Like I said in the last chapter, I'm writing a bunch of the chapters in bulk. To put this in perspective, at the time of me writing this, I just finished writing Chapter 1 literally just an hour ago (at 1 AM, but a healthy sleep-schedule that's scientifically proven to help with just about everything related to physical and mental health can't be that important, can it? /s).

On another note, I've joined a group of writers on an Alternate History project called "Reds!: A Revolutionary Timeline", where America turned communist in the early-30's, leading to a slightly different WW2 and a drastically different Cold War. We've got Britain & France uniting into a single country, Monarchist Brazil, partitioned Italy, Australian anime, independent Newfoundland, an American Taiwan in Cuba, India as the global superpower, the works. It can get very weird and I love it. Helps that it's legitimately well-written, too. You can find it on the Sufficient Velocity forums if you want to check it out for yourself.

But we're here to read a Persona fic, not a HoI4 fanfic. So let's get to what you're actually here for.

Sunday, March 3rd, 2024
Morning
Tashiro Residence

Shouma walked out into the dining area still in his pajamas, and meeting with Daigo and his father. "Morning." He chimed. He then quickly noticed something about Daigo, his left arm was now in a sling.

"Nii-san! Are you okay?!" He ran forward to take a look.

"I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me." Daigo replied, though winced almost immediately after. "I just... had an accident when I was out last night."

Shouma slowly sat down at the table, still looking at Daigo's arm. "You've gotta be more careful, Daigo. You can't scare the shit out of us like that."

"I told you, don't worry about me." Daigo snapped back. "It's nothing."

Wataru looked around frantically, desperate to change the conversation. "Um... I-I made bacon and eggs?" He then came out of the kitchen and into the dining area with three plates of breakfast before sitting down at the end of the table.

"By the way, Shouma. You might want to show up to college later today to finish off the paperwork and let them know you've made it." He suggested. "Otherwise you'll have to do it tomorrow on your first day!"

Shouma swallowed the fried egg in his mouth and cleared his throat. "Sure. I'll go get dressed right now." He left the table & headed down the hallway, though instead hid behind the wall to eavsedrop on Daigo and Wataru's conversation.

"He's getting too curious." Daigo spoke quietly.

Wataru deeply sighed. "The fact you got involved in this whole shadow business is already more than enough for my liking, I'd rather not have another son put his life on the line like that."

Shadow business? Shouma had no idea what any of what they were saying meant. Was Daigo involving himself with criminals?

"We've already let too much slip." Wataru grimaced. He then looked intently at his eldest son. "Daigo. I want you to promise me something. Whatever happens, make sure to protect Shouma by any means necessary."

Daigo nodded. "Of course. You know better than anyone how much he means to me." He answered with the utmost conviction.

Shouma quietly slipped off to his room to get changed, his mind working in overdrive trying to make sense of what he just heard. No matter what angle he approached it at, nothing made sense. All he was able to piece together is that it was something important if both his father and brother were so willing to cover up an injury that bad, and that was kind of obvious. He shook his head and resolved to think about it later.

A few minutes later, he was wearing a black cuffed blazer adorned with each of the four suits of playing cards over a white shirt and black pants. He also grabbed his watch and put it on.

Shouma exited his room, walking past the minefield of his still-unpacked bags and suitcase and into the dining area.

Wataru chuckled. "Well, I know you want to make a good first impression, but are you sure you want to go out dressed like... that?"

Shouma didn't respond. He just turned his attention to Daigo.

"What are you looking at me for?" Daigo asked.

"...No reason." Shouma coyly replied. "Anyway, you know the way to the campus?"

"Just head to the metro east of here. It's right near the drugstore, you can't miss it." Wataru replied.

"Got it." Shouma grabbed a backpack and exited into the apartment lobby. Until suddenly...

"Oh Shouma! How's my little pet doing?"

He was immediately filled with a chilling sense of dread gnawing at his very being as he heard the voice of a beast most foul and terrifying right behind him. His hair stood on end, his pupils contracted and his body began violently shaking as he slowly turned his head around. "H-H-Hi... Susie..." He desperately tried to make a natural-looking smile, but he was failing. Badly.

