The sun was coming up by the time I dragged myself back up the fire escape and through my open window.

Tch, a teenager sneaking back into his dorm room in the morning. If I'm not careful, I might start to consider myself normal.

Smiling at the absurdity of being a normal person, I reached into my bag and pulled out a framed picture. In it was a young boy with blue hair, standing beside a brunette woman. Her arms were stretched out, like she was moving to catch the little blue haired girl apparently sitting in midair. "Good morning Mom, sis." I laughed a little to myself. "What the hell am I doing? It's not like I'm ever going to see either of you again."

"And whose fault is that?"

I turned around and saw the little girl from the picture sitting in the desk chair. She couldn't have been more than five years old. "I don't have time for this." Why the hell can't you just stay in a dark little corner in the back of my head? It's not enough that I'll never see you again? You have to keep tormenting me like this?

"Why? Don't you love me anymore?" How long are you going to make me live with this? "Isn't that why you saved me? Is that why you left mommy? Isn't that why you-"

I closed my eyes. "Just shut up…" When I opened them, the girl was gone. I put the photo back into the bag and pulled out a bottle of pills.

Just another morning of the life of Minato Arisato.

There was a knock at my door. "Hey, it's Yukari. Are you awake?"

I grabbed my bag before opening the door. "Mornin!"

"Good morning. You sleep okay?" She was wearing the same pink sweater and tiny skirt.

"Like a baby." Once I actually got to a bed.

"Mitsuru-sempai asked me to take you to school." Does she think I wouldn't be able to find my way there on my own? Geez, how low are her expectations of me? "It's getting late so… Ready to go?"

As tempting as it was to tell her I could get there on my own, I didn't. "Sure." But that bed was too soft for me to be angry about this. And it could take me awhile to find my way there on my own.

On the way down the stairs, she told me, "One more thing first."

"What is it?"

"Another student showed up a bit before you did; sempai asked me to take him too."

Wait a sec, "Him?"

"Yeah," she answered. "This dorm's co-ed."

Sweet. "Know anything about him?"

"I've actually never met him before, and all sempai said was that his name was Minato Arisato and he'll be easy to notice."

I was going to ask her what she meant by easy to no- Holy Crap that guy has blue hair. Looks like he's in pretty good shape too… I blinked.

Why is there a black '0' floating over his head? How can he just sit there drinking a Mad Bull with something like that above his head? I blinked again. Still there. Yay, more insanity for me.

Yukari must not see it, because she just asked, "Are you Arisato-san?" He turned after finishing off his drink. Whoa, he looks like he hasn't slept for a week.

I stifled a yawn as I looked up at the stairs. Two girls, brunettes, were standing at the bottom of the stairs. I focused on the brunette who'd spoken. Lovers. "Yeah, that's me. Who're you?" The other girl was still staring at me. Just ignore it for now, it's not like it's the first time someone has had trouble not focusing on my hair.

The first girl spoke again. "Oh, I'm Yukari Takeba, and this is Marina Inoue." I focused my eyes on her red irises. Holy Hell. I never thought I'd actually see someone else with the Fool Arcana. Or is she a Persona User already who's skilled enough to keep her Wild Card from resonating with mine? Wait a sec, where's that voice coming from?

tha echei polli epitychia, tha einai poly petychimeni

I raised my left hand to cover my left eye, hidden by my bangs. Why the hell does this damn thing hurt? Whichever one of you that is, shut the hell up

I blinked and it stopped. Damn it, what the hell was that? Latin? Greek? It's not any language I'm fluent in. I should probably fix that soon…

"You okay?" I looked back at Takeba. "You look like you've got a headache."

Ugh, of course you noticed that. "I'm used to it." I waited for one of them to say something. "Was there something you needed?"

Inoue was the one to answer me. "We were heading to school. You wanna come with? I mean, you just moved here so…"

Meh, what the hell? It's been a few years since I was in Iwatodai, and I've been trying to suppress most of my memories of it since I left. "Sure."

Minato seems like a pretty nice guy, if a little quiet. I'm in no position to judge him for that. Hell, I probably spent about a week after that night without speaking. But still, even though he's getting along with Yukari pretty well, it seems like they're both forcing themselves through the conversation. The way she speaks, it's like she's thinking about something different than what we're talking about. And Minato… every expression he makes; a grin, a frown, even raising an eyebrow; it all seems kind of awkward, almost like he doesn't know how to make facial expressions.

