Persona-The American

Chapter 2

First day of school

It was the first day of school, but that didn't make the weather any cooler. It was around eighty degrees, and people had dressed accordingly, but not out of their uniforms. Many of the students had their blazer's sleeves rolled up to accommodate the warm weather. Though some of the other kids wore their jackets around their waist.

Leon, however, didn't receive a uniform as of yet, and he suspected he would get one a few days after he was enrolled in this establishment. He had asked Mitsuru if their was an extra uniform laying around, but she had told him there wasn't. So, he had to make due with the clothes he had brought, knowing full well that he would be on the receiving end of many glares. His attire just consisted of jeans with a black t-shirt tucked in, white tennis shoes and a white hoodie. Nothing extremely bad, yet he was treated as if he was criminal number one.

Oh well. As if I care what they think anyway.

He passed through the double doors, and noticed what he assumed were cubbyholes. But in fact, they were shoe lockers. Much smaller than the lockers back home, he realized.

If I remember Mitsuru's directions right, then I need to take a left and go through...that door.

He spotted the door that had the words 'faculty office' on it, and walked through. He was greeted by the principal—an elderly man who was in his eighties with a ridiculous comb-over; Mitsuru was there as well.

"Ah Leon, we were just talking about you," Mitsuru said. Her hair was in a ponytail, while she wore a blouse and a lengthy black skirt. "We were just finishing up transferring your file over to our computers."

She typed something in on the computer. Probably making a last minute update. Then she pulled out a sheet filled with information and handed it to Leon.

"It's your schedule," Mitsuru explained, "You'll need it." Leon thanked her before he headed to his classroom. Leon didn't get very far before Mitsuru stopped him. "I need to speak with you after school," She said, a sense of urgency hinted in her tone, "Meet me in the lounge at the Gekkoukan complex." Leon agreed to meet with her, but for now, he had to get to class.

I'm glad these schedules aren't hard to read, he thought gladly as he glanced over the schedule. It wasn't too difficult, after all, he only had to go to one classroom: 2-L.

It didn't take too long for Leon to find his classroom, and not a second too soon. The bell rang immediately after he set foot in the room.

He tried to ignore the sets of eyes boring into his back as he took a seat in the back of the room. Leon did his best to remain calm, but it felt like the time he was in the pier, only in an much smaller space. Leon's fingers hovered over his switch-blade in his pocket. Thankfully, his pants were loose enough for the blade not to show a bulge. Then a thought: I forgot if I locked the blade in place or not.

"Class, pay attention!" The teacher—a man who was barely out of his twenties—commanded the class. They all returned their attention to him. Must be a strict man, Leon reasoned.

After the first set of problems were finished, the man asked Leon to introduce himself to the rest of the class. Of course, this meant that all of the eyes were once again on him, and Leon wasn't too happy about it. Just once, he would like to meet a teacher who wouldn't ask him about his life.

He stood, cleared his throat, and planned his speech so he wouldn't stumble.

"Hello," He said with feigned happiness, "My name is Leon Walker. I'm pleased to meet you all."

Leon anticipated the inevitable questions that would make him delve deeper into his past than necessary. It wasn't that he minded going into his past, it's the questions themselves that made going back difficult. After all, he knew he wouldn't have all the answers to their insanely difficult Q&A session.

"Hey Leon," One student with a spiked-up mo-hawk raised his hand, "Which part of America did you come from?"

At least it's an easy question.

"I came from Washington D.C," Leon responded, still keeping up the facade of happiness. Then a girl, who had a nose ring, raised her hand.

"What's with the scar?" She traced a finger over her face to show Leon where the scar was. I must have gotten it from that shadow last night, he thought. Now he needed to come up with a lie, quick, otherwise there would be questions.

"Oh, yes...I ran into trouble on my way here yesterday," Leon explained, "You see, I accidentally went into a pier when I tried to find the Gekkoukan complex. Needless to say, a band of ruffians demanded payment. A few of 'em roughed me up, but I handled them, nonetheless." It was the truth, sort of. Just not the truth you'd expect to hear if you were there with Leon yesterday.

There were murmured agreements. Apparently, this sort of thing has happened before.

