March 20, 2012:

"Good luck, partner! Kick her ass for me!" This was the last thing Yosuke Hanamura told his friend Yu Narukami before disappearing into the dark void underneath his feet. That was it. All of his friends were gone, leaving the normally stoic Persona user to fall to his knees in complete disbelief. They were all gone: Yosuke. Chie. His precious Yukiko. All of them were gone. And the witness to all of this: the perpetrator herself.

"Well, I dare say that was rather anticlimactic," Izanami finally bellowed. "I was expecting a much more interesting fight." She sighed. "How disappointing."

Narukami's sheer horror turned to bitter rage as he regained his footing and pointed his weapon back at the taunting goddess. "Y-You shut the hell up!" Yu shouted at the top of his lungs. "What gives you the right to talk about my friends like that?!"

Izanami bellowed. "So feisty, aren't we?" she teased mockingly.

"Cut the crap!" Narukami continued. "What have you done to my friends?!"

"They're all dead, I'm afraid," Izanami replied as her face twisted into a devilish grin. "But don't waste your breath. There's absolutely nothing I can do to bring them back."

"N-No! There has to be a way!" He didn't want to believe that they were truly gone. There just had to be a way. He looked back at Izanami, more concerned than ever before. "What can I do to bring them back? There has to be SOMETHING!" The area turned serenely quiet as Narukami and Izanami stood (or hovered) completely still, their breathing excluded, without adding so much as a single word to the conversation. Yu was desperate for any sort of response, as the lingering suspense in the air was a little too much for him to handle.

"Well," Izanami began, breaking the silence, "I may have ONE way of bringing your friends back, but let me ask you this: are you truly willing to save them, no matter the cost?"

"Will you just get to the point?! Can you bring them back or not!?" At this point, Narukami was seriously fired up. Was Izanami really open to some sort of compromise?

Izanami continued. "In theory, yes." She paused. "However, there's a catch, and..."

"I'll do what ever you ask!" Narukami interrupted. "Just tell me what it is!" In an instant, Izanami returned to her humanoid form.

"As you know, I don't hold an ill will towards humanity," she began. "I am, and always will be, a goddess whose purpose is to grant the desires of man where I see fit." Her smile grew sincere for the first time. "You desire your friends? Then I propose this: I can send you back in time, to another place where the desire of mankind very nearly brought about the death of all things."

Yu blinked a few more times. "Back… in time?"

Izanami nodded. "Yes, Narukami. Although the struggles you'll face have far higher stakes than you could ever imagine, there was a group of students, far similar to your own in fact, that also wished to change the world for the better."

"How so?"

"While you and your friends desired the truth behind the murders, this group desired another kind of truth; but in their pursuit, they fought to prevent the destruction of your world." Izanami was starting to grow impatient with Yu's hesitation. "I'll ask this once more: will you go back in time to assist in humanity's salvation?"

Yu suddenly raised an eyebrow. "And you're sure my friends will be alive and well if I go through with this?"

Izanami nodded solemnly. "I give you my word. When all is said and done, I will return you back to Inaba, back to when you first moved in; you'll meet your friends once more, and I'll restore their memories of you in due time." Izanami then offered her hand to Narukami. "Do you find this satisfactory?" This sounded like such a desirable outcome that Yu couldn't help but feel he was walking into a trap.

"How can I be sure you're being truthful?" he interrogated once more.

"As I have said before, my desires are humanity's desires. If you wish to see your friends alive again, then I shall oblige." With the few, precious moments he had left to himself, Yu pondered over Izanami's offer one last time; he could go back in time, save the world, and maybe save his friends, or he could just defeat Izanami now, like he'd planned, but risk never seeing them again. It was a tough call, but given the circumstances, he slowly and warily shook her hand.

"I don't trust you," Yu started, "but I guess I have no other choice. I'll do it. For my friends' sake."

"Very good." Izanami replied, and in that moment, Yu's vision slowly began to fade, and his other senses began fading along with it.

"Good luck, Narukami," Yu heard Izanami say before he slipped into complete unconciousness.

Date unknown:

As Yu blinked his eyes open, he could immediately tell that he wasn't in the TV World anymore; in fact, he wasn't even in his room, or at school, or anywhere in Inaba. He instead found that he was riding in a monorail car, headed to who-knows-where in the middle of the night. He looked down, and was surprised to see he was wearing something quite different from his usual Yasogami uniform: it was a school uniform, but it was a Gekkoukan uniform at that.

