Chapter II: The Magician

'I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast established a new bond. Thou shalt be blessed when creating personas of the Chariot Arcana.'

A voice echoed within my head, knocking me back to reality where a boy was now stood with Rio. He offered me his hand, which I took and got back onto my feet. I looked around and shook my head slightly.

'Are you okay? What happened?' Rio questioned me.

'Oh, it's nothing really, it just happens sometimes is all.' I told her. 'Sorry to make you all worry so much.'

'You sure?' The boy asked me, concerned.

'Yeah.' I smiled to prove that I was okay. 'Who're you?'

'Junpei Iori, I was on the way to class when I overheard you guys talking and heard that we were in the same class.' He replied.

'Yeah right.' I heard Yukari's voice from behind as she walked between us. 'Don't pay him any attention, he's just a perv that would do anything for attention from any girl at this school.'

'Oh, I see.' I looked upon Junpei, my opinion of him shifted a bit.

'Come on, class is about to start anyway.' Yukari dragged me away from the crowd that was starting to gather.

I followed Yukari to class and I was forced to introduce myself to everyone. I had done this countless times before, so I pretty much knew the routine off by heart. The first day wasn't too demanding, as I was mostly getting to know the school. After school, I went straight back to the dorm to unpack my things, after denying Junpei the right to walk me home. When I got there, I signed in using the sign in sheet and went up to my room.

Whilst I was unpacking, my clothes revealed an old picture of my parents and me, which was taken when they were still alive. It gave me a warm feeling of nostalgia, as I thought back on the few memories that I had with them. I could never remember the details of their death, just that they died in an accident on the Moonlight Bridge, on the way home. I guess you could say that I've done nothing but try to forget since then. I finished unpacking and had an early night, waiting for the next day to come.

The next two days of school went by pretty quickly and I was finally starting to feel like a normal person again, like this really was the place for me. I decided to give Junpei a chance and he took me out for something to eat, which was not a date in the slightest. Then night came and I was in the process of studying when I looked out of my window, which displayed the full moon that was shining in a cloudless, black sky. I eventually crawled into bed and fell asleep, only to be awoken again by a sudden bang and smash of glass and wood breaking. I decided to get up and see what all of the noise was about, but I was interrupted by a loud and rapid knocking on my door.

'Hey, Minako? You in there?' Yukari was shouting through it, panicked. 'I'm sorry, but I'm coming in.'

She busted into my room, panting heavily. Something was definitely happening to the dorm, that's when I looked out of the window and noticed that it was The Dark Hour. However, this was the most noise that I had ever heard during this hour.

'Akihiko!' I heard Mitsuru shout from the stairs.

'Persona!' I heard a male voice shout.

Yukari looked back at me. 'We have to go, now!'

I didn't even bother to argue as my survival instincts kicked in. We had to get out of here, and we had to do it now. We both ran towards the stairs, before some sort of black mess holding swords came from downstairs. It swung and I grabbed hold of Yukari, ducking us both into some cover.

'Holy...' She was lost for words. 'Not that way, where now?'

'Calm down, there has to be somewhere we could go!' I tried to keep my cool.

I quickly tried to picture the dorm from the outside and remember everything that has happened up until now. Then it suddenly hit me, we could use the roof to jump to the next building and climb down the fire escape.

'The roof!' I shouted.

'What?' Yukari was panicking. 'Okay sure, I've got nothing better.'

We both ran as fast as we could and I noticed that Yukari was running out of steam, so we stopped for a quick moment. She mustn't be used to The Dark Hour yet, as it tires you out faster than the normal hours would. Not to mention that she was doing nothing to conserve her energy, she was going all out before a battle had even been initiated. Then the glass shattered behind her and she stumbled over to me as a black hand holding a blue mask came through. We looked at each other and ran for the roof, bursting through the door.

'Okay, we should be safe up here.' Yukari said, catching her breath. 'Now what?'

'We jump to the other building and escape down its fire escape.' I told her.

'What? Are you crazy? We'll never make it!' She shouted at me.

'I've jumped a gap like that before, trust me, it'll work.' I ensured her.

However, it was too late as multiple black hands dragged a black mass onto the roof and we were effectively cut off. Yukari quickly pulled out a gun a looked at me.

'These are our enemies, Shadows.' She informed me. 'Stay back!'

She put the gun to her forehead. 'Come on Yukari, you can do this.'

Then it suddenly came back to me, I've seen this before. I once traveled with someone who used that gun, an evoker which summoned her persona, the only thing that can fight back against strong Shadows like this one. Yukari was about to pull the trigger when the Shadow attacked her, knocking the evoker out of her hand and it slid over to my feet. The Shadow was about to finish off Yukari when I suddenly heard the same voice as earlier in my mind.

