Author's Notes: Greetings! I suppose I should first start off by saying that it's been quite a while since I've made this serious of an attempt at writing fan fiction, especially a piece as large and dramatic as this one. I hope this little experiment works: a first-person Persona fic told from multiple perspectives (one per chapter) that takes place several years in the future while also inserting flashbacks depicting their interpretation of the events of Persona 4 Golden and Persona 4 Arena. A mouthful, I know, but I want to dispel any confusion right here and now. With that in mind, as much as I highly encourage honest and thoughtful critique of my work, please be understanding if characterizations seem a bit off from what you are used to...after all, time changes all things, and it may not have been kind to everyone involved.

Now, let's get some important legal info out of the way: I do not own Shin Megami Tensei Persona. Persona is property of Atlus, and I am eternally grateful to them for bringing it to us, the fans.

I am giving this story an M rating for the following reasons: language, violence, and some sexual themes/content. If any of this offends you, please be forewarned that this story may not be for you.

And with that, time to get underway! I've been tossing this idea around for almost a year at this point and it's evolved almost every day since, so I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think, reviews are always appreciated!

November 5, 2011

"Um, the answer's, uh...the Edo period!"

"That's right!" Bells and whistles sounded and lights flashed as the contestant jumped up and down excitedly.

I yawned loudly just as I realized how tough it was to keep my eyes open. The pitter-patter of the rain was almost enough to put me to sleep in spite of the excitement occurring in the game show. I rubbed one eye while directing the other to a display on the lower-right corner of the buzzing TV screen; 11:10 PM. Huh, maybe it's not so surprising that I'm this tired...Good thing there's no school tomorrow or Dad would get mad at me.

Speaking of which...Dad and Big Bro are taking an awfully long time coming back home after going to the police station so suddenly. Big Bro promised he wouldn't be gone long so I'm sure they'll be back soon, but he would probably scold me too if he showed up and saw that I was still awake this late.

Groaning slightly, I turned the TV off and pushed myself up. I stretched in place before making my way to my room, until-

DING DONG! The doorbell. And someone shouting, "Hello? Delivery for the Dojimas!"

"Delivery?" I mumbled. Late though it was, I saw no harm in bringing the package into the house before going to bed. I shuffled over to the door and opened it a crack. Looked like the usual delivery man; I knew I had nothing to worry about as I opened the door wider.

Late August, 2020

Opening the door and rushing into the house with a huff, I immediately shook the drops from my umbrella and kicked off my shoes. Rain...what a damn fine way to end the summer vacation...Hopefully the last few days before it ends won't be so gloomy and wet. Clearly the weather was kicking me while I was down, reminding me that I would soon be returning to the hell that is Yasogami High.

"I'm home," I shouted, holding my breath and hoping that I would receive no answer. I let out a sigh as there was no response. Dealing with that man was somewhere between "studying" and "jumping off a cliff" on my list of things I wanted to do at that exact moment.

Before I knew it, I found myself walking into the kitchen and opening the fridge; some eggs, some leftover noodles, some milk, some vegetables...not exactly the most inspiring culinary array, I know. Guess I'll have to go shopping soon, because God knows Dad isn't gonna do it.

I grabbed the eggs and the noodles and set to work whipping up dinner. Figuring this would be the best balance of easy and satisfying for one person, I started humming to myself as I rummaged through the shelves for a frying pan.

I'm not really sure why, but I wondered just then what my cousin Yu was up to. Maybe it's the fact that he taught me pretty much everything I know about cooking, I don't know...Hey, don't get me wrong, he can be just as annoying as my Dad when it comes to telling me what to do, but at least he was pretty useful in that sense. I chuckled as the egg started to fry and the noodles were being heated in the microwave. "Wouldn't be surprised if he's banging that hot piece of ass right about now," I thought.

I leaned against the table while waiting for my food to cook. Good Lord, why does this always have to take so long!? My finger went up to my ear and started rubbing up and down all along it, hitting the bumps of multiple earrings along the way. Yes, Sherlock, those were mostly new piercings, new enough that I was still in the habit of playing with the jewelry that I deemed worthy to fill those holes. My mind wandered again to "Big Bro" (as I used to call him) and my guess as to what he was currently doing, and I couldn't help but giggle. Filling holes, indeed.

