Tuesday, 2nd of March; Early-Morning

Grey became aware that the bed he was lying in was not the one in his flat. He sat up. He was back in the Velvet Room, this time in the king-sized bed, and he was naked.

In the corner, he saw Igor's desk, with the man himself sat behind it and Lavenza perched atop, now moved in to the room so that it could be seen from the bed.

"Welcome back," began Igor "You are fast asleep in the real-world, but at the same time, wide awake here I the world of the collective unconscious."

"I don't understand."

"In time you may, but for now, take this." At first Grey couldn't see anything of note, then, a tarot card drifted through the air and landed in his hand. It had '0 The Fool', written on it, and dissolved into his skin shortly after making contact with his palm.

"I have a feeling you will be needing this later on today."

"I might also need some clothes."

"For now you will not, and when you awaken you will have ample opportunity to dress yourself however you please. Coming up, you will also need allies in your adventure, I want you to create bonds with the people around you, these will be the key to securing your fate, and the fate of the world."

"You mentioned an 'adventure' and 'my fate' before, what are you talking about?"

"I do not know the full truth of it myself."

"My master sees much," chipped in Lavenza "but not everything. We exist between reality and dreams and see much of what occurs in both worlds, but not everything."

"All that I can say for sure is that the fate of both worlds rest upon your shoulders, and without the bonds you form with those around, the wait of it shall crush you."

"So what do I do now?"

"Follow the path my master has set you upon, for now, begin your investigation of the Kirijo group."

And with that, the Velvet room faded.

Tuesday, 2nd of March; Morning

Grey's alarm sounded like the toll of doom. His whole body was sluggish, and rebelled against as he dragged himself from his bed. Only one part of him seemed to perk up, and he knew a cold shower would deal with that. The cold water made him shudder and gaps, wrapping around his chest like an icy vice, but it didn't wake him up. He dressed in his suit and tie, not knowing what level of formality the Kirijo group would want and had a breakfast he was too tired to taste.

He dodged the puddle of sick outside his buildings front door and caught then his sense of smell finally awakened. It was the smell of coffee, and good coffee at that, such good coffee that even a coffee philistine such Grey could recognise. And the smell was coming from Le'Blanc.

Grey entered and gave the manager a nod and as he was the only customer, went straight up to the bar and ordered.

"One black coffee, with two sugars to go, please."

"A coffee to go, you aren't gonna sit down and enjoy it, really savour it?"

"I've got to be in Mianto for nine, and…"

"Stop right there. You look half asleep, and I saw you coming in yesterday, you're new around here right?"

"Yes sir."

"Take this, and drink it slowly, no don't and anything, just savour the moment," the proprietor passed him a black-coffee in a china-cup and rested back to watch.

As instructed, Grey lifted the cup to his mouth and savoured. It was hearty and bitter, but in a refined and controlled way, and as the coffee slid down his throat, he felt his body not just energise, but really focus. With each sip, he noticed something new about the café. It was small, a counter ran almost the whole length of the café, and behind it the proprietor lounged like a cat who'd had the canary. Behind him were a myriad of coffee blends, none of which Grey was familiar with. Their aroma filled the air but didn't overwhelm it, as if their scents had been blended with as much intentionality as the cup Grey held now in his hands. Just at the bottom of the coffee smell was something spicey, those Asian-European fusion curries no doubt, Grey made a note to come back this evening and give the curry a try. The bar stool beneath him was he was perched on was just right, soft enough to be comfortable, but hard enough to be give proper support, and covered in real leather. There were three booths running the length of the café behind Grey, and from where he was seated he could just about see into the cubby-hole kitchen in which the proprietor made his magic curry.

"Feeling better?"

"Much better, thanks. I'm Atlusato by the way."

"Nice to meet you Atlusato-san, I'm Sojiro, but most folks call me chief." The two shook hands, "Now that'll be ¥250."

The journey from Yongen-Jaya to Minato wasn't nearly as bad as Grey had expected, it was one train backt o Shibuya, and then another to Aoyama-Itchome station, the Kirijo building was just around the corner from there, he was through the door in at eight-fifty-five.

