I really do not like how that nurse is so happy how I got brain damage.

Normally it's a bad thing to have brain damage. It's like one of the taboo words that simply uttering causes panic. That's why Monty Python's Brain Specialist sketch was so brilliant. It wasn't even one of their better ones, but come on!

"Yes, I am the brain specialist. How can I help?"

"MY BRAIN HURTS!"

Ah, the flying circus. And yet, no one over here had even heard of it.

I need to find someone awesome around here.

I wonder if Shinjiro likes Monty Python?

"HEY! It's the coach and her boyfriend!"

Time to explain the situation methinks - I was taking Yuko out to dinner to apologise for not helping out yesterday. I explained that I'd slashed my fingers open on a piano, showing her the bandages to prove it, but I still had to pay. The kids had improved so much; she'd decided to let them race the older kids.

Now that's where she and I differed. She was honourable, liked to play by the rules of her opponents game, and beating them at it.

Me? I was brought up on Dennis the Menace. Not the American one, our badass Dennis who beat up army veterans and smashed windows for the hell of it.

So, what would have happened If I was the coach? I'd have taught those kids to go up to those older kids and kick their arseholes from here to Birmingham. And believe me, you need to kick someone hard for them to land on the other side of the Himalayas.

Although that would be awesome.

"Coach!" one of the kids shouted as we walked into one of the restaurants at Iwatodai station. "We raced one on one, and we won two of the races!"

"We lost the other two though." One of the girls added, "but since it was a tie, they're gonna let us use the playground now!"

"We even became friends!" one of the boys declared.

"They said that we were pretty fast for first graders!" The other girl declared, "And told us that we could play with them some time!"

This way, it's win-win. My way, there's winners and losers, so I'll drop this issue.

"I knew you could do it!" Yuko was beaming. "I-I wasn't worried at all, because you trained so hard!"

"Thanks!" The second boy shouted. "Um… Big sis…"

"You guys don't have to call me that if you don't want to." Yuko told them, delighted. "Just call me coach!"

"Okay…" One of the boys said. "One… Two… Three!"

"GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND!" The kids shouted in unison before running away.

Great.

I am not gonna get out of this am I?

Sigh. Damn you Home Alone. Ever since you came along, kids have ruined everything.

And damn you Home Alone Three. You ruined Home Alone.

Yuko blushed, but then sighed. "Why does this seem like… the end of some cheesy made-for-TV movie?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Well, there you go." I said. "You relieved?"

"Of course!" She told me. "I'd be the one to get busted if they found out they were using the practice field!" she seemed full of energy. "To be honest, I was almost too lazy to help them, but with them not around, it feels…"

"Lonely?" I finished her sentence. She nodded.

"Yeah, but I didn't want to give them the impression that I've been slacking off as a team manager… " she admitted. "But teaching those kids to race…it was the first time I really put my heart into something…"

"First time I really put my heart into something was when I carved my first Bokuto when I was nine." I said. This was a lie, but it's true if you discount the grim versions.

She looked at me, and then laughed. "I can actually see that… you with such a serious look on your face carving wood with a knife…"

Actually, that wasn't the look on my face at the time at all. My Uncle kept asking me if I was bored. Least now I know why.

"Maybe I wanna take care of people…" She said to herself. "By the way, thank you, Minato-kun."

"No problem." I shrugged

"Hey, we should celebrate!" she turned to me. "You know, to throw a little party for our first attempt at coaching!"

"Sure." I replied, smiling.

"A restaurant would be a little expensive…" She said, "And I'd rather not have it at the dorm with all those people around…" fair enough.

"Hey," She suggested, "How 'bout we have it at my house?"

SMASH

Oh snap.

Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Strength Arcana

Yeah, but I'm not liking where this is going.

"You should be." Pharos suggested.

Yeah, but I want to leave this with my status as an honest human being intact. I'm so gonna get screwed over this one way or another…

"Baad choice of words." Pharos chuckled.

She said that she'd tell me when we were having the party at some point later. I think I'm gonna have to go underground for a while.

And underground I went. I avoided people majestically.

Going straight back to the dorm on Saturday, I found Yukari and Fuuka playing with this EPIC wolfhound.

Well, a Shiba, but he's still a total badass.

I mean, seriously! Think a white husky with blood red eyes filled with awesome, and you're there! It's the very sort of beast you would call Bane, or Fury, or…

"Koro-chan, give me your paw!"

Koro-chan… what, WHAT?

