Chapter Text
I groaned as I got off from the long train ride that I just had. In the main train station building I saw my uncle along with my cousin waving at me.
"It has been a long time since we last saw you, Naoki," my uncle said with a small smile, "are you doing alright?"
He was most likely referring to that psychotic breakdown incident which killed my mom; this was the reason for why I'll be staying with my uncle's family, the Kanames, for the next 2 years or so.
I tried not to let guilt eat at me as I anwsered with a simple, "Yes."
I knew logically that that there was no way for me to know that Akechi would target that train on that particular day, but I still felt I could've done something.
My uncle didn't look entirely convinced, but he didn't comment on what he was thinking about. He the directed us to follow him to a bus stop.
There my my cousin, Madoka, started to fidget as said to me, "Uhm, Naoki..."
My eyes turned to her, she had definitely grown some since the last time we were together, but she still looked really cute, and then she handed a manga over to me, which she had been holding the entire time. I looked at the manga curiously and with a confused expression.
She must have noticed my confusion as she started to explain, "Ah...the last time we met you told me that you wanted to read this manga..."
The last time we met, was around 2 years ago, our parents got into some sort of fight, I didn't really what the fight was about, but my mom cut all contacts from uncle Tomohisa, this was also back before I even realized that I was reborn in a fictional world.
I to this day still cannot believe that it took me that long to figure it out, well no matter now I'll just have to tell Madoka that I already bought this around 2 years ago.
"Thanks Madoka, but I already own this..." I muttered softly
"Oh..." she looked at ground with a downcast expression.
I can't just allow her to look so sad! Quickly brain, think of something!
"Well, I guess I'll have to sell or give away my old copy..." I muttered loud enough for her to hear.
Madoka turned to look at with a suprised and confused look on her.
"Madoka, have you ever heard of the saying 'it's the thought that counts', I am glad that you thought about me enough to get me something like this."
Madoka flushed at what I said, and uncle Tomohisa let out a small laugh behind us.
"I am glad to see that you two are getting along this well," he said to us with a smile.
I laughed along as we made our way to a bus stop. "Of course, there's no way I wouldn't get along well with Mado-chan."
I intentionally used my old nickname for her to see what kind of reaction she had. At first she appeared to be okay with its use, but then she must have imagined some embarrassing things because her face started to turn even redder.
Then an idea came to her mind and she smiled slyly at me. "Nao-chan and I would always get along."
I mentally cringed and groaned at my old cutesy nickname of her for me, I feel like I have started a war with her.
We shared eye contact for a few seconds before we both decided not to call each other by our childhood names.
The bus soon arrived; it took 12 minutes with it to arrive at their house.
"Ah you're back," said an unfamiliar voice to my right when Uncle Tomohisa unlocked the door.
I slowly turned to see a boy around Madoka's age with the sane pink hair as her, in fact he looked nearly identical. His expression on the other was nothing like Madoka's, it was filled with boredom and indifference.
What the hell...?
Madoka turned to look at the boy with a confused look on her face.
Meanwhile Uncle Tomohisa stopped in his track as he muttered, "Who..."
But then his expression changed and he said to the boy, "Minato, are you feeling better?"
The boy nodded. "Yeah, everything's fine dad."
Dad!? What the fuck does he mean by dad!? The hell is going on here!?
I quickly turned to look at my uncle. "Uncle, who is he?"
Uncle Tomohisa turned to me with a frown. "What do you mean? He is Minato, your cousin, Madoka's twin brother...I know that the two of you don't really get along, but please don't pretend like you don't know him."
Minato merely smirked at me as if to challenge me.
What in the name of Igor is going on here?! Where did HE come from?!
Suddenly a voice cried out intterupting my train of thought, "Mado...Mado..."
And in waddled little Tatsuya. He stared at both Minato and I in confusion before another familiar face walked in, aunt Junko.
She looked about the same as last time I saw her, but this time she didn't have as much thinly concealed hostility towards my mom.
Mom and her never really got along for some reason, and it got even worse around two years ago. When the whole fight with them happened.
"Naoki, you're here and...huh?" she muttered as she gazed confusedly at Minato, then as if switch had gone of in her brain the confusion disappeared, "Ah Minato are you feeling better?"
Alright, it's now obvious that this 'Minato' is obviously not supposed to be here. But, then what is he?
