Time never waits, it delivers all equally to the same end.

You, who wish to safeguard the future, however limited it may be...

You will be given one year;

go forth without falter, with your heart as your guide...


A night sky, sparse clouds permitting the full moon's visage.

A child, laying on her back as she struggled to breathe, not even the strength to look back at a burning wreckage not twenty feet from where she was. She could hear the crackling of the flames, slowly consuming the bodies of her parents who'd not been so fortunate.

Was she so lucky, though? The odor of death and fire filled the stale air as she coughed violently, aggravating the pain of her injuries.

A sound nearby, she barely found the will to turn as terror turned to hope.

Another child. Her sister. Staggering from the wreck, limping and coughing violently as she appeared to be in a daze.

Towards the edge of the bridge they were on...

Hope became terror once more.

"No... sis...!"

Her words were weak, barely a whisper as she tried to get them out despite the pain it brought her.

It was too late. She struggled to cry out as she saw her only surviving family tumble from the bridge and disappear from sight.

She had no time to process it. Not now, as unearthly noises howled and echoed above her, her gaze, now broken and empty, stared up at figures hovering above in the evening abyss that seemed ready to consume her, too.

She no longer felt afraid, only tired. She'd watched all she had get taken away from her so quickly, what did she have left to fear, now?

Let it come... please...


4/6

A young girl of sixteen's bright blue eyes snapped open, away from the dream from a memory that had haunted her for so long like some cruel poltergeist forever whispering into her ear.

"Train service today is significantly delayed due to a fatal accident." the announcer stated over the speakers of the train car the girl currently had to herself as she sat up from her slouched position in one of the empty seats. "We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

The girl gave no reaction, nothing readable. Death was nothing new to her, after all, she thought as she turned and gazed out the window near her seat at the city bathed in the darkness of the evening under a starlit sky, sliding her earbuds in and choosing a tune from the music player in her gloved hand, a gift from the life she'd left behind following her summons and the offer of being able to complete her education from this academy she would be staying at.

Her gaze lingered on the music player, the memories of those who'd given it to her also giving their hopes of a better future for her once she'd started her new life, here. They'd chosen uplifting and inspiring songs, ones she always enjoyed when training.

If she could have been honest, however, she wasn't even entirely sure how to respond to it all, having merely gone along with it. She was still so young, they said. Regardless of the talent that had kept her alive, it was no life for her, they said.

The girl sighed, it was a fight she couldn't win. They had insisted, so she'd conceded. Perhaps when she graduated another chance would come, she thought to herself as the nearly full moon disappeared from sight when her ride entered the tunnel ahead.

When the train had finally come to a stop, the girl rose from her seat, emerging from the door and into the station, taking out a folded up pamphlet from her pocket as well as her new school pass she quietly scanned over the gates without a second thought.

She sport a slender, but toned figure and was dressed in a simple white blouse, black skirt and tights under a a gray peacoat for the cold evening weather of April's earliest days, her hands covered by black fingerless gloves and completing her look with a pair of black boots. The girl was very fair-skinned, with a light dusting of faint freckles across her youthful face. Her dark, raven hair was kept in a short bob cut with the back and sidelocks just past her chin and nearly touching her shoulders, and offsetting her ice-blue eyes that stared down focused on the pamphlet in her hand, her music dimmed just enough to tune out the chattering noise of night owl teenagers and employees around her.

Iwatodai Dormitory was her apparent destination of where she'd be staying for the time being. The pamphlet included directions from the station, as well as a few pictures of its exterior and accommodations. Those mattered little, to her, however. It was almost midnight, it would have been best to make it over as soon as possible and keep whoever'd be there to greet her from waiting long...

Her music player suddenly went silent. The girl blinked and slid out her earbuds as she watched a creeping, thick, and almost tactile darkness suddenly flood the once well-lit subway station, with only a dim, sickly green light giving any illumination, melding with the dark like colors of a morbid painting.

Immediately her free hand reached for her bag slung around her shoulder, her once stoic expression becoming one of alertness and caution. Where people had once been, now stood strange black coffins, emitting a metallic sheen to their surface as a strange red light faintly emitted from them. Looking down, she saw strange, translucent puddles of deep crimson that looked like... blood?

She didn't smell blood. In fact, she didn't smell anything, any more then she could hear anything. Glancing back at the clock above the station she saw it had frozen at the stroke of midnight, the eldritch green light shimmering off its glassy surface. Her lips parted slightly in confusion, but she remained cautious, for not only was there no scent, but no sound, either. The world around her was the most still, total silence she had ever experienced, as if all of reality had simply stopped in time entirely.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but nothing came, no sounds were heard, and the girl took in a breath before looking at her pamphlet again, electing it may have been best to simply get out of here. Few things ever rattled her with what she had seen and experienced, but this absolute quiet and strange darkness was unlike anything she'd faced.

