The streets of Port Island were eerily quiet that night. The sky was illuminated by a too-large moon that tinted the sky a sickly green. The air was still, with a musty hint to it like an old house left alone for too long.

But Akihiko had never minded the odd atmosphere. It was always like this at this time of night. The world changed, the people on the streets slid into their coffins, and the creatures of the night crawled from their hiding places. If he found a Shadow, he'd fight it. When he fought it, he got stronger. It was just that simple. And, hey, if he happened to find someone outside of their coffin before a Shadow could get to them, that was one less Apathy Syndrome case on the news the next morning. That was what brought him out on patrol that night, though so far he hadn't had much luck.

A shadow fell across the moon, and he looked up to see a massive structure dominating the sky. He stared up at it, then shrugged and continued walking. He hadn't realized he'd wandered so close to Tartarus. The tower loomed high over Port Island, taller than any skyscraper, its spire piercing the near-full moon above. Every night, when the Dark Hour fell, it appeared. It tantalized him – though he'd never been past the tower's lobby, the Chairman said it was the Shadows' nest. What he'd give for a chance to head further in…

Now that he was this close, though, something seemed odd. There weren't any Shadows roaming near the tower's base. Usually there was at least one, something to whet his fists with before he went home. But not tonight.

Just as Akihiko started to think that it was time to head back, he heard it. A series of low whispers, like the voices of several people speaking at once, on the air. A smirk spread across his face. The call of a Shadow. Right from the tower, too. He comfortably jogged toward its entrance, shaking his wrists out as he went. Mitsuru would probably give him shit later for heading there when he was alone, but it wasn't like he was going inside.

But the moment he reached the tower, he realized that something was wrong.

He didn't even notice that the gate to the courtyard was unlocked, or that there were no Shadows nearby despite the call he'd heard. The only thing he noticed was that there was someone lying in the middle of the courtyard – not a coffin, but a flesh and blood person. Akihiko stopped a couple meters away, examining him carefully. He was lying on his back, hands folded over his chest. He wore a Gekkoukan uniform, even though the school year hadn't started yet. His hair was blue, chin-length, and parted over one eye, and his skin was disconcertingly pale.

Quietly, Akihiko drew his Evoker and began to approach. There was a good chance that this was a trap – some Shadows were smart like that. He could probably handle himself in an ambush, but that wouldn't be fun to explain to Mitsuru. After taking a moment to scan his surroundings, Akihiko knelt beside the boy, putting his hand near the boy's nose. No breath. Was he dead?

"Shit," Akihiko murmured. Gingerly, he reached out and shook the boy's shoulder.

The boy jolted. He let out a groan, rolling over onto his side, and slowly sat up. He began to cough hoarsely, and Akihiko leaned back to give him some space. The color was coming back to his skin now. He looked up at Akihiko, eyes widening.

"Wh-what…? Akihiko? Why am I… here…?" There was a dazed look in his eyes. He swung around, looking up at Tartarus, then down at the courtyard, and back at Akihiko again. "What's going on? Why am I here? Where's Aigis?!"

He's definitely experiencing the Dark Hour. Doesn't look like any Shadows've gotten to him, so he's probably got the Potential too. Must've gotten it recently if he's so delirious, though… Akihiko thought. He held his hand out. "Sorry, don't think I know you. What're you doing around here, anyways?"

Suddenly, the boy leapt forward and grabbed Akihiko by the shoulders. Akihiko jolted backwards, resisting the urge to throw him off of him.

"Hey, lay off-!"

"What do you mean, you don't know?!" the boy cried. "Don't tell me you all forgot-"

Suddenly, he let out a groan. He slipped free from Akihiko's shoulders and put his hands under him. He breathed heavily for a second, and then started to retch. Akihiko leapt to his feet, pulling back just in time to clear the splash zone before the boy started to vomit. He grimaced and looked away until he was done. Even once he was done, the boy remained on all fours.

Gingerly, Akihiko crouched down beside him. "You alright?"

"I don't feel so good..." the boy said.

