Shuji Ikutsuki was a man who was used to waiting.

At the moment he was waiting for the third potential recruit to wake up, so SEES can begin their expeditions in full.

Maybe those stronger Shadows leaving Tartarus was a sign that everything was beginning to change. It was a bit of an ominous sign when considering the Demon Night Parades that had plagued the island beforehand.

If things stayed at the intensity they were at, he may have to see if there were more Persona users he could source into joining SEES.

Shinjiro would be a great asset as well, if he could manage to convince him to come back.

Then again teens were nothing if not whimsical, and those skills trained from misadventures were often some of the most useful too.

There was something else that the man couldn't wait to arrive.

The Plumage of Dusk, a primordial resource that serves as something akin to Reason in deities, only it serves to separate humanity from the darkness… No, that wasn't correct either.

Fact: without the presence of dusk within a human they would lose the will to survive at best and at worst they would become a shadow.

Fact: most humans cannot retain consciousness in states of altered space time, e.g. the Dark Hour, the 2003 Tokyo Apocalypse, hypothetically 2007 "Swartzvelt" Incident.

Fact: when under the right circumstances a human can retain consciousness in an altered space time area but it requires diligent mental training.

Fact: adolescents have an easier time breaking the threshold needed in order to retain consciousness and may awaken to a supernatural protector that takes after what they hypothetically may need to be during times of duress.

This power is dubbed Persona.

Shuji had tried to attain one of his own but he never could grasp the mechanics needed to use such a power on his own.

Maybe it was because the man felt too excited to have super powers of his own that he never truly felt he was in danger, or perhaps it was because he never had enough potential, since compared to most others in the company he had one of the longest inoculation times before he could retain consciousness on his own.

Regardless of what it was, the chestnut haired man had little issue with funding SEES towards the ultimate goal of the company. After all, with the U.N. butting in it was a matter of time before it started messing with some of the other ventures the company was involved in.

It would be an issue if Shido-san pulled his assets out before they could at least guarantee his product.

In the meantime they should focus their efforts on the company's means to defend itself for when the time comes.

Faer was getting used to being a student again.

Wake up early, prepare food for the day, leave his small hole in the wall apartment before traffic starts, etc.

It was routine.

Nice and easy.

School would end, Faer would finish his school work before swinging by to Akihiko's warehouse and train his body.

Which at this point was not nice and easy.

That's to say that nothing about his upward climb has been easy but at this point he seemed to be getting diminishing returns, sure he was benching 885 lbs, squatting 1425, and deadlifting 1500, it was superhuman.

But Faer found that the issue he was having was that the materials he was using to train crumbled beneath his hands.

If they didn't crumble beneath his hands he was finding that he simply didn't have the strength to lift it.

Truly having a strength stat of 7 was an incredible boon but an even bigger curse to his instinct to lift heavy objects.

The Contractor had also found himself chastised as well from the last few nights, thinking that because he had this level of strength he could fight Demons bare handed.

He was half right, his blows would kill weaker demons but against stronger ones he would "splat" against them for a lack of better phrasing.

The ability of an average human added to his own wasn't the boon he thought it was. Most demons he had encountered over the last few days casually had outspeed him, which caused things to become more sticky than they might've if he wasn't just getting arrogant about his abilities.

If anything this served to show that humans and those that prey on them are in two completely different tiers of power.

【Name: Faer Jaecar】

【Level 6】

『HP: 218/218』

『MP: 28/28』

『Str: 7』

『Agi: 5(8.5)』

『End: 5』

『Int: 4(70fps)』

『Mag: 4』

『Dex: 5』

『Luk: 3』

Conflict Points: 65

Available Stat Points: 11

Even with the stark growth that he had it was hard to keep up with most magic attacks-

"Ah! It's Ogre-Senpai!"

"Do you think his back has a face on it?"

"Did you hear? Since he went to fight Sanada-Senpai, Sanada-Senpai went completely mia…"

"I guess it can't be helped… This is what happens when ordinary people try to fight the Ogre."

Exhaling slightly harder than he needed to Faer cut through the streams of loitering students like a boulder in a stream. It was mildly amusing at first to hear the comments of the students at first but at this point it was a bit dull.

