English is not my first language.

if someone likes to be a beta reader to point out my grammatical errors I would be very happy

please enjoy!

Welcome to Tartarus (VIII)

Day: 21/Tuesday Month: July Year: 2009

Afternoon

After the disaster of the day before now the all-male group was all gathered on the beach, I was bent over watching a crab while Junpei arrived with the rest holding a note from the girls

"*We've gone to see Jyomon cedar tree* so it says"

"Looks like Fuuka's handwriting," Akihiko pointed out.

"Let us go! We are in a resort on an island in the middle of summer! Why don't you go to the beach?!" exclaimed Iori

"Well, it's your fault"

"Hears! I just wanted to brighten the mood…"

"I think that's called harassment" I told him

"Well, it does not matter anyway, we are all alone now, just the boys! If you run out of ammo, pick it up on the battlefield! That is one of the basic military tactics!"

"Sounds good in theory, but in practice…"

"Let's call this Operation Babe Hunt!"

"My God…"

"Babe Hunt? Do you mean pick up girls? asked Akihiko

"What do you think Akihiko? With you in the team we have guaranteed success!" Iori told him

"What do you think of that Makoto?"

"Let's start the operation," Makoto said calmly.

"Okay, then I appoint you leader of the operation"

"I feel like they forgot about my existence…" I said as I watched them go.

While Junpei and company had basically decided to pick up girls on the beach, I did the most humane thing possible in that situation, set up a video camera courtesy of Mitsuru so I could take videos of this crashing disaster waiting to happen.

"This is going to be glorious for posterity"

With the camera ready I began to record them, Junpei was the first to try and ended up beaten, then Akihiko tried with a talk, but they left him shortly after, then they went to an older lady... and they ran away from her, with that last one they seemed totally defeated and they all went to sit on the sand in a depressed manner.

"That was a massacre" I told him

"The operation failed…" Akihiko continued.

"If this was a real operation we would be dead" Iori said despondently in the arena

While enjoying a snack the attention of the others was caught on a certain girl, she was blonde in a white dress, looking at the ocean in a lost way, it was Aigis, the boys proceeded to hide behind a rock while I continued recording.

"Woah, speaking of saving the best for last! That is what I was talking about!" Iori got excited

"I agree" agreed Akihiko

"Then who will be the first victim?" you told them

"Nope! You will also participate this time! If we die, we will die together!"

With a sigh I just got down from the rock and stood next to the others, we played rock, paper, or scissors to decide the order, Junpei was first, Akihiko second, me third and Makoto last, the order was a bit ironic, but it would still work

"I win! And I am going first!"

With the camera ready I saw how Junpei approaches Aigis, we could not hear, but I was perfectly aware of what he was saying… more or less, in a few seconds he turns around with a defeated face, I take a direct shot of when he is knocked down, you could appreciate the exact moment in which he loses all illusions.

"S-she's tough..."

"Leave it to me" Akihiko assured him.

Without stopping the recording I see how Akihiko approaches him, although he managed to keep a little more conversation, which was useless because of the way Aigis simply ignored him, in the end he returns defeated.

"I won, I talked more time with her than you" Akihiko mocked

"I think the idea was to ask her out Akihiko" I told him

"Anyway, it's your turn Tyron!" Iori pointed to me

"Okay... hold the camera for me Makoto."

I left and went directly to Aigis, honestly I did not care much, although she was one of my favorites, the unconditional love she has for Makoto is something I am not going to win, but I could still have a little fun with all this.

"Hello!" I said her Hello

"Hello I know?" asked Aigis robotically

"Not at all"

"I feel a power equal to the human I am looking for, but you are not him at the same time"

"Yes, it could be said that we are a bit alike, but that doesn't matter. Could you do something for me?"

"And what would that be?"

"Write down a random phone number and then give me a hug so I can go get it"

"I don't see how this will help me find the human I'm looking for."

"Honestly, it's more to annoy my friends, but one of them is the man you're looking for"

"Very well" finally agreed

So after writing a jumble of numbers under her name and giving me a hug I said goodbye to her as she returned triumphantly with the rest of my group, the three of them had a completely shocked look, Makoto who seemed a mix between defeated and relieved.

"You did it!" Junpei got excited

"What it's like? Will you see her later?" I wonder Akihiko

"Nah, it was a prank to mess with you guys, I'm just not the human you're looking for"

"She told me that too..." Iori thought.

"In the same way I'm going to the head when receiving the hug from her. Your turn Makoto!"

Since I already knew that the fun was over, I just stopped recording, everything went well for the two of them, until the time came when Aigis had to run away, I already had the general idea of how the whole thing would continue, so I let it go while Akihiko and Junpei were chasing after Aigis with Makoto, while walking back I ran into the group of girls.

