Me, the yukis, yukari, junpei. Akihiko and mitsuru are standing in front of the closed school gate. Apparently something called tatarus appears during the dark hour. I looked at my clock. It was almost midnight. As 11:55 hits another student runs towards us. Clearly in a rush as he was out of breath. One with long emerald green hair and green eyes.

"Sorry I'm late ma'am. I just finished the paperwork for the volleyball team to get new balls. Should be good to go in a few days." the student said. I'm sure kotone and rio will be happy about that. Mitsuru chuckled.

"C'est magnifique. As always kaze. Your speed is impressive." mitsuru said with a grin. We soon got introduced to our late to the party team member. Kaze arashi. A third year same as Mitsuru and akihiko. He's the student council vice principal due to his speed. Paperwork that would take weeks to get done and get anything moving only took a day. Paper work that would have taken weeks. Only took the day due to this. Still this amount of paperwork just to get new balls for the sports teams is down right ridiculous. Mitsuru agrees. Which is why she's glad to have someone who can get it done fast so that she can focus on other stuff.

Soon midnight hit. The dark hour arrives. And gekkokaun high soon turned into a giant tower. Reaching the sky.

"This is tartarus, the labyrinth that reveals itself during the dark hour." mitsuru explained.

"Labyrinth? What are you talking about!? What happened to our school?" junpei asked.

"Once the dark hour passes, everything will return to normal." mitsuru explained.

"Our school has a massive connection to the dark hour. Doesn't it?" i asked.

"What makes you say that?" makoto asked.

"Of all the places that become tartarus. Why a high school? My only guess is that our school was the ground zero for this whole "dark hour" business. So what happened here?" i asked. Mitsuru looked to the ground ashamed about something. "Is there something you're not telling us?" I asked.

"That's enough skell. We'll answer your questions later. For right now. We enter." akihiko said with a threatening tone. I sighed.

"Fine…but you better answer my questions later…i'm sick and tired of you guys stringing me along before you'll actually answer my questions." i said going into the tower. A long stairway leading into an entrance in a massive clock.

"Damn, it's even crazier on the inside." junpei said.

"This is only the entrance. The labyrinth lies beyond the doorway at the top of these stairs." mitsuru explained.

"First, you need to get a feel for the place. Considering the numbers…we can split you into two teams. Skell, you'll be the leader of the first team. Yukari and junpei will go with you. Makoto will lead the other team. Kaze will be supervising with kotone." akihiko said.

"You said this place is a labyrinth…so how will i not get lost?" i asked.

"We're not asking you to go very far. I'll help you navigate by feeding you information from here." mitsuru said. Before we went on inside i noticed a red door and entered. And found myself back in that bizarre red room. Complete with the yukari and fuuka angel.

"Welcome back…now that you've awakened to your power…you may have noticed those tarot cards that appear when you get closer to people." angel fuuka said.

"If you had the wild card much like those two siblings. This would lead you to fuse more powerful personas. But alas your power is not the wild card. Nor is it the power of persona…it is a much darker power…the power of fiends." angel yukari said. Soon the tarot cards that appeared when i made friends appeared.

"Rest assured these bonds you forged will grant you power. Just in a different way." angel fuuka said. And soon all the cards gave off a flash of light and in their place were weapons. A longsword. A greatsword. Naginata and a bow. Most of them looked like they were in a desperate need of a blacksmith…but the bow. It looked like high tier loot from a fantasy mmo. It had glowing pink sigils on it. And had hearts where the string was being held.

"We know alot of these weapons don't look impressive right now. But as your bonds grow. So will these armaments." angel fuuka said.

"Come back again once your bonds strengthens or you gain new ones…until then. farewell." angel yukari said. The weapons then disappeared and i soon found myself in front of the door.

"You alright?" yukari asked.

"Yeah…just came through this door." i said.