Yukari looked up as I felt the train turn again. "There it is."

I looked out a window, but all I saw was water.

Then the train turned again.

The school's on a freaking artificial island!

Why haven't I ever been in a school that they built an island for before!

"Well, here it is; Gekkoukan High School. Hope you like it!"

I thought the place looked even better up close.

Minato just looked bored with the 0 floating over him. I think it might be spreading, since now I'm seeing things floating over everyone's head if I focus. Yukari has a pink VI. I ignored it and followed her into the building.

"You two should be okay from here, right?" She asked as she slipped her shoes into her locker.

Minato yawned before saying, "Should be." What's with that monotone? Is he that tired, even with that Mad Bull from earlier?

"You should probably go see your homeroom teachers first. The faculty office is right over there to the left… And that concludes the tour!" She announced as she shut the shoe locker. "Any questions?"

Minato shook his head and walked off as I asked her, "What class are you in?" Be nice to know someone in the class already for once.

She answered, "I dunno, I haven't seen the class assignments yet." She grabbed my shoulder when I started to walk away. I could see the bulletin board that probably had the class assignments, but my name probably isn't on it. "Hey… About last night… Don't tell anyone what you saw, okay? See you later." She left.

I sighed. I've lived with that long enough to know that it isn't something you run around talking about; you don't have to remind me.

Minato looked like he was having a bit of trouble finding his name. I just went ahead and took the hall to the left looking for the faculty office. I ignored the fact that a man wearing a helmet (I later found out he was a teacher) was talking to a blond… guy?... who was holding a fan. Thank you glowy blue butterfly that no-one else sees.

A teacher in a suit noticed me a couple of seconds after coming in. "Oh, are you the new student?" I nodded with a smile. "Marina Inoue, eleventh grade, correct?" she asked while consulting her notes. I nodded again. "Wow, you've lived in a lot of different places. And… in '99," I braced myself for the usual. "That was what, ten years ago? Your parents-" she gasped when she read what I knew was on the paper I knew she hadn't looked at.

"I'm sorry, I've just been so busy, I haven't had time to read over…" She trailed off mid apology. It's always awkward when the teacher reads off the date your parents died without knowing what happened until a few seconds later. But it doesn't do any good holding a grudge over it, figured that out the fourth time it happened. "I'm Ms. Toriumi, I teach composition. Welcome to our school."

"It's nice to be here." It was. The last school I was in was a dump.

"Have you seen the classroom assignments yet?" I shook my head. "You're in 2-F, that's my class. But you need to head to the auditorium first, there's an assembly there in about fifteen minutes. Go on ahead," she said as she sat back down. "I have to catch up on some paperwork."

Ouch.

I saw Inoue come out of the office right before I went in the other door. The only one in here is a woman in a pink suit. She looked at me, probably wondering why I was here. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yeah, I'm Minato Arisato; I'm new here." As I said that, I realized why I couldn't find my class; I was looking for the wrong name. Huh, even after all these years I still think of myself as that little kid sometimes…

She introduced herself as Toriumi before checking her clipboard. "Have you seen the classroom assignments yet?"

I scratched the side of my head as I told her, "I checked, but I didn't see my name up there."

"Well, I guess you probably weren't in the system when they put it up. Anyway, you're in… eleventh grade?" I nodded. "You're in 2-E, that's Mr. Ekoda's class."

I turned to leave. "Thanks."

"Hold on a second." I paused at the door. "There's an assembly in the auditorium, so you need to head there first."

I yawned. "I got it."

The halls were starting to clear out, probably since people were heading to the auditorium. I followed a brown haired guy and started chatting with him. Kenji-something. Nice guy, but he seems kinda lazy. Magician.

We were supposed to sit with our classes, so I split away from him once we reached the place. Ended up sitting by a black haired girl who could give Takeba or Inoue a run for their money. Chariot. I just let myself fall into a daze while the old man on stage went on about start of the year bull.

I was just barely aware enough to notice a bit of disappointment on Chariot's face when he said it would be a couple of weeks before the Sport's clubs started recruiting new members. Doesn't make any difference to me; I broke that guy's jaw because I couldn't control the strength boost I got from my Persona, and I have a tendency to end up breaking equipment in any sports that need them. Still, that'd be better than showing off how fast I run. That would lead to trying to explain something I'd rather they not know anything about.

