Chapter 6

Twenty minutes earlier…

This was a terrible idea. A truly miserable, god-awful idea. And Minato knew what he was talking about.

Minato's excellent idea had been to distract the shadow long enough for Akihiko to escape back to the dorm, and then stall long enough for the veterans to finish off the lesser shadow. And it had started off brilliantly. Getting the shadow's attention was easy; the shadow had labeled him as more interesting than Akihiko when he'd waved the meager kitchen knife he stole from the dorm as protection (since there was no way he was getting into the locked and protected armory) at the monster. Almost as simple was getting it to follow him, which just involved running away, since this shadow (like most) operated under the predatory instinct that equated anything that ran with prey, and put everything else on the backburner.

Minato had guessed all of that would happen from his past experiences with shadows. Hell, he'd even re-familiarized himself with the city's layout by walking around the town last night. What he hadn't known was just how much he had overestimated his current abilities in the dark hour.

Minato careened down the empty streets unstably, barely staying on his feet as he resisted the urge to vomit from dark hour adjustment. Behind him, he heard the shadow roar, but it was different from than the noises it made when chasing the boxer. It sounded less intimidating, and more hesitating, starting and stopping in short bursts almost like it…

Ah. The shadow was laughing at him.

He couldn't really blame it. Minato would've laughed at himself too if he could just breathe.

Gasping desperately, he rounded a corner and flipped his head around to look for the shadow, vision blurring as he did so. With his attention in back of him, he slipped on a blood puddle and splashed down with a startled cry.

As he quickly scrambled to get back up, the shadow slammed down right next to him, chortling in its creepy, deep-throated manner. It swiped at him with one of its bare hands, but Mianto was already on the move, and the shadow's hand clipped the back of the boy's coat.

Way too close!

Minato heard and felt the shadow leap onto another building, but he risked looking down at his analog watch. He'd been running for a grand total of… four minutes?

Crap. It had felt like an eternity.

Still, Minato thought through his needy breaths, given how far from the dorm he was, it'd probably be alright for him to lead the monster back over now. By the time he got back, the veterans would probably be done with their shadow. With that hopeful thought, he rounded a corner into a back alley, swerving through dumpsters and tin trashcans until he got to a chain link fence that separated the alleys. Grabbing onto a closed dumpster, he hauled himself onto its top before bolting to its edge and preparing to jump for the top of the fence.

It didn't go as he planned. Getting nausea at the worst possible moment, he slipped on the edge of the dumpster, tripping and falling hard onto the ground with a grunt. Just then, he heard a clang from the area where he had been planning to jump. Looking up blearily, he saw a knife fall to the floor, clattering to rest next to his face. But how…

Minato's eyes widened as he looked back. The shadow's arms were reared back, most of them equipped with glinting knives.

Huh. Throwing knives? That was new.

The boy quickly rolled behind a dumpster, while the place he had been lying a moment earlier was suddenly filled with knives hurled at an alarming rate. He grimaced. No way was he going to climb the fence now that the monster had a ranged attack, so he'd need to get out of the alley and find another way around. Gripping his pathetically small blade tighter in his right hand, Minato blew out a breath as he waited for the assault to end.

As the clanging of knives slowed, he swallowed, before leaping up as they stopped completely. Bolting out in front of the dumpster, Minato raised his knife and prepared to throw-

He had miscalculated. The monster, now unexpectedly standing right in front of the boy, grabbed him by his midsection with a massive hand, cutting of his breath and making him drop the knife in surprise. It gave a bellow of triumph before leaning back and chucking him over the fence.

Minato tried to turn around to prepare a roll as he sailed through the air, but once again, vertigo kicked in. Unable to properly adjust, he landed straight on his back, and had the breath knocked out of him as he slid to a halt. He staggered to his feet as fast as he could, clutching his chest with one hand while watching the shadow easily clamber over the fence from his peripheral vision. He got just enough breath to start dashing (jogging, really, but whatever) towards the main street, but he looked around in surprise when he exited the alley. Only one block away from him was-

The dorm? I'm only one block away from the dorm? How disoriented am I?

