Spring, 2004

Shujin's deserted halls were nothing to the prison their principal thought them to be. Ren made it to class without any trouble and his expected meeting with Kobayakawa—he'd seen enough of the man to consider skipping the meeting the only possible choice.

Classroom 3-B was his destination, requiring him to climb every stair in the school just because he was a first-year. It didn't take long. He made it to the door and swung it open to interrupt a lecturing teacher.

"Can I help you?" he said, waving at Ren to proceed as if he assumed Ren to be a messenger from another class. When Ren said nothing, the teacher corrected himself. "O-oh, you must be the late addition." Ren heard whispers erupt from within the classroom, but he couldn't see from his position in the hallway. "You're a few hours late, you know."

Ren nodded. "Sorry."

"Well, it doesn't matter. Better late than never." He blankly looked at Ren, starting a staring contest that lasted far too long. "You may enter."

Ren walked forward, one hand around the strap of his shoulder bag and the other in the pocket of his uniform. Trying to look normal after the morning he had was uncomfortably easy, especially with his newfound power. The other students knew nothing of him, nothing of their principal's true disposition toward them. Ren pitied them.

The classroom relied exclusively on the sunlight coming in from the windows, but it was more than enough. Rows of desks, each with a student, were all perfect in their alignment. Sando-sensei, whose name was written across the blackboard at the back of the classroom, stood in front of his desk with a tapping foot that rushed Ren towards him.

"Introduce yourself," he instructed.

"My name is Ren Amamiya."

"And…?"

Ren rolled his eyes. "And it's a pleasure to meet you all."

Students laughed and hid their snickers beneath fake coughs, but they made it clear Ren answered the wrong question. Sando's crossed arms said the same. "Where are you from, Amamiya-kun?"

"Akasaka."

"Who else lives in Akasaka?" Sando asked the class. Five students raised their hands, each of them scattered across the room. "Then it's on each of you to make sure that Amamiya-kun acclimates to Shujin."

Two of the hand-raising students rolled their eyes, one groaned, and the remaining two didn't react at all. Judging by their polite smiles and nods, Ren saw them as teachers' pets. He could befriend at least one of them to help with his studies; both would be overkill for something that wouldn't be much of an issue. Ren was confident in his academic abilities.

"Alright, Amamiya-kun. Take the open seat in the back, right next to the window," Sando said, pointing towards the described desk. It was one of the few remaining desks; the others were all in the back row. Ren assumed Sando didn't want to isolate him too much.

Ren walked down the aisle of desks, hearing students around him shift in their seats to turn around and watch him. The attention made him shrink in his head—nerves taking over in the place of rational thought. He reached his new desk on autopilot and let out a sigh of relief that he didn't trip over his feet.

As soon as he settled down on the uncomfortable plastic chair that poked his back, Sando resumed his lecture.

Ren reached into his bag, now tucked within his desk, to grab his notebook and pen to take notes. As his hand rummaged through his messy bag, he heard a noise from behind him. "Psst." Ren pulled out his materials, then turned around to see who called. Behind him sat a skinny student. Bony arms rested on his desk without the sleeves of a uniform to cover them. He only had his collared Shujin T-shirt to represent the school he clearly loved so dearly. "New kid."

"Hm?"

"My name's Hitoshi Toda. First-year." Ren watched as Hitoshi rhythmically tapped his fingers on his desk, imitating the noise of a horse galloping. It grew more annoying with every gallop.

"Really? A first-year in a first-year classroom?"

"Hey, I'm trying to be nice. I've got a special offer for ya." Hitoshi looked to his right, then back to Ren. Sando's lecture continued in the background, but Ren lost his focus when the galloping took center stage. "Everyone kinda knows each other. Most of us were at the same school last year, meaning that groups've already formed. My buddies and I—we're the bulkier group."

Ren glanced down at Hitoshi's arms. He had elbows sharp enough to slice butter. "I assumed so."

"I wanna offer to protect you. Older students at Shujin… They're not the nicest. So, for a weekly price, my friends and I will keep you safe."

"Pass." Ren went to turn back around without thanking Hitoshi for the offer, but a hand slammed on his shoulder. Given that the last person, or thing, that touched him was missing an arm while locked in a cell, his first reaction was to spin around and retaliate. Instead, he kept his calm and turned to face the wannabe gangster.