The "boy" in question turned to look at me, and continued to smirk at me, something about that smirk really disturbing to me, so I looked away.
Why am even I feeling disturbed? It's just Minato, true I don't really well with him, but that doesn't mean I should be scared of him.
...what?...What the fuck? No...no! I know where this is going, I'm not gonna be—
My cousin was still smirking for some reason, and soon enough it was time for dinner, I sat close to Madoka while Minato sat opposite to me.
We then had a pretty awkward dinner before Madoka decided to show me my room. Thankfully I wouldn't have to share it with Minato, so that was a plus.
I flopped down onto the bed as I reflected on the events of me ending up here.
Why couldn't I have warned her about the Mental Shutdowns, why couldn't I...no I can't think like that even if were to kmow and I were to inform someone why would they listen to me, why would they listen to a bastard.
Tears flowed from my eyes and I entertained more what ifs in my head.
Fat chance mom would have listened to you...she never did, and it's not like I know every Mental Shutdown that ever happened, were what the rational part of my mind argued.
I tossed and turned in the staring up at the ceiling. I waited a few minutes to calm down.
Alright, enough with fighting myself and walloping in my grief, I'll get a Persona just to fuck over both Shido's and Akechi's plans.
I started by going to one of the four corners of my room, and I started to walk to the adjacent corner, and while I was doing that I kept muttering, "Persona, Persona, come to me."
I was doing a scuffed version of the Persona Game, which I hoped might work even if I was the only one doing it.
It would be real hilarious if I got a message saying that this service has been discontinued, it'd be real fucking hilarious even.
I soon finished with walking around the corners of the room and looked around searching for a golden butterfly, but nothing happened.
"Well, this is a bust. I guess I'll try the other methods then..." I muttered to myself as I sat down on the bed.
Then suddenly a bright flash surrounded me, and for second I saw a black outline of a butterfly, and I soon found myself in the tower structure of Philemon in the Sea of Souls.
And in the middle of it stood good ol' Phil.
He for some reason, had his Persona 1 outfit and with full face covering butterfly mask.
"Welcome, it's a pleasure to meet you. I am Philemon, a dweller between consciousness and unconsciousness. Now there's a simple task, can you state your name?" asked Philmont.
My eyes widened as I tried to get my name out...
My name...what is it?
What is it?!
What is it!?
It's...it's...it's...
"𝐝⃥⃒̸𝐣⃥⃒̸𝐢⃥⃒̸𝐚⃥⃒̸𝐧⃥⃒̸𝐬⃥⃒̸" I finally shouted out my real name.
Philemon hummed as he looked at me. "I suppose that would count as well.
"Very well, I must congratulate you, not many of you, humans, can remember their names while in this domain. It seems like you pass this test, I think that the rest needs to no introduction to you, correct?"
"Yes, I figured that I could you some things to..."
Before I could even finish my sentence, Philemon spoke and interrupted me, "Unfortunately your questions will have to wait, out time is rather limited at the present moment.
"I'll grant you the power of Persona in order to rise against the status quo of the world and against the chains that bind you, your family, and your friends. Should you have any further questions, please come to the shrine near your new school."
Everything started to darken around me; the yellow towers turned orange, and then I found myself awake in my bed.
I got up to look around, and it was already dark outside, plus my phone showed that it was around 2 AM.
I groaned as I flopped down on the bed and started to think about everything with Philemon. Something didn't feel quite right...
Alright what the fuck was that? Philemon felt way to pushy, was he limited in what he could say by Nyarlathotep? It was almost like he didn't want to interact with me, but then why did he transport me to the Sea of Souls?
I closed my eyes as I tried to get back to sleep, tomorrow, after all, will be a busy day.
"...I hope we get along well." I said as I finished my introduction my new class.
Unfortunately, it appeared that I wasn't in the same class as Madoka, which I didn't really like, but there was nothing I could really do about it, so I just went along with it.
I also kinda overslept and barely made it for my introduction, but that was neither here nor there.
My new teacher smiled as she directed me to a seat at the corner of the room, where a short black haired girl sat.
" 'Sup. I'm Toudou Alice, but you can just call me Alice." the girl, Alice, greeted me as I sat down next to her.
"Uh...I've already introduced myself, but you can also just call me Naoki." I said, somewhat fumbling my introduction because her family name caught me off guard.