"Tyron! Have you seen the others?!" I wonder Mitsuru

"They are chasing a girl in the woods while they are in a bathing suit, the normal thing" I told them

It seemed that the girls took a long time to process what I said, but in the end we went looking for them until we found Aigis resting his head on Makoto's chest, with that Aigis was officially part of our group, everything went normally, like this that the next thing was to start training that new skill that I got when we fought with the last great shadow.

Day: 22/Wednesday Month: July Year: 2009

Afternoon

"Once more… Armor! King Arthur!"

After the incorporation of Aigis to the group everything seemed to go smoothly, we spent time playing and enjoying our day, I allowed myself to enjoy the rest of the day and only until the afternoon I separated from the group to practice a little the new skill that I had gained. During the last fight against the great shadow, it seemed that I could partially use the weapon and abilities of the PERSONA I used which made me reach my strongest point, the disadvantage was that the energy consumption was excessively large, to the point that he was sure it would collapse after a few minutes of using it.

"Looks like you're doing well" Mitsuru said seeing me practicing in the back of the farm

"Mitsuru? Well… yes, this ability seemed particularly useful, and I wanted to be able to increase the maximum limit to have it as a trump card."

"Dedication is good Tyron, but I think you should come with us to have some more fun"

"Gosh, I must have been at this for a long time if the strict president asks me to do that of all people."

"S-shut up, we're just going, the others are waiting for us"

With that we went to have a little more fun on the beach, have a barbecue with everyone there, playing beach volleyball, Aigis killing the games, we were having fun until it got dark, so without wanting to end the fun we went to a Karaoke, in general we all had a lot of fun together until it was time to go to bed, I decided to wait until the dark hour to practice a little more and call it a day.

Day: 23/Thursday Month: July Year: 2009

Tomorrow

We started to gather our things to return to the dorm, although seriously I still felt quite tired with all the self-imposed resistance training, for his part Junpei looks quite upset to have to leave, since there was not much left to do I went to look for some souvenirs for Ken and Shinjiro, for Ken some local sweets, for Shinjiro I got a nice spatula.

"A spatula?" I wonder Junpei

"It's for Shinjiro, since he couldn't join us I thought I could bring him a souvenir, the rest is for Ken so don't touch it."

"But I already ate mine..."

"That's your problem, if Ken wants to invite you it's up to him"

The trip back went completely smoothly, it was already dark by the time we got to the dorms, Ken gave us a warm welcome and I passed him his sweets, Junpei practically jumped up to ask him once he saw them in his hands, look for Shinjiro, but he didn't seem to be inside, a little worried I decided to go out and look for him without the others noticing.

Night

"It should be around here" I said to myself

After walking for a while I reached the same decadent alley where I met Shinjiro, just when I got there I hid when I saw that he was talking to the Strega group, Takaya, the leader, with long faded hair, tattoos all over his body and a holstered gun, Jin, in subject with glasses and blue hair under his green cap, seemed to have a large briefcase with what I suppose are weapons and medicine that they use, finally Chidori, has long red hair, a white gothic style dress and an ax with a long chain that ends at his wrists, in the original line Shinjiro was telling them about the plan to destroy the dark hour by defeating all the shadows… but something felt different… as such I leaned a little closer to listen.

"I told you I won't need the medication anymore, I've decided to go back to the SEES dorms" Shinjiro yelled at them.

"Ah, I see that you have decided to join those fools, well I will not allow it yet, we need their information to transmit our cause" Takaya replied

Pointing his gun at an unfazed Shinjiro, I quickly came out of hiding and threw the spatula I planned to give him hitting Takaya's wrist making him drop his gun, then I position myself between him and Shinjiro.

"What are you doing?!" yell

"Hey? What are you doing here? Stay away, this is my battle" Shinjiro told me

"How dare you?!" Takaya said angrily

Takaya scrambled for his weapon, but I quickly summoned Atalanta and fired his arrows to throw the weapon even further, Shinjiro, Takaya and the rest of his group looking at me in shock.

"H-how is that possible?! It is not even the dark hour! How can you summon your persona?!" Takaya was shocked

"Unbelievable... this power also exists..." Shinjiro was amazed.

"If it's possible or not, it's none of your business, now long before they deal with me" I threatened him

I get in a defensive position ready to equip my person if necessary, but the Jin boy took Takaya for a strategic exit, after the flash of a flash grenade his entire group has disappeared.

