Hi! This idea was in my head for so long that I decided to write this one-shot. I think this concept would be interesting. Sorry if it is bad.

Of course, I DO NOT OWN When They Cry or Persona.

P.S English isn't my native language, so forgive me for bad grammar. If someone can help me I will be grateful.


Frederica Bernkastel was surprised. And this already was a miracle by itself. For she was a Witch Of Miracles- almighty Witch who can make a miracle happen if the possibility isn't 0%. But she actually didn't know what happened. After parting with Lambdadelta she was traveling through Sea Of Fragments seeking new worlds for her own amusement and suddenly she was "here".

What "here" you may ask? Indeed it was a strange place. Here were many stars shining brightly and even galaxies like in actual space, but it was all unimportant. What caught her attention was a giant door. It was an incredibly big golden door with moving eyes (they were actually moving and looking in a different direction). The entire door was wrapped in barbed wire with a statue of the boy at the center. Whoever made this door has a really strange taste.

She looked around and saw darkness. It was a literal wall of darkness with 4 giant orbs of red light. Locking at them was very uncomfortable for some reason.

And then she was consumed by darkness…


Bernkastel was not amused. How long she was wondering in this world of darkness. Hours? Days? Years? Centuries? It was boring and ceased to amuse her for so long. Also here was this stupid voice.

"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"

"Shut up."

It was not the first time she was ordered to die and it won't change anything.

How she get here in the first place? It probably was Lambda's or Au- Au's prank. Then it was a stupid prank. Or maybe it was some Witch she defeated? Then she will beat her even crueler than in the past when she gets out of this place.

"DIE! DIE! DIE! ACCEPT YOUR DEATH! DIE! DIE! DIE!"

"I told you to stop talking! It is already too boring."

Maybe it was a just bad dream? Or Erica finally decided to rebel against her? If this is true she will remind this girl why she received title "cruelest Witch in the World".

"DIE! DIE! DIE! DEATH IS YOUR SALVATION! DEATH IS THE MEANING OF YOUR LIFE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"

"SHUT UP! I AM WITCH BERNKASTEL! THE MOST POWERFUL WITCH IN THE UNIVERSE! I SURPASSED DEATH CENTURIES AGO!"

Then she noticed one thing. She feared. She feared. SHE FEARED SO MUCH! She has forgotten the concept of pain and fear after centuries of being superior over others. But now she realized- she could die in this place, she felt this and that terrified her so much!

"DIE! DIE! DIE! DEATH WILL FREE YOU FROM ALL SUFFERING AND FEARS! ACCEPT YOUR DEATH! FREE YOURSELF! DIE!"

"I will never… But why not? If I die here, all my suffering will come to an end. And maybe I will meet my friends. Yes… It will be so good to see Mi-chan and Shi-chan. To be taken home by Rena-chan. To make fun of KeiKei. To feed Hanyū with pepper and wine. And of course to live with Satoko again. Yes… this certainly will be better than my current life. And all I need to do is to stop and die…"

"That's enough"-said somebody and world exploded into bright light.


The first thing she noticed was a lack of darkness. Instead, she was surrounded by light.

"Did I die? Probably not. But where am I and what happened with me?"

Then she saw a table with 2 chairs and boy that was sitting in one of the chairs. That boy probably saved her.

She wished to do 3 things. First, ask where was she and who was he. Second, thank him for saving her life. And Third…

Was to kill him for taking her salvation.

But instead, she said-"It is rude to sleep in the presence of another person."

"Oh. I am sorry."

Now she was able to look at the boy. He was 16-17 years old, with blue hair and gray eyes. The boy was wearing black school uniform and red bandage with word "SEES" on one of his hands.

"So it was you who helped me?"

He nodded.

"Then I am alive?"

"The concept of "life" and "death" don't exist here."

"But I still exist?"

"The concept of "existence" and "non-existence" don't exist here."

"Then what exist here?"

"Everything and nothing."

"This is strange even by my standards. Can I leave this place?"

"It will take some time before I could return you."

"How much"

"The concept of "time"…"

"don't exist here. Then what sort of entertainment can you provide me with? What are usually doing here?"

"Dreaming."

"Hu? Such boring activity. And about what?"

"Dreaming."

"You are dreaming about dreaming?"

He nodded.

"This is boring"- He looked disagree- "Then you will answer my questions. What was that thing in the darkness?"

"Erebus. A collective embodiment of humanity's desire to die.

"I never heard about such creature. But why it attacked me?

"You are part of it. You also desire mercy of death."

"I AM NOT!"

"Are you?"

"Tck…"- of course, she desired death. Unbeknown to everybody, even to herself, she wished to stop her suffering and end this pathetic existence. But she will never admit it. If she does, she simply will be broken and go insane. So she changed the subject.

