So... my ADHD did not want me to write this chapter. I just spent a couple days trying to actually start writing this, but I kept getting sidetracked by random shit all the damn time. I don't think it's been this bad since I was in High School, tbh.

Well, neurological problems flaring up at the worst possible times aside, there's a story to tell here. So let's get to it.

Thursday, March 7th, 2024
Midday
College

Shouma emerged from the lecture theatre alongside the rest of his class. He stopped for a moment to stretch his arms out and yawn. It hadn't even been a week, but it still felt much longer than that. He still wasn't entirely sure he had the hang of this yet, but he wasn't about to let anyone down.

At the front of the hall however stood Daigo, clearly waiting for him.

"Shouma." He called.

Shouma ran over to his brother. "Yeah? What's up, nii-san?" He asked.

Daigo's expression looked somehow even more serious than usual. "It's about what you found in Agartha yesterday." He explained.

"What about it?" Shouma inquired. "Is this to do with that timer thing?"

"Among other things.' Daigo responded. "I'd go into more detail right now, but it would be easier to just show you." He looked around. "Are Piers and Juniper with you?" He asked.

Shouma shook his head. "They both said they'd be busy today." He said.

"I see." Daigo noted "I'll meet up with you in a couple hours in front of the mechanism." He said before walking off.

Shouma nodded and immediately ran off to Central Market.

Afternoon
Agartha

About two hours had passed, and Daigo emerged from the lower floors to find Shouma already waiting for him, sitting down and leaning against the wall with his sword laying on the ground right next to him.

"Right, you're here." Shouma said as he stood up. "Just did a bit of training before you arrived, since I had the time."

"Well, that's going to make the other thing I'm here for a bit more convenient." Daigo noted.

Shouma looked at his brother puzzled. "What 'other thing'?" He asked.

"We'll get to that later." Daigo responded. He walked over to the mechanism and beckoned Shouma over to him.

"I managed to decipher what this timer's counting down to." He explained. "It's going to open when it reaches the equinox in about twelve days."

"Why then?" Asked Shouma.

"I'm still trying to work that out." Daigo answered. "Maybe it was for a religious ceremony or some kind of festival?" He just shrugged, seemingly frustrated with his lack of answers.

"Still, make sure you bring everyone here when it arrives." He continued. "We don't know what's beyond here."

"Right, you can count on me." Shouma assured.

Daigo then walked to the other side of the floor. "As for the other thing..." He then pulled his nodachi out of his bag and pointed it at Shouma.

"Wait, what the hell are you doing?!" Shouma recoiled in shock.

"If you're going to be the field leader, you need to be able to handle whatever comes your way." Daigo coldly said. "You and I. Right here, right now." He clearly wasn't going to let up.

Shouma hesitantly gripped his swordbreaker. "Okay, you're on!" He ran towards his brother and arced his sword up from his side, only for it to get instantly parried by Daigo's nodachi, causing to sparks fly as the two swords clashed.

"Not good enough." Snapped Daigo, and effortlessly pushed Shouma back in a single swing. "If you even want to hit me, you'll have to fight with the intent to kill." He lunged forward with his sword with an overhead swing, with Shouma only barely catching his brother's blade in his swordbreaker's teeth.

"Persona!" Shouma yelled, barely able to get the cape off his neck. Daigo was forced off in an eruption of blue flame as Musashi manifested between him and his brother.

"Manifest, Kojiro!" Daigo called, summoning his own Persona just in front of Shouma's.

The two Personas stared each other down, both gripping their weapons even tighter almost instinctively. Musashi moved first, swinging his wooden sword along the ground in front of him and conjured a wave directly at Kojiro, though he swiftly dodged the attack and struck Musashi in the chest with his scabbard, knocking him into Shouma.

Shouma staggered to his feet. This wasn't working. "Pixie!" He yelled throwing off his cape.

