Shizuo woke slowly, his eyes blinking languidly. All around him there was a hazy, purple darkness. He sat up, groaning as his body ached in protest. Was this…fog? There was someone in the distance, but he couldn't make out who. Walking a bit closer, yet still keeping his distance, he could see it was a girl. Long, blonde hair draped down her shoulders, reaching her knees. Despite the fog not changing, a sudden gust blew past, sending her hair flying up in a silky curtain behind her. Even though he called out, no sound left his throat. Yet she looked at him for a split moment almost in surprise. Her eyes were a breathtaking blue that nearly froze him on the spot. After the moment passed, however, she vanished into the fog. Shizuo reached out a hand and called out to her with a silent voice, yet he could only slump to the ground as his eyes closed with a sudden exhaustion.

"Hey."

The boy blinked abruptly, finding himself back facing the familiar sky-blue of the ceiling. Ohana stood at the door, looking dour as always. Her hair was held up in a tight bun as she glared at him through her wrinkles. "Hurry up, kid. You're going to be late."

Glancing at the clock, he realized it was already 7:10. Bolting out of bed, he made quick work of getting ready, and was out the door by 7:17. The ferry arrived just in time, and he quickly held up his school ID as a pass to be let on. Sighing, he leaned against the railing, watching the sea go by. The ride wasn't more than ten minutes, but it was still too big a body of water to cross without a boat. The sun scorched Shizuo's neck as he got off. All around him, teenagers his age laughed and chatted with their friends as they walked in the same direction he was. Their uniforms were the same as his; they must also go to St. Katherine.

He also noticed that they kept their distance. Every single student, while looking casual and easygoing on the outside, occasionally flashed glances at him before moving a foot or so away as they walked. Each one of them had that carefree country look. Of course his messy hair and cross necklace put them off. Even though he wasn't trying to, Shizuo was giving off really heavy punk vibes. It didn't help that he was taller than 90% of the student body, or so it seemed.

"Huh? Didn't you hear? That Masaki kid still hasn't been found yet."

"Seriously? He's been missing for a week. Usually they would've found a body by now."

He straightened his shoulders upon hearing the girls' gossip, gaze sharpening with interest. By the way they were openly discussing it, it seemed that the disappearance wasn't a new thing. In fact, he could probably deduce that there were others missing as well, given that the second girl had mentioned that his body should've already been found. Then again, she could've just been referring to disappearances in general, citing statistics.

Quit it with the detective shit, he told himself, turning towards the entrance. Past the shoe lockers, he had homeroom in room 2F. To Shizuo's luck though, he had the window seat. However, everything else was rather…subpar. The moment he walked in, he could feel around 35 pairs of eyes focus on him, scrutinizing his clothes, his hair, his expression. From the moment he walked in the room, they had already decided who and what he was.

"Class, this is our new transfer student, Shizuo Yuzuru. He's from Tokyo, but please don't bug him about the city life," the teacher said. He was an older man with fraying eyebrows and a crying mole near his left eye. "Er, you can sit in the back there, next to the window," he drawled. As Shizuo moved forward to sit at the desk, he froze as the teacher barked his name. "Yuzuru! Not that desk, the one behind it."

As the class whispered and laughed, he moved down a desk before sitting down. On the chalkboard, the teacher's name was written. "Shinya Todou - geometry teacher."

While Mr. Todou talked about whatever mundane school announcements, Shizuo was busy studying the desk in front of his. It was studded with pencil marks and carvings. Junzo Masaki was carved into the wood with dark pencil marks. Masaki…. That was the name of the student that had gone missing. A small tingle shot up his spine, making the hairs rise up on the back of his neck. This isn't a good idea, he warned himself. But it was too late; he was already invested in sticking his nose in other people's business.

The moment the school day ended, Shizuo roamed the hallways, doing his best to eavesdrop on every spare bit of gossip he could find. Most of it was just personal or petty things, honestly. After 45 minutes or so, he had to finally call it quits for the day. Most of the students had left by now, and soon the teachers would be giving him weird looks.

Turning down the hallway, he stumbled for a moment, accidentally colliding with someone. A girl with silver hair glared back at him, pushing her red-framed glasses up her nose. "Please watch where you're going." She fell silent right after saying it, staring at Shizuo for a few moments. Finally, she looked up at him with something that could only be described as reserved curiosity. "You're that new transfer student, right?"

He nodded his head and she rested a hand on her hip. On her arm there was a red armband with the school's emblem on it. "Newspaper Club," was sewn underneath in big, black letters. Her gaze was so intense that it was starting to make him uncomfortable. Finally, she leaned in and offered a sly smile. "My name is Fumi Hoshino. As you can see, I'm president of the St. Katherine newspaper club. I've been looking for a new piece to attract new readers, and you seem plenty capable of supplying that. How about telling me more about your life in Tokyo?"

He shook his head, trying to push past her. "Not interested."

She grabbed his arm, pulling him back. "I'm not looking for charity. I can provide you with something in return."

