Sho Minazuki [Zombie Apocalypse.]

Also known as The Rule-Smashing Pun Machine (Sho) The Scar-Faced Dark Messiah (Minazuki) Minnie (Nickname given by Teddie) Eerie Voice Gender: male Race: human Weapon Twin Blades Appearance: Sho is a young man with bright red hair, blue eyes and has a cross-shaped scar across his face. He wears a Yasogami High school uniform and an olive green button-down shirt with black collar and cuffs and a yellow band on one sleeve emblazoned with a black star inside a circle. He wears the uniform jacket around his waist. His sneakers are yellow and black. Personality: Due to careful grooming as a child test subject in Persona-related experiments, Sho is a young man with a vicious streak and a lust for fighting. He is puerile, caustic, extremely volatile, and easily bored. Through Shuji Ikutsuki's influence, Sho developed a habit of making puns. Raised in near-isolation, Sho was never properly socialized, and thus finds it difficult to relate to others in a typical fashion; combat is ingrained in him as his primary means of social connection, but this is not a tendency that serves him well among ordinary people. Sho is highly misanthropic and wishes for a world in which only he lives. Ever since Ikutsuki "threw" Sho away as a failed experiment, Sho developed a deep mistrust of others' intentions, eventually doubting the authenticity of any and all human bonds, viewing them as a crutch others cling to when they're too weak to stand alone.

Minazuki is a second consciousness that inhabits Sho's body, his caretaker and protector headmate, born from a Plume of Dusk that was embedded into Sho's brain. He is composed, methodical, and callous, while also being protective of and entirely devoted to Sho. Both individuals are aware of one other, with Minazuki able to communicate with Sho inside of their head. Minazuki is also able to assume the front and control their body, generally reserved for times when Sho is in some sort of peril or unstable state of mind. In the Japanese script, Sho refers to himself with the Japanese self-pronoun "boku," using "omae" to refer to who he is speaking with. Minazuki on the other hand with a more composed voice delivery, uses "ore" to refer to himself and "kimi" to refer to who he speaks with. Sho Minazuki is an orphan who was once one of Shuji Ikutsuki's test subjects, much like the members of Strega. Due to his unusually aggressive tendencies and tremendous fighting potential, Ikutsuki regarded Sho as his favorite test subject. As part of the experiment, named "Project PUPPETMASTER," Ikutsuki isolated Sho from the world to prevent him from forming ordinary bonds and ensure that he would become the ideal soldier, relying on combat alone to connect to others. Sho came to bond with Ikutsuki and view him as a father figure even so, a role which Ikutsuki accepted as a means to manipulate Sho.

In an attempt to induce a Persona within Sho, the scientists had implanted a Plume of Dusk into him. Which caused a second soul to be born within Sho, named "Minazuki." Ikutsuki took an interest in Minazuki, who developed a Persona independently of Sho, but found him to be a highly uncooperative subject. After Minazuki attempted to kill Ikutsuki for his abuse and manipulation of Sho, a second experiment was attempted to "erase" Minazuki while leaving his Persona behind. It ended in failure, however, and left Sho in a vegetative state. Ikutsuki placed him in an Inaba hospital on life support afterwards to allow time for him to discover a means to revive Sho for further experimentation. Sho awakened several years after Ikutsuki's death, and interpreted Ikutsuki's actions as him simply having thrown him away when he was no longer useful. After escaping the hospital and settling in Inaba before the serial murders began, Sho developed an interest in the case and followed the investigation team around in secret, feeling that perhaps they might be able to understand him. He eventually judged this an impossibility, however, and fell into bitterness and despair. He shrugs off the notion that any person can be truly trusted or relied upon, concluding that those who do are both weaklings and fools. Sho comes to yearn for a world in which only he exists. Hinokagutsuchi manifests and responds to this wish, stating that in return for Sho and Minazuki's assistance in giving him a body, he will make Sho's world of solitude a reality. Minazuki confesses to Labrys that he is the one responsible for hijacking her and allowing her to "run amok" during the events of the P-1 Grand Prix, revealing himself to be the "Eerie Voice" that hacked her from the previous game, and for the sake of finding out if the Plume of Dusk could hold multiple souls.