The blue-haired boy let out a sigh of relief as he approached the front entrance of the dorm. Now if he could find his senpais…

Suddenly, his legs fell out from under him, and he glanced down to see a shadowy hand grabbing his left ankle. What?! He knew the dark hour adjustment phase was bad, but not being able to sense a large shadow right next to him?! This was pathetic!

Any further commentary was suspended as the shadow dragged him into the dark alley adjacent to the dorm. With a strange snicker, it held him up by his left leg, dangling him like a fish on a hook, and sliced downwards with a particularly large hand. Minato dodged with a twist of his body as the knife whistled by, and he swiftly disarmed a different, smaller hand before severing it with the stolen blade. The shadow yowled in pain as its hand fell to the ground with a splat, and Minato reversed the swing to lop off the hand holding him. However, before he could finish his strike, the shadow swung the boy's body around, slamming him into the dorm's outer wall legs first.

Only Minato could hear the distinct snap of his leg.

He tried to scream, but his breath had once again been knocked out of him, and he instead let out a nearly inaudible, high-pitched whimper as his face contorted in pain. Dropping him in a bloody puddle with disgust, the shadow leaned over and swiped down with a few of its larger arms, still equipped with knives.

This time, they didn't miss.

Minato could only guess that he had passed out for a moment, because when he came to, the shadow was no longer looking at him. It was staring up at the dorm's roof, and it only took a second for the boy to guess why when he heard a familiar voice.

"Alright, we should be safe up here."

Oh, no.

Dissipating its blades into smoke, the shadow began scaling the building towards the sound of the voice. Minato supposed that, since he hadn't been moving, the activity on the roof was much more interesting to the instinct-driven shadow.

Unfortunately, that was not what he wanted.

No, no, NO!

He tried to yell at the shadow, but could only wheeze and cough, still not having entirely regained his breath. He stood up and took a step forward, only for pain to explode through his left leg, causing him to let out a strangled cry and drop gracelessly to the ground.

He rolled over, struggling to keep his eyes open through the pain, and could only watch helplessly as the shadow clambered over the edge of the building and disappeared from view.

Please, please, please…

Seconds agonizingly ticked by. As his breath came in and out in harsh rasps, Minato unconsciously moved his right hand to his aching chest, only partially noticing how thoroughly blood-soaked it was as he focused his eyes upwards.

Suddenly, from the top of the roof, there came an ear-splitting roar. Minato sighed in relief as the resulting shockwave rained light dust and debris on him. He never thought he'd be so happy to hear that sound again.

He only partially paid attention to the commotion on the roof after that, as he struggled to get on his feet by grabbing onto nearby poles, walls, and pretty much anything else he could hold with his bloodied hands. Leaning heavily on the side of the dorm, Minato began limping his way out, coughing mixed in with his ragged breaths. As he got halfway through the alleyway, he heard the door slam and watched Mitsuru and Akihiko dash by, with the boxer carrying a limp burden on his shoulder.

Even though he knew exactly what was happening, Minato still tensed for a moment, briefly ignoring the pain coming from everywhere. Hamu!

Crap. He'd really messed up.

However, he hadn't seen any injuries on his twin, which meant it was just exhaustion, and it seemed like Akihiko wasn't hurt either. Trying to focus on those positives, he slowly made his way back to the dorm's front door.

After several more minutes of struggling, he finally made it. Minato grasped the outer edges of the door tightly for support, blood already imprinting his handprint on the frame, before stretching a trembling, maroon-tainted hand towards the handle. He slipped once, twice, thrice on the door before finally opening it with a slam, and startling the person inside.

"O-Oh, Senpais! I didn't know you'd be back so soon, how's she-"

Yukari's voice chirped out uncertainly until she turned and laid her eyes on him. The girl froze in horror, gaze flicking between his broken leg, shorn torso, and the massive amounts of gore oozing from him.

Minato's hazy mind almost made him blurt out you know, most people pay for this view, but he fortunately decided to go for the more orthodox approach.

"What the hell," he asked, "is going on here?"

Inwardly, he was pretty proud of his acting job, although the sheer amount of pain he was in made most of the acting unnecessary. He was even more pleased when he saw his teammate take action, leaping forward to support him without questioning herself once.

