Waking up and realizing that you died is an experience that I wanna wish on someone. I was minding my business walking to the store, and then suddenly, Truck-kun came out of nowhere to run me over. I didn't even realize I was hit. The last thing I heard was screaming and fading pain from my body.

When I came to after my rude, painful awakening, I was looking at my new mother and father in an infant body. I never cried much as a child, and I'm sure I worried my parents, but I was an adult just out of college going to the store. I felt I had never done many things spectacularly in my old life. I was an average guy with average smarts, but always made time for my family and friends. However, I kept to myself most of the time and wanted to be an engineer.

I always joked about the whole reincarnation troupe in anime, where an adult getting reborn in a new world. Most people in my world would be ecstatic, but it never really appealed to me from a logical perspective. The best thing about this new life would be learning about this new world.

When I was three years old, I learned more about my 'parents' and who they are. My mother, Himari Ito, who was of Eastern descent, was cheerful, and her smile was beautiful. She is always a ray of sunshine who, on the worst days, tries to find the good in things. She had short brown hair and eyes, soft facial features, and an attractive body to the opposite sex. She could play the part of a model in some small-time magazine if she wasn't a loving mother.

My father, Charles Walker, was American. Like my mother, he was a happy, charismatic businessman who carried himself well. He had short blond hair and green eyes, rugged facial features, and a well-kept blond beard, and I could tell he was very athletic under the suits he wore.

My name in this new life was Akira Walker. I am half-Japanese American with black hair and green eyes. I carried my mother's looks, but I definitely had something from both parents.

While my day was often spent working, my mother was the housewife, often cooking or taking care of me, making it difficult to find out what was happening in the world or even know what time I was in. I'm in the early 21st, maybe 20th century, because of the TVs and cell phones, but I'm still determining the year. However, I know we are on an eastern continent since the words are written in Japanese, and my folks speak it instead of English.

Learning a new language is more manageable for children. It can't be that hard… right?

When I finally entered grade school at four, I learned a lot about the world I inhabit. The children had different colors of hair that wouldn't be natural. I saw blue, green, purple, even white. The adult didn't care too much about the different hair colors, as if it were a typical child. Besides that mild shock of seeing children with differnt hair colors, they still acted like kids.

It turns out that learning a different language wasn't as bad as I expected. Sure, there were some mispronounced errors from my American mind, but the teachers assumed it was from my American background or me hearing phrases from my dad. Outside of a few errors, I can speak a few introductory sentences in Japanese, but nothing too complex.

"Happy Birthday, Akira!"

When I turned ten years old, my parents congratulated me. My birthday was quick, filled with praise and the occasional banter with a family member I didn't remember the name of. However, unlike in my childhood, I researched the world and found two critical facts: I'm in the world of Persona 3 and haven't awakened my persona yet. I wasn't even sure if I could since the Dark Hour hadn't started yet. I know the Kirjio Group is still a big corporate group with their name on everything.

Hence why, I started planning steps ahead. I know that the world of Persona isn't a good place and is often dark. The media only shows the persona-users and never the people who can get killed by Shadows who haven't awakened their persona.

The only headway I've made in this topic is that a persona is strikingly similar to a Stand from Jojo, but that's all I've got. And I'm unsure if I could summon my persona, but will I be ready to fight with S.E.E.S if the time comes? I've heard that users could summon one without needing an Evoker; it just takes a lot of time and practice.

However, all that research didn't mean much when I went to sleep and had my first dream. Too bad it was an exact reenactment of how I died. Bones cracking and bending. Pain burns throughout my lower body as I breathe my final painful gasp.

Is this how you meet your end?

A voice deep that sounded eerily soft but hailed authority.

"Who are you?" I looked around to find the source of the voice, but all I saw was an ominous black fog that slowly crept over to me.

Why do we both know the answer to that question? Don't we?

"Are you my persona?" I questioned. The fog halted in its place as wielded by someone stronger.

…you know, most people wouldn't sound so calm.

"Really? I've been trying to summon you recently. Though if you're in my situation, I suppose getting scared by my reflection would seem foolish."

There was a pregnant pause between me and the fog.

"Hello?"

Hehe, The sound of held laughter. You are a strange one… though it would make sense why I manifested this way. My-no, our power will be needed if you're determined to go down this path. But you currently lack the strength to handle all of my power.

That would make sense. I've been trying to unlock my persona through unusual means, from meditation to rigorous exercise, to no avail, and a concerned mother.

"So does that mean I can use a portion just enough to get acquainted. Since you are me, you know about my story and how I'm here," I stated.

Then you also know that S.E.E.S. doesn't need you. You can easily pretend that personas don't exist and be ignorant of the threat. You know as well as I do that it's a problem that'll fix itself without your help. You can forget about the Dark Hour. You have a loving family and experience working as an engineer, an occupation you never got to fully take advantage of.

As much as I wanted to say a counter, he was right. Why did I want to unlock my persona so badly? Was it because I wanted to or because I wanted to help S.E.E.S in their mission? I could enjoy my life with my family. Most people would kill to be in my position, a loving mother and father. Both would drop whatever they were doing to help me.

Most of the Persona 3 cast didn't have good relationships with their family, and even more so, they didn't have a mother or father.

No, if anything, that's why I want to unlock my power. To protect my family and friends who are close to me. The Dark Hour can kill my family, so I must deal with it.

I glared at the fog. Unlike before, I can make out a person in the fog.

It seems your mind is made up.

I nodded as the person walked out of the fog, and what I saw unnerved me.

A man with red eyes and hair appeared. The person would have appeared human but was overshadowed by the amount of wings coming from his back. One pair was devilish. One had black wings, its feathers threatened to swallow light, and the other was pure white. The clean swan couldn't get feathers that white. However, that was mitigated when a name suddenly popped into my head.

… Lucifer, Morning Star.

His smile was the last thing I saw before the dark fog consumed me…