"~Fear's awake, anger beats loud~"

"~Face reality~"

"~Never beat charity~"

"~The enemy you're fighting~"

"~Covers all society (Damn right)~"

The speakers inside my little studio blared through the room, making it impossible for me to hear my sewing machine. And that thing was really loud in of itself because it was an older model than the one I usually used. I accidentally broke the newer machine by knocking it from the table. I had to borrow this one from my grandma, who always supported my hobby of sewing and stitching. Though, she did question my fascination with cosplaying and video games in general.

Well, what can I say? We all have our little quirks and skeletons in our closet. Don't worry. Mine is a fake one. I needed it for a costume when I went to an event overseas. It actually got me into trouble at the airport. The funny part is, I originally wanted to go for a character that carried weapons with her but decided against it after remembering just how many cosplayers got into trouble with the police. And still, the security thought for a second I was carrying a real skeleton in my bag.

Old times aside, currently I was working on my newest outfit. Actually, I had finished this particular outfit about a week ago. It was just when I tried it on today I noticed that the Gekkoukan emblem was pretty loose. Only by lightly plucking at it, the symbol came off.

Sewing it back on was five minutes work. Usually, I would use thread and needle, but I was feeling lazy at that moment. Plus I didn't want it to come off again accidentally.

As it must have been made evident by the comment about the Gekkoukan emblem, I was working on a cosplay outfit for Persona 3. Compared to some of the other stuff I worked on, recreating a school uniform was reasonably straightforward. I have had more trouble recreating the red SEES armband with the white letters.

Getting the work done didn't take very long at all. I mean, it was just the emblem. I took the vest away from my sewing machine and inspected my work quickly, making sure the thing wouldn't get off again. Seeing as it held this time, I nodded satisfied and put the thing immediately on. Despite knowing all of my sizes inside out, I did double check if the thing sat right with my body. Sometimes I did make mistakes when measuring the cloth before cutting it. And other times I just forgot that I was still growing in size. Not by much nowadays, but it even happened and would continue to do so for one or two years. I still have my very first costume hanging inside my wardrobe. Just looking at it makes me do a double take because of how small it was.

Now with me wearing my complete cosplay set, I stood in front of the mirror and checked myself out. I wasn't a supermodel by any stretch of the imagination, and the uniform didn't make my body look good in any way or fashion, but when it came to the outfit itself, it was perfect. The SEES armband was holding, the red ribbon sat perfectly, and there was nothing fallen off my clothes anymore. I had a belt with a fake gun inside the holster strapped around me. The gun was a toy I bought and spray painted it with silver color. The long white socks felt a little weird and would take some getting used to.

I dyed my hair brunette earlier today and tied it up to a ponytail. I had a few hairclips attached to the side of my head so that they would form the Roman numeral XXII. I somehow managed to screw it up the first time and form IIXX. Yeah, embarrassing.

But now everything was alright. I grinned and struck a couple of poses in front of the mirror. It was during that time that I noticed that something fundamental was missing. The headphones! I slapped myself on the forehead really hard, when I remembered I had yet to put on the headphones and the MP3 of course! Quickly walking back to my work desk, I produced both items out of one of my drawers. Both the model of the MP3 and the model of the headphones weren't regularly produced anymore. I had to order both from the internet. It was easy enough to find the things I wanted, but getting the headphones in the right color had taken me surprisingly long. I had to order them from an official cosplay website, which did make a small dent in my wallet. Generally, I avoid those websites, because of how they tend to overprice everything.

Having the headphones strapped around my neck, I once again stood in front of the mirror. Now it was perfect! Grinning, I took out the plastic toy gun and held it against my head.

"Orpheus!" I proclaimed, making my best impression of the female protagonist in the portable version of Persona 3. Of course, when I pulled the trigger, I got hit by a small pellet. I must have forgotten to take those out. The pellet uselessly fell to the ground, after I took the gun off my head. I let out a childish giggle at my own antics and put the plastic toy back into the holster.

"I wish I had red eyes…" I lamented. For the record, I was wearing colored lenses. My usual eye color was a dull brown. I wore lenses quite frequently, even though on photos it was hard to make out someone's eye color unless it was taken up close. Speaking of eyes, they noticed something in the corner of my vision, namely the plastic naginata my dad helped me make a couple of years ago. It had a relatively simple design: black staff, silver, half-moon shaped blade and a couple of dozens very thin red threads glued to the end point of the staff, just to have some sort of decoration on it.

