Arisato Chronicles: Postcards from the Midnight Hour

Disclaimer: I don't own Persona 3 or any other persona-related themes. They are property of ATLUS (entirely, I think…). I also don't own the lyrics for the song used in the beginning, or any other already-owned company, website, household brand, etc. I don't own anything but the plot, really. Even the characters are pre-owned, so please don't sue this poor writer ;A;

AN: Here, Minato and Hamuko, the main characters in Persona 3, are twins, with Minato being a few minutes older. Also, I call blue-haired people indigo's by nature. Sorry if that confuses anybody O_O. Enjoy~.

Hello Mother,

Hello Father,

Here I write from

Lake Tartarus!

:P XD

Hey Mom/ Dad! Big bro Minato and I FINALLY got here to camp! XD Well, we haven't yet :( But by the time you read this letter, I'm sure we'll already be cozy and settled into our cabins. :D Currently, Minato and yours truly are on the 2nd bus towards the Camp. It's full of colorful people! I'm sure Mina-nii and I will make tons of new friends [If he decides to show any emotion NOT related to food and/or sleep :( ] Don't worry! I'll whip him into shape! :D

…I'm actually kinda nervous… You know we've never been to a camp like this b4 [I'm sure you don't care if I make spell errors, rite? I mean, I DID spend some months showing you guyz 'leet speak'! X)] All other places have been closer to civilization and you guyz would pick us up AT LEAST on weekends. This time we'll be w/o u for months! :'( I'll write constantly and I'll make sure that Mina-nii writes you guyz, too! Try not to burn down the house while we're gone! XO

Luv u lots~

Hamuko –heart-

"…Aaaand done~!"

The red head pushed 'send' on her laptop and laid back into the bus seat, stretching her arms and legs as far as she could. The indigo-haired boy to her left had a seat of earphones on his head, and didn't show signs of recognition to the girl's statement. He was trying to sleep until he reached his cabin, and was failing miserably. When he finally started nodding off, he felt someone pull him away from his comfort zone by tearing off his headphones. The words from the song he was hearing started pouring out, no longer restricted only to his ears.

"Mina-nii! I said something to you…did you even hear me?" the girl's voice was a mix of both confusion and annoyance.

"No," the boy, Minato, replied, "I didn't hear you, I was trying to sleep." He put emphasis on the word 'trying', but the smaller girl completely ignored it.

"I said that I'm done. I sent momma and poppa our first e-mail letter of the summer." She showed a small hint of pride in her voice. Of what, Minato didn't know nor cared at the moment.

'If it's 'mail', then wouldn't it be obvious it's a letter, Hamuko?' Minato kept his thoughts to himself. If he voiced them, then Hamuko really wouldn't let him sleep.

"Besides, we're almost at camp, big bro! It's not even worth falling asleep at this point." A sigh left Hamuko's lips. "I honestly don't understand how you mostly sleep and eat and yet somehow stay thin and athletic. I swear my real twin brother was replaced by a robot…"

The boy just shrugged, placed his headphones in their former place, and listened to soft metal on their way to camp. He rested his head on his left palm and looked out the window; the reason he actually ended up with the window seat on a bus was Hamuko wanting to see the other campers before reaching their stop, otherwise she would've fought him for however long it'd take to have the window seat. After a few moments, he gave up on trying to nod off and settled for watching the forest like scenery they passed by.

The camp he and his sister were currently on their way to was actually quite old. It had been closed for nearly ten years, and its grand re-opening was this week. Apparently, the owners of the camp, named Camp Lake Tartarus, were in some kind of financial trouble and shut the place down to focus on money-making; they didn't have the time to worry over a small kid's camp when they could focus on their other assets. Said company's name was, at present, the Kirijo Company; present, because ten years ago it was still one with the Nanjo group. Today, the Kirijo Corporation was a household name.

If you're wondering why Minato knows so much, his parents made him do research. Yeah, research, for a camp. He thanked his lucky stars for Wikipedia.

The twins' parents heard of the re-opening from an old family friend, and were more than willing to send – away, in Minato's opinion— their teens there. When they were younger, the parents told their kids, they had me at Camp Tartarus and had become best of friends, steadily dating until they married seventeen years ago. Now they passed a similar opportunity to Minato and Hamuko.

