Persona 3: Alone in this World

He wakes up, surrounded and alone. He goes to school, surrounded and alone. He returns to the orphanage, surrounded and alone. But when midnight hits, Makoto Yuki understands, for the first time, that he is complete and utterly alone.

In the spring of 2009, a teenage boy awakens to a nightmare world that traps him every night at midnight. With no Personae, no SEES, no Social Links, no Velvet Room, and no way of communication aside from a pen and paper, Makoto Yuki resolves to investigate the various incidents plaguing Tatsumi Port Island on his own in order to retain his sanity; assuming he lives long enough to do so.

Throughout Gekkoukan Highschool, a near collective cheer resounded throughout to building as the last bell ran on a Saturday afternoon. From the seniors to the freshmen, all the students were eager to all but run out onto the streets of the nearby Port Island; most making plans to visit the man-made island's Paulownia Mall or Iwatodai Strip Mall.

While not a student, one Isako Toriumi was more than a little happy that the day was over. Scratch that, she was ecstatic and could hardly contain it. All she had to do was some quick paperwork down in the Faculty Office, hope that she wouldn't run into Mr. Ekoda, and she'd be on her way. Grabbing her materials, the brunette walked across the front of her noisy homeroom to the door.

"Hey Kenji! Did you have any plans for the weekend?"

"Oh, Rio. I don't think I'm doing anything. Did you have something in mind?"

…

"So, I was totally thinking of going to that Blue V shop at the Mall to check out the stock they have. Who wants to come with me?"

…

Opening the sliding door and entering the hallway, Isako immediately noticed a distinctive head of dark blue hair silently walk out of classroom 2-E.

"Yuki-kun!"

Catching up to the teen, she noticed his quick and subtle movement to pause the music coming from his MP3 player.

Giving him a smile at the gesture, Isako continued, "Are you excited about the weekend? Any plans?"

Upon receiving a blank stare in response, the brunette chuckled nervously, "Right, I tend to forget about that. Anyways, did you have any questions about today's lesson?"

The blunet paused before shaking his head in denial.

"Ah, alright. Good to hear" Isako paused before moving slightly closer to the teen, "… You would tell me if you were having problems, right?"

After a moment of hesitation, Makoto gave one small nod.

"Hamuko-chan! Wait up!"

Hamuko Aristato stopped and turned just before she made it to Gekkoukan's front gate. Smiling as a familiar brunette ran to catch up, she couldn't help the cheeky comment before it left her mouth.

"You know, Yukari-chan, showing up late on the first day isn't a good idea".

Yukari glared back at her friend, resisting the urge to hit her for the plain mischief evident in her blood-red eyes. They started walking again before she responded.

"You ran off on me!"

Hamuko pouted back at her, "What do you mean? I've just been walking all this time".

"Ughh" The unamused brunette slapped herself in the face, "You call in that favor and this is what I have to put up with?"

"Miss Yukari Takeba" Hamuko spun around and faced her with a mock frown, "You should feel privileged and honored to work at the Port Island Home for Children and Young Adults. Working with those less fortunate than themselves was an integral part of a traditional woman's life in Japan".

Yukari glared, "Don't remind me of that conversation with Ekoda-sensei. That guy can be a real pain when he feels like it".

Hamuko broke character and laughed lightly. The two fell into a small lull in conversation as they passed a store with several televisions set up, all on various news programs.

"Police are investigating the most recent string of brutal murders throughout Iwatodai in the past month, with the latest being only two days ago…"

"…the victim was so violently killed that we're not even allowed to show the body on television…"

"…experts are still attempting to rule out if an animal attack was the cause of the incident…"

"…What in the world are our tax dollars going to if our police force can't identify the weapon used!? I've said it for years, but incompetency in Japan's police force has been running rampant in the past few years and needs to be stopped…"

"…Residents are being told to stay at home, lock their doors, and to call the police immediately if they hear anything suspicious, especially around the hours of 11PM to 1AM…"

"…Questions are being raised about parallels to incidents dating back two and ten years ago. Could we have a repeating serial killer on our hands?"

