blahblahblech : Can you? I guess I know I'm doing something right then.

Take it to heart, this guy refuses to admit he's good at anything.

I can't tell if he's using reverse psychology or not...

... Just shut up.

Nightlyy : Of course, anytime Ikutsuki is in pain it's gold. Hating Ikutsuki is one of the few everyone can agree on.

Who cares if Robo-bitch malfunctions?

I care! We haven't linked yet!

... Fuck!

RAX : And I thank you for building my ego. Sure, my first story did well and I sure am persistent, but I'm not "great". I mean, I'm at most average here... Right?

He's going to say that until he dies.

T. E. K. 1996 : ... Who's Ryoji?

Good question, little dude. Who IS Ryoji?

Uh...

A giant cunt.

Yeah, let's go with that.

Raze Olympus : Weird... I got your review via email, but I don't actually see it on the site... FFN what the hell?

Should I pay the creator a visit?

Uh... No need to go that far!

Pf, I'd pay to see it.

NOT HELPING!

What the review said : Pharos is an innocent cinnamon roll

IAmSoCleverWithMyNameLol : HE WHAT?!

T-To be fair... It wasn't you, but was actually a construct of you to mentally torture-

I'LL KILL YOU! GET OVER HERE!

Oh, shit! Gotta go *runs*

Weird... This review isn't showing either... wtf? Screwing up with updates is one thing, FFN... Don't go fucking around with reviews. Those things are basically the... Drugs? Currency? Platinum? It's the everything of this site, there!

What the review said : Yo Kotone, AT Makoto Raped you


Dorm

It had now been two weeks since Makoto was released from the hospital and had been staying at the dorm as he healed from his injuries sustained by the mysterious persona user Sakuya.

Of course, for reason unknown to most, his behavior towards the SEES was seemingly almost completely random some times. One moment he'd seemed like he was an all around decent human being, and the next he was his usual disrespectful self. Even Aigis didn't seem to act right around him, being nice to him one moment and saying he's a threat the next.

Was there something in the dorm's water or something?

Whatever the reason, Makoto/Minato had been much more withdrawn ever since what happened with Koromaru. He rarely left his room except for essential thing such as to eat or use the bathroom, but immediately went back, rarely saying a word and always seeming like he was deep in thought for whatever reason.

On some occasions, Junpei who was in the room next to him could've sworn he heard the boy scream and/or thrash more than a few times in the night when he tried to sleep. Had he not feared the bluenette's unpredictable wrath, he might've even asked if he was doing alright.

As one would expect, most of the dorm members weren't complaining that the boy that treated them harshly more than half the time wasn't doing much with any of them. Especially having the strange spook that they all dealt with the other day and needing to prepare for the full moon, Makoto/Minato was the least of their concerns.

As for Makoto/Minato himself, his two weeks were up and this was his last day at the dorm.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

SMASH!

Makoto glared at the remnants of the alarm clock that had forced him awake so early in the morning for two weeks during his supposed 'break'.

"Fucking hated that thing..." Makoto deplored the device as he left his room and slammed the door shut behind him. No one would mourn for the device he had almost completely destroyed in anger.

And when he arrived downstairs...

"You are dangerous!" ... He got the greeting he expected

"You need to expand your vocabulary." Makoto waved the accusation off as he walked to the fridge while stretching and yawning.

Just as she had done every day Makoto had shown himself, Aigis watched him like a hawk, never daring to take her eyes off of him for even a second.

"You know..." Makoto pulled out a bottle of water before turning to face Aigis again "... I've been wondering, do you even know why I'm 'dangerous'?"

Aigis didn't say anything, she merely continued to watch Makoto's every movement. However, deep down, this was a question even she had been wondering ever since she first met the boy.

Makoto actually seemed a bit dissatisfied for some reason "Of course you don't..." he said while sighing "Do you even remember the battle that left you damaged?"

"I do not." Aigis answered immediately, finally having a question she actually could answer now "But such information is irrelevant to you."

Makoto had to fight back his laughter Oh, if you only knew...

"Of course it is." Makoto murmured while shaking his head before taking the risky action and walking to the android that likely wanted nothing more to eliminate him until they were face-to-face.

His cold seemingly dead blue-grey eyes met her artificial bright blue ones.

Makoto's usual sneer was replaced with the same blank face that Aigis usually had while the latter looked as if she was ready to attempt to kill the boy in a moment's notice.

Even Minato's voice was completely silent as the two continued to simply action of looking at each other, neither knowing what the other was going to do.

Makoto had tuned out everything, ready for any sort of reaction from the android in front of him. The same android whose face was forever burned into his mind until the day he died and was reunited with the very people he lost all those years ago.

