RAX : You'll just have to read and see.

Uh, no shit, Sherlock.

Indeed. That conclusion was more elusive than Arsene.

Fuck you guys.

Nightlyy : Fun little fact guys ; A few weeks or maybe a month ago I got P3P... And I killed Emperor and Empress before they could even switch affinities. Either I over-leveled accidentally, or those 2 were push overs.

Both?

The fight itself isn't all that complex, really. Just hit Empress with physical attacks, hit Emperor with spells, and then spam all-out attacks.

Exactly, little dude.

SolidShinji104 : Er... Are you talking about shuffle time or something?

Pharos, explain.

I provided him with everything he needed, including giving him the ability to perform fusions himself. He CAN switch personas on the fly, but there's no real need to do so. I am far more powerful than any of his other personas, while Orpheus is specific to him so there's no risk of Kotone ever accidentally copying him and getting suspicious.

Clevernameeh : Can't have their fight last forever, can I? After all, they are the pairing...

It's really difficult for me. I know her as Minato's sis, so this is... this is creepy.

Must I remind you what you did to her in Nyarly land?

It was a construct of her, doesn't count.

Right... What do you think Pharos.

Hmm... Why does she liked being spanked

Huh..?

What..? What the hell are you- Oh god... uh... MOVE ON, MOVE ON, MOVE ON!


Dorm

It'd been about half a week, and just now Fuuka had fully recovered from her awakening and was finally released from the hospital.

True to what he said, Makoto refused to say anything to SEES until then. Whenever they tried, he simply put on his earphones and walked off. That, or he simply told them to "fuck the hell off."

But now, the wait was over. With Fuuka having regained her strength, both she and Makoto sat in the dorm's lounge with the rest of SEES.

Fuuka looked pretty nervous, she must've been very shy normally. Such a thing became apparent that she nearly jumped almost every time they said her name.

Meanwhile, Makoto kept his eyes on all of them as he had his right hand within his pocket clutching his knife.

Fuuka, Yukari, Junpei, Kotone, Akihiko, Mitsuru, and some geezer named Ikutsuki; There were only 7 people.

None of them had their persona abilities since the Dark Hour it was still a few hours awa... A restriction he didn't have. He could sever Fuuka's jugular before any of them could even process what happened.

Then, he'd put his blade through that Kirijo bitch's heart where it belong as Thanatos took care of the rest of them.

It wouldn't take long... His reflexes had been honed from the many years he's spent killing any shadows that dared to come near him.

7 seconds... That's all it'd take. 7 seconds, and his lifelong goal would finally be achieved.

"Thank you for joining us." Ikutsuki thanked the both of them.

"There's something strange about him..." Pharos said as he tilted his head and gazed at the old man "... I don't know what. But there's something about him..."

Makoto slowly and slightly narrowed his eyes as he subtlety glared at the old man "Get on with it..." he whispered, he wanted to see if they'd share anything he didn't know before he slaughtered all of them.

Ikutsuki looked at the junior members "First, I'd like to congratulate you all. You were able to uncover the truth even after it had become twisted because of some rumors of a ghost story."

Yukari smiled proudly to herself "I knew all along that it wasn't a ghost."

"Wait, wait... what?!" Makoto instantly dropped his glare and stared at Yukari bewildered "A-Are... Are you... Are you fucking serious?!"

"What?!" Yukari asked as she glared at the boy

"You're willing to face shadows, but you're scared of ghosts? You actually believe in that crap?" He almost couldn't believe that. He'd heard of some ridiculous things, but that... That's a special kind of special.

"N-No I don't!" Yukari declared as she stood up and intensified her glare at the boy

"Now, now, settle down you two." Ikutsuki did his best to calm the situation before it got out of hand.

"Hmph." Yukari sat back down as she continued to frown at the boy who simply rolled eyes.

"Makoto-kun..." Kotone called out to the boy which caught his attention "... please." and no more needed to be said for him to get the hint.

The boy lowered his head as his grip on his knife tightened even more. He was wasting time, he could kill all of them... Who cares about what they know?! He could send them all to hell where they belong!

It'd only take a minute at most... To hell with Mitsuru, to hell with SEES, and to hell with that damn group...

Group... That's right. There are more people than just the Kirijo's involved, if they lived now... He might even get to add a few more names to his list.

The boy let his knife go and crossed his arms as the meeting continued. It went on as more and more congratulations for more crap that Makoto couldn't give less of a fuck about until things finally started happening.

Mitsuru approached Fuuka as 2 briefcases were set on the table. Makoto sensed the familiar sensation he felt whenever he was around of their Evokers or the one he kept at home from when Yukari failed to summon her persona when he killed Arcana Magician.

The senior looked at the short junior "Yamagishi, you saved our lives. You have a special power that could prove invaluable to our cause. Please, we'd like you to lend us your strength."