"Alright," A girl with a crew cut, jet-black hair that was highlighted with blue streaks, "How come you have different colored eyes?"

Leon had been asked that question many times before, considering that people with different colored eyes are rare in any part of the world. He had answered that question so many times that he actually knew his answer by heart. "My Grandfather," He articulated, "Had mismatched eyes. And it was a very slim chance that anyone in my family would get the same genetics. To be honest, it was a .0003 chance of someone getting the genetic codes from my Grandpa, so I'm surprised I was the one to get them."

Gekkoukan complex

"Man, this sucks." Junpei complained. "Why do we have to set up the training grounds?"

Akihiko sighed and explained one more time, "Because Mitsuru was very specific: she wants the new guy to learn how to summon his persona. She believes that the only way to do that is under extreme circumstances where Leon would have no choice but to do so. And we're the only ones around from the old group, asides from Mitsuru, that actually know about personae. We'll be there to show him the ropes if he doesn't get it."

They were setting up hologram-projectors, where it would seem like a shadow was real and could do harm. The only reason why they have this tech was because Mitsuru had it specially constructed by her boys in the lab. Even though it took them a few rushed hours to complete it, it was their best work so far.

"What if Leon can't summon his persona?"

"He'll be able to, trust me."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I just have a gut feeling."

That comment shut Junpei up for awhile.

Gekkoukan High

Leon sighed, it was finally lunchtime, yet he wasn't hungry. Just about everybody had gone out to eat, either in the grove where the persimmon tree was, or in the cafeteria. Only one person had come back to eat lunch in the class, and that was the girl with the highlights. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy her company, it was the fact that she was staring at him that made him exceedingly uncomfortable.

Oi.

"Do you want any?" She asked, offering some of her food to Leon. That's a nice gesture, he thought.

Leon allowed himself a small smile before saying, "Thanks, but I'm not hungry."

"Whatever," She replied, popping a piece of food into her mouth.

"Forgive me," Leon said, "But I have yet to learn your name."

"I'm Giselle DeVaul," She replied. "You're staying at the Gekkoukan, right?" Giselle inquired.

I assume that 'the Gekkoukan' is slang for Gekkoukan complex. Then he thought: DeVaul?

"Yea," Leon replied. "Okay, completely off topic, isn't DeVaul a more...Italian name than Japanese?"

"Yes, I was born in Venice, but my father, who is part Japanese, had to come back here. He brought me along, and my mother is still in Venice." She seemed excited to share her history with someone.

Now that he really looked at her, she did look more Italian than Japanese. Her naturally tanned skin complimented her hair, and her nut brown eyes seemed to reflect brilliantly in any light.

For a second, Leon's breath stopped, but he caught himself before she could notice. "How I couldn't have noticed before is undeniable stupidity on my part. One of my friends back home was Italian."

She raised a perfectly trimmed eyebrow and said in an incredulous tone, "No kidding?"

They kept talking for the remainder of the lunch period, and Leon actually enjoyed himself. He had expected his first day to suck, yet he thoroughly relished his conversation with Giselle. By the end of the day, Leon and Giselle were hanging around at the main gate, and they were letting the time fly by just by talking with each other. Giselle even managed to convince Leon to wear his hair a different style than the messy, spiky style that it already is.

"See you tomorrow," Leon said as he started his trek back to the Gekkoukan complex. Giselle waved bye and headed back to her own house.

Leon checked his watch and noticed that it was around six 'o' clock, and he remembered the appointment he had forgotten to keep. Mitsuru wanted to see him after school, and he completely blew her off.

Oh shit.

He sprinted as fast as he could, but he still knew the unavoidable punishment that was to come from his lollygagging. He could see it now, and it didn't look pretty. He would burst through the doors, see Mitsuru waiting with a look that said 'I'm going to kill you', and then he would be no more. Leon gulped. He hoped he was just being over-dramatic and prayed that Mitsuru would be forgiving.

Leon basically demolished the doors as he fumbled to the ground, in front of a very displeased Mitsuru.

"I hope you can explain yourself," She said in a tone that very clearly stated 'if you lie to me, I will find out, and you will incur a wrath that you have never before seen'. Leon winced, and he decided that telling her the truth would be a more feasible option than lying to her.