"I see you're going out to explore this wonderful city! Well ain't that a treat?" She chimed in a shrill voice. "Now before you go, I got you something if you ever get hungry!" She held out a brown paper bag towards Shouma. "Whatd'ya think?"

"What are they?" Asked Shouma hesitantly, simply standing there like a deer in the headlights.

"They're butterscotch cookies I made yesterday. I made them with my patented secret ingredient!" She hobbled closer to Shouma and leaned in to whiper something into his ear. "I think I can trust you with that secret, though. The secret ingredient is love."

"R-Right..." Shouma stuttered, clearly very uncomfortable at the situation. He took the bag of cookies, his hand trembling with fear all the while. "T-Thank you." He blurted out before running way at top speed.

"What a polite young man." Susie smiled to herself.

St. Bradley

Shouma managed to slow down and catch his breath. He looked behind him and saw the beach off in the distance, its shimmering surface reflecting the light of the sun back out into the city. He began walking east towards the metro station, as his mind began to wander back to Daigo's injury. What was really going on here? Did he & their father really not trust him enough to let him help them?

Before Shouma knew it, he was at the entrance to the metro, which he found was absolutely covered with litter. After making his way to the bottom, he found the ticket dispenser and paid for a one-day ticket before standing just in front of the railing at the end of the platform.

A few minutes later, Shouma was playing with his watch again when he noticed a slim-looking girl who seemed to be around his age. She had neck-length black hair with short bangs at the front and hazel eyes. She was wearing a red hoodie with the hood down and beige pants. Shouma walked forward slightly and sat on a bench near the edge of the platform.

"I take it you're enrolling at Camus, too?" She asked him.

"Hm? Oh, yeah." Shouma replied. "Just moved here from Osaka yesterday."

The woman's eyebrows raised. "Someone else from Japan, huh? I came from Tsushima about a year ago, myself." She nervously walked over to Shouma and sat next to him. "I'm studying medicine. You?"

"Liberal Arts." Shouma scratched the back of his head. "Thought an all-round degree would be the best option for me."

"I see." The woman replied. The two of them then sat in awkward silence for about a minute. Both of them looking around, desperate to think of something to say.

"I'm Shouma, by the way." Shouma held out his hand for a handshake, though looked away awkwardly.

"Sadako." The woman replied, as she reached out for Shouma's hand and shook it before likewise looking away from him.

Almost as if arriving to break the tension, the train rolled up to the platform, people quickly rushing in the moment the doors opened. "Thank you for boarding Los Angeles Metro." The automated voice blared over the loudspeaker. "Those en route to... East Los Angeles... please board now."

"You heading to campus?" Shouma asked, pointing at the train.

"No." Sadako replied. "Just waiting for someone." She looked down towards her feet, as if trying to avoid eye contact.

"Right... Well I'd better get going, so uh... see ya." Shouma made his way onto the train and held onto one of the straphangers before it began to head north towards East Los Angeles.

Shouma pulled out his phone to check for any news and texts he may have gotten. Nothing interesting or important. Must have been a pretty slow day. He looked around at the interior of the carriage. It was nothing like the trains back home. He was reminded of all the times he had gotten on the city subway back in Osaka and how cramped and claustrophobic it was in comparison to this, and Osaka was considered lax back in Japan.

That was one aspect of home he absolutely wouldn't miss.

Midday
East Los Angeles

Shouma exited the train and onto the platform, when he noticed an argument breaking out a few feet away from the terminal.

"Quit lyin', you fucking moron! I know you did it on purpose!" Yelled an older man.

"I'm telling you, I tripped! It was an accident!" A younger man cried, clearly panicked. He was backing up from the prior man's outburst.

Shouma got a good look at him. He was a slim man who looked about his age. He wore his long, dark brown hair in a ponytail and had a scruffy goatee along his chin, as well as brown eyes. He was wearing a dark green jacket that was covered with various patches over a white t-shirt, dark grey cargo pants and red sneakers.

"Cut it with the bullshit, kid!" The older man snapped angrily. "Do you have any idea how much it costs to get this suit ironed?!"

Shouma walked between the two men. "Is there a problem?" He rhetoricacally asked, glaring daggers at the older man.

"You wanna know the damn problem? This piece of shit poured his milkshake over my $185 suit!" The older man was now utterly fuming.