"What door?" yukari asked. Clearly she can't see the door. And judging from the conversation going over there with makoto kotone and kaze. I'm guessing those two also have a door that leads to some power granting weirdos…albeit i can't see it. Much like they can't see mine. And so after that we entered tatarus. A massive labyrinths of halls with glowing green walls of gears all around.

"Can you all hear me?" mitsuru asked.

"Loud and clear…but how the hell are we hearing you exactly?" i asked.

"That would thanks to my persona…anyway. I'll be providing audio backup from now on. Keep that in mind." mitsuru said.

"And here I was hoping to badmouth you behind your back while we were in here." i said.

"I'll just ignore that comment…anyway you'll explore that floor and none further tonight. Keep up your guard. You'll never know where the enemy is." mitsuru said.

"Got it…why is she always like that?" yukari asked.

"No idea…anyway. Time to explore tartar sauce!" i yelled. Causing everyone to sweat drop.

Things went smoothly for our first outing. I got the idea of what to expect. Shadows. Briefcases that are like treasure chests. Stairways leading further in. i also got an idea of those i'll be fighting alongside. Yukari's persona io. Has both wind magic and healing magic in her arsenal. Every team needs a healer. And one that has to defend themselves is always a good thing to have. Junpei persona hermes. Seems to be packing physical attacks and fire magic. So if you need to smash slash or burn a shadow. He's the man for the job. As for weapons. Yukari fights with a bow. While a junpei goes in hard with a two handed sword. Before we left. I got to see the yuki's and kaze fight. Makoto's persona is orpheus is a mixed bag of fire strike and healing. While kotone's persona eurydice seems to be the opposite. Still has a minor healing spell. But has slash and ice instead of strike and fire. Though i am a bit disturbed by their personas considering that orpheus and eurydice are husband and wife in the greek legend they come from…i really hope it's not impling what I think it's impling…bleugh.

I also got to see kaze fight. His weapon of choice is longsword and pistol. Which is pretty badass not gonna lie…i just hope he doesn't mistake his pistol for his evoker. Because that mistake can hurt in two different ways. One is accidentally putting a bullet in his head with his handgun. Or trying to shoot a shadow with his evoker. Evoker's are fake guns. There for summoning persona. Not actually usable as a regular pistol.

"Allow me to show you rookies how it's done! Come forth! Musashi!" kaze yelled.

His persona musashi. Seems to be wind elemented like yukari. But instead of healing. It's got slash attacks to it's name. Makes sense. Considering his persona is a legendary samurai. would flip his lid if he knew this. Considering how obsessed that guy is with samurais. He even wears one of their helmets all the time. Colorful teacher i'll tell you that much.

After getting a taste of what to expect. He headed out via teleport considering everyone but me and kaze are beat. We decided to head back to the dorm for the night.

April 21st 2009.

Afternoon. Kaze came in and approached me.

"Are you free today skell? We need to talk about something." kaze said.

"Well. i was planning on joining track team today like makoto did…but i suppose i can put that plan on hold until tomorrow." i said. Kaze chuckled.

"Archery and track? Well, aren't you the overachiever? Still thanks." kaze said. And so once the after school bell rings. I went to the student council room and found kaze waiting for me.

"You're here. Want to head to the strip mall? There's this place that has some awesome takoyaki." kaze said. I was pretty hungry. So…

"Eh…why the hell not?" i asked. So we went to that takoyaki place in the strip mall…damn it was good. Not good enough to make your jaw fall off as the advertising says. But still pretty damn good.

"Hey skell….there's a reason i brought you here besides the awesome takoyaki…i needed a place where mitsuru wouldn't hear." kaze said.

"Are you actually going to give me the answers that fisty and the ice queen are being tight lipped about?" i asked. Kaze chuckled.

"Good one…but yeah. Remember how you said that the school was ground zero for the dark hour…you were right on the money. Gekkoukaun was at one point a lab…the very lab that eiichiro and arthas worked at ten years ago." kaze said. I looked at him with wide eyes. I Dropped my takoyaki back into the plastic tray after hearing this. I listened with extreme focus.