'Yippe…' the boy thought sarcastically. He wanted to be away from civilization as much as he wanted to go on a hunger-strike: he quite obviously hated the idea. Only after incessant begging from Hamuko day and night did he finally agree to go with her, if only to stop her threats to color his hair green. She'd do it, too. She had painted it 'kiss-me-passion-red' on April Fools a few years ago and he knew she wouldn't mind doing it again.

As Minato's thoughts slowed down, he noticed the bus did as well. By the time it completely halted, his sister was practically bouncing on her seat impatiently. "Really?" he whispered to her. All he received was a glare and a murmur that sounded like 'I swear we're not related' or something along those lines.

'Oh well,' he thought, 'At least she calmed down somewhat.'

The twins stood and picked up their backpacks. Their heavier luggage would be arriving via a second bus later that day. When they stepped off the bus, the view left Hamuko speechless. Minato didn't find it as…impressive… as his little sister did, but he had to agree; it was a sight to behold.

First of all, the camp was big. Many cabins occupied the lush green fields, all in similar sizes depending on what their uses would be. Right in the middle of the camp was a grand, clear, pristine lake which reflected the summer sun perfectly, making it look as if the lake was covered in shimmering glitter. Every single faculty or quarters looked brand new. On the opposite side of the lake, towards the horizon, was a large forest which covered the hills. It was obvious the sunset would look just as breathtaking when the sun finally hid behind the hills, and the stars reflecting the lake at night might be the perfect romantic scene. Minato could perfectly imagine younger versions of his parents sitting together on the lake's edge at night, holding hands. It sounded incredibly cheesy, but he knew that's exactly something his parents would do. Or something else that would sound equally fluffy, like his father chasing his mother and vice-versa through the forest, playing hide-and-seek. Usual, movie-like things that would make his sister sigh dreamily while going starry eyed. Honestly, he'd never understand girls and romance.

The tour guide's words brought him out of his thoughts. 'Well, might as well behave on the first day'. Minato shut off his music player and lowered his blue earphones so they'd hang around his neck. Contrary to whatever his sister might say, he knew how to be polite, thus knew it would be insulting to pretend to listen to a person while music was blasting away at your ears. Whether it was metal or not pretty much tended to be irrelevant…

The guide began explaining. They would each be divided into different groups and assigned a camp teen supervisor that would be with them in their cabins should they need help with anything and to, well, supervise their actions. They'd also show them around the first day. Including their supervisor, each camper would have five companions in their cabins, forming a full cabin of six people. Surprisingly enough, the cabins were co-ed. The showers and bathroom designed for each one, however, were not. At this, a few guys were obviously saddened while many girls let out sighs of relief.

The teens were asked to stand in rows. Hamuko quickly latched onto Minato's right arm and dragged him one of the front lines. Minato resisted the urge to inform his sister how low the chances of ending in the same cabin were if they stood beside each other, but decided against it. Hamuko wouldn't pay him much heed anyway. Once the guides passed by, the new campers were asked to grab a slip of paper from a bag they had, each slip containing the number of their cabin.

The twins looked at their tiny pieces of paper and their hidden numbers, one with anxiousness and the other with indifference. The indigo's number was four, while the redhead's was nine. At this, Hamuko saddened considerably.

"But! But-but…I wanna be with Mina-nii!" she told him, tears gathering at the corner of her eyes. She really looked like she might cry over this. Her brother could instantly tell he was more probable to have a headache by the end of the day, the first day in their long stay, no less.

"There's nothing I can do about it. What's done is done; it won't be that bad…" Minato sucked at consoling his sister, but even so, his words fell on deaf ears. Hamuko, for some reason or another, was glancing around nervously. She then focused her gaze on another camper diagonally placed from where the twins were standing. She gave her brother a mischievous, trouble-making wink, god knows why, and left his side to do something that, if he had guess, would cause somebody problems. Minato just shrugged and looked at the tour guide, who seemed to be waiting until everyone's died down. 'Maybe it'd be good to take a nice, peaceful break from Hamu's constant twenty-four-seven energy…'

…Knowing his luck, that wouldn't happen.

Minato suddenly knew this would be the longest summer of his life.

AN: Cookie if you can (somehow) guess who Minato's teen-supervisor will be! :D