Akihiko gave him an awkward pat on the shoulder. That'd be the Dark Hour at work. People who weren't used to it always had a bad time the first few times they went in. Why did this guy know him, though? Maybe he was a fan. The girls at school acted kind of like this with him.

"Come on, I'll take you back to our dorm. Mitsuru'll know what to do with you," Akihiko said. He carefully lifted his arm around his shoulder and pulled him to his feet. "You're heavier than you look. You work out?"

"...I run sometimes," the boy murmured as they started to walk out of the courtyard.

"No kidding? The boxing team does joint warm-ups with the track team sometimes, so maybe we'll run into each other..."

The two of them continued down the road together in muted conversation, away from Tartarus's base.

As they walked away, the ground where Minato Arisato had lain only a few moments before began to ripple, like it was a pond that a stone had been thrown into.

A black-cloaked figure burst from the liquid earth. Chains burst from the distortion, entangling its body. It roared and struggled against its bindings, before suddenly thrusting its arms out. The chains shattered, and the figure flew free as more chains rushed to imprison it once again.

A hand the size of a person, skeletal and tar-skinned, tore free from the rippling ground beneath the figure. The chains reversed course, drawing around the new intruder. It writhed in their grasp as the chains dragged it down, until it sunk completely into the ground, and the earth became solid once more.

The cloaked being clenched its hand into a fist, and then released its grip. It turned its head past the peak of the tower, its gaze falling upon the moon. It was free.

And yet.

This world felt like no less of a prison than where it had just escaped from. The air itself was wrong. The moon did not call to it the way it once had.

This was not the realm of its origin. This was somewhere similar, yet alien. The only thing that felt the same was the presence of the human that had hosted it for many years, who was being led further away from it with each passing second.

Suddenly, a thin, gelatinous arm shot from the earth. The figure dashed backwards, yanking its cloak from its shoulders. With its other arm, it grabbed its sword and swung it at the arm, cleaving the attacker's hand from its wrist. The severed appendage flopped to the ground, squirming and twitching before dissolving into black mist.

Then, a multitude of hands burst from the ground, filling the courtyard. The figure dashed and wove through a forest of clawing hands and swinging blades, deftly avoiding the spiraling daggers of blue energy that the Shadow cast at it and cutting through any stray arms with workman-like efficiency. Finally, as it approached the tower's gate, it saw what it was looking for – an appendage carrying a blue mask.

The figure swung its blade, cleaving the mask in twain. The two halves clattered to the ground, the forest of arms dissolving into an ashy mist. Now, it merely had to wait for the inevitable – for the fallen piece to return to its origin.

Nothing came.

The cleaved halves of the mask shuddered, then drew together, rejoining with not even a crack.

We were mistaken, the Magician said.

The figure attempted to stomp on the mask, only for it to instantly dissolve into dust, denying it the pleasure of useless destruction. A taunting laugh rang through the air as the dust faded away. With a snarl, the figure turned away from the tower.

So even this world's Shadows were alien to it. It was impossible for it to absorb its fragments in this world. It could not call to its mother. Far from this place, it could sense another Death, one far more incomplete than it.

The situation fell into place quickly. This world's Fall was proceeding. There was no purpose for this Death in this world. Not if it could not join with its shards and summon forth its mother. Then what was there for it to do?

Somewhere within Death, a consciousness stirred. In a voice it had once borrowed, it pointed the way.

Death's body shuddered, and then dissolved into black mist. It rose and began to float over the bay, toward where its host had gone. It passed over the bay and descended into the city. Finally, it reached the individual it had been searching for, just as he and his rescuer reached a large brick building.

"Alright, this is our stop. You can crash on our couch for the night, and we'll figure things out in the morning, okay?" Akihiko said.

"...Sure," Minato replied.

As the two climbed the building's steps, the black mist sunk into its former host's shadow, unnoticed by all.

In the moments before the Dark Hour ended, a blue butterfly landed upon a nearby streetlamp. It remained there, its wings still, until midnight passed and the world began to move once again.

