I do not own the Persona series nor do I own the Megami Tensei super-series that it is a part of. I do own the ideas, plot, and characters of this fanfic. Any products, services, logos, works, or companies referenced are the property of their respective owners. Also, I forgot to mention, but the last chapter was a bit of a prologue/lead-up. Normal chapters will be a good bit longer than the four pages it clocked in at.
Chapter: Fool
-Wednesday April 1st-
It took a surprising amount of time for anything else related to the persona to happen. In fact, if it were not for the fact that I could still see the image in my head if I thought hard, I would start thinking it was all my imagination and memory acting up. That changed with the start of a new school year.
Being a small town, Okako only had one high school, so at least I knew where I was going. Okako High, such an odd name just being named after the town, but it works at least.
I was on my bike, riding to school. It was a clear, sunny day. I was wearing my new school uniform, a pretty standard dark blue button up shirt and black pants. The quickest path, and the one I was taking, took me through the city's business district. It was a few streets of small businesses. From what I've heard so far from the few people I've run into, most people with jobs either own or work at one of these places. The rest work at the school, a few other places in other parts of the town, and some in nearby towns where it is more expensive to live so they just live here.
I was riding through when a wave of nausea came over me, almost knocking me off my bike. I stopped it, climbed off weakly, and fell to my knees. My vision became blurry and I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, the city was gone, replaced by a forest. A light mist hung on the trees and screams of people filled the air. Human-like shadows moved on the ground, nothing around to cast them in the shapes or movements they displayed. What the heck?
I started rising from my knees as the nausea passed. The forest, screams, and moving shadows all faded as I stood up. I was suddenly back in the city, holding on to my bike as the few people around gave me odd looks. I have no idea what just happened, but it is probably related to everything else that has happened lately. A clear omen that big things were close to starting. I climbed back on to my bike and took off again.
The school building was an unimpressive brick with little decoration past a few signs saying the school name. The student body, however, was much more interesting. There were a few hundred students here, far more than one would guess from how small the city was. Groups of students walked around, people sometimes going into or leaving one. A large number of students by themselves also flitted through on the grounds. All guys wore the same uniform as me, while all the girls wore a dark blue top and black skirt. Most had small customizations, but the general uniform was the same.
Some students caught my attention more than others. There was a girl who had a white stocking and a black one and carried a black umbrella. The crowds parted for her and her odd style made her stand out. The largest group gathered around a tall boy who looked well-dressed and rich even in just the uniform. There was also a girl with bright pink hair. But all three disappeared from sight quickly.
My home room was 3-B. Mr. Santos, a foreign name probably meaning my teacher was foreign. But he was not in the room by the time I arrived. To my surprise, all three of the students I noticed when I arrived at school had the same home room as me. The pink-haired girl was sitting next to another girl who had wavy, blond hair. The well-dressed boy stood in front of both, talking. I did not hear what he said, but the blond-haired girl looked annoyed and yelled at him-apparently his name was Itsuki Katsuragi.
The girl with the umbrella sat in the back row in the corner next to the window. No one approached her desk and she made no attempt to talk to anyone else. I ended up with a seat in the front row. To my left was a boy with a large book. On the other side were two rather generic guys and a forgettable girl.
Mr. Santos entered the room about two minutes after I did. He had a very dark tan and carried himself well. He had short brown hair with a serious face. He wore a dark blue suit and a red tie.
"Olá," he said. "I am Mr. Santos, your home room teacher. Before anyone asks, yes, I am foreign. I moved here from Portugal and speak both Portuguese and Japanese fluently. I teach geography, and hopefully you all will be able to find any country on a map by the end of the year. But first, how about a little warm-up question?"
Some people let out a loud sigh, but Mr. Santos ignored them. "Can anyone tell me which country speaks Portuguese other than Portugal? How about you?" He was looking right at me.
"Uh…" I think it's South American. What was it? Brazil? Argentina? Paraguay, maybe?
"Brazil," I guessed. Mr. Santos smiled and put his hands together.
"Good, you got it right," he said happily.
Well at least I got it right. Knowledge increased, I guess.
