Chapter Text
April 4th, 2009 - Afternoon, Tokyo
Within the grand corridors of the Solaris Research Institute located in Tokyo, echoed with the soft hum of activity as Mitsuru Kirijo, the heiress of the illustrious Kirijo Group, strode confidently beside her father Takeharu Kirijo, the current head of the Group. The warm afternoon sunlight filtered through the towering windows, casting long shadows that seemed to parallel the weight of their impending conversation. Today, Mitsuru held in her hands a file that could change the very fabric of their organization, S.E.E.S.—a file about her childhood friend, Minato Arisato.
Seated in the institute’s pristine conference room was the director himself, Soma Hisakawa, a figure of unwavering authority and intellectual prowess. His presence exuded calm control, a trait sharpened by years of navigating the labyrinthine complexities of the Dark Hour and its associated calamities. Soma glanced up from his neatly arranged papers as the Kirijos entered, offering a nod of acknowledgment.
Mitsuru began; her voice was steady but laced with emotion. “Director Hisakawa, I’ve received files on Minato Arisato as a potential candidate for S.E.E.S.”
Soma leaned back slightly, the gravity of the discussion apparent in his measured movements. “Of course, Minato… I imagine this must bring back many memories for you, Mitsuru. For all of us.”
Takeharu, who had been silent until now, placed a reassuring hand on his daughter's shoulder. “Indeed, Soma. The Arisato family… they were more than just colleagues; they were family.”
The room seemed to ripple with the undisturbed silence of shared mourning, a heavy weight that pulled them back to the moment it all began: the arrival of the Arisato family in 1999 at the Kirijo Manor.
It was a crisp autumn day when Daiki and Tsukiko Arisato, who were once co-directors of the Solaris Research Institute, arrived at the grand Kirijo estate with their twin children, Minato and Minako. The manor, with its sprawling gardens and intricate architecture, became their sanctuary; a shared home where both families would live together and intertwine their destinies.
Mitsuru had been just a young girl, her curiosity boundless and her sense of duty already forming when it came to the twins. She remembered Minako vividly, a whirlwind of energy and joy who had quickly become the little sister she never had. Minato, on the other hand, was her opposite in temperament—a boy of quiet intellect and unshakable calm. His presence, even then, had planted the seeds of feelings Mitsuru couldn’t entirely understand at the time.
Takeharu spoke fondly of those years, his voice tinged with nostalgia. “I often think of Daiki and Tsukiko as my own family. And the twins—Minako was known as the sunbeam of the manor, and Minato... well, he was a mirror to Mitsuru’s quiet strength. They were an integral part of our lives.”
Mitsuru felt a pang in her chest as her father’s words lined up with her own cherished memories. The bonds formed during those years were unbreakable—or so they thought.
Soma’s tone darkened as he brought up the tragic betrayal that tore apart the Arisato family. “The major reason that this union came to be, was that you discovered the horrifying experiments that your father was conducting on Tatsumi Port Island and you needed our assistance to help put an end to it all before things would get out of hand. But… as we all know, Kouetsu Kirijo, the former head of the Kirijo group, showed no loyalty nor humanity when he orchestrated the murder of my best friends and their twin children that I saw as my own.”
Mitsuru stiffened, her grandfather's name was sending ice through her veins. Soma continued, his voice steady but heavy with sorrow. “November 4th, 2004—that date will forever be etched in the darkest annals of our history. The assassin he hired ambushed the family on the Moonlight Bridge during the first emergence of the Dark Hour. They were trying to escape with their children, protecting them until their last breath.”
Takeharu gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles white. “Their deaths… it was beyond heinous. Daiki and Tsukiko must have fought as valiantly as they could, but the monsters' cruelty knew no bounds. And to think it happened on the twins’ birthday.”
The tragedy felt tangible in the air between them. Mitsuru’s voice was barely above a whisper as she recalled the aftermath. “Minato was the sole survivor, left with a scar—a permanent reminder of that night—and an unfathomable burden. He lost not only his family but his memories of the life he had with us.”
Soma’s expression softened as he recounted his role in Minato’s survival. “After what transpired on that tragic night, I adopted Minato to shield him from further harm. He was in no condition to return to the manor, nor was it safe for him. The mental fog that enveloped his memories was both a curse and a blessing—it spared him the full weight of his past, but it also took away the warmth he once knew.”
Mitsuru clenched the file in her hands. “And now he’s a candidate for S.E.E.S. He doesn’t remember me, or us, but I can’t help but hope that this will bring him back—not just to the fight, but to the family we once were.”
Takeharu nodded solemnly. “Minato’s strength and resolve are unparalleled, even in the face of such tragedy. If anyone can rise to the challenges of S.E.E.S., it’s him.”