Hamuko tugged at the sleeves on her uniform, frowning at her reflection in the mirror. She turned herself around, playing with the hem of her blazer and trying to pull it into a more comfortable position. Something about her uniform felt uncomfortable in a way that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Was it the way it fit? No, it fit fine… More than fine, actually. It wasn't that she was uncomfortable with wearing a blazer – her school before this one had one too.

Finally, her gaze fell on the circular logo on the uniform's breast, and she sighed. That was it. It wasn't anything wrong with the uniform, her stupid brain just couldn't get over the school itself.

It had been weeks since she'd been asked to come to Iwatodai and attend Gekkoukan High School. The letter had baffled her. It wasn't like she'd had a hard time passing the entrance exam, but… why her? Her grades were decent, but they weren't exemplary; she'd never been the star player on her volleyball team; and she was pretty sure she hadn't entered any lotteries to get in. She couldn't think of a single thing that would inspire them to invite her back to the city. It was almost depressing. If she was being honest, she hadn't expected that she'd ever return to Iwatodai.

She played with the sleeves of her uniform some more and pulled the hem of her skirt into place. After some thought, she loosened the knot on the ribbon around her neck. Finally feeling somewhat satisfied, she pulled a hair-tie off of her wrist and pulled her hair into a high ponytail. She ran her fingers through it a couple of times, and then smiled at her reflection as her bedroom door opened behind her.

"Oh, you're wearing your new uniform, Hamu-chan?" her aunt said as she walked in.

"I thought I'd make a better impression if I wore it there," Hamuko said, turning toward her.

Her aunt nodded. "I think you might have the right idea. I wish your father could see you wearing his school's uniform. I think he'd be proud."

Hamuko's plastic smile faltered slightly at the mention of her father. She recovered quickly – she didn't want to make it weird. Who knew when the next time she'd see her family would be?

Finally, her aunt seemed to remember why she'd come in, and said, "Oh, your uncle just got back with the car. Are you ready to go?"

"Just about," Hamuko said. All of her personal belongings fit into her suitcase with her clothes. There hadn't really been much to bring. Just a laptop, what few CDs she hadn't digitized, her clothes. She'd spent most of her life on the move, so she'd learned to keep things light. Because of that, she'd never gotten into the habit of hanging onto things she didn't need.

"Okay, just meet us outside when you're ready," her aunt said, and then stepped out.

After taking a moment to look the room over and make sure nothing was missing, Hamuko grabbed the last thing she needed – an MP3 player and her favorite headphones, a pair of red clip-ons that fit nicely on her ears. She clipped her MP3 player to the front of her uniform, looped her headphones around her neck, and walked out of her aunt and uncle's house for the last time.

~ X ~

"Right here, shadow 10 o'clock direction, seize the moment, destroy the nation-"

The song booming in Hamuko's headphones did a lot to block out the noise of the city around her. Most of the trip to the train station would be spent alone. Her aunt and uncle had taken her part of the way, but it would be up to her to catch her train connections to Iwatodai. The crowded city streets boomed with noise, pushing her to turn her music up just to drown it out.

As she waited at a crosswalk, there was suddenly a loud screech, followed by the sickening crunch of steel and aluminum. She froze, her heart suddenly going a mile a minute. Slowly, she turned to see that a car had rear-ended a taxi, and both drivers were stepping out to yell at each other. She put her hand over her heart, breathing a sigh of relief. It was only when the people waiting with her began to move that she realized the "DON'T WALK" sign had turned to "WALK". She let out a breath, shook her head, and crossed the road with the crowd.

It had been ten years since the car accident that had killed her parents. Even now, with so much time between then and now, the wrong sound would make every nerve in her body fire at once. She still had nightmares of that day, though nowhere near as many as she used to. These days, they mixed with images from her old night terrors – mostly of the skull-faced figure she'd dreamt of often in the months immediately after. Her mind needed new ways to scare her after she'd gotten accustomed to the truth, she supposed.

As she walked down the road toward the train station, she couldn't help but think back on what had happened between that day and now. It had been so long since she'd been in Iwatodai – so long that she was sure that everything she saw there would be new to her.

