Class had ended on the first day of Kirijo Mitsuru's senior year at Gekkokan High School. Graduating class of 2010. This year she was going to be extremely busy. She already worked to maintain her status as valedictorian, balancing time to study alongside work as the student council president. And, unknown to all but her closest friends... Her other extracurricular club, the one that met at night. They'd be adding some members this year.

It would be a good idea to get back to the dorm in order to prepare to meet those new members, but first she wanted to talk to someone.

The new girl in the class, a transfer student from Tokyo by the name of Murakami Emiri. Mitsuru caught her in the hall, apparently in a hurry to get somewhere. Murakami's black hair was an impressive length, reaching all the way down her back. However, she was also very short, at least a head shorter than Mitsuru with a childlike figure.

"Murakami Emiri, correct?" Mitsuru said.

Emiri stopped walking and spun around to face her. A smile came to her face. "Yeah. And you're..." Mitsuru was about to speak, but was cut off. "Don't tell me, I remember you, you're the student council president. Your name is..." Emiri's face twisted as she tried to remember. "Uh, go ahead and tell me."

"Kirijo Mitsuru."

"Of course. I'll remember it next time. So, did you want to talk to me or something?"

"It's nothing. I just wanted to welcome you to Gekkokan High School. I'm sure you'll enjoy it here."

Emiri nodded. "Thanks. Now if you'll excuse me, I was going to go check out the track team."

"Already getting to know your classmates... That's admirable," Mitsuru said. It was one of the few things respectable about this new girl. She had slept through most of class, and stared out the window the entire time she was awake. How could some people put so little thought into their education?

"Thanks. It was nice meeting you!" Emiri turned and was already headed down the stairs, towards the practice field.

It was Mitsuru's duty to provide a good example to the other students, and that included welcoming new students. Besides Emiri, there was also a foreign exchange student in one of the other senior classes, and of course, Arisato in the second year class. She had met him last night at the dorm. There was really no need to be overly concerned with any of the transfer students besides Arisato...

Something about Emiri, however... This morning, when she had introduced herself, Mitsuru felt like the new student's gaze kept on resting on her, or moving to Sanada Akihiko... Not that this girl could possibly know about SEES, that both herself and Akihiko were the principal members of the group, but it was... disconcerting. It was like she had been examining them.

Mitsuru put that weird feeling behind her. Murakami Emiri was a normal, if extremely unmotivated, student from the city. There was nothing to be suspicious about.

Chapter 18

Remind Me That I Still Live

After spending so many months at war, modern day traffic just smelled unbearable. It was hard to keep up the pretense that she was moving here from Tokyo when she just couldn't re-adapt to city life. The sky was just beginning to turn a deep, vibrant orange as Konata stepped into Book-On, the local manga and game supplier at Iwatodai strip mall.

The familiar smells, the feel of a brand new manga in her hands... The rest of city life might suck, but she had spent so long in Fire Emblem that she had almost forgotten these particular pleasures. True, she had stopped in this store several times during the past month, but those feelings weren't wearing off any time soon. This was the perfect place to kill some time.

Posters in the window advertised new merchandise available for Phoenix Ranger Featherman R. It was some sort of tokusatsu show that was immensely popular in this world. Konata had been watching it when she had the time, starting with Episode 19. She'd probably be expected to know something about it, everyone in this world did, so she figured she might as well. It wasn't too bad.

Other than that, she recognized nearly everything for sale here. None of this had been mentioned when she played this as a video game, but it was all there. It was very much like her old world in all kinds of ways. Just skimming through, they had Fullmetal Alchemist, Gundam, Cardcaptor Sakura... Plenty of Haruhi merchandise as well. Good to see it was just as popular here as it had been back there...

And of course, she had seen some Lucky Star books on the shelf as well. It had been interesting to see her own face - not to mention Kagami and Tsukasa - on the cover of Volume One, staring back at her from the racks. She'd read it before, just never actually seen it for sale...

And, of course, she didn't really look like that to anyone else. Nobody else could see she had the same blue hair and green eyes. And since Izumi Konata wasn't that common of a name, and someone would probably link it to the anime character at some point... That was why there was now a student ID in her wallet with her photo on it and the name Murakami Emiri. It was part of the fake records Eclipse had given to her. It would take some getting used to, having to answer to a different name. But what was the alternative?

Now she was standing outside, checking her watch. It was 11:59 PM, so that meant that any second now...

The cars in the street came to a sudden stop, not braking, just freezing in place. Where there had been people standing, now there were only upright black coffins. The sky was covered in emerald green clouds, with a large yellow full moon providing a strange glow to the city.