'I am thou.' It spoke.

I picked up the evoker and raised it to my head, as Yukari could only watch in awe. I've seen how a persona user fights, I can do this. What was the word that man shouted back in the dorm?

'Persona!' I shouted, summoning Orpheus.

He emerged and launched agi attacks at the Shadow, which didn't seem to hurt it, so it just attacked back and Orpheus was about to fall. However, I grasped desperately onto every ounce of power that my body could produce. I wasn't about to let someone else die in front of me, not again. Then Orpheus changed into another persona, which went berserk on the Shadow, tearing it to shreds and showing no mercy as it crushed the mass in front of me. Once it was defeated, a blue butterfly flew towards me and disappeared into me, shortly before I passed out.

I was suddenly taken through some sort of twisted elevator shaft and to a room that looked like an elevator with a Velvet twist. Before me stood a man with a long nose and another man who looked human, dressed in blue. It felt as if I was dreaming, but I was in full control of what I was doing in the dream.

'Welcome, to the Velvet Room.' The man with a long nose greeted me. 'I am Igor, and this here is Theodore.'

'Nice to meet you.' Theodore greeted me with a soft tone.

I looked around. 'Is this a dream?'

'In a sense of the term, yes.' Igor admitted. 'However, this is a place between dreams and reality, mind and matter.'

'I think I get it.' I tried to act like I knew what was happening.

'You have awakened to a special power indeed.' Igor chuckled to himself. 'The power of the Wild Card, it is like that of the number zero. Empty, yet full of opportunities.'

He then revealed a contract. 'You signed this contract, accepting responsibility for your actions.'

'It has been quite some time since we last had a guest with so much potential.' Theodore admitted.

'Indeed, you hold the ability to wield multiple personas.' Igor informed me. 'And I will help you by fusing these personas to create more powerful personas, using the strength of your social links. Surly you have felt this much by now.'

'You mean what happened after I became closer to Rio?' I asked him.

'Indeed, I cannot wait to see where this new power will take you.' Igor chuckled to himself again. 'I have kept you here long enough, it would be best if the next time you came here was of your own free will.'

Igor handed me a Velvet Key, which I assumed I would need if I ever wanted to come back here and make use of his powers. When I next woke up, days had past and I was in a hospital room, being monitored by a bunch of machinery. I looked to my side and saw Yukari sat down, waiting for me to wake up, so I sat up to greet her. She smiled when she noticed that I was awake and quickly rushed to my side.

'You're awake, thank goodness.' She let off a sigh of relief. 'How are you feeling?'

'Alright, what happened?' I asked her, confused.

'You awakened to your persona.' She answered.

'I mean after that.' I confirmed. 'I lost control and then the next thing I know, I'm waking up here.'

'We don't even know the answer to that.' She admitted. 'Well, I best let Mitsuru-senpi know that you're okay.'

She stood up and was about to leave when she stopped, turning around and coming to the end of my bed.

'I wanted you to know that, well, I'm like you.' She told me.

'What do you mean?' I asked her.

'I lost my father ten years ago too, he died in an accident and ever since then I haven't really been that close to my mom, so I've been pretty much alone, even after I moved to the dorms.' She confessed to me.

'What about Mitsuru-senpi?' I asked.

'She's way above me, all she cares about are Shadows and Student Council.' She rolled her eyes.

'I see, well my parents died ten years ago, but I'm guessing you already knew that.' I looked down.

'Sorry, we looked through your files and kept an eye on you, because we knew you had the potential.' Yukari admitted.

'Ah, I see.' I felt defeated. 'So someone who I thought was one of my few friends here, turned out to be just a spy, is that how it is?'

'No not at all.' Yukari came to my side. 'I felt really bad about the whole thing and thought it was wrong to spy on you, even ask Mitsuru-senpi. I really did like you though, you're a cool girl and we seem to share some common interests. I wasn't ordered to drag you away from Junpei, or help you out in class.'

'Yeah, I guess so.' I admitted.

'So, whadya say? Friends?' She asked hopefully.

'Yeah, sure thing Yukari-san.' I nodded in agreement.

'If we're friends, then we don't have to be so formal with eachother.' She laughed. 'Why don't we go shopping? I bet you need some new stuff to brighten up your room.'

'Sure, sounds good.' I smiled.

'We'll start over, a new slate, once you're out of the hospital of course.'

This time, I wasn't caught by surprise when an all too familiar voice rang inside of my head. With this, I knew that I had found a true friend within Yukari Takeba.

'I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast established a new bond. Thou shalt be blessed when creating personas of the Lovers Arcana.'