[history]
Quick run-through of her current canon.
&spades Ten years after the events of Persona 4, Souji Seta (now a professor currently visiting in Port Island) boards a train to visit his cousin - and he never arrives.
&spades The Dark Hour has shown itself three years earlier; it has spread across Japan this time. Nanako first discovers that she can summon her persona, Kaguya-Hime, during the Hour when she visits Souji in Iwadotai. Akihiko Sanada finds her, collapsed, when the Hour passes, and the police chief sends Ken Amada to train her. Teddie comes to assist the two of them. Maiko is sent to help them just before senior year starts.
&spades The Midnight Channel is active once again, acting up roughly the same time as the Dark Hour does.
&spades Nanako starts her expeditions into both the Hour and the television in her final year of high school. Her team consists of Ken Amada (her boyfriend), Anami Ishiguro (her albino best friend), Yuuta Minami (her childhood friend), Ted(die) Hanamura (her childhood friend as well, and older-brother type), Maiko Aino (sent by the Agency that Akihiko is part of, and who studies at Gekkoukan; a girl with a denim jacket and her hair tied back into a bun at the back of her head), and Akira Ikutsuki (his street name is Pharos). Their goal is to keep both Iwadotai and Inaba clean, as assigned to them by the Agency.
They use the TV world as a pathway between Iwadotai and Inaba.
&spades She finds out about the Velvet Room (Train in her timeline) when, frustrated with the search for Souji, she gets on a train bound for Port Island - and she finds out that she's on the wrong line. Here she meets the current Master and Assistant of the Room - Thanatos and Orpheus, respectively.
&spades Anami finds out she can summon Izanami in the Abyss of Time. The Abyss stays open. She has no idea how she gets there. Yuuta faces his true self in a parody of the Samegawa.
&spades Orpheus offers Nanako the Wild Card ability. She accepts.
&spades Akihiko decides that the best course of action to deal with the Abyss is to open all the doors. The party finds out they lead into alternate realities both from the past and the future.
&spades The Agency is in charge of finding people with Personae and the potential to summon them; they kindle those who cannot handle them without outside help and hide those who can summon them. They are control of the Shirogane Group. However, the Group does not know that parts of the Agency is actually kidnapping Persona-users and using them for inhumane experiments. The Agency takes Yuuta into custody, with the full intention of experimenting on him in order to find out what makes a Persona-user who doesn't use an Evoker tick. The Group orders the team to protect the Agency, but the Kirijo Group exposes the deceit and Nanako & co. find out that they've been double-crossed.
&spades Nanako fights with Ken over his jealousy over Yuuta. This, combined with the stress of dealing with being a Wild Card, and the loss of Souji to guide her, leads to her being unable to summon her Persona without the aid of an Evoker and suppressants. It climaxes in a rerun of her dungeon, and she has to face her true self before being able to summon Kaguya-Hime once again. Ken gains the ability to summon Kala-Nemi without using his Evoker. Nanako returns the Wild Card ability to Orpheus, who nods enigmatically and just asks her if she's learned her lesson. She punches him.
&spades They take a field trip to Shibuya. They find out that the Hour doesn't spare this region, and they find their first Apathy Syndrome case. Local television stations broadcast a live feed of someone found hanging dead from an antenna in Osaka. There's also the rumors of an impressively strong Persona user that can switch Personae without tiring - like a Wild Card, but infinitely stronger - who has been sighted driving Shadows back. Akihiko, worrying after the safety of Nanako and Co., tell them to leave the opening of the doors of the Abyss to them.
&spades Pharos, a (prissy, rich, refined and illegal weapons dealer) Gekkoukan High senior with blue eyes and black waist-length hair that is an utter waste on a girl, is picked up by Dojima on the banks of the Samegawa the week before Cultural Week. He's run away from home. They learn that he can summon Thanatos by Evoker the Sunday afterwards. He expresses an interest in this Abyss of Time, seeing that it's a place that he remembers in the middle of black that is selective amnesia about his past. Akihiko wearily allows them to go.