"It's not wise to pass on this, Amamiya-san."

Ren raised an eyebrow. He hadn't even been in class for ten minutes and he was already receiving implied ass-kickings. Maybe school wasn't for him after all.

"Fuck off."

"Fine, Amamiya-san," Hitoshi spat bitterly as Ren faced Sando once again. "I'll see you when the bullies are stomping your face in."

Ren dared them to try.


"I'm not a liar, Amamiya-san," Hitoshi said. Ren could barely hear it through the ringing in his ears, or the second-to-second punches that found their target on his face. "I told you that you'd need my services."

When Ren tried to sit alone in the school's center courtyard—a square carved out from the middle of Shujin's cubed structure—he got a lot more trouble than he asked for. Four students, all of them bearing first-year patches on their uniforms, wordlessly dragged him into the nearest wall for a shakedown. Among them was Hitoshi.

To Ren's great amusement, Hitoshi hadn't thrown a single punch. He stood back from the three guys holding Ren up against the stone wall, watching as Ren took punch after punch to the face, gut, and chest.

The pain wasn't too bad. Other than a few bruises and a bloody nose, Ren wouldn't have much to show for it. Besides, he had a name to go after. That was all he needed to feel like he was the one winning the encounter, even when another punch shot into his cheek.

Ren winced as it connected. It hit right next to his eye, jamming flesh into bone.

"Really? Picking on the new kid, huh?" a voice called from the right side. Ren's right eye already swelled, but it didn't stop him from turning to see the bleached blonde hair of a friend. "Buncha pussies you guys are, I swear," Ryuji said as he walked up to the three.

Most students didn't look twice when they passed Ren getting beat up. Ren expected at least a small crowd, but nobody cared enough for that. Hitoshi and his crew must've desensitized the school to that kind of behavior.

"Just making sure the new kid knows who to kick up to."

Ryuji stopped a few feet from Hitoshi. The three guys holding Ren against the wall stopped hitting him, but they continued pinning his arms against the wall. No blue butterflies or giant insects could be seen. "Why not drop out and become bōryokudan now if you're so tough, Toda-san?"

Ren felt his hot forehead dripping. Was he bleeding already? He felt the throbbing pain, but blood? They punched harder than he thought they were capable of, or his pain tolerance must've gone up.

"I wouldn't interfere if I were you," Hitoshi said. He turned away from Ryuji to resume eye contact with Ren. "Now, are you going to—" His mouth was shut by Ryuji throwing his fist into the side of his face. Ren watched in slow motion as Hitoshi's jaw contorted and his eyes dragged. His head cocked hard with the force of the punch, almost as much as his body cocked to the side and dropped to the ground.

With just one punch, Ryuji knocked out the wannabe gangster.

Immediately, the three guys holding Ren let him slump against the wall. They took Ryuji down even faster than he got Hitoshi, kicking and stomping on him as he curled up on the ground.

Ren did nothing but feel the adrenaline fade as Ryuji replaced him as the victim. True pain sank in across Ren's whole body. He expected it to be worse, but that didn't mean he had the willpower to drag himself off the wall. Even if he could throw a punch, it would slide right off the three who busied themselves with putting Ryuji beneath the ground.

Ryuji's eyes opened and closed with every kick to his gut, every time a shoe dropped onto his shoulder or when a fist landed on his temple, yet he bore the pain. He knew what was going to happen if he stepped in, yet he did it anyway.

Ren watched as Ryuji sacrificed everything, and for what?

A friend?

Ren wiped his hand across his forehead. He held it in front of his distant, hazy eyes to see his painted hand.

Having a friend or two couldn't hurt.


"Mementos"

"Candidate found," Ren's phone replied. He tapped the button to initiate navigation, almost immediately feeling the usual pulse that signaled the new dimension.

Finally, Ren would get to return to the Metaverse, now with more of a purpose than last time. He had a goal—a task that needed completing alongside things he wanted to test out. Without Morgana, he was still new to the nuances of the Metaverse. Not taking the time to learn said nuances would be idiotic, leaving Ren to waste his newfound power.

Ren's surroundings faded away, the bright advertising displays of Shibuya Crossing shifting into static and then disappearing entirely. The sky's color morphed into a hideous purple, the sun dropped from existence entirely, and every last person at Shibuya Crossing vanished.