Most of the buildings in Minato were skyscrapers, a titanic monolith of glass and steel that Grey had to crane his neck to see the top of. The Kirijo building was one of the tallest.

The atrium was a large open space, with a few Japanese-Cherry-Trees scattered in pots, shedding pink petals onto the tiled floor, they gave the place a floral aroma. A big sign over the reception desk said 'Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection'.

After introducing himself at the desk, Grey was whisked away to have a security pass printed and, made to do all of the other boring and induction tasks associated with joining a company. He noticed that the whole place seemed very efficient but friendly, there were no managers shouting at subordinates and few workers had the slumped-shoulders or head-resting-on-hand posture typical of the overworked salaryman in a Japanese mega-corp. After a somewhat whirlwind tour of the building, he was escorted to the Telepathic-Technologies department.

He was immediately greeted by a smiling, young who immediately introduced himself "Hi, you must be Atlusato-san right, I'm Takuto Maruki, the lead researcher here. I've read some of you're work and, oh woops, I'm getting a little ahead of myself," the man was practically bouncing up and down with excitement. He wore a lab-coat and glasses, and had a slightly disorganised air to him, possibly because of the way his hair flopped over his right eye.

And the office seemed to be much like the man, with piles of books in one corner where there were too many to fit onto the shelves, and an assortment of gadgets and gizmos scattered around. Then towards one corner of the room he saw an area cluttered with everything all at once. Maruki was more or less winning the battle against disorder across the office but over-there.

"Maruki-san, the pleasure is all mine."

"If you don't need me anymore, then I'll be going," said the HR lady.

"So this is the Telepathic-Technology department, what we're working on here will change the face of modern technology forever."

"What exactly are we working on here?"

"We're working a device, called the Morheus-machine that will allow the conscious mind to… wait, not let's not start there. Let's start at the beginning. If you're familiar with the work of Karl Jung, then you'll be familiar with his theories of the conscious mind and the collective unconscious. Through experimentation, he discovered that all human minds are connected on a level we are not normally aware of, which allows us to share ideas and learn information psychically. This level on which we are all connected is called the collective-unconscious because we all experience it but we are unaware of it. What we are developing here is a device that allows the conscious mind to interface with the collective unconscious, allowing you to explore it properly."

"And does it work?"

"Not yet unfortunately, at least not exactly. If you connect-yourself up to the device then you see some strange things, sometimes. It's unreliable and overheats a lot, but with your help we're helping to get it working better."

"Nice."

"But before we go any further, I think you should meet the other member of our team."

In the untamed corner of the office, Maruki showed him a man who introduced as 'Edogawa-san', he wore an unbuttoned lab-coat over a t-shirt and baggy jeans, he had the short stubble-beard of a man who hadn't shaved in several days and a pencil tucked absentmindedly-behind his left ear, his eyes never seemed to focused on anything he looked at through his thick glasses.

"It's nice to meet you Edogawa-san."

"Hmm, yes," mused Edogawa, "Extra essential oils may help induce the trance state required for proper communication with the unconscious. Oh! Forgive me, yes, I am Edogawa, I work on magic, which is essential to the functioning of the our Morpheus-Machine."

"Magic!?"

"Ahh, another unbeliever, I should have sensed it in your aura. Give it a week, a month at most, and you I will have revealed unto you some of the secrets of the universe."

Grey shrugged his shoulders, of everything that had happened to him since arriving in Tokyo, having the Morpheus-Machine run on magic wasn't the strangest thing someone had asked him to believe, "Ok, I'll go with it for now."

"As frustrating for me as a scientist, I have to admit that the Morpheus-Machine wouldn't work at all without Edogawa-san's input."

Edogawa gave a smug nod, and returned to a book he was reading called 'Morphic-Resonance Revealed'.

"Now, said Maruki, let's introduce you to Morpheus-sama."

