Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or any content from the Megami Tensei series as a whole. I do not claim to own anything. All contents' right belong to their respectful owners. Once again, I do not claim to own anything.

The title of this fan fiction actually comes from the opening theme of the original Persona as well as the subtitle of the manga. Now, I know this is the first instance on fan fiction. net of a novelization of the very first Persona game of the Megaten series. I promise, I won't abandoned this, I might occasionally take breaks and may work on other projects, but I will not abandoned this story, short of my account being closed or my computer dying. For the record, I'm going to stock chapters up an upload one chapter on a weekly basis if I can. I plan to have the novelization to last thirty straight chapters, unfortunately I'm excluding the Snow Queen Quest due to the fact I couldn't find a necessary place within the story to place in it to make it relevant to the plot. The beginning and introduction are partially inspired by the manga, but Chapter 6 is were the scenes from the manga are less mirrored and I'll be supplying my own fights and traversing through dungeons. The M.C. will be named Naoya Todo, as he is in the manga. I originally wanted to make the novel entirely in his perspective, but I'd rather focus mostly on everyone, yes I'm putting all nine party members through the plot, Yukino is there because I'm excluding the SQQ. Now with the long, boring introduction aside, welcome to Persona: Be Your True Mind Chapter One.

Chapter One: Persona

Once, I dreamt I was a butterfly.

A featureless butterfly, colored purely yellow, emitting an orb of light, slowly flew through an open window into a hospital room.

I forgot myself and knew only my happiness as a butterfly. Soon, I awoke and I was myself again.

A castle constructed of toy blocks rested on a side table next to the unoccupied bed in the vacant hospital room. The butterfly flew above the pinnacle and as the seconds ticked by following the creature's pass, the blocks making the center tower shook and fell forward.

Did I dream I was a butterfly?

Or do I now dream I am a man?

In the city of Mikage, a student, wearing the St. Hermelin High School traditional gray khakis and long sleeved buttoned shirt with the St. Hermelin insignia marked on the left breast, sat in the arcade called Judgment 1999 in the Mikage Mall. The boy brushed his wavy black locks out of his eye and fiddled with the plain earring in his left ear.

Yet there is a distinction between myself and the butterfly. This is transformation of the physical.

-Zuangzi

Persona: Be Your True Mind

The city of Mikage is home to St. Hermelin High School and the SEBEC Corporation Headquarters. The city is big enough to have industry and a life of its own, but not large enough to be drowning in murder, theft, and general crime.

St. Hermelin High School was currently preparing for the School Cultural Festival, the actions of the students being watched by both Principle Ooishi, sporting her big glasses and oldies hairstyle, and the strict and rule-enforcing Vice-Principle Hanya with his colorless mullet, balding peak, and wrinkled flesh.

Since the cultural festival is in the coming days, a handful of students, total: seven, occupied an empty classroom to work on their projects for the festival. The classroom had no desks, cardboard boxes sealed up and set aside to gather dusts. The windows were covered up by a thick cloth, preventing any light from seeping in.

The seven students, all mutual friends, had stopped their work and crafting at the proposal of a game which could predict your future.

The student was named Hidehiko "Brown" Uesugi, his gray jacket unzipped, a purple undershirt with a red spade on the center beneath it, and his pants tucked into bright red boots. His fingers were lined with rings. His fiery red hair formed a large curving bang which fell over the pair of shades he placed on his forehead. Hidehiko was a brash and cocky student. He craved attention and never took anything seriously.

He proposed the game called "Persona" to another student. This student wore a yellow tuque with an eye-like design on the front, a oversized decorative earring on his left air, and droplet-like markings under his eyes. This student was Masao "Mark" Inaba, the spoiled son of Inaba's Dry Cleaning Service. He was graffiti artist, loved to dance, and was always earnest and excitable.

"Persona?" Masao repeated. "Dude, if that really worked and I see my future, I'd be on easy street." Masao shoved his hands in his pockets, his yellow backpack still around his back from the end of school.

"You sure you ain't got brain rot, Hidehiko?" Masao asked with a grin.

Hidehiko replied with a chuckle. "Hehehe….Turns out there's more to it than an easy joke!" A smug expression was always on Brown's face.

