Mayumi's house

8:12 P.M

"..and I am thou.."

Mayumi just couldn't take any more painkillers as that pain wasn't even about to go away.

"W-what's up with that voice..?!" Mayumi said and grabbed her head "Arghh..! It just won't stop..!"

"..just accept it!"

"A-accept..?" Mayumi muttered and shrieked again "..stop.. it hurts..!"

"It will, until you'll deny me or accept me"

"Accept you..?!" Mayumi muttered, shocked, and lied herself on the bed, shaking her head very quickly "..alright, I accept you! I don't know why are you repeating the same words, but if this is going to stop this goddamn pain.. I accept you!"

"..are you saying this from bottom of thy heart?"

"What..?!"

"..is this your mouth, or your heart speaking? Do thou truly accept the fact that I am thou!"

Mayumi stopped a bit. She wasn't sure what is that voice talking about. I am thou? What does it even mean?

"..alright"

Kasai's house

8:15 P.M

"Just take mine" Kasai said as he open his wardrobe.

"Really, Lakura-san?" Kou answered as he strugglingly took blue sleeping pants and white shirt.

"Sure" Kasai said calmly "Your futon's right here" he pointed at the green futon.

"Will you eat your supper tonight, boys?" They heard a voice from the corridor. An old woman with middle-length grey hair entered the room.

Kou just shook his head, as he wasn't that hungry to eat. Kasai did the same but the woman simply grabbed him by the ear.

"No, no, Kasai-chan, your doctor will get angry after seeing that you've lost weight again" grey-haired woman said while trying to force him to come with her.

"Oba-chan, I'm not that hu-" Kasai muttered while trying to hold back. Despite him being taller than his grandma, the woman didn't even stop.

"..I'm making your favourite ramen~" His grandma said and smiled. Kasai immediately rushed to the kitchen with happy expression.

"I WON'T LET IT GET COLD!" He yelled and rushed. Before he left the room, he looked at Kou "..you should go sleeping now.. I'll come back later.. much later"

"..sure" Keiko's brother answered and closed the door. After a while of looking at the sky through the window, he lied on the futon and fell asleep.

Keiko's house

8:54 P.M

"Have you been thinking about why Kou is able to interact with this world now?" Keiko asked as she closed the door to her room and changed into her pyjama.

"Tried to, but I can't find a proper reason why would he" Wendy answered, standing near her.

"Did you see any changes on him? Like..?"

"He did seem more.. alive" Wendy said.

"Well, if he was a ghost.." Keiko lied herself on the bed, Wendy just standing near it "You can sit here, you know"

"Only if you want me to do so" Her doll-like Persona answered and sat near her. For obvious reasons, Keiko didn't even felt Wendy when she sat, touching her legs with her body.

"In any way.. why do you say he seems more alive now?" Keiko asked, and yawned.

"Before all this, I could see him as.. something" Wendy said "..but soon, I started to see him the same way like you, Kasai, or Mayumi"

"Like us.." Keiko muttered "..maybe he just became more.. human?"

"Why do you think so?"

Keiko just sighed "It was going through my head for quite some time.." she said and yawned again "..what if Kou isn't Kou?"

"Kou isn't Kou.. do you mean tha-"

"He left my room without any memories, knew that he's just a brother, and his appearance doesn't seem to be natural" Keiko explained "I don't want to say it so bluntly, but.. I think he's just a piece of my dream that eventually started to believe that it's human"

"I've got it now" Wendy said "At first he was 'something', just because I couldn't identify him either as a human, shadow or even a Persona"

"Still.. I don't think I want to tell him this"

"Why?"

"I-I mean not now" Keiko muttered "..mostly because it's just a theory, but sooner or later I'll tell him the truth"

"If you say so" Wendy said, and watched her other self slowly falling asleep.

April 15th

7:43

"You heard it? Dude's not dead, but not alive at the same time!"

"Really? How?"

"He just went asleep, and can't wake up now.. like some kind of endless coma"

"Why won't he wake up?"

"Doctors already said that he won't"

"Rumors have already appeared.." Keiko said and sighed "Hey, Kasai?"

