Chapter 3

Minato was used to rude awakenings. One of the perks of growing up at a public orphanage was waking up falling in mid air, only becoming fully lucid when a freezing lake broke the fall (Lake-tossing, especially in winter, was a favorite prank of the older kids). Being woken up by a disgruntled, underpaid orphanage staffer with a bucket of ice was a little worse, and that was only barely beaten out by waking up to the dorm's alarm system alerting the approach of a shadow outside Tartarus.

However, even the blaring shadow alarm system had nothing on his sister.

"MIIIII-NAAAAA, IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP NOW!" WHAM WHAM WHAM "COME OOOON, SLEEPYHEAD, WE NEED TO GET GOING TO SCHOOL!" WHAM WHAM CRASH "DON'T MAKE ME START USING MY OTHER HAND!"

Groaning as his sister's din became too loud to ignore, he slid off his bed and stumbled over to his suitcase. As he rubbed his eyes, he blearily searched for the release button, and found it after poking random spots all over the front of his luggage. Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten that it was facing the wrong direction. The offending case hit him square on the nose as it opened with a click, followed by a thud as Minato fell over, spread eagle across his floor.

"First the steps, and now this? Wow, Mina, you're really getting your butt kicked by inanimate objects, huh?"

As his eyes finally cleared up, Minato saw his sister standing in his doorway (which he belatedly remembered he forgot to lock the previous night). She grinned down at him, already dressed in her school uniform with her arms crossed triumphantly. Slightly behind her was Yukari, also already dressed in her trademark pink cardigan, peering over Hamuko's shoulder. "You sure you're alright? Maybe we should hold off on the more complicated activities until tomorrow, huh?"

Closing his eyes with a sigh as his own joke was thrown back at him, Minato waved the girls off as he got up and closed his door. He shuffled over to his suitcase and changed into his school uniform that he had packed in his luggage, but not before glancing at his room's clock and promptly narrowing his eyes.

Walking back into the hallway where Yukari and Hamuko were waiting, Minato fixed Hamuko with a look of pure annoyance completely invisible to people who hadn't known him all their life. "Why did you wake me up at 5:45?"

Hamuko simply smirked and started walking towards the end of the hallway, but not before replying "Ah, well, I know your tendency to sleep in, Mina, so I figured I should wake you up early so we could make it to school on time. And I would have just told you to set your alarm earlier, buuuut… this is quicker."

Minato stared at her retreating form for a moment, but then just sighed another time before following her. Even after being hit over the head with another repeat of one of his jokes, he couldn't be mad at Hamuko. The girl was just too perky. Hell, he'd guess that even Shinji wouldn't be able to stay mad at the happy girl for long.

The trio made their way down the stairs, past the dorm's empty main lobby and through the intricately designed doors onto the streets outside. Even though daylight had barely broken, the lights in most windows were already on, and people were already starting to flood the streets. Dressed in everything from traditional business suits to doctor's coats to school uniforms, the only thing that everyone had in common was the Kirijo Group emblem, present on each outfit in various sizes.

Hamuko looked around in wonderment at the waking city. Unfortunately, she didn't see a doctor with greying-brown hair hustling to the hospital, and bumped into him with a squeak. "Sorry!" she hastily said as the doctor said the same before hurrying onwards. Staring for a moment at the Kirijo Group symbol on his back, she perked up with a sudden realization. "Hey, isn't 'Kirjio' Mitsuru-senpai's family name? Is she related to the head of the company? And where is she, by the way?"

"Yeah, she's the daughter of the company head Kirijo Takeharu; she isn't the dorm's student administrator and student council president for no reason," Yukari replied to the barrage of questions. "And she already left, she usually takes her motorcycle to school."

The twins exchanged glances at Yukari's offhanded comment about Mitsuru's credentials. That was… a strange remark to tell to people you had just met. Even though Minato knew about Yukari's distrust of Mitsuru, that comment seemed a little more forward than normal. Was that going to be a difference between his time and this one?

Meanwhile, Hamuko had simply shrugged, and Minato automatically blinked lazily in response, both deciding to accept the comment (although for different reasons) as they continued towards the monorail. Soon enough, while Hamuko continued to exclaim and babble like normal about the city, they all arrived at the station and boarded the train.

A familiar bong from the sound system sounded as the doors slid shut. The train jerked forward, and Yukari lost her balance and tumbled into Hamuko, prompting both of them to yelp (loudly) and quickly jump away from each other. Minato, still solidly standing, looked on with invisible amusement. "Is this going to happen often?"

Yukari blushed. But Hamuko was having none of it, glowering and punching her brother in the arm. "No, Mina," she reprimanded, "you can only tease people after you're friends with them. If you want to make friends, you've gotta be friendly first!"