Ren was alone.

The cityscape remained the same in structure, only getting darker with the lack of genuine light. Buildings looked pitch black against the skyline. The only light source Ren's eyes could find was the stairway down into Shibuya station—bright red smoke emanated from the entrance.

He approached. Each step he took swung his coattails and hit the ground with a pink splash, despite the lack of water or any liquid. Ren figured it to be a quirk of the Metaverse, one which he quite enjoyed. His favorite was his new attire. The coat and shoes fit perfectly, the dagger that stored itself beneath his coat was designed for his hands, and his mask never obscured his view. He even forgot about it as he began taking his first steps down into the Shibuya underground.

At the base of the staircase was exactly what Ren expected, just with the Metaverse's typical touch-ups. What should have been silver, shining metal titles were stuck with a permanent red tint. Smoke rose from them with no clear source. Nothing looked well-maintained—a century must've passed for the station to look that degraded. Cracks ran through formerly perfect tiles and walls.

Ren took out his phone. The app, the Metaverse Navigator, had more to do than just change what dimension Ren was in. "Hitoshi Toda."

The Nav needed no loading time. "Target found," it said while pulling up what must've been a map of Mementos. Ren took a moment to study the graphic. On it, he could see a massive network of tunnels that went deep into the Tokyo underground. The lower he went, the blurrier the map grew. Tunnels shifted and moved constantly, though the motion was slow enough that it caused Ren no anguish. Still, slow movement for tunnels of that size was probably faster than Ren could get through them.

Mementos was not a place to linger in, that was for sure.

A bright white dot appeared near the awning of the tunnels. Ren noted its depth compared to his own, then slid his phone inside his coat. He procured his dagger and set off by stepping onto the escalator down.

The plan was to avoid shadows. It shouldn't have been too hard, though he was basing his knowledge of their speed off of Kobayakawa's guards. Ren wanted to conserve his energy for reaching Hitoshi. If he had any stamina left after their business, he would use it to test the limits of his Persona.


Ren's body had a mind of its own as he maneuvered through the tall tunnels of Mementos. It took no time at all for him to reach the point where his phone led him—an empty space where a cracked wall should have been. A red and black void with train tracks spiraling through it welcomed him to its corner of Mementos.

Beelzebub got no action on the way down. Ren could feel his Persona salivating for the chance to show off, biding its time until Ren summoned it forth. He got goosebumps whenever he saw a shadow, along with the feeling of something tugging him toward said shadow. Practice would come; Beelzebub would have to wait for a bit.

Ren stepped into the swirling void, immediately being thrown forward. Not even a second later, he came out the other side of the void into Hitoshi's section of Mementos: a small dead-end where train tracks derailed themselves into the ceiling and red veins ran across the walls. Directly in front of Ren, Hitoshi paced back and forth. One hand rubbed his chin while another stayed in his pocket.

Hitoshi's eyes glowed so bright that they struck Ren from a great distance. It didn't scare him; just reminded him of his first day in the Metaverse. Curious to see how Hitoshi's shadow would behave, Ren approached.

"Hey!" Ren stopped walking with fifteen feet between him and Hitoshi. "Are you here to give me my money?"

Ren wanted to command Hitoshi. It was the only thing he thought of in response—just ordering Hitoshi to do something and prove himself as greater than the wannabe. But how could he do that? Did he have to fight Hitoshi first? It didn't seem difficult. Hitoshi's shadow had the same build as the real Hitoshi, maybe even a bit skinnier. Ren supposed that Hitoshi's insecurity about his weakness manifested in his shadow's lack of muscles.

"I'm just here to talk, Hitoshi."

"Really? You wanna talk to me? You haven't even paid me yet!"

"Is that how it works?" Ren amusedly hummed to himself as he looked behind him. The same swirling void that brought him to the dead-end offered a way back. "What happens if I don't pay you?" Ren asked as he turned back around to stare at Hitoshi's golden eyes.

"Then…" Hitoshi's shadow raised his hand with his palm facing the ground. From the ground burst forth three hideous blobs of ooze. They looked like they were melting, yet they held their shape. Amid their black ooze were golden eyes. "They'll make you pay," Hitoshi said, a smirk forming on his face.