I took the weapon into both hands and spun a circle with it in front of the mirror. It was one of many weapon imitations I owned, and it showed. The color was getting off at some parts, and a piece of the blade part was missing, due to a little mishap on my part. I had long planned to make a new one, but, as well as life in general, had put this project behind time and time again.

I took on the battle stands of the female protagonist, which felt just a tad bit awkward, primarily since I was inside such a confined space. I'm not even sure if you're supposed to hold a naginata like that, but it wasn't like I needed to learn how to use a weapon. It was just for posing and maybe swinging it around a couple of times.

I was about to put this thing away when all of a sudden I felt someone tapping on my shoulder. I yelped in surprise, dropped my weapon and spun around. It was a good thing I dropped it because otherwise, I would have hit the sides of my friend, who surprisingly stood in my room, looking unimpressed.

I quickly turned off the music, before addressing my friend directly. "How the heck did you get in here?!" I asked.

She kept her unimpressed expression when answering. "You left the door open. Again."

"Oh…. oops." I bit my lip in shame when she gave me this little tidbit of information. It had become a bad habit of mine that when I returned home, I would merely shove the door, thinking I would have put enough force behind it so that it would close itself. Since I also always headed upstairs as soon as I got home, I am never surprised when I don't hear the sound of the door shutting behind me.

My friend rolled her eyes and looked at my new outfit with interest. "Wow, it looks like the real deal," she commented. "Just like in the game. I'm impressed."

"Hehe, thanks," I giggled. "How are you doing? I haven't heard from you in almost a week. And the event starts tomorrow!" I scolded her. "You haven't even tried out your uniform once."

She in return looked to the side, a bit of guilt appearing on her face.

"Sorry. I haven't been there for three days, and on the last two I have been only along for the ride," she explained. Once again I bit my lip, my chest tightening a little bit from guilt. The words she had just spoken were probably a bit confusing to the average person, but since I was aware of the condition she had, I knew exactly what she meant.

"I guess…" I started but was interrupted.

"She wanted to get some stuff done since I had been in charge for so long," she explained to me. "My freezer is full of chocolate ice cream again," she gave me a wry smile, and I couldn't help but smile back.

"You know, if you have trouble eating all of it, I am here to help."

"You're always there to help when food is involved," she retorted, causing me to laugh.

"You know what they say: love goes through the stomach."

She just rolled her eyes at the comment. I grinned cheekily, happily ready to admit that I am a bit of a glutton, especially when someone else was treating me.

"Anyway," I clapped my hands together and walked to my wardrobe. "I got your outfit right here," I proclaimed and produced the female uniform of the Yasogami High School from Persona 4. This one had been even easier to recreate than the Gekkoukan one since the summer uniform was simply the same one just without the vest. I couldn't help myself though and recreated the jacket as well.

"Go on, Miss President," I said, already referring to the character she would be cosplaying as. "The students are waiting for your speech for winning the election. And you can't possibly hold a speech while wearing those rags!" I spoke in an overdramatic fashion while motioning over the clothes my friend was wearing. Once again she rolled her eyes and quickly changed into the uniform. When she was done, I motioned for her to step in front of the mirror so that I could check her out from top to bottom.

"Does it sit well?" I asked.

"Very," she nodded, sounding surprised. "This is a lot more comfortable than the last uniform I wore." She was probably referring to the uniform she had to wear when she went to a boarding school in Japan for one year. Man, she was so lucky to be able to go there! I couldn't since neither did I have the money, nor the opportunity. And that's not to mention how difficult it is for me to learn a new language.

"That's good to hear," I replied. "Oh. Hold still for a sec. Looks like I overlooked a loose threat."

Producing a pair of scissors, I quickly dealt with the little offender hanging down from the skirt. I looked at the outfit one more time, before fully allowing my friend to check herself out in the mirror. She turned her upper body a couple of times and sometimes pulled on her clothes. I asked if anything was wrong, but she assured me that everything was fine.

"Wow, I almost look like a Japanese school girl," she eventually commented and turned around. "I actually don't want to take these off. What kind of fabric are you using?"

"The same as always," I replied with a shrug. "So, wanna let me do your hair now? Or do you want to wait 'till tomorrow?"

She thought for a couple of seconds, before answering. "Let's do it now. That way we will have more time and less stress tomorrow."

