Persona: After Story by Wordsworthy

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own The Shin Megami Tensei series since obviously Atlas does, along with all other references made over the course of the story. This is, after all, just a fanfiction written for the sole purpose of entertainment and no profit motive whatsoever. So please just enjoy the story and do not sue me for this. If you wish to know more about the series, please support the companies producing them directly and purchase their merchandise if you like.


Chapter 4: Eyes on me

"Please… no more…" groaned a messy head of otherwise gorgeous russet locks splayed out on the desk. Obviously, a lot of head-scratching went into this one.

"Hang in there Rise-chan." came the helpful coaxing, along with a few gentle pats by a pale, slender hand. "There's just one day of mid-terms left."

"Argh… Kimiko-chan… make it stop… like now…"

The auburn-haired brunette giggled discretely at the whiny tone of the voice, but settled for a little more friendly patting instead of even trying to comfort her further. With the remaining of the day scheduled for self-study and little else to do, Kimiko sighed lightly as she raised her notes once more for good measure.

"Hmm hm hmm hm hmm hmmm hmmm… hmm hm hmmm hmm hm hmmm hmm hm…"

The head of rusty-red locks looked up slowly, enticed by the unexpected allure of the soothing humming. Even the usual chatter in the classroom began to die down as well when they managed to detect its innocent charm. The humming continued for a while before the oblivious brunette decided to make a rather random check of her friend, a little concerned that the other redhead might have fallen asleep with the lack of any chatter. The hard, wide-eyed stare that she received from her friend surprised her though, so much so that she recoiled instinctively and hence promptly fell off her chair in a comical manner, replete with a cute cry to boot.

"Owwie…" went the poor girl belatedly as she rubbed her sore rear end gingerly. It was to be a few moments before she noticed a friendly seeming hand in front of her. Not thinking much of it as usual, Kimiko reached for the helpful hand.

"Ah, than- "

Before she could thank the owner of the hand properly, she was promptly lifted back to her feet and back against Rise's fierce gaze. In one deft move, Kimiko found her hand firmly clasped and her head cradled snugly under Rise's deceptively strong arm. The starlet drew so close to the meeker girl's face that her slightly heavier breath was grazing the other girl's lips.

"I want you." said a husky voice brazenly.

The dazed transfer student promptly turned pink and went poof, with steam whooshing out of her ears. Metaphorically, of course.

"EHHHHHHH?"

Without much further ado, Kimiko's startled cries found itself trailing down the hallway and all the way out of the gates, dragged by a superhuman Rise by the nook of her neck. The shocked silence in Class 2-2 endured for a while, until Kanji actually read out the question in everyone's mind over the weirdest kidnapping they had ever seen.

"What the hell?"

Amidst the confused looks, a bemused smile revealed itself slightly before the all-knowing Naoto finished her mail to her sempais.

"Rise will not be joining us today Yukiko-sempai."


The doors of the studio were practically blown wide open as two brunettes ran in, heaving erratically while the wooden panels swiveled back and forth on their hinges. After having finally reached their destination, one of them promptly doubled up while the other collapsed to her knees, scratching at her bosom painfully, as though trying to claw air back into her painful lungs with desperate coughs.

"Kimiko-chan, are you okay?" asked the redhead responsible for all this as she hurried to her side, rubbing the other girl's back.

"I… I'm okay… I think…" said Kimiko most unconvincingly. "It… it's just that… it's the first time I ever ran… that's all…"

"Eh? Is that normal? You some rich girl or something?"

"Heheh…" went Kimiko in lieu of a reply, her breathing gradually smoothing out. Her face was still pale though. She looked around and found herself even more puzzled by her surroundings. Before she could muster enough breath to ask anything, two similar voices called out from the entrance.

"Rise-chi!"

"Ah, Chiho-chan and Chise-chan! Good timing!"

A pair of girls with identically brilliant amber eyes and long hip-length strawberry blonde hair appeared at the considerably calmer entrance, the different designs on their sailor-fuku uniforms indicating that they belonged to another school. The twins looked curiously at the rumpled and sweaty duo, in particular the new girl.

"Who's she?" asked the two blonde girls in perfect synchrony once more.

Before the new girl could reply, Rise answered for her.

"She's the new vocalist."

"Eh? New vocalist?"

The sound of a light thud followed soon after.


A few moments, a warm towel and a steaming mug of hot chocolate after, the mildly traumatized girl sat on the leather couch with her mouth hanging agape at the second coming of Rise's revelation.