Maruki led Grey through a door which needed the security pass to enter and had a sign reading 'Morpheus-Machine, authorised personnel only' on it. The room looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, or less dramatically a hospital CAT scan room. The machine Grey assumed to be 'Morpheus-san' took-up most of the room, a large plastic cylinder with over a dozen cooling vents, and a number of cables which led into a dentist's chair, which was kitted-out with a helmet and a plethora of electrodes. In the corner was glass box with a bank of consoles and it's own air-vent, suggesting anyone inside it was hermetically sealed-off from the rest of the room.

"I think it would be best for you to experience the Morpheus machine first-hand, so please, take a seat."

Grey seated himself, and Maruki began attaching the electrodes to Grey's arms, neck, and a few were placed onto his chest through the holes between his shirt buttons.

"If Morpheus-sama wants is feeling talkative, you can communicate with him through the helmet, it uses electric pulses to communicate with your brain through the skull, and so should work instinctively. That box, which I'll be in, can monitor your condition, I can also use it to release some of the magic potions Edogawa-san has brewed up into the air, this sometimes these can help you enter the trance-like state in which your brain can navigate the collective unconscious."

Maruki climbed into the box and said "When you're ready, put the helmet on."

It was only at that moment that the sheer absurdity of the situation really hit Grey. He'd been transferred to an undercover position without any prior warning, he'd infiltrated one of the largest companies in Japan, he had entered into a contract with beings who existed between dreams and reality and he was now about to plug himself into a machine that was powered by the most bizarre parts of Jungian-psychology and straight-up magic.

He was clearly going mad.

But he remembered back to the contract he believed he had signed. He'd agreed to follow his instincts, and apparently this would bring pleasure to the world. Well, judging by the way Maruki was now bouncing up and down, he seemed pleased at least. Perhaps he was being played for a fool, but he supposed that he might as well play the part well. Grey put on the helmet.

Tuesday, 2nd of March; Late Morning

Grey was in a darkness. Or rather, he was floating in a void in which there was nothing to see, but there must have been light, even if there was no light-source, because when he looked down his body was there, dressed as he was in the real-world.

Steadily, a room started to form around him. It's walls were wavey and insubstantial, as was the floor, and the boundary between the two was not clear. To say the room solidified would be an exaggeration, but it reached a point where the walls throbbed and wobbled but remained in a more-or-less constant arrangement, and were properly opaque as if made of something solid-ish. There wasn't anything of note in this room, and so Grey decided to make use of his legs and walked through the only door.

Through that door, he found a corridor with walls like those of the room he had been in, they felt rubbery, or perhaps waxy to the touch, and were covered in a swirling mess purple and black which changed as the wall pulsed.

And then a voice called to him.

"Who are you?"

Grey looked around, he could see no-one.

"Why are you here?" It was a feminine voice, and sounded confused.

"Hello!?" called Grey, "is someone there?

The hall seemed to be illuminated by LED strips on the ceiling now, rather than the light coming from nowhere. Was this place becoming more real.

He didn't have time to ponder the question, something was sliding down the hallway floor towards him. At first he thought it seemed indistinct because of poor lighting, but as it approached he realised it was essentially shapeless.

At a range of maybe twenty-feet, the black shape reared up, growing black arms with sharps claws, and red eyes and glowing red mouth full of indistinct black teeth.

"It is a shadow, a being given form by human perception."

"Thanks for the heads-up, what do I do!?"

The femininine voice didn't respond, but the shadow did, it gave another roar and it lunged. To his shame, Grey let out a shriek of fright, turned on his heels and ran. The shadow chased, neither gaining on him not losing ground.

But then another voice sounded faintly in his ear, it was Lavenza "Summon your persona."

"Do what?" panted Grey who was not much used to this level of physical exertion.

"Your persona, summon it."

Grey knew enough to know that in psychology, a persona was 'the face one shows to the world'. An essentially false you that you pretend to be to be accepted into society, covering your personality traits which you think will make people dislike you while exaggerating those that will bring you acceptance, but how was that relevant here.

There wasn't time to ponder this question, there was another shadow up the hall that he was approaching.

So what was his persona, what was the face he put to the world? He remembered the Velevet-Room this morning when he'd been given the fool card, and told that he would need it. The fool was a character on a journey in a story, and he was on a journey, that made him the fool. Yes, a character on a journey that was the face he had agreed to show!

