April 4, 2016

I headed down the street towards my newest school, feeling the excitement of being accepted into one of the most prestigious schools in Tokyo. The slightly warm and humid air felt heavy with the excitement and anxiety of my fellow freshmen. The Entrance Ceremony had already concluded and students were either saying goodbye to family or friends that came or were going to their dorms. I smiled at the sight until a thought bubbled up from within my mind. Dorms... Crap. 

I realized with a start that I hadn't even checked where I'd be staying for freshman year. I was too busy with the Phantom Thieves that I'd forgotten. I rushed down to the administration's office to check where I would be staying, only to find 2 other guys sitting in the office, one laying sideways across a row of chairs and the other flipping through his phone.

"What happened to you guys? Is something wrong?" I asked. I didn't usually involve myself with people this quickly, but Futaba had been recently encouraging me to make new friends. Hypocrite. All she did was stay in her room all day.

The boy on the chair had blue hair that covered his face, showing only a singular, bright blue eye while the other boy had silver hair, neatly cut, and glasses that framed his gray eyes.

"Blue" had a dangerously quiet vibe about him while "Silver" had a friendly and almost mom-like feeling. Blue answered by sleepily saying, 

"We have nowhere to sleep....... I need to rest.......ughhhhh......." He covered his face with his hand and turned away. He looked terrible.

I turned towards the administration's desk, where a man in a blue suit was working. The man at the desk looked at me with his golden eyes. He reminded me of Lavenza, but the similarity was only in appearances.

"How can I help you?" He asked. I explained my problem to him.

He walked over to the computer and typed in my ID number once I gave him my student ID. "I see that since you registered past the deadline, we were not able to provide a dormitory room for you. These 2 gentlemen had the same problem. Unfortunately, we're currently out of dorms until next semester or students drop out. If you want, it is possible to rent an apartment outside of campus. We're sorry for the inconvenience."

 I looked at Blue, who was half asleep, and Silver, who was trying to play solitaire. They looked exhausted, even though it was only 10:30 am. 

At my school, the day of the entrance ceremony was a day off for the students to explore the campus. I thought of the man's comment about apartments from earlier. I couldn't afford an apartment on my own legally, and I sure wasn't going to ask Haru for money. She'd buy me an entire complex. But, if these 2 became my roommates, the rent would be covered. I decided to ask them. Why not? I could always fight them if they turned out to be evil, and the risk was low. Plus, something about them gave me a weird feeling.

"Hey, I know you 2 don't have a place to stay, and I was wondering if you would like to become my roommates. I need help covering rent, but-"

Blue got up. "If I have a place to sleep, I'll take it." 

Silver looked thoughtful and nodded. 

They turned towards the man with golden eyes and silver hair and thanked him. The man's gaze lingered on Blue, and I could've sworn I saw him mouth, "No problem." to Blue. However, that was probably just my imagination.

Afterward, we exited the building and walked to the closest apartment complex with rooms available. It wasn't the prettiest, and there was loud music coming from the top floor, but it would do for the time being. I smiled. This year was going to be interesting.  (A/N: I've never rented an apartment before, so I don't know how that works. I'll just skip to them unpacking in Apt. B326)

~Time Skip! Brought to you by Morgana's Cat Food! 100% Shadow Free!~

I looked at my roommates' cardboard boxes with a hidden smirk. They had to deal with boxes and transport. I went outside of our room and into an alleyway nearby, pulling out my phone. 

When I logged on, there on my home screen was an app with the Phantom Thieves logo and red background. I smiled as I looked at the screen. Futaba had recoded the MetaNav in her third year of high school so the Phantom Thieves could keep improving society even without us needing to fight Yaldabaoth.

I hopped into the Mementos, where Morgana was waiting. He stood there in his human form, my cardboard boxes stacked neatly at his side.

"Hey, Akira! Where have you been? I've been driving all over the Mementos with your cardboard boxes trying to follow you! Even Ryuji could've given me better instructions!" Morgana scolded.

