Junpei said as the rest walked in.
The group walked inside Minato's homeroom. Junpei was teasing Yukari about being scared of the dark.
"Shut up! Both of you!" Minato snapped, making the bickering teen zip their lips.
"Good..." Mitsuru massaged her temples, "Let's split up. Akihiko and I will check the janitor office, you three check the faculty office."
Junpei grinned, "The faculty office? Maybe we'll find some test questions!
Minato sighed and waited as Mitsuru chewed both of the males out and ordered Junpei to come with them.
...
After sneaking around, Minato and Yukari finally found the key to the GYM in the faculty office, giving each other a hi five, the two walked back and met with Mitsuru in the hallway.
"Did you find the key?" Mitsuru asked, hopefully.
"Sure did!" Yukari cheered.
"You know, I sounded a scream that sounded kinda familiar." Junpei teased.
"Whha?" Yukari said.
"You actually did? Geez, I was only kidding." Junpei laughed.
"You wanna make something of it!?" Yukari growled.
"Oh man, enough!" Minato snapped.
"Quiet!" Akihiko said, silencing the juniors.
"What's the plan?" Minato asked, turning to Mitsuru.
"We'll divide into teams again. Three one of you will enter Tartarus and one of you will remain outside with me." Mitsuru stated.
"I'll go!" Minato cried, "I'd love to mingle with senpai but the team needs me!"
"I'll come too." Akihiko smiled.
"Um, I'll be third then." Yukari spoke up.
"NO!" Junpei cut in, "It's my time to shine! Remember how I screwed up in the monorail!? Imma right the shit I did wrong!"
"Oh come on, its not always about YOU!" Yukari shot a glare.
"Alright Junpei, we'll give you another chance." Akihiko said.
"Whaaa?" Yukari tried to protest.
"What's wrong Yukari, don't wanna stay behind with Mitsuru?" Akihiko smirked.
"Um no, it's fine..." Yukari stammered, looking over to Mitsuru who seemed oblivious.
"You should get going. Good luck." Mitsuru commanded.
Junpei, Akihiko and Minato made their ways towards the GYM, minutes before the Dark Hour.
"Hey, hold my hand." Minato said.
"Whha? Dude!?" Junpei said with his mouth agape.
"Oh no, I ain't gay. Don't get your hopes up." Minato shot back, as Akihiko held onto Minato's hand.
"Geez..." Junepi said, doing the same.
Seconds later, the world around them twisted and turned. Minato closed his eyes and held onto his friend's tightly. He knew something bad would happen if he let go.
Moments later, they all blackened out.
...
"UGH!" Minato woke up slowly, finding himself on a cold floor. He opened his eyes and scanned around the blood filled halls. This was Tartarus, indeed.
He looked around to see Junpei and Akihiko lying on the ground, out cold. The trick actually worked.
"Ooof!" Junpei and Akihiko both woke up shortly after.
"Sunshine and daisies in the morning, right fellas?" Minato mocked, pointing around Tartarus.
"So that is why you held onto our hands..." Akihiko mused, "Good thing we're still not separated."
Heels clicking against the floor made all of them snap back to attention. The trio readied their weapons and took their stances, ready to strike anything.
"Is is Fuuka?" Junpei asked.
"No..." Minato said with gritted teeth. The aura was familiar as always, but this time, it wasn't alone.
"HUH!?" Three other persona users stopped just in front of the group. One of them was Joker.
"You punks again?" Minato growled at the two other nameless persona users. They were the same guys who tried to attack Mitsuru, and the same ones who nearly raped the girl that Minato saved.
"Oh, so you're the guys that Mitsuru told us about..." Akihiko said, glaring at them.
"Why the fuck can't you leave us alone!?" Minato snarled at Joker.
"We've got a bone to pick with you!" The messy haired dude spoke up, making Minato turn his head towards him.
"What was that, punk?" Minato asked with a dead tone of voice.
"We'll fuck ya over!" The other guy, with flaming red hair and goatee replied.
"Come on then." Minato taunted. The redhead snarled and charged towards Minato who quickly sidestepped. Akihiko stepped in and threw a nasty uppercut right on the dude's chin, knocking him backwards.
"Takuya, halt!" Joker commanded as the redhead, now known as Takuya rubbed his chin and glared at Akihiko.
"Ain't my fault that Tobei is a wuss." Takuya replied.
"Let's get this shit over with!" Junpei said, gripping his sword.
Joker gave the same nerve wrecking grin and ordered his friends to ready themselves.
Minato quickly throw a bolt of lightning, countering Joker's fireball, nullifying the attack.
"Beat them senseless!" Minato ordered as his two friends lunged ahead.
Junepi charged ahead and aimed a swipe at Tobei's chest. Tobei hurriedly fished his knife out and blocked the sword. The Agi user kicked him right in the leg, before smashing him on the face with his fist.
"Wanna be boxer." Akihiko smirked, dodging Takuya's relentless attempts of a punch. Eventually, Akihiko got bored and dug his fist right into the redhead's gut, making him release a cry of pain.
Minato knocked Joker backwards with his fist. The member of S.E.E.S regrouped, as Joker and his stooges quickly shrugged the attacks away and stood up for another round.
The two groups kept staring hatefully at each other.
Before...
A gigantic roar put an end to their staring contest.
"Shit..." Minato whispered as the rattling of chains welcomed his eardrums. He was here again.
The six humans slowly turned their attentions towards the gigantic shadow that was on the other side. The Reaper was alive! And he seemed pretty pissed at all of them.
"Fuck..." Junpei cursed.
Akihiko panted as he took his stance again.
Joker clicked his tongue, "I didn't expect this." His two minions were shivering.
The Reaper roared again, and Minato was worried. There was no way he could let Akihiko and Junpei get hurt, but there was no way out, for now.
Joker grunted and threw a ball of almighty energy towards the other group. Minato hurriedly countered it with his own sphere. The two attacks collided in mid air, creating a minor shock wave.
The Reaper quickly pulled his revolvers out and shot a few bullets at the colliding attacks. The bullets exploded upon contact, which detonated a huge explosion, knocking the humans backwards.
Minato collided against the wall and groaned. But, his heartbeat doubled as he heard a frail voice.
"Are you human?"
"SHIT!"
... Alright, I'm sorry about the skip, but the story was going realllly slow! :( Had to make this choice, or we would have gotten no where.
I won't skip anything else, since the good stuff starts right after this, so yay! :D Oh and keep the reviews coming! I'll upload the next chapter soon, hopefully.
Thanks for the support, see you guys later.