Author's Note: I hope everyone is enjoying my adaptation so far. Just a note that I will be incorporating some aspects of The Answer in future chapters.

Feeling refreshed, Yukari closed the door to the bathroom and ascended the stairs. Mitsuru had told her that they would be monitoring him for the next few days and that meant staying up until the Dark Hour arrived. Unfortunately, it also meant she would be getting less sleep than the average person, something that she was not fond of.

Can't she just monitor him by herself? Or with Akihiko-senpai?

As she reached the second floor, she looked down the hallway and to the last room on the right. Minato's room. She still felt bad that they were treating him like a lab rat and part of her just wanted to run into his room and tell him he was being watched. She almost did so if it were not for the other part of her reminding the consequences of disobeying orders.

Instilled with the fear of Mitsuru's fabled 'execution', she hastily climbed the stairs to the fourth floor and entered the command room to find Ikutsuki chatting with Mitsuru.

"His behavior hasn't change since last night," Mitsuru was saying.

"Very interesting," Ikutsuki replied. "Even those who have the potential tend to be unstable at first and suffer from memory loss or disorientation. But he's rather unique in not exhibiting any of the common symptoms."

Suddenly, there was a beep on the panel below the monitor. Mitsuru flipped a switch, enabling communications between the room and anyone with a transceiver.

"Command room," Mitsuru said. "Is that you Akihiko?"

"Mitsuru? You're not gonna believe this. This thing is huge! But, I don't have time to talk. It's chasing me. I wanted to let you guys know, I'm almost there," Akihiko said between breaths.

His transmission then cut off.

"Does that mean he's bringing that thing here?" Yukari asked, feeling the color drain from her face.

"It seems so," Mitsuru said, turning to Ikutsuki. "Mr Chairman, we'll have to suspend our observation for now. Please wait here until the matter is settled."

Ikutsuki nodded and Yukari followed Mitsuru out the room. The time had finally come. Yukari was dreading the day that she would have to fight them and now that she had to, she was even more frightened. As she followed Mitsuru downstairs to the lobby, she couldn't help but shoot nervous glances at her holstered gun. What if she wasn't able to do it? What if she were responsible for getting her senpai injured?

The negative thoughts continued to cascade in her mind but she had no time to dwell on them when Akihiko entered, slamming the door shut behind him. He slumped down and leaned against the door, clutching his side in pain.

Yukari and Mitsuru approached to help him but he waved them off.

"I'm alright," Akihiko said, still breathing heavily. "Get ready to be surprised. It'll be here any second."

"This is no time to joke around!" Mitsuru snapped.

"Is it one of them senpai?" Yukari asked.

"Yes, but not an ordinary–" Akihiko started before the ground began to shake.

The force of the vibration was strong, enough to send Yukari and Mitsuru stumbling into a nearby sofa. Using the sofa as a means of steadying herself, Yukari glanced at Mitsuru who had pulled out her gun.

"Takeba, go upstairs and wake him up! Then, escape out the back," Mitsuru said.

"But what about you two?" Yukari asked.

"We'll have to stop it here. You led it to us Akihiko, so I'm afraid you'll have to fight."

"Like I had a choice!" Akihiko growled, hauling himself up. "What are you waiting for Yukari? Go!"

Yukari immediately dashed to the end of the hallway on the second floor. She could not believe it. All this time she had thought the dorm was the one place she would be safe. Where they would not be able to access. But now, it seemed nowhere was safe.

He had felt the ground shake. He had heard Mitsuru shout orders. So when Yukari burst into his room and yanked him out of bed, Minato complied without any qualms. They quickly made their way back down the stairs, past the dining table and to the back door. A beep startled them as they arrived and Yukari raised a hand to her collar and enabled her transceiver.

"Takeba, do you read me?"

It was Mitsuru's voice.

"Y-Yes! I hear you!" Yukari answered.

"Be careful. There's more than one enemy. The one we're fighting isn't the one Akihiko saw!"

The lights fizzled out as the transmission cut off and Minato seized Yukari's arm, pulling her away from the back door. She gasped and pulled back from his hold.

"What?!" she exclaimed.

Minato pointed towards the back door and after a few seconds, there were several loud knocks.

"It's not safe here," he said. "Is there anywhere else we can go?"

He could not make out her face in the darkness but knew she was trembling with fear.

"I-If they're downstairs, th-then we can only go up," Yukari said. "To the roof."

She then grabbed his arm and lead him back to the stairs. Once they reached the highest floor of the dorm, they stopped to catch their breaths. Minato glimpsed out one of the windows and noticed that there were black pillars outside, arranged in a zigzag pattern. Upon closer inspection, a daunting blue mask held by a black hand rose to greet him. He recoiled, blinking to ensure it was not some hallucination. When he realized it really wasn't, he froze in shock.

What was this...thing?

And why was it staring at him with a sense of familiarity?