Class proceeded with the rest of the day being a mixture of introductions, basic review questions, and a painfully awkward lunch break where I just sat quietly at my desk and ate. By the end of the school day, I barely knew any of my classmates and was just as unsociable as this morning. I did hear an interesting rumor though.
I overheard the pink-haired girl and her friend talking at lunch-we sat at opposite ends of the class but most students cleared out for lunch and the pink-haired girl was rather loud. The rumor said that if you went to a certain place-the girl wasn't sure where, but she thought it was either one of the cafes in town or the local library-and then stayed awake until midnight, you would immediately fall asleep and experience a horrific nightmare. The rumor said that you went to a near-empty world covered in fog and trees. Monsters lived there that would attack anyone who went outside, and that if you got killed by one then you died in real life. Shadowy, human-size monsters lived there.
Obviously, this had connections to what I had seen earlier. Not an exact match, since I saw it immediately and it only lasted a few seconds, but still far too close to dismiss. I would have liked to ask more about it, but I didn't know the girls. So I let it go for the time.
Now, it was almost midnight. I normally would be asleep by now, but I wanted to check the rumors. If they were fake, then that was a load off my shoulders. But if they were true, then I needed to find out as quickly as possible.
A mist had set in, but that was not close to unheard of in this area. Trees started appearing in the mist is different places. With the fact a row of houses should have been there and not trees, that was definitely unheard of. The barely visible blood-red sky beyond the fog was also rather unheard of. I felt a soft pounding in the back of my head, pulling me to leave the house. I did not even go that far, the door from my bedroom led directly outside.
It was as dark as you would expect from a misty midnight. It seemed like the trees gave off their own light as they were the only noticeable things. A shadow moved quickly across the line of trees, impossible to make out any details on. I turned around to go back into the house. But I faced a grove of softly glowing trees and no buildings. Well damn.
Suddenly, another shadow rose up. It looked like a pile of goo with a blue mask on it. The mask on it had eye holes and a frowning mouth cut in it. An I sat on the forehead.
"It is time, summon me," a voice echoed in my head. It must be Sarutobi Sasuke, me persona.
"I do not know how," I said out loud. The voice didn't give a reply, but an idea still came to me.
"Per…" the odd being turned the part of it with the mask on it at the first syllable. "Son…" it reared back like it was going to lunge at me. "A!" A blue light appeared with the brown ninja Sarutobi Sasuke rose out of it. And then a sword tore through the creature before Sarutobi could even move.
The shadow disappeared with a small splash of odd black bubbles. A new glow appeared from behind where the shadow was. It was the shrine maiden from Osaka. She held the blade easily and put it down into a sheath on her side. She wore the same clothes she did back when we first met and the only difference to her was a sword and sheath.
"Who are you?" I asked after I got over my surprise at her sudden appearance.
"I have many names and titles," she replied calmly. "Neith, Hippeia, Glaukopis, Minerva, and many others. You may call me Athena. I believe it is only fair you give me your name now."
"Taro Yamada," I replied. Another one of the blob monsters rose up next to Athena. She had it destroyed in the blink of an eye, barely showing that she even noticed its presence. "What are you?"
"I am a mere goddess, a fusion of human beliefs and thoughts." She said it so calmly it took a second for it to sink in.
"A...goddess? Like a real goddess?" She put on a strict glare that answered my question. "No way in Hell," I whispered. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. A goddess? A mysterious train between our world and dreams? Some other realm where blob monsters live? Facing my 'inner self' and getting a Persona, which I still do not even know what that is? The fact it all happened during such a large turning point in my life as a major move did not help.
I hate to admit it, but I fell to my knees. "No way in hell. I am a normal teen. No way in hell this is all happening. I am having a break-down from the move, I have to be." Athena slapped me so suddenly and hard that I actually flew a couple of feet.
"This is real and you got involved in it. Either you pull yourself together or you die. Now catch." She threw her sheathed sword at me. I tried to catch it, but it still hit me in the chest and knocked the wind out of me.
