Chapter Text
Time wasn’t a concept that seemed to exist around the Great Seal.
If time passed here, Minato couldn’t be bothered to keep track of it. All that mattered, all of his focus was on here and now, keeping Erebus from ever coming in contact with Nyx. And it gave everything it had trying to; he could feel it slamming its head against the seal, over and over and over in a never-ending onslaught, but even through the mind-numbing agony he refused to give.
He didn’t regret his choice, though. He’d kept his promise.
Occasionally, he had company. He wasn’t able to interact with her in any way, but he was always vaguely aware when she was there, mostly due to the fact that when she arrived Erebus would always disappear for a short while afterward. He mutely enjoyed her presence whenever she came; she was excellent at holding one-sided conversations. She would chatter up a storm, talking in convoluted circles, and then leave, after which Erebus would eventually reappear and resume his mindless rampage.
That was the way things were. Constant. Unchanging.
But eventually, something shifted.
The change was slow at first, but it grew as time went on. The change came in the way the atmosphere shifted from impassive to malevolent. It came in the way he felt his bonds slowly shift and loosen, just slightly enough to be noticeable. It came in the way he felt another powerful presence creep its way in, exerting an aura of control that pressed against his mind until he almost couldn’t think at all.
In his haze, he eventually realized that it had been a suspiciously long time since Erebus had last attempted to break the seal, and much longer since that woman had visited.
Something was definitely wrong. Where was Erebus?
The oppressive aura only continued to press harder as time went on, filling his head with static. Minato didn’t notice when his bonds eventually came loose, and he only vaguely felt the sensation of falling before he blacked out.
“Guys, I’m getting a weird reading further ahead,” said Futaba.
The seven of them were all crammed into the Monabus, watching the eerie scenery go by as they explored further into the lower levels of Mementos.
Ryuji scooted closer to her, looking at her laptop screen. “Is it a shadow?”
“I don’t smell any shadows nearby, though…” They heard Morgana’s voice from the front of the Monabus.
“I don't think it's a shadow,” said Futaba, tapping away at her laptop in the backseat. The tapping paused. “Actually, I’m not a hundred percent sure what it is.”
“Should we check it out?” said Ann.
“I don’t see why not,” said Ren, who was focused on driving along the tracks. “Oracle, what’s your call?”
“It doesn’t look like anything we can’t handle,” she responded. “But the readings are different from anything I've seen before, so be careful.”
The group drove down several more hallways with little conversation, led by Oracle’s directions.
Makoto, seated in the passenger seat, pointed down the track. “Guys, look over there. Is that it?”
The bus came to a stop. In front of them, a lone figure wandered aimlessly along the train tracks, their back towards them. There weren’t any other shadows nearby.
Ann leaned forward over the seats for a better look. “Maybe it’s someone’s shadow? It definitely looks like a person.”
“If it is, what’s it doin’ out on the tracks?” said Ryuji.
“I just told you guys, it’s not a shadow,” said Futaba.
“I agree. They don’t smell like one, either,” said Morgana.
Ren frowned. “I’m going to look.” He opened the door and hopped out.
“H-hey, wait! I’m coming too!” said Makoto, following suit.
Ren walked closer to the figure, who was still wandering along the track. They still had their back towards them; in fact, it seemed like they hadn’t noticed them approaching at all.
“Hey,” he said, attempting to catch their attention. No reaction. He looked to Makoto, who returned an equally confused look. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other Thieves climbing out of the Monabus to watch.
Ren turned back towards the figure again. “Hey!” Still no reaction. He walked right up to them and tapped a hand on their shoulder.
The figure paused. Then, slowly, he turned around. It was a boy, with a short mop of dark blue hair, dressed in what looked like a high school uniform. What surprised Ren was that where he’d expected bright gold eyes with a manic look in them, he instead saw a dull silver.
“You’re…” Ren trailed off. He looked human.
The boy only stared blankly at him for a moment. He then looked toward Makoto, as if only just noticing her presence. Ren wasn’t sure, but under the guy’s flat expression he could swear he looked just slightly out of focus.
