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Character Information
Character Name: Minato Arisato
Character Series: Persona 3 Portable
Character Age: 17
Character Gender: Male
Alternate Universe
Canon Point: November 8th, during Chidori's capture and after Shinjiro's death, but before Strega makes their move to rescue her.
Background Link: Minato's info
Persona 3 (Megami Tensei wiki)
Persona 3 (Wikipedia).
Yes, it says Persona 3, but Persona 3 Portable is essentially a rehash of the same game, really, with an added female protagonist route.
AU Background: Minato's childhood before the Moonlight Bridge incident is not really covered in the game. In fact, his personal life, him being the Protagonist, is hardly ever touched upon.
However, one very important detail here that separates this from canon already is that when Minato was only a year old, his parents had another child--a girl, to be precise, almost a year to the day he himself had been born. Her name is Minami Arisato. This is where it differs from the normal canon, because usually, Minato is an only child, but not here. You see, Minato and her were rather close; he was her big brother, and since they practically shared everything, he always felt something of a duty to protect her. That is, until that fateful day ten years ago.
In 1999, the Kirijo Group was run by Mitsuru Kirijo's grandfather, a man who for all intents and purposes may as well have been a nutcase, because he was gathering a huge number of creatures known as Shadows (the negative sides of humanity) together in a laboratory, after they had discovered them. There were experiments on time travel and the like, which ultimately lead the leader of the project to find out about the prophecy of The Fall, which he accepted readily. Eventually, their work turned from harnessing the power of Shadows to manipulate time and space to wanting to end the world itself by awakening the Goddess of the Night, Nyx, a great maternal being and the mother of all Shadows. They would plan to do this by creating Death, the thirteenth Arcana, unified from all the other most powerful Arcana Shadows they had collected, who would summon Nyx to them.
Luckily for everyone else, a scientist by the name of Eiichiro Takeba who was part of the project could no longer stand for what he was doing, and so he halted the experiment, causing the unification of the twelve Shadows to be interrupted. As such, Death awoke in an incomplete state, and the Shadows split apart, going berserk and massacring most of the scientists, on top of destroying all but one of the Anti-Shadow Emergency Weapons (androids given simple personalities so they could wield Personas to fight the Shadows), as well. The rampaging Shadows would destroy the facility, creating the Dark Hour as well as what would come to be known as Tartarus.
The incomplete thirteenth Shadow, barely more than a ghostly apparition, would make it's way to the Moonlight Bridge, where Minato and Minami's family had been driving. It is unknown what caused the accident that made his parents ultimately swerve out of control--it could be that when the Kirijo lab was destroyed and the Dark Hour created, like all humans without the potential to wield a Persona, they were Transmogrified into coffins. It could also be that they had swerved to avoid Death, which the tire marks of the accident seem to show as a more likely possibility.
Regardless of how it happened, Minato and Minami's parents wrecked their car on the bridge Death was also on, killing them instantly. Minami herself would be severely injured in the accident, and likely to die. Minato managed to make it out of the car fairly unscathed; his injuries were at best minor. Worried about his sister, who was unconscious, he would witness Death fighting the last remaining Anti-Shadow Weapon, which would prove to be a bad idea. That weapon, named Aigis, was still not stronger than even the ghostly, split-apart form of Death. At that point, this is where things further diverge from canon: the Shadow would split further into two, wherein Aigis would do the only thing that she could, which would be to seal each half of Death within the two children. The stronger half would be sealed within Minato's sister, Minami, and the weaker one within Minato himself. Shortly after that he would also pass out, never to really remember the incident at all. He would remember the crash, but not the details.
Canon, from here, changes quite a bit. You see, Shuji Ikutsuki had managed to survive the rampaging Shadows and would later find out what Aigis had done. Ikutsuki, who practically worshipped the idea of Nyx bringing about the Fall, would attempt to later salvage the experiment by having Minato and Minami taken into the Kirijo Group's hands. Minami would have been preferred, but she was so severely injured that Minato was the only other option at the time. Ikutsuki knew he had the potential, as did his sister, and thus they attempted to at least get some form of Death to show with him. He would take Minato to a secure location and assign another scientist who had survived to explain to him that his sister had not survived the crash, which was, of course, a lie; she did, but Minato didn't know it at the time.
That was the beginning of Ikutsuki essentially leading both Minato and Minami's lives toward them unknowingly bringing about the Fall.
