I don't own Persona 3 and 5. They belong to ATLUS.

Chapter 1

Somewhere in the realm of the end of the world…

"Don't worry, dear Minato. For I've finally found a way to freed you from your duty as the "Great Seal" in sealing away Nyx, the Greek Goddess of Night and preventing her from meeting and bringing forth "The Fall" with her husband, Erebus, the Greek God of Darkness and gave you the second chance to truly live your life in the world of the living." thought Elizabeth as she glance up at the large and floating golden double doors that had the stone statue of her cherish guest in a crucified position in the center of the door before she closed her eyes in deep concentration and raised her hand out in front of her.

A bright sphere of golden and silver light (which is the power of all of his bonds with his friends and acquaintances and a chunk of Elizabeth's power) started to appear and gather in Elizabeth's hand before it shot straight forward and struck the stone statue, causing it to crack then break apart and freed the slumbering soul of Minato confined within before he fell and Elizabeth quickly rushed forward and grabbed hold of his soul while the sphere that struck the stone statue started to mend the statue up until it's intact and without opening the door. After Elizabeth freed Minato's soul, she then waved her left hand to conjured up his body before she slowly put his soul back into his body, sat down and lifted him up and put him down on her lap. Elizabeth then waited for a few minutes before she saw Minato take a deep breath, slowly opened and closed his eyes twice before he glance at her.

"Hello and nice to see you alive, dear Minato." said Elizabeth as she smiled softly at Minato.

"Yeah, nice to- hold on a second. How and why am I… No, if I'm here then that means the Seal is-!" said Minato in a strained tone of voice to Elizabeth before an alarmed look appear on his face.

"You don't have to worry about that, Minato. The Seal is intact because I've managed to find a way to use all of the strong bonds that you had with your friends plus a chunk of my power to freed and replaced you as the Seal." said Elizabeth calmly to Minato (who sigh in relief).

"Is that so?" said Minato as he missed the bonds that he had with the members of SEES. "So what now, Elizabeth? Now that you've freed me from being the Seal." asked Minato.

"Now that I've freed you from being the Seal, it's time for you to leave this place and embark on a new journey to helped out the latest Wild Card user, forged new bonds with him and others and live the life that you never have. And I hope that there's no need for you to return to this place again." replied Elizabeth.

"I see. Very well then, I accept. And will I see you again?" said Minato as he slowly nodded to Elizabeth.

"Unfortunately no, dear Minato. You've already fulfilled the contract of my master years ago so there's no need for us to meet again. But know that I'll be watching over and rooting for you and farewell." said Elizabeth to Minato.

"Fine… Farewell to you too, Elizabeth." said Minato as he bade farewell to Elizabeth before he closed his eyes and fell into unconsciousness.

XXXX

The sudden jostle of the train speeding down the railway toward Shibuya inside the city of Tokyo startled and jerked Minato Arisato (who's wearing a long sleeve grey jacket with a long black trousers and grey sneakers on his legs and with a silver-coloured earphone around his neck that connects to an MP3 player tucked in his trousers left pocket) up from his slumber before he slowly take a look at the interior of the train around him, saw that it's filled with various students and adults standing or sitting in the train with him and he also noticed a short wavy black-haired, spectacled grey-eyed guy wearing a school uniform with a bag on his lap sitting opposite him before he closed his eyes, let out a small sigh and leaned back in his seat before he heard the strange conversation between 2 female students standing to his left near the train door.

"What? Are you for real? A mental shutdown?" asked the first girl in disbelief to the second girl.

"It's the truth." replied the second girl with a nod of her head.

"But to a person though? That's gotta be a joke. You really love all that occult stuff, don't you?" said the first girl to the second girl before they began chuckling to each other about the mental shutdown thing.

"Hm, a mental shutdown, huh? Sounds similar to the "Apathy Syndrome" case caused by Shadows which my friends and I try our best fight and defeat a few years ago. Come to think of it, I wonder how are all of them now, especially Yukari. When I've free time, I'll be sure to call or search for them all. Hope they won't be too surprise to know that I'm free from the Seal and came back." thought Minato slightly sadly to himself before he noticed a duffel bag plus a manila folder lying on top of the bag next to him and he take and opened the manila folder and saw that it contains his name, picture, paper files about him transferring from one school to another until he reached the final file saying that he'll be living with a prosecutor named Sae Niijima and her younger sister Makoto in an apartment building and entering Shujin Academy for his third and final year of high school.