Minazuki claims he is the same as Labrys, and thus prioritizes her safety even while using her to achieve his goals. He is also the one responsible for dragging the reluctant and currently reforming Tohru Adachi into their schemes. He even stated that, should Adachi refuse to fight, then the Inaba murders would resume, presumably with Adachi as the first victim. It is even through this that Minazuki/Sho claim Adachi is no different from themselves, having a negative view on the world thinking it has nothing but foolish beings and the like, and, when granted with power, the group of them committed villainous acts with it. Not realizing that Adachi had changed since he lost his game and now wishes to keep his promise to the Investigation Team. As guessed by Naoto, his plan is to "carve" off pieces of the Investigation Team and the Shadow Operatives' Personas by having them battle their Shadow copies in order to summon a God. However, Minazuki denies this, saying that he simply wants to grant Sho's wish. Minazuki also eventually grows fond of Naoto for her deductions. It was revealed in Episode Adachi that Minazuki wishes to summon a being beyond that of ordinary humans. He states that he needs the power of Sagiri, though he also says that it needs to be tamed. For that purpose, he tried to recruit Adachi into helping him, despite his refusal. However, from the beginning, Sho had planned to kill Adachi due to the fact that the leftover power from Ameno-sagiri remained in his Persona Magatsu-Izanagi, which would interfere with Hi-no-Kagutsuchi's ritual. After managing to pin down Adachi, he told him that he had planned to rip out his Persona and turn it into a Shadow before merging it with all of the Persona fragments he had gathered, thus he would be able to weaken and enslave Hi-no-Kagutsuchi.

In the Persona 3 story mode, Labrys confronts Sho at the top of Tartarus and defeats him. It is learned during this mode that the Malevolent Entity was simply using Sho and that he can no longer contact Minazuki, infuriating him even more. Despite knowing that Ikutsuki was using him, Sho does indeed care for him, as much as he hates him. It is also revealed that he hurts and fights people as it is the only way he knows how to connect with them. When Labrys revealed that Minazuki attempted to protect him in the past it causes him to become even more confused. Depending on what the player chooses, Labrys can either tell him that Minazuki did all of that because they had a bond, or shatter Sho's heart by telling him that Minazuki was the one who was truly alone, and did everything he did for his own sake, never caring for Sho. They are interrupted by Hi-no-Kagutsuchi who takes control of Sho's body and fights Labrys, but was defeated again by her. With Elizabeth's help, Labrys, Sho and the others are transported to the TV World. Sho asks if she killed Hi-no-Kagutsuchi, which she confirms. Hearing this, Sho admits that she is strong, but then becomes frustrated by Labrys' slow response. Before he leaves, Labrys tried to convince him to stay, but Sho refuses and threatens to surely destroy her if so, before leaving he asks Labrys about someone, probably Minazuki, but cuts himself off and leaves, leaving his whereabouts afterwards a mystery.

