Shaking, Hamuko held a blue tarot card in her hand, crushing it with all her might. Soon an azure mist bubbled around her, forming into a vague silhouette that lasted for a few seconds before it finally broke apart.

"Do it again." She heard Tatsuya command, seated on that damn office chair like he was the boss of this room. Or maybe he was? Anyways, she really didn't like his attitude, nor this little summoning lesson she had undergone for what felt like hours with little results.

"Why should I? What are we even doing?" Hamuko slammed a fist into his desk, the man giving an unamused look. He was too lazy to move from his seat, instead he lifted one hand to shoo her away.

"I'm saving your ass in the future, so do as I say and you won't end up regretting it later." He created a card in his hand, crushing it, causing the energy to shift in the room, only for him to call a simple pixie. "If you can't even manage this, then you'll die the moment you go back."

"What does that even mean?! You know what? I just moved to this crappy place, got beat by some psycho cult in my dorm, chased by a ghost boy and now you're telling me I'm gonna die?!"

"Pretty much yea." Tatsuya shrugged, "The shitty bastard that hired me for this job said I'd get a fat salary if I keep you alive." Wow, that last part made him sound even more bored. This guy must have seen some shit if he was this nonchalant.

"That's it! Let me see your manager!"

"Oh? You mean my boss? Nah, I'm next in line to smash his face in, get in line!"

"Ughhhh! I'll smash your face if you don't get off your ass!" Suddenly, a wave of anger washed over Hamuko like never before and in a large burst of light, she manifested Orpheus right before her eyes. "Go bash his face!" She commanded, leading the floating persona to raise her harp, throwing it down on the desk next to the man's head. Nearly missing, Tatsuya leaped away just in time, gracefully smacking his face into a side wall due to the room he had to work with to get away.

"Ouch…" He scrambled up, missing another blow, grabbing his compendium and running to the opposite side of the room. He snapped his fingers, manifesting a small slice of cake and threw it at the red head, letting her drop her guard.

"Congrats on your first summon, moron!" He threw the damn thing with all his might, maybe he should have been a bit nicer but what was done was done. The slice of cake traveled at light speeds, spinning in the air, somehow still intact, it made contact with the girl's face.

Bewildered, Hamuko blinked. "Huh?"

SPLAT

A few days had passed. A few very peaceful uneventful days to the happiness of Hamuko's sanity. Naoya tried to pass out a few more bullshit assignments, the cult in the dorm kept to themselves, while the siblings played nice. Dropping her controller, Hamuko threw her hands in the air in front of a heated battle of mortal kombat.

"Yea! Another win for me, in your face Minato!" She stuffed down a bag of chips, which still weren't to her taste, but beggars can't be choosers. Her brother sighed, a tear forming from the side of his eye.

"T-there goes my spending money for the week…" Minato faked more crocodile tears and eyes that could make Mitsuru drop her guard, and donate her credit card.

Hamuko reached over her hand, her eyes dead, "money, now. You bet on it"

He gave her his biggest puppy eyes, practically having them shine in her face, but it was to no avail. "Sis, pleaseeeeeeee!"

"No."

Was the firm answer that came, mixed with bitter cringe. Minato held out for a few moments before crumbling, handing his sibling a strange looking card.

"Huh? What's this?" Hamuko observed the rectangle up and down, it was an American express card. Flipping it around, she almost popped a vein at the name printed on the front in beautiful matte letters.

'Mitsuru Kirijo'

"T-this is! Isn't this that cult leader's credit card?!" She freaked out, her hands shaking just how much could they spend with this? They could probably purchase a private island if they wanted. "How did you get this…?"

Minato blushed, scratching his head, "uhhhhh, well you see.." Yet, he wouldn't have the luxury to finish when the entire room turned dark. All light perished, giving way to sickly green hue that swallowed every corner of the world.

"Ah shit, it's that time again." Hamuko got up from her seat, when there came a loud pounding at their door, making her jump back.

BANG

BANG

BANG

"Open up! Anyone there?!"

Someone called from the other side, the voice laced with panic continued to call for help. Cold sweat rolled down as Hamkuo reached out for the handle until an injured Akihiko rolled out onto the floor.

"You two! Warn the others and get to the roof right now! There's something big coming!" He continued to shout through gritted teeth. Clenching his arm in pain, dark red spots stained his bright crimson vest.

"You got beat up by one of those dark blobs?"

Akihko paused, dumbfounded, then shouted "A really big dark blob!"

Minato popped his head from the inside, "How big?"

"Larger than Kirijo's bank account, big!"

"Oh shit!"

Climbing up multiple flights of stairs, Hamuko's brow creased, just what the hell is going on now? Another girl guided the Arisato siblings with what appeared to be a gun holster on her hip. Maybe this place was more dangerous than she thought. All she wanted was a normal life in a normal school dammit, just how hard was that to ask for?

"Come on you two, hurry!" Yukari swung open a door to the roof, opening to a view of the ugly green sky above. With ugly clouds and even uglier skyline from the shitty brutalist architecture of the era of these god awful box-

"Hey is that the big dark blob that Aki whatever guy was talking about?" pointing to a masked spider like ambonation emerging from landscape, it fucking roared in dishgust at meeting the three teens. It's midnight claws sinking into the building, threatening to tear it apart at any movements notice, summoning an earthquake.

