Author's Note: *Drinks Smoothie Ahh! That was a refreshing vacation from writing. I feel refreshed and recharged. I'm ready to start continuing the tales and lives of the Eds. Please, won't you join me, as we delve into the inner workings of the Arcana. Okay, time to start working.
I regret to inform you all, that due to random life events, school and my own laziness, I have neglected this story a bit. And with my working on other projects, and writers block at times, I have not been able to complete this chapter as fast as I wanted to. But I tried to struggle through my lack of drive and I gave my all. Don't worry, I'm back on track and I can at least assemble chapters a bit faster and more naturally. One thing though. Since it is exams for me, expect some form of learning taking place within the story for a while. However, I'll try not to make it an entire learning session. Anyway, onto the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own EEnE or the Shin Megami Tensei/Persona series or the music of the series. They are owned by AKA and Atlus respectively. I also do not own any music mentioned in this fanfic, they are owned by their respective owners/composers.
Date: 6th June, Monday, 2012
Location: Velvet Room, ?
Forecast: Unknown
Music: Persona 3 OST: Aria of the Soul
Edd's vision started to kick in, as the calming blue aura of the Velvet Room came into view. Igor sat there with an amused expression on his face, while his hands cupped his mouth. Margaret sat there, stoic as ever, except she seemed to have an actual look of interest on her face.
"Welcome back to the Velvet Room." Igor said. "Hmm, it seems that your last battle was most interesting."
'Well, I did manage to change my Persona, and single-handedly defeat three other Persona users with more power than us. So yeah, it would have been interesting.' Double d thought sarcastically.
Margaret opened her book and a blue orb of light started to gather above it. She looked at Double d, while the mass below her took the shape of a card. It was an image of the Strength Arcana, spinning and floating around naturally. She wore a slight smile on her face.
"You seemed to have been able to change your persona with relative ease. You have managed to access the Strength Arcana; the Persona Galahad seemed to have arisen from the pit of your soul to your call." Margaret stated and nodded to herself. Edd tilted his head to the side.
"I have a question, if I may." He asked. Margaret nodded. "I've noticed that when I changed my Persona, my personality changed. I felt, holier than thou."
"Ah, that anomaly." Igor nodded to himself. "It seems that your Wild Card ability is quite not yet…developed."
"And exactly what does that necessarily mean in this instance." Edd asked.
"It means," Margaret answered. "That your Wild Card is not yet developed, and has seemingly been enacted prematurely. Like a baby, it will have some problems if it functions before it has finished nurturing." She cupped her chin in thought. "This may also come with some limitations in changing your Persona, as far as the present stage it appears to be..."
"Most intriguing. We've never had a guest with an undeveloped Wild Card before. And one who can use it with such relative ease despite the apparent handicap." Igor remarked. "Even to almost the same fineness and grade as the ones before you…"
'I don't understand any of this. If what they are saying is true, then my Wild Card isn't at full strength. Then how could this happen?" Double d thought. Igor shook his head. Margaret closed her book and the image of the Strength Arcana tarot card dispersed into fine shimmers of light.
"In any case, this should not have an impact on your journey, nor should it impede it." Igor stated. He smiled. "Next time you arrive, you will come here of your own accord. Till we meet again."
Edd nodded, as his consciousness was becoming self aware again. His body started to disappear, and fade off into parts unknown. Igor sighed, as he rested his head on his hands. Margaret looked at him with a piqued interest.
"Master, our new guest's Wild Card. It's wasn't naturally obtained like the last few guests, was it?" She asked. Igor looked up at her with a bemused smirk on his face, slightly rubbing his chin.
"Aha. Very perceptive as usual, Margaret." Igor remarked. "It seems that someone else is playing a hand in our new guest's journey, and their actions are slowly being realized. However, like I said earlier, it seems that they are of no threat nor are they going to change his fate as a result of his decisions. It is most interesting…"
Margaret looked at her Master for a moment, before sighing. She sat back and stared off into space. Most interesting indeed…
Date: 6th June, Monday, 2012
Location: Before School, Peach Creek Junior High, Peach Creek
Forecast: Sunny
Music: Persona 3 Portable OST: Sun
Edd finished writing his journal and tucked it away safely, as the bus rolled to a stop. He dismounted it and walked up towards the top of the stairs at Peach Creek Junior High. He pushed open the door, and managed to get inside without being trampled this time. He walked down the hall, passing countless of students who were carrying books of varying sizes. He had reached his locker, and quickly slotted in the combination into the master lock and opened his locker. He looked to his left and to his right, when he had noticed something.