"What in the world is going on nowadays?" Yukari's comment drew back Hamuko's attention from the reports.

"I… I don't know".

"…!"

He collapsed to the ground, unable to react to the crushing feeling in the air quickly enough to make use of the broom in his hands. Pain hammered away at his skull as he gripped it with both hands. He would have screamed had his voice box still worked.

Gasping as he finally managed to force air back down his throat and the pain slowly faded, the blunet cautiously looked up.

Makoto looked around the hallway silently, observing just how long and dark the shadows were now and how sickly the moonlight was. Pale green light entered through a window further down the hall.

"…"

Silence. There was nothing but absolute silence around him. Staggering back to his feet, Makoto steadied himself against a wall and slowly made his way down towards the entrance of the orphanage. Under the pretense of an attempt to get some fresh air, the teen passed through several doorways before exiting the building.

Outside yielded more unearthly silence from the city streets. Walking out into the alleyways, Makoto managed to regain his footing the oppressive air had robbed him of. Turning a corner, the blunet knocked against something and fell backwards in surprise.

Silver eyes widened in shock at the sight. Just barely taller than he was, an imposing black coffin stood in front of him. The moon, only a few days short of being full, seeming intensified the sight by painting the coffin, and the several other that lined the alley further down, in more disgusting moonlight. Blood, thick and stagnant, covered various walls and puddled along the ground.

Makoto clawed at the cobblestone, desperately crawling away from the sight. Feeling bile burn at the back of his throat, he barely had enough time to turn over before he was hurling onto the ground. Wiping the corners of his mouth once he finally stopped dry heaving, the blunet blankly noting that he'd managed to make the pool of blood next to him look even more disgusting than it already was, he weakly flopped onto his back.

The whole world spun dizzily in front of him. It felt like there was no ground for him to hold himself onto. There was nothing other than absolute silence surrounding Makoto, not even the air moved enough to create an audible wind.

He closed his eyes, praying that his body would finally adjust to the situation and stop screwing with him.

That's when he heard it, the sound that normally would have been completely ignored in a city but cut through the silence easily; the sound of footsteps.

Makoto didn't move and continued listening instead. The footsteps didn't sound like they were heading towards him, to his relief, but were simply wandering around in a nearby alley.

"…ello?..."

The voice, a young adult male, echoed down the alleys to the blunet. Groaning mentally, Makoto eased himself back onto his feet and stumbled his way down to the nearest crossroad.

"Can anyone hear me?"

He was getting closer, sluggishly gripping a corner and turning down another shadowy alley.

"What was that?"

Closer.

"Who's there?!"

Closer.

"Wa… Oh my god"

Closer.

"S-stay away!"

Closer.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"

Makoto stopped in his tracks. His blood nearly froze in his veins. As hard as he tried, he couldn't hear the man anymore and he was only a dozen or so feet away from where he thought he was. He wanted to run, but he was so close to potentially the only other living being in the area. He had to know what happened.

Turning one last corner, the blunet walked into the center of a square courtyard. There were a few benches placed at different points, but no sign of the man he'd heard.

*squish*

Whipping around on his heel, Makoto stared down at what just landed right behind him.

A leg.

Still dripping from just above the knee where it was ripped from its owner, the limb bled more crimson onto the cobblestone.

"Ahh…"

Silver eyes widened even further; the man in question landed right on top of his missing leg. He was covered in wounds, blood splattered all over his body. Weakly, as if it was his last action, he raised his head and stared back at Makoto with one hand raised.

"Help me…"

A/N: Alright, that's the pilot chapter for this idea I had a while back. You all can give a big thank you to LastDragonBorn for convincing me to at least start this idea out. I won't be continuing this work for a while as I've already got more than enough on my plate to do.

