Prologue 2: Mariko
Mariko
Mariko stood in a dark room, her brown hair falling loose from their bindings. She saw the man standing in the moonlight. She removed her S-DES brassard and tied to her forehead to keep the blood out of her eyes, her armored variant of her Gekkoukan field uniform was practically in tatters. She called a name, though in her vision, she could not hear the name. She began to scream his name, trying to snap him from his daze. He looked up, seeing NYX descending. He fiddled with his COMP, summoning his demons, as Mariko rushed to his side as well, summoning her Persona...
MARIKO!
Mariko snapped from her dream and, noticing the whole of the class was staring, began to blush from embarrassment. Ms. Kanou cleared her throat and, acting as if she hadn't been the one calling Mariko, resumed her lesson on the blackboard. "And class" she concluded, "That is the legend of this city. Without Lord Tatsuya returning from the Other Side and building the Fortress, we probably would have no Persona users today, thus no-one to protect against the beings that reside in the Unconscious, like, but not limited to Nyarlathotep". From the back a Demon Tamer by the name of Hitoshi spoke up "Then the Demon Tamers would have twice the work" He said sleepily, his chubby, but muscular frame sitting below a head of unkempt curls of lavender hair, and a sleepy-looking face. His brown eyes looked unfocused but steady, almost as if even the act of blinking took too much effort. In fact, Mariko was almost certain his comment was both out of pride and to mask that he slept through the whole class. Ms. Kanou looked back "And of course, they already do so well of a job at getting food that only a third of us starve!" She snapped back. He shrugged it off, though another voice spoke up. It was Hayami, her red hair drawn into a ponytail, her eyes a steel grey. "I don't think we can blame that on the Demon Tamers" she stated, "The Hunter's Association is in disrepair, it's lucky for us we have people like Hitoshi to get food for us at all" She shot a smile to him, which he reciprocated. Hayami remains top of her class and, after beginning to date Hitoshi, has managed to draw him out of the cycle of sleeping and hunting demons for food for the Fortress, a task Lord Tatsuya assigned to the Hunter's Association of olden times, but now is tasked to individual Demon Tamers in exchange for a bedroom in the Fortress. Ms. Kanou responded to Hayami coldly, "and why did the Hunter's Association fall?" Hayami choked, knowing the answer, though Mariko had to ponder it. The Hunter's Association began as a way for Demon Tamers to collaborate on missions, mainly for the purpose of food or relic gathering, but also offered protection to people who didn't wield Personas. Hitoshi spoke up, "The Director was found guilty of collaborating with Nyarlathotep to bring about an event called "The Fall", which required the majority of humans to wish for death. His plan was to protect them until their hopes were high, then draw back as the hordes of demons grew outside" He stated coldly "He was publicly burned alive. As we do to any human who collaborates with Shadows" Ms. Kanou sneered, believing she had won the day, when in reality, Hitoshi's bored expression showed his lack of effort in the argument. The bell rang, signaling the end of class. Hitoshi and Hayami quickly moved out before Ms. Kanou could stop them.