Persona: The American

Chapter 1

Midnight Misgivings

A young man of around sixteen years old stepped out of the airport terminal, his leather bag hung loosely around his shoulder, and his outward appearance was calm. The teenager brushed a strand of hair out of his well cut, tan face, revealing a pair of mismatched eyes; one being an olive green color, while the other was chestnut brown.

He looked at his chalk-white digi-watch (that's what he liked to call it) and saw that it was just half an hour before midnight. He pulled a card from his jeans pocket that had the formal handwriting of the Chairman of the apartment complex—and the school—he had been assigned to. It reads as follows: Dear Leon, congratulations on being selected to stay with us until you graduate. As a show of our hospitality, we welcome you to the Gekkoukan complex, where you will be able to socialize with many of your classmates after school. We hope you have a great stay. Sincerely, Mitsuru Kirijo. P.S. Meet with me in the lounge as soon as you can to receive your room key.

Leon replaced the letter into his pocket, taking care as not to crumple it up. He was pretty sure that he would need it to prove his identity whenever he arrived.

Gekkoukan Complex

A woman, who looked no older than twenty and had fiery red hair cascading down her shoulders, was filling out mountains upon mountains of paperwork. Seems like another all-niter, she thought, bored out of her mind. At first, she read each of the papers carefully, but now she just put her signature on whatever and didn't bother to check it.

"Losing sleep just isn't healthy," Mitsuru grumbled as she slapped another paper into the 'done' pile on her mahogany desk.

A knock on her door snapped her out of her stupor. The knock was followed with a voice that asked, "Hey Mitsuru, do you know when the new guy is supposed to arrive?"

"No Akihiko!" She snapped a little too harshly, and she immediately regretted it.

"Alright, alright, sheesh. A guy asks a question and he gets his head bitten off instead." Akihiko grumbled from the other side of the door.

"Sorry, but I'm a little on edge," She said, placing another piece of paper that had her signature on it in the pile.

"I can tell," He said.

Mitsuru decided to change the subject, "Come to think of it, I do find it rather odd that our guest hasn't arrived yet."

"Should I go out looking for him?" Akihiko inquired.

"Give him a few more minutes, if he doesn't arrive, then you can go search for him." Mitsuru replied, stretching to get rid of the cramps that had accumulated throughout the day of non-stop papers.

"Okay, I'll let you know if he gets here," Akihiko said.

Mitsuru gave her thanks before returning back to her work.

Akihiko walked back down to the main lobby, his jacket suspended over his shoulder. He pondered what the new guy would be like. We'll soon find out, he thought as he took a seat on the leather couch.

"Hey Akihiko-senpai," A guy who wore a baseball cap, had a fully grown goatee, and barely looked older than nineteen walked into the room.

"Hey Junpei, what's up?" Akihiko greeted him.

"Oh nothing," He said. "How's Mitsuru-senpai?"

Akihiko shook his head, "The stress is really getting to her. She needs to take a break and quick."

Junpei smiled and said, "Can we go back to the resort for our vacation then?"

Akihiko couldn't resist a smirk as he replied, "I'll ask her. She'll probably welcome the time off." He remembered the time they had went to the resort that Mitsuru's father owned when he was still alive, now it belonged to her.

"I'm going out," Junpei said, grabbing a coat.

"Well since you're going, can I have a favor?" Akihiko called to him before Junpei left the building.

Junpei took a while before answering, "Yea, what'cha need?"

"Well, it's the transfer student. He hasn't arrived, and I'm becoming a little worried."

"Sure thing, I'm dying to meet the guy myself," Junpei said, grinning from ear to ear as he stepped out the front door.

Somewhere on Port Island

Leon had been inexplicably lost for quite a while now, with no landmarks to help him find his way. He had somehow managed to end up at a pier, where a bunch of people—who Leon had no intention of making friends with—were giving him evil glares.