Gekkoukan, huh? Yu thought to himself. Well, at least she didn't send me somewhere completely unknown.

"Attention all passengers," a voice announced over the speaker system, "Services will be severely delayed due to an unfortunate accident. We appreciate your continued patience."

Ah, well, Yu thought to himself. It's not like I'm in any real hurry. As he thought this, he reached into his pocket, expecting a phone waiting there to tell him the time. Sure enough, he was staring at the current time, 11:42 PM, on a flip phone not much older than his own, although considering the date, April 9, 2009, that it displayed, this thing was probably close to brand new.

While the monorail announcement from earlier continued to loop, Narukami suddenly realized he was holding a manila folder under his right arm; he opened it warily yet instantaneously, and inside he found transfer papers for one Yu Narukami - the son of two deceased parents and a soon-to-be student of Gekkoukan High School.

Nice touch, Izanami, Yu thought, clearly unamused by her "joke". Behind that, he discovered a map to an Iwatodai dorm, where he will apparently be staying for the duration of his stay. With no more papers to shuffle through, he put everything back in the folder neat and tidy; as he did this, the monorail slowly came to a stop, and the announcer cut back on.

"This is the final stop for Tatsumi Port Island," the announcer revealed. "Please remember to gather all of your personal belongings in the overhead compartment before leaving." Somewhat disappointingly, when Yu checked the overhead compartment above his seat, he found nothing there for him; however, that didn't mean his "things" weren't being sent to the dorm by Izanami, considering she was the one that sent him there in the first place. Surely, she wasn't mean enough to leave him with nothing to live off of, right?

After the monorail came to a complete stop, Yu, having stashed away the folder in his jacket's inside pocket, filed out alongside the trickle of passengers that also came to Iwatodai that night. As he walked, Yu checked his phone again, and now the time read 11:59 PM. So in summation, not only was he in a new city with no friends and no idea of what to do next, but it was close to midnight, and his first day of school was sure to start early in the morning.

Could this possibly get any worse? Yu thought to himself dryly; but in the next instant, almost on command, a greenish light illuminated the area, and the people that had passed him by moments ago were replaced with coffins, and even they were standing in the same upright position. Yu also took note of the moon's new yellowish glow, not that that helped ease the tension either.

"What is this?" Yu asked, half expecting someone to answer; he had no idea what to think about this sudden change in atmosphere, but once he saw lightning strike in the distance, he knew the time for thinking was over, at least for the moment; all things considered, he ruled out the possibility of a passing thunderstorm, since the skies were still crystal clear from earlier.

I'm probably gonna regret this, but I've gotta see this for myself, Yu thought. He had a good hunch as to the lightning's source, but he needed to get closer so he could be absolutely certain. But just before he could take his first few steps, an unknown, grey haired man wearing a red vest ran in the opposite direction, right into Yu's path; the next thing either of them knew, their heads had collided with each other, and the both of them were left sprawling on the ground in pain.

"Ugh…" the stranger moaned before looking to Yu. "Huh?" the stranger asked, seemingly confused by Yu's presence. "You're not in a coffin?"

"Uh, no," Yu replied in deadpan. "Should I be, or am I missing..." A sudden squishing sound caught his attention almost immediately.

"...something?" Yu finished as he got to his feet. His first instinct was to get a better look at the stranger; upon closer inspection, Yu determined that the stranger was a few years older than himself, maybe still in high school, and was somehow able to keep himself calm despite having run from whatever was chasing him.

"I'll explain later," the stranger replied. "For now, just stand back." He then smirked, which Yu noticed fairly quickly. "I've got this." As the stranger faced away from him, Yu noticed a large, pitch black figure approach them at a decent clip. However, it was only after the figure's neon blue mask glimmered in the moonlight that Yu realized what they were up against; as bizzare as it was, a Shadow was coming for them, and it showed no signs of mercy. At first glance, it looked like a Cowardly Maya, which isn't normally a terrifying foe, but once its previously unseen arms pulled out a dozen or so swords, the Shadow quickly seemed at least a dozen times more terrifying.

Shadows? Here? Yu thought frantically. But how in the world can they appear in the real world?! Before Yu could think of a possible course of action, he noticed the stranger pull out a gun before fearlessly aiming the barrel at his forehead.

"Wait, stop!" Yu shouted. "There's no need to commit suicide over…" Before Yu could finish, however, a gunshot rang out, but rather than seeing flying blood and guts, Yu instead saw shimmering blue particles shoot out the opposite side of the stranger's head, and a giant, humanoid creature materialized, or as Yu knew it, a Persona.

"POLYDEUCES!" the stranger shouted. "ZIO!" Almost instantly, the man's Persona released a small bolt of lightning, which struck the Shadow with relative ease.

"Hell yeah!" the man celebrated, but as he pumped his fist in the air, the Shadow countered by lunging out to restrain the man, which in turn slung the gun-like object right to Yu.

"Guh," the man grunted, "LET ME GO!" But the Shadow ignored his request, and as it tightened its grip, the man's breath was forced out of his lungs, while simultaneously leaving no room for the stranger to breathe. Panicked, Yu held out his hand, hoping that his Persona's tarot card would appear before his eyes, but to no avail; considering what he'd just seen a moment ago, he quickly came up with another plan: grab the gun, use it the same way the stranger did, and hope for the best. Shakily, but with no room for error, Yu crowched down, picked up the gun, and as he returned to a standing position, placed the barrel on the right hand side of his head. As the Shadow continued to constrict the man, Yu squeezed his eyes shut, took a few deep breaths, and finally pulled the trigger. As his ears started ringing, he realized two things: one, he wasn't dead, and two, he noticed that the same blue shards from before were slowly beginning to take shape.

Thou Art I, and I Am Thou. A voice boomed in Yu's head. The time has come for me to lend thy strength to you. As the pieces finally collected into a solid form, Yu's eyes widened, as he could already tell who it was; from its long, dark coat and silver and yellow mask, to its distinct naganita-like weapon, Yu uttered his Persona's name softly.

"Izanagi." The figure nodded as the light blue hue that had covered it's body shattered, leaving Izanagi's true form unobstructed.

"Well then," Yu continued, "let's take this thing down!" Izanagi again nodded.

"ZIO!" Yu shouted; Izanagi then began charging his power and, after a few seconds, released a bolt of lightning onto the Shadow, which stunned it enough for the stranger to break free, taking one of the Shadow's arms with it. Once Izanagi disappeared, Yu immediately felt as if he had been run over by a truck; he knew summoning a Persona takes a lot of willpower, but this was beyond anything he'd ever experienced before, and this included his first summoning. Regardless, Yu ran back to the stranger, who seemed to be reeling from a near-death experience of his own.

"T-Thanks for that," he thanked as he panted.

Yu wiped his forehead. "W-Why do I feel like I shot myself in the head?"

The stranger chuckled. "Yeah, that happens with everyone's first time." He then faced Yu properly. "But considering that you're still standing, you seem to be pretty tough yourself."

"Thanks," Yu replied as he looked back at the still reeling Shadow; it was stunned, but it wouldn't be too much longer before it got back up again. He looked to the stranger again. "Look, can we just get the hell out of here before that thing gets up?"

"Good call. Let's just…" As the stranger took one step, he howled in pain as he clenched his left side.

"Are you okay?" Yu asked.

"I... I'm fine." He replied as he fell to one knee.

Yu then realized he had no idea what to call the pained teenager. "Hey, what's your name?"

"It's Akihiko. Akihiko Sanada."

Yu nodded "Well Akihiko, you may still be alive and kicking, but you seem hurt pretty bad. Let me help get you outta here."

Akihiko winced, then nodded. "A-Alright." Akihiko then looked Yu in the eye. "Listen, there's a dormitory not too far from here. If you can get me there, we should be safe."

Yu nodded. "Fine. Just lead the way." As Yu said this, he looked back to the Shadow; now fully recovered, it started to rise back up, and it raised its remaining 11 swords in anger.

"And we better step on it, too!" Yu barked. "We don't want to get caught by that thing again!"

"R-Right!" Their chat over, Yu began stumbling the two of them away, as Akihiko shouted directions while the Shadow continued its pursuit.

After bursting through the front door of the dorm, Yu set Akihiko down near the building's front desk and proceeded to slam the open door shut on the pursuing Shadow, although Yu admitted that may have been a little overkill, to say the least.