She then promptly turned to Yukari. "If he ever gets like that, feel free to punch him or kick him or something. He usually only reacts to those kinds of things."

Yukari giggled as her blush started to fade away. "That's how you teach him? Remind me to never give you a dog to train…"

"I'd never do that to a dog! Besides, any dog is better trained than Mina."

The brunette laughed out loud at that, and Minato restrained himself from rolling his eyes as he turned his attention to the window, rubbing his arm where his sister had assaulted it.

After a few more moments, the train rounded a bend and Gekkoukan High School came into view in all its Kirijo-sponsored glory. The school itself was a multi-storied building, with an industrially designed exterior and Parthenon-inspired pillars at the entrance, which was painted a polished white that could easily blind a blind man. The school's light colors contrasted with the blooming pink cherry blossoms and bright green lawns outside, which were already flooded with students. Dressed (for the most part) in identical black and white uniforms, they all mingled with each other, no doubt catching up with their friends about their summer break.

Most of these details were apparently lost on Hamuko. "Oooh"-ing with her face and hands pressed up against the window, she exclaimed, "Wow, it's so shiny!"

Minato couldn't help himself this time, snorting and rolling his eyes while he heard Yukari stifle a laugh from the enchanted girl's other side. Looking up and shooting dirty looks at her two companions (while leaving smudge marks in the shape of her face on the window), Hamuko grumbled something about "no one having any respect for enthusiasm these days," before returning to her previous position.

A few minutes of Hamuko sulking later, the train pulled up to the station. Eager to make it to class before the first bell, a flood of Gekkoukan students stampeded through the station, leaving the trio of juniors as some of the last to leave the train before its doors shut with a snap. Weaving through students, they carefully tread their way past the shops of Port Island Station and the outer strip before arriving at Gekkoukan's pristine gates.

As they walked to the front doors, Yukari explained, "Since you guys are new, you should go to the Faculty office to ask about your homerooms. The office is in the hallway on your left as you walk in, so it should be easy to find."

"Alright, we'll check it out! Thanks, Yukari-chan!" Hamuko chirped appreciatively. "Say, what homeroom are you in? Maybe we're in the same one!"

"I'm probably in 2-F with Ms. Toriumi, like last year. And… yeah, I hope so!" Yukari replied as the two girls smiled at each other. Behind them, Minato mentally groaned. Leave it to Hamuko to become good friends with someone she'd only known for a total of a few hours. And that was including sleep time.

As his two classmates wove goodbye to each other, Minato started to move away from the office's direction. "Uh, Mina," his sister called, "left is this way!"

"I have to check something," he replied. "Could you find what my homeroom is?"

Sighing dramatically, Hamuko threw her hands up in mock despair. "Fine! But you'll have to talk with your teachers some day, y'know…" Minato only half listened as the tak-tak of her shoes headed away from him, as he quickly skimmed the student roster taped to the wall looking for names he recognized. Most of the names he immediately knew, and he mentally nodded. It seemed like so far, things weren't quite as different as he'd feared. But before he could fully check the list, a hand came down on his shoulder. He turned in slight surprise to see his sister, pouting in full force.

"Minaaaa… we're not in the same homeroom! Now I'm going to worry about you the whole class!" Before he could even reply, she started to adjust his (admittedly sloppy) uniform, straightening his ribbon and brushing lint off of his shoulders. "Now, Mina," she lectured, "I want you to be on your best behavior during class, and I expect you to make some friends too, ok?"

Stepping back with a grin, she viewed her handiwork: a much more neat uniform, and a much more disgruntled Minato. "You're in homeroom 2-E with Mr. Ekoda, but there's an opening ceremony we need to go to first, so remember: best behavior, alright?"

Without another word, the energetic girl pranced down the hall towards the auditorium. Minato was left staring at the open space (thinking about his unexpected change in classrooms) while several other students looked at him with narrowed eyes in disguised and not-so-disguised jealousy. Recovering quicker than them, Minato just shook his head (after all, being in 2-E could be a good thing) and followed his sister at a much slower pace, ignoring the whispers echoing from behind him.

Soon enough, he ended up at the wide auditorium and quietly opened the sliding door. He spotted his dull-looking, brown-haired teacher on the other side of the room, head tilted back and mouth slightly opening and closing. Ekoda was… napping?

Minato's opinion of his new teacher skyrocketed.

Ekoda awoke with a snort as the student drew closer, and then heaved a small sigh as he saw the new student. "I assume you're the new kid, Arisato Minato?"

The addressed boy nodded, and Ekoda continued. "Alright, then go find a seat here and follow me after the assembly so we can get to homeroom on time. I'll introduce you before I start class there."