I stood up and picked up the sword. "Your sword? Why are you-" the question was cut off as one of the shadows absorbed me. I must have missed it as I was breaking down. Everything turned black for a second and a gust of wind rushed up my skin. Then the blackness cleared and I found myself standing in a circular area. The ground was concrete, the sky red, and shining trees sat around in mist. It felt almost like someone cut out a circle from the world I was in.
Two shadows were in the area with me. They were both low to the ground and looked like piles of ink. Two hands stuck out of each along with a mound topped with a blue mask like those on the other shadows. Really, these seemed kind of like miniature versions of the other shadows.
"I will now teach you to fight," the voice of Athena announced inside my head. "You do need help, yes?"
"Yeah," I yelled back. I clumsily pulled the sword out of the sheath and held it in one hand like I saw her doing. It was surprisingly heavy and I had to use both hands.
"These are Shadows. They are mindless and wish only to spread negative emotions. You are to kill all that you can."
"Where am I?"
"A pocket dimension within the shadow. The area is connected to, but separate from, this world. Either kill the shadows there, pull a successful retreat, or have the shadows retreat and you will leave the pocket dimension. And be warned as the pocket dimensions have their own rules. You must battle in turns. While this gives you plenty of time for strategies, you are restrained since you cannot break this order."
"Like a video game?" I offered the comparison. She gave a very neutral 'Indeed'.
"You have one move before it passes on. In this battle it would move to your opponent. Unless you can hit a weakness."
"Weakness?"
"Indeed. There are two different types of attacks: physical and magic. Magic has six further types: fire, ice, electric, wind, light, and dark. Both persona and shadows are affected by the different types of attacks in different ways. They can be weak to a type which makes them take extra damage. They can be neutral which does not affect the damage at all. They can resist it, cutting the damage. They can nullify it, stopping the attack dead in its tracks. They can also absorb it where they absorb the attack to heal themselves. Finally, they can repel it and send the attack back at the attacker. You should have a magic attack, I believe. See how it affects the shadows."
Magic attack? What? "Garu!" the command just kind of came out. Sarutobi Sasuke appeared from blue light and held out a hand. A blast of wind slammed one of the shadows.
"How do you feel?" Athena asked me.
"Kind of nervous, but fine," I replied.
"Well then that means they take neutral damage from wind spells like Garu. I will keep track of how each shadow is affected by each kind of attack so you can use it as a reference. Now watch out, it is your opponents turn."
One of the shadows let out a gurgling sound and charged me. I managed to sidestep the dodge. The shadow returned to the other side of the battle area, looking a bit dizzied.
"Congratulations," Athena toned in. "When you dodge an enemy attack, hit a weak point, or manage a critical blow to them, you will dizzy an enemy. Getting a critical blow or hitting the weak point on a dizzy enemy knocks it down. This temporarily incapacitates the shadow. But watch out, because the same will happen if a shadow dodges your attack, hits your weak point, or gets a critical blow on you."
The other shadow let out a similar gurgling sound and charged me. I tried to sidestep it, but it reached over and scratched me as it passed. It did not hurt much, but it stung.
"Good, now it is your turn. You can use a normal physical attack using the sword I gave you. But you can also use physical skills of your Persona. Watch out as they drain some of your life force, but a well-used physical skill can save you in a fight. Try it out."
"Bash!" I called the order. Sarutobi Sasuke appeared again. The brown ninja charged the dizzy shadow. The shadow split into a small group of black bubbles that faded away.
The remaining shadow let out another gurgling noise. A light blue aura filled the air and it shot a chunk of ice at me. It slammed into me, but I held my ground.
"That was Bufu, an ice spell," Athena explained. "Seems it does neutral damage to you. How good are you with a sword?"
"Not at all," I answered truthfully.
"Good, then you start like all the masters. Attack."
I approached the shadow and swung the sword. It left a jagged cut through the shadow. I walked back over to where I was.
"That was terrible," Athena summarized. "You are lucky the shadow is so weak, or your bad technique would probably be your own death."
I mumbled a sarcastic thanks. The shadow sent another chunk of ice at me. I started feeling rather sore.
"You are running low on health, just finish this," Athena commanded.
