Persona 4: Be Your True Mind

Chapter 1: Fun and Games

"Whoa, they weren't kidding!" Masao "Mark" Inaba drew to a halt, his head tilted up as he let out a whistle.

"What is it now, Inaba?" Kei Nanjo stopped two steps ahead of him, and turned, his scarf blowing with the breeze. It was the beginning of summer, the events surrounding the Deva System now a thing of the past, and the two of them were standing in front of a roller coaster, the centerpiece of the city's most popular amusement park.

Mark frowned and turned to face him. "What's with that attitude, Nanjo? I thought you weren't going to act so stuck up all the time anymore?"

"I've had to listen to your ramblings all day; excuse me if I come off a bit unenthusiastic, but I'd much rather spend the day with anyone else."

"Then why don't you talk to Naoya? He's been behind us this whole time, you know." He said, gesturing to the pierced boy walking several paces back.

"And how do you propose I do that?" Nanjo responded by gesturing towards the girls on the boy's either arm.

"That was so fun, Naoya! What should we do next?" One of the girls, the ever-fashionable Eriko "Elly" Kirishima, tugged on his arm, leading him slowly through the park while the other, red bow- wearing Maki Sonomura, assisted on the other arm.

In the middle was Naoya Toudou, a boy easiest identified by the piercing in his left ear. "I don't know, let me check with the guys." He picked up his pace to become the dominant force in his little group and walked over to where the first two were standing. "Hey, where do you guys think we should—whoa"

"That's The Shadow, isn't it? It's the biggest roller coaster in the Eastern Hemisphere! I had no idea it was open already! Come on Naoya, let's ride it! Allons-y!" Eriko then ran off towards the line, Naoya in tow.

"Wait! Elly, Naoya!" Maki called out for them, but received no response. "I guess we're doing that." And she, too, ran off to join the line.

Mark gaped, shouting after the group. "What? Maki, too? You guys are seriously going to ride that?"

"It appears they are, yes."

"But that thing's a death trap! Look at it! There's no way that can be safe!" Mark punctuated his speech with wild arm gestures, as if trying to demonstrate the roller coaster's sheer size with his hands.

"It seems to have passed all the proper safety inspections. Plus, if it makes you feel any better, Inaba, Kirishima was incorrect. There is in fact a larger one in Dubai." Nanjo had been the one to set up the trip, and he always researched far further than is usually considered reasonable, so Mark had no reason to doubt his claim; however:

"That doesn't make it any smaller!" Mark paused to let out a breath. "Either way, I am never riding that thing." He finished with a huff, straightening his back as if to mock the confidence with which Nanjo always stood.

"So if it were as dangerous as you think, you would just stand here and watch while Sonomura is in danger?"

His confidence quickly shattered as he considered the potential consequences of what Nanjo said. "What-? Oh, crap!" He said as he, too, ran off to join the others in the line while Nanjo calmly followed suit.

Naoya turned around in line as Mark arrived. "Wow, Mark, I didn't expect you to come too—" Mark, however, paid him no heed.

"Are you sure about this, Maki?"

"What-? Oh, yes. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, nothing, just making sure you're okay 'cause, y'know…in case you were scared… not that I think you'd be scared! Just…" His voice began weak and became weaker as he continued.

Naoya, having been ignored, watched the conversation in silence. Why is he acting so weird? And why is Nanjo making that face? …oh, Nanjo, you clever devil. …That's enough of this, I should probably prevent it from becoming any more awkward. He cleared his throat. "Anyways, I probably should have said this earlier, but I'm glad we're all here today. After all we've been through, it's great that we get to spend a nice, peaceful day like this together."

A pregnant pause. Oh, I made it more awkward, didn't I?

"Wow, Naoya, I didn't know you liked making speeches." Mark turned to face him. "But yeah, I might not like it, but riding roller coasters sure beats getting stabbed by demons any day."

"But it was a fascinating adventure! We got to explore another world and talk to real demons!"

"Elly! What about all the people that were hurt! I might not have been there, but don't forget I have all the memories of the me that was there! Everyone almost died!"

"Wait, wait. Maki, you never told me you had all the memories."

"Okay, I might be missing some, mainly around your last battle, but I have pretty much all of them. Why do you ask, Naoya?"

"Oh, uh, It's nothing." Inside he cheered. The status quo survives!

"Next up!" Just then a voice called over them.

"It appears it is our turn to get on." Nanjo said, leading the group onto the front car.

"The front car! You can't be serious!"

"Why can't I, Inaba? The front car is said to provide the most rewarding experience."

"Just because you looked it up on a travel website doesn't make it true!"

"Quiet Mark, it's starting!" Eriko said, looking like a puppy about to be adopted.

"This isn't a movie!" Mark shouted as the car began to move forward slowly, climbing upwards.

"Perhaps you should listen to Kirishima's advice. I imagine you want to save your voice for screaming."

"When did you get so smart, Nanjo?"

"What do you mean? I've always been smarter than you."

"Oh, shut up! Besides, this actually isn't that bad—" Mark said, letting his eyes shift forward. "Uh, where'd the track go?"

"Down."

The car reached the top of the chain, and shot straight down towards the ground at incredible speed. The occupants felt as if they were in a freefall about to hit the ground, but confident that they weren't, most of them kept smiling.

Until they did hit the ground.

TV World, 2011/08/15

A high school boy landed on the ground with all the finesse of a bag of bricks. "Oof, even after all these months I still need to work on that landing." Yosuke Hanamura said, dusting off his pants as he stood up.

"Ooh, did our Yosuke crack his ass again?" His classmate, Chie Satonaka leaned over him, having landed gracefully herself.

"Oh, shut up Chie, that was months ago!"

"So did you?"

"No- yes- GAH!"

"Pffff- Yosuke you already have a crack in your butt!" Laughing was another classmate and friend of theirs, Yukiko Amagi.

"That's enough talking about my ass!" Yosuke shouted, causing Yukiko's laughing to get worse, "anyways, partner! Will you tell us why you gathered us all here today?"

"Great, now I can't say my line." Said partner was the famed grey-haired deadpan Yu Narukami, designated leader of the Self-Proclaimed Special Investigation Team, for which he will repeatedly assert that he did not choose the name. "Anyway, I just thought that, even though we caught the killer, we must remain vigilant and ensure no one else discovers similar powers and uses them for the same evil! Therefore, I have decided our Special Investigation Team shall continue to hone our skills in this other world in case the need should arise!" However, he could not deny that he truly enjoyed the name.

"Let me guess, you're either bored or broke so you roped us into this."

"Both, actually."

"Sensei, using my world to get money is un-…. un-… uneducated!" Complained Teddie, the team's bear-mascot-slash-person-thing-that-no-one-really-understands.

"The word is 'unethical,' Teddie." For Yosuke, who had lived with him for a month now and had to clear up many a misunderstanding with his family, it was almost second nature to try and correct him whenever he misspeaks.

"Great question, Teddie, I will address your concerns when I need to start watching my karma." He then cleared his throat and raised his voice. "Rise, report!"

"Uh, yes Senpai!" The form of a persona, Himiko, materialized around Rise Kujikawa, an auburn-haired pop star that was one year Yu's junior. "Just like last time, I sense something powerful has shown up at the game."

"So were gonna beat it up, right?" Asked Kanji Tatsumi, a tall boy with bleached blonde hair the same age as Rise.

"Great idea Kanji! For that I'll let you come—"

"Wait! It's not just the one! I sense some even stronger presences!"

"What do you mean, Rise? How strong do you think they are? How many?"

"I- I can't tell. I've never sensed anything this strong. Whatever is there, it seems that they're much stronger than we are." She said as she allowed her persona to dissolve into the air, letting her make eye contact with the others.

"Well," Yu pulled out his sword and heaved it onto his shoulder. "We'll just have to find out ourselves, then."

Yosuke put a hand on his other shoulder and turned him so they were face-to-face "Geez, partner, what's gotten into you today?"

Chie stepped towards the two "Yeah, Yosuke's right! We shouldn't rush ahead when we don't even know what we're up against!"

"Coming from you?"

"Shut up, I was trying to help you!"

"Help me do what?"

"No need for fighting, we are the Special Investigation Team! It is our duty to investigate strange occurrences! Surely you understand, Yosuke?"

"Oh, yeah, Of course I'm with you partner, Chie's just a little thick. I was just wondering… since when have you been so… loud?"

"Don't call me thick! Anyone could have misunderstood—" Chie tried to complain about the slight against her, but was ignored.

"I read a self-help book last night on manliness. How'd I do?"

"Far from manly, you sounded like a delusional eighth-grader."

"I guess I need to study a bit more…"

"A-anyways, what is your plan?"

"Well…"

Naoya found himself laying on a cold floor. "Aaugh, what happened?" As he stood up, he took in his surroundings. Bricks. Large bricks, almost comically large, made up the floor he was on. Around him lay his four comrades, slowly coming to.

"Ugh, I knew something bad was gonna happen… Where are we?" Mark was the next to get up, adjusting his hat.

"It looks like… some sort of game?" Maki got up as well, turning her head skywards to examine the unusually blocky ceiling.

Nanjo, too, started examining the area. "Seems to be."

"Hey, God! Or whatever might be there! Is this what we are to you, huh? Some kind of game? Just let me live in peace!"

"Now, Mark, no reason to yell at the ceiling." Maki said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"How fascinating!" Elly was already halfway down the corridor, marveling at the architecture. "It truly is like we are in a game! And to think we came here by a roller coaster! How intéressant!"

"Uh… I don't speak French, but I'm pretty sure that's not how you use that word."

"Just let her have her fun, Mark."

"What are you saying Naoya? If we let her 'have her fun' in a place like this, she's probably gonna get herself killed doing something like opening-!"

"Guys! A demon jumped out of this treasure chest! S'il vous plaît Aide !"

"—Treasure chests."

The sounds of battle rang through the hall as Elly fought off several waves of opponents that streamed out of the chest.

"… Should we help her?"

"Probably."

Author's Note

It's been a long time since I've been on fanfiction, but I felt it was a shame that I let some of my stories just die, most of all this one. It's such a novel idea that I can't let it go like that, especially because it is one of the only Persona 1-related fanfictions on this site. However, when I was rereading it to see where I'd have to start from again, I found it so hard to read that I decided just to give it a whole rewrite. I hope you all like what I have done here and think it is an improvement over the last version.

A few other notes:

One, I like to avoid using Japanese words and honorifics whenever possible. (I am writing in English after all). I know this isn't how the games are localized, but I personally prefer the style. Of course there are some times where it cannot be avoided without confusing readers (for example: Teddie refers to Yu as Sensei), so I left those in. Also, I am sticking to the Japanese names for the Persona 1 characters for more or less the same reason.

Two, I have Eriko speaking in French often. This is because in the Japanese version of Persona 1 and 2, she is known to pepper her speech with English phrases, and following the precedent from Persona 3 (Mitsuru does the same thing), I turned that into French. I know that is also not how Persona 1 is localized, but I think it allows me to capture her character better.

Thank you for reading, and please, if there's anything you like or think I could do better on, leave a review. I love to hear feedback from my readers.