Soma looked at the father and daughter, his gaze steady and decisive. “His academic capabilities didn’t change much as we expected, given everything that he has experienced. He would truly fit well as a student at Gekkoukan High. As for his physical capabilities and our personal training together during the last 5 years, He has the potential to become a cornerstone of S.E.E.S., but we must tread carefully. His past is intertwined with the darkness we seek to combat, and his scars—both physical and emotional—will shape his path forward.”
As the conversation wound down, Mitsuru felt a renewed sense of purpose. Minato’s arrival at S.E.E.S. was not just a step toward fighting the horrors of the Dark Hour; it was a chance to rebuild the bridges burned by betrayal and tragedy.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting golden hues across the institute's walls, Mitsuru silently vowed to protect Minato—not only as a teammate but as the boy who once held her heart. Destiny had brought them together once more, and this time, she would ensure that their bond remained unbroken.
April 6th, 2009
Minato Arisato: A young man who is 16 years old with long deep blue hair wrapped into a ponytail and a bang covering his right eye, was preparing to reach his destination of Iwatodai City. It was here where everything changed for him 5 years ago and where he would be staying to start his 2nd year of High School. He was wearing the uniform of Gekkoukan High School, listening to his mp3 player as it played “Burn My Dread” while he nodded his head to the beats of the song.
“Your attention please. Today’s train schedule will be modified due to a rail-switching malfunction, we do apologize for all inconvenience. The next stop is Iwatodai.”
Minato looks outside of the train, seeing the famous Moonlight Bridge in the distance. Minutes pass and he finally reaches his destination of Iwatodai City, leaving the train while looking at his phone. “11:55 PM…. It’s almost here. I better move and head for the dormitory. I’m already late as it is.” He quickly walks his way out of the station, putting away his MP3 player knowing that in a few seconds, it would soon become useless.
As he leaves the train station, Iwatodai, a bustling urban district, greets him with its usual rhythm—a blend of hurried commuters, glowing neon signs, and the distant whispers of the sea. Yet, Minato senses a foreboding undercurrent, as if the city itself is holding its breath for what is to come. As Minato steps closer to the Iwatodai Dorm, the ordinary world begins to distort. The Dark Hour—a hidden and surreal time—emerges, casting a greenish hue over the environment and transforming the cityscape into a haunting tableau. The streets are barren with pools of red liquid looking very similar to blood covering the city, the windows of buildings seem like hollow eyes, and coffins litter the sidewalks. Their eerie presence is a stark reminder of those who are unaware of this supernatural hour.
Amidst this unsettling transformation, Minato’s memories come rushing back with the force of a tidal wave. Five years ago, during the first emergence of the Dark Hour, his life was torn apart. He recalls the horrifying night when his family was slaughtered by a psychopathic assassin—a monstrous figure who reveled in chaos. This was no ordinary crime; it was tied to the supernatural phenomena of the Dark Hour itself, the assassin using the veil of this hidden time to carry out their heinous deeds.
Minato’s memories are fractured, like broken glass reflecting the crimson of that night. He remembers the fear, the helplessness, and the overwhelming grief of losing everything he held dear, with everything else he has experienced enveloped in a mental fog. These emotions shape his perspective of the world, leaving him with a quiet resilience but also an ever-present shadow of sorrow.
As he proceeds towards the dormitory, the environment appears to mock him, recognizable landmarks now enveloped in the unsettling atmosphere of the Dark Hour. The air feels heavier, as if charged with latent energy, and he can’t help but feel the presence of unseen entities lurking just beyond his sight. The world in the Dark Hour is alive in a way that is both mesmerizing and terrifying, a reflection of the duality within Minato himself.
When Minato finally reaches the Iwatodai Dorm, it stands as an anchor amidst the chaos—a place where the threads of his destiny will be woven. For Minato, this marks the beginning of a new chapter, one where he will face not only the shadows of the Dark Hour but also the shadows within his own heart. He slowly opens the wooden door and walks inside, he sees what appears to be the main room of the dorm completely dim. He looks around his surroundings while setting his bag down on a nearby counter, starting to think to himself.
“I arrived too late; everyone must be asleep right now… Should I say something? Should I call out for someone? I don’t want to be rude, but I might not have a choice…”
Suddenly, he hears a whistle on his left side. He sees a boy with dark hair, blue eyes and wearing a shirt and pants with black and white stripes. “Well… You finally arrived, back to where it all began.” Minato observes the mysterious boy, sensing a dark yet strangely familiar aura from him. “You’re late. I waited all this time for you to come.” The boy was then in front of him, giving him a strange smile and making Minato more cautious than he was before. The boy slowly extends his arm towards the counter, spawning a brown folder next to Minato. With a wave of his hand, the folder and several pages flip one by one until it reaches the end, where it shows where a signature was needed. “My apologies but before you go any further, you must sign your name on this contract. It basically states that you must take complete responsibility for all your actions and choices that you will make.” Minato stares at the mysterious boy and looks at the contract next to him. He didn’t know why but he felt compelled to sign it, picking up the feather pen that was nearby. He looked at the page, reading the following content.