That didn't bother him though, back in Washington, he dealt with a bunch of punks everyday, and this was no different.

When he hit a dead end, Leon tried to back-track to where he originally started, but found that a circle of those people had cut him off. Even though fear started to bubble within his stomach, Leon forced himself to remain calm.

"Hey guy, you mind tellin' us what you're doin' here?" A guy said in a venomous tone, he put a hand towards his jeans pocket.

Leon raised an eyebrow and replied, "I got lost." This caused an uproar of laughter within the circle. "Now," Leon said, "If you'd be so kind as to step aside." Again, he caused a few snickers to surface.

"Proper, aren't you," One of the girls of the group commented. "Now," She continued, "We'll step aside...for a fee."

"Fine," Leon snorted, then he produced a wallet out of his pocket. He pulled out two ten-dollar bills and asked if they would be enough to allow him passage without harm.

The group inspected them, as if they had never seen money before. It's not that they never saw money before, it's that they never saw the American dollar, and the currency they had always known was yen. That's why they took so long before they turned back to Leon and confronted him.

"What is this?" The girl who had asked for the fee said. "What kind of joke is this?"

Leon shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know what you're talking about. That's one-hundred percent genuine currency."

"Yea, from where you're from, but here, the currency we accept is yen."

"Oh," Leon said dumbly. How could he have not known, after all, it was in the brochure. "Well," Leon said, "Too bad for you cause I don't have any yen."

"Now that is a problem," A guy wearing a black trench-coat came forward and pulled out a switch-blade. Or as Leon called them, a switch.

If Leon didn't deal with crap like this everyday, he might have panicked. But thanks to growing up where people had always demanded money, he was well prepared for scenarios like this. Good thing I've had plenty of training, Leon thought gratefully as he adopted the fighting stance that allowed him to move quickly and keep his balance, not to mention it put some power behind his punches.

Leon shifted his weight onto his knees, brought his open palms up to his face, and forced himself to prioritize targets. The guy with the switch has to go first. He posed the biggest threat. And if he learned anything on the street, it was that you take the guy with the weapon out first, and take his weapon if you could.

The guy who was holding the switch-blade—Leon decided to call him Switch—came charging at him as quickly as he could; which was still sluggish compared to Leon's reflexes. Switch brought the blade up, preparing to get some force behind the lethal blow.

As Switch brought the blade down, Leon brought his palm up, redirecting Switch's arm behind his back. Then, Leon took the switch-blade from the guy's grasp, and drove it through the skin; therefore, it brought an ear-splitting scream from Switch's mouth.

It didn't take long for the rest of the group to scatter after they saw one of their comrade's blood on the floor. Leon spat on the ground and commented, "Heh, guess they'll know to never mess with me again."

"Hey!" A guy called out to Leon. Leon turned around to see a guy with a baseball cap, fully grown goatee, and barely looked older than Leon was.

"May I help you?" Leon responded, still holding the switch in a ready position.

"You could," He said, "I'm looking for a guy who goes by the name of Leon Walker. You seen him?"

Leon blinked and said, "Yeah, that's me. And you are?"

The guy pointed a thumb at himself and said, "The name's Junpei Iori, nice to meet ya."

Leon nodded, "Likewise." Then he placed the blade into his pocket, and walked over to Junpei.

"I do have a question, how did you know my name?" Leon asked.

"Akihiko-senpai sent me," Junpei replied. Leon looked at him dumbly, but before he could get a word in, he was interrupted by Junpei. "You don't know who he is, but you'll get to know him soon enough. You're heading to the Gekkoukan complex, right?"

Leon nodded again.

"We better hurry," Junpei explained, "otherwise those guys will come back with more help." Leon didn't argue as he followed Junpei around the intricate buildings (they all looked the same) to where Leon was before he decided to get lost.