Ikutsuki, however, even if he was manipulating both of their lives at this point, would never have his hands directly in the mess. The scientists would, under his orders, attempt to have Minato summon a Persona, believing he could be of use to them. ... Unfortunately, Minato was traumatized and in shock, even days after the incident. He couldn't summon anything on his own because of it. This would be his unfortunate leading to the project that had been going on at the time, and later, his involvement with Strega, a group of renegade Persona users.
You see, the Kirijo Group had been rounding kids up off the street and doing experiments on them to artificially invoke Personas, even if they did NOT have the potential to summon them. A lot of times the Persona summoned would end up rejecting the child summoning it, and as a result, they would have to take Suppressants, a medication with lethal side-effects, in order to keep their Personas from killing them. Minato ended up part of this experiment, and eventually, the scientists at the Kirijo Group would manage to manifest Death in the form of Thanatos from him, but it was a wildly out of control Persona that even with the Supressors, Minato could barely contain. This was because it was a manifestation of the very Shadow inside him, in Persona form, and it had not been invoked naturally.
All of this was not exactly the most humane treatment--while his sister grew up in decent foster care conditions (though she moved around a lot, always under Ikutsuki's watchful eye), Minato would be nothing more than a very interesting guinea pig to them. Sick of this, he would one day escape with the remaining children, who had not died or turned into Shadows from the experiments, as is hinted in the games, would later become Strega. Chidori Yoshino, Jin Shirato, and Takaya Sakaki would be lead to escape by Minato. Of course, Ikutsuki wasn't bothered by this and would eventually lead them back to Port Island.
Minato would spend a few years wandering around with the others, doing what they could to get food and such. It wasn't easy living. An informant would supply them with Suppressants (this informant would turn out to be, as in canon, Shuji Ikutsuki), so they could control their Personas. During the Dark Hour, they would fight Shadows under Minato's semi-strict routine of training their Personas, so as to better control their destructive nature, as well as help occupy their time. It is during this that Minato picks up his primary weapons, and trains with them: a pistol, and one-handed swords, though he prefers the former. Eventually Jin and he would collaborate and create the Revenge Request site, where hits and other illegal activities could be carried out by Strega during the Dark Hour for certain money. They would also make use of the Dark Hour to get basic necessities, but only ever as much as they needed by Minato's standards. Not all requests for hits would be carried out, as Minato had some form of morals, feeling that they should only kill people if they needed to for money and, or course, if they deserved to die.
This would earn them something of a notorious reputation, though the authorities would never figure out who is behind the murders, seeing as they would move around from country to country, never staying anywhere too long. They would make use of the deceased's things, but only what they needed.
However, eventually he and Takaya would have a falling out, as Minato would be disturbed by Takaya's obvious bloodlust and how he seemed to try to manipulate the weak, Jin in particular. This would culminate into Takaya's ousting from Strega when he would slaughter a man and his entire family, disobeying Minato's set rules of only killing those whom he felt deserved to die, as well as the fact he had not said they would take this particular hit. With Chidori and (once he had been begrudgingly convinced) Jin's support, Minato would kick Takaya out of Strega, leaving him behind with a small amount of money and his weapon. This would later prove to be a decision he would regret, as Takaya and he would be mortal enemies after this.
Eventually, Strega would be lead back to Port Island, where everything started, months before (from SEES' point of view) the Revenge Request website is even spoken of. Shuji Ikutsuki's invisible hand would lead them back by putting out an anonymous hit on Mitsuru Kirijo, and Minato, knowing she was the daughter of the group whom he hated, would be lead back there, hoping to investigate why anyone would want her killed, and then decide if she deserved to really die.
Eventually, they would find out about SEES through her and begin watching their every move during the Dark Hour, particularly on Full Moons. Watching as they would acquire new members. Just as SEES gained new members, however, so would Strega: unlike canon, Minato would pick up both Ken Amada and Koromaru, inducting them into their ranks, as Strega would come across the two Persona users (the latter being, unbelievably, a dog) and support them. Ken in particular who held a grudge against Shinjiro Aragaki, and whom Ikutsuki had been manipulating as well so that he knew he had killed his mother, even if by accident. Shinjiro, of course, was a client for their Suppressants and they sold them to him, though Minato would never tell Ken this.