The younger man tried to rebutt. "I tripped! I didn't even-"

"Shut the hell up, you fucking liar!" The older man screamed, shaking with rage.

Shouma quickly looked around. People around him had pulled out their phones to record what was going to happen. "I really couldn't care less if it was an accident or not, you're just being a prick for the sake of it." He bluntly told him.

"What's that?!" The man held up his fists as if ready to fight. "You wanna go, huh? Is that it?!"

Without breaking eye-contact, Shouma dropped his backpack. "Ready when you are." He didn't feel confident at all in his odds of winning a fight. The man was bigger, and probably stronger than him. But he wasn't going to back down just because of that.

The man sneered at him. "Tch! Whatever... Fucking dipshits..." He snarled before angrily walking away.

All bark, no bite.

Shouma looked over to the younger man that was harassed. "You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah. Thanks for that by the way. Man, I have the worst luck..." He replied, breathing a sigh of relief. He looked over at Shouma's bag. "Judging from that, you're enrolling at the college too?" He inquired.

"Well, we have a regular Sherlock Holmes here." Shouma said facetiously. "By the way, where's that accent from? Haven't heard that before." He asked.

The man looked puzzled. "You've never heard a Jamaican accent before?"

Shouma shook his head. "Can't say I have." He then walked ahead towards the west. "You coming with?"

"O-Oh, right." The man caught up with Shouma and began walking alongside him. "I'm Piers. Piers Fils-Amie."

Shouma looked back at him. "Shouma Tashiro. What brings you to L.A.?" He asked.

"My folks move around for work a lot." Piers sighed. "We only managed to settle down here after burning through like half the world. Kingston, New Dehli, Hong Kong, Sydney, Vancouver, it's quite the trip." He showed off the patches on the back of his jacket, which were each based on various cities in the world, including some he didn't mention earlier like Barcelona, Ankara and Monrovia.

"That sounds hard." Shouma almost winced at the logistical nightmare a life constantly on the go would be.

Piers chuckled sardonically. "You have no idea. But I mean, it's not all bad. You meet a lot of people and gain a lot of experiences from it." He then looked ahead and stopped.

"Well, it looks like we're here." He said.

Shouma looked up and saw a massive complex of white concrete buildings about a city-block wide. At the front stood a sign with a logo of a light-blue and yellow butterfly that read "Camus Institute of Higher Learning: Excellence within Community. Since 2011".

College

He breathed in. This was it. This was where he'd be studying for the next three years.

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you." Piers said, walking off. "I'm off to get something to eat before finishing off the rest of my application."

"Right, see ya." Shouma gave a thumbs-up to Piers as the two went in seperate directions. He was then suddenly reminded of the cookies he'd been carring with him since this morning, and immediately shuddered to be reminded of Susie. He pulled out the bag and took one of the cookies out, only to be confused and frightened with what he saw. Was that even a cookie? Shouma wasn't sure that cookies were meant to be so... gooey. But unfortunately, it was still all he had to eat. He shut his eyes and slowly moved the cookie into his mouth. The moment of truth, and...

It was alright. He'd had better, but it wasn't bad either. He folded the bag & put it back into his backpack before walking into the complex proper.

He walked past all the gathering students and faculty members to come across a building labelled "Reception". Upon entering, he made his way to the desk. "Is this where I fill out the paperwork?" He asked.

"Sure thing." The receptionist ducked under his desk and pulled out a clipboard with a sheet attached to it. "You'll just need to sign here, here and here."

Shouma grabbed a pen and signed in the designated areas when he noticed a chubby old man wearing an expensive-looking suit walking towards him. He was mostly bald, save for some greying sideburns and a beard. Shouma particularly noticed that he had bright green eyes that almost made him fall into the uncanny valley. "So, you're Dr. Tashiro's second son? Shouma, right?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah." Shouma awkwardly shuffled and placed his hands in his pockets.

"Well, it's good to finally meet you!" He grabbed Shouma's hand and shook it with both of his, all while boasting a wide smile. "I'm David Sheppard, the chancellor of this fine university. Wataru always spoke very highly of you."

Shouma looked down at his feet. "Did he now?" He still wasn't quite sure about how to feel towards his father after all these years.

"Of course he did! I mean, what kind of parent would hate their own child?" Sheppard chuckled.

Shouma didn't want to answer that question.

