Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

"Speaking of things that aren't normal..." There was probably a better way to bring this up. Oh, well. Too late now. "Why are the pictures of Akira-san and Lavenza-san...?" You just stop talking, because you aren't entirely sure how to describe it. You don't even know if it's possible to explain the shifts, let alone put them into words that allow you to ask about them.

Nemi glances at the table, his eyes alighting on the photographs in question. "Well, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but these aren't exactly ordinary pictures."

You nod, because of course you've picked up on that part. "It's... kind of hard not to notice. Akira-san and Lavenza-san aren't the only ones with pictures like that, it's just..."

They only just got here. There shouldn't be room for there to be odd shifts like that.

"Well... some of it, I'm not all that sure about myself," Your Persona admits. "The twins in that picture are called Caroline and Justine, and if they're in the same photo as Lavenza-san, there must be some sort of connection, beyond that of belonging to the Velvet Room. But I only met Lavenza-san during the time travel thing, and Caroline and Justine were... Well, it wouldn't actually be entirely wrong to say that we'd never met."

This makes exactly no sense. Particularly with what little you'd been told about these photographs. But you aren't sure what to ask, so instead you continue. "And Akira-san?"

"Has a similar issue. Even where I come from, if you were to ask him, he'd say we'd never met. Probably. Unless he's gotten into the habit of doing the impossible." You blink. "It could happen! He's a Wild Card, after all."

Wild Card. You aren't sure if you've ever heard those words before, but you can already tell. They mean something.

You have no idea what it could be, though. Or if you'd even understand it if someone explained it to you. Still, that's not the only strange thing about the picture. "What's with his outfit, anyway?"

Nemi shrugs. "He said that was how he summoned his Persona. It's sort of like Morgana's other form, I guess... It's a lot cooler than the Evokers are." It's nice to know that you're not the only clueless one here. And that you're not the only one who appreciate's his outfit.

"So... this is Joker, then?" You have to admit, looking at the confident grin on his face... he's a far cry from the Akira that you're friends with.

Maybe that's what Morgana's Shadow meant.

"We'd never realized how close in age we were," Nemi reminisces, even though those words don't make any sense. "Mostly because all the thieves somehow managed to forget what year it was." That doesn't explain anything, either!

Especially when nothing about the Phantom Thieves of Hearts seemed familiar to you at all. And if Nemi had met them before, and gotten to know them... then shouldn't you know them, too? Just a bit?

You start waking up before you can ask, however. Leaving the question of just what the connection between the thieves and your Persona is unanswered.

---

Your Persona knew the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. They were completely unfamiliar to you- you're pretty sure your mind doesn't actually have any pictures of them- which brings up even more questions, and you have no idea where to go to get any answers.

Especially when Morgana never found you familiar, either.

Add in Nemi's words, and you aren't actually sure you can figure this out on your own. No matter how much you'd like to, there's other things that could use your attention. (Pick up to three.)


[ ] Spend time with friends.
-[ ] Maiko and Akira.
-[ ] Lavenza.
-[ ] Mitsuru-san and Narumi-san. (+Diligence)
-[ ] Akihiko-san and Shinjiro-san.
-[ ] Takeba-san and Morgana.
-[ ] Koromaru.

[ ] Practice Channeling.
-[ ] Hama
-[ ] Kouha
-[ ] Cruel Attack

[ ] Read something.
-[ ] Mythology (+Knowledge)
-[ ] Manga (+Empathy)
-[ ] That big book of fairytales... you're not scared of concussions anymore! (+Courage)

[ ] Talk to the librarian.

[ ] Try and meet other kids at school. (+Expression)

[ ] You want more custom outfits.

If anyone were to ask Yukari Takeba why she'd chosen to attend Gekkoukan High, she would have had a long list of reasons to choose from.

The first one, and the one that was most pressing to her fifteen-year-old mind, was the fact that her mother was still sleeping her way across the country, and she'd walked in on her and her most recent boyfriend far too many times. It wasn't a reason she'd tell anyone, but she barely had any of those, anyway.

There was the fact that she had lived there before, a long time ago. She'd barely thought about it, but when her father had still been alive... Those were the memories she'd cherished most.

Add in the fact that not many high schools had archery clubs, and the decision was almost made for her. A nice, far-off location from where she was currently living, that she'd probably recognize at least a little and would give her the chance to indulge in a hobby that most of her current classmates thought was strange.

Actually getting into Gekkoukan was a fair bit more complicated, at least until she mentioned her last name. At which point things became almost too easy.
It's like someone wants us to be there.
It probably wasn't a conspiracy though. Maybe. Those only really involved high schools in anime anyway, right?