The epic wolfhound obediently gave his paw to Fuuka. "Oh, good dog!" Yukari shouted, rubbing his back.

Looking up, she noticed me. "Oh, hey! You're back!" she called.

"Koro-chan." I said dryly. "Really?"

"His name's Koromaru." Fuuka said, slightly annoyed. "I've seen him sitting by the steps of the shrine."

"Oh, Koromaru's a decent name." I said. "Come here boy!" I called, slapping my thighs. The dog looked at Fuuka and Yukari,

"It's okay." Fuuka told him. "Go say hi!"

The dog walked over to me and sat patiently. Strength. The dog seemed extremely intelligent.

Wait, Strength?

I looked again.

Strength.

The hell.

Koromaru barked. This warrants further study.

"Wanna go for a run?" I asked, putting my bag down by the steps.

"Minato, you just got back from school!" Yukari said.

"Fine," I told her as Koromaru nodded. "I'll take the bag with me." I threw it over my shoulders and set off at a run.

Koromaru ran after me.

"There's no doubt about it." Pharos said. "That dog…"

"Has a Persona." I agreed. How the hell that came about I have no idea.

"So, where you going?" He asked me.

"Where do you think?" I said. "Somewhere I can get answers!"

"To the Velvet Room then." he laughed as Koromaru barked.

When I ran got to the train station, however, I froze mid-run, and started jogging backwards to the young man I had just passed. He was a college student, by the looks of things, with longish brown hair.

However, when Koromaru passed him his face screamed 'Holy of Holies, that dog has a Persona!'

"Excuse me." I asked him as I stepped in front of him. Sun. I switched from Orpheus to Yatagarasu, matching his Arcana.

Now his face said 'In the name of all that is Holy and Crappy, that kid has the Wild Card!'

I waved goodbye to Koromaru, he could wait. "I think I owe you a drink." I told the guy. "Wanna go to the Velvet Room?"

We ended up going to Escapade instead, since he couldn't see the Velvet Door. His name was Tatsuya Suou, and by the sounds of it, he was the Wild Card before I awakened.

He was of the Sun Arcana, and he could switch between the four minor Arcana as well as having a couple of Persona from all the major Arcana up to Judgement. Since he finished his 'adventure', or so he says, a few years ago, we both reckoned that he was my predecessor.

However, when I told him about the extent of my Wild Card, he was shocked, but in a very different way to Naoya.

"You poor bastard." he sighed.

...eh?

"The Wild Card goes against the laws of the universe." He told me. "The power to change your Self to such an extent is not right. The Innocent Sin of the Wild Card comes with an Eternal Punishment."

"What punishment?" I asked.

"It's different for each person." He told me, "But it varies on your power. The stronger your power, the greater your punishment."

…Oh... Not good.

"See, my Wild Card was stronger than the others." He told me, "Who were limited to only having about ten in a single Arcana. Since I had a wider spread of strong Personae than they did, I got the worst Punishment."

"Which was?"

"They lost their memories of the battles, and me." Tatsuya told me. "Not only that, I had to forget them and all!" He looked at me, slightly angry. "That douche Philemon stole every friend I ever had, and made it impossible for me to get them back." He sighed. "Well, he tried."

Tried? "What did you do?"

He took a swig of his drink. "I gave Cthulhu the finger. Screw the gods, I took back what was mine by my own hands, shifted the Punishment onto the real sinner."

"Who?" I was dead interested, which probably meant I looked bored. "What did you do?"

"I punched out Philemon."

…eh?

"Yeah, I knocked that damn, pretentious mask of his damn face, then I killed him." He downed the rest of his drink. "Let me give you some advice. If any of those divine beings or whatever try to offer you some thanks, tell them to bugger off and leave you alone, that's the best thanks you can ask for."

I was pretty shocked by this guy. "What about Igor?"

"Oh, Igor's solid." Tatsuya nodded. "That's why I gave him Philemon's power and made him the master of Psyche. Though, he wasn't too happy about it." He turned to the barman. "He still considers Philemon his master you know. Another one, please." He ordered, putting the money down.

I took a swig of my Sprite. "So, basically, he'd be looking for a way to get rid of his rank." I said.

"Probably." Tatsuya shrugged. "If he ever tries to offer it to you…"

"I'll refuse." I nodded. Pulling up my sleeve, I showed him the tattoo. "Know about this?"

He looked at it. "Looks like a Shadow's seal to me. Why've you got that?"