Finding out SEES desires to end the Dark Hour, which is necessary to Strega's survival and their illegal operations, Minato would lead his team to locking them underground during one Full Moon, though they would unfortunately escape. Ever since, unlike in canon, every other Full Moon would have a prerequisite of a battle between Strega and SEES, wherein Minato would notice the leader, a red-headed female, and his grudge against them would grow phenomenally for how much she resembled his sister.
... Though it would later turn out she WAS his sister, of course. When Minato learned her name, he brushed it off as mere coincidence, because the records he had seen and what he had been told, was that she had died. He had seen her on the Moonlight Bridge, so close to death.
On top of that, Takaya's role in things also differs, as he will have become a Nyx cultist a bit earlier than before. He still kills Shinjiro Aragaki, and Minato is the one to listen to his final words. SEES would arrive on the scene only to see Minato and a crying, confused, and out of it Ken. Minato would say nothing to their demands of "why" and what was going on, only take Ken and leave, in order to help the boy collect himself. Ken would, of course, later run away from Strega back to the place both Shinjiro and his mother would die as he does in canon, but eventually, Minato would follow, talking to him and then leaving him be. Essentially, he would tell him that he could stay here if he wanted, and it was his choice, but if he could fight and was willing to keep training with them and even go to battle with his Persona, that he would need him in order to rescue Chidori (who would go after Junpei on her own, mistakenly believing him to be their leader, and is taken in by SEES to a hospital the same as in canon on September 5th), and make her smile once they had done so.
While all of this differs somewhat from canon, ultimately, it would lead them to eventually cooperate as siblings and leaders once they would learn of Nyx, both trying to stop it, and would also have nearly the same result with everyone's resolutions. Minato, however, by the end of the game, will be the one to seal Nyx away for the sake of everyone involved, gaining strength of heart from his team, his friends, and most of all, for his sister, almost exactly like in canon. However, Minato is from before any of this is really found on from his point of view, thus, there is still animosity between himself, Minami and SEES, as he is unaware of the truth.
Personality: Minato is calm, collected, and level-headed. He is hardly fazed by anything to the extent that one might call him uncaring for most things. This is not, in fact, entirely true: this persona is merely a defensive facade he has built up after years of being on the run. He feels this persona is 'professional' for someone in the business he is in, as well as a leader. His team depends on him, after all, so he wants to provide them with what he views as the image of a proper leader. He is generally emotionless, a side-effect of the traumatic events he has been through, and an attempt to show no weaknesses to his enemies. He does not fear death, he merely accepts it as an inevitability for himself and his team. As Chidori once explains it, all of Strega have the same view (except, perhaps, young Ken): all that happens when you die is that you don't wake up anymore. It's not sad, or wrong. It just simply is. As such... Minato has a certain emotional detachment to death and murder as a whole. ... This is also something that he and his canon counterpart share to a degree. Death has never fazed Minato--why would it? He has part of Death living inside him; he has no reason for it to bother him. Not to mention he is aware that someday, his Suppressants will likely kill him anyway, which shorten his life span by a large degree the longer he takes them, like Chidori, Jin, and Takaya.
Rather like his canon counterpart, Minato has always been all about choices, which is, of course, partly the reason he never leaves Ken alone about his thirst for revenge. Oh, he's not going to stop the kid if he wants to kill the guy, but rather, he wants him to think before he does it. About what he will do afterwards with his life, and about what he will become. This is very important to him, as he doesn't ever want anyone else to suffer like he has, or become like him.
Aside from leading Strega and some minor key details, Minato is, at his core, the same person as he is in the original game, without these changes.
He sees no issues with the Dark Hour because he feels that he was robbed of his life by the Kirijo Group. The reason he doesn't fear death is because, as he puts it, "I died that night on the Moonlight Bridge, along with my sister." As such, his only mission is to stop SEES from ending the Dark Hour, something he, as the leader of Strega, takes very personally. It's for his team's sake, and he would sooner die for them a thousand times over if it meant their happiness.
Speaking of SEES, they're the only people who break his calm facade. The leader, Minami (who he is unaware of as his sister and hasn't bothered to check her last name) sets off something within him, showing his true side, that of an angry young man who feels the life he and his friends have endured is unfair, and that SEES has no right to rob them of their only way to live and be relatively happy with what semblance of a life they have. In truth, she reminds him of his sister, and so he can't stand her. This is something he covers up by attempting to put her down and make her feel miserable, because he believes she is weak and far too young to be leading a team. He also believes the teams cannot reconcile because SEES would never understand the hell he has been through, experimentation and his Persona, as well as killing others for a living.