Alice threw a quick glance over at the teacher as if to make sure the coast was clear before she asked, "So, how are finding Mitakihara, and this school so far?"
"It's certainly...unique, the school far more than the city itself."
I took a look around and almost physically recoiled from how awful the "walls" if this classroom where.
I mean who the fuck thought that this is a good idea. It looks so atrocious, why the fuck are the classrooms surrounded by glass? And isn't this dangerous as well, I mean if someone accidentally breaks it, it would cause more than just minor bleeding.
Alice seemed to have grasped what I was thinking, and she grinned at me. "I had the same thoughts when I transferred here.
"Hey, since you are new around here, why don't I show you around the city?"
I shrugged as I answered, "Sure...but I already promised my cousin that she could show me around here, so..."
Alice looked pensive for a moment before she brightened up. "Then, how 'bout I accompany you? Would your cousin mind that? I could show you all sorts of fun things to do 'round here. Like the Arcades, hey have you heard about that new game that is coming out soon, it will have...."
I turned her out as she started to gush about some new Arcade game, in any case I didn't see any reason why Madoka would not agree to this, so I nooded to her question.
"Great, so you agree!" she said in a loud voice. I am not sure what I actually agreed to, but it couldn't be that bad, so I didn't ask.
Once class was over, Alice rushed over to another boy in the front of the class and made us introduced ourselves to each other.
The boy, whose name is Takashi said to me, "So, Alice got a new 'friend', huh? Anyway, my name is Kido Takashi, nice to meet you..."
Huh...something about that name seem real familiar....
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. "Kaname Naoki."
Alice to the side had a small grin as we introduced ourselves to each other.
We then went to meet up with Madoka and soon enough we met up with her and her friend, Sayaka.
"Naoki!" waved Madoka with her hand.
We walked up to her while she waved.
"Eh, Naoki you already made friends?" asked Madoka as she turned to Alice and Takashi, "well I'm glad, my name is Kaname Madoka and this is..."
She indicated to Sayaka who quickly got the message. "You can call me Sayaka."
Now it was Alice's and Takashi's turns to introduce themselves, which they did, and they if they could accompany us.
Madoka smiled softly as she responded, "Of course, right Sayaka-Chan?"
She nudged the blue haired girl who quickly nodded to her question.
We then wandered around the city before we made our way to the mall.
While walking towards there, Sayaka grinned at me and asked, "So, how are you doing with your dream job, Mr. Detective?"
"Eh..."—I shrugged—"...going well, but could be better; I doubt that I'll ever match up to the great Hercule Poirot though."
Reading Detective stories, in particular Agatha Christie ones, was a hobby that I carried over to this life form my previous one. I read them so often when I was still young that Sayaka started to refer to me as 'Mr. Detective'.
And to be fair to her, it's not completely a lie, I had started to 'investigate' the Mental Shutdowns and Psychotic Breakdowns ever since mom died, and by investigating I am talking trying to find any evidence that may link those cases to Shido.
In that regard, I had some small success with uncovering some small cases at the beginning which directly linked to Shido, however, it seems like someone in Shido's inner circle had enough of brain to realize that they should not use Akechi like that.
So, unfortunately for me, all the recent Mental Shutdowns and Psychotic Breakdown appeared to have no connections to Shido.
We arrived at our destination and walked around the mall a bit.
Sayaka then told us that she was going to buy so music DVDs for a friend of hers and she looked at Madoka.
Madoka looked between us unsure of what to do.
I told Madoka that she can go with Sayaka if she wants to, which she, after a bit of consideration, did.
So, we went our separate ways, with Takashi and Alice showing me around the city.
We ventured into a small park and sat down on one of the benches...or at least we would've if the world didn't start to blur around us.
"What the..." exclaimed Alice, as the world around us started to change.
What the fuck? This is far more trippy than these usually places are.
I started to sense something in the depth of whatever his place is. I wasn't sure if it meant that my Persona was awakened, or if it was the gift that Philemon referred to.
Alice insisted that venture further into the dungeon, and despite my and Takashi's protests; she was quite insistent on it.
"I mean just look at how awesome this is; a paranormal world we just ventured into, mom would be freaking out, and I want to document it!"
I shared a concerned look with Takashi who just shrugged.
I let out a defeated sigh as I ventured with them further and further into this Shadow world.
In the center was some sort of weird glowing object, which I couldn't make out. Whatever it was I didn't like it, then it shattered and out came a...