Screw you old man, I only got three of my twenty hours of sleep Sunday because of the move, and I'm gonna end up hallucinating soon if I don't rest today.

"Hey." Some stupid ass wants to die. I turned around in my seat and looked at him. Brown hair, a plain and easy to forget face. Devil. "You're that guy who came to school with Yukari this morning, right?"

Devil Arcana, associated with physical attraction, vice, doubt, instinct, ignorance, egoism. I can have a little fun here. "Yeah."

He grinned like he'd made some big discovery. "I thought so, I saw you two walking together." Then why'd you bother asking? "I got a question. Do you know if she has a girlfriend?" There we go.

"Not sure, I only met her at our dorm this morning."

"I see, I thought you might know, but-"

I cut him off. "That wasn't all." He looked a little puzzled. "I only met her this morning, but you saw the other girl with us, didn't you? The other new student?" He nodded. "They seemed to be getting along pretty well, you should ask her." And now that'll spread, and people will bother her instead of me.

The guy grinned. "Thanks man." Give it a day or two and I could probably convince half the male student body that those two are lovers. "What's her name?"

"Marina Inoue." Probably wouldn't be two hard, I've convinced people of more outrageous things. "Not sure what class she's in though. You should try and catch her on her way out." I pointed to where she was sitting across the aisle, blissfully unaware as she listened to her headphones. Wait a sec. I looked down at my own. Huh, same model.

"Thanks man, I really owe you for this." Now that I think about it, a good third of the rumors I start end up being true even if there's no basis for it. I'd rather not test it though. It used to be that people attacked by Shadows would appear to have been viciously murdered, like they'd been attacked by a wild animal. Then I made a post on the internet about Apathy Syndrome.

No one's body has been affected by a Shadow attack since. Well, except me, but that's because I've been using my Personae to fight back.

Oh look, assembly's over. Time to see how much of an ass my homeroom teacher is.

I took off my headphones when I saw people start to get up. I'd taken about two steps toward the doors after standing before a guy with XV over his head came up to me like he was about to ask me something, looked me up and down, then left as his cheeks started glowing. Weird.

Anyway, I sat through class, nothing much to talk about. I ended up in the same one as Yukari though, so that's something. Once classes were over with, I heard a guy say "Sup," before I turned to him. Hat with a weird looking picture on it, black hair, goatee, blue shirt. I over his head. He laughed. "Haha, you look like a deer in headlights."

"What do you want?" If he's just here to waste my time then I'll kick his ass. Although it is nice that no one here's given me any grief over the red eyes. Last year some dumbass thought I was a demon… I liked it better when they just thought I was sick.

He seemed disappointed. "Oh c'mon, let me introduce myself, at least." He started grinning again as he did so. "I'm Junpei Iori, nice to meet ya. I transferred here back when I was in the eighth grade." Trying to use something we have in common? Nice try, but no dice. "Sooo I thought I'd check up on ya, make sure you weren't freaking out or anything on your first day."

Yukari came up to us and sighed. "At it again, huh? Honestly, is there any girl you wouldn't hit on?" You realize he's a guy, don't you? "Honestly, did you ever think you might be bothering someone?"

He seemed offended by that. "What? But I was just bein friendly."

"If you say so." She turned to me. "Anyway, some coincidence we'd be in the same homeroom, huh?"

I smiled. "It's nice to start the year with a friend." For once.

She didn't seem sure how to respond to that. "I guess so…"

Junpei ended the awkward moment threatening to start by reminding us, "Uh, hello? Did you forget I'm in this class too? C'mon, lemme in on the fun!" Please tell me that didn't come out right… "By the way, do you two know each other? I heard you two came to school together this morning. A couple a cuties like you, walking side by side…" I saw his expression change as he went into a special place in his head. "The whole class was buzzing about you." And probably about Minato too, seeing as he was on Yukari's other side, but you'd rather make it seem like we were single or with each other.

