We're going to consider this like this is Persona FE3…which means…well…new main character…ish? With Social Links and all that good crap.

/=+=/

The day after was hard on everyone. Everyone involved with the incident couldn't bring themselves to look each other in the eye anymore. Charice herself couldn't bring her voice up higher than barely a whisper. Everyone began wondering if she had a cold, and if that was to explain why Rizal had suddenly left the area. No one really knew that he was truly dead, and at the same time no one knew that he was a Shadow. No one should know that.

Alfred found himself in the middle of it all, wondering if the world really hated them this much. Each and every one of the Persona wielders haven't talked about what to do after the revelation, and the word "Shadow" had become a bit of a taboo word. Out of all of them, he seemed to be the only one who would be more than willing to go back to fighting these monsters and demons if the world depended on it.

Rizal would've wanted us to fight on. He wants us to protect what was precious to us, right? He looked at the stack of books that were on his table. If…if I knew the true Rizal. Yeah, if that was really him.

He slowly gathered the books that he needed for the day and headed out of the room, accidentally bumping into someone on the way out. He turned his head to see a familiar sway of black hair walking past him. His eyes widened. There was no way it could be her. She was walking too strongly, too…normally. Especially considering that she didn't look like she had even being to recover.

"Charice?"

She stopped, but never turned around.

"Are you still all right? You haven't been out walking for a while. Hungry?" He smiled. "We can get something to eat if you want."

"I'm actually going to class right now." She said with a firm, familiar tone. "If you want to talk, we can talk later."

"You're not actually gonna go to class with baggy eyes, right? You must've cried a long time."

"I said I'm fine. See?"

She turned her head around to face Alfred and show him her face, and he could see that she had a completely normal face, without tears and without pain. But what brought up his attention were her eyes. They were firm and sharp, nothing like the large and gentle eyes that she always had. What worried him even more was that her eyes were no longer a simple brown, but instead a tender hazel, the same color as Feliciano's eyes…more gold than anything else.

Almost like…

"Do you have anything else to talk to me about?"

"Eh? Uh…no. No, I'm fine. We can talk later, though!"

"I'll be busy the entire day, however. Later?"

"Uh, sure. Later."

Alfred watched her turn around and walk away. She wasn't walking with the normal bounce that she would usually do when she walked (almost as if she was jumping on clouds). Instead, she was walking like a normal person; straight, firm, unwavering. In fact, she seemed to walk as if she was in a hurry to go somewhere.

Almost like Rizal.

He followed after her, not realizing that she had vanished just as fast as her pace. Rizal always did walk like that. Alfred didn't even know where to begin looking, but as he turned his head he was able to see that Li Xiao was leaning on the wall of the building, staring at the floor as if he was deep in thought. His face looked a bit swollen, but he couldn't really tell from afar.

"Li Xiao?"

"Eh?" He looked up. "Oh…Alfred."

"What's wrong with you? Have you seen Charice around lately?"

"Um…" He turned his head away, tapping his cheek. It was as if she was now a taboo word as well.

"Hey…Li Xiao…" He leaned on the wall next to him. "Don't tell me that…"

"She broke up with me."

"What?" Alfred jumped off of the wall. "How?! Why?! You two were all oh-so lovey-dovey and you didn't even start going down that downward spiral that all breakups go down through!"

"She hasn't really been the same ever since Rizal died. I wouldn't be surprised if she blames me for letting him die."

"How? Antonio was the one who killed him, and he was crying when he was doing it!" Alfred blinked. "And they had gotten so close together, too…!"

"No…no, that's not the problem…" Li Xiao looked down, looking a bit traumatized.

"Li Xiao? What's wrong…?"

"…you know how the Shadow of a nation is supposed to represent the true form and mindset of the nation in question?"

"Uh…yeah, that's about right."

"Your Shadow is basically the second half of you. Both of you were the same nation and you were the one who won out, turning the other one into the Shadow." Li Xiao sighed. "Charice and Rizal are the same thing. They aren't the same person, but they're the same nation, am I right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the problem is…we were thinking about it wrong."

"Huh?"

"They were the same person."

"!"

"Remember what Charice's world revealed. That he had been created when she had shed enough blood." Li Xiao looked up to the sky, probably thinking about his own birth. "If a Shadow represents the true self of a nation, and that said person was cynical, realistic and antagonistic toward his creator…"

Alfred's eyes widened even more. His mind immediately thought of the woman that he had been friends with for so long. Her crazy smile, the large eyes, the optimistic attitude, the ability to reach out to other people and protect them, to make sure that they were alright at the expense of her own well being sometimes…wasn't she the one who had led the fight against all of the Shadows that had happened…?

"The Charice that we knew…the Charice I fell in love with…either was a façade or didn't exist…" Li Xiao turned his head to Alfred. "It was Rizal. Rizal was the true Philippines the entire time. He was the real Charice."

/=+=/

Alfred never told that revelation to anyone else. It didn't feel like something that would be in his best interest to. What could you do? Tell them that Charice had never existed and that it was just a mask because her true personality is basically Rizal? Why in the world would he break all of them now? It was something he couldn't bring himself to even accept. Or maybe Li Xiao was wrong about this? He would have to be. There is no way that this much time would've meant nothing on their separation…

"Al? What's wrong?"

"Huh?" He looked up. "Oh…Yao."

"You've been quiet for a while. And I mean quiet as in more than usual, aru." He sat down next to him. "Is something wrong?"

"Sort of." He looked to him. "I'm worried about Charice."