"Are you okay?" I told him with the calmest situation

"What was that now? Can you summon your persona in the real world?" Shinjiro told me

"I have been able to do it since the first time I woke up"

"How is that possible?"

"To be honest, I don't have the slightest idea."

"It's a relief that you're on Aki's side, he can use that extra help."

"That's what they told me"

Releasing my person I went to pick up the spatula and raised it to give it to Shinjiro who only seemed to look at it in confusion.

"Here, a memory of Yakushima, he brought some sweets to Ken, but I'm sure he already ate them" I said

"How did you know he knew how to cook? I don't recall ever mentioning it." Shinjiro asked suspiciously.

"Emm..." I had screwed up...

"On second thought, how did you know those people were Persona users?"

"I… well…" I had screwed up big time.

"Something isn't right here, so spit it out"

I had screwed it up completely, I really do not remember Shinjiro mentioning that he liked to cook, in fact was only apart in the character information, but it was never mentioned during the game or movies, I only had to use my last card .

"Guess?" cannot blame me for trying

"Tyron!"

"Good! Just do not take me for crazy please"

"Then?"

"Look, a couple of months ago I woke up with no particular memories of who I am, and with a mortal wound along the way" (?

I lifted my shirt so he could get a good look at the wound.

"The thing is that despite not remembering who I am at all... I could remember other things... things related to PERSONA, Shinjiro, I know the future."

"What?" I look surprised

"I know the future Shinjiro, at least one possible, this will not be the only incident related to PERSONA users, in about a year and a half there will be another one, and another one like it later in the future, but the important thing is that I know what is going to happen and what caused it"

"Do you realize how crazy that sounds?"

"Shinjiro, we have strange powers, the school becomes a creepy skyscraper and there is an extra hour at night, is any of that normal?" wait

"You have a point…" he conceded.

"Do you believe me?"

I looked expectantly at Shinjiro until he finally let out a sigh and started laughing, I just looked at him confused.

"You must have it hard" he finally told me

"More than you can imagine"

"And I thought the dark hour was confusing enough, now we have an amnesiac boy with knowledge of the future."

"Yes, although I am trying to change it the best I can for the good of all, a happy ending"

"What do you mean?"

"Well…there are 3 to 4 people who have a death flag and I want to change it"

"Death?"

"Yes... and you are one of those people Shinjiro"

"What?"

"In a couple of months, Takaya will kill you in Strega after Ken takes you off one of our missions… to kill you for killing his mother…"

At that revelation Shinjiro's face paled and he sat down, I went and sat near him as a moral support.

"I guess… that would be fine… actually quite a fitting ending for me…"

"That is not right! Why is everyone so okay with their deaths?! Your death will only put your blood on Ken's hands!"

"So what do you have in mind?"

"On the one hand it would be nice if you wore some protection under your coat, at least to lessen the damage from a weapon like Takaya's, it would also be nice if you joined us in the fight."

"I already told you I'm not fighting"

"Dude, you'll feel guilty when Ken joins us anyway..."

"…"

"Doing it sooner can only give you a better chance of surviving, also if Ken still does I recommend you bring your gear, it will give us time to go save you, you wouldn't want Akihiko or Ken to die, so don't think any of us he would be glad of your death Shinjiro"

For a moment Shinjiro looked at the sky before looking at the spatula I gave him.

"Fine... I will join you" finally he said

"Thanks... now we better go back and finish the night, I'm pretty exhausted mentally and I just got back from the trip"

"Hey, I'm sorry about that, by the way. Do any of the others know all about your situation?"

"The only other person who knows is Mitsuru's father, I want to keep this information to a minimum... to avoid overconfidence and inadvertently changing the result in the end, I want to avoid paradoxes,"

"Paradoxes? Does not your existence already cause them?"

"I… You have a point."

Day: 24/Friday Month: July Year: 2009

Tomorrow

"That again..."

Since the incident of the last full moon the recurring dreams with the black masks become more frequent, they were trying to tell me something, but everything is so muffled that I do not get the full scope of what it means, when I leave my room I see Yukari and Aigis arguing by Makoto's door.

With a silent prayer I continued my way to the dining room where the others were already, Shinjiro gave me a cup of chocolate that I took with pleasure, Akihiko seemed happy that he was with us, it also seemed that Shinjiro took the opportunity to say that he was joining us .

"Aki I… see… I want to know… can I join you tonight?" I ask Shinjiro

To say that Akihiko and Mitsuru were surprised was an understatement, Akihiko seemed happy to have him on our side, Mitsuru only saw me for a moment as I winked at him and toasted him with my cup of chocolate, now it was all a matter of seeing what formation we would be using with our new incorporation.

Night

"Intense…" Junpei said.

