Guiding Star

Written by Aiyumi

Disclaimer: Persona and all related characters are property of Atlus. Any trademarks that may be referenced in this fan fiction are properties of their respective owners. I am just a fan and do not have any relations to said people/companies.

Chapter 2: Touch

Another school day went by. Nostalgia overtook Minako as she listened to her quirky teachers' lectures. Those quirks were what made the lessons stick, in her opinion. However, she gave an exasperated sigh when Ms. Toriumi said her favorite author was Utsubo Kubota, then asked Junpei who her favorite author was, and he turned to Minako for the answer. As nostalgic as it might have been, Minako wished at least the part about Junpei's attention span would have changed.

Minako didn't quite remember which events had happened on which day, and that evening, she had the displeasure of meeting the chairman of their school.

"My name is Shuji Ikutsuki. I-ku-tsu-ki." He repeated his surname with a pause between syllables. "Hard to pronounce, isn't it?"

"Uh... no, I don't think so." Minako had to make an effort not to narrow her eyes at him. But I'd prefer if I didn't need to pronounce it, she added as a thought.

The man seemed surprised. "Well, to me, it is. This is why I don't like introducing myself. I guess it's because I prefer jokes to tongue twisters... anyway, I'd like to apologize about the confusion regarding your accommodations. It still may take a while until this issue is sorted out. Is there anything you would like to ask?"

She asked a few things just not to seem rude, then headed to her room.

X:X:X:X:X

That night during her sleep, Minako was summoned to the Velvet Room.

"Welcome back to the Velvet Room." Was Igor's greeting. He did a hand gesture and the contract appeared before Minako. "I see that you have altered the contract, and can only hope that your new plan will yield satisfactory results."

"Uh, yeah, me too, b-but..." Minako shuffled nervously.

Igor seemed to have read her thoughts. "Do not worry. The individual you are housing is unable to hear us. He is inside your physical body, which remains in your world. Only your soul is here."

"... Is that so? O-okay." Minako sighed in relief. Igor's explanation raised a question, though. "But how is the contract here, then? I had thought Pharos-kun had it." That was the way she chose to call Pharos after she got used to address Ryoji as "Ryoji-kun."

"You are correct. He has the actual contract." Igor pointed at the newly appeared paper. "What you see here is only a representation of the original, recreated inside your mind."

"A... copy?"

Igor nodded. "Basically, yes."

"Hmm..." Minako stared at the contract in wonder.

"The new contract's terms are effective as of now. As long as you abide by the terms and take responsibility for your own actions, we will do anything in our power to assist you in your journey."

"Thanks." Minako was grateful that Igor was also okay with her edits to the contract. "That reminds me. What happened to my Persona compendium? Did it reset, too?"

"I have summoned you here precisely to inform you about this. You no longer have the additional power provided by your previous Social Links, since the lives of those you had forged a bond with have rewinded. This means you cannot create new versions of the strongest Social Link Personas until you have fully reworked your bonds. However, your compendium remains mostly the way you had left it, and you are able to summon the past version Social Link Personas if you so wish, provided that you have the required amount to cover the costs, of course." Before Minako had a chance to ask about what he had meant by "mostly," Igor added, "Speaking of which, Elizabeth will not be the one managing your compendium this time."

Minako was curious. "Huh? Then, who will it be?"

"A new attendant. Elizabeth has decided to pass on the task to him in order to make him earn some firsthand experience. Unfortunately, he is not present at the moment. I hope to introduce him to you the next time you set foot in this room."

"Ah, okay."

Igor made the Velvet Key appear out of nowhere, and Minako took it.

"This is all for today. Until we meet again," Igor said and sent Minako back to her world.

X:X:X:X:X

... ... ... ... ...

On April 9th, the moon was full. Exactly like the first time, The Magician Arcana Shadow chased and injured Akihiko, and attacked the dorm during the Dark Hour. Yukari tried to lead Minako away to safety on the rooftop, but the Shadow was closing in fast. This time, though, Minako was surprised when Yukari managed to summon her Persona. Hope flashed on Minako's face. It might be a sign that the SEES members' experiences from the previous lifetime weren't completely gone.

However, it was too early for celebrations. Io's Garu spell didn't cause as much damage to the Shadow as they would have liked, and Minako could tell that the battle would take a while. Before Yukari could get another Garu spell in, though, the Shadow knocked her to the ground, and her Evoker fell at Minako's feet.

