Filler episode, ladies and gents~! More options for the fateful day, so let's see what's going on next!
EDIT: While I was writing this chapter, an 8.9 earthquake hit the Northeastern part of Japan, sending tsunamis throughout the Pacific Ocean. The death toll in Japan as of 3/15/2011 is estimated to be at least 34,000. Please pray for the people that have lost their lives in this natural disaster, and help the international aid assist the living with anything you can. In the 21st Century, no one is ever alone. With your help, you can tell Japan that he has the world at his back.
/= [Day 15] =/
Charice walked toward the Asia class in the morning, stretching her arms and legs with her Asian uniform. She chuckled and looked around, seeing that she was the only one in the area. The Filipina chirped as she skipped down the halls looking at all the details of the walls.
I heard that Doitsu-ki was the one who made this building. She thought. That's so cool…did he take forever to make it?
She immediately began to think about Germany and the Persona card that she had when they interacted. Unlike any other cards she had, he didn't get any when it was formed. What would that mean, anyway? She had formed a connection with Li Xiao when they were in Kiku's world, but she had a Persona attached to that one as well. What made Germany any different…?
"Hey~! Who's the hot broad in the Asia uniform?"
Charice blinked. Who in the world was that man talking to? She was alone, but there was no way he was talking about her. As she turned her head around, she saw an albino man staring at her with a strange grin on his face. She tilted her head.
"Are…you talking to me?"
"Of course I am, girl~!" He grinned. "You're just about the sweetest looking girl I have ever seen!"
"Oh…thanks…" She blushed. She'd never been complimented before. "I'm Charice, the Outer Islands of the Republic of the Philippines. Who are you?"
"You may call me Gilbert…the Kingdom of Prussia." He winked. "What do you think? Sinking deep in my awesomeness yet?"
She froze. What was his accent? It sounded German, but then there were parts of Russian in it…and Swiss? She had no idea what accent it was. That's when she realized what country (well, kingdom) he represents. She tilted her head and pointed at him.
"I thought Prussia was dissolved after World War II." She answered.
"…that's just how awesome I am. I'm still alive after that." Gilbert winked. "Are you surprised at my awesomeness?"
"…you're German, aren't you?"
"Ah, you know bruder, don't you?" He grinned. "Doesn't he make me that much more awesome?"
"…it's the other way around."
That made the man pout and turn his head away. Maybe Charice said something wrong? Well, she was only telling the truth. What was she going to do about it? She had her own issues. She turned around and folded her arms.
"Sorry, it's just that being albino makes me wonder how that makes you awesome." She stated. "Or is that an 'in spite of' statement?"
"Ah, so you are just confused on how my awesomeness works!" He pointed at himself. "The awesome need no explanations."
"Well then, I'm not awesome, hence I do need an explanation." She grinned. "Explain, please."
"Of course, of course…" He winked. "Because I have five meters."
"…five…meters?"
"Five meters." He grinned. "Take a guess where."
She cringed at that statement before realizing that she could take this to her advantage…somehow. She grinned back at the albino.
"Oh…I have a good guess."
*DING!*
"So was I right?"
He squeaked before muttering something in German. She decided that it was probably something that she shouldn't be repeating out loud. But then again, as he stood up, the fact that he didn't curse her out or started running away in fear meant that he had some form of dignity to him. Charice grinned.
"You have a German backbone on you!" She chirped.
"…you…are crazy."
"Yeah, basically." She shrugged. "But I just know how to defend myself. Blame it on my brother."
"…not bad…" He straightened himself slowly. "Charice, of the Outer Islands of the Republic of the Philippines. I underestimated a country not of the G8."
"Likewise…" She paused. "Gilbert, the Kingdom of Prussia. Now are you going to be late for class?"
"Like I need a class!"
"But you're here. So I'm assuming that you do."
"Fine, fine…being the Asian that you are, you won't take no for an answer, huh?"
