As long as I can drag it out, mostly everyone with a name or a physical description will be based off of someone from a non-Persona SMT game or spinoff.

Asahi wasn't even supposed to be in this story; I put her in as a cameo, and her personality just moved the story from there.

For some reason, Nanashi looks a bit like Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, especially the twitter profile picture.

There will be Social Links, but no romantic ones. I'm not interested in romance, and it doesn't fit how I characterize Aleph. Even if his characterization is very blank.

The second half of this story is now completely different from before.

Day 1 (Monday)

It was a short walk to Haruhata High School from Hiroko's apartment. Like every school at the start of the year, the air was abuzz with a haze of emotions. Excitement coated fear and despair like a chocolate pill. Islands of apathy and calm drifted like feathers in a hurricane of anticipatory stress. Impatience, dread, and joy mingled in irregular proportions.

But there was something else mixed in the soup of emotions, like a streak of hot sauce swirled into a bowl of chocolate pudding. It wasn't unnatural or abnormal, just out of place. That something set Aleph's nerves on edge, so much that he passed by his classroom three times before his teacher found him and pointed him in the right direction.

Like every anime protagonist ever, Aleph was assigned to class 2-A. His homeroom teacher, Mr. Gale, was one of the islands of calm. "This is Aleph Mekata," he said to the class in a low, uninflected voice. "He moved here from Tokyo."

"Please take care of me," said Aleph, writing his name on the chalkboard.

"Take the empty seat in the front," said Mr. Gale, gesturing to a conveniently placed empty desk.

Aleph sat down without a word.

Unsurprisingly, as soon as homeroom began, the students began mobbing Aleph with questions about Tokyo.

"Is it true that the yakuza beat up people who look at them funny?" asked a blonde, bearlike boy with a red scarf.

"Do people really run around like cosplayers all the time?" said a broad-shouldered boy with bright orange hair, a dark greenish-gray scarf draped over his hair and neck, and a green-stripe over the black uniform.

"I heard people in Tokyo wouldn't even care if someone got mugged right in front of them; has that ever happened to you?" asked a girl with goggles and a hat on her head.

"Er…um… I don't get out much," Aleph admitted. "Please stop crowding me?"

"You heard him," the girl with the goggles said to the bearlike student and the cosplayer. "Give the guy some space!" They edged away.

"Thanks," said Aleph faintly.

"No problem. I'm Asahi Toriyama," said the girl, giving him a huge smile and leaning ing, apparently oblivious to her little double standard. "It's good to meet you!"

"I'm Aleph Mekata," said Aleph, leaning backwards slightly. "It's…good to meet you too," he said without sincerity.

"Do you like Haruhata so far?"

"It's… nice," said Aleph. "I haven't seen much of it. Just the station."

"That's it?" said Asahi, leaning forward. "You've been missing out! Tell you what, I can show you around town after school."

"But… what about clubs?"

"They don't start signup until next week."

"What if we have homework?" said Aleph.

"Don't worry; we never get homework on the first day," said Asahi.

"We will be having homework on the first day," said Mr. Gale.

"Uh… homework on the first day can't be that hard?" said Asahi uncertainly.

"As we shall be learning the basic derivative, we will spend this week reviewing the limit," added Mr. Gale. "Your assignment will be the following problems in chapter 1…"

"I'd better shut up before he tells us that there will be a quiz tomorrow."

"I am standing right here, Ms. Toriyama, Mr. Mekata," said Mr. Gale, crossing his arms. "There will not be a quiz until Thursday."

Aleph turned around. "Are teachers allowed to assign homework in homeroom?" he asked.

"No," admitted Mr. Gale. "However, I can inform you what you will be learning for your calculus class."

"Fair enough."

"I hate limits," grumbled Asahi.

"What you like or do not like is irrelevant, Ms. Toriyama," said Mr. Gale.

"I know, I know, 'Life without strife is like meat without salt," said Asahi flippantly.

The bell rung.