The Dark Hour.

Before they had split up, Jason had given her a briefing on this mission. As she already knew, the Dark Hour was something that happened every night, only experienced by those with the power of Persona, the ability to manifest your inner soul. It was a rare gift, which explained why everyone else here had turned into a coffin. It had been so surprising that both she and Jason had the potential, but Eclipse definitely wanted them to come here. They were the right age to blend in with the other Persona users, and if they didn't help to fight the Shadows, strange creatures that became active during the Dark Hour, there was a very real possibility that this world would come to an end.

A thousand worlds dying at once? Hopefully not, but this could at least be one less.

As for right now, she was waiting for some other students to show up at the station. Others with the same gift to fight against the Shadows. She'd have to make this look like a coincidence, it would be a while before they showed up... If it was going to be convincing, Konata would have to act like she hadn't been expecting any of this, that she was scared... But it was going to be so boring waiting for them.

Her watch had stopped, as had all other electric devices, but it had probably been fifteen minutes or so before she saw movement in the distance.

"Senpai said in front of the station here, right?" A male voice. She recognized it as Iori Junpei, a second year.

"Yeah, I don't see anyone yet..." A girl, Takeba Yukari. She would be in the same grade as Junpei.

Time to make contact. Konata tried to make her voice sound shaky and uncertain. "H-hello? Is someone there?" She went towards the sound of their voices, eventually seeing them come into view.

"Huh? Murakami-senpai... What're you doing here?" The team leader, a boy with blue hair by the name of Arisato Minato, ran towards her, the other two following behind. She knew him already from track team. That had been her first experience actually joining a school club, mostly for the purpose of meeting Minato early on, but it really wasn't so bad.

"Minato-kun!" Konata ran towards him. "You're... What's going on, anyway?"

The four of them stood there, in the midst of total stillness. Other than Konata, they were wearing their school uniforms, although Junpei added a baseball cap, and Yukari wore a pink cardigan over the usual outfit. They were also carrying weapons. The two boys had swords, Yukari carried a bow.

"How come she isn't..." Junpei was examining her, surprised she hadn't been stuck in a coffin like everyone else as time stopped for sixty minutes, as it did every night. "You know her, Minato?"

"I don't have any idea what's going on here," Konata said. "Minato-kun... What is all this?"

"What do we do? It's too dangerous out here..." Yukari said. She turned to Konata. "Emiri, was it? You should probably just wait with us, Mitsuru-senpai should be here any minute now. She'll know what to do."

Success, she had met up with the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, SEES for short. Jason was supposed to meet them in a similar setup in a couple of weeks. On the inside, Konata was absolutely giddy with excitement.

"Emiri, have you ever experienced this before?" Minato asked her. "It's called the Dark Hour. It happens every night, for exactly one hour at midnight."

Konata had, in fact, been awake just about every night during the Dark Hour. She would be trying to play a game, watch anime, something like that, when the electricity would shut off and everything would turn greenish. More than anything else, it was annoying, plain and simple. "No, I don't think I have... What are you guys doing here? And what are those?" She pointed to the weapons.

"Hey, Minato, you think she maybe has..." Junpei fell short of saying the word "Persona," as if he wasn't sure he could tell her about it yet.

"Isn't Persona what makes people aware of the Dark Hour? Maybe she does," Yukari said.

"Persona...? What's that?" Konata said. She'd have to play dumb just a little while longer, until they let her sit through a full briefing of things she already knew. But if they would let her help out on this mission, tonight, that would be excellent. She had been getting bored with no action for a full month. And she couldn't wait to see what form her inner self would take.

"Persona is... how do I put this?" Minato paused, scratching his head. "It's this special power we have that lets us fight Shadows. It's kind of complicated, but... I think we should tell you everything."

They heard the low buzz of a motor echoing through the stillness. Mitsuru arrived on her motorbike.

"Sorry I was late, we need to - " She stopped when she saw Konata standing there with the others. "Murakami-san..."

"We found her when we got here. What should we do?" Minato asked her.

"This is... unexpected..." Mitsuru thought for a moment. "I'm sorry, but we're pressed for time as it is. Murakami-san, I want you to stay behind with me tonight. We'll take you back to the dorm and explain everything when this is all over."

Konata almost groaned with disappointment. She had really been hoping they'd let her fight, but seeing as they didn't know how capable she was, it was only natural they would try to protect her. There was always next time.

"Alright. Thanks," she said.

The next day at school, Konata decided to leave the classroom for lunch. As she headed towards the second-year classrooms, she passed by Jason who was standing out in the hall with some students she didn't recognize. She heard one of them mention the phrase "Apathy Syndrome."

"'Scuse me, for a moment," Jason said, leaving the other students, and came over to talk to her.

"Hey. I got in," Konata said.

"Great. So how'd it go last night?" His voice dropped to a low murmur.

"I haven't gotten to fight yet. But they're letting me move into the dorm and we'll be going to Tartarus in a few days," she said. Tartarus. She couldn't wait to see it in person. That was where most of the fighting happened, it was infested with lesser Shadows. "When are you going to join?"

"I'll show up in about a week, maybe two. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah." Raising her voice a bit louder, for everyone else to hear, she said, "Nice meeting you!" Then she continued through the hall. Jason shook his head and rejoined the other students.

Konata was amazed at how well he integrated into all these different worlds. He was constantly jumping back and forth through different time periods and geographies, and yet none of these students doubted that he had come here from modern-day America. It had been the same way at Ryoo, hadn't it? And now... She was the same way. Nobody noticed that she wasn't used to schoolwork or city life. Maybe it was just because of their own expectations.

She hurried towards Room 2-F.

Junpei glanced up as the classroom door slid open. He was seated around the cluster of desks in the center of the room, eating lunch with Minato and Yukari as usual. He was surprised to see Emiri, that girl from last night, walk in and join their table.

"Emiri-senpai. What's up?" he said. He looked at the lunch she was carrying, which was really just a choco cornet and only a choco cornet. Strange how people in real life could eat like that. Come to think of it, hadn't he seen something similar in an anime or something before?

"Just thought I'd drop in," Emiri said. She frowned. "You know, I don't think anyone even notices when I leave the senior class hallway."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd mistake you for a freshman," Yukari said teasingly.

"I'm going to ignore that for now... So about last night. That was incredible, by the way, how you took down that Shadow... And then you were saying something about going to... Tartarus, was it?" Emiri said, changing the subject. "I'm looking forward to it. When do we go?"

"Whoa, take it easy there," Yukari said. "We've got exams in a week. Aren't you going to study?"

"Not for seven entire days?" Emiri muttered. "Why do we have to worry about it now, then? Isn't it more important that we stop the end of the world? I don't really care about grades, anyway."

"Aren't you a senior?" Minato said. He wore headphones, but he still seemed to be listening to the conversation. "I'm surprised you could say that."

"What you're really saying is that it's a hopeless pursuit, right?" Junpei said. "I'd have to agree with you there. I think I'm just going to fail, too. I'm not going to be wasting my time."

"Good. We can train together while everyone else is studying, then," Emiri said, turning to him. "I can't wait to start fighting with the rest of you guys. Hey, Junpei, are you on any of the sports teams? You need conditioning."

"What? But I don't have time to join any clubs! I've got more important things to do, like... Uh..." Junpei searched for an excuse, but to no avail.

"Exactly. Why don't you join track? Minato's there too. It'll be fun." Minato glanced up as she made the suggestion.

"You know, Junpei, she actually has a point about that. You should try to make something of yourself," Yukari said. "But both of you really should be studying, whether you think you need to or not."

"Yeah. Emiri, I'm sure Mitsuru-senpai would be glad to work together with you on studying," Minato said. "Isn't she in your class? I'm surprised you're not talking to her and Akihiko, actually."

"You're both starting to sound just like Kagami..." Emiri shook her head sadly. Junpei wondered if this Kagami was one of her friends from her old school, but Emiri didn't say anything else about her. "Mitsuru and Akihiko aren't doing anything worthwhile at the moment," she said. "I mean, finally something interesting comes up, and they're just complaining that I sleep too much in class. We need to be getting ready for the next big Shadow that comes up!"

Yukari's mouth dropped open. "You're seriously expecting another one to show up? Already?"

"Do you really think it would be over with just one? I get the feeling you don't watch enough anime. That's exactly what this is like." Emiri was grinning, she seemed so fearless.

"I guess you're right about that," Junpei said. "I mean, you guys have seen how huge Tartarus is. We haven't come anywhere near the top yet. There's gotta be a lot more in there, just waiting."

"And I'm just dying of anticipation to see this Tartarus place. Don't keep me waiting." Emiri had a bright gleam of excitement flashing in her eyes. And Junpei found that he could relate. Fighting the Shadows was a hell of a lot more interesting than living a normal student life. They should be making the most of it.

The bell rang for lunch to be over.

"Huh? Oh crap, I need to get going!" Emiri said, quickly standing up, catching her chair in the split second before it fell over backwards. "I'll see you all tonight, then! Can't wait to move in!" She rushed out the door to get back to the senior classrooms.

