RAX : Alright, there's something about the times she's said that, that I don't think you understand. The 1st few times she said it, was to tease Makoto because he's a tough nut to crack so anything to get a reaction out of the guy would do. Last time was a joke because Makoto had no real reason to say "yes" (other than the voice in his head), and she was desperate for an excuse so she just made 1 up. Neither instances were meant to be taken seriously. Maybe I should've made that more apparent, but the point still stands.

That being said, I can't satisfy everyone. We all have our own version of Makoto/Minato and Minako/Hamuko/Kotone. Because of that, there's no way I can appeal to everyone's own version of either of the MC's nor can I make them too perfect so that they're uninteresting characters...

My, that's quite a long explanation.

Sure, is Pharos. I tried to explain as best I could, as respectfully as I could. My choice of words can be... questionable at times, but understand I mean this as respectfully and politely as possible. I don't discourage complaints (quite the opposite actually), I just want to be sure you have those thought in mind. Now, I hope you can enjoy the rest of this story and what it entails.

Ultimate Kuuga : Scary? Pf, I share the AN/s with Death.

clevernameeh : Having too many people in the AN/s can get very...

It becomes very confusing and/or hard for Grim to write for more than 2 people in the AN/s. Occasionally, we have 3 because but he can't constantly think for multiple people for long.

Also, I prefer to stick to 1 person for most chapters because... Well, I like consistency. As, for the study sessions... well... You'll see.

RosyMiranto18 : *sigh*

He's not sighing because he's angry/annoyed, he's sighing because he doesn't seem to like my little brother.

Raymond Lightbringer : Thank you for the review. It is appreciated.

He really likes reviews.


Home

The two juniors sat on the bluenette's sofa as the two shared notes. Well, more accurately, Kotone had her notes out and Makoto was telling her the right and wrong answers.

"How fast does the Earth rotate on it's Axis?" Kotone asked as she looked at her notebook "It was faster than the speed of sound so... 1,700 Kilometers per hour, right?"

"Yes." Makoto answered, not even looking at her when he talked "You could probably just say it's faster than the speed of sound and they'll take it."

"Mm-hmm..." She hummed as she wrote a side note so that she could remember that for later "Numbers were invented... 6,000 years ago, right?"

"Yes." He answered, resorting to single words as opposed to sentences "And Soft water is water that contains low-"

"Low concentration of calcium carbonate and other ions..," She said confidently, not even needing to look at her paper anymore "...while Hard water is the opposite."

"What're you doing here?" He asked as he looked out the window like usual

"Huh?" Kotone tilted her head confused "Um... To study."

"You already know everything." Makoto replied, still not looking at her and his voice still keeping the low monotone that she had grown accustomed to now "All I'm here for is to tell you 'yes' or 'no' really."

He looked back at her with his cold, almost dead eyes "So, why're you really here?"

Kotone sighed as she put everything down "I wanted to spend time with you.." she answered bluntly before looking back at him "There, I said it. Happy?"

"Why?" Makoto asked as he raised an eyebrow "I don't get you... Everyone else just avoids me."

The redhead just shrugged "I'm not everyone else." she replied before smirking "Although, I would like to meet this 'everyone else' guy so I could talk some sense into him."

The boy couldn't help but snicker at the joke before quickly going back to his usual self. This was scenario that had never been forced onto him before, usually everyone just stayed away, but she just wouldn't back down.

"Plus, I don't think you like being alone." She said which caught the boy's attention.

"What?" Makoto asked confused, she had just said the exact opposite of what was true

Kotone scooted a little closer "You don't like people getting close to you, but that doesn't mean you like being alone either." she continued, never breaking eye contact as she spoke

"You don't know me." Makoto said matter-of-factly as he continued to look into the girl's eyes

"Not as much as I want to." Kotone admitted "But you haven't forced me out the door now nor any other times, so there must at least be some truth to what I said."

