I admit that Akira's presence already distorted the timeline. For example, Minato will be drastically influenced by him, Naoto knows of the Dark Hour and Shadows, Mahakala and his goons will usurp the Twelve Shadows (not Nyx) as the main villain group. His existence is also erased from the original timeline, meaning that if he manages to defeat the interlopers, his world is still gone so he will have to jump bodies and transfigure them, similar to Kyouji Kuzunoha. There can be a happy ending in the end though I'm not sure my definition of it will align with yours.
Minato's complicated emotion state will be explained partially in this chapter. You have seen him acting just like any other teenagers but people around him, well except blockheads like Junpei, can clearly see something very wrong with him. If I let it stay like normal, readers will call it inconsistent.
Akira's 'General Personas', which are shared with the other protagonists, will possess exclusive Shin Megami Tensei skills (and appearances depending on which one) to distinguish themselves. Also, the Community System Akira has opposing the Social Link will not function like it or Confidant.
~Chapter 7~
Shinjiro Aragaki was standing on his favorite spot at the back alley of the station, brooding and ignoring the chatting kids as usual. He had prepared the meals for the 'exchange' and it should take less than an hour for them to arrive. The teenagers noticed the packages near Shinjiro, mistaking them for drugs (Shinjiro never understood why the hell they could mistake packages this big as drugs) so they approached him to ask and, potential, take some. A glare from him and the timed arrival of the trio told them the otherwise.
"My, quite a problematic mass isn't it, Aragaki?"
"You should just beat them to death then."
Shinjiro narrowed his eyes at the newcomers, particularly the naked hippy man.
"Mind you damn business. Do you have it?"
"Patient is virtue. Jin, give it to him."
The blue haired shorter man opened his briefcase and presented a small parcel with white pills inside. Shinjiro eyed it for a moment before nodding and exchanging it for his own.
"It is not too late to reconsider my offer, Aragaki."
"Told it once, told it again. I don't want to be involved with your stupid shit. Get the hell out of here or I will tell them."
"Tch, you think you can get out of here alive?" Jin snarled back, holding a grenade.
Shinjiro just smirked at that.
"I'm dying anyway so at least you and the hippy will go to hell with me. The girl can go or join you, for all I care."
"Now now, violence is very unnecessary here. Aragaki is correct; even with all three of us, bringing his down will take a lot of resource and effort and let's not pretend that they won't notice a body in this place unlike the others."
"The
Jesus-wannabe is right. Go home and cry to your mamas, suicide bomber."
Once the trio left, Shinjiro exhaled heavily and looked the pills with disgust. They were horrible, both taste and effect, but he needed them to survive and wait for his chance. He had to wait. He had no choice but to wait.
Akira lay down on his bed, reading a book about a certain tragic Greek musician and his wife, while Minato rushed through his homework to rest early. The former had to hide the guns from the latter since there was no need to show off legit lethal weapons like a kid.
"Hey Minato, do you have any siblings back home? Yeah it's weird for me to ask since two days earlier a kid showed up proclaiming to be my sister so yeah."
"Lost the whole family 10 years ago." Minato replied immediately, seemingly uncaring about the issue.
"…Sorry." Now Akira felt very bad. No wonder why the guy was so apathetic. He had lost everything and now he was just existing, not living to the fullest. But that didn't explain why he had Death, the literal being, inside him.
"What about your relatives?" He pressed further.
"No one wants to house a, say, 'Death Child'. The big guys in government forced them to take care of me but they only obliged for a year or so before shipping me to another." Minato replied and turned at Akira, sighing. "It was a pure luck that I got the scholarship to this school. Probably finish the high school as quick as possible so I can find a quiet place to live for the rest of my life."
Akira thought Minato was similar to him after the incident with Shido and prior to his arrival at Tokyo but, god, he was just a sad human being. Did he say 10 years ago? Did something bad happen? Seeing Akira's expression, Minato decided to elaborate
"A loud crash and everything was on fire. The next thing I knew was the news about my parents and younger sister." For the first time, Minato scowled. "I hate this city. Too many bad memories, especially the Bridge. I wish I could just give up the scholarship to someone else and stay away from here as far as possible but…"
Understanding the meaning, Akira stopped inquiring and left Minato to his own device. He needed to ask Mitsuru about what had happened as her company practically owned the Tatsumi Port Island. For now, he wanted to have a good sleep for whatever tomorrow waiting for him.
…
'Fuck my mouth…'
The Dark Hour kicked in and there was a very bad feeling in Akira's head, bad enough to wake him up. After that, an earthquake knocked him off of the bed, waking up Minato as well. Two of them just stared at each other for a while, the alleged Messiah had an annoyed look on his face.
