Chapter 5
Strength and Temperance
Friday, April 8th, 2016. That day was sunny. Eight is my most hated number.
After School ended, one of my Classmates, Yuya, asked me to go out with him and a girl called Aiko at Kame-Yu. In case you don't know Kame-Yu, it's the name of a store that expanded like crazy. Now it's like American malls, the store is just a part of something bigger. Inside the building is a Kame-Yu, as you'd expect, which is a convenience store, a Burger King, and several shops that I seriously don't care about. Seriously, if you want clothes, order them online, it's way less of a chore. Anyways, Aiko entered a store called… I have no idea, why do they keep using French on store names? This is dumb! Use Japanese, damn it!... Urgh, so… The store Aiko entered was bright pink all over and I think it's a clothes store. It was getting late, and Aiko didn't come out while we waited outside. We started to get worried, so we rushed inside. Just like that, when we passed the door, we saw a bright light, and boom, the store turned into another Velvet Room. Unlike the one at school which had a piano, this one had a dressing room off the side. Inside, we saw Igor, Jean, Elise, and Aiko screaming in the middle holding her head. It'd be funny if she knew she wasn't in danger.
Shinji: Calm down, you're safe.
Yuya: See Aiko, that's what I was going to tell you about. I didn't think the other world would pop up so suddenly.
Aiko: What the heck is going on? I just entered a clothes shop and now I'm in a weird room with an Imp and 2 weirdos!
Jean: Hey, I'm not weird!
Elise: W- Welcome to the Velvet Room. If you want to head out, we advise you to find a safe way to return to this room. You see, this world's version of the location you know as "Kame-Yu" is invaded by what you call "Zombies".
Yuya: Come on, a Mall infested with Zombies? That's the most clichéd crap I've ever heard!
Shinji: Either it's that, or you don't get to summon sweet ghosts out of your psyche. Come on, follow me and look for shiny balls. Long as you're with me, you're safe.
Out of the blue, Jun arrived in the Velvet Room with his Persona on him. I'll have to agree with Yuya on that one, it's getting pretty clichéd.
Jun: I felt the sudden urge to show up. Looks like it was a good idea, this world's Kame-Yu is-
Shinji: Infested with Zombies, we know. Hey, can you locate the Shiny Balls with your Persona's abilities?
He could, which actually didn't surprise me. We exited the Velvet Room, and made our way, slicing zombies on the way through, to the corrupted Burger King, where we found a ball that Yuya grabbed. Then, a slightly bigger Zombie broke in, and Yuya summoned his persona, which was a big red oni in Spartan armor with a spear for a right arm. We sliced and diced the hell out of that bastard. After that, we started to look for another Shiny ball, which was probably Aiko's. It was in the fountain in the middle of the Mall. The thing is, there was a big monster starfish thing inside it.
Jun: The Enemy's weakness… Is Ice!
Shinji: Persona Change! Jack Frost!
I threw Bufus at this ho, but hee almost didn't react. Sh!t, I'm starting to sound like my ho of a Persona. All of a sudden, Aiko started screaming and holding her head. Then Yuya and I got caught by that thing, and it seemed to sap our energy because we couldn't maintain our Personae active. Then, I saw Jun going in to reach for something. He got caught too, but he threw it at Aiko. It started to shine, and she summoned a robotic woman wih a Naginata and a floating circle behind her. She screamed "Bufula", and the tentacle things that were holding us got frozen enough that we could break free. Frustrated that today was the 8th, that I had to go with Yuya, and that I was in mall with a bunch of Zombies and an eldritch starfish monster, I summoned Damocles, and threw the single most powerful attack I could, and the thing collapsed. It wasn't dead, so Yuya, Aiko and I rushed that bastard to kill it. It got back up and according to Jun, it got slightly healed, but not enough to stop us from taking it down with a bunch of Ice and Yuya's Spear. It finally died, and we headed back to the Velvet Room to return to our world. We did, and it was almost night time. We decided to part ways and go back to our respective homes. I got 2 text messages, saying that my "Strength" and "Temperance" Social Links were both at Rank 1.
The next day was a Saturday, specifically April 9th.
TO BE CONTINUED
Author's notes:
-Yuya Shironari was pretty much always Shinji's wingman from conceptualization to finish. You'll get to know why he's the Strenght Arcana. He's also special among Persona Users, but you'll learn why at Rank Max of his Social Link. He's the same size as Shinji, but he has brownish hair, a small scar on the left side of his jaw, and bruises on his hands. His Persona is Spartacus, who you probably know as the leader of a bunch of slaves that rebelled because they didn't like their condition. The Persona is what Yuya imagines such a famous warrior as, looking like an Oni and using Fire and all that. Yuya's more of a Hit hard and take hits deal, with low speed.
-Aiko Chiasa is… You'll see. See, she was originally the Lovers social link, but then I conceptualized another character that fits this Arcana more, so I moved her to Temperance and changed her backstory. Her Persona is Kaihime, a Japanese female warrior. She's robotic because historians aren't sure if she did what she did, making her seem "Artificial". Due to being Temperance, she's going to be mostly about Magic, learning all 4 Ma-Dynes later on with support spells sch as the different walls and breaks. She's blonde with a ponytail and wears either her uniform or a Yellow and Pink sweater.