"Anyway, I wish all the best for you at our wonderful school!" Sheppard chimed before walking back to his office.

Shouma picked up on a conversation on the other side of the room.

"Is it just me, or did the chancellor get way older-looking since last year?" A young man asked.

"Now that you mention it, he at least had hair back in September." A woman replied.

"I know, right?!" The young man exclaimed. "What is he, like 48? Looks like time hasn't been kind to him if he looks that old."

Shouma didn't pay much mind to it and left the building and walked out into the carpark, though immediately ducked behind a building when he noticed what was ahead of him.

Daigo was standing there, carrying the golf bag from the night prior. He was surrounded by two other people, whom were talking with him.

One was a blue-eyed girl who looked closer to Shouma's age. She had long honey-blonde hair in a ponytail and two braids at the front, all under a light-blue baseball cap with a white Yankees logo. She was wearing a cyan long-sleeved buttoned shirt with the cuffs rolled back to her forearms and navy-blue minishorts. She seemed to be carrying what looked like a bo staff on her back. She stretched out her legs before standing back up.

The other was a pale, lanky man closer to Daigo's age, with heavy bags under his scowling hazel eyes and short messy black hair. He wore a black hoodie over an orange shirt and brown pants. Unlike Daigo and the girl, he wasn't carrying anything. He was trying to shield his eyes from the light of the midday sun.

"Is that everything?" The girl asked. Shouma recognised her voice as the one from the phone call last night.

Daigo nodded. "Should be. Dad's got the rest of it covered financially."

Well, that explained his willingness to cover Daigo this morning, Shouma thought. But what was even going on here?

"Oh hey, it's you again." Shouma quickly turned around in surprise to see Piers, back with a bagel in his hand.

"Ssshhh!" Shouma shushed him and motioned him to stand behind him.

Piers immediately ran behind him, just before the girl looked in their general direction.

"Juniper? What's up?" The man asked.

Juniper shook her head. "Nothing. I just thought I heard something."

"Sorry. What's going on?" Piers whispered.

"That's what I'm trying to find out." Shouma whispered back.

Daigo walked off towards the train station. "Juniper, Lucas, come on. We have to see what's been happening in Agartha."

"Again?" Lucas complained. "We literally just went there yesterday."

"Lucas." Juniper glared at him.

Lucas sighed. "Fine, fine. I'm coming... Downtown, right?" The both of them caught up to Daigo and continued to a red convertable.

Shouma and Piers looked at each other in bewilderment.

"'Agartha'? So, uh... Do you have any idea what anything they said means?" Piers asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Shouma leaned against the wall. "You know the fastest way Downtown?" He asked.

Piers smirked. "I may know a shortcut. Follow me." The two ran in the opposite direction before heading westward, with Shouma filling Piers in on the details along the way.

Afternoon
Downtown Los Angeles

About half an hour later, the two had made it to the centre of the city near the Grand Central Market. Shouma looked around at his surroundings. He'd only seen pictures and videos of the place before, but he was actually seeing it with his own eyes for the first time. It wasn't nearly as packed as Tokyo, or even back home in Osaka, but it still felt quite busy.

"And so you want to help your brother with... whatever it is he's doing?" Piers looked at Shouma proudly. "I'd kill for a sibling half as good as you."

Shouma blushed. "I-It's nothing. Just looking out for the people I have in my life."

Piers chuckled before looking out into the crosswalk. "Okay, now that we're here. Where do we think they're headed?"

Shouma looked to his right. "I don't think we'll have to look very hard." Sure enough, Daigo, Juniper and Lucas were to their south-east. The three entered an alleyway just in front of them.

"Right, go!" Shouma called, as he and Piers sprinted in their general direction. As they made arrived at the alleyway however, their three targets had seemingly vanished.

"Where the hell did they go?" Shouma frantically looked around to see where they could have gone. It was a dead-end.

"Okay, something's not right. People don't just disappear like that!" Piers said, slightly panicking.

Shouma went further in. "Daigo! Nii-san! Where are you?" He called out. No luck.

Piers noticed something along the left side of the wall. "Uh... Shouma?"

"Yeah? What is it?" Shouma ran back to Piers before he saw it.

A crack of white light was shining through the wall like a line. It almost seemed like it was a door. How did they miss this? How did anyone miss this?