Minako took a good look at her surroundings. The first time, she had been nearly paralyzed in fear. This time, she was not, and could take in the details more clearly. Sure, it was still dangerous, since she hadn't awakened to her Persona yet. That was what she intended to fix in a moment. However, before she had time to retrieve the Evoker, a faint image of Pharos appeared next to her, with a panicked look on his face.

Just like he had predicted, one of the strong presences manifested during the full moon. The creature was approaching. Minako was defenseless. It would kill her if she didn't act quickly. He couldn't let that happen. Minako needed to be alive to defeat those creatures and set him free! He couldn't stay idle anymore and projected his image near her.

"Go on!" He urged. "Take it!" He pointed at the gun-like object on the ground. "You saw what she did a while ago. Just take the gun thing and try to mimic her!"

The seconds ticked by until Minako finally took the "gun" and raised it to her head.

"Now, just say the magic word!" He instructed with the most serious face he could manage.

Minako bit her lip as though she were trying to suppress a laugh, and it made him even more nervous. This was not the time for laughing! Or was she so scared that she was going crazy? He hoped not.

"Calm down. It'll be fine," he said more to himself rather than to her. "Alright, listen. If you want to take that creature down, you need to awaken to your power. And for that, you need to say a certain word. To tell the truth, I don't know what this word is..." Only after he had said it, he realized that his last statement wasn't encouraging in any way, and added, "Uh, but you should know what it is. It should just come to you..." And panic struck him. What if she still weren't ready to awaken to her power?

"... Okay, I think I got it." Minako whispered. "Let's try this. Here goes..." She took a deep breath, pulled the trigger and shouted, "Persona!"

Much to his relief, a sound resembling shattering glass burst through the noises of the creature's approach, and a figure emerged from Minako's head. Yes. Persona. That was it. Now he remembered a bit about what Personas were. However, this was where the good news ended. Minako's Persona revealed itself as Orpheus. Something was off, though. As unreliable as his memory was, he was sure that Orpheus should be a masculine figure, which this one was not. But that was beside the point. What really mattered was that Orpheus was of the Fool Arcana... and was very weak. Quite the disappointment. That Persona wasn't going to cut it. His relief was gone, and his worry returned.

Orpheus used Bash and slammed into the opponent, but the attack caused too little damage. Minako kept commanding her Persona to use the same attack and had been damaging the creature little by little. The problem was that the Bash skill's power source was Minako's own life energy. Orpheus' attacks were whittling down her energy too much, and the damage dealt to the creature was insignificant in comparison.

"I need the Evoker!" The girl in pink shouted while she dodged a slash from a blade on one of the enemy's hands. "The gun! Pass it over to me!"

Minako didn't seem to think twice and threw the "gun" - or "Evoker," as it seemed to be called - over to her, then rolled to the side to avoid an incoming blade slash.

"Dia!" The girl in pink summoned her Persona once more and cast a spell that recovered Minako's energy.

"Thanks!"

Minako had been distracted while she was thanking her friend and failed to notice one of the creature's multiple hands coming at her from behind. She screamed as it closed into a fist and punched her across the dorm's roof. That depleted her life energy a lot. Her friend tried to cast the healing spell again, but another hand knocked her down as well.

He was panicking again. Even though Minako had awakened to her Persona, she couldn't use it because she was without the Evoker thing. Seconds seemed to drag on forever while he watched the girls run around trying to escape from the creature. As soon as Minako took hold of the Evoker and summoned Orpheus again, he knew she was about to command her Persona to use Bash and hurt herself once more.

Before he had realized what he was doing, he had channeled his limited power through Minako's Persona. Unfortunately, that power proved to be too much for Minako to handle. She dropped the Evoker, clutched her head and screamed in pain as Orpheus was torn apart and underwent a terrifying transformation. It became a Persona wielding a blade and a shield made up of coffins. On a rampage, the new Persona trashed about and violently attacked the creature. In only a few seconds, it did what several minutes of Bashing couldn't have done. Even after the enemy was no more, the Persona kept swinging its blade in the air and roaring furiously. He tried to calm down and put his power in check, but it caused no change to the Persona.

"It's over. So, p-please..." Minako's voice was almost inaudible. Still, the Persona seemed to notice it and turned in her direction. But there was a problem. It seemed ready to attack her!