"The kirijo group was experimenting with the shadows. Hoping to use them as a device to control time itself…but something happened. Causing an explosion and thus here we are now." kaze said. I closed my fist in rage.

"So basically were here because mitsuru needs help in cleaning up her family's mess…was she going to tell us eventually? Or where was she going to keep sitting on this?" i asked.

"Not sure…i only know this because i hacked the computer back at the dorm." kaze said. I laughed.

"Didn't think the student council vice president was such a rebel." i said. Kaze shook his head.

"Nah…i just have the skills and much like you…i'm not a fan of people expecting me to fight for them without telling me a damn thing…i'm telling you this because you and yukari both deserve to know…after all her dad was killed and your dad was maimed because of that damn experiment…and i know yukari is in this for the truth of what happened to her dad. So share with her if you can…" kaze said.

"Yeah…thanks for telling me this kaze." i said. He shrugged his shoulders.

"We're expected to fight as a team…and if that's the case we can't afford distrust over secrets…something i wish mitsuru would consider. But oh well.." kaze said. I felt this was the start of a friendship. And thus…the voice came to my head.

"I am thou..thou art i...thou has rekindled an old bond...with the power of the arashi by your side. The power to change fate will be closer to your grasp."

Arashi.

Kaze arashi.

Rank 1.

Arashi….that's not in any tarot deck i've seen…but i'm not complaining. After that, We finished our food. Threw away the trays and headed back to the dorm.

April 25th 2009. Dark hour.

Here we are. Blazing through tartarus. Cutting down shadows left and right. Going higher and higher. Though during our way up we encounter groups of shadows stronger than the others. The ruthless ice ravens were easy due to how easy their weakness was and the fact we have three people capable of fire. Junpei, makoto. And kotone was capable of it thanks to a new persona to her arsenal called pyro jack. So getting all out attacks on these birds was way too easy. Next group of above average shadows was the barbaric beast wheels. Again they were easy pickings when we found out they were weak to wind. And we had four users of wind. Makoto thanks to angel and kotone thanks to alp. Things got a bit rocky when we went up against the swift axle. It was on its own. But that doesn't mean it was going to be easy with it's punishing physical attacks. The bastard knocked yukari flat on her ass. It readied to run her over.

"Oh no you don't!" i yelled as i summoned the lover's bow. Wind surrounded the arrow as i fired at it. The arrow pierced it through like a green laser. And that was the final blow as the club armed freak melted into black sludge on the floor. I helped yukari up. And soon the bow disappeared.

"What the hell was that man? You summoned a bow like it was a persona. And it disappeared like one two." junpei said. I smirked.

"The yuki's aren't the only ones with a unique trick up their sleeves." i said. After that we kept climbing up tartarus. And reaching a dead end. Seems like this was as far as we could go…for now. But I did find a briefcase containing a document…one that was written by a researcher of the project…still we're all pretty pooped from this long run up tartarus. So we called it a night…i wanted to tell yukari what kaze told me…but i felt like i should wait until after may 9th…not sure why…just a gut feeling.

April 26-may 9th 2009.

The days march on. And i signed up for track team. And through it gaining the chariot social link through a shared buddy of mine and makoto's named kazushi miyamoto and through him gained the strength social link with the girl that might as well be his sister with how much she worries for him. Yuko nishiwaki. I also managed to reach rank 5 with faith and hope…and i learned that things of the siblings woes. Makoto not fearing death believing his only purpose is to defend kotone. And kotone feeling like a burden to her brother…there opening up to me. But this was a dark rabbit hole i jumped into. One i suspect that was going to get darker and darker as i went down and down.

On may 9th. I was awoken by akihiko…apparently a big shadow like that freaky sword wielding mass of arms that jack tore to shreds has appeared.

"We're here!" yukari yelled.

"Where is it!? I'll rip it a new one!" junpei yelled fired up.

