Regardless of the circumstances of his home life, at school, Akio Fujita was just another student. A second-year at Shujin Academy.

The same grade as those three.

Kenzo Okuda, Shen Yang, and Arisu Fukuda. The three of them were just ahead of Akio, talking battle tactics and Persona stuff just outside the school gate before classes, coupled with banter and joking as though they'd already friends since childhood. Everyone knew Okuda was a Persona-user by now, and thanks to the scars on his right hand, he was instantly recognizable even if the only other thing you knew about him was his name. Shen Yang was basically his right-hand-man, constantly at his side, and when he wasn't, he was being fawned over by most of the girls in his class, and even a few that weren't. One of the exceptions to that rule was the third member of the trio, Arisu Fukuda, and while she didn't stick near Okuda as much as Yang did, she was still visibly growing more comfortable around them, her normally terrifying stormy glare softening significantly when she was around the two boys.

Akio moved to pass by them through the school gate.

"...why you haven't even tried yet!" Yang was saying to Fukuda. "It's the best!"

"Shocking, I know," Okuda deadpanned.

Fukuda failed to stifle her snort with a glare, but still smacked Okuda on the shoulder anyway. "NO. Bad."

"Still got you to laugh!" Okuda gleefully pointed out.

Truly a phenomenal accomplishment, thought Akio. He strode past them into the school. Just inside the entryway, there were a number of students loitering around the shoe lockers, gossiping animatedly about the trio outside the gates. Akio's ears pricked in the direction of one of the closer conversations.

"...the heck Okuda got his Persona?"

"Who cares? I don't want to get a hole ripped through my hand."

"Yeah, but do you see Yang or Fukuda walking around with scars like that? Besides, maybe it's some chosen-one thing. He had to undergo a painful trial to awaken to powers beyond that of a normal Persona-user."

"What're you talking about?"

"The multiple Personas thing! Joker and Risette's fianceé are the only other ones who can do that, so it must be some special thing."

Akio had to hold back a snort at his excited peer's speculation. If a "trial of suffering" was all it took to become a Wild Card…

A lot of the gossip was quickly silenced as the doors opened and Okuda and his sidekicks walked in. The sudden drop in conversation was enough to give them pause, but Okuda merely shrugged and walked over to his locker to exchange his outdoor shoes for indoor ones. Yang and Fukuda quickly followed suit, swapping their shoes quickly and heading off to class without a word to anyone else.

Some of the talk began to pick up again as the trio left, but Akio's attention was drawn to a somewhat larger third-year with an angry expression being held back by a friend.

"Takahiro, you don't want to go after them," his friend was telling him.

The aggressive boy growled under his breath. "Who do they think they are, walking around all stuck-up? They think they're better than everyone else just because they've got powers?"

Akio shut his locker and strode off to class. Nothing about those three had anything to do with him, so there wasn't any point in talking to anyone about it. He hadn't gotten very far down the hall however before he heard a sound of running footsteps behind him.

Kaoru jogged up next to him. His only friend looked out of breath. "Gah, thank God I'm not late. I'm not late, am I?" he asked Akio.

"Nope," Akio replied evenly. "Unless you wanted to catch Okuda-san's gang before they went to class."

Kaoru gave a little start. "You saw them? What were they doing?"

Akio shrugged. "Just normal school stuff. I really don't get why they're such a big deal."

"They're just like the Phantom Thieves!" Kaoru protested. "Okuda-san is teaching the other two his secrets so they can fight the Shadow Calamity alongside him! It's like a superhero origin story!"

"I would think you get enough excitement seeing as your dad's shop is where the Thieves buy their weapons," Akio jabbed. At Kaoru's exasperated look, Akio allowed himself a small laugh. "Come on, let's just get to class. Maybe we'll catch some of the latest gossip about your new heroes."

At least some things helped make his life bearable.