"Yeah?" He muttered and sat near the desk.

"How's Kou doing?" Keiko said "Any problems with hi-"

"Hey guys!" they heard Mayumi's voice from behind. She seemed much more alive and cheerful than before.

"Ough.." Keiko said as she heard ringing in her head. Mayumi for sure was loud when being cheerful "Hey, Mayumi-san"

"Something happened?" Kasai asked.

"Oh, I haven't told you" Brown-haired girl said and went closer to them "So, Kei-chan already told me about getting tired when using Personas for too long.."

"You're right" Frizzy-hair said "..and?"

Girl in green tie sighed "..you should fight them without Personas! I mean, if you're ti-"

"W-woah, hold the freaking phone" Kasai said and raised his eyebrows "WITHOUT Personas?!"

"..Mayumi-san already explained it to me earlier" Keiko said and smiled a bit "Instead of using or Personas all the time, we can save them to the stronger shadows"

"And how would we fight Shadows without them?" Kasai said, still not thinking much.

"..we can buy something at blacksmith's" Keiko said, while Mayumi smiled.

"Yeah.. don't worry about is it legal or not, no one will even see it if we'll just hide it.. here!" Mayumi said and then showed everyone a big dark blue bag.

"T-that's pretty large" Kasai said "..so something like sword or blade, right?"

Mayumi and Keiko nodded.

"Alright" Kasai looked at his thin arms "I just hope there will be something light enough for me"

"Right?" Keiko smiled and looked at her own arms. She had a pretty normal figure, but like Kasai, she wasn't sure will she be able to handle a weapon made from steel or other metal.

"Let's discuss it after lessons" Mayumi said and went away "See ya guys"

"See you" Keiko muttered and looked at Kasai "So.. what about Kou?"

"He's alright" Kasai answered "He'll write the entrance exam few days later, so at first he just asked me where the library is. Although he got an uniform from school"

*RIIIIING!*

"Oh god" Kasai looked at the clock. The teacher will come here soon.

"Hello everybody" they heard a loud voice.

"OH GOD" Kasai said and blushed.

An adult entered the room. It was a middle-aged man with auburn middle-length hair, reaching his chin. He had brown eyes, and was wearing a blue shirt with blue tie, as well as black pants. The man smiled and sat on his own desk.

"Seems like your teacher had.." He said and gulped, embarrassed. His voice seemed to be in very low tone, despite his calm-looking expression "..a terrible accident"

Everyone gave him a smirk.

"In any way, I'm your new homeroom teacher" The man said and adjusted his tie "I'm normally teaching world history, but I'm also a supervisor of Cantonese language club"

"S-sir!" one of the female students asked. She had a strange look in her eyes, and the others already recognized that she is charmed with his appearance.

"Yes?"

"You still haven't said your name, sir"

"Oh, that's right" He said and chuckled, before moving to his desk calmly, and placing his hands on it.

"Why do I feel that I know him from somewhere..?" Keiko muttered.

"I'm Tatsu-" before the auburn-haired man ended, Keiko looked at him, already knowing his name.

"SUOU?!" Keiko yelled, looking at him. After a while, she noticed whole class looking at her, while the teacher just raised his eyebrows, surprised.

"Yes..?" The teacher said, looking rather shocked "My surname is Suou.. do I know you?"

"E-er.. umm.." Keiko blushed, while the class already started to gossip "M-my frien- I-I mean not a friend.."

"Hey, calm down there!" Tatsuya said to the class, as the others started to gossip about her and the homeroom teacher.

"..m-my guardian! My guardian knew someone with this name, b-but I never saw him" Keiko said and looked away.

"Oh, really?" Tatsuya chuckled "I'm surprised that someone knew me.. but if so, this person must be old.. In any way" he said and stood up "In any way.. we'll start now.. I will be replacing your world history teacher, so I have to know how far you made it in the books"

"Greek history and gods, sir" Mayumi said. Tatsuya nodded.

"Very well. I like it a bit.." Their teacher said and opened the book "Let's start with something simple.. tell me the god, or a creature from mythology you like the most, and describe him a bit.. that will do"

Class nodded and quickly started to read. Keiko was painfully reading the history book, stopping near the gods appearing in the latin poems.

