"Welcome back." Mitsuru greeted me once I returned to the dorm. " Perfect timing actually, I'd like to speak with you a moment regarding our exploration of Tartarus."

"So would I." I replied, vaulting over the couch and treating her to my Gendo pose special. "You go first."

"Very well." she said with a nod. "Akihiko is still on the mend, so for now, I'd like you to lead the team."

"Really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I'm actually not all that surprised, this always happens.

Not the 'leading teams of teenagers against eldritch abominations' thing. The whole 'giving control to me' thing.

Mitsuru nodded. "You never know when a powerful enemy might appear, like the one you faced the other week." she said. "It's best to be prepared, or else you may find yourself in a difficult situation."

Nod. "I agree." I told her. "So, when do we go next?"

"That's up to you." she said.

"Eh?" She's leaving the schedule to me?

Mitsuru smiled slightly. "Whenever you'd like to explore Tartarus, just let me know, and I'll gather everyone there." she explained. "Also, since I'm sure there are other things you need to take care of," Mitsuru turned back to the book she was reading "You may go out at night if you need to."

I wasn't aware that I wasn't allowed out at night in the first place. "How's tonight sound for a venture into adventure?" I asked.

Mitsuru's head snapped back so fast I thought she might have gotten whiplash. "Tonight?" she shouted. "B-but you just went yesterday!"

I nodded. "I have a theory about my power and besides…" I told her, flashing my patented winning smile. "…Don't we want to find out how high we can get?"

"You're insane…" Mitsuru turned back to her book. "Alright, but don't blame me if you're unwell tomorrow."

Grin.

So, five hours later and it was the Dark Hour, and four floors later and I had Orpheus, Apsaras, Forneus, Angel, Omoikane and Alp.

And at the end of this corridor are three huge shapes flitting in the darkness.

Crap. Bigger Shadows.

I really wanted to get back to the ground floor so I could fuse these things while everyone caught their breath, when I saw a DDR teleporter that was just like the one downstairs.

"Hm?" Mitsuru asked. "Excuse moi, but please could you have a look at that thing?"

I did and as soon as I stepped on it, I was teleported back to ground.

Only now the ground teleporter was glowing.

And the control panel was working.

Yukari and Junpei appeared beside me. "It looks like we can teleport up to certain floors once we reach them…" Mitsuru said.

Yukari was surprised, thin breathed a sigh of relief as Junpei punched the air. But I was already gone, headed straight for the Velvet Room.

"Welcome." Igor grinned. "I wasn't expecting you so soon."

"Me neither." I told Igor. I held my hand out and, willing for their existence, six cards appeared. "What can I get for these?" I asked Igor, handing him four of the six cards.

"Oh? You aren't interested in fusing Orpheus or Apsaras?"

I shook my head. "Together they can use the Cadenza. I want to hold on to that for as long as I can."

"A wise decision." Igor looked at my cards. "Hm... If you were to fuse Omoikane and Alp, you would be able to create the level 10 Jack Frost."

"Oh!" Elizabeth exclaimed. "I- I really like that Persona…" She seemed excited. "I'll give you a rare armour if you can create one with the skill Dia."

"Is that possible?"

Igor grinned. "Indeed. Any other skills you would like your Jack Frost to learn?"

"Zio." I said. "Dia and Zio."

Igor's grin grew as he arranged the cards. "Very well." He raised his cards into the air and the cards rose, fusing in a bright light. Then something appeared.

"I'm Jack Frost! Nice to meetcha! Hee Ho!"

"Nice to meet you too." I replied as it vanished, and a card bearing its image appeared on the table. Taking it, I asked Elizabeth "Is this alright?"

"Wonderful…" She answered. "Here is your reward." She gave me a small box. Opening it, I found… what the hell is this?

"This is the high cut armour. I believe that there is a Men's version of it somewhere within the tower."

What was so bad about it? Well, ever seen Return of the Jedi? Like that, only kinkier. And red. And yet…

It had better defensive power than my armour by a clear mile. It provides very little coverage, but... well, remember when I talked about our Personae amping up our physical power? This armour would more make the wearer able to shrug off axes.