"I'm the new vocalist?" repeated Kimiko dumbly.

"Yep."

"…"

The girl's crimson pupils tried to roll to the back of her eyes again although the blonde twins on either side of her caught her in mid-swoon.

"Kimi-chi!"

The two identical girls got out the medicated oil and smelling salts once more and began to resuscitate the semi-conscious, or perhaps half-fainted brunette.

"Mou… and they say I'm the drama queen?"

The first thing Kimiko said after recovering enough of her bearings was to protest Rise's big announcement.

"But Rise-chan! I can't be a vocalist!"

"Why not? You have a good voice!"

"I don't have a good voice! I've never even really sang before!"

"Well, your humming earlier was good."

"I was humming!"

The twins watched the lively discussion with amusement written all over their faces. It reminded them somehow of an odd fufu kenka, except perhaps it was between a wife and wife over here.

"It's like they're married or something!" whispered the twins to themselves.

"Kimiko-chan, look… I can't sing and play at the same time. I've tried everything, but its like I always get sucked into the guitar. Not that I mind, but we do desperately need a main vocalist!" said Rise as she tried reason this time, hoping it would help.

"But – I – can't – sing!" said Kimiko as she tried slowing down this time, as though that would help.

"Hey, I have an idea!"

The redheads looked at the blondes, or one of them, Chise to be exact.

"Why don't we do a test drive? You know, try her out?"

"But I don't know any songs! I can't just test… be tested all of a sudden!"

"Oh, oh! Do the Smurf song then! That's easy enough right?" suggested Chiho helpfully as she bounced in her place, soon joined by her sister in agreement.

"What's the Smurf song?"

"Oh geez…" went Rise as the twins got off the figurative track and onto their usual tangents again.

"La la lalalala la lala la la, la la la lalala, la la la la la…"

Rise groaned. Her band-mates were cute and talented, but totally random at times.

"There you go! Do it as fancily as you can!"

"Fancily…"

At the expectant gazes of the two bouncy blondes and the hopeful glance from the former idol, Kimiko relented and tried her hand at it. She heaved a huge sigh for good measure before she la-la-la'ed.

"La la lalalala la lala la la, la la la lalala, la la la la la…"

Kimiko blushed up to her ears this time, feeling absolute self-conscious about her little attempt. However, the "oohing" she received from the twins made her blush even more.

"Oh! Kimi-chi is good! Rise-chi was spot-on!"

"See, I told you so!"

"Eh!"

Kimiko gulped at the following outpouring of gush, squeals and uncharacteristically technical jargon.

"Her voice sounds totally different from typical Japanese singers! It reminds me of a holy bell in terms of the timbre and clarity."

"Ya! We're half-French ourselves, but her wide range and high tones totally got us beat."

"I know! She has so much potential! She's even an expert in English! She helped out with the lyrics the other day!"

"Wow!"

It was then that Rise caught sight of her fellow red-head inching suspiciously to the edge of the leather seats from the corner of her eye

"Ah, she's trying to run away!"

"What, no way!"

The three girls from the former three member girl band pounced on the poor new girl and glomped her there and then, securing their new band member in between them.


"Rise-chan, I still don't think it's a good idea…"

The new red-head was still casting her doe-like eyes at the former idol, even though they had already gone through this for the umpteenth time, and were finally in place to begin their first rehearsal as a new girl band. Chise and Chiho were already in place with their drums and bass, with Rise at the guitar.

"Let's just try it out first. You've already memorized the song right? "

"Yaa… but…"

"Okay girls, a one, and a two!"

The three girls roused their instruments from their quietude and began to interlay their sounds together to form a gorgeous melody. Even Kimiko could tell the three of them were actually good if not outstanding, not that it would mean much from an amateur. Could an amateur like her actually fit in with them?

Kimiko glanced back at Rise once more, thereby receiving another reassuring wink from the idol-turned-guitarist. She sucked in another breath before the seconds towards her impending doom counted down one after another.

"Travel to… the moon…"


"Oh, they're here."

Yukiko lifted her eyes from her notes just as her two underclassman reached the roof of Junes, their secret hideout from their shenanigans last year. Feeling a smile rise unbidden, she gave into it and flashed a smile at the two.

"Hi there Naoto-kun, Kanji-kun. I got the message about Rise-chan."

