Yasoinaba Station, Saturday, April 16, 01: 00 local time.
The black train had finally arrived. The mercenary presence was very large: four M-1 Abrams tanks, sixteen Black Hawk helicopters, nearly 5,000 soldiers, thirty-five jeeps, and forty Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers. The reason for this massive presence was to stop any Shadows from interfering with the objective of the mercenaries: get Minato Arisato, former leader of S.E.E.S. and currently ailing from Apathy Syndrome induced by giving up his soul to create the Great Seal, to Inaba Municipal Hospital. About twelve to thirteen months ago, the media erroneously claimed that Arisato had died after he had collapsed on the roof of Gekkoukan High School and the story was almost accepted as fact until Ghost Force 969 stepped in after the organization experienced a shift in management. The new leadership immediately suppressed the false story and revealed a dark truth: Minato had fallen into a coma instead of dying, and that he had been influential in curbing Apathy Syndrome during the 2009-2010 school year. In a fit of irony, the cover story given to the media by the mercenaries said that he himself had fallen to it. Regardless, the mercenaries were at Yasoinaba Station to ensure that Minato got to Inaba Municipal Hospital.
The doors of the train opened and out onto the platform came a squadron of mercenaries that were wheeling Minato to an ambulance that had been commandeered for their purposes. Once they confirmed that he was inside and secured, the ambulance drove off to its destination.
Enforcer saw how well things had turned out so far and said over to Yu, "We know about this guy because we were in Iwatodai City about a year ago and the media thought that he was dead. We proved them wrong and as it stands right now, he is unable to even care for himself."
Another mercenary rushed by and said, "Guys, you're not going to believe this!"
Enforcer swore under his breath and said, "What's going on?"
The unnamed mercenary said, "There's another dead body, this one hanging from a mother-freaking telephone pole!"
Enforcer signaled for Yu to accompany him and the two of them followed the mercenary to where he had found the corpse. Sure enough, it was hanging from a telephone pole, but the victim. . .
Enforcer then said, "We haven't done DNA tests yet, so we don't know who the poor sap was. Do you know him?"
Yu looked at the body and then said, "It's Arisato Natazaka. But why was he killed, even though Saki Konishi was the one who found Mayumi Yamano's body?"
"It might have been because my squadron and I had rescued Saki from the TV world. Of course, a Shadow had gotten to her and eaten her soul, so things aren't exactly as we had planned. The main point was, we got her out alive, and that was it. We now need a motive behind this."
"The motive behind Natazaka's demise was probably because he had started a protection racket in town, but the cause of death is unknown, just like the announcer. If I had to guess, his clients were most likely from the Central Shopping District, because I know from Yosuke that Saki had talked to Arisato a few times in the past. The killer must have targeted him because there's a possibility that Saki gave Natazaka some of the details of the crime scene or some other information that only the killer would know before she was incapacitated."
"So it was to keep him silent. Does that sound right?"
"Da. There's no other reason or motive behind his death."
"Spasibo, Yu Narukami. Now as for why Yukiko showed up in the Midnight Channel, the killer must have begun targeting at random. Mount a rescue operation and if possible, kill the Shadow that had taken Saki's soul. Unfortunately we have our own Shadow problems to deal with."
The Sea of Souls, the Great Seal.
The two-headed monster known as Erebus lied on the ground, defeated again.
"This has got to be some kind of bullshit! Why can't I WIN? Is it because I don't know about anything other than destruction and killing all humans, huh? Answer me, you bitch of an elevator attendant!" it roared defiantly at Elizabeth.
A man who also looked like an elevator attendant appeared next to Elizabeth and said, "Such hateful language! I'm afraid that you simply cannot be allowed to refer to a lady like that. Shall we do him in, Sis?"
"Theodore, you didn't have to come. But let's take this garbage out." She said to her brother.
Elizabeth teleported Erebus, herself, and Theodore to the Moon and then the two siblings unleashed the Fusion Raid Armageddon, which reduced Erebus's form to a lowly Cowardly Maya.