The shadow in-front realised he was there, it turned to face him. The fool card appeared in his hand, instinct told him to slap it onto his face like a mask and yell,

"PERSONA!"

In a flash of light, and indistinct golden figure appeared in the air beside Grey. He had know time to acknowledge them, only to use the power he felt flowing from them into him.

"Kouha!" he declared stretching out his hand, and from it a small orb of light shot forward, blasting the shadow before him, and leaving it reeling. Feeling that he now had the advantage, he turned on his heels and fired one 'kouha' and then another into the shadow behind him, causing it to dissipate into inky, black smoke.

The shdadow behind him growled, and scratched three burning lines of pain across Grey's back.

He responded with another 'kouha' and was rewarded to see the shadow also disappear into smoke.

And then he breathed.

"I am Oddchoice, the man who lives a life of excitement and seduction, I am the face you show to others given form by your acknowledgement," the figure said. Perhaps one might have expected him to have a deep, booming voice, or one that was extremely soothing or musical, but it was flat and atonal, the sort most people ignore. "I am thou, and thou art I."

Grey nodded, there were no words needed between the two now.

Grey could feel that he had grown form that battle, and so had his Oddchoice persona. For himself, he felt as if he had battle for longer, and whatever well of magic within him he had dipped into to cast the 'kouha' spell was now increased; for Oddchoice, he was now felt more resilient and swifter, and some-how more lucky, and he could feel a new skill from this persona, 'Eiga', the ability to attack with curses.

Feeling somewhat shaken, Grey crept back down the corridor towards the way he had come, hoping to find a way out. The walls maintained their rubbery, waxy texture, but were pulsating less, Grey didn't know what that meant, but whereas he remembered running down an entirely straight corridor, now it had twists and turns.

This was most distressing. Grey only had Maruki's word that he could or even intended, to bring him back. If the Kirijo group had discovered that he was undercover, and had disposed of the Amano woman, then it was more than likely they would do the same to him.

The excruciating sensation of a clawed hand scratching across his arm brought him back to reality. He screamed. He panicked. He summoned Oddchoice. It was all so quick that he barely realised he had done it until the shadow was destroyed.

As his heart-rate returned to normal, he knew that he'd become even stronger, and the moment of doubt passed. Yes, Maruki-san could be trying to kill him, but he almost certainly wasn't, and he was growing stronger with each battle, he just had to survive until he woke up.

And then the feminine voice from earlier called "Come to me." She sounded far-away, not just physically, but mentally, half asleep even here in this dream-world. But Grey could feel a direction to follow.

He crept along the essentially featureless hallways, destroying more shadows as he went, growing stronger, but taking more damage and also growing tired. Oddchoice also grew more powerful, he felt stronger, and had more power for 'kouha' ('eiha' seemed inafective against the shadows) and was faster, tougher and luckier. He eventually reached a large room, and the voice finally spoke to him again.

"You have grown, I can feel you growing. But who are you?" This was the most lucid Grey had heard her sound, and she had a husky, sensuous voice.

"My name is Grey Atlusato, who are you?"

"Who am I?" It was a very sensuous voice.

Grey became aware of something approaching.

"I am sorry, Atlusato-san, I must see your power… I don't know, I don't know why."

Grey turned, he was faced by two more of the amorphous shadows, and then there seemed to be some kind of fairy or pixie or other small fay being, floating between them. She was three foot tall at most, with short, red hair and dainty wings, dressed in a tight, blue leotard and long boots and gloves. She giggled in a girly manner.

Grey struck first, having fallen into something of a routine with the shadow destruction, hitting one with 'kouha' to knock it down, then doing the same with the second, the fay he wasn't sure what to expect, but fired a 'kouha' into it hoping it would be as effective against her as it was against the others.

The fairy giggled, and proclaimed "Dia!", which seemed to restore one of the shadows. And then the shadows struck, each clawing at him.

This was bad. Grey had noticed that the claws didn't injure him as such, he wasn't bleeding, but he was dying none-the less, he'd be dead already without the extra resilience Oddchoice had gained since he first summoned him.

