I hadn't known what to expect when I opened the blue door. My vivid imagination could have come up with any number of possibilities, from random points in spacetime to rooms filled with angels or demons ready to pounce as soon as I opened the door, so it was almost a relief when I opened it that the room beyond wasn't particularly crazy by my imagination's standards.

Ornate pillars. Six long stone tables lined up in pairs down the length of the room, each lined with throne-like chairs. A seventh table running the breadth of the room at its head. Silver braziers of blue fire lining the edges of the room between each set of pillars, casting an eerie glow over the place, an etherial hymn playing off in the distance that seemed to emanate from the air itself, and every inch of the room covered completely in an etherial deep blue.

But as strange as the room was, the people in it were more interesting. Seated at the table at the head of the room was a bulgy-eyed, hunchbacked old man with an incredibly long nose, waited on by a man, a woman, and a young girl, all clad in the same blue as the room. Seated at one of the tables near to them were two young men and two young women, the youngest of whom (the raven-headed man) seemed to be around college age, while the oldest (the redheaded woman; I didn't count the android girl) appeared to be in her mid- to late twenties.

The long-nosed man at the head of the room looked up at me as I entered and took note of my surroundings. "Kenzo Okuda," he greeted me, "Welcome to the Velvet Room."

I raised one eyebrow. "Just to make sure, I'm not dead yet, am I? This isn't some in-between place where I'm going to be judged whether I'm going to heaven or hell?"

The long-nosed man chuckled. "No, though you are half-correct in that this is an in-between place. This room exists between dreams and reality, mind and matter. Do not fear, for while your real body has undergone a perilous experience, you are perfectly sound and fast asleep in the real world."

I let out a sigh of relief. "Good. I still have a lot of stuff in the real world I want to do before I pass on."

The long-nosed man's grin seemed to widen just a fraction. "I suppose some introductions are in order. My name is Igor. I am the master of this room. The young men and women seated before you are your predecessors as guests of this room, and these three at my side are their attendants."

The older woman standing next to Igor spoke first. "I am Margaret, attendant to Yu Narukami."

The silver-haired boy waved one hand in my direction. "I'm Yu. Good to meet you."

I so wanted to make an English joke about his name, but I restrained myself.

The little girl standing on Igor's other side spoke next. "I am Lavenza, attendant to Ren Amamiya."

Raven-hair leaned back and smirked mischievously in my direction. "That would be me. I'm Ren."

I'm probably going to forget his name and just call him Raven aren't I? Yeah, that's probably going to end up happening.

The man standing just behind Margaret spoke next. "I am Theodore. I am attendant to Minako Arisato, as well as Aigis in the absence of my sister Elizabeth."

The redheaded girl flashed me a sunny smile. "I'm Minako! I hope we get along!"

Aigis' greeting was more formal. "I am Aigis. It is truly wonderful to meet you."

I bowed in greeting to all of them as well. "Good to meet you all. My name is Kenzo Okuda. Treat me well."

Igor chuckled again. "Most excellent. If I may, young guest, only those who are bound by a contract may enter this room and make use of its services. If you are willing to agree to these terms, then sign the contract to partake in what we here in the Velvet Room have to offer."

I walked in between the tables to the front of the hall and looked at the piece of paper Igor had offered. Written on it was but a single line of text:

I will take full responsibility for my actions.

I tossed the pen a little, snatched it out of the air and said, "I've always been responsible for all my actions, and I'm not about to start changing that now." I signed the contract without hesitation.

"The contract has been sealed," Igor proclaimed. He raised his hand, and a blue aura enveloped the contract, which then morphed into an ornate black key. "This is your key to the Velvet Room. Be prepared to use our services when offered, and use them wisely."

"Sounds like serious business," I noted, taking the offered key. I wouldn't be letting go of this anytime soon.

"Since you are now officially a guest of the Velvet Room," Igor continued, "You will be assigned an attendant of your own to assist you in your growth." He waved a hand to another door on his right. The door opened softly, and through it stepped another girl who looked around my own age, if not a little older. Her long tunic, combat boots, and leggings were the same blue as the other attendants' garb and the rest of the room, and her hair the same shade of pale blonde. Her long, wavy hair was loose, but tied back out of her face with a narrow strap of what appeared to be black leather. Her golden eyes twinkled with mischief, and her grin was both sharklike and oddly infectious.

"Nice to meet you," the girl said calmly, despite her obvious enthusiasm for the job she was being assigned to. "My name is Saraiah, and I will be your attendant for your stay in the Velvet Room."

"A pleasure to meet you as well, Miss Saraiah," I replied to her with a slight bow. "I look forward to working with you."

Saraiah gave a slight giggle. "This is going to be fun," she said under her breath. I looked up and returned her mischievous smirk right back at her. Her own smirk widened, and her giggle started to turn into a sly snicker.

"Focus, Saraiah," Margaret admonished the smaller girl.

The younger girl took a deep breath and composed herself. "Apologies, sister."

I noted the use of the term 'sister'. I couldn't help but wonder if all the Velvet Room attendants were siblings.

"You must be wondering why you were called here," Saraiah addressed me again.

"That among other things," I admitted.

Igor picked up with, "Then allow me to explain a little. Due to the extenuating circumstances of recent days, you are familiar with the concepts of Shadows and Personas, are you not?"

"Indeed," I replied, shifting my tone and language into a more formal sort. "I have done my research on all the information that the Phantom Thieves and the previous teams of Persona-users have so far been forthcoming with." I thought I noticed the corner of Ren's mouth twitch out of the corner of my eye, but I kept my focus on Igor.

"Good," Saraiah replied. "That will save us a little time."

"Very recently," Igor continued, "you awakened to your own power. This power is very unique, akin to the number zero. Totally empty, yet filled with infinite possibilities. The power of the Wild Card."

"So if I'm a Wild Card," I speculated, "does that mean those guys are Wild Cards as well?" I gestured to the three humans and singular android sitting at the table next to me.

"Something like that," Ren answered with a casual smirk.

"The entirety of what your power entails will be explained to you in due time," Igor told me. He waved his hand over the table, and a ring of seven tarot cards appeared before him. Two of them overturned: the Fool, labeled with a 0, and the Tower, with a XVI. "For now, know this: many trials and challenges await you. Your journey will be long, and already it is perilous." Igor gestured to my scarred right hand. The golden feather glistened angrily in the blue light. Lavenza gave a hiss of rage as she beheld it.

"That relic in your hand is a fragment of a former evil god of control, known as Yaldabaoth," Igor explained. My head shot up as I looked at him in shock, not noticing how Ren's gaze immediately darkened at mention of the name. "Due to his past invasion of this room, my imprisonment, and splitting poor Lavenza in half in the process, this room itself rejects anything that bears even a glimmer of his presence. For now, it gives you sufficient strength to access a Persona, young Anomaly, but it is not wise to rely on such a thing. The Plumes of Dusk, those fragments of the death goddess Nyx, are fairly subtle and safe to use in moderation, but the Vanes of Order, fragments of Yaldabaoth, are far more blatant and corrupting. Continued usage could result in your mind becoming corrupted, and you yourself turning into a monster that you were never meant to be."

Ren almost shot out of his seat as he stood. "Igor, is this why you had us come here during his entry? To warn us about these Vanes of Order?"

"You assume correctly, Trickster," Margaret spoke this time. "The one that this young Anomaly bears on the back of his hand is but one of many scattered throughout Japan when you slew Yaldabaoth. The recent collision between the Metaverse and the real world has caused the Vanes to become visible to anyone who stumbles upon their locations, and in the wrong hands, they will be capable of incredible chaos and destruction."

"So ought our task then be to destroy them?" Aigis inquired, holding up a hand as if expecting a fight.

"At the moment unfortunately, we lack the power to safely eliminate them," Igor answered. "But fret not. In the hands of one who has faced their own Shadow and overcome it, the Vanes of Order are powerless. They are little more now than impulses of control left with fragments of Yaldabaoth's power, and a single Persona-user is sufficient to bring them to heel, provided they are able to summon a Persona without the use of an external catalyst of course."

"So Sage Class or higher," I blurted without thinking.

"What? Sage Class?" the redhead asked. Kotone? No, Minako.

I explained, "I made up my own classifications for different classes of Persona-users after I saw tonight's interview with Wolf, the original Detective Prince, and the Police Chief. Hunter Class Persona-users, the lowest class, require a catalyst to summon a Persona, like me with this Vane. Sage Class Persona-users can summon without the use of a catalyst, and the highest class so far, Phantom Class, also get masks, costumes, and additional physical enhancements."

Minako, Aigis, and Yu looked stunned by how I'd laid out my organization of their Classes, but Ren was chuckling. "You really thought it through that much, kid?"

I shrugged. "What can I say? One thing I'm never short on is ideas. And I don't really appreciate you calling me a kid since you're clearly not much older than I am, Joker."

Ren sat up in shock. "How in the-!?"

"A hunch coupled with the different attendants for each of you indicating different teams of Persona-users, also paired with how your attitude matched that of the leader of the Phantom Thieves when he appeared at the end of the first Outbreak in Shibuya," I explained. "I was still only around 50% sure you were him, but you confirmed it for me. Thanks."

If Minako, Aigis, and Yu could look even more stunned than they already were, they did, though it took me a few seconds to notice. "What?" I asked them.

"You're weird," Yu said bluntly.

I frowned and looked around. "You guys summon spirits to fight off hordes of monsters born from negative emotions and hang around in a blue room that exists between dreams and reality, and somehow I'm the one who's weird?"

Ren and Minako immediately burst out laughing. Aigis had to repress a giggle of her own. "I mean," Minako managed to get out in between cries of laughter, "he has a point."

At an amused Igor's side, Saraiah was cackling uproariously, much to Theodore's confusion and Margaret's disapproval, and Lavenza was having somewhat less luck than Aigis in controlling her mirth. "My my, Trickster. It seems you have quite the competition."

"Geez, man," Ren managed once he'd stopped laughing. "Are you OCD or something to notice all that stuff that let you figure out I was Joker?"

I winced uncomfortably. "No, I don't think so. About the most I am is weird, honest to a fault, and possibly just a little bit mildly autistic. I don't really like to talk about it that much."

I remembered that my Persona was Quasimodo. Fitting.

I turned back to Igor. "Back to the whole thing with this feather in my hand. I'm going to do my best to get rid of it before it can corrupt me or whatnot."

"Be warned, young Anomaly," Igor cautioned me. "The Vane will resist any attempt at being separated from you, its host. A portion of yourself also binds it to you so that you may borrow its power."

My mind flashed back to the interview, which I'd seen in the café where I'd eaten dinner. "My Shadow?"

"Indeed. The part of you that seeks power, wishes to be unleashed so that it may exert its will on you and those around you. If you succeed in facing your Shadow and overcoming it, your soul will reject the Vane and you will gain a true Persona and become, as you put it, a Sage Class Persona-user. Only then will you be able to return here and access the services of the Velvet Room, for despite your possession of a key, the Velvet Room will still attempt to bar entry to the fragments of the evil god that once invaded it. For the sake of your own safety, it would be best if you were not to come back until you have managed to rid yourself of that fragment."

I clenched my fist. "I understand. Anything else I need to know before our time here is up?"

Ren stood once again. "If I may," he offered. Igor nodded to him, and he turned to me. "If you need help, you need a way to contact us."

"Us meaning the Phantom Thieves, right?" I asked.

"Yes. Just look for a black cat with white paws, muzzle, and tail tip wearing a yellow collar, follow it to a café in Yongen-Jaya, and tell the owner that you're looking for a game of cards. I'll let him know beforehand what to look for-"

"Beforehand?" I asked with a grin, holding up my scarred hand.

Ren let out a half-laugh, half-sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I thought I was the one named Joker."

"Don't worry about it. Bad puns have always been my thing."

"I dread to think. Anyway, you'll be able to tell him what's going on, and he'll tell you where to find me or my team. Okay?"

"Got it. Black and white cat, Yongen-Jaya, game of cards. Hopefully I don't forget by the time I wake up."

As if on cue, a bell tolled somewhere off in the distance. "I'm afraid that is all we have time for tonight," Igor said simply. "Farewell for now, my Wild Cards. And Kenzo Okuda, I do hope you succeed."

The Velvet Room faded and vanished.

My eyes fluttered open and I groaned groggily.

"I see you're starting to wake up," came a woman's voice next to my bed. Confused, I mentally shook my senses into alertness so I could take stock of my surroundings. The bed I was lying on had thin white sheets and pillow, and sat in the corner of a small examination room, most likely a clinic for an independent practitioner due to how the doctor's computer and paperwork were all kept in the same room. The doctor herself was a woman in her late twenties to early thirties (I assumed) and wore a short gothic dress under her white lab coat, finishing off the look with a leather choker.

At the moment, she was jotting down some notes on a notepad. "How are you feeling?"

I sat up and grimaced as my scarred right arm resisted being moved, sending spears of pain across my hand and up my arm. Oh yeah. The Vane of Order or whatever it was called had literally gone right through my hand. "My hand hurts," I said simply.

"Understandable," the doctor replied. "Would you mind telling me why it looks like that feather pressed into the back of your right hand looks like it was pushed there from the other side?"

I grit my teeth. "Because it was."

The doctor looked up from her notes. "This must be serious business if the leader of the Phantom Thieves himself came in to check on you after two of his team brought you in."

So that was why Ren had looked like he'd seen me before when I'd first entered the Velvet Room. I'd have to thank him for that. "You've had contact with the Phantom Thieves?"

The woman chuckled under her breath. "You could say that. I guess it's okay to trust you with this much since you're getting mixed up in all this Shadow and Persona business. My name is Tae Takemi. I run this clinic here in Yongen-Jaya, where I've been supplying the Phantom Thieves with my special medicines ever since their first heist."

I blinked in surprise. I supposed that made sense, but I hadn't been expecting that. "You must have given them some good stuff if they keep coming back."

"Apparently my medicines work wonders for recovering their injuries and magical exhaustion in the Metaverse," Doctor Takemi explained. "I've been trying a few things since the Outbreaks began, but while my medicines do seem to have more or less effect than usual depending on how much a patient believes it will work, the effects only reach miracle levels on Persona-users. Yourself included by the way."

I looked down at my hand. The gold feather glittered ominously. Doctor Takemi continued, "Would you happen to know what that feather is and how it ended up in the back of your hand?"

I thought for a minute before answering. "I found it in a back alley on my way to school. Had it with me all day, but when the Shadows started showing up in the evening, they were all tracking me down for some reason, and all I could do was run until I ran out of breath. Then I heard a voice goading me into fighting, I awakened to a Persona named Quasimodo, fought the Shadows that were chasing me, got saved by a cat-looking thing, and passed out. Next I...had a really weird dream. A weird long-nosed guy told me this thing in my hand is a fragment of an evil god of control called a Vane of Order, and that if I don't want it to corrupt me, I have to face my Shadow and unlock my real Persona."

Doctor Takemi frowned. "That's...new. A fragment of an evil god of control? Is that why I heard a voice that told me 'I am thou' or whatever when I touched it…?"

"No idea. I'll be honest, I'm about as clueless as to what this thing can do as you. Hopefully I can get it out of me as soon as possible."

The doctor nodded in agreement. "Do you want to call your parents and tell them where you are?"

I froze. I'd completely forgotten about my family. My mom was going to have a fit that I'd never come home last night, moreso because I never told her where I'd gone. "Yeah, um...I think I'm going to have to make a call. Could you give me a little space…?"

"...and that about sums it up," Ren finished, laying back on the couch. The Phantom Thieves were meeting again in Leblanc's attic, waiting for the first of Kirijo-san's people to start coming in. The secret door would probably take the entire weekend to set up if they worked fast, so Ren had decided it would be better to have their meeting early so he could explain what he'd learned last night in the Velvet Room.

Morgana spoke up first. "It's a good thing we now know about those fragments of Yaldabaoth. If they're really that dangerous, then once I get a good sniff of the one Kenzo has, I should start doing my own solo patrols to hunt down as many more as I can find."

"I might be able to assist," Futaba spoke up. "I can have Al Azif scan for them once I get a good reading. Who knows, maybe once we have one, we'll be able to use it for something if it's basically just an evil Metaverse battery."

"We should all keep a lookout," Makoto insisted. "Especially since it took us this long to figure out that they even existed. The fact remains that we have no idea how many of these Vanes of Order there are or how far they might have scattered. Someone needs to meet up with Zenkichi-san and warn him of their existence so he can alert anyone who may need to be in the know."

"Morgana," Ren added, "keep an eye on Okuda as well. If he seems suspicious, let me know right away. If not, you can feel free to lead him to the hideout."

"Got it, Joker."

The meeting was interrupted when Ren's phone rang. Ren frowned as he saw the name. Why was Zenkichi calling him? He hit the button to accept the call. "Hey, gramps. What's up?"

"Ren, there's no time. It's Akane. She's been kidnapped!"