"Grr. I will regain my power eventually, and when I do, I'm so going to enjoy torturing you BOTH before killing you! Consider this a warning that I will come back to fulfill this." Erebus said in his weak form before teleporting away.
The two Velvet Room siblings went back to the Great Seal, but when they arrived, it was starting to give off an energy reaction. Elizabeth dreaded this because she knew what this meant: something was now trying to break out of the Seal.
The energy reaction quickly subsided, but then a demon appeared in front of the Great Seal, facing away from it.
"Finally, I have come out of that accursed Seal. However, I will need to restore my power before killing the boy. Wait a minute, what that sound?" The demon said before it turned towards the Seal.
It glowed white and then it started to crack. "Aw, shit!" the Demon swore before it teleported away. The Great Seal then disappeared completely as in its place, a humanoid appeared.
"Well, this is an unexpected turn of events. I imagine that there is no Red Substance here. It looks like I'll just have to do someth- wait a minute, I know what must be done." It said in an evil tone before it looked coldly at Nyx.
"Who are you, and why is that blue-hair not stopping Erebus?" the Night Queen asked the humanoid.
"I am Sakahagi, and don't bother as to why he's not here. I have arrived to kill you." the humanoid said before the ground below him rose as another Great Seal appeared.
"FUTOMIMI! I KNEW THAT IF ANYONE WOULD REPLACE THE SEAL, IT WOULD HAD TO HAVE BEEN THAT USELESS SACK OF MAGATSUHI!" Sakahagi yelled.
Over the next two days, Yu Narukami and the newly-created Investigation Team prepared to enter the TV World to launch and begin an operation to rescue Yukiko Amagi. On one of those days, specifically April 17th, they found out from Tunazu that they were needed at the base. Once there, in command center. . .
"Well, we know that it's been while since you last interacted with anyone, but why don't you introduce yourself to these guys?" Enforcer said to a recently awakened Minato Arisato.
Minato nodded his head in an agreeing manner and said, "Hello. My name is Minato Arisato. Who are you?"
Yu, Yosuke, and Chie introduced themselves to Minato and then Wellington came in and said, "Starting on Tuesday, April 19, Minato will be joining you at Yasogami High School as a third-year student. We'll handle getting his school stuff for now, but we're not sure where he's going to stay."
"Well, I don't know either. Has anyone contacted the Kirijo Group yet?"
"Yeah. I was in contact with Mitsuru earlier and she said that herself, Fuuka Yamagishi, and Akihiko Sanada are going to arrive in a few days. Until they arrive, I recommend that you stay with us here at one of Ghost Force 969's field bases."
"I can handle that."
As everyone left, Enforcer let out a sigh of relief as he went to his office and notified Aiko that her friend had awakened and that her discharge had been moved ahead to next Sunday. She was also told that she would also enroll into Yasogami High as a third-year student using her identity from before she was taken in by the 969.
A.N: three things to address:
First off, Aiko is the Female Protagonist from Persona 3 Portable. Her backstory is that she was a childhood friend of Minato back when his parents were still alive. She had been caught in the same Dark Hour related incident that killed Minato's parents and she herself nearly died from what had happened. A mercenary who was on the Moonlit Bridge at the time acted quickly to save her life and was successful. That mercenary who saved her is named, but the name itself will be something that will be addressed in a later chapter. Her survival was covered up by Ghost Force 969, who were the ones who had employed the soldier that saved her life and they took her in immediately. Aiko was the name given to her by the mercenaries, and she has been using it for 12 years. As for her old identity, her name was Minako Kujikawa, and she is the older sister of Rise. This information was something I thought up in my spare time.
Second, Minato had been using aliases for the ten years between the death of his parents and his junior year at Gekkoukan, with Makoto Yuuki being the most commonly used one since he used that alias during his stay in Iwatodai City. He only used his real name Minato Arisato during the school year before he was in Gekkoukan High.
Lastly, Futomimi replacing Minato as the Great Seal was also something that I thought up in my spare time.
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