"..." Makoto didn't want to answer that. It was true that he didn't like being completely alone, but he was never alone as long as he had Pharos, but no one could know about him.

His original reason for even forming this 'relationship' with her was simply so that he'd have a connection to SEES and a way to learn what they're up should his status as a persona user be discovered, but he was quickly seeing that it wasn't going to work out in his favor at this rate.

"So what?" he asked, not used to being backed into a corner.

"So, I don't want you to be alone. That simple." She answered as direct as she could, Makoto was a fairly blunt person so blunt answers might work "Besides, you did agree to me being able to hang out with you whenever I want."

Makoto just remained silent as he looked at the girl next to him. She may have been weird, but she was damn good when it came to figuring him out. She was kind, helpful, and pure hearted... The opposite of him.

He was cold to everyone and everything, he couldn't care less about what happened to others nor this world, and his heart had become twisted long ago.

She's too dangerous to keep around... Makoto thought to himself as he considered what to do

She's right... Whether I like it or not, she's right... The voice spoke again, referring to itself as if it were already Makoto ... And whether I want to admit it or not, I also like being around her.

The boy grunted softly as he looked down at his hands "You're a real headache machine, you know that?"

The redhead giggled "That's what my father always says."

"You're wasting your time though." He said, going back to his matter-of-factly demeanor "You won't find anything here."

"Then it's my time to waste..." she said as she scooted even closer so that their arms were touching each other "... And I don't think you're as much of a lost cause as you think you are."

Makoto paused for a moment before saying "You're one strange girl."

"Touche... minus the girl part for you." Kotone returned "So, whaddya wanna do now?"

"No idea." He answered instantly, it wasn't like he actually planned for her to come here ahead of time "Isn't that your thing?"

"Hmm..." She hummed to herself in thought as an idea formed into her head "... Truth or dare?"

"You're just going to make it truth and truth, aren't you?" The asked with a sigh, she certainly was dedicated. No wonder she was chosen as SEES field leader.

"When's your birthday?" She asked, starting their little game

"September 25, you?" He asked back

"November 12th." She answered before asking "Why are you so anti-social?"

"I don't see the point in superficial relations, especially because of how quickly they tend to end." He answered before narrowing his eyes "Why are you so fixated on me?"

"Because I know a sad person when I see one." Kotone answered, her voice having a hint of concern mixed in with her usual warm tone "Why are you so sad?"

"I'm not sad." He retorted with a frown, she was starting to go to unwelcomed territory

"You're avoiding the question, I get an extra go." Kotone declared, the boy was about to object but then she said "My game, my rules. Now answer the previous one."

"I never agreed to it." He countered, that was one question that he didn't want to answer

"Fine, we'll skip this one. But I'm still keeping my bonus question." She said, giving into the boy's unspoken demands as she partly shifted to her leader-voice "Do you want me to leave?"

Yes... Makoto thought without a moment of hesitation

No... The voice spoke, saying the opposite of what Makoto wanted as usual

"I don't know." The boy answered, unable to decided between the 2 thoughts.

"Do you want me to stop spending time with you?" She asked another question relating to herself

Again, the thoughts of Makoto and the voice spoke and gave opposite answers. Makoto wanted to push her away, but the voice wanted her to stay...

"I don't know." The bluenette said, still unable to give a definite answer "My turn, why are you always happy?"

"Life's short." She spoke the one thing every living creature knows, one way or another "No point in spending it miserable. Would you say you're happy?"

"No." Makoto didn't even need to think on that one. He wasn't happy, he wasn't sad... he was just there "What's your angle?"

"Um.." Kotone tilted her head again and blinked "Gonna need you to elaborate there."

"No one's this nice, especially to me." He said as he remembered the few times people would talk to him as long as they got something out of it, such as fame for talking to the 'hot/creepy kid', reward for a dare, or they'd just try to get a date or something. "What's your angle? Popularity? A dare? Or are you just another fan girl trying to get a date out of me?"