&spades Nanako boards the Velvet Train one afternoon, and finds Orpheus with his head on his Master's lap, his extremeties flaking away like old paint, like letters from a decrepit book.
&spades Over the clamor of the Agency's fall, they keep on opening doors into alternate realities in the Abyss. Nanako finds out that the refined Pharos and temperamental Nami are naturally attracted to each other, for some reason. She spends Christmas with Ken, and they all spend New Year together.
&spades She learns some of Orpheus' past (that he was once a human boy with the name of Minato Arisato), and the nature of his job (paperwork, that's what he tells her, that's what being the 'Seal' entails, and it also involves switching with Elizabeth from time to time), when she brings the two of them hot chocolate on New Year's Eve but finds the Assistant alone. Orpheus mutters that the boss of the Train keeps it tradition that they be separated on New Year's Eve. Nanako wonders, but keeps quiet.
&spades Aigis meets Pharos for the first time on the first of February, when she brings Nanako her acceptance letter into Tokyo University (the same one Ken goes to). The android takes one hard look at Pharos (and Nami by extension), an exclamation on her lips, before her engines go into overdrive and she crashes into the floor. Two weeks later, there's been no word from Souji, there's no word about Aigis' recovery, and there's a velvet-blue envelope in Nanako's hands. She's recieved her final Request from the enigmatic Assistant; the Velvet Invitation.
&spades They open the second-to-the-last door in the Abyss; a look and foray into that ancient dungeon, Tartarus, that morphs into a look and foray into Yomotsu-Hirasaka. Ken and Teddie exchange knowing looks. What is going on? The latter is not oblivious to the way that Anami Ishiguro looks exactly like the goddess of lore. However, she is human, as his Shadow senses confirm, and she is genuinely oblivious to her previous resemblace.
&spades On the first of March, she, Nami, Teddie, and Yuuta graduate. The next day, Maiko and Pharos follow. Two days later, Nanako accepts the Velvet Invitation and descends, alone, to the Abyss of Time, where Orpheus has told her that she will meet the ultimate opponent.
&spades It turns out that the ultimate opponent is the Assistant himself. They duel.
&spades Nanako is losing hope of winning this sparring match when Orpheus throws the final door open and it opens into the Great Doors, in the middle a vaguely faceless human-shaped sculpture, with barbed wire barely hanging on to the stumps of its crumbling wrists. Down, slumped in the middle, on the floor and against the golden eyes, is Souji Seta. The match shifts from sparring to one man left standing. It kind of helps that the creature that's standing between her and her brother is seemingly draining the Assistant's energy fast and thorough. Fueled by adrenalin and anger, she takes Orpheus down.
But he requests that he be defeated. Nanako knows what he means.
&spades She discovers that in her heart of hearts, she can't take a human life. She also deducts that Orpheus is not the one behind this; he's using the situation as a means to an end. And then she learns the full extent and sacrifice that being the Great Seal entails - the reason why all these Shadow-related phenomena are recurring - Minato is failing his duty. A Seal is not to be distracted from the utter amount of willpower that his duty demands; and yet here he is, an Assistant, the backup battery for the main Seal, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was never meant to be the Seal. The body that Thanatos created for his Assistant is breaking down from the stress passed onto him for over the past decade; it's like Minato is the main engine rather than the reserve. Two months ago the full weight shifted from Elizabeth to him. The Assistant is in despair and is in trouble: some mornings he can't wake up, no matter how hard he tries, and some times his focus is shot so badly he's grateful he doesn't normally speak.
The Seal is crumbling, failing, he says, and Thanatos is hell-bent on making Souji (of the same Arcana) his replacement.
Orpheus (Minato) knows it won't work, nothing else will work; he knew what he was giving up. He's the only one of the Universe Arcana.