Yukari hesitated, reaching from the gun in her holster, pointing at her head. "I-I can do it! I can do this! I can do-" She felt the gun slip away from her hands, being pushed back by an enraged red head, aiming the pistol at the monster encroaching on the three.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?"

Hamuko pointed the pistol at the abyssal horror before her, "Saving us!" She pulled the trigger but nothing happened. She pulled again, this time her arms shaking. "Is this thing empty?! You didn't load in any bullets?!"

Now they were screwed. The only weapon they had against this inhuman horror was now rendered useless. Then she was reminded of Tatsuya's words, maybe she really was going to kick the bucket here, she'll have to return the favor of a cake to his face the next time they meet in the afterlife. Dodging out of the way of a dark claw that smashed into the concrete, Hamuko pressed herself against the wall.

"No! You're supposed to shoot yourself!" Yukari shouted, with Minato looking just as shocked.

Hamuko's head throbbed, no way. Was she going to be the one who put an end to herself here? No sane person would think of doing this. She blinked, when she saw a familiar little boy point a finger gun to his head, mocking her. That little shit haunting the dorms had to come mess with her in the worst moment possible. A wide smile spread across his face, where she practically heard his silent words "Perso-!"

"Yo, just shoot already." until someone walked right in front, blocking her view.

Drops of cake fell to the floor, Tatsuya materialized from a ray of blue light, stuffing more food into his mouth, stealing the ghost boy's spotlight.

"Huh? Why would I listen to you?" Hamuko cringed, seeing the cake from before. She still wants to give him payback from all the suffering he caused. Damn him and that snack filled the blue room.

"Because you'll die if you don't" he said matter of factly, downing a whole slice of cake at once. "Trust me, when am I ever wrong? " Oh the irony of that statement…

The pistol in her hand felt warm to the touch as if calling out to her. Feeling something bubble up from her chest, Hamuko steadied herself, determined. Raising the gun, she dashed towards her attendant, kicking the cake from his hand, aiming the barrel at his forehead and pulled the trigger. At the same time, she manifested a blue card in her hand, crushing it with an enraged smile plastered across her face.

"What the hell are you-!?"

"You never told me who to shoot!"

BOOM

Flames ignited the once green sky, like night had suddenly shifted to day, and within that inferno emerged Death itself, tearing the masked creature apart, its sickening cries echoed throughout the Iwatodai. Time froze, overriding even the flow of the dark hour with the last thing Hamuko could remember was the phrase 'Nova Kaiser'.

Along with the furious shouts of her Velvet attendant….

Sitting atop her own body, her ghostly form sighed, bored. She was currently lying unconscious in a hospital. Occasionally nurses would come in and out to check on her condition, or people from the dorm would come to pay their respects. Mitsuru bringing in a fresh vase of flowers, then Yukari or her brother would keep watching once in a while. Yet, none of them ever noticed she was there, watching.

"How long is this gonna take…?" She wondered, or will she ever wake up at all. It was hard to say. She was already fed up with Minato ranting to her about how many shiny Pokemon he'd caught this week. Seriously, who knew it'd take so many soft resets to get a gold colored Charmander?

"You shouldn't have shot me then." Tatsuya crossed his arms, leaning against a wall.

Hamuko rolled her eyes, "I didn't know that would happen."

"That pistol was built to summon Persona by those Kirijo folks." He looked to the vase left by the window, "It's different from the way I taught you."

"Yea... Why couldn't you just have told me to crush a card instead back then?" Now it was Hamuko's turn to wonder why. Why that particular method.

However, Tatsuya shook his head. "It's just how it was supposed to be."

Hamuko tilted her head, "what?"

"Nevermind, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

An innocent grin formed on the girl's face, "yea, I wouldn't, old man. You're sus as hell."

After regaining consciousness, Hamuko learned of the aftermath of the disaster. She was surprised the dorm building was still intact, in fact it hadn't received a scratch. From the information she received from Mitsuru, she had summoned a Persona and defeated the 'Shadow' herself. However, she knew that the damn attendant must have pulled some trick to hide himself from the world and so she returned to her normal life. Well, as normal as being offered to join a shady operation was…

"So what do you think about that offer? To join SEES, I mean?" Minato slumped down onto the lobby sofa once more, lazily sinking into the seat.

Cringing, Hamuko wanted to bash her against a wall. The world really has gone insane. There was a magical blue man telling her she'll die along with a ghost haunting and now she learns the world is in danger. "I can't believe you're still sane after all this…"

"Well duh, I'm just built differently ya know?" Minato shrugged, "Isn't it pretty cool tho? Who knew Kirijo was hiding such a big secret. If we join, we may even get better perks than we have now. Maybe our parents will welcome us back!"

"Mina, have I ever told you how strange you've been lately?" She gave him an exhausted sigh, "Did they make you summon one of those things too…?"

Minato nodded, "Yep. but I can show you later. Better use it than to lose it yea?" With that, he went back to his Nintendo DS, putting his focus back onto the game. Did he always have that console Hamuko wondered? Since when did he purchase it? They had always bought stuff in pairs so they wouldn't fight over who would get what.

Minato gamed away on his console, none the wiser to his sister's musings. He definitely ignored her first question.