"Shadow/Higher being"

Chapter 27

Orpheus was not his strongest Persona, but Minato favored him for sentimental reasons. He felt that this Persona would be best to start with for this battle as Orpheus was his true Persona. The power the Compendium granted him, when summoning Orpheus, was tremendous. The Orpheus he had summoned was nothing like the Orpheus he had summoned back in April.

"Orpheus…" The girl, identified as Aigis, murmured. Her Persona moved forward using Fatal End, slashing at Orpheus with her spear. Orpheus parried the attack with his lyre and proceeded to cast an Agilao at Athena. She partially blocked it with her shield, but the damage was still done.

"God's Hand!" Athena raised her spear and a large copper fist fell from above on Orpheus, who as strong as he was, was still very fragile.

'Poor Orpheus…' Minato thought sheepishly. "God's Hand? That's a little much don't you think?" Aigis' answer was another God's Hand. "Thor!" Minato shouted, opening the book and summoning the mighty Norse god of thunder, who blocked the attack. Minato nearly collapsed from the summoning. He remembered Elizabeth constantly mentioning that when summoning Personas directly from the Compendium that are stronger then he was currently would effectively drain his energy to the point of exhaustion. He needed to finish this quick.

Aigis' eyes widened as she saw him switch to another Persona that nullified her strongest attack. What was worse was that it was Thor meaning she could be expecting an electric attack that most likely would end the battle in Minato's favor. Athena cast Sukukaja on herself in order to raise her evasion against incoming attacks.

"Ziodyne!" Minato shouted. Thor summoned up electricity that shot down towards Athena, who dodged the first one only to be hit by the following one. There was a flash of light and Athena had vanished leaving Aigis fallen on the ground.

"Aigis!" The boy, Ken, came rushing up to Aigis from behind Minato. Apparently, he had snuck in during the battle and now held an Evoker and spear in his hands. "Kala-Nemi!" Holding the Evoker to his head he pulled the trigger summoning a large red Persona. It had a cylindrical upper body that surrounded a smaller inner body. Ken was determined to continue the battle it seemed.

"Ken-san… stop." Aigis said, getting up and putting a hand on Ken's shoulders. "It's okay now. I learned quite a bit from that battle. At this point, we may as well listen to Minato-san's story."

"But…"

"Koromaru-san knows who he is and trusts him." Aigis continued, looking over to Koromaru who was now sitting next to an exhausted Minato.

"Thank you…" Minato said, sitting down to pet Koromaru.

"…I'm still determined not to look back into the past, but… if you are actually here in the present than… I'll have to face it. Okay… I'll listen." Ken finished, giving a small smile.

"Haha… it would've been so much easier to listen from the beginning, but you had to make things complicated for me." Minato laughed exhaustedly. "Tell you what, I'll tell you my story tomorrow. I gotta… rest… up for school… stuff…" And with that, Minato fell unconscious.


Souji didn't know why, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he had been left out of something for awhile. Whatever the case, he had lots of problems. After that disastrous night with Nanako and Dojima, Souji wondered if there was any friction between him and his uncle. Neither Nanakor nor Dojima had mentioned anything about the pickled radish incident as Souji aptly called it. The other thing was Ai. Souji grew to like her as a person, but he didn't want to date her. Somehow it ended up that way and Souji needed to fix it somehow. There were finals too, but Souji had it covered. He studied in the school library and found Yukiko, who happened to be studying there as well. Afterwards, Souji thought they were going to part ways, but they ended up walking together down the Shopping District.

"Do you remember Kasai-san, the waitress? She seemed to have told everyone about you. Now, they're saying I sh-should bring you home." She seemed really embarrassed when Souji smiled amusingly. They had arrived at the shrine where they sat talking for awhile. A man, whom Yukiko identified as the deputy mayor or something, came by. As they talked, she was reminded that some people from the TV station were going to do a show on her family inn. She was about run off to go help out when Kasai came running up to them.

"Kasai-san? What's wrong?" Yukiko asked.

"That TV crew came, but don't go to the inn! It was a trick! It's those people from that 'news of the weird' show! Stay put where you are!" Kasai replied urgently.

"There you are…" A male voice called out. Souji, Yukiko, and Kasai turned to see a familiar trio approach. Souji recognized those lovely gentlemen from last time that had stopped by to talk to them at Junes awhile back. The one that spoke still held that same shady, sneering appearance as before, too. They were complete assholes who wanted coverage to get their ratings by using Yukiko and the inn. As Souji watched them verbally assault Yukiko, he began to feel his anger surface and the Black Tarot in his pocket vibrated. Its sibilant voice urged Souji to act on his anger.

'Do it… destroy these fools…'

It took all of his will power not to deliver the first punch. Instead, he was about to verbally assault them when Yukiko spoke up.

"Shut the hell up!" Yukiko said angrily. "Don't say another word about our inn! Who'd take your stupid ideas seriously? From now on, we refuse ANY coverage from your station!"

"You… bitch! If that's how you wanna play it, I'll plaster those words all over prime time! See how that feels!" The man snarled.

"Go ahead, by all means and we'll respond with an official complaint to your sponsors." Yukiko replied coolly.

They didn't seem to like that idea, but they left anyways. After they were gone, Yukiko let out a sigh of relief and laughed everything that just occurred off. Kasai did too and Souji felt a smile tugging at his lips as his previous anger faded. Kasai soon left.

"Hey, you did well there. You were pretty cool with everything going on." Souji complimented, seeing her get slightly embarrassed over everything that just transpired. She seemed to regret considering abandoning the inn and Souji felt their bond grow stronger.


