Chapter 5: The man with Earring

Naoya Toudou

Early Morning - 06/11/2012 - Nanjo Mansion, Mikage-cho

The calm and peaceful morning for Kei Nanjo(Persona: Aizen Myouou) was interrupted when one of his servant knock on the door of his bedroom. He didn't like anyone to interrupt his sleep especially in early morning.

"What going on? Why wake me up this early?" Nanjo asked in annoyance.

"There is someone at the front gate who wishes to see you, master." His servant replied, "He said he was once your friend in high school." Nanjo slowly walked to the window and looked outside, and was shock to see the guy that claiming himself as a friend of the famous Kei Nanjo was actually someone he knew very well. "Bring him in. Tell him I'll be ready in 10 minutes."

In that quiet dinner room, a 33 years old man wearing a black coat was sitting across Nanjo drinking his tea. He was wearing a bright white ring-shaped earring on both his ear and has a short black hair. On first glance, Nanjo had already recognized him as Naoya Toudou(Persona: Amon Ra).

"You look well, after all these year." Naoya commented, "And look at yourself, you have become very successful now, as the heir to the Nanjo Group." Naoya took a sip from his tea and landed it back on the long and fancy table in front of him.

"Please don't waste my time." Nanjo growled, "You come here after missing for 12 long years just to check on me?" Naoya take another sip and finished his tea.

"Can I have another cup?" Naoya glanced to the servant on Nanjo's right.

Nanjo rouse from his chair and slammed the table with his fist, surprising his servant and Naoya from the impact. "I have an appointment for today at Sumaru City! I'm not like you who have nothing to do and just wander somewhere then disappear!" Nanjo voice echoed the entire mansion. "Get straight to the point, why are you here?!" Naoya gently stood up and walked to his side.

"You're not going to miss your appointment. I just want to know where our classmates at high school are." Naoya putted his hand on Nanjo shoulder, only to be repelled aside by him. "Besides… it's something about Nyarlathotep, which I believe is more important than your appointment." The devilish name itself made Nanjo's body shivered.

"WE have defeated Nyarlathotep 12 years ago when you're gone. He shouldn't have return." Nanjo said to correct his statement, but Naoya expression was no laughing matter, he was more serious now when he talked about Nyarlathotep.

"But Philemon didn't say anything about he will NEVER return." Naoya countered, "And believe it or not, I meet Philemon in my dream a few days ago."

Naoya returned to his seat and turned his attention to Nanjo's more anxious expression. "Have you ever heard about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?" Nanjo was confused by Naoya's sudden weird question, he sat down and rubbed his temple before drinking his cappuccino to calm himself.

"You mean… about the horsemen that appears on the judgement day to destroy the world in the 'Book of Revelation'? What is this had to do with Nyarlathotep?"

Naoya began to recap his conversation with Philemon a few days ago. "When I meet him in my dream, he requested me to gather all persona users from our high school." Naoya leaned closer to him, "He said Nyarlathotep is returning and he brings the Four Horsemen with him to destroy the world once and for all. It was all written in the prophecy."

Naoya took out a paper with the prophecy written on it and hand it to Nanjo. He at first found it hard to believe, yet there was no reason for someone like Naoya to making up story about this.

Nanjo rouse from his chair and walked toward the door. "Please wait here." Nanjo turned to him before closing the door. About 10 minutes later, Nanjo entered the room with a newly printed paper with a list of name and address. "Here are the address, most of them have move to Sumaru City and work there. If you want to go to there today, I recommend you to take my ride since we have the same destination." Nanjo gave the paper to him.

He narrowed his eye at the address and look outside the window, his silver car was park not far from the front gate. But he doesn't worry, because the safety of his car was guaranteed with Nanjo group to watch over it. He gave a small smile on his face, and showed it to Nanjo. "Mind gives me a ride with your car?"