If only someone tried to fight him.

But at this point he supposed that something like that plainly wouldn't happen since no one was really willing to do much besides whisper.

Suppressing a yawn the near superhuman got ready for class but his mind wasn't focused on that at all. Recovery was rough, and he definitely wasn't getting enough sleep to keep up with the demand that came from brawling every night.

No assistance, no new ammo, just him, clever maneuvering, a knife that was about bent in half and his fists. Unsurprisingly the most reliable thing he had was his own knuckles which he had constantly been wrapping.

At this point it was better to leave them wrapped up during school since they wouldn't throb and ache as bad after the "Medical Powder" kept trying to heal them.

He still didn't understand how that was supposed to work. It broke all of his medical understanding of how wounds heal.

Then again it did seem to be the same vein of the literal magic he was surrounded by.

…

As lunch break came, the Contractor stood from his seat and walked into the hall, unwilling to eat his lunch surrounded by the chatter that came about as soon as the teachers left.

Mitsuru Kirijo's face met his as he opened the door, commanding and full of presence as she seemed to be declaring something. He could almost hear her using "Bufu," only she wasn't actually there.

It was a poster.

There was some type of election going on for the school council, and the Kirijo heiress was applying for it. Faer wasn't sure why she was doing so when she had seemed so preoccupied with dealing with the Dark Hour but it wasn't his job to care.

Besides, knowing her, she would probably get it through sheer force of will.

With a sigh the young man stood in the hallway before deciding, instead of going to the library like he normally did he would go to the back where PE was held.

He had shit else better to do, and maybe he would see something… interesting while he was out there.

The field itself was nothing to write home about, a soccer field with turf that had an olympic track around it, but there was an old tree that had a bench nearby it.

It would do.

As the dubbed Ogre went about eating his lunch at the table looking through a book this time detailing the mechanics behind jet aircraft, he was met again by the same face he had seen when he had first walked out into the hall.

"Mr. Jaca, how have you been lately," the heiress asks as she sits across from him at the table he was occupying.

Why was she here?

Did she want something again?

Looking at the table, he scanned it to see if perhaps the reason she was here was just because he was leaving a mess on the table. Nothing… meeting the consuming gaze of the oligarch with an expression that he was sure was carefully blank he took a breath in.

How was it that such a rich and powerful woman needed so much from him?

The wind blew, gently rustling the tree's branches, taking away the warmth from the sun temporarily.

"In regards to the class work or our mutual affair?"

A small smile, if it could be called that, was upon the woman's face for a fraction of a second, with his enhanced reaction time it was plain to see that this grin was one of satisfaction.

From what, the Contractor could only hazard a guess.

"The classwork first if you don't mind." The heiress proposed. "You are a student here, and it would be remiss of me to never check to see if you're having… trouble comprehending the content."

Slights aside there wasn't much that he was having issues with, while he wasn't certain that he had ever been as studious or voracious with information presented to him he was not having issues committing the knowledge.

"... The course material. It's serviceable. I have no issue with the lessons," the man trails off awkwardly.

"Right, as far as our mutual affair, as you put it, is proceeding… UNDIT, is not directly supporting you, are they?"

There's the… remarkably soft handed question..?

It was true, since Faer had arrived he had been pretty much doing this on his own with little outside support save for the money he was given to use at the start of the month. However he was sure that she already knew that seeing as though he was not running around in a suit of power armor.

So there was something else she was confirming with this.

"No, I am not being supported in any way that dictates how I would conduct myself in those affairs."

"I see then. I'll be having Akihiko run some errands for me in a few days to a neutral third party later on this week. If you'd like, you may join him." The heiress offered with an expression that Faer wasn't sure how to catalog.

What's her angle, why the sudden olive branch now when he had been given the cold shoulder earlier?

Faer could understand that time on the roof but what pushed her to say something now of all times. The heiress was up to something, that much the foreigner was sure of but he had nothing to base this off of and no reason to deny this, since his resources were his own in regards to all of his purchases.

"Very well, I won't make myself hard to find then when the time comes."

Just as soon as she appeared, the heiress left.

…

Hours later Faer slunk through the back alleys where his hovel of apartment was, like most nights the Dark Hour was a cruel mistress.