"Ugh, could you just cut it out? I hate dealing with rumors like that. I mean, I'm used to it," Wait; you're used to rumors about being a lesbian? "but she just got here, you know? Don't you feel bad, spreading rumors like that?" Junpei didn't seem quite sure how to respond to that slight chewing out, so she started talking to me again. "Hey, about last night…" Don't do this Yukari. "You didn't say anything about" I mean, I know what you're talking about, but Junpei's right there! At least don't say exactly what we both know you mean. "You-know-what, right?"

Okay, that could have been worse, but it isn't like you've completely screwed us over with that. "Nope."

She sighed with relief and said, "Good." Right before leaning forward on my desk and lowering her voice. "Seriously, don't say anything about last night, alright?" I looked at Junpei, who had heard every word.

Wwwaaaaaaaiiiitt for it… "L-last night…?" There we go! Your turn Yukari.

She jumped to her feet. "W-WAIT A MINUTE! Don't get the wrong idea!" I'm not saying a thing. You are an attractive Japanese schoolgirl who told another girl not to say anything about last night in front of a teenage male. You deserve anything that comes of this.

Junpei seemed shocked, as if he'd found something he'd been dreaming of since- Oh. Yeah; male high school student.

"Look, we only met yesterday, and even if you were right, which you're not, it wouldn't be any of your business." Good, she's calming down. "I've got to go take care of some stuff for the archery team." She poked Junpei in the chin before telling him, "Don't try anything funny, you got that Junpei?"

Junpei gave me an exasperated look as she walked off and asked, "Sheesh, what is she, your nanny?"

"I know! I mean, who gets that upset over a couple of rumors?"

"Tell me about it. She's so paranoid… Hey, just to clear something up, I seriously didn't come over here to hit on you or anything. If you ever have a problem, you can tell your ol' pal Junpei about it!"

He doesn't seem like a bad guy… "I'll remember that."

"Heh, cool. Well, I'll be seeing you around, then."

It wasn't that long until I saw him again. In fact, he practically chased me down a flight of stairs before convincing me to let him walk me back to the dorm. Maybe he's a bit clingy?

He pointed out a bunch of guys in track suits running around once we were outside. "Check out the jocks on the run." I am. "Hey," he drew my attention away from the sweaty athletes. "Did anyone tell you about the athletic clubs yet?" I shook my head. If it was mentioned during the assembly, I didn't hear it over Breakin Through. "Girls can join to, so why not do it if you're interested?" Because I'm not that kind of- oh, you were still talking about the clubs just now. "You'd have to join as a new member though, so you'll have to wait a little while if you want to apply."

He ended up following me all the way back to the dorm. "See ya later!" he shouted. I could tell from his pace that he wasn't in any hurry to get home.

Maybe he isn't just clingy. I ran and caught up with him. "Hey, could you give me a hand picking up some stuff?"

He rolled his eyes. "All right, if you insist." We both knew he wasn't fooling me, but neither of us wanted to say it.

I lost Inoue and the Magician she was with on a train. Oh well, she'll be back at the dorm sooner or later. I bought a newspaper and went into a restaurant.

Okay, that green duck is creeping me out, but the prices are low.

Holy crap that is a high stacked burger. There has to be like thirty separate burgers in that thing. I went up to the counter. "I'll have that."

The burger was delicious. I also have a drink sitting on the floor beside me that I can just lean to the right and sip through the straw without leaning down. Now if only I could be sure what the hell I just ate.

I read through my paper on the train, then rolled it up and stuck it in my jacket pocket before getting back to the dorm. I saw Kirijo sitting on the first floor and sat on the couch opposite her.

"I see you're finally back." What do you expect? I wasn't going to waste any of that giant burger. "You shouldn't be out alone at night, it's dangerous." I nodded along before pulling my newspaper out and opening it to read an article on Apathy Syndrome.

"Of course it is, I could trip and fall." I dropped the rest of the paper on the table between us, stood up, and took the article trying to show a pattern to Apathy Syndrome up to my room. The top page was lying in a way that ensured she'd be able to read it without a problem, and had a footnote about a man who broke his arm when he fell asleep and crashed his car. It was the worst thing to happen in the area all year aside from A.S. I passed a guy with grey hair wearing a vest on my way to the stairs. "Or I could wreck my car!"

Once I reached my room I dropped the article on the floor and started doing pushups while waiting for 12:01. Today's going to be my sleep day this week.