"Akihiko!" two unknown voices shouted from behind Yu. He turned around to see the three new faces that had materialized in front of him and Akihiko: an older girl dressed in a standard school uniform, a slightly younger girl dressed in a similar uniform albeit the pink sweater she wore, and a man dressed in a yellow (or possibly cream-colored) suit. All three of them ran straight for the downed Akihiko, who was clenching his left arm in pain.

"Senpai!" the pink sweater girl shouted.

"Ugh, I'm all right," Akihiko replied before directing his gaze to Yu. "Although if it weren't for this guy, I'd have been toast."

The eldest girl looked to Yu. "Speaking of, who exactly are you?"

"Yu... Narukami..." he replied as he panted. He then regained his composure and spoke again. "But... would someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?!" Before he got a reply, the front door produced a banging sound, startling the occupants inside as the sound echoed throughout the lobby.

"I'll explain later," she replied. "For now, I need you to go with Takeba and escape out the back."

"W-What?" the other girl, Takeba, stuttered in surprise.

"You heard me," the older girl replied back. "Akihiko and I can take the Shadow from here. You just need to take him and Arisato-san and get out of here safely."

"R-Right." She then faced Yu, who was anxiously awaiting instruction. "You heard Mitsuru-senpai. Come with me."

Yu nodded. "Alright." He then followed Takeba to the back door.

Once they arrived, she said, "Wait here for a second. I need to go retrieve Arisato-kun real quick." Not waiting for a reply, Takeba dashed up the stairs, and before Yu knew it, she disappeared in the darkness. This left him alone with his thoughts for the first time since leaving the monorail. He then clenched his head in confusion, rather than pain, as he tried to make sense of the situation.

What's the hell's going on here?! he thought. First I make a deal with Izanami, and the next thing I know, I'm stuck at a dorm in a far away city as a Shadow tries to force its way in to kill me and everyone here! He sighed. Man, she wasn't kidding when she said the stakes were higher here.

Finally, Takeba returned with another teen, except he sported blue hair and blue eyes, was rather slender in build, and wore the same standard Gekkoukan uniform that Yu was wearing; Yu would joke about his anime protagonist-like look, but now wasn't exactly the most appropriate time for that.

"Alright," Takeba began, "now that I have you both, let's get going," But before they even had an opportunity to open the door, Takeba stopped in place and started muttering to someone, presumably over an earpiece. While that went on, Yu took a second to peek back at the lobby; there was no one there, and the banging sound had vanished completely. If Akihiko and the elder Mitsuru were fighting the Shadow off, they seemed to be succeeding.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Takeba shouted to the earpiece, attracting both Yu and Arisato's concerned gazes.

I have a bad feeling about that, Yu thought before the door in front of them was unexpectedly banged on, startling the three teens to varying degrees of unease; much to Yu's surprise, Arisato didn't seem startled that much.

"L-Let's turn back!" Takeba shouted as she lead the two stoic teens up the flight of stairs, while the back door was still continually pounded on. As they climbed, the banging echoed up the stairwell, but Yu was still attracted to the sight of Arisato, who seemed as if he didn't even care what they were running from.

"Does anything phase you?!" Yu shouted to Arisato, who just looked at Yu with a weird expression on his face.

Before he could open his mouth, the sound of shattering glass echoed through the stairwell.

"EEEKKKKK!" Takeba screamed as she and the others continued running. Yu had to give her credit: she was still running despite her fear, which was more than he could say for most people in this sort of situation.

After a few more moments of running, the trio burst through the sturdy metal door at the top of the staircase, and without any hesitation, Takeba locked it shut behind them. For once, Yu was finally able to catch his breath and take it easy. For now, at least.

"Whew, that was close," Takeba exclaimed.

"Yeah, no kidding," Yu replied. "Say, are you sure we'll be safe up here?"

Takeba shakily nodded. "Y-Yeah. It shouldn't be able to…" Before she could finish, however, the three of them stiffened up as they heard a sort of crumbling sound; they then looked in the direction the source of the noise was coming from. To everyone's, especially Yu's, horror, they saw a familiar Magician Arcana mask peering over the edge at them, held up by an equally familiar pitch black hand.

"W-What the…?" Takeba remarked.

"You gotta be kidding me," Yu muttered in disbelief. He was mentally kicking himself for not taking into account that a Shadow might be able to scale the side of a building without a problem.

"Dammit," Yu swore.

"O-Oh, right." Takeba remarked. "I have to fight."