"T-to be per-perfectly honest," Leon stammered. It made no sense, Mitsuru could unnerve him with ease, and he never had any trouble like this before. Maybe it was the way that she composed herself made him lose his cool. "I was with a classmate, Giselle DeVaul, and time just seemed to escape from me."

She mulled that statement over for a few minutes before she said that she believed him, but not to let it happen again. Leon heaved a sigh of relief. He would never forget any plans that he made with Mitsuru ever again; at least, that's what he hoped.

"Now, let's begin the training course," She said with a hint of excitement in her voice.

Gulp.

At first, the course wasn't that bad, and it only dealt with learning the shadow's Arcana. But, as Leon got further along, the training get progressively more difficult. It wasn't that he was complaining, he welcomed a challenge, but at one point, they are going to ask too much of him.

When it came to summoning his persona, that's exactly what happened. As he stood there, watching the shadow come at him, and his finger wrapped around the trigger of the evoker—a gun that was used to summon personae—and pulled. The gunshot happened, but nothing else did. And before the shadow was but arms length away, the program cut off abruptly.

"What happened?" Leon said, dumbfounded.

"Your persona didn't appear, that's what happened," Akihiko replied, a little disappointed.

"You wanna try again?" Mitsuru asked.

"No I don't want to try again! To hell with it!" Leon exploded, his face contorted in anger. He stormed out of complex, dropped the evoker, and left a confused group of S.E.E.S to figure out what that was all about.

"Should I fetch him?" Akihiko asked.

"No, it'll be better for him to work this out on his own," Mitsuru said firmly.

Leon shoved his hands into his coat pocket, angrily muttering about how unfair it was that he couldn't call on his persona while the others could do it with ease. What did he do wrong? He pulled the trigger, and still, his persona didn't come out. Maybe I just can't summon a persona, he thought miserably; After all, Shuji Ikutsuki couldn't summon his persona either, yet he was able to stay awake during the dark hour.

"Yo Leon!" A voice called out to him from the darkness. He immediately turned his attention to the girl smiling from her bedroom window. That girl was none other than Giselle, and she was a little surprised to see Leon roaming around Port Island this late at night. "What are you doing out?" She asked.

"I'm just trying to clear my head," He replied.

"About what?"

"It's a long story."

"I got time."

"Believe me, you don't."

"Try me."

He considered this for a moment before he said, "Nah."

A few minutes later, and after heavy protesting from Leon, he told Giselle the whole story about personae, shadows, and as expected, she laughed outright, "You really expect me to believe that!"

Leon shrugged his shoulders and retorted, "Not really." But she quickly changed her tone when the dark hour started. She couldn't say anything other than, "Aww, shit."

Leon, in spite of himself, smirked, and said, "Told ya."

He didn't have long to gloat, for a shadow pounced upon them. Leon grabbed his switch-blade, pressed the button, and swung at the shadow. Of course, he missed. The shadow tried to go for Giselle, but luckily, Leon got to her just a few seconds before the shadow attacked the place where she just was.

"Come on!" He commanded, holding his switch in one hand and Giselle's hand in the other. She didn't question him and allowed herself to be pulled roughly around the transformed Port Island.

After what seemed like an eternity of sprinting around buildings, they managed to get themselves into a dead end. They couldn't hightail it out of there because the shadow was, once again, attempting to attack them.

It managed to nick Leon in at least five different places, and blood was oozing from all of his wounds. Just when he thought he was going to pass out, the shadow switched targets and was headed for Giselle.

What happened next seemed to happen in slow-motion, for Leon saw the shadow flying in air at five-centimeters-per-hour, and Giselle was looking on in horror.

Feeling a surge of energy course through his veins, Leon raised his hand to his chest, pushed his thumb and middle finger together, said, "I summon thee, Jester," and snapped his fingers.

I will go into Jester's details in the next chapter. But for now, you'll have to content yourself with this cliff hanger.

Once again, I don't own the persona franchise.

Leon and Giselle are my own characters.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

-Zane Cross

P.S. I've also got another story idea as well, so if you're a fan, be sure to look out for it.

P.S.S. This takes place a few years after the original events of persona 3 fes.