A/N: Let's do this! My beta has returned, which is phenomenal. I am bursting at the seams to go back and fix my hackneyed chapters that need to be fixed. I will go back to the previous chapters and fix things from Chapters 15 and on after I have posted this chapter. On the less exciting side, my internet connection has been shaky at best for the last couple of weeks unfortunately and it is not looking like it will get much better anytime soon. It concerns me a lot because I feel a lack of momentum in my writing a bit from all the stop and go and that is a sign of trouble, at least in my opinion. I find it noticeable in extended passages where my literary voice can fall off the rails a bit, but perhaps I am being paranoid. During the time I've been pulling my hair out over that, I managed to read the entirety of Delenda Est by Lord Silvere, a Harry Potter/Bellatrix story on my tablet. Why is that relevant? I wondered if I wanted to start a new project on the pairing, but then I realized I should try to devote my energy to this project since it really is my first extended piece. Regardless, it's something on the backburner I suppose. Obnoxious tangent aside, things are finally over with the Emperor and Empress Arcana. I know I'm ready to move on from that and the beginning of this chapter will clean things up after checking in with most everyone. I was worried that the characters were reflecting a bit too much on things that already happened, so I cut down and tried to move on. Although, I really tried to ask myself why this character would do this or think this way for each chunk of events. I find it a helpful method to force me to explain things well enough that they make sense. There's still going to be kinks in my writing with the grammar and trying to find an appropriate pace. There will always be room to improve and I will continue to strive for that. The chapter title is in reference to one of my favorite series. That is quite a lot of follows and favorites for this little story, thank you for reading. As always, your reviews are appreciated and my replies will be beneath my overly long author's note blurbs. Cheers

Reader Reviews:

Sorata Shioya: That's definitely what I had in mind in terms of twisting things a bit. I wanted an explanation that was more on the practical side and it makes sense that the Velvet Room denizens would want to see things first-hand from time to time. As for Minato, I think he's really starting to see the opportunity to grow into his own person. He will always be a bit awkward socially, but he hasn't really made too much of an attempt to try new things.

FallenRaindrops: Yes, it is finally coming to a close! I admit it was a struggle getting through this arc because the ideas didn't come forth as well compared to previous arcs. Oh well, there is some interaction between Fuuka and Minato towards the end of this chapter. There are a lot of things unsaid during the exchange, but I think it reflects Fuuka's ability to dig into group dynamics better than anyone that we see during the game. I would say it goes back to her analytical abilities and that this is an extension of that. And thank you for pointing out that mistake in the previous chapter. I fixed it after seeing your review and would have otherwise not caught it.

Yoshikunitsu: Thanks! Yeah, there is a hodgepodge of things that are all on the board at the moment. I think combining everything into a coherent narrative as we move along will probably be the biggest challenge. I know what the ending is pretty clearly, but there will always be wiggle room here and there depending on reader reviews. The Fool could be a possibility, aha. And yes, Minato has a couple of misadventures during this chapter as he tries to take what Margaret said to heart. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Yami no Majou077: I'm glad you were surprised! The idea was one that I felt fit pretty well with where this story is trying to go. Thanks for the compliment.

terisu-seifa: Welcome aboard! It's always nice to see another reviewer and thank you for your words.

Chapter 23: Baby Steps

June 9th, Tuesday (Gekkoukan High, Early Morning)

Minato P.O.V.

A smell of what he could best describe as diced vegetables and fish being prepared wafted through the corridor and into his nose. Minato strolled past the entrance of the cafeteria, catching a glimpse of the staff diligently working together like an assembly line in unison to prepare the food that would be served later at lunch break. He continued on, ignoring the various cliques of students chatting amongst themselves. Some of the girls in the groups giggled and eyed him closely when he walked passed them, while the guys tended to shoot him rather envious glances. He really had no idea why he garnered such attention as he had not done anything noteworthy at school these first two months, so he just shrugged it off. Finally, he reached the sliding panel that led to home room, but decided to take some time to wade through his thoughts again before class started.