Afternoon – 06/11/2012 – Aoba, Sumaru City

In that crowded restaurant, Maki Sonomura(Persona: Verdandi) and Reiji Kido(Persona: Mot) was seen chatting and laughing in joy. Their lunch break seemed to pass faster than they can think, so they spent well the time they have together.

"And that's how I get the customer." Reiji ended his sentence, "But finding customer nowadays is a pain in the ass."

Maki giggled from his statement and exchange her opinion, "But you did a pretty good job as a salary man to raise your wife and son." Maki leaning to her chair, "It's hard to imagine that everyone has moves on with their life and raise their own family."

Reiji reminisced all their memory together at high school and suddenly the memory of their forgotten leader flood back to him, "What about Toudou?"

"Toudou? …Oh, that's right, him…" Maki refreshed her memory, "I wonder how he's been doing now, since I didn't hear any news about him."

While they're busy talking, a new presence appeared walking to the empty chair between them. "Mind if I take a seat?" The man asked them politely.

"Sorry, this table is- Huh?" Maki gasped, Naoya stood there in front of her eyes holding an extra chair to sit. "N-Naoya? Is that you?"

Naoya couldn't help but smiled at her reaction, he touched his earring a few time without taking his eyes off Maki and Reiji. "Miss my earring?"

"Man, good to see you!" Reiji and Naoya shared a handshake. "We were just talking about you, and now you here! Do you want anything to drink?" Naoya shake his head to refuse while Maki was still speechless after seeing Naoya sudden appearance.

"…How… how have you been?" Maki trying to find the right question to ask him.

"I'm good as I ever be, Nanjo sent me here to check on you guys." Naoya explained, "But when I come here for lunch, I saw you two chatting. Luckily I didn't go to your house." Both of their smile widened to see their former leader still concerned about them. They began to talk about their personal life and current job.

"So… you see, I gonna move first. You two take your time together." Reiji left them and walked toward the exit door. The atmosphere had become heavy all of the sudden with Maki and Naoya unable to start a new topic. As Naoya stared at Maki, he saw the unpleasant feeling on her face as she lowers her head.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Naoya purposely spoke to catch her attention, Maki was startled by his word. She was surprised that Naoya can read her disturbed mind. With dreadful thought, she began to speak.

"I…I had a dream about you, a few days ago. I saw you fight alongside with someone. Nyarlathotep was there, but he was together with four mysterious warriors-"

"Four Horsemen." Naoya answered it for her, "The mythological four being that bring catastrophe to the world, were known as Conquest, War, Strife and Death. I already know about them from Philemon." Using the information that he got from Philemon, he stopped Maki from finishing her sentence.

Maki was terrified when Naoya fill in the mystery. As she was about to stand up to excuse her-self, Naoya quickly grabbed her wrist and told her to calm down. He continued to explain everything, unaware of two people that had been watching their entire conversation from a far table.

"Why do we have to hide from them?" Ulala whispered while hiding her face with the restaurant menu, "Maya told us to find him, and so we did. What now?" Beside her, an elder man was covering his face with menu and holding a small binocular to secretly spying them. "Baofu!"

"Shhhh, be quiet!" The man introduced as Baofu(Persona: Prometheus) silencing Ulala's voice by clogging a small binocular in her mouth.

"H-hey! What are you doing?" She spited the binocular and throws it at Baofu before kicking his leg.

"Of course Maya tell us to find him, but she said this guy has been missing for 10 years. Doesn't it weird for him to come to this city all of the sudden? We must find out his motive." Baofu groaned while massaging his leg.

"Hmmm…you might be right. It is suspicious, it's like he come here by his own to let us find him." Ulala took out her phone and dialed the number, "I'm going to call Maya to tell her that we found this Naoya Toudou."

Maya Amano

Afternoon – 06/11/2012 – Aoba, Sumaru City

Maya was busy finishing her work at her company, but her mind became fuzzy thinking of the recent incident that happens after she saw the sign of prophecy. Then, a loud ring tone was heard from Maya's handbag, she quickly stopped her work and answered the phone.