You see, unlike in canon, this Minato does not lead SEES. He leads Strega, and his team is a well-oiled, somewhat ruthless machine, to the extent that SEES would have a REAL challenge on their hands once Strega began fighting them before each Arcana Shadow every Full Moon, fighting for their belief and their way of life, in order to keep the Dark Hour, not eliminate it. You see, Minato has some amount of honor and he believes in justice for his team, so at some point, it is highly likely he would go as far as to challenge Minami to a one-on-one battle, to see which of the two leaders was really worthy.
At the same time... as much as he might say otherwise, he values living at this moment, each day for all it is worth. This is because he has his team, which is a side of him that most do not know exists. You see, Chidori, Jin, Ken, and Koromaru are like his family. They're the world to him, and when they are alone is the only time Minato lets his uncaring, emotionless mask slide off--he is at ease with them, even wont to smiling, doing all the sort of things you would expect a busybody at home to do. He sews, he cooks, he cleans, all that domestic stuff you wouldn't exactly expect him to know, looking at him from a glance. He enjoys cooking together with Chidori for everyone, a past time the two of them bond over. He and Chidori have an almost nonverbal friendship with how little they talk or smile. They're sort of the Mom and Dad of the team. When he is alone with his team, they can smile, even be free and happy, taking care of Koromaru and Ken, having fun together. They all live in the now instead of worrying about the future, thus, any money Minato makes for them, he either saves or spends on novel things (gothic lolita dresses for Chidori, angel wings and a custom Evoker for Koromaru, new laptops and tech for Jin, action figures for Ken and so forth) to keep his team happy. Minato is actually a very kind-hearted person deep down, but he feels showing this around anyone but his team would reveal a weakness in him he can't afford to have someone exploit, which is why he's as cruel and ruthless as he is to SEES.
... Even if he tries to generally remain so aloof and anti-social, anyone in Strega would vouch that he isn't really that cold, deep down. He has a good heart, even if he's a little misguided, and his team is more than his mere team to him: they're his family, even if he would never tell someone he didn't trust that.
As a leader, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone better suited for operations (even at his age) than Minato, assuming he trusts the people he works with, he's fairly intelligent and fears almost nothing, except, perhaps, losing his friends prematurely. His plans are tactically quite sound, as Strega has never been caught or left any evidence of any of their activities, which include stealing basic necessities during the Dark Hour from stores and the like, to actual paid assassinations, which he generally handles. As a result, he is quite a good shot with a number of guns, though pistols are his favorite. Evokers, looking as much like guns as they do, however, have never bothered him, and he has never had trouble with confusing them, either.
Minato is a quiet, but tactical leader, analyzing the situation at hand as warranted and preferring not to get his hands dirty in the affairs of other matters that he believes do not concern him. While this may seem cold, it also prevents him from becoming too attached--he knows he will die soon, and it is hinted at in the game that the members of Strega even know the exact date of their deaths, assuming nothing happens to them before then. While he says he doesn't want to burden himself with friendship... it's somewhat obvious to those who are close to him that his team are his friends, and that he is really quite soft for those who are in need of help on the inside. He puts his all into training and fighting for his team, because he values every member as much as he does anything else in the world. To him, there is nothing as precious as his makeshift family, and he would not have it any other way, despite the circumstances they came to meet one another in.
He is always willing to, at least attempt to help (if grudgingly, at times, depending on who it is that may be asking and what it is they need), even if he hardly knows the person, but he will generally do so with something of a poor attitude inwardly, wishing to be free of any nuisance or bothering. I think you'd call this 'tsundere'.
To strangers, he is generally not very talkative, tending to be quiet and withdrawn, semi-polite. He is more of a listener than he is the type to engage in a lot of talking, if he can avoid it. While he has some antisocial tendencies (he doesn't like having his personal space invaded, nor does he like being around loud, overly-talkative types), he won't tell someone not to sit with him. ... But that doesn't mean he isn't annoyed inwardly if you get in his personal bubble or bother him repeatedly. He just won't show it, or say it, because secretly, he rather dislikes making people he feels are innocent unhappy or sad. It's only if they set off a few of his triggers (scientists, the Kirijo Group, SEES-related things, being corrupt or unfair, etc.) that he tends to become angry, cold, and insulting towards you.
