Chapter Text
April 7th - Gekkougan High School
Morning
'So... this isn't what I envisioned happened after death-' I looked in the mirror, and I could see... well, not me. It was a girl with short teal blue hair and wearing a high school uniform... things I didn't have- Besides being a girl, of course.
My high school didn't even use uniforms!
'Fuuka Yamagishi...' I wasn't Fuuka, yet I had her name... What was mine again? I couldn't quite remember. I mean... I wanted too! I just couldn't. What was up with that anyways? Was I supposed to just be Fuuka now or something?
I didn't really know what was up with Fuuka's life! I mean, it wasn't bad... I was in school so that was automatically better than like a million alternatives. But yet still, a million more things could be wrong.
When I left to go to the bathroom, several other girls were giving me mean looks, soooooo yeah- Great to know. I'd just ignore them, to be honest. They weren't important anyways. What other things were up? Where did I even live, actually? ...There was a lot I had to figure out, huh.
Maybe I could stay at school for a bit longer and talk to a teacher or something. There were plenty of things that could explain this besides me being another person after all... but I had a set of memories that weren't Fuuka's.
And none of Fuuka's.
Yet I was Fuuka.
'My poor head...' Okay so... order of events: I was originally someone else, a highschool girl in America. I got hit by a car April 7th 2026. Then I woke up on April 7th, 2009 as Fuuka Yamagishi in Japan. 'God I sound insane...'
"Not to me you don't," I froze at the sudden voice- I turned to see... A little teal haired girl. "I suppose it makes sense. The world works in mysterious ways, does it not?" I looked around- the world seemed... darker for some reason.
"I... guess?" I took a step back. "Who are you?"
"Hm..." She shook her head. "That doesn't matter for now. What does matter... is you," From black mist, a clipboard appeared. "You're in this world for a reason. Your actions will have great effect on those around you. You will help guide this world... but will you take responsibility for your actions?"
Okay. Okay!
"What does that mean?" A pen manifested in my hand, I looked down at it- something about this all was definitely just wrong! So so wrong! Everything felt fucked up in a way. I mean- 'Guide the world'?
Me?
"As I said, you will help guide this world. You can help save it or do nothing and lead to its destruction... what will you choose?" The Girl asked, retaining her smile. She was... creepy, yeah. Very very creepy.
But... I mean- first off, this was a supernatural event... Considering I died, this Girl probably had something to do with it... Or at least, me being here. But... I could help save the world? Why me? Why not someone else?
Why not the real Fuuka?
Despite the very warranted concerns, I gulped down and gripped the pen firmly. "I'll do it. But... this isn't a trick right? You aren't taking my soul or anything?"
"Your soul was already taken here," The Girl explained, tilting her head to the side. "How it was or why, I do not know. But you're here now... so what will it be? Who will you choose to be in this world?"
I guess I had no other choice.
"I'll do it... But what name do I sign?" I brought the pen closer, just to the paper as they held it up. "I don't remember my own name... and would going by Fuuka even be appropriate?"
"As I said... who will you choose to be in this world?" She asked. There was something in her eye... It helped me make my choice. If I was Fuuka Yamagishi now... then no need to try and be someone else.
I would be Fuuka Yamagishi, whoever that was.
"Whoever I'll be... I just hope I do everything I can," I took a deep breath as I signed it- I felt something click in my head. Then the Girl nodded.
"Then we have a deal. You'll take responsibility for your actions when the time comes... And I suppose, you could call me Charon."
With that, the little girl disappeared with the contract and pen and I was left alone in the bathroom- the world brightened up once more... Okay, that had to have been a dream right? ...No, I was still Fuuka.
I was Fuuka.
...And that meant I had to be Fuuka, whoever that was.
'Guide... Charon...' I shook my head, taking another look at the mirror. 'This all sucks...'
For now, I had to focus. I had to be Fuuka...
So, I might as well see where that leads me.
Lunch
So... Fuuka had no lunch. Which meant I was buying one from the various Vending Machines in school. Lifesavers, truly. But it had been a few hours now. Class had went well, for the most part. Though... the history teacher, Mr. Ono was a bit of a nut...
Okay scratch that, he was a nut. One obsessed with Samurai. How was he even a teacher? Okay actually- I could say that about a few peple. Mr. Ekoda was a bit slimy too, most definitely...
"Having trouble deciding?" I head behind me, to which I yelped. "Oh I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you."