Kotone just shook her head slowly "Nope, none of those things..." she technically spoke the truth since he didn't mention social links "I'm just doing this because I want to."

The girl looked in straight in the eye again and seemed hesitant for a moment, as if she was having second thoughts about her question before blurting out "Are you sad because of what happened to your parents?"

The instantly pressed on of the few buttons Makoto had. The boy stood up from his seat and glared at the girl "How about you have both your parents die, then we'll see just how goddamn happy you'd be."

Kotone looked down as she regretted asking that, she should've known that'd be a touchy subject "I"m sorry, I shouldn't of-"

"Sorry?" He repeated as he slowly and tightly clenched his fist "You're mommy and daddy are still alive, you don't get to be sorry!" he yelled, his voice shifting from his usual low monotone to a loud venomous voice that almost sounded like a completely different person.

At this moment, the voice in his head was silent. No, that's not quite it. Neither Makoto's thoughts nor the voice could be heard because they were drowned out by the boy's boiling anger.

"Do you know what it's like?" He asked as he kept glaring at her, and Kotone must've been seeing things because she could've sworn his eyes flared for a moment "To pray for your parents to come back, but instead you just get nightmares of them dying over and over?!"

"Makoto, I-"

"Oh, maybe I should get started on the rumors that's always fun." He said as he let out an empty laugh "How about that one time where they tried say *I* murdered my parents but was never caught? That's my personal favorite!"

"What do you want me to say?!" She screamed as she finally stood up and returned his glare. She understood that he had every right to be pissed off, but she wasn't going to just let him talk to her like that either "I said that I was sorry."

"I don't want you to say anything." He said slowly as he lowered his voice, but still keep the same venomous tone "I want you to get the hell out."

Kotone was about to say something back, but even in her indignant state she knew that she'd only make the problem worse. She sighed "You know what, fine." she agreed as she gathered her things before going to the door

"I don't care if it means anything to you, but I am sorry and I know I shouldn't have asked that." Kotone said with her back turned to the boy, fully willing to admit her mistake before digging her nails into her palm "But that doesn't give you the right to be an ass."

Makoto continued to glare daggers into her back "Leave me alone."

"Fine..." She agreed as she opened the door "Wish granted." and with that, she was gone

No longer needing to restrain himself, Makoto let his eyes glow a dim blue in response to his irate state. His blood was boiling... he needed something to take all this anger out on here and now.

Makoto made his way to his bathroom sink with his knife in hand.

The bluenette rolled up his left sleeve and repeatedly started to stab his arm over and over while biting into the collar of his shirt to muffle any screams he had to not draw attention from the neighbors.

Over and over he stabbed and slashed his limb as blood got all over the place from his wild cuts. The rate of his cuts made it so that Pharos had to keep healing him, but that only made Makoto tear himself apart more and more, and no matter how much blood he spilt, his entire body still felt like it was on fire.

He didn't even know how long he had been at it, his only indication to stop was when he felt the Dark Hour take hold.

As soon as he realized that the Dark Hour was in effect, he put his knife away and grabbed his usual disguise that he worse whenever he went out now.

"Are you sure you want to leave?" Pharos asked concerned as the boy made his way out of the building

"I need to let off some steam." Makoto responded simply to the boy who had no choice but to accept what his friend was about to do.


Tartarus

Makoto sat in the middle of the floor in Tartarus and simply waited. There was just one shadow in particular that he was waiting for, and he had a feeling the wait wouldn't be long.

Even after all these hours had passed, his blood was still boiling as the memory of 10 years ago played over and over and over again, nonstop. The anger still present and the memory still on replay blocked out any of his thoughts or anything the voice had to say.

After a few moments, the sounds of rattling chains could be heard echoing through the dark halls of Tartarus.

"So you've come..." The Reaper said, it's voice also echoing as it made it's way closer "... Of your own volition, and knowing full well that I await you."

"We have a score to settle." Makoto replied as a sword materialized in his right hand "And I'm going to rip the eye of yours out of it's socket."