"I see…I've been worrying about Li Xiao in the meantime." Yao turned away. "Ever since the breakup, he's been moving farther away from everyone."

"How so?"

"He's been getting quieter, aru. I mean, more than usual. He doesn't talk to anyone, he doesn't even study in class…I'm worried, aru! He doesn't even make fun of me and my cheap utensils anymore!"

"…yeah, that does sound like a huge problem."

"I know, aru! But I don't know how to interact with him!" Yao turned to Alfred. "You've been talking to him a lot; being friends with him. I want you to help me figure out what to do!"

"Hey, it's a recent breakup. Sometimes you have to give a man some room."

"I know…but does a breakup as horrible as this makes him not even eating?"

"Wait, he's not even eating?"

"No…he's getting thinner recently…I'm really worried, aru."

"Oh god…" Alfred turned to Yao. "Hey, how about this? We should go and talk to him directly. He may be suffering from depression."

"Depression, aru?"

"Yeah. This breakup really got to him, so we should at the very least get him to move his legs and talk to other people. That way he can slowly get out of it." He smiled warmly. "Come on, Yao. Where is he now?"

"Um…I don't know. I was actually looking for him when I saw you, aru."

"All right. We should go looking for him."

/=+=/

Alfred had no idea where to even begin looking for him. No one seemed to have seen him in the recent area, and a few of them didn't even know where to begin looking. He was nowhere in the building, and for the most part he didn't even show up for classes. It was as if Li Xiao had completely jumped off the map. It started making Alfred more worried than usual. A break up like this shouldn't have made Li Xiao that depressed, even if this is his first breakup.

"Al? What's up?"

"Eh?" He turned around. "Antonio. Yo. Have you seen Li Xiao around recently?"

"Li? No, I haven't. Sorry." He had that usual smile on him. It only looked half fake. "Why? What's wrong?"

"No one seems to know where to look for him. Yao's been looking for him for a long time. He hasn't even shown up for class, as far as I heard."

"Class?" It was then that he realized that Antonio's face was getting a bit pale, but was properly hidden. "Oh…maybe I should go help look for him."

"Can you? Thanks. We already searched inside the building, so we're about to head out."

"All right. I'll go check the right side."

"Yeah. Call me if you find something."

"Si."

Antonio and Alfred ran their separate ways, with Alfred heading straight into the woods and park. He didn't know why, but he was wondering why Antonio was looking so worried. What was wrong with him? Did he know something that he didn't? He kind of wished that he had the time to go ask him what he was so worried about. But it didn't matter at the moment. He was probably worried about something else. As he kept running, he found Yao looking around the area as well.

"Hey! Did you find something?"

"Not much, aru." He turned to him, holding a small pin. "I think this is Li's. I remember that had gotten a gift from her a while back."

"That means that he has to be nearby, right."

"I hope so…"

"All right, let's go look."

The two of them kept searching around the area until they finally got to the lake. It was then that Alfred finally found a familiar figure standing at the edge of the lake. Alfred was about to go ahead and greet him when he realized that he was acting very strange. He figured that Li Xiao was just moping at the lake, thinking about his relationship and the revelation that he had told him. But he wasn't moping. He wasn't even crying. He was just standing there, dead-eyed, staring back at the lake as if nothing was happening. It was then that he realized that his reflection looked weird…

"Li Xiao! There you are, aru! We were looking for you!"

Alfred turned his head and noticed that Yao was finally coming out of the woods, finding the young man that they were looking for. He didn't seem to notice that anything was wrong with him. To Yao, all he saw was a former colony staring at a lake probably worrying about a breakup that was really horrible. It was then that he saw the full image of Li Xiao's reflection.

"China, move!"

"Eh?"

*SHANK*

China had no idea what happened. He had shielded his eyes away in a desperate attempt to block the attack that never came. He slowly opened his eyes to see that America had jumped right in front of him, a strange black spear going right through his back, eyes widened as if he wasn't expecting this to be as deep as he wanted. His arms lowered, lip quivering in confusion, before his knees buckled and he dropped to the ground. At the same time, the spear pulled out of Alfred's torso, and his body plopped onto the ground.

"…L-Li…?"

He had no idea what the figure in front of him was. From the majority of the image, it was definitely Li, with his familiar hairstyle and the long sleeves of his uniform formatted so that it looked more Asian. However, things were off about it. Disregarding the black spear that seemed to be protruding from a black aura around him, his skin looked more barren and gray, almost as if he was looking at a corpse. His head lifted upward, and they made eye contact. Yao's eyes widened in fear.

They weren't the simple hazel that Li Xiao always had.

It was gold.

"So the Shadow finally demorphed into its true form."

Yao turned his head in confusion to see Charice standing there, holding a spear in her hand- wait, when did Charice ever had a spear? When did Li Xiao had any of this aura thing? Is Alfred dead? What should he do? Should he get out of there? Call to Li Xiao? Call to Charice? Were they about to fight? What in the world is going on?

"Stay back, China." She walked in front of him with calmness, not even looking at Alfred's body. "You get in the way and you get the same fate as he did."

"Philia…" He looked at Li Xiao. "W-what's going on, aru…?"

"…he's a monster. He always was. And he just woke up." She aimed her spear to his face. "It's my job to put him to sleep."

/=+=/

Ah, it feels so good to get out of the hiatus. You know what this needs? Another two year hiatus~

No no, of course not. I'll try and update now that I got this out of the way. Or at the very least get some good stuff out of the way.