"We've detected a shadow outside of tartarus. We don't know for sure. But we think it's another big one like we saw last month. We must defeat any we find out there as soon as possible. People may not be aware of the dark hour's existence…but if the city is destroyed during that time, inconsistencies will be left behind." mitsuru said.

"So basically kill it before it can cause trouble. Got it. So who's the leader for this operation?" I asked.

"Kotone will be leading this one." mitsuru said.

"You seem really find with taken a lady's lead dude…" junpei said clearly annoyed that he's not picked for the leader.

"Does it matter? Guy or girl. As long as you have the skills to lead. Then who cares?" I asked.

"It's as shi says. And let me add if you ever condescend because she's a woman." mitsuru said with a threatening tone in her voice.

"Oh no no no! It's not like I look down on her or anything." junpei said scared.

"Backpedaling just saved your bacon there junpei…so what about akihiko here?" kaze asked.

"He'll be staying here to wait for the chairman." mitsuru said. Akihiko's face quickly turned into anger.

"Are you kidding me!? I'm going!" akihiko yelled.

"Cool your jets adell. I know sitting around waiting for your wounds to heal not being able to punch some shadows is driving you nuts…but she's right. Oops it's all arms messed you up pretty bad, and you're no good to anyone if you collapse from the pain of that stab wound…so let us handle this one. I promise the next big ugly shows up you'll be right on the front lines as you want." i said. Akihiko sighed.

"Dammit…alright." akihiko said. With that decided we headed for the train station. We sat there waiting for mitsuru.

"Where is she?" yukari asked.

"She'll be here soon." junpei said.

"It's a full moon tonight…it's even creepier during the dark hour." yukari said.

"A full moon…" makoto said.

"Now that i think on it. That big mass of black hands also showed up during a full moon." kotone said.

"Hmm…that's interesting…we'll need to wait for the next moon to truly test the theory…but." i said.

"What are you three getting at?" yukari asked.

"What we're getting at is the theory that these big bad shadows appear during a full moon. showed up last full moon…and this one showed up on this full moon…we'll need to wait until the next one to test this theory…but if it's true…then we have an idea of when these bastards show up. So we can prepare for them." i said. The sound of a motorcycle approaching as mitsuru appeared before us on a sweet bike.

"Sorry i'm late. Anyway the shadow is on a monorail not far from the station. To get there you'll have to walk on the tracks." mitsuru said.

"Uh…isn't that dangerous?" junpei asked.

"Not to worry. Electronic equipment is rendered inoperable during the dark hour, trains included." mitsuru said.

"Guess that explained why my phone and the yuki's mp3 players died during our trip here…doesn't explain how your bike still functions." i said.

"This was specially made to handle it. Now if circumstances changes. I'll notify you immediately." mitsuru said. And with that we walked along the train track and thanks to the dark hour we didn't have to worry about getting fried or splattered by a train.

"We arrived at the train mitsuru! Nothing weird going on outside. Not a single shadow in sight either." i said.

"The readings are definitely coming from that monorail. Proceed with caution and stick together." mitsuru said.

"Got it…well let's head in!" yukari said. She then proceeded to climb up the ladder…before looking back with a threatening glare. "Don't you dare look up!" yukari yelled.

"Yeah yeah i got it…though i'm sure skelly man would love a view of his beloved yuka-tans undies." junpei said with a smirk. I sweatdropped.

"I value my life more than I value my libido thank you very much." I said deadpanned. We got on the train. And noticed the coffins.

"These coffins…there passenger's right?" junpei asked.

"Yep…probably on the way home during a late shift…none of them will remember anything after the dark hour passes. Huh. they're the lucky ones in my opinion." i said. The train doors closed on us. None of us can't get them open.

"What's wrong!? What happened!?" mitsuru yelled.

"The doors closed. We're stuck in here!? Ma'am, can you do anything on your end?" kaze asked.

"The shadow…it must know you're there." mitsuru said. I readied my dual blades.

