Chapter 4

The Star and the Wheel of Fortune

Thursday, April 7th, 2016. That day was kind of cloudy.

My Senpai, Sora Katsuro, asked me to help him with some Hoax or something. So I came to him after school.

Sora: Thanks for coming. I, Sora Katsuro, am perfect, but 2 brains work better than one!

Shinji: Someone's full of himself.

Sora: Really? Who?... Wait… Was that a jab at the perfection that I am? You DO know I'm the son of the chairman, right?

Shinji: My point still stands.

Sora: You've got some guts… Good!

So he led me to a room where there was nothing but a table, a few chairs, and… A 2nd year student.

Shinji: I thought you said we were just 2 brains?

Student: He counts both of us as half a brain. Don't pay attention to his ego. I'm Jun Izumi. I already know that you're Shinji Yamihiro.

Shinji: Ok, cool. But why are we 3 to… What was it, prove a ghost story was fake?

Sora: Because having 2 flunkies is better than having none, of course!

Jun: Let's just get this over with.

And then a light bulb started flickering. At this point, I'm not even surprised anymore.

Sora: This bulb is flickering… This if FAR from perfect! We'll have to replace it.

As you'd expect, the lights went off. Sora complained about it, and when I pressed the switch back on, the world was palette swapped. Sora complained about it some more.

Sora: Those aren't this room's Perfect colors! What IS going on?

Jun: Obviously, we've got to deal with paranormal crap. Looks like Katsuro was wrong. Again.

Sora: This is far from Perfect, indeed.

Shinji: You know what guys, just look for shiny balls around and you'll be able to summon weird ghosts manifesting from your psyche.

Sora & Jun: … AH AH AH AH AH AH AH!

Sora: Good one, Yamihiro!

Jun: I admit, that WAS pretty funny.

Shinji: I'm not joking. Look. Persona!

I summoned Damocles and they stopped laughing. Sora ran out like a bitch.

Shinji: We've got to go after him, this place isn't safe!

Jun: I was going to say we're just in school, but you look like you know what you're talking about.

Shinji: You're a smart chick.

Jun: I'm a guy, damnit!

I doubted him, but he unbuttoned his shirt and I showed me his chest. I don't think a chick would be that flat. We ran after Sora soon after, and we found him cornered by floating spheres. At this point, I'm not even surprised anymore. I summoned Damocles to attack one of them, but it didn't do any damage. In fact, I was pushed back by the shock. So I summoned Jack Frost, but no cigar again. Then I heard Igor's voice in my head, telling me to "Fuse". A Magician tarot card fell into my hand, and instinctively, I made a card that had Jack Frost on it appear out of thin air and I somehow made them float in front of me. Then, with a stroke of my hand, both cards came together and appeared… A pumpkin-headed thing with a hat and a lantern. At this point, I'm not even surprised anymore. I screamed "Agidyne!" and fire came out of the lantern that Pyro Jack was holding. To my surprise, it worked. Why didn't I think of using Damocles' Fire attack? I have no idea. Then again, being able to fuse cards sounds like a good thing, so I'm glad I'm an idiot. Don't take that out of context.

Sora: What. The f*ck. Is going on?!

Shinji: Look for Shiny balls, I tell you.

So we looked around the school. We got chased by a little pile of… Black goo. With a Mask. That has a "I" on it. The others found the shiny balls, they were engulfed in light and they both let out "Persona!". Sora summoned a knight in light steel armor that had a pretty cool looking sword, a "X" shining on his right leg, and Jun got pieces of blue armor, with a red visor, and a "XVII" shining in his… left… eye… At this point I'm not even.. THAT surprised anymore…

Jun: The enemy is weak to electricity!

Shinji: How can you tell that?

Sora: Perfect Zio!

I kind of feel sorry for that black goo thing. The thing just got fried. For all we know, it may not have been hostile. But hey, it's not like I'm going to talk to random creatures for the fun of it, right?... At least I'm not gonna try to. So… Somehow, we got back to the real world.

Sora: That… That was Perfect! I, Sora Katsuro, hereby order you to find a quicker way to go back to this world! Both of you!

Jun: You're a pain in the ass, Katsuro. Anyway, Shinji-kun, let's try to investigate. My "Persona" is Pericles, of the Star Arcana. At least, that's what the voice in my head told me.

Sora: The Persona of the perfect being gracing you with his presence is Cid, of the Wheel of Fortune Arcana. Hmm, my Arcana is neither that of the Magician nor the World… How dreadful.

So, I received 2 more texts from the same unknown number as before, this time, it talked about the "Wheel of Fortune" and "Star" Arcanas Social Links. A good thing my life is an empty mess aside from School, otherwise this would be starting to be hard to manage. I came back home and hit the sack after that, of course. The next day was April 8th, and I hate Number 8. Don't ask, I just hate it. You could say there was an… Incident early in my life. Again, don't ask. Urgh… I went with Sora and Aiko that day after school.

TO BE CONTINUED


Author's notes:

-Sora Katsuro was originally going to be introduced much later, and as an antagonist at that. I decided to make him a good guy and replace the original Lightning-User party member with him. His Persona is Cid, and he is essentially a fast and strong glass canon. He's also got lightning abilities. He adds "Perfect" before each attack name. Even those that already have "Perfect" in them. Trust me, he's deeper than this introduction makes him sound like. Sora is a 3rd year, and is slightly taller than Shinji. His hair is black, and neatly arranged. Essentially, he's trying to make himself look perfect, as you could have guessed.

-Jun Izumi is a doozy. Originally, that name belonged to a female police officer that was the Empress Social Link. She went through being a Party member, to being relayed to a Social Link, to being an Antagonist, to being scrapped, with her name becoming that of the last-minute addition mission control and Star social link, which you'll get to know. His persona, Pericles, takes the form of blue boots with roller skates, big blue gauntlets that aren't actually any good for punching, blue ski-goggles that have red glasses. The glasses behave as the scan ability of previous Mission Control party members the Persona series holds dear since P3. The information he shouts about enemies is directly transmitted to other Persona User's brains through telepathy, even if they're continents apart. Jun is 2nd year, slightly shorter than Shinji, and very effeminate. He has shoulder-length bluish black hair and wears glasses.