The guy looked at all of them for a moment: Ren in front of him, Makoto a few steps behind, and the rest of the thieves almost comically leaning out of the Monabus for a better look. He then reached up, pulled away a retro-looking earphone, and spoke for the first time.
“Sorry. Didn’t catch that.”
The tension among them deflated almost immediately.
Makoto took a step forward. “Who are you, exactly?” she asked. He frowned slightly, staring distantly, as if trying to think. The silence stretched for a bit, but he gave no response.
Ren decided to take a different route. “Are you a human?”
The boy didn’t respond, but he gave a slow nod. Their eyes widened a little.
“What are you doing all the way down here?” asked Makoto, folding her arms. Ren could hear the edge of suspicion in her voice, and he couldn’t blame her. Could this guy be connected to the Black Mask? He wasn’t even wearing a mask at all.
The slight frown came back. “Don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“Queen-”
They all froze as they heard the sound of chains echo distantly down the tunnels.
“Queen. We should head back to the rest area.” He turned to the boy. “You should come with us.”
Makoto gave him an incredulous look. “Joker!”
“I’m not comfortable leaving anyone down here, Queen. Especially not with the Reaper nearby.”
She paused. “Yeah. I’m not either.” She turned and headed back to the others. “Come on, then. We don’t have time to waste.”
Ren glanced back at the boy, who made no move to follow. After a moment, he sighed and grabbed his sleeve, gently directing him towards the bus.
What the heck just happened? He thought to himself.
The first thing the blue-haired boy heard as he woke up was the sound of tapping on a keyboard.
“Yep. My scans don’t lie. That’s a real human person.”
“He seems a little...out of it, don’tcha think?”
“I’ll say. He didn’t even bat an eye at my transformation!”
“I think he seems way too calm about all of this. Do you really think he could have gotten lost down here?”
“I don’t want to jump to conclusions, Queen. He’s obviously not the man in the black mask.”
“Indeed. I would like to point out that he is not even wearing a mask.”
“It’s still hard to believe someone could end up this far down by accident without getting attacked by shadows, Fox. And he was carrying a fake gun on his belt.”
“It’s fake?”
“Yes. I tested it just now, and it doesn’t fire. Think about it, guys. Why would someone be in Mementos carrying a model gun?”
“She has a point.” More keyboard tapping. “Huh. That’s weird. My readings say he’s waking up now, but they didn’t register him being fully awake before.”
"That's what I just said!"
“He did seem like he was half-asleep when we picked him up in the tunnels…”
He opened his eyes, seeing that he was on a bench in a train station, leaning against the wall in an uncomfortable position. Despite that, it felt like he’d just taken the best nap he’d had in a long time. A quick glance around showed that he was surrounded by several people in various costumes, two of which looked vaguely familiar.
“Yo. Earth to blue-hair,” said a short girl in a green high-tech bodysuit and oversized goggles. “You awake now? Because you were totally out of it when we found you earlier.”
He blinked, and slowly nodded in response, piecing together vague bits and pieces as to how he had ended up here. Endless dark tunnels, bright headlights, questions that didn’t fully register as he heard them. All of it felt distant and disconnected, like fragments of a dream.
“Alright.” She closed her laptop and looked to the others. “I’ll be outside with Panther and Noir for a bit, so just yell if you need me!” The girl in the goggles stood and walked out of the rest area.
“So… you alright, dude?” one asked, a blonde wearing a skull mask, sitting on the bench across from him. “You passed out as soon as we got here.”
Another one, this one wearing a familiar black trenchcoat and a white domino mask, held out a couple items to him. “Here. You should eat something.” It was a thermos and a plastic food container. He tentatively took them and popped open the container lid: it was full of curry.
“Joker…” said the girl wearing leather and a metal mask. Queen, he vaguely recalled.
The boy in the trenchcoat— Joker— gave her a sheepish look. “What? It’ll just go bad otherwise.”
Looking at the curry, he was suddenly acutely aware that he couldn’t actually recall the last time he ate. “...Thanks,” he said, looking up at Joker right before digging in.
“Someone’s hungry,” said the blonde, laughter in his voice.
The tall one in the fox mask nodded. “I suppose that is to be expected. We don’t know how long he has been down here.”
The mood soured a little at that comment.