Finally, the microwave beeped in its uniquely annoying way of telling me my food was done being nuked. I opened the door and carefully removed the bowl, set it on the counter, and scraped the egg from the pan to the bowl. Bon appetit!

More or less barely conscious walking from the kitchen to the living room, I soon found myself sitting on the couch and staring blankly at a flat screen TV perched on a modest entertainment center. Sure, this thing could do a decent job of displaying more colors and sharper resolution or whatever whenever it was running; nothing too fancy, mind you, but certainly a step up from the old hunk of junk we had before. But for some reason, I felt myself drawn further and further into the darkness of the empty screen; an imperfect reflection of myself stared back, as if daring me to reach out and touch her. The blackness seemed to stretch out for miles and miles, and I remembered when we first brought my electronic friend here into our home...

It was...oh, I guess, about two years ago. Dad had wanted to mount the TV on the wall, and as usual he stubbornly refused to let the people who actually knew what they were doing help him. "Get out of here, I'm sure there's some old lady or something that actually needs your help with this," I remember him saying after they had insisted for the millionth time on staying behind. The two guys who had delivered the TV and the mounting equipment shrugged at each other and left. "Now then," he continued. "Time for your old man to show you he's still useful!" He opened the box and started pulling pieces out, mumbling confused obscenities as he turned the instructions every which way and compared the diagrams to the physical contents.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "You should've asked for their help. There's no shame in that." I walked over and peered into the box. There were some plates, some poles, some wires, a ton of screws...I may not be much of an expert on this sort of thing, but it was clearly not a one-person job if you were as clueless as my father. "Want me to give you a hand?"

"No, it's fine, Nanako." Dad mustered a quick smile before resuming his groans and nearly indiscernible curses. "Let's see, this part goes there, and if I screw this in here..."

Stubborn old fool. I knew why he was doing this. He would complain about it literally every day after coming home from work. Another "young upstart" had refused his assistance or his advice because he was "just an old man" and "old men should just mind their own damn business." More often than not I could smell the sake off of him from the other room when he went on one of his tirades. It's a good thing Chie's been there to believe in him and defend him against these guys, because if she wasn't I don't wanna think about how Dad would react.

Ten minutes later, Dad wiped the dust from his hands and took a step back to take a good look at his completed project. "There! Ain't she a beaut?" he stated proudly.

"Um, sure...I guess," was my less than enthusiastic response. Truth be told, though, I couldn't wait to watch my favorite shows on this thing. The old TV had practically raised me; it certainly spent more quality time with me than my Dad did. I knew I would be looking forward to daily bonding sessions with its successor before long.

"Told ya, sweetheart! I told you I could get this thing set up all on my own."

Looking at it a little more objectively, I could see that it was slowly leaning forward and creaking ever so softly. "Um, Dad?"

"Not now, Nanako, Daddy's admiring his handiwork and thinking about how great the baseball games are going to look on this!" As if punishing him for his arrogance, there was a sudden loud snap and the TV, as well as the wall mount, came tumbling down, crashing into his legs and feet along the way.

Needless to say, there was much screaming and cursing as he lifted the obstruction off of himself. "God damn son of a bitch, piece of shit...GRRRRRRR!"

Me? I just laughed. I could hardly contain myself and just doubled over with glee. Funniest thing I had seen in ages, I swear.

Dad hobbled over to the couch and glared at me, so I stopped laughing (I resorted to snorting to myself instead) and apologized. "Fine, we'll do it your way," he groaned. "We'll just set up an entertainment center with enough room for the TV. Now I wonder if we can still return all the old crap..."

Back in the real world...I was lounging on the couch after one lackluster meal and a boring-as-hell movie about the legends of Izanagi and Izanami, wondering if I would finally stop being lazy long enough to change the channel. As the credits rolled, I decided it would be best if I just turned the TV off. My eyelids were getting heavy, and they always say that you're not supposed to watch TV if you're tired. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and pushed a button, lighting up the screen with a picture of me and my friend Mai, and looked at the time up top just as it changed to 11:59 PM. "Boy, I'm getting weak, getting tired this early. That, or the movie was even worse than I thought."

