Notes: Originally a beginning for a TatsuyaxJun yaoi fanfic, but I just didn't have the inspiration or motivation to continue it into multi chapters. Fortunately it works as a stand alone (and a prologue if I ever do revive that fic). I always wondered what would happen to Tatsuya after Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.

Usual disclaimer applies here. The Persona series and all the characters belong to Atlus, no profit was made out of this fanfic. And most importantly- spread the word on Persona, it'll give you good karma.

SHINING UPON A VOID





I dreamt I was a butterly...

did I?

The only dream I could ever vivdly conjure up when awake suddenly slipped away from my mind a few weeks ago. All I remember was how much it frightened me to even think about it. I wished I could forget it, and everyone elsecould forget it too (....everyone else?). And then I did. Except I didn't do anything.

Everyone says dreams are a very important thing. They are a key to ourselves, and our brightest hopes, so they say. Someone once told me to never let go of my dreams and always strive for them (....who?) because that's the only way to truly live as yourself, to be true to your own soul. Nowif only I could remember what they were.

I'll never forget, my dreams, my friends, my soul....

Did I really say that, or did I hear it somewhere else, or did I just make it up and think I heard it before? I don't know. I just don't know. No one's being helpful in any way in this dilemma. Everyone around me just acts uncomfortable and gets somewhat scared. Which is the reason I decided to start this dream journal, how long before I give up this sillyness I still don't know. All that's important right now is the butterfly, or whatever the hell was my dream a few minutes ago. There just isn't enough time for this.

A butterly......

Brother is acting like I've never seen him before. After I told him I decided to be a cop I thought he'd be happy for me. He was always really worried about my lack of descision in my final year of High School and even more worried that the path I took wouldn't fit his sense of justice. But I decided to be exactly like him, because it might bring us together. All he did was frown. And smoke that cigarette of his. I haven't seen him smoke since...I forget. Damnit. Anna was the only other person I know do that. Did that. She seems to have changed a lot. Natural, they say, for a big trasntition is coming close. But no, she was just...different. Happier. She and that transfer kid Noriko have been much closer after an incident that I didn't know about.

All they said were things about demons and jokers.

Just like the rest of the town. Everyone talks about demons and jokers. Seven Sisters is not immune to the dialogue, everywhere they keep asking "where were -you- during the rising of the city" (....rising?) and about the former Principal being eaten by a demon. They especially continue this conversation around me, and it isn't just the sport groupies anymore, they say it like I was supposed to know what it meant. That Western girl of the MUSEs bumped into me during lunchtime, this time not intentionally, and instead of striking up a conversation as she usually did she just ran away. Fromher trail I could have sworn that a tear shone under the sunlight.

Something happened, you don't just wake up and find out you skipped a few days without remembering it. And the explinations don't help at all. There was something that destroyed me, and I want to know what was it. I want to know who was the bastard who caused this amnesia and what happened to make everyone act so differently around me. I hate him. I hate me? (....why did I just write that?)

What did I do? What's happening so that I'm becoming fucking insane and yet feeling more lucid than I have in a long while. I see the news and I see the world asunder, and a green medow after that. The Araya shrine burst into flame, and disapeared the other second. Something inside my head is screaming "two two two" and I don't even remember what the fuck's that supposed to mean. I'm forgetting so many things that it seems by tommorrow I might notremember where I am. There are only two things I know for sure.

....with half a wing.

I am Tatsuya, and they say I am a hero. (....am I?)