Disclaimer: Persona 3 FES belong to ATLUS. The author is merely borrowing its characters for personal entertainment. This disclaimer will only appear on this chapter, but is understood to encompass the entire story including all its chapters.

Rating: T for now.

Warnings: Crude language (Shinji just wouldn't be Shinji without them), possible OOC, typos or grammar errors.

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DEAL WITH THE DEVIL

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Climbing the dark and ominous levels of Tartarus always offered new and tougher challenges for the members of SEES. Running around each floor and constantly avoiding or battling random shadows along the way, facing the occasional yet inevitable floor guardians in specific levels, not to mention fleeing for the stairs as soon as the rattles from Death's chains became audible, life in Tartarus was both a thrilling and frightening experience at the same time.

That being said, Minato Arisato and the other members of SEES knew very well the importance of keeping one's gears up to date, and in Minato's case, always getting better and stronger Personas to take on the new challenges the tower always had to offer. After all, luck favors those who are prepared, and could very well mean the difference between life and death.

Venturing through the golden halls of Tziah, the team, consisting of Minato, Yukari, Koromaru, and Shinjiro, went about exploring the 118th floor fighting the shadows to grow in their levels and hunt for rare items dropped by specific monsters as requested by Elizabeth, at the same time exploring the present area for rare loot they might use or sell.

After a tiring battle with a triad of Magical Magus, Minato realized most of his present personas were hardly or no longer enough to help keep the team afloat from various shadows. He was glad the team's equipment were updated enough to withstand most of the enemies' attacks, but one could only defend for so long, and he also believed the saying about offense being a great form of defense, and more often than not, summoning Personas in battle has always proved the best form of offense rather than relying on their weapons.

Minato wiped a trickle of sweat from his forehead, while Yukari and Koromaru tried to catch their own breaths. Shinji was the only one who seemed to be fine, staring off at the distance while casually resting his bludgeon on his shoulder. No one was fatigued as of the moment, but Minato was close to being so, not to mention this was already the second group he took exploring the tower after Akihiko, Junpei, and Misturu's group. Minato decided to call it a day… or rather, night. He needed to visit the Velvet room and start getting better Personas.

After announcing the end of their adventures for the night, the team carefully backtracked their way to the access point they found while exploring the floor.

"Roger that. We'll be expecting you guys soon" Fuuka announced through the communicator. Yukari sighed in relief; Koromaru wagged his tail and barked; Shinji just looked slightly pissed that the adventure was cut short, but otherwise said nothing. The team reached the access point when Minato noticed something in the unexplored room just beside the one they were currently in.

"You guys go on ahead. I think I saw a golden chest in the next room" he turned to leave the group. "I'll just catch up with you guys". He remembered one of Elizabeth's many requests. He'd been looking for a Mikazuki Munechika in Tziah and had been having no such luck in finding one. Honestly, that woman might as well ask for a three-toed fish! Would it hurt to ask for something normal for once? He thought to himself.

Yukari stepped on the access point and slowly vanished as she was teleported back to the entrance on the first floor, while Minato quickly jogged into the next room. Once he stood in front of the golden, floating box, he opened it and was relieved when he finally found the sword he was looking for. He carefully stored the sword in his inventory when he suddenly heard Fuuka yell a surprised "Minato-kun! Behind you!"

Everything happened so fast that the next thing Minato knew, his front had collided with the far wall before falling face first onto the ground after being slammed by something apparently huge. Dazed and aching from such a rough treatment, he pushed himself up using both hands and carefully turned his head, wincing as he did so, to see his assaulter. A glowing purple shadow stood just where the chest was. It soon revealed itself to be the samurai-like Hakurou Musha with its sword drawn and readied to strike.

He stood with great difficulty, only realizing his weapon had been thrown off in the opposite direction. The shadow charged and slashed at Minato, who barely dodged the blow and jumped away to keep some distance between them. The shadow attacked once more, thrusting his sword straight for Minato's heart. Luckily, Minato rolled off to the side just in time. The shadow's sword became stuck on the wall, during which Minato decided to do a counterattack.

With his vision still blurry, he reached for his evoker and aimed at his head. Sati appeared onto the field and sent a blazing shot of Agilao at the shadow. Hardly fazed, the shadow pulled out its sword from the wall and dashed straight for Minato, knocking off his evoker using its sword, and then following suit with a swift kick to his chest sending the poor boy crashing to another wall.

Minato gasped and coughed, the air literally knocked out of his lungs. He blinked to clear his vision and looked up seeing the shadow cast a Power Charge.

Dammit, that thing must be getting impatient.

Barely able to stand up with his weapons located a few feet away from him, Minato could only watch with a rapidly beating heart as the shadow, now fully charged, ran straight for him with its sword poised for a deadly move.