He heard Yukari shouting, telling him to move out of the way, but as hard as he tried, he could not. Paralyzed with fear (or perhaps just pure disbelief at the events unfolding), he watched as the thing raised one of its many hands and smashed through the window in an attempt to grab him. Shards of glass sprayed everywhere as he felt Yukari tackle him to the ground, and the thing retracted its hand.

That was too close.

Yukari helped Minato to his feet and the two stormed their way through the rooftop exit door, locking it.

"I think we're okay for now," Yukari said. "Are you alright?"

Minato nodded in response. "What was that?" he asked, still shaken.

Before Yukari could reply, the ground shook once more. The vibration seemed to have spawned from behind them. They turned around and paled as they observed their assailant climb onto the far end of the roof, its many hands now brandishing sinister blades that reflected the yellow glow of the moon. In the middle of all its limbs was the hand that held the blue mask. It spotted them after a quick survey of the roof and began to close the distance between them in a fanatic crawl.

Minato glanced at Yukari and watched as she pulled out her gun and reluctantly placed it to her head. What is she doing? Exactly how is killing yourself going to help right now?

"To answer your question, these monsters... We call them Shadows!" Yukari said, pulling the trigger.

Transparent energy columns began to materialize around her and Minato could see the silhouette of a girl forming. Unfortunately, she had been too late in summoning whatever it was because the Shadow had already reached them. With one swift swing of its arm, Yukari was knocked aside into a puddle of blood, her gun flying into the air and landing at Minato's feet. He watched as the Shadow turned its lifeless gaze on him and moved in position to strike.

A white light flashed across his eyes. He could still see the Shadow in front of him but for some reason, its movements became sluggish.

Then, a familiar voice whispered in his mind.

"Go on," it said.

The voice was that of the weird young boy in striped pajamas. Visions of him appeared in a kaleidoscopic fashion, his hypnotic eyes gesturing to pick up the gun. Minato knelt, retrieved the gun from his feet, and placed the cold barrel against his temple.

As soon as he did so, something stirred inside him. It raged like an angry beast trapped in a cage and the sensation made him feel sick.

And euphoric.

He took a deep breath, inhaling the stench of pollution mixed with fresh blood and the night's mist. It was a futile attempt to calm his nerves as the scent only intensified the calling.

He closed his eyes, focusing on the intermittent whispers of the ethereal voice. He could hear his heart beating in anticipation of the next call; the pulses of blood in his veins reverberating in a steady rhythm. When the whispers crescendoed into a mellow male voice, he saw a man kneeling in front of a grave.

Or what appeared to be a man anyway. While his head was organic, with snow white hair, the rest of him, or 'it', was completely synthetic. Cradling his lyre affectionately, his hands plucked away at the strings, the melancholic sounds in tune with his singing.

Then, the man stopped and looked at him. Minato stared into the intense gaze of the man's red eyes and was surprised that the stare was not one of confusion or annoyance. It was instead, one of familiarity, as if they had known each other since childhood. Minato then realized what all this meant. What this being was waiting for.

He's waiting for me to...

Snapping his eyes open, Minato returned to reality to see the Shadow poised to strike. He should have been filled with dread but he was completely calm. As his index finger slowly squeezed the trigger, images of that man flickered. He knew who this was, and he knew what he had to do.

"Per...

Minato pulled–

"so...

–the trigger and–

"na!"

–his mind shattered.

Bars of blue light rose from the ground and Minato felt a wave of stress being released. He lowered the gun, breathing heavily. He did not need to look behind him to see if he had appeared. He knew he was there.

"Thou art I. And I am thou. From the sea of thy soul I cometh. I am Orpheus, master of strings," the Persona voiced telepathically.

For a few seconds, Minato stood there, watching the Shadow take a few steps back. Whatever sense of danger he had felt before was replaced by a burning desire to kill. He shot his arm forward, directing Orpheus to attack but stopped halfway as ripples of pain flowed across his body. Orpheus felt it as well and convulsed violently until he imploded.

Taking his place, was something far more demonic. Covered in a black robe with a hawk-like face, the new Persona lunged at the Shadow, outstretching its eight chain-linked coffins like an eagle spreading its wings.

The Shadow's mask was sliced in half by the Persona's katana and the Shadow itself split apart. Its writhing remains were grabbed by the new Persona, who compressed it until it burst. Black blood sprayed in all directions but Minato was too busy clenching his head in pain to take any notice of it splattering on his uniform.

The pain then subsided as Orpheus reappeared in a flash and for a moment, Minato had control. He commanded Orpheus to blast the several smaller Shadows that had tagged along with the larger one. Bright red flames lashed out as Orpheus strummed his harp and the Shadows melted instantly.

As the last Shadow melted to a puddle of goo, Orpheus dissipated and Minato felt the pain shoot back into his body. This time, the convulsion was too much. The last thing he heard was Yukari's voice before all went to black.