"I see…the only way off this train is to kill the thing. Let's go!" i yelled. Everyone nodded. As we made our way forward. A muttering tiara shadow appeared. But it didn't attack. Rather it made a run for it.

"Hey get back here!" junpei yelled.

"Hold it…shadows usually don't run. I don't think chasing it is a good idea." i said.

"I agree with shi." mitsuru said.

"So do i." kotone said.

"Oh come on! We can totally beat that thing, hell i'll do it myself!" junpei yelled as he charged on ahead. As he did. Two more muttering tiara's appeared behind us. We disposed of them and went after junpei. After fighting our way through muttering tiara's and heat balances. We found him fighting against a heat balance a muttering tiara and a dancing hand. We stepped in and helped out.

"See? That's what happens when you don't listen! Well…are you okay?" yukari asked.

"O-of course i am! I was doing just fine!" junpei yelled. I punched him upside the head. "Ow!" he yelled.

"I get it. You're salty that you're not the leader…but we're a team junpei! We need to watch out for each other. And that means you as well. You're a valued member of this team…so don't go running off and get ripped to shreds by shadows because you think you have something to prove. You don't. You're our teammate and friend. So don't run off like that again you hear me!?" i yelled.

"Right…sorry and thanks man." junpei said. However the scene quickly turned to fear as the train began moving at a fast rate.

"It looks like the shadow has taken complete control of the monorail." mitsuru said.

"That's not good i take it…" kaze said.

"If we don't stop it. The train's going to crash into the next train!" mitsuru yelled!

"Crash!? Hey what we gonna do!?" yukari yelled in a panic.

"What we came here to do. Kill the shadow and stop the train. Now move!" i yelled as we all plowed our way through the small fry as they came and made it to the front where the shadow was waiting for us. It was a big black and white woman. It's hair being what looks like scrolls.

"What the hell? Is that our target?" junpei asked.

"No where else to go…has to be." yukari said. I drew my evoker. And put it to my head.

"I don't wanna die on this train sooo…JACK THE RIPPER!" I yelled pulling the trigger and calling out my fiend. It's two attacks we had to worry about was ice storm and invitation to chaos. Glad the yuki's had personas that had a resistance to ice cause this ice attack hurt! Invitaion to chaos sped up the train. Which meant we had less to take this thing out whenever it was used. It could also summon more muttering tiara's to aid it. It wasn't easy but we brought the damn thing down. But that didn't stop the train as it was still moving forward! I ran into the room. And had no idea which switch to press so..

"Fuck it!" i yelled as i smashed the controls…thankfully that got it to stop. I shook my hand as i approached.

"Dude…that was badass not gonna lie." junpei said.

"Thanks." i said with a smirk.

"Geez…that kind of damage is going to cost an arm and a leg." yukari said with a sweatdrop.

"Well. it's not gonna be us. Considering nobody will even know what happened and we'll be long gone…so it ain't coming out of our pockets." i said with a shrug.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do anything on my end…but i'm glad your all safe. No more shadows are detected so come on back." mitsuru said.

"You guys wanna grab a bite to eat on the way? I'm freaking starving." junpei said.

"Screw it i'm down! I know a pizza place that's open after midnight. Just got to wait for the dark hour to end then i can make a call. Just make sure to get your requests in!" i yelled.

"Ooh! An after shadow hunt pizza party! I am so down for that!" kotone yelled in excitcement. Huh after this we certainly got closer.

fool

S.E.E.S

Rank 2.

(and I'm back to this story. Sorry it's been a while. I was focusing on other projects. But i'll be putting my rwby story on hold until i finish this one. Mainly because a couple of fanfics on archive of our own named memento mori and override. That chapter of override man…it was a fucking god's hand to the feels. Just thinking about that part with the will just makes me sad…which is why i'm determined to continue writing this and give see's the happy ending they deserve…i know that goes against the message of the p3…but this story has it's own message…anyway. Expect updates on Tuesday or Thursday of this story from now on. Thanks for reading :D)