As the train hit a small bump, a teenager in a high school uniform opened his eyes, looking quietly out the window in front of him and staring into the sprawling city.
Tokyo.
He could already tell it was going to be hard to get used to the bustling and crowded labyrinth that would be his home for the next year, but the boy supposed he didn't exactly have a choice.
Akira realized he was getting very familiar with the feeling of 'not having a choice.'
The instant after that court ended and he officially became a criminal, his life had been stuck on rails, and no longer was he in control- an ironic position for him to be in.
After all, he was probably the most singularly powerful person in the world, yet his entire life had already been laid out and stained by that charge.
Something he hadn't even done, barring any possibility of success in his future.
His face curled into a grimace, and he clicked his tongue quietly.
With a stray thought and small impulse, he manifested his ability, having it appear directly in front of him, trying to take his mind off more bitter memories.
An intimidating figure, about two meters tall and wearing flamboyant crimson clothing styled after some kind of nineteenth-century gentleman, appeared in front of him. Complete with perfectly ironed slacks and a doublet inlaid with golden embroidery, a handkerchief around its neck, and a tophat above it all, the clothing suggested a man of wealth, status, and grace.
But the creature's skin was as black as ebony, its long fingers clawed sharply at their ends, its eyes and cruelly smirking mouth glowed a harsh red from within, and two black horns curled away from its forehead.
Akira had always thought the creature to be some kind of demon that was possessing him somehow. There wasn't any other kind of logical explanation, and the creature certainly looked like a demon.
Though, if the creature was a demon, it was a very quiet and obedient one. It would follow any instructions Akira had and would move to fulfill his will at just a thought, even reacting suddenly to protect Akira from any surprise attacks and threats.
The figure was much stronger than any normal human, able to tear through wooden furniture like tissue paper, and it was incredibly fast, moving in a blur of motion that Akira could barely track with his eyes.
Which brought up another interesting point; nobody other than Akira had ever been able to see the strange creature.
After manifesting it for the first time when he was young, he immediately realized that only he could see it. While using it in day-to-day life, nobody looked at the demonic figure and screamed or ran away, they just ignored it completely. The boy realized he could have probably proved its existence by making it pick up a few objects and move them around, but he decided not to. That would just stir up too much unnecessary attention, and Akira hated being in the spotlight.
Eventually, it just became another fact of his life. The fact that he had an invisible demon inside his body he could control.
Yes. Somehow, that became normal.
Akira settled on a name for the creature, after years of living with it. However, the name was not based on any kind of demon or evil being. Instead, he named it based on those gentlemanly clothes and posture, along with the unique ability this creature had.
Akira named it Arsene, after a master thief from an old novel.
The name was a bit strange, but Akira liked it. -A mindset which basically summed up his entire relationship with the strange creature.
Suddenly, an announcement from the train's speakers cut through Akira's thoughts, and he unsummoned Arsene.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for riding with us today. We will be arriving in Shibuya shortly."
"This is the last stop for this line. Please transfer here for all subway lines."
...And he had finally arrived in Shibuya. Great.
Akira picked up his bag, which had been sitting on the ground beside his leg, and placed it into his lap, stretching out his arms to work out the kinks in his back. It had been a long trip, for sure.
He was getting a little apprehensive about meeting his new caretaker, the person he would be living with for the next year during his probation.
"The doors to your left will open."
As he walked through the station, crowded with so many people it felt almost hard to breathe, Akira was quiet.
The boy was lost in thought, remembering the night everything had started going wrong.
How he had intervened between a man forcing himself onto a woman. How his sudden rage at that man had manifested, making Arsene take action to shove the offender backward and onto the ground, breaking his arm.
He was sued, tossed aside by his parents who never cared much for him anyways, abandoned by all those distant classmates, and thrown to the wolves.
It was all just a blur after that. One long nightmare, with him being roughly forced forwards and into this powerless situation.
Akira grit his teeth and wiped his eyes, blinking frantically to get rid of the sudden upwelling of moisture. This was no time to be wallowing in self-pity. He needed to get to his new home and settle in. Maybe try and put everything behind him and have a nice, peaceful year in school.
Maybe it would be a fresh start, without those old prejudices that had built up around him over the years. Even though he was on probation, and all the school faculty would know about his record, none of the students would. This might be his opportunity to finally make a friend!
He grinned to himself, just a little sarcastically, and pulled out his phone. The station was massive, and he needed to get a map to find the right subway line.
But as he entered the enormous and bustling Shibuya Crossing and took a look at his phone, his eyes widened and he let out an exclamation of shock, almost dropping the appliance to the pavement.
After all, there was some sort of alien creature, latched onto the side of his phone!
It had skin checkerboarded white and black, with glowing yellow eyes, a metallic sheen, and entirely wrapped in deep navy blue fabric. Overall, it seemed to be about five or six centimeters tall.
Akira made eye contact with it, and it instantly started scampering onto his phone, trying to do… something, with the screen.
He immediately summoned Arsene, and with a soundless cry, the demon tried to grab the strange blue creature but was too slow.
The teenager watched as the tiny creature seemed to melt into his phone screen, becoming translucent as it merged with the phone.
"...What the fuck?"
A new application suddenly appeared in the home menu- with some kind of black and red eye icon.
Akira immediately deleted it.
He wanted nothing to do with whatever that just was.
His life was crazy enough at the moment and he didn't want anything to do with random strange creatures.
...Even if they gave off the exact same feeling as Arsene.
The boy sighed.
Already, this trip was turning out to be more troublesome than expected.
Author's Note:
First, I'm gonna clarify that this is around the length I'll be writing the future chapters. The prologue was just a bit of a snapshot into Akira's backstory, so it was much shorter than normal. Chapters for this fic will be 1,000-2,000 words, which does sound a little short, but I'll be trying to put out updates frequently.
Another thing to note is yes, we will be seeing some JJBA characters since everything here is based in the same universe. I'm not going to say how or when this will happen, but it probably won't be soon. There's no reason for anybody to be searching for the phantom thieves right now. Mainly because the phantom thieves don't actually exist yet.
That said, I'm trying to make it so you don't actually need any foreknowledge of Persona or JJBA in order to read this fic, so if you just somehow stumbled into this fandom and randomly clicked on this, don't worry! You'll hopefully be able to understand everything.
But for Jojo fans reading this, here's the stand stats for Arsene. I'm not gonna say what unique ability it has yet, but I think I've already given you a pretty nice clue in this chapter.
Stand Name: Arsene
Stand Master: Akira Kurusu
Power: C
Speed: B
Range: C
Durability: D
Precision: B
Growth Potential: A