Minato is also something of an older brother figure to Ken Amada, and possibly to others. Almost as if to make up for the 'loss' of his sister, he has a huge soft spot for younger kids and people with families, and cannot help but forgive them or try to understand and help them. He can be harsh at times, but prefers not to be harsh when he doesn't need to be. There are, in actuality, very few times he exercises "tough love" when he can help it, except with the incident between Jin and Takaya, wherein he had to point out what a bad influence Takaya had been on his friend.
All in all, Minato is a harsh, but icy person on the outside to those who don't know him. One might even call him an ice king. But to those whom he cares for or those he gets to know, or those that are younger than him (like Ken), he can be a compassionate older brother figure that guides them and makes sure that the choices they make are absolutely the ones they feel are right. He'll even hang out with those younger than him and watch silly things like Phoenix Ranger Featherman R (again, with Ken) to spend time with them, and see them happy.
He might be a little morally skewed, but that's just a result of his life as a whole. Just because he's a little confused and a little lost, and very sad deep inside, does not mean he's a bad person, as his sense of right and wrong, skewed as it may be, will oftentimes override the need of anything else. He has strong views on most things, and while he is fairly flexible, the views that he has on the subjects important to him (his team and friends, SEES, etc.), he will never bend to without a good reason. Though he leads Strega, that doesn't make him evil--perhaps just an insecure person who doesn't want those close to him to hurt anymore. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone less selfish when it comes to the people around him. Sure, he can be cruel (like to Minami, and SEES), and he has a hard time not holding some grudges, but that is only ever with intent, and is due to his past.
Perhaps with time, like the others, he can eventually work through his differences and become a more well-rounded person for it.
Abilities:
- He can summon a manifestation of his psyche called a Persona. There are actually two, in fact; his actual one, Samael, and the one that was forced out of him and is more volatile, Thanatos.
- He can use magic with his Personas, though it requires his Evoker to use. He can cast all elements except Fire, because most of his team covers that. He can also heal and revive people, but not really to the extent that, say, Minami and her gazillion Personas could.
- He can use both one-handed swords and guns fairly well, though he prefers the latter as they're less messy and can be used from a distance. He's a pretty good shot, too.
- This is more a note than anything, though he'll probably not admit it, his domestic skills are quite well-rounded and he is good at most home-related things. Living on your own with a group your age does that. Also, he enjoys cooking and sewing the most.
Sample Entry:
“... I want you and I to fight one-on-one. If I win, your team has to back down and leave what we want alone.”
It had been an intense moment. Minato knew the one way to win this effortlessly and prevent unnecessary exertion and possible bloodshed was to challenge the girl who led the team opposite theirs. Chidori had stayed behind to provide him back-up as usual. Jin remained at his side, along with Koromaru.
“I’m not going to say it twice,” he repeated, staring down the red-haired girl a year younger than him. She was standing opposite him, on the other end of the battlefield at the bridge. Both of their teams were backing them and naturally, both were wishing for nothing more than to tear into each other. Particularly on Minato’s end. He remained calm, despite Jin’s enthusiasm to lob a grenade (or ten) in their direction. He knew now was not the time to act rash.
It all came back to this. You see, Minato hated the little girl (he viewed her as a brat and a nuisance) who led SEES. He believed she was messing with things she didn’t understand, and of course, that she was also too young and to inexperienced to understand the importance of the Dark Hour, let alone what the Shadows meant to him and Strega.
“... Fine. I accept your challenge,” Minami finally answered, standing firm. She would not let him see her fear. But it wasn’t fear of losing. “I’ll face you.”
Minato, who was normally quite stoic, allowed a smirk to come his features here, smug and cocky. He had experience using his Persona over her. He had his trump card in Thanatos, as well, so long as it obeyed him. The fight commenced. Both teams stood aside, despite their desire to help their leaders, and merely watched. Sparks, ice, and flames flew as things were blocked, healed, and reflected. Minato was reaching a point of exhaustion, but he didn’t care. He had to win. Adrenaline was pumping.
“What the hell are you afraid of?” He asked Minami, and her features stiffened. If she’d been serious before, now she was worried. He could tell she was afraid of losing herself in fighting, enjoying it.
“Are you even trying...? If you won’t get serious, then I will.”
Having nothing more to say, he raised his Evoker to his head with a whirl of movement, and-
“Thanatos!”
There is also this musebox thread, and this thread too, because this is already a long app and I like to be overly-thorough in case that sample isn't good enough and I am braindead.