Hey everyone, SURPRISE! I'm not dead, which is probably a minor miracle in and of itself. Anyhoo, this is a quick update on the story.

IT'S NOT DEAD.

I'll be honest: I've had a killer case of writer's block when it came to this story (mostly because I lost a nearly completed (meaning it just needed editing) chapter in late November of 2015 and was really pissed about it. Actually, I still am pissed about it!). That, combined with college getting really complicated for a couple of years and me losing passion for writing about Persona, meant that I disappeared for a few years. I never wanted to write out one of these saying "oh I got lost on the path of life" or some shit and make some bullshit promises about getting out a chapter, maybe. If I was gonna write one of these, I was gonna do it with a goddamn plan for you guys. For a long while though, I didn't have a plan or even the passion to come up with a plan.

HOWEVER, I just finished P5 yesterday and, holy mother of god that game was good. It not only made me fall in love with one of the best, if not the best supporting cast in a Persona game, but reignited my passion for the entire series. So here's my goddamn plan.

First step for kicking starting this puppy is a kinda-sort of-maybe major re-edit of the story. In addition to a grammar and structuring pass, that means that I'm going to be going back and removing or changing some plot threads that I didn't really have a plan with, and changing things about certain characters, namely Strega and Ken.

For Strega, I didn't really plan out how losing Takaya would change the motivations of each individual member, not to mention that there are some inconsistencies in objective and role as a group earlier on in the story. For this story, I want them to be like the bogeymen you see in chapter 18 throughout, a group that strikes from the shadows to kill the enemies of… well, you'll see. For that, I'll be stripping out a bit of the backstory between Jin and Shinji, but not much, and rewriting the initial reintroduction between them. In addition, I'll be adding a bit more to their dialogue in their introduction scene, giving a better hint as to their true goals and aspirations.

As for Ken… Well, I'll be honest: I've never liked Ken much as a main character in P3. To me, it felt like his role was meant to be that of a time bomb in your group, meant to bring shock value through his actions, but never really contributing anything useful until the end. He never felt integral like Akihiko (funny, right?) or even Shinjiro. The thought of writing a character that I don't like as an integral part of the story doesn't really sit right with me, and (again, being honest) killed a lot of my enthusiasm for writing the later part of this story. But, this is an AU story, one in which I've deviated from canon a bit already, so I can (pardon the swearing) do whatever the fuck I want.

So the big one: I'll be removing Ken as a Persona user for this story. He will still have a role in this, but it will be reduced to that of a supporting character. I still plan on having his story and relation to Shinjiro in the story, but it will definitely not be the same. The revenge plot will not happen, mainly because of stuff I have planned with Shinji (wink wink), but the loss of his mother will still be a critical plot point for him and Shinji.

Anyways, after that is the next chapter. I've been working on bits and pieces of this story for the past two years, so I suppose I could give you guys a taste…

It was so familiar at first.

It began, just like it always did, with a terrible, inhuman screech, causing his eyes to shoot open. Orange, flickering light from the nearby car fire illuminated a horrifying scene: the blood-soaked forms of the man and woman in front of him. The sight sent a sadly familiar horror throughout his body, his eyes rooted on the corpses. Over the past ten years, this sight had become as familiar to him as his own face, a brutal reminder of what he had lost.

This time though, something was different.

He thought he could hear fighting in the distance. A staccato of what sounded like gunshots rang through the night, and slowly, as if in slow motion, his gaze began to turn upward. Each agonizing moment of this new memory burnt a new picture into his mind. Finally, after what felt like forever, his gaze fixed upon the source of the noise.

Two figures were fighting in the distance, further down the bridge. Their clash was visibly brutal and intense, even from here. He couldn't make out what the figures looked like, however. Despite the mounting feeling of terror building in his gut, he felt his leg begin to move forward…

"Min…up…"

A quiet voice, authoritative and commanding, yet soft and calm, called out from behind him. It sounded distant, muffled… but it echoed in his mind, as if he had heard the call through water. His leg stopped moving, and his head began to turn towards the voice.

"M…nato… up!"

The voice… It was so familiar to him… but he couldn't place it to a face. He began to turn, but found his foot was stuck to the ground. He turned back, only to recoil in horror. A black, amorphous mass was slowly crawling its way up his leg. He tried to scream, but his voice wouldn't come. He tried to fight, to run… but the tar-like substance stuck fast, holding him still as it crawled ever closer to his face.

"Minato…ake…up!"

The voice was growing clearer, but also more distant. The black substance crawled its way up over his neck… over his mouth… over his eyes.

The world became black.

"Minato, wake up…"

A hand lightly shook his shoulder, startling him awake. He gasped as his eyes shot open. The sight of the mostly empty surgery waiting room greeted him. Mitsuru was standing in front of him, a slightly worried look on her face.

"Are you alright? You looked like you were having a nightmare…"

He stared at her blearily, a confused fog in his mind. What was that dream? Who were those people fighting in the distance? He felt his grasp on the details of the dream begin to slip as consciousness began to creep into his mind, despite his best efforts. Somehow, his recurring nightmare had become worse. Worse still… He wasn't sure that it was just a dream anymore. It felt so real…

"Minato," Mitsuru said, her tone becoming agitated, "Are you alright?"

Her tone snapped him out of his reverie. "Uh… yeah," he said, rubbing his eyes, "Just a bad dream."

The worry slid off her face as she nodded in understanding. "Somehow, I don't think any of us will be spared one tonight."

"Yeah…" Minato said forlornly as the night's events washed over him again. Things had somehow gone from bad to worse in no time flat. At least they were all still alive. Speaking of which…

"Any news on Akihiko?"

She nodded hesitantly. "The doctors are once again impressed by your Persona's ability to heal even the most grievous wounds. They had to suction his lungs to get the rest of the blood out, but that was the extent of their treatment. As for how he's doing…" She took a shuddering breath. "Well, he's in no real danger, but…"

"But what?" He asked, a feeling of dread settling into his stomach.

Mitsuru's lips visibly tightened before she turned away from him. "Well," she said quickly, "The doctors 'believe' that the human body was never truly meant to recover from such wounds so quickly. After all, when the body goes into shock, it starts shutting down parts of itself, and-"

"Mitsuru!" He barked, pain evident. "Cut to the chase. What's wrong with him?"

She swallowed before turning back to him, eyes full of worry. "…He's in a coma."

I'm an evil, evil man.

Oh, yeah, speaking of shit that I can cut out, I was thinking of either removing or postponing the whole Fencing Tournament arc that I had planned. It was extremely poor timing (something I should have planned better) to have this big, hardcore battle take place right before a planned fluffy and lighthearted (one might even say filler) arc. So, in order to preserve the tone of the story from Strega's ambush, I plan on dealing with that more in detail. Unfortunately, that means the Tournament can't take place when it does. Personally, I'm more in favor of postponing the tournament to a later date, preferably after the big security crisis is resolved and our heroes can relax a bit, but if you guys don't care to see that, then I'm fine with axing it.

So what are your thoughts? Let me know with a PM or a comment!

Here's hoping I can get another chapter out before 2018! – Dr. Ninja

Edit: I'm going to start a progress list on this page for those of you who care.

6/9/2017- Chapter 1 edit complete, uploaded.

6/10/2017 - Chapter 2 edit complete, uploaded.