'Strange…I think I would have been bombarded with Ed and Eddy's bantering…Oh well, I guess a day of peace is needed. I shouldn't complain.' He thought. He quickly took out his books and packed his bag. Exams would begin next week, and Edd didn't want on his transcript that the first exams he took in Peach Creek were subpar to his results of before. He grabbed his bag and closed his locker. He walked down to the lab a few corridor's down.
Double d stopped before the door, just to notice a fleeting shadow disappear from the corner of his eye. He turned around and looked at it, but he lost sight of it quickly amongst the sea of students rushing to class. He stared for a few moments before opening the door to the class and walking inside.
Date: 6th June, Monday, 2012
Location: Biology, Peach Creek Junior High, Peach Creek
Forecast: Sunny
Music: Persona 5 OST : Free (Fanmade)
"Now class…" A feminine voice sounded from the front of the classroom. Edd looked forward, as a middle aged woman walked towards the front of the classroom. Peach Creek had two biology teachers. So, for him, one taught on Monday and the other taught on Thursday. However, this meant different days of biology for students, and as such, some of them were separated (for ex. Nazz wasn't in his Monday Biology class, yet will be on Thursday, much to his displeasure). The Teacher quickly took a piece of chalk and started to draw on the board. Within minutes, she had drawn the structure of a heart and the human digestive system.
"You do notice these drawings that I have drawn on the board, right? Well I didn't draw them for my health. You are to first complete this quiz, for marks, on both the Double Circulatory System and the Human Digestive System. Then you are to draw and label the structures of these systems, all by the end of these two periods. Do I make myself clear?" She asked, taking out papers from her filing cabinet and sharing them out amongst the class.
"Yes Ma'am."
Edd looked at the paper and smiled. He had been receiving huge assignments like this for the past two weeks. Normally, this would seem like a giant and unfair test to the students so close to the exam time. However, the teachers at the school condition them to handle said tests like cake, so it wasn't a problem for most students and their intelligence rose as a result, in an attempt to create a brighter generation of humans...
But, it's not like Edd wasn't prepared for this already.
He quickly looked at the first question.
"Which chamber of the heart receives oxygenated blood from the lungs?"
He pondered on this, remembering the image he studied the night before. He quickly wrote down an answer.
"The Left Atrium receives blood from the lungs after they had been re-oxygenated."
"What kind of digestion occurs within the mouth, and explain what happens in the mouth when it occurs."
Double d wrote it down without missing a beat.
"Mechanical digestion occurs in the mouth through the chewing of food in order to make it soft enough to form into bolus. Chemical digestion also occurs through the saliva interacting with the food and dissolving it."
The next question kinda stumped him.
"Explain the order of blood vessels that the blood goes to from the heart after being re-oxygenized."
Edd geared himself up for it. He pondered, but remembered about the trick answer required to receive any marks from this teacher. (Yes, if you didn't have X statement, you get the entire question wrong. She was crazy.) He wrote down the answer carefully.
"The blood moves from the left ventricle and into the aorta. Then it moves to the various arteries, such as the coronary artery which gives blood and nutrients to the heart muscle itself, which send the blood towards various organs of the body. Then the blood moves through the arterioles into the capillaries, where the blood exchanges the oxygen nutrients within it to said organs. After that, the blood moves through the venules into the veins, which transport blood back to the heart through the vena cava for the body, into the right atrium then into the Right Ventricle, and up to the lungs through the pulmonary artery to get re-oxygenized. "
As Double d finished that answer, he felt something click in his mind. He has felt that he had grown…smarter somehow, like his Academics had increased or something like that. He shook his head at the silly thought and went back to his work. Within minutes, he had completed the paper and proceeded to grab his drawing apparatus. He grabbed his pencil, and no later he (and all the other students) heard an outcry.
"Curse this infernal drawing stick! Why do you not draw the pictures that Rolf sees on the board of chalk!" Rolf shouted out from the center of the class. The teacher looked at him with a weird look, before spotting that the pencil didn't have a point. She face-desked (I kid you not; she literally threw her head down and hit the desk).
"Will someone lend him a sharpener so that we can get on with our lives?" She asked with a groan.
Edd looked at Rolf, before fishing around in his pencil case for a sharpener. He managed to reach it and passed it towards Rolf. Rolf thanked Double d before staring at the piece of metal strangely. Double d raised an eyebrow.
"Something wrong Rolf?"
Rolf tossed the sharpener back to him, which is managed to spectacularly catch after ten hops.
"Rolf cannot use such a twisted piece of scrap metal! Woe'st a shepherd's son to do?!" He asked in agony with his head tilted to the sky.
