Thursday, April 9, 2009, 4:15am

Iwatodai Dormitory, 2nd floor, Makoto's Room

Makoto jolted out of bed.

His hands were shaking, his body damp with sweat, his throat dry, with each gasp for air more painful than the last, and tears were streaming down his face.

Falling. He was falling. A blue door, he entered, a voice yelling at him to take his hand, it was gone, a woman crying, he was falling, he was screaming.

"Just a dream." He muttered, voice hoarse. "It's just a dream, it's fine." He stumbled his way over to the sink, washing his face clean as his heart pounded like a war drum.

Makoto looked out the window. It was still pitch dark out. There was no chance he'd be able to sleep.

He stumbled his way back to his bed and sat on the edge, hunched over. "Shit."

The rest of the day was a vague blur. No matter how hard he tried to focus, he couldn't even find the strength to write down a single word in his notebook. Everything that was said in class went in one ear and out the other. His brain felt like it was pounding against his skull, and his body felt like it was made of paper, just one push would be enough to throw him to the ground.

As Makoto walked out of the school, breathing in the fresh air, he could only hope that he could get some sleep tonight. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

"Yo."

Makoto flinched, completely failing to recognize the person standing less than a foot from him.

"Woah." The boy with brown hair put up his hands. "Sorry dude, didn't mean to scare you."

"N-No, sorry, my bad." Makoto mumbled out.

"The name's Kenji Tomochika. You're the new kid, Makoto right? I sit a bit behind you." He tilted his head. "You OK man, you look pretty rough."

"Didn't get a lot of sleep last night." Makoto shrugged, trying to act casual. "New place and all that."

"I got you. Speaking of." The boy grinned ear to ear and leaned in, his face inches from Makoto's. "I heard from Junpei that you're living with Kotone-san and Yukari-san. What's up with that?"

Makoto shrugged again, too tired to be bothered by the boy getting in his personal space. "It's a dorm, I live there, they live there. It is what it is."

Kenji nodded. "I see, you're that kind of guy."

"Huh?"

"Never mind." He said. "Have you been to Iwatodai Station yet?"

"Yeah, it's on the way to the dorm, why?"

He fished something out of his pocket. "Well, I just so happen to have this coupon for Hagakure." The wrinkled coupon advertised two bowls for the price of one, with the deal expiring today. "What'dya say?"

Makoto blinked a few times before responding. "Sure. Um, split it 50/50?"

"Pahahahahaha!" Kenji let out a big laugh and smacked Makoto on the back, nearly sending him flying. "You're funny dude, 'course not. Come on, this is my treat. Think of it like a welcoming gift."

Makoto opened his mouth to speak, but yawned.

"Maybe some food in your belly will give you some energy."

As Makoto wiped his eyes, he looked the other boy straight on. "Alright, but I'm getting extra toppings."

"That's the spirit!"

Thursday, April 9, 2009, The Dark Hour

Iwatodai Dormitory, 4th floor

As soon as Kotone entered the command room, she saw Mitsuru pound her hand on the table. "What do you mean you don't know where it is!" She yelled.

"I said what I meant!" Akihiko responded on the monitor. "The moment we started mowing down the smaller Shadows, that big one crawled away."

"This thing is a lot smarter than we expected." Shinjiro said. "We've boxed it in and hit it multiple times, but it just keeps escaping and eating other Shadows to recover itself."

Kotone's eyes went wide. "Wait, senpai did you say it ate other Shadows?"

"Yeah." He grit his teeth. "It's not a pretty sight. I'm pretty sure that thing is coming to your location, be prepared for combat."

"Understood. Keep me informed." Mitsuru said as she cut off contact. She sighed and sat down.

Kotone stepped forward, taking a breath before asking. "Is Penthesilea unable to track it, senpai?"