"Maybe not seeing the future, exactly, but weird stuff does happen!" he insisted.

Mark sighed. "Alright…you're on. I bet you an all-you-can-eat dinner at Peace Diner on Joy Street."

An air headed, blonde, pigtailed female student jumped in glee. "Woo! I'm with Hidehiko!"

The student was Yuka Ayase, a troublemaking member of the suntanned, bleach-blonde kogal set. Her outward cheerfulness maked her popular with the guys. However, her fondness for lying and being painfully frank got her into trouble often. She wore a long-sleeve blue jacket with a green stripe near the bottom over her normal gray top with a blue and a white striped tie. She wore matching high socks to her jacket.

A pony tailed student added, "I throw my lot in with Brown, too."

She was Eriko "Elly" Krishima, a ladylike student, who recently returned from abroad. She was quite beautiful and intelligent. She came from a wealthy family and had been studying overseas for most of her life, but chose to finish her education in Japan. She was one of the most popular girls in St. Hermelin. Her hair was a deep red which she tied into a ponytail which was the length of her back. Her bang fell to the right side of her face. She wore the basic uniform for girls at St. Hermelin, except with a orange neckerchief tied around her neck.

Masao's jaw dropped. "Are you guys serious?"

Masao turned away from Hidehiko, Eriko, and Yuka in front of him to the last three students.

"Yo, Kei, Yukino, Nao! Who you guys gonna side with?"

"Hmph! As if I care one bit. It's absolutely bunk." A glasses-wearing student replied sourly.

Kei Nanjo was the heir to the Nanjo Group. He was pragmatist, skeptic, and a well-meaning snob. He wore a trademark blue scarf around his neck with a huge number one printed on it. His ebony black hair was mostly slicked back with a few strands sticking forward or upward crookedly.

"What he said. This is all you." The last remaining female student replied.

Yukino Mayuzumi was trusted by everyone and was like an older sister to everyone. She was a reformed yanki and is treated as a mother-figure to her friends. Her shady blue hair was ruffled, a hairclip firmly attached to the left side of her hair. The back of it reached the bottom of her neck. She wore the standard uniform for St. Hermelin girls.

Masao's sweat dropped at the statements of Nanjo and Yukino. He sighed again. "Ugh! You guys are so cold, y'know?"

Masao turned to the last remaining male student. He wore the basic uniform for boys, his hair was wavy and colored a jet black. He wore a plain earring in his left ear. Naoya "Nao" Todo fiddled with his earring as Masao addressed him.

"Hey, Nao, who're you with? It's gotta be me, right?" Masao asked begging.

Naoya smiled, pulling out a bill. "Of course! One-sided bets are boring!"

Masao glowed with happiness. "Thank you, Nao!"

"Heeheehee…This'll be fun!" Hidehiko exclaimed. "Awright, let's get started!"

Persona: Be Your True Mind

To set up for the game, Kei, Naoya, and Yukino were told to stand in the middle of the empty classroom. Their backs to each other in a triangle formation. Masao, Eriko, Hidehiko, and Ayase were to stand against the corners of the room, bottom left, bottom right, top left, and top right respectively.

"Isn't this exciting now?" Eriko asked with a smile.

Naoya shoved his hands in his pockets and arced his head back. "Didn't peg you for someone into cult-like stuff, Eriko."

Eriko casually waved her hand. "Oh, I merely admire it."

"Okay, quite everyone!" Hidehiko shouted. He turned to Ayase on his left. "Okay, Ayase, begin like I told you."

Ayase put her arms behind her head. "'Kay! Here goes!" Ayase murmured to herself, momentarily forgetting what Brown had told her. "Ummm. Like, Persona! Persona! Please come here!"

Ayase slowly treaded across the carpet to Brown's recently turned back. She patted her hands on his shoulders, causing him to speak up. "My turn! Persona! Persona! Come here!"

Brown eagerly dashed to Masao's back, whose head was hung in embarrassment. "Man, why do I gotta do this?"

Brown firmly patted Masao's shoulder, yelling in his ear, "Hurry it up! All-you-can-eat! All-you-can-eat!"

