Persona: A Less-Than Cinematic Tale (Starring Hikari of PQ2)

Hikari decided to go back to the dorms early, in order to remove the chance of her getting locked out overnight. Her room was a nice, relaxing place, and maybe there was something happening around the building.

At the very least, she was more-or-less used to the constant smell of popcorn by now. Between this building and the cinema, she'd had a lot of exposure to it.

When she got back, there was plenty of noise and people moving through the halls. This, too, she was mostly used to, though it did make going to bed early something of an impossibility.

One particular group of people shoved their way through the halls like they owned the place, and Hikari pressed herself against the wall in hopes that they would just pass her by. Fortunately, she was a lot better at blending in than she'd used to be, at least enough to make it seem like she wasn't worth the trouble.

"There they go again..." Was the mumble from the crowd.

"Do you think we should tell Nara-san about this?" Another voice suggested.

"And distract him from the paperwork he's supposed to be busy doing today? Are you insane? If you make him upset, he's never going to forget that. You've never talked to him before."

"You don't know that! Though... you're not wrong." Hikari started to get the feeling that maybe this wasn't a conversation she should have been listening in on. "Is he really that bad?"

"My brother used to live here, five years ago. When Nara-san started working here, he wasn't looking where he was going and walked into him, and... that was it. When I came here, Nara-san told me to make sure I wasn't a careless wreck like my brother." ...Okay, this definitely wasn't something she should have been listening to.

It also told her it would be a bad idea to get on Nara-san's bad side, so she decided not to mention anything about the group that had pushed past her for now. From what she could hear, they were now wreaking havoc in the upstairs hallway.

...Well, she knew she wasn't about to get to bed early, either. Still, this was a thing that was happening... how was she supposed to handle it?


[ ] She could try to strike up a conversation with the other people who bore witness to this... the key word likely being try.

[ ] She could follow after the students that had gone past, to see how far they were willing to go with this.

[ ] She could try and distract herself from the noises upstairs by doing something in her room.
-[ ] The internet, as it turned out, was her friend.
-[ ] Her notebook was, in fact, meant to take notes on more things than the supernatural.

Deciding to pretend that the loud commotion above her head wasn't happening, Hikari sat down with the internet and several things she wanted to do with it. The first thing was to answer a question she'd been asking herself for a while now.

It didn't take long for her to get her answer. As it turned out, at one point, Shinjiro Aragaki had actually been a real person, who had played truant from Gekkoukan High up until his death in... 2009.

That was... a long time ago. Hikari would have been eleven, back then, and still holding on to the hope that her middle school would be better than her primary school had been. Put like that... it made her wonder even more just how he'd gotten trapped in the world hidden underneath Kusoka. It definitely couldn't have anything to do with her- she'd never been anywhere near Iwatodai in her life.

It still felt sad to see, so she closed her web browser and jumped back into one of her MMOs. She wasn't that much better with online friends than real ones, but she could usually convince a group to put up with her for a raid battle or two. If only because it would be suicide for them to go anywhere without a support unit.

Actually, she'd just discovered a relatively new game, which had been out for less than a month now. Maybe that would be interesting to play for a bit...

---

Alibaba: Okay, I know this looks really bad. Between us, we've got... three support classes, and one person with offense who's also a total noob, thanks, Lucia.

Lucia: You told me it was okay to invite a friend along! And be nice, she's never played video games before.

FilmSunlight: Um, actually, I've never played this game before, either...

Alibaba: ****. Okay, we can work with this. The two of you at least know the control schemes for your classes, right?

FilmSunlight: I figured it out... eventually...

Mugwort: I am... acquainted with the theory? ...I know how to use the charge attack.

Alibaba: ...Close enough. I think I have an idea. Lucia, you make sure we don't die.

Lucia: I mean, that's literally my character's job description...

Alibaba: Film, you and I will buff Mugwort's attack power to insane levels... and maybe some defense for everyone, too, so we won't die.

FilmSunlight: I can do that... I think.

Alibaba: Mugwort, attack things until they die. Don't die.

Mugwort: Yes, that is generally how combat works.

Alibaba: So we all know what to do? Great! Let's go!

FilmSunlight: ...Are we not going to ask how Alibaba can use italics in chat?

---

...That was fun. It was difficult, doing things when only one party member had an attack that did more than scratch damage, but... Hikari enjoyed it. She even got friend requests from the other players, so she supposed that meant they might be interested in teaming up again sometime?

Sure, the one who was apparently new to videogames also apparently didn't have much spare time for some reason, but... it was sort of nice, to know that there were living people out there, even on the internet, who did more than just tolerate her presence.

Still, she couldn't spend all of her time online. Among other things, she had classes that day. So she'd just have to think of what to do until then.



[ ] Something nice and warm to drink would be good, even if it had stopped raining.
-[ ] With Shiyuri Kosono.
-[ ] With Tsukane Akabori.

[ ] The library was always worth a visit, right?
-[ ] With Shiyuri Kosono.
-[ ] With Tsukane Akabori.
-[ ] By herself.

[ ] The gardens weren't soaked anymore! Great!

[ ] Maybe there was something around here worth talking about...