Without even thinking, Shouma went to push the "door" open.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" Piers rushed to grab Shouma's hand, but then tripped. Dragging Shouma with him.

"Let go- Woah!" Shouma cried out, as the two of them stumbled through the door.

The two of them were bombarded with flashing lights, almost giving them sensory overload. Before long however, they both landed on the ground.

"Urgh... Where are we?" Piers strained.

Shouma managed to stand up, but froze once he looked up at his surroundings. "Good question."

Agartha

The world around the two of them was a desolate, mountainous wasteland. No signs of life or civilisation for as far as the eye could see.

Well, except for the giant black gothic-looking castle floating upside-down in the air.

"What kinda fresh hell is this?" Shouma asked.

"Hey Shouma," Piers inquired. "...Why are you in black and white?"

Shouma quickly pulled one of his gloves off. Piers was right, it was entirely in greyscale. But he wasn't the only one. "I could ask the same of you."

Piers looked down at his hands and began panicking. "Oh my god, what's going on?"

"Shouma! What are you doing here?!" A familiar voice demanded.

Daigo and his two friends were standing in front of them. Like Shouma and Piers, they too had all become monochrome. Though Shouma didn't recall any of them wearing... were those capes? And why was Daigo wielding a nodachi in his good hand?

"That's your brother, right?" Juniper asked. "How'd he follow us all the way to Agartha?"

Piers sheepily raised his hand. "...I may have helped in that..." Juniper, looking annoyed, raised an eyebrow at Piers.

Shouma moved to meet Daigo closer, his footprints emitting a technicolour light as he walked.. "You were acting suspicious last night and this morning, I need to know what's going on."

"This doesn't concern you, Shouma. Go home, forget this ever happened." Daigo demanded.

"You know full-well that this concerns me, damn it!" Shouma snapped. "You're gonna tell me straight about what's going on here. It's too late to pretend this isn't happening now!"

Piers ran in-between the two brothers. "Woah, woah. Let's not get aggressive here." He bowed before Daigo. "I'm so, so sorry about my friend here. I know he just wanted to help, but I understand we're just getting in the way." He grabbed Shouma by the arm and tried to pull him back off towards the entrance. "So with that, we'll be taking our leave now. If you'll excuse us..."

"Hell no, I'm staying and helping!" Shouma struggled against Piers to stay put, until it was interrupted by Lucas.

"Guys, bad news. Some Shadows are swarming in, maybe even a High Shadow!" He warned.

"Damn, not now!" Daigo cursed. He then looked Shouma dead in the eye. "Shouma, go back now! It's too dangerous for you to be here!"

"I told you, I'm staying!" Shouma yelled.

"Look kid." Juniper said to him. "Unless you have a Persona, you can't do a thing to Shadows. So if you don't run now, chances are you'll probably end up dead."

"'Kid'? We're like the same age!" Shouma rebutted.

Piers backed up. "Good luck with that, I'm out!" He cried before bolting towards the exit. However, he was cut off by a trio of bizarre-looking entities crawling along the sides of the walls. They looked like geckos made of a black, viscous substance with various pieces of scrap-metal and a blue mask with the Roman Numeral "I" on the forehead. The mask was split into two halves horizontally, opening up for a long, dripping tongue to come out, and at the end of their tails sat a machette-like blade.

Piers screamed as he backed up and ran back to the group.

"Crap, they're already here!" Juniper cursed.

Daigo looked behind him to see even more monsters closing in. These ones had the same blue masks as the geckos, but had a purple pumpkin-shaped body with black vines for legs.

"An ambush. There's definitely a High Shadow commanding them." His one-handed grip on his nodachi tightened.

"Well, well, well... What do we have here?" An unearthly voice mused. Right behind the pumpkins came walking in a red and white humanoid figure with a horse head and dark green mane, though he was missing his right arm. "Aren't you all quite the troublemakers?" The horse-headed being laughed for a couple of seconds before his expression turned deadly serious. He then pointed at Daigo, Juniper and Lucas.

"You're all gonna pay for what you did to my arm, you little shits!" He exclaimed.

Shouma stood in front of Daigo and faced down the monster. "Listen, My Little Reject. I don't know who or what you are, but you're gonna back the hell away from my brother or else."

