Chapter 2

The gently rattling train quietly shot through the night, speeding towards the approaching silhouettes of skyscrapers and glow of city lights. Outside the darkened window, a still lake was clearly visible, partially lit up by the nearly full, waxing moon, eerily large in the near midnight hour.

None of this mattered to the newly awakened blue-haired boy, who was staring mutely in shock at his 16-year old twin sleeping on his arm.

That girl, who had tried valiantly to stay awake to get a glimpse of their new/old home, was now loudly snoring and slightly drooling onto the boy's shoulder. Loosely clutched in her hand was a paper map of their destination, with annotations ("Ramen place here! Omnomnom :D" "Music store for Mina here!") and doodles (dogs with big, shiny eyes being the most common) scrawled all over the page, almost to the point of it being unreadable. Her disheveled red scarf and skirt, rumpled beige sweater, and bed-head hair all spoke of a long travel; something the boy assumed was true from his own experience.

But again, little of the details mattered to him. After watching the dozing girl for only a few seconds, he broke out into a smile, a grin so huge and out of character for him that it would have given anyone who knew him a heart attack. Because he was back. God, he was back, and now, he had his sister back, too.

A sudden metallic voice blared out in the still silence, interrupting the boy's reverie: "We're sorry for the delay, folks. Any complaints you have may be directed to the Tatsumi Port Island rail management office, at extension 5346. Now arriving at the final stop: Iwatodai. Again, now arriving at the final stop: Iwatodai. All passengers please exit at this stop."

The voice awoke the girl from her slumber, and she blearily tried to rise, only stopped by her brother's unusually tight grip on her arm. Realizing this, he quickly removed his arm after toning down his smile, and the girl stretched her arms upwards and gave a huge yawn, again breaking the silence of the mostly empty train. Blearily rubbing the sleep from her eyes (but not the drool from her chin, the boy noticed fondly), she took in her surroundings.

"Mina!" She spoke grumpily to the boy. "I told you to wake me up before we got to Port Island!"

Minato raised one eyebrow at her, before replying in a much quieter voice, "Technically, I did."

The boy's sister huffed and picked up her suitcase. "Technically, it was the train, and I wanted to actually see the Island before we got there. And don't say that I just did!" she ordered as Minato opened his mouth to interrupt, a small smirk growing on his face.

The auburn-haired girl rolled her red eyes at the self-satisfied look on her brother's face, and walked over to the doors of the train as it slowed to a stop. The boy let out a small chuckle, brushing a few blue strands towards his hair-covered right eye, before picking up his distinctively smaller suitcase and following the girl to the door as it opened.

Side by side, they stepped out of the train, walking out of the rail station's loading area before stopping to look at the girl's barely legible map. "Alright, so we're supposed to go to this dorm here, on the other side of the Island," the girl muttered, pointing to a building in the middle of a hand-drawn, round Shiba Inu, "And the closest way to get there should just be to follow this road until we get to the main street, then follow… Hey! Mina, wait up, you impatient jerk!"

By the time the girl realized her brother had walked away, he was already half a block down the road. She jogged to catch up with him, before swatting him on the back of his head. "Ow! Hamu, it's straight this way."

"Oh yeah, and how do you know that?" she asked, eyeing her brother with over-enthused suspicion.

"I already looked at the map," he lied fluently.

"Well, why couldn't you tell me that earlier?"

"This is quicker."

She blinked at him, before turning away with a "hmph!" and striding a few steps ahead, with her head held distinctly up and away from the boy. With her eyes off him again, he allowed a contented smile to spread across his face as he watched his sister's over-exaggerated movements.

Without warning, Minato's sight suddenly blurred and stomach lurched, and he stumbled headfirst into a pole with a crack. Grabbing the pole as stars danced across his vision, he realized that the world had turned entirely green, and had the presence of mind to numbly think dark hour.

Then he vomited.

"Wha… what the… Why'd the lights go off… What's going on…? Mina- Mina!" The petite girl gaped as her normally unflappable brother emptied his lunch on the sidewalk. "A-Are you okay…?!"

Dry heaving and shaking as he tried to get control of himself, the boy managed to nod and wave off his nervous sister. Gripping the pole tighter, he righted and reoriented himself, automatically planning the quickest route to the dorm through the back alleys, before reminding himself he wasn't exactly supposed to know that yet.