"Hey now, don't you feel like your pressuring her a little?" Yukari asked which made Makoto smirk "You don't have to join if you don't want to."

Infighting, are we? He thought as he silently chuckled to himself. It was subtle, but the tone of her voice held a certain... distaste in it. It made sense, her father died to a Kirijo project, it only made sense for her to hold a dislike for her senior. Scratch killing them, it was time to have some fun.

Surprising no one, Fuuka agreed to join them. Apparently, part of being a member also meant having to live in the dorm, too. Something that Fuuka actually preferred oddly enough, must have family problems at home.

And then, all the attention was on Yuki.

"Yuki..." Apparently Mitsuru preferred to be formal and call everyone by their last name "You, too, have a special power. Please, we ask that you-"

"Why should I?" Makoto asked which caught everyone off guard

Mitsuru blinked rapidly, doing her best to recover from the shock "E-Excuse me." She was prepared for a 'no', but she wasn't prepared for that.

"Losing your hearing already?" Makoto teased as he stood up with his hands in his pockets looking as if he said something casual "I said : Why should I?"

"W-What..?" Akihiko barely managed to utter as he too was in complete shock

"Dude, are you serious?" Junpei asked, hardly able to believe that he just said that. If he said no he'd understand, but... Did he even care?

"W-Well..." Ikutsuki gulped as he pushed up his glasses "I-I've done research that supports the conclusion that the shadows that appear during the full moon are the cause for all of this." He said something that caught everyone's attention "The shadows appear under a certain 'class' that resemble Tarot Cards, from the Magician to the Hanged Man. If we eliminate the remaining ones, the Dark Hour will go with it."

SEES looked shocked while Makoto narrowed his eyes.

It didn't go unnoticed by him that the number of people with Apathy Syndrome took a dive immediately after killing an full moon shadow, but eventually the numbers climbs even higher than it was originally. Despite what he said, in actuality, they were making the problem better in the short-term, but worse in the long run. Like a drug addict who wanted to forget hiss problems, only to create 10 more while worsening his existing ones.

The boy shrugged "Nah, you can clean up your own goddamn mess, Kirijo." he said as he glared at the red headed Empress.

"W-What..?" Mitsuru said with a slight amount of trembling in her voice which all but confirmed what Makoto had thought. This was going to be very, very fun.

"Do you think I just sit on my ass all day?" Makoto asked as he suppressed the smile that wanted to form from ear to ear. He gets to cause mayhem for her, all the while seeming like he has a legitimate reason to refuse joining "I did some research of my own. Your family has owned our school for a long time, isn't that right?"

Akihiko instantly knew what he was talking about, something he and Mitsuru had kept from the juniors. He knew that Makoto might be a problem, but was he actually..?

"That's enough." Akihiko demanded, not wanting a reason for the juniors to distrust him and Mitsuru more than they already have.

"Curb it, albino." Makoto shot back referring to Akihiko's very light hair and pale skin "As I was saying : Your family owned the school, even back, oh, i dunno 10 years ago. The school becomes Tartarus every night, right? Around that time, a lot of students were reported as absent, too. Furthermore, there was eventually an explosion, too... On the same day *I* first experienced the 'Dark Hour' as you call it."

Makoto looked the Empress straight in the eye "The Kirijo group were experimenting with shadows weren't they? But then, they fucked up and caused all of this; The Dark Hour, Tartarus, with it caused the death of god knows how many people with Apathy Syndrome. Feel free to say I'm wrong at any point."

"How... How did..?" Mitsuru took a step back, unable to believe that he'd just figured everything out all by himself. Now, she was going to have to deal with the junior members, but in the meantime... What was she dealing with?

"A little birdie told me." Makoto answered sarcastically before looking at the shocked junior member's faces "And you didn't tell any of them, either? Shameful..."

Makoto shook his head and glared at Mitsuru "You caused this, you fix it. Find another lapdog." he said before grabbing an Evoker out of one of the brief cases "Keeping this though. Safety first, right?"

The boy took a few steps back as he felt tension in the room build to the point you could probably cut it with a knife "Well, I see you all have loads to talk about." He said as he went to the door "Au Revoir!"

With that he left the dorm with a smile plastered on his face. He doubted that it'd mean much in the long run, but exposing this was just so much fun.

Granted, Mitsuru and Akihiko probably hated his guts or wanted to avoid him, but it was a small price to pay. Besides, the juniors might even tolerate him more after this. He may have been an ass to them, but at least he was more honest than the seniors were to them.


Home

Makoto continued laughing to himself as he remembered everyone's shocked faces. Especially that brunette's, to think that she was nothing more than a Kirijo's pawn just like her father was.

She was probably going to stay like that since she desperately wanted to uncover the truth behind her father's death, but the look on her face was the only thing he needed to make it all worth it.

It was honestly funny how they expected to him to say 'yes'. Did they simply think that every recruit was going to just jump on the band wagon? Or was their strategy to simply provide the illusion of choice, all the while guilt tripping those who wanted to refuse?