"Shouma! What are you doing?! Get behind me!" Daigo demanded.

The High Shadow chuckled. "What's this? This snot-nosed brat right here is your brother? Ohohoho, this is too EASY!" It laughed.

"You lay a finger on him, and you'll lose more than just your arm." Daigo threatened, holding his sword out in front of Shouma.

"Hmm... You know what? You've got yourself a deal." The High Shadow said coyly.

"Let me guess, you never said anything about the other Shadows." Lucas said cautiously.

"Well, aren't you a smart little meatbag?" The High Shadow taunted. "Sic 'em!" On cue, the shadows all rushed the group.

Daigo turned behind him. "Juniper! Lucas! Let's go!"

His eyes turned gold as he then grabbed his cape and dramatically tore it off

"Persona!" He yelled.

The cape spontaneously caught aflame with a bright-blue fire as it flew up above Daigo. The fire however rapidly expanded to about the size and shape of a tall human, perhaps even taller. The weaker shadows were all blown away onto their backs by the sheer force of the flame.

"Daigo...?" Shouma couldn't believe what he was seeing. Was this magic?

The flame eventually gave way to a figure at least 7 feet tall in a bold red and white coat with long tails that almost seemed to become wings and a metal fan hanging from its belt. On its arms were silver armoured gauntlets that also ended with metal swallow wings at the vambraces. In its hands was a long nodachi, sealed in its black scabbard with a golden dragon motif by a long iron chain binding it to the hilt. Its face was obscured behind a white bird-like helmet with piercing gold eyes a large gash along the left side where the ear would be.

"There it is..." The High Shadow scowled, almost as if it anticipated it.

"I am thou... Thou art I... From the sea of thy soul I come forth." The figure spoke, taking an aggressive stance right behind Daigo.

Daigo held up his own sword and readied it as best as he was able in a single hand. "Come, Kojiro!" He cried, running into battle.

Kojiro dashed forward in the air towards some of the geckos and thrust its sword through its chest at lightning speed. It didn't matter that the blade hadn't even been unsheathed. Another gecko jumped at it while its back was turned, though Kojiro somehow conjured a bolt of lightning to vaporise it in seconds.

Shouma just stood like a deer in the headlights. "I am thou, thou art I.", where had he heard that before. He immediately snapped out of it when he saw one of the pumpkins rushing towards Daigo. "Nii-san behind you!" He yelled.

"On it!" Juniper affirmed, throwing off her cape in a similar manner.

"Seshat!"

The pumpkin was sliced to pieces by a gust of razor-sharp wind almost immediately. Shouma turned around to see another figure like Kojiro standing beside Juniper. It appeared as a woman with skin almost like cut marble who's hair and dress seemed to be made out of papyrus and a belt made of leopard skin, tattooed with what looked like every letter of every alphabet on Earth across her body and seven dark-green horns forming a crown on her head. Around her body hovered a halo made of papyrus with each of the twelve signs of the zodiac. She carried what looked like a palm stem covered head-to-toe in glowing Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Her eyes were hidden behind a blindfold, though a third eye on her forehead shone with the same gold light that emitted from Kojiro's eyes.

"Rgh!" The High Shadow seemed to be getting more agitated by the moment. "Go on, kill those bastards!" It yelled, causing hordes of more pumpkins and geckos to rush in.

Lucas tossed off his own cape.

"Protect us! Atash Behram!"

The blue fire surrounding his cape turned a bright white colour and curled into a platform almost shaped like a lotus made of holy fire. Lucas jumped into it and sat down as it hovered into the air, a force field appearing around the two. More geckos launched themselves at the rest of the group, even Shouma and Piers. As soon as they got close however, they were forced back by a fiery shield. "Iwannagohome, Iwannagohome, Iwannagohome..." Piers repeated over and over again, huddled up on the ground with his eyes closed shut.

"Let me give you a hand!" Yelled Lucas as he held out his hand, creating a ball of energy to sit in it. Kojiro and Seshat both reacted to it, with red energy surging off the both of them. Kojiro then cut four geckos in half in a single strike, before changing its direction almost instantly, slicing through another three without much effort. Juniper was also mowing through the shadows with both her bo-staff and Seshat, as she drove her staff through the mask of one of the geckos.