"Well, nightmare?"
*bam bam*
Someone was slamming the door. Minato silently ordered Akira to check it out so he hastily put on a decent shirt and opened it. A panting Yukari greeted him.
"Huh, late night exercise eh Yukari-san?"
"Now is not the time for jokes! Get Arisato-kun and follow me, quick. It's coming fast."
"…A Shadow, isn't it? Alright, give me a moment. I need to vent off some steam too." Akira had an ear-splitting grin right now, which unnerved Yukari. She handed over a short sword to him, saying that it's for Minato in case things went south.
Akira went back inside and gathered his equipment while telling Minato to prepare himself. The blue-haired teen just stared nonchalantly and complied without a word.
"Which one should I choose…"
He picked the Coonan and strapped it to his waist alongside Paradise Lost though the fused knife was too big and spikes would end up hurting him so he held it outside for now. The rumbles were getting closer so Akira grabbed some healing items and the Evoker, just in case, for the last before urging Minato to get out of the room.
"What is the plan, Yukari-san?"
"Mitsuru-senpai said that we have to get Arisato-kun to safety first and then both of us will help the fighting. I don't doubt her and Akihiko-senpai but that particular Shadow is nasty enough to give him quite a wound…"
"How…troublesome." Akira muttered. Minato suddenly stopped running and turned to stare at the eerie moon outside windows. "What's wrong, dude?"
"The moon… It reminds me of that night…"
"What are you doing?! Our lives are in danger. Do you have death wish?!"
Akira understood how stressful Yukari was but she was uncharacteristically desperate now. Minato turned to her, his eyes uncaring.
"Is dying that scary to you? I stopped caring about it long time ago."
"How can you say that… AH!"
There was a giant mask staring at them. Akira took aim and fired three shots in succession to blast off the arm that was pressing the glasses.
"Dammit, they found us. Yukari-san, take Minato and go! Knock him off if necessary."
"R-Roger that!"
Yukari began to drag Minato to downstairs while Akira slowly retreated and continuously fired at the Shadow, SP constantly pouring into the handgun. The monster was huge so it was safe enough to assume that it wouldn't enter the building, though he doubted that it came alone. The previous encounters with Shadows in this timeline told him that they always went in packs.
He had to help Yukari. God knew she could defend herself, Persona or whatnot. And at this moment, something from behind the Shadow flew at him and grabbed his face.
Yukari and Minato barely dodged a claw from a Shadow and made their way back to the stairs with the male teen awkwardly but manageable swinging the sword to chop off the squishy arm of the creature. The girl kicked its face to make it back off and grabbed Minato's hand to run to the stairs again.
"Oh God they are everywhere!"
"…The roof."
"Huh? Right, we should have more time defending ourselves there. Let's go, Arisato-kun!"
Yukari didn't notice that there was a small trace of blood on the second floor where Akira was earlier but Minato did. He wanted to say something but for some reasons, his mouth compelled him to stay quiet so he complied.
Finally, they made it to the rooftop. Yukari barricaded the door with anything she saw and dropped to her knees, exhausted after all the action. She didn't rest for long as a bloodied body of Akira was in front of her, staying still on the floor with a floating humanoid creature on the air.
"Hmm, a puny human came to challenge me, the mighty Yakasha. Must I waste time playing with pests?"
"A Shadow? And it talks!"
"Shadow is a facet of human while I, Yakasha, am a pure Demon. Master Mahakala has sent me here to eliminate the meddling Trickster and the future Messiah. Girl, you are not in my hit list so I give you one precious chance to flee."
Yakasha was a red-skinned, fat Hinduism demon armed with a long sword currently unused on his back. He was usually associated with his kind, Yaksa, but Yakasha was a special case as he had a strange emblem on his forehead visible to witnesses.
Yukari reached her Evoker, preparing for the worst when the worst arrived in the form of the gigantic Shadow with a mask acting as its face earlier. It had multiple arms, each hand carrying a sword. The hand that was holding the mask turned to acknowledge Yakasha's presence. The demon raised an eyebrow at the creature before it completely ignored him and went for Minato and Yukari.
Akira couldn't move. That sudden attack effectively disabled him and he couldn't identify the assailant. A part of his mind said that it was Akechi, or Akemi now, but he bruised it aside as that idea was too ridiculous to believe, even with all the sympathy Akira might have.
What's wrong? Are you going to sleep now? Where is that burning resolve?
Satanael? Red Rider? No. That voice didn't belong to either of them. It brought a very irritating and disgusting feeling into Akira's mind. He knew that he had met this being somewhere.
