The Number Zero
Every once in a while, you take a break. Only when you're alone, of course, and only when no one is expecting your company for a while. So, not very often. But it does happen, and finally the smile drops from your lips, your shoulders slump, your eyelids droop. The mask falls. For once, there is no persona for protection(yours or theirs), and you become exactly what Igor said you were: the number zero. Empty, nothingness.
Was it always this way? You're sure you were different before you came here, but you don't really remember. It's not like you have amnesia or anything; you remember all the places you've lived since your parents' deaths, the people you met, the things you did, all of it, but... But you're not so sure what you felt during those times. You're not sure who you were. Then again, you're not sure who you are now, either. Are you that naive girl Tanaka has taken under his wing, or the kind rule-abider Hidetoshi needs by his side? Perhaps the childish goofball Junpei loves to hang out with, or the open-minded girl Ken is smitten with? Maybe even the fearless leader SEES has come to expect from you? So many faces, so many masks, so many personas...
It's a wonder no one's called you out on it. Surely someone must have noticed how different you act depending on who's around you. They couldn't possibly fail to notice something so obvious, especially since you've never tried to hide it. Maybe a part of you wants them to know how you use them for power. Or maybe you honestly don't care. But then, why do they all trust you so much? Not only the members of SEES, who follow you into the depths of hell and back, but normal people too. You are the absolute best friend of so many people, they have to know that not a single one of them is your best friend.
Unless they really don't.
That may be worse, that they truly know nothing about you. Oh, they know the basics, of course, about being an orphan and top of your class and in a lot of clubs. They know the things you do. But do any of them know about what you like? You always go cheerfully along with whatever the person you're spending time with wants to do. They show you their interests and are so delighted with your lack of derision and undivided attention that they don't bother to find out more about you. They reveal more and more of themselves to the mirror you hold in front of them, believing you understand them and not realizing they don't understand you. That is, if there really is anything there to understand.
And that's the crux of it, the question that always arises when you're alone and without someone to reflect: who are you? Rare as they are, your spare moments are filled by these thoughts.
But, honestly, don't you already know? Orpheus, your first persona, the one that might actually represent you, gave you that answer.
Thou art I, and I am thou.
You are the world's persona.