Mitsuru was nothing more than a manipulative piece of shit that deserved to be at the bottom of Hell for what her family had done to his.

Akihiko was nothing more than a soldier who only cares about fighting.

Junpei was an idiot who honestly deserved to be manipulated and used with how brain-dead he was!

Fuuka was... Well, she was a sweet little thing. It was honestly a little astounding, but innocence does nothing but blind those that possess it.

Ikutsuki was nothing more than another Kirijo lapdog, and to top if off Pharos didn't like him which solidified Makoto's distaste for him.

Yukari was nothing more than a whiny daddy's girl who just can't accept that life isn't fair. Even if there is some big reason her father died, what did she expect? Did she expect that her father died a hero? Maybe she'd get a cliched 'He never really died' message? What a naive foolish girl. Life's rarely so generous, it care little about anyone or anything.

Finally, there was...

"Hello?" ... Kotone "I followed you back. C'mon, I know you're in there." she said from the other side "Open up... please?"

God, she'll be the death of me. Makoto thought to himself as he opened the door a crack "What do you want?"

Kotone crossed her arms and took a small step back "You know, you just pissed off a lot of my friends, right?"

"Fuck 'em." Was Makoto's immediate response to that "What about you?"

"I respect your decision to refuse." She answered, her words seeming genuine "But, the way you did it was wrong."

"... Is it even possible to have you hate my guts?" He asked while titling his head to the side

The red head shrugged "I dunno. Maybe it's that cute emo cut of yours?"

Makoto did nothing but blinked slowly "... Was that supposed to be a joke or something."

Kotone slouched slightly as she felt complete bewilderment "My god, what is your major malfunction?"

"What do you want?" Makoto asked as he regained his serious face and tone "If you followed me like you said, then there's something important you want out there."

Kotone sighed as she looked very concerned, something that was emphasized when she softly kicked the ground with the tip of her shoe "You um... You didn't refuse because of me... right" she asked, sounding very worried "If you're as uncaring as you build yourself up to be, her lying to us wouldn't have meant that much too you."

"No." He answered bluntly as he continued to look down at the girl "There."

He was about to shut his door, but Kotone shoved her foot in the crack just in time to stop him.

Sighing, Makoto fully opened his door "That's not it, is it?" he asked, already knowing the answer. If mules were stubborn, then she was very obstinate.

"What do I have to do?" She asked which confused the boy. Sensing his confusion, she continued "I know you're angry over what I said, and you have every right to be. What do I have to do so that we can move past this?"

Makoto furrowed his brow as he looked her dead in the eyes "Tell me why you won't leave me alone."

Kotone looked at him blankly for a moment, as if thinking about what to say. Why was she trying this hard? You can't help those who don't want to be helped, and he's done little more than be disrespectful towards everyone. So why was she trying so hard?

"I don't like seeing people in pain." She answered, her voice sounding much softer than usual "You were nice the other day, and I doubt the blackmail meant that much too you. Meaning, you're just trying to push others away."

"..." Makoto kept quiet as he continued to listen to everything she said.

"I don't know why you're like this, but I want to know." She continued as she took a step forward inside which made the boy take his own step back "And if I can, I want to help. So.." she held out her hand "... Please?"

Makoto looked off to the side, unwilling to look at her during this confrontation. She certainly knew how to use her words.

And why should I do that? Makoto thought as he felt traces of his anger remaining

You already know the truth... The voice whispered in his head.

As usual, the two conflicted over what to do. Unable to reach any form of consensus once again, leaving the boy to chose.

"Please, go." The bluenette said in a voice much softer than his usual one.

Kotone's eyes had a sad look in them as she put her hand down "... Alright." She was done. There was nothing more she could do anymore. She tried her best, but her mistake assured that this was hopeless.

She could feel her Death link crumbling as she walked to the door. She felt it being tore apart piece by piece until-

"And Kotone..."

She looked back and saw the boy still looking away, but still possessing his more relaxed tone and his cold atmosphere was replaced with a more calming one now.

"... I'm free Sunday." Minato finished as Kotone felt her Death link finally un-reverse itself just in time to prevent it from shattering completely.

The girl smiled warmly as she grabbed the door handle "What about Saturday?"

He finally looked at her, his expression being a mystery as she only saw the side that was covered by his large fringe "That works, too." He was free anytime, after all.

"Goodbye." Kotone said farewell as she slowly shut the door behind her, leaving the boy seemingly all alone again.

"Weird girl." Makoto said to himself as he went to bed, he'd done enough for today.


*yawn* Christ, I need to stop writing these chapters so late.

Who's fault is that?

Piss off.

He's finally giving her a chance...

So, big bro... What colors is Shorty rocking?

Dude!

She seems to have a liking towards the color green

Oh, what the fuck?!