Leaning against the bulletin board that displayed various club notices, he started to roll through yesterday's events, feeling for sure that it had been another inflection point in his current journey. There had been too much information for him to digest from his talk with Margaret, let alone the aftermath of the battle with the Emperor and Empress Arcana. After Minato had hustled back to the dormitory he Natsuki was missing as expected. Although, he didn't think she would deliberately break a window with a flowerpot, leaving broken glass and potting soil on the patterned lobby carpet. As he cleaned up the mess with a broom and pan, Minato had felt a surge of energy inside him and felt Take-Minakata fading from the forefront of his consciousness. In its place, a snarling presence filled the void where his previous Persona had been. Orthrus, the next embodiment of the Hanged Man Arcana, a twin-headed beast whose brother was Cerberus. Nonetheless, it was clear to him now that whenever S.E.E.S. managed to defeated an Arcana Shadow his Persona ability changed. What that entailed, he really had no idea, but one thing was for sure; at least part of his power came from the Arcana Shadows. And as if he needed anything extra to worry about then, the voice from the hospital had returned.

"You can only run so far," it said, and when he started shouting in reply there was no answer.

Hearing voices in his head again just added to his litany of problems, including the prospect of failing his second journey and being condemned to the service of the Velvet Room. Having to listen to an endless loop of Elizabeth and Margaret mentioning that Igor has a very long nose was a daunting deterrent in defaulting on his contract.

During all of this reflection, Minato felt an epiphany of sorts. By his own admission, his thought process of everything in his life was tinged heavily by the endgame that was brought down by the Fall. That included his current relationships with his friends and acquaintances, leaving him to wonder if things would be different now if he treated them as if he had just met them. Not that there was a clear answer on what he should do because he wasn't even sure what role he would end up playing. Still, it was worth mentioning that none of S.E.E.S. had really gone through their major breakthroughs yet, so maybe he had been a bit unreasonable in expecting them to respond differently. He ended up taking a deep breath and realized that he needed to come to terms with how little things had changed in this timeline.

That was when a flash of tousled auburn hair passed by the corner of his eye into the classroom.

Hamuko P.O.V.

What a crappy night yesterday was, she thought irritably. Not only had she tossed and turned all night unable to fall asleep, but she also managed to get up too late to prepare for school. So, here she was back in class this morning looking like a train wreck, with dark circles under her eyes and hair unkempt. The high ponytail that usually held the crown of her hair neatly in place was missing and this caused her unruly hair to lightly graze the back of her neck and shoulders when she walked. At least, Hamuko had managed not to wear her shirt and skirt backwards in the rush to get ready. She had tossed her favorite barrettes in her bag this morning to put on later at school, but now she decided it wasn't worth the effort anymore. Having her hair down like this felt rather strange and the number of peculiar stares she got from people as she rushed into the classroom wasn't helping her mood.

As she got seated, Hamuko realized that only Minato had arrived, and he was loitering in the hallway for some reason. Hamuko checked the wall clock in the classroom and found it a bit surprising that she managed to arrive to school so quickly after her adventure in getting ready earlier this morning. Still, she quickly fell back to brooding on last night's turn of events. Things had started out so well for her and the rest of the team, but in the end, the mission came close to becoming a dumpster fire. Her moodiness didn't seem like it would go away easily considering that the source of it rested squarely on her own shoulders. An internal monologue was really out of character for her, as she had told off Minato recently that living with your troubles pent-up was a terrible way to live. Yet, she couldn't hide from the fact that she choked last night. What if something like this happened again? What would she do? She was tempted to bang her forehead on her desk in frustration, but held back at the last moment, since she heard someone shuffling into the classroom.

Hamuko pretended to be tying her shoe in the awkward position she was now in, and hoped whoever it was would just ignore her for the time being. From underneath her desk she could hear a clumsy footstep approach and could see a navy blue shoe in a familiar looking design. She knew this had to be Minato returning to his desk and she inadvertently exhaled in relief. He was the only one that hadn't seen her panic attack during the mission the last night. That is, if Yukari or Junpei hadn't already blabbered the entire story to him. Hamuko decided to give Minato the benefit of the doubt and tried to at least make an effort to greet him.

"Morning, Minato," Hamuko said.

He turned to face her and cocked his head to the side slightly, as if he were examining something rather intently and then quickly looked away.

"Why are you sitting in Hamuko's desk?" he said suspiciously. "Are you a transfer student?"