"Well, it was fun talking to you, Aleph," said Asahi. "We'd better be quiet. Ms. Angel hates it when we talk in class."

CRASH!

"What the…"

Alarmed, Aleph stood up and started looking for broken glass. A reddish-brown tint covered his vision, like he was about to faint, but he didn't feel the usual numbness in his teeth or the echo in his ear.

For a second, Aleph wondered why no one was shouting about the noise, when he realized that he couldn't hear anyone talking. Heart beating fast, he looked at Asahi, but she was frozen in place.

I art thou…

"Who's there!?" shouted Aleph.

Thou art me…

"Put everyone back!"

Thou shalt have my blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Sun Arcana…

"Wait, 'choosest' is a word?!"

The voice remained silent.

After what felt like an eternity, the brown tint faded from Aleph's vision. Time resumed.

"Is something the matter, Mr. Mekata?" asked Mr. Gale.

Aleph's heart jumped a beat. "N-no, sir." he said. "Just stretching…"

"That is good. Stretching increases flexibility and prevents muscle atrophy," said Mr. Gale as he walked out the door. "Hello, Jenna."

"Hello, David," said a new voice. "See you at lunch."

A new teacher strode in, holding a large bowling ball and a rope. "Good morning, class," she said. "Today, we will be learning about evolution and survival of the fittest. Now, who wants to have this heavy bowling ball swung in their face?"

X

Nothing else happened to Aleph until lunchtime. Nothing interesting, that is, unless you like science, Japanese composition, English, or calculus. Still, he couldn't shake that sense of uneasiness.

Asahi had left to talk to one of her other friends, so Aleph went to the courtyard to eat lunch alone, as he usually did, when someone caught his eye.

A first year student, identifiable by his blue tie, was doing something with some sort of a gadget on his left arm. He was wearing a strange headset consisting of a single headphone on one temple and a monocle over one eye. Aleph wondered what part of this boy made him stop and stare, when the first year looked him in the eye.

"Do you need something?" asked the first year, chilly but cordial.

"Ah…"

At the sight of his face, Aleph was overcome with a wave of déjà vu. There was little resemblance, but looking at this boy's face was like looking at the face of his eldest brother Daleth. [1]

Aleph and Daleth had been best friends when they were children, until the day their father told Daleth that he had to leave. Aleph hadn't understood why, and his relatives gave him shifty looks and pretended they hadn't heard him whenever he asked questions. He had assumed it was one of those things where he'd be told when he was old enough, like those strange packets Beth had in her purse, but they hadn't told him even after his extensive lecture on sex.

Aleph hadn't seen his brother until they happened to meet at the airport a few months ago. Daleth's face had almost completely changed, and he sported a few scars that he refused to talk about, but Aleph knew right away that this was the same elementary schooler who picked fights over book quotes and dreamt of saving the world from aliens.

Something about this boy's face made Aleph think that he had known him long ago, but no memories surfaced.

"You're starting to creep me out," said the first year.

Aleph blinked. As certain as he was that Aleph knew this boy's face from somewhere, he was equally certain that he had never heard his voice. "What's your name?" he asked.

The boy's shoulders stiffened. "Kind of rude, asking someone his name without telling your own." The boy typed something else into the thing on his arm.

Aleph swallowed. "Aleph. Aleph Mekata."

"Aleph, hm?" said the boy, tilting his head. "Like Aleph-null and Aleph-one? The designations for infinity?"

"That's how it's spelled," said Aleph.

"I'm Kazuya," said the first year. He removed the headphones and monocle. "Are you all right? You look like you're about to cry."

Aleph blinked. He wasn't feeling particularly sad, but something must have shown on his face. "Have we met before?"

"I don't recall meeting you," said Kazuya. "But that doesn't mean that we haven't."

"Oh," said Aleph. "Sorry to bother you, then."

"It's fine," said Kazuya. He unbuckled the gauntlet around his wrist and put it in his bag. "Mom said I needed to make friends anyways. Want to sit with me?"

"Sure."

Aleph and Kazuya sat under one of the courtyard's trees and ate their bento.