I rolled my sleeve back down. "Got eaten by one, then started turning. Had to amputate the arm itself."

"Good thing for Dia, am I right?"

"Too right." My phone rang. Akihiko. "Hello?" I asked.

_\_ "Where are you?" _\_

"I'm with a friend, why?"

_\_ "Did you forget that Ikutsuki called a meeting this evening? We're all waiting for you!" _\_

Oh, crap. "Start without me, I'll be right there."

I hung up and turned to my drinking buddy. "Listen, I gotta go."

"Sure." Tatsuya said. "Want my number, in case you need anything?"

"Thanks." I said, jotting down my contact details on a napkin.

CRACK

Oh, hell no.

CRACKcrackcrackcrackcrack

Damn… not again.

SMASH

Hoowooooohooohhooooowowooo

Huh? The wind didn't seem so fierce this time.

THOU SHALT HAVE OUR POWER WHEN THOU LUSTETH AFTER OUR PAIN!

Well, that still freaks me out.

"That one of those Social Links you were talking about?" Tatsuya asked, handing me my phone.

"Sorta." I said. "You ever heard of the Hollow Arcana?"

"Nope." He answered simply. "Sounds suspicious."

"I think so too." I nodded. "It cracks instead of just smashes, then instead of spiritual sounds you get a tornado in a coffin."

"I'll look into it." He said. "Shouldn't you be off?"

Gah! Forgot. "Thanks." I said, paying for my drink and grabbing my bag. "See ya!"

I burst through the door of the command room after running flat out at twenty, maybe thirty miles an hour at least for the past few minutes. I actually had no idea that charging my legs with fifteen Sukukaja's and Tarukaja's would do that, but there you go.

Not like I had much choice since I missed the train, and there wasn't another for thirty more minutes.

"S-sorry… I'm… late…" I struggled to catch my breath. "What… did I… miss?"

"There are eight of those big Shadows left." Junpei told me. "Pretty sweet, huh?"

I sat in a chair. "Yeah, Hierophant through to Hanged Man." I said. "Didn't you know that already?"

Ikutsuki pushed his glasses further up his face so the light reflected off the lenses. "I'm assuming that once again, you figured this out but decided not to share it?"

"Look." I told him. "I just ran here until…" I felt the warm sticky mess leaking through my trousers and then showed them my hand, "My legs bled by shoving my legs full of those speed and power spells just so I could get here fast enough to catch this meeting." I pointed a finger at Ikutsuki, "Only for you to tell me the bleeding obvious which you could have just told us over the phone." I facepalmed. "I, on the other hand, was doing some important research that may or may not save our lives at some point!"

"Really?" Ikutsuki challenged, not noticing the blood spilling onto the carpet. "Like what?"

"We aren't the first Persona users." I said. "Aaand that Personas and Shadows were originally created to determine the nature of man."

Oh, you should have seen those stares. "I met the leaders of the two previous generations of Persona users." I explained. "In both generations, there were multiple Wild Cards, but none of them have as much power or control as I do." I told them. "However, none of them can enter the Dark Hour."

"Wait, what?" Yukari asked.

"Which means that the power of Persona is not related to the Dark Hour, or Tartarus?" I said. "Apparently, some force called Philemon hands them out to those who want the power to earn their right to live, but he doesn't have anything to do with it this time."

"What do you mean?" Akihiko asked, interested.

"He's dead." I said, pushing myself to my feet. "I'm off for a shower, and then I'll type out a report and give you all a copy to read." I walked towards the door. "Memos. Very useful invention." As I closed the door behind me I added that "I'll clean up the puddles later."

Yeah, I ruined the happy mood in there, but Ikutsuki ruined my legs.

Well, okay, I did that, but he did cut short my highly revelation filled conversation with Tatsuya, and who knows when I'm going to have the chance to call him again.

I wrote up the summaries of what I was willing to share from what I'd learnt on my laptop then printed out copies.

I handed them out among the S.E.E.S. team, then grudgingly gave an extra one to Mitsuru to give to Ikutsuki.

What did I not mention? Social Links, The Velvet Room, my potential Shadow Transformation, the Hollow Arcana, Koromaru having a Persona, or normal people still having Arcana. The last two probably weren't that dangerous, but best keep it as plausible as possible without suggesting any psychosis on my end.

It was still pretty impressive how many minds I blew with two pieces of paper per person, even with all the information I left out.

How many you asked?