So, where in the world did this idea come from? Well, I'd had the idea of having a Persona game where it was just the player trying to solve the big 'mystery' going on. However, in every Persona game, the player has their party to help them out. In P1, you start out with all your school mates. In P2, same thing essentially. In P3, there's SEES already established. In P4, you've got Teddie and Yosuke along with you for your first time in the TV World.

In the end, I came up with a (medically) mute Makoto Yuki stuck in a situation where he has no idea what in the world is going on, without the Kirijo Group's aid and, worst of all, no access to the Velvet Room. So guess what? There's not going to be any Social Links, Personae, request; nothing. Makoto's stuck in the Dark Hour by himself where the Shadows are much worse than canon (i.e. there's no Apathy Syndrome victims, the Shadows just kill their targets). Keep in mind that I thought of this idea in the middle of another read-through of Berserk, so that's why I'm going to be picking on poor Makoto.

Oh, and by the way.

.

.

.

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You all didn't really think that was the end of the chapter, did you? I'm not that horrible that I'd have a pilot chapter end on a cliffhanger like that.

Of course this is going to have a fight scene in it.

Makoto took a step back as he hesitated. He felt like vomiting once again, but he managed to bite back the rising bile as he stretched an arm towards the wounded man. Gripping his hand tightly, the blunet moved to pull him to his feet.

He flinched back as a black blur landed right on the man's back.

"aaAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

The man screamed once again as his body contorted unnaturally, his back resembling a 'C' shape. But, that wasn't what held Makoto's attention.

It was the long, curved limb, something resembling a thin sickle, that jutted out from the man's stomach. Before he could react, the blunet watched as the limb easily jerked up and cut the man in half from hip to shoulder.

There was no final scream, or fountain of blood bursting from his wounds, as the man died. Cold, dead brown eyes silently stared back at Makoto as his torso tumbled to the ground in two pieces.

Makoto trembled, barely keeping himself on his feet as he slowly stepped backwards. The monster stood on several thin limbs, black ichor dripping off its entire body. Its entire body resembled a mutated version of a praying mantis, sans for the black mask with the roman numerals XI where its face should be and the fact of the matter that it stood about a foot taller than the teen.

It twitched and closely observed the blunet, the two silently starring at each other. Makoto slowly inched his way back to the entrance of a nearby alleyway. The monster took a single step forward before its entire body tensed and coiled.

Silver eyes noted the change and, before the monster could react, Makoto bolted for the alley. With a terrifying screech, the monster took off behind him.

Sprinting just barely kept the blunet ahead of the Shadow, despite its numerous limbs that for all intents and purposes should have tripped up the monster. The teen pushed himself harder, sharply rounding another corner and bursting out onto the streets of Port Island.

When the Shadow exited the alley and clumsily turned, Makoto was already halfway down the block.

Adrenaline fueling his dead run, the blunet looked all around himself in a vain attempt to find somewhere to hid from the chasing monster.

Just barely within the corner of his vision, Makoto spotted a fire truck in the middle of an intersection. Taking one last turn, the teen approached the vehicle. He just barely remembered the matron mentioning that there'd been a small fire nearby earlier that night when another screech jolted him from his thoughts.

The Shadow was there, only half a block from the intersection, and it was staring at him intently; Makoto forced the thought that it was deciding which limb to remove from his body first from his mind.

Quickly looking over the outside of the vehicle, the blunet closed in on what he'd hoped to find: a hatchet. Gripping it and pulling it out from its place on a small rack, Makoto adjusted his hands as he found his balance with the weapon.

He'd never held a hatchet before. He'd never seen a man die in front of him before. He'd most definitely never seen an overgrown praying mantis stare him down. Makoto came to startling realization that those three things were already being heavily sedated by adrenaline.

But worse of all, if by some small chance he'd manage to survive this encounter, he'd never be able to tell anyone what happened.

The Shadow began its approach, slowly circling around the teen as he waited for it to make the first move.

Makoto swallowed hard, the mantis seeming taking this as an opening as it charged straight at him. Reacting faster than he knew he was capable of, the teen jerked the hatchet up and sloppily parried the scythe-like arm away from him. He stumbled back, arms aching dully from the foreign feeling of taking an attack.

