It's been a whole year already, hasn't it?
I look over at my calendar and see that the date on it matches up with where I remember it being that fateful day. A year ago today, a bunch of my friends and I decided to settle a bet we had going between two of us, Brown and Mark, by playing the Persona Game and seeing if anything would actually happen.
Oh, yeah. Something happened, alright. First it was the strange little girl that popped up, then the lights started freaking out, and then I got knocked out by lightning and taken to the collective unconscious where a man named Philemon introduced me to a world I never even knew existed - the world of Persona. I didn't know what to make of it until a visit to another one of my friends, Maki Sonomura, went awry in the craziest way possible with an earthquake causing the place to shift around and demons to spawn all over the city.
From there, the rabbit hole just went deeper and deeper. The Deva System, Kandori's ambitions of becoming a god, that other world made from Maki's inner feelings... it was all so unreal, but we made it through all alive. We took control of our other selves, our Personas, and triumphed over every obstacle that was placed before us. Eventually, the people of Mikage-cho all put the incident behind them and we all went back to our normal lives.
That means for me, I'm back at school. I'm a third-year now, which means I'm on top along with the rest of my friends. Maki recovered from her condition and is now going to school with us; she's been really happy that she's finally getting to live something of a normal life, but at the same time I can see that she still feels grief about what happened last year. I've been trying to get her to open up more about it, to let her know that we've got her back if anyone tries to start something with her about it, but it's been going pretty slowly. Still, she's so much better off now that she's practically a different person.
I put on my uniform, straightening it out. I swear this is one of the ugliest school uniforms I've ever seen, but once I graduate I'll never have to wear it again. I move over to close my open bedroom window when a familiar sight comes into my view: a shining, gold butterfly. It lands in the palm of my hand, and I sigh as I remember what this means. Philemon wants something from me, and as soon as I contemplate what it could possibly be, my view goes black and I'm suddenly thrust into the depths of the collective unconscious once again.
"Welcome back, Naoya. It is good to see you are still well." The man in the butterfly mask with the white coat and long ponytail says to me, as we both stand on the checkerboard floor that decorates part of his shrine.
"Know that I have called you here not to send you on another mission, but to instead grant you a vision of the future to come. Consider it a reward for having done so well in protecting this world from disaster."
"A reward, huh? I guess that means the future you're going to show me must be pretty good, then. Am I going to be able to make millions betting on sports games that haven't happened yet?" If Philemon thinks my joke is funny, I don't know, because that mask of his stays put on his face. I've seen his face once, when he removed it to thank me and the others for taking care of business. I guess that was a one-time deal, because now it's back to hiding behind the mask.
"The adversaries you have faced are not the only ones that will threaten your world. As such, I will select new heroes to grant the power of Persona to in order to deal with the varied opponents that will emerge. I will take you through time and space, to meet with them and learn about the futures that you and your friends have made possible."
"Other heroes. I guess that means you're saying I've had my time in the spotlight already, otherwise you'd be telling me how I'm supposed to fight whatever these threats are. I'm both disappointed and relieved. Well... as long as you put me back where you found me once we're done, I'm up for a little future visitation. Hey, but one question before we go: are you sure this isn't going to screw up the timeline, letting me know how things are going to turn out before they happen?"
"I know you well enough to be assured that it will not adversely affect what will come to pass. Now, come. We have much to see." Philemon turns and opens a portal behind him leading into the blackness. I'm pretty excited, because he considered this a reward, but at the same time I'm feeling pretty nervous too. I mean, as crazy as what happened to me was, there are going to be other incidents just like it in the future? I guess I'm about to learn just how deep Philemon's rabbit hole goes...
A/N: I felt like writing something related to Persona 1, and then it became "Let's have Naoya meet all the protagonists from the other games!" I'm also trying out a much-shorter average chapter length, just to see if I can work brevity into my writing. We'll see where this goes.