"Ya, weird that." grunted the burly white-haired sophomore as he commandeered two nearby chairs for himself and his feet. That was when he noticed his other sempais in various states of heavy-duty studying. "What's up with those two?"

"Ah…" Yukiko giggled slightly while turning to her two fellow seniors. Chie had on her Teddy glasses and was reciting some sort of mantra made up of formulas while Yosuke had a bandana with the kanji for certain victory written on it while scribbling out a set of notes. "Exam fever. Senior-year version."

"Ah… that would explain the unusual vigor with which they are studying. You seem much calmer Yukiko-sempai. I take it that you've already decided on what to do then." said Naoto in her usual version.

"Yes… I was considering it for a while, but I will probably take the recommendations for a course related to the management of the ryokan, ideally somewhere in Tokyo or Port Island I guess." mused the senior idly, recounting the processes leading to the decision. "My mom and our staff assured me that they could hold out until I return, so there was really nothing holding me back. Although… I'm not sure how I would fare against the other applicants out there."

"Erm… I'm sure you'll do fine Yukiko-sempai…" assured Naoto briefly, though her mind was actually thinking. "Especially since you ARE first in the prefecture…"

"I hope so…"

Naoto took a look at her precious friends and sighed, her heart feeling as though it was mired in unease again. The fact that her friends were already third years meant that some of them would be leaving again… although she couldn't be certain where Chie-sempai and Yosuke-sempai would be heading… Her hand wandered over to her equally precious watch.

The time for parting will come again…

"Oh, that reminds me. I wonder if Souji-kun has any plans for college."

"Eh?" gasped Detective Princess in surprise, her girlish exclamation rare enough for the muggers and Kanji to look up and away from their books and steak accordingly.

"I mean, it's just a thought…"


The red-head heaved a heavy sigh as she sank down onto the couch. The girls were taking a break after their sixth try at the song, but to Kimiko, it felt like she had been at it for hours now. She snuck a glance at her classmate, but the furrowed brows and serious looks on her face really frightened her. Even though she did declare fervently that she was not good at it multiple times, she still felt apprehensive and overwhelmingly bad at disappointing her first, somewhat close girl friend. She was so caught up in her personal blues that she jumped when a cold drink can was pressed against her cheek.

"Ah, gomen gomen." apologized Chise with a smile. The blonde waved the can of green tea lightly in front of her. "You look like you could do with some cooling off."

"Thank you…"

Kimiko stared at the can of green tea for a while before taking a long swig of it. She took the chance to heave a long sigh after that before the rest area lapsed back into silence, other than the occasional flipping of scores and pages.

"I sucked, didn't I." It was more of a statement than a question.

The half of the blonde twins sitting opposite her gave her a surprised look.

"Kimi-chi?"

"I'm no expert, but I know at least when a song sounds good or not. You guys were amazing, but I was… dragging you girls under…"

Any further self-loathing was quickly waylaid by a gentle karate chop on her auburn head.

"Kimi-chi, how long do you think we have had to practice with our instruments? It is your first time singing for real, no?"

"Yes… but…"

At the furtive glance at the mad bassist and guitarist at work, Chise realized what spooked her and sighed.

"Please don't mind them. For some reason, the string-girls get really fired up like this every once in a while. Besides, they're just discussing whether to adjust our music to your pace or to try out another song. Though what I think they would do is to write a new song outright… hence the getting carried away bit Kimi-chi."

"Eh? But that's…"

Chise drew closer to Kimiko and sat beside her in order to show her the music scores that she had been reading earlier. The blonde had been sorting them into two distinct piles.

"Look, we would really like for you to join us. The fact that you were not able to soak in the song thoroughly is also partly our fault. You see, most of the songs we wrote were originally written with a different type of voice in mind, and that they were punk-rock in nature. The one we tried earlier was one of our alternatives, a rock-ballad sort of thing that would be closer to your natural voice. Rise was saying perhaps we were too hasty, and that we should write some new songs just for you. At the very least, we should sort the songs we have here to take out the less suitable ones."

"Eh… but all your hard work before this…"

"Don't worry about that. That's just how it is. We usually rehearse the same song over and over again anyway, so this is nothing new to us. Besides, you're not bad at all. You just need some coaching on your timing and turns. Like when to break off from a long note and turn to a new one."

"Thanks Chise-chan. You're nice."

