Huh... This was received better than I thought it would. Usually I get maybe 1 - 2 reviews, but... Well, this was a pleasant surprise.

Anyone who's read my 1st actual story knows I like to have "guest" from the main story to join in the AN/s, but I dunno who. Can anyone capture the charm Makoto had... no, not Minato- well, sorta- THAT'S A LONG STORY!

Ultimate Kuuga : Nice to see you again.

RAX : YOU! Grgh... Goddamn you! I didn't even do anything to jinx myself this time!

Nightlyy : Are her parents alive? Is Pharos secretly a ninja? Is Junpei smarter than he lets on? Who knows?... No seriously, I have no idea. I haven't thought that far ahead.

MinaxMina : Well, it is technically an impossible pairing... Well, I guess FeMC sorta dated Minato in the Fortune link.

Raze Olympus : Oh, you're just a flatterer.

Nugget O Awesome : Once again, it's technically an impossible pairing. Although, there're actually a lot of MinaxMina fics, just a lot of 'em don't see their end. But that applies to most other fic in general too.

Alright, now we need an Arena name for this version of Makoto/Minato (for tradition)... Hmm... I dunno, we'll think of something, right guys?


?

"C'mon, big bro!" A familiar voice says to me. It's one of the few voices I'll never forget.

"H-Hey!" I yelled back at her "Don't drag me around!" she always was a bossy one... One of the things I loved about her.

"Then hurry up, Minato!" She yelled back at me as she jerked my arm again.

Minato... It's always weird when I hear that name from anyone other than Pharos. It's a little relieving in an odd way. Maybe it's because for a moment, just for a splitting moment, I forget everything that happened.

... I miss that name.

"You dragged me to play in a sandbox?" At times I never really understood her. She really was an odd one, but no one knew me better than her.

"Oh, don't be a baby!" she retorted with a laugh as she smiled back at me.

Even after all these years, I haven't forgotten her face. She had the same hair as me (albeit longer), same eyes, height... really the only difference between us was our gender.

I sighed, somewhat annoyed by her behavior, but how could I be mad at her?

"You're mean, Minako." She was a part of me


Makoto's Apartment ; Moments Before The Dark Hour

Makoto opened his eyes slowly and sighed. 10 years later, and all the dreams still won't stop.

The bluenette slowly got up from his bed and listened to the ticking of the clock. Just a few moments more now.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

It was almost humorous to him in a way. Most would say that his life had basically devolved into a big waiting game, but really, wasn't that life in a nutshell?

When you're born, you're incapable of thinking coherently until a set amount of time had passed.

When you're a child, you constantly wait until you grow up more and more.

When your a teenager, you might start to fear time and begin to do reckless things to simply live in the moment, carpe diem, if you would. Still, most often they look forward for time to pass and they can finally reach maturity.

When you're finally an adult, you realize how stupid you were. All that time you spent waiting, always looking forward to growing up. But now, there's nothing left to look forward to. Now, all that awaits you is a brief moment in your prime before your body begins to degrade.

Then, when you're old and frail, you tend to reflect. Even with your stupidity, most can't deny the joy they might've found in their earlier years. By then, everyone knows what awaits them. The one thing that every living creature has in common.

And that, is the giant waiting game that was life.

That is why he hardly cared at this point. It all ends the exact same way, so who cares how you live at this point?

For what? A future? Just more and more years of prolonging the inevitable? Maybe it's family? Creating and dooming more people because you couldn't keep your hormones under control?

Maybe there was more to it than that, but he didn't care. He lost the ones he loved a long time ago, thus losing whatever reason or answer there was.

After waiting for what felt like hours, The Dark Hour finally settled in.

He saw what he expected ; Electronics shut off, world darken, the whole thing.

What he didn't expect was that out the window he saw a giant tower forming.

"Huh.." Makoto said in slight surprise "That's new."

Then, he turned to the drawer next to his bed which had Pharos sitting on it with an innocent look on his face.

"Up for a little trip?" Makoto asked his old friend

Pharos nodded "If that's what you wish."


?

Makoto made his way to where the large tower was (which wasn't easy since the train was out too).

The tower was easily large enough to even be considered a skyscraper and had the same twisted aura the moon had during this time of the year. Where this place came from or why it formed it is nothing short of a mystery.

Even more of a mystery was why this happened at his school of all places.

Makoto turned to Pharos "Know anything about it?"

"I..." Pharos put a hand to his head and seemed to be mentally straining himself "I'm sorry. I can't remember anything."

"Don't worry about it." Makoto comforted the mysterious boy before looking back at the tower "First there are other people who can move and now there's this..." he mumbled "What else is here?"

"Do you want to go inside?" Pharos asked, wondering if there was going have to defend the boy or not

"Not tonight." He answered as he began to walk home "We should probably find some answers about the others first."

"As you wish." Pharos said without any objections.


Next Day ; School

Just like before, Makoto silently sat as he thought about the previous night's events. Just where did that tower come from? And why did he feel hundreds upon hundreds of shadows inside the thing?

Of course, also like before, a certain redhead decided to bug him again.

"So~, what're we havin'?" Kotone asked as she leaned in a little to close

Makoto raised an eyebrow "You were serious?"

Suddenly, Kotone went dead-serious "When it comes to food, I am always serious."

Makoto blinked a few times "... Were you hit on the head or something?"

"What?" Kotone whined as she made a pouty face "Aren't I pretty enough?"

"..." At this rate, he couldn't tell if she was a child, was teasing him for fun, or coming on to him "What do you want?"

Kotone sighed as she supported her head with her elbow "I'm trying to get on good terms with the person I'll be sitting next to."

"Then leave me alone..." Makoto said before looking forward "That's an easy way."

"..." There was a pause, almost as if Kotone couldn't believe someone could be this stubborn "I still want dinner."

"Why?" He asked bluntly

"Because you still owe me an apology and I like eating." Kotone answered which made Makoto look back at her confused

"Do you just throw it up or something?" he asked which seemed to both confuse and offend Kotone a bit "I mean, you're about as thin as I am."

"He he..." Kotone let out a mischievous giggle "Well, I just so happen to be blessed by a god or goddess and can eat whatever I want, but still stay slim."

"High metabolism." He concluded, not wanting or even seeing the point in indulging her little fantasy "Small world."

Kotone slouched slightly "You really are hopeless, aren't you?"

Makoto sighed, there was one way to get her out of his hair "What do you want? Me to make you something?"

She instantly brightened up "You can cook?!"

The boy groaned immediately Goddammit... He cursed mentally, realizing he might just made everything worse "Just tell me what you want so we can get this over with."

Kotone sighed "I'd love go, but there's a bit of a dorm issue going on." she explained as best she could "Until that's settled, I can't go anywhere."

"What's stopping you?" Makoto asked. If there was someone/something capable of controlling or dealing with her, he had to know right away.

Kotone sighed and put her head down "Mitsuru-senpai."

Makoto shook his head and he exhaled, this was going to be a long year.


Makoto's Apartment ; Late Night

Not in the mood to make anything, Makoto settled on eating ramen while listening to his earphones as he looked out the window.

Tonight was a full moon. Makoto found it interesting how the moon looked beautiful at first, then quickly shift into it's twisted green form every night.

Tick

Tock

Tick

Tock

There were times when this waiting game started to get old. But Makoto still waited as long as he had to for the Dark Hour to come.

Makoto's eyes wandered to the fork he'd been using to eat the ramen.

Slowly, he put the cup down before pressing one of the points of the fork into his left thumb. Slowly he presses harder until he saw blood start to gush and pain started to kick in.

He didn't form a habit of doing this because he's a masochist or even because he wanted to die. Sometimes, after feeling the same day-in and day-out, he needed a reminder that he was still alive and this wasn't some twisted afterlife.

Then, the world shifted again as everything began to change and the wound Makoto made on his thumb healed instantly.

"Minato..." Makoto looked behind him to see Pharos with a very serious look in his eyes "... There's a special shadow out tonight." he warned "I don't know why, but I feel the need to have it destroyed."

Makoto stood up as soon as heard that "Then what're we waiting for?" if Pharos wanted it, he wanted to give it. There weren't any questions in the matter.

"Wait!" Pharos shouted before Makoto could leave "There are others who can wander during the Dark Hour as well here. Until we know if they're trustworthy, shouldn't you try to conceal your identity?"

"Hmm..." Makoto hummed in thought before something came to mind.

He rummaged through some of his still packed bags and pulled out a blue hoodie with a purple scarf.

"Good enough."


?

Following Pharos' directions without question, Makoto was eventually lead to a sight he'd actually never seen before.

He was standing outside what looked like a school dorm. It looked a little nicer and newer than the others, but that wasn't the strange part.

The strange parts are the not only were there a few lights still on during the Dark Hour inside, but there were quite a few shadows around as well.

Of course, all of the shadows knew better than to attack Makoto who simply walked by without paying them any mind.

Then, the front of the dorm's doors bursted open revealing a girl with long crimson red hair and a hurt boy with a bandage on his forehead.

The two didn't seem to notice Makoto who kept to the shadows as they brought gun looking objects to their heads and pulled the trigger.

Rather than doing the logical thing and killing the 2 of them, instead 2 other large figures appeared above them before engaging the shadows.

From the corner of his eye, Makoto saw an exceptionally large shadow begin to make his way to climb up the wall to get to the roof.

"To the roof, I go." He mumbled before casually walking past the plethora of shadows and going into the dorm.

Once inside the dorm, he walked up the steps as he felt the shadow climbing the wall. While moving, he noticed an old man in one of the rooms looking at monitors which were showing camera footage.

After a few moments, the man finally checked the one that was showing the door to the room he was in.

The man looked behind him in shock and locked eyes with Makoto.

After a few moments of looking at him up and down, Makoto simply walked on, deeming the old geezer to be unimportant at the moment.

He made his way further and further to the roof of the dorm until he found that whoever was up there locked the door behind them. Most likely as a means to avoid the shadows from below.

Makoto turned to Pharos "Care to help?"

Pharos nodded and suddenly, Makoto's eyes glowed a dim blue again as the door was ripped off it's hinges.

On the roof were both Yukari and Kotone, both of whom were facing the large shadow that Pharos wanted killed.

Above Kotone was another one of those large figures. This one had a metallic body with silver limbs, a golden torso, and a golden heart-shaped lyre. Also, in her hand was another one of those gun-like objects.

"Eurydice!" Kotone shouted as the figure above her attacked the shadow. It was holding it off, but that thing was much stronger than Eurydice (the name being assumed based off what Kotone said).

After a few moments, the shadow seemed to use the wind itself against Kotone and pushed her against the wall. This was known to Makoto as a Garu spell.

The shadow was made of multiple arms, most of which were hold blades. One of them were holding a mask with the roman numeral for "1", thus identifying this shadow as a Magician.

The shadow seemingly glared at Makoto before charging at him as fast as it could. The boy chuckled silently, it'd been awhile since a shadow ran to him rather than away from him.

Amused, but still composed, he looked down and noticed the gun-like object had fallen near his feet.

Considering everyone minus the old man had used this to summon a power known as 'persona', it was likely that Yukari could too.

The hooded boy kicked the object to Yukari, partly in hope that she'd do something and partly because he was curious of what she'd do.

Yukari seemed to be hesitant as she picked the object up and put it too her head.

Her breathing quickly became labored and she knew had to fire, but something held her back. Eventually, even her hands started to shake as a tear from either fear or frustration fell down her cheek.

Idiot... Makoto thought as he sighed and snatched the device away before shaking his head in disappointment and turning back to look at the Magician.

He pocketed the 'gun' for safe keeping as he walked towards the shadow.

"Per..." Underneath the scarf he wore, a sinister smile formed ear to ear on the boy's face and his heart rate accelerated as he whispered.

"...so..." Magician raised it's blades, ready to tear the bluenette to pieces and then move on to the rest. Makoto's eyes glowed again, this time just a tad brighter than before as a large dark silhouette formed above him.

Magician was just a few feet away from him. The shadow then began to move it's blades in a plunging motion to stab the boy before allowing his blood and entrails to decorate the roof. "...na."

The dark silhouette moved in front of Makoto as it solidified and took all the stabs for it's master.

Then, a white hand reached out and grabbed Magician by the mask.

Lifting it up was a large figure with a white metallic face and soulless black eyes, a dark seemingly jacketed body, a large sword which it held with one hand, and chains on his back which held various coffins almost like a form of cape.

This was non other than The Bringer Of Death, Thanatos.

Thanatos let out a loud shriek as he slammed the shadow down to the ground before lifting it up only to continuous lift and slam it as if it were nothing more than a rag doll.

Pieces upon pieces of the shadow broke off the main body before Thanatos crushed the mask that was held in his hand.

