Evening at the Ouen dojo...

"Hey, guys! Look who's coming to stay with us for now!" Sayaka yelled.

"My name is Ulala, and I'm a reporter for Space Channel 5. I've just crash landed here, so I was hoping I could crash at your place until Fuse is done repairing the ship."

"Well, you don't look like an Ulala to me," Ruuta said.

"I always thought you'd be a boxer, not a reporter," Saito remarked.

"Oh great," Neku thought, "Not more random strangers."

Sayaka pointed at the room behind her. "Now that we're done with introductions, we should go eat dinner. J gave us some great pasta for our guest!"


After dinner, Neku and pals decided to go play in the basement, while Sayaka prepared the top floor, which was thankfully repaired, for yoga.

"YEAH!" Beat yelled after the group's third win in Rock Band 2. "We ROCK at this game!"

"I never even knew Rhyme could do bass," Neku said, trying to select another song on the custom guitar he was holding.

Shiki sighed. "It's kinda sad how I don't really know any English songs, though. Thankfully, the melodies are pretty easy to catch."

They were having a lot of fun together, until they heard a voice.

"Lookin' zetta sexy there, amigos!"

The gang suddenly turned their attention to the leftmost window, where they saw a familiar face with incredibly feline features.

"Sho Minamimoto!?" They yelled in unison.

"Glad you remember me, you zetta sons of digits!" Sho then fired a cluster of energy shots at the crew. "Inverse matrix!"


After what seemed like moments later, Neku got up from a bed. Looking at his surroundings, it seemed immediately familiar, as he saw a room filled with CAT products and a closet with his favourite Jupiter of the Monkey clothes peeking out. He looked down and saw his old pyjamas.

"Don't tell me that everything back then was a dream..." Neku said remorsefully. Looking at the calendar and clock in his room, he found out that it was only April, and he had to get ready for school soon, or else he would be late. Not wanting to wait any longer, he got changed and went to eat breakfast.

"Bye, mom!" He said as he went out the door.

His mom laughed. "I haven't seen you this eager to go to school since your friend came over!"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about him..."

At school, Neku saw that things had pretty much been reset to how things were before everything happened. Some girls were whispering something about him while he was walking past, a normal occurrence back then.

"Oh! I-I'm so sorry!" a timid young girl said when she bumped into Neku, dropping all her books. She was rather short, with bright orange hair tied into little pigtails. Her eyes were a plain brown, similar to almost everyone else in the school, framed by a pair of small pink glasses.

Neku helped pick up some of her books and gave what he managed to grab to her. "Here you go. You didn't really need to apologize."

Suddenly, everyone nearby began to crowd around and take a closer look.

"Hey, isn't that Loner Kid over there?"

"Hey, he's actually talking to someone! And it's freakin' Chiaki!"

"Wow, I never would have known."

"So Loner Kid likes doormats?"

"It all makes perfect sense! The guy who's as stiff as a board needs a doormat like her to soften up a little!"

"Wouldn't she end up getting a little rough-"

"SHUT UP!" Neku hollered. "I just wanted to be friendly for a change, that's all..." He stormed out of the crowd, looking for his homeroom.

School went by as it usually did for Neku back then, except that people were avoiding him instead of him avoiding people. He was still doing well in school, occasionally doodling pictures of his friends in his old notebook. He was feeling a bit lonely already.

At the end of the day, it began to pour heavily on the school grounds. Unfortunately, Neku didn't have an umbrella, and his classmates were actively avoiding him again, afraid he was going to push them off again. It seemed like he was going to have to walk alone, drenched in the rain, until he saw the same girl that he met earlier, carrying a small magenta umbrella.

"Hello there, Sakuraba-san," Chiaki said to Neku.

"Hi there."

"So, it's really rainy right now. Are you waiting for someone important?"

"Not in particular, why do you ask?"

"Well... you don't seem to be carrying an umbrella on you right now. Would you like me to walk you to where you need to go?"

Neku looked around before replying. "That would be really nice, but what would the guys in our school think? I mean, what with this morning and all..."