The blonde boy shifted a little in his seat. “...Right. So, uh… what’s your name, anyway? Kinda awkward just calling you ‘blue-hair dude’.”
He finished the curry and set the plastic container down, trying to recall. His mind definitely felt clearer, now that he’d gotten some actual food and sleep in his system. The air here also felt a little less oppressive than the rest of this place.
“...Minato.” He gave the plastic container back to Joker. “Thanks.”
“So, Minato.” A catlike creature spoke up. “How did you end up down here in the first place?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, what’s the last thing you remember? Before you ended up down here?”
Minato went silent for a minute, racking his brain. His mind was clearer, but his memory was as vague and fuzzy as ever.
The cat’s ears began to droop. “...Do you remember anything?”
He was silent for another moment. “No.”
“...Shit, dude,” said the blonde.
A thick silence permeated the air.
Queen decided to clear it. “So… Minato. Do you have a last name you can tell us?”
He had to concentrate for a moment before he could remember. “...Arisato.”
Queen held up a familiar pistol. “Can you tell us why you were carrying this?”
His eyes widened slightly in recognition. His evoker, he immediately thought. He didn’t know what that meant, but he knew that it was important to him.
“...Give that back.” A hard edge creeped into his voice.
Her eyes narrowed behind her mask. “Not until you tell us why you have it.”
“I… don’t know. Just give it back.”
“Is it important?”
“It’s important to me.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you at least tell us what S.E.E.S. stands for?”
“It’s…” He paused. What did it stand for? “...It’s...” It was on the tip of his tongue, but it just wouldn’t come out. He buried his face in his hands, feeling more frustrated in the past few minutes than he’d felt in ages.
God, this was getting him nowhere. If this was so important, why couldn’t he remember?
It was the cat that spoke up next. “Queen, I’m not sure he’s faking it.”
“Yeah, dude. This is kinda painful to watch,” said Skull.
“We still don’t know who he is! I would prefer that we know why he’s down here before we give him a gun!” Queen argued back.
Minato looked up at her. “It’s not a real gun.”
“Both of you calm down.” Joker stepped forward. “I don’t think he’s faking it either, but Queen’s right. There’s too many red flags, and we don’t have enough information.” He turned to Minato. “We’ll return it when we leave Mementos. How does that sound?”
“...Fine,” he muttered sourly.
It was then that the girl with the goggles from earlier barged in, cutting right through the tension.
“Hey Joker! I want coffee!” she yelled. “Do we still have any left?”
“I-” He looked up at her, a little stunned by the instant mood swing. Two other masked girls poked their heads in behind her, both glancing at Minato curiously. “I gave the thermos to Arisato.”
“Arisato?”
“This guy,” he corrected.
“Ooh. Finally, a name,” she said. The girl swiped the thermos away from Minato. “Yoink.”
Joker gave her a flat look. “Oracle, I made that for everyone.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll share,” she said, having already poured herself a cup. She capped the thermos and shoved it back into Minato’s hands before taking a seat on the bench.
Joker thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. “Hey Oracle, do you think you could dig for information on Arisato when we get back?”
Minato stared at him. What was he up to?
Oracle took a long sip of her coffee before responding. “Sure. What for?”
“It might help jog his memory a bit. He doesn’t remember anything.” Joker looked at Minato. “You might get some of your memory back, and we get to know more about you. We’ll both benefit.”
Oracle adjusted her goggles with a vicious smile. “Sounds like a job for Alibaba. I accept payment in coffee and curry.”
“You’re already drinking my coffee.”
“What, this? This is just a down payment.”
Joker huffed, his smile betraying him.
“Guys, I think you should at least be asking permission before you start digging up his personal history,” said Queen. She then addressed Minato. “Though I have to say, that’s not a bad idea. You don’t mind if she does this, do you?”
Minato shrugged. “Go ahead.” It was something, anyway. Even if it amounted to nothing, he could tell that Joker was extending an olive branch.
“Alright, then. If Oracle is going to do research, then shall we head back?” Queen asked. “I imagine it’s getting late, and we made good progress today.”
“I must say I agree,” said Fox.
“Sounds good,” said Skull.
Joker nodded. “Let’s head back, then.”