I wondered how I could talk Yukari into wearing it.

Not that I'm into any of that (Although it would be hot), it would seriously give us a huge advantage in battle.

Anyway, I then fused Angel and Forneus to make Lilim, who was basically a gorgeous brunette with devil wings in a tiny white skintight... thing that covered just as much as the High Cut Armour, and she could kick all kinds of arse, seeing as she could use Agi (fire), Zio (electric), Bufu (ice), and Garu (wind) skills, as well as a skill called Marin Karin that would Charm the enemy.

Remember how Junpei's sword can make an enemy go Berserk? Which basically meant that they were so angry that they couldn't think straight, and they couldn't use any skills? Well, Charm is kinda like that. You think that your enemies are your allies and your allies are your enemies.

Yep. This'll be fun.

So I have one Persona that can use pretty much any skill I like, one that can hit everything incredibly hard with ice, and two others that will make us super fast.

Just need to do one more thing and we will kick all kinds of ass.

"No way." Yukari stated flatly. "Uh-uh. Not a chance."

"Look, Yukari, we've got three huge enemies at once that we have to fight, and this is the best armour we have!" I reasoned.

"Why the hell were you even carrying that around anyways?" she shouted.

"I told you, I literally got it a few seconds ago." I told her.

"And how do you explain that?" she shouted.

So, the argument continued.

I was eventually able to leave it to Junpei to talk Yukari round and I went to go talk to Mitsuru. "So, what's your take on the situation?" I asked her.

"Strategically, you are correct, but I can understand Takeba's perspective as well." she said.

I sighed. "So tell me about these shadows then."

"They are called Venus Eagles." she explained. "They are of the Empress Arcana and are weak against Ice."

…Wow.

I looked at my Gladius.

And I looked at Jack Frost.

I couldn't be more prepared for this if I had known about this before hand.

I walked over to the teleporter pad and, checking that Yukari and Junpei were still arguing about the armour, I hit the button for floor five.

"Are you sure about this Arisoto?" Mitsuru asked.

I put the Evoker to my temple and pulled the trigger twice to cast Cadenza. "Let's find out." I told her, putting the gun to my head again. "JACK FROST!" I shouted, pulling the trigger and casing Mabufu.

The little guy flew down the corridor, laughing madly as the three birds's wings froze and they fell to the ground.

Oh hells yes.

I switched to Apsaras. "RAKUNDA!" I shouted, pulling the trigger. The water spirit fell on the closest eagle and slammed a burst of water into its back, and it cawed, trying to move its frozen wings.

I wasn't having any of that, so I rammed the Gladius through its eye and slashed upwards, through its mask.

The Rakunda reduced the mask's durability to something like paper maché, so none of that problem from the Magician's buddies here.

There was a caw, and one of the Venus Eagles rose into the air, having broken free of its ice. I turned to face it as enemy one collapsed to black mush, and then I grinned.

I put the Evoker to my head. "JACK FROST!" I shouted, casting another Mabufu. The flying bird fell back to the ground, and the other surviving one was completely frozen over.

I walked up to the flyer and slashed my blade through its mask, killing it instantly.

That just leaves the Christmas turkey.

I'm not sure how to attack an ice cube- no, no wait, I know exactly how to do this.

I stabbed the Gladius into the ice, pulled it out and shoved one of the explosive gems Mitsuru put in the bag she gave us as far into the crack as I could.

Then I backed the hell away and took cover before putting the Evoker to my head. "LILIM!" I shouted, pulling the trigger to launch an Agi into the hole.

See, if you explode something in ice, it doesn't melt.

It explodes.

Anything frozen in exploding ice gets broken.

I knew I won when two cards appeared in my head, one with a blue cup, and one with an angry red comma.

The second sign that I won was that an Empress mask skidded across the ground and stopped by my feet.

Hells yeah.

When I got back downstairs, Yukari and Junpei were still at it. So, I put the Empress mask over my face and shouted "Boo!"

While I didn't shock anyone, I got their attention. "While you were all arguing, I just killed them all by myself." I said, lowering the mask to reveal my angry face, courtesy of Ara Mitama. "Explain that!"