Hamuko felt disbelief at Minato's cluelessness and momentarily thought he was joking but the look on his face said otherwise. So, she angrily said, "It's me, you dolt!"

Minato looked at her in equal parts wonder and bewilderment. "Hamuko?!"

"Obviously!" she yelled, throwing her hands up for emphasis, causing everyone else in the class to momentarily stop chattering.

"Sorry," he replied, sheepishly. "You look a bit different."

"Don't even start," Hamuko said haughtily. Unfortunately, for her, the same situation replayed itself throughout the day. Whether it was Ms. Toriumi, Junpei, or Akihiko, everyone seemed to be dumbfounded that she had let her hair down. Why was this such a big fuss? To try to avoid her dorm mates for a while, Hamuko decided she would go check out the old antique shop after school that was finally reopening today in the mall.

(Gekkoukan High, After School)

Yukari P.O.V.

Yukari waited for a certain floppy-haired student to appear. She risked being late for archery practice, but she really wanted to get this off her chest. Honestly, she seemed to be turning into someone who apologized all the time. Though, she couldn't really help running her mouth off when people talked about bullying as if it were some isolated incident. Having experienced the prejudice people could show personally because of her dad, Yukari felt she needed to clear things up with Minato. Yes, she was sorry for yelling at him, but she wouldn't apologize for disagreeing with his opinion on people running away from bullying. There was only so much someone could take before cracking and she wanted him to understand that not everyone can avoid running away. After a while, Minato came walking toward the shoe lockers with his bag in one arm and with a peculiar expression on his face.

"Hi Yukari," he said laconically. "Need something?"

"Look, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened back at the archery range, Minato."

"Hmm?" he replied, with a curious expression forming on his face.

"You know!" she said. "Don't make me repeat myself. When we saw Natsuki and the others talking about what they did to Fuuka. Still, I'm not sorry for disagreeing with you about the subject. I have my own reasons for the way I reacted and frankly, none of it is your business."

Minato looked a bit befuddled at her onslaught, but seemed to take it all in stride somehow.

"I'm sorry too, Yukari," he answered. "Even though I didn't know at the time I must've unintentionally offended you. So, now that's over with, are we friends again now?"

Yukari was taken aback a little by the cordial and overly suave response. She stared intently at him to see if he was joking or trying to insult her. Instead, she noticed that he had extended his left hand out to give her a handshake, since he was still unable to use his right.

"Um, thanks…" Yukari said, her voice trailing off after the awkward left-handed handshake. "I'll see you around, okay?"

"You too," he replied, with a smile, and they parted ways.

Yukari hurried off to the locker room to get changed into her archery gear. As she changed her clothes an unsettling image of Minato giving her a handshake and a smile came back into her mind's eye. His response had caught her off-guard because she had been ready for an argument, but instead they had made up rather easily. Friends with him, of all people? He was better than Junpei at least, though that wasn't hard to do. She wasn't really sure what to think at this point. He must have figured out that what she had said to him was in the heat of the moment and decided to look over it. Maybe, she was giving him too much credit. All the same, she felt strangely at ease as she started going through warm up drills with the rest of the archery team.

(Akihiko's Room, Afternoon)

Akihiko P.O.V.

A heavy knock on the wooden door to his room caused Akihiko to stop training just as he finished off another combination to the boxing heavy bag that hung in the middle of his room. Wiping off the sweat accumulated on his face with a nearby towel he opened the door to find Mitsuru.

"Uh, what is it Mitsuru?" he said. "What's with that look?"

"Nothing, Akihiko," she answered evasively. "Mind if we talk for a bit?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, inviting her inside, and noticing her close the door behind her. "I was just finishing up."

"I wanted to ask you your thoughts again on how Yamagishi managed to leave Tartarus on her own." His longtime friend began as she sat down on his desk chair with a rather combative air around her.

"This again, Mitsuru?" Akihiko said in partial disbelief. Although, he had half-expected Mitsuru to bring up this topic again at some point because she was far too stubborn to let things go when they didn't make sense to her. It was probably one of her more annoying or endearing aspects of her personality depending on what the topic was. They had been through this conversation a multitude of times since Fuuka had returned unexpectedly to her parents after being missing for a week. Mitsuru had given all types of theories and postulations as to how Fuuka managed to avoid the Shadows and find an access point to leave the tower.