No! Stop! He desperately tried to control his power and quiet the Persona down. This time, thankfully, it worked. The Persona lowered its blade and stopped moving, then disappeared and reverted to Orpheus.

Minako closed her eyes and sighed in relief. It was over. However, that whole ordeal ended up drawing too much of her energy, and she passed out.

X:X:X:X:X

"Once again, welcome to the Velvet Room." Was Igor's familiar greeting.

Minako found herself seated on the usual chair in the Velvet Room. "Ah, Igor-san. For how much time I've been out in my world?"

"Approximately four days. However, you will still need a few days to recover."

"Just like before..." Minako was a bit disappointed. "I hoped I'd at least be able to control Thanatos this time..."

"This happened mainly due to the fact that the Persona was not under your control. It had manifested not by your will, but by the will of the individual you are housing, who had been too unstable at that moment."

"I had thought it had been my inability to control Personas that had made Orpheus unstable and turned her into a berserk Thanatos. Since I know what I'm doing now, I'd thought it wouldn't happen this time. So, it was actually Pharos-kun who tried to force Thanatos out..."

"Exactly." Igor confirmed. "It appears that he had been struck with panic during the battle."

"It makes sense." Minako recalled Pharos' faint image with panic written all over his face, when he had urged her to take the Evoker and summon her Persona. "I'd been able to control Orpheus fairly well, but wasn't causing too much damage. He might have thought we couldn't win and tried to help... maybe this was the reason the same thing happened in the first timeline, too. Back then, I didn't know what I was doing and had fared much worse, and Pharos-kun must have panicked hard."

"Most likely." Igor agreed. "Furthermore, your body reverted to the state it had been in April 2009, thus you would not have been able to gain full control of the Persona. On the other hand, now you are mentally stronger than you had been the first time. If he had not been so unstable, perhaps you may have been able to take control of the Persona for a brief period of time, or at least, not be in need of so much time to recuperate."

"Ah, I see." She nodded.

"As for the reason I summoned you here... I would like to introduce you to the new Velvet Room attendant."

Igor snapped his fingers and a door opened. A man entered through it and approached Minako.

"Hello. My name is Theodore. You may call me Theo. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He bowed to her respectfully and offered his hand.

"Um, hello. I'm Minako Arisato. The pleasure's mine." She replied and shook his hand.

Another door opened unceremoniously and Elizabeth appeared from it. "He is my hopeless little brother." She turned to Theodore with a stern look on her face. "Remember, Theo. Miss Minako was my guest in the past. If I find out that you have disappointed her in any way, you will never hear the end of it. Do you understand?"

Theodore visibly gulped. "O-of course." He bowed once again. "Miss Minako. Even though this is my first job as a Velvet Room attendant and I am still unfamiliar with some of the procedures, I will make sure to serve you in the most satisfactory manner as I possibly can."

"Um, thanks." Minako smiled awkwardly at his politeness. The Velvet Room people were usually polite, but Theodore seemed to be pushing it a bit. Maybe it was because he was under his sister's watchful eyes. It was strange to see Elizabeth act so strict, though. Was Theodore so "hopeless" as she had claimed, or did the siblings simply didn't get along? Minako would ask about that another time. For now, she had other pressing matters in her mind. "May I ask you a favor already?"

"Of course."

"I'd like to see my Persona compendium, please."

"You may see it. However, you still have not recovered enough to summon any Persona from it." Theodore informed, to which Elizabeth nodded approvingly.

"Okay." Minako nodded in understanding. "I only wanted to take a look anyway."

Theodore summoned the book and gently passed it over to her.

Minako sifted through the whole book. She got the feeling that something wasn't right and slowly looked through all pages one second time to make sure she hadn't skipped any Persona by accident. Unsatisfied, she looked it over one third time, and her suspicions were confirmed.

"Is something the matter, Miss Minako?" Theodore asked with concern.

"Does anyone know what happened to Thanatos? His card isn't here."

"Theo, do not tell me that you lost one of our precious guest's Persona cards!" Elizabeth snapped.

Theodore recoiled and took a step back, but before he had a chance to say anything in his own defense, Igor spoke up. "Now now, Calm down, Elizabeth. This is not your brother's fault." He turned to Minako and continued. "Do you recall how I had mentioned that your compendium remains mostly the same? That is because the Persona card in question vanished the moment the time reversal process concluded."

"Huh, vanished? But why Thanatos? Why only Thanatos?"