"Ulala! I'm so glad you call me. Do you find anything?"

"Apparently, yes. I DO find anything, the man himself, Naoya Toudou." Maya smile in joy to hear the news.

"He's there?! That's great, Ulala! Please bring him here to see my husband, it's very important."

"W-well…you see, he's here in Sumaru City, he's currently talking to Maki in the Clair de Lune restaurant in Aoba. They seem to be discussing something." Maya's smiled fade and turn into confusion.

"…He's here? Why? Can you find out for me? …On second thought, I think I have to go there by myself and talk to him, it's not very far from my place."

"Wait wait wait! What are you suppose to say when you see him? Nyarlathotep is back? He's going to be a hero, team with your husband to fight some shadow? Look Maya, even I barely believe your word when you tell me about your dream. So how is he going to react? He can't just follow someone he hardly knew."

Maya fell back into depression when she listened to Ulala's suggestion, but she strengthened herself to answer, "We don't know that yet, I going to meet him now. The world is in trouble, I'll die trying if that can make them defeat the shadow in the prophecy along with Nyarlathotep."

"Wait, I can see he's standing up with Maki! They're going to leave the restaurant!"

Without further notice, Maya closed her phone and rushed out of the building.

Afternoon – Clair de Lune Restaurant, Sumaru City

"Please, I need you to tell all our friends about this. I already tell Nanjo about the situation. I'm going to solve the mystery about this prophecy before you know it." Naoya request was hard to refuse, but she was busy with her routine like all her friends. Convincing them was going to be harder than it look.

"…Fine, I'll do it. But I need to tell my husband that I'll be late home, and I need to send my daughter home before I do anything." Maki replied.

From the restaurant front door, they began to part away when Naoya heard a horn from Nanjo's luxurious car. "I'm going to find a place to stay, and I'll be back to meet you when everything's settle." Naoya said like a true leader, "See you late-"

"WAITTT!" A scream was heard from inside the restaurant, they both turned to see Ulala and Baofu chasing after them.

"You're… friends of Maya, right?" Maki confirmed her guess, Ulala ignored her and quickly turned to Naoya.

"Your name is Naoya Toudou, isn't? My friend need to talk to you, can you wait a moment?" Naoya was confused. "I know this doesn't make any sense, but this is something about persona and shadow." Ulala word brought surprise to them.

Naoya rubbed his face, thinking of his persona, and faced both of them. "Fine, I'll wait." He turned to Nanjo who was waiting impatiently in his car and raised his hand to signal his delay.

Since the distance between her company and the restaurant was a minute walk, Maya sprinted to the district where the restaurant was. The crowd that filled the street made her difficult to run faster. But she didn't hesitate, one of the people in the prophecy was in Sumaru City, she couldn't let go of this one opportunity. She increased her speed as she getting close to the district.

She stopped when she felt like someone pulled her arm, when she turned around, a strange man wearing a hat to cover his face was holding her arm among the crowd. "Ummm… can you please let go? I'm in a hurry." Maya felt a little panic, but the man still didn't let go of her.

Slowly, he rose his head revealing a strange black and white mask resemble the cover of Arcana card on his face, and spoke, "It's a pity you don't remember me."

"Th-that voice, it can't be!" Maya almost wanted to scream when she recognized that voice, "What do you want from me?!" Even with the mask on, Maya could tell he was smirking as he tightening the grab.

"I want you to be my 'sacrifice'." The mask man raised his other hand high to the air and shouted, "Nameless Mist!"

A mysterious dirty grey mist suddenly came out of his body. In a blink of an eye, everyone within his mist range started to scream and cry. And in a few seconds, everyone on that street turned into black creature with clawing hand and wearing an Arcana mask, they have now become shadow. Some people in the distance ran in opposite direction, leaving Maya alone with the masked man and the shadows.