Emerging outside, however, she found her surroundings had not improved in the least. Traffic was frozen in place on the streets, more of the strange black coffins seated within and lining the sidewalks and crossways, lights and other electronics as dead as they had been inside the station. The strange blood-like substance, liquid yet with all the density of air, filled the pavement like a red lake as she cautiously continued down the street, her gaze shifting between the pamplet's directions and any sign of someone, or something, that may have been out here with her. The sickly green light was far more prevalent now, illuminating the whole city and bathing it in its abhorrent glow, making it look as though it were in a state of decay.

The girl glanced upward, and her answer came to her. The moon, nearly full as it had been before but now impossibly close as though it were watching her, only adding to the girl's discomfort. She hated this feeling, of feeling in danger but not knowing from what.

As if to answer that, the girl froze again at the sound of panicked breathing and frantic footsteps, her gloved hand gripping what lay within her bag tighter then before. Her blue eyes widened at the sound of a man's frightened scream that sounded like it was a block or two away before all was silent again. The girl dashed over to the source of the sound, pressing her back against the building's brick surface as she peered around the corner.

Nothing.

She blinked, confused. She was certain she'd heard it. Had her mind played tricks on her with her discomfort from this macabre perversion of what had once been normal urban surroundings. Letting out a sigh, she remained where she was a moment in caution before looking at her pamphlet once more and continued on her way.

The girl froze once more as another scream echoed through the air in the distance, this time from somewhere behind her. She looked back, but again saw nothing and began to hasten her pace, committing the pamplet's directions to memory.

She felt a splash at her feet from a thick puddle of the blood-like substance on the pavement as she came to what she gathered to be her destination, judging from the building's structure matching the picture.

It looked old-fashioned, very gothic in design perhaps, based on what she knew from foreign buildings. Past the iron gates, stone steps lead up to the wood double doors with window panes on their fronts, but her curiosity was more on the fact that light seemed to come from inside, mainly from its upper-most floors. Her brow furrowed, her gaze grew tense as she pocketed the pamphlet. She didn't know what she'd find here with what she'd just gone through getting here, but she'd find out soon enough.

Slowly opening one of the doors with a soft creek, the girl stepped inside, closing the door behind her as she found herself in a well-furnished lounge area. Leather armchairs and sofas surrounded a large coffee table to her right with a large but old-fashioned TV nearby that was currently off, and to her left stood a wooden reception desk occupied by a registry and several plants. Up ahead to her right, past the lounge was a dining area and bar counter with a door leading further back, and to the left past the reception desk was a set of stairs leading up. More curious, however, was that the lamps seemed to be on, and worked just fine as opposed to anything outside.

"Hello?" she called out.

No answer.

Walking past the desk, she approached the stairs. She'd seen lights on further up, surely someone was here, what with her being expected.

"Oh, you're late," a young, male voice suddenly called behind her.

The girl turned sharply, her hand flying into her bag and out in a flash, her other swiftly unsheathing the combat knife she was now holding as she found herself face to face with who had spoken to her.

The girl's eyes widened in confusion. Now standing behind the reception desk, resting his elbows on its surface, was a young boy, maybe ten or so. His eyes were blue, unnaturally blue to the point they seemed to shine, his mop of short messy black hair offsetting his incredibly pale skin as if he'd never seen the sun in his life. He was incredibly thin, wearing what appeared to be ragged black and white striped scrubs as he stood there, smirking at her as his gaze shifted from the knife pointed at him, to meeting her own.

"I've been waiting for you. Feels like ages," the boy said, his tone as unnatural as his appearance as it sounded strangely monotone despite his impish expression.

"...Who are you?" the girl asked. "You seem a little young to be here... you can't be the one who sent the acceptance letter."

The boy chuckled. "Answers will come in time," he said, snapping his fingers, yet the sound came from beside the girl, prompting her to turn and see him standing next to her, now, the reception desk no longer separating them. The girl instinctively stepped back, glaring at the boy, who did not appear intimidated at all by her.

"...Time, a remarkable thing, anticipated and feared, some wish it to go by faster, others beg it to go slower," he mused, glancing off to the windows at the door before looking up at her again. "...You needn't be afraid."

"Who says I'm afraid?" the girl asked, glaring at him in suspicion. "I have years of training that taught me not to take things as they seem."

