KaC: Hello, and welcome to the first chapter of my newest story, Foolish Errands. This is a Dresden Files and Persona crossover. It takes place after P4 Arena and after Cold Days. There will be spoilers for both series.

Disclaimer: I own neither Dresden Files nor Persona.

Ch. 1: Seekers of Truth

There are stories about knights. Knights who go fight dragons and rescue princesses. Knights who sit in their king's court and have banquets in the honor of Lord so-and-so. Knights who get to be sexually assaulted by a castle full of eight-score young blondes and brunettes all between age 16 and 19½.

I got to go to a concert.

It could have been worse. Mab's first order was to have me kill her daughter. Her second order was to stay out of trouble, which basically consisted of me living on an island for 5 months and 29 days. At least I had company. Mostly it was the floating, locally omniscient spirit of the island, but who am I to complain?

For those of you keeping score, my name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. I've been a wizard most of my life. I've been a warden of the White Council for about eight years. I've been The Warden of Demonreach for around four. And I've been the Winter Knight of Mab for one year, half of which I spent in the most fun rehabilitation program known to man. My hobbies include alchemy, setting things on fire, and being chased by beings from beyond the known limits of the universe.

But that's just a Tuesday. At this point, I was fulfilling my duties as the Winter Knight and protecting the Winter Lady, my apprentice, and the daughter of my best friend, Molly Carpenter. Mab decided that she had had enough training for the first months and agreed to send her back, which is why I was sitting at her table, waiting for Goldilocks to find the outfit that's just right. Six months before that, my mantle would have been screaming at me to go into her room and "assert my dominance" over the girl, but the few times I had more company than Mr. Spookypants on the island I got to hang with Murphy, the five foot blonde ex-officer who I have personally seen take down a man twice her weight in less than 10 seconds. The moment she heard about that little problem of mine, she threatened to castrate me with her handgun. Apparently, even the force of cold power and dark emotions brewing inside of me is capable of understanding that.

I glanced down at my new watch, the first one I've had in years that didn't break within an hour. 8:00 PM. The concert started in an hour, and we'd be lucky to get there at the rate Molly was going.

"Hey grasshopper, any chance we could get somewhere on time?"

I heard a noise behind me and turned to see my apprentice standing in the doorway wearing a red tank top and white jeans. I couldn't help but glance at her hair. Ever since I knew her she had dyed it every color of the rainbow. Since she became the Winter Lady it was every color in the rainbow, and then some. Stand too far away from her and it actually looks pure white.

"Don't get grouchy, Lancelot. There's plenty of time for you to get your Burger King before the show."

"Why are we going to this thing again?"

"Because I won backstage passes, and you have to play bodyguard as long as I'm here."

I got up from the table and stuffed a pair of leather gloves in my pocket. They were a part of a new project I was working on and they deserved the chance for a field test, however slim.

"Okay, let's go then. Do I even want to know the name of the band I'll be subjecting my ears to tonight?"

Molly just shrugged her shoulders and walked out the door. "The band's only been around for a few years. They're called-"

"SEEKERS OF TRUTH!"

If there's any lesson to take from this story it's this, concerts are loud. Seriously, the band hasn't even started yet and my ears are trying to implode. Molly was right there with them. I'm pretty sure she was using magic to make herself louder. At least I don't stand out too much around here, half the fans in the crowd were men, and a lot of them were around thirty, and I've been looking younger ever since I took up the mantle, not that young but young enough.

A dense fog began to fill the stage and I could see the band members begin to rise out of it. I began to catalog each of the members, checking for threats to the Winter Lady. First was the drummer. It took me a second to realize that it was not, in fact, some kind of bear on stage, but a boy, no older than 22, who had pulled a hood with two round blue ears, tightly around his head. A second glance revealed that the boy's red and white outfit had a puffball tail attached with the same blue color. His eyes were covered by a pair of blue shaded goggles. The second person to rise was a bass player with shoulder-length golden-brown. Her presence renewed the shouting from some of the men in the audience. The brunette girl had on a green sweater-jacket and a pair of cut-off jeans. Her eyes too were covered, by a pair of amber shaded sunglasses. The third band member appeared behind a keyboard. His light brown hair was short spiky. He wore a black jacket and matching pants. A pair of red headphones dangled around his neck. His glasses were shaded orange. The second guitarist rose to the stage. I had to cover my ears again as Molly screamed at the musician, along with almost every other girl in the hall. The young man was about six feet tall with hair so deep a gray it almost looked silver, and his eyes were so striking that even behind his mirrored sunglasses, it felt like I was being drawn into his eyes. But it was the final member of the band who drew the most cheers. The young woman had long auburn hair, reaching her waist and wore an orange tank top with a white jacket and cutoff jeans. Her sunglasses were shaded a deep crimson.

I felt a coldness seeping into my veins. The singer was beneath me, submitting to my will, and I saw myself preparing to take her with her boyfriend's blood on my hands. A primal yell tore its way out of my throat as I descended on the crying girl.

I gathered my will and forced the desires of the mantle into the back of my head. I could feel myself shivering and cold sweat dripping down my skin as if it were happening to somebody else. The mantle hadn't done that to me since Halloween. I thought me and Murphy had managed to suppress it. But it still held strong. The mantle had the will of a monster, but it was my monster, and I would keep it in check.

I glanced over at Molly and watched her cheering as the band's first song started up. It was…haunting. There weren't any words being sung, just notes ghostly and high and beautiful. Then the male guitarist started to play and the song evolved from its roots into a medley of sound and song. It was actually pretty good. Personally I prefer the King, but I've heard Molly listen to much worse than this.