In the Persona 4 story mode, Yu confronts Sho before a beaten Adachi, who was subjected to a pummeling for trying to betray Sho in his attempt to destroy the Persona fragments. Minazuki fronts in place of Sho when Sho's rage takes over him and fights Yu in his stead, but is ultimately defeated. After his defeat, Yu can make Minazuki realize that he is never alone, because his strength comes from his feelings for Sho, which is the very proof of their bond, or tell him that his strength comes from his own solitude. They are interrupted by Hi-no-Kagutsuchi, who reveals he knew that Minazuki planned on betraying him by using Adachi, since Minazuki was well aware that Hi-no-Kagutsuchi would not hold his end of their deal. The entity then proceeds to possess Sho's body with Minazuki disappearing. Combining his power together with Adachi's Magatsu-Izanagi, Yu is able to kill Hi-no-Kagutsuchi for good. Also, it is revealed he was the unnamed guest of the Velvet Room in the prologue of the story mode, only to reject the contract. However, Igor states that Sho will eventually return and form a contract with them at the start of his journey. In the events of the true ending following Hi-no-Kagutsuchi's defeat by Yu and Adachi, Sho eventually shows himself to be alive, but wondering about his other self/Minazuki's disappearance as he cannot sense him anymore. Yu eventually also notices Sho's eyes and scar to glow into a sudden pale blue. During a talk, Sho reveals that after he woke up in the hospital in Inaba, he found out that his medical expenses were paid for by Ikutsuki, despite him throwing Sho away. With a large inheritance and going into the outside world for the first time, Sho had very little idea what to do with his life and since fighting was all he knew and he was unable to handle the dull life in Inaba, until one event; to which he revealed that he watched the Investigation Team's entire progression on the serial murder case to its conclusion, which he found exhil

During a talk, Sho reveals that after he woke up in the hospital in Inaba, he found out that his medical expenses were paid for by Ikutsuki, despite him throwing Sho away. With a large inheritance and going into the outside world for the first time, Sho had very little idea what to do with his life and since fighting was all he knew and he was unable to handle the dull life in Inaba, until one event; to which he revealed that he watched the Investigation Team's entire progression on the serial murder case to its conclusion, which he found exhilarating. Hi-no-kagutsuchi then appeared before him, asking Sho if he wanted to destroy the world, and Minazuki formulated the plan of the world's destruction with Sho following along. Yu tells Sho that he should not be afraid to bond with others, as Sho is similar to Labrys. However, Sho claims that he can only understand others by fighting them, to which Yu states that he will gladly fight Sho as long as he could forge bonds that way. Sho and Yu engage in one last fight, revealing that Sho could now summon Tsukiyomi on his own, with Yu emerging victorious. Inspired by the power Yu's bonds gave him, Sho still insists that he will one day kill Yu and he should be ready for when Sho come for him, fleeing the scene as he starts his own journey. At the end of Episode Adachi, Adachi thinks about how Sho still has plenty of opportunities in this world despite having been consumed by power like himself, and convinces Sho to continue on instead of hiding. In the manga adaptation, Sho's backstory is detailed further. Compared to the events in the game, Sho's personality was more on being lost, wanting to find someone or something to recognize his existence and purpose in life.

His connection with Ikutsuki was similarly played out in the game, with one of the tests being to fight against what seem to be rebuilt Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon models. In 2010 of Winter in Inaba Hospital, they wake from their coma and eventually escape from the hospital (it is assumed to be Minazuki who was fronting at the time), taking a Yasogami High School uniform found in an abandoned room as they evaded hospital staff. He eventually made himself at home in a house within the woods, which apparently formerly belonged to Ikutsuki. It's while he's searching through records that Sho "wakes up" and encounters the personality that resulted from the Plume of Dusk experimentation within him: Minazuki. He initially denies his other self about the cruel treatment he received as a child, but eventually found the truth of Ikutsuki's death on November 4th, 2009, during the betrayal of SEES. Devastated and confused over all of this turmoil, Sho within his mind stabs Minazuki, in which the effect in reality is stabbing himself, resulting in the scar that spans the bridge of the nose. When Yu defeats Hi-no-Kagutsuchi, Sho within it was desperately reaching out for the light, only to be saved by Minazuki and Tsukiyomi. Minazuki smiles to Sho, glad to see him safe and eventually erased from existence. As Yu understood Sho's suffering, he agrees to fight with Sho as a form of understanding between them, going into an all out physical and sword fight, with Margret and Elizabeth watching from the sidelines. In the epilogue, during Yu's return to Inaba, Sho was revealed to be traveling around the country as part of his new journey. in this version, there is no persona, and Sho cannot summon it, so Sho has to rely on his physical strength. When the zombie apocalypse began, Show and Takaya joined the wild wolves led by Mello, who lived in an abandoned factory.