“Time never waits.
It brings all equally to the same end.
I hereby agree to the statement above, and I chooseth this fate of mine own free will.”
He took one more look at the boy, still giving him the strange smile and then he signed his full name onto the contract. He closes the folder and slowly hands it over to the boy, who keeps it close to his chest. “Good… Very Good. The concept of time can never be denied; it brings us all to the same end. Plugging your ears and covering your eyes is just pointless.”
A sudden black fog appears, starting to envelop the young boy as he reached out his hand toward Minato. “And so, it begins…. I will see you again soon….” The black fog completely envelopes him and disappears, leaving Minato all alone once again. He looks around the main room once more and crosses his arms, trying to take in all that has transpired. “What just happened? I don’t think I was hallucinating… Who was that kid? How does he know me? What did he mean that “Time will bring us all to the same end”?” While he was reflecting on his experience, he was unexpectedly interrupted by another person's voice.
“Hey! Who’s there?!” Minato immediately looks ahead and sees a cute girl with neck length light brown hair, wearing a pink cardigan, a loose red ribbon, a black mini skirt, black knee-high stockings and a heart-shaped white choker. “What are you doing here at this hour? Don’t tell me….!” Minato was going to explain himself, but he noticed something on the girl’s right leg that alarmed him: a holster that carried a strange looking gun.
“A gun? Is she serious? Is she going to…!”
The girl reaches for her gun, but she doesn’t feel anything. She looked down and noticed that her holster was empty. “What happened?! Where did my-! Hey! Where did you go?!” She noticed that the boy with deep blue hair was immediately gone from her sight. As she searched for him, something was pointed at the back of her head. She immediately froze up and started shaking, she slowly turns around and what she saw truly scared her: the same blue haired boy was behind her and pointed her gun straight at her. With his eyes emanating a blue glow during the Dark Hour, he directed a penetrating gaze at the young woman, causing her to fall onto the ground. As Minato slowly walked towards her, another voice echoed behind them.
“Wait! That’s enough!” The strong voice made them both freeze as the lights suddenly came back on, signifying that the Dark Hour was over. With everything in full view, Minato sees the young woman shaking with her gun still pointing at her. His eyes widened, realizing what he had done, and his face changed to one of regret, lowering the gun down and slowly extending his other hand, offering to help her up. The young woman saw his face, regretful on what he did, and she slowly took hold of his hand. Minato helped her from the floor and handed her back the gun, which she took back and put away in her holster. Minato then immediately bowed to the light brown-haired girl to apologize.
“I am terribly sorry! When I saw you going for your gun, my instincts just kicked in. I am sorry that I scared you like that!” The girl blinked a few times before shaking her head and waving her hands.
“N-No! No no no, it’s fine! I should have given you a chance to explain yourself. With how things are these days, you can’t be too careful! I’m sorry about alerting you with this thing…”
The one who stopped the situation from getting out of hand, notices the two apologizing to each other and clears their throat, alerting the two to their presence. Minato looks at who the voice belonged to, and his eyes widen: He sees a beautiful young woman with vivid red hair that reached her waist, bangs that covered the left side of her face with a wavy strand of hair that rested on her shoulder and has red eyes that were like rubies. What she was wearing seemed like a personalized version of the Gekkoukan School Uniform: a white blouse with long puffy sleeves, a red bow tie around the neck, a black skirt that goes above her knees and black knee-high high-heeled boots. The brown-haired girl walks over and stands next to her, nodding at her. “It is good to have you here. We were told that you would be late on arrival, so I am happy to see that you managed to get here safely. I am Mitsuru Kirijo, one of the students living in this dorm. This is Yukari Takeba, she is a 2nd year student just like you.”
The brown-haired girl named Yukari got closer to the red-haired woman, still a bit shaken up from what happened. “K-Kirijo-Senpai, who is he?”
Mitsuru looks over at her junior. “He is the new transfer student that I mentioned to you before, it was a last-minute decision for him to join us. He would eventually have a room in the boys’ dorm.”
Minato bowed once again. “I am Minato Arisato, it is really nice to meet the both of you.”
Mitsuru smiles while Yukari’s eyes looked over at the blue haired boy and back again at her senior. “Are you sure that it is okay for him to be here with us?”
Mitsuru puts her hand on her hip, observing the blue-haired boy as he grabbed his bag from the counter. “I guess we will see…. Your belongings have already been set in the room designated for you. Do you have any questions for us, Arisato?”