A loud clang reverberated through the golden room when metal clashed on metal, and Minato realized something… or rather, someone blocked the shadow's attack.

"Se… Senpai?"

"What are you waiting for?! Get outta there now!"

Scrambling to his feet with what little energy he had left in him, he kept a fair distance from where Shinjiro and the shadow battled.

With Minato safely out of the way, Shinji roared and swung his bludgeon, making the shadow momentarily lose its balance. Shinji followed suit with a series of strikes ending in a critical attack knocking the shadow down.

"Koromaru! Now!"

Minato's attention was shifted to the white dog that stood by the room's entrance already calling his persona. With a howl, Cerberus appeared and cast Mudo on the fallen shadow. As a mysterious circle and dark purple flames appeared engulfing the shadow, the monster cried out in what resembled howls of pain as it was banished into nothingness.

Panting and feeling the gradually receding adrenaline rush from within him, Minato kneeled on all fours.

"Good boy."

Shinji briefly pet the dog before they both ran to Minato, Shinji extending a hand to their leader.

"Can you get up?" Shinji voiced gruffly.

"Yeah… just feeling sore all over. Thanks, senpai" He took the offered hand and stood up, then turned to face Koromaru and patted him on the head "and thanks, Koro-chan. I owe you guys big time".

The dog barked happily, relieved that his leader was alright.

"Minato-kun! Are you alright? I'm sorry I didn't detect the shadow sooner." Fuuka cried out so fast it was almost difficult to make out her words. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have unsummoned Lucia-" she announced frantically and sounded on the verge of tears.

Minato winced at the girl's panicked voice. "Hey. It's not your fault, Fuuka. I didn't think there were any shadows in that room. It just took me by surprise." He took a deep, calming breath before continuing "If you hadn't warned me, I probably wouldn't be standing now… so thank you".

"I…. I understand. I'm just glad you're okay, Minato-kun. Please take care in coming down" Fuuka sniffled and the communicator ended.

"You shouldn't have run off by yourself like that!" Shinjiro reprimanded. "You're lucky me and Koro-chan got here in time! You could've been killed!" He looked away. "As the leader, you better take fucking good care of yourself, not just your teammates!"

Koromaru whimpered as if telling Shinji to calm down. Minato felt guilt welling up inside.

"I'm…. I'm sorry senpai. I got careless". He slowly looked up to Shinjiro. "I'm really sorry…" He was glad his senpai and Koro-chan still hadn't gotten on the access point just yet. He shivered at the thought if they had. "…and thank you for saving me" he gently smiled to the elder.

"Tch. Whatever. If you pull that shit again I'm gonna beat you senseless"

They picked up Minato's weapon and evoker and slowly made their way to the access point, with Minato threatened by Shinji into leaning on him for support as they walked.

Reaching the entrance was uneventful, aside from messages of relief, concern, and being careful next time from the other teammates. As the dark hour came to an end and the tower reverted into Gekkoukan high, the SEES members slowly made their way to the dorm.

As each individual said their good nights and started making way to their own rooms, Minato slowly went to his own room… silently promising to himself to grow stronger for his teammates.

.

.

Minato opened his eyes to an oddly peaceful place. He seemed to be… floating? amidst a dark space. He tried moving his limbs but realized he couldn't.

Where… am I? … How did I get here?

He looked around but saw endless darkness. He thought he could hear strange whispering noises, but none made sense. He struggled to move, to wake up, anything to get away from the creepy place.

Do you want to grow stronger?

"Who's there?"He looked around, trying to search the source of the mysterious voice.

I can lend you my power…

"Power?... I don't need-" He could feel the being's power flowing through him, giving him a taste of its strength. It was a bit frightening, having that much energy course within his veins. Without a doubt, this being possessed remarkable potential. He felt like he could take on the world without any worries.

Did you not wish to become stronger?

"What are you talking about-…?" Flashbacks of the latest trip to Tartarus suddenly entered his mind. He felt as though someone suddenly jammed the memory into his head, making him remember everything in detail.

"I…. That was…." More memories of past moments wherein he felt inadequate during missions filled his mind. Every moment of helplessness he ever felt in his life, all slowly replaying in his mind.

I can help you… if you will let me…

"Who…. Who are you?"

The voice chuckled lightly.

Do not worry, child. We will meet soon enough.

Warily, Minato decided to continue asking. "When? How?"

Call out to me… from the sea of your soul… and I will appear at once to aid you.

Minato thought carefully as he floated in the black abyss. Sea of the soul, words once spoken before by… Orpheus? A persona?

Our time is nearly over… I must go now. Farewell, child.

"Wait… who are you?" Rays of light slowly pierced through the darkness surrounding him as he frantically tried to locate the source.

He could feel the voice smirking as it whispered one final word…

Devil.