From the burst of blue flame, a small female Persona with short red hair and insectoid wings wearing a blue leotard, stockings and gloves emerged. She flew around Shouma sprinkling dust of some kind around him, dulling his pain somewhat. She then darted at Kojiro to blast him with a small gust of wind, knocking him prone.

Shouma then ran towards Kojiro, swordbreaker in hand. He then lept towards it and attempted to stab it. But then...

"Wojtek!" Daigo yelled. Kojiro was swallowed in blue fire, as Shouma's strike harmlessly bounced off whatever now stood in his place.

Daigo's new persona was an upright-standing brown bear wearing a WW2-era helmet with the word "HAPPY" written on it in all caps smoking a cigarette. Along its arms were khaki-green artillery cannons wrapped along its wrists by metal bands, all with bands of shells connecting into the cannons from a crate strapped to his back.

Wojtek growled and aimed one of its cannons at Shouma and fired a large shell in his general direction, only barely missing.

Shouma hit the ground and scrambled out of the way, as Wojtek continued to fire on him with a spray of bullets.

"Daemon!" He called, summoning his black persona to summon itself from where Pixie once stood. Daemon's pitchfork coated itself in a viscous, almost liquid black substance as he stabbed down on Wojtek, causing the bear to roar in pain.

"Rgh! Jack Frost!" Daigo called. Wojtek was engulfed in azure flame, which coalesced right behind Daemon as a white mascot-like figure with cartoony black eyes in a blue jester's hat. It spun its finger around and caused a small hailstorm to kick up and pelt Daemon with ice.

"Over here-ho!" Jack yelled as he wound his arm around while Daemon was distracted with the hail and punched him in the back of the head, knocking him out to the point of bearing cartoony spiral-eyes.

Shouma ran over again and slashed Jack Frost with his swordbreaker, cleaving him in two. "The mascot of Destiny Animation is a Persona?" He asked in disbelief.

"Apparently." Daigo answered. He then threw the cape off his shoulders again. "Kojiro!"

Shouma did the same just after him. "Musashi!"

As both their personas materialised out of the aether, they both dashed at each other, their swords clashing. Kojiro lunged his sheathed sword at Musashi, though it was caught in Musashi's jitte. Musashi then went for an overhead slash, but was unable to reach Kojiro's body. Kojiro then twisted his nodachi, knocking the jitte out of Musashi's hand and charged it with lightning along the chains, electrocuting Musashi.

Shouma and Daigo were also busy trading blows. Daigo however was on the offensive, with each subsequent slash pushing Shouma further back until he had his nodachi over his brother's head, just held back by his sword breaker. Both swords began glowing white-hot at the points where their blades met, and only continued to grow brighter the more the two brothers kept pushing against each other's attacks.

"Is this really the best you have?" Daigo asked, almost disappointed.

Shouma gritted his teeth and summoned all his strength and pushed his brother back.

"Shut up!" He yelled, as he started swinging his sword harder and more recklessly. Whatever the lack of strategy may have been, he had gained a second wind was gaining lost ground.

"Orobas!" Musashi vanished in more fire to reveal the first horse-faced persona Shouma had gained after awakening to Musashi. Orobas cocked his head back and breathed out a cone of fire in Kojiro's general direction, setting him ablaze.

"Apsaras!" Daigo beckoned, as Kojiro reformed into the same blue woman Shouma has seen before when first entering Agartha. She spun around in a dancing motion, stirring up a large snake of water to launch it straight at Orobas, which wiped it out in a single hit and knocking it onto the ground.

"Shit!" Shouma cursed, running over to Apsaras. "Angel!" He called. A blue flame arose in the pit where Orobas landed, and Angel flew out of the smouldering crater. He raised his spear above his head and spun it around in a circular motion above his head, and a ray of light was shot directly at Apsaras like a laser.

Daigo rolled out of the way, though Apsaras was knocked back by the blast and caught off-balance. Shouma ran directly at Apsaras, with Angel by his side, baring their weapons all the while.