&spades All signs point to yes, she should kill him. But she can't. Friends don't kill each other. But before she can debate on it more, a beyond-than-angry Fusionist descends on the both of them with great black wings, and moments later her team arrives, going into offencive position behind her back. Ken is furious, but when he sees Thanatos the fury melts away into astonishment.
Thanatos vows he will kill her for what she had done to his Assistant (his brother, his other half), and he will continue on using Souji as the new Seal (if only to buy them more time). The battle rages, and Erebus screams.
Pharos - Pharos can't seem to move. The wind blows his hair back, and Nanako notices that he and Thanatos have the same stance, the same hairline, the same eyes. When Nami rushes over to his side to check up on him, he runs her through with a shortsword, before shifting and fading, leaving only one black feather behind.
It all crumbles into place.
&spades Thanatos is even worse than Orpheus; this is the real battle. They barely seem to make a scratch on the Fusionist, all of them; the feeling of malevolence - of a death worse than deaths - builds up, as the Master of the Velvet Room shifts into his True Form. Thanatos, his namesake, Pharos' Persona, a form that makes Ken shiver.
He calls on an attack that makes Nami freeze in place. Hell's Judgement.
And as the great sword of the god of Death swings down, a great white figure blocks it with a chain of saintly coffins - Messiah.
&spades Orpheus uses all his remaining strength to forego the Compendium and summon the one Persona that is truly his, to prevent Thanatos from staining his hands with blood. He falls to his knees, the white Persona hovering over him, and Thanatos shifts from the monstrous Persona to the anguished boy just in time to catch his Assistant.
Orpheus, cradled in Thanatos' arms, thanks her, Nanako.
Ken holds her back as Minato and Ryoji say their final goodbyes to each other.
The former Assistant (she can't think of him as one now, because his smile is radiant and all the cynicality and jadedness of the world-weary Assistant is gone) crystallises into blue butterflies. Between the Great Doors, the Seal gains a face and hands that are clenched tightly around barbed wire.
She knows the battle is over. Thanatos bows his head and weeps.
&spades Ten years after the events of Persona 4, Souji Seta (now a professor currently visiting in Port Island) boards a train to visit his cousin - and he never arrives.
&spades The Dark Hour has shown itself three years earlier; it has spread across Japan this time. Nanako first discovers that she can summon her persona, Kaguya-Hime, during the Hour when she visits Souji in Iwadotai. Akihiko Sanada finds her, collapsed, when the Hour passes, and the police chief sends Ken Amada to train her. Teddie comes to assist the two of them. Maiko is sent to help them just before senior year starts.
&spades The Midnight Channel is active once again, acting up roughly the same time as the Dark Hour does.
&spades Nanako starts her expeditions into both the Hour and the television in her final year of high school. Her team consists of Ken Amada (her boyfriend), Anami Ishiguro (her albino best friend), Yuuta Minami (her childhood friend), Ted(die) Hanamura (her childhood friend as well, and older-brother type), Maiko Aino (sent by the Agency that Akihiko is part of, and who studies at Gekkoukan; a girl with a denim jacket and her hair tied back into a bun at the back of her head), and Akira Ikutsuki (his street name is Pharos). Their goal is to keep both Iwadotai and Inaba clean, as assigned to them by the Agency.
They use the TV world as a pathway between Iwadotai and Inaba.
&spades She finds out about the Velvet Room (Train in her timeline) when, frustrated with the search for Souji, she gets on a train bound for Port Island - and she finds out that she's on the wrong line. Here she meets the current Master and Assistant of the Room - Thanatos and Orpheus, respectively.
&spades Anami finds out she can summon Izanami in the Abyss of Time. The Abyss stays open. She has no idea how she gets there. Yuuta faces his true self in a parody of the Samegawa.
&spades Orpheus offers Nanako the Wild Card ability. She accepts.
&spades Akihiko decides that the best course of action to deal with the Abyss is to open all the doors. The party finds out they lead into alternate realities both from the past and the future.