Ren couldn't allow that. He slipped the dagger out of his coat, running his thumb up and down the flat of the blade. The metal felt cold, even through his gloves. "Beelzebub!" The Mementos of atmosphere shifted as the air was sucked out of the tunnel, all of it going into a burst of blue fire behind Ren. Hitoshi's minions of ooze dragged themselves a few feet farther from Ren when they saw what floated behind him.

Ren didn't look back. He knew that the disgusting creature hovered overhead. He felt the chilling cold emanating from its body, the utter negativity that radiated from it. Ren could sense its desire to send the creatures in front of it back to where they came from, then deal with Hitoshi in whatever way it wanted.

Its desires were his own.

Once Ren realized this, and acknowledged how much he wanted it, he felt Beelzebub's will grow stronger. Just as Hitoshi had, Ren threw his hand forward to unleash Beelzebub. Overhead, red and black energy surged from the fly toward the three shadows. It split down the middle, sparing the center ooze and targeting the two on either side.

With deep, guttural wails coming from the mess of sludge, they dissipated into black liquid on the ground of Mementos, which turned into nothing even more quickly. The remaining one slumped backward, slime covering its eyes in pure terror of what inched closer. Beelzebub advanced on the poor shadow.

It cowered, shrinking into itself as the fly loomed over it. Hitoshi screamed for it to straighten itself out and defend him—to justify its existence—but Beelzebub's presence kept it still. Once the fly reached the slime, it cast it aside with a light flick of an appendage. The ooze sailed into a wall and dissipated, black liquid running down the veins and tiles,l then vanishing.

Hitoshi was alone.

Ren watched Hitoshi realize what he put his minions through; the bully's confidence shrank under the Lord of the Flies. Beelzebub took no pity. He swung his scepter into Hitoshi's head, sending him to the ground with a scream. Black blood splattered across the ground, then faded into Mementos a second later.

Hitoshi's arms shook as he tried to get up. Once his elbows locked, they crumbled and he fell back to the ground. Beelzebub hovered directly over the shadow as Ren watched from a few feet away.

Beelzebub stilled in the air. The fire around the Persona shifted into dark, crimson flames. Hitoshi's shadow's body contorted. An arm broke backward to hold him up. His legs unwrapped themselves from their bone structures and bent themselves sideways. His spine was pulled straight, keeping his body locked in place in front of Ren.

Hitoshi's shadow was cursed to kneel forever. His gold eyes shook in pain, a sickening auburn color seeping into them around the edges. The shadow's jaw twitched as it was forced to stay closed while Ren spoke.

"Tomorrow, during our lunch break, you'll meet me in the courtyard. You're going to give me seventy-five hundred yen, then you'll give Ryuji fifteen thousand."

"I don't—" He screamed through gritted teeth when the invisible grip on his jaw tightened.

"You'll get the money and give it to us. Then you'll apologize."

His jaw slackened from the grip releasing. "Yes… I will!"

Ren's command of Beelzebub felt so natural, like awakening to his Persona permanently encoded the instructions to use it within his brain. He waved his hand and Hitoshi's shadow was released from Beelzebub's grip. The fly's flames quelled, then it disappeared entirely.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Hitoshi."

Ren walked away with more enthusiasm for his powers than he felt when first awakening. He now knew more about Beelzebub's power—being able to control shadows. When Beelzebub hovered over Hitoshi and glowed, Ren felt unprecedented authority. He could've bent Hitoshi to his will without question if he wanted to.

With Beelzebub resting in the back of Ren's mind, Ren felt at ease. The tunnel was stiflingly hot without the fly, and Ren's shoulders felt much lighter than they had with the Persona summoned. He felt… normal, again, like taking the Persona out changed him in some way.

He'd have to test things out more.

Ren walked back towards the spiraling void, leaving Hitoshi's twitching shadow behind on the cold floor of Mementos.


Breathing deeply, Ren looked out across the courtyard. His first-day friend sat alone on a white bench. The shade of a tree made his black eye harder to see, but it didn't hide his slight hunch. Ren knew nothing of the injuries Ryuji received. However, he assumed they couldn't have been too bad if he was at school the day after.

Ren walked over to the bench. "Anyone sitting here?" he asked. Ryuji looked down at his bagged lunch. His eyes showed no excitement, probably losing their hope for a good lunch as soon as he remembered what he packed. Ren knew the same feeling every day—enthusiasm for an hour of freedom, then the crushing disappointment of remembering that he packed his own food.