"Don't worry about it; nobody's here!"

"I guess, you're right, but..."

"Come on!" Chiaki took a firm grip on Neku's hand, running towards the school exit. "Where to?"

"H-hey! Could we slow down for a moment?" Neku yelped.

At Neku's house, Mrs. Sakuraba decided to invite Chiaki over for dinner. "We haven't had anyone over for dinner in a long while," she said while making curry.

"That... was awkward." Neku said to Chiaki at the dining room table.

Chiaki giggled. "I never knew that you had such a nice house, Sakuraba-san."

"You know, you didn't really have to do all that for me..."

"Well, I thought that you looked more depressing than usual, that's all."

"I guess I should thank you," Neku said to her. "But I don't really want to..." he thought to himself.

"Besides, I never did think you actually hated everyone," Chiaki said to Neku. "I thought you were just... shy!"

"...I guess you could say that."

"Well, thanks for the dinner and all, but I gotta bounce!" Chiaki said, rushing towards the door.

"Wait! You forgot your para... Oh, forget it."


That night, Neku had an incredibly strange dream...

"Welcome to the space between consciousness and unconsciousness..."

Neku woke up in a strange place surrounded by nothingness. The columns around him were made of gold, and the floor was a chequered pattern not unlike a chess board. In the center of the area they were standing on, there was a wise-looking figure wearing a white mask adorned with a blue butterfly.

"Do you know who I am?" the figure asked Neku. "More importantly, do you remember who you are?"

"Umm... Sakuraba Neku," he replied, while thinking, "And you're probably insane."

"Good, you still remember who you are."The figure bowed. "I am Philemon. You shall soon embark on your strange journey, helping to unfold the secrets behind everything."

Neku's look changed from one of disbelief to one of interest. "Secrets? What secrets are you talking about?"

"People live by wearing different masks. Likewise, the world as you know it is harbouring a dark secret behind its own mask. To help you in uncovering this mask, I shall give you the power of Persona." In his hand, there was a pin featuring a cross between an old Babylonian castle and one of Neku's practice murals.

"Unfortunately, I cannot intervene any further. Remember, you must find out the truth..."


Suddenly, Neku woke up again, this time within a deep forest. "You know, this reminds me of a poem I read in school once," the teen thought to himself, "except much, much stranger."

Before he got up, a small slime pounced on him, giving Neku a mild sting.

"What the!? Wait, I still have that watch, right?" He activated the watch to see only one pin in his inventory. "What happened to all my other pins? Don't tell me I lost the Darklit Planet set!"

More slimes began to appear, trying to sting the guy to death. Neku read the pin's stats, trying to figure out what to do.

"Gilgamesh? Wait... Holy crap, THAT Gilgamesh? Sweet!" Neku read the instructions. "To evoke, firmly grasp pin with hand, and yell whatever feels natural. (A "Persona!" will suffice for most situations.)" A little unsure as to whether it would actually work or not, Neku took the pin in his hand, clutching it ever so slightly.

He was taking his time, until the slimes began to grow rows of sharp teeth, getting faster with every bicuspid. Still, Neku was hesitant to use the pin. This time, one tooth-slime took a lunge at Neku's face, too quick for him to even see.

As if he were moving on his own, he suddenly grasped the pin with all his might. "PERSONA!!!"

"Thou art I, and I am thou. From the sea of thy soul, I cometh: the great king, Gilgamesh!"

A large phantasm in golden armour appeared, slicing the tooth-slime in half with its giant sword before vanisning. Oddly enough, he was feeling a little winded after Gilgamesh disappeared. Fortunately for Neku, most of the slimes already fled by then, so he didn't have to exhaust himself as much.

"My pin levelled up, and it learned a new skill? I could get used to this!" Neku did a little practice yelling before moving on. "GIRUGAMESHU! Now I know why those guys love to yell so much..."

Walking along the forest path, he began to see a patch of strange green plants. Edging closer to them, the plants suddenly gained mouths, spitting fire on the intruder.