Five minutes later

"Alright, let's start!" Tatsuya said and clapped with his hands "Let's start with.. you" he added, pointing at Kasai.

Kasai gulped "W-well.. I think that my favourite creature from the greek mythology is Argus"

"Let's hear about him" Suou said and let him continue.

"Argus was a giant who had fifty pairs of eyes" Kasai said "When Zeus had a romance with Io, Hera started to think that her husband may cheat on her. Zeus quickly transformed Io into a heifer, but Hera asked him to give her to her as a gift. Zeus agreeded, and Argus was the one that was watching over Io. To get her back, Zeus sent Hermes, who used his flute to force Argus to sleep, making Hermes able to get Io back"

"Very nice!" Tatsuya clapped with his hands "Let's say.. what's your name?"

"K-Keiko Nasura" dark-haired girl anwsered.

"Have you made your choice? Who do you like the mo-"

"It will be Morpheus" Keiko answered, and didn't even wait for Tatsuya to let her talk "Morpheus was the son of Hypnos, god of sleep, so his son became a god of dreams. Morpheus was able to disguise as anyone, and in the sleep he was always visible as the one you love"

"Or rather, Chinyan" Tatsuya said and smiled. The others looked at him with raised eyebrows "It's from Cantonese, and it means lover, or darling. Very good job, Nasura"

"Yessir" Keiko answered and sat down. "Sir.. can I have a question?"

"Of course!" Tatsuya answered "That's what I'm here for, at least"

"Who is your favourite greek god?"

"This is rather easy" The teacher said and smiled again "It will be Apollo.. the god of art, but soon her overshadowed Helios, becoming also a god of rising sun. He was also known for giving Orpheus a small golden lyre, which he quickly mastered"

Keiko nodded, and started to listen to him again.

After the lessons

"Alright, can we go?" Kasai asked.

"Let's take Kou first" Keiko muttered and walked through the corridor "He's attending..?"

"1-F" Kasai answered and moved with her and Mayumi "Let's hope nothing bad happe-"

They stopped when they noticed a bunch of juniors standing around a kneeling person, who seemed to be bullied.

"What will you say now, new kid?"

"Yeah, eat it!" bully said and kicked him into the face. The junior fell onto the ground, and Keiko noticed a bit of a brown shining hair.

"KOU!"

"Wha-" Before one of the bullies ended, he got pushed away as Keiko punched him with full force using her mechanical forearm. Hard metal hit his jaw, causing the bully to fell onto the wall.

"N-Nasura-san..?" Kou muttered and wiped his nose, which seemed to be covered in blood.

"What do you want, chick?" Someone said "We're just having fu-"

"Fun?!" She yelled and bursted him into the wall. Another bully felt the tough metal of her forearm, and Kasai with Mayumi could only hope they won't hear bone-breaking sound.

"This kid here.." Keiko said as she helped Kou to stand up "..despite his surname, is my brother, and you can see what happened to the ones who bullied him" she added, and saw bullies shaking, mostly from fear as they never saw a female student being so strong.

"S-sure, Miss"

"..take it as an advise" Keiko said "Now go before I'll change my mind about you"

"Y-yes ma'am!" They yelled and quickly ran away.

"I.. never thought she can be that pissed off" Mayumi said and walked to her.

"Who were these guys?" Keiko said, and took a handkerchief only to wipe Kou's nose.

"My.. classmates.."

Keiko sighed "Imbeciles.. attacking my brother.." she said "..they broke your nose"

"I-It's nothing bad, Nasura-san" Kou said "I-I'm sure you and your friends have to do something.. I'll see you tomo-"

"No way" Keiko said "I'm not going to allow you meet this guys again today.. come with us"

"C-can I..?" He asked, shocked a bit.

"Why wouldn't you?" She giggled.

"Yeah, man" Kasai said and rubbed his shoulder "Also, you can stay at my home during school until your entrance exam"

"R-really, guys?!" Kou said and then smiled weakly "T-thank you.. thank you all"