Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

Sometimes, you wonder about other people. About what defines their lives, when they don't have something as big as the whole Dark Hour surrounding them. If they don't see what you do, if they can't see it, their view of the world must be very different.

In no case are those differences more visible, more frustrating, than the case of Yumeri Oyama. Someone so different from you, you're surprised you exist in the same city, let alone the same school. Let alone the same class.

A set of differences that has led her to decry your entire life as unnatural.

"So what do you think is natural, then?" You're pleased to say that you have enough control over your powers that you don't make anything float. Something tells you that might just make things worse.

Oyama-chan's hands grip the sleeves of her coat. "Natural is... I guess you wouldn't know. It's when there's a mom, and a dad, and a kid. Or maybe two that are the same age. None of this... living with people who aren't related to you."

You aren't sure why being related is so important to her. Or why any of this is important to her. "But... that's how dorms work."

She nods. "Shove all the unnatural people in one place. It works."

You've never liked Oyama-chan very much.

You still never expected her to go this far. "So, if one of your parents died or left, would that make you unnatural?"

She abruptly walks away without answering you.

She doesn't return for the rest of the week.

---

There's another week until the full moon. Your friends have been watching a lot of movies for some reason, but none of them really interest you. Eventually, those movies are all boxed up and it's like they were never here to begin with.

And then everything feels normal again. You're worried about the full moon, but given the date, that was always going to happen.

You're just going to wait and see what happens. For now, there are more urgent matters to attend to. (Pick up to three.)


[ ] Spend time with friends.
-[ ] Kyouma.
-[ ] Futaba and Morgana. (+Knowledge)
-[ ] Makoto-san and Aigis-san. (+Empathy)
-[ ] Elizabeth.
-[ ] Mitsuru-san and Chidori-san.

[ ] Library expedition.
-[ ] Bring Futaba.
-[ ] Bring Akira?
-[ ] Bring Kyouma?

[ ] Just read something.
-[ ] Some kind of horror story. (+Courage)
-[ ] A time travel story. (+Diligence)
-[ ] Something about festivals. (+Expression)

[ ] Practice Channeling.
-[ ] Kouha
-[ ] Hama
-[ ] Zio
-[ ] Psi

Sometimes, Futaba and Morgana will talk to each other outside the dorm. You have no idea what they talk about when you're not there, but today, you feel like you should join them.

They're better company than some of the alternatives, at least.

"I wonder if Mom would know what you are." Futaba peers intently into Morgana's eyes. "She studies all kinds of weird stuff."

"Like talking cats?" You aren't sure you could anyone willing to admit to studying that, in part because there's so few people around who can hear Morgana speak.

"I mean, I don't really know what she studies. It could be talking cats."

Morgana looks away from her. "I, uh, I don't think that's it."

You nod. "If there were other people like Morgana around, we would have heard of it, right? And you were here before ever meeting him." Time travel makes things complicated, but you don't think that's something you have to worry about here. "She must be studying something else."

You don't doubt that whatever Futaba's mother is studying could be weird. It's just that Morgana is a very specific flavor of weird that you're not going to just find lying around.

"She probably has a theory about Personas," Morgana says. "But we don't even know if it's a good theory, or if she's talked to people with Personas about them... Like, what's she working from?"

"I dunno. If I asked about it, it'd feel weird." She shakes her head, adjusts her glasses, and changes the subject. "So, Mom says if my grades are good through the next month, she'll get me a DS. Do you have any ideas what games I could get?"

You don't play video games, so it takes you a few moments to realize what she's talking about. But you think it's a system that Junpei-san plays on. "One of my friends has one. I think he plays... Etrian Odyssey?" You have no idea where this information comes from, but maybe you just saw one of his cartridges lying around. "Something like that."

"Huh. I'll have to look it up."

If she buys the game, you hope she enjoys it. Literally all you know about it is the title. You don't actually know if it's something she'll like.

But it's the only idea you had. Hopefully, if it doesn't work out, she won't be too upset with you.

---

For some reason you don't understand, you feel an intense need to improve your abilities with Psi. Like, one day, a big, important event will happen where it's vitally important you have the ability to move or destroy objects with your mind. With the life you lead, this feeling might not be misplaced.

So you spend some time levitating light objects that are hard to break. You want to make them go where you want, and you want them to only move in the ways that you want.

The first part is coming along well. You can reliably move things up to a bit bigger than a baseball or smaller without dropping them.

The second part... You're not going to try this with anything that needs to keep a specific shape anytime soon. That's just asking to make them unusable.

It's going to need a bit more effort.

Eventually, you might even be able to trust yourself with keys.

---

You think you're ready for a more in-depth exploration of the library. You aren't sure why, but you think that if someone carried a graphing paper to make a map with, you could start really looking at everything that's in there. You could make copies of it, and then anyone who had a copy could explore separately, so long as the bookshelves themselves don't move.
I don't know for sure it's a Labyrinth, but there's not much harm in treating it like one!
You don't really trust the books not to move. But the shelves seem safe enough, anyway. If they moved, it would probably be by falling over.

And in that case, you'd have more important things to worry about. Like trying not to get crushed by a bookshelf.

Still, as sure as you are about your mapping plan, you don't want to go into this alone. So, after school, you head off to Akira's classroom.

Akira hasn't really spoken with you this week. You've done the daily exchanges of food and homework, and that's about it. "The library?"

"I thought we could try and map out the area around the entrance. You're not supposed to be anywhere today, right?" You don't think Akira's ever had an outside commitment. That would require him or his parents to make one.

Both of those parties are unlikely to do so, albeit for very different reasons.

He shakes his head, just like you knew he would. "I guess we can go... I can see if they have more books about my- about Arsene Lupin." Because of course that's his first response. He loves those stories.

So, with that decided, the two of you head towards the library, prepared with the backside of some of Makoto-san's old math homework and the sharpest pencil you own.


[ ] You focus on creating your map of the entrance and making sure things are more-or-less to scale.

[ ] You do a bit of drawing out of some of the early hallways, just so you know how many there are and don't accidentally draw a wall over them.

[ ] You'll start your drawing, but you're more interesting in where Akira was last week.