The boy chuckled once more, raising both his pale hands. "I suppose you have. But one like yourself I'm sure is familiar with contracts, correct?"

A strange light shimmered from the reception desk, the girl's gaze flickering to it as she saw a red binder appear and slowly open itself near what she assumed to be the student registry. Within was a white document, embroidered with laurel patterns and a message written upon it:

Time never waits.

It delivers all equally to the same end.

I hereby agree to the statement above,

and I chooseth this fate of my own free will.

"If you wish to proceed, then merely sign your name at the bottom," the boy explained, gesturing to the signature block as he slid the pen from its stand on the table and held it out to her. "You've nothing to fear, it simply states a willingness on your part to take full responsibility for your actions and decisions from now on..."

Taking the pen, the girl looked down at the contract that lay open before her. "I'm no stranger to taking care of myself," she said, writing her name down in hopes of satisfying her odd host enough he'd explain himself further:

Mukuro Ikusaba

"...Is that so? I'm sure you understand that time indeed brings an end to all things, sooner or later, whether we embrace it readily..." The boy's tone remained unchanging as he took the binder from her, holding it against his chest a moment as though embracing it, himself, before then raising it up to partially obscure his face. "...or attempt to block it out of our senses in denial..."

He turned the binder, its corner thin as paper itself before it seemed to vanish altogether, noting the confusion of the girl in front of him as he did so.

"You say you took care of yourself, but is that entirely true?" he inquired, his gaze unblinking and his faint smile gaining a knowing glint to it. "Know that taking responsibility is not entirely the same as taking orders... but also, what is the reason for the direction you run in the face of time and what it delivers?"

The girl, Mukuro, scowled, her suspicion growing as she glared down at him, her tone sharp as she spoke. "Who are you?!"

The boy gave no response, merely reaching his hand to her as a thick darkness spread around their surroundings, engulfing both Mukuro and himself, his eyes now piercing through the black at her before it subsided, his voice echoing around her.

"Now, it begins..."

Mukuro looked around, she was still in the dormitory lobby but the lights were now out, the green glow from the moon outside providing the only illumination, now. The strange boy was nowhere in sight.

"Hey! Who are you?!" a female voice cried out suddenly, Mukuro turning sharply to face a girl her age standing at the foot of the stairs. She wore a pink cardigan over what appeared to be the white blouse, black skirt and red bow Mukuro recognized came with the uniform of the school she'd be attending, with black stockings with white heart patterns on the side and brown loafers. Her auburn hair went down to the base of her neck, which wore a pink strap choker with a heart on the side. She appeared very wary of Mukuro, her hand slowly reaching for a holster on her thigh...

"This'll be through you before you take that out," the dark-haired girl warned. The brunette's hand stopped as she saw the knife in the new arrival's hand.

"Y-You serious?!" the other girl asked, staggering back a little, now noticeably more afraid then anything else as she slowly raised up her hands. "D-Don't hurt me... you just... startled me is all... wh-who are you?!"

"You first, what's going on here?!" Mukuro snapped, her knife still pointed at the girl.

"That's enough, both of you," stated another female voice, though one that sounded more mature and refined, from the top of the stairs, accompanied by footsteps as another girl soon came into view behind the brunette. "Takeba, calm down," she said.

"Me?! She's the one holding a knife at me, senpai!" the girl, Takeba, protested.

"You pull a gun-shaped object and you expect someone to not defend themselves? Really, Takeba?" the second girl asked as she came down the stairs.

Mukuro glanced up at the other newcomer as she approached. She had on the same uniform the other girl had, though without the cardigan, and wore a pair of knee-high, spike-heeled leather boots instead of loafers. Her hair was dark red and cascaded down her shoulders, framing her face and fringing over her left eye and giving her a look of elegance as she reached the bottom of the stairs, her hand resting on the bannister.

"...You, too. There's no need for that," she said. "...The transfer student who was supposed to be arriving tonight. Mukuro Ikusaba, correct?"

Before Takeba or Mukuro could respond, however, the strange green light and darkness suddenly melted away, the lounge lamps abruptly cutting on providing the more conventional light Mukuro remembered when she'd first entered, as well as hearing the faint sound of the unfinished music from the earbuds that now hung over her neck signifying her player had turned back on.

"The lights...!" Takeba observed, looking around. Mukuro glanced back towards the door, through the windows she could see the streets now looked noticeably lit up again. Whatever had occurred earlier, seemed to have passed entirely.