"Come with me, Maya! We have a chance to truly achieve true freedom of this world, along with the 'other side'!" The masked man grabbed her hand as tight as possible and beginning to dragged her with him.

"No…no…NOOOOO! LET ME GO!" Maya could no longer hold her fear.

In that sudden situation, a small razorblade flew pass her and hut the masked man's arm that grabbed Maya. When she turned around, Yukino Mayazumi(Persona: Durga), her partner in photography, was holding a few razorblade as she's walking toward Maya. Maya quickly broke free from the masked man's hand and ran to Yukino side.

"Yukki! What are you doing here?" Maya asked, Yukino took out a twin pistol from her bag and gave it to her. "You suddenly rush out from your room. I'm worried that something might happen, so I followed you, until this happen. Luckily I brought some weapons with me." Maya smiled and thanked her before turning to the masked man.

"What happenned?" Maki asked when she heard a shout not far from their place and saw people madly running from something.

"…Could it be…shadow?" Ulala voiced her opinion. "We have to check it out, come on!" Naoya, Maki, Ulala and Baofu ran to where the crowd was running from.

Meanwhile, Nanjo walked out of his car and turned to his driver, "Get out from here, I'm going to follow them. If something happen, don't wait for me." He then rushed to Naoya and the other.

They arrived at the street to find Maya and Yukino struggling to avoid all the shadow's sharp claw. "Maya! Yukki! Let us help you!" Ulala equipped her glove and lunged into one of the shadow.

"Ulala, wait! They're all were originally human, we mustn't hurt them!" Maya's word stopped Ulala from punching.

"That guy with the mask, he's turning people into shadow with his mist! We got to stop him first!" Yukino explained.

They all turned to the masked man who was fiercely raised his hand and pointed to the group, "KILL THEM!" All shadows raced toward the persona users. They were unable to do anything for their sympathy to hurt the people.

"Sorry, but your scheme will have to stop here." The masked man and the persona users turned to Naoya who was walking towards the group of shadow, "I didn't go missing for 10 years for nothing, you know." Naoya lifted his arm to the sky and shouted so loud that the shadows stopped their movement by his voice, "Amon Ra!"

A ray of light began to surround his body and above him, the Egypt king of god floated with his wand held tightly in his hand, "Hieroglyphein!" Naoya shouted again. Amon Ra raised his wand as high as he could and shined the street with a huge ray of light. In matter of second, the shadows on the street screamed in agony and their black skin was slowly removed to reveal human skin.

"N-Naoya?" Yukino stared in disbelief, even Maya was amused to see his extraordinary power. The masked man moved backward, amazed to see all his shadow was turning back to human. "He can reverse the effect of Nameless Mist?"

Everyone was left lying on the ground unconscious after turning into shadow, leaving the persona users and the masked man alone in the street. As Naoya moved toward him, Maya focused her eyes on him from behind, reminding her of her prophecy dream.

'It's really him, the man with the earring.' Maya thought to herself. Naoya stopped in front of the masked man and began to speak to him.

"I don't know who you are, but I won't let you touch the people of this street." Naoya warned him, "How about we have a fair fight right now and show me your power instead of hiding behind all your shadow?"

Naoya word didn't scare him a bit. In fact, he's praising Naoya's bravery. "You really are the 'emperor' in the prophecy. However, I expect you to do more than countering my dangerous skill." The masked man turned behind while glancing at Naoya over his shoulder, "But I have no grudge against you, my target is someone else. So I will leave you for now, but I'll be back."

The masked man disappeared within the sudden light that appearing around him. Everyone that turned into shadow had woken up from their faint without any memory of what happened. As they recovered their stance, Nanjo came running afterward, missing the important moment with the masked man. "What's going on?" They looked at each other to answer before Naoya stepped forward.

"I 'beat' the shadows that attack the two women here." Naoya changed his attention to Maya and Yukino, but Baofu rejected his statement.

