A.N. (2/22/21) - Future meets past is a more accurate title.

Persona (42) - Future Past

"That's strange…" The boy muttered under his breath as he felt the strange presence coming from somewhere deeper in the dungeon.

The girl next to the boy looked at him. "What's strange?"

"Nothing, it's just…" his words trailed off for a moment. "My Persona, it feels weird."

"Well yeah," the girl laughed. "Makes sense with this situation. Everything about this is weird, nothing new there."

"That's not what I meant."

She gave him a curious look. "Then what do you mean?"

His face turned to one of confusion. "It's like my Persona is telling me there's another one like it."

}-{

"Your memories are gone?"

Nagi was currently conversing with the two people he met in the dungeon. So far, they've exchanged pleasantries and were now telling each other what they knew about how they got here.

"Yes," Rei confirmed. "We don't know how or why, but we want to get out of here too."

Nagi didn't know what to make of them. "Well, let's find the other person in here first. Afterward, we'll take a break and I'll take you guys back to the Velvet Room."

"Hey! I think there are some more people here."

The sudden voice made Nagi turn to look into the distance. Somebody had appeared from around the corner and spotted them.

"Wait a minute…"

But Nagi wasn't paying attention to what the other person was saying. Because all he could do was stare in shock at the person before him.

It was him, but different somehow. The person who looked like him was taller and closer to the age he was when he died. He was dressed in casual clothes that looked nice on him, but Nagi focused on the one trait that he knew meant nothing but trouble.

That being the pair of yellow eyes on the Older-Nagi's face.

"Oh my gosh, you're so cute!"

And Nagi's mind went blank as the person in front of him suddenly enveloped him in a hug.

"This is amazing," the other person cried out. "I figured something like this might happen since Takuto was here, but it really is incredible."

"Y-You… but…" Nagi tried to understand what was going on. "You're me!"

Wait, was that safe to say? Nagi didn't know for sure if he was actually meeting his own Shadow or not, but he knew better than to speak with them if they were.

"Of course I'm you," the other person laughed. "But don't let my handsome yellow eyes fool you, I'm not a Shadow if that's what you're worried about."

Nagi was still skeptical but curious about what he meant. "Then who are you?"

The other person laughed again. "I'm you, but from the future. Eight years to be exact."

"Nagi," Rei's voice called out from behind them. "Is that somebody you know?"

"I-I think so?" He shook his head and removed himself from the other person's grasp. "Tell me something that only I would know."

The Older-Nagi tilted his head at that. "I'm not really sure how that'll help, since if I were a Shadow I'd also know everything about you."

"You might just be a Shadow that took on my appearance."

"Oh, that makes sense." The other person snapped his fingers as he said that. "Well, I know for a fact that you once cross-dressed for the school play as Freedert."

Nagi's eyes bulged at that. "I did what?!"

A frown crossed the other person's face. "That hasn't happened yet, has it? Wait, I'll think of something else."

"No, I'm pretty sure you just said something incredible there."

"I got it," the other person exclaimed. "You once gave Valentine's chocolate to Igor."

"Igor?" The voice of another person shocked Nagi, and he turned and saw several more people walk towards them. "Huh, that actually seems like a good idea. I should remember to do that when the time comes."

"Hey, Yu." Older-Nagi waved at the silver-haired boy and gestured towards the younger Nagi. "Look at what I found. Can we keep him?"

Nagi's gaze was focused on the other boy of their group. "Takuto?!"

"Nagi!" The bespeckled boy blinked once he saw him. "Huh, so you really are here too. Guess future-you was right after all."

"So he really is from the future…" Nagi finally looked closely at his future self.

Everyone looked at the two as they circled around each other. The two of them, one with silver eyes and the other yellow, appraised the other with an amused look on them.

Nagi (Y) poked at the other person's arm. "Those muscles, that is proper conditioning. Toned and not excessively large."

Nagi (O) laughed and flexed his biceps. "Yup, look forward to that in a couple of years. But you're getting quite the workout now aren't you Mister I-Work-For-Phantom-Dark."

Nagi (Y) looked away and blushed. "Still have room to grow…"

Nagi (O) ruffled the younger boy's hair. "Don't worry. Your growth spurt is about to hit you soon."

Next to them, everyone sweatdropped as they watched the two interact with each other.

Yu took a step forward. "Can we please leave this for later? Let's all head on up first before we talk."

Nagi (Y) looked at Yu when he said that. "We were searching for somebody who screamed earlier. Was that one of you…?"

"Ah yeah," Takuto admitted. "That was me."

Nagi sighed at that. "Great, guess we're done for now."

}-{

"How about… Nagisa?"

