During lunch, Minato managed to find a place to eat in peace in the library, away from his 'old friends and girlfriends'. He took the moment to think about it all.
"Why the hell do they know me?" He thought. "HOW the hell do they know me?" He took a bite of his sandwich. "I've only ever been here twice. This year and..." His mind wandered as he mentally paused, trying not to think of the accident on the bridge too much.
"There you are."
Minato was about to mentally curse before seeing that the person that spotted him was Akihiko. Thank God. Akihiko was one of the few that wasn't on his ass 24-7, so he was alright in Minato's book.
"Hey, sempai."
Akihiko smiled, putting a hand on the blunette's shoulder. "Everything alright?"
"Yeah. Pretty quiet today. I just hope I can keep it like that."
"Yeah, I hear ya on that..."
Minato thinks for a moment. "Sempai. Can I be honest about something?"
"Anything man. Go ahead."
"I know this sounds strange, but...what exactly happened when I was here? And after I left?" Hopefully, he would get some answers this time.
"Huh? Why ask that? You seriously couldn't have forgotten everything."
"A lot's happened that I can't explain." He lied.
"Well, every full moon, we took down a powerful shadow. And in the meantime as we waited for the next full moon, we went to Tartarus, so we could reach the top. Sound familiar?"
"Yeah." He lied again.
"Then...Shinji almost died."
"Who's Shinji?" Minato thought.
"He was shot, the..." He paused.
"Sempai?" Minato looked up at his upperclassman. He reached over to tap his shoulder. "You alri-
-ERROR! TRYING TO FIND THE PROBLEM...-
"Motherffffff..." The player sighed and reload the file.
"-Then, Shinji was admitted to the hospital." Akihiko explained. "A little bit after you left, he recovered. Lives by himself now."
"...I'm sorry, what was that last part?" There was that dammed confusion again. "Was he shot? I thought you were about to say that."
"Hm? No. He wasn't shot. He took a nasty hit from a shadow that night, that's all. I think the dark hour ended soon after, so we couldn't heal him."
"Oh...I see."
"Any other questions?"
"A few. What happend after we got to the top of Tartarus?"
Akihiko looked up, thinking back to when it first happened. Back when the fall happened.
"It's fine if you rather not say."
"..."
"What about after that?"
"Graduation." He responded.
"What?" "Wait, I wasn't here for my first year."
"Yeah, it was your second yea-
-ERROR!-
"DAMMIT!"
The scene was reloaded.
"You and the other transfer student travelled for the summer, I think."
"Other transfer student...?"
"Yeah, uh...damn, forgot his name. But you two left together after the ceremony was over. That much I remember."
"Yay. Another friend..." "Alright. Second...please don't tell anyone about what I'm about to ask."
"Lips sealed. "
"Okay...what's with all the girls in this damn school?"
"...I don't get what'cha mean."
"How all of them are so damn clingy?"
He chuckled. "Guess you have some fangirls like I did." He got up. "You'll get used to it. And they'll eventually calm down."
"I don't want to get used to it. I want them to fuck off..."
"Well, see ya."
"Bye."
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*ALL PARTY MEMBERS UNLOCKED
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After dodging his girlfriends, Minato was the first to get home.
"Food. Bed. Maybe Tartarus." Minato went to the kitchen and looked to see what was there to eat. Nothing interesting. He closed the fridge and heading back to the foyer. There, a blonde girl with strange headphones stared at him.
"..."
"Uh...hi?"
No response. Just a dead, thousand-yard stare that felt robotic, in a way.
"I'll...just be going, then..." Minato quickly ran upstairs. "GODDAMMIT!" he mentally shouted. "ANOTHER FUCKING ONE!"
Later that evening, someone knocked at Minato's door. He responded with a groan and a "Leave me alone..."
"No can do, man." replied Junpei. "Sempai's calling a team meeting."
"Fine..." He got up and quickly put his uniform on, since he assumed this had to do with Tartarus. He went up to the command room where everyone but the kid, Fuuka, and blonde girl from earlier were there.
"We have a critical mission at hand." Mitsuru said. "Yamagishi is trapped within Tartarus."
This caught Minato's attention. He liked Fuuka. She had an obvious crush on Minato like the rest, but she didn't smother him to death over it. She was shy, which let the bluenette have his personal space. "Fuuka?"
"Yes. We'll be heading into Tartarus tonight to rescue her."
"How did this happen?"
Akihiko sighed. "Someone locked her in the gym."
"That Natsuki bitch..."
"We'll deal with her afterwards. For now, let's prepare for the mission."
Junpei, Minato, and Akihiko snuck into the school through the gym. Once midnight struck, Tartarus formed once more.
"Dammit..." Minato cursed, slaying another shadow. "Why the hell did we have to be separated?" ' Minato thought. The static in his ear due to communications with Mitsuru were out of range wasn't helping either. As he ran, he could've swore he saw the blonde girl from earlier out of the corner of his eye. He quickly tuned around. She was gone. "The fuck...?" he whispered.
"Minato-san?"
"Ahh!" Minato jumped back.
"I'm feeling great today, let's go." It was the kid from last time. The teen sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Thank god it's just you...Yeesh. Nearly gave me a heart attack...Wait...when did you even get here?"
He stood silently.
"Well?"
Nothing.
"Say something, dammit!"
"I'm feeling great today, let's go."
Before Minato could throttle the little punk by the throat, he heard someone's voice,faintly
"Hello...? Is someone there?" Fuuka. "Thank god..." Thought Minato. Ignoring the boy, Minato continued on, following Fuuka's voice with the boy following. The two found Fuuka in a corner, hiding.