With the feeling of a man facing his last stand he blasted the two shadows with 'kouha', just about finishing the healed shadow and turned to the fay. If the bless attacks of 'kouha' were ineffective, he might as well try the 'eiha' curse, shadows flowed from his hand, striking the fay and knocking it to the floor, it would have taken the last of his magic, but Grey readied to destroy her with a second 'eiha' when the Fay said "Stop!"

She rolled onto her kneed and clasped her hands together and begged "Let me live, I can help you!"

Grey winced, it could be a trap, but if the Fay could talk then it could think, and he didn't much like the idea of destroying a thinking being if he didn't have to.

"Fine then, get me out of this place."

"Hehe," she giggled, "I am thou, and thou art I, so you take good care of your little sis." With that, the fairy dissolved into a blue-ish glow which flowed into Grey's face, and he found himself holding another tarot card, it had a picture of the fay on it and said 'VI, The Lovers; Pixie'.

The card seemed blurry in his hand. No, it wasn't the card blurring, his whole vision blurred. Grey swayed. He passed-out.

Tuesday, 2nd of March; Late Afternoon

Grey had awoken back in the Morpheus room. He'd regaled an ecstatic Maruki and baffled Edogawa, who must have come in while he was in the world of the collective-unconscious. He omitted any reference to Lavenza, Igor or the Velvet Room just as he would have omitted any reference to the police if they had been relevant. But he supidly mentioned the husky voice, which he only later realised may have been the voice of Maya Amano. His mention of the voice didn't raise any questions, yet, but it wasn't a risk he'd wanted to take.

Supposedly, Maruki had picked up brain activity from him never seen before, but Grey was so drained that he was unable to process any of it. Apparently he'd been in there for hours.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry!" blurted-out Maruki, "I should offer you something to eat, and to drink, you look exhausted." Maruki dashed out of the room.

Edogawa watched him go and then said "Aah, perhaps this would be an opportunity to try out my new concoction. It' active ingredients include bitter mug-wort, poison carrot, henbane, ju-jube and traces of rabbits foot. Even Hakusan's finest alchemist would be astonished by the ingredients, it shall treat your fatigue here and now."

Edogawa produced a small bottle of greyish liquid, no sooner had he popped the top-off than the most bizarre smell Grey had ever encountered hit his nose. As ill advised as it was to do so, Grey shrugged his shoulders and downed the drink in one.

Vile didn't even begin to cover the taste, it was bitter and saltier than anything he had ever tasted, his gag reflex went into overdrive, causing him to wretch and spasm. So intense was the reaction that he could barely breath, and he heaved so hard that his stomach hurt.

It was a terrible experience, but one that made him more courageous.

He hadn't fully regained his composure when Maruki returned, but he was only cold-sweating and shivering.

"Edogawa-san, did you give him some of your medicine?"

"Yes, but he chose to take it." Edogawa looked smug.

"Aahhh, err well, you can take these biscuits anyway, they'll keep, so you don't have to eat them all now. Do you think you'll be ok to get home?"

Grey didn't, but he needed to go to the police station before he went home so he lied.

"Ok," nodded Maruki, "Well, then, take care."

Tuesday, 2nd of March; Evening

Grey was a zombie shuffling back to Aoyama-Itchome, he didn't notice the hoard of other passengers, many of them as tired as he even if for more mundane reasons, that pressed against him back to Shibuya and again to Yongen-Jaya. He turned his brain off almost entirely.

He couldn't remember a single detail of his journey to the police-station, just a general, numbness, and the dread of feeling like he just wouldn't be able to face Dojima-san in this state.

The realisation that he had dragged himself to the police-station was like waking up from a bad dream half a half-hour's sleep.

"Alright, Atlusato what have you got for me?" Dojima got straight down to business, her didn't ask Grey how the first day had been or even offer him a seat. He looked just as tired an unkempt as he had yesterday, and stacks of paper-work in his office reminded him of Edogawa's books, although Grey didn't fancy that Dojima faced this chaos with Edogawa's equanimity.

"The bad news first, I've not got any further evidence that Maya Amano has been anywhere near the Kirijo group."