The red-headed senior sighed "No. Every time I find it with Penthesilea, it changes direction, and I have to start over. It somehow seems to know I'm detecting it. I was only able to get Akihiko and Shinjiro in its general location." She bit her lip. "Every time I do locate it, it's getting closer and closer to the dorm. We have to prepare for the worst. Are you prepared to fight, Shiomi?"

Kotone nodded.

"Good. You go out and take on any stragglers." Mitsuru turned to Yukari. "Go wake Yuki and protect him." She grimaced. "The full moon always makes the Shadows even more agitated than normal. I fear that if this one arrives, more will come with it. If they do arrive at the dorm, we'll draw them to the front, and you escape through the back door, understand?"

"Y-Yes." Yukari gulped.

"Then go." Mitsuru ordered, as she turned her attention back to the monitor.

The moment it happened, Makoto flinched.

The colors of the world became garish and sickly, the air itself instantly began to smell of rust and mold, and, were any other people near him, they would have turned into coffins.

Makoto rolled out of bed, having drifted in and out of sleep after coming home. His body felt only marginally better after eating with Kenji.

He took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. He repeated it until the tightness in his chest slowly faded. It's been a long time since I had to see this. Every midnight since that night...

At the stroke of midnight, for nearly ten years straight, the world itself changed. It was something he and he alone had to experience. No matter where he went, or who he talked to, no one seemed to know about this hidden hour.

Eventually he learned to not talk about it at all. A child could say such things and be dismissed as possessing an overactive imagination; a teenager less so. In due time he learned to sleep early and wake up long after it ended.

Ignore it, pretend it did happen, and move on.

Makoto stood up and walked languidly over to the mirror. He looked how he felt, diseased and warped.

A loud knock on his door interrupted his thoughts. "I'm sorry! I'm coming in!" A voice yelled out. His door opened, and revealed a terrified looking Takeba with a sword in one hand. "Get dre-" she looked from the bed to him at the sink, staring wide-eyed at her. "Get dressed, we have to go." She said. "I'm sorry, I don't have time to explain. We have to go right now."

Makoto blinked a few times before answering "R-Right."

They rushed down the stairs and made their way out the back door, him clutching the short sword she gave him like his life depended on it. As they ran, Makoto noticed she was fully dressed, the only difference between her day outfit being a red armband, as well as a gun on her hip.

His stomach turned. Something bad is going on.

"OK." Takeba stopped them once they got a block away from the dorm, the eerie light and dead air of this twisted world only making things more unsettling. "I don't think any of them are here. Kotone should be taking care of the ones in the front of the dorm."

"What's going on?" Makoto asked. He winced, as another headache started up.

"It's hard to explain."

He grit his teeth and screamed at her. "Try!"

She flinched back.

"Sorry. Ah!" He dropped the sword as he fell to his knees and grabbed his head.

"Are you OK?" She leaned down and gently placed her hand on his shoulder.

"My head." He said in between deep breaths. "It's been pounding all day. I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell."

Takeba nodded. "It's OK, I understand. I was like that too right before I awoke my Persona." She picked up the sword and gently placed it in his hands.

He looked up to her, face twisted in pain and confusion. "Persona- what?"

"It's-" She tilted her head upwards, and her eyes went wide. "We have to go." She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up.

As they started to run, Makoto looked behind him and saw several...things coming toward them. Three black vicious blobs with blue masks slithering on the sidewalk.

"Crap!" They stopped running as two more appeared in front of them. Takeba whipped out her gun and, rather than aim it at them, put it right under her chin.

His eyes widened. "Wait! Takeba!" Makoto yelled as she fired and then-

A glorious blue light emerged from around her, and a woman riding a bull's head appeared. "Garu!" Takeba yelled as the spirit sent out a brutal gust of wind, pulverizing one of the blobs. She fired the gun again and the spirit appeared a second time, sending out another blast of air that crushed one of the creatures.

Takeba fell to her knees. "Go." She said as she gasped for air. "Run. I'll take these." As the ones behind them crawled forward Makoto tightly gripped the sword handle. "Are you listening to me! Run!"