Ryuji's face, full of surprise and dark colors from the beating, looked up at Ren. "I thought…" He trailed off, letting whatever he wanted to say go to waste, never to be heard by another human. "Nevermind. Nobody's sitting here."

Ren nodded. He sat down next to Ryuji and set his bag down on his left. Opening it, he saw his usual packed lunch. Kaneshiro wasn't exactly big on stocking the fridge, meaning that Ren got to buy food for himself. It made it that much more disappointing when he opened the lunch that he made.

"Thank you," Ren said, "for the other day."

He and Ryuji didn't look at each other, instead focusing on their food or staring off at random things in the courtyard. A group of guys were vigorously debating something at a table, some teachers were talking in the walkway, and a group of third years were harassing a smaller group of short students. Ren saw everything, yet not what he wanted to see.

"Yeah. No problem," Ryuji grunted.

"You didn't have to do it."

"Nah. I did."

"Why's that?"

"Toda's always been a dickhead. I finally got an excuse to do something about it."

"I was an asshole to you. You didn't have to get yourself beat up for me."

"Did I at least prove that I wanna be friends with you?"

"You care that much about being my friend?" Ren saw a familiar face exit the school, emerging into the courtyard with his eyes racing back and forth. Hitoshi Toda stepped onto the grass with brittle legs and urgency in his step. "Why?" Ren asked.

Ryuji missed Hitoshi stepping out into the courtyard. "Because you're new and you got no opinion of me. You're my only shot at a friend."

"Well…" Ren felt uncomfortable with the pressure Ryuji placed on him. He cared about not being rude now, if that meant anything. "We can be friends, especially now that we're the two ugliest guys in the school."

"Hah!" Ryuji choked out a laugh. Ren rubbed the bruise to the left of his eye. His black eye wasn't as bad as Ryuji's, but the soreness did get to him from time to time. "The lowest of the low, huh?"

"Speaking of low…" Ren watched Hitoshi complete his approach to the bench. With no confidence, goons, or fake power to show, Hitoshi was pitiful. He shivered in warm weather with goosebumps on his frail arms and dark bags under his bloodshot eyes. One trip to the Metaverse transformed him into a strung-out junkie. "What's up, Toda-san?"

Ryuji sat forward, scowling at Hitoshi. His swollen black eye made his scowl hard to discern, but Ren knew a scowl when he saw one. "Ren, we don't—"

"I am, yes!" Hitoshi said. His voice rushed to escape his mouth, like not speaking quickly enough would bring even more anxiety to him.

"The eff?" Ryuji's surprise didn't stop him from sitting back and enjoying the show. Hitoshi dropped to both knees, fishing his wallet out of his pants pocket and thrusting it towards Ren.

"Please! Take what I owe! You deserve it, not me!"

"Count it out, Toda-san."

Hitoshi nodded, then brought the wallet back to his chest. A few onlookers started to whisper. The teachers watched over the interaction from the walkway, though they didn't intervene. The group of guys ended their debate and grinned at something they considered entertainment.

"Five, seven…" Hitoshi flipped one last note onto the stack of three multi-colored notes, then offered it to Ren. "That's yours!"

"Thank you." Ren grabbed the money without needing to lean forward. "What about Ryuji?"

"Hey, man, what the Hell's—" Ryuji was cut off as Hitoshi launched into more money counting. He flipped through his wallet to procure three five-thousand yen notes. "Holy shit…" Ryuji couldn't believe the sight of Hitoshi on his knees, begging Ryuji to take money from him. "The eff did ya do, man…?"

"Please, take it! I'm so sorry!"

Slowly, Ryuji extended his hand to Hitoshi's. He flinched when their hands made contact, but his fingers curled around the cash and pulled away.

"You're never going to speak to us again. Right, Toda-san?"

"Yes! Of course!"

"Good." With Ren's final word, Hitoshi shot up and spun around. He started walking away almost immediately, likely forgetting to breathe before doing so. Ren and Ryuji watched the former bully stumble across the grass, nearly falling, until he made it back to the walkway.

"Dude…" Ryuji let the silence breathe for a few seconds. "Who the fuck are you?"

For the first time, Ren turned to Ryuji to look him in the eye as they spoke.

"I'm your friend."