"But Rolf," Double d asked. "what do you do when your pencil's point breaks or comes out?"
Rolf stopped agonizing and looked down at Double d. He looked at him with a look of confusion.
"Well, when Rolf's drawing stick doesn't make markings, Rolf cuts down a tree and makes a new one." He said simply. Edd stared at him with a bewildered expression, before being reminded that its normal Peach Creek behavior. He dug within his pencil case again and pulled out a pencil. He passed it to Rolf, who graciously took it and jumped with joy.
"Thank you, sack-on-his-head Ed boy. You have saved this son of a Shepherd. How can Rolf repay you?"
"No thanks are necessary Rolf." Double d said with a rub of his head. However, the world froze around him as he saw something twitch within his mind's eye. He saw a picture of a card materialize in front of him. It had four sections on it: a chalice on a blue background, a triangle on a red background, a bird on a yellow background and a square on a grayish background. He saw the Roman Numerals 'XIV' or 14 at the bottom of the card. He recognized that it was the Temperance Arcana.
I art thou, and thou art I
Thou hast established a new bond
It shall give thee a new strength.
The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed…
Balance is truly required, lest one falls into Chaos and Disarray.
When the world reverted, the teacher, who had recovered from her head-meets-desk moment, sighed in annoyance.
"When you two are done with this friendship escapade, you can get back to work. Seriously, it's like you children have the overbearing need to make friendships like if they're some objective in a game or something…Back to work!"
Date: 6th June, Monday, 2012
Location: Lunchroom, Peach Creek Junior High, Peach Creek
Forecast: Sunny
Music: Persona 5 OST: Marionette (Fanmade)
After a recent grueling study in English, Edd was almost mentally exhausted. He walked along with his fellow students to the cafeteria, and got in line for the school's "Meatloaf Monday". He had just received a plate and grimaced as the brown lump of…something was placed on his tray with a sickening 'PLOP!'
'It's a miracle this school hasn't had a casualty due to their food yet.' Edd thought sarcastically. He had just moved out of the line when a student from the centre of the cafeteria started to choke, mouth filling up with froth and bile until his face turned blue. He soon collapsed and started to vibrate very slowly. All of the onlookers had moved their trays forward.
Edd ignored this and walked over to the dessert section of the cafeteria line, which had a delicious line-up of pastries that looked surprisingly good. 'If only the main meals were as good-looking' thought Edd. He spotted a brown and white pudding dessert, which had the label of 'Tiramisu' on the paper in front of it. He reached forward towards it, before being stopped by Jonny.
"Umm, Double d. I hate to do this to ya, but can I have the last Tiramisu please? It's for Plank." He asked solemnly. Edd looked at him. He had a plate full of meats, minus the god-awful meatloaf, with very little vegetables. Edd looked at him for a moment, skeptical about how a wooden plank could eat an Italian dessert, before reaching across for the plate.
"Sure Jonny, I'll just have something else. By the way, why do you have a plate filled with meat? Surely you must know that one has a balanced diet in order to remain healthy." Edd stated, before handing the Tiramisu to Jonny, who scotched it on to his plate.
"Well everyone knows that. But Plank says that when I eat vegetables, that the plants still feel me chewing and crushing them in my mouth, so I should eat more of the meat to spare them from torture." He said. At that moment all of Edd's thoughts had ceased, as his brain buffered on trying to process that logic. He slowly moved towards his seat, his eyes held a vacant look to them as he quietly sat down. Jonny stood next to him before he snapped out of it.
"That's…interesting…" Edd said
"Anyway, thanks for giving Plank that dessert. He likes Italian stuff, you know?" Jonny said. Edd nodded him off, before eating his lunch. But he just sat there, staring at the obviously fatal meatloaf, and he suddenly lost his appetite. He looked over at Jonny, whose plate was surprisingly devoid of the Tiramisu. He looked at Plank's 'mouth', which has a few splotches of something white and brown. Edd's eyes widened at the possibility.
"Um, Jonny? Where did the dessert go?" He asked, hoping he was wrong. Jonny looked at him strangely, as if there was a second head under his hat.
"Whaddaya mean? Plank ate it, silly. I know buddy, he's just tired, I guess." Jonny replied. Edd had the mental thought of suggesting Jonny to the nearest mental Asylum, but he quickly ignored that and decided to think nothing about it.
"…oh, um, of course Eddward, you must be tired, that's it…" Edd stumbled, at a loss for words. But then he remembered that it was just normal Peach Creek behavior. He snapped himself out of this daze and was about to question this further, when Jonny had interrupted him.