"There are a few possible reasons." Igor answered. "One of them is that you have decided to change key events in order to accomplish your new mission. As you had stated yourself, that Persona symbolized the bond between you and that individual. The most important events you must change revolve around reshaping said bond from scratch, and this bond may turn out completely different from the previous one. In which case, the instance of that past Persona will no longer be able to accurately represent your current bond."

"Ah, I see." Minako nodded in understanding. "Then, I'll be able to summon Thanatos again only after I have reworked my bond with Pharos-kun."

"Exactly." Igor nodded.

"So, this was not your doing. Good for you, Theo." Elizabeth glared at her brother. "It would have been a shame if you had turned to have, as the young people from the human world say, 'screwed up' before your first job had even started!"

Igor frowned slightly, likely disapproving of the fact that Elizabeth was learning slang from the human world.

But said attendant was too preoccupied glaring at her brother and didn't notice her master's disapproval. Her glare subsided and she had a gentle expression when she addressed her guest. "Miss Minako. In the event that my brother causes you any trouble, do not hesitate to report back to me, and I will teach him a lesson or two..."

Minako didn't like the tension between the two siblings, but concluded that it would be best to agree and nodded at Elizabeth. "Uh, sure."

X:X:X:X:X

One of the strong creatures was defeated. Soon after that, he felt a bit stronger. If he got stronger every time one of those creatures was defeated, by the time all of them were no more, he would certainly be strong enough to break free from his prison for good. That was supposed to be great. He thought he should have been feeling accomplished, but that was not the case. Minako had been out for four days already, and it was his fault. In his efforts to prevent Minako from getting killed, he had intervened and nearly killed her himself. If he hadn't intervened, though, that creature would have gotten her for sure. He kept trying to console himself with that thought, but the image of the berserk Persona pointing its blade at Minako insisted on nagging at him. It was a manifestation of his own power. If something had happened to her, it would have been his fault. Luckily, Minako was only unconscious... right?

One more Dark Hour came and went. Minako still showed no signs of waking up, and he got more worried. Under normal circumstances, he had the scenes of Minako's daily life to distract himself with, but ever since she had passed out, there were no images, no sound, nothing. Unless it was Dark Hour - the only time he was able to leave his prison -, he couldn't even see what was going on in the hospital. Sometimes, like right now, it bothered him that even though he was trapped inside Minako, he was unable to reach into her thoughts or her dreams. He really wanted to know how she was doing. Was she okay, or was she still shocked after what happened? Was her sleep peaceful, or was it plagued by nightmares? Was she even dreaming to begin with? He wished for any kind of assurance that Minako was indeed okay, but every time he saw her during the Dark Hour, she was still unconscious, with the same unchanging neutral expression which gave no indication of her actual state.

Even though he had been coming to see Minako every Dark Hour, he only observed her quietly in a non-physical form. The pink-wearing girl had been there to keep Minako company, slouched on a chair next to the hospital bed. She had been staying there all these nights. Even though the girl was asleep, he was unsure whether it would be okay for him to come out, and chose not to materialize.

However, on the sixth Dark Hour, the girl wasn't there. Minako was alone in the room. So, he decided to come out. He materialized next to the hospital bed, where Minako lay with the same neutral expression as the previous days.

His right hand reached outwards and met the mattress on the bed. Other than the contract paper he had created himself, he had been unable to touch anything for ten years, and the sensation of touch was pretty new to him. The moment his hand touched the mattress, his curiosity momentarily prevailed over his worries. He patted and picked at the mattress curiously. It was hard and didn't seem to be very comfortable. He hoped Minako would be okay after sleeping on such a hard surface for so many days straight.

He used his left arm to prop himself up against the mattress, which was a bit high for him. He had a better view of Minako now. Unmoving, he stared at her face intently for one minute that seemed to last forever, but nothing changed. It was painful to see how emotionless her face was.

"Minako..." He whispered. Her name left his mouth for the first time ever, and he found he liked the way it rolled off his tongue. However, she didn't react. "Minako." He called her again. Nothing.

Then, he wondered what it felt like to touch her. His body moved on impulse. He leaned a bit closer to Minako and extended his right hand towards her face. When his fingers were mere inches from touching her cheek, though, he suddenly stopped himself and retracted his hand. He recalled the way he had acted on impulse and channeled his power through Minako's Persona. What if he hurt her again? ... No, it should be okay. Nothing bad should happen. He wasn't using his power this time. Besides, there was also the chance that touching her might actually cause her to wake up.