---

Despite the odd circumstances of her arrival, Yukari's first term at Gekkoukan went by and things seemed to be perfectly normal. She went to class, went to club, tried to avoid being seen with Junpei Iori whenever possible... There wasn't anything odd going on at all, unless one counted that thing with Kirijo-senpai, and that was probably just a case of malfunctioning air conditioning.

Close to the start of summer break, however, she was approached by an odd man with a habit of making terrible puns, and told that she would be moving into a different dormitory over the break for undisclosed reasons. Which sent up all sorts of red flags, she didn't know where to start.

Still, despite the obvious shadiness, the building she stepped into, at the start of the break, seemed completely normal, aside from the occupants. "It's good to see you again, Kirijo-senpai. I-I guess you live here, too?"

Not that Kirijo-senpai was the only person in the room. There was also a boy with brown hair, who looked like he belonged in an elementary school. other than that, the place was completely deserted.
Those crazy conspiracy theories don't sound so crazy anymore, do they?
Still, Yukari tried not to let on her misgivings, and it seemed like she succeeded, as she received a simple nod in return. "Y-yes. There's a few others who live here, as well, but only one of them is here today- this is Ken Amada."

"It's nice to meet you, Takeba-san." The boy's smile didn't quite reach his eyes. Like he was hiding something.

Then again, she'd already figured out that part. "He looks a bit young to be living here," She noted. Honestly, how old was he? Eight? Nine? Not old enough to be attending high school, that was for certain.

The boy awkwardly shuffled in place, before responding. "I... didn't really have anywhere else to go. I mean, I stayed with kids my age for a while, but I like it better here. Everyone's been so nice to me, I don't think I'd want to be anywhere else." What sort of thing would make a little kid prefer the company of a bunch of teenagers instead of those his own age?
Kid genius? De-aging experiment? It could be anything.
"Amada-kun moved in just this spring," Kirijo-senpai spoke up before Yukari could bring herself to ask. "He doesn't ask for much, unless there's a sentai show on at the moment." Her words made the small boy blush, though he didn't say anything to refute it.

The chairman then led the boy away without giving any real sort of reason for it. All things considered, this was not the most concerning part of the evening.

---

Yukari had no idea why the people she was now living with insisted on bringing her with them on their vacation. They'd all been friends for a while, while she was the newcomer. It felt almost like she was intruding on something, no matter how much they insisted otherwise.
It's like they know something we don't. I mean, they probably do, but...
Still, she was glad she'd ended up agreeing. If only because of how many new things she'd encountered. A fairy, a woman who could summon angels... they made no sense, to her, but a word that they'd kept using continued to echo in the back of her mind.

Persona.

Still, whatever that word meant, it wasn't like they'd be in the city long enough for Yukari to figure it out. And it wasn't something she'd heard of anywhere else.

Sure, the fairy's words meant she could probably ask the others about it, but something still seemed... off, about this whole thing.

A thing that was confirmed when Kirijo-senpai woke her up in the middle of the night. "Senpai..." She glanced at the clock, just to check what time it was. The little red numbers stared at her, mocking her for losing out on sleep. "It's eleven fifty-nine." She hadn't been awake after ten since she first realized that the best way to avoid embarrassing situations was to get home as soon as possible and lock herself in her room. That had been over four years ago.

"I know. It is... important."

"What's so important that it can't wait for morning?" And then the numbers vanished. She probably shouldn't have felt quite as satisfied with that as she did. "...A blackout?"

Kirijo-senpai shook her head. "No. This is the Dark Hour... the secret twenty-fifth hour of the day. Not everyone experiences it. Most are transmogrified into coffins during the hour. But some people, like the two of us, can remain as we are."

"Really? Why's that?" That just seemed far too convenient.
Were we just moved into the dormitory for people who see strange things without warning?
"Well, I'm not sure if this is true for you or not... but in the case of everyone else in this dorm, it is because we all wield the power of Persona." And there it was. That word again. Persona.

"Persona? Oh, like the people around town?" A silver flash in the moonlight gave her pause, and Yukari adjusted her gaze to see Kirijo-senpai holding a small silver pistol. Which probably wasn't legal in the dorms, let alone in a hotel in another city. "Um, Kirijo-senpai? Why do you have a gun?"

"It's not a real firearm." Okay, that was slightly reassuring, so long as she was telling the truth. "Rather, this is my Evoker. It allows me to summon my Persona, as such." Literally nothing anyone could have said would have managed to prepare Yukari for her senpai shooting herself in the head to call out a Persona. "I am not sure why it is a requirement for our group when the people here go about their business just fine without them, but... there's a lot I don't know about this place and the people living here."