I twisted my head back and forth, staring myself in the eyes. Reaching for the Agathion Persona I currently had at the forefront of my mind, a bright blue jar appeared on the bathroom counter in front of me, my eyes flashing a brilliant cobalt blue as I maintained the construct. Grasping the jar, I poured myself some water, swirled it around a little, sipped some, and then dropped the jar back into the sink. The construct vanished halfway down, and the remaining water splattered against the bottom of the basin. I smirked at myself in the mirror, observing that my eyes had faded back to their ambiguous sea-grey. Utterly fascinating. I wondered if all the other Wild Cards' eyes shone blue when they used their own unique Zero Skills…

As I left the bathroom and headed out of the school, I found Shen and Arisu waiting for me at the school gate. Shen ventured, "Are we still up for another hunting mission tonight?"

"Indeed," I replied. "In the meantime, I need to be somewhere."

"Where?"

Arisu reminded him, "Blacksmithing, remember?"

"Oh yeah, now I remember. That old man you mentioned's going to be teaching you to make weapons, right? Mind if we come?"

I shrugged. "Sure, you both can tag along. See if there's anything you like. I highly doubt he's going to start teaching me bladesmithing right off the bat though."

"Sweet!" Shen cheered. "You're coming too, right Arisu?"

Arisu paused. "Well, I suppose there's no harm in doing that…"

Shen whooped. "Yeah, new team activity!"

It was a long ride to Nishimagome after we all stopped by our houses to change out of our school uniforms, but in time we made it to Kojima Blacksmithing. Entering the shop, a smell of hot iron permeated the air, and there was the sound of a ringing hammer at the back. Before long, there was a hiss of steam and a clanking of tools being put down as the old man himself put away whatever project he was working on to come out of his workspace to the back counter.

"Hey, kid," he greeted me gruffly. "Brought your friends I see. They can look around as much as they want. If you want to earn your apprenticeship, then roll up your sleeves, put on an apron and some safety goggles, and join me in the back when you're ready. I'll be teaching you the basic rules today, and that's it. You'll be watching me work and handing me tools when I need them. Once you've absorbed enough information, then I'll let you start working with sharpening and grinding, and we'll go from there. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Aprons and safety goggles in the storage closet there," he told me, pointing to a door across the shop. After rifling through the options for things in my size, I came back out to see Arisu reaching into a corner and pulling out a big poleaxe with an awed look on her face. She grasped the weapon firmly in both hands and hoisted it up, testing its weight and balance.

A little smile crossed her face. "Oh, yes. I can absolutely do some damage with this…"

"You like that poleaxe, missy?" Kojima asked. "It isn't too big for you?"

"It is a little on the heavy side," Arisu admitted, "but fighting Shadows is good training."

"If you're sure," Kojima answered as Arisu brought the weapon up to the counter for purchase. He looked over at Shen, who was browsing through some of the more decorative items on the shelf. "You not see any weapons you like, kid?"

Shen glanced back at him. "Nah, I use a Jian sword. But thanks."

"Suit yourself. I haven't been making a lot of weapons because people often don't respect them the way they should, but with Shadows roamin' around now I probably ought to get back into that." He looked over at me now. "You found some PPE that fits you?"

"I'm good to go," I confirmed. "And just so you know, I have an ability to use multiple Personas-"

Kojima raised a hand. "I'm gonna stop you right there. I'm not going to pretend to know anything at all about Personas and all that crap, but if you're going to be learning under me, you're going to learn the old-fashioned way. No tricks, no cheats, no magic. Blacksmithing is the kind of trade that you can only learn through experience. It is delicate, precise, difficult, and dangerous, and if you try to mix in powers that you don't fully understand and barely control, that's a recipe for disaster. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Now get back here so I can show you the basics of all the tools I use and what they're for."

Kojima shoved the door to the back open and stomped inside, and I slipped past the counter to follow. It was a forbidding feeling, being in the back of someone's shop. Even more so considering the atmosphere of the forge itself. The far wall bore racks of tools and stone crucibles, while a large blast furnace and anvil sat against the wall on the side. The other side wall was occupied by electronic equipment, including a power hammer, welding torches, and something that looked like a hydraulic press.