"Garu!" The wind blast tore apart the shadow. I felt a rush of energy fill my body.
"Congratulations. You defeated the shadow. As you defeat shadows, you and your persona will absorb strength from this. This absorption will increase your power once you hit certain intervals."
"Like levels in a video game?"
She sighed. "Yes, like levels in a video game. Each time you hit a new 'level' your abilities increase. Same with your persona. Be aware that, even though you and your persona are the same being, you will gain levels at different intervals. At any time, if you focus, you can see how much longer it will take your to reach a new 'level'. You can also see your power, your skills, and how you are affected by each type of attack."
As she finished speaking, another gust of wind covered me as things faded to black. The blackness faded away to show the misty world again. Athena stood there seriously.
"You still have much to learn," she said. "But that can wait. You will be back and you can try again then. For now, go back." She tapped my forehead and I fell asleep.
I woke up on the blue train. The table, old man, and tall man in the blue suit were all there.
"Welcome back, dear guest," Igor greeted me.
"'Sup," Victor added.
"You have awoken to your inner persona, it seems," Igor said. "And you have gotten experience against shadows. I am not allowed by my master to tell you what is happening, but I can give help. Before I give you new information, is there anything you need explained?"
"No, I think I understand it all as best I can."
"Good, good. You know about tarot, yes?" I nodded in response. Not really, but I did not feel like getting a lecture on fortune-telling. "Good, good. Then this should make sense. You embody the fool arcana."
He pulled out one of his blue-backed cards and flipped it over. A young man with a sack attached to a stick was walking along on a path. A small dog danced around his feet. At the bottom it displayed '0 The Fool'.
"Arcana 0, the fool, represents emptiness and nothingness. But it also represents infinite potential, endless possibilities. You are the unskilled traveler trying to make a tale for yourself."
It made no sense to me based on tarot, but I could pick up on his logic.
"You are by no means the only fool, but you also possess a special power that only a few have, the wild card. This ability allows your soul extreme flexibility. This means that you have access to multiple persona. You can find them in the other world. You can also fuse the ones you gather to produce new persona. I detect 215 or so persona buried in your soul. My assistant here," he gestured to Victor who responded with a 'Sup', "holds a stores all of your unlocked persona.
"You can only hold a few on you at a time without overloading your own soul. So you are only permitted how many you can handle. But at any time you can release one from your mind, or just use multiple in fusion to clear up space. Then, for a small cash charge, we can give you one of your persona. Any questions so far?"
"I have to pay for parts of my soul?"
"You can't know yourself until you know your own worth," Victor chimed in. "How can you be trusted with the power of persona if you put no value in it?"
"Good point. No more questions," I responded with a small, sweeping hand gesture. "Continue, please."
"Good, good," Igor picked up where he left off. "As you only have one persona, you cannot perform fusion now. I will give more in-depth details when it is necessary. The time is coming. You will need to step up and be a leader. For now, take this."
Victor stepped forward and held out his hand. I mirrored the stance and he dropped a small blue key in my hand.
"That key will allow you access to the Velvet Room at any time," Igor continued. "Keep it on your person always. Now, it is time for you to go back to your world. Farewell for now, dear guest. You are welcome back anytime."
"See ya," Victor added on.
Just as suddenly as the train appeared, it disappeared and I fell asleep again.
-Thursday April 2nd-
I woke up in bed. My nice, warm bed. Which was weird since I was sitting in the chair at my desk last thing I remember. What happened? I think I had an odd dream last night, but it refuses to come back to me. Whatever it was, it was just a dream so it probably was not that important.
I got up and took a quick shower. A nagging feeling hung by me for the whole time, but I could not think of anything important.
Finally, as I finished putting on my school uniform, it occurred to me. I saw a sword in a brown sheath sitting besides my bed and what happened last night flooded back. I let out a small 'no' in disbelief. "This can not be real. That sword is not really there." I closed my eyes and counted to ten before reopening them. It was still sitting there besides my bed. I let out an exasperated 'damn it' and grabbed my school bag. I will deal with this whole mess later. For now, I need to get to school.