"We're going to the hospital. Now," she ordered, and Minato had no objections. The duo made their way outside and turned left towards the hospital, with Minato fully leaning on her and occasionally hissing in pain as they moved down the street.

Mitsuru kept her gaze firmly forward as she paced back and forth through the hallway, her boots click-clacking on the sterile floor as she attempted to remain somewhat regal in her stiff movements. Passing a room labeled special care for the umpteenth time, she determinedly set her eyes forward and kept most of her inner turmoil out of her expression. But she couldn't quite stop herself from peeking through the room's window out of the corner of her eye, and glancing at the slight girl who'd taken the fall for Mitsuru's failure as a senpai.

They had gotten to the hospital in record time, mostly due to Akihiko's pace. Nearly crashing through the automatic screen doors in their haste, they had rushed to a sectioned-off area of the Emergency Room where one doctor familiar with the… current situation… presided. That doctor didn't even need to ask what the problem was before accepting the light girl from Akihiko and taking her into the room for a check-up, followed after a few minutes by a young nurse.

That had been ten minutes ago, little more than the blink of an eye for people in the medical field. But not knowing what was happening to their kohai made the veterans, dare she say it, really damn jumpy. And since neither Mitsuru nor Akihiko were particularly interested in any of the fashion or car magazines strewn about the small end table, all there was to do was take in the sight of white walls and smell of alcohol wipes. For the action-oriented duo, it was hell.

The redhead moved by Akihiko, who was doing his best impression of an ornery statue with stiffly folded arms and stony expression, and glanced at the door impatiently again. To be truthful, she was only a few minutes away from breaking the stupid thing down. She needed to get in there, to make sure the energetic girl survived this, because… because she just had to! The cheery Arisato hadn't even been introduced to the concept of personas, evokers, or even the damn dark hour before being forced to summon a persona and fight a shadow leagues beyond what anyone had ever seen before. And Mitsuru still didn't know where the girl's brother was, although with what she had seen and heard about the shadow's abilities, it was all too likely that he had stopped breathing an hour ago.

That last thought was almost too much for Mitsuru to handle. She clenched her fists and jaw tightly as she turned on her heel at the end of the hallway, blinking rapidly to… keep something out of her eyes.

Shit. The name Kirijo was really becoming a curse, wasn't it?

Before Mitsuru had the chance to think any further, the door slid open and a doctor with disheveled, greying brown hair padded out, clipboard held loosely in one hand while the other was tucked in his white lab coat's pocket. He nodded at Akihiko, who returned the gesture mechanically, before turning to Mitsuru.

"No worries, Kirijo-san," the doctor said in a strange combination of informal language and an authoritative voice, "The girl's fine. I've never seen a case of dark hour exhaustion this bad, but that's all it is. She'll be right as rain in several days."

"Several days, Sho… Hashino-san?" Mitsuru repeated incredulously, while the man raised his eyebrows at her slip. "How on earth could someone get this bad and still be… alive?"

"That's what I was gonna ask you, actually," the doctor, Hashino, replied as he plucked out a blue pen resting in his ear and pointed it at the clipboard. "Zero abnormalities in respiratory functioning, and it's the same story with her cardio functioning, circulatory functioning, etcetera, etcetera. This girl seems to be perfectly alright, except her extremities are frigid, and her head's burning up without the usual flush of a fever." A pager in the doctor's pocket went off, and he absently silenced the device as he glanced up at Mitsuru. "I'm sure you recognize those symptoms, but this is the worst case of persona-related exhaustion I've ever seen. The hell did she do, summon two of the things?"

"Yes," the seniors responded tiredly.

Hashino blinked at them, then glanced back down at his clipboard. "Huh," he muttered, "Then this actually makes a lot of sense." He popped the cap off of his pen and started scrawling more notes down as he walked back into the room. "C'mon, you two, I know you guys wanna see her. Though I've gotta warn you, there's nothing much you can do right now."

The trio walked into the room, and Hashino's pager started chirping again, making him curse and fumble around in his pocket until the noise stopped. The nurse looked up from her work on the tiny girl as they entered, slightly bowing to Mitsuru and flashing a small smile in Akihiko's direction (not that he noticed), before returning to her task of setting up Hamuko's intravenous machine. She had just finished sticking the girl's hand with a needle, and was now taping it tightly while Hashino began punching numbers into the machine connected to the motionless girl. After another moment of button pressing, the machine whirred to life, and clear fluids started dripping down through the tube.

