Chapter 1: Final Memory

"Whoa! I can't believe it! The school year is finally over and we're graduating baby! Time to party people!" A tall third year student cried happily as he punched the air.

"Stu-pei…! We might be graduating today, which I'm pretty amazed you did, but aren't you planning on going to college?" The girl standing next to him replied.

"Uhh- man Yuka-tan! Don't ruin it by reminding me! We still have the entire summer break before we have to think of that!!" He complained loudly.

Yukari sighed, "Well, since Mitsuru-senpai isn't here to remind you, somebody has to do it." The teenaged boy looked back at her with a crestfallen expression, then suddenly broke into a grin, "Look! I see Aigis and Fuuka!! Let's get going shall we?" He said, turning away from the pink clad girl before she could retort with any more unhappy responses.

The girl sighed again, "Junpei…"

The pair were approached by two other females, a shy looking girl with teal coloured hair, and a blond girl who had some odd resemblance to a robot.

"The ceremony is due to begin soon. We should all assemble at the school hall." The blond girl spoke as she joined the pair. She greeted everybody with a warm smile.

"Right on Aigis! So let's go!!" Junpei agreed, obviously attempting to ignore Yukari's expression of annoyance as she opened her mouth to admonish him again. But before she had a chance to speak he turned and raced up the stairs. The three girls left behind exchanged looks of exasperation then turned and headed off after him.

- - - - -

They all seated themselves in the centre rows in the hall.

"Whew, we got here just in time. I was afraid we would be late." The teal haired Fuuka whispered with concern to her friends.

"Relax! Like we'd be late to our own graduation!" Junpei called back.

Suddenly the room went quiet, and the principal was on the podium before them; "First I would like to congratulate all the students of Gekkokan High for another wonderful year. As for the seniors, I must wish you all a pleasant future as you depart from this school onto your journey…"

"Hey, weren't Mitsuru-senpai and Akihiko-senpai going to come today?" Yukari quietly asked her friends, ignoring the usual long winded speech of the school headmaster.

"They are here, along with Koromaru and Ken-san. They are sitting at the back of this hall." Aigis informed.

"Oh really? I didn't notice. We should go talk to them once this is over. Hope the speeches don't go on forever!" Junpei replied in a loud whisper.

"Iori-san! Stop talking! Or do I sense a student wishing to repeat his third year?" A woman's voice snared in their direction. The group all turned to see the stern face of their teacher, Ms. Toriumi glaring at them. "Ahhh…guess we gotta wait till this is all over…man, why am I the one that gets caught?" Junpei added embarrassed, while his classmates giggled.

- - - - -

"Man that took ages! Who would have thought graduation was such a bore?" Junpei exclaimed as they headed out of the hall once the ceremony was over, "Hey, where are we meeting again?" He asked the trio of girls.

"The rooftop! How could you have forgotten?" Yukari answered, somewhat annoyed. "Hey whoa, you know me Yuka-tan. I save the listening for other people. But I can't wait to see the others. Wonder how they're doing?"

The group emerged into the open air of the rooftop. Four figures already stood there waiting, a red headed woman turned towards them and smiled as she noticed their approach, "Congratulations to you all, for graduating Gekkokan High School."

"Thank you! Mitsuru-senpai!" Fuuka replied, "How are you all doing if you don't mind me asking?"

"Woof! Woof!!"

"I think Koromaru says he's doing good." A young boy replied, "We're all doing pretty well huh?"

"Yeah Ken! Haven't seen you for a while since we all left the dorm!" Junpei commented ecstatically.

"I haven't been doing much, just studying. Life got a bit boring after all the shadows." Ken replied with a shrug.

"You got that right!" Junpei whinged loudly. "Man I wish we could all go party in Tartarus or something, for old times sake! Now that would be awesome!"

"Tartarus…?" One of the girls whispered behind him. Junpei turned and looked round at all the faces, everybody had suddenly turned gloomy. "What….? Did I say something wrong…?" He asked, looking bewildered. Nobody spoke. Yukari finally answered angrily, "Stu-pei…you know…him…He should have been graduating here with us too…Why did you have to suddenly bring it up like that?!"

"Whoa!! Sorry! Sorry!! I…forgot…" He responded, looking appalled.

"Yeah, easy for you to forget! Like you don't care or something!! It's been exactly a whole year since…" Yukari faltered and stared at the ground, her hands wiping away sudden tears. The other members of the group were staring silently at the ground as well.