"Mina…? Is… is that…?" his sister whispered, pointing to a puddle of red muck that had earlier been a puddle. She hesitantly stretched a foot towards the seemingly sticky gunk, but before her foot reached it, an ear-splitting roar echoed from somewhere on the other side of the city, freezing her in place.

Something suddenly grasped her shoulder, and she spun her head around with a gasp, nearly throwing the offender, her brother, to the ground with the sudden movement. She gave a quick sigh of relief before giving a rapid apology, which the boy again wove off.

"Hamu," he said in a strained voice while gripping her shoulder tightly (mostly to support himself, he realized to his chagrin), "Dorm. Now."

She took a deep breath, before nodding after the boy let her shoulder go and started walking in the direction indicated by the map. Meanwhile, the taller boy tripped once, then twice, to his sister's growing shock, but finally got control of himself before the girl could offer her help. As they walked (and stumbled, in the boy's case) down the green and red stained street, the girl started noticing the black, slightly shining boxes hovering a foot above the ground, boxes that looked exactly like-

"Hamu," a quiet voice interrupted her thoughts before she could finish them, "we need to go now." Taking another deep breath, this one much more shaky, she briefly closed her eyes, swallowed, and adjusted her suitcase's strap before continuing to walk. She flinched once as she stepped in a sticky, red puddle with a loud squelch echoing in the imposing silence of the city, but otherwise, the twins' trek to the dorm was relatively quiet.

Soon after arriving, they noticed that the dorm's first floor lights were on, in contrast to the rest of the city. Letting out a huge sigh of relief, the girl bounded up the stairs, scarf fluttering behind her, and jumped the last three steps at once before spinning and grinning down at her brother, still struggling with the third step. "Well, someone's sure tired today!" she chirped at him.

He glowered up at her (tiredly) in response.

She outright laughed at his weak look, before turning and opening the door with a flourish. "I'll see you inside, Mina! Try not to let those stairs get to you!"

The boy just shook his head as his bright counterpart closed the door behind her. After conquering the stairs, he all but collapsed next to the door, gasping desperately (and pathetically, he thought bitterly) for air. He sat there for a few moments, simply breathing heavily, and thinking to himself how he'd better pull himself together, because there was no way he'd be of use to anyone like this. After a long moment, he finally regained enough energy to drag his exhausted frame upwards. Peering into the window, he noticed that the lights had gone back out, which had to mean that the contract was signed, which meant-

"Who's there?!"

The boy cursed as he heard the frightened cry of his former (future?) ally and friend. In time, he would immediately trust the person she'd become with his life, but the girl she was now… that was a different story. Taking a quick breath to steady himself, he forcefully opened the door, hoping to take the focus off of his sister.

His plan worked beautifully. As he slammed the door open, the second girl in the room, a brunette in a spotless pink cardigan tightly gripping a handgun at waist height, squeaked in surprise. Apparently forgetting about the steps she was standing on, the girl tried to move to face the new entry, but ended up letting out another cry as her foot slipped and she went tumbling down the stairs… and landed directly on the other girl.

"Gah!"

"Oof!"

The two of them went down hard, the brunette flailing while trying to maintain her grip on her gun, while the other attempted to stay upright using her large suitcase. Tragically, they failed miserably in both regards, the suitcase-laden girl falling on top of it while her new accomplice's gun slipped from her hands and went skidding over to the boy, who stopped its momentum with one foot.

"Takeba-" another female voice projected, but was cut short to a dumbfounded silence as one last girl, an impeccably styled redhead, appeared and viewed the scene. In the resulting silence, the lights of the building suddenly turned back on, revealing the suggestive position of the two girls. Both blushing heavily, they scrambled to get off of each other, with the girl in pink rushing over to the redhead's side while the boy's sister immediately went back to him.

Again, silence reigned in the room as the redhead and the blue-haired boy made bemused eye contact with each other. Before long, the redhead broke the quiet with a hesitant, "I… apologize? For any inconveniences here. I wasn't expecting you two to get here so late. My name is Kirijo Mitsuru, I'm something of the unofficial student administrator of this dorm. This here is Takeba Yukari, she's a third-year like you two, and is relatively new to this dorm as well. I must apologize for forgetting, but your names are…?"

Recovering much quicker than her cardigan-wearing counterpart, the girl next to the door replied "Oh! We're the Arisatos; I'm Arisato Hamuko, and the quiet one is Arisato Minato. Nice to meet you both!"