&spades The Agency is in charge of finding people with Personae and the potential to summon them; they kindle those who cannot handle them without outside help and hide those who can summon them. They are control of the Shirogane Group. However, the Group does not know that parts of the Agency is actually kidnapping Persona-users and using them for inhumane experiments. The Agency takes Yuuta into custody, with the full intention of experimenting on him in order to find out what makes a Persona-user who doesn't use an Evoker tick. The Group orders the team to protect the Agency, but the Kirijo Group exposes the deceit and Nanako & co. find out that they've been double-crossed.
&spades Nanako fights with Ken over his jealousy over Yuuta. This, combined with the stress of dealing with being a Wild Card, and the loss of Souji to guide her, leads to her being unable to summon her Persona without the aid of an Evoker and suppressants. It climaxes in a rerun of her dungeon, and she has to face her true self before being able to summon Kaguya-Hime once again. Ken gains the ability to summon Kala-Nemi without using his Evoker. Nanako returns the Wild Card ability to Orpheus, who nods enigmatically and just asks her if she's learned her lesson. She punches him.
&spades They take a field trip to Shibuya. They find out that the Hour doesn't spare this region, and they find their first Apathy Syndrome case. Local television stations broadcast a live feed of someone found hanging dead from an antenna in Osaka. There's also the rumors of an impressively strong Persona user that can switch Personae without tiring - like a Wild Card, but infinitely stronger - who has been sighted driving Shadows back. Akihiko, worrying after the safety of Nanako and Co., tell them to leave the opening of the doors of the Abyss to them.
&spades Pharos, a (prissy, rich, refined and illegal weapons dealer) Gekkoukan High senior with blue eyes and black waist-length hair that is an utter waste on a girl, is picked up by Dojima on the banks of the Samegawa the week before Cultural Week. He's run away from home. They learn that he can summon Thanatos by Evoker the Sunday afterwards. He expresses an interest in this Abyss of Time, seeing that it's a place that he remembers in the middle of black that is selective amnesia about his past. Akihiko wearily allows them to go.
&spades Nanako boards the Velvet Train one afternoon, and finds Orpheus with his head on his Master's lap, his extremeties flaking away like old paint, like letters from a decrepit book.
&spades Over the clamor of the Agency's fall, they keep on opening doors into alternate realities in the Abyss. Nanako finds out that the refined Pharos and temperamental Nami are naturally attracted to each other, for some reason. She spends Christmas with Ken, and they all spend New Year together.
&spades She learns some of Orpheus' past (that he was once a human boy with the name of Minato Arisato), and the nature of his job (paperwork, that's what he tells her, that's what being the 'Seal' entails, and it also involves switching with Elizabeth from time to time), when she brings the two of them hot chocolate on New Year's Eve but finds the Assistant alone. Orpheus mutters that the boss of the Train keeps it tradition that they be separated on New Year's Eve. Nanako wonders, but keeps quiet.
&spades Aigis meets Pharos for the first time on the first of February, when she brings Nanako her acceptance letter into Tokyo University (the same one Ken goes to). The android takes one hard look at Pharos (and Nami by extension), an exclamation on her lips, before her engines go into overdrive and she crashes into the floor. Two weeks later, there's been no word from Souji, there's no word about Aigis' recovery, and there's a velvet-blue envelope in Nanako's hands. She's recieved her final Request from the enigmatic Assistant; the Velvet Invitation.
&spades They open the second-to-the-last door in the Abyss; a look and foray into that ancient dungeon, Tartarus, that morphs into a look and foray into Yomotsu-Hirasaka. Ken and Teddie exchange knowing looks. What is going on? The latter is not oblivious to the way that Anami Ishiguro looks exactly like the goddess of lore. However, she is human, as his Shadow senses confirm, and she is genuinely oblivious to her previous resemblace.