That did shock people.

"He used two new Personae and brought all three of the Shadows to the ground, before killing them while they were incapacitated." Mitsuru explained to Yukari and Junpei. "I gave him support, but the fact remains that he did this by himself."

I nodded. "Thanks for the help guys." I said scathingly.

I looked at the clock while someone tried to apologise. I'd figure that, since it's the only clock that works during the dark hour, it must show the passage of time in here. "We've got about twenty minutes left." I said, cutting someone off. "We can probably make some headway before we run out of time if Yukari puts on the armour…" I headed for the Velvet Room. "Wear your clothes over the damn armour if you want. I'll be staring off over here."

We managed to make it to the seventh floor before we ran out of time, but I did some Persona fusion before leaving, so now I had a fairly decent team within myself.

Apparently now I can hold up to eight Persona. I've only got seven on me now though. Orpheus, Apsaras, Lilim, Jack Frost, Nigi Matima, Chimera and Archangel. On top of that, Lilim learnt Mudo, a dark skill, and Archangel's got Hama, a light skill, and Holy Arrow, so I've got all the bases covered in this magical game of rock-paper-scissors.

However, now we're all wrecked. No surprise, since I made us go through that two nights in a row, one night being our first time, and the second night doing seven times as much. Yukari in particular looked like crap, but I'm sure she'll be fine.

Next day, Kenji grabbed me straight after school and took me to a place called 'Hagakure' that apparently served, in Kenji's words, "Sweet Ramen", since I owed him a meal.

As far as I knew, ramen came in pots and was cooked in the microwave, but apparently I was wrong. It was actually pretty good.

Kenji clearly thought so. "See what I mean? Was I right, or was I right?" he asked me, in between mouthfuls. "This ramen tastes great doesn't it? Bet they put in some secret spice… something no other ramen shop uses… oh, sorry," He said, suddenly remembering I was there, "I get so geeked up when I eat here. "

I agreed with him, but all I felt like saying was "Shut up and eat." I added a grin to take the edge off though. No need to be rude.

"Yeah man, you're right!" he grinned. Wow, sometimes the surly thing to say is the right thing to say. "If we talk too much, the noodles will get soggy and the soup will get cold… You're a man who appreciates his food!" And my Music, and my weapons, and my fights, and my… you know what? I appreciate a lot of things.

I told him this, and he laughed.

"I hear ya man." he chuckled. "By the way, I hear you and Yukari-san are pretty close."

"I guess we are fairly close for two people who just met." I shrugged. "Why?"

Kenji whistled. "Damn boy, you move fast." he said. "Can't blame you though, a man's gotta be aggressive nowadays." Actually, Yukari wasn't in school this afternoon... "Hey, let's hang out after school again sometime!" I wonder if she's ill... "We'll get some food and I'll tell you all about my secret plan…" I should probably stop by the chemists on the way back to the dorm... "Wait 'till you hear it dude, you're gonna flip!"

"Oh, Sure." I replied. I wasn't really listening, but I got the jist of what he was saying.

SMASH

Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Magician Arcana...

Ah, these were the social links Igor was talking about.

It was starting to get dark, so I stood up "Listen, Kenji, I gotta go."

"Huh? Oh sure…" Kenji looked at his watch "Oh man, it's already this late? I missed my favourite TV show!" Kenji sighed. "Man, you are one serious dude… well, later!"

It was a good thing I did stop by the chemists/pharmacists on the way back, because the first thing Mitsuru asked me when I returned was if I'd been monitoring my condition. Junpei was knackered, and Yukari was actually sick.

After dropping my school bag off in my room, I took the stuff I got from Aohige, the pharmacist, and went straight up to Yukari's room.

The man knew his stuff alright. I knocked on the door, and she told me to come in.

Dude, she looked like hell. My diagnosis was the man flu; a disease that drains you mentally as well as physically. It's really half common cold, half flu, and half in your head.

That's 150% sickness right there, and to top it off, the tougher you are, the more it shuts you down.

"I'm sorry…" I told her.

Yukari seemed puzzled. "What for?"