She'd spent most of the past ten years being moved from home to home, never putting down her roots too firmly. No one needed to tell Hamuko that she was only being taken care of out of obligation. She could feel it in the way they looked at her. Her family had never been mean or cruel, but there had always been a carefully calculated distance to their interactions.

Maybe it was no surprise that she'd found herself evolving similarly. At some point, she'd stopped trying to make friends, and instead searched for a comfortable everyday life. From day one, she'd be friendly and try to put her best foot forward so that no one would have a bad impression of her. But at the same time, she kept a careful distance, so that no one could peek too far inside.

By the time she made it to the station, night had fallen. Of course, because something had to go wrong, it was still going to be a while before she could catch her train. There'd been a major delay – someone had wandered onto the tracks, according to the announcement at the station. No one died, thankfully, but it sounded like there was some trouble getting things back on schedule.

She took a seat on a bench at the station and waited. When the waiting got too boring, she stopped by a shop and bought a shitty 1000 yen novel from a store at the station. When she got sick of that, she ended up just staring blankly at the tracks for a while.

When the train finally arrived, it was long after it was supposed to. She made a conscious decision not to check the time as she boarded it. She still had so long to go… the last thing she needed to think about on the way there was how late she was going to be arriving...

~ X ~

"Been a little while but I'm still battling moving fast while you's just prattling no time for me—"

As the train rumbled down the tracks, Hamuko's attention fluttered away. There was little to look at outside her window, so she'd just been staring at the seat on the other side of the aisle for a while. Every so often, the train would stop, and some of the people who'd gotten onto the train with her would leave the car. Before long, she was the only person left.

...It's going to be okay. This isn't your first rodeo, she assured herself.

Sleep tugged at her eyelids. She leaned her head against the rattling window and looked outside. There was nothing outside but darkness and the city skyline streaking past. And… a strange glimmer of blue light.

Something about that light made her want to look closer at it. She wasn't sure why, but it grabbed her attention despite her drowsiness.

A blue butterfly flew alongside the train, keeping pace with it. The impossibly slow flapping of its wings hypnotized her. It felt like there was nothing else in the world but her and that butterfly. The drowsiness that tugged at her eyelids pulled them closed.

When she opened her eyes again, the butterfly was gone. Her music thumped away in her ears.

"There's no man's land no man ever survived invisible hands are behind you just now –"

Through her music, she could barely make out someone's voice over the intercom. She raised a headphone off of her ear to hear it better.

"We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by the delay," said a man's voice over the speakers in clean, even tones. "Next stop is Iwatodai."

Oh, already? She glanced out the window. The sky was completely dark now… what time was it? She'd gotten so caught up watching that butterfly that she'd completely lost track of time…

A few minutes later, the train lurched to a stop. Hamuko got up from her seat, grabbed her luggage, and stepped onto the platform.

"Iwatodai. Iwatodai. This is the final train bound for Tatsumi Port Island," the intercom stated to an audience of no one by Hamuko. The platform was empty – not even a janitor nearby to greet her. A clock ticked away over the turnstiles as she pushed her way through, pulling her map from her pocket. The intercom continued to give announcements overhead. Her music thumped away in her headphones...

...only for it to suddenly cut as the lights went out, and the world turned to green.

A/N: Kept you waiting, huh?

I started working on rewriting Reset almost immediately after I cancelled it in 2018. What I told myself then is that I would not publish it until I finished at least the first arc of the story. This ended up being the right decision, because my first few outlines were just flat out unfun to work on, and I had too much going on in my life at the time to dedicate time toward trying to make the rewrite happen.

For those who are new here, you don't need to have read the original Reset to read this. In fact, I highly recommend you don't. This is effectively a completely new story using the same premise as the original.

As it is now, I have seven chapters in the backlog. The plan is to publish chapter 2 in a week, and every subsequent chapter two weeks afterwards. After that point? We play it by ear.

On names: The original Reset was written back in 2010, before the P3 movies and stage plays were a thing. Because of that, I went with the manga name for the male protagonist and the popular JP fanon name for the female protagonist. In the spirit of the original story, I'm going to continue to use the names I used then.