"…nice going Junpei." The grey haired student commented coldly. Koromaru whimpered sadly at him.

Silence passed for a few minutes until finally a voice cut through their thoughts. "Since we are already on the topic, I have a proposition I need to ask of you all." The red haired woman spoke. Everybody turned to her, looking confused,

"Already on…what topic?" Akihiko responded. Mitsuru glared at him, as if he were making a joke, then continued, "…Minato Arisato." The group stared at her, some with surprise, the others with shock.

"What do you mean…? What's there to talk about…?" Yukari asked. The redhead continued, ignoring the obvious uncomfortability, "The Kirijo group has been conducting research into the Shadows, the Dark Hour-"

"So what? Weren't they always doing that?" Junpei interrupted. Mitsuru frowned at him, then continued down her train of speech, "and the Seal that separates Nyx from the calls of humanity."

A deathly silence fell over the group. "And?!" Yukari demanded, both anger and hope evident in her voice. The older student did not seem fazed by her reaction, "Well to say the least, there is possibility of a chance." She finished.

"A chance? A chance to what…?" Yukari asked again. She glared at the redhead, willing her to go on, but there was no response. The expression on her face was enough for the entire group to read. Fuuka gasped, "Mitsuru-senpai, you're not saying…"

"But how is that possible?" Akihiko interjected, causing all eyes to turn back to the young woman. Mitsuru pursed her lips, looking wryly round at the desperate look of the faces before her.

"The research the Kirijo Group found was that the Seal is being maintained by a form of energy emanating from within…a life source." She paused, leaving time for her information to sink in. "It seems there is a possibility that the energy within it may we say, be switched. But of course, there will be much danger and risk involved, and though I thought such a mission to be fruitless, I could not make this judgement without consultation with the rest of you. This is a decision the S.E.E.S must make together."

"No way…" Yukari replied with disbelief, "There really is a way to make him come back…?"

"I did not expect such a thing to be possible. But if we choose to do this, will it once again mean pose a risk towards humanity?"

"…no Aigis. Since you have acquired similar ability to what he had, you should be able to hold the Seal intact while the replacement is taking place. It is, rather a much more foolproof plan than what we may have decided last year on March the 31st." Mitsuru added. Junpei looked around to see what the reactions of his friends were, his own face written with shock. "But seriously, even if we did, what exactly are we replacing it with?"

"That will be the hard part. As I'm sure you've all realised, a normal being's life force is not suitable. The energy required for this task is that of…the persona."

"Wait! You want us to kill our personas?!" Junpei exclaimed in surprise, looking at the redhead as if she were some form of alien. The corners of the older woman's mouth twitched slightly, but she continued in a steady vein, "No, not our personas, what we need…are shadows."

"Oh, I understand. I remember Metis telling us, the personas and the shadows are the same. But, there are no shadows left now Mitsuru-senpai." One of the other girls spoke, with a tone of defeat.

"Yamagishi, I'm sure you can no longer sense the larger shadows that we once battled, but shadows will always exist. As many people there are that regret, so too will shadows continue to form. The proof is in our personas; if shadows were truly gone from our world, our evokers should no longer be operable, but I'm sure as many of you have noticed, they are still fully functional."

"But then, what are the risks we're facing if we try to do this?" The grey haired teen asked from his seat on the bench, "Getting back into the ring with those monsters isn't going to be easy."

"I should explain, before you all become too caught up in this possibility. If we intend to make this switch, we will need to journey to where the Seal was formed…hovering between Nyx and Erebus…life and death."

"You mean we might end up having to fight both of those monsters?!" Junpei exclaimed; though he was not the only person shocked, the other members of the team were looking unsure and frightened as well.

"As I said, it is a tough decision, even if it does not jeopardize the life of humanity. I would like us to come to an agreement in three days time. Think on it. We will meet…at our old dorm lounge at noon." Mitsuru finished, looking grim. They others exchanged looks of worry; the holidays began to look a lot more serious.

~Hmm I hope I got the details correct, I'm not really sure how those name ending things work in Japanese, if they're at different schools, do Mitsuru and Akihiko still get called "senpai"? And then there's the –chan and –kun etc. Not sure who went about using them anymore though. Well I'll stick to what I know, and you guys can hopefully ignore all my mistakes. lol~