He took a few deep breaths to calm down and convince himself that it would be fine. He slowly extended his hand again. But instead of meeting Minako's face, his hand changed its course and his fingers gently closed around a lock of Minako's hair. It was soft and delicate. He fiddled with it carefully for a while, then began touching his own hair to compare the sensations. He was engrossed in his new discoveries for a few minutes. All the while, he remained leaning close to Minako, with a glint in his eyes and a toothy grin he didn't realize others would find very creepy.

But Minako didn't wake up. His worries returned full force, and lots of unwelcome thoughts began racing in his mind at once. what if Minako remained in this state forever? What difference she being alive would make if she were unable to actually live? If she didn't wake up, what would happen to him? Who would defeat those creatures and set him free? He tried to shake these thoughts away. She had to wake up. She had to! They hadn't even become friends yet!

"Minako. Please, wake up..." His voice came out low and strained, but he hoped his plea would reach her.

However, it didn't. Once again, she didn't react.

He heaved a sigh in defeat, lowered his head, and closed his eyes, on the verge of giving in to his worries.

After a while, he eventually reopened his eyes and raised his head slowly. A quick glance around the room reminded him that no one else was there, and his resolve settled. He would keep coming during the Dark Hour to stay physically by Minako's side. Even if she went on for days without waking up and her friend stopped coming to keep her company, he would always be there for her so that she would never be alone. He had known very well what loneliness felt like, and he didn't want that for her. He would come every Dark Hour and stay by her side no matter what, no matter how much time passed. This was his way of trying to make up for hurting her and putting her in that situation. Even if he had no way to help her recover and all he could do was keep her company, it was what he would do.

He inched forward and rested his chin on the empty space of the pillow Minako was using. He was propped on his left arm and leaning over the mattress, with his head only a few inches apart from Minako's head. His position was very uncomfortable, but he didn't care. He remained in that position until the Dark Hour ended and forced him back into his prison inside her, and once again, he was left in darkness, unable to know what was going on.

To everyone's relief, Minako woke up the following day, and showed no signs of trauma or emotional instability.

When Minako woke up, Yukari was by her side, and they spent some time talking.

"Those monsters are the enemies we've been fighting. They're called Shadows. That power you used is called Persona." Yukari explained. "I was surprised when I saw you use it. You looked so confident... when I summoned my Persona for the first time, it was nothing like that. You know... the Evoker... that thing we use to summon our Personas. It looks like a gun, and when we have to use it, it feels like we're trying to shoot ourselves. To me, it seemed so scary at first... but when I saw you do it, it looked so easy. Have you summoned a Persona before?"

Minako hesitated. She was considering what to say and recalled Pharos' words. "You saw what she did a while ago. Just take the gun thing and try to mimic her!"

"Actually, I'd just tried to mimic you," she said. "I saw you use the gun to call that... Persona thing to attack that monster. When the gun fell at my feet, I thought, if only I could do that too... then the word 'Persona' appeared in my head, then everything happened. yeah." She nodded, satisfied with her own half-truth.

Yukari also seemed satisfied, and proceeded to change the subject and talk about how she had also lost her father ten years ago, in the same way she had revealed it the first time.

"I'll leave now." Yukari announced. "I'll let the others know that you woke up."

"Thanks, Yuka-err, Takeba-san." Minako quickly corrected. She had been used to call Yukari by her first name, but she had to remind herself that in this new timeline, their friendship still hadn't developed to that level.

Yukari smiled. "Just call me Yukari."

Suddenly, it already had. "Ah, okay. Thanks, Yukari-chan." Minako smiled back. She could finally call her friend the way she used to. One less detail to worry about.

... ... ... ... ...

Despite having been "asleep" for one week, Minako slept like a log that night. The following morning, her whole body still ached, partly because that ordeal with Thanatos had drained a lot of her energy, and partly because she had been lying on a rough hospital bed for an entire week. Even though she was tired, Minako was determined to go to school that day. She thought about the insane amounts of lessons and homework she would need to catch up to, and concluded that missing one more day of school was a terrible idea. The same thing had happened in the previous timeline, and it had been hell...

"Mina-tan, you're back!" Junpei entered the classroom and took his seat at her side. "I've heard there was an accident in your dorm and you got hurt! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She gave him an assuring smile.