The High Shadow growled. "Apparently I have to do everything myself around here!" He lept into the air and breathed fire at the group forcing most of them back. He charged right at Daigo and tried to grab him with his remaining arm. Daigo tried to counter with his nodachi, but it was deflected thanks to a lack of power behind the strike, causing him to get grabbed by the neck by the High Shadow. Seemingly due to Daigo being caught off-guard, Kojiro was dispelled.

"Not so tough wielding that sword with only one arm, huh? Guess I really did a number on you yesterday." It tightened its grip around Daigo's neck. Daigo tried to speak, but it all came out garbled and illegible. The High Shadow smirked. "How about we finish the job? Make us even?" It opened its mouth to start a fire breath.

Shouma immediately sprinted towards them. "Daigo!" He wasn't going to lose his brother after all this time. Not again.

"So, this is the answer you have come to..." A voice rang out in Shouma's head. As soon as he heard it, time seemed to stop all around him. He couldn't move a muscle. All he could do was stand mid-dash and look on at the scene around him.

"Who are you?!" He cried out. "Show yourself!"

A shadowy prescence appeared before Shouma. "It is as I told you... I am thou..."

"...And thou art I..." Shouma finished. It was the same being from his dream the prior night. "Wait, what the hell are you?" He asked.

"I am thy other self, thy TRUE self..." It answered. "The mask thou wear to endure thy hardships, the guide to thine truth, thy will to keep on living..."

"Just give me a straight answer! Can you help me or not?!" Shouma was out of patience.

"I can, and I will." It responded. "Though you must tell me, does the path you pursue end in thy ascension? Will you truly forge thine own path with your own strength?"

"Of course." Shouma replied. "Now you have to help me save my brother."

"Excellent..." The figure said excitedly. "Now live up to your potential and send all your enemies to their ends! Call thy name and bear the Mantle of the Sword Saint!"

The figure erupted into blue fire and circled around Shouma. Almost like magic, time began moving again. The flames formed a cape around his neck with a heart brooch around the chain. He threw it off mid-run and screamed the first word that came to his mind.

"PERSONA!"

The resulting shockwave from the fire knocked everyone back, friend and foe. Before it had even finished forming from the fire, Shouma's Persona had cut through lines of shadows in seconds.

"W-What?!" The High Shadow exclaimed.

"Shouma..." Daigo muttered.

Everyone else stood in stunned silence, as the flame formed into a cohesive figure.

A humanoid being 6 feet tall with a black and turqoise coat with silver shoulder pads and a belt adorned by a gold five-ringed chain at the side landed on the ground. It was lightly-armoured, but still seemingly lightweight in its build. In its right hand was a long wooden sword resembling a boat oar with kanji reading "水", meaning water carved into both sides of the blade, and in its left a metal jitte. Its face looked almost human, but its face was obscured by a demonic-looking mask that covered the bottom half of its face, and the top half obscured by long and spiky dark-blue hair in a ponytail, with only its unearthly gold eyes peering through. On the back of its coat was an embroided logo of the number zero.

"I'm done with being fucked around with by everyone." Shouma snarled. He then pointed directly at the High Shadow.

"Cut a path, Musashi!"

To be continued...

Party:

Shouma Tashiro - The Fool

Social Stats:

Moxie: Subdued
Wisdom: Beginner
Charisma: Unremarkable
Empathy: Blunt
Wits: Innocent

Personae:

Musashi (0 - The Fool)

Two chapters in a row done, and I'm on a roll. So, I promised you I'd do segments of Personas when they pop up, and that I shall do.

Musashi, The Sword Saint

Arcana: The Fool

Miyamoto Musashi is a man who needs no introduction. Born in 1584 in Japan's Harima province towards the end of the Sengoku Jidai, Musashi learned swordsmanship from a young age and would go on to use those skills to win over 60 recorded duels during his life. He pioneered his own fighting style: Niten Ichi-ryū or "Two Heavens as One style", where he would wield a katana & wakizashi simultaneously, earning him the title of "Kensei" or "Sword Saint". Later in life, he would retire from being a ronin to become a Monk and write the Book of Five Rings: a text on techniques and strategies to employ with certain martial arts (but particularly swordfighting), as well as some general philosophy stuff.