At night, the school grounds were still and silent, the gates closed, the windows dark and motionless. Even ignoring what was going to happen once the clock struck midnight, it was a naturally creepy place. Everyone from the dorm had gathered outside.

"We all head out here before the Dark Hour actually starts," Minato explained as they approached the fence. He carried a completely non-suspicious looking golf bag. "Since the power goes out, we need to take the train while it's still running. And once it transforms, we have one hour in there before we have to leave."

"So you're our team leader?" Konata asked. "How'd you get that job?"

"He's the one with all the special power, who can change Personas in the middle of battle, nothing like the rest of us," Junpei said, his voice taking a bitter edge.

Yukari checked her cell phone, the screen a dim glow of white light in the darkness. "We've got one minute. Get ready."

Konata turned away from them to watch the school building. As a dark green haze settled over the world, Gekkokan twisted into a new shape and rose towards the sky, turning into a stack of mismatched architecture, stairways and balconies jutting out from all sides. A clock face was near the top, which dwarfed all the other buildings in the city. Konata knew from previous experience that it was around 270 stories tall.

"Well then, shall we enter?" Mitsuru said. "We have exactly sixty minutes until it changes back. Everyone needs to be out by then."

Minato opened the golf bag and handed out the weapons. Two-handed swords for himself and Junpei, Yukari's archery set, an elegant rapier for Mitsuru, boxing gloves for Akihiko. "Emiri, what do you want?" he asked. "And sorry that you have to learn on the job, but you'll be okay, right?"

"Got any extra swords?" Konata said. "I've... done some kendo before. I know how to use them." That sounded good, didn't it?

The interior of Tartarus - this first section, at least - was recognizable as the school. The same checkered patterns on the floor tiles, the same walls... Although there were pools of blood on the ground, and everything had a deep emerald hue, but the resemblance was still there.

Akihiko turned to her. "Alright, Emiri. Since this is your first time here, don't try anything too dangerous. Stay close to the group. The last thing we need is for you to get lost in here. And you know how to summon your Persona, correct?"

Konata hadn't done it yet, but she knew how. You would point this thing that looked an awful lot like a handgun directly at your head, and fire. Doesn't that seem familiar... she thought. Memories of that rainy night were coming back. But all the Evoker did was harmlessly release the Persona inside your soul and allow it to fight for you. She couldn't wait to see what hers would look like.

"Minato, are you seeing any Shadows yet?" Junpei said. He was gazing around restlessly, his sword held up over his shoulder.

"Not yet," Minato replied. "Let's go find them. Emiri, stay close." He took the lead, everyone else following behind. It was difficult to imagine that nobody else seemed to think this was maybe a lot like an RPG.

A hint of movement in the space ahead. Something crawling along the floor, a formless black mass. Hands formed out of whatever it was made of, and it carried a blue, emotionless mask as its face.

Yukari took out her bow as the thing approached and fired an arrow directly into the center of it. The Shadow squealed in pain, flinched for a moment but then advanced even faster. Konata couldn't wait any longer, she raised the Evoker to her temple and fired.

The report was loud, and did in fact sound like a gunshot, but it didn't feel anything like Konata expected it to. Her head jerked to the side slightly in recoil, but for just a moment her mind was entirely clear. It was a pleasant feeling, actually.

Something large appeared before her. It seemed to be humanoid, wrapped in flowing blue cloth. The long hair resembled her own in style, but it was red instead of blue or black. It held out an ornate chest in front of it, which it opened, unleashing a momentarily blinding light.

Somehow, Konata knew that her Persona was called Pandora, of the Star arcana. The knowledge seemed to be inside of her. And it was her inner self, after all. It only made sense that she would instinctively know what it was, how to control it. It all seemed to be subconscious knowledge just now coming to the surface.

"Emiri, that was... great..." Minato said in surprise. "You really caught on fast..."

The Shadow had vanished in the light, an instant kill. It was just a small one, but she felt satisfied nonetheless. Persona was a skill unlike anything she had ever used before, who knows what else it would be able to do?

"There are more on the way. Don't stop now," Akihiko said as he readied himself for the next attack.

Mitsuru's voice came in, seemingly out of the air. She had stayed at the entrance, but her Persona allowed her to speak to them and see their progress. "We've got about 45 minutes left. Keep going."

"Alright, our goal for today is to get as far as possible," Minato said. "We might even reach the next block if we hurry."

Konata smiled, enjoying the rush of battle again. Putting away the Evoker for now, she readied her sword. She'd have to find a new one, though, this one was just so nondescript... It really wasn't deserving of her skill as a swordmaster.