"Phantom Train!" Daigo yelled as he threw off his cape. As Apsaras vanished in a blue flame, a large persona shot itself directly at Angel. Shouma managed to get a good look at it. It was a small, ethereal, pitch-black locomotive spewing green smoke from the smokestack and decorated with bone patterns along the sides. On the front of the engine was a giant skull and a serrated snow-shovel, with eleven cars and a caboose connected to it.

Phantom Train's "eyes" glowed an ominous red and a purple-blue flame spewed forth from its mouth, as it tried to ram into Shouma, though he rolled out of the train's way. But before Shouma could react, Daigo had already made it to him and in less than a second was holding his nodachi directly at Shouma, the tip of the sword barely an inch from his neck.

Shouma had lost.

The two stood there for about a minute, but it felt like an eternity, the tension growing thicker by the second.

"...I think that's enough for now." Daigo bluntly said, as he pulled his sword away from his brother.

Shouma collapsed from the stress and exhaustion, and started hyperventalating. He was barely able to catch his breath from the fight. "I... I couldn't..." He just kept looking at the ground. This was the worst he'd felt both physically and emotionally in quite some time.

Daigo zipped up the golf bag containing his nodachi. "We need to talk about that." He bluntly said. He walked over and helped Shouma off the ground.

"No matter what I did, you had a counter for it." Shouma muttered. "I was outmatched in every way."

"That's only half the reason." Daigo interjected. "You were being reckless back there. You need to start thinking before you act."

Shouma looked at the ground utterly dejected, still in shock over what happened.

"Shouma." Daigo put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "You're the field leader of POSC's expeditionary force. A team is only as strong as the one leading it. You need to keep that in mind."

"...Yeah. I guess so." Shouma mumbled.

Daigo looked at his brother concerned. "If it makes you feel any better though, I wasn't much better when I started."

Shouma's eyes shot open wide. "Huh?"

"When I first made my way into Agartha, I almost died on several occasions." Daigo explained. "I'm being as harsh as I am now because I made the same mistakes when I started.

Shouma looked up at Daigo. Were they really that similar?

And at that moment, he heard a voice similar to Daigo's in his head. Another Social Link.

"Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a new bond..."

"Thou shalt be blessed when fusing Personas of the Tower Arcana."

Daigo shook his head. "The Fool Arcana?" He pondered.

"Wait, you heard that too?" Shouma asked.

Daigo nodded. "Of course, all Wild Cards have the ability to form Social Links." He then turned to look at the lock. "That said, I haven't made many of them."

He then stretched his neck and looked back at Shouma. "I made you the field leader for a reason." He explained. "You can't keep relying on others forever. You need to be able to trust in your own strength."

Shouma nodded. "Got it."

Daigo looked away from Shouma, trying to hide a small smile on his face. "A-Anyway, you're going to need to come back here in twelve days."

"You're not coming, nii-san?" Shouma asked.

"I've already been skipping too many tests and lectures for Agartha." Daigo sighed. "I'll be out of this for a while so I can focus on studying. Best I'll be able to do is the occasional training here and there."

"And you'll need me and the others to fill in for you while you do that." Shouma finished.

Daigo nodded. "Exactly. I'm counting on you."

The two brothers walked back over to the teleportation terminal. "Want something from Alejandro's?" Daigo asked.

Evening
St. Bradley

Shouma and Daigo were sitting at Alejandro's, with plates of enchilladas in front of them. Shouma looked over at the interior of the resturaunt. The white ceramic walls had been hand-painted with cyan, yellow and magenta to show imagery from both indigenous Mesoamerican and colonial Hispanic origins, and the windowsils were decorated with colourful ceramic skulls.

"So..." Shouma finished a bite of his food. "You eat here often?"

"It's been my favourite place to eat out since I was fifteen." Daigo responded before taking a sip of water.

"...I see. That long, huh?" Shouma quietly responded, as he despondently ate more of his enchilada.

Daigo turned to look out the window. "I missed you, by the way." He said, with his arm resting on the windowsil.