"Fuuka?"
The young teen looked up, and instantly embraced her hero. "Minato...I was so scared." She sniffled.
Minato flinched, getting hugs from too many people, at too many times in a day, but soon retuned the gesture. "Come on. Stay close to me."
She nodded, blushing a little. "I knew you would save me...I'm sorry for putting you through all of this." She sighed. "Am I really worth all that trouble..?"
"Hey." He gave a stern look. "Don't."
"Huh?"
"Just trust me on this. Don't. You don't wanna think like that. Take it from someone that's had it rough." Minato held her hand, causing her to blush immensely. "You don't need to fall down as far as I have. Almost no going back at that point..." He remembers the bridge. "Come on. Let's find the others and get out."
"O-okay..."
He turned to the kid. "Don't speak. Just have my back out here while we look for Junpei and Sempai."
"I'm feeling great today. Let's go."
"...Little shit."
They walk, occasionally slaying some shadows here and there while protecting Fuuka. Eventually, they run into Junpei and Akihiko. "There you guys are. I found Fuuka and the kid."
"Kid?"
"What kid?"
"The kid next to m-" He sighed. "Forget it. Let's go." The crackling of the communicators came back immediately, to Minato's distain.
"Arisa-!" The vaguely heard Mitsuru shout. "-hiko!" "Is anyo- there?"
"Mitsuru? What happened?"
"Shadows in th-" The transmission cut off
"Shit!" Akihiko clenched his fists. "Come on! We gotta go!"
The group reaches a teleporter and return to the main floor where Yukari and Mitsuru are at the mercy of two large shadows. One tall and thin, wearing a black outfit resembling that of a king and one short and fat, with some sort of chamber door attached to the stomach. The Emperor and the Empress.
"Two big ones." Akihiko smirked, getting ready to fight. "Minato, Junpei. Let's get the girls to safety, then kick their asses!"
"Hell biker!" Junpei's persona rammed into the emperor shadow, then blasted the empress shadow with an agidyne.
"Pixie!" Minato drew the small persona from the sea of his soul and healed Yukari and Mitsuru with dia spells. Rising to their feet, they both ran to the bluenette's side.
"Merci, mon amour."
"Thanks, Minato."
Minato rolled his eyes. "Protect Fuuka. Me and the guys will handle them." Minato joined Akihiko, the kid and Junpei. He noticed the the shadows did something...strange. A strange light began to shine on them.
"Let's light 'em up!" Junpei summoned hell biker once more, unleashing another Ardhanari. This time, however, the spell didn't effect them in the slightest. "What the hell? Worked a second ago!"
The emperor swung his sword at them, with the boys barely getting out of the way.
"Fuuka, a scan would be appreciated!"
00000000000
*FUUKA PERSONA MOD
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Fuuka clasped her hands together "Come forth and aid us..." and summoned a large six-winged blue-skinned demon.
Minato paled, seeing the behemoth sprouting from the depths of Fuuka's soul. "The fuck is that?!"
"Fuuka's persona, Lucifer, duh." Quipped Junpei.
"HOW IN THE FUCK?!" Minato mentally shouted. "But she...she's so sweet and innocent..."
The prince of darkness stared down the shadows.
"The emperor is now weak to direct strikes. And the empress is weak to electrical attacks."
"Gotcha covered! Hell biker, fatal strike!"
"Persona!"
Ken's persona casted a spell to lower the emperor shadow's defense, leaving Junpei's persona to ram it, knocking it down.
"Ziodyne!" Akihiko's persona sent down a large bolt of lighting, blasting the empress and making her fall.
"Let's go!" Minato, Junpei, Akihiko and Ken rushed the shadows in an all-out attack, dealing a considerable amount of damage. The shadows stood up, with the light shining on them again.
"Their atributes have changed!" Fuuka's dark persona glared at them, searching for their weaknesses, and giving Minato an unsettling feeling. "The emperor is weak against ice, and the empress is weak to fire!"
"Guess it's on me." Minato tried something different. He focused on his ice spells and how strong he could make them. He thought of his 'Frost' personas. "King and I." he pulled the trigger. Jack Frost snowmen landed ontop of the emperor, crushing it.
"Nice trick."
"Tch. Whatever." Junpei sent hell biker to the empress shadow with another agidyne, finishing it off.
"Well, that's that." Akihiko dusted himself off. "Mission accomplished."
"Yes..." Fuuka hugged Minato again. "Thank you..."
"Y-yeah..." "The one girl who I thought was normal..." Minato didn't know what to make of Fuuka anymore.
Status:
Minato Arisato: Standard one-handed sword
Persona(s) equipped: Orpheus Telos, Thanatos, Trismegistus
Orpheus Telos skills: (unknown)
Thanatos skills: Mudo, Death, infinite endure
Trismegistus skills: Megidolaon(Eliz. vari )
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Yukari Takeba: Standard bow
Persona equipped: Angel
Angel skills: Media, Night Queen
0000000
Junpei Iori: standard katana
Persona equipped: Hell hiker
Hell biker skills: Agidyne, Ardhanari, fatal end
0000000
Akihiko Sanada: Boxing Gloves
Persona equipped: Take-Mikazuchi
Take-Mikazuchi skills: Ziodyne
0000000
Fuuka Yamagishi: Navigator
Persona equipped: Lucifer
Lucifer skills: Full analysis