"What happened? I've been trying to ask Yuka-tan about it, but she doesn't want to tell me!"

Minako believed Junpei had the right to know, especially since she had known he would be joining their cause soon, but now was not the time. "Um, I don't want to talk about it right now."

"A-alright. You don't need to talk if you don't want to." Junpei seemed concerned, but he caught the hint and let the subject drop.

... ... ... ... ...

Minako spent that afternoon copying Yukari's notes to catch up to the classes she had missed. At night, she went to the 4th floor for a special meeting. She was happy to have been "introduced" to Akihiko, even though he didn't seem to remember the other timeline, either.

With the introduction out of the way, Ikutsuki began. "Arisato-kun, I'm glad you are well. I know you must still be feeling as though you were ran over by a dozen stretchers right now, but this talk can't wait. It involves the monsters that attacked us that night, your stay at this dorm from now on, among other things. So, first things first. Would you believe if anyone told you that a day doesn't have 24 hours?"

He kept watching the images of Minako going about her daily life. She had spent that whole afternoon copying her pink-wearing friend's notes, and in the evening, she accepted to join her dormmates' Shadow-busting group known as SEES.

That Dark Hour, the two senpai asked Minako to use her new Evoker to summon her Persona. To their relief, Orpheus appeared and simply hovered there. Minako commanded the Persona to move, which it did with no problems. Since Minako seemed to have her Persona perfectly under control, the seniors attributed the other day's occurrence to the shock of having summoned a Persona for the first time while facing a highly dangerous situation. Since Minako didn't seem to be worrying about it much, he decided to set his guilt aside for the moment.

When Minako got to her bedroom, he thought it was the perfect opportunity to pay her a visit. However, she was very tired, and fell asleep as soon as her body hit the bed. He didn't want to interrupt the sleep she so well deserved after tackling that huge homework mountain... but after much thought, he couldn't contain himself and decided he would visit her anyway. He would just drop by, see how she was doing, and leave. No need to wake her up or say anything.

He appeared in Minako's room, near her bed. Minako was sleeping. She looked tired, but had a calm expression on her face, unlike that neutral one she had during her whole stay in the hospital, and just that fact was enough to make him smile.

Relieved, he was about to leave. He took a final glance around... which didn't end up being "final" at all. Various objects in the room caught his attention, and he wondered what it felt like to touch them. Curiosity got the better of him, and his plan of quickly leaving was completely forgotten.

He disappeared from the spot he had been standing and reappeared near Minako's desk. A pen, a pencil and an eraser were on the desk. He carefully took the three objects and turned them over in his hands while paying attention to every detail of each one. Around half of a minute later, he placed the items back where he had found them, and tried to decide what to check next. His hand shot towards the handle of the desk's drawer. He pulled on it and opened the drawer slightly. As curious as he was to take a peek inside, he concluded he shouldn't do it and left the drawer alone.

Next, he warped back close to Minako's bed. He began inspecting the bedside table, which had a few small items on it, including the bedroom's key, Minako's MP3 player, and her cellphone. He took the object that seemed more interesting to him, which was the cellphone.

He opened the phone's lid and marveled at the rows of numeric keys inside. He had known from his observations that, in addition to using cellphones for talking, people also used them to send text messages, and he wondered how they could write so many Japanese characters using so few keys. He pressed a few of the keys, but nothing happened, much to his disappointment. It was one of the Dark Hour's side effects. Electronics didn't work. He realized he wouldn't be able to get anything out of the device, closed it, and set it aside.

He decided he wouldn't inspect the MP3 player since it wouldn't work either. Instead, he chose to inspect the bed. He poked at the mattress. To his surprise, he found it to be much softer than the one from the hospital bed, and seemed much more comfortable. He leaned over the bed and stared straight at Minako's face. He smiled in relief as he contemplated her peaceful expression. Only then he remembered he wasn't supposed to be lingering there. He should have left several minutes ago! ... However, his plans of not interrupting Minako's sleep were totally ruined.

"Ah...!" As though she had sensed his gaze, Minako suddenly gasped and awoke with a start.

Minako felt a chill running through her body. She had the eerie feeling that someone was watching her, and jolted awake with a gasp.

"Good evening." Pharos' voice greeted her.

"Ah... i-it's you..." After his last few months of absence in the other timeline, Minako had to admit she wasn't used to waking up to his presence anymore. "Ugh..." She sat up, only to wince as her entire body ached.