The two girls shared a brief hug and cuddle before Kimiko laid back to stretch herself slightly, getting herself ready for the next round of practices. Looking at the small amount of skin exposed by blouse that was riding up a little, Chise had a quick brainstorm and stroked her exposed sides lightly with her finger, causing the other girl to tremble reflexively and cry out

"Chise-chan!"

Although she would usually ooh and aww at the red-head's deliciously vivid blush, quake and shiver, her little eureka moment illuminated a would-be solution to their singing problem. Tapping on the glass that separated the studio from the rest area, she mouthed out the words.

"Girls, I have an idea."

Kimiko jumped at the newly revealed evil glint in the otherwise angelic figure's eyes. She swallowed hard and wondered briefly if she should just give in to her new fate.


It was to be dark before the girls finally left the studio, having finally gotten several good practices down. The twins left for their home on the opposite side of town while the two classmates set off for theirs together. It was a very typical day for one of the brunettes, but an absurdly random day for the other. Though the time now was closer to midnight.

"Erm… I'm sorry Kimiko-chan…"

"Umm…"

"Hahaha… we have an exam tomorrow, don't we?"

"Umm…"

The off-handed replies by the shorter brunette was more than a little surprising. Perhaps she was really upset that she had forced her too far earlier. Or perhaps spending so much time with her wasn't to her liking. Ah, she had an exam tomorrow. Of course. That was probably why… wait, if she had an exam, that means that she had one too.

"Are you angry, Kimiko-chan?"

"Umm…"

Rise was about to panic when she noticed an odd sound coming from her friend. A rhythmic…

"Kimiko, are you asleep?"

"Umm…"

This girl!

Rise shook her friend several times before the girl finally woke up enough to address her properly.

"Ah, Rise-chan… Ohayo…" said the girl with a yawn.

"You're such a light-weight Kimiko-chan. How can you sleep and walk at the same time?"

"Talent…? I don't know… I've never stayed up this late before…" the girl yawned again. "Aunt Mari is going to be crossed… zzz…"

"Matagu… this girl…"

It seemed that even though the girl was mostly knocked out, Rise was still able to lead her onward by keeping her centered on the path. It was the first time she had seen someone actually sleep walk, come to think of it, although it reminded her a little of the time when one of her handlers had a little too much to drink.

However, as luck would have it, things took a little turn for the worse when the whole stretch of streetlights began to flicker amidst an eerily cold draft. Since Kimiko was more or less out of it, Rise was about to cuss a little when the flickering stopped. However, the light seemed a little dimmer and colder than usual…

"Hmm… a power outage? Well, I'm glad that's over…"

Her words faltered upon realizing that she might have been a bit hasty in saying that. For under the pallid light of the empty streets, the brunette could make out several dark patches that stained the empty sidewalks. It was unlikely, improbable and a long shot… but it wasn't as though it was definitely impossible.

"Crap."


A/N:

Some notes: Fufu kenka means something like a married couple's quarrel.

Reviews are very welcome.


Omake 3: Talent and Timing

The gentle whirr of the hidden elevator came to a halt with the chime of a soft bell before the doors opened, allowing a certain silver-haired young man in a black suit to step out and onto the concealed space several floors below ground level. The man took several more steps forward until he came to rest before a large panel of glass that overlooked a cavernous space beyond, and beside the only other on this floor.

"How's the new guy?"

"He's good. He's getting the hang of it very quickly, although he still has a way to go."

"Hmm… this after activating it so easily on his first try… he reminds me of him."

"Doesn't he?"

The two observed the scene beyond the glass for a little while longer.

"He's using live ammo again, isn't he?"

"I think so…"

"It's a good thing the new guy is actually good then…"

"Well, I don't think he's actually serious about shooting him either… I think…"

"…"

The pair watched for a little while longer before they talked again.

"Behave…"

"Why?"

A pale hand was lightly gripping the fingers of the hand that was holding her hip playfully just seconds earlier.

"Just because."

The man's cell chose that moment to ring, bringing him news that was unwelcome but not really unexpected.

"… I understand… don't overdo it."

The man proceeded to activate the intercom beside the glass panel.

"Training's over."

The two trainees in the cavern paused in mid-action, their katana and handgun still pretty much pointing in the other's direction.

"We're moving out."

The man cast an apologetic glance at his viewing partner before he made for the elevator once more. The remaining figure sighed before kicking her heels lightly against the air, her hands playing with the end of her long turquoise braids a little wistfully.

"Because your timing always suck… baka…"