"Most of the files in here about me are correct and I'll be living with a prosecutor named Sae Niijima and her younger sister, Makoto, huh? Lucky me, thanks a lot, Elizabeth." thought Minato as he let out a small, sarcastic sigh at Elizabeth, closed and put the folder about him back into the duffel bag next to him before the train eventually reached and came to a stop inside the Shibuya station and the train doors opened for him, the wavy black-haired student guy sitting opposite him and the other passengers. Minato then grabbed the duffel bag, stood up and walked out of the train with the guy and the other passengers, walked up the stairs out of the station and into the station square where he and the guy saw the large group of people walking or hanging out together in different corners of the station square around them both with cool looks on their faces.

As both Minato and the guy make their way down the street away from the square, Minato noticed that the guy had stopped and is trying to repeatedly tapped at something on his phone to get rid of it with a frown look on his face and he turned and approach the guy.

"Is there something wrong with your phone?" Minato asked the guy, which make him stopped tapping his phone and glance suspiciously at him.

"What's it to you, stranger?" said the guy quite rudely to Minato (who raised an eyebrow at his rudeness).

"Excuse me, all I did was ask if there's something wrong with your phone. There's no need for you to be rude about it." said Minato coldly to the guy.

"…Fine, you're right and I'm sorry for being rude to you. It's just that after what I've gone through…" said the guy apologetically to Minato before he trailed off into silence, not wanting to tell Minato about it.

"I'm guessing that what he'd gone through must be bad enough that he doesn't wish to tell me about it until he wants to talk about it." thought Minato correctly in his mind before the guy showed him the mysterious yet creepy looking red and black icon that looks like an eye with star inside which expanded and covered almost the bottom half of his phone screen. "Woah. What kind of creepy-looking app is that? I've never seen it before." asked Minato as he glance at the app with a confused frown look on his face as well.

"I don't know. It just suddenly appears on my phone and I can't seem to get rid of it somehow." replied the guy concernly to Minato. "Oh, I haven't introduced myself to you yet, isn't it? I'm Akira Kurusu." said the guy named Akira Kurusu to Minato.

"Nice to meet you, Akira Kurusu-kun. My name is Minato Arisato." said Minato, introducing himself to Akira.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too, Minato Arisato." said Akira.

The next second, the people and the vehicles around both Minato and Akira started to slow down then came to a silent stop as time stand still, which make Akira gasped and glance at the sudden abnormality of the situation around him with surprise, confusion and unease on his face while Minato glance calmly around him.

Akira then noticed bright blue flames mysteriously appear in the middle of the road before the flames turned into the figure of a man with wings behind him then bright orange flames appear and burned within the blue flames and formed into what appear to be slitted-eyes and a wide, wicked smile before it disappear to reveal another face that make Akira gasped again and widened his eyes in shock and fear. He saw his own face with his eyes bright yellow in colour instead of gray and smiling a wide, wicked smile on his face while Minato winced and hold the left side of his head with his hand when he felt the familiar stirring of his persona briefly awaken from within him.

The next second, time resumed and the people and vehicles around Minato and Akira continue to walked and drive on down the street and road as if nothing had happened while the dark blue flames bearing the form of the winged man, the bright orange flames and his different-looking face that Akira just saw burning in the middle of the road vanished without a trace while the persona inside Minato went back to sleep.

"Whatever it is I just saw must have been my imagination." thought Akira with a shrug of his shoulders before he glance down at his phone, saw that the icon had reverted back to it's miniature size before he tapped the icon with his finger to move it down to the trashcan icon at the bottom of his phone and watched as it shrunk and fall into the trashcan icon and out of his sight before he put his phone back in his pocket and turned to glance at Minato. "So, where are you going now, Arisato-san?" asked Akira.

"Oh, just going to an apartment building to stay with a prosecutor and her younger sister. And what about you?" Minato answer Akira's question before he asked him a question.

"Me? I'll be living with some guy named Sojiro Sakura." replied Akira.

"I see. Well, see you then, Kurusu-kun." said Minato.

"Yeah sure. See you, Arisato-san." said Akira before they turned and walked away in different direction toward the places that they'll be staying in for the year.