"... Are you okay?" Pharos stood up from his leaning position and looked at her. He sounded concerned.

"I'm fine. Just a bit tired. My body aches a lot, but I think it's because the hospital bed was quite rough..." Minako shrugged it off. "Don't worry. I'll be back to normal in a few days."

"Okay then." Pharos sighed in relief, and concern disappeared from his voice. "You're well. It's what matters. I'm relieved that you're finally out of the hospital. You had been there for so many days, and I went there to see you, and you didn't wake up, and..."

"... You visited me in the hospital?" Minako's eyebrows raised. Pharos hadn't done that in the other timeline. Or if he had, he had never told her about it.

"Don't you remember anything?"

Minako tried to recall anything from the time she had been in the hospital, but it was futile. All she remembered was her conversation with Igor, Theodore and Elizabeth in the Velvet Room. "No, I don't remember."

He deflated. He had hoped he had at least been able to transmit her the message that he would be there for her no matter what. "Um, what about your friend's visits? The nights before, your friend that dresses in pink had been there too. Do you remember?"

Minako shook her head. "No. I don't remember anything from the time I was out."

"Ah..." At least he hadn't been the only one Minako didn't remember about.

"Thanks for having come to see me, though. Sorry to make you worry."

He couldn't accept her apology. She had ended up in the hospital because of his intervention. If anyone was to blame, it was him, not her. But he couldn't tell her what really happened, or she would probably start to hate him.

"No, it... it's not your fault! I-it's..." He stuttered, unsure about what else to say. Minako only smiled calmly at him, and this was enough to put him more at ease. However, the atmosphere was still a bit awkward. He tried to find a change of topic, but he didn't really have anything interesting to say. He desperately searched his mind for something to talk about. Anything... ... and he had an idea. He would tell her the most recent information he had remembered. Yes, that would have to do. "... B-by the way, I remembered something, and wanted to tell you about it."

"What is it?"

"Soon... the end will come."

Pharos had spoken in a mysterious tone. It was as though he were purposefully trying to act creepy and scare her. If Minako hadn't known better, it would have creeped her out just like in the first timeline.

"... The end?" Minako repeated and feigned ignorance.

"Yeah, the end of everything." He sounded rather insecure when he spoke his next sentence, though, and effectively broke the creepy mood. "But to tell the truth, I don't know what it means, either."

"Huh?" Minako rolled her eyes. "If you're so unsure about what you're saying, then maybe you shouldn't say it."

Minako's tone was harsher than she had intended, and it seemed to have hurt Pharos, because he lowered his voice and sounded even more hesitant when he spoke again.

"Uh, I only wanted to help... I just remembered this and felt it was important, so I figured I'd tell you..."

"Ah, okay, I understand. Sorry. I shouldn't have said that." She felt she should assure him. "You're helping. Weird stuff happened during the full moon, just like you had said. You have helped me to summon my Persona, too."

"You remember!" He sounded surprised.

"Yeah, 'the magic word' thing. How could I forget that? It was totally unexpected, but also... kind of cute. Now, just say the magic word!" She mimicked him, then started to laugh.

"Aaaah, stop!" He was clearly embarrassed. "It isn't funny..." He looked away. That caused Minako to laugh even more.

The fact that Pharos was behaving like the little child he was pretending to be made it even harder for Minako to resist laughing. She wondered whether his reaction was spontaneous or just an act.

"I get it. You don't want my help." Pharos seemed upset. "First you refused my help with the contract. Now you're laughing at something I told you when I was only trying to help you!"

"No, it's n-not like that!" Minako tried to suppress her laugh, but failed miserably.

He ignored her. "That's it. I'm leaving."

Minako wasn't sure if it was only a threat or if he had really thought she didn't appreciate his help, but her fit of laughter subsided immediately, and she figured she had better not take any chances. Getting on bad terms with him this early on wouldn't be good.

"Hey, wait!" Despite her body's protests, Minako quickly moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Her right hand reached for him, but he had already vanished, and her hand grasped only air. It took her a few seconds to recover from the surprise. Minako sighed in frustration. She seriously needed to do something to get on good terms with him. She started speaking in the hope that he was still listening. "Look. I'm sorry. I'll stop. So, please come back, and stay a bit more."

A few seconds later, Pharos reappeared near the foot of the bed. "Huh? You said... you want me to stay?"