Yu turned to face Takeba. "Fight?" Yu asked. "As in with a Persona?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Now stand back!" Yu obliged, backing up to a safe distance while Takeba pulled out a similar gun-like object to the one Akihiko used; she then pointed it in between her eyes. Yu saw her mutter to herself and sweat profusely as the Shadow moved in closer.

What the hell is she waiting for? Yu thought to himself. If she doesn't hurry up, we'll be in serious trouble. Before he knew it, the Shadow stopped in its tracks, and it began to emanate a red veil of light.

Oh shit, Yu thought. It was too late to do anything, as the Shadow then sent an Agi move Takeba's way which, while not fatal, sent her flying backwards as it connected with her body; when she slammed against the door, the gun similarly flew out of her hands and clattered towards the still silent Arisato. Frozen in place, Yu considered his options: he could try leading the other two back down the stairs (if he actually knew the lock's passcode), or he could grab the gun and try fighting the Shadow once more; that second option worried him though, as since he'd already summoned his Persona once tonight already, he had no idea what may happen to him if he tried again while in his condition.

A third option entered the picture, however, as Arisato, fear plastered on his face, had already crouched down to grab the gun; once in his grasp, he stood back up, staring at the gun with what seemed like, to Yu, a blank stare.

"H-Hey, hold on!" Yu stuttered, now genuinely concerned. "Do you even know what you're doing?!" Arisato said nothing as he continued staring at the gun. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Yu saw the Shadow quickly head towards the downed Takeba; with nothing but fear guiding him, Yu instinctively rushed to her side, as he wasn't willing to stand idly by and let her become a victim in all of this.

"Per-" Yu heard Arisato start saying.

Does he even have a Persona to summon?

"-so-"

"I hope you know what you're doing!" Yu shouted, a twinge of fear audible in his voice.

"-na!"

Before he knew it, Yu heard the familiar gunshot ring in his ears. Finally, Yu reached Takeba's side, but when he turned his head back to Arisato, he was surprised to see that not only was he still standing, with the creepiest smile Yu had ever seen plastered on Arisato's face, but there was now a Persona hovering behind him.

Takeba raised her head slowly before also looking to Arisato, except she was even more confused at what she was seeing. "W-What on earth is that?" she demanded.

"It looks like... a Persona," Yu replied without hesitation. After a moment, Arisato clutched his head and screamed in pain, the sound of which was finally enough to draw the Shadow's attention away from Yu and Takeba; however, Yu could have never foreseen what would happen next: a new Persona was emerging, bursting out of the old one much like a chest burster. What started out as a mechanical, blue colored Persona with piercing red eyes and a lyre as a weapon was quickly replaced with a slender, black and white Persona with a string of coffins for a cape, a skull mask, and a simple, but elongated sword. As Arisato continued to shout in pain, this new Persona proceeded to hack away at the Shadow, which showed no signs of surrendering even as it was chopped into tiny little pieces; even after the Shadow was completely torn to shreds, the Persona continued to squeeze the life out of the Shadow's last remaining, moving arm before it finally surrendered and melted into nothingness. After it was all said and done, the Persona shrieked into the night sky before morphing back into its previous form, and not long after that, it faded back into Arisato's body. Nothing was said as Arisato stood like a statue, while Yu and Takeba attempted to process what the hell they just witnessed.

"What... was that?" Yu finally asked, breaking the long silence.

"I... I still don't know myself, actually," Takeba replied.

"I mean, he did just save our lives, but still. What the hell just..."

Before Yu could finish, Arisato collapsed to his knees and fell flat on the ground, completely unconscious.

Well well, here we are again, readers. I've started yet another FanFic series, despite my five others already in progress. Truth be told, I've wanted to do this one ever since I started playing Persona 3 a month and a half ago, but I just didn't have the time nor the drive. But finally, I outlined the idea in my head several times on my trips to and from school before typing out a first chapter worthy of your guys' time. Or at least, I hope.

If you guys enjoyed it, please review and let me know, for I'd be more than happy to continue, since as I've stated before, I write to entertain you guys, so leaving feedback is the only true way to let me know what works and what doesn't. I DO know I won't update it quite as frequently as others due to my perfectionist nature (I spent the past week writing and a few hours editing), but the chapters WILL be longer, so I hope that makes up the difference.

Anyways, I am severely out of time, so until then, read on!

-rjm324