This night a bit more than others as he got to see what Marin Karin was.

Which left him… very confused, hell by the end of the fighting he was sure he was leaving with a Lilim very happy to be near him for reasons that weren't very clear to him.

The only thing he was sure of was that he was pretty sure that his pants had never been more uncomfortable to wear in his whole life.

The debris that littered his alleyway had been avoided with the practice of a newly ingrained habit.

Then as he came up to the door he noticed it and the wall had been covered in dents that hadn't been there before he left.

Something was off.

Stealing a glance at the littered alleyway, the contractor was sure that something just wasn't the same.

Scanning from right to left and close to far, Faer honed in on what was starting to become apparent. There was a fight that had happened here.

Walking around the scene revealed that most of the scuffle had taken place where the garbage had been piled up, probably meaning the fight turned into a grapple.

Discarded clothes. A Gekkoukan uniform, female… well damn if that ain't ominous.

But it was also a good thing in a weirdly fucked up way, if there was a demon here causing damage it would've been cleaned up by the Kirijo's assets by now. Since they seemed to be able to fix anything before sunrise, something like this would've been cleaned up before Faer even got back from his nightly hunt.

The clothes themselves weren't especially covered in blood either, nor ripped in a way that would suggest overt sexual assault. Every button was accounted for, the cellphone and mini purse were still held within the pockets.

Odds are this was a kidnapping.

And in this back alley no one would be the wiser of it.

…

Come to think of it though, weren't there people that normally haunted these alleys throughout the day and night? Dark Hour excluded of course, but it was abnormal he hadn't seen one nearby on his way back.

Damn, he must've been more tired than he thought.

"Well the best thing to do is to follow up with the police, since this isn't supernatural."

Fuck. This was going to cut into his sleep pretty badly.

Regaining consciousness after falling unconscious was like the time when a child would spend before becoming cognizant, Minato mused.

Meaning after his dream ended and before he awoke the blue haired boy felt like he was breathing and thinking through static. Aware of what happened but the details were missing.

Sitting up in his bed he could see that girl, Yukari sitting next to him with a box of food placed on her lap as she read a thick book that was titled "Demon Compendium", he didn't have her pegged for someone into the occult.

Looks could be deceiving the blunette supposed.

The cardigan wearing girl had snapped towards him as she closed the book and fixed him a look between surprised, relieved and worried.

"O-oh, you're awake…! Um, how do you feel?"

How he felt… like he had to pee but he couldn't, but that felt a little inappropriate to say to someone that decided to greet him as soon as he woke up.

"Where am I?"

The simple answer: the boy knew he was in the hospital since he had been in a serious fight with one of the non-talking monsters but it didn't hurt to get specific.

"Oh yeah, this is Tatsumi Memorial Hospital. It's just a short walk from the station."

Why would anyone build a hospital near a train station, it would be way too loud for a peaceful recovery.

"After the doctors treated your cuts they said you weren't really in much danger just suffering from extreme mental fatigue… I- But, you kept sleeping and sleeping," there was a look of worry.

"You know how worried I was? Um... I'm sorry I couldn't do anything... Even though I was supposed to protect you, I... But, your power... It was amazing."

Minato didn't recall it being explicitly stated that way, but he would take it.

The night was hectic, possibly the worst fight He's been in to date, if he hadn't had support he might've never figured that the gun wasn't really a gun.

Or rather not the type of gun he was used to.

"What was that thing?"

He wasn't expecting an answer, not really since he knew what he needed for the most part. They go bump in the night and normally aren't too much of a pain to kill.

"Do you mean the Shadow? They're what we're fighting against, normally they aren't that tough… And the power you used… we call it "Persona.""

Persona… something about that name churned something within him, a deep ocean of power that he could faintly hear churn with untapped energy.

"We'll explain everything later. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before... I, uh... I wanted to tell you that... I'm sorta like you."

Besides the super powers?

"My dad died in an accident when I was little... And my mom, well the less said the better... You came here alone, right?"

The cardigan-wearing girl shifted uncomfortably as the silver-eyed boy fixed her a stare.