Instead, Makoto ran at the blob. He swung hard at the first blob, screaming as he whacked its head off.
As it disintegrated, another one of the blobs crawled forward and sucker-punched Makoto, sending him rolling on the sidewalk.

"Makoto-kun!" Takeba yelled at him.

A voice rang out. "Hama!" A bright flash of light struck one and destroyed it.

As Makoto struggled to get up, Shiomi appeared in front of them, holding a gun to the side of her head.

"Strike them down Elea!" She called out, and a green striped woman, surfing in on a floating obsidian tortoise, appeared before them. She sent another blast of light from her hand, vanquishing the remaining blob.

Makoto sat there, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"Cool huh?" She said with a cocky grin. "Come on." She offered him a hand up.

"Yeah." Makoto mumbled out.

Once they both got on their feet, Kotone puffed out her chest, and put her hands on her hips. "OK, change of plans. Since the big Shadow isn't showing up and we cleaned up the grunts, we're going to stick together and regroup with our senpai." She said authoritatively. "Strength in numbers and all that. Understood?"

Yukari and Makoto both nodded, both looking tired and scared.

Kotone gave Makoto a sympathetic look and put her hand on his shoulder. "I promise I'll explain everything in due time, just follow my lead and stay with us, OK? It's for your own safety."

"Yeah, OK." He said between breaths.

"Anything?" Shinjiro asked as he limped towards the front of the dorm. His left eye had a large bruise, and as he sat down on the stairs he let out a pained grunt.

Mitsuru shook her head as her Persona disappeared. "I can't find it at all. I'm not sure if it's hiding or it ran away."

Both heard a set of rapidly approaching footsteps. They turned to see Akihiko, running as fast as he could towards them.

"Anything?" Shinjiro asked Akihiko as he stopped to catch his breath. Akihiko shook his head. "Son of a bitch." Shinjiro growled. "I don't believe for a goddamn minute that thing isn't waiting around somewhere, ready to jump us." Shinjiro looked all around him, trying to suss out every hiding spot it could be in.

Mitsuru looked away and grabbed her arm. "It's odd...Shadows aren't supposed to be able to plan like this. Even the ones that can fight intelligently rarely exhibit do more than take advantage of momentary weaknesses."

"It utilizes hit and run tactics, it flees every time you use Penthesilea to scan it, it even ate the smaller ones to recover and seemed to be able to order them around." Akihiko stood up. "Think they're getting smarter? Or is it just the full moon making them act weird?"

"I don't know." Mitsuru said. "It's bothering me."

A voice in the distance rang out. "SENPAAAAAI!" All three turned to see Kotone waving, with Yukari and Makoto behind her.

"Shiomi." Mitsuru said with a smile. "I see you defeated all of the Shadows on your end." She responded with a thumbs up, which made Mitsuru chuckle. "Good job."

Just as the younger students were about to rejoin the third years, a whistling noise to her right caught Mitsuru's attention. Before she could react, an explosion erupted mere feet from Kotone's group, knocking back all six students and throwing everyone to the ground.

"Fuck!" Shinjiro was the first to stand. He saw it out of the corner of his eye, the multi-armed Shadow that had attacked him and Akihiko, clinging to the side of the wall on a building across the street.

One hand held a blue mask with an "I" carved into its forehead high into the air, three were used to cling to the wall, and the rest were used to juggle the various knives it held. Almost like it was mocking theme, daring them to attack.

"You bastard!" He took out his Evoker and aimed it as his head as he jumped over the railing. "Come get some!"

Makoto hissed. He was thrown back several feet away from the force of the blast and landed on his back. In front of him, the three senpai were having a battle with that thing, one of the "Shadows" they were talking about. Next to him, Shiomi and Takeba were on the ground, wincing in pain.

"Are you alright?" He asked, as he flipped over from his back to his stomach.

Takeba forced herself up. "Yeah. Kotone?"