"Yes, Akihiko," she continued. "I find it rather odd that you are not as concerned as I am about this."

"That's because I see no reason to," he replied, taking a seat on his bed as far away from Mitsuru as possible, and wondering if he smelled as bad as he thought.

"How can you dismiss the fact that she seemed to have no issue leaving Tartarus when she had no evoker yet, Akihiko?"

"I thought it was obvious that she seemed to have good control of her Persona when she used it yesterday, Mitsuru. Even without an evoker I think she can use her detection abilities to a point."

"I suppose you have a point there," Mitsuru said. "I just have this feeling that it should not have been that easy for her to leave Tartarus. If she had the ability to use her detection abilities to that extent, then why did she wait for so long to leave?"

"Fuuka was confused," Akihiko argued. "Even if she could sense what was around her, she probably didn't have much of a clue what was going on."

"I still think-" Mitsuru began, but Akihiko interrupted her.

"Look, Mitsuru," he said. "It isn't that I think you're wrong, but sometimes I think it's alright to leave things alone for what they're worth and say we got lucky for once. We gained a team member and no one was hurt. I think you need to move on."

Mitsuru seemed to have no further arguments on the topic for tonight and Akihiko took the opportunity to politely try to ask her to leave his room.

"I need to go take a shower," he said uncomfortably, with his eyes staring down at his feet. "If you don't mind could you leave now?"

This seemed to shake Mitsuru back to her senses and she quickly got up to leave and said, "Yes, of course. My apologies for intruding, Akihiko. Thank you for talking to me as always."

"That's what I'm here for, Mitsuru," he reminded her.

(Hamuko's Room, Late Afternoon)

Hamuko P.O.V.

There was still a ream of unfinished reading for her to do, but her mind and body were simply not in the mood to cooperate. Hamuko got up and stretched out her limbs, since she had been sitting in her chair for too long. The final rays of daylight glistened through her open window as she stared at the rapidly darkening sky with her elbows on the windowsill. She wondered if her parents were looking down at her now and what they must be thinking about. Would they be proud of her at all? Her grades were pretty good and she had made a lot of friends since she came to this town. If she did well on her college entrance exams in the future, then she could probably get into a decent school, and parlay that into a good career down the line at some company. That's what her parents would've wanted, right? Yet, she was leading a double life as a Shadow hunter. Not that Hamuko had intentionally sought out to spend her nights climbing a demonic tower full of monsters. Someone had to do it, but she wondered sometimes what it would be like to live a normal life. Moving back to her desk, she noticed her phone vibrating and saw a text message from Minato asking her if she wanted to chat. Her thumbs flew across her phone's keyboard and then she hit the reply button. After a good while, the smell of ramen cooking reached all the way to Hamuko's room and she decided to go down.

When she made her way to the dining table Hamuko saw a pair of wooden chopsticks in instant ramen, a glass of water set, and an unenthused Minato mumbling to himself in dark tones.

"Thanks, time to dig in," Hamuko said excitedly as she sat down.

"You're demanding as usual then, even when I can only use this one arm," Minato replied.

"Consider yourself lucky with that excuse," she said. "Otherwise, I would've demanded a three-course meal from you."

Minato immediately became quiet at that statement and taking a seat adjacent from her.

"You aren't going to eat anything?" Hamuko asked. It felt a bit conspicuous to have Minato watch her eating, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from enjoying her ramen. She twirled a large chunk of ramen into her mouth and tried asking Minato what he wanted to talk about, but all that came out from her mouth was a poorly enunciated mumble.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," he admonished her, to which she shrugged and continued eating.

Minato patiently waited for her to finish her meal and Hamuko figured it was something important if he was willing to not only make her ramen, but also to wait for her to finish. Although, these types of conversations rarely went anywhere since he was always held things close to the vest.

"Thank you for the meal," Hamuko said, and looking around the table for a toothpick. "What did you want to talk about, anyways?"

"How are you doing?" he said, with an uncharacteristic look of concern in his eyes. "I've been worried about you since this morning. Well, that is, after I realized it was you."