But as they turned the corner, Leon's watch beeped for a second before it cut off abruptly. The moon shone brightly, and everything seemed eerier than before. Leon couldn't explain it, the mood just seemed to get darker somehow, as if death lingered in the air. Tension was thick as Leon tried not to lose his calm demeanor. He looked at his watch and noticed that it wasn't working for the first time.

Did the battery die?

"Oh shit," Junpei cursed, fear was evident in his voice. Leon had a few questions, but he knew that they would be answered later. "I didn't think this would happen again!"

Again? So this has happened before.

Junpei took off in full sprint, almost leaving Leon in the midst of whatever it was that was going on. Leon had to run as fast as he possibly could to try and keep up with Junpei. Why is he so fast, Leon thought jealously. Leon had always considered himself to be pretty quick, but he never witnessed speed like that.

When they arrived at the Gekkoukan apartments, Leon was out of breath, and they were trying to recuperate in the main lobby. A silver haired man came from down the stairs and said, "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Junpei said when he could speak again, "But this night is exhibiting all of the same symptoms before..." He trailed off. Apparently, whatever he was talking about was too painful to bring up, Leon reasoned.

Then the silver haired guy took notice of Leon, in lite of the situation. "Oh, are you the transfer student?"

Leon nodded, put his hand up, and said, "Why yes I am. And who might you be?"

"I'm Akihiko Sanada," He replied, now ushering them closer to him. Leon guessed that it had something to do with the weird circumstances that they found themselves in.

"So, you mind tellin me what's goin on?" Leon asked.

"Later, right now, we need to make sure that we're prepared." Akihiko said, and no-one dared to breathe another word. Leon took out his switch, Junpei took up a fighting pose, and Akihiko copied Junpei.

The tension is really thick right now, almost tangible. Then an afterthought: I better get some god-damn answers after all of this.

As Leon finished that thought, something dropped down from the ceiling, and lunged towards the group.

Leon instinctively brought his knife up and dived out of the way; Junpei tried to take a swing at it with his bare fists but missed; Akihiko was the only one who actually got a hit on it, sending it a few feet back.

It didn't really do much damage, but it was enough to give them some breathing space.

Not for long, however, for the monster quickly recovered and was upon Leon in a second. He tried to attack with the switch-blade, but found it to be utterly useless.

"Artemisia!" A female voice said, then a gunshot and what sounded like shattering glass echoed in the room. Then, all of a sudden, the monster was encased in ice, and then it shattered into a million ice crystals, leaving nothing left of the abomination.

A few hours had passed and everyone's wounds was being treated, but Mitsuru was busy filling Leon in on the details.

"So do you understand?" Mitsuru asked. Leon nodded vigorously and said, "From what I gather, is that this...power—persona—and shadows are the same thing. That is why people with personae can fight them and do damage to these shadows."

"Not to mention," He continued, "that people who have the potential can stay awake during the—dark hour, was it—and they are aware of what happens."

Mitsuru smiled and said, "Very good. Not too many people can catch on this quickly, I'm impressed."

Leon blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, muttering, "It isn't that difficult, especially if a moron like me can grasp the basic properties of this situation."

Then another question popped into his head. "Okay," He said, "If I was awake during the dark hour, then does that mean I have the potential as well?"

"It's very possible," Mitsuru admitted, "After all, you did manage to keep your awareness during the time period."

"Well then," Leon said, "How would I go about summoning my own potential?"

"I don't know, perhaps I can construct a training course that can help you bring out your persona," Mitsuru replied.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Leon said as he grabbed his bag—he managed to hold onto it until they were attacked.

"Before you go," Mitsuru grabbed his shoulder, "You need this to get into your room, correct?" She dangled a key in front of his face. Leon smirked before he gingerly took the key from her fingers and thanked her.

As Leon left the room, Mitsuru whispered, "Leon Walker, you are something else, though I can't put my finger on it."

Atlus is the soul owner of the persona series, and I only credit Leon Walker to my list of original characters.

I thought I would go for a nice change of pace and do a persona story, tell me how you like or hate it.