"To be honest, I already know about your past... But, it didn't seem fair, so I wanted you to know about mine…"

More shifting, but despite her guilt over her situation she cautiously met and held the stare of the boy.

"It was back in '99... There was a big explosion in the area. Supposedly, my dad died in the blast, but nobody really knows what happened... He was working in a lab run by the Kirijo Group. So, I'm hoping that if I stick around long enough, I'll find out something. That's why I'm going to Gekkoukan High, and why I was there when this happened to you. Of course, I panicked and there wasn't much help... It was my first time fighting them, too. I'm sorry... You wouldn't have to go through all this if I wasn't such a coward…"

It was a lot to drop on someone who just woke up, but with a more solid grasp of her motives and a glance at her hands and arms the boy reaches a simple conclusion.

"It's not your fault."

It's simple to see that much, the girl was way out of her depth back there. It had taken three fighters, all of them wielding magic of some kind to make a difference.

They still almost got slaughtered, that Boxer might've died that night too.

He was actually incredibly fast, and skilled, if Minato hadn't been paying attention to his movement patterns he would have lost his head.

"-Alright, I'm going to get going," the girl announced as she stood and handed him the box of take out that she had with her.

"I'll let the others know that you woke up. Take it easy, okay? Be a good patient! Don't hesitate to ring for help, I'm sure the staff will help you."

And with that she's out the door, and Minato can finally take the catheter out.

…

Since getting out of the hospital there had been a myriad of changes that Minato had to get used to, chief among them was balancing out the training that Mitsuru had the team run through at 8pm with everything else they did.

Though he did agree to working with them as he had nothing better to do, that didn't change the fact Mitsuru was a task master and loved to eat up time ensuring perfection.

Just the first night he had returned she had made sure he spent a few hours being instructed with Junpei and Yukari after they finished training.

Tartarus, the nature of Demons, Shadows, Persona as they understood the phenomenon.

It was shady to say the least, but none of the present company had been unaware of the dangers of the Dark Hour.

It was only a mild surprise he found that Junpei was a resident at the dorms.

Tonight they would take their first climb into the school turned hell tower.

It was about as safe as it could be according to Akihiko and Mitsuru but that didn't stop the older male from being livid about needing to stay on the side lines.

Considering that he still had the arm he almost lost, Minato didn't think it was too big of a price to pay.

"So school really is a kind of hell!? I knew it!"

"Ugh! Shut up Junpei…"

Crossing his arms Akihiko states, "He's not completely wrong considering this place is a demon's nest… among other things."

Stepping forward the redhead follows up, "In any case the three of you will be tasked with exploring it and gaining a more familiar grasp of your powers. Arisato, I have no doubt given your own proclivity to action you'll have no issue making use of your Evoker."

That's right the fake pistol he had been given had made the use of his ability easy he almost felt as though that it would be wholly unnecessary after he gained more power.

"With that said, for the duration of these excursions Arisato will be in charge."

"H-huh? Why's he in charge? Wasn't he just in the hospital?", Junpei said with a look on his face that portrayed his offense.

Mitsuru sends him an icy look before closing her eyes, "Iori, you have no combat experience. He does."

It was simple and to the point.

With that she took no further questions walking her motorcycle into the vestibule of what the school had transformed into.

"It's not just that you know, he doesn't hesitate when he summons his persona, and with his reaction time I can see him more likely to be able to make snap decisions that can make or break a battle."

Taking a breath, the older male looked to be remembering something before looking at his juniors.

"It's no exaggeration to say that you're screwed without your Persona, especially where all of you stand now."

It made sense, even with that third fighter back on the roof, they nearly all died anyway.

With that the rest of the group followed behind the third year student into the lobby, where Mitsuru seemed to be setting up an antenna.

Something pulls the boy's attention…

A doorway… it was both familiar and foreign, before the boy could stop himself he was using the Velvet Key.

An: You ever look back at something and wonder what the hell was I thinking? I'm about 7 or so chapters ahead than what I am here, and I like to think that my writing has improved, or rather I am getting back into the groove writing, doing the majority of the work on my phone hasn't done this any favors. Once I get to a good spot I'll probably come back and revisit the chapters and flesh everything out, fix the paragraphing format, etc.