"Good point," I replied, and the two of us made our way to the bathroom. I took the chair from my room with me, so my friend didn't need to sit down on the toilet. We chatted with each other about trivial things, while I was busy doing her hair. I told her how my dad had been really grumpy since he had to take the night shift for three weeks straight. She told me about how last week a bird flew into her house and snatched a small spoon from the kitchen table and flew off with it. I almost accidentally painted her face silver. I was laughing so hard.

"Shade is really looking forward to tomorrow," she eventually said out of the blue.

"Really?" I asked though I wasn't particularly surprised. Shade had really enjoyed herself the last time I took her with me to a manga event, where we dressed up as characters from RWBY. I still had the scythe lying around somewhere.

"Will you two switch it up every day or…?"

"We made a timetable of sorts. I walk a couple of hours. She walks a couple of hours. There's the chance that we might need your help, in case one of us is out of commission, so to speak."

It took me a second to understand what she meant, and I couldn't help but blush. Luckily she was looking down and not in the mirror, so my friend didn't notice. She had been talking about their trigger. Specifically, she wanted me to use their trigger, in case they weren't able to switch up on their own. To this day, I don't really understand how that works. They told me that their condition was different for everyone. I looked it up a couple of times and learned a surprising lot. At the same time, I won't be able to look at the movie "Split" the same way ever again.

"Can do," I eventually replied. "How far are you in Persona 3?" I decided to change the subject.

"I beat the bosses that changed their weaknesses all the time," she replied, referring to the Emperor and the Empress Arcana Shadows. I loaned her my copies of Persona 3 and 4, but from what I got so far she had only played the third installment of the series.

"Ya know, I was thinking 'bout going as Mitsuru next time. But I'd have to cut my hair for that one."

"Hmm, Mitsuru, huh?" I mused. "Her outfit is easy enough to recreate. I think you can even buy half the stuff she's wearing in a regular shop. But I don't have a rapier replica on hand. I know the weapon shop in the city sells dull swords. Ah, but I think I need a license to get anything bigger than a pocket knife."

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, Miss Wild Card. It was just a thought. And hey, careful where you put the dye!"

"Oh, whoops! Sorry!" I accidentally painted a little bit of her neck silver during my absentmindedness. I quickly grabbed a rag, poured water over it in the sink and rubbed the color off, before it could dry.

The entire process took about thirty minutes because the girl just had so much hair! Don't get me wrong, it fits, seeing as she was going to dress up as Labrys, not in her robot form, but in her human one. Sadly due to circumstances outside of my control, I had to cut short some resources and only make the Yasogami High uniform.

Anyway, after I was finally done, the two of them went into my room and talked about how we would organize things. Since parking would get hilariously expensive, we decided to take the bus and hop out at the train station, from which we would naturally take the train to our destination. We double checked the timetables on our phones and when all was said and done she had to go home already because neither of us had even started packing.

However before she went away, I had two, technically three more things to give her. First were two sets of colored contacts, red and yellow respectively. Then there was the replica ax, which looked a lot, but not entirely like Labrys' ax. It had the boosters attached to it, but a lot of details were missing, like the wires for example. Really, it just looked like an oddly two-handed ax. To make transportation more manageable, the staff could be taken apart in the middle, and the ax part detached. It had been a lot of work, let me tell you that. After saying our goodbyes, I went back to my room, fully intending on preparing for tomorrow.

Little did I know that that particular day would be the last one the two of us would see each other for a long time.

The world was dark and green. The streets were empty, pools of blood had formed in places where the road had slightly given in. There was even blood coming out of the various buildings, making it seem like they were wounded. The moon was shining brightly from the night sky, tainting the green world in a slightly yellow color, at least in the places where the reflected rays of sunshine could reach. Pure black coffins could be seen standing on the sidewalks and a few on the streets. They had some sort of red outlining on the edges.

A lone figure could be seen walking through the seemingly empty streets. Although calling what she did "walking" was rather generous. Stumbling or slouching were perhaps better terms in this case. The human girl's eyes were unfocused and half closed. One would assume she was sleepwalking. Heavy breaths escaped her mouth every so often, but she continued walking.