"So, what would you say is the number one rule of blacksmithing?" I asked.

Kojima turned and looked me in the eyes.

"Everything in this room can kill you."

"And I'm just thinking, Well, ain't that just the story of my life now," I joked.

Shen and Arisu both stifled laughs. It had started raining again while I was being taught by Kojima, and Shen and Arisu had been forced to relocate to a convenience store down the road where they could hang out and wait for me. Except for one incident, where Shen had noticed a Shadow wandering around outside and decided to try blasting it with lightning from the storefront. The tactic had worked, and took out a couple other nearby Shadows as well by accident, but it had also blown out a nearby street lamp. Hence why Arisu looked irritated and Shen was quite sheepish when I finished my training for the day and made my way through the rain to where they were, using Undine's hydrokinesis to keep any rain from actually hitting me.

"Okay, but what was he actually teaching you?" Arisu inquired.

"Not a whole lot so far," I answered. "Mostly just what all the tools were and how he used them. Then he had me watch him making a pair of tongs from a couple of iron bars, and that took most of the rest of the session. And then at the end, he gave me a chart of all the different colors steel glows when it's heated and asked me which temperature was the most dangerous."

"Wouldn't that be the hottest one?" Shen asked.

"Nope. Turns out, hot iron is most dangerous when it's hot but hasn't started glowing so you can't visually tell it's hot. The way he asked tipped me off that the hottest one wasn't the answer, even if I didn't get it right away." I gave a little sigh. "Bit tedious just standing there not doing much for a while, but I did manage to learn some things. Anyway, how's the axe, Arisu?"

Arisu picked up her new polearm where it had been leaning against the wall of the store. "It's got some nice weight to it. I haven't actually managed to test it out yet though, mostly because someone thought it was a good idea to use lightning magic in the rain."

"Hey!" Shen protested, "at least those horse Shadows were weak to electricity!"

"We're not helping you if you get sued for collateral damage, dummy!" Arisu countered.

I let out a little sigh before walking over to the street lamp Shen had apparently broken. The rain had slowed to barely a drizzle, so I switched to Agathion for its electrical powers. I placed my hand on the side of the street lamp and focused, channeling a little of the Persona's power into the lamp and hoping to sense the electronic components within. But as the electric charge I was projecting spread out through the metal pole, I failed to sense any complex electronics. Figures it wouldn't be that easy, I thought to myself. I looked up at the broken light. Most likely it was up there that it was broken…

I switched to High Pixie and increased my focus. I hadn't actually tried summoning wings with High Pixie yet, but the ones I had managed to summon with Pixie had barely allowed me to hover for a few minutes before I had to drop back to the ground, exhausted. High Pixie was stronger, so hopefully its wings would let me stay in the air for longer. There was a flash of blue light as I summoned four insectlike wings barely connected to my back through a thread of magic. After taking a moment to admire the construct with an experimental flutter, I pushed off the ground, beating my wings as fast as I could.

Immediately I was taken aback by how fast I rose into the air. I had shot up almost twenty feet in only a couple seconds, higher and faster than I'd ever been able to do with Pixie. I was already starting to get a bit tired though, so after a little more furious flapping, I was able to reach the top of the lamp post and perch there. Thinking quickly, I released the wings, switched to Undine again, and willed all the moisture off of the slippery metal, giving me ample grip. Summoning Agathion again, I spread more static current through the light fixture, frowning as I concentrated. I could sense the electricity as it spread, especially as it went deeper in and reached the electronic components. Unfortunately, I wasn't getting a clear enough picture. Just sensing the electricity I was spreading through the circuit wasn't enough for me to tell what was broken…

Suddenly my foot slipped, immediately breaking my concentration. My hands seized the lamp as I lost my balance, stopping me from falling entirely. At the sound of screaming below, I noticed that Shen and Arisu had halted their argument and started watching me with wide eyes. I grimaced. This was probably a stupid idea. I ran through the Personas in my mind, trying to figure out which one would be best for getting down safely. Hephaestus, High Pixie, Dragon Rider, Agathion, Undine, Archangel. I couldn't summon wings yet with Dragon Rider, and High Pixie's weren't big enough to give me a lot of control. Archangel it is then.