"I admit, Ikusaba, we were expecting you to arrive earlier despite the last-minute decision to have you put here. This one's co-ed, the all-girls dorms are unfortunately full at the time," the second girl explained, coming down the stairs. "I'm Mitsuru Kirijo, I'm a senior, and one of the students who live in this dormitory."

Takeba stared agape. "Kirijo-senpai, what's a girl like her doing with a knife?! I know what a combat knife looks like and that is absolutely what I'm looking at! Is she a delinquent or something?!"

Mukuro sighed, sheathing her knife and placing it back in her bag, assessing the older girl, Kirijo, was attempting to diffuse the situation and Takeba seemed to be complying for the most part, or at least not reaching for what looked to be a holstered gun. "There was an incident that delayed my train," she explained. "And no, I'm not a delinquent. I just... had a different life before coming here," she said.

"...The hell kind of-" Takeba began.

"Takeba, it's not your business. She's lived abroad, and has come here to finish her education, that's all that is of any concern for you," the older girl, Mitsuru, replied before turning her attention back to Mukuro. "This is Yukari Takeba. She'll be a junior this spring, like you."

"H-Hi. Nice to meet you," the brunette, Yukari, said cautiously with a polite but nervous smile as she took a second to look the newcomer over while Mitsuru made her way over to the reception desk.

Mukuro was certainly pretty very, by her assertion, natural good looks yet at the same time had a very intimidating vibe to her, like being face to face with a wolf she didn't know would maul her or wag its tail. While it did make her still feel uneased, she also couldn't help but have a lot of questions about her as well.

"Mukuro Ikusaba," the dark-haired girl replied, giving a faint smile and a bow. "I... apologize for earlier, as well..."

"Anyways, here's your room key," Mitsuru said as she returned, holding out a small metal key. "Yukari, show her where her room is. It's on the third floor at the end of the hall, it's getting pretty late. Your things should already be waiting for you, Ikusaba, and school starts tomorrow so I advise you rest up."

"Okay, follow me," Yukari said, heading for the stairs and looking back as Mukuro quietly accepted the key and followed. Already, the brunette could tell despite the girl's stoic look she had a lot to ask, and admittedly, so did she from her perspective, but she elected to keep quiet as Mitsuru did not seem to want any of that.

Sighing, she continued to lead the way, occasionally glancing back to see if the other girl was following before finally reaching their destination at the end of the third floor hallway, where a closed wooden door awaited.

"Well, this is it," she said, gesturing to the door. "Pretty easy to remember, right? Any questions? Sorry about that power outage. Guess I freaked out a little, back there... just don't go pulling stuff on me, okay?"

Mukuro blinked. A power outage? She wasn't entirely sure if the other girl was lying and covering it up, or if she saw something different then what she had. "I could say the same of you," she said.

"Oh, uh, heheh..." Yukari sighed, looking down at what was holstered at her thigh. "...I know Kirijo-senpai said you've been outside Japan a lot but it's... eh, just a toy. Take a look. It look like any real thing to you?"

She slowly unholstered it and held it out to her, resting it on her palms, revealing what appeared to be... admittedly no kind of gun Mukuro had ever seen. The model didn't resemble anything she was familiar with enough it couldn't be considered a custom, if anything it may as well have been a toy of some kind. She couldn't be entirely sure as she was not the one handling it.

"Home defense," Yukari said, if a bit hastily. "Power outage, realized we left the door unlocked since we were waiting for you. Can't be too careful, right?" she asked. "I guess it looks more real, then, when it's dark, right?"

"I had suspected you wouldn't pull it on me, though one can't be too careful. Your stance was anxious and you seemed very unsure of what you were doing," Mukuro replied, folding her arms. "...You don't seem the type who'd tolerate a death on your conscience for any reason but you may have still acted out of self-preservation."

"I... I see. You're pretty sharp, I guess," Yukari said, looking down at the floor for a moment. "Can we just... move past that, since you'll be staying here for a bit, and all?"

Mukuro gave a nod, satisfied though she suspected there was more to this, which brought her to another question.

"...What about that boy I saw when I got here?" she asked.

"Boy? Huh?" Yukari asked, puzzled.

"He looked about ten," Mukuro replied. "Short black hair, wore striped scrubs?"

"No, there's no one like that living here," Yukari answered, by Mukuro's observation, she seemed to be telling the truth. "Can I ask something, too?"

"I already explained, I had a different life before coming here," Mukuro replied flatly.

"No! Nothing about that!" Yukari said hurriedly. "I meant... during the... eh... blackout. Did anything seem weird for you?"

"Weird, how?" Mukuro asked.