The female was wearing the standard Gekkoukan High Female Uniform, which usually was a school in this city. However currently, it could be seen in the distance as a massive skyscraper, towering every other building in town. Incidentally, the girl appeared to be headed in the direction of the strange tower. The tower was weird because at least from the outside it looked like an amalgamation of buildings that someone intertwined, melted and then stacked on top of each other in this precise order. There was even blood falling down from a few places, like a waterfall.

Almost even stranger than the destination of the girl, she herself appeared to be carrying weapons with her. In her right hand, she was holding a naginata, an ancient weapon that hadn't been used in centuries, outside of clubs at least. The other weapon was a more modern one: a silver gun, strapped inside a holster.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh…" the girl did her best impersonation of a zombie, as she took a corner and continued on. If there had been other people around, they would have been disturbed by the sight alone. But there weren't other people around, just coffins.

Or at least that was the impression. The girl halted in her steps, when a nearby trashcan seemingly fell over on its own, spilling the contents onto the street as a result. The girl looked over and tilted her head. If it weren't for the almost lifeless expression, one would have thought she was confused. But like this, even the girl herself wouldn't have been able to tell.

Whether she was confused or not didn't matter, however, as where the trashcan used to stand was now a formless black puddle. The puddle slowly slouched in the direction of the girl like a snail, only faster. Black arms slowly grew out of the puddle, and a blue mask appeared from underneath and took a position on the top. The mask had a neutral or maybe slightly sad expression engraved on it. Someone even had gone through the length to form a partially convincing nose.

The girl reacted as the masked mass had passed a certain distance. She straightened out her back, took her naginata in both hands and took on a battle stands. Her body language said that she was ready for action. However, the expression on her face remained unchanged, almost like she was indeed a zombie. Or perhaps a robot?

Whatever the case, the formless mass increased its pace and waved wildly with its arms. The girl answered by swinging her weapon down. The blade missed its target and hit the road instead, causing a loud "clang" to echo through the empty streets. Meanwhile, the mass had come close enough to hit the girl's legs with its arms. Surprisingly the arms were razor sharp and cut through the girl's skin. The cuts weren't deep, luckily, but blood was coming out nonetheless. Stumbling backward, the brunette dropped her melee weapon and almost tripped over the curbstone.

She managed to catch herself, but already her opponent was closing the distance.

"Need to… summon…" the girl spoke some coherent words and took the gun out of her holster. "Just like…" One would have expected the girl to point the barrel in the direction of the monster. However, instead held the gun to the side of her head, seemingly wanting to commit suicide. "The game…"

Almost lazily the girl pulled the trigger, and a gunshot rang through the air. Strangely enough, instead of the sound of brain matter splashing onto the ground following the tiny explosion, glass shattering could be heard through this part of the city. The girl's head flew backward, but not because she had put a hole in it, rather it was like a strong gust of wind had hit her. Blue and white colored, ghostly glass shards flew out of her head. Her body was surrounded by a blue mist, and a humanoid figure appeared behind the girl.

"I art thou," the figure intoned "and thou art I. My other self, let us go on this journey together. Let us sing our song and bring happiness to those that are lost. Let us dance on the corpses of our enemies and let the witness our victory. I am Eurydice! Memento vivere."

A loud crash could be heard throughout the streets, and the monster disappeared in a black mist, which flew away in random directions. There was a small crater as to where the monster used to be. The girl in the meantime had caught herself and was looking back at the floating figure behind her.

"Eurydice?" she asked, her expression finally showing some emotions.

"Hey! Are you alright?!"

Akihiko had started running as soon as he got word from Mitsuru that she not only had detected a shadow outside of Tartarus but that there was also a human in close proximity to it. Time was of essence and while he wouldn't have a problem using Mitsuru's bike, today just happened to be the day it was due to an inspection.

Cursing his luck, Akihiko ran through the city as fast as his legs could carry him. Mitsuru used her persona's unique ability to give the high schooler directions. He didn't bother dodging all of the blood puddles, as every drop that didn't come out of someone's body would turn back into water anyway, once the Dark Hour was over. Of course, bloodstained clothing was the least of his worries right now.

"Akihiko!" he heard Mitsuru's voice inside his head. And yes, it had taken some time getting used to that. "The person and the shadow have crossed paths. You need to hurry!"

"Damn it!" Akihiko cursed and forced his legs to go even faster. "Mitsuru, how far am I off?" he asked while dodging coffins left and right.

"Take the next turn right and then left. Then you should see them."

"Roger that!" he shouted.