Masao soon gave in. "Okay, okay…Persona, Persona. C'mere…I guess."

Masao sluggish marched himself to Eriko's back, patting her swiftly.

"Well, then…Persona! Persona! Please come to us!" Eriko elegantly waltzed to the unoccupied corner, previously taken by Ayase.

Brown immediately pierced the tiny amount of silence. "Alright! Here it comes!"

The silence returned and the students' eyes aimlessly wandered everywhere possible in the empty room to see some sort of sign that the ritual to the game worked and the Persona would appear to tell them the future. Several seconds rolled by until a full minute had passed without a single thing out of the ordinary happening.

Brown's smug grin changed to a wide-eyed disappointment. "H-huh?"

The seven crowded back together in the middle of the room. Ayase approached Hidehiko and pursed her lips in a pout.

"Hidehiko! You jerk! Now I look like a total idiot!" she wined.

Masao approached him next. "See? A fat load o' nothing." Masao regained his usual excited expression. "Hehe…Looks like Nao and I win."

Yukino shook her head and sighed. "Happy now? Hurry up and go get the teacher so we can set-up our projects."

Brown's sweat dropped and he backed himself against a wall of boxes. The perspiration was visible on his forehead. He stuttered a retort to the turn of events. "W-wait! Hold up! One more time! Please! Mark screwed it up! C'mon, you gotta take it seriously when you do it."

"Interesting that your lecturing Mark on taking things seriously, Brown." Naoya stated. Hidehiko was never serious, he'd always crack jokes and say anything to draw a crowd or focus the attention towards him.

"Yeah, Nao's right. You're such a sore loser, Hidehiko!"

Kei fixed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose. He thought himself above squabbles between two idiots. He thought if he made a statement the two monkeys would shut up and everything would be settled.

Kei opened his mouth to speak, but noticed a flash of white out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head, the rest still distracted by the argument. From the light, near where the chalkboard stood, emerged a little girl, no more than six years old, in a spectral form. The ritual they performed had harkened a ghost to the classroom? The spectral girl's hands were by her face, rubbing at her eyes.

Kei's eyes widen and his mouth fell agape. "W-what is that?" he stammered, pausing between each word.

Naoya noticed Kei's change in behavior. "Yo, Kei, you all right?"

Masao starred at Nanjo. "It's too late now, Nanjo, to-" The loud sound of a child's crying pulled the teenagers head to were the spectral girl stood, like a magnet.

"H-h-help me!" she cried.

The seven stood still in frozen postures, until a crackled noise echoed around them. Visible electricity traveled through the walls, up to the ceiling through the lights. All the while the ground started to shake violently.

"What the?" Masao cried out.

"The hell is happening?" Naoya finished.

Their heads darted back in forth, keeping track of a huge streak of pseudo-lightning jumping back in forth between the ceiling lights. A powerful wind blew into the classroom and circled the students whipping their hair and loose clothing around. It was like a natural disaster was taking place within the surrounding exclusively.

Eriko raised her hands under her chin, frighten. "I don't remember it happening like this last time."

Ayase used her hands to anchor down her skirt from being thrown up by the wind.

Brown assumed a fettle position and laid on the floor.

Kei tried to regain his composure. He had to get control over the situation, but something was missing. He counted heads in a matter of seconds. Five, excluding him, whose missing. He shot his head to the left. Yukino was laying on her side. The lightning must've struck her.

"No!" Kei thought quickly moving towards her, everyone attentions attracted to his sudden motion. "Yukino!"

The lightning jumped from the ceiling and struck Kei on the head, collapsing him over Yukino. Naoya and Masao moved towards them, but the lightning flew down off the ceiling and struck them into unconsciousness as fast as it did to Kei.

The four students never actually felt electrocuted. In fact, they felt no pain at all. At the contact of the lightning bolts to their craniums, they found their muscles relaxed and fell into a deep sleep, as if they were knocked into the border between consciousness and unconsciousness.

Persona: Be Your True Mind

Naoya fell through space itself, following after a featureless yellow butterfly, emitting an orb of yellow light. Naoya's surroundings were a distortion of black and blue, gears and cogs turning and spiraling around him as he descending further and further down the "rabbit's hole."