We have met once before. Or rather, you and that other depiction of mine. I am the Demiurge, Ruler of Heaven and Creator of Satanael.
"YOU BASTARD!"
Akira 'woke up' and screamed.
Do stay calm. I carry your memories of Yaldabaoth and all of his machinations but in the same time, I am not Yaldabaoth. To be precise, I am the Persona taking shape of Demiurge.
A bright light shined through the hazy atmosphere, revealing a humanoid creature with six pairs of wings and various colors. Akira couldn't see the entirety of Demiurge's appearance but he assumed that the Persona looked nothing like that despicable God.
Good. Now we can talk like two civilized humans. A servant of Mahakala attacked you and rendered you unconscious along with your other Personas. Now I can bring you back to the material world but only for a brief moment as I am not properly awakened yet. Take the summoning device and call forth my name.
"You are awfully nice for someone based on the Control God. You sure you aren't Satanael in disguise?"
I am Yaldabaoth in name and origin only. I am born from a side of yours that desires Order over Chaos. In other words, I am your version of the Control God but removing the bad aspects.
"…God you made it sound like I really want to make that bastard my own. Yuck." Akira gagged. "Alright, I'm betting on this. Staying here won't help me otherwise."
Good. Let us begin…
Akira weakly regained consciousness as a searing heat was starting to make him sweat. He was on the rooftop with Minato, who was having a creepy grin on his face. A mechanical humanoid that looked ungodly similar to Orpheus was throwing fireballs, Agi, to the giant Shadow Akira saw earlier. Quickly scanning through the battlefield, he saw a red, chubby man watching the event unfolded with interest on the sky. That should be his attacker.
"Yukari…san?" He could make out a pink silhouette of Yukari nearby and called out.
"Ah, Akira-kun!"
"Do you know any healing spell? I need one…ASAP."
"I do but my Evoker is…"
"Take mine." Akira breathed. "It's in the pocket. Hurry or we are gonna die once Minato is out of juice with the rate of fire he is throwing Agi at that surprisingly agile Shadow."
"And who do you think I am to allow you?"
A huge gust of wind headed towards the two and while Yukari was resistant to Wind element, Akira was not due to his Personas disabled. The razor edges sliced off a good chunk of his clothes and left lots of cuts on his body after blowing him to the wall.
"You sneaking little shit!"
"Ah ah, that's not how you address your soon-to-be killer."
Yakasha sent another Garudyne to Akira, tormenting him further. Yukari was shaking; she couldn't get Minato to snap out of his trance and she couldn't gather enough courage to summon Io. But Akira was in pain and was about to get killed for real this time.
"Come on, Yukari. You can do this…"
Holding Akira's Evoker, Yukari inhaled, strengthened her mentality and pulled the trigger.
"PERSONA!"
Blue fragments escaped from her body and formed the Persona Io. She commanded it to send back a blast of Garu to Yakasha and, surprisingly, he got knocked back despite having a Wind spell. She immediately used Dia on Akira multiple times to ensure he was on his feet again.
"Thanks a lot, Yukari-san." He received his Evoker back. "A Wind user and a Healer, huh…"
"Yeah, Io is more of a Healer though. You helped me to overcome my hesitance so, thank you too Akira-kun."
Akira went to shake Minato out of his rampage. It didn't work at first but when he slapped the boy twice, it worked.
"Woa- What did I do?"
"You were kinda crazy but eh, a little nuts hurts no one." Akira looked at his Evoker. "Well, it's my turn."
Facing the Magician Shadow, who was apparently uninjured, Akira pointed the gun to his temple and took a long breath.
"Per…so…na"
*bang*
He could hear the sound of glasses shattering and then, his head went bonkers. Akira let out a scream that tore through the green sky as the headache hurt so much, it felt like something was trying to bust out from inside.
…
"What's going on?! Normally a summon of Persona wouldn't cause such reaction!"
"Why is it 'normally' and not 'definitely', Mitsuru? I thought your scientists were so sure about that!"
"I…I, I don't know!"
Akihiko stormed to the door.
"What are you going, Akihiko?"
"Help our newbie, what else? If the pain doesn't kill him, those Shadows will."
"…Wait, there is something else."
…
Akira struggled through the pain and held the Evoker to his temple again. He wouldn't allow himself to be defeated by such a small obstacle. He would survive this, he would kill the mastermind and then, he would see them again!
"DEMIURGE!"
*bang*
Sorry for the cliffhanger. The next chapter will be a true boss fight against the Magician Shadow, which the game doesn't have, and Yakasha. Stay tuned!