I turned behind me and saw- another girl wearing a pink cardigan. I didn't recognise her, so she was from a different class for sure. She had brown hair and brown eyes. "I-it's fine. I just didn't expect you is all. If you want to use it I can move away-"
"No it's fine. I'd recommend getting one of the drinks. The snacks from this one suck," She pointed to a particular drink- Orange flavored. "Don't get the grapefruit or mango ones, trust me."
"I'll try the orange one, then..." I selected it and the drink fell. I quickly grabbed it and moved to the side. "Thank you for the recommendation..?"
"I'm Yukari Takeba," Takeba introduced herself, smiling kindly. "It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you as well. I'm Fuuka Yamagishi," I said, scratching my arm and avoiding eye contact. "It's been a stressful first day so I'm sorry if I'm a little jumpy."
Great lie, truly.
"School always is so I don't blame you Yamagishi," I could see Takeba nod as she got her own drink. "Well, it was nice meeting you! But I've gotta head back to class soon."
"Me as well... and likewise!" I waved at her before turning the other direction and beginning to walk. 'Still a bit ruffled from Charon earlier...' There was a lot I had to figure out, so I was just gonna hope the school stuff went well.
I suppose that wasn't a terrible way to greet a classmate. But I still needed to focus! I had much bigger things to worry about than my classmates. Mainly; Why was I here? What was I supposed to do exactly? And... who was the enemy?
There would always be an enemy in these types of situations. So, I had to be careful. Who would I have to fight anyways? Wait- I was supposed to be a guide. Or at least, that was what I assumed given the one who contacted me was Charon...
Which was ironic, given that they said that they didn't bring me here.
Who did, then?
"Wait-" I heard Takeba's voice. And internally, I let out a curse as she settled back into pace. "I think we're going the same way. You're in a different class though right? I'm in 2-F."
"I'm in 2-E," I nodded. One of the first things I remembered was my class! I didn't want to forget and accidentally wander into a different one, after all. " So our homerooms are right next to each other."
"Well either way, we were gonna walk back anyways," Takeba smiled before looking down at her drink. A lemonade. "I don't think we've met here before though. Are you new here? We've got another transfer student, he's in my class."
'Screw you Takeba. I'm not ready for these questions!' Uuuuuuuuuh. If I was supposed to be a new girl, then I think I'd have figured it out by now. "I've been here since my first year... but only now am I starting to get out of my comfort zone."
"Well, that's gotta be tough..." Takeba looked back up at me, and this time I didn't look away- I had to be respectful to other people after all! "Well, if you need help I'd be willing to show you around! Are you in any clubs yet?"
'Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-'
"I am thou... thou art I...
Thou hast established a new bond...
Thou shalt have our blessings when thou chooseth
To create a Persona of the Lovers Arcana.."
WHAT THE-
Afternoon
After having a mini panic attack, I managed to escape Takeba and head back to class. But I couldn't at all focus- Because holy shit... Persona... I was in Persona! Because of course I was. Why wouldn't I be in a place I didn't know?
I mean, ignoring that it was a fictional world, I knew nothing about Persona! I never played the games, I never watched the anime. And I was in Persona! As Fuuka Yamagishi... Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck-
There was just so much that was going wrong here!
"And now we'll go over how Magic influences the world," Our teacher, Mr. Edogawa began. And I- honestly just tuned him out. I was getting tired, but I wouldn't sleep... I wanted too, but I had much more pressing concerns now.
First off, I was in Persona... Again, I knew nothing. But yet, I was supposed to help "guide" someone? To what? And second off- was Fuuka the Protagonist or was this whole thing just something anyone could do?
Third- The Lovers Arcana? Seriously? Was that just who Takeba was or was there some weird bullshit going on!
"Moriyama, you appear to be dozing off," To the side of me, one of Fuuka's bullies suddenly woke up- "Don't let it happen again."
"Y-yes sir," She mumbled before sitting up straight. And I was glad I wasn't her right now... As long as I wasn't called to the front of the class or asked to answer a question, I'd be fine. I could get through school.
But right... Okay, how did this work anyways? What were the Arcana used for? Well- it said that it'd be used for creating a Persona. But does that mean I'd get a Persona of the Lovers Arcana? Whatever the fuck that meant-
There was just so much going on here-
Really, there was.
Then there was the issue of me getting "home"... But honestly I was starting to debate just texting Fuuka's parents I'd be out with a friend or studying late at school or something. Because I still had no idea how I was gonna get home.