Shiomi gave a shaking thumbs up. "Never been better." She said through a gritted teeth, blood trickling down her forehead as she spoke.

"Be careful!" Kirijo shouted, drawing their attention. "The Shadow's power is rising!"

The writhing mass of limbs started to contract, ramming its various knives into itself as they wrapped around the mask. It rose off the ground, eventually forming into a thin, compact, and humanoid form.

The mask it wore sported an exaggerated smile. It pointed to the third-years, and then wagged its finger.

"Son of a bitch!" Aragaki put the gun to his head and roared. "Castor!" A black-clad man with golden hair appeared above him, riding- no, merged with what appeared to be a horse. It charged at the Shadow, which swiftly dodged.

"Oh no you don't." Behind him Sanada did the same thing with his gun. "Persona!" A thick chested man with equally blond hair emerged and sucker-punched it with his sharp, needle-like arm. A chunk of its mask was blown off as the Shadow was send rolling on the street.

"Alright!" Sanada said with a big smile on his face. "Watch this rookies, this is how you take them down."

"Be careful Akihiko!" Kirijo yelled. "That Shadow, it's changing again!"

The Shadow stood up, the pieces of its mask floating back to it and reattaching themselves. It began to contort again, this time twisting its limbs and body until the mask was in the center of it. Its two hands clapped together as a loud buzzing noise emerged from it.

"Grrr!" Sanada shot himself again. "Polydeuces!" The spirit emerged against and this time shot a bolt of lightning, missing the creature by several feet. "What?" Sanada walked forward and tripped, falling to the ground. "Shit!"

"Aki!" Aragaki moved to help him but began stumbling. "What the hell?"

Kirijo grit her teeth. "Damn it, this thing is affecting our sense of coordination." She took her gun and aimed at herself. "Penthesilea!" A masked rapier-wielding women emerged. "Mabufu!" With a swing of its sword, it cast a trail of ice shards, blanketing the street and burying the Shadow underneath.

"Woah." Takeba's eyes were wide open.

Shiomi punched the air. "Wooo!" She stumbled towards their senpai, bracing herself on the wall. "Nice job senpai."

"Nice." Aragaki said as he stumbled over to her. "I can almost feel my legs ag-AHH!"

the moment he turned away from the Shadow, one of its knives shot out of its body and impaled him in the back.

Sanada jumped to his feet, eyes wide. "Shinji!"

A shower of knives shot forth from the Shadow's body. Takeba grabbed Makoto and threw them both to the ground, narrowly dodging being hit. Sanada and Aragaki were impaled with a dozen knives each as Kirijo managed to defend herself and Shiomi with her Persona.

"Oh God." Takeba whispered.

"Makoto! Yukari!" Shiomi yelled at them. "Run! Please!"

"Damn you!" Kirijo roared as she summoned her the rapier-wielding spirit once more and had it indiscriminately fire shards of ice at the creature. "Penthesilea!"

Despite the pandemonium, Makoto managed to stand up.

He felt...calm. His head no longer pounded. His heart no longer felt like someone was reaching into his chest to crush it with their bare hand. He could breath. He was at ease.

His eyes were aimed squarely at the gun that Takeba dropped a few feet away from him.

But it wasn't a gun. It looked like one, and even from this distance he couldn't exactly point out what would identify it as a real or a fake, but he saw the others use it. Aiming it at themselves and summoning those spirits. Their...Persona

"Walk, don't run."A voice told him, soft and warm.

Slowly he stepped forward, his sense of balance slightly off, but not enough to stop him. He could make out that Takeba and Shiomi were yelling at him, that Kirijo had been hit by that Shadow, but as he picked up the object and it to his head, he thought of none of that. All he could think of was a single name.

"Go on, say it." A voice called out to him, from everywhere and nowhere all at once. From the vast cosmos and from his very cells. "You know my name, even if you haven't said it for a long time."

As the Shadow rushed towards him, Makoto put it up to his head and pulled the trigger.