The brunet doctor moved over to the nurse to double check the taping, but his pager went off a third time as he reached for Hamuko's needled hand. "Oh, for cryin' out loud," he muttered, taking out his pager and looking at the number on it. He replaced it with a small sliding phone and rapidly dialed a number before hitting the speakerphone icon, and placed the device on a silver tray next to Hamuko's hospital bed.

The person who had been paging him immediately picked up. "Hashino-senpai! Oh, thank God you called back, we need you down here right now!"

The man in question frowned. "I'm in the middle of something important here. I'm sure there's someone else who can help you out."

"There might be, but-"

"Then get them to do it, please. This patient is at the top of my priorities, and-"

"I'm sorry Hashino-senpai, but this patient down here is the one who needs to take precedence right now!" the person on the phone interrupted, sounding panicked. "There's a lot of blood loss and a broken leg, and this girl here, Takeba Yukari, specifically requested you!"

As soon as she heard the name, Mitsuru leapt up, blood like ice in her veins. "I apologize for barging in like this, but please let me talk with her!"

A short silence, then, "S-Senpai?"

Yukari sounded breathless over the phone, like she'd been exerting herself greatly... or she'd been heavily injured. "Takeba! Are you alright?!"

"I'm not the one you need to be worried about! I-It's Minato-kun!"

Mitsuru froze as Yukari continued. "We can't stop the bleeding, but t-there's a lot of it, and I think he's fading in and out of consciousness! I need you all down here right now! Please!"

"Yukari, calm down," Akihiko interjected, and Mitsuru almost winced at his typical blunt lack of an honorific. "We'll be down in a moment. Do you still have your evoker with you?"

"Uh, yeah," Yukari replied, a little off-kilter at the sudden question. "Why?"

"Doesn't matter, just have it ready. Until then, get Minato to a private room, alright? And tell that doctor you're with which way you're headed so we can find you quicker."

"A-Alright. You can count on me!"

"Good. See you there."

Akihiko hit the red disconnect button, and flew out the door without another word. Mitsuru sighed shakily in relief as she digested what she'd just heard.

They were still alive. Everyone was still alive. Injured, perhaps massively so, but… alive.

"…I'd better go after him. Akihiko's a fighter, not a healer. Will you be coming too, Hashino-san?"

"In a sec," the doctor replied. "I don't think I'll be able to do much while you kids do your tricks, and I've gotta make sure that this girl here's all set up. You make sure that other kid's alright, ok?"

Mitsuru nodded as she turned her back on the other two and walked towards the door. "…I'll make sure he survives," she promised quietly. "And then I'm going to kill him myself for being such a fool."

She slipped through the doors and slid them shut behind her, stopping to take another relieved, quivering breath before leaning back on the door. The redhead heard Hashino laugh and mutter, "Ah, youth" from inside the room, but she ignored it as she covered her eyes with one hand as a watery smile came over her lips.

Alive. They're all alive.

AN: Look, guys! It's my first (and probably only) OC! What do you think of him?

Shout outs to: hitmanmonlee, Xanxux, Asahar4, and Wighty Zalymun for following and faving, and crymblade, Gue3t, MarkOfGod, Hoshiro Raider, and Asahar4 for reviewing.

[In response to Gue3t: Hopefully this chapter answered your questions. And thanks for being interested in Myth corner, please let me know what you think of this chapter's edition!]

Last week, I asked you all if you'd like a 'Mythology Corner' section where I go over myth concepts in more detail. I got one 'Sure' and one 'I'm fine with it' in response, so Mythology Corner is a go! This week, we'll be talking about the best musician in Greek myth (and a character that is so complicated that I probably shouldn't be starting out this section with him): Orpheus!

MYTHOLOGY CORNER!

WARNING: GREEK MYTHOLOGY IS M-RATED, AND THERE ARE OFTEN THINGS IN THESE MYTHS THAT WILL MAKE PEOPLE UNCOMFORTABLE! TURN BACK NOW IF YOU'RE NOT READY!