Mitsuru nodded with a small smile and a "Likewise," while Yukari made a noise resembling a mouse that had been stepped on. Assuming that it was an agreement for both of them, Hamuko smiled widely, before turning to her brother, who had stooped down to pick up the silver gun by his foot.

"I believe this is yours?" he asked Yukari in subdued tenor, holding the weapon sideways, muzzle away from everyone. She quickly nodded an affirmative, scuttling over to snatch her firearm and stuff it in its holster before retreating back to her side of the room.

"That's a unique thing to be carrying," Hamuko noted brightly. "Is it, like, some weird initiation thing? Or is it just personal choice? Er, not that it wouldn't be fine either way, but, y' know, it's a gun, so-"

"Hamu," Minato interrupted, "I'm sure the gun is fascinating, but I'd enjoy going to our rooms now."

"He's right, I'm afraid," Mitsuru elegantly cut in from across the room, before Hamuko could rebut. "We do have school tomorrow, and getting no sleep before the first day wouldn't be wise. Yukari and I can show you to your rooms, if that would be alright?"

As expected, Hamuko immediately replied in the affirmative, while Minato simply picked up his and his sister's bags. Across the room, Yukari finally got her cheeks down to a lighter shade of red and plastered on a somewhat embarrassed smile as the boy walked over with both bags, before everyone followed the student administrator up the stairs.

As the party walked up, Hamuko piped up again. "You know, Mina, I can walk with my bag."

"Let's hold off on the more complicated activities until tomorrow."

"Hey! I only fell down once, and that was when someone fell on me," Hamuko huffed, "I was doing fine walking with it earlier when you were throwing up and dizzy!"

She blinked, while in front of her, the other two resident girls traded subtly sharp looks, before tacking on, "Er, what was that, by the way? Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah."

Hamuko sighed at his characteristically short answer. "If you say so…"

Meanwhile, the other two girls had stopped at the building's first floor, and turned around to face the new arrivals. "This floor is the boys' floor. Takeba, would you mind showing Arisato to his room?"

Slightly relieved to not have to accompany the girl who she had fallen on earlier, Yukari quickly nodded while Minato handed Hamuko's luggage back to her. The duo started walking down the hall, but not before a happy, "Sleep tight, Mina!" reached their ears. Barely remembering to keep his usual cool countenance, Minato just lazily waved back without turning around, as he heard the other two girls continue up the steps.

A few more doors down, Yukari signaled to the room at the very end of the hallway before they arrived, explaining while handing her companion a room key, "Well, this is your room for right now, so, uh, get comfy! Any questions?"

Minato briefly considered indulging his darker side and asking how often she was going to jump his sister, but settled on just quietly shaking his head.

"Alright then, well, we usually wake up around 6 to make it to the train on time, so could you set your alarm for then? So, uh, I'll see you in the morning!" She walked off with a slightly hesitant wave, which Minato half-heartedly returned.

After unlocking the door and lugging in his suitcase, Minato promptly closed it again, before falling onto his bed with a groan, hidden cameras be damned. Elizabeth had been right, of course (when hadn't she been?): seeing two of the people he'd left behind had hurt, and it was almost as tiring as seeing a grown up Hamuko. He quietly thanked whatever divinities existed that his normal stony personality was so easy to fake.

However, he mused as he kicked his loafers off, even more disquieting to him than seeing his friends again was knowing what they'd have to fight. And, yeah, fight: he couldn't convince S.E.E.S. to not kill the arcana shadows. At least, he couldn't without proper, physical proof, and he knew exactly where that proof was: Yakushima.

Takeba Eiichiro's final message, the true one, was the quickest and simplest way he knew to convince everyone of the truth. So, he had to keep everyone alive until they went to Yakushima, and he could steal the video. And to keep them alive for that long, they'd need to kill some Arcanas. So, not a perfect solution by any means… but it'd do for now.

He'd planned on worrying about the future for longer, but his body soon took over and put him to sleep, not even giving him the time to fully get onto the bed, change out of his casual clothes, or relock his door.

Upstairs, Yukari and Mitsuru had regrouped in the Control Room. The monitors showing a feed from hidden cameras placed in the Arisatos' rooms were turned off, to maintain some semblance of privacy for the twins when no surveillance was necessary. Despite this, Mitsuru was still pouring over the lower monitors from her plush, red velvet armchair, adding notes to the new duo's files from what she had gathered from meeting them.