The sound of what could only be described as laughing could be heard "Do you really think it's that easy? Even if you manage to kill me, I will simply reform myself once again."

"Good..." Makoto responded as a sinister smirk formed beneath his scarf "That means I'll be able to kill you again to my heart's content. Now, what do you say we-"

"Are you sure your doin' alright, Ko-tan?" Could be heard at the other end of the block , and it sounded a lot like Junpei...

"I told you, I'm fine. Now drop it." And that was no-doubt Kotone

"Son of a-" Makoto bit his lip. Of all the days they could've come to Tartarus, they had to come now?!

"Heh, how amusing..." The Reaper said as he finally reached the boy "Wouldn't you say... Arisato?"

That instantly rekindled Makoto's fury 10x's what he had felt when he briefly yelled at Kotone... This thing wasn't going to leave this block alive.

Makoto's dimly glowing eyes shine slightly brighter as Thanatos appeared behind him with his blade unsheathed, ready for round two.

The Reaper seemed amused by this action "Heh, well I see you've made your decision to stand and fight this time" It said as it readied it's revolvers "Come, you'll get to see you family again."

Without saying a word, Makoto sent Thanatos at the ghostly entity as their battle began.

...

...

"Look, I'm just-" Junpei was cut off when Kotone turned around and glared at him

"I said I'm fine, now drop it or I'll cut your goddamn balls off and offer them to the next shadow!" She threatened, still angry over her spat with Makoto from earlier. She'd come here to progress through the tower and use her anger for something productive, but Junpei's constant probing was getting annoying.

"Hey, I'm only worried is all!" Junpei said as he threw up his hands in surrender

"Hey, do you guys hear that..?" Yukari asked as she looked ahead of both of them. Lately, Mitsuru's ability to scan had been roughly hit or miss, and it was currently a miss. Meaning, they had to go through almost the entirety of the block blind.

Suddenly, they were met a familiar hooded boy flying through the air before rolling on the ground with loud crackling sounds being heard as his bone snapped, shattered, or dislocated.

Before the team could even process what had just happened, even more crackling sounds could be heard as the boy stood up while all the bones moved back into place and fused back together, and all the bullet holes closed and the damaged flesh repaired itself in moments. His fighting style was admittedly reckless and relied little on defence due to Pharos' rapid healing abilities.

The entirety of SEES just looked at the boy in awe "That... That just ain't right." the capped boy commented before everyone took notice of the sound of rattling chains approaching.

The team looked and saw the Reaper floating above them.

"Heh, I'll deal with you later." The shadow said before firing a single shot into the air and an invisible force pushed all of SEES away until they impacted a wall.

The Reaper returned to glaring at the boy with it's one eye "Now, where were we?"

Makoto kept his silence, his voice being too risky to use in the presence of SEES.

Thanatos reappeared and charged at the shadow, but the being's ghostly body made most attacks seem harmless. The only solid parts of the shadow were it's hands and it's head, and those parts were also it's most guarded.

While Thanatos distracted The Reaper, Makoto sneaked behind it and Garu amplified his jump, ready to plunge his blade straight into the back of the damn thing's head.

But The Reaper saw this coming, and used it's chains to hit the boy in mid-air which caused the boy's back to hit the ground again.

Not giving the boy a chance to recover, The Reaper immediately moved above the boy and fired off round after round into the boy's body until his torso was nothing more than a bloody, and mushy mess.

Not satisfied, The Reaper fired off another shot and fire suddenly appeared and incinerated everything that was left. When the flames had dissipated, nothing was left but ash.

"He he... And so the incarcerator falls." The Reaper said as he turned to SEES who were still recovering from the one attack from the shadow.

SEES fired their Evoker to have their personas ready for battle, but each of them went down in just a single shot.

The Reaper fired another shot into the air and an invisible force pushed them again until they hit another wall, it was clear that The Reaper only thought of them as playthings.