"With Magics starting to become spread all over the world. Different myths and legends began to form! And with that, came all sorts of other wonderful stuff. But what was the first of these that formed? Or at least, the first recorded person? Moriyama, since you were dozing off earlier I assume you were comfortable enough to do so."
"Uhhhhh..." She glanced around. She was the seat just to the right with no one around her. Immediately her eyes turned to me... I wasn't paying attention either!
'You should know this-' Right... I remember learning about it vaguely in a class one day- "Dedi?" I whispered- to which Moriyama turned to the teacher.
"Dedi." Moriyama said, confidence flowing.
"Correct. Looks like you were paying attention," As Mr. Edogawa turned away, I could feel something pop up as people turned to look at me.
Social Stats:
Charm: 1(+1)
Courage: 1
Academics: 1
...
'Yep... I'm definitely in a video game.'
After School
I managed to slink away and out of school pretty quickly, and now I was taking a look around outside of school. And... well, we were on a fucking island. And a monorail took us off of it and around- so, I was strongly debating taking it to the station and seeing where that led me.
Plus, I did get the all clear.
"Don't stay out too late and don't wake us up when you get back, okay?"
Yeah, I could do that- I just had to figure out how to get back home first. Then I could go from there. But first, I needed to figure out where what I was doing exactly in regards to... well, everything. I was in a game, that much was apparent to me.
Well, that was apparent from when I first found out I was in Persona.
"This day's just full of surprises..." I was at the station. This would take me... to some kind of strip mall if I read the signs right? I needed to get better at this stuff quick. I had some money in my wallet though, I probably could go somewhere and get dinner at least.
So, I wouldn't go hungry for the night. That was one problem solved.
"But a million more..." I said as I stepped on the train.
The good news was that the process was fairly streamlined! I had my train pass and everything and the Kirijo family, the people running this school apparently, even included pamphlets to help those newer to the whole system.
God bless them, whoever they actually were.
I'd need to learn a lot about this place to be honest... Maybe I could do that? Get dinner, go find a place with a laptop and go learn for a bit. I could probably use the tiredness to ask Fuuka's parents to come get me.
'Woah...' I could see it- the ocean. The Monorail was fast... But it'd still take a bit to get into civilisation. Nonetheless, this was pretty cool... After today, I was honestly just happy to see something normal.
The good news was that if I didn't have to go on some world saving quest and the plot was in school, I'd be coming here every day.
At the very least, this wasn't all bad.
I had to take the good with the bad if I was gonna survive... whatever the hell this Persona game had in store for me. I didn't even know if this was 5 or not! Hell for all I knew this could be some new Persona game.
'There's just so much I need to know...'
Why couldn't it have been Pokemon?
Iwatodai Strip Mall - Internet Cafe
Evening
So- I learned... a lot- It had been three hours at this point(After three hours after school. So, it was ten PM at this point). I was currently on a place called Tatsumi Port Island. It was a place with prominent Kirijo family influence. Like- they were essentially the head honchos of the area... or at least, thats what the news and such made it out to be, given how much they did-
Other than that, the only thing of note I found was that there was a disease going around called Apathy Syndrome. It reduced victims to a point of debilitating levels of apathy. It was unknown why or how they had it, only that it seemed to be permanent.
So essentially, it was the perfect hook for a game.
But... how did that relate to everything? I was never good at putting things together... I was also never a great learner to be honest. So, I was pretty screwed sideways... But that didn't mean I was gonna give up anytime soon.
I had to figure out what was going on, help the Protagonist(if I wasn't the Protagonist-) stop it, and then go from there!
'But how can I..?' I shook my head and looked at the clock. My time was almost up and I didn't feel like paying for another hour. I could learn more later. For now, I'd need to just... look around, I guess. And then I could try and find a way home.
For tonight, the goal was to get home and establish that as a base of operations.
I closed all the tabs and shut the computer down before exiting. I could see a few other lights in the different little rooms, but other than that the place had hit a lull. I looked at the staffer keeping the place running, they looked dead tired.
Hell, I felt dead tired.
But I had to soldier on...
Maybe I could stop for a Cup of Coffee, actually?
I left the internet cafe without any fanfare(Wait- did they sell Coffee there? I've never been in one before. But it'd make sense! Damnit, I was already out the door...) and I began walking down the steps... Was there even anywhere that sold coffee here at the strip mall? There had to be, it just made too much sense. Especially with places like the internet cafe nearby.
Right?
Twenty minutes later, I found... nothing. There were restaurants here, one of which I had went to(Apparently fucking eating levels up my stats too. Because of course it did. I got plus two academics from it). But alas, there was nothing.