The younger boy shook his head at that. "I think I should be the one called Nagi. What about you? Do you have a name in mind?"

The older Nagi thought about it for a moment. "Well, if you still remember the reference, then I could go by Negi."

It took a moment for younger Nagi to recall what he was talking about. "Springfield?"

"Hey, you do remember!" The older boy exclaimed. "Right, I'll just add Uncle's name to that and we're good."

The two nodded at that and turned to the others. "Okay, it's official. Younger Nagi will keep his name while older Nagi will temporarily be called Negi Nishizawa."

"Can somebody please just tell us what is going on now?" a girl in green muttered.

Nagi, Takuto, Rei, and Zen were currently in front of the entrance to the You In Wonderland dungeon with the rest of the P4 cast plus Negi. That was something that took Nagi by surprise, especially when he met Rise.

The girl took one glance at him and squealed as loud as she could. Negi only looked at her with a bright smile and a face that said 'I know, right?'

"Okay," Negi began. "So since I'm pretty sure I have a good idea what's going on, I'll start off introductions."

Gesturing towards Nagi, he said, "That's me from eight years ago when I was still in middle school in his time."

Next, he pointed towards Takuto. "That's Takuto Maruki, one of my friends from 2003 who goes to the same school I did."

Pointing to himself, he said, "I'll temporarily go by the name Negi Nishizawa for now, to differentiate from my past self. Currently, I am from the year 2011 and the most experienced Persona-user in this group so far."

"I think I'll take it from here." Yu took a step forward after he said that. "My name is Yu Narukami, and the leader of the Investigation Team. I'm a second-year at Yasogami High School."

"My name's Yosuke Hanamura," another boy introduced himself. "I'm also a second-year at like him, and I guess you can say I'm Yu's partner."

The girl in green from earlier spoke next. "Um, I'm Chie Satonaka. I'm a second-year too."

"I'm Yukiko Amagi," a girl in red spoke after Chie. "I'm a second-year in the same class as the others."

"My turn!" Rise's voice cheerfully echoed. "I'm Rise Kujikawa, and I'm actually a first-year. I'm cousins to Nagi, and I guess Negi in this case, and I'm not a combatant like the others. I'm more of a Navigator."

"Uhh, I'm Kanji Tatsumi…" a tough-looking guy said. "And I'm the number two blond in our group—"

"Dude that joke is getting old," Yosuke interjected. "Besides, nobody else is gonna get the reference."

Kanji's face blushed. "Sh-Sh-Shut up!"

The person wearing a blue cap introduced themselves next. "I am Naoto Shirogane. It's nice to meet you."

"Last but not least, I'm Teddie." The mascot-like character cheerfully introduced itself. "The local mascot of Junes, the pride of Yasoinaba. And the true number two blond—"

"What," Kanji exclaimed. "No, you're not!"

"You're just a cheater who dyed their hair. It doesn't count."

"Senpai said that I'm the number two, and you also cheated when you grew yourself a body."

The two continued to bicker in the background, and everyone sweatdropped.

"I'm Rei," the shy girl introduced herself next. "I-It's nice to meet you all."

"I'm Zen," the other boy simply said.

Everyone just stared at each other for a moment after that.

Nagi awkwardly smiled. "This is sooo weird."

"But also awesome," his future self followed up and proceeded to wrap his arms around his younger self. "I mean, how is it not cool that I can hug myself like a hug pillow."

"Speaking of which," Nagi started. "How are you all here? I remember getting summoned to the Velvet Room, but what about you guys?"

"We were just in the middle of the culture festival when Margaret told us that something strange was going on," Negi explained. "And once we exited, we found ourselves here."

"We're thinking of investigating the labyrinth and seeing if there's a clue in there," Yu added. "Hopefully we can figure out a way for us to return to our original worlds."

Nagi looked at his older self after Yu finished speaking. "Wouldn't you know? You've done this already, what happens next?"

"I don't remember."

Nagi gave him an incredulous look. "How could you forget all of this?!"

"Hey," Negi complained. "It's not my fault. If anything, I should be blaming you if you weren't able to remember this for me."

A worry crept into his heart. "This isn't a parallel timeline situation, is it?"

Negi looked like he was thinking about it for a moment. "Doubt it, probably just had my memory erased."

"How'd you figure?"

"Oh," and Negi gave a suspicious smile. "I have a few reasons."

I apologize for the introductions taking up the majority of the chapter, hope it wasn't too bad.

There's a reason I made future Nagi's eyes a different color, and he won't be the only version of Nagi with different eye colors. I won't be explaining what they mean currently, so just use them to differentiate between the different Nagis.