Author's Notes

Hey everyone! Before my second chapter begins, let me address four things about my story and myself.

First, I happen to be an American and while I pride myself on trying to be culturally aware I know I lack much knowledge in that of Japanese daily life. Unfortunately that can't be helped for the most part, so I ask that you bear with me. If something I write is totally off I would appreciate it if you could let me know so I could fix it though. Thanks!

Second, this second chapter has taken longer for me to post than I liked. The reason behind that is that I actually did not own the game until recently. Now that I do however, production can continue as normal. I will warn though that I am a student so at times my schedule may be too filled with schoolwork and updates may come slower. (I am what many would consider a rather lazy student however, and writing is just more fun than solving equations so don't worry about that school getting in the way of updates too much :P ).

Third, my character of Souji is going to be changed a slight bit from the way the game goes mostly in the way of dialogue. This is in part to polish over some awkward conversations (and I'm sure you can all think of a few where you hated all the dialogue responses), and to make Souji my own character (no copyright infringement intended). I'll leave it to my story to develop his character more, so I hope you all enjoy these next sections (where things actually start getting interesting!).

And fourthly, to my reviewers:

Chemical Fire: I will try to fix my formatting errors as I get more use to using the website and its features. As for the redundancies, well, that's something I'm trying to work on with my writing. Thanks for the review though!

Calming-seas88: Thanks for the review! As much as I want constructive criticism, a good review is always appreciated. J

Everyone else: The reason I'm writing this piece is to improve my writing and to entertain people with my take on this tale, so please if you have any comments be they constructive criticism (or destructive when it is really necessary :P ) or just words of praise for good technique or wording, I would greatly like to hear them. Thank ya!

Regrettably, I do not own the rights Persona 4 or any other persona game and am merely doing my own take on this awesome game.

Phew! Well, now that all the pleasantries are out of the way, I give you Chapter Two…

More Dreams, Less Sense

Souji looked around, not being able to see any farther than several feet in front of him in any direction through the fog. Standing up from the crouched position he was in, Souji squinted in the haze.

'What the…? How did I get… oh, another dream. Great.'

Glancing around at what he could see around him, Souji noticed that he was standing on a set of red blocks that formed what appeared to be a walkway. Pacing around, he found that the pathway he was on was four blocks wide. Figuring that he was about as tall as two blocks were long, and he was near six foot tall the walkway was probably roughly twelve feet wide. Wandering off behind where he started, Souji saw that the blocks shortly trailed off and then ceased, making a sharp drop off into the nothingness beneath him.

'Looks like the only way to go is straight ahead' Souji thought, looking down the path before him. 'Alright, I'll play along.'

Casually, Souji started down the path. For what felt like an eternity he walked down the path that occasionally twisted and turned in different directions. Humming to himself as he went, Souji silently noted how he wished he had a pair of headphones.

'I'll pick some up after this.'

"Do you seek the truth…?"

Souji stopped, turning on his heel. Spinning around, he didn't find any source of the voice that seemingly had spoken directly in his ear. After waiting a minute with nothing else happening, Souji shrugged and decided to continue down the path.

'Weird…'

Another eternity of walking. Souji was really bored know and had taken to buttoning and unbuttoning his jacket's collar out of habit. Just as he was about to unbutton it for the umpteenth time, the voice spoke again:

"If it's truth you desire, come and find me…"

Again it sounded like it come from right behind him and again when he looked around no one was there.

'The truth? I hope this isn't that creepy old man again…'

This time, after Souji had started walked for only a few minutes a large square wall come up in front of him. The wall had a pattern of increasingly large squares of alternating red and black originating from the center red square. Staring at the wall, Souji looked around realizing there was no way around it. Noticing that the center square of the door seemed to hum with a sort of energy, Souji decided to trying pressing it.

At his touch, the door began sliding open. The center square twisted and disappeared into the square around it, which in turn did the same to the larger square around it. This repeated until the second largest square disappeared into the largest which made up the frame of the portal.

"Nice." Souji mused at the intricacy of the door. Taking one last look around, he walked through the now open door. Shortly after stepping through it, he noticed that it closed shut behind him. Through the fog he thought he saw someone standing some distance ahead of him. Squinting, all Souji could make out was a faint silhouette that appeared roughly human.

"So… You are the one pursuing me…"

Souji looked to his sides, and finding no one guessed the apparition meant him. "So it would seem."

The apparition mused to itself. "Try all you like…" It taunted.

"What do you mean, try all I…" As he spoke Souji noticed the sword laying in front of him on the ground. Lifting it up off the ground, Souji was surprised at the weight of the blade. Balancing it in his hands, Souji glanced back at the apparition that was hovering some distance away from him. 'Well, this is a dream so… what the heck, why not?'

Charging forward, Souji swung the blade around at the figure. Feeling the blow of his swing connect, Souji was surprised when the apparition merely hovered off some distance away from him, unfazed from the assault.

The figure hummed to itself again. "It seems that you can see a little, despite the fog…"

'Thou should try again.'

The voice echoed in Souji's thoughts. 'Another voice? This just get's stranger and stranger…'

Nevertheless, Souji heeded the mysterious voice and lunged again at the apparition. Once again the blow connected and once again the shadow withdrew immediately afterwards. Souji let out an exasperated grunt.

"I see… indeed, you possess an interesting quality…"

'Thou must delve deep to pierce the cloud of deception.' The booming voice in Souji's thoughts rang out again.

'Thanks for the tip…' Souji thought back sarcastically. Eyeing the shadow again, Souji readied himself to make another lunge at it. This time, Souji tried bringing the blade down with all his strength right where he imagined the apparition's head would be. As the blow connected yet again, Souji felt the presence retreat once more away from him without so much a sign of real injury.

"But… you will not catch me so easily…" The apparition's voice trailed off. Souji found himself exhausted for some reason and his breath was coming out heavy. "If what you seek is 'truth,' then your search will be even harder."

"Damn it, the truth?; just who are you?" Souji called out to the figure. "That's all I want to know."

From what it sounded like, the apparition had chuckled to itself. "You will find that those two concepts… are yet one in the same." At the final utterance of the last word Souji noticed that the fog began thickening. Within seconds, the fog became so dense that he couldn't even see the red floor he was standing on let alone the apparition that had previously haunted the edges of his vision.

'Thou must always try, even when the path ahead is masked.'

'Easy for you to say, voice in my head.'

With an audible cry "ha!" Souji tried striking out at where he thought the apparition had previously been before the fog deepened. This time however, the blow only struck thin air.

"Everyone sees what they want to…" The apparition's voice sounded like it came from directly behind him again. Swinging around, Souji's blade swept through the air with ease finding no target. "And the fog only deepens…" The voice trailed off again and, as if on command, the fog deepened further. Souji was now having trouble seeing farther than about a foot away from himself.

'Thou must cling to the truths thyself already know and find strength from them in time of need.'

Desperately he swung again into the mist at his evasive opponent. After this final miss, Souji felt himself growing too weak to remain standing, let alone swing again. In exhaustion, he collapsed to one knee. Fighting to remain conscious, Souji felt the presence of the apparition draw up close behind him.

"…Will we meet again…?" The haunting voice spoke into his ear. "At a place other than here…" Souji imagined the spectral lips of the apparition contorting into a twisted smile as it laughed to itself. "I look forward to it.."

As the presence drew away, Souji felt his last bit of strength escaping him. Just as he was about to fall unconscious, the booming voice echoed once more through his thoughts:

'And… thou must know thy limits and know thy path can not be traveled alone.'

Without chance for any retort from Souji's own thoughts, he felt the world darken around him and with one last grunt he collapsed on the red squared floor…