"First tooth-slimes, and now this? Is this some sort of screwed-up RPG or something?"

Neku dashed across the plants, making sure that his clothes didn't catch on fire. When things got too hectic, he threw sticks he got off the ground to keep the plants off-guard. After all that, he had to face even greater waves of slimes and fire-breathing plants. By now, he was expecting some sort of tapir to appear.

Once he was out of their sight, he began to see the end of the path, stopping right at a rose garden.

"Finally! Now what am I supposed to do here, anyways? Find out the truth?" Neku scoffed at the idea. "Sure, those weird Noise symbols have been popping up more frequently, and the Ouendan have been talking a lot about Moo Moo, but they weren't exactly the sanest bunch either. That guy was probably just high or something."

"Ohohohoho! Hello there, my dear, I hope to strike fear! Prepare your weapon!" a noblewoman's voice called out.

Neku turned to find a small girl with a black robe, pigtails and pointy ears confronting him. He was still confused as to who was calling him out.

"You should remove those dreadful headphones of yours," the girl said with an intimidating aura. Just as Neku was about to run from her, he was suddenly bound at his feet, unable to move his legs. He then felt unusual warmth as he got burnt by her Flare.

"That should be a good lesson for the day; do not ignore me, or else you'll pay." Rocks appeared at Neku's feet, ready to skewer him at the girl's command. Before he got pierced by said rocks, however, he woke up in his guest bed, with Shiki by his side.

"Neku! You're finally awake!" Shiki said in glee.

"Don't tell me this is another dream..." he groaned.

"We were kinda worried after that fight you had with Sho in the basement... Thankfully the doctor said you'd be fine, but you just didn't seem... yourself."

Neku was confused by this statement. After being knocked out by Sho's shot, everything was a blank, except for the dreams he had. He looked inside one of his pockets to find the very same pin he used to slice the slimes, making him question what had happened even further.

"But why would he be back if he got crunched by a vending machine when we were trying to fight Shades?"

"I guess death just isn't permanent in this universe," Neku said.

Shiki rolled her eyes at what Neku just said. "Like I never knew that already."

All was well until Sayaka rushed into the room with a look of alarm on her face. "Guys, I'm really sorry for this, but you have to leave right now." She pushed an envelope into Shiki's hands before pulling their entire luggage down from the top floor. "Misaki-chan, here are the tickets for the concert. For now, this place isn't safe, so try to run as far away from here as possible. In fact, just stay away from Shibuya and Meguro in general, and Sakuraba-kun, whatever you do, don't drop your phones!"

After all that, it seemed as if Sayaka was completely flushed, but it seemed like she was used to it.

"Please, it'd be a lot safer for you guys," she said, "and probably a lot better in the long run..."

Neku was caught off-guard by her last statement. "Long run? What does she mean by that?" he thought. He had no time to waste, however, as there was a sense of immense panic in her voice. He got up from bed in order to get himself ready to go out, presumably for at least a week.

"So... We didn't really need to stay there?" Beat asked. "Well, that was a waste of time."

"But something didn't seem right," Shiki said.

Neku began to tell his friends about his experience. "You know, I had this weird dream while I was knocked out. First off I dreamt that I was back in my normal school routine before I met you guys, except everyone was avoiding me instead of the other way around, and there was this really weird perky girl named Chiaki. Then, there was this guy in a butterfly mask, and he was talking about how the world had a bunch of dark secrets and stuff. Frankly, I had no idea what he was talking about, but he did give me a kickass pin to use if we ever have to fight some more White Noise. Though I learned never to underestimate little girls with pointy ears, or else you get skewered."

Everyone stared blankly at Neku. "What?"

Shiki tried examining Neku. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Neku sighed. "You know what? Let's just keep walking."


GIRUGAMESHU! (That is fun!)

-Yeah! I guess that makes another semi-crossover, at least for now...

-What the hell is Sho going to do next? Seriously, he's so unpredictable; even I don't know what to do with him!

-Chiaki? Well, the references just pile on and on...