"It's cold for April," said Aleph. "Is it normally like this?"

"Shouldn't a second year know?" asked Kazuya.

"I'm a transfer student," said Aleph.

"Oh," said Kazuya. "Where from?"

"Tokyo," said Aleph.

Kazuya blinked. "I'm from Tokyo," he said. "Kichijoji, to be exact."

"You moved here?"

"It was the best high school I could get into," said Kazuya in a measured tone. He was lying. "How come you transferred?"

Aleph went quiet.

"…Oh," said Kazuya. "It's one of those things, isn't it. I won't pry, then. Say, do you like kendo?"

"No. But I like archery."

Kazuya's shoulders relaxed. "That explains your arms, then. Do you like coffee?"

"I prefer tea."

"Oh. What kind of tea do you like?"

"My favorite is ginger."

"Do you take it with honey, or no honey?"

Aleph and Kazuya chatted for so long that they almost neglected their food, and didn't notice the time until the bell rang.

"It was nice talking to you," said Kazuya. "Want to meet again tomorrow?"

"Sounds good," said Aleph. As Kazuya turned to leave, a sudden urge struck Aleph. "Do you want to look around town after school together?" he said, words tasting strange in his mouth. "You're new in town, too."

Kazuya's eyes lit up. "Okay," he said, voice not betraying the raw joy in his eyes. "Your parents won't mind?"

"My aunt won't notice if I'm not home."

"Then I'll meet you at this tree after school," said Kazuya.

CRASH!

The same reddish-brown tint came into Aleph's vision. Time froze for everyone except for him.

I art thou…

"You again?" said Aleph.

Thou art me…

"Are you real, or just a recording?"

Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Emperor Arcana…

The reddish-brown lens faded from Aleph's vision.

"Are you all right?" asked Kazuya. He didn't seem to notice the time stop, either.

"I felt lightheaded for a moment," lied Aleph. "I'm fine now."

"Drink some water, then," said Kazuya. "Well, I have to get to class. Mr. O'Brien hates it when his students are late."

X

After the last class (Gym, by Mr. Lupa), Asahi asked Aleph if he wanted still her to show him around town.

"Of course," he said. "Do you mind if I bring a… friend?" The word tasted strange in his mouth. "He's new, too."

"Sure!" said Asahi with genuine cheer. "The more, the merrier!"

Aleph led Asahi to the courtyard, where Kazuya was tinkering with that arm gadget. "Kazuya!" shouted Aleph.

Kazuya looked up. "Hi, Aleph," he said. "Who's this?"

"I'm Asahi Toriyama," said Asahi. "Nice to meet ya!"

"My name is Kazuya," said Kazuya, shaking Asahi's hand. "Likewise."

"She'll be showing us around town today," said Aleph.

"Great," said Kazuya, typing something into that arm gadget of his. "I can test the mapping software."

"What's that thing on your arm?" asked Asahi.

"This?" said Kazuya, gleaming with pride. "It's a computer. I made it myself."

"Wow…" said Asahi. "That's incredible!"

"It took me five years to make it, and I'm still smoothing out bugs."

Aleph let Asahi gush over Kazuya's computer before they realized that he was waiting for them.

Asahi waved like a tour guide and mimed a megaphone. "Right this way, boys!"

Asahi walked them all around the city, commenting on everywhere they went, from the Factory Burger near the station ("I heard they use mutant cows, since they're cheap and easy to care for!"), to the apartment building for the rich next to the river ("It's really a hideout for the local yakuza! They go out and cut people up with their knives!"). She even told them a ghost story about how this high school girl was found dismembered in the park back in the nineties, and since she was an orphan, she started giving money to the soup kitchens in town.

"You sure know a lot about your hometown," said Kazuya, when they stopped to take a break at the ice cream shop rumored to be secretly run by fairies. "Not even I know this much about Kichijoji."

"I get around a lot," said Asahi breezily.

"May I ask you something, Asahi?" asked Aleph.

"Go ahead," said Asahi.