I grinned. Morgana was one of the few friends that I was allowed to have constant contact with. Sae Nijima had told the police to erase all information on the Phantom Thieves in the files in exchange for The Phantom Thieves never being allowed to meet in public. Basically, we were publicly "Breaking up".

She knew, though, that they could meet in the Metaverse when stealing hearts. So we did. We consented to the agreement, which allowed us to never see each other or for them to even contact me in the real world. Of course, since the police knew only my identity, the others kept in contact with each other and Morgana. Morgana would then tell me about the meeting spots and time. It was hard, but not horrible. Also, we'd meet in our civilian forms, so really it wasn't that different. The only thing was not showing up on T.V. As if we did that in the first place.

I went over to Mona, who was about 4'6" and patted his head. 

"Come help me with these boxes," I commanded. "I need help moving in. I'll even give you some of Sojiro's special coffee if you do."

Mona smiled, showing his feline fangs, and picked up some boxes. I balanced the rest of the pile in my arms as Morgana transported us out of Mementos and into the real world. We staggered up the stairs and I fumbled with the lock, trying to open the door. Silver did me the favor.

I thanked him politely and led Morgana to my room. Silver did a doubt take when he saw Mona.

"Are-? Are those cat ears?" He questioned, staring at Morgana.

Mona smiled.  "They're fake." Mona said with ease, "I just like wearing decorative cat ears. Is that wrong?" 

Silver looked surprised for a second before smiling back. He changed the subject. "Hey, who is he? Your brother or something?" Silver said curiously.

I answered. "Nah. He's just a good friend named Mona I made a long time ago. I rescued him when he was in peril and ever since then he's helped me."

Silver looked uncertain. Mona didn't seem to notice or care. While we were unpacking, he'd carefully move things around and whenever things fell, he'd catch them with cat-like reflexes. Silver shrugged, flipped his shirt collar up for no real reason, and started to help me unpack my belongings.

Within an hour, I had my room unpacked with the help of Silver and Mona. Blue was sleeping on the couch, too tired to unpack anything. Poor guy. He must've been exhausted. Apparently, he moved all the way from Tatsumi Port Island, which was over 4 hours away by train. The bags under his blue eyes were enormous. 

Mona said goodbye after a cup of Sojiro's homemade coffee, went outside, turned into a cat, and went inside through a window I'd purposefully left open.

He crawled onto Blue, who was still sleeping peacefully and laid on his warm body. I helped Silver unpack his things as a returned favor. Once we'd set up our rooms and Blue's bed, I went to make some curry and Silver turned on the T.V. to the weather channel. He seemed to hum a small tune as an ad came on. A Junes commercial. Weird.

I looked at the clock. 20:57(A/N: I'm using the 24-hour clock like Japan, so 20:57 is 8:57 p.m.). I went to my room after eating and washing the dishes due to both Silver's and Mona's nagging. I climbed into bed to read Buchikos' story, a book I borrowed from the library. 

After I finished, I felt like reading the book taught me how to be more proficient. I looked at my phone. It was 23:56, so it was no wonder as to why I felt tired. I was about to fall asleep when I realized that Mona wasn't nagging me to go to sleep. I got up and went to the kitchen, only to find Blue awake. 

"Hi, Blue. Want some curry? I'll heat it up for you." I said gently, careful not to wake up Silver if he was asleep.

Blue quietly looked at me for a moment before he answered. "My name's Minato Arisato. And no, I don't want anything to eat. By the way, did you notice? It's almost midnight."

I was confused. It was 23:59 now, sure, but why did that have anything to do with curry?

The watch on Minato's arm beeped. 24:00. Minato's eyes took on a bright neon blue and his sleepy expression turned into an energetic smile. But that smile wasn't kind in the slightest. It had insanity hidden in it. Sad, angry, insanity mixed with insecurity. Minato got up and cracked his knuckles. 

"Welcome, Curly, to the Dark Hour."