"I am thou," the glorious voice said as he appeared above him in a shining blue light, "thou art I. From the sea of thy soul I have come to thee... I am the master of strings, I am-"

"Orpheus." With mere thoughts, Makoto sent his Persona to punch the approaching Shadow back.

Kirijo wasted no time to follow up his attack, sending her own Persona to impale the Shadow from above as it was being send back, pinning it against the ground. Its limbs unfolded, ensnaring Mitsuru's Persona. "Yuki!" She yelled. "Finish it! Now!"

Makoto aimed the gun at his head one more time. "Go." Orpheus emerged and ran straight for the impaled Shadow, screaming as he took his lyre and smashed the Shadow's mask straight into the pavement. As the limbs wrapped around him, Orpheus grabbed the last remaining mask fragment stuck on the Shadow and crushed it with his bare hand, destroying it and the Shadow.

Makoto fell to his knees, panting.

"Hey!" Shiomi ran over to him. "Are you OK? Can you stand?" Even though she was covered in cuts and bruises herself, her grip on his arm was still strong.

Makoto tried to stand back up, but almost immediately fell back to his knees. "Sorry." He said between breaths. "It's a little hard to stand."

She took his arm around her neck and helped him up. "You did great out there." She said as they walked slowly to the others.

"Honestly," he mumbled, "I'm not sure what I did."

Once they got inside the dorm, Kirijo and Takeba used their Personas to heal everyone's physical wounds. His were thankfully minor, mostly scrapes and a sore jaw, while Aragaki and Sanada's wounds were much more dire. The knives may have disappeared when the Shadow did, but the cuts and holes in their bodies didn't.

Just as the world shifted back to normal, both of them cussed and groaned.

"You'll be fine for the night." Kirijo said, as Makoto noted a tenderness on her face. "Come on you two." She, Shiomi, and Takeba helped them limp their way up to the fourth floor for more serious treatment.

Even though no one said it, he could tell that Personas couldn't be summoned during normal hours. Orpheus' intangible presence disappeared when the world returned to normal. Makoto knew that the spirit was still there with him, but not as...present? It was an odd sensation. He felt almost lonely.

There were so many more unanswered questions Makoto wanted to ask about. Those things he fought, the gun he used to summon Orpheus, this miserable world of darkness he experienced every midnight – but his body felt like it was at the bottom of the ocean, and his mouth as dry as the Gobi Desert.

"You doing alright?" Shiomi asked him. Makoto didn't notice when she walked back downstairs. He barely even noticed that the lights were out, sans the lamp next to him.

He forced himself to sit up. "Yeah."

"Do you need some help back up to your room?"

Makoto braced himself and stood. His legs weren't shaking anymore. His body may have felt thrice as heavy, but at least he could walk. "I'm fine." He said taking a tepid step forward. "Thank you for your help tonight, Shiomi-san."

Shiomi gave a small, wistful smile. "Please, call me Kotone."

He opened his mouth, only to be cut off by a massive yawn.

"Hehe~." Kotone giggled into her hand before succumbing to a yawn herself.

"I guess we're both tapped out." Makoto said with the smallest smile on his face.

She nodded. "Yeah, sorry. I'm sure you have like a billion questions, but I think we should probably save this for tomorrow, if that's OK?"

"If I can even wake up tomorrow." Makoto said, struggling to keep his eyes open. "Thanks again."

She gave a small bow. "Thank you too."

They stood there, in pleasant silence.

Her face still had traces of the bruise from the explosion. Most of her other wounds were gone, the only trace that she ever was in a scuffle with inhumane creatures of the night being an incredibly light line across her upper eyebrow, and he only knew that was there because he saw her bleeding profusely from it. Her eyes, just as red as when he first met her two days ago, no longer radiated with that burning zeal that he had come to expect from her in the short time he'd known her. They were just tired.

"...good night." He said with a smile.

Kotone chuckled. "Night."