"!"
Akira's chest felt like it was set ablaze and his eyes snapped open. The familiar calming blue ceiling greeted him.
"Ow, my head…" Akira felt a sharp pain in his head as he stood up and exited his formerly jail-turned-luxury room. Outside, Igor and Lavenza were awaiting him with their gentle smiles. The short Assistant bowed at him before stepping aside to make way for him.
"Welcome back, my dear Trickster." She told him with a well-hidden loving tone. Akira smiled; she had confessed her feelings to him prior to his confrontation with Yaldabaoth and he sort of returned it. He was fine with Lavenza though, but when he snapped out of his fantasy and looked at reality: she looked like a freaking child, for Christ's sake! She looked even younger than Futaba! He was in fear of being busted by the police when she expressed her desire to have a tour outside with him. Oh wait, he was in a literal jail now so…
"H-Hey Lavenza, long time no see. You too, Igor." The old Owner of Velvet Room nodded at him. "Err, you doing alright?"
"Fufu, thank you for your concern, Akira-kun." Lavenza giggled at him; having adapted to use Japanese honorifics. "I and Igor-sama are well. I believe you're the same?"
"Had some problems back home but other than that, I'm fine. But calling me here sure isn't for greeting and stuff right?"
Igor and Lavenza dropped their carefree attitudes at this as the latter walked to her Master and stood there solemnly. Igor rested his head on his hands, the sign of his being serious, and talked.
"I need you to stay calm and listen to me, Master Akira." Igor sighed. "We are in need of you again. A new ordeal has emerged and the world is in the brink of ruin."
Akira stood there, not moving an inch, and frowned.
"Within the next 48 hours, everything will disappear as the flow of time has been disrupted. As you can see…"
Igor explained the previous events that almost led to the world's destruction in the past and the culprits: Nyx (Erebus was the true perpetrator), Izanami-no-Okami and her underlings.
"Thanks to you predecessors, they were stopped. Now, a malevolent entity has put everything in chaos by killing the Great Seal containing Nyx and the incarnation of Izanagi, thus letting the Goddesses to enact their plans. And due to its inferring to the flow of time, the world we are in begins to disappear and will be replaced by the wastelands caused by them."
Akira was barely restraining himself from screaming out in rage. His Persona, Satanael, agreed with him as a fracture of it materialized behind Akira.
"…Can you identify who or what this bastard is?" Akira asked, or more like, demanded.
"Why yes, I believe this entity is called 'Mahakala', the God of Eternal Death and a close associate to the God of Control." Igor answered him with sincere in his voice. Akira faked rubbing his eyes to hide his leaking fury. Why everything bad must be related to that piece of shit?! Satanael's low growl was enough to express his agreement.
"Have I informed you of Master Philemon?" Igor asked as he received a curl nod from Akira. "He and I have discussed and reached the solution: you must travel back in time. To be specific, you will be sent to April 7 in 2009, where everything begins."
Igor gestured to Lavenza as she showed him the Persona Compendium and a large box. "For unclear reasons, some of your Personas have disappeared from the Compendium and fortunately, major of them are still here. Your previous equipment and money are in here." She gave him the box. He opened it and smirked at the sight of his trusty dagger, gun and other equipment. He excused and went to his 'jail' to put them on. Conveniently enough, when he finished putting the helmet, armor, gauntlets and leg protection, they disappeared. He still felt the comfortable safeness coming from the gears, though.
"Okay, I am done."
Akira said as he returned to Igor and Lavenza, Paradise's Lost strapped to his waist and Tyrant Pistol in his coat. The residents of Velvet Room smiled at their guest's swiftness; as expected of the Leader of Phantom Thieves. Igor nodded solemnly at Lavenza as the attendant guided Akira to the big door at the corner. He turned to her and showed her his charming grin.
"What? No parting gift?"
Lavenza blushed before pulling Akira closer and planted a passionate kiss on his lips. Akira's eyes widened but he gave in into the pleasure anyways. After a long moment, they separated.
"Never thought you would pull such a stunt, Lavenza. Should I feel concerned for showing you those sappy dramas?"
"Ehehe, you did ask for this you know. Well, good luck out there and don't worry, I will follow you shortly."
"Yeah. See you later, Lavenza, Igor."
Akira entered the door and waved at the two before the door disappeared.
After the blinding light dimmed out, Akira found himself in a moving train. He checked his belongings and found that he was in a strange uniform but other than that and his weapons were inside his bag, everything was the same. He looked around and saw a boy around Akira's age with blue hair and the same uniform as his. It seemed that the boy was unaware of his presence as he was listening to his headphones. Shrugging, he took out his phone and found out that the time was 11:50 pm of April 7, 2009. Akira looked up at the neon board and it showed that the destination was Iwatodai. Suddenly, a rush of knowledge flowed into his brain as Akira suffered a minor headache.
'Hmm, let's see… I am a transfer student from Tokyo that is supposed to attend Gekkoukan High School and stay at Iwatodai Dormitory.'
Akira told himself. He took out the Persona Compendium and Lavenza was right: some of them were indeed missing, namely Orpheus, Izanagi, Thanatos, Asteros, Messiah and others that had the Picaro counterparts.
'Well, one or two less Personas isn't a problem. I still have you right, Satanael?'
A humming from the Persona was the response. He looked at the boy and since they were going to attend the same school, it's not hurt to introduce each other, right?
"Hi there."
Akira greeted the boy, showing his friendliest smile. The boy put away his headphones – A Sonix brand, Akira mused – and turned to him with a bored look. Akira suppressed a gulp in his throat; what's with him?
"You're a transfer student like me too? Akira Kurusu, nice to meet you." Akira said while extending a hand to the boy.
"…Minato Arisato, likewise." The boy replied, still with that apathetic look.