Dojima inhaled but said nothing, he nodded for Grey to go on.

"The good news, is they don't suspect I'm with the police, and I've been welcomed into the Telepathic Technologies department. They…"

Something smashed into Grey from behind, throwing him to the ground.

"Dojima-san! I heard Atlusato-san is here, where is he?" The speaker was and excited female, shouting words coming out a hundred miles an hour she was so excited.

Grey considered giving up and going to sleep in the pile of papers, "I'm down here,"

"Satanoka! Damnit, how many times have I gotta tell you to stop running around the office like some damn lunatic?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Grey wasn't sure he'd ever heard someone deflate so quickly in his life.

"Are you Atlusato-san?"

Grey rolled on to his back and looked up, his feet came to rest by the feet of a woman he recognised as Constable Chie Satanoka, she was dressed in a security guard-uniform, which included a short skirt that Grey could see right up from this position. She had strong, slender legs with defined muscles, which went up to a pair of sports panties which enhanced the definition of her camel-toe and buttocks.

She bent-down to look at him. Her round face and large, round eyes looked heartbreakingly ashamed of her over-enthusiasm. In-spite of his groaning back, Grey felt compelled to comfort, his forgiveness of her went without saying.

"I so sorry, here let me help you up."

Satanoka-san didn't so much help Grey up as yank fully pick him up and put him down, she was deceptively strong for her size.

"I take it you are Satanoka-san?"

"Oh please, call me Chie."

"Chie-san then. I was just telling Detective Dojima and Sergeant Adachi about my infiltration."

"Ooh, ooh, tell me as well,"

"Chie, calm," grumbled Dojima.

"I was welcomed into the Telpathic Technologies department, they've got two guys working there, Maruki and Edogawa. They're working on a machine they call the 'Morpheus Machine' or 'Morpheus-sama'.

Dojima snorted at this.

"It's based off of Jungian psychology, it's supposed to let you explore, consciously the world of the collective unconscious. They plugged me in to it, and I had this… dream, I'd suppose you call it…" Grey regaled them with a brief description of what had occurred in the world of the collective unconscious.

Chie listened with her mouth open like a beached fish, Adachi sat with a sneer on his face, Dojima's face may as well have been carved out of stone.

"I've never heard such nonsense in my whole life."

"I thought it sounded pretty cool."

"Tell me, Atlusato, is this some kind of joke?" Dojima's tone made Grey feel like a stone was forming in his stomach. Grey should have known that a man like Detecive Dojima wouldn't believe something so outlandish, he himself barely believed it. But it was the truth, and he had said it, and he had to stick to it.

"Yes, Dojima-sama."

"Then I believe you."

"What!? You can't seriously believe all of that junk?"

"I once got called to a road-traffic incident where, where a guy had crashed his car and I found him covered in saki and five times over the limit. As I dragged him he insisted he hadn't had a touched a drop, and it was the fault of a samurai riding a horse down the road who'd thrown the saki over him. Well, I checked his dash-cam and wouldn't you know it, every word of it was true."

"What's the point of all this?"

"The point is that isn't like when you go slacking off on duty and say you were chasing up on some teenagers making a nuisance of themselves. When you're a policemen you see a lot of strange things and sometimes you just have to trust your gut, and mine says Atlusato isn't trying to blow smoke up my arse. You guys are dismissed for the day."

For those concerned with the underlying game mechanics

Grey started at level 1; HP 100, SP 66 and ended at Levell 5; HP 122, SP 77.

Oddchoice started at level 1; Str/Mag/Spd/End/Lck 3, knowing Kouha. It ended at level 4; Atk 5, Mag/Spd/End/Lck 6, knowing Kouha, Eiha and learning Snap upon level up.

The pixie is level 2, Str 1, Mag/Spd 3, End 2, Lck 4, she knows Dia and Garu.

The shadow are 'Maya's, like the basic monsters you see in persona 3, but this time they are a persona of the Death Arcana. Level 2, Str/End 3, Mag/Lck1, Spd 2. And know Scrath and Eiha

I am unlikely to keep track of the experience of personas going forward.