As soon as it passed and my head hit the pillow, I was standing again. The fact that I was in a world even more twisted than the Dark Hour wasn't a problem for me. Neither was the fact that I was standing with a window beside my feet, staring straight ahead at a road, and with the starless sky behind me. This was the only place in the world I could truly feel safe.

This… is My world.

I felt something moving beneath my feet before a red gloved hand reached out the window. I leaned down and helped pull the person it was attached to out. I looked the red humanoid in the eye as it floated over the wall. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Vulcanus?"

He seemed almost angry with me, probably because I knew he couldn't talk and was asking him questions anyway. He glared at me as he raised an arm, raising a blue door out of the wall I stood upon.

"You want me to go through it?"

The door opened before either of us could do anything. Once my eyes adjusted to the blue light I saw a man dressed in blue, gold eyes, light hair, stupid hat. "Hey Chet!"

Chet practically growled at me. "I've told you before; That is Not my Name."

"Really? Cause I'm pretty sure your name's Chet."

I knew for a fact that anywhere but here, this guy could tear me to shreds without doing anything but opening a book. I wouldn't dare antagonize him like this if I was in the human world, or in his master's. He gave up and sighed. "My master wishes to speak with you in regards to your contract."

I followed him through the door.

Ah, my least favorite club in the world. "So, where're Liz and Marshmellow?" His sisters, Elizabeth and Marianne. The younger of the two sisters was the only person in here I liked. The other two siblings, I just liked to piss off.

"They are not here." Weird, there's almost never anything someone would need to leave the Velvet Room for. Asshole's probably just trying to keep me away from his precious sister.

"Mind telling me why I'm here?"

"It's about your contract."

"This being the mysterious contract that I was forced into without being told of its contents because I had a dream as a little kid then managed to survive?"

"Yes." Alright then Chet.

"What about it?"

"My Master wishes to speak with you about it."

"The old man or the masked bastard?"

"The Master of the human mind." Masked Bastard then.

He disappeared when I reached the bar. Heh, you're still an ass. The man standing on the other side of the counter was wearing a red suit, seemed to have brown hair (though that could easily have been an illusion), and concealed his face with a white mask, half of which had a blue butterfly wing covering it. I picked up the glass he'd poured in preparation for me, then promptly spit it out. "What the Hell man? Apple juice?"

I swear to God that bastard's smirking at me behind that mask. "You're still underage."

I tossed the glass behind me. "And what I do here that doesn't kill me won't do a damn thing to my body." That glass got some serious distance before it hit a wall. "Now what do you want?"

"I just want to make sure you don't do anything stupid. I've been in-" No sound came from him as the butterfly wing on his mask began to flutter. "Damn non-intervention clause." Don't ask me how he can drink bourbon through his mask; I try not to think about it myself. "Anyway, I just figured you deserved to know that it will likely be some time before you're called here again."

"What the hell happened?" The butterfly wing started fluttering again instead of giving me an answer. I saw a figure moving among the blue, though I didn't recognize her until she was close. "Oh, hey Liz."

She just looked at the Masked Bastard.

"Please give her your cell phone." Puzzled, but knowing from experience that there was no point arguing with him, I gave Elizabeth my phone. "I will be taking a long rest soon, so I will no longer be able to open this door for you each night."

Shit, that could be a problem. I might not get along with the old man very well, but I still need him to fuse Personae. Elizabeth returned my phone to me.

"Because of this, I have altered your phone." No you didn't, you had her do it. I saw you give her the order! "It will function in the time between days, and you will find an additional number inside. Simply call it when you require someone to open the door for you."

I pocketed the phone. "Is there anything else you needed to say?"

The Masked Bastard answered, "I just want you to remember that there is a balance to all things, including the power you have been blessed with."

Some 'blessing' it's been. "Like the destruction of my life in order to give me the power to do the same to others? Yeah, I've noticed that things have a tendency to try and balance themselves out." And sometimes, that balance is restored by removing everything that was being measured. "Later Liz!" I could feel the Velvet room beginning to shift behind me as I left it. If I'm lucky, it'll be a few months before I have to deal with that ass.

I take no credit for Theodore being called Chet, as far as I know that was started by Strain42, creator of the amazing work P3FTW. Elizabeth will probably be the only resident of the Velvet Room Minato refers to by the correct name.