Also, the reason he has a jitte is because his father, Shinmen Munisai also specialised in using a jitte. If you don't know what that is, google it.

Fun fact, apparently he's more popular in the west than he is in Japan. And isn't Shouma a Japanese man in the United States? Funny that.

Musashi the Persona is a weak, but well-rounded starting Persona kinda like Orpheus, Izanagi or Arsène, although it specialises in Slash and Water-elemental skills like Cleave and Aqua and is weak to both wind and lightning skills.

The reason he uses water is for three main reasons. The first is that in the aforementioned Book of Five Rings, the book of water is about broad strategies and philosophies related to swords in particular, the second is because in his duel with Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryu island, he carved a sword out of the oar of the boat he used to row to the island (after turning up late like a chad), and boats were literally made for humans to cross water. And the third? I just thought it would be neat.

Anyway, wasn't this "Sasaki Kojiro" guy I mentioned used as a Persona, too?

Kojiro, The Swallow Swordsman

Arcana: The Tower

Most well-known for being the rival of Musashi, Sasaki Kojiro was an accomplished swordsman in his own right born in 1585 (presumably, the details around his birth are fuzzy thanks to a certain centuries-long civil war caused by an unstable military dictarorship), even earning the title of Kensei himself. He mainly used a nodachi he named "Bizen Osafune Magamitsu", or as "Monohoshizao" (Laundry Pole). I like the latter one.

He was also famous for pioneering the technique known as the "Swallow Return", where a sword would quickly slice down, only to change direction mid-slash. The name is where I decided to add the bird motif to the Persona. Swallow Return is also the Japanese name for the Pokemon move Aerial Ace. The more you know.

The reason his helmet has a gash around the ear is because of a rumour that he was deaf in one ear. It's not a verifiable fact, but I thought it was a nice detail to add. The reason for his scabbard being bound by chains however? I'm saving that for now.

As for the Persona, it's the definition of "glass cannon": It hits fast and hard, but gets hit hard in return. Kojiro specialises in Zio and Slash skills, and is weak to water.

Now, let's take a break from the weeb shit for a second and talk about Egypt.

Seshat, She who Scrivens

Arcana: The Priestess

Seshat is the Egyptian goddess of knowledge, writing, maths, accounting, astronomy, astrology, archiving and architecture. Surprisingly, despite a profile that extensive, not much is known about her. What we do know is that she supposedly created writing itself, she recorded basically every major function related to all of the Pharaohs and that she was worshipped a lot during the fourth dynasty. She might be a daughter of Thoth, but while that makes sense, there's not a lot of evidence to suggest this.

I wanted to better convey the idea of a "god of writing" through having her being literally made of paper, kinda like Adenine from Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

Speaking of being made of paper, Seshat has terrible defenses and physical attack, but is a fantastic healer that uses Garu and Strike skills and has some high magic.

One more Persona for the night.

Atash Behram, The Fire of Victory

Arcana: The Hierophant

An Atash Behram, translated to "Fire of Victory" is the most holy grade of fire in Zoroastrianism. Its lighting requires the combination of sixteen specific types of fire from various sources (I'm too lazy to list them here, and this document is getting big enough as is, so you can look them up), and takes about a year of high-ranking priests to consecrate the fire before declaring it an Atash Behram. The longest-burning Atash Behram still around today is the Udvada Atash Behram in Sanjan, India, which was lit in 721 CE.

Atash Behram is the navigator Persona, so it doesn't really fight. So sorry if you were interested in seeing a holy fire that's intensely guarded at all times by one of the world's oldest religions beat up Jack Frost.

The general uniting theme between all (read: most) of the Personas is a theme of knowledge, wisdom, skills, magic and enlightenment. Kojiro is the odd one out, but only so he can contrast with Musashi, who became a monk. Atash Behram is a sacred fire lit by a group of priests from whom the word "magic" derives, and Seshat is the Egyptian goddess of writing herself.

So yeah, that was a while. At the time of me writing this, I'm due for my second Covid shot in a few hours. Fun. To be fair, it's mostly on Australia's shitty vaccine rollout. I would have had it earlier if I had more of a say, but unfortunately that's how it be.

Don't really have much else to say atm, so I guess I'll just thank god for James Stephanie Sterling & have a nice day.

See ya.