The Shadow stared at the lanky teen with new found curiosity. Every other one of his kind it'd hunted had screamed in fear, ran, or froze on the spot in front of it.

Gritting his teeth, Makoto got his bearings once more as adrenaline gradually overwhelmed the aches in his body. The hatchet managed to survive the first hit, a mark in the middle of the wooden handle being the only sign of the attack.

The two circled each other once again, moving away from the vehicle this time. The blunet was in the middle of a step when the Shadow let out another screech. Unlike the previous cried, this one shook the air as it traveled outwards. Makoto froze in place as the vibrations hit him, the joints in his body locking up in fear.

Just slightly off balance, the teen could only stare as the mantis tensed itself before leaping into the air and closing the gap between the two.

The ground around them practically exploded from the impact as Makoto hit the pavement. Stunned for a second, the teen could only try to catch his breath before looking back up.

The Praying Mantis was desperately attempting to pull its sharp arms out of the street, the two being almost completely sheathed in it. It was tugging and scrambling backwards in its mad struggles when Makoto picked the fire axe back up.

With one swing, he managed to cut one of the arms right off at the joint; the Shadow wailing in response. They were so close together now that Makoto could smell the old blood still splattered on its body.

He managed to ignore it, some part of his brain numbing himself to the sensation to the point where he reached out with one hand and firmly gripped the remaining arm.

The blunet could feel the monster struggling beneath his palm, but he offered it no sympathy. One hand still tightly on the hatchet, Makoto took a one-handed swing straight into the Shadow's head.

With one last jerk, the mantis ripped its arm out of the pavement and flung Makoto several feet down the street.

Gritting his teeth in pain, the teen rolled several times before finally coming to a stop. Propping himself up on his hands, the blunet stared at the monster.

The hatchet was still stuck in the side of its head, its one good arm trying and failing to get a grip on the weapon to take it out. It managed to barely get its arm around the handle when the fire axe slipped out of the wound and clattered to the ground.

The effect was almost instantaneous; the Shadow leaned heavily to the side as its mask splintered to pieces. It collapsed to the ground in a heap before slowly beginning to dissolve.

Unsteadily getting to his feet, Makoto approached the corpse cautiously; walking around the side to get to his weapon first.

That was when he noticed it. It was a shoe, once that looked as if it spilled out of the dead mantis' mouth. The teen hesitantly reached out for it, only to jump back in horror at what it was.

The man's foot was still in his shoe; nothing remained from the ankle up.

Makoto couldn't help it. He turned around and vomited onto the street.

Der

Dra

Dear Dir

Dear Diary,

I can barely keep my hand stead enough to write this. It hppnn It happened around midnight I think. I was cleaning up a small mess one of the kids made in the night when everything changed.

The air was so thick I thought I was going to suffocate. The moonlight was green but it was so dark out at the same time. I went outside to see if I could get some fresh air, but there were coffins all over the alleys. And then there was the bld bla blood. Everywhere.

It was so quit quiet out, until I heard him.

There was a mn man. He must have been a few alleys over when I first heard him.

But when I finally fou

I just vomited again.

When I finally found him, he'd lost his lg leg to something. I still don't know what it was that attacked him, it looked like an overgrown insect. It rp ripe ripped him in half before I col coud could too toou touch him.

Then it chased me. I made it to the streets. I pilfered a fire axe from a fire truck. I killed it somehow. It didn't leave behind a body. By the time I was done vomiting, the corpse had evaporated.

I still have the fire axe; I've hidden it under my bed.

What happened.

What the hell happened tonight.

There was someone else. I wasn't alone.

And I let him die in front of me.

I…

I'm alone. I'm always alone. There was someone else, but now they're dead.

I'm all alone.

…

What am I going to do?

Tonight must have been real, the hatchet still has the marks from when I fought.

I…

I don't think I can talk to Toriumi-sensei about this.