What the actual fuck? No genuinely this Shadow looks someone came up with, while they were high on something.
The Shadow resembled no SMT demon that I was aware of and it was no blob with a mask on it. The Shadow was some sort of weird black/grey horse with what looked like a person made up of all colors on its back.
It roared as smaller Shadows started to appear. It soon noticed us and let out another roar as it charged at us; with the smaller Shadows following close behind it.
I instinctively took step infront of Alice.
Call me forth.
A tarot card appeared in my hand. And I instinctively went to crush it.
Blue light erupted from around me and my Persona appeared behind me. It wore all yellow hood which hid its appearance.
I am thou, thou art I.
From the sea of souls, I cometh.
I am Hastur, the King in Yellow.
It took me a few seconds to mentally process everything about my Person. But, I needed something to deal with this Shadow, so I went to the first spell that came to my mind.
"Freila!" I shouted as I unleashed the medium nuclear attack against the Shadow.
It looked like I got lucky and nuclear was its weaknesses as it fell to ground, the smaller shadows started to surround it as if to protect it.
"Hastur! Mafrei!" all of its minions appeared to have the same weakness as that spell vaporized almost all of the smaller shadows
My eyes widened when I went to strike at the larger Shadow only to find that it vanished from where it was hiding.
I barely had enough time to summon my Persona infront of me to block, as the Shadow appeared infront of me and knocked me to the side.
My sight got blurry and I coughed up some blood from the impact. The Shadow's minions advanced towards me as I tried to unleash another AOE nuclear spell against them.
However, it looked like blocking an attack with my Persona took a lot more out of me, as Hastur didn't respond to me attempting to use another nuclear spell.
Then I heard a shout of, "No!" and I could barely make out blue light which surrounded either Alice or Takashi.
"Victoria! Wipe that big monster away with a Bufula!" this time I was certain I knew who was the one who shouted it was; Alice.
I saw the ice spell that went to strike the large Shadow, however, a few of the smaller ones jumped infront of the attack and took the damage for themselves.
The larger Shadow went to strike at Alice so fast that she looked like she will be unable to doge, however, thankfully, Takashi managed to push her to the ground.
They were barely roll off the ground as the large Shadow went to strike at them at them again.
This time, though, a card appeared in Takashi's hand, and crushed it instantly.
"Persona! Megido!" he shouted and the Shadow disintegrated when the almighty spell struck it, and with it went the Shadow World and all the other smaller shadows.
I tried to stand up, but I my les gave out from under me as I tumbled to the ground, thankfully, Takashi was next to me, and was able to catch before I fell face first into the ground.
"Kaname-san, are you alright?" asked Takashi with a worried voice.
I tried to anwser him, but I ended up coughing up some blood.
This caused Alice to shout, "Naoki!" as she rushed up to me.
Then I could make out a card manifest in her left hand, and she crushed it as she muttered, "Dia."
I could feel myself getting better from just that one spell, and after a few seconds, I was able to stand up again.
"I'm fine now, thanks to Alice..." I muttered as I still felt somewhat weak.
Alice was still sending me a concerned look, nonetheless, I straightened myself up as I turned towards Takashi.
"So...can either of you tell me what the hell that was?" he asked us after I was healed.
I hesitated for a moment on what to tell them before I decided to tell them the truth. "What we encountered was a Shadow. To make it simple, Shadows are the suppressed thoughts and emotions of Humanity.
"They reside in Shadow worlds like the one we were in. Though most of the time those worlds are less..."—I hesitated for a moment on what word to use—"...trippy than the world we were in."
He gave me a suprised look. Likely suprised that I knew this much about what we encountered.
I sighed as I continued. "There is someone who can explain this in more details. I could lead you to him, if you want me to."
Takashi hesitated, but Alice grinned as she nooded along. This caused Takashi to acquiesce to come along with us, as he evidently didn't want to leave Alice alone.
So, I lead them to the shrine, which I had searched up this morning, and while traveling there, I started to test my Persona's sensing ability, I could detect these smaller Shadow worlds around me in 2KM radius, which I appreciated.
Once we entered the shrine, we were engulfed in a bright light. The three of us soon found ourselves with Philemon. "Well done in awakening your Persona," he then turned his attention towards Takashi and Alice, "I welcome you back, my name is Philemon, have you forgotten?"
Alice stared at him entranced. "I...I remember this...