&spades On the first of March, she, Nami, Teddie, and Yuuta graduate. The next day, Maiko and Pharos follow. Two days later, Nanako accepts the Velvet Invitation and descends, alone, to the Abyss of Time, where Orpheus has told her that she will meet the ultimate opponent.
&spades It turns out that the ultimate opponent is the Assistant himself. They duel.
&spades Nanako is losing hope of winning this sparring match when Orpheus throws the final door open and it opens into the Great Doors, in the middle a vaguely faceless human-shaped sculpture, with barbed wire barely hanging on to the stumps of its crumbling wrists. Down, slumped in the middle, on the floor and against the golden eyes, is Souji Seta. The match shifts from sparring to one man left standing. It kind of helps that the creature that's standing between her and her brother is seemingly draining the Assistant's energy fast and thorough. Fueled by adrenalin and anger, she takes Orpheus down.
But he requests that he be defeated. Nanako knows what he means.
&spades She discovers that in her heart of hearts, she can't take a human life. She also deducts that Orpheus is not the one behind this; he's using the situation as a means to an end. And then she learns the full extent and sacrifice that being the Great Seal entails - the reason why all these Shadow-related phenomena are recurring - Minato is failing his duty. A Seal is not to be distracted from the utter amount of willpower that his duty demands; and yet here he is, an Assistant, the backup battery for the main Seal, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was never meant to be the Seal. The body that Thanatos created for his Assistant is breaking down from the stress passed onto him for over the past decade; it's like Minato is the main engine rather than the reserve. Two months ago the full weight shifted from Elizabeth to him. The Assistant is in despair and is in trouble: some mornings he can't wake up, no matter how hard he tries, and some times his focus is shot so badly he's grateful he doesn't normally speak.
The Seal is crumbling, failing, he says, and Thanatos is hell-bent on making Souji (of the same Arcana) his replacement.
Orpheus (Minato) knows it won't work, nothing else will work; he knew what he was giving up. He's the only one of the Universe Arcana.
&spades All signs point to yes, she should kill him. But she can't. Friends don't kill each other. But before she can debate on it more, a beyond-than-angry Fusionist descends on the both of them with great black wings, and moments later her team arrives, going into offencive position behind her back. Ken is furious, but when he sees Thanatos the fury melts away into astonishment.
Thanatos vows he will kill her for what she had done to his Assistant (his brother, his other half), and he will continue on using Souji as the new Seal (if only to buy them more time). The battle rages, and Erebus screams.
Pharos - Pharos can't seem to move. The wind blows his hair back, and Nanako notices that he and Thanatos have the same stance, the same hairline, the same eyes. When Nami rushes over to his side to check up on him, he runs her through with a shortsword, before shifting and fading, leaving only one black feather behind.
It all crumbles into place.
&spades Thanatos is even worse than Orpheus; this is the real battle. They barely seem to make a scratch on the Fusionist, all of them; the feeling of malevolence - of a death worse than deaths - builds up, as the Master of the Velvet Room shifts into his True Form. Thanatos, his namesake, Pharos' Persona, a form that makes Ken shiver.
He calls on an attack that makes Nami freeze in place. Hell's Judgement.
And as the great sword of the god of Death swings down, a great white figure blocks it with a chain of saintly coffins - Messiah.
&spades Orpheus uses all his remaining strength to forego the Compendium and summon the one Persona that is truly his, to prevent Thanatos from staining his hands with blood. He falls to his knees, the white Persona hovering over him, and Thanatos shifts from the monstrous Persona to the anguished boy just in time to catch his Assistant.
Orpheus, cradled in Thanatos' arms, thanks her, Nanako.
Ken holds her back as Minato and Ryoji say their final goodbyes to each other.
The former Assistant (she can't think of him as one now, because his smile is radiant and all the cynicality and jadedness of the world-weary Assistant is gone) crystallises into blue butterflies. Between the Great Doors, the Seal gains a face and hands that are clenched tightly around barbed wire.
She knows the battle is over. Thanatos bows his head and weeps.