"Nope. Unless you want to shrink those five meters a little more-"
"I'm going, geez!" He turned around and grinned. "You have to be the most interesting person in this school, you know that?"
Charice shrugged as he walked away. She only did that because he was getting extremely annoying and had secretly vowed to hit a guy where it hurts when he rubs a joke like that. She turned around and shrugged again when she saw a card in her hand. She could not believe her eyes (he was important?) as she turned around and saw what looked like a blond man with a red chest plate and blank eyes.
["I AM THOU…AND THOU ART I."]
OK, this is the first time that the voice of a person suits this guy.
["AS THE MAN THAT SLAIN THE MIGHT DRAGON, I AM AT YOUR COMMAND."]
She blinked as the card sank into her body. After a few minutes of staring at her hand and then her arm, she shrugged. She was going to find Arthur in the library during lunchtime, and seeing if his vast knowledge of the magic arts somehow involve whatever the hell this was.
/=+=/
Of course, lunchtime rolled around, and Charice found herself prancing toward the library. She slowly opened the door, happy to see that Arthur was standing in the middle of the room scanning books in the fiction section (geez, who knew?). The door closed behind her, alerting him to her presence.
"You again?" He blinked.
"Yes, unfortunately." She grinned. "Lacking breasts and everything~!"
That statement made him blush and turn away. Ah, such an English gentleman.
"D-don't make statements like that!" He stammered. "It'll give people the wrong idea about you!"
"…all right. I was just trying to make a joke." She shrugged with a grin. "Actually, I'm glad you're here. I wanted to ask you a question."
"A question?" He looked confused. "But we don't share any classes with each other."
"No no no, that's not what I meant. I mean it's something…mystical and stuff like that, and I had a feeling that this was up in your alley." She sat down. "It's a new subject that I looked up, so…I might not know how to describe it in good detail."
"…all right." He sat down, doubt in his eyes. "What did you want to talk about?"
"OK, um…" She leaned forward. "Remember when I asked you about the tarot cards?"
"…yes, I remember. It was a weird question." Arthur answered.
"OK then…well, I heard this going around and stuff, so…" She pointed at the ground. "Have you ever heard of spirits being connected to the tarot cards?"
He looked extremely shocked, like she just hit the jackpot of information.
"Like famous legends and magical beings and stuff like that stuck onto the tarot cards?" She continued. "And how breaking them brings them out or something?"
The shocked look stayed on his face. She shook her hand in front of him. He blinked.
"W-what makes you think that something like that exists?" He asked, confused.
Charice sat there in a blank state. Should she tell him and risk the poor boy having a mental breakdown? After a few seconds, she decided to let the secret out. She pulled out her hand and a Magician card came out of her palm. Arthur's reaction was surprisingly blank, but there was shock in his face.
"…yeah…um, yeah." She sighed. "That's why."
"…I can't believe that it exists…"
"…what exists?"
"That." Arthur pointed at the card. "Persona."
"…Persona? You know what that is?" She blinked. "What is it?"
"Simply put, a Persona is the same as the definition: a part of yourself that represents a certain factor of your soul." Arthur stood up. "Usually they represent the darkest secrets that have been accepted and learned from."
Charice looked out the window and remembered Matthew and Kiku in their realms, how their Shadows that had attacked them had done it for personal reasons…
"Why should I go back there? No one loves me anymore! And with Carlos gone, who's going to be there for me?"
"He had been forced out because of them…this pain that he has kept hidden even to the mirror…is because of all of those who wish to exploit him."
"Hey, Arthur...are Personas Shadows?"
"So you know what a Shadow is?" Arthur blinked in surprise.
"A basic understanding of them." She answered. "But I just wanted to figure out if they're one and the same."
"Well, before you can make any form of conclusion, you have to know what a Shadow is." He pointed at the table. "A Shadow is a manifestation of a thought, whether it comes from a grown old man or a young baby. The weaker thoughts and secrets are translated into smaller Shadows. The deeper thoughts are the bigger and more dangerous ones…some of the strongest Shadows can even take on the form of the person who created it."