"You are the boy on that door… No, you are the door… Or what are you?"

"I am this world- the realm of Great Seal."

"What is this world? Why is it existing? How it was created."- Now this all started to become interesting. She hoped to cure her boredom with this world even for some mere seconds.

"This is the world above all concepts and rules. It has only one purpose- to separate Nyx, almighty goddess of the end, from Erebus. If Erebus "touches" Nyx, she will begin geocoding all existence. It was created by me with my own soul."

"Not all worlds. Even if all worlds of your metaverse will be destroyed, it will mean nothing to the Sea Of Fragments. Sorry to disappoint you."-Said witch with fake pity. She hoped to see this boy fell into despair, realizing meaningless of his sacrifice. But he only smiled sadly.

"By "all existence" I mean all that existed, exist, will exist, will never exist and that can't possibly exist. Everything everywhere will be destroyed by her hands.

"But there are countless worlds and layers of existence. One thing could never destroy all of them. Beings from higher level would simply destroy her."

"Nyx represent the concept that all things must end. No matter how big world, how powerful its inhabitants, how much layers it has- all must end someday. She told me once that if Erebus touches her and she will be free, it will take her week to end all existence."

She didn't wish to believe this. Bernkastel preferred to think that only Au-Au was above her. That there was only one threat to her life. But if that "Nyx" represented concept "all must end" she was dangerous. Every book, every story must end. You can't do anything about it. This "Nyx" could cause troubles even to Au-Au. You can't remove "end" from any story. If you try to destroy the concept of "end" it will be a logic error. Seeing her worry, boy spoke:

"Fear not. Nyx is sealed and will stay here until time will come."- The part about "time will come" didn't get past her.

"And we are not in "my metaverse". This is the world above all concepts and rules. Only such thing could hold Nyx, Frederica Bernkastel or Furude Rika, what name you prefer.

!

She never told him her name and of course that name. Then how?!

"How did you …"

"I know names and stories of everyone who wish or wished death. You wished twice, in both lives."

"Then it will be fair to know your name and story, don't you think?!"- Witch was angry. She hated her most parts of her past and also hated to tell anyone about her past. Maybe she will take some revenge upon this boy after she will learn his story. At least she will make him break this stoic face of his.

"My name is Minato Arisato and my story is…"


And so Minato told his story to the witch. She was disappointed. While the part about "losing all emotions and feelings" was interesting to Bernkastel, the fact that he didn't care about anything was bad. In other parts, it was a plain boring story with only 3-6 corpses. Even this deaths was fast and painless. In the end, this was very dull and paretic story. It was hard to find something to make him fall into despair.

"So you died in the end. Surrounded by your friends. You are lucky."

"I am"- She hated this part about him. No matter what she did or said he was always so calm.

She called him an inhuman monster for lacking emotions and uncaring attitude. He merely nodded. She called him selfish and cruel for seeing his "Social Links" as a way to gain more power and not bonds between people. He admitted that at first, while not having emotions, he also thought of them as of tools. But they later evolved into true bonds. Witch was laughing at all the mistakes they have committed. He said he was very sorry for them. She bitterly reminded him that it was their fault to start end of the World. He agreed with Witch Of Miracles. She was pointing at all of his friend's flaws and weaknesses. He never denied this and only was mentioning all their good features. And so on.

Yet no matter what he was always so calm, stoic and friendly.

And it was maddening Bernkastel. Why didn't he lose his temper? She was making fun of him and all that was important to him. Then why? How?

"Then I guess that such good person like you regretting saving such cruel Witch as me, aren't you?"

"You are far from being the cruelest person in the world."

"O. But I'm known as the "cruelest Witch in the World".

"Bernkastel-san, how many people you drove in despair? How many destinies you ruined? Hundred? Thousand? Million?

Erebus consists of so much wishes that to say that their amount is infinitely greater than infinity would be an understatement. They are wishes of heavily wounded or very ill people who suffer extreme pain and agony. They are wishes of fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, lovers that want to be with their beloved ones. They are wishes of people who become pawns in fate's hands and wish freedom. And many other wishes.

But I deny all of them. Only because I want this world to live and my friends to have a happy life.

So, who is crueler in the end? And I am far from being the cruelest person in the world."

She wasn't ready for this. She wasn't prepared for such treatment. People usually cursed her very existence and wished to bring her painful and merciless death. But this boy showed her something she forgot long ago.

Kindness. Care. Acceptance.