Shouma swallowed his food. "Missed you too."

The two brothers looked away from each other awkwardly, though both wordlessly understood each other in the moment.

And that's when they both heard it.

"Thou art I... And I am thou... Thine bond grows ever stronger..."

Shouma and Daigo both shook their heads to snap back to reality.

"Can social links do that?" Shouma asked. "Can they... I dunno, 'Rank Up' like that?"

"Yeah." Daigo responded. "I've only had this happen with one person, and that was Dad."

"Wow." Shouma didn't know how to respond to that. His mind raced, desperately trying to think of some way to change the subject. "So, uh... About this being your favourite place to eat out."

"R-Right." Daigo answered. "I don't think there's a single piece of food on this menu I haven't eaten."

The two were interrupted however by bloodcurdling screams of pain from the other side of the resturaunt.

"...Except for that." Daigo continued.

Shouma darted out of his seat and ran towards the scream, where a man was writhing on the ground in pain, his face bright-red. "Are you okay?!" He asked, concerned.

"W-Water...! I need water!" The man yelled, as he scrambled to his feet and ran into the restroom, shoving Shouma out of the way in a panicked daze.

"What the...?" Shouma was honestly terrified of what he had just witnessed.

"He took the Cobra Challenge." Daigo answered.

Shouma turned to Daigo slowly. "...Do I wanna know what that is?" He hesitantly asked.

"A challenge this resturaunt does every Thursday." Daigo continued. "Those foolish enough to participate are given a taco laced with a chili pepper known as the California Cobra: currently the hottest chili in the world. To even stand the spiciness of the pepper, you'll need the moxie to go at it, the wisdom to truly know your enemy, the wits to pace yourself and empathy for all those that attempted the challenge but didn't make it."

"...Well then." Shouma stated.

"That's not even the worst part." Daigo warned.

Shouma then heard an utter cacophany of noises coming from the restroom, none of which he would ever be willing to describe in polite company, as parents across the resturaunt quickly covered their children's ears.

"...Both ends." Daigo added.

Shouma's face showed an unholy mix of confusion, disgust and horror at what he just heard. "...I have several questions. Don't answer any of them." He weakly said.

Daigo walked up to the counter. "Can we take our food to go?" He nervously asked.

"Oh, sure." The woman on the other end assured as she gave him a pair of paper bags. Shouma and Daigo picked up what remained of their food and headed out of the resturaunt.

As the both of them left the building, Shouma noticed someone familiar out of the corner of his eye.

"I'll be with you in a minute." He said as he walked over to the figure.

Daigo looked over to where his brother was headed and noticed the person on the edge of the sidewalk. "Oh." He noted as he smiled slightly as he walked over to the car.

Shouma ran up to a familiar-looking black haired woman wearing a red hoodie. "Hey." He said. "Sadako, right?"

Sadako turned to Shouma. "Oh, it's you again. How are you holding up after that?" She asked.

Shouma blinked. "Huh? After what?"

"After that accident you had falling down the stairs a few days ago?" She elaborated. "Everyone in med school was talking about it when we heard what happened."

"O-Oh, that." Shouma had completely forgotten about that cover story. "Yeah, I'll live. Just a few cuts and bruises here & there."

Sadako smiled. "That's good to hear." She said. "Just be sure to not push yourself too hard. I know you've already made some friends now, so don't be afraid to ask them for help if you need it."

Shouma turned away from her. "I just don't want to worry them, you know?" He replied.

"I'm serious." Sadako pressed. "I'm sure they'd be willing to lend a hand." She then grimaced. "Besides, you don't want to end up like me."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Shouma asked out of concern.

"Oh, don't worry about that." Sadako reassured. Shouma wasn't fooled, though.

"I've gotta get home now. See you around." She said, as she walked off.

"Oh uh, bye." Shouma replied, waving to her. He walked off in the other direction towards Daigo's car and entered the passenger seat.

"Friend of yours?" Daigo asked.