Even though Minako had been expecting him to return, his sudden reappearance still made her jump. "Ah! ... Y-yeah, I did."

"Really?" He asked expectantly as though he were having trouble believing it.

"Yeah, really." She answered more firmly this time.

He seemed puzzled. "You don't think I'm bothering you?"

"No."

It took a few seconds until he spoke again. "... Okay, then I'll stay."

Minako smiled and beckoned him to sit next to her on the bed.

Pharos reluctantly sat down, some distance away from Minako. But then he turned his head in her direction, and seemed very enthusiastic when he resumed speaking, with words that a little kid probably wouldn't use. "The power you awakened to is very interesting. It can become anything but is bound to nothing. Quite a different power. It might become your destruction or your salvation, depending on how you use it. I'm very curious about you."

"I'm curious about you too," Minako responded. "You said you were watching me, so you must know a bit about me already. But I have no way to know anything about you unless you tell me."

"Hmm. You want to know something about me?"

It was awkward not having a name to call him by. They needed to fix that. "Yeah. Alright, first things first. What's your name?"

The question was so obvious, but he seemed shocked for some reason. "... My name?"

Minako found it strange. She didn't recall him having trouble telling his name before. "Yeah, your name. We've talked so much already, and you still haven't introduced yourself."

A name, of course. It should be basic information, however, it was information that he didn't have. "Um, I don't think I can answer this."

"Why?" She asked.

"Because... I don't remember." He admitted in shame. "I don't remember much about myself, really."

"Oh."

"I don't even know if I have a name to begin with. Do I really need one?"

"Of course you need one," Minako said. "How am I supposed to call you if you don't have a name?"

That was frustrating. Out of all things, he hadn't imagined the lack of a name would be such a huge obstacle. He had failed to fulfill one of the most basic requirements to start a friendship with her. He looked away and lowered his head in shame. He didn't have a name... no, this wasn't right. Everyone had a name, so it was only logical that he also had one. He just needed to remember it. He raised his head and faced Minako again. "I tried to remember. I really tried. But nothing came to mind..." He spoke sadly. "I'll need more time to think."

"Oh, it's fine," she said assuringly. "Let's try something else. What do you like to do?"

Another difficult question. He lowered his head again. Apparently, he was unable to give her any satisfactory answer. His hopes were dwindling. It seemed like he would never fulfill the requirements to become her friend. "I... I don't know. I don't remember." He spoke timidly and sighed in defeat. He had to admit his failure and accept the fact that their conversation was going nowhere. He stood up abruptly and turned around to face Minako, but took care not to make eye contact with her. "I really wanted to stay more, but I'll leave now. I need to think. When I remember, I'll come again and tell you. So... good night!" He blurted out and took his leave as fast as he could manage.

"Wait!" Minako called, but he had already disappeared. She sighed. Engaging in conversation with him was proving to be difficult. His reaction was strange. It seemed as if he had been afraid of being rejected just because he didn't know what to say. Had he felt the same way in the previous timeline, too? Was this the reason why his visits used to be so brief and so few and far between? Only because he didn't know what to say? Minako had been too scared at the time and hadn't noticed anything. Now, she felt bad about it. This time, she felt she needed to make it up to him somehow. She had to assure him that he didn't need to do anything special for them to get along. The problem was that they could only meet if he came to see her. She would have to wait until he visited her again. She could only hope he would come, despite their latest interaction's results not seeming so good. Minako lay back on her bed and closed her eyes. All she could do right now was sleep and get ready for the next day.

A/n: as I had stated before, I haven't played the PSP version. I don't know much about Theodore, but I've heard a Japanese audio drama with he and Elizabeth in it. Elizabeth was so mean to him that I had to wonder if she was the same Elizabeth I used to know (or rather, I had thought I used to know :P). Poor Theo... I really felt bad for him.

In canon, Pharos doesn't seem to have a physical body and probably can't touch anything, but here in this story, let's pretend it's possible. I want him to interact with the outside world :D .

If Minako were to have awakened during Pharos' visit at the hospital, she'd have freaked out for sure. Imagine waking up to someone leaning over your bed, resting his chin on the empty part of your pillow, with his head almost touching your face, and those huge blue eyes creepily staring right through you. There was no way that Pharos would have gotten his message across like that! XD It might have been interesting if Minako had awoken at that moment, but it didn't fit with what I had already planned, and I gave up on the idea.