"You didn't do anything, you just turned them back into human." Naoya smirked, leaving Baofu in confusion by the statement.

"So, where is this 'friend' that wants to talk to me?" Naoya searched for the person that Ulala mentioned.

"Naoya Toudou, the man of the prophecy." Maya caught his attention, "My name is Maya Suou, a journalist and a persona user. You need to see my husband, Tatsuya Suou, he is a persona user like you and will fight along with you to fight a powerful shadow on the day of prophecy."

Naoya turned to Maki, and finally turned to Maya and nodded his head, "Let's talk."

Tatsuya Suou

Evening – 06/11/2012 – Silverman Residence, Sumaru City

"Thank for letting my son sleep here tonight, Lisa." Tatsuya bowed to thank her. "I really need to go to Inaba tonight, I going by train."

Not comfortable by his action, Lisa Silverman(Persona: Venus) quickly asked him to regain his stand, "No problem! Besides, I'm always alone at home." Lisa drowned herself in her own thought, "By the way, why Inaba? To go that far for work will make Maya worry, right?"

Lisa never knew about the prophecy, so answering her would be very difficult. "I… I'm going to see someone there, it's an important meeting." Tatsuya calmly said. Then, a ringtone was heard from Tatsuya pocket, he quickly took out the phone.

"Thank you, Shiori, for booking that ticket for me. I'll be there in a few minute." He closed the phone after answering the call and turned to Lisa. "I have to move now, to the train station. Tell my son I'll be back in a few days." Once again, he bowed to Lisa before leaving the residence.

Evening – Train station, Sumaru City

Currently waiting for his train, he stood from his seat when his phone rang. "Hello Maya."

"Thank god, Tatsuya! Good news! We found Naoya Toudou, one of the persons in the prophecy."

Tatsuya couldn't believe what she just said. "But I thought…he was missing for 10 years? Where did you find him?"

"I know, but it's a miracle. He's here at Sumaru City, Ulala and Baofu found him in a restaurant chatting with Maki. Where can you meet him?" Tatsuya face-palmed when he remembered something.

"I'm so sorry, Maya. I forgot to mention that I'll go to Inaba today to find this Yu Narukami. I already left our son at Lisa's house."

"Oh, right. That's okay, I have so much work to do here either, don't worry about it, and…" The sound of Maya talking to someone was heard from the phone. "Naoya Toudou wants to talk to you."

The phone was passed to someone from Maya. "You must be Tatsuya Suou. I'm Naoya Toudou, your 'partner' for the day of prophecy." said a man with a rather husky voice.

"So you know about the prophecy, huh. That'll make things easier for me. However, I can't meet you right now. I need to go somewhere far to meet someone, maybe in a few days."

"Fair enough, I need to find a place to stay too. We can meet in person later. But who do you want to meet, if I may ask?"

"Let's just say…another 'partner' is waiting, he will fight with us based on the prophecy. Can you let me talk to my wife?"

Another pass was heard from the phone, "Tatsuya?"

"Look Maya, I want you to be patient, okay? After I finish with Yu Narukami, I'll go to Tatsumi Port Island to find more detail about the last person, Minato Arisato. So just stay there and let me finish my work."

"Okay Tatsuya… Ummm…today, I meet someone before I encounter Naoya Toudou."

"You meet someone?"

"…Never mind, I'll tell you when you back here. Be careful on your travel, miss you."

"Miss you too, Maya." Tatsuya hang up the phone. The sound of the coming train was heard a while after, Tatsuya immediately packed his stuff and board the train.

A/N: To anyone that play Megami Ibunroku Persona, two persona user from St. Hermelin, Masao Inaba and Yuka Ayase will not make an appearance in this story since their do not appear in Persona 2: EP. Anyone who wonder why Maya introduce her-self as Maya Suou, is because she change her surname to Suou family after marrying Tatsuya(But I'll still use her original surname when telling her part of story).