Then, the pieces of the Magician that broke off seemingly melted into a puddle before reforming into that of an ordinary shadow.

Thanatos let out another roar as he swung his blade which suddenly caused a large black flame to appear and engulf most of the shadows. By the time the flame had disappeared into a puff of smoke, much like the flame itself, the shadows seemingly disappeared as if they had never existed to begin with.

Thanatos sheathed his blade and outstretched his arms as the chains on his back seemingly went wild as they began to extend to the point that their lengths seemed potentially infinite. Within seconds they had pierced or crushed any of the remaining shadows left on the roof top.

Thanatos stood up straight and looked towards the sky as he let out a deafening roar before disappearing into seemingly nothing.

"Hey, can you hear me?!" Makoto looked behind him and saw Yukari shaking the unconscious Kotone

Without saying a word, Makoto walked to the redhead and placed fingers on her wrist to check for a pulse. She was still alive.

"She's exhausted after summoning her persona." Pharos explained to Makoto who stood back up "She'll wake up eventually."

The hooded boy was about to leave, but the two from earlier stood in his path.

Without saying a word, Makoto used a hand gesture to tell them to move out of the way. They went to the same school so it was too risky to use his voice.

"I thank you for your assistance. We might not of made it in time" She thanked, but her tone seemed to hint that she was also suspicious of him

The boy began to speak "My name's Akihiko and this is Mitsuru." he identified the two of them "We call ourselves SEES."

"May we ask who you are?" Mitsuru asked, so this was the one that could actually keep Kotone under control.

Makoto sighed, he didn't have time for this. He turned around and walked to the edge of the fenceless roof.

"What're you doing?" Akihiko asked confused

Without answering, Makoto just casually jumped off the roof like a child jumping into a puddle.

"HEY!" He heard Akihiko shout just as he jumped, no doubt confused and worried why he would do such a thing.

He descended in free fall for a few moments before Thanatos appeared and safely put the boy down without a scratch.

"Thanks, Pharos." Makoto thanked his friend as he walked home. He wasn't too worried about SEES following him since they'd be too occupied with Kotone.

"So they're persona users too." Makoto shared his discoveries with his friend

"It looked like they needed that gun to summon them, though." Pharos pointed out, referring to the object that Makoto kept in his pocket

As he walked home, Makoto pulled out the object and inspected in. There was an engraving that said "SEES" and under it "Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad"

"Stupid name." He mumbled as he put the thing away. Something about the gun felt weird though. It wasn't that it looked weird, but he could've sworn he felt something from within the device.

"Minato..." Pharos called out to his friend "Something feels... odd now"

A little surprised and confused, Makoto raised an eyebrow "Yeah? What is it?"

"That girl with the long red hair. I remember hearing her name before." Pharos answered "After defeating the shadow, small fragments of my memory just... returned."

"Huh..." Makoto said as he thought about what he just said "Let me know if it happens again."

Pharos nodded "Why didn't you hear them out?" he asked

"I have no interest in working with them, that simple." Makoto answered immediately "Besides, they were probably only interested in me because of you."

"I see." Pharos responded, not knowing how to continue the subject

"How long do you think it'll take for her to wake up?" The bluenette asked, curious if he'd have an empty desk next to him for while.

Pharos thought for a moment "I don't know. It depends on the summoning really."

Makoto yawned as he made it come just in time for the Dark Hour to end "Maybe we'll hit the tower one of these nights."

"Let me know whenever you're ready." Pharos agreed, his protection of his friend being as unconditional as it was

The boy silently nodded as he entered his home to go to bed. He had managed to learn quite a few thing this night, so he couldn't say any of this was a waste of time.

Although, maybe SEES knew more about the tower and it's origins. Leaving how he did might not have been the best idea, but there was no going back now.

Now, he could only learn what he could through whatever he and his friend could get his hands on.


In case you're wondering how Pharos can know Mitsuru's name, let's just assume that Mitsuru's grandfather might've mentioned her before as Death was forming.

This scene again... You know, I remember the first time I wrote the fight on the roof in my 1st fic. I had so many technical problems with that chapter I wanted to break a goddamn table and set the pieces on fire. It's actually one of the reasons I don't like my chapters being around 4k or more (which makes this one special).

Feel free to ask questions... or tell me I'm a dumbass and point out... I dunno, a continuity error or a plot hole I'm too stupid to notice.

Have a good day/night everybody!