"So Personas are Shadows…"
"Yes. Everyone has secrets that they don't want to tell people, and hiding them end up creating a conflict in their minds that end up amplifying the Shadow that it creates." Arthur stated. "But when that secret is faced and accepted, that Shadow is considered tamed, and reformed into a Persona that wields specific abilities depending on the secret that it represented."
"OK…" She nodded. "So what do the tarot cards have anything to do with it?"
"The tarot card houses the Persona of a person, the same way Shadows are hidden in the other world." Arthur leaned forward. "The only way that you would know about Persona and Shadows is that you were in the other world."
"So the tarot cards are summoning gems!"
"…something like that." He sighed. "Every Persona is unique to a human."
"Wait, what about me? I have like, six or seven of them."
Arthur's eyes widened at the statement, allowing Charice to summon all her cards. He stared at them for a few minutes before leaning back in his chair with a surprised look on his face. Charice hid them all in a look of confusion.
"You're a special case, Charice…a Wild Card."
"A Wild Card? What is that?"
"A person who's a representation of the Fool Arcana." Arthur pointed at the image in a nearby tarot book (wherever the hell it came from). "A card of infinite possibilities. Wild Cards usually stem from people who have come to terms with inner conflicts of the past or hold strength in themselves that can influence others."
Charice wondered which one she centered around. She didn't think that it could be the second choice, but what would count as the first choice? She did forgive many of the nations for what they have done to her and her brother. But what would that mean?
"But a Wild Card starts off noticeably weaker than others with their own Arcana, mainly because Persona gather their powers from secrets. Since Wild Cards have already resolved conflicts, their Persona are generally weaker." He folded his legs. "They can be stronger through something called Social Links."
"…say what again?"
"Social Links. It's when Wild Cards interact with people of different Arcana. In my case, you are interacting with a Magician…if what card you showed me was correct." Arthur stated. "In your case, the Persona in your soul gains strength as you resolve conflict, whether inside or out. In your case, you'll have to help other people with their problems."
So play the psychiatrist? How does this work again?
"Does that mean you have a problem?"
"Nothing too big. I just need help sorting out the library." Arthur stood up. "That might help you in your…troubles, I guess."
"Wait, you're not going to question all this?" Charice blinked. "Like, how I know all this?"
"All I know now is that you have a power and that you need to control it." He answered. "Thankfully, I know things about Persona. You can come to me if you have questions about your abilities."
"Actually, I have one." She stood up. "I have one Social Link, and it's…different from the others."
"Different?"
"Well, all the Social Links that I have had a Persona attached to them." She started. "But this one…one Social Link…they don't have a Persona."
"No Persona?" Arthur cocked an eyebrow.
"Yeah…the person I met didn't have a Persona attached." Charice didn't want to say the name. "What would that mean?"
"Well…two things. This man either has a good mental barrier to hold back his problems, which isn't possible unless he has a Persona of his own, or…" He turned around. "He has none."
"No…what?"
"No problems."
He turned around and left her at the table, wondering which one of those options it could possibly be.
/=+=/
Siegfried is a man made famous in a German poem called Nibelungenlied. It states his story of his quest to kill the dragon named Fafnir and how bathing in his blood gave him invulnerability. However, like Troy, a leaf stuck on his shoulder to give him a weak spot. [Gilbert Beillschmidt - Strength]
OK, so there's another option on the fatal day board! I'll list them all down:
-Jump Antonio in the gardens
-Work in the library with Arthur (who as you might've guessed is going to play the Igor of the fic)
-Try getting into the music club
-Find Gilbert to harass him a little more
-Study in the hallways with Kiku
I'll just say this right now. Even though Charice has a Social Link with people, it doesn't mean that they can't be next victims. ANYONE IS VULNERABLE!