This was rather odd, Hamuko thought. Since when did, Minato start showing genuine concern for her well-being?

"None of your concern, Minato," Hamuko said in a sing-song voice. "Stop sticking your nose into my business."

"Is that so?" he replied, diplomatically. "That's too bad then, I was hoping you would want to talk about it at least."

It annoyed Hamuko a bit that Minato employed the same tactics and even some of the same words that she tried to goad him with when he was his usual surly self.

"There's nothing to tell," Hamuko said. "We were just in a tough spot with the Shadows gaining the upper hand yesterday, but things turned out well in the end. It isn't like you were even there, Minato! By the way, why didn't you stop Natsuki from leaving the dorm? That was your only job and you couldn't even do that?!"

Hamuko noticed a twitch in Minato's facial features due to her comments, but he seemed to calm down and master himself.

"She broke out through the window and she was under the influence of the Shadow. Do you think I could've stopped her by merely hanging my arm around her?"

"You should've figured a way to stop her!" Hamuko exclaimed irritably. "I could've avoided being humiliated!"

"It's easy to blame others for your own shortcomings," Minato said callously. "I don't pretend to be perfect and maybe it's high time that you realized that you aren't either."

"What?!" Hamuko rose from her seat and clenched her hands on the white tablecloth causing it to wrinkle. "How can you have the nerve to say that to me when you've never been in such a situation?!"

Minato looked up at her into her furious eyes and slowly said, "I've had someone end up dying on my watch because I was too oblivious at the time to notice that a kid wanted revenge for his mother's death."

The color in Hamuko's face started to drain away as the impact of Minato's words hit her like a tidal wave and she fell back down on her chair without much ado. She glanced at Minato, then did a double take of sorts to make sure that he was still there as he continued his story.

"I underestimated him at the time because he was just a kid, but as I learned later, the warning signs were always there. How I didn't notice them is proof that I was a lousy leader. In the end, things turned out rather cruelly as they often do. The person he loathed ended up dying while protecting the kid from someone else. You may think that is poetic justice as the kid's revenge was fulfilled not by his own hand and the murderer of his mother dying to protect him. Yet, to this day I feel that my hands are still covered in blood because I feel that I didn't do enough to prevent the sequence of events from occurring."

"Why are you bothering to tell me this?" Hamuko said, while resisting a temptation to pat Minato on the shoulder. "And who are the people you're referring to?"

"I'm not trying to patronize you, Hamuko," he answered. "And I can't tell you who I'm talking about, so just consider this a parable of sorts. What I want you to get out of this story is that the world isn't always going to be black and white, no matter how hard you try to do the right thing. At the time, I was so caught up in everything else going on, but that's merely an excuse. Hindsight will always tell you that you could've tried something different and gotten a better result."

"So, are you saying I'm doomed to make a fatal mistake sooner or later?" Hamuko said bitterly, her voice breaking in parts out of frustration.

"No, I think you're a much better person than I ever was or will be," Minato answered, with a surprising amount of conviction that embarrassed her because it was so unexpected. "Even though we haven't known each other for more than parts of two months I think you have what it takes to be successful as leader of S.E.E.S. now and in the future."

Hamuko could hardly believe the person in front of her was Minato. From his own deprecating admission of what had to be an excruciating story to recall, to breaking Hamuko down, and then building her back up to a higher level than before. Was all of this really true and could she take his words at face value?

"Do you really mean everything you just said?" Hamuko questioned him.

"I don't want you to beat yourself up so much," he said. "Things are tough enough around here without you blaming yourself."

Minato's words were kind, but the sincerity in his tone had a cathartic impact on her. Hamuko's shoulders relaxed as the tension in her body that had built up since last night seeped away and a smile that was noticeably absent for the day began to creep onto her lips.

"Turns out you're just a big softie, huh?" Hamuko stood up and laughed. "But… yeah, thank you. I really needed that."

"You're welcome," Minato replied.

Just as Hamuko climbed the flight of stairs to the third floor landing, she was temporarily blinded by a flash of white light. The light began to dissipate into small balls that moved toward the center in her field of vision and morphed into the back of a card. Once the card flipped the Hanged Man card revealed itself and did not vanish like last time. However, there was no confirmation that she had successfully established a new social link with a disembodied voice. The card vanished as quickly as it came and left Hamuko thoroughly confused. Had she managed to finally make this social link work? And why was it that Minato seemed to be the one that triggered it and not Maiko? Her sense of curiosity piqued from this sudden turn of events, but she was more concerned with figuring out more about Minato's past. Having a social link on the line would just be gravy and give her more incentive to learn more about him.

June 10th, Wednesday (Gekkoukan High Lobby, Early Morning)

Minato P.O.V.

Minato couldn't quite understand what he had done last night. Sure, on one hand he felt good about himself because Hamuko had cheered up considerably thanks to what he said. At the same time, he was certain that he had probably ended up saying more than was necessary. Telling Hamuko about what happened between Shinjiro and Ken in the future would probably come back to bite him. Just, what had he been thinking when he blabbered something so sensitive when the same chain of events was likely to happen?

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he silently repeated to himself on the way to school.

Honestly, most of his unease came from trying to act out of his comfort zone recently. That is, he had wanted to try something different after the last meeting with Margaret and he had done this by taking the high road in volatile situations with Yukari and Hamuko. Normally, he would've told Yukari that she was a hypocrite when she was a bully herself, especially to Junpei. For Hamuko, he would've said that she was a choke artist and loved to blame others for her failures. Instead, Minato had tried to be more sympathetic to both of them, which had been greeted with high levels of skepticism. Regardless, for him these were probably teachable moments where he could discover more about himself as he tried to be a bit less of a jerk. That wasn't to say that his approach would be universally successful as even now he felt that Mitsuru had it out for him and no matter what he did she would treat him rather poorly. He wasn't even sure where things had gone wrong with her, but at this point he wasn't really going to bother trying to reconcile.

"Morning!" Hamuko's voice boomed in his eardrums as Minato had been too lost in his thoughts to hear her approaching from behind.

"Hi," he replied feebly, trying to get the ringing in his ears to stop.

"Thanks for last night," Hamuko said rather matter-of-factly.

Junpei who was not even close to the pair of them suddenly came zooming in behind them. "What's this I hear? What happened between you two?!"

"Nothing, nothing at all Junpei," Minato said as convincingly as he could. The last thing he needed on his plate was another rumor to spread like wildfire when he was receiving enough attention from the student body as things were.

"Aww, that's not fun at all, though," Junpei said in all seriousness and really started to wind himself up. "What about you Hamuko? Have anything to say about what happened… last night?"

To his chagrin, Minato saw Hamuko starting to get a bit embarrassed by the question even though she tried to wave Junpei off. Her flubbing the initial question caused Junpei to continue probing further. Not wanting to stick around and draw any more attention, Minato ran for it before they could call him back.

June 12th, Friday (Hamuko's Room, Dark Hour)

Hamuko P.O.V.

Hamuko was in the middle of a dream that she would later forget because a certain boy freaked her out of her wits. As she tried to wiggle her left foot in her sleep, she felt some resistance from her blanket and continued to struggle until she heard a cough that abruptly caused her to wake up. With only one eye slowly opening and providing a hazy area of vision, Hamuko saw the boy wearing jail pajamas silently sitting near the end of her bed and observing her closely.

"You've prevailed yet again," he said without preamble. "It's good to see you again."

Hamuko wished she could say the same, but she merely grunted in reply.

"Remember I told you about the end and how it was inevitable?" he asked. "It doesn't seem so certain to happen, considering the vast potential in you. In fact, your power seems to have changed quite a bit since we last talked."

She didn't really need the boy to state the obvious. Of course, her powers had grown stronger over time with the constant grinding of battles and fusing Persona left and right. But, one thing that she still didn't know was what his name was. She wasn't going to miss the opportunity to ask this time.

"What's your name?" she mumbled, trying to mask the dragon breath she had.

"You want to know my name?" he asked, his eyes full of wonder. "If I tell you, will you be my friend?"

Hamuko felt she may regret her answer later, but she said, "Fine with me."

"My name is… Pharos."

Hamuko felt the sensation of another social link being formed and she wasn't mistaken as the card flipped over and the Death Arcana stared directly back at her. She probably shouldn't have been surprised of the card's affinity considering that the boy hardly seemed human and sometimes seemed like a figment of her own imagination. This boy, Pharos, usually brought ominous warnings and reminders of arduous events that would happen to her, a harbinger of sorts. Regardless, he was the source of another area of her powers that she would be able to tap into when she obtained the appropriate Persona.

"Pharos, huh?" Hamuko said in confirmation. "I don't think I ever met someone with that name. My name is Hamuko, but I have a feeling you already knew that."

"Yes, I do know your name already," he replied. "Now that we're friends I hope that I can learn more about you. I'm very curious about you."

"Um… okay," Hamuko said uncertainly and feeling uneasy to say the least.

"It's getting late, so I'll go now," Pharos said. "I'm already looking forward to our next meeting. See you, friend."

With that, the boy vanished and left Hamuko's room without a sound.

June 13th, Saturday (Gekkoukan High. Lunch Break)

Fuuka P.O.V.

She was finally starting to get caught up with the classwork that she had missed due to her absence from school. Fuuka felt a sense of relief in things returning to some semblance of a routine after a chain of events she would never forget. Who would've believed her if she said that during a span of less than two weeks she would no longer live with her parents, awaken to the power of Persona, join S.E.E.S., and become friends with Natsuki, who had tormented her relentlessly at school. All of it was a bit surreal and hard to believe and Fuuka wondered sometimes if she would wake up and still find herself locked in the gym at midnight. However, there was still something that weighed on her mind and it was how Minato had saved her from Tartarus by himself. The more Fuuka learned about what S.E.E.S. did and how they operated, the more it seemed like what Minato had done to rescue her to have been extremely peculiar. Why hadn't S.E.E.S. worked together when they rescued her? Minato's actions just didn't seem to add up for her. Fuuka decided to ask Minato during lunch break and ventured to his home room during lunch break.

"Oh, hey Fuuka," Yukari greeted her, as Fuuka stood awkwardly to the spot just inside the classroom.

"What brings you here?" Hamuko said in between bites of her lunch.

"Um… I wanted to talk to Minato-kun," Fuuka said hesitantly. "That is, if it's okay with him."

Catching a curious look from everyone caused Fuuka's anxiety to increase further, but Minato got up and let her lead him out to the hallway.

"What's up, Fuuka?" Minato intoned, and quickly looking over his shoulder to make sure no one from their group was listening in and eventually turned his full attention towards her.

"I wanted to ask you why you rescued me by yourself," Fuuka answered directly.

Minato looked a bit perturbed by the question and said, "I'm sorry I rescued you alone?"

Fuuka bit her lip in frustration and tried to rephrase what she wanted to say. "No, I'm really thankful that you rescued me, Minato-kun. It's just that it was so dangerous to do it by yourself and I was wondering why no one helped you to do it."

Minato let out an audible sigh and said, "There were philosophical differences in the investigation into your disappearance. I'm not saying that the others wouldn't have rescued you. It's just they were taking too long to figure out that you were in danger as they got sidetracked by that ghost story legend."

"That still doesn't really tell me why you didn't let them know I was missing," Fuuka pressed him.

"I don't exactly have a lot of influence in S.E.E.S. since I've been mostly useless with my injury," Minato said, self-deprecatingly.

"I'm sorry," Fuuka quickly said. "I didn't mean it that way."

"No offense taken," Minato said cheerfully. "Now, if that's everything I want to go finish my lunch. Thanks for taking the time to tell me your concerns Fuuka. I'm glad you decided to join the team."

"It's the least I could do after everything you've done for me," Fuuka answered.

"Well, I'll see you around then," Minato said with some finality.

"Is Mitsuru-senpai the reason you continue to pretend you're injured?" The question had left her mouth before she had thought it through. She had been curious as to why Minato continued to act as if he were injured.

Minato stared back at her and gave her a look of surprise and nodded his head almost imperceptibly as he stood on the threshold of the sliding door back to his class.

Fuuka had asked Minato a lot of uncomfortable questions, but she was starting to form her own opinions of S.E.E.S. as a group. There seemed to be a lot more going on within the group than she originally thought. Her last question had clearly surprised Minato and it was a confirmation that most of the tension revolved around two people in particular.