Minato shook his head “No thank you, despite what happened earlier… I appreciate the welcome. Umm, where is my room, exactly?”
Yukari stepped forward “I’ll show you to your room, just follow me.”
Minato nodded, bowing to Mitsuru once again. But, once he gets a better look on her face, his mind begins to be filled with rapid images and sounds of laughter of a girl with the same color of hair as Mitsuru’s. This starts to make his head throb in pain which Mitsuru noticed, gently setting her hand on his shoulder. “Arisato, are you okay? You appear to be in pain…”
Yukari got close to Minato; her face changed to one of concern. Minato shook his head and took a deep breath. "I’m fine…. I’m fine… It’s just a headache. I’m sorry, I really should get some sleep for the morning…”
Mitsuru and Yukari both looked at each other and nodded in agreement. “Of course, you must be exhausted from your trip. Yukari will show you to your room.”
Yukari nodded and both her and Minato headed upstairs for his new dorm room. Mitsuru watched as they left, making sure that they weren’t in earshot. She had her hands on her chest; her heart was beating rapidly. “It really is him… after 5 long years, we’re together again, as students… It took everything in me to not jump forward and hug him… But I must be patient. Hopefully, his memories will be restored soon and maybe we can…”
Mitsuru gives off a strong blush and immediately shook her head, slowly making her way back to her room. Minato and Yukari arrived at the end of the hallway of the 2nd floor, stopping near the door on the right side. Yukari was going to leave but something popped up in her mind that she had to ask of her new dorm mate. “Hey umm…. Did you see anything weird on your way here?”
Minato blinked and then started to reply “I know of the Dark Hour and its effects on the world around us. The people turning into coffins, the ominous atmosphere, the pools of red liquid that look like blood… I am aware of it all. But I have no intentions of running my mouth about it to anyone. The only people that I know who are aware of it are my guardian who took me 5 years ago and the people that he works with. Is anything else, Takeba-san?”
Yukari’s eyes widened, she wanted to ask more questions, but she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. “N-No! That’s it, thank you! I’ll be heading to my room, hope you have a good night!”
She gave a small wave and headed upstairs to the girls’ dorm. Minato smiles and opens the door to his new dorm room, immediately closing the door and preparing for bed, especially after receiving the sharp pain that he experienced earlier. Yukari reaches the girls’ dorm and sees Mitsuru entering her room, she goes over to speak with her, and Mitsuru notices her coming towards her. “Ah, Takeba, are you doing okay from earlier?”
Yukari suddenly slumps down to her knees, still shaken up from her 1st encounter with Minato. Mitsuru quickly kneels to her level and sets her hand on her shoulder, worried for her junior. “Senpai… That was just… I never saw anyone be that fast! I took my eyes off him for a second and he was just gone! I didn’t even know that he took my Evoker when I looked down to grab it! And when I looked back… He had the evoker pointed right at me… He had this gaze, it felt so penetrating, and his eyes just glowed in the dark. I have never seen anything like that, I don’t know if it is because of him but it just made me so scared that I collapsed and just sat there, shaking… But when you called for him to stop and the lights came back on, I saw his face... He looked so regretful for what he did. He said that his instincts kicked in when he saw me go for my Evoker…. I wonder what he has been through to react like that…”
Mitsuru’s eyes widened and her mind was filled with a painful memory from her past: a boy with short deep blue hair like Minato’s, was on a hospital bed and was in critical condition. A hand reached out and gently grabbed and squeezed his, sniffling was being heard in the background. “Wake up… please wake up…. I don’t want you to leave me too….”
“Senpai? Hey, Senpai!” Yukari’s voice shook Mitsuru back to reality and noticed that she was shedding a few tears. “Senpai? Are you okay? You just started crying suddenly….”
Mitsuru immediately wipes the tears away and helps Yukari off the floor. “My apologies, Yukari… I don’t know what came over me…. I’m fine otherwise, we both should head to bed. Have a good night, Takeba… Ah yes, I will be leaving a bit early so can you please make sure that Arisato makes it to school on time tomorrow?
“Umm s-sure, got it. Good night, senpai…” Yukari heads back to her own room while Mitsuru slowly closes her own door. After a needed shower, she was dressed in a white lace nightgown with her hair tied into a ponytail. She sat on her bed and looked upon the night sky from her window.
“I remember that we used to look upon the moon at times when we were little… So much has changed for the past 5 years, but we are finally together again. Uncle Daiki, Aunt Tsukiko, Minako-chan…. I will give everything to protect Minato this time, I promise….” Mitsuru slowly lays down on her bed and lets herself drift away to sleep, preparing for the next school day.
“Minato-kun, I promise… I will protect you… I will not let anyone or anything separate us again…”