A few moments later, I felt the azure flames spread across my back in the shape of a pair of large feathery wings. Once the wings had formed, I released the street lamp, did a quick flip to reorient myself in the air, and snapped the wings open, transitioning the fall into an easy glide. The landing was a little jarring on my legs, but I was still otherwise unscathed.

But as I dispelled the wings and turned to my partners, Shen caught up to me and hit me in the shoulder. "The hell were you thinking!"

"You could have broken your neck!" Arisu screamed. "You could have died, you moron! What were you thinking!?"

"I was trying to fix it!" I protested.

"That's no excuse!"

The both of them spent the next ten minutes scolding me over and over until I told them that continuous use of my powers had drained my energy levels and I could use something to recharge. They begrudgingly put the scolding on hold so I could get something from the store.

I came back out a few minutes later with a soft drink. "It's no Root Beer, but it'll do."

Arisu made a face. "Root Beer? You drink that stuff?"

I raised one eyebrow at her. "What? I like it. Only beer I'll ever need."

"It tastes like medicine is what," Arisu countered. "Americans are weird."

"Medicine?" Shen asked. "What medicine tastes like Root Beer?"

"There's this brand of pain-reliever patches," I explained. "You can get them at pretty much any drugstore here in Japan, and they smell a lot like Root Beer. I don't use them, but it's pretty much why most Japanese people hate Root Beer. I personally wouldn't mind if all my medicine smelled or tasted like Root Beer, but I suppose if you grew up with the medicine and not the soda, you would grow up reversing the association, resulting in hating both instead."

"You're a total weirdo," Arisu sighed. "You like Root Beer, you think flying up to the top of a street lamp to fix it is a good idea, what's next?"

"I had no idea who Risette was before the Outbreak."

Shen and Arisu both threw me scandalized looks.

"What? So I don't pay attention to idols or celebrities, big deal. All that marketing is fake anyway. I'm more interested in the people who actually changed the world and stuff."

Shen poked me in the chest. "Next time there's a concert in town, you're coming with."

I made a face. "No, thank you. Way too noisy, way too many people."

Arisu opened her mouth to say something but something caught her eye, and she froze upon looking up. "Hey, guys? Look at that street light."

Specifically, she was looking at the street light Shen had broken and I had tried to fix. And it was on.

"What the hell?" Shen managed.

"Why is it on?" I wondered. "It's not dark enough, none of the other lamps on the road are on."

Shen grinned. "I guess you did manage to fix it somehow. How'd you do it?"

"I have no idea." I admitted. "I was using an electric Persona on it to try and figure out where it was broken, but maybe I left some magic behind in it or something?" I gave a helpless shrug. "No clue. At least it's working now."

"Somehow," Arisu said in a small voice.

The three of us walked back to the station. The street lamp stayed on.

That evening, we met up again as we usually did to hunt Shadows. I spent a bit of time in the Velvet Room before the others arrived, fusing a couple new Personae, partially for the new attack possibilities, partially to free up space so I could recruit any new ones I came across.

"Why are there so many Kelpies tonight?" I grunted out loud as I swiftly withdrew my claws from the throat of one of such Greater Shadows, causing it to dissolve into smoke with a soft whinny.

"Well, they are water-type Shadows, and it did just rain," Arisu suggested.

"You think Shadow spawns are affected by weather?" Shen asked dubiously.

"It's not too far fetched an idea," I pointed out. "Shadows are products of human subconscious, and the weather is always on our minds. It would make sense that it has an effect on the kinds of Shadows that spawn."

The conversation was interrupted when an eagle-like screech erupted out of a side street, immediately putting all of us back on our guard. A large Shadow came charging out of the alleyway, scrabbling after a stray cat fleeing in terror from its talons.

"A gryphon? That's new," I remarked. "Dragon Rider!"