I checked on Molly again, and, for a moment, I thought I saw her eyes change. Almost like they were…glowing.

It was almost midnight when the concert ended. We waited in our seats for the crowds to clear out. Molly was dancing in her chair; she looked kind of like a three year old waiting for the previews to end so he could see Optimus Prime face off against the forces of Galvatron. It was kind of adorable really.

When the crowd had finally cleared enough to see the stage again, Molly dragged me over to the side entrance and shook hands with some radio DJ. He gave instructions to Molly, something about keeping the pass on and not pissing off somebody or another, and opened the door to let us in.

We walked along the corridor backstage; Molly, apparently having listened to the DJ, led us straight past several door and turns until we reached one with a giant golden star on it. She reached up her hand to knock, but I grabbed it before she could touch the door.

A deep, low pitched hum filled my head. It felt like a strong source of magic was behind the door, but it was…off somehow. It felt human but not human enough. I reached out with my senses and felt along the door. There weren't any active spells, so there shouldn't have been any problem walking in. I pulled my magical senses back and prepared to knock on the door myself.

"HEY! What the hell are you pricks doin' here!?"

A blonde man charge down the hall at us. He was taller than average, but still at least half a foot shorter that I am. He wore a red t-shirt with a skull over his heart and a black biker jacket that seemed to be glued onto his shoulders, because nothing else was keeping it attached to his back. His face was scrunched up and his mouth was sneering as he stomped up to me.

"You two aren't allowed back here.

It took me a second to react. Admittedly I was trying to decide between cracking a joke and slapping away the finger he had pointed at me. It looked like Molly was about to answer before I could, but the door next to us opened.

"Kanji, please refrain from yelling right outside of the room. I'm sure nobody is here to do us any harm."

A young woman, about 22 or so if I had to guess, walked out of the room and placed a hand on the boy's arm. She had jet black hair tied into a ponytail, and wore a crimson red skirt suit and black stockings. Her other hand was held up to her face and tapping her glasses, whose frames perfectly matched the suit. She held herself like a librarian, calm but perfectly in control. When the blonde man had been calmed down she turned to us and glanced at the passes dangling from our necks.

"Oh, you must be the contest winners. I'm sorry for Kanji's actions, he gets rowdy after the shows sometimes." She held out her hand towards us and kept talking, "I'm Yukiko Amagi, the band's manager. If you'll please come in, the band is waiting."

I nodded my head and shook her hand. "Harry Dresden, and this is Molly Carpenter. Thank you for your interference, but I'm sure your security didn't mean any harm."

The raven-haired girl laughed and walked into the room. "Kanji-kun is not security. He's the costume designer."

I felt my blood draining from my face as I glanced over at the boy waiting for us to go into the room. I'm a little rusty at reading faces, but I'm pretty sure his was saying something along the lines of 'Laugh and I'll tie your arms into a pretzel before drop kicking you over the lake.'

Like I said, rusty.

We followed Yukiko in the room. It was…cozy. It felt more like someone's living room than a place for the band to relax back stage, but that may have been the people in it. There was no tension in the room at all. If I had to place it, it felt more like sitting in a room with a bunch of old war buddies than a group of band members. It was like these people already knew the darkest parts of each other and accepted them fully. They were laughing about something the keyboardist had done if the blush on his face was anything to go by, but there was no malice behind any of it.

When the laughter died down, Yukiko stepped forward and coughed. "Everyone. This is the winner of the radio contest and her guest Molly Carpenter and Harry Dresden."

Immediately the blonde boy who had been wearing the pear costume jumped up and snatched Molly's hand. "Hello beautiful. I'm Teddie and I'm bear-y excited to meet you. Do you want to-"

Yukiko smacked him on the head before he could finish talking. "I thought we had agreed you would stop doing that."

Teddie rubbed the back of his head and smiled. "Don't be like that Yuki-chan. You know I love you the most."

Yukiko looked like she was about to hit him again, but the bassist appeared behind her and held her back. "Yukiko, it's not worth it. We both know he won't do any harm to anyone but himself."

Yukiko struggled in her arms for a bit before calming down. The girl behind her slowly let her go before turning to us. "Chie Satonaka, it's great to meet you!"

The keyboardist walked up behind Chie and placed his arm around her shoulder. "Hey. I'm Yousuke, Yousuke Hanamura. Sorry about this guy,-" he pointed at Teddie "-he still has some maturing to do."

Chie brushed his hand off his shoulder and glared at him. "Like you can talk. You still haven't paid me back for that DVD."

"Come on Chie! Are you really still going on about that? That was six years ago!"

Chie just tapped her foot a couple times and Yousuke slinked away. The gray-haired boy and the auburn-haired girl stood up next. The boy held his hand out and smiled. "I'm Yu Narukami, and this is Rise Kujikawa. It's great to meet a fan form here in the states."

Molly shook everyone's hands and began to talk to each of them excitedly. I just stood back and smiled, this was Molly's show. I leaned on the door, next to the Kanji kid from outside.

About 5 minutes later, the door burst open and a girl wearing a blue hat barged in carrying another girl with pale blue hair. Kanji immediately leaped over and grabbed the unconscious girl. "Naoto what happened!? Why's Labrys with you!?"

The girl shook her head and looked at Yu. "Senpai, we have to get out of here! They're right behind me!"

The guitarist stood up and nodded. Immediately every member of the band, including the manager, gathered their things, making every effort to avoid leaving a single trace. I grabbed Molly's arm and pulled her back against the wall.

Yu looked at over at Rise and spoke. "We need a place to fall back. If Naoto was followed here then the hotel's not going to do it."

Harry stepped forward and coughed. "Sorry to interrupt, but if you need help I might have a suggestion.