Five. I blew five minds, plus whoever Mitsuru gives the extra copies to. She decided to do some research into the Kirijo database into any records of previous social links, but so far, it looks like I got nothing. I sent an Email with my financial report to Tanaka, explaining that I wouldn't be in work tomorrow, since my legs still hurt when I went to bed, so I doubted that I could leave the dorm.

Come to think of it, I had a date with Chihiro on Sunday too, so I had to call her and cancel.

She was disappointed, but I really had no choice.

Good thing I did cancel, since around noon Yukari knocked on my door. "Orpheus Mikazuchi?" she asked. "Mr Nanjo would like to see you." She said dryly.

"Orpheus?" I asked her, limping out of the door. "What're you talking about?"

"That's what I asked the guy, but then he described a 'tired looking kid with blue hair in his face'." Yukari explained. "And since your Persona's Orpheus…"

"Fine, you got me." I sighed, "It's a fake name so I don't get into trouble for working as a minor."

"You got a job?" She asked. "Well, what's the problem?"

"Personal Financial and Business Advisor to President Tanaka of the Tanaka Mega Corporation."

That shocked her face off. "Secret," I added, "Hence the fake name."

Once I was down the stairs, I saw this guy examining the wall. He was in a black bikers suit with a huge '1' emblazoned on his back.

"President Nanjo?" I asked, looking at him. Hierophant.

He turned to me. "Ah, Orpheus-san." he said. "It's good to finally meet you. Naoya has told me so much about you."

Oh. "About Persona and such like?" I asked.

"Yes. Should we be talking here or…?" I looked behind me at Yukari.

I nodded. "Yukari's a Persona user too." I said. "And it's Minato Arisoto by the way."

"I know." He told me, walking over to the settees. "I did a bit of research into you." He explained, sitting on the far couch.

"Then why didn't you just ask for me?" I asked.

"You did give your name as Orpheus." Kei pointed out as I sat on the one opposite to him, next to Yukari. "Quite a pedigree you have."

"I know." I said. "I also know what happened to Philemon."

"Tatsuya Suou killed him." Nanjo nodded.

"You knew?" Yukari asked.

"I was there." He said. "I can use Personae from the Hierophant, Hanged Man, and Coin Arcana."

"Right…" I said. "You two still in touch?"

Kei Nanjo nodded. "He called me about you last night." He explained. "He asked me for any information about a certain Hollow Arcana."

Snap. Wanted to keep that quiet.

This probably should have been a private conversation, but it'd be even more suspicious to Yukari if I asked her to leave now. "Why would he ask you that?" I asked him, ignoring Yukari's confusion.

"Because The Nanjo group has a division dedicated to the research of Persona." He said. "The Kirijo group split from us years ago to focus their research on the Shadows." Wait, what?

"Are you serious?" Yukari asked in disbelief.

Kei nodded. "They split off from us about eight years ago, about a year after we started researching Personae under my command, taking the designs for the Evokers with them."

"Your company designed the Evokers." I said, deadpan.

Kei nodded. "Well, half way, they were unfinished, though it's believed that a skilled Persona User could use a real bullet, if they didn't have the ability to summon from a card."

Best keep quiet about how that justified homicide actually happened then.

"Cards?" Yukari asked Kei, before turning to me. "You mean, like the ones you wrote about last night?"

Kei held his hand out and summoned his card, again with the blue flames, impressing Yukari. Throwing it behind it him, he shouted "Yamaoka!"

Dude. His Persona is a butler.

"Can I be of any service, young master Nanjo?"

"Not today, I just wished to introduce you to my friends." Kei said calmly to the Butler/Persona behind him.

"Actually, could you fetch us some tea and scones?" I asked. No way was I passing this up.

"I'm sorry, sir, but in this state, my services are but limited to battle. Should a Shadow happen to be particularly vulnerable to blackberry jam and earl grey, however, I may be able to accommodate you."

"Best. Persona. Ever." I said.

"As you say, sir."The butler said as he vanished. Yukari was still impressed. I want a Persona Butler. Surely Stephen Fry could qualify as a god or something by now – Jeeves is legendary!

"Would a Persona on a motorbike do?" Pharos offered. Perhaps, if it's badass. Let's find out another time.

"So, you find anything out about the Hollow Arcana?" I asked.

"Yes." Kei told us. "You aren't the first to access its power, but it's older than the power of Persona."

"Really?" Yukari asked. She had even less idea what the hell the Hollow Arcana was, but she was interested now. "How do you know?"

He turned to her. "The last Hollow user was in England, 1897."