"Where the hell am I?" he asked himself.

The distortion vanished and Naoya landed on a circular platform, made of marble, six bronze pillars erected on it. The entire platform actually was hovering in a void of blue.

Naoya examined the new environment.

A man, wearing an ivory white suit, with lengthy coattails, a matching mask with a butterfly wing mark on the right eye area bowed with his left arm behind his back and his right under his stomach. The man wore his black hair in a ponytail which wavered to the side by a minor breeze.

"W-what?"

The stranger rose back. His spoke in a calm, masculine voice. "Welcome. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Naoya pinched his arm to see if he could wake up from whatever the hell this place was, be it a dream or his own consciousness.

"Who are you?" Naoya asked, slightly hesitant, being put off by the blank eyes on the mask.

"I am Philemon, a dweller between consciousness and unconsciousness."

"Consciousness and unconsciousness?" Naoya titled his head to the side in confusion. What the hell was this guy talking about?

"And now for you, I have a simple test. Can you state your name?"

"What kinda test is that."

"Easy, Naoya Todo." Naoya answered without any hesitation, feeling more less disconcerted by the surroundings and the strange man known as Philemon.

A change in Philemon's expression couldn't be seen because of the mask. All the man did was nod his head. "Splendid. There aren't many who can remember their identity when within this domain. It seems you've passed that test."

"Wasn't even really a test." Naoya said under his breath.

Philemon pointed at Naoya, then crossed his arms. "But tell me this: Are you aware of them many and varied selves you harbor within you."

"Many selves within myself? Now I know I must be dreaming."

"The self effused with divine love. The self capable of demonic cruelty. People live by wearing different masks. Your current self, may be only one of those innumerable masks."

Naoya touched his face with his hand. He firmly rubbed the whole right side of his face, feeling the partial warm and cold sweat. "My current self, may be only one of many other selves. So, I'm not really me. What is he talking about?"

Philemon pointed again at Naoya. "You though, you have a very firm grip on your identity." Philemon extended and bent his hand to the side, as if holding a tray. A yellow light shined dully in his open palm. The shine died and the light subsided to reveal a crouched, miniature figure in Philemon's hand.

The figure was purely a murky blue. The arms and legs were decorated with chipped and carved rock-like gauntlets and boots with a matching hair-dress. Nao studied it closer. The gauntlets, boots, and hair dress were physical part of the muscular figure's body. The feet barefoot, the palms clenched, the head tucked into the nape of the neck, the arms positioned across the torso, and the blank, colorless, iris-less eyes gazing into Naoya's soul.

Naoya gulped, vigorously feeling his face.

"In return, I grant you this power: Persona. It is the power to summon the selves within you."

The miniature dispersed. Philemon crossed his arms.

"The power to summon the gods and demons you harbor. The time is soon when you will need this power. Now, you must return, Naoya Todo, to your proper time and place."

"Wait. I still have questions." Naoya's body lifted off the ground on it's own, leisurely being tug backward into a new distortion in the blue.

"Do not worry, Naoya Todo. I will be watching over you and your friends."

With Philemon's last words, Naoya's eyelids grew heavier and he found himself going into the familiar feeling of sleep as he slipped into the crack in the blue abysse, darkness washing over him.

Phew! I hope you guys enjoy this. Now, I know most of the dialogue was taken from Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, but their will be plenty of scenes which I will have to write my own dialogue and banter for as well as create dialogue for existing cut scenes and etcetera for not only Naoya, but Yukino because she technically not suppose to be their. As for pairings, I'm not really planning to have stuff like that in this, but that is still debatable, but the definite pairings will be Masao and Maki (I think it's more there, then M.C. and Maki), Eriko and Naoya (It's more there in the manga), and partially Yukino and Kei (I find it odd he specifically you goes to Yukino, especially since he never really in the game shows too much emotional concern for ANYONE, but one person in particular. I might be making something small into something large, but if you think about Yukino and Kei are like the mother and father of the group, because Kei takes everything seriously and understands, processes, and explains the story.) Either way guys, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, the next chapter will cover probably a quarter of Mikage Hospital and then chapter three will be the rest of it. So, see you in Chapter Two: Mikage Hospital.