And she feared it. Witch Of Miracles knew one thing: miracles do not occur. And receiving such treatment was a miracle itself. So she wanted to leave as soon as possible. To hide this kindness in her heart and treasure it until the end of the world. Before he began to despise her, like all other people. And this will be inevitable Monsters never have a happy ending.

But there was one thing she wished to ask him. One important thing.

"Say, Minato-san, you still have some power since you saved me?"

He nodded.

"Then why don't you try to correct all your previous mistakes? I am sure that you can reset all this event and try to create a better ending."

"Why?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why would I wish for something like this?"

What is he saying? Is he really…

"But-but aren't you wish to make even better ending where you will be able to save all your dead friends and survive all this event?

"No. All these deaths are my greatest regrets. I moron them, I cry because of them, but we achieve a good ending. And dead are at peace of their own. Trying to save them and sacrificing all that we achieved would be very selfish. As for myself, Nyx must be sealed and if it wasn't me someone will lose his life. I can't let this happen"

With this phrase dam was broken.

"WHY-WHY-WHY ARE YOU SO SELFLESS?! WHY SO CALM?! YOU WILL SPEND HELL KNOW HOW MUCH TIME IN THIS PLASE BUT WILL NOT TRY TO FIGHT FOR YOUR OWN HAPPY END?! HOW CAN YOU SO EASILY SCARIFIES YOUR OWN HAPPINESS FOR SOMEONE YOU DON'T KNOW? IS IT WRONG TO PUT YOUR HAPPINESS ABOVE HAPPINESS OF OTHER PEOPLE?! ARE YOU DUMB OR WHAT?! I DON'T ACCEPT THIS! I DON'T ACCEPT THIS!

If there was one thing Bernkastel never doubted, it was correctness of her original wish-To achieve happy ending and always enjoy life with her friends. But now she saw harsh reality. She wished for happy ending for HERSELF. And all. She never cared for other people and wished to save her friends only because she needed them to have fun. This was the reason why she achieved happy ending with so much troubles and even then she never had a chance to enjoy it. So it was…

She felt something warm. She was hugged. It was a kind and warm hug. This was last part. She started to cry and curse her fate. No one will see her so she let her sorrow go. Now she was just Rika-10 years old girl with a horrible fate.

"Bernkastel-san, your wish is not better or worse than mine. It is just different. But I pity you."

"For my fate? Then don…"

"No. I saw people whose fate is much worse than yours. I pity you because you think that miracles do not occur."

"I know this."

"You are wrong. Remember about miracle she received in the end. What brought it? Find the answer to this question and you will be invincible."

"Hum, okay. I will try."-what is he talking about…

"Good, now… Oh, look the doors open."

White doors appeared in this room.

"Farewell Bernkastel-san, I wish you good luck."

"Farewell Minato-san, thank you for your hospitability."

Then moment before she passed through this doors she heard:

"Bernkastel, I forgive you."

And Witch disappeared.

"Uff… talking so much is not my favorite activity". Time to nap…"


When the light disappeared she was in the Sea Of Fragments. There was no door or darkness.

Bernkastel continued her journey and after some time she reunited with her friend, Lambdadelta, the Witch of Certainty. When Lambda asked her:

"Bern! Why are you smiling more often? Are you happy to meet me this badly!? Oh, Bern)))!"

She never answered. She never told anybody about her meeting with this boy. First of all, she will find an answer to his last question. And then Witch will visit him again. Until then he will dream of dreams. And in that dreams, he will see his friends forever.


Fuh! I finally ended this story! It is a cheap and boring story but I just wished to write it. Sorry.

When They Cry and Persona series have many similarities but contradict each other so greatly that this is unbelievable.

But Minato and Bernkastel ( Rika) are the cherry on the pie. I mean:

1) Both died in some way, yet.

a) Rika died physically and ended up determined to save her friends.

b) Minato died mentally, lose his emotions and become uncaring and stoic

2) Both befriended "god of death», whose apathy nearly cost heroes greatly, yet.

a) Hanyū is one of the few people who never attacked Rika and only helped her.

b) Ryoji in a way connected to nearly every boss in the game.

3) Both (in a way) achieved existence in a higher plan to the human world, yet.

a) Rika ended as nearly omnipotent being.

b) Minato lost his life and was imprisoned in cold stone.

4. Both act stoic, yet.

a) Bernkastel only hides her true face and emotions (cruel and merciless).

b)Minato actually stoic but kind and caring person in his heart.

5. After achieving existence in higher plan their fate changed.

a) Bernkastel has only cruelest part of Rika and considered "Cruelest witch in the world. She constantly runs from fears of her past.

b) Minato died but he was happy in the end and now "wrapped in eternal tranquility, love through all eternity".

Etcetera.

Ok, I am out. Have a nice day/morning/evening/night.