Orpheus:

Who was he? As with all myths, there are differing stories on Orpheus' origins. The version I like says that he was the son of Apollo (the god of arts, medicine, and knowledge, among other things), and a muse (one of the goddesses of inspiration for the arts). With heritage like that, it's not really surprising that Orpheus was considered to be the most talented musician and poet of his time.

Orpheus fell in love with a woman named Eurydice, and they were soon married (Like, really soon; think within a 2-day period). However, at their wedding, a satyr (half-man and half-goat) tried to "abduct" her (read: rape her), and she fell into a nest of vipers trying to escape. She was bitten on the heel, and the venom killed her in seconds.

That was a major bummer for Orpheus. However, he decided that he wasn't going to give up on her yet. Using his music, he broke into the underworld and made his way past Charon (ferryman for the River Styx), Cerberus (three-headed guard dog of the underworld; we'll talk about him more when Koromaru's introduced), and eventually made it all the way to the chambers of Hades (Ruler of the underworld) and his wife Persephone. Using his music, Orpheus managed to charm the two of them into letting Eurydice back into the world above… if Orpheus could restrain himself from looking back at her until they exit the underworld. As you've probably guessed, Orpheus looks back just a few steps away from the world of the living, and loses Eurydice forever.

After losing his wife, he refused all advances from women for the rest of his life. That pissed a lot of them off, and a special bunch called the Maenads, followers of Dionysos (the god of wine and madness), decided to do something about it. As he was playing music near a stream one day, they tried to assault him with sticks and stones. Sadly for them, his music was just so good that the objects refused to hit him. Enraged even further, they simply attacked him with their hands… and succeeded. Orpheus was dismembered (he was ripped apart limb from limb), and the victorious women tossed his decapitated head down the stream with his lyre (basically, a harp), where his last words were muttered incomprehensibly to the rocks and waters.

Why is he the MC's initial persona? [SPOILERS!] This is where things get a little complicated. First and foremost, Orpheus' journey to the underworld and back is a perfect representation of MC's death and sort-of rebirth as the Great Seal. Not to mention, pretty much everyone loved Orpheus and his music, just like how everyone loves MC. Sure, at the end of Orpheus' tale, the fact that he was ripped apart would seem to imply that some people don't like him. But remember that they didn't like him because he rejected them as lovers, so at one point, they were very attracted to him.

Now, one of the most surprising ways that Orpheus fits as MC's persona is his relation to Messiah. For those who don't know about/were slightly confused by the end of P3 (and I only say this because I finally figured out the 'mechanics' of the Great Seal a few days ago), he called on the power of the Universe arcana to summon his ultimate persona Messiah, who turned him into the Great Seal. You wouldn't think that a concept from Greek myth would have any relation to such a clearly Christian reference, but it's not only related, it is directly related to one of Christianity's most important figures: Jesus.

This isn't true for just the game: parallels between Jesus and Orpheus have been drawn throughout history. Do they both come back from the dead? Check. Do they both perform miracles? Check. Orpheus was even considered a prophet by some, like Jesus was, so there's another check. These parallels run so deep that they became a major part of the Christian faith itself before Christianity became widespread. See, in the catacombs of Rome (basically, a massive set of tombs that run underneath large parts of Rome), there are paintings of Orpheus that represent a resting place for a buried Christian. Before Christianity became legal in Rome around 313 AD (thanks to the Edict of Milan), Christians weren't allowed to be buried in the Catacombs. So, to be buried in the Catacombs and retain their religion, early Christians resorted to having pictures of Orpheus painted on/by their graves to show their true religion, meaning that they accepted Orpheus as a... well, maybe not acceptable substitute for their true messiah, but at least a pagan alternative that would be better than nothing.

…Ok, that was a little off-topic. But basically, there are a ton of connections between Orpheus, Messiah, and the MC.

Phew… That was nuts.

Anyways, did you like it? Should I add more detail (dunno if that's even possible), or leave some of it out? Basically, is there anything I can change to make it better? As always, drop a review or send a PM to let me know!

Next week, we'll talk about everyone's favorite personification of death: Thanatos! And some more hospital shenanigans ensue, too.

Until then, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next week!