I pushed myself up and let out an exaggerated huff. The rain was still pounding; maybe that was the reason I was so exhausted. Still, the rebel in me wasn't willing to call it a night just yet, so I started dialing Mai's number on my phone.

My efforts were immediately cut short when I saw light shining out from the TV and heard the crackle of static. What the hell? I could've sworn I turned it off...

The screen looked like it was covered in salt and pepper for a moment before an image came into focus. Still, even calling it a decent image would have been a bit of a stretch by modern standards; it was a sepia tone, like an old photograph, and seemed to be...almost muddy, it was so difficult to make out any details. Come to think of it, it looked a lot like those mornings when it would get so foggy you couldn't see more than a few feet in front of you...Still, what I did see was enough for me to gasp in shock.

"M-Mom!?" I blinked several times and rubbed my eyes. No way...I hadn't been drinking recently and I wasn't THAT tired, so I'm sure I wasn't imagining things. I even pinched myself and let out a hiss when a painful sensation ran up my arm. Yup, definitely not dreaming. But what the hell was my long dead mother doing on TV all of a sudden!?

"Nanako-chan..." It spoke...er, she spoke! The Mom in the TV spoke to me!

Needless to say I was more than a little surprised. Not only did she mention my name specifically, but she looked and sounded exactly as I remembered her...She spoke with the same soft, feminine voice and gave me the same smile that used to always give me warm fuzzies inside. Thoughts of her playing with me next to the Samegawa River, putting my hair into pigtails, and kissing bruises on my knees suddenly flooded back into my memory.

This was some trick...I mean, it couldn't really be her, right? If it was, why would she have made a video like this in the first place? And why did it suddenly start playing on our TV like that? I had these and a million other questions running through my mind when she nodded directly at me (HOW DID SHE KNOW WHERE I WOULD BE STANDING!?), turned around, and started walking into the emptiness that was the background. "W-Wait! Mom, wait up!" I shouted, apparently going insane. I mean, I was screaming at a possessed TV, for God's sake!

Instinctively, I started running towards her, towards the TV. I must have realized the stupidity of my actions no more than a couple seconds later, because I skidded to a halt and reached out towards the TV to stop myself and hopefully prevent another television-related injury in this house. What happened next startled me so much, I froze completely.

My hand...My hand was INSIDE THE TV! "What the HELL kind of bullshit is this!?" my panicked mind shouted. The sepia background, and my mom's diminishing figure, vanished completely from the TV screen, replaced with the usual blackness, and ripples radiating outward from my wrist. Yes, there was movement on the screen as if I had dipped my hand into a lake over and over again, though I'm positive every one of my extremities was completely still. I could feel a bit of a pull from inside the TV; I'm sure if I wasn't resisting I would have been sucked in before too long.

I'm not really sure how long I stood there before I snapped out of my stupor and pulled my hand out with a yelp. Breathing heavily and wondering if the food I ate was laced with something, I tried my best to make sense of what had just happened. It was definitely too elaborate of a prank to be the type of thing that Mai and Miwa would be capable of...and there's no way they'd be able to recreate my mom's mannerisms and likeness so perfectly from the little bit I'd told them about her. Same goes for most of my guy friends, except it would be even more difficult for them. As for Dad...well, if he could ever stop being a total ass long enough, I guess he would be able to make the video somehow by editing old footage together or something. But why? As punishment? Even if that was the case, I can't see how he or anyone else would be able to make it so I could stick my hand through the TV screen like that.

I cautiously inched towards the TV screen and reached a shaking hand out. Brushing my fingers along the screen, the ripples formed once more and I felt the sensation of being pulled in...No, it wasn't just the force on the other side. My own desire drove me forward. I had to keep going, had to try and get to the bottom of this by seeing just what was on the other side. First my arm...Then my head...A leg...And finally my whole body.

Author's Notes: More to come soon! Hopefully it's at least somewhat interesting so far. Please read and review, I crave honest feedback; loved it, liked it, didn't care for it, hated it, wanna throw me off a cliff, whatever you thought, I want to hear from you!

Until next time!