"That seems sort of..."
Morbid? Insane? Bound to cause a problem if anyone who uses one ever enters the police force?
Yes to all of those. Not that she thought she should have been listening to a voice in her head that she could only occasionally hear clearly, but sometimes it had some very good points.
I'm you. Of course I have a point.
"You don't have to use one if you don't want to," Kirijo-senpai was quick to reassure her. "Shinjiro hasn't summoned his Persona since last October, and none of us are about to force him to. I just felt... that you should know about our powers. And that the option is there, if you ever decide you want to try and gain some of your own."

Powers? Like the people in town? And all she'd have to do was... Okay, it actually didn't seem all that simple. "That... I'll think about it."

---

And she did. She thought about it for a long time. She thought about it as the little boy who lived with them prepared to explore the first few floors of a helltower, and Sanada-senpai spent the time after said exploration seemingly distracted with something. As the others practiced all sorts of powers around her, ice and lightning and the ability to make injuries disappear.

Yukari thought about it as she met a talking cat, who went missing shortly after. As she saw something that looked familiar out of the corner of her eye, when it was almost the Dark Hour.

"Where are you going?" Aragaki-senpai asked. She hadn't even noticed she was reaching for the door.

"Well, I just realized I have to tell the others about something, but..." But it was almost midnight. Almost the Dark Hour. And she didn't have any way of fighting the Shadows that she'd inevitably come across.

"Hold on a moment." Aragaki-senpai vanished upstairs, for long enough that Yukari began to wonder if he was just trying to give himself plausible deniability if anything happened, before returning with an Evoker in hand. "Use this if you get into any trouble, okay?"

His words carried an odd sort of weight to them, almost as much as the pistol did. Then again, he was handing over his main method of defending himself. "But what about you?"

"It's fine. The Shadows don't really go inside." And maybe she shouldn't have found those words as encouraging as she did, but...

As terrifying as the prospect of using an Evoker was, just by holding one, she was already beginning to wonder what it would be like. And, right then, she needed to go see the others.

That night, she witnessed an incredible battle, between the people she lived with and a horde of insects. And she promised never to let any of them know just how close she'd been to joining in.

---

Without the pressure of a life-or-death situation, however, use of the Evoker became a fair bit less tempting. She gave it back to Aragaki-senpai and tried not to wonder just what her Persona would have looked like.

There wasn't much Yukari had in common with the others. If she had powers... well, it might not have changed things all that much, but maybe it'd allow her to join in on some of their conversations, especially if she happened to share powers with any of them.

Eventually, the temptation managed to outweigh her fear. And she was quick to take that chance, realizing that she might not get another one.
I am thou, and thou art I.
Io couldn't do much. She was weak, weaker than even the child living with them. Weaker than the dog, once they ended up adopting a dog. And maybe envy of Ken and Koro-chan wasn't a very good reason to start fighting for her life at midnight, but it was her reason, weak as it may be.

The red of the wristband clashed with the pink of her cardigan, but honestly, that was the thing least wrong with this picture. Particularly once it was time for Yukari's first expedition to Tartarus.

"Now that we have a large enough party to actually make headway in Tartarus..." Kirijo-senpai began, "I think the best thing would be to assign a field leader, since I may be too busy analyzing the enemy to give proper orders. Takeba, I know you are... new... to the team, but you appear to be the best option we have." Wait, what!?

"Me? Really?" There had to be better options. She hadn't even been in a proper fight yet!

Admittedly, Kirijo-senpai did give her some pretty compelling reasons. "Akihiko doesn't seem to care for much outside his own fights, Amada-kun is ten, and Koromaru is a dog. ...Also, if by some miracle Shinjiro decided to return to the fight, giving Akihiko authority over him would be a terrible mistake."

"Well, when you put it like that... I'll do it, I guess." This was probably going to end badly, but... apparently, she was the best of a number of terrible options.

This was not reassuring in the slightest.

---

Honestly, she had no idea how they were all still alive. Between the Shadows lurking around the various floor, the really powerful ones that appeared every five floors or so, and the giant panther that had apparently turned into the cat's Persona, Yukari thought she'd had her fill of life-threatening experiences for the time being.

She knew she'd have to go back, of course, from what Kirijo-senpai had described the others would crash and burn without her. But she was beginning to realize that maybe she'd been a bit hasty in agreeing to go into a giant tower at night and fight monsters. She was the weakest member of the group, even counting the cat who could do all the same things as her but that had shown no inclination to go fight Shadows since they brought him back from Tartarus.

Still... if she had to do this, she could at least do it the right way. So when Morgana approached her with the suggestion that they could practice with their near-identical skillsets together, there really was no reason for her to refuse.

If she could get strong enough to keep up with the others... Then maybe this leadership thing wouldn't be so bad.

After all, it was just until a better option made itself available... right?