Minato obediently walked over to an empty seat, pointedly disregarding some of the looks and raised eyebrows directed his way. The bell rang and the blubbery school Principal waddled up to the podium. Almost without pause, he began to drone on about something or other, undoubtedly of utmost importance to the entire school. Minato silently labeled it as utmost crap and promptly ignored him.

As he drowned out the Principal's speech (almost too easy to do), the blue-haired boy's thoughts drifted to the problems that would crop up the next evening. The main problem was the arcana Magician's appearance. From what Elizabeth had said, Minato knew that his sister would be the new wildcard. But because he hadn't asked (and because Elizabeth, even in her infinite wisdom, could still be more forgetful than Junpei on a bad day), he didn't know the circumstances leading up to her powers. If she could summon Thanatos, great. But he wasn't goig to take that chance. And even if he was sure of her powers, he wasn't about to put his sister through that night's terror if he could help it.

Then there was Akihiko's injury. While in retrospect, it was nice to have some forced responsibility to shape up the new recruits (Minato included), he knew that everyone would be much safer with the extra protection the veteran Persona user would give. Minato was confident in his own abilities, but extra help never hurt, especially when he was trying to keep the entirety of S.E.E.S. safe.

Killing the shadow would solve both problems easily… but he simply couldn't. He didn't have the power necessary to summon a persona strong enough to kill the giant shadow, and even if he could, that would lead to too many questions about his fighting abilities. Most importantly, he'd need to steal an evoker to fight the shadow. He'd need to steal something valuable from a dorm operated by Kirijo Mitsuru. There were certainly quicker and less painful ways to commit suicide, he thought with a shiver.

After an ungodly amount of time, Minato's thoughts were interrupted as the Principal closed his magnificent speech, and most of the student body began waking up. Deciding he'd better follow his new teacher, Minato rose with a yawn and trailed Ekoda out of the Auditorium, up the stairs, and into classroom 2-E, where he stood next to the literature teacher's desk. As the bell rang again, Ekoda stood up, rapping his knuckles on the desk to quiet the class. "Settle down, everyone. Before we start talking about the glorious Heian period, I'd like to introduce Arisato Minato. He's a transfer student, but he'll be staying here for the rest of the year, so I expect you all to welcome him. Alright, go find a seat, Arisato."

Scanning the room for an open chair, Minato was pleasantly surprised to find a seat that was at the very back of the room, hidden from the teacher's view by a particularly large student. Even better, it was sandwiched between a black-haired girl in a cream-colored vest (vaguely familiar) and a teal-haired girl in the normal school uniform (very familiar). As he made his way to the back and sat down, the teal-haired girl's head, previously bent down, popped up in surprise, apparently at the fact that anyone would decide to sit next to her.

What that little action implied about the girl's private life pissed the hell out of the transfer student.

He looked over at her to nod a greeting, but before he could, she flushed and stared directly down at her desk. As the girl collapsed in on herself, Minato sighed silently, still fuming about her surprise at someone just sitting near her.

Meanwhile, Ekoda started his lecture, predictably about the Japanese imperial court, the Fujiwara family, and Heian-era poetry and literature. And just like in the auditorium, Minato tuned the lecture out as his thoughts focused on more otherworldly matters.

He couldn't fight the shadow, and he sure couldn't just cross his fingers and hope his teammates would have better luck fighting the monster. So, that left him with… what, exactly?

He imperceptibly clenched his jaw. There was one option available, but that was… not optimal. There had to be a better solution then that… right?

Unfortunately, even after thinking about it for the rest of class, he couldn't come up with a better solution. The bell suddenly rang, startling him as students all around got up for lunch. He followed suit, but immediately after leaving the classroom was intercepted by his grinning sister, mischief clearly written in her expression in capital letters. She latched onto his arm, leaving no room for argument, and guided him over to a spot where Yukari and a smiling male with a recognizable baseball hat were sitting against a wall. As his sister rapidly dealt with introductions, Minato let out another quiet, long-suffering sigh.

This was going to be a long day.

AN: Hey again everyone, thanks for reading!

First off, I want to say that I'm sorry about Minato's monologuing. There's probably a better way to get some of the story content across, but I was too lazy to figure it out. But this should (hopefully) be the last chapter with any of it for a while!

Also, I want to thank Bladestar123, PlutoAn, de Razz, njhnaruto, and seekerskull8692 for following this story; Bladestar123 and Sain713 for fav'ing it; and especially de Razz for leaving me a review (And in response to de Razz: Yeah, I dunno what was going on with chapter 1 when I first uploaded it, but I think that's the last time I'm going to upload stories using cut and paste). It really means a lot to me that you all liked it enough to follow/fav/review!

As always, please drop a review or send me a PM if you have the time to give me any suggestions, criticisms, or etc. I'll see you all next week!