Although the Arisato twins are uniquely similar in facial structure, they completely oppose each other in personality, Mitsuru primly typed up. While Arisato Minato is reserved and quietly attentive, Arisato Hamuko seems to be more talkative and friendly. Additionally, Arisato Minato displayed all the normal signs of Dark Hour adjustment, but Arisato Hamuko displayed none. Is it possible that some people are naturally adjusted to the Dark Hour?

She leaned back, fingers still hovering over the keyboard, as she pondered her last words. Yukari briefly cut in at this junction, asking, "…Do you think they belong here? Like, do you think they actually have the potential?"

Mitsuru briefly flicked her eyes over to her vaguely anxious under-classmate, who was currently scuffing her feet on the carpet, before replying, "We have reason to believe that they both are."

Yukari stopped her feet for a moment, looking up at the redhead. "…But you can't say why, Senpai?"

"Actually, I'm not sure why either," Mitsuru replied, fully turning towards her dorm mate and ignoring the slight animosity that Yukari had let slip, "My Father was awfully tight-lipped about them, but insisted that they come to the dorm. And while it's unclear if they both have the potential for persona, I'd be very surprised if the girl didn't, at least. I've never seen someone take so quickly to the Dark Hour. And even if the boy doesn't have the potential, he is awake during the Dark Hour, so the safest place for him to be is still here."

Yukari nodded slowly as Mitsuru turned her attention back to typing. If Kirijo Takeharu, Mitsuru's Father and head of the powerful Kirijo group, didn't even tell Mitsuru (who he told everything to) what he knew about the twins, then there was probably a good reason for keeping it quiet.

But that didn't mean Yukari had to like it.

Sighing while rubbing her eyes, she told her superior, "Well, Senpai, if you don't mind me leaving, I think I'd better go to bed. I'm only going to get a few hours of sleep as it is." Although she grumbled the last phrase mostly to herself, Mitsuru hummed in agreement, and nodded an affirmative to the younger girl. Yukari nodded her thanks in response before exiting the room.

As soon as she heard the click of the door being closed, Mitsuru immediately lost her perfect posture and regal expression, slouching and sighing and running a hand through her hair, ruining its styled and immaculate look (to her delight; she reallyhated how perfect her hair looked when fixed). Staring blankly at the monitor, she let her mind wander, as it was all too rare to get a moment like this totally to herself.

Despite herself, she quickly started focusing on work matters again. Yukari's hesitance and slight distrust in the twins' potential wasn't totally unfounded; it was surprising to find any persona users in the area, let alone two, and to find one with a natural resilience to the Dark Hour… well, the chances of winning a Kirijo group-sponsored lottery were greater. At least, that's what her Father would probably say.

And speaking of the siblings… After debating it for a moment, Mitsuru decided to check in on her newest schoolmates. After turning on the cameras, she chuckled at seeing their nearly identical positions in their respective rooms: half-on, half-off the bed, and still in their casual clothes, with their respective luggage propped up against their beds. Earlier, she had guessed that the two were very similar despite their outwardly opposing personalities, and this all but proved it. Twins, indeed.

Turning off the cameras again, she stared morosely down at her keyboard before sighing, placing it in her lap, and kicking off her heels. Updating profiles wouldn't get done by itself, and there was no way she could (or would) ask anyone else to do it for her.

Unfortunately, by the time the updating was finally finished, the sun had started to come up. Mitsuru had no choice but to stare glumly at the approaching daylight before entering the bathroom to put on her make up, fix her stupid hair, and paste her regal expression back on before heading to school.

AN: Hey everyone, how's it going?! I'd like to welcome you all to Lateral!

First off, thanks so much for taking the time to read this fic. I've been a lurker on for ages, but I just recently got up the courage to start writing a fic of my own! That said... you can probably already see the similarities between this fic and Reset, New Game Plus, Spiraling Destinies, or another of the millions of time-traveling Minato fics out there. Obviously, they were a huge part of my inspiration for this fic, but my plan is to not follow the original story as much as I possibly can. I mean, I love persona 3 fics as much as the next guy/gal, but there are only so many times I can read through the whole "Junpei/'Last night'" spiel, regardless of how good you are as a writer. It should be clearer as I continue writing, but basically I'm mostly avoiding the major plot lines that we've all read dozens of times, and changing the few ones that I leave in so that they're hopefully still fun to read.

If you have the time, please drop me a review or send me a PM with comments, suggestions, criticisms, and even flames! That's right, I just went there.

See you in a week(ish)!