The black dragon Persona spat a fireball at the gryphon Shadow, causing the Shadow to screech in pain and turn towards the three of us. Arisu stepped forward with her poleaxe, presenting the big axe head with the spike on top towards the Shadow. "I'll stop its charge, you two hit its flanks?" she suggested, bracing her poleaxe's butt spike against the pavement. It was a strategy we'd tried several times that night, and it had worked wonders against the Kelpies.

But the Gryphon had other plans. With a resounding screech, the Shadow fired a blast of force magic straight at Arisu, bowling her over entirely and knocking her clear out of the fight.

"Arisu!" I shouted. "Shen! Keep it occupied if you can!"

"You got it!" Shen called back. His cry of "Leigong, heed my summons!" was more furious than usual.

"Nigi Mitama!" I called as I reached the groaning Arisu, casting healing spells as quick as I could.

"Gah, that… really knocked the wind out of me," she groaned.

"Need a minute to recover?" I asked.

"Please. Just get rid of that thing."

At her behest, I sprinted back towards the deadly dance between Shen and the gryphon Shadow. Shen wasn't having an easy time keeping it distracted. "Kenzo, can you get back here quick? I think this thing resists lightning!"

"Garu!" I chanted, directing a wind blast from Nigi Mitama at the Shadow, but it seemed to have as little effect as Shen's lightning. The Shadow turned its blazing golden eyes on me and raised its hackles to pounce.

CRACK!

There was a navy blue and white blur as something swooped through the air behind the gryphon Shadow, releasing a piece of jagged stone that slammed into the back of the Shadow's head at a hundred miles an hour, causing it to drop to the ground, concussed.

Shen and I were shocked still by the sheer speed with which this happened, and we barely managed to get out of our daze in time to take up flanking positions on either side of the Shadow and initiate a Hold Up.

"Aright, aright. You got me. Whaddya want?" the Shadow asked.

"I don't suppose you could be asked to join me?" I inquired in return.

"Join you? Now that's a surprise. I rather respect people who are good at surprises."

"Like just now?"

The Shadow winced. "That really was a surprise, yeah. If you keep bringing surprises like that, I may just be convinced."

My first instinct was to tell the Shadow that there would be plenty of surprises in store if it became my Persona, but the Shadow seemed like the upbeat type, so instead I just said,

"Boo."

The Shadow laughed. "A surprise and a joke! You got yourself a deal!" the Shadow rose to its feet, proclaimed, "I am thou, thou art I!" and turned into a ball of blue light that flew into my chest to join the rest of my Personae. Shen and I finally allowed ourselves to breathe and lower our weapons.

We quickly remembered Arisu and went back to the place where I'd left her. She'd picked up her poleaxe and was leaning on it heavily. Shen moved to take her hand, but she waved him off.

"I'm fine. Don't coddle me. Moreover," she pointed up to the roof of a nearby building. "Look there."

Following her finger, our eyes landed on an avian figure silhouetted against the twilight. It peered at us with keen eyes from behind a hooked beak, its feathers ruffling in the wind.

"It's a falcon," I realized. "That's what dropped that Shadow from earlier."

"How do you know it's a falcon? It could be a hawk," Arisu pointed out.

I shook my head. "Nuh-uh. Has to be a falcon. A hawk would attack with its talons, probably go for the eyes to try and disable its victim. Falcons are the ones that do those ultra-fast dive bombs. Nothing can dive like a falcon."

"You ever heard of one doing that with a rock?" Shen asked.

"Nope," I told him. "Not sure what it's doing in the middle of Tokyo either. Still, we've been dealing with a lot of weird stuff lately. A super-smart falcon is hardly the strangest thing we've come across."

I turned towards the falcon and bowed towards it, as though to express thanks for its timely intervention. A couple seconds later, the falcon bowed back.

Very peculiar.

I turned back to Arisu. "I'll give you another Dia, then we should probably head home for the night."

Arisu gave a sigh of resignation. "Fine. Let's just do this."

Shen spoke up, "You know, you would gain more resistance to magic attacks like that if you would just try to Awaken-"

"Shut."