Aigis focused the majority of her systems on the boy in front of her. Every sound, movement, expression, breath, everything about the boy in front of her was being monitored.

After a few moments of inaction, Makoto took a step back with a small smile on his face.

"It's funny right?" He asked while chuckling to himself "How even small events of the past can have such a massive impact on your future, isn't it?" he continued to ask questions "Even things that were long forgotten and should've died long ago can come back to bite you..."

With that, Makoto took his leave "See you later, bucket of bolts."

Now left all alone, Aigis' blank face was now showing one of clear confusion.

"What does that mean?" She questioned, but as expected, there was no answer.

...

...

Makoto sighed as he hunched over the locked bathroom sink. For some reason or another, the bathroom was always cold here despite it being the start of August now.

He didn't mind it though, the cold was a familiar and somewhat stimulating sensation on his skin. It was fitting, really, people often said that the temperature always seemed to lower whenever he was around.

The boy slowly lifted his head and stared at his reflection in the mirror.

Just like Yakushima, he only saw a monster and a failure. Those two words were the only ones that could properly define him.

How many people had he killed? That punk couldn't have been more than roughly seventeen, but he tortured him and then killed him...

... And he didn't feel a thing. He's killed more than just that before, never without reason but that leave what qualifies as a reason.

How many people has he hurt? How many other families have been torn because of him? Just how much of a hypocrite was he?

He knew what he was, was very wrong. He knew that everything he had done was beyond unforgivable. He knew that he was a horrible excuse for a human being, but continued on as if none of those things were true.

Did this make him better or worse? He wasn't driven insane by some supernatural entity, he wasn't tortured for centuries or anything of the sorts... This is just who he was now.

Still, he could easily continue going on without these thoughts clouding his mind. He accepted that he was perhaps the worst type of person imaginable, but there was something else...

He was a failure in every regard as well.

His family would've been disgusted by what he had become.

His parents would only want him to be happy... But he was anything but. Not only that, but if they knew what they parented... He wouldn't have blamed them if they would've smothered him in his crib if they knew what he would grow up to do.

And the one that would've hurt the most is that since he was a monster, he knew that his sister would've been terrified of him. She meant the most to him out of anyone, but he knew that he wouldn't even be her brother in her eyes... But she wouldn't be wrong either. Her brother died a long time ago.

Makoto sighed as he took a step back from the mirror and let his eyes glow an inhuman bright yellow.

Was he even human anymore?

With Pharos always being with him, he's survived fatal injuries without a scratch, his eyes had changed to reflect something that no ordinary human could never and should never have, and he easily does things most would consider completely immoral without a second thought.

Hell, his main goal is still to kill Mitsuru, Aigis, and any of SEES that tries to get in his way of that. SEES, the people who've put up with him despite his near constant disrespect and merely want to end The Dark Hour.

If that wasn't enough, SEES had already caused another internal conflict from within himself now. That conflict stemming from his relation to just one person and one person only...

...

...

Dammit... Makoto thought to himself as he punched the wall next to him a little too hard, causing the tiles to crack slightly. This wasn't the time for these types of matters, so why wouldn't he just tell her to leave him alone?!

Why? Why did he..?

Makoto shook those thoughts out of his mind and left the bathroom. He'd spent more than enough time there, too long it might raise a few questions.

As he was going back to his room to get the last of his things, he came across a familiar brunette.

"Oh, hey, Makoto-kun..." Yukari greeted, sounding as if she wanted to speak but the boy's unpredictability making hard to decide what to say

"What is it?" He asked, somewhat annoyed. Great, now he could be bored to death with an hour long lecture of what a horrible person he was.

"Look, it's no secret that I we don't exactly like each other..." She stated the obvious, but seemed somewhat embarrassed also for whatever reason "I just wanted to say, even if it was unintentional, thanks for what you said after my little break down... It kinda helped me in a weird way.

Makoto remained stoic faced, whatever feelings he had towards what she had just said weren't showing even slightly. As such, the pink archer became increasingly nervous as he just stood there for a few seconds.

"Whatever..." He said as he rolled his eyes "I'm getting my things and going, so it doesn't matter to me..." he said as he started to continue to his original destination

"Wait!" The girl shouted which made the boy stop, but kept his back turned to her

"What is it?" He asked, this time sounding a lot more aggravated than before.

"So uh.. This might be a little personal but..." Gulping and praying he doesn't lash out like she had heard Kotone warned her of more than a few times in the past, Yukari went on to ask "So... Are you into Kotone-chan?"

Makoto's eyes flared for a moments as he tightly clenched his hands that were in his pockets. Of all the things that could've been brought up, why did it have to be this.

He'd been contemplating it ever since that damn trip, so why'd it have to be brought up again? Why couldn't anyone just pretend nothing happened?

After several moments of silence, Makoto answered with "Piss off..." he said before going to his room to get the last of his things that he had brought to the dorm.

Yukari sighed as she watched the boy leave "That's what I thought..." she said, unsure whether she should feel happy for her friend, or concerned considering how little they actually knew about the boy (not to mention his attitude).

All she could do was hope that this wouldn't lead to too many issues in the future.


Home

Without saying another word to anyone else, Makoto left the dorm and returned to his 'home'.

As soon as he arrived, Makoto noticed foreign papers on his table.

What's this..? Makoto thought as he grabbed some of the documents and began to read them.

Makoto chuckled as soon as he realized what these documents were "Ikutsuki, you've bought yourself some time, congratulations..." he muttered as he began to flip through the pages.

It wasn't much, but he did get some information on Sakuya and something called 'Project : Puppet Master".

Like with Strega, whoever was the head of this project was a mystery, but its purpose was clear. The goal was to make a persona user into a powerful living weapon, likely as a means of exploring Tartarus before SEES formed years later.

Within the project, there were two subjects that were favored by whoever ran this project, those two being Sho Minazuki and Sakuya Sakugetsu.

Despite having the potential which was apparently proven by putting them in an artificial Dark Hour (how this was even possible was beyond him), neither of them were able to develop a persona.

Whether they didn't develop a persona due to them having found a catalyst yet or because they lacked the means of acquiring one and could only move was unknown, but the head of the project was so frustrated that he took an extreme action.

First, he put a Plume of Dusk inside Sho's brain to see if that'd trigger the development of a persona. As a consequence of having the foreign object implanted, Sho gained an 'X' shaped scar on his face and whenever he was in a fight his eyes seemed to change from blue to grey for whatever reason.

However, just like Sakuya had said before, there was another side effect of the Plume. While Sho didn't develop his own persona, an entirely new personality calling itself Minazuki was born with the persona named "Tsukiyomi."

While Minazuki's persona was unquestionably powerful, he also refused to play along with the project like Sho did. One day when training with Sakuya, Minazuki took hold and tried to kill whoever the hell the head of the project was.

After that incident, the head tried to remove Minazuki while leaving Tsukiyomi in Sho. This, however, resulted in Sho becoming a vegetable and the head was forced to put him in a hospital.

It also resulted in Sakuya scorning the head and refusing to follow any orders as well. Apparently, despite their interactions being limited to combat only, the two had developed a sort of brotherly bond just as Sho had looked at the head as a father figure.

Unwilling to give up, the head simply drugged Sakuya's food one day and placed another smaller Plume inside the boy in the hope to gain a persona without being put into another situation similar to Minazuki.

As a side effect of the Plume, Sakuya's right eye permanently remained grey, his behavior could become somewhat erratic at times, and perhaps because of the Plume's mysterious properties, his healing was also accelerated beyond that of a normal human. All of this paled in comparison to the achievement of Sakuya gaining the persona "Scotus" as well as his power being well above that of a typical persona user.

The head, however, knew that Sakuya wouldn't obey his orders willingly. So along with a Plume, the head also implanted a device at the back of the boy's neck. When triggered, this device would cause extreme pain to Sakuya and even if kill him if the settings were high enough or if the device detected any tampering.

After that, there's virtually nothing else left. Either Ikutsuki was terrible at finding information, there wasn't a lot of information to find, or the head of the project had hidden any other information very well... Or all of them.

By the time he was done reading, Makoto was greeting to the familiar sensation of The Dark Hour settling.

Makoto walked to his window as he gazed at the full moon at the sky "Got anything?"

Pharos, who had been silent ever since Makoto returned nodded in confirmation "Two of them this time as well..."

"I see..." He murmured as he turned to his friend "Ready Pharos?"

Once again, Pharos nodded in confirmation, ready to help his friend in anyway he could "Ready."

Donning the disguise he hadn't used in a rather long time, Makoto left his apartment and began making his way towards where Pharos was sensing the shadows.

Time to kill another group of shadows.


Now, obviously the next chapter is going to be the next full moon operation. In other words, I have to find a way to somehow make a battle with a literal fucking tank decent... God-fucking-dammit!

*strangles At!Makoto* You think you could just get away with that, you bastard!

K-K-Kinda... And I sorta did...

YOU SON OF A BITCH!

... But his mother is my mother too.

And you're the reason my husbando isn't head over heels for me!

...

There, there, little guy. He'll get lucky... eventually.