Luckily Akihiko had a habit of training every single day, so it only took him around a minute to get to the location of his targets. As it turned out, he was just in time too.

He completely halted in his movements and stared at the scenery in front of him. When Mitsuru detected a human and a shadow so close together, he expected to save a civilian from getting preyed on by the shadow. What he didn't expect was a girl wearing a Gekkoukan uniform, equipped with an evoker of all things and wearing a SEES club armband to take on the shadow! Before his brain could even start the processing process, the girl was already holding the evoker against her head and "fired."

"Whoa!" he exclaimed in shock when a persona appeared behind the girl. The persona had a close resemblance to a female human. She had a supermodel body, long brown hair with tree leaves (he didn't know which kind) sporadically growing out of them. Her "clothing" consisted of a corset made out of tree bark. He also noticed a snake biting the left leg of the woman. Plus for some reason, this persona was talking. The meaning of the words was lost to him, though.

If it had been any other situation, he probably would have blushed. But he was or at least considered himself a professional. As such, he could easily forgo human beauty and catch himself. So the girl over there was a persona user and currently fighting a shadow. A weak one mind you, but Akihiko didn't know what the girl was capable of, as such he got ready to summon his own persona. An unnecessary precaution as it turned out, because the snake thing biting the persona's leg, let go of said leg, picked up the shadow in its mouth and slammed the damn thing onto the ground. There was now a small hole in the said road.

The shadow died in an instant and Akihiko couldn't help but whistle at the display. He saw the girl turning around and looking at her persona. The hobby boxer decided this was a good of a time as any other to make his presence known.

"Hey, are you alright?!" he shouted and ran directly up to the girl.

Eurydice, as the persona had called herself, disappeared, leaving the unknown Gekkoukan student alone. Said student, of course, turned around again and looked directly at Akihiko. There were a lot of questions already going through the older teenagers head, but he knew he had to check on the girl's health first.

"Hey, you okay?" he repeated his question, only to get a confused look as an answer.

"Huh…? Wha…" the girl trailed off, her eyes looking at something behind Akihiko. He turned around and found a melee weapon lying on the ground. He didn't know the name of the weapon but figured it must belong to the girl.

"Is that thing- oh shit, you're bleeding!" How he overlooked the bleeding leg all this time, he didn't know. But instincts kicked in, and he immediately went on to inspect the injury.

"Huh…? Wha…?" the girl repeated, seemingly unable to form a complete sentence or word for that matter. To the boxer's relief, the wound was nothing more than a scratch. The girl must have gotten lucky, as usual, even the weakest shadows were dangerous for people who didn't wear any kind of armor.

"It's just a surface wound. But let me take care of it anyway." Without overthinking about it, he brought his evoker to his forehead and summoned Polydeuces. Why his persona looked like a walking refrigerator with a needle as an arm and blonde hair, he didn't know, nor did he ever question it.

"Huh?!" The girl stumbled backwards when all of a sudden the persona appeared in front of her. "What is-?! Whaaa….?" Using his magic, Polydeuces cast a Dia, a minor healing spell. It was convenient to have. Akihiko could see how the wounds on the legs closed themselves, only leaving some dried up blood behind.

"There," he stood up and dismissed his persona. The girl didn't stop looking where Polydeuces used to be, however. She stared into the night sky with her mouth agape. It was kind of funny watching her like this, but once again, Akihiko considered himself a professional.

"Hey," he lightly tapped on the girl's shoulder, trying to get her attention. It didn't have the expected result. Out of nowhere, the girl lost her footing and fell over. If the other Gekkoukan student hadn't been there, she probably would have hit the ground. But as things were, Akihiko managed to catch her in his arms, before that happened.

"Well, this night just got interesting," the boxer said to himself, as he adjusted the girl in his arms. "Mitsuru, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear. What is your status?" he heard Mitsuru's voice inside his head.

"Everything is fine. The shadow is dead, but I wasn't the one who offed it."

"You weren't?" the girl on the other end of the line asked.

The silver-haired boy chuckled. "Nope. It looks like we got a new recruit on our hands."

"Say what?!"

He chuckled again. "Yup summoned her persona right in front of me. But there are a few weird things here."

"Weird things? Could you elaborate?"

"I'll tell you later," he said and picked up the melee weapon. "I think it's better to show you, rather than tell. Also, prepare to call an ambulance. The girl lost consciousness after beating that shadow."