"Me and Takashi...we tried this game called Persona..."
This caused Takashi's eyes to widen as he also seemed to remember it. "We heard about it from our Parents when we were young..."
Philemon merely nooded along. "Indeed, it was far more prevalent in the time of your parents.
"Now, is there something else you require of me, Kaname Naoki?"
Philemon turned his attention to me, and I decided my two most important questions, "First of all, can you tell me how we can get to the main Shadow world, and—"
I was cut of by Philemon, "I am afraid to say, that there is no main Shadow world."
Alright, so, this is more like Persona 2 than all the other ones, though the fact that it is even remotely similar to P2...is concerning to say the least, and it leads my next question... I thought with an tired sigh.
"...Okay, my next question is: Can you tell me what your counterpart, Nyarlathotep, is planning to do?"
My companions turned to look at me at the question. However, my whole focus was on Philemon.
Philemon let out a humm as he anwsered the question, "I am afraid to say that once again I can be of no assistance to you in answering that question.
"I cannot reveal what the Crawling Chaos is planning, that was a rule we agreed upon."
I grunted at that, Tatsuya should definitely have punched him harder in the face.
"Were those all of your questions?" he asked me as I pictured myself punching him in the face like how Tatsuya did.
I hesitated for a moment before I asked my next question, "How would we go about Fusion?"
"I will take that over due to the Velvet Room currently being indisposed."
I nooded along with this and I turned to Alice and Takashi. "If you have any questions, you can ask him now."
Takashi was the first to ask him something, "Uh...yeah, can you tell us why these...Shadows appeared in Mitakihara?"
"Play the game, and you will find out."
Uhha...well thanks Phil for that wonderful answer.
Alice huffed while glared at him then she asked her question, "And what is this game even about?"
Philemon glanced to the side and nooded to something and before we knew it, we were back in the temple.
"Oh, wow, so helpful..." muttered Alice while she turned to look at me.
"Sorry about that," I muttered, "normally he's more...helpful."
I wasn't whether that quite the right word; Philemon was quite helpful in Persona 1, less so in the Persona 2 duology—but even there he wasn't as unhelpful as he was here.
Takashi sighed. "Well, it can't be helped, Naoki-san, you know more about these Shadows, would you be able to anwser a few of my questions?"
"Eh...yeah sure."
"Can Shadows interact with the real world?" was his first question.
I scratched the back of my head. "Yes, however, this usually happens under very specific circumstances, more common is the fact that people end up in Shadow worlds."
Takashi frowned. "In that case, could the mysterious dissappearances around Mitakihara have something to do with the Shadows?"
"Mysterious dissappearances?" I muttered as I looked at both of them.
Alice perked up at that. "Yeah, there have been an increase of mysterious dissappearances in Mitakihara and the surrounding areas. People dissappear, but no bodies of them are ever found."
I hummed at that, it sounded like a pretty typical death due to a Shadow, but something was quite right, the no body part, in Persona 3 and 4 even after a Shadow killed the human's psyche—the body would still find its way back to the human world.
I was not quite sure how with demons killing people in Persona 1 and 2, but that still left with a somewhat anxious feeling.
"Shadows killing people is not unheard of...that being said, people who are killed by them usually leave a body behind, that body could either be dead, or have its psyche destroyed making them basically a walking corpse which cannot think for itself, in other words victims Apathy Syndrome."
Alice had a reserved look on her face. "So, does that mean that these dissappearances aren't the work of these Shadows?"
I sighed as I paced back and forth. "I can't say that 100% say that the Shadows aren't behind these cases; Shadows vary wildly in different places and events, so I am nor ruling out these Shadows as the cause."
"Well in that case, I propose that we investigate these Shadows to see whether they are the cause of the mysterious dissappearances," said Alice with a grin.
I threw a look at Takashi, who quickly responded, "I actually agree with Alice on this, we should see if they are behind it, and if the Shadows are, then we must do something about them."
"In which case who am I to refuse. I'll also agree with Alice, we need to investigate these Shadows," I let out a small laugh.
Alice then held out her hand, I looked at her confused not quite sure what she wanted from us.
"C'mon, place your hands on mine like on those TV shows, it will signify the beginning of our investigation!"
Takashi and I both chuckled at that; we them place our hands onto hers, and after a quick "1, 2, 3," from Alice we raised them up in unison.