"Um... know what? Nevermind," Yukari said, her tone hasty and dismissive. "Don't worry about it, just go get some sleep. Now that you're here, we'll be turning in as well. Like Kirijo-senpai said, school's tomorrow, don't wanna be dragging your feet on your first day, right? Save any other questions for later..."

Mukuro watched as the other girl immediately headed down the hall, unlocking a door further away and stepping inside, closing it behind her. Looking at her own key, Mukuro unlocked the door in front of her, stepping inside and finding the light switch.

The room was fairly spacious, with simple furnishings of a space heater and some shelves by the window, a mini-fridge next to the sink where a washcloth hung nearby, a work desk near the window and a box TV in the farthest corner on a small table. with closet on the wall opposite the window. The girl's gaze came at last to the large bed against the wall, and a cardboard box with her spare clothes and other things she'd packed, spare uniforms of the school she would be attending lay folded atop it.

Her concern, however, was on where the bed had been positioned...


Yukari practically jumped from her bed as she heard a loud scraping sound and promptly flung open her door, rushing to Mukuro's room and knocking.

"Ikuasaba! What are you doing in there?!" she shouted, knocking again and noticing Mitsuru arriving up the stairs at the end of the hall, too.

"Moving furniture," Mukuro's voice replied from inside.

"Is there a problem?" Mitsuru asked, approaching the door as well as it suddenly opened revealing Mukuro with a hint of annoyance on her face.

"Not anymore," Mukuro answered. "I apologize for startling you."

"Why'd you move your bed, though?!" Yukari protested before looking past the girl "...Oh."

Mitsuru sighed as she looked past the newcomer as well. "I'll have a word with the staff about that. So long as you can get to your dresser, now, I suppose that's all that matters," she muttered, noting where Mukuro had positioned the bed, which, by her assertion, must have been put against the dresser which would have made the drawers inaccessible.

"It's fine, now," the dark-haired girl answered.

"Good, if you have any other concerns that require immediate attention, please ask first from now on," Mitsuru replied, brushing back her hair and exchanging a brief glance at Yukari before looking at Mukuro. "Goodnight, Ikusaba. Yukari will be taking you to school tomorrow, so don't be up too late."

Mukuro watched the two leave, Yukari glancing back one last time before disappearing into her room again. The issue resolved, Mukuro closed her door and shed off her jacket, hanging it up in the closet before heading over to her sink and gazing into the mirror in front of her as she began peeling off her fingerless gloves, revealing a star tattoo with a wolf's face at the center, the name "Fenrir" written under it on the back of her right hand.

The girl closed her eyes for a moment, thoughts of her life and all that had happened in it before coming here passing through her mind. Even if she'd been discharged and sent for the sake of completing high school like a normal girl rather then continue it as she had, Mukuro could only think of the fact she'd seen plenty of things few ever did, but whatever had happened when she'd gotten here, between the strange almost living darkness and the mysterious boy that had greeted her upon arriving to the dorm, she did in fact have questions she wanted answered.

There was no way what she had experienced wasn't real. Mukuro Ikusaba had experienced far too many things her mind could not have possibly come up with this on its own, and it had gone on too long to be believable as a hallucination. Yukari had written it off as a blackout, and avoided giving real answers that made it clear she and Mitsuru were keeping something from her. Possibly, she suspected, till she was transferred out. If the phenomenon returned, then that would be her best bet at cornering them for answers, especially with the cryptic words of that strange boy.

"...Now, it begins," she said, repeating the boy's last words to her and wondering what he'd meant by that as she stared at her reflection a moment before finishing up getting ready for bed for the evening, and, after a moment's consideration, taking out her sheathed knife from her bag and sliding it under her pillow, Mukuro decided after the trip here, even if all signs of it had seemingly vanished, she couldn't be too careful.

Her new life here, and whatever it entailed, would truly begin tomorrow...


A/N: And so it begins, earlier than I expected but had to get this going. Updates prolly won't be as frequent as Heart of Justice till it's further along, though I'll be doing updates to this every now and then, this one will be based mainly on the FeMC route, as well as the OVA anime as it trimmed out some of the fluff(particularly as you wait between full moons and new Tartarus sections opening and events occurring). That said, hope you have enjoyed this introduction to the high-school soldier's first day in the world of Persona 3. I always felt it a shame she was mostly a posthumous character we didn't get to know that much outside of being under Junko's thrall from years of abuse, so IF and speculation on other moments will be a part of her character as well.

As for the bed thing, well... see for yourself. For some reason the developers placed the protagonist's bed right against the dresser. No joke.

Art made on commission for me by Carlotus on DeviantArt