No coffee.
So, my next best bet was a vending machine... to which, I had begun walking. If I could find a vending machine, it'd probably have coffee in it. Persona was a JRPG. In Japan there was plenty of pretty much everything in vending machines. It made sense!
No, I wasn't just coping because I was tired. This was a perfectly reasonable response.
'Okay...' The area was pretty nice- there were still plenty o flights as I walked. And there were a few other people out as well, but I tried to move quickly. I was tired and I didn't want to be tired! Curse this body for having a healthy sleep schedule.
...
...
...
'There!' Salvation! Clarity! Knowing what I was doing for at least the next few hours! It took me a bit, I wasn't sure how long. But I found it! "Come to Fuuka..." I looked at my options, reaching into my pocket. I felt something metallic and jingly.
Keys.
The Dark Hour.
'Oh I'm an idiot- they probably have a house number on them or something useful...' I pulled them out, and just as I did everything went dark. The lights around me shut off, the vending machine shut off, and only then did I realize it was full of juice anyways.
"Power... outage?" I looked around, trying to spo- "W-why is everyone in coffins?" I looked around. The people who were previously walking on the street were now just coffins glowing with a red energy.
Except for me. I wasn't a coffin.
Then there was the red liquid that had mysteriously appeared on the ground- whatever that was, I wasn't sure. But I didn't want to find out... And it was looking like I'd have too because of course... Okay! I was starting to put this together.
Ignoring the pounding in my chest, I walked toward one of the coffins. I tapped it, there was nothing... Could I disturb them? I didn't want to try... what if that did something to them? I mean this was a game.
I learned about this Apathy Syndrome thing and suddenly at night, things changed. People were in coffins and devices stopped working... They had to be connected somehow. So, what was the connection? And how could I solve it?
Given that this was a game, there was something in the middle. A monster, most likely? This was a JRPG, so that was almost a given...
So, was there some kind of monster king in some dungeon somewhere we had to kill? And we gained abilities, Persona's. And mine allowed me to Navigate, making me the Navigator. If we killed the monster king who was trying to take over the world then we'd end the game there right?
It made sense and it was the most logical conclusion I could come up with.
"Deep breaths Fuuka..." One. I looked around, the light from the Coffins being the only thing lighting up the area certainly made this creepy. Two. I began walking again, I didn't want to stay in place for too long. Three. If I was supposed to get a power somehow, then I wasn't sure how.
But I felt better now.
Besides the fact that there was something, a twitch in the back of my head. And that was probably related to my issue... 'Easy now Fuuka. You should think more...' What other things could I assume?
I likely had a power of some kind, there were likely monsters for us to fight, and there would be an organization that fights them. I just needed to find them somehow. And how would I do that?
...
"HELLO!" I shouted, cupping my hands over my mouth like a megaphone. "CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?"
Buildings passed by and I did my best to avoid coffins, I didn't want to disturb them to much. Or at all... Who knows what would happen if I disturbed anything in this place?
"EVERYONE ELSE IS IN COFFINS! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, YOU'RE NOT IN ONE! I HOPE!" What if I was the only one? I mean... given how it appeared everyone got trapped in a coffin, I probably was. And that was... just so worrying!
The lights around me were off, there was no noise. It was like the world itself had simply... ceased.
"WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHAT'S GOING ON!" I shouted again, this time stopping to catch my breath. I probably should conserve my energy, really I should. Screaming probably wouldn't get me anywhere.
'Yeah okay...' I began inhaling more of that sweet, sweet air. 'I should rethink this. It's only day one... who knows how long I have. This probably won't last forever. You can reapproach this tomorrow.'
For now, I should get to somewhere safe. Like home.
Calmly, I took my keys out from my pocket. And then I heard something- something solid hit the ground. Soft, firm, fast footsteps. And I glanced to the side, at an alleyway which was conveniently dark. Too conveniently dark.
And of course, from it out walked a... thing?
It was a mass of hair with a pink mask and a large crown. One that was also pink with a yellow bit in the middle. Sue me, I didn't know what it was called! And I didn't know what the Monster was called either.
But it shrieked, small balls of flame built up at the tips of its hair and launched at me! Quickly, I ducked, but I felt heat loom above and barely miss me.
'WELP!'
Whatever bullshit tutorial mission this was, I was not ready! It had actual attacks- fire! Fire! I didn't have anything to fight it with!
'I THINK I'M FUCKED!'