It was about to continue it's fun, however, The Reaper then noticed a black mist coming from all around the area and all the sources seemed to met behind the shadow.

The Reaper looked back and saw all the mist gathering until he saw it.

The mist dissipated revealing Makoto who was on his knees looking down, now donning a garb somewhat similar to Thanatos'. The only differences were that this was pure black, and sported a hood that only showed 2 glowing blue eyes while the rest of the boy's face was completely shrouded in darkness.

In fact, shroud of darkness would be the perfect way to describe new this new outfit, as the same dark and twisted energy that radiated from Thanatos could also be sensed around the boy now.

Makoto chuckled silently as he got back on his feet and brushed the dust and ash off his shoulders. He had achieved his goal of burning off his anger until he was calm again, and now it was time to stop playing with the shadow.

Concealed within the darkness of the shroud's hood, a sinister smile formed on the boy's face and Thanatos appeared behind the boy again.

The persona roared as he extended his chains to seemingly infinite lengths until he had easily restrained The Reaper.

Descend into the abyss... Makoto thought as a mass of dark energy formed around him. Then, just like Arcana Priestess, the energy took the form of spikes and began to tear The Reaper apart as dark red blood began to spray everywhere, almost as if the The Reaper was nothing more than a bloody fountain.

Eventually, The Reaper was the one who had fallen onto it's back from the massive damage the boy had just inflicted in mere seconds.

Makoto jumped onto The Reaper's chest and stared into it's single blood-shot eye.

"W-What're you waiting for...?" The Reaper asked, still keeping it's condescending tone as usual "Go ahead, kill Mi-"

Before it could finish that sentence, Makoto grabbed the shadow's eye with his bare hand and made good on his promise by ripping the eye out of it's socket before using his sword to slash at the shadow's head over and over again.

More and more he just kept slashing until he had resorting to literally tearing the The Reaper's head apart with his bare hands, causing the creature's blood to splatter all over him and the entire area around him.

Finally, the boy shove his hand into the Reaper's head that had become an almost complete mush before grabbing the first solid thing he felt and yanking it out, causing the shadow to die instantly.

Makoto looked to see what he had pulled out, a literal bloody button.

The bluenette let out a "Hmph..." as he put the button in his pocket and began to walk off

"Hey!" SEES called out to him, but he never stopped. What happened was beyond his concern at this point, especially after earlier.

He didn't even acknowledge Mitsuru nor Akihiko when he made it to the tower's entrance and simply walked out as if nothing had ever happened.

As to avoid being tailed, Makoto took a much more complicated route home both during and after the Dark Hour. When he finally reached his apartment, he simply went to bed without saying a word.

Friends... Who needs them? Outside of Pharos, no one cared about him. They were all just byproducts of a cruel world that seemed to be testing how else can he be tortured. As far as he was concerned, this world and everyone in it could all burn.


Welp, that all happened. Eh, a 4k chapter... Hope this doesn't come with a lot of technical problems. Anyhow, you got to see just how OP as fuck Makoto currently is compared to the others right now.

May I ask why the outfit change was necessary?

You know how characters having healing factors and you sit there wondering "Do their clothes regenerate too?" Well, The Shroud of Darkness does since it came from no-so-good ol' Thanny.

I'm still rather sad about what happened with him and Kotone earlier...

She pressed the "parents" button... never do that. Never make his emotions flare that much, especially since he *censored*. Eh, we all know they'll make up eventually, but for now... he's pretty pissed.

... What do we do now?

Um... I dunno, usually Makoto (from my other story) just insult each other.

Really?

Yeah... but he was a major cuck

Oh, if Minato *censored* does that mean he'll get "lucky" soon?

Good god, you really are the younger version of Ryoji *sigh* no... That won't be the cause.

Aw...

I can just imagine how confused you all are now, he he. *yawns* I slept an hour last night, so I don't know how this'll effect the quality of the chapter...

Aren't you tired all the time during the school year, anyway?

This is true, very true.