"What is everyone at school afraid of?"

"The usual, I guess," said Kazuya. "Death, exams, adulthood, poverty, getting…" Kazuya trailed off when he saw Asahi's aghast expression. "…Did I miss something?"

The temperature dropped ten degrees.

Asahi stiffened. "…Did someone put you up to this?"

Aleph shook his head. "I just got here. You two are the only people I've spoken to for more than ten seconds. Who could have asked me?"

"Then how did you know?" asked Asahi.

Aleph shrugged. "Body language," he said. "Voices. It's there if you know where to look. Something happened."

Asahi looked around nervously. "…I guess you'd find out sooner or later…"

Aleph and Kazuya looked at one another.

"…Judging by your reaction, I'm guessing that someone was killed?" said Kazuya carefully, clutching his bag.

"No," said Asahi, face turning dark. "Not quite."

"…You don't have to tell us if you don't want to," said Aleph. "We can ask-"

"No one wants to talk about it," interrupted Asahi. "You'd never hear anything from them. Cowards."

She jabbed her popsicle and Aleph and Kazuya. "I know this sounds like a stupid urban legend, but don't interrupt. I'm not asking you to believe me. I just want you to listen, and not tell anyone that I'm crazy. Got it?"

Aleph and Kazuya looked at each other.

"I already promised myself that I'm not going to humiliate my classmates," said Kazuya.

"Do I have a choice?" said Aleph.

"Good." Asahi took a deep breath. "It all started one year ago, with my lab partner. His real name was something like Yamamoto, but everyone called him Bat."

"Why Bat?"

"Cuz he liked drawing bats. He was always kind of slimy. Anyways, back in September, he started getting…weird. Weirder than usual, that is. His mood would swing every two minutes, and then he'd be back to normal."

"Maybe he's bipolar?" suggested Kazuya.

"My brother is bipolar," said Aleph. "That's not how mood swings work."

"I tried to keep him calm, but he was just… squishy," Asahi continued. "I'd say, 'The third stripe in a resistor is the power of ten, Bat,' and he'd start crying, or he'd start laughing hysterically when I filled the beakers. He'd do it once or twice a day at first, but then he'd go crazy once or twice every class."

"About a week after he started, he completely lost his mind. It was like he couldn't remember who he was. In homeroom, he insisted that his name was Susan and he was shot in the knee, and he limped so much that I couldn't believe he wasn't hurt. Then he said his name was Mohammed and he had to get his car fixed. The last time I saw him, he shouted that he had to use the bathroom, and he ran out the door. He looked terrified."

Asahi swallowed. "Anyone in my class could tell you that. But I'm the only one who saw what happened next. I went after him, in case he got into trouble. The last time I saw him, he was trying to force open the janitor's closet.

"He vanished. One moment, he was yanking on the handle like it had a million bucks and a car behind it, and then BAM! Gone. No one believed me, but no one ever saw Bat again."

Kazuya and Aleph looked at each other.

"Bat wasn't the only one," said Asahi. "Three weeks later, a third year started acting out like Bat did, and she disappear—I mean, no one knew where she was. No one saw her vanish like I did.

"Everyone lost their minds. Half a dozen teachers and the nurse resigned, half the students transferred out, and… things went back to normal. The police couldn't do anything about it, we couldn't do anything about it, so we just got on with our lives.

"We had a false alarm in January. A second-year went missing. Everyone panicked, but no one did anything this time. They just cried and made funeral arrangements. She turned up a few days later, after her parents paid off her kidnappers.

"By the time someone actually vanished, no one cared. They just pretend it's not happening, as if that'll save them," said Asahi bitterly. "We just mourned, sat on our hands, and got on with our lives. No one did anything."

Asahi stretched. "And that's our ghost story."

Aleph and Kazuya looked at each other.

"You can laugh now," said Asahi defiantly.

"I don't feel like laughing," said Kazuya in a voice like gravel.

"You're not lying," said Aleph.

Asahi relaxed. "Thank you for believing me."