"Um, Double d, can I ask you something?"
Edd nodded silently, and Jonny looked around nervously, before darting his eyes back to the Ed and leaned in with a crazed look on his face.
"Plank says that you do the newspaper for the school, right? So Plank was wondering that if you would put a poem he wrote into it?" He whispered.
Edd pondered to himself, but feared of another 'it's normal Peach Creek behavior' moment. He took a napkin from beside him and a pencil. After Jonny recited the poem, Edd didn't know he was crying until he noticed that his vision was clouding and his face was feeling soaked all of a sudden. He was about to reach for the napkin he wrote the poem on, but decided to wipe his tears in his sleeves.
"Oh my, that was beautiful Jonny. I will put it in the next edition of the newspaper." He said joyfully. Jonny smiled.
"Geez, thanks Double d. You're a real pal." He cheered. Ed reached for the napkin, but the world froze around him. Everything darkened and he couldn't move. Within his mind's eye, he saw light starting to gather and combine in front of him. The light soon formed a card, showing a brightly colored picture of a smiling sun on a beautiful background. The Roman Numeral for the number 9 was on the bottom. 'The Hermit Arcana,' Edd thought.
I art thou, and thou art I
Thou hast strengthened one of thine bonds
It leads thou closer to thy journey's end...
And the leading of other to their own path.
The world reverted back to normal, and Edd had the feeling that he had seen that Arcana before, like it was familiar. He decided to think about it later, as he rose from his seat in order to return his tray to the cafeteria, when an outcry sounded from the queue. A giant lady wearing an apron and a lopsided hairnet crazily looked around and grasped at the empty trough of food.
"All of the Monday Meatloaf, it's…all of it was…stolen." She exclaimed. A plethora of cheers and celebrations erupted from the children in the place. She turned towards her student aid for the day, Jessica Altman, a young girl with a fairly bubbly personality and the same age as Double d. Said girl was looking at the lady with genuine confusion, a lollipop sticking out of her mouth.
"Wait, you think it was me? Honestly, why would I want to steal any of that stuff?" She explained while raising her hands. "Besides, if I did, what am I going to do with it anyway?"
"True." The lady replied before she went into the kitchen to cook up something else for the kids to eat. Edd stood there confused, while Jonny walked up next to him and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Wow, who would steal all that awful tasting stuff? Plank says that whoever took it, they don't exactly have good plans with it. Man, buddy, you really are dark today, aren't ya?" Jonny said before moving on. Edd stood there and pondered to himself.
'Hmm, yes. Odd that someone would want something so…wretched. I wonder…' Edd thought, and his gaze wandered towards Jessica, who was standing there looking blandly at him. He held a questioning gaze, until she was called over to work on the food. He looked down and pondered, as the blue faced student was taken out of the room by stretcher by a group of men in Hazmat suits.
As much as I want to deal with and thank the readers first and foremost, I decided to but the Reviewer's Roll at the bottom this time due to length.
Reviewer's Roll: YukiMizuno: Thanks for reviewing. I was thinking of doing that with any other team members Persona, but I will put a twist to it, somehow. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. I know that the 'Persona Ed' story was yours, and I was intentionally placing that there in hopes you saw it, to say thanks (I don't know for what…but you know). And you did comment on this story, in fact you were first, back when your pen-name was Sage of Dorks (I even responded in Chapter 2). So thanks again, and here's your Panda. *Gives Panda.
Spindash77: Kevin really doesn'tdo that? But I thought that he did, especially from parts that I remembered in the show (like when he threw eggs at them for no good reason in the Halloween Special, although it was more of a prank or joke than outright beating them up…), or maybe I'm just confusing his actions in fanfiction with the those in the real show (note this kids, you should NEVER do this, always check on things like this if you're not sure). Thanks anyway.
L2S2: Your review actually gives me an idea. Thanks. *Gives Panda.
Man: Everyone, I would like to turn your attention to this particular review. Now, if you're going to review and you dislike the story, that's fine. However, constructive criticism would be nice. Don't be like "OMG I hate this story, it won't work, go die.", or else I will shun you like the dog you appear to be. Instead, at least state proper reasons for your dislike, anything wrong or dislike of style or plot etc. But then again, I am asking people on the internet to not flame my story or troll…anyway, moving on. *Removes Man's right of existence.
Guest: Good review Guest good review. *Gives Panda.
PrinceOfLife: I just did. Thanks. *Gives Panda.
Sorry if it seems a bit lackluster or a bit lacking in… anything. But filler is needed to expand a few things…don't stone me please? Anyway, please R&R and we'll see you hopefully sooner than the last time.