He paused, digesting her words. "Like what?"

"Whatever's in my power to provide."

Ignoring the hidden meaning to her words, Shizuo quickly thought back to the empty desk in front of him. I might've just hit the jackpot. Turning around, he looked down at Fumi. "I also want information. What's this about missing students?"

Immediately, her expression soured. Rolling her eyes, the silver-haired girl sighed. "Oh, that. It's much less entertaining than you'd think. Students have been going missing lately here, but bodies haven't been found." She leaned in close, her voice lowering to a whisper. "This is just between you and me, but a friend of mine's father is one of the officers working the case. He told her that the force was perplexed, as there were no signs of the victims ever leaving their rooms. They simply went to sleep and the next morning, they were gone. No open windows, no scent trails when they brought in the dogs, nothing. Even security cameras in the houses didn't record any movement."

What about that was boring? The entire story sounded like something out of a sci-fi movie. Backing away a few steps, Fumi smiled once more as she looked him in the eye. "Anyway, that's all the relevant info I have. Now, about that life in Tokyo you had…."

He waved his hand dismissively, turning away. "There's nothing to really say. I was just hanging out with delinquents, hoping to be some kind of rebel. Nothin' much came of it but trouble."

"Oh…. So, no drugs or anything illegal?" she asked, sounding a little desperate. The brown-haired boy shook his head wordlessly before walking away. On one hand, he'd promised he wouldn't tell anymore lies. But on the other hand, his past was better kept to himself.

The sudden sound of his ringtone grabbed his attention. Taking his phone out of his pocket, Shizuo checked the number. It wasn't on his contacts. Clicking accept, he held the phone to his ear.

"Hurry up and come back already," Ohana's rough voice barked over the receiver. "You better not be doing something illegal."

He hung up quickly before continuing his trek towards the ferry. The sun was getting lower, bringing the heat down from blistering to sweltering. At least I'm not getting sunburned. His skin had constantly felt dry and itchy ever since he'd arrived. Perhaps a cold shower was what he needed.

"There you are. I haven't got all day, you know," the old woman snorted the moment he entered the house.

It's not like you don't spend all day at home. But he bit back the retort, instead opting to grab some mochi from the fridge and go upstairs. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he took it out while climbing the stairs. It was a text message from an unknown number. Shizuo suddenly grunted in pain, accidentally smacking his head against the ceiling. Getting frustrated, he contemplated kicking something, but decided against it. After changing out of his uniform, he laid back down on the bed, checking his phone. The text icon blinked, a constant reminder of the mysterious message that had been sent earlier. He opened it up, taking a moment to read it over.

Hello. You're an interesting one. The most interesting one I've seen yet.

"Who are you?" he typed back. After a moment, an error message popped up, telling him that the message could not be delivered.

In fact, I want to meet you sometime. How does tonight sound?

Again, he tried replying. The message couldn't be delivered. The third message from the unknown sender was simply a small audio clip. Against his better judgment, he decided to press it. A strange, disjointed voice rose from the phone, almost raspy. Just hearing it made his heart jump.

"The arcana is the means by which all is revealed," the voice said. The clip ended right after.

Shizuo rubbed his temples, suddenly feeling an intense headache. Something about the clip just made him feel strange. Deleting the conversation, he stared up at the ceiling blankly, wondering who it could possibly be from. It was probably just some weirdo texting a random number to freak someone out. But then again, how come he couldn't send messages back? And wasn't the other person's reaction the fun part about sending those texts? He closed his eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted.


Hey, it's me. I'm really enjoying Persona 5, and that made me start to wonder what Persona 6 would be like. Before I knew it, I was writing this. Keep in mind that this story is rated M for a reason. They way of summoning personas is, well, kinda graphic. Not to mention there are themes of sexual assault, abuse, suicide, etc. that play into the story. I didn't get enough space to give too good of a summary, so I hope I got the message across.

There were so many things I wanted to put in this, but eventually I decided against deviating from the traditional Persona plot too much. I wanted a FeMC, but in the end I figured having a male character was best. But hey, I do plan on putting LGBT relationships in this, with the option to romance male characters. The social link chapters will (probably, if I remember) be marked at the beginning, so you know they're not central to the plot and you can skip them if you want. For now, it's a little slow, but it really picks up next chapter. Writing a story version of a game is kinda hard. Obviously the protagonist has a lot more personality, because a silent protagonist in a novelization like this just doesn't bode well. When I came up with Shizuo, I kind of based him off of Tatsuya Suou, but more around what people thought about him instead of who he actually was. Tatsuya got a bad rep as a punk, even though he really was just a sad boy who kept to himself. Shizuo, however, is 100% Don't Fuck With Me, and spends a great deal of the story trying to turn over a new leaf. The story as a whole centrals around the themes of new beginnings and regaining one's humanity.

This is what I have to say so far. I'll also say that there are going to be references to other Persona games. Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed~