I cried out in surprise as whoever grabbed me tried to drag me into a dark alleyway, a sickly sweet smell filling my mouth and nostrils. Confused and disoriented, something snapped in my brain, and suddenly all my senses shot up to eleven. I screamed even louder, and the Vane of Order suddenly burned in the back of my hand.

Cerulean flames blazed into existence around me, the cloth over my mouth falling to the ground as my assailant cried out in surprise. Quasimodo loomed as I spun to face him, almost stumbling on the pavement. The figure was dressed in a dark coat and a black face mask covering his mouth and nose. Quasimodo hurled a weak fire spell after him as he fled, but damage was already done.

Now I was scared. Something had been in that cloth, and it was messing with my brain. The Vane of Order in my hand was suddenly screaming in my mind, and to make matters worse, Shadows were suddenly spawning all around me, no doubt being summoned by the Vane.

Still confused and disoriented, I lashed out with Quasimodo, blasting several lesser Shadows with fire and smashing several with his bell. A Kelpie approached from around the corner, but I cried out, "Sledgehammer!" and Quasimodo smashed the Greater Shadow with a blue-and-gold gavel. The attack disoriented the Shadow, and I had Quasimodo burn it as I darted out of the alley, still trying to clear my head from its state of panic.

Something slammed against my mind, forcing me to my knees. Quasimodo was reabsorbed into the Vane, and spears of pain lanced through my right arm, as though the Vane were being driven through my hand all over again. Screams from other pedestrians and passers-by erupted around me as more Shadows heard the Vane of Order call to them and swarmed in from all sides.

"Ah!" Rise suddenly gave a little gasp, stumbling into Yu's arms with one hand to her head.

"Rise?" Yu was instantly concerned. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Something...someone!" Rise stammered almost incoherently. "I just felt a surge of power. Nearby. And so many Shadows…!"

Now Yu was alert and focused. "Let's go."

Rise held his gaze with her own and gave him a firm nod. "I'll try to contact anyone nearby."

Yu nodded to his fianceé and the two took off running, azure flames already spiraling around their bodies.

The exhaustion from using Quasimodo so much was already taking its toll. I could barely breathe, and my arm was still on fire with pain. The Vane of Order flashed as several lesser Shadows approached, striking them with golden light and causing them to dissolve into pools of black. The inky substance flowed together and began to reform, the remaining Shadows standing at the ready, surrounding me.

A lump in the pool grew, developing into a figure in a fetal position. The figure uncurled, slowly raising itself onto its hands and knees, its body still bearing the sheen and consistency of crude oil and smelling twice as bad. The figure solidified, slowly stretching its arms and legs, fingers forming, then clothing, then facial features. Finally, it opened its bright golden eyes, and I was looking at a near-perfect replica of myself.

My Shadow.

I slowly struggled to my feet, fighting the pain as my Shadow examined its new physical form. "Aaaaahhhh," it sighed in a sharp, echoing voice, one I recognized from recordings of my own speech. "So good to be alive. Don't you agree, me?"

"That depends," I made out through gritted teeth. "How do you define 'alive'?"

The Shadow laughed. "Running from your problems as always I see. Your bravado can't hide your fear. Not from me."

"I was getting kind of sick of hiding alone anyway," I spat. "So what do you want? Here to take over my body and use me as a puppet?"

"Hmph. Trying to get me to explain my evil plan won't work," the Shadow told me. He displayed a golden feather on the back of his left hand, mirroring the Vane of Order embedded in my right. He motioned to the Shadows, who readied themselves to attack.

"IZANAGI!"

"KOUZEON!"

Force waves and blasts of lightning shattered the Shadows surrounding us, leaving both myself and my Shadow stunned by the incredible display of power. Standing just off to the side in the middle of the street were two figures, flanked by two spirits burning in azure flames.

The taller figure wore a silver-trimmed black coat with silver fastenings left open at his chest. His black gloves and boots were also armored in silver, the fingers of his gloves cut away to reveal a bright yellow pair underneath, a color matched by the scarf around his neck. A pair of black leather baldrics crossed over his chest, and an ornate katana rested on his hip. His Persona was similarly black-coated, save for the addition of a steel faceplate and a massive sword with a very long handle. His eyes and hair were the color of silver.

The young woman at his side wore a more priestly garb, with a short-sleeved crimson dress that went down to her knees, trimmed in swirls of gold patterning. The royal purple cape around her shoulders had the same gold trim, and fastened at her breast with a dark blue gemstone rimmed with white and gold. Her belt was also white, and the buckle styled akin to her brooch. In her hand was a long staff, decorated with a helix of gold and topped with a silver microphone. Her hair was a slightly reddish brown, almost appearing purple next to her outfit, and her six-armed, telescope-headed Persona was one that everyone recognized nowadays.

"A Personal Shadow," Risette said darkly. Kouzeon's satellites spun faster, signaling Rise's increasing anger.

Yu Narukami's eyes flicked to my face. "Wait, you're...that kid from the Velvet Room. Kenzo?"

In spite of the situation, I grinned. "Right in one, Silver Head."

Yu gave me a baffled look. "Excuse me?"

I barged over his confusion. "I've got to deal with my Shadow. Mind keeping the rest of those Shadows off my back?"

A quick glance around the street confirmed for Yu that there were still plenty of Shadows to take care of. "Fine," he relented, "but if you get in trouble, I'm still bailing you out."

"Thanks for the backup," I thanked him. He and Rise turned to face the remaining Greater Shadows, with cries of "Ishtar!" and "Mazanma!"

I turned back to my Shadow. It smirked and waved casually as I glared at it.

"You should know I've never been one to hide behind others," I told it.

"No, you just run away from them," the Shadow taunted. "Still so scared that everyone you meet will end up like all those people who made your life hell back when you were a child. Still afraid to open up to people. Scared they'll realize what you really are."

The Shadow laughed. "Oh, the stories I could tell! Months and years of going up to talk to people who barely understand a word of what you say. Putting together random things and coming up with the most incredible worlds, worlds that no one else will ever know or understand. And when you try to talk to other people your age-who are supposed to be like you!-they push you down. Shut you out. Every friend you ever had, disappearing one by one. First you move away. Then they move away. And then you realize just how cruel the world can be.

"People taunt you, make fun, push you down, just because you're smarter than they are. Because you can see things that they never will. And the crown jewel of stupid reasons, because you can't see social boundaries! You don't understand why some people are judged based on disabilities or national origin, and they hate you for it. And what did you do? Nothing. You walk around, head down, like a little people-pleasing yes-man, so desperately afraid of the fact that you're so much better than everyone around you that you actually convince yourself that you're worth less!"

The Shadow laughed again. "Pathetic. Those sniveling rats should be groveling at your feet, begging for your help and forgiveness. It felt good, didn't it? Finally having the power to do something in this worthless life? Imagine having power on the level of the Phantom Thieves themselves. You could become the god you always deserved to be!"

"For all that you seem to know about me, you're not doing a very good job of tempting me," I said flatly.

The Shadow blinked. "What?"

"What's the point of having power if I don't earn it?" I demanded. "I know that I had a shitty time at school back in America! I know people have a hard time following my thought process! I know I have a tendency to get lost in my own head! Here's where you're wrong: I don't want your power if it makes other people suffer the way I did!

"You don't have to tell me you're me. I know what you are, I've done my research. You're an amalgamation of every part of me that I hide or despise, given form by the Vane of Order in the back of our hand. And I don't care! You're still part of me! And neither of us will ever be whole until we both accept each other." I calmed myself with a deep breath, looked my Shadow in its golden eyes, and stretched out my hand. "You want to see true power? Join me. Join me once again, and we'll both have a taste of real power."

The Shadow looked down in surprise at the offered hand. It reached out its own dark hand to grasp mine, and a rush of triumph flooded through me. The Shadow smirked at me.

"No."

A fresh burst of pain seared through my hand, and I screamed in pain. The Vane of Order ripped free of my hand and slammed into the back of my Shadow's hand, letting the scarred-over wound bleed freely again. The Shadow laughed as a surge of power flooded through it. The Vane of Order from my hand merged with the one in its hand, and Quasimodo burst into being behind it.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! FOOL!" the Shadow mocked me. "Did you really think it would be that easy!? News flash: I don't care what you want anymore. This Vane of Order will give me enough power to exist on my own, without you. I don't need you anymore. I'm my own person, now! Goodbye, Kenzo Okuda!"

I was on the ground, my hand bleeding freely as my Shadow morphed, growing grotesque black armor on its legs and shoulders, a black and red cape falling across its back and a spiked black helmet appearing on its head. Quasimodo's flame darkened, turning almost purple, and his face becoming even uglier. My former Persona's lopsided grin now twisted with hate and malice, and the bell turned into black iron and filled with molten lead.

There was a sudden flare of light, and the Shadow stumbled back. Yu and Rise had long since finished off the other Greater Shadows, and now they were looking to finish the fight.

Yu stepped in front of me, Rise by his side. Rise's white visor reformed around her face as she leveled her staff at my Shadow. Yu looked down at me, his own silver mask glinting in the twilight.

"It'll be alright from here," Yu told me. "This is just old routine for us."

I closed my eyes in frustration. No. That wasn't going to work. I knew enough about myself to know that I was stubborn about earning things like this, which stood to reason that my Shadow would too. I grit my teeth and staggered to my feet. Yu's eyes widened with shock as I stepped towards my Shadow. "What are you doing? You can't fight that thing!"

"I've already accepted him," I told them, still looking at my Shadow even as I thought of it as him for the first time. "He's the one who hasn't accepted me. And if he's ever going to respect me, it has to be me who kicks his ass."

The Shadow laughed hysterically. "And how do you expect to do that, oh valiant hero? You have nothing left! No weapons, no strength, no training, no Vane. I even took your Persona from you! Face it, you're nothing! I'm the real one now!"

"You never were and never will be," I spat back. "I don't care that you're part of me anymore. Because that's all you are: part. You'll never encompass all of me. And part of the perk of being a Wild Card is that me means a lot of things."

Blood dripped from my wounded right hand onto the asphalt. I ignored the pain, despite new lances arcing up my arm every time I moved the hand. I bent down on one knee, reached out my hand, and drew a shape in my own blood. Three simply-drawn arcs forming the shape of a long, sickle-shaped claw.

Deep in my soul, I could still pick out a few things that lingered from before my Shadow's appearance. The slightly pulsing point of light that was the glimmering fragment of the Star Arcana burning within me. The lingering attachments of my Shadow and Quasimodo, as well as the last dregs of power that the Vane of Order had left behind within me. A connection to an old obsession that had lingered within me ever since I was five. And just the faintest hint of power, coming from an ornate key in my pocket.

All of these things swirled together within me, and I opened my eyes. The claw I'd drawn on the ground had burst into cerulean flames, and more of those selfsame tongues licked at the ground around me.

Rise was baffled. "What-"

Yu was incredulous. "No way…"

My Shadow was furious. "Impossible!"

As I rose to my feet, a creature about the size of a turkey, formed of azure light and flame, started to form around my shoulders. The long jaws formed first, studded with serrated teeth. The eyes were slitted and intelligent. A mane of feathers down the back of its head. A pair of wings with three-fingered hands, each finger bearing a claw like a meat hook. And finally, a stiff meter-long tail and a pair of legs, each bearing a long, sickle-shaped claw on the inner toe, raised up and ready to strike.

The creature chittered and warbled at me as I raised a hand to scratch it at the base of its neck, causing it to close its eyes and hum with pleasure. "You should recognize this part of me," I told my bamboozled Shadow. "It's changed a little since, but it's been with me since I was a child."

The dinosaur hopped off my shoulders, holding its tail straight in the air to display the fan of feathers at the end. It raised one leg and flared its wings to display its many hooked claws. I raised my hand and pointed at my Shadow and Quasimodo.

"Attack, VELOCIRAPTOR!"

The Velociraptor opened its jaws filled with serrated fangs and screamed bloody murder at my enemies.