"And that you say it" I replied

Shinjiro's fighting style was very…strong…he would swing a big ax hitting enemies and then his PERSON Castor, he was more of a specialist in close combat and physical attacks, Castor also has a good healing factor that gives him allows to follow Shinjiro's intense style, if he continued like this he was sure he could recover from all the damage from the suppression medicine

For her part, Aigis used a much more mobile fighting style, she quickly runs around enemies keeping a certain distance and shooting, then uses her Persona Palladion to charge at the enemy and launch short range attacks that at the same time give her benefit to others.

Upon reaching the 85th floor we found the mini boss called Fanatic Tower, this shadow was able to repel most attacks except for wind and physical cuts, against this he was the best opponent with whom I could evaluate my new skills at the moment so let me go ahead a bit.

"What are you doing?!" I wonder Akihiko

"Sorry, do you mind if I try something?"

"What are you doing?"

"Working on a new skill. What do you say leader?"

"Okay, we'll give you support" Makoto told me

"Just don't overdo it," Akihiko continued.

"Exaggerate? When have I done that? Armor!"

So my rifle changed to a sword, I quickly moved to the boss since the maximum time I could hold the skill was about 5 minutes, with a quick movement I dodge the bombardment of the boss while I got to my melee range, holding my sword with both hands I gave it a small partial charge before vertically cutting the shadow making it disappear from a cut, with that achieved I let go of my weapon to normal.

"How you feel?" I wonder Makoto

"A little tired, but much better than the first time, I'm already beginning to master it"

With that we continued advancing through the Tartarus until we reached the 89th floor where a wall prevented us from advancing, with that now we only had to wait for the next full moon, so we stopped for the day while we returned to the bedroom.

Day: 29/Wednesday Month: July Year: 2009

Tomorrow

We had had a few quiet days for a change, I was still continuing with my PERSONA training, but nothing over the edge, so I was having a quiet morning while drinking a cup of chocolate again courtesy of Shinjiro, I seemed to get my sweet tooth, but While I was with my chocolate, Fuuka arrived with various ingredients.

"Fuuka, do you plan to work in your kitchen?" I told

"Yes! I was hoping to work on a new dish I read."

"Great, can I join?"

"Of course!"

With all the ingredients ready in the kitchen we saw that Shinjiro was there too.

"What are you doing Shinji?" asked

"N-nothing... I was just looking..." he said embarrassed

"Perfect timing, Fuuka was about to cook something, maybe you can give her a tip or two"

A little reluctantly Shinjiro ended up accepting, I just laughed a little as I watched, it was funny to see how Fuuka was scolded by Shinjiro who was an expert, showing him step by step the correct way to do it, it seemed that after a while Fuuka finally understood relaxed with Shinjiro.

"You really like to cook, don't you?" Fuuka asked Shinjiro

"It's... a little hobby of mine..."

"That is impressive! We should all cook for everyone at some point!"

Shinji blushed at Fuuka's sincerity as we continued to cook, after a while we managed to make something edible with Shinjiro's help, although he had done it for the most part, which left Fuuka a little disappointed.

"What happened?"

"Well, I was planning to cook myself, but it seems I'm not good at it, Shinjiro still needed to help me..." Fuuka said a little sad

"This isn't something you learn overnight, it takes a lot of practice," Shinjiro assured him.

"Why don't you help her Shinji?" I told

"I promise to do my best Shinji!" Fuuka got excited

We gave him our best smiles as we watched him blush.

"It'll be tough on you about it, okay?" I declare

"I'll do my best!"

So after enjoying our food we separate and continue the rest of the day in our own way.

Night

"Wake up! I detect a shadow, we will meet on the fourth floor" shouted Fuuka

Still half asleep I got up and went to where the others were, it seemed that Fuuka had found a normal shadow outside of Tartarus, which led us to act, with our team ready we all went to the Naganaki shrine, the fastest were Akihiko, Shinjiro and I, when we arrived, saw how a shadow hit a dog and not far away was Ken.

Before the shadow hit who I thought was Koromaru again, I got into a shooting position which prevented it from hitting again, Shinjiro and Akihiko ran to help Ken, I moved to take Koromaru shooting at the shadow, until that Ken using the Evoker he took from Akihiko to use his PERSONA and finish off the shadow

So the problem could be considered solved and the day over, now we had Koromaru to heal using Medea Lily's abilities, even so we would take him to the vet for a medical check-up, even so it seemed that our little canine was here to stay, without much thought I let him stay in my room and he slept with me.

Looks like I am a dog person

"Will I be able to talk to animals with any ability?" I asked myself shortly before I fell asleep