Souji wasn't sure why, but he was at Junes stocking the shelves while Yosuke was advertising. Yosuke vaguely told him he had an offer that Souji couldn't refuse and he ended up donning a Junes apron and stocking the shelves. Souji made some cash out of it so it wasn't so bad. The two of them relaxed in the food court at the end of the day. He thanked Souji for being there to help out.

"Oh, Hanamura." A female voice called to the right of them. Souji listened as the pair of girls complained to Yosuke that they were annoyed at the crowd today and wanted a raise. After they finished complaining to Yosuke, they walked away and gossiped about Saki Konishi. Though none of it really affected Souji, Yosuke took it offensively.

"It's just hot air. I'm not letting it get to me. …It's sad to be talked about like that, though." Yosuke sighed.

"Heh, you've gotten mature. When did that happen?" Souji replied jokingly.

"Haha… I saw the kid in me inside the TV. I felt I needed to change." There was a silence except for the girls who were still gossiping loudly. "I think its good you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it this far." Souji felt Yosuke's gratitude and felt their bond strengthen.


Minato opened his eyes, but immediately regretted it. The blinds were open, letting in the sunlight that sharply blinded him. This time, he slowly opened his eyes and turned his head slightly away from the window. He looked around the plain room to see very few things in it. There was a desk where he saw some of his stuff on it and a TV in the corner in front of him. Remembering the events of yesterday, he quickly jumped out of bed. He quickly checked his phone and saw that he had a message from Yosuke that he received last night. Minato made a note to read it later. Minato also found out it was nearly noon. The door suddenly opened and Aigis walked through the door with Koromaru.

"Oh… you're up. I thought you were still sleeping otherwise I would've knocked…" She seemed embarrassed.

"Huh… it's fine. Sorry Aigis, but I'm kind of late for school and stuff!" Minato didn't know why, but he felt an urge like he had to go to school despite the fact that it didn't really matter if he attended or not.

"It's fine. Chihiro-san stopped by last night to check on you. It was likely that you would not recover in time for school the next day, so she said she would take care of it." Aigis explained.

"I see…" Minato said blankly.

She walked past him and sat on the bed. "Would you please tell me your story… Minato-san?" She had hesitated slightly in saying his name, which meant it was possible that she still didn't fully believe it. Koromaru barked in agreement.

"I don't know what happened honestly. I know that I am dead, but some strange circumstance led to my revival against my own will. Not that I mind, of course." Minato began to relay every detail that had taken place after mentioning his friends and the TV world. He however, did not mention the Velvet Room since he was unsure if Aigis knew of the place or not.

"I suppose that covers everything…" During the entire tale, Aigis was silent. She stared at him with an intrigued expression on her face.

"So Shadows still do exist… but in another place." Aigis murmured. There was a silence between them until Koromaru barked. Aigis immediately stood up.

"When we fought that book you were holding… was it not the Persona Compendium?"

This surprised Minato slightly. The fact that she knew of the Persona Compendium had to mean that she had seen it before and most likely met someone from the Velvet Room. "You… know of Igor, Elizabeth, and Margaret?" Minato asked.

She nodded. "Well, I don't know who Margaret is, but I have met Igor and Elizabeth before. Elizabeth always held a book in her hands and I recognized that same book you held as well."

"I've been waiting for a long time to learn of my identity. I've wanted to learn of this truth for a long time now. Aigis… could you tell me about… myself?"

She gave Minato a smile. "Let's take a walk then."


The two of them took a walk around Iwatodai and its many stores. Aigis had let Koromaru out to do whatever he wanted while they were gone. They stopped by various places to eat while Aigis reminisced to Minato about everything that took place. The more she told him the more some of the things began to make sense in his mind.

"This is the most fun I've had in a long time… The last time I was this happy was when I was with you all those times…" Aigis said.

Minato was simply delighted that he had found Aigis. He felt this was all he needed in order to attain the rest of his memories. Eventually, they had stopped reminiscing together and just talked about various things. She updated Minato about how his friends were doing.

"Yukari-san, Junpei-san, and Fuuka-san are off in college. We all had graduated just a few months prior."

"Why didn't you go with them?" Minato asked, biting into his takoyaki as they walked. There was something strange about it, but it was good nevertheless.

"I could have, but I declined. College is not the place for me. I decided to remain behind along with Ken-san and Koromaru-san reopening the dorm for any who needed it."

"That's really kind of you, Aigis."

She continued. "Mitsuru-san does business overseas and periodically revisits Port Island since she has based her company here. Akihiko-san is working overseas to be a police officer. He is currently working on a case with a veteran officer to gain experience."

"Mitsuru… huh? You know, Mitsuru was the first person I was able to call on my phone, but she flat out denied me. After that I didn't want to call anybody else, but now when I see them you'll be by my side to help me, won't you?"

She nodded and muttered something he could not hear.

"Oh, I should go get my stuff from the hotel. Care to join me, Aigis?" He held out his hand. Aigis had a strange look on her face, but grabbed it regardless. Minato noticed that she was wearing white gloves. 'Gloves in this weather?' He suddenly remembered that she had fired gun shots, when they had first met, from her hands. He was dodging the entire time, so he wasn't sure if he was seeing things or not. There was something off about Aigis…

They got on the train and stood together by the window. No matter how many times he looked outside, he was in awe at the scenery. It was a nice day and that added to it. He wasn't sure if Aigis knew, but she was standing close by him the entire way there. He didn't really feel uncomfortable though, more like he… welcomed it.


Been awhile eh? Unfortunately, it might be this way for quite awhile. I'll update when I can.

Had a difficult time with this chapter mostly due to the content, but after a couple weeks of looking at the content, I just couldn't change it to something more satisfactory. Hope you guys liked the chapter anyways.

Betaed by RionAgrias!