"I didn't say that. I just said that you're not lying."

"…Thanks anyway?"

Kazuya licked his half-melted chocolate ice cream. "I don't blame them," he said. "When you're faced with something you can't fix, it's a lot easier to cope by pretending."

"Yeah?" said Asahi. "The least they could do is—"

"Why are you any different?" said Kazuya. "Are you doing anything about it?"

Asahi was speechless. She was shaking, and Aleph guessed she was either going to punch Kazuya or burst into tears.

"Why aren't you afraid?" said Aleph quickly. "I think what he means to say is, why do you think so differently than everyone else?"

Asahi dropped her popsicle stick. "I… I am afraid, when I think about it," she said after a while. "But… a lot's happened, and I've used up all my fear."

Aleph knew when it was safe to press total strangers for information, and when it would just make them angry. This was one of those times when it wasn't safe. "Should we head back?" he suggested. "I know how to get back to my apartment from the school. Could you please guide us there?"

"Good idea," said Asahi, forcing peppiness into her voice. "Follow me!"

X

After Asahi dropped off the two boys at the school, Aleph decided to head home. But first, he took a detour to the supermarket, to pick up some ingredients for dinner. Hiroko was sleeping when he got back, so he tried to make his beef and broccoli as quietly as he could. After washing the dishes and putting away the leftovers, he started on his homework. After that was a bath, and then bed.

X

Aleph's dream began normally. He was standing on the beach, watching a spaceship fall from the sky. In the background, a team of limbo dancers was playing ten-man ping-pong. One of them offered Aleph a cup of punch, which turned out to be gasoline, and then he had to go to the hospital and get his stomach pumped by a white-haired young man who Aleph knew to be Dracula.

And then the smell of metal permeated Aleph's nostrils. He sat up from the damp earth, as if waking from a dream.

"I can't believe it," said the shadowy figure in awe. "You found him."

"Who are you, anyways?" asked Aleph.

"The man who made everything possible for us," said the figure, ignoring Aleph.

"But he's a year younger than me."

"He built our house."

Aleph wanted to protest that his house dated to the Meiji era and that Hiroko's apartment was at least forty years old, but decided on a different question. "You said that something bad was happening," said Aleph. "Is Asahi's story true?"

The figure turned stock still. "…Yes," he said.

"What's going on? Does it have anything to do with that voi-"

Without warning, the figure grabbed Aleph by the shoulders and started shaking him. "Nothing like this has ever happened before," he babbled in a shaky voice. "He's the first one who ever tried something like this. I mean, I don't think he was wrong, and everything—everyone else was worse, but he didn't realize there were consequences."

Aleph choked. "You're not making—I don't understand what you're-"

"I mean, he didn't know what would happen, but it was better than what everyone else came up with, but he just didn't know there was-"

The figure released Aleph.

"Aleph," he said in a serious voice, as if the last thirty seconds didn't happen. "Do you want to save the world?"

"I live here, don't I?" said Aleph.

"Do you want to be a savior?"

"Isn't that the same question?"

"Do you want to be the…"

Aleph opened his eyes to a less unfamiliar ceiling, morning sunlight flooding the room. "I was never one to begin with," he said out loud, with total conviction. Then he rubbed his head. "Do I want to be the what?"

X

Meanwhile, in the apartment that Asahi claimed was occupied by the Yakuza, Kazuya was hugging his dog.

"My name is Kazuya," he said to himself. "I am me. My name is Kazuya… Right, Sol-Leks?"

Pascal the dog growled.

"…Oh no…"

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Daleth as Aleph's older brother: I always thought that Daleth was the prototype for the other four clones. This does contradict the part where Aleph has to name all of the clones, but it does explain how he had a childhood in the Visionary sequences.

The two boys who crowded Aleph were Red Bear from SMT2, and Harley from DDS1. The teachers are named after characters from both Digital Devil Sagas.

I was considering giving Kazuya Chariot Arcana for a while, since it involves controlling two different forces for victory, but I decided that Emperor suits him better.