Shouma fastened his seatbelt. "Sorta. I met her at the metro terminal last Sunday and we talked for a bit."

"I see." Daigo said coyly as he drove off back home.

Shouma shot his eyes at his older brother. "Are you insinuating something here?" He asked with an annoyed tone in his voice.

"Nothing." Daigo said, smirking.

Shouma glared at him and grumbled.

"By the way..." Daigo said. "I'm not going to be able to show up for many more expeditions for a while."

Shouma turned towards him. "Why not?"

Daigo sighed. "I've already taken too many days off studying because of Agartha eating up my time. I need to focus on getting my degree for the forseeable future."

At that moment, it truly hit Shouma. "It's that bad, huh?"

"Exactly." Daigo winced. "Now that you're field leader, you're going to have to balance college, Agartha and your social life. It's not going to be a fun experience."

Shouma looked out the car window to his left. "...Right."

Night
Tashiro Residence

Shouma sat at his laptop, watching something on a video site with a pair of headphones plugged in to unwind.

"Oh Feather, Feather Featherman! Fuzhou Sentai, FEATHERMAN!~" A song blared out of his headphones. Part of the ending theme of Featherman Brave. The episode had been uploaded to the site in its entirety, and was as good as he remembered. Though the English subtitles made it a little hard to concentrate on the actual show.

He turned his computer off, turned out the light in his room and laid on his bed, looking up at the dark ceiling in a half-awake daze.

What a day.

While trying to sleep, words from both Daigo and Sadako continued to echo throughout his head.

"A team is only as strong as the one leading it. You need to keep that in mind."

"I know you've already made some friends now, so don't be afraid to ask them for help if you need it."

Come to think of it, they'd been bugging him ever since he'd heard them say those things. What was he supposed to take from this?

Maybe he could just sleep on it and come up with an answer eventually. He turned over and closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

? ? ?

"Come, my other self."

Shouma's eyes shot open. That was Musashi's voice he just heard.

He sat up, only to find himself in the same castle room as the night he first arrived in Los Angeles. He managed to get a closer look at the room, noting the stonework all along the walls and floors. It seemed to be cut differently than in Tharmas Tower, and had a white symbol glowing brightly above all the windows that looked like an eight-pointed star.

Speaking of the windows, Shouma ran over to one of them, and looked out of it. From the view, he saw... Was that Agartha below him? He even noticed Tharmas Tower below him far off in the distance.

It was then when he realised. He was somehow in Shambhala. He even noticed that his cape had manifested around his neck.

"My other self. We must speak." Musashi called. A mirror materialised in the centre of the room as all the walls, ceiling and floor all blasted away, leaving Shouma and the mirror alone in a seemingly-endless yawning void.

Shouma walked up to the mirror, as his reflection distorted itself until it took on the form of Musashi, now completely visible this time.

"My other self. I fear I must warn you of a cruel inevitability that may befall you." Musashi said.

"Look, you should know better than anyone I'm not in the mood for cryptic bullshit right now, so just spit the damn thing out." Shouma snapped.

"Very well." Musashi acquiesced. "There's no easy way to say this, but there may come a time when we have to... handle your brother."

Shouma gritted his teeth and clecnched his fists. "What the hell are you on about?!" He asked in anger.

Musashi stood in the mirror stoicly, not showing any sign of emotion. "I know what this sounds like, but I sense that you and your brother may cross blades again in the future."

"And what the hell gives you that idea?" Shouma asked, raising his voice.

Musashi didn't respond. He just kept standing there.

"Well? What is it?!" Shouma berrated.

"...Call it a gut feeling, if you will." Musashi responded.

"That's it?! You want me to kill Daigo over a gut feeling?!" Shouma snapped. "Don't you fucking dare tell me anything like that ever again!"

Musashi attempted to justify his position. "You don't understand-"

"Oh I understand perfectly well!" Shouma interrupted. "Don't think I don't know the history between the figures you and his Persona are named after. What is this about, some kind of centuries long hate-boner?!"