"It's my fault you're like this…"

"No it's n-"

"Yes it is." I interrupted her. "I made us all keep going even though the two of you were still adapting to the Dark Hour. I didn't think about anyone other that myself, and this is what happened."

I was actually pretty upset. This was the first time something like this had happened to me all year, and it felt awful.

I, Minato Arisoto, give my word that I will take full responsibility for the consequences of my decisions.

Well, I'm gonna take the responsibility here like you wouldn't believe it. I opened the bag. Fresh Orange Juice, Lemsip, Honey, and all the other decent flu remedies I could get my hands on. I put them by her bedside table, and picked up her phone, exchanging mine and her phone numbers, setting myself to Speed Dial Five, putting the phone next to all the stuff I had brought. "You need anything, just call me." I told her. "I'll be here as soon as I can."

"You- you didn't have to-"

"I know," I answered her as I left. "I choose to."

I closed the door behind me.

...

Huh, no social link. You'd think that if hanging out with Kenji would spark one, then my conversation with Yukari would've started a social link with her.

Well, this makes life easier for me. Now I don't feel guilty for manipulating teammates for power.

Junpei had an early night that night, but I was still raring to go, so Mitsuru offered to let me go on patrol in place of Akihiko.

See, Tartarus screws with people during the Dark Hour. Sometimes, people don't turn into coffins and are in the Dark Hour without a Persona.

Sometimes, their Shadow will wake up with them, and they'll become one of the Lost. Sometimes, they'll get attacked by a Shadow that's just prowling around.

So I run around the city while Mitsuru talks to me and tries to track them down.

"So, don't you get tired?" I asked her while looking over the ledge of a building. "Doing this every night?"

"It's not every night." she said in my ear. "Besides, I grew up experiencing the Dark Hour. I've adapted almost as well as you appear to have."

I laughed. "My cousin got me into Parkour." I told her. "The martial art of running away. It's pretty fun."

"I see." Mitsuru said. "There's a Shadow Cluster below you. Take it out."

I nodded, drawing the Gladius and hopped over the ledge, landing on the fire escape. "ARCHANGEL!" I shouted, summoning the knight to stab the cluster as I jumped down each flight with a clang. The Shadow split into two Cowardly Maya's and a floating tentacle thing with a floating book in a cage.

"That's a Muttering Tiara." Mitsuru explained. "Use Agi skills to take it out alongside the Mayas."

"Thanks." I said, switching to Lilim. "PERSONA!" I shouted, pulling the trigger three times. The Shadows looked up at me as fire rained down, and I slammed the blade through the Tiara's tiara.

It collapsed into a burst of ichor, but the blade was stuck in a gap between to concrete slabs, so I abandoned it and drove a fist onto the back of a Maya's head, punching the mask off the body, which died without it.

The other Maya slammed me against a bin, but I kicked it in the mask and put the Evoker to my head again. "LILIM!" I shouted, and she threw down more fire, killing the Shadow.

Cards appeared in my mind again, and this time I took one of the sword cards, just to see what would happen.

I felt my hand grip something.

A sword.

Dark Falcon.

"Arisoto?" Mitsuru asked. "You mentioned that you often gain Personae after defeating a Shadow?"

"Apparently I can get weapons too." I shrugged, sliding the weapon over my shoulder and pulling the Gladius from the ground. Dark Falcon was a stronger weapon, and I felt faster just from holding it, but both weapons are so light that I can carry both without any problems.

I don't want to use a two-handed style, in case I need to get into close-combat, but it's nice to have the option.

"Your ability seems to defy everything we know about Persona, and about the laws of thermodynamics as well it seems."

That's the universe's problem, not mine.

Yukari felt much better the next day, so I didn't get to skive off to look after her.

That was a good thing I suppose, since I it meant that I got to try out for the Kendo Team.

I needn't have worried though; I got welcomed with open arms since they were down on members. I even initiated the Chariot Social Link with Kazushi. He seemed pretty cool, if needing a life outside Kendo. Still, a social link is a social link.

So, if the Social links are based of the Arcana, and I've started Fool, Magician and Chariot, that leaves… 19 left…

Sigh… This is gonna take all year isn't it?