Something that looked like a large black bird flew straight towards her while she was examining the weapon. Without much of a thought, she raised the sword and brought it down in a single quick strike, the thing squawking as it hit the ground in a flurry of dark feathers. She barely noticed it had happened, but stabbed it against the ground just to finish it off.

"You got another already?" Junpei said. "How are you so good at this?"

Instincts she picked up while serving in a war, maybe? "This is why you need to join a sports team, Junpei. You need to improve your reflexes."

He gaped at her as she quickly ran to catch up with the rest of the group, heading towards the stairs to the next floor. This was going to be a fun night.

It was a few days later. Konata sighed. As great as it was around here, when nobody else wanted to go to Tartarus there just wasn't much left to do.

They went to Tartarus only about every other night, sometimes two days in a row if they weren't too exhausted. Konata was always ready to head out, but they didn't trust her on her own. She grudgingly complied, knowing that she could, in theory, head out there and fight for an hour with no backup. But that was Konata who could do that, she was supposed to be Emiri for now. Athletic, slightly above-average skills in battle, definitely not from another universe.

In her bedroom at the dorm, she usually played this MMO that Junpei had introduced her to. It was called Innocent Sin Online, and while recently it was mostly dead, there were still enough players there to form a good party and do some raids, just like the good old days.

Tonight she was just checking out the forums, looking for information on rare items. There was no shame in asking for help when you were a new player. Looks like someone had answered her question from last night...

Konata scrolled down the page, then stopped. This person had a picture of her set as their own avatar... It was a small image, but it appeared to be in her room, the shelves in the background suggesting that she was sitting at her computer desk in her old bedroom. From the looks of it, it was a screen capture of the Lucky Star anime.

Imagine that. She was living in a video game, one that she had once played in her old universe, and she had no idea that she was so famous in this world. Random people online were using her picture for themselves. Not to mention this person didn't even realize who he was giving advice to.

How strange to think that Persona 3 existed in the Lucky Star universe as a work of fiction, and at the same time the reverse was true.

Now Konata was getting curious. She typed her name - her real name - into a search engine to see what came up.

Some of it was flattering. Other things were just completely disturbing. But she was like an icon to the otaku in this world, her name came up often on gaming websites and anime discussions. A variety of fanart showed her in really great cosplay outfits that she wished she actually owned.

She was like a goddess to legions of devoted fans. If only she could tell them how much she appreciated all of this. If only they could know that she now walked among them.

Just how many universes were out there where Lucky Star was popular?

There was also the homesickness. Bringing up anything related to Lucky Star was bound to have something relating to the people she had left behind in that world. True, the fans had a very limited view of what life had really been like there, but so much of the material came from things Konata herself remembered... Although half the series had never had a chance to happen, it was all so much from their senior year.

Senior year hadn't happened like it was supposed to, that was for sure.

Konata sighed, and closed the internet window. Logging back into Innocent Sin, she tried to push all of those things out of her mind and focus on finding that rare armor she had just been told about.

Another typical evening at the dorms, a week later.

Jason had arrived the day before. He claimed to have been awake at midnight one night, and from his window he could see Tartarus rise up where the school had been. After watching it several times over the next few days, he decided to head out one night and see it up close, at which point he had met up with the squad outside the entrance and been asked to join once they saw he stayed awake during the Dark Hour.

Konata wondered what was so wrong about being found at random, just happening to be out when the clock struck midnight. He was such a show-off with that fancy story of his.

Everyone was sitting around, Yukari was at the computer, Mitsuru was studying with Akihiko around the table, Jason was moving his belongings into one of the empty rooms on the second floor. Konata and Junpei had their DS systems out, and were playing against each other. Konata was glad to see her skills hadn't gotten rusty after weeks of inactivity.

"Hm... You know, Emiri, I just realized who you remind me of," Junpei said suddenly.

"Huh? What do you mean?" she glanced up at him.

"You ever see that show Lucky Star? You're kind of like the main character of that," Junpei said. "Her name was... Konata, something like that. You're just like her."

Konata felt like she had been hit with a ton of bricks. It was strange to hear her real name again, spoken one of them. "Oh, yeah... I saw that one... a year or two ago. I've actually had people say that before, believe it or not." She smiled nervously. "I didn't think you were the type to be into that kind of thing."

"Oh, sure. It was a pretty good show, actually."

"So what other kinds of anime do you watch?" Konata asked, trying to change the subject before it got too awkward. "We otaku need to stick together, you know." She grinned.

"Otaku? No, no, I'm not - " Junpei was stammering. "I'm not that obsessed, really..."