He ran towards the mirror and threw a punch, shattering the glass in the frame all across the room. Shouma looked down at the glass shards at his feet. Musashi was nowhere to be found.

"I see." Musashi's voice called out. "However, remain vigilant. It's still prudent that we focus on the task at hand."

"...Whatever." Shouma cursed.

He closed his eyes, as he began to wake up.

To be continued...

Party:

Shouma Tashiro - The Fool
Piers Fils-Amie - The Magician
Juniper Black - The Priestess

Social Stats:

Moxie: Bold
Wisdom: Learned
Charisma: Unremarkable
Empathy: Caring
Wits: Innocent

Personae:

Musashi (0 - The Fool)
Orobas (I - The Magician)
Ratatoskr (IX - The Hermit)
Angel (VIII - Justice)
Daemon (XV - The Devil)
Pixie (II - The Priestess)

Like with the two Personae introduced, Wojtek and Phantom Train are made up by yours truly, and have no in-game counterparts like most of the others do. So I'll have to elaborate on them, too. Pixie and Jack Frost on the other hand are very much canon Personae, so I won't touch on them. Just look them up on the wiki or in the Encyclopedia in 3, 4 or 5.

Wojtek

Arcana: The Chariot

Corporal Wojtek was a Syrian Brown Bear born in Hamadan, Iran in 1942 and the official mascot of the Polish II Corps adopted by Polish soldiers fleeing from Nazi-controlled Poland and released from Soviet gulags in the early stages of the Second World War. Yes, you heard correctly. A bear was given the rank of corporal. "Why?" I hear you asking? Well, it was due to his service on the front lines in the Allied campaign in Italy delivering crates of ammunition for the various artillery and anti-tank weaponry the II Corps had at their disposal, especially during the Battle of Monte Cassino, before eventually "retiring" in Edinburgh Zoo before he passed away in 1961.

The military helmet and the artillery cannons on its arms should be obvious given the history I gave, especially given the II Corps' role as an artillery division. The "HAPPY" on his helmet is in reference to the meaning of his name: "Happy Soldier". And the cigarette, beyond the implications of it making him look more like a grizzled (pun half-intended) veteran, also references the story that the little guy was apparently a chain smoker (and by that, they mean he chewed cigarettes). I initially wanted to put a railgun somewhere on him, but I didn't quite know where to put the thing, so I decided against that.

As a Persona, Wojtek is... well, a tank. He hits hard with all three physical damage types and can take a lot of hits himself, but has pitiful magic and resistance.

Phantom Train

Arcana: Death

The idea of a Ghost Train has existed in folklore and urban legends arguably since the advent and mass-adoption of locomotive engines around the world. After all, trains take people quickly from one point to another, so why wouldn't the world of the dead try & modernise in order to better take the souls of the dead to their "final destination"? Some famous ghost trains include Silverpilen from Sweden and Abraham Lincoln's funeral train. The latter for reasons I hope are obvious, and the former for its unusual design and reported propensity to pick up passengers in the dead of night only for those who step aboard to never return.

The spooky scary skeleton theming and the dark colouring are a thing because, you know, it's a train of the dead and all. Though as for the number of cars, add them to the engine and caboose, and you get 13. And what number is the Death Arcana associated with? That's right, 13.

As you can probably guess, Phantom Train is a speedy, yet bulky Persona that uses Strike and Curse elemental skills, and even the possible inta-kill move Mudo.

Well, that's one more chapter done. Glad I can finally put this ADHD-fuelled nightmare behind me for now.

So, P4 Arena Ultimax's rerelease, huh? That's certainly a thing that happened. Surprised Atlus hasn't finished milking Persona 4 yet. Maybe I could actually get the game at some point. Though if my (lack of) prowess in Smash and Dragon Ball FighterZ is any indication